The Nestorians and their Rituals/Volume 2/Appendix B/Part 5
PART V.
ON THE THEORY OF THOSE THINGS WHICH PREFIGURE THE WORLD TO COME.
CHAPTER I.
Of worshipping towards the East.
The custom of worshipping toward the East is the subject of an apostolical canon, and is founded upon that saying of our Blessed Lord: "As the lightning cometh forth from the east and shineth towards the west, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be." And because "of that day and of that hour knoweth no man, neither the angels" of heaven, it becometh us ever to be on the watch, with our faces turned towards the promise of His coming. This custom is therefore profitable in two ways; first, because it stirs up the remembrance of the end, and of the judgment to come, which is a preservative against evil; and, secondly, because it brings to mind our old place from which we were driven out on account of our sins, viz. Paradise, which is situated in the East, and thereby we are led to lay hold on repentance.
It is written in the Commentaries of Mar Ephraim, that the angel Gabriel appeared to the Virgin from the East, and that when he said unto her, "Hail, thou highly favoured!" she worshipped at his salutation towards the East. And when our Lord ascended up to heaven, His face was turned toward the west, in the same way in which He will come at the Resurrection. The disciples who were before Him, and looking at Him ascending, worshipped Him towards the East, and the angels said unto them: "This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come, in like manner, as ye have seen Him go into heaven." And the early commentators have added that on the first day the seven essences were created in silence, and afterwards the voice went forth, "Let there be light." The angels, who knew not that they had a Creator, when they heard the voice, concluded that if an effect followed it the Speaker must be their Creator, and the Creator of all. "And there was light," instantaneously. Then all of them worshipped towards that part from whence the light sprang forth, which was the East; and this is what Job the blessed says: "When I created the morning star, all My angels worshipped Me." [Syriac Version.]
CHAPTER II.
On the Worship of the Lord's Cross.
We worship Christ's humanity because of the Godhead in Him; so, through the Cross, we worship God our Saviour. The "Cross" is the name of Christ, being equivalent to our saying the "killed," the "worshipped,"[1] and does not rightly designate wood, silver, or brass. Now the great foundation of Christianity is the confession that through the Cross renewal and universal salvation were obtained for all, and that Cross which we use is the same sign of our Lord as is to appear in the heavens before His coming, as He Himself has foretold. When, therefore, we look upon this emblem of our salvation, we conceive as though we were beholding our Saviour outstretched upon it for the remission of our sins, and for the renewal of all creation. Hence we offer a fervent and eucharistic worship, not to the fashioned matter of the Cross; but to Him whom we figure as upon it, and above all to God, who gave His Son to be a Cross [i.e. crucified] for us, through whose crucifixion He wrought out renewal and redemption for us, and through Whom He gives to such as are worthy everlasting life in the kingdom of heaven. "For if, while we were yet enemies, we were reconciled unto God by His Son; how much more shall we be saved through His life."
By this sign the Apostles wrought miracles, and the laying on of hands for the Priesthood, and all the other Sacraments of the Church are perfected thereby. These things, handed down from the Apostles, and confirmed by all those who succeeded them, declare that "the preaching of the Cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God."
CHAPTER III.
Of the holy First Day of the Week, and of the Festivals commemorative of our Lord.
The observance of the First day of the Week is also the matter of an Apostolical Canon, it being the great day on which our Saviour rose from the dead, and by His resurrection made all created beings to rejoice by giving them, in His own Person, a most certain proof of the general resurrection and of everlasting life. For as the First-born of men arose on the first day of the week, so shall all the race of Adam arise on that same day,—a day which shall be the commencement of an endless world,—of that world which shall not begin with a beginning, but which is to appear. Surely it becomes us to hallow the day on which such great events transpired, and, seeing that at the resurrection all worldly labours shall cease, and all shall return to the worship of God, and be engaged in the contemplation of His unutterable mysteries; hence the Apostles ordained, that on the first day of the week Christians should suspend all worldly occupations, and engage in prayer to God, in reading the Holy Scriptures, and in meditating on the life of Christ. And they enjoined more especially the study of the Prophetical books, which are, as it were, the foundation and introduction to the truth of the life and actions of Christ, Who came to fulfil the prophecies and not to destroy; (for He who cometh to perfect that which was imperfect, though in some things he substituteth perfection for imperfection, how can such a one be deemed a looser or destroyer?) "Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify" that the Father hath sent Me. Hence the Apostles enjoined that the Prophets should be read first, and after these the Gospel which is their fulfilment and seal. And this ordinance we observe every Sunday in remembrance of the resurrection to come, when all shall be rewarded according to their works, that hereby we may be led to eschew evil and to do good.
In like manner, and with the same design, the Church celebrates year by year the life and actions of our blessed Lord, lest, from not being commemorated, those benefits which are given to us through the advent of Christ should be withheld from us, and should finally be lost to us in the darkness of error.
CHAPTER IV.
Of Friday.
