Religious Faiths, III: The Doctrines and Claims of the Episcopal Church

RELIGIOUS FAITHS.

III.

THE DOCTRINE AND CLAIMS OF THE EPISCOPAL

CHURCH.

BY THE REV. J. B. HALSEY.

, containing the following request: "We especially desire that a statement of the Episcopal doctrine should be made to our readers, together with a description of your system of Church government."

This paper is an answer to that invitation. The answer must attempt to say a good deal in a few pages. The Episcopal Church contains all sorts and conditions of men who differ on many matters of opinion and who yet unite in a definite faith and a common worship. What they believe they believe positively and with conviction. It follows that there are opposite things which they just as positively do not believe. In this brief paper it may happen that the definite belief must be stated positively, but never it is hoped uncharitably, and never without pointing to the evidence. Again a positive belief always points a contrast, sometimes a sharp one. The writer wishes to answer a direct request in a frank and direct way. He thanks the editors for their courtesy, and he hopes that this reply may be marked by the spirit of charity and earnest good will which has signally marked the invitation.

The standard dictionaries define the word "Churchman"

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as meaning specifically an Episcopalian. In this article "Churchman" and "Episcopalian" will mean the same thing.

There are two theories in the world about a "church." One that it is a human organization with a divine mission; the other that it is a divine organization with a human mission. The first begins on earth and reaches out for heaventhe second is born in heaven and descends to earth. Under the first conception anybody can found a church, or leave a church that does not suit him and found another. Under the second conception God alone can found the Church, and to separate from that Church is called the sin of schism. The human organization has been the prevailing idea of Protestant Christianity, and countless sects and separations have been the result. The legal title of the Episcopal Church is "The Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America," yet she rejects the Protestant conception of a church. She believes the Church is a divine institution — not merely a philosophy, or a theory, but an institution — that it has a body as well as a soul, and that this body is "born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" (St. John, I: 13).

There are three great branches of the Christian Church in the world today holding this latter theory: (i) the Greek Church, or the "Holy Orthodox Apostolic Oriental Church," as she styles herself, embracing the Greek, Russian and other Slavonic nationalities; (2) the Roman Catholic Church or the "Holy, Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman Church," as her full title is; and (3) the Anglican Church (to which the Episcopal Church belongs), which claims to be a branch of the One, Holy Catholic (i. e. Universal) and Apostolic Church founded by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. This Anglican Church also claims to be peculiarly the Church for English speaking people. It is a large claim and ought not to be put forth without weighty credentials. These will be examined almost immediately in a glance at Church history.

But note first that the Lord Jesus Christ did found a Church. He promised that the gates of hell should not prevail against it (St. Matt. XVI: 18). This looks like a promise of perpetuity. He appointed a ministry with the

power of self-perpetuation (St. John XX: 21. Acts I: 21-26. 2 Tim. II: 2). This body, the Church, received the breath of life on the feast of Pentecost and began at once to gather spiritual children into the Christian family (Acts II). "They continued steadfastly in the Apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread ?kn6. the. prayers'^ (Acts II: 41, 42, Revised Version). This infant Church seems to be a community, with a definite /a;M to teach, and with some, very likely simple, sacraments dsid forms of worship.

Moreover this Church was not founded on the Bible! The Church had thousands of converts who had learned and accepted the Christian creed long before a single line of the New Testament was written. When the gospels and epistles were written they pre-supposed considerable previous knowledge on the part of their readers. The Church is not founded on the Bible. She produced the Bible. The two go together and condition each other. "The function of the Church is to teach; the function of the Bible is to prove, to verify, to correct the teaching." The Bible is the rule of faith, and the Episcopal Church strongly insists that "it is not lawful for the Church to ordain anything that is contrary to God's word written, nor besides the same ought it to enforce anything to be believed for necessity of salvation" (Art. XX, Prayer book). But on the other hand Episcopalians believe it is like putting the cart before the horse to found churches on the Bible. There are so many churches all claiming support and foundation from one and the same Bible, that something must be wrong with the method. Anything in the world can be proved by the proof-text system. It has been wisely and wittily said that Bible texts should be labelled like railway tickets, "Not good if detached."

