Report of Commemorative Services with the Sermons and Addresses at the Seabury Centenary, 1883-1885.Episcopal Church. Diocese of Connecticut
Religion
Report of Commemorative Services with the Sermons and Addresses at the Seabury Centenary, 1883-1885.
Episcopal Church. Diocese of Connecticut
Seabury, Samuel, 1729-1796
The insurmountable difficulties which arose out of the Proposed
Book were the entire omission of the Creed commonly known as the
Nicene Creed, and the equally entire omission of the article, "He
descended into hell," in the Apostles' Creed. I do not at all mean
to say that these omissions constituted the only objections in the
minds of Bishop Seabury and those who acted with him. But these
were fatal. As long as these omissions remained, it was useless to
consider any other matters. Our fathers could never have united
with any body which deliberately rejected the Catholic Faith. For,
as has been well said, "a Church is not Catholic merely from
having an Apostolic ministry; the Catholic Faith is as essential
as Catholic Institutions." Nay, I think we may say even more than
that; namely, that to put the ministry first and the faith next is
to reverse the order established by the Lord. For surely, of those
to whom was given the commission to "make disciples of all
nations, baptizing them into the Name of the Father, and of the
Son, and of the Holy Ghost," it can never be said that the Name,
which is the original and the summary of every Catholic Creed, was
given for and because of them, but rather it must be said that
they were instituted for and because of it. To reverse this order
is to make the messenger of more importance than the message; is
to make the vase that holds the perfume of more importance than
the perfume held.
Happily the difficulty was not long in its continuance. In the
course of the negotiations for the Episcopate, which began in
October, 1785, it became very evident that the bishops of England
were not inclined to accede to the application for it so long as
the omission and mutilation just mentioned were adhered to.
Accordingly, on the 11th of October, 1786, in a convention held at
Wilmington, Delaware, the omitted clause was restored in the
Apostles' Creed, and the Nicene Creed was reinstated in its proper
place.
The other obstacle, however, remained untouched; and, in fact, it
was twofold. In the Constitution agreed upon by the representatives
from seven States in 1785, there was not only no provision
for a House of Bishops, but it was not even provided that
the one House should be presided over by a bishop, if one of
that order were present. The Episcopate was utterly ignored.
Besides this extraordinary omission, every clergyman, of whatever
order, was made amenable to the convention of the diocese to which
he belonged in regard to "suspension or removal from office,"
while, for all that appeared, the sentence of suspension or
deposition must have been pronounced by the convention itself. In
a Church regulated by rules and ordinances like these, there might
be a nominal Episcopate, but it would be only nominal. The Ordinal
might be retained, but it would cease to have any meaning. The
Primitive Church might be spoken of, but every trace of primitive
order and administration would have disappeared.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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