...Irenaeus, like all the ancient writers, uses a variety of scriptural images in interpreting the Cross. It is connected with his picture of man's salvation as a rescue operation from captivity.... This redemption is achieved by Christ's victory over the devil...in which the Temptations play a vitally important role as the scene of the triumph of the second Adam's obedience. Combined with this thought, however, is the interpretation of Christ's blood as a ransom paid to the devil for the release of his prisoners.... Irenaeus, however, does no more than glance in that direction. His conception of the reconciling work of Christ is much more complex and profound than any theory of mere transaction. A good modern summary of it is afforded by Newman's well-known hymn, "Praise to the Holiest in the height." - Christian Theology in the Patristic Period - III Melito and Irenaeus by G. W. H. Lampe in A History of Christian Doctrine, edited by Hubert Cunliffe-Jones with Benjamin Drewery, pp. 48-49
by John Henry Newman
Praise to the Holiest in the height,
And in the depth be praise;
In all His words most wonderful,
Most sure in all His ways.
O loving wisdom of our God!
When all was sin and shame,
A second Adam to the fight
And to the rescue came.
O wisest love! that flesh and blood,
Which did in Adam fail,
Should strive afresh against the foe,
Should strive and should prevail.
And that a higher gift than grace
Should flesh and blood refine,
God’s Presence and His very Self,
And Essence all divine.
O generous love! that He, who smote,
In Man for man the foe,
The double agony in Man
For man should undergo.
And in the garden secretly,
And on the Cross on high,
Should teach His brethren, and inspire
To suffer and to die.
Praise to the Holiest in the height,
And in the depth be praise;
In all His words most wonderful,
Most sure in all His ways.
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