Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 2.djvu/86

58 his language; but when they heard that he taught the doctrine of the two Natures and two Persons, one of, one , and that he confessed the orthodox faith, they bore witness to him, because they themselves held the same faith. Nestorius, then, followed them, and not they him, and that more especially in the matter of the appellation 'Mother of .' Therefore when called upon to excommunicate him they refused, maintaining that their excommunication of Nestorius would be equivalent to their excommunication of the Sacred Scriptures from which they received what they professed, and for which they are censured together with Nestorius."

The decrees of the Council of Ephesus they do not, of course, receive, but whether this arises from any essential difference in the faith as held by them, or from a misapprehension of the terms in which those decrees were expressed,17 it remains for competent authority to determine after full examination had of the doctrines contained in their rituals. It is worthy of note, however, that although the Gezza, as quoted in § 5 denounces the Chalcedonians, Mar Abd Yeshua considers the decrees of that synod orthodox and valid, and that the doctrine of the One Person in our Blessed was declared because the Greek language had not a word to convey the idea which they express by Parsopa. Speaking of Chalcedon he says: "This council confirmed the confession that there are two Natures in, distinct in the attributes of each, and also two wills, and anathematized all who should speak of mixture which destroys the two Natures. But because in Greek there is no difference between the meaning of the word Person and Parsopa, they confessed but one Person in ." Besides this testimony to the council of Chalcedon there are several extracts from its decrees embodied in the various synodal collections in use among the Nestorians.

Further, the Divinity and Humanity of are most fully declared in the extracts above adduced; no language, indeed, could convey these truths more explicitly. What, for example, can be clearer on this point than the clause in § 1. "One is the adored by all in two Natures, Who, as touching His Godhead is begotten of the, without beginning, and before all ages; and, as touching His Manhood, was born