That report, after referring to the commission in 1853, in response to the Memorial of Dr. Muhlenberg, and the action taken by the bishops in council in 1880, proceeded to make the following Declaration "to all whom it may concern, and especially to our fellow-Christians of the different communions in our land who, in their several spheres, have contended for the religion of Christ: "1. Our earnest desire that the Saviour's prayer that we all may be one may, in its deepest and truest sense, be speedily fulfilled; "2. That we believe that all who have been duly baptized with water in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, are members of the Holy Catholic Church; "3. That in all things of human ordering or human choice relating to modes of worship and discipline, or to traditional customs, this church is ready, in the spirit of love and humility, to forego all preferences of her own; "4. That this church does not seek to absorb other communions, but rather, coöperating with them on the basis of a common faith and order, to discountenance schism, to heal the wounds of the body of Christ, and to promote the charity which is the chief of Christian graces and the visible manifestation of Christ to the world. "But furthermore, we do hereby affirm that the Christian unity now so earnestly desired by the memorialists can be restored only by the return of all Christian communions to the principles of unity exemplified by the undivided Catholic Church during the first ages of its existence, which principles we believe to be the substantial deposit of Christian faith and order committed by Christ and his apostles to the church unto the end of the world, and therefore incapable of compromise or surrender by those who have been ordained to be its stewards and trustees for the common and equal benefit of all men. THE QUADRILATERAL. 559 "As inherent parts of this sacred deposit, and therefore as essential to the restoration of unity among the divided branches of Christendom, we account the following, to wit: "I. The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, as the revealed Word of God; "II. The Nicene Creed, as the sufficient statement of the Christian faith; "III. The two sacraments, baptism and the Supper of the Lord, ministered with unfailing use of Christ's words of institution, and of the elements ordained by him; "IV. The historic episcopate, locally adapted in the methods of its administration to the varying needs of the nations and peoples called of God into the unity of his church. "Furthermore, deeply grieved by the sad divisions. which afflict the Christian church in our own land, we hereby declare our desire and readiness, so soon as there shall be any authorized response to this Declaration, to enter into brotherly conference with all or any Christian bodies seeking the restoration of the organic unity of the church, with a view to the earnest study of the conditions under which so priceless a blessing might happily be brought to pass." This report was adopted and communicated to the House of Deputies, who subsequently asked again for the appointment of a joint commission on the subject. This action was finally concurred in, and it was made the province of the commission to communicate to the organized Christian bodies of the country the Declaration set forth by the House of Bishops, and to hold themselves ready to enter into brotherly conference with all or any such bodies seeking the restoration of the organic unity of the church. One remarkable effect of this Declaration was its virtual adoption and promulgation by the Lambeth Conference of 1888. By the bishops of the whole Anglican commun ion then assembled the articles here promulgated were amended to read as follows: "(a) The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, as containing all things necessary to salvation,' and as being the rule and ultimate standard of faith; "(b) The Apostles' Creed, as the baptismal symbol; and the Nicene Creed, as the sufficient statement of the Christian faith; "(c) The two sacraments ordained by Christ himself, baptism and the Supper of the Lord, ministered with unfailing use of Christ's words of institution, and of the elements ordained by him; "(d) The historic episcopate, locally adapted in the methods of its administration to the varying needs of the nations and peoples called of God into the unity of his church." As thus amended the articles were accepted and adopted by the House of Deputies at the General Convention of 1892. With this action of the General Convention we may fitly close the history of the Protestant Episcopal Church, whose course we have now traced from its sources in the colonial churches to the present time. In the consciousness of its fuller life that church seeks to secure a life ampler still for the church of Christ in America, and first of any Christian body since the Reformation has put forth a proffer of Christian unity. If the church shall be able to secure constitutional provision for carrying into effect the principles of the Declaration Concerning Unity, it will have gone far and done much toward securing a united church in the United States, and will have illustrated its steadfast adhesion to the honored legend which all praise and so few practice: IN NECESSARIIS UNITAS, IN NON NECESSARIIS LIBERTAS, IN OMNIBUS CARITAS. APPENDIX. