Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 2.djvu/91

Rh sible, joined to the Divine Person in the Parsopa of the Word, that what the Humanity did, that the Divinity did, and yet in no such way or sense as that we should be necessitated to ascribe Who is the and not the, and not the , Which Person and no other, took man's nature, and this they called Parsopa. The following creed drawn up by Yohanan bar Zöobi, an ancient eminent writer among the Nestorians, throws some light on this difficult subject:—"I believe in One, Who is the everlasting, self-existent, subsisting in three Persons, , , and . The is  from eternity; the  is the Begotten from eternity; and the  from eternity is Proceeding.—One Essence co-equal in its self-existence. These are united and not distinguishable in Essence or in their Persons; but the Persons are distinguishable the One from the other by their names and proprieties. There is no distinction in Essence, because the Essence is One, neither is there any distinction by or through the Persons because of infinity; since if you would distinguish the Person of the  in order afterwards to adduce the Person of the , where will you find a place for it? And if there is no place which can contain the Persons of the  and the , where will you place the  in order to distinguish It? Whereas myriads of worlds like ours would not suffice to contain One Person of the Self-Existent. The is  and an Essence because of His Person, The  also is, and an Essence because of His Person. And in like manner, the is  and an Essence because of His Person. By this name of  and 'Essence,' each is all and the whole, and they are not three Essences or three s. Hence they are not distinguishable in Essence or Person;23 but by the proprieties and the names of the Parsopas''. The propriety of the is that He is Begetter and not Begotten, the Cause, and Paternity, which denote the name of His Person. The propriety of the is that He is Begotten and not Begetter, Filiation, and the Being caused, which denote the name of His Person. The propriety of the is that He is neither Begetter nor Begotten, but Caused and Proceeding, which denote the name of His Person. The is, and not the  or the , and is distinguished from the  and the  by the parsopa of Fatherhood. The, also, is , and not the or the , and is distinguished from the  and the  by the parsopa of Filiation. The is the, and not the  or the , and is distinguished from the  and the , by the parsopa of Procession, There is no distinction between the Persons in the propriety of the Essence, for they are co-equal in the essential propriety general [to the Three Persons.] The propriety of the general Essence is spirit, eternity, nature, Divinity, Sovereignty, judgment, authority, infinity, creation, immortality, and so forth. The proprieties of the Persons, however, are those which are peculiar or proper to each of them. The proprieties of the Essence are general to all the Three Persons, and the equality subsisting in the Essence is of these proprieties of that Essence; so that the is not before the, nor the  before the ; neither is the  greater than the , nor the  greater than the. Let Arius and Sabellius, therefore, be confounded. A notion of priority, however, may arise in the