His incarnation, and by a firm and true promise giving us at His advent incorruptibility by communion with Him, and thus all the errors of the heretics are destroyed. (_b_) Irenæus. _Adv. Hær._, III. 18:1, 7. (MSG, 6:932, 937.) The following is a statement by Irenæus of his doctrine of recapitulation, which combines the idea of the second Adam of Paul and the Johannine theology. Ch. 1. Since it has been clearly demonstrated that the Word, who existed in the beginning with God, and by whom all things were made, who also was present with the human race, was in these last days, according to the time appointed by the Father, united to His own workmanship, having been made a man liable to suffering, every objection is set aside of those who say: “If Christ was born at that time, He did not exist before that time.” For I have shown that the Son of God did not then begin to be, since He existed with His Father always; but when He was incarnate, and was made man, He commenced afresh [_in seipso recapitulavit_] the long line of human beings, and furnished us in a brief and comprehensive manner with salvation; so that what we had lost in Adam—namely, to be according to the image and likeness of God—that we might recover in Christ Jesus. Ch. 7. He caused human nature to cleave to and to become one with God, as we have said. For if man had not overcome the adversary of man, the enemy would not have been legitimately overcome. And again, if God had not given salvation, we could not have had it securely. And if man had not been united to God, he could never have become a partaker of incorruptibility. For it was incumbent upon the Mediator between God and man, by His relationship to both, to bring about a friendship and concord, and to present man to God and to reveal God to man. For in what way could we be partakers of the adoption of sons, if we had not received from Him, through the Son, that fellowship which refers to Himself, if the Word, having been made flesh, had not entered into communion with us? Wherefore He passed also through every stage of life restoring to all communion with God. (_c_) Irenæus, _Adv. Hær._, IV, 18:5. (MSG, 6:1027 _f._) The conception of redemption as the imparting of incorruptibility connected itself easily with the doctrine of the eucharist, which had been called by Ignatius of Antioch “the medicine of immortality” (_v. supra_, § 12). With this passage compare Irenæus, _Adv. Hær._, IV, 17:5.