The Nestorians and their Rituals/Volume 2/Chapter 4
CHAPTER IV.
PLAN OF THE FOLLOWING INQUIRY INTO THE TENETS OF THE NESTORIANS.
When it was affirmed, in the opening of this volume, that in order to arrive at a correct knowledge and estimate of Nestorianism, it was but just that its followers should be allowed to speak in self-defence, the idea that such a result was attainable through the testimony of the Nestorians of the present day, never presented itself to my mind. Enough has already been said to convince the reader, that such an attempt would be preposterous and vain; inasmuch as among the Nestorians now existing few know the particular points on which they differ from other Christians, and fewer still are to be found, who can give a reason for the faith which they profess. The prey of adverse circumstances, and subjected to wicked and unchristian rulers, they owe their existence as a community professing Christianity through centuries of ever-increasing ignorance, not to the force of conviction arising out of a well-grounded knowledge of the faith as handed down to them by tradition; but, under God, to the power of human prejudice, and to the influence of those ceremonial and ritual observances, whereby they continued to celebrate the most glorious mysteries, and to practise the outward show, at least, of the most exalted virtues of the Christian religion. That these externals, as they are often disparagingly called, when viewed in the abstract, or observed apart from the truths which they represent, are nothing more than "the form of godliness," and if relied upon for justification at the last would be little better than a refuge of lies, we readily admit; yet it is equally indisputable that they tend to keep up a remembrance of, and a reverence for, the substance which they typify, and like a husk or shell do at least indicate the hidden kernel, if they do not preserve it from rottenness and decay.
Had the Christian faith as professed by the Nestorians been devoid of the outward symbolism of solemn rites, stated and ever-recurring commemorations, appointed seasons of public humiliation and religious festivity, a recognized priesthood consecrated to the especial service of the altar with a solemnity of inauguration calculated to affect and to impress the minds of the people with a due regard for their sacerdotal functions, and in the discharge of their sacred office keeping up a constant remembrance of the claims of God upon the obedience and worship of His intelligent creatures,—in all probability they would have mixed with the infidels among whom they dwelt, and have long ceased to exist as a body of professing Christians. The truth of these remarks was strikingly illustrated and confirmed by the conduct of many Nestorian children taken to Jezeerah by the Coords after the massacre of 1843. On being released from slavery many of these fell under my care at Mosul, and on inquiry I found that every possible attempt both by threats and promises had been made, on the part of their barbarous masters to induce them to embrace Islamism. With some few the Mohammedans declared that they had succeeded, and on this plea strove to detain them in bondage; but the little creatures protested that they had never ceased to sign themselves with the sign of the cross, and had obstinately refused to eat flesh on Friday. Whilst they continued to observe these duties strictly, (and, poor things! many of them knew little more,) they felt persuaded that they had not abjured the faith of their fathers.
The ignorance, therefore, general among the Nestorians, of the essentials of their religion, precludes the propriety of adducing their testimony in an inquiry like the present. With regard, however, to traditional opinions and observances, so far as their belief and practice are conformable to the declared way of their learned and devout predecessors, these shall be adduced as illustrative and confirmatory, as also in what respects they appear therein to have swerved from the faith and customs of their ancestors.
The task undertaken in the present dissertation would have been rendered much easier had the Nestorians possessed any recognized formula of their creed; but nothing of this kind exists among them. The nearest approach to a confession of faith is the treatise of Mar Abd Yeshua, a translation of which is given in Appendix B; but this is not only defective on many important points respecting which certain information is desirable; but it does not possess, as far as I know, that common consent of the Nestorians requisite to entitle it to be considered a Symbol of the doctrines held by their community. As the production of an eminent ecclesiastic, filling an exalted office in their Church, it is doubtless held in high esteem; but unsupported by older authority, and by the concurrent testimony of their standard rituals, its evidence is liable to be disregarded. And the same may be affirmed of the private opinions of any other individual writer, however highly renowned for learning and piety he may chance to be.
But the want of any standard confession of faith among the Nestorians, is amply supplied by the voluminous matter contained in their Church rituals, and, so great is their reverence for these compositions, that virtually, if not theoretically, no appeal is allowed from them to any higher authority. Having already given a list of these, it is proposed to quote therefrom such extracts as may bear upon the different points of Christian faith and practice; and as the present work is undertaken chiefly with a view to stir up the Church of England to labour for the reformation and restoration of this long neglected community, I shall take her Articles for the principal heads of inquiry, and arrange under each those passages from the recognized authorities of the Nestorians which shall serve either to show their agreement with, or their dissent from, the doctrines as set forth in those Articles. And in order to render this essay more satisfactory, a series of remarks shall be added to each chapter, wherein it shall be attempted, when seemingly called for, to reconcile conflicting statements, to illustrate and confirm by existing tradition whatever appears doubtful, and to subjoin such explanations of the text as may tend to convey a full and perfect knowledge of the Nestorian creed. And as the quotations have been translated in all faithfulness, so in their selection no reserve has been practised; but the whole done to the best of the author's ability, and as he hopes may redound to the Glory of God, and meet with the approbation of His Church.