If the angels at God's bidding minister unto the heirs of
salvation; or further, if they plead our cause with God, that would be
no reason why we should invoke them and pray to them. This distinction
between what they may do for us, and what we ought to do with regard to
them, is an essential distinction, and must not be lost sight of. We
shall have occasion hereafter to refer to it repeatedly, especially in
the instances of Origen and Cyprian. I will now do no more than copy in
a note the entire passage from which the sentence now under
consideration has been extracted, that the reader may judge whether on
such a passage, the original of which, in whatever words Irenaeus may
have expressed himself, is utterly lost, any reliance can satisfactorily
be placed.
("Manifeste itaque in sua propria venientem Dominum et sua propria eum
bajulantem conditione quae bajulatur ab ipso, et recapitulationem ejus
quae in ligno fuit inobedientiae per eam quae in ligno est obedientiam
facientem, et seductionem illam solutam qua seducta est male illa, quae
jam viro destinata erat virgo Eva, per veritatem evangelizata est bene
ab angelo jam sub viro virgo Maria. Quemadmodum enim illa per angeli
sermonem seducta est ut effugeret Deum praevaricata verbum ejus, ita et
haec per angelicum sermonem evangelizata est ut portaret Deum obediens
ejus verbo.
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