In this Divine Institution, the Church, the power of preaching the gospel resides primarily in the living voice, as at the first. "The things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also" (2 Tim. II: 2). This is the principle that underlies the doctrine of Apostolic Succession, of which mention will be made later.

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HISTORY.

But perhaps someone has been thinking the Episcopal Church was founded by Henry VIII. at the time of the Reformation. What right has it to claim an Apostolic Ministry and a history reaching back to Apostolic days? It is well the question should be asked and answered. No, Henry VIII. did not found the Episcopal Church. Such a statement, though very common, betrays an almost unpardonable ignorance of English history. One fact, however, is worth a page of assertion. Let the reader note carefully the following facts of history, and verify and amplify them as thoroughly as possible.

When and by whom Christianity was first introduced into Britain, history cannot positively say. There are traditions that St. Paul and Joseph of Arimathea preached there. Their chief historic value is that they witness to a very early date, but no one relies on them as history. There are passages in the writings of Tertullian andOrigen (A. D. 208-240) which show clearly that Christianity had reached the Roman province of Britain by the beginning of the third century. A century later three British bishops, one presbyter and one deacon, whose names are preserved, were certainly at the Council of Aries in France (314). This proves that the British Church had the Apostolic Ministry and was in full communion with European Christendom. From Britain, Ireland was Christianized and then Scotland.

Not till 597 did the first missionary from Rome arrive. St. Augustine, sent by Pope Gregory I. found Celtic Christianity driven back to Wales and Cornwall by heathen invaders. He attempted to unite Celtic and Latin Christianity, but with poor success. His work northwards received a heathen set-back and Northumbria turned to lona, Scotland, for a Christian bishop. So gradually the two movements — the Roman mission from Canterbury northward, and the Celtic mission from lona southward — joined forces to make a national Church and an English nation out of many warring tribes. Whatever evils may be connected with an Established Church, it should never be forgotten that in England the Church made the State, not the State the Church.

Rome at this time had a certain primacy of honor as the greatest See in Western Christendom, but she was accorded no supreme power. In 680 Wilfred, bishop of Northumbria, appealed to Rome against a decision of the Archbishop of Canterbury. The Pope sustained the appeal. Wilfred came home with the confidence of having won his case, but was imprisoned and then banished for his pains. From the beginning the Church of England claimed independence and national liberties.

But Rome kept claiming greater and greater power, until in 1054 the Eastern Church parted company with her. The Norman invasion (1066) greatly increased this power in England. Yet in 1 164 the Constitutions of Clarendon forbade carrying appeals to Rome without the king's consent. The Charters of Henry I. (iioo), Stephen (1136), and Henry H. (1154) all begin by declaring the liberty of the Church, Then came the weak king John who actually consented to surrender his kingdom and become the feudal vassal of the strong Pope Innocent III. The result is one of the striking events in English history. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Stephen Langton, with the barons of England at his back, required the king to sign the Magna Charta (1215), the immortal charter of English (and American) constitutional liberty. These are its opening words — ^^The Church of England shall be free and shall have her rights entire and her liberties uninjured."

The famous statutes of Praemunire (1353, 1393) and Provisors (1351, 1390) bear additional witness to the historic independence of the Church against papal aggression.

Then came the revival of Greek learning and the discovery of printing, both paving the way for the Reformation. At last under Henry VIII. came the throwing off of the foreign yoke, and the old liberties became operative. The king was bad enough and his "divorce" case sad enough. However, his marriage with his brother's widow was against Church law and allowed only after a papal dispensation had been obtained. It was now pronounced "null and void" from the beginning. Moreover the Church and nation had long been restive under foreign interference and this was their opportunity to regain their

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freedom. "Alterations in doctrine did not come for many years. The English Reformation began as a matter of policy, an affair of kings, and ministers and parliaments. It concerned itself with the assertion of national liberties, with the refusal of foreign claims, with questions of legal and constitutional history, not of theology or worship." (Wakeman's Hist. Ch. Eng.)

The claim that Henry VHI. founded the Church of England will not bear historical investigation for a moment. The Church reformed herself. These was no break in historic continuity. The Apostolic Ministry remained unbroken. Every attempt to impugn the Orders of the Church of England has resulted in conspicuous failure. Indeed in 1560 Pope Pius IV. offered to accept the results of the Reformation provided only his supremacy were acknowledged. This offer was declined and in 1570 Pius V. excommunicated Elizabeth, and shortly after the Roman Catholics in England withdrew from the National Church.