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF PRINCIPAL EVENTS. 1497-98. First voyages of the Cabots. 1579. First colonial charter to Sir Humphrey Gilbert. 1691. Charter obtained for William and Mary College. 1735-36. Visit to America of the Wesleys and of Whitefield. 1783. Church Convention at Annapolis, Md. 1784. Preliminary meeting of clergy at New Brunswick, N. J. 1784. Consecration of Bishop Seabury. 1784. Six fundamental constitutional principles set forth. 1785. First ordination in America (Rev. Philo Shelton). 1785. First General Convention, in Philadelphia. 1785. The Proposed Book set forth. 1786. General ecclesiastical constitution approved. 1787. Consecration of Bishops White and Provoost. 1789. Constitution, canons, and Prayer-book adopted. 1790. Consecration of Bishop Madison. 1792. First consecration of a bishop in America (Dr. Claggett). 1801. The Articles of Religion established. 1821. The General Theological Seminary founded. 1829. Mission to Greece established. 1835. The Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society founded. 1835. First missionaries go to China. 1835. First domestic missionary bishops elected. 1835-36. Missionaries go to Africa. 1845. Sisterhoods first started. 1853. The Memorial Movement. 1859. First missionaries go to Japan. 1859-92. Revision of the Hymnal. 1861-65. Civil War and reunion. 1873. First bishop for the Indians consecrated. 1874. First Church Congress held. 1886. Declaration of House of Bishops on Christian Unity. 1892. Committee on Revision of Constitution appointed. APPENDIX A. CONCORDAT OF BISHOP SEABURY AND THE NONJURING SCOTCH PRELATES, HIS CONSECRATORS, NOVEMBER 15, 1784. In the name of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, one God, Blessed for ever. Amen. pro The wise and gracious providence of this merciful God having put it into the hearts of the Christians of the Episcopal persuasion in Connecticut, in North America, to desire that the blessings of a free, valid, and purely ecclesiastical Episcopacy might be communicated to them, and a Church regularly formed in that part of the western world upon the most ancient and primitive model; and application having been made for this purpose, by the Reverend Dr. Samuel Seabury, Presbyter in Connecticut, to the Right Reverend the Bishops of the Church in Scotland; the said Bishops, having taken this posal into their serious consideration, most heartily concurred to promote and encourage the same, as far as lay in their power; and accordingly began the pious and good work recommended to them, by complying with the request of the clergy in Connecticut, and advancing the said Dr. Samuel Seabury to the high order of the Episcopate; at the same time earnestly praying that this work of the Lord, thus happily begun, might prosper in his hands, till it should please the great and glorious Head of the Church to increase the number of Bishops in America, and send forth more such labourers into that part of His harvest. Animated with this pious hope, and earnestly desirous to establish a bond of peace and holy communion between the two Churches, the Bishops of the Church in Scotland, whose names are underwritten, having had full and free conference with Bishop Seabury, after his consecration and advancement as aforesaid, agreed with him on the following Articles, which are to serve as a Concordate, or bond of union, between the Catholic remainder of the ancient Church of Scotland and the now rising Church in the State of Connecticut. ARTICLE I. They agree in thankfully receiving and humbly and heartily embracing the whole doctrine of the Gospel, as revealed and set forth in the holy Scriptures; and it is their earnest and united desire to maintain the analogy of the common faith once delivered to the saints, and happily preserved in the Church of Christ, through His divine power and protection, who promised that the gates of hell should never prevail against it. ARTICLE II. They agree in believing this Church to be the mystical Body of Christ, of which He alone is the Head and supreme Governor, and that under Him the chief ministers or managers of the affairs of this spiritual society are those called Bishops, whose exercise of their sacred office being independent of all lay powers, it follows, of consequence, that their spiritual authority and jurisdiction cannot be affected by any lay deprivation. |