established a Church, or Society, of which He was the Ruler and Head, and
with which He promised to be, till the end of the world. They believe,
that, during the forty days in which He remained upon earth, after His
resurrection, “speaking” to His disciples “of the things pertaining to the
kingdom of God,” He gave them such directions for the government and
management of this Society, or Church, as were necessary; which
directions, they implicitly followed: and that, from their subsequent
practice, these directions of the Savior, whatever they may have been, are
to be ascertained.
“That it was the design of our blessed Redeemer to continue a ministry in
the Church, after His ascension, is a truth, for which we ask no better
proof, than that furnished by the narratives of the Evangelists, and the
practice of the Apostles. If, then, a ministry, divinely authorized, was
to exist, it is equally evident, that it would assume some definite form.
It would consist, either of a single grade of office, in which every
person ordained would have an equal share in its functions and
prerogatives; or, of two, three, or more grades, distinguished from each
other by degrees of authority and peculiarities of duty.” There must,
also, exist, _somewhere_, the power of transmitting the ministry, by
ordination. Among those, who suppose there is but one grade of office,
this power is lodged in every minister. By Episcopalians, the power is
confined to the highest order of the ministry,—the Bishops. It is evident,
that the Savior could not have established both these different modes; and
therefore both cannot possibly be correct. “To suppose, that He, who is
the Fountain of all wisdom, could have been the Author of such inevitable
disorder,—a kind of disorder which must ever keep the axe at the root of
that _unity_ for which He prayed,—is not only an absurdity, but an opinion
equally repudiated by all parties.” “It is manifest,” therefore, “that
whatever may prove itself to be THE form of ministry, established and
authorized by Jesus Christ, every other must be altogether void of such
authority, and based simply on human appointment.”
That this Church, or Society, might endure, it must be provided with a
well-arranged organization, or form of government, and consist of officers
and members. No society can exist, without this; and the powers and duties
of the officers should be well defined, and so adjusted, as to promote, in
the best manner, the permanent good of the society. That this Society
might endure forever, some provision must be made for the renewal of its
officers, so that, when any were taken away, by death, their places might
be supplied with suitable successors. That the Savior made all necessary
provision for these purposes, there can be no doubt; and that the
organization which He directed His Apostles to establish, was Episcopal,
is easily susceptible of proof.
Throughout the Bible, different orders in the ministry are recognized or
referred to. Under the Jewish dispensation, (which, be it remembered, was
established by God Himself,) there were the three orders of High Priest,
Priests, and Levites. When the Savior was upon earth, He was the visible
head of the Church,—the “Bishop and Shepherd of our souls,”—and the
Apostles and seventy Disciples were the other two orders. After his
ascension, the Apostles became the visible heads of the Church, the lower
orders being Bishops, (called also Priests or Presbyters, and Elders,) and
Deacons. When the Apostles were called hence, their successors did not
assume the name or title of Apostle, but took that of Bishop, which
thenceforth was applied exclusively to the highest order of the ministry,
the other two orders being the Presbyters (Priests or Elders) and Deacons.
Thus it has continued to the present day.
It is worthy of remark, that “early writers have been careful to record
the ecclesiastical genealogy or succession of the Bishops, in several of
the principal Churches. Thus, we have catalogues of the Bishops of
Jerusalem, Antioch, Rome, &c.; though it does not appear that the
Presbyters and Deacons of those Churches were honored with any similar
notice.” In like manner, catalogues of temporal Rulers are preserved, when
the names of officers subordinate to them are suffered to pass into
oblivion. It is easy to trace back the line of Bishops, by name, from our
own day, up to the Apostles themselves.
There is no ancient writer on ecclesiastical matters, who does not speak
of the division of the ministry into different and distinct Orders, and of
certain individuals as Bishops of particular Churches; or who mentions, as
existing at the same time, and in the same Churches, any other persons by
the same name of Bishops.
