Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 2.djvu/157

 decrees, is sufficient proof that the Nestorians believe that such councils "may err, and have erred, in things pertaining to ."31

The same doctrine may be inferred from the following extract: "O thou who hast been affianced to, seek not after another bridegroom, for He is the true Bridegroom who has been from everlasting, and shall exist for ever. He has given thee His body to be thy food, and His truth for thy faith; exchange it not with any other, lest He become thine adversary. The jealousy of Him Who has affianced thee is great; prove thou faithful to His love lest He write thy bill of divorcement, and thou become a derision unto all those who are called to thy wedding. The wedding of a mortal bridegroom comes to an end after three days; but if thou wilt, thy wedding shall last from this time forth and for ever." From the service appointed in the Khudhra for the first Sunday of the "Sanctification of the Church."

The Nestorians, however, maintain that the Church founded by can never fail from off the earth. On this subject the author of the Warda, in a poem on the Resurrection, writes: "Let the believing Church rejoice, because He Who has affianced her has truly risen, and has so raised her and her children that they cannot fall." And again: "Blessed is He who through His Name founded His Church, and promised and confirmed to Peter, that the bars of hell, which are of old, shall never prevail against her." From the service in the Khudhra for the first Sunday of the "Sanctification of the Church." Rh