Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 2.djvu/56

28 as illustrative and confirmatory, as also in what respects they appear therein to have swerved from the faith and customs of their ancestors.

The task undertaken in the present dissertation would have been rendered much easier had the Nestorians possessed any recognized formula of their creed; but nothing of this kind exists among them. The nearest approach to a confession of faith is the treatise of Mar Abd Yeshua, a translation of which is given in Appendix B; but this is not only defective on many important points respecting which certain information is desirable; but it does not possess, as far as I know, that common consent of the Nestorians requisite to entitle it to be considered a Symbol of the doctrines held by their community. As the production of an eminent ecclesiastic, filling an exalted office in their Church, it is doubtless held in high esteem; but unsupported by older authority, and by the concurrent testimony of their standard rituals, its evidence is liable to be disregarded. And the same may be affirmed of the private opinions of any other individual writer, however highly renowned for learning and piety he may chance to be.

But the want of any standard confession of faith among the Nestorians, is amply supplied by the voluminous matter contained in their Church rituals, and, so great is their reverence for these compositions, that virtually, if not theoretically, no appeal is allowed from them to any higher authority. Having already given a list of these, it is proposed to quote therefrom such extracts as may bear upon the different points of Christian faith and practice; and as the present work is undertaken chiefly with a view to stir up the Church of England to labour for the reformation and restoration of this long neglected community, I shall take her Articles for the principal heads of inquiry, and arrange under each those passages from the recognized authorities of the Nestorians which shall serve either to show their agreement with, or their dissent from, the doctrines as set forth in those Articles. And in order to render this essay more satisfactory, a series of remarks shall be added to each chapter, wherein it shall be attempted, when seemingly called for, to reconcile conflicting statements, to illustrate and confirm by existing tradition whatever appears doubtful, and to subjoin