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THE SYRIAN CHURCHES.

"Who from thee, O Father, proceedeth, and taketh of (or from) thy Son."

With respect to the sacraments, it has been generally said, that the Jacobites hold the septenary number, like the Romanists. But this must be taken in a qualified sense, as they have no distinct service of confirmation, nor do they use extreme unction, unless it be sometimes imparted to members of the priesthood. Auricular confession, too, is scarcely known among them.[1] And in the eucharist, while they profess to recognise the real presence, it must not be understood in the Papite sense of transubstantiation, but the presence of the Saviour which accompanies, in an undescribed manner, the elements of the bread and wine: a species of consubstantiation, illustrated by Bar Salib,[2] under the idea of iron in union with fire, and receiving from it the properties of light and heat, while its own nature remains unaltered. So also Bar Hebræus, adopting an explication, probably from the Nestorians, says, "As the humanity of the Lord, not by [its own] nature, but on account of its union with the divine nature, is called God; so this bread and wine, not being flesh and blood by nature, but (metul Taibutho da-rucho da-alaihun) on account of the grace of the Spirit which is upon them, are called the body and blood of Christ." And again: "We call the bread and the wine, because of the Spirit's grace, the body and blood of God, (lau ba-kyono,) not by nature, but from their union with God."[3]

In the administration of the eucharist they use newly-made unleavened bread, commixed with salt and oil; and the communion is not restricted to one kind. But most

  1. Brerewood, chap. xxi.
  2. In Matt. xxvii. [Codd. Syr. Clement. Vatic. 10, fol. 29.]
  3. Bar Hebræus, Menorath Kudshee, or the "Lamp of the Saints," fundam. vi. sect. 2.