Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 2.djvu/29

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
APOLOGY FOR THE NESTORIANS.
5

has been made to withhold anything which might fairly make either against or for them.

Hitherto we have had principally in view the feelings of those who are justly sensitive of any departure from the orthodox faith in the Person of Christ, and who would hesitate to hold communion with any sect upon the bare ground of the Church's decree pronounced against it. Such Christians are persuaded that there can be no real union unless there is a perfect agreement more especially in the confession of those sacred truths, which respect the humanity and Divinity of our Blessed Lord, and that the voice of the Church, as it has confirmed and established these, is an authority not to be doubted or called in question.

There is another class of Christians, however, who hold that such views of the Church's power in controversies of faith are extreme, and erroneous; and who deem the profession of some modern error, such as the doctrine of direct invocation of saints and angels, to be a far greater obstacle to Christian fellowship than any avowed disagreement with the decree of a General Council, on whatever subject that decree may have been passed. Such have evidently been the opinions of the generality of travellers and missionaries who have of late visited the Nestorians in their own country. They have been satisfied that they hold the Nicene Creed, and that they are to all outward appearances, without many of the superstitions and errors of the Church of Rome. The simplicity of their worship has contrasted strikingly with the burdensome and gaudy ceremonial of the Roman ritual, and they have (too hastily perhaps) come to the conclusion that all that the Nestorians require is spiritual life to perfect them in the full enjoyment of Christian truth and all its holy privileges. Few, if any, have looked beyond the surface of things, and have thus, perchance, deceived themselves, and helped to deceive others. They have contributed to confer or to impose upon the Nestorians the title of "Protestants of the East," and their bare denial of the Supremacy of the See of Rome has well nigh been made by them to stand in the place of the One, Catholic, and Orthodox faith. Far be it from the writer to charge this community with errors of which they are innocent, or in any way to damp the godly zeal of such as are