Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 2.djvu/182

154 ;" and again, "the matter of the oil of unction is pure olive oil; the form, the apostolical benediction."

It is further apparent that the Nestorians deem Confirmation necessary to salvation only from its being a subsidiary part of the sacrament of baptism, since with them every one who is baptized must also be confirmed at the same time, as is the case in all other Eastern Churches.

Absolution, or Pardon, is that which, with the Nestorians, corresponds the nearest to the "Penance" mentioned in the Article, and the sacramental character of which is denied by the Church of England. This "state of life," which is not only "allowed" but also commanded "in Scripture," is never styled a sacrament in any of the standard rituals of the Nestorians; and Mar Abd Yeshua, after naming it as such in his list given in Appendix B, Part IV. c. 1, afterwards in Chapter VII., heads his exposition thereof with the title, "Of Absolution and Repentance." It is further to be noticed, that in these remarks he gives no "visible sign," nor any words of institution to what he had before denominated a sacrament, but simply treats of the duty of repentance, the hope of pardon held out by to the true penitent in the New Testament, the proper minister to whom the sinner should "open his grief," and the authority of the priest to absolve him, "if all this is done in faith and not after a worldly manner." Hence it is clear that absolution, called sometimes a sacrament by the Nestorians, is not deemed to be such by them in the sense in which the Church of England holds that there are only two sacraments ordained by Himself.

The doctrine of confession and absolution as held by the Nestorians seems to be in perfect agreement with the teaching of our own rituals. Auricular confession is unknown to them,32 and the advice to penitents, as given by Mar Abd Yeshua, and which is also contained in the Khudhra, "to go and show their wounds to the disciples of the Wise Physician, who will heal them with spiritual medicine," corresponds in substance with the first exhortation contained in our Communion office. Their general practice with regard to confession is as follows: such as