Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VI.djvu/703

 EPISCOPAL CHURCH from the church of England the Apostles' and Nicene creeds, the XXXIX. articles, with a slight modification in reference to the connec- tion of the civil government with the church the catechism, the baptismal offices, and the ordinal. But for the communion office it has rather followed the Scotch than the English church in placing a prayer of consecration and invocation of the Holy Ghost upon the conse- crated elements before the administration of them to the communicants, and has even added to the Scottish service a few words making still more unambiguous the eucharistical char- acter of the sacrament. The American church has also stricken out from its form for visiting the sick the formula* for private absolution ; and in the exhortation preceding the adminis- tration of the holy communion, it has omitted the direct reference to and advice in favor of private confession to the priest, and absolu- tion from him. In this revision of the offices Bishops Seabury and White were chiefly in- strumental, and Bishop White has left his tes- timony to the harmony and agreement of views and feelings with which they cooperated in the performance of this task. In regard to the ministry, the theory usually held in the Protestant Episcopal church, like that in the English church, is, that in order to be a valid branch of the church of Christ it must have the Holy Scriptures and the ancient catholic creeds, and the ministry in an unbroken line of succession from the apostles, and in the exercise of lawful jurisdiction ; that the Christians of any nation with these conditions constitute a national branch of the church of Christ, totally independent of the jurisdiction and authority of any foreign church or bishop, subject only under Christ to the authority of the universal church in general council assembled ; and that as such they have jurisdiction over all their members, and authority in matters of faith to interpret and decide, and in matters of worship and discipline to legislate and ordain such rites and ceremonies as may seem most conducive to edification and godliness, provided they be not contrary to the Holy Scriptures. The Scriptures and the two ancient creeds, as al- ready said, the Protestant Episcopal church has; the ministry also it has obtained, as shown above, from the English church, and preserves in accordance with the ecclesiastical canons and usages which have prevailed from the days of the apostles. Its right to lawful jurisdiction must stand on circumstances and facts peculiarly its own, and found in its his- tory and condition. In the first place it was planted by members of the English church, and in what was then, and continued to be until the American colonies became an in- dependent national sovereignty, a part of the English dominions. The settlers of Jamestown came, in the language of their charter, to "dis- cover and to prosecute effectually the full pos- session of all such heathen lands as were not actually possessed by any Christian prince or people," and "to establish there both the do-