Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 2.djvu/99

Rh to, that the Nestorians do not believe the Virgin Mother to have brought forth a mere man. She is therein styled " the abode and temple of the ever-living ;" "this is she in whom God dwelt, and from whom sprang the of ;" "this is she who bare Him Who is the upholder of the height and depth, and in Whom both are comprehended; this is she who in a natural way brought forth a -man supernaturally; "Blessed art thou since Isaiah praised thee, calling thee a Virgin, and thy, ." And if any further testimony is required it is supplied by a passage in the Gezza appointed to be read on the festival of the Nativity, where the following, among other reasons, is given why Mary continued a virgin after the birth of the ,—"The fourth reason was in order that Mary might prove that she did not bring forth a mere man; but that she brought forth the , as it is written. Whose power kept her, so that her virginity was not lost."

The design of the Incarnation of our Blessed, which is the subject of the latter clause in the Article at the head of this chapter, is so clearly and so fully declared in the extracts adduced, that no explanatory remarks seem called for, more especially as the doctrine of the Atonement will come under consideration in the sequel.