Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 2.djvu/88

60 "Person" to distinguish it from every thing else which it is not, and which it cannot be, for there is no other thing like it, and all comparisons used to express it are therefore necessarily defective. On this subject also the language of the author just quoted is remarkably plain: "The Self-existent can in no wise be susceptible of accidents. The three proprieties in the Divinity must be essential, and are on this account called Persons, and not accidental powers, and do not cause any change or plurality in the essence of the Self-existent; for He is the Mind, the Same He, [or, as in the original, He He,] is the Wisdom, the Same He is the Life, Who ever begets without cessation, [i.e. there was no time in which He did not beget the ,] and puts forth, [i.e. makes to proceed,] without distance, [i.e. without removal from Himself."]

Should any further testimony be required in order to establish the perfect unity of the with the, as held by the Nestorians, it is supplied by the following clause in § 6. c. "The spiritual essences, those who dwell in the regions of the Spirit, were enraptured, and the earthly, such as were alive, and such as were in the grave, rejoiced, saying: 'He is One to all generations; and, again, in par. o. "Whilst these shepherds were engaged round about the manger, the angels in heaven were singing praises unto Him;" which declaration is equivalent to saying, that He Who was worshipped in the manger at Bethlehem was the same Who was being praised by the hosts above, and is of like import with our Blessed 's own