Chapter III.

And how long shall we draw the saw to and fro through this line, when we have an ancient practice, which by anticipation has made for us the state, i.e., of the question? If no passage of Scripture has prescribed it, assuredly custom, which without doubt flowed from tradition, has confirmed it. For how can anything come into use, if it has not first been handed down?  Even in pleading tradition, written authority, you say, must be demanded. Let us inquire, therefore, whether tradition, unless it be written, should not be admitted. Certainly we shall say that it ought not to be admitted, if no cases of other practices which, without any written instrument, we maintain on the ground of tradition alone, and the countenance thereafter of custom, affords us any precedent.  To deal with this matter briefly, I shall begin with baptism.7    [Elucidation I., and see Bunsen’s Church and House Book, pp. 19–24.] When we are going to enter the water, but a little before, in the presence of the congregation and under the hand of the president, we solemnly profess that we disown the devil, and his pomp, and his angels. Hereupon we are thrice immersed, making a somewhat ampler pledge than the Lord has appointed in the Gospel. Then when we are taken up (as new-born children),8    [There is here an allusion to the Roman form of recognizing a lawful child. The father, taking up the new-born infant, gave him adoption into the family, and recognised him as a legitimate son and heir.] we taste first of all a mixture of milk and honey, and from that day we refrain from the daily bath for a whole week. We take also, in congregations before daybreak, and from the hand of none but the presidents, the sacrament of the Eucharist, which the Lord both commanded to be eaten at meal-times, and enjoined to be taken by all alike.9    [Men and women, rich and poor.] As often as the anniversary comes round, we make offerings for the dead as birthday honours. We count fasting or kneeling in worship on the Lord’s day to be unlawful. We rejoice in the same privilege also from Easter to Whitsunday. We feel pained should any wine or bread, even though our own, be cast upon the ground.  At every forward step and movement, at every going in and out, when we put on our clothes and shoes, when we bathe, when we sit at table, when we light the lamps, on couch, on seat, in all the ordinary actions of daily life, we trace upon the forehead the sign.10    i.e., of the Cross.

3. Et quamdiu per hanc lineam serram reciprocabimus, habentes obseruationem inueteratam, quae praeueniendo statum fecit ? Hanc si nulla scriptura determinauit, certe consuetudo corroborauit, quae sine dubio de traditione manauit. Quomodo enim usurpari quid potest, si traditum prius non est ? Etiam in traditionis obtentu exigenda est, inquis, auctoritas scripta. Ergo quaeramus an et traditio nisi scripta non debeat recipi. Plane negabimus recipiendam, si nulla exempla praeiudicent aliarum obseruationum, quas sine ullius scripturae instrumento, solius traditionis titulo et exinde consuetudinis patrocinio uindicamus. Denique, ut a baptismate ingrediar, aquam adituri ibidem, sed et aliquanto prius in ecclesia, sub antistitis manu, contestamur nos renuntiare diabolo et pompae et angelis eius. Dehinc ter mergitamur amplius aliquid respondentes quam Dominus in euangelio determinauit. Inde suscepti, lactis et mellis concordiam praegustamus, exque ea die lauacro quotidiano per totam ebdomadem abstinemus. Eucharistiae sacramentum, et in tempore uictus et omnibus mandatum a Domino, etiam antelucanis coetibus nec de aliorum manu quam praesidentium sumimus. Oblationes pro defunctis, pro nataliciis, annua die facimus. Die dominico ieiunium nefas ducimus, uel de geniculis adorare. Eadem immunitate a die Paschae in Pentecosten usque gaudemus. Calicis aut panis etiam nostri aliquid decuti in terram anxie patimur. Ad omnem progressum atque promotum, ad omnem aditum et exitum, ad uestitum, ad calciatum, ad lauacra, ad mensas, ad lumina, ad cubilia, ad sedilia, quacumque nos conuersatio exercet, frontem signaculo terimus.