But what about America? The Church of England was planted in the colonies from Maine to Georgia though unfortunately no bishop was sent to oversee the flock. When revolutionary days came the name "Church of England" was enough to stigmatize all the Churchmen as Tories. Yet twothirds of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were Churchmen. George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, Patrick Henry, the Randolphs, Thomas Jefferson, and many more were Churchmen. The Rev. William White, afterwards first Bishop of Pennsylvania, was chaplain to the Continental Congress.

The first American bishop was Samuel Seabury, who was conscerated in Aberdeen, Scotland, Nov. 14th, 1784. He became Bishop of Connecticut. On Feb. 4th, 1787, William White and Samuel Provoost were consecrated in London and became Bishops of Pennsylvania and New York respectively. In 1792 Thomas J. Clagett was consecrated Bishop of Maryland by Bishops Seabury, White and Provoost. Today, (1897) there are eighty-four Bishops of the American Church, including Missionary Bishops in China, Japan and Africa; 4,618 clergymen, and 636,000 communicants. In 1835, just

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before Bishop White's death, there was one communicant of the Church in every 353 of the population. Today there is one in every 98.

GOVERNMENT.

The preface to the Prayer Book asserts "that this church is far from intending to depart from the Church of England in any essential point of doctrine, discipline, or worship." Still, local circumstances required certain changes. Of course no connection between church and state could exist. Yet the men who framed the Constitution of the Episcopal Church were the very men who did much towards making the federal constitution. There are some very striking resemblances. The people have more power than in England, as indeed they had in the primitive Church. The Bishop is the head of each Diocese. Parishes elect their own Minister. The congregation elects wardens and vestrymen to represent them. The clergy of a Diocese, together with laymen elected by each parish, meet annually in a diocesan council to enact laws for the Diocese. The Bishop of course presides. No law can be passed unless both clerical and lay Orders concur.

The different Dioceses are united by a federal constitution which provides for a General Convention once in three years. The Bishops sit in one body, the House of Bishops. Four clergymen and four laymen elected from each diocesan convention constitute the House of Clerical and Lay Deputies. The analogy to the "senate and representatives in congress assembled" is very striking. Each house elects its own presiding officer. No measure can pass the lower house over the negative vote of the clergy or laity; nor can any law be made without the concurrence of both houses.

Missionary Jurisdictions do not support their own Bishops, nor do they have the full privileges of Dioceses. They are somewhat like territories compared to states.

Dioceses are usually sub-divided into Convocations, where the same clerical and lay representation prevails. There are many members but one body. The Bishop is the head, but the head is not independent of the body. Like every other, the Bishop is under certain legal restrictions and limitations,

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but his office has pre-eminent moral weight. This thought leads naturally to the consideration of the

MINISTRY.

The preface to the Ordinal in the Prayer Book (p. 509) opens with these weighty words: "It is evident unto all men, diligently reading Holy Scripture and ancient Authors, that from the Apostles' time there have been these Orders of Ministers in Christ's Church — Bishops, Priests, and Deacons." This three-fold Ministry was universal until Reformation days. Perhaps there was a type of it in ( i ) the High Priest, (2) Priests and (3) Levites of the Old Testament; and again in (i) the Lord Jesus Himself, (2) the Twelve, and (3) the Seventy of gospel days. After the resurrection, Jesus said to His Apostles, "As my Father hath sent Me, even so send I you" (St. JohnXX: 21), thus raising them to thefirst Order. They elected Matthias, so evidently their Order was to be perpetuated (Acts I: 25, 26),

Then there is an Order called Elders or Presbyters (Acts XV: 2, 4), and another order cdXi&di Deacons (i Tim. HI: 8; cp. Acts VI). But what about Bishops (Phil. I: i)? The name means "overseer" and was probably applied somewhat loosely at first, perhaps both to Apostles and Presbyters. An old writer Theodoret (424) throws light on this: "The same persons were anciently called Bishops and Presbyters and they whom we now call Bishops, were named Apostles." That is to say, the name "Apostles" was limited to early days, the Order continued under the name of ' 'Bishops. " St. Jerome (390) says: "Bishops occupy the place of the Apostles." Says the late Bishop Lightfoot, a very learned scholar, who is always careful not to overstate the evidence: "The threefold ministry can be traced to Apostolic direction; and short of an express statement we can possess no better assurance of a Divine appointment or at least a Divine sanction."

