Tract No. 34 (Ad Scholas)
[Ho men oun pistos, hos chre, kai errhomenos oude deitai logou kai aitias, huper on an epitachthei, all’ arkeitai tei paradosei monei]. Chrysost. in 1 Cor. Hom. 26.
He who is duly strengthened in faith, does not go so far as to require argument and reason for what is enjoined, but is satisfied with the tradition alone.
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The reader of ecclesiastical history is sometimes surprised at finding observances and customs generally received in the Church at an early date, which have not express warrant in the Apostolic writings; e.g. the use of the cross in baptism. The following pages will be directed to the consideration of this circumstance; with a view of suggesting from those writings themselves, that a minute ritual was contemporaneous with them, that the Apostles recognise it as existing anti binding, that it was founded on religious principles, and tended to the inculcation of religious truth. Not that any formal proof is attainable or conceivable, considering the brevity and subjects of the inspired documents; but such fair evidence of the fact, as may recommend it to the belief of the earnest and single-minded Christian. It is abundantly evident that the Epistles were not written to prescribe and enforce the Ritual of religion; all then we can expect, if it existed in the days of the Apostles, is an occasional allusion to it in their Epistles as existing, and a plain acquiescence in it: and thus much we find.
Let us consider that remarkable passage, (1 Cor. xi. 2-16.) which, I am persuaded, most readers pass over as if they could get little instruction from it. St. Paul is therein blaming the Corinthians for not adhering to the custom of the Church, which prescribed that men should wear their hair short, and that women should have their head covered during divine service; a custom apparently most unimportant, if any one ever was, but in his view strictly binding on Christians. He begins by implying that it is one out of many rules or traditions ([paradoseis]) which he had given them, and they were bound to keep. He ends by refusing to argue with any one who obstinately cavils at it and rejects it: “If any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the Churches of God.” Here then at once a view is opened to us which is quite sufficient to remove the surprise we might otherwise feel at the multitude of rites, which were in use in the Primitive Church, but about which the New Testament is silent; and further, to command our obedience to such as come down to us from the first ages, and are agreeable to Scripture.
In accordance with this conclusion, is the clear and forcible command given by the Apostle, (2 Thess. ii. 15.) “Brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions, which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.”
To return. St. Paul goes on to give the reason of the usage, for the satisfaction of the weak brethren at Corinth. It was, he implied, a symbol or development (so to say) of the principle of the subordination of the woman to the man, and a memorial of the history of our creation; nay it was founded in “nature,” i.e. natural reason. And lastly, it had a practical object: the woman ought to have her head covered “because of the angels.” We need not stop to inquire what this reason was; but it was a reason of a practical nature which the Corinthians understood, though we may not. If it mean, as is probable, “because she is in the sight of the heavenly angels,” (1 Tim. v. 21.) it gives a still greater importance to the ceremonies of worship, as connecting them with the unseen world.
It would seem indeed as if the very multiplicity of the details of the Church ritual made it plainly impossible for St. Paul to write them all down, or to do more than remind the Corinthians of his way of conducting religious discipline when he was among them. “Be ye followers of me;” he says, “I praise you that ye remember me in all things.” It is evident there are ten thousand little points in the working of any large system, which a present instructor alone can settle. Hence it is customary at present, when a school is set up, or when any novel manufacture in trade, or extraordinary machinery, is to be brought into use, to set it going by sending a person fully skilled in its practical details. Such was St. Paul as regards the system of Christian discipline and worship; and when he could not go himself, he sent Timothy in his place. He says in the 4th chapter: “I beseech you, be ye followers of me. For this cause have I sent unto you Timotheus, who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways which be in Christ, as I teach every where in every Church.” Here there is a like reference to an uniform system of discipline,—whether as to Christian conduct, worship, or Church government.