Though Hilary was not its inventor, and was forced by the large part played by Old Testament exegesis in the Arian controversy to employ it, whether he would or not The unhesitating use of the Theophanies of the Old Testament as direct evidence for the divinity of Christ is noteworthy. Similar to the usual proofs for the distinction of Persons within the Trinity, from the alternate use of plural and singular, are the arguments in Tr. in Ps. cxviii., Iod, 5, cxxvii. 4., yet it is certain that his hearty, though not indiscriminate It is worth notice that he makes no use of Origen’s mystical interpretation of the Canticles. Silence in such a case is itself a criticism., acceptance of the method led to its general adoption in the West. Tertullian and Cyprian had made no great use of such speculations; Irenæus probably had little influence. It was the introduction of Origen’s thought to Latin Christendom by Hilary and his contemporaries which set the fashion, and none of them can have had such influence as Hilary himself. It is a strange irony of fate that so deep and original a thinker should have exerted his most permanent influence not through his own thoughts, but through this dubious legacy which he handed on from Alexandria to Europe. Yet within certain limits, it was a sound and, for that age, even a scientific method; and Hilary might at least plead that he never allowed the system to be his master, and that it was a means which enabled him to derive from Scriptures which otherwise, to him, would be unprofitable, some treasure of true and valuable instruction. It never moulds his thoughts; at the most, he regards it as a useful auxiliary. No praise can be too high for his wise and sober marshalling not so much of texts as of the collective evidence of Scripture concerning the relation of the Father and the Son in the De Trinitate; and if his Christology be not equally convincing, it is not the fault of his method, but of its application Compare such a passage as Trin. x. 24 with his use of the proof-texts against Arianism.. We cannot wonder that Hilary, who owed his clear dogmatic convictions to a careful and independent study of Scripture, should have wished to lead others to the same source of knowledge. He couples it with the Eucharist as a second Table of the Lord, a public means of grace, which needs, if it is to profit the hearer, the same preparation of a pure heart and life Tr. in Ps. cxxvii. 10.. Attention to the lessons read in church is a primary duty, but private study of Scripture is enforced with equal earnestness E.g. Tr. in Ps. xci. 10, cxviii. Iod, 15, cxxxiv. 1, cxxxv. 1.. It must be for all, as Hilary had found it for himself, a privilege as well as a duty.