But, it is to be observed, that it is not only necessary that a Church
should preserve the true Order in the Ministry, but also that it retain
the true faith. For a true faith and true Order are both necessary to
constitute a Church. All the heretical sects of the ancient Church had the
Apostolic Ministry; but, when they departed from the true faith, they were
excluded from the communion of the Church. “The Arians, the Donatists, the
Novatians, &c. &c., were all Episcopal in their Ministry, and in this
respect differed in nothing from the Orthodox Catholic Church. Their grand
error lay in the want of that union of Order _and_ Faith, which are
essential to the being of a Church.”
An external commission, conveyed by Episcopal consecration or ordination,
is considered necessary to constitute a lawful ministry; and it is
therefore declared, by the Church, that “no man shall be accounted or
taken to be a lawful Bishop, Priest, or Deacon, in this Church, or
suffered to execute any of said functions,” unless he has “had Episcopal
consecration or ordination;” and the power of ordaining, or setting apart
to the ministry, and of laying on hands upon others, is vested in the
Bishops.
The _ministry_ is of Divine appointment, and consists of three orders,
only,—Bishop, Priest, and Deacon. The _government_ is of human regulation,
and may be modified as circumstances require. Other officers may be
appointed, and the manner in which ministers are invested with their
jurisdiction may be varied. To use the language of the Episcopal Church in
the United States, in the Preface to her Book of Common Prayer, “It is a
most invaluable part of that blessed liberty, wherewith Christ hath made
us free, that, in His worship, different forms and usages may, without
offence, be allowed, provided the substance of the faith be kept entire;
and that, in every Church, what cannot be clearly determined to belong to
Doctrine, must be referred to Discipline; and therefore, by common consent
and authority, may be altered, abridged, enlarged, amended, or otherwise
disposed of, as may seem most convenient for the edification of the
people, ‘according to the various exigencies of times and occasions.’ ...
The particular Forms of Divine Worship, and the Rites and Ceremonies
appointed to be used therein, being things in their own nature indifferent
and alterable, and so acknowledged, it is but reasonable, that, upon
weighty and important considerations, according to the various exigencies
of times and occasions, such changes and alterations should be made
therein, as to those, who are in places of authority should, from time to
time, seem either necessary or expedient.”
In the Church of England, there are Archbishops, Deans, and various other
officers and titles of office; but these are of local authority, and do
not interfere with the three Divinely-appointed orders. To use the
language of Hooker, “I may securely, therefore, conclude, that there are,
at this day, in the Church of England, no other than the same degrees of
ecclesiastical orders, namely, Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, which had
their beginning from Christ and His blessed Apostles themselves. As for
Deans, Prebendaries, Parsons, Vicars, Curates, Archdeacons, and such like
names, being not found in the Scriptures, we have been thereby, through
some men’s errors, thought to allow ecclesiastical degrees not known nor
ever heard of in the better ages of former times. All these are in truth
but titles of office,” admitted “as the state of the Church doth need,
degrees of order still remaining the same as they were from the
beginning.”
Two hundred years ago, Hooker gave the following challenge, which has
never yet been accepted:—“We require you to find but one Church upon the
face of the whole earth that hath not been ordered by Episcopal regiment
since the time that the blessed Apostles were here conversant.” And
though, says Bishop Doane, departures from it, since the time of which he
spoke, have been but too frequent and too great, “Episcopal regiment” is
still maintained as Christ’s ordinance, for the perpetuation and
government of his Church, and is received as such by eleven twelfths of
the whole Christian world. For a period of fifteen hundred years after the
Apostolic age, ordination by Presbyters was totally unknown, except in a
few crooked cases, where the attempt was made, and followed by instant
condemnation from the Church, and the declaration that they were utterly
null and void. There was no ministry in existence, before the era of the
Reformation, but that which had come down direct from the Apostles, that
is, the Episcopal. This is admitted by nearly all the opponents of
Episcopacy.
The Episcopal Church in the United States, agrees with that of England, in
doctrine, discipline, and worship, with some few unessential variations.
Their Ritual, or Form of Worship, is the same, except that some few parts
have been omitted for the sake of shortening the service, or for other
reasons. Changes became necessary in the prayers for Rulers, in
consequence of the independence of the United States.
