Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 2.djvu/106

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THE NESTORIANS AND THEIR RITUALS.

CHAPTER IX.

OF THE HOLY GHOST.

"The Holy Ghost, proceeding from the Father and the Son, is of one substance, majesty, and glory, with the Father and the Son, very and eternal God."—Article V.

§ 1. "And I believe in one Holy Ghost, the Spirit of truth, proceeding from the Father,—the life-giving Spirit." From the Nicene Creed as used in the three Liturgies of the Nestorians.

§ 2. "He went out with them unto Bethany, and lifted up His hands and blessed them, and spake to them of the Holy Ghost the Paraclete, the Holy Person, and made known to them that He is co-existent with the Father from eternity, incomprehensible, and not to be contained by this limited world. That it is He who dispenses gifts and discloses the mysteries to come, and who interprets the hidden things of God. He also made known unto them that the Holy Ghost is not a mere gift but a Person, co-equal with the Father and the Son, and that it is He who judges, teaches, communicates, and who speaks in the place of the speakers." [S. Luke xii. 11, 12.] From the service appointed in the Gezza for the festival of the holy Nativity.

REMARKS.

From the above it will be seen that the Nestorians believe the Spirit to proceed from the Father, as do all the Churches of the East agreeably with the creed drawn up by the Council of Constantinople, a.d. 381; but the doctrine of the Procession is hardly ever adverted to in their rituals in a purely doctrinal form. It is remarkable, however, that in the so-called Nicene