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DE CORONA. 335neither be rogarded as no offence, or an uncertain one, Whichis perpetrated against a practice Which is capable os defence, on the ground even os ita repute, and is sussiciently ratified by the support os generat acceptance. It is undoubted, sothat me ought to inquire into the reason os the thing, butwithout prejudice to the practice, not for the purpose of overthrowing it, but rather of bullding it up, that you mayali the more caresully observe it, When you are also satisfiedas to iis reason. But What sori os procedure is it, for onsto be bringing into debato a practice, When he has fallenirem it, and to bs seehing the explanation of his having everhad ii, when ho has test it osti Since, although he may Wish to seem on this account destrous to investigate it, that he may show that he has not done Wrong in giving it up, itis evident that he neveriheless transgressed previousty in iis presumptuous observance. For ii he has dono no Wrong to-du in accepting the crown, he ostended before in refusingit. And this treatise, theresore, mill not be for those Who arenot in a proper condition for inqui , but for those Who, with tho real destro of getling instruction, bring forWard, nota question sor debate, but a request sor advice. For it is tromthis destro that a true inqui alWays proceeds; and Ι praissilio faith whieli has belloved in the duty of complying with therule, bolare it has learned the reason os it. And an easy thingit is at onco to domand whoro it is writton that wo fhould notbe crowned. But is it writton that we should bo erowned lIndeed, in urgently demanding the warrant of Scripture ina different fido hom their own, men prejudge that the suinport of Scripture ought no less to appear on their pari. For
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Written authori , you say, must be demanded. Let usinquire, the fore, Whether tradition, unless it bo written, should not bo admitted. Certainly wo shali say that it ought not to bo admitted, is no cases of other practices Whicli,
without any Written instrument, We maintain on the ground of tradition alone, and the countenance thereaster of custom,
affords any precedent. To deat with this matter briefly, I shali bogin With baptism. When We are going to enter the water, but a litile before, in the presence of the congregation and under the hand of the president, me solemnlyprofess that me disom the devit, and his pomp, and his
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4. Ιs, for these and oster such rules, you insist uponharing positivo Scripture injunction, you Will find none. Tradition mill bo hold sortii to you as the originator of them,
given custom the fashion in question at some future time toliave tho apostlo's sanction, in his unsolding the true inte pretation os iis reason. These instances, therelare, mill miseit sussiciently plain that you can vindicate the keeping ofeVen unWritten tradition when it has boon ostablislied is custom, the proper Witnem for tradition whose truth has thenbeen demonstrated by the long-continued observance of it. But even in civit matters custom is received instead os laW, When positive legat enaciment is Wanting; and it is the fame
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sentence, but in regard to every decision in matters we are
Teason, become equivalent to nothing less than a divine com
account We should revere, that we may not want an inte
preter; so that is reason too is God's giit, you may thenteam, not whether custom has to be followed by you, but Why. 5. The argument for Christian practices becomes ali tho Stronger, When also nature, Whicli is the first rulo os ali, supporis them. Well, sho is the first who lays it down thata crown does not become the head. Biat I thinh oura is tho God os nature, Who fashioned man, and, that he might destre, appreciate, become partaher of the pleasures afforded by His creatures, endo ed him With certain senses factingJ throughmembers Whicli, so to speah, are their peculiar instruments. The sense of hearing ho has planted in tho ears; stat of
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the divine gisis are conveyed by the senses to the foui. What, then, in flowers astor is you enjomenti For it is tho flowersos tho fiold whicli aro tho peculiar, at least the clites, materialos crowns. Elther smell, you say, or colour, or both together. What will be tho senses of colour and smeli Those of se ing and smelling, I suppose. What members have had these
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340 TERTULLIANUS ing that the heathen do by naturo thoso things Whicli thelaW requires,' he suggests both natural laW and a la revinuing nature. Yes, and also in the fidit chaptor os the epistielle authenticates nature, When he asseris that males and semales changed among themselves the natural use of the
creature into that whicli is unnaturat, by Way of penes retribution sor their error. Wo first os ali indeod know God
Judge. Is it a question with you Whether, sor the enjoymentos His creatures, nature Ahould be our guide, that me maynot be carried aWay in tho direction in whicli tho rival ofGod has corrupted, along with man himself, the entire
in generat, that we may maintain the whole peculiari of our Christian disciplino, in rotation also to other hirids of croWns whicli Mem to havo been provided for disserent uses, asbeing composed os disterent substances, test, because they do
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DE GORONA. 341not consist os flowers, tho use of whicli naturo has indicatod as it does in tho case of this milita laurei one iraeli), theymay be thought not to come under the prohibition of our sec since they have escaped any objections os nature. Ι see, then, stat We must go into uie mattor both mitti mors r search, and more fully, from iis beginnings on throuo ita
successivo stages os gro Wth to iis more erratio developinendi. For this me need to turn to heathon literature. For things
the Titans, was hono ed with this gist by the rest of thogods. To Priapus also the fame author assigna filleis; andio Ariadne a garland of gold and of Indian gems, the giit os
Vulcan, and after ards of Bacchus, and subsequently turnedinto a constellation. Callimachus has put a vine croWn uponJuno. So too at Argos, her statue, vine-Wreathed, With alion's shin placed beneath her feet, exhibiis the ste mother exulting over the spolis of her two ste sons. Hercules di plays upon his head somelimes poplar, somelimes Wild-olive, somelimes parsi . You have the tragedy oi Cerberus, youhave Pindar, and besides Callimachus, who mentions that
Apollo, toο, when he had killed tho Delphic serpent, as a suppliant put On a laurei garland ; for among the anciendi
supplianis mere mont to be cro ed. Harpocration argues
stat Bacchus, the fame as Osiris among the Egyptians, Was
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342 TERTULLIANUS designedly cro ned With ivy, bemuse it is the nature os ivy
candidates, and was sed apari from the beginning to no other than theso; and whicli even then received iis consecration to
Were anything, but seeing the things whicli othev s offer up toidias belong to demons. But ii tho things whicli others offer to them belong to demons, how much more What idolsthemselves offered to themselves, when they mero in litet Tho demons thomsolves, doubilem, had made provision forthemselves by means of those Whom they had possessed, While in a stato os destro and cravitan before provision hadbeen actually made. 8. Hold fast in tho meantime this persuasion, While Ιexamine a question whicli comes in Our Way. For I already
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hear that it is said that many othor things as Weli as cro shavo been invented by thoso whom tho Worid belloves to bomds, and that they are not thstanding to bo met with both in Our present usages and in those of early sainis, and in tho servico os God, and in Christ Himself, who did His Work asman is no other than these ordinam instrumentalities of human liso. Well, let it bo so; nor shali I inquire any furthor bach into the origin os these things. Let Mercu havo been tho fidit Who taught tho knowledge of letters; ΙWill own stat they ars requisito both for tho business and commerce of lise, and for performing our devotion to God. . Nay, is he also fidit str g the chord to give fortit melody, I Will not dony, when listoning to David, that this invention
It is thus in generat I reply upon the potnt, admitting indeed
that me use along With others these articles, but challenging
things agrae te and things opposed to reason, because thepromiscuous employment of them is deceptive, concealing thocorruption os the creature, by whicli it has been made subjectio vani . For We amrm that thom things only are proper tobe used, Whether by oursolves or by those Who lived besore us,
and Mone befit tho service os God and Christ Himself, Which
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croWned; as neither Was the ark of the testament, nor thotabernacle of witness, nor the altar, nor the caudiestich
this too they in figure set forili, that the people of God ought