The different Episcopal parishes in each of the United States, (except in
some of the newly-settled parts of the Country, where two or more States
are united for this purpose,) are connected by a Constitution, which
provides for a convention of the clergy and lay delegates from each parish
in the State or Diocese. This Convention is held annually, and regulates
the local concerns of its own Diocese, the Bishop of which, is the
President of the Convention. The Conventions of the different Dioceses
elect Deputies to a General Convention, which is held once in three years.
Each Diocese may elect four Clergymen and four Laymen, as delegates, who,
when assembled in General Convention, form what is called the “House of
Clerical and Lay Deputies,” each Order from a Diocese having one vote, and
the concurrence of both being necessary to every act of the Convention.
The Bishops form a separate House, with a right to originate measures for
the concurrence of the House of Clerical and Lay Deputies, each House
having a negative upon the other, as in the Congress of the United States.
The whole Church is governed by Canons, framed by the General Convention.
These Canons regulate the mode of elections of Bishops, declare the age
and qualifications necessary for obtaining the orders of Deacon or Priest,
the studies to be previously pursued, the examinations which each
candidate is to undergo, and all other matters of permanent legislation.
Deacon’s orders cannot be conferred on any person under the age of
twenty-one, nor those of Priest before that of twenty-four. A Bishop must
be at least thirty years of age. Prejudices have prevailed against the
Episcopal Church, and probably still exist in the minds of some persons,
from an impression, that Episcopacy is not congenial with a republican
form of government, and the civil institutions of our Country. But, that
this is an erroneous opinion, will be evident, to any one who will
carefully and impartially examine the subject. It will he seen, from what
has been stated above, that its Constitution is founded on the
representative principle, and is strikingly analogous to the form of
government of the United States. “In the _permanent_ official stations of
the Bishops and Clergy in her legislative bodies, our own Church,” says
Bishop Hobart, “resembles all other religious communities, whose clergy
also are permanent legislators. But, in some respects, she is more
conformed than they are to the organization of our civil governments. Of
these, it is a characteristic, that legislative power is divided between
two branches. And it is a peculiar character of our own Church, that her
legislative power is thus divided. Again, a single responsible Executive
characterizes our civil constitutions. The same feature marks our own
Church, in the single Episcopal Executive in each Diocese, chosen, in the
first instance, by the Clergy and representatives of the Laity. Nor are
these the only points in which the Bishop of our Church may feel pleasure
in asserting the free and republican constitution of our government; for,
in our ecclesiastical judicatories, the representatives of the laity
possess strict coordinate authority,—the power of voting as a separate
body, and of annulling, by a majority of votes, the acts of the Bishops
and Clergy.”
The doctrines of the Episcopal Church are contained in the Thirty-nine
Articles of Religion, subjoined to this notice. See Book of Homilies, the
Canons of the Church, Archbishop Potter’s Discourse on Church Government,
Hooker’s Ecclesiastical Polity, Daubeny’s Guide to the Church, Burton’s
Early English Church, the Church Dictionaries of Rev. Dr Hook and Rev. Mr.
Staunton, Bishop Onderdonk’s Episcopacy Examined and Reexamined, and other
similar works.
Historical Notice Of The Church In The United States.
Though the greater proportion of the early emigrants to this Country were
opposed to the form of religious worship established in the Mother
Country, some of them were devoted adherents of that establishment, and
Episcopal churches existed, of course, in several of the Colonies, at an
early period, although, from the opposition made to them by the other
emigrants, and from other causes, the number was not so considerable as
might have been expected under different circumstances. At the
commencement of the Revolutionary War, there were not more than eighty
parochial clergymen North and East of Maryland; and these, with the
exception of those in the towns of Boston and Newport, and the cities of
New York and Philadelphia, derived the principal part of their support
from England, through the “Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in
Foreign Parts,” an old and venerable Institution, yet in existence, and
still zealously engaged in spreading the Gospel to the utmost parts of the
earth. In Maryland and Virginia, the members of the Church were much more
numerous, than in the other parts of the Country, and the clergy were
supported by a legal establishment.