The Bishops alone Confirm and Ordain. Presbyters or Priests preach and administer the Sacraments. Deacons, when duly authorized, preach and baptize. Of course the higher Order includes the lower. This three-fold Ministry

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alone, Bishops, Priests and Deacons, can trace its history back to primitive days.

DOCTRINE.

The Creed of the Episcopal Church is as tollows: "I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth:

And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord: Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary: Suffered under Pontius Pilate, Was crucified, dead and buried: He descended into hell; The third day he arose again from the dead: He ascended into heaven, And sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty: From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Ghost: The Holy Catholic Church; rhe Communion of Saints: The Forgiveness of sins: The Resurrection of the body: And the Life everlasting. Amen."

The word "hell" has the old meaning, "the place of departed spirits." "Catholic" means "Universal."

It will be seen that this Creed is simply the expansion of the baptismal formula (St. Matt. XXVHI: 19). It is probably alluded to by St. Paul as "the form of sound words" (2 Tim. I: 13). When a man wishes to be baptized in the Episcopal Church, he is required to subscribe to it, but to nothing more. There are no Confessions of Faith nor Articles of Religion that he must accept. The Thirty-Nine Articles form a valuable exposition, some more, some less valuable, of this Apostolic Faith. But they have the human limitations of time and circumstance, and stand on a different level entirely from the Creed.

The Nicene Creed is a slightly fuller statement of the Apostles' Creed, put forth to guard more absolutely the Divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ and of the Holy Ghost, but containing no new doctrine. Every Churchman believes fully that Jesus Christ is "the only begotten Son of God; Begotten of his Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, Very God of very God; Begotten, not made: Being of one substance with the Father; By whom all things are made; Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven, And was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary,

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And was made man" (Nicene Creed). There are what are popularly known as High Churchmen and Low Churchmen and Broad Churchmen of a dozen shades whose opinions on many matters merge and differ like the colors of the rainbow, but all contend earnestly for this "faith which was once for all delivered to the saints" (St. Jude 3, Revised Version). Their belief in the Creed is absolute and final; their understanding of it progressive. As St. Anselm profoundly said, they ''believe in order to understand" it, convinced that it is the revelation of God to men; that the Church is the witness and keeper of it; and that every article in it can be concluded and proved from holy scripture.

This Creed proclaims the mystery of the Godhead, the Trinity in Unity. Of course this truth is beyond human comprehension. The Infinite cannot be reduced to any human definition. If it could, it would not be God. Moreover it proclaims God as the eternal self-existent One, the immutable "I Am." (Ex. Ill: 14); "the same yesterday, and today, and forever" (Heb. XIII: 8). The distinction between the Creator and the creature is absolute. God alone is worshipped Men and angels refuse worship (Acts X:26. Rev. XIX: 10). It is true that men are made in the image of God and are to be made sons of God by adoption and grace through the Incarnation, but though they are to become "partakers of the divine nature'' (2 St. Peter I: 4). It is never said that they can be partakers of the divine essence. In the Greek New Testament different words mark this distinction very clearly.

This Creed is very simple, yet it embodies the biggest philosophy ever held by mortal man. Every heresy known to history has been a shrinking of it somewhere. No new knowledge has ever required it to be stretched. Narrow interpretations of it have given way again and again to broader and truer ones, but the Creed itself remains the same, its words do not fail.

The Episcopal Church believes it to be her solemn duty to hold fast to this Creed as the full statement of revealed truth. She believes in progression and development and that the Spirit is come to guide Christians into all truth (St. John XVI: 13); not however by proclaiming new dogmas but by

bringing to remembrance the things Christ said (St John XIV: 26). "He shall glorify me, for he shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you" (St John XVI: 14). She believes Christ's words are like an inexhaustible mine, ever yielding new treasure. She remembers that "every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth out of his treasure things new and old" (St. Matt. XIII: 52). Her mission is to proclaim the ancient Creed as all-sufficient to assimilate new knowledge and solve new problems.

