67. Time will fail me if I attempt to
recount the unwritten mysteries of the Church. Of the rest I say
nothing; but of the very confession of our faith in Father, Son, and
Holy Ghost, what is the written source? If it be granted that, as
we are baptized, so also under the obligation to believe, we make our
confession in like terms as our baptism, in accordance with the
tradition of our baptism and in conformity with the principles of true
religion, let our opponents grant us too the right to be as consistent
in our ascription of glory as in our confession of faith. If they
deprecate our doxology on the ground that it lacks written authority,
let them give us the written evidence for the confession of our faith
and the other matters which we have enumerated. While the
unwritten traditions are so many, and their bearing on “the
mystery of godliness”
1 Tim. iii.
16. is so important,
can they refuse to allow us a single word which has come down to us
from the Fathers;—which we found, derived from untutored custom,
abiding in unperverted churches;—a word for which the arguments
are strong, and which contributes in no small degree to the
completeness of the force of the mystery?