The distance of this from the Mother Country, and the consequent
separation of the members of the Church from their parent stock, which
rendered them dependent for the ministry upon emigrations from England, or
obliged them to send candidates to that Country, for Holy Orders, operated
as a serious obstacle to the increase of the Church here. All the clergy
of this Country were attached to the diocese of the Bishop of London, who
thus became the only bond of union between them; but his authority could
not be effectually exerted, at such a distance, in those cases where it
was most needed; and, for these and other reasons, several efforts were
made by the clergy to obtain an American Episcopate. But the jealousy with
which such a measure was regarded by other denominations, and the great
opposition with which it consequently met, prevented the accomplishment of
the design. When, however, the tie, which had thus bound the members of
the Church together in one communion, had been severed, by the
independence of the United States, it was necessary that some new bond of
union should be adopted; and renewed efforts were made to procure an
Episcopate.
The clergy of the Church in Connecticut, at a meeting held in March, 1783,
elected the Rev. Samuel Seabury, D. D., their Bishop, and sent him to
England, with an application to the Archbishop of Canterbury for his
consecration to that holy office. The English Bishops were unable to
consecrate him, till an Act of Parliament, authorizing them so to do,
could be passed; and he then made application to the Bishops of the Church
in Scotland, who readily assented to the request, and he was consecrated
by them, in Aberdeen, on the 14th of November, 1784. The Prelates, who
were thus the instruments of first communicating the Episcopate to this
Country, were, the Right Reverend Robert Kilgour, D. D., Bishop of
Aberdeen, the Right Reverend Arthur Petrie, D. D., Bishop of Ross and
Moray, and the Right Reverend John Skinner, D. D., Coadjutor Bishop of
Aberdeen. Bishop Seabury returned to this Country, immediately after his
consecration, and commenced his Episcopal duties without delay.
A few clergymen of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, having held a
meeting at Brunswick, N. J., on the 13th and 14th of May, 1784, for the
purpose of consulting in what way to renew a Society for the support of
widows and children of deceased clergymen, determined to procure a larger
meeting on the 5th of the ensuing October, not only for the purpose of
completing the object for which they had then assembled, but also to
confer and agree on some general principles of a union of the Church
throughout the States. At this latter meeting, a plan of ecclesiastical
union was agreed upon, with great unanimity; and a recommendation to the
several States, to send delegates to a general meeting, at Philadelphia,
in September, 1785, was adopted.
At the meeting, in Philadelphia, in September and October, 1785, there
were present, deputies from seven of the thirteen States. This Convention
framed an Ecclesiastical Constitution, recommended sundry alterations in
the Book of Common Prayer, to adapt it to the local circumstances of the
Country, now severed from the parent State, and also took some measures
towards procuring the Episcopate from England. An Address was forwarded to
the English Bishops, through his Excellency John Adams, then Minister to
England, and afterwards President of the United States who zealously used
his influence to promote the views of the Convention.
Another Convention was held in Philadelphia, in June, 1786, at which, a
Letter was read, from the Archbishops and Bishops of England, in answer to
the Address forwarded from the preceding Convention; and another Address
to the same Right Reverend Prelates, was adopted, to accompany the
Ecclesiastical Constitution now finally agreed upon. This Convention then
adjourned, to meet again whenever answers should be received from England.
The next meeting was held at Wilmington, in Delaware, in October, 1786, at
which, Letters from the English Prelates were read, and also an Act of
Parliament, authorizing the consecration of Bishops for foreign places.