This used to be called the sixth day until the sun set upon it at the crucifixion of our Saviour, and darkness prevailed over all creation on account of the temerity of the Jews; and hence it is called arobta [the setting of the sun]. Creation, we say, put on the garment of mourning and affliction because of the enormity of the first sin, and because of the sins of all, for which He died Who had committed no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth. The sun was hid from the heavens, the earth shook and quaked, the veil of the temple was rent, and the rocks were riven, and no carnivorous animals or birds of prey ate meat on that day, or went near to any carcasses, in reverence to the holy corpse of the Saviour which was outstretched upon the wood, as we understand from the comments of Mar Ephrem. Hence the Apostles made a Canon, that Christians should not eat meat on this day, neither on Wednesday, on which latter day the Jews took counsel together to kill the Saviour, and agreed upon the price of the innocent blood with Judas Iscariot. On this account Wednesday is included in the same Canon. And, in truth, Friday ought to be a day of mourning with all, because on it, for the transgression of the first Adam, the sentence of death was passed upon all our race, and we were driven from Paradise into a land of curses. On this same day the flood took place, in the time of Noah, and destroyed all mankind; and thereon also Satan warred with the First-Born of men, viz. on the last of the forty days, as he did on the day of the Passion.
CHAPTER V.
Of Fasting, Prayer, and Almsgiving.
The foundation of the virtues of true godliness with such as believe in the resurrection, and exercise themselves therein in hope of the world to come, consists of these three. Fasting, Prayer, and Mercy, wrought with the end enjoined in the Gospel, and not from any other motive. As one of our sages has said: "Fasting is superior to all passiveness, and Prayer superior to all other action; but Mercy is the being like God."
Now Fasting is of two kinds: outward, from food; and inward, from evil. It tends to induce the rich to show mercy to others, for by tasting the bitterness of hunger and thirst themselves, they are made to feel what the poor experience. It moreover tends to sanctify the senses, purify the thoughts, and to make us resemble the angels.
Prayer is not only the key of the Lord's treasury, but a spiritual converse, as one of the fathers has said: "My son, when thou art engaged in prayer, thou dost speak with God; and when thou readest the Scriptures, God speaketh with thee."
Mercy doth not only make us resemble God, Whom there is none like, but it is also a medium for the exercise of wisdom on the part of the followers of Christ, Who, through the needy, sends forward to heaven those things which we love and esteem, and declares that in them we shall have joy and exultation without end: "Lay not up to yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal; but lay up unto yourselves treasures in heaven, … for where your treasure is there will your heart be also." There is a passage in the life of Saint Thomas the Apostle, which beautifully illustrates this Scripture. Having undertaken to build a magnificent palace for the Emperor of India, and received vast sums for this purpose, which he distributed among the poor, when asked about it, he replied that he had built the palace in heaven: and the fact was confirmed by the testimony of a deceased brother of the Emperor, who was restored to life through the prayers of the Apostle. By the exercise of mercy men are made worthy of receiving Angels unawares; and to Cornelius it was said: "Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God." The Prophets and Apostles moreover testify that this is the only way by which the rich can attain unto God.
CHAPTER VI.
Of the Girdle.
The girding of Christians at the time of prayer, though it betokens a preparedness for service, and a ready appearance before the Lord, after the manner of those who stand in the presence of the kings of the earth; yet it is nevertheless the subject of a Divine command both in the Old and New Testaments. In the Old Testament the girdle was ordered to be worn by the Priests, the sons of Levi, with the other parts of their vestment; and in the New Testament we read: "Let your loins be girt about, and your lamps burning, and be like those servants waiting for their Lord's coming." The blessed John the Baptist had his loins girt about with a leathern girdle; and it is said of S. Paul in the Acts, that the Prophet Agabus took the girdle from off his waist, and girded himself therewith.
Now there is a threefold object in the use of the girdle: First, he who binds up his loins bears the sign of worship and ministry, and intimates that he is a worshipper and minister in the kingdom. Secondly, as it was enjoined by our Lord, it betokens a wakeful mind, pure intention, and the being in wait for Him, Who is to return from the feast, and to conduct all with Him thither. Thirdly, it is an emblem of death: "another shall gird thee, and lead thee where thou wouldest not." Those who set out on a journey generally gird up their loins; and so it becometh us mortals and wayfarers, whose days, in spite of ourselves, have been brought forward on the road which leadeth above, to make ready a viaticum which shall be useful to us in the other world, viz. a right theory of the orthodox faith, and the practice of good works. The use of the girdle teaches us these things.
CHAPTER VII.
Of the Resurrection, the Judgment to come, and Everlasting Life.
