The Conservative Reformation and Its Theology - Saint Mary ...

THE TESTIMONY OF IRENAEUS.
III. Irenaeus, F., 176-202.
Our next great primary witness is St. IRENAUS, martyr. He lived
near the time of the Apostles. He was most intimate with Polycarp, who
was one of the Apostle John's best beloved friends, and from Polycarp's
own lips he heard what John told in regard to Christ: "Noting these
things," he says, "in my heart." Tertullian styles Irenaeus, "the most exact
investigator of all doctrines." Erasmus says: "His writings breathe that
ancient vigor of the Gospel, and his style argues a spirit ready for
martyrdom." The school of Asia Minor, alike in the range of its science
and the purity of its faith, was the great school of this era; and its most
faithful and profound representative in its best tendencies is Irenaeus. He
has expressed himself in several passages with great clearness in regard to
the Eucharist. The most important passage in regard to the essence and
effects of the Eucharist is found in his "Book against Heresies," b. 4, ch.
18, ~ 45. He holds up against the Gnostics the confession of the Church as
embodied in fact in the Supper. First of all, the offering of the products of
nature--the bread and wine, which are the body and blood of Christ--is in
conflict with the dualism of the Gnostics, according to which the world is
not regarded as created by the Supreme God. Second. He urges against it
the Church faith that our bodies, through the Supper, receive the potencies
of the resurrection. This is opposed to the Gnostic dualism between matter
and spirit. He speaks thus: "How shall they know certainly that that bread,
over which thanks are given, is the body of their Lord, and that the cup is
the cup of His blood, if they do not acknowledge Him as the Son of the
Creator of the world, that is, His Word, through which Word wood yields
fruit, and fountains flow, and the earth yieldeth blade, ear, and full corn. If
the Lord belong to another Father, how was it just, that, taking bread of
this our creation, He confessed that it was His own body, and He affirmed
that the mingled drink of the cup was His own blood."
"Altogether vain are they who deny the salvation of the flesh and
despise its regeneration, saying that it is not capable of incorruption. But if
it will not be saved, in truth, the Lord