Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 2.djvu/89

Rh words: "No man hath ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man which is in heaven."

It is proper to note, however, that § 6. o. begins with the words the Invisible or Hidden Will, applied to the  of. Exception might justly be made against this appellative, which is of frequent occurrence in the Nestorian rituals, did it stand alone, for alone it seems to teach that not the Word, but the Will of, as an attribute or property of the Godhead, was that which became incarnate. The term is hardly a safe one, but the following extract from a hymn in the Khâmees, and appointed to be read on the Feast of the Ascension, is sufficient to show that the Nestorians hold no such heresy, but use the appellative when speaking of the second Person of the glorious in the same sense as in Scripture the name, "Word of " is applied to Him.—"The Invisible Will has returned to His own, and has ascended up to the heaven of heavens. The gates of the sky were opened unto Him, and the planets were confounded in their courses. … The  of the Essence of the glorious  has ascended." In this quotation, the titles "Invisible Will," and the " of the Essence of the glorious ," are evidently cognate or commutable terms denoting the second Person incarnate, and not a mere attribute of the Divinity. There is also a coincidence between the extract just quoted and that referred to in § 6. o., which clearly shows that the two appellatives refer to the Person of the. The latter begins with "the Invisible Will descended," and the former with  "the Invisible Will returned to His own." And the Warda, in a poem on "the man who went down from Jerusalem to Jericho," has the following clear declaration bearing on the same subject: "If the was in Him, and He in the, who can draw a distinction between Him and the , but such as deny the , and have Satan for their teacher?"

The doctrine of the perfect humanity of the is so firmly held by the Nestorians, that if they are in error, it arises from their steadfast resolution to hold this truth whole and undefiled. His immaculate conception by the of the Virgin