ivine founder it is then a
divine society, seeking men to save them from the degrading power of
sin and everlasting punishment in hell. It is not then, as is so
commonly and popularly thought, a human society founded by Luther,
1530; Calvin, 1541; Knox, 1560; Robert Brown, 1582; Roger Williams,
1639; John Wesley, 1739; or Swedenborg, 1783. In brief, the church
founded by Jesus Christ is the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth, as Christ
so often described it (Matthew 13:47, 5:19, 13:44); endowed with power
from on high transmitted through her unbroken line of the Apostolic
ministry, but obedient to her Divine Founder, who is at the right hand
of God in heaven.

This church of four distinct marks in the Acts existed before the
completion of the New Testament at least some sixty years, and it was
the church that by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit pronounced the
New Testament inspired, and rejected other books claiming to set forth
the life of Christ, three hundred years after it was founded. The Old
Testament is the document of the Jewish Church, that church having
been in existence for a thousand years before its document was
completed. Therefore, this church of the Acts cannot be set aside for
one claimed to be founded upon the Bible.

For three hundred years then, this Apostolic Church existed with
Apostolic doctrine, ministry, sacraments, and prayers before she gave
the New Testament to the world with her certificate that it was the
Inspired Word of God.

The Protestant Episcopal Church of America as the daughter of the
Church of England, has ever possessed, and does now possess and hold
more sacred, these four marks that identify her unmistakably with the
primitive and Apostolic Church, as a true branch of the same.

First, as to doctrine this church holds and defends the pure teaching
of the early church, without taking from or adding to the same. There
are few, indeed, who would question this.

The Holy Trinity (John 14:16, 26; Acts 2:33; Gal. 4:6).

The Incarnation of God's Son (Luke 1:35; John 1:14; Matt. 1:23).

The Redemption of Man by Christ Jesus (Matt. 1:21, 20:28; Gal. 1:4).

Regeneration and Holy Baptism (Titus 3:5; Rom. 6:4; Gal. 3:27).

The Holy Communion (Matt. 26:26-28; Mark 14:22-24; Luke 22:19-20).

Confirmation (Acts 8; Heb. 6:2).

The Resurrection of the Dead (Luke 14:14; John 11:23).

The Judgment (Acts 17:31; Heb. 9:27).

Belief in these statements and other fundamental teaching of Holy