Nicene and Post-Nicene Church Fathers Series 2 - The Still Small ...

word is the anointing of oil 1273 itself taught? And whence comes the custom of baptizing
thrice? 1274 And as to the other customs of baptism from what Scripture do we derive the
renunciation of Satan and his angels? Does not this come from that unpublished and secret
teaching which our fathers guarded in a silence out of the reach of curious meddling and
inquisitive investigation? Well had they learnt the lesson that the awful dignity of the mysteries
is best preserved by silence. What the uninitiated are not even allowed to look at was
hardly likely to be publicly paraded about in written documents. What was the meaning of
the mighty Moses in not making all the parts of the tabernacle open to every one? The
profane he stationed without the sacred barriers; the first courts he conceded to the purer;
the Levites alone he judged worthy of being servants of the Deity; sacrifices and burnt offerings
and the rest of the priestly functions he allotted to the priests; one chosen out of all he
admitted to the shrine, and even this one not always but on only one day in the year, and
of this one day a time was fixed for his entry so that he might gaze on the Holy of Holies
amazed at the strangeness and novelty of the sight. Moses was wise enough to know that
contempt stretches to the trite and to the obvious, while a keen interest is naturally associated
with the unusual and the unfamiliar. In the same manner the Apostles and Fathers who
laid down laws for the Church from the beginning thus guarded the awful dignity of the
mysteries in secrecy and silence, for what is bruited abroad random among the common
folk is no mystery at all. This is the reason for our tradition of unwritten precepts and
practices, that the knowledge of our dogmas may not become neglected and contemned by
the multitude through familiarity. “Dogma” and “Kerugma” are two distinct things; the
former is observed in silence; the latter is proclaimed to all the world. One form of this silence
is the obscurity employed in Scripture, which makes the meaning of “dogmas” difficult to
be understood for the very advantage of the reader: Thus we all look to the East 1275 at our
prayers, but few of us know that we are seeking our own old country, 1276 Paradise, which
God planted in Eden in the East. 1277 We pray standing, 1278 on the first day of the week,
but we do not all know the reason. On the day of the resurrection (or “standing again” Grk.
1273 For the unction of catechumens cf. Ap. Const. vii. 22; of the baptized, Tertullian, De Bapt. vii.; of the
confirmed, id. viii.; of the sick vide Plumptre on St. James v. 14, in Cambridge Bible for Schools. cf. Letter clxxxviii.
1274 For trine immersion an early authority is Tertullian, c. Praxeam xxvi. cf. Greg. Nyss., De Bapt. ὕδατι
ἑαυτοὺς ἐγκρύπτομεν …καὶ τρίτον τοῦτο ποιήσαντες. Dict. Ch. Ant. i. 161.
1275 cf. my note on Theodoret in this series, p. 112.
1276 Heb. xi. 14, R.V.
1277 Gen. ii. 8.
Of the origin of the word “with,” and what force it has. Also concerning…
1278 The earliest posture of prayer was standing, with the hands extended and raised towards heaven, and
with the face turned to the East. cf. early art, and specially the figures of “oranti.” Their rich dress indicates less
their actual station in this life than the expected felicity of Paradise. Vide, Dict. Christ. Ant. ii. 1684.
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