[698] Which had been the contention of the heretics whom Tertullian opposed: de præsc. hær. cc. 16, 17.
[699] Origen (de princ., præf. 3) follows in the line of those who rested upon apostolic teaching, but gives a foothold for philosophy by saying (1) that the Apostles left the grounds of their statements to be investigated; (2) that they affirmed the existence of many things without stating the manner and origin of their existence.
[700] Valentinus accepted the whole canon (integro instrumento), and the most important work of Basilides was a commentary on the Gospel: Tert. de præsc. hær. 38.
[701] Tert. de præsc. hær. 18. It is important to contrast the arguments of Tertullian with those of Clement of Alexandria, and of both with the practice which circumstances rendered necessary. In Strom. 7. 16 and 17, Clement makes Scripture the criterion between the Church and the heretics, though he assumes that all orthodox teaching is apostolic and uniform.
[702] The combination is first found in Apost. Const. Bk. ii. pp. 14, 10. 16, 25. 51. 17, 20. 58, 22.
[703] Routh, Rel. Sacr. iii. p. 290; Harnack, p. 644.
[704] Cf. the definitions of faith in Clem. Al. Strom. 2. cc. 2 and 3.
[705] αἵρεσις is used in Clem. Al. Strom. 7. 15, of the true system of Christian doctrine: ἡ τῷ ὄντι ἀρίστη αἵρεσις: as in Sext. Empir. (Pyrrh. p. 13, § 16) it meant only adherence to a system of dogmas (no standard implied).
[706] Ad Scap. 2.
[707] Philosophers had abused each other. Theologians followed in their track. The “cart-loads of abuse they emptied upon one another” (ὅλας ἁμάξας βλασφημιῶν κατεσκέδασαν ἀλλήλων, Lucian, Eunuch. 2) are paralleled in, e.g. Gregory of Nyssa.