Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 2.djvu/94

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THE NESTORIANS AND THEIR RITUALS.

Unchangeable Word, the Son of God."[1] That the Nestorians thus believe24 of the Second Person of the Glorious Trinity made man is clear from § 6, par. c. "The Begotten, the Highest, the Ancient of Days, Who has set us free, drew milk from the breast as do sucklings and infants, was bound in swaddling clothes, and was placed in a manger like a child of the poor and needy, although He is verily and indeed the King of kings to Whom the highest worship is due." And, again, in par. m. "David says of Him, that 'His throne shall stand as the sun, and shall endure as the moon to order and to establish all things;' that is, by His manifested Divinity, and by the life and wisdom of His Humanity; for in the motions of Himself He comprehends all the angels in the highest, and in the members of His body He comprehends man who is on the earth, thereby fulfilling, as in a rational way, that the two worlds are, by the power of His Spirit, but one body, and He is that very One Who through these sees the things which we cannot see. He is the very One Who makes all visible creatures to subsist, Who tries and judges them. Before the Union these offices belonged to the Person of the Divinity; afterwards it was given to the Person of the Humanity. And since all these things are fulfilled in this Begotten One, He is therefore Man and Lord, most truly, certainly, and beyond all doubt." And, again, in par. e. "Behold Him, Who is clothed with light, wrapped in swaddling bands; what a mystery is here! No less wonderful is it that He Who is seated on the throne of heaven should have been laid in a manger! The Ancient of times became a Son of Mary in the latter time, and appeared as the Father, Lord, and Master of the sons of Adam."

But, further; any notion of duality on account of their confession of two Persons in our blessed Lord is repudiated in the strongest language by the Nestorians, not only by the addition of the "One Parsopa," but also by their reiterated declarations. Thus in § 3 we read, "there is plurality in the Natures, but these subsist in One, their proprieties subsisting in One Parsopa of Filiation." Again in § 6, c. "The spiritual essences who dwell in the regions of the Spirit were enraptured; and the

  1. Newman's Parochial Sermons, Vol. III., Serm. 12.