Chapter X. On The Creed.
The Baptismal Creed having been mentioned in the two previous chapters, in the one as a guide in the interpretation of Scripture, in the other as embodying (to a certain extent) Primitive Tradition, it appears natural to bring forward in the next place such notices of it as Irenæus furnishes.
We find, then, that it was customary at baptism to rehearse to every person the rule of faith held throughout the Catholic Church; in other words, the Creed[364]. This, indeed, was not uniform in language, but the same points appear to have been adhered to, and to have been stated in much the same order. Irenæus, indeed, does not distinctly copy any creed: but he rehearses all the chief points of it in two different passages, which I will give at [pg 158] length; these being the first clear traces we have of the primitive creed.
The first is as follows[365]:—
“For the Church, although spread throughout the world, even to the utmost bounds of the earth, and having received from the Apostles and their disciples the faith in one God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and the seas, and all that in them is: and in one Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who was incarnate for our salvation: and in one Holy Ghost, who through the prophets preached the dispensations, and the advents, and the birth of a Virgin, and the Passion, and the resurrection from the dead, and the ascension into heaven in flesh of the beloved Christ Jesus our Lord, and his coming from heaven in the glory of the Father, to gather together all things in one, and to raise from the dead all flesh of all mankind; that according to the good pleasure of the invisible Father, every knee may bow to Christ Jesus, our Lord and God and Saviour and King, of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth, and every tongue may confess to him; and that he may execute just judgment upon them all, and send into eternal fire the spirits [pg 159] of wickedness, and the angels that sinned and were in rebellion, and the ungodly and unjust and lawless and blasphemous amongst men; and bestowing life upon the just and holy, and those who have kept his commandments and remained in his love, some from the beginning and some after repentance, might give them incorruption and clothe them with eternal glory: having received this preaching and this faith, as we said before, the Church, though dispersed throughout the world, keeps it diligently,” &c.
This passage strikes us at once as containing fragments of a creed the same as that of Nice, repeated in portions in the same order, although the general arrangement of the creeds is departed from.
The other passage is this[366]:—
“But what if the Apostles had not left us any writings? must we not have followed the order of [pg 160] that tradition which they delivered to those to whom they entrusted the Churches? Which order is assented to by those many barbarous tribes who believe in Christ, who have salvation written by the Spirit in their hearts without paper and ink, and diligently keep the old tradition; believing in one God, the Maker of heaven and earth, and of all that in them is, by Christ Jesus the Son of God: who for his most exceeding love toward his own handywork, submitted to be born of the Virgin, himself by himself uniting man to God, and suffered under Pontius [pg 161] Pilate, and rose again, and was received up in glory, and will come again to be the Saviour of those who are saved, and the judge of those who are judged, and sendeth into eternal fire those who pervert the truth, and despise his Father and his coming.”
The order of the creed is better preserved in this than in the other, but it is not so full in its statements.
There is one other allusion to the opening words of the creed[367].
Chapter XI. Freewill, Predestination, And Election.
No controversy had arisen amongst Christians in the time of Irenæus on the subject of predestination, but heathen Stoics believed in an irresistible fate, and the Gnostics taught a natural and essential difference between the soul of one man and that of another, by virtue of which the former was of course raised at death to an intimate union with the Supreme Essence, whilst the latter could never hope for such an elevation, although he might be raised to a higher state than that of earthly existence.
Both these notions Irenæus combatted. He taught that man is endued with freewill[368], having good [pg 163] and evil set before him, and having the power to choose or reject either one or the other, and to act [pg 164] accordingly[369]; that God has always treated men as having the power to act for themselves[370], rewarding [pg 165] or punishing them[371], praising or blaming[372] them according to the nature of their choice; and that this proves that we have freewill[373]: that in fact the circumstance that our faith is called our own, and is rewarded[374], proves that we are free agents[375]. In conformity with this opinion, he teaches that men are redeemed, not by compulsion, but by persuasion[376]; that each person has a portion of divine light given him, and will be recompensed according as he keeps or rejects it[377]; and that as each man's salvation thus depends upon his own exertion, and cannot be attained without it, so our reward will be the more valued for having been gained by exertion[378].
We can see, therefore, that Irenæus could not have believed that the salvation of the elect was [pg 166] accomplished by the mere will of God concerning the individuals, either in opposition to their own will or by constraining their wills; although he asserted very fully the necessity of divine grace to cause our freewill to take a right direction[379].
And yet he was a believer in divine predestination. He believed that some were predestined to have the gift of incorruptibility imparted to them, (which we have seen to mean the Divine Spirit, by which we become the adopted children of God,) and thus to have life in the sight of God, whereas they were originally in a state of death[380]. But he no where implies that they could not lose this gift, but the contrary[381]. So again he teaches that God intentionally [pg 167] delivers some men over to unbelief without a trial. But who are they? Those who, he foresees, will not believe[382]. He was of opinion that there is a predestined number of those who shall be saved eternally, and that when that number is completed, the end of the world will come[383]: the very [pg 168] idea embodied in our burial service[384]. But he no where hints that the individuals were predestined, as well as the number, or that those who were predestined to have the gift of immortality, were all in the number of those who should be saved eternally: so that the more we examine, the more clear does it become that he would have been opposed to Calvinistic predestination.
Who, then, are those who are predestined to the gift of immortality? The manner in which he speaks of election will enable us to answer this question. In explaining the parable of the vineyard let out to husbandmen, he says,[385] that, after the first set of husbandmen had been cast out, the vineyard was “no longer fenced in, but opened to all the world, and [pg 169] the tower of the election exalted every where, beautiful to look on; for,” said he, “the Church is every where distinctly visible, and every where is there a winepress dug, and every where are those who receive the Spirit.” Here we find election commensurate with the visible Church (indeed he knows no other): and so he proceeds further on[386] to speak of “the Word of God, who elected the patriarchs and us;” just as in the passage before cited[387] he had said, “We who were not as yet were predestined to be;” that is, spiritually, through redemption. And so in another place he speaks of the Church as “the congregation of God; which God, that is the Son, has himself collected by himself[388];” and in another passage, [pg 170] “the wages of Christ are men collected out of various and differing nations into one company of faith[389].”
All these passages reflect light upon each other, and exhibit the all-wise God as planning from eternity the last dispensation, by which He chooses, through the Divine Word, to gather out of the world men of all nations, and to restore to them the lost gift of immortality, by adopting them for his own children, and bestowing on them his Spirit, and thus uniting them in the one body of his Church; so that those who believe, and continue in obedience to Him, and hold fast his teaching, continue his children; whilst those who do not obey Him are cut off from Him, and cease to be his children. And as baptism is the sign and means of our union with God and the reception of the Holy Spirit[390], so baptism is the sign and pledge of this predestination and election.
There is another question as to this election, upon which Irenæus throws but little light; that is, whether God has elected into his Church upon foreseen faith or not. He expressly declares[391] that God leaves [pg 171] in darkness and unbelief those who, He foresees, will not believe; but what is the precise application of that declaration, whether to those to whom God vouchsafes no opportunity of becoming acquainted with the Gospel, or to those who, living in the hearing of the Gospel, do not receive his grace, is by no means clear. And it would be unsafe, therefore, to argue that Irenæus believed that God predestines men to grace from foreseen faith. The two things may appear to us correlative; but we must remember that there had been no controversy on the subject, and therefore he cannot be supposed to have weighed his language as we should perhaps do at present.