authority of the Church, the Nestorians, nevertheless, hold in effect, the true Catholic doctrine as it is revealed to us in Holy Scripture and as was set forth and established by the Council of Ephesus?
Now, however just we may believe the providence of the Almighty to have been towards this sect, for their wilful estrangement from the visible Body of Christ; yet, there can be no doubt, that the Church also has suffered by this unfortunate division, and that her empire over the heathen has been retarded thereby. Had the Nestorians continued united to the Church, how much glory might have redounded to the Redeemer's Name, through the labours of their early missionaries, whose zeal and piety are worthy of our close imitation! How many of the far-off eastern nations in Tartary, India, and China among whom they preached the Gospel, and among whom their efforts were sometime blessed, might this day have been numbered among the triumphs of the Cross? Placed in the van of Christianity, and where the baneful heresy of the False Prophet made its first conquests, the Nestorians, had they not been cut off from the Church Catholic, might through the Divine blessing, have driven back the impious Invader, and saved the Church from this devastating scourge.
If, then, the cutting off of this people from the Communion of the Church has been a grievous loss not only to the Nestorians themselves, but to Christianity at large, may it not piously be hoped that their restoration would prove an unspeakable blessing? This cannot be doubted; and it is my earnest prayer to Almighty God, that the Church of England may see it to be, not only her duty, but her privilege to undertake this charitable work. And it is in order that those to whom authority in such matters is committed may fairly and candidly judge wherein the Nestorians are wanting in the true faith, or erroneous in their manner of holding it, that the following exposition of their doctrines is given, that they may either be absolved from the charges laid against them, or that those charges may be fully proved, and the proper means of correcting and restoring them be adopted. To this end they ought to be allowed to speak for themselves, and in the following extracts from their recognized authorities, it will be seen that no attempt
