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”  16  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?

[67] Ἐπιλείψει με ἡ ἡμέρα, τὰ ἄγραφα τῆς Ἐκκλησίας μυστήρια διηγούμενον. Ἐῶ τἄλλα: αὐτὴν δὲ τὴν ὁμολογίαν τῆς πίστεως εἰς Πατέρα καὶ Υἱὸν καὶ ἅγιον Πνεῦμα, ἐκ ποίων γραμμάτων ἔχομεν; Εἰ μὲν γὰρ ἐκ τῆς τοῦ βαπτίσματος παραδόσεως, κατὰ τὸ τῆς εὐσεβείας ἀκόλουθον, ὡς βαπτιζόμεθα οὕτω καὶ πιστεύειν ὀφείλοντες, ὁμοίαν τῷ βαπτίσματι τὴν ὁμολογίαν κατατιθέμεθα, συγχωρησάτωσαν καὶ ἡμῖν ἐκ τῆς αὐτῆς ἀκολουθίας ὁμοίαν τῇ πίστει τὴν δόξαν ἀποδιδόναι. Εἰ δὲ τὸν τρόπον τῆς δοξολογίας ὡς ἄγραφον παραιτοῦνται, δότωσαν ἡμῖν τῆς τε κατὰ τὴν πίστιν ὁμολογίας καὶ τῶν λοιπῶν, ὧν ἀπηριθμησάμεθα, ἐγγράφους τὰς ἀποδείξεις. Εἶτα τοσούτων ὄντων ἀγράφων καὶ τοσαύτην ἐχόντων τὴν ἰσχὺν εἰς τὸ τῆς εὐσεβείας μυστήριον, μίαν λέξιν ἡμῖν ἐκ πατέρων εἰς ἡμᾶς ἐλθοῦσαν οὐ συγχωρήσουσιν, ἣν ἡμεῖς ἐκ τῆς ἀνεπιτηδεύτου συνηθείας ταῖς ἀδιαστρόφοις τῶν ἐκκλησιῶν ἐναπομείνασαν εὕρομεν, οὐ μικρὸν τὸν λόγον ἔχουσαν, οὐδὲ βραχεῖαν συντέλειαν εἰς τὴν τοῦ μυστηρίου δύναμιν εἰσφερομένην;