He who commenceth a work must have a design therein, and when this is attained he ceases working, and maketh an end of his work, otherwise his labour is vain and unprofitable. Now God, who is all-wise, did not create His creation in vain, and without a design; but, as we have already shown. He created it in consummate wisdom, and with an exalted purpose, to be the study of His rational creatures, and for the perfection of His Likeness in them. And when the time decreed in His wisdom shall arrive. He will bring this world to an end; for every beginning is the beginning of an end, and, contrarily, every end is the end of a beginning. On this subject a certain godly man has said: "When the tenth circle[2] shall be made up from among men, then shall the end be, and the cutting off of time shall come, and shall not fail." On that day the sun shall set and shall not rise again, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and all this world shall become a chaos of darkness, and all the motions of the elements shall cease. Then shall the sign of the Son of God, the shining Cross, appear in the heavens with power and great glory, accompanied with the awful sounds of the trumpets of angels. Thus shall Christ, the King of kings, appear like the lightning which cometh from the east, and shineth towards the west. His glorious appearance shall shake all the ends of the heavens, and all the foundations of the earth, and He shall then cry out with His life-giving voice: Let the resurrection and the renewal be. This is the last trumpet, at the sound of which the wind of revivification shall blow and enter into those who shall be alive, and shall divest them of their grossness, and suddenly, as in the twinkling of an eye, they shall be changed into the likeness of Angels. And it shall likewise enter into the dead, and these also shall rise up incorruptible. Then shall the righteous ascend up into the kingdom of heaven, and shall enter with their Lord into the chamber of the Bridegroom above, and with unspeakable joy shall exult in the visions and revelations which through His light shall shine in upon them. This is true happiness. But, as to the wicked, they shall remain upon the earth in darkness in which none can walk, and shall be consumed with the fire of remorse for those things which they have committed, and because they bartered everlasting bliss for temporal and deceptive enjoyments, and a real possession for the dung of earth. This is the true hell, whose fire is not quenched, and whose worm dieth not.
But as to those who are deceived, and who fancy that everlasting life consists of something corporeal, such as eating, and drinking, and marriage, things which appertain to mortals, our Saviour reproves such when He says: "In the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the Angels o God in heaven." Eating and drinking are profitable for the body, because by replacing the humours which go out thence they preserve the person from decay. And marriage, likewise, by raising up one for the one who dies, keeps up the species until the number decreed in the Everlasting Purpose is made up. Then as these two effects will cease, the causes also by which they existed must necessarily cease. Moreover all carnal blessings serve for the warding off of pain; but, as we have before observed, when man exceeds in the use of them they turn into evils. As, for example, meat and drink: one realizes the blessings of these after the pain experienced from hunger and thirst; but used inordinately and greedily, they bring pain and disease, if not death. And so with all the good things of this world; but with spiritual blessings it is not so, for the more one desires and partakes of these, he ever desireth more, as is seen in the case of those who seek after knowledge, science, and wisdom.
But, now, should any doubtingly inquire how bodies can rise again which have been destroyed, and which have mingled with the dust, which have been eaten of wild beasts, or consumed by fire, or drowned in water? we reply: Should a piece of iron be broken into impalpable powder, and be mixed with dust and sand, the hidden power of a magnet will at once separate the atoms from the dust and sand, and from whatever other heterogeneous bodies with which they may have been mixed; and if such virtue resides in the magnet, how much more possible is it for the power of the Creator, in His wisdom, to separate, bring together, and remodel the bodies of men at the resurrection!
Or, again: if a skilful and ingenious mechanic should form a figure from many materials, and should conceal each of these separate materials in a particular part of his house, no one knowing the place where they are hidden but himself; if asked to construct that figure, could he not at once, and without hesitation, bring forth every part from its separate hiding place, and put all the different parts together in their proper order without any mistake? How much more easy must a like work be to Him Who is the Only Wise, the Almighty! Our bodies, through corruption, return at last to the four elements of which they were composed; the skill whereby these parts were put together in our likeness is hidden with God, and when it pleaseth Him, He can restore each part to its place, in its separate shape and quantity, so as to make it conformable to that figure, the lineaments of which are hidden with Him. Then shall every human body arise, just as it was, "in the stature of the fulness of Christ." As to the final rewards and punishments, these shall be distributed according to the deserts of each, in perfect justice: "the wicked shall go away into everlasting punishment; but the righteous into life eternal."
"Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the Church by Christ Jesus, throughout all ages, world without end. Amen."
Here endeth, by the help of God, the book called Marghianeetha, on the truth of Christianity, written by the undeserving Abd Yeshua, Metropolitan of Nisibis and Armenia. To our God be glory and thanksgiving for ever. Amen.
- ↑ The Syriac sleewa, signifies literally the "crucified," and is in the same verbal passive form as kteela, zgheedha, "killed," "worshipped," adduced by the author in the text.
- ↑ There is a reference here to the nine orders of Angels, who are said to minister in the Church above. See Part III., Chapter viii.
This useful book was written in the month of September, in the year of Alexander 1609, in the blessed city of Khlât, in the Church of the blessed Nestorians; and to God be praise, honour, thanks, and worship, for ever. Amen.
Written by the frail hands of the author for the benefit of his own soul, and for the profit of all who may possess it. May the Lord endue all such with wisdom. Amen.