TRACTS FOR THE TIMES.
RITES AND CUSTOMS OF THE CHURCH.
Ὁ μέν οὒν πιστὸς, ὡς χρὴ, καὶ ἐῤρωμένος οὐδὲ δεῖται λόγου καὶ αἰτίας ὑπὲρ ὢν ἀν ἐπιταχθῦ, ἀλλ' ἀρκεῖται τῦ παραδόσει μόνυ.
Chrysost. in 1 Cor. Hom. 26.
He who is duly strengthened in faith, does not go so far as to require reason and cause, for what is enjoined, but is satisfied with the tradition alone.
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 recognize it as existing and 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
