NPNF2-08. Basil: Letters and Select Works - Holy Bible Institute

Of the origin of the word “with,” and what force it has. Also concerning the unwrittenlaws of the church.word is the anointing of oil 1273 itself taught? And whence comes the custom of baptizingthrice? 1274 And as to the other customs of baptism from what Scripture do we derive therenunciation of Satan and his angels? Does not this come from that unpublished and secretteaching which our fathers guarded in a silence out of the reach of curious meddling andinquisitive investigation? Well had they learnt the lesson that the awful dignity of the mysteriesis best preserved by silence. What the uninitiated are not even allowed to look at washardly likely to be publicly paraded about in written documents. What was the meaning ofthe mighty Moses in not making all the parts of the tabernacle open to every one? Theprofane 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 offeringsand the rest of the priestly functions he allotted to the priests; one chosen out of all headmitted to the shrine, and even this one not always but on only one day in the year, andof this one day a time was fixed for his entry so that he might gaze on the Holy of Holiesamazed at the strangeness and novelty of the sight. Moses was wise enough to know thatcontempt stretches to the trite and to the obvious, while a keen interest is naturally associatedwith the unusual and the unfamiliar. In the same manner the Apostles and Fathers wholaid down laws for the Church from the beginning thus guarded the awful dignity of themysteries in secrecy and silence, for what is bruited abroad random among the commonfolk is no mystery at all. This is the reason for our tradition of unwritten precepts andpractices, that the knowledge of our dogmas may not become neglected and contemned bythe multitude through familiarity. “Dogma” and “Kerugma” are two distinct things; theformer is observed in silence; the latter is proclaimed to all the world. One form of this silenceis the obscurity employed in Scripture, which makes the meaning of “dogmas” difficult tobe understood for the very advantage of the reader: Thus we all look to the East 1275 at ourprayers, but few of us know that we are seeking our own old country, 1276 Paradise, whichGod 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 theconfirmed, 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. ὕδατιἑαυτοὺς 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. 8.1278 The earliest posture of prayer was standing, with the hands extended and raised towards heaven, andwith the face turned to the East. cf. early art, and specially the figures of “oranti.” Their rich dress indicates lesstheir actual station in this life than the expected felicity of Paradise. Vide, Dict. Christ. Ant. ii. 1684.233