Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 2.djvu/118

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THE NESTORIANS AND THEIR RITUALS.

heal their rebellion; and hereby Thou didst prefigure to coming generations the restoration of the Gentiles, and their salvation through faith in Jesus Christ." Collect for the fifth Sunday in Lent, from the Aboo Haleem.

See also Appendix B., Part II. chap. 3 and 4.

REMARKS.

The above declarations clearly prove that the Nestorians believe the "old Fathers" to have looked for other than mere "transitory promises," and to have been saved through faith in Jesus Christ; and the extracts adduced under Article III. are corroborative on this point. These, as we have already seen, represent the righteous departed before the advent of the Saviour as abiding under the dominion of the grave until, after His death, He descended into hades, and gave liberty to the captives. Moreover it is clear that they hold the ceremonies and rites of the Mosaical dispensation, to have been but figures of that great salvation which was promised through Him, who was to be a Light unto the Gentiles, and the Glory of His people Israel. Thus in § 6, par. r, t, quoted under Art. II., Abraham, Moses, and David, in their wonderful actions and lives, are said to be types of the Great Antitype, the Son of God. "Abraham through the lamb, Moses through the fire, and the illustrious David in all his actions, ministered to the mystery of Him." And, again: "The legal shadow has now passed away, and the light has broken forth in the renewing of the Spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. The grace of the Father has appeared in the Wonderful Begotten One, teaching us, as it is written, to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts. On this day the bark of prophecy has reached the shore; in this Begotten One all the types are fulfilled."

"The disannulling of the commandment going before for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof" is clearly declared by Mar Abd Yeshua in Appendix B., referred to in the quotations: "And in Moses began the Jewish dispensation, which like a child who has not yet attained to perfect knowledge, was taught to read in the Old Law, which enjoined that good should be done towards relations, and towards the good, and evil to evil doers and enemies. It moreover represented God after the