Sundry further amendments and modifications of the Ecclesiastical
Constitution, and Book of Common Prayer, were agreed upon, another Address
to the English Prelates was adopted, and testimonials signed for three
clergymen, who had been elected Bishops by their respective Dioceses. Two
of these clergymen proceeded to England, in the course of the next month;
and, after some further delays, all difficulties were finally removed, and
the Rev. William White, D. D., of Philadelphia, and the Rev. Samuel
Provoost, D. D., of New York, having been elected to the Bishoprics of
Pennsylvania and New York, were consecrated to their high and holy office,
on the fourth of February, A. D. 1787, in the chapel of the Archiepiscopal
palace at Lambeth, by the Most Reverend John Moore, D. D., Archbishop of
Canterbury, assisted by the Most Reverend William Markham, D. D.,
Archbishop of York, the Right Reverend Charles Moss, D. D., Bishop of Bath
and Wells, and the Right Reverend Charles Hinchliff, D. D., Bishop of
Peterborough. The newly-consecrated Bishops returned to America, April 7,
1787, and soon after, began the exercise of their Episcopal functions in
their respective dioceses.
Of these three original Bishops of the Church, Bishop Seabury discharged
his Episcopal duties between nine and ten years, and died, February 25,
1796. Bishop White continued to be as a patriarch of the Church for many
years, his life having been prolonged to the age of 88, and the discharge
of his Episcopal functions having continued forty-nine years. He died,
July 17, 1836. Bishop Provoost died, September 6, 1815, in the
twenty-ninth year of his Episcopate.
The first triennial Convention of the Church was held in July and August,
1789, and the sessions of this body continue to be regularly held every
three years. Rev. James Madison, D. D., was consecrated Bishop of
Virginia, by the Archbishop of Canterbury, September 19, 1790, and died
March 6, 1812. Rev. Thomas John Claggett, D. D., of Maryland, was the
first Bishop consecrated in the United States, having been elevated to
that holy Order by the Right Reverend Bishops Provoost, Seabury, White,
and Madison, in New York, September 17, 1792; since which time,
thirty-three Bishops have been consecrated, making the whole number,
thirty-eight, of whom twenty are now living. For the succession of
Bishops, from the first establishment of the Church, to the present day,
see _Statistics_.
The last General Convention was held in New York, in October, 1841, at
which time, there were present, twenty-one Bishops, and 79 clerical and 57
lay members. The Bishops reported the consecration of 93 churches, the
ordination of 355 clergymen, and the confirmation of 14,767 persons, in
the years 1838 to 1841. The whole number of clergymen, at the present
time, (1842,) is 1114. Other facts of interest, in relation to the Church
in this Country, will be found among the Statistics of this volume; and
for more full information, the reader is referred to “Swords’s Pocket
Almanack, Churchman’s Register, and Ecclesiastical Calendar,” a valuable
little manual, published annually, and to the “Churchman’s Almanack,” also
published annually; and for historical notices, reference may be made to
Bishop White’s “Memoirs of the Protestant Episcopal Church,” Journals of
the General, and State Conventions, Hawks’s Ecclesiastical History of
different States, and other similar works.
Articles Of Religion.
_As established by the Bishops, the Clergy, and Laity of the
Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, in
Convention, on the twelfth Day of September, in the Year of our
Lord, one thousand eight hundred and one._
“ARTICLE I. _Of Faith in the Holy Trinity._—There is but one living and
true God, everlasting, without body, parts, or passions; of infinite
power, wisdom, and goodness; the Maker and Preserver of all things, both
visible and invisible. And in unity of this Godhead there be three
persons, of one substance, power, and eternity; the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Ghost.
“ART. II. _Of the Word, or Son of God, which was made very Man._—The Son,
which is the Word of the Father, begotten from everlasting of the Father,
the very and eternal God, of one substance with the Father, took man’s
nature in the womb of the blessed Virgin, of her substance: so that two
whole and perfect natures, that is to say, the Godhead and Manhood, were
joined together in one person, never to be divided; whereof is one Christ,
very God, and very Man; who truly suffered, was crucified, dead, and
buried, to reconcile His Father to us, and to be a sacrifice, not only for
original guilt, but also for actual sins of men.
“ART. III. _Of the going down of Christ into Hell._—As Christ died for us,
and was buried, so also is it to be believed, that He went down into hell.
“ART. IV. _Of the Resurrection of Christ._—Christ did truly rise again
from death, and took again His body, with flesh, bones, and all things
appertaining to the perfection of man’s nature, wherewith He ascended into
heaven, and there sitteth, until He return to judge all men at the last
day.