OF THE

DISTINCTIVE PRINCIPLES

OF

The Protestant Episcopal Society

FOR THE PROMOTION OF

EVANGELICAL KNOWLEDGE.

PUBLISHED UNDER DIRECTION OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.

NEW-YORK:

DEPOSITORY, 22 JOHN STREET.

THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORGANIZATION.

[Extract from the Society's Address of November, 1847.]

Our Society is based on the maxim, that the press, in the hands of a truly faithful ministry, and of an intelligently pious laity, is one of the mightiest weapons for the maintenance and defence of truth. With this, mainly, must the power of a corrupt press, in the hands of the various ministers of evil, be met and broken. The importance of a pure and healthful Christian literature to the purity and healthfulness of religion and of the church, cannot easily be overstated. The principles, then, which, through the press, we seek to disseminate, are—

1. First, as to DOCTRINE, distinctively EVANGELICAL.

We use this term in its well understood sense, as indicating the leading and fundamental doctrines of the glorious Reformation. Our system of doctrine will readily be recognized by a statement of a few of its particulars.

Scripture, the sole rule of faith; not Scripture and tradition its joint rule: Man, an utterly lost and helpless sinner; and Christ, a most free and sufficient Saviour: Pardon, the direct gift of Christ to every one that "believeth with the heart;" with no intervention other than that needed to bring him to faith; not dependent on a priestly or any human intervention for the forgiveness of sin : Justification, a gracious act of God, received by faith without works; not an inward character in man, consisting of faith as one of a catalogue of justifying graces: Renovation, the work of the Holy Spirit in the regeneration of man, operating mainly through the Truth, and making us “new creatures" in Christ: Sanctification, distinguished from justification, as the fruit from the seed; not blended with justification as making therewith one whole of inherent righteousness.

2. Second, as to the Church, our principles are distinctively PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL.

Here, also, the system which we adopt, will be easily distinguished by a few of its features.

The Church, "the blessed company of all faithful people:" Epis

copacy, as having existed "from the apostles' times:" The Sacraments, divine signs and seals, pledges and means of grace to faith ; not standing miracles, whereby Christ is made incarnate in His members: Jesus, the immediate High Priest and sole Intercessor in behalf of every individual believer; not approached through the necessary medium of any ministerial intervention: Worship, according to our Liturgy, simple and Scriptural; not loaded with human inventions and unauthorized ceremonies.