Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 2.djvu/179

Rh office sentences like the following: "We thank Thee,, that Thou hast made us partakers of Thy sacraments;" and the same mode of expression is adopted in the Liturgies, and in other parts of the Nestorian Ritual, where from the context it is clear that the reference is made to one individual sacrament, and not to the sacraments generally.

Moreover, that the two sacraments of our Church are considered to be such pre-eminently by the Nestorians, is clear from their being in almost every instance found together in their rituals, and separate from the other rites which "are commonly called sacraments;" but which are seldom or never so styled in the authorized service-books. Thus in § 4, quoted under this article, we read: "We were sanctified by water and the Spirit, and by Thy Body and Blood we attain life;" and § 6 and 7, cited in Chap. XXIII. are two examples of like import from numerous others which might be adduced.

The following tradition, apart from the obvious fictions which it contains, tends to confirm the above remarks, and affords an additional proof that the Nestorians believe Baptism and the Supper to be the only sacraments necessary to salvation, and that these two alone fulfil in every respect our Churches definition of a sacrament.

"On the foundation of the two holy sacraments of the Church, viz. Baptism and the Body and Blood of our.

"I confess two sacraments in the holy Church,—one the sacrament of Baptism, and the other the sacrament of the Body and Blood. The foundation of these two is laid in the flesh of our, and it is fit that I should explain this for the edification of the sons of the Church. Peter the Apostle wrote this account, and I am therefore bound to record it without any alteration. When our was baptized of John in the river Jordan, John beheld His greatness, i.e.. His Divinity and humanity, and understood that He did not submit to be baptized on His own account, but in order to set us an example that we should be baptized even as He was. And this blessed John was graciously inspired to take from  baptism a little leaven for our baptism. So when our  went up out of the water whilst the water was yet dripping from His body, John approached our  and collected these drops in a phial; and