Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 2.djvu/96

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THE NESTORIANS AND THEIR RITUALS.

in a bodily garment hiding therewith His dazzling form, seated on the right hand of the Almighty, invisible to mortal ken."

It appears, therefore, that the Nestorians adopted the symbol of two Persons and One Parsopa, in order to point out the particular Person of the Holy Trinity Who became Man, and at the same time to maintain the doctrine of the impassibility of God, which they believed to be impugned by the Monophysite doctrine of one Nature and one Person in our Blessed Lord. Whether they have succeeded in this design, or made the truth plainer than it is in the Catholic confession of two Natures and One Person is, to say the least, very doubtful; but whether they hereby deny or controvert the teaching of the Church, it is for the Church to determine. The same object, doubtless, has led them, in discoursing of His works, to distinguish between the Christ Who lived on earth and the Son of God Most High, an example of which is given in the beautiful hymn contained in § 5, and which, amidst the numerous alterations made by the Chaldeans in the Nestorian rituals, has been allowed to remain, and is still used by them in its original form. Many of our own orthodox theologians frequently adopt, as a matter of necessity, the same style of speaking and writing when treating of the Divine and Human Natures in Christ; and the Nestorians base the propriety of so distinguishing between them on such passages of the Scripture as the following.—"And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature, and in favour with God and man." "Jesus, a Man approved among you by miracles, and wonders, and signs, which God did by Him in the midst of you." "There is One God, and one Mediator between God and man, the Man Christ Jesus." "The head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God." "This Jesus Whom ye crucified, God has made Him Lord and Christ.' See Appendix B. Part iii. c. v.

But another cause, which I conceive to have influenced the Nestorians to adopt the confession of two Persons in Christ, is referable to the Syriac rendering of several passages in the New Testament. Thus, for example, the passage in S. John v. 26. "For as the Father hath life in Himself, so He hath given to the Son to have life in Himself," reads thus in the Syriac version: "For as the Father hath life in His Person