1 78 3] HEV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 9/ 



ment, for which purpose the following were unanimously agreed 

 upon and subscribed, viz. : 



A Declaration of certain fundamental Rights and Liberties of the 

 Protestant Episcopal Church of Maryland, drawn up and subscribed, 

 viz. 



Whereas by the Constitution and Form of Government of this State 

 — "All persons professing the Christian Religion are equally entitled to 

 protection in their Religious Liberty, and no person, by any Law, or 

 otherwise, ought to be molested in his person or estate, on account of 

 his Religious Persuasion or