Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 2.djvu/97

Rh [aknooma,] so hath He given to the to have life in His Person" [aknooma.] If, say they, it is maintained, that the  gave life to the Person of the, i.e. the Divine Person, this is an error, since in His Divine Person He is equally  of life with the  from everlasting; therefore, they conclude, it was given to the human Person of the Son. And this interpretation they support by the verse following: "and hath given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man."

The third verse of the first chapter of Hebrews, which, is rendered as follows in the Syriac, is also adduced to the same end: "Who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His essence, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by His Person purged our sins," &c. The argument from this passage is, that the Person here mentioned must be that of the human nature, since the Divine Person is impassible. Nevertheless, as we have seen, they do not separate the Divinity from the humanity, but believe them to be united indissolubly for ever and ever.

It now remains that something should be said on the rejection by the Nestorians of the title. It is not to be doubted that however much the design has been forgotten, this appellative was originally meant not to exalt the person of the Blessed Virgin, but to declare the truth of 's Divinity and Humanity, and with this object, I conceive the council of Ephesus adopted it. Even the learned Lutheran divine Doctor Mosheim calls the title "a trite and innocent term," and our own Nelson, rightly apprehending its true import, sanctions and approves of it. His answer to the query, "Why is the blessed virgin Mary styled the mother of ?" is as follows: "Because the second Person in the blessed Trinity, the of, by virtue of an eternal generation,