She grieves when a part of the Apostolic Creed is discarded, and she likewise grieves at accretions of modern dogma as both misplaced and mistaken. She can say heartily with St. Paul, "Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity" (Eph. VI: 24) but she cannot accept either additions to, or subtractions from, the old Creed; and for this very simple reason: If, as she firmly believes, Jesus Christ is one Person in two perfect Natures, very God and very Man — and on that fact her whole faith rests — his Incarnation must be the revelation of God. "He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father" (St. John XIV: 9). She cannot conceive that any one can add to this personal revelation of God Himself, and this she thinks is the basis of St. Paul's solemn warning against any one, man or angel, preaching ^^z. different gospel, which is not another,^' as the accurate translation reads (Gal. I: 7, Revised Version).

She believes many things in the Old Testament were provisional and temporary, and allowed not because they declared God's perfect will, but because they were the best things possible under the circumstances. She maintains that Jesus proclaimed this principle when he said, "For the hardness of your heart Moses wrote you this precept" (of divorce) (St. Mark X: 5). But on the other hand she holds with equal conviction that Christ's words are final both in ethics and in doctrine and that though "heaven and earth shall pass away, His words shall not pass away" (St. Matt. XXIV: 35).

WORSHIP.

Churchmen use a Prayer Book, for common prayer. In

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this they have warrant both from Scripture and from history, together with the satisfaction of an excellent method in practice. The stock objections against prayers out of a book — that they must become monotonous, formal and mechanical — are always the imaginary objections of those who have never fairly tried it. Some of the advantages are manifest — the Prayer Book is comprehensive; its devotion elevated and sustained; its educational value in training worshippers great. Its compilation is the history of the devotions of Christendom. In it penitence and praise, petition, thanksgiving and intercession find their due proportion. It creates a robust and well rounded worship.

"The essential germ of the Church's worship was planted by Jesus: first, when He commissioned the Ministry; second, when He commanded Holy Baptism; third, when He instituted the Holy Communion. Around these three offices all other forms and ceremonies of Christian worship and obedience necessarily center. Around these three, all the Liturgies of the Primitive Church clustered, and from these all other Offices of the Church were developed." The Lord's Prayer marks the crisis of every service, being itself the norm of liturgical expansion. The Prayer Book contains Offices for Sundays and for week days and for every turning point of life from birth to death. The children of the Church imbibe their most holy faith more through the language of devotion than from treatises on divinity or from theological expositions.

The greatest service of all is the Divine Liturgy, or the Holy Communion. The American Liturgy, the most perfect in Christendom, was the gift of the Scotch rather than the English Church. Its history can be traced to the St. John group of liturgies and to Ephesus, not to the St. Peter family and to Rome. This is one of many instances where the Anglican Church is nearer to the Greek Church than to the Roman.

To Prayer Book Churchmen other kinds of service are unsatisfying and too often lacking in the dignity of worship. Episcopalians would not however impose their Prayer Book upon others as an essential. The Episcopal Church feels that she has a mission in God's future to weld into one body

the fragments of a divided Christendom. At her General Convention in Chicago, 1886, she put forth a platform of essentials which was endorsed by the whole Anglican Communion at Lambeth, London, in 1888, 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."

This is her foundation, a "Church built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the head corner stone." "Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, vvhich is Jesus Christ" (i Cor. HI: 11).

Her duty is to "keep that which is committed to her trust" (i Tim. I: 20.) By being true to the past she looks to meet the future with expectancy and with hope. In Bishop Lightfoot's words: "She has remained steadfast in the faith of Nicaea, [i. e. the Nicene Creed], but she has never compromised herself by any declaration which may entangle her in the meshes of science. The doctrinal inheritance of the past is hers, and the scientific hopes of the future are hers. She is intermediate and she may become mediatorial, when the opportunity occurs."

While she is steadfast and unswerving in matters of faith, she is catholic in matters of opinion. She has no desire to make all men of one pattern, nor does she believe in being wise above that which is written. "In things necessary unity, in things not necessary liberty, in all things charity" is her motto. With this comprehensive solidity, rooted firm on the unshaken foundation of God's planting, she claims humbly