s (see Clemen. Alex.).]

[Footnote 123: But how diverse were the expositions; compare the
exegesis of Origen and Tertullian, Scorp. II.]

[Footnote 124: On the extent to which the Old Testament had become
subordinated to the New and the Prophets to the Apostles, since the end
of the second century, see the following passage from Novatian, de
trinit. 29: "Unus ergo et idem spiritus qui in prophetis et apostolis,
nisi quoniam ibi ad momentum, hic semper. Ceterum ibi non ut semper in
illis inesset, hic ut in illis semper maneret, et ibi mediocriter
distributus, hic totus effusus, ibi parce datus, hic large commodatus."]

[Footnote 125: That may be shown in all the old Catholic Fathers, but
most plainly perhaps in the theology of Origen. Moreover, the
subordination of the Old Testament revelation to the Christian one is
not simply a result of the creation of the New Testament, but may be
explained by other causes; see chap. 5. If the New Testament had not
been formed, the Church would perhaps have obtained a Christian Old
Testament with numerous interpolations--tendencies in this direction
were not wanting: see vol. I, p. 114 f.--and increased in extent by the
admission of apocalypses. The creation of the New Testament preserved
the purity of the Old, for it removed the need of doing violence to the
latter in the interests of Christianity.]

[Footnote 126: The Catholic Church had from the beginning a very clear
consciousness of the dangerousness of many New Testament writings, in
fact she made a virtue of necessity in so far as she set up a theory to
prove the unavoidableness of this danger. See Tertullian, de praescr.
passim, and de resurr. 63.]

[Footnote 127: To a certain extent the New Testament disturbs and
prevents the tendency to summarise the faith and reduce it to its most
essential content. For it not only puts itself in the place of the unity
of a system, but frequently also in the place of a harmonious and
complete creed. Hence the rule of faith is necessary as a guiding
principle, and even an imperfect one is better than a mere haphazard
reliance upon the Bible.]

[Footnote 128: We must not, however, ascribe that to conscious mistrust,
for Irenaeus and Tertullian bear very decided testimony against such an
idea, but to the acknowledgment that it was impossible to make any
effective use of the New Testament Scriptures in arguments with educated
non-Christians and heretics. For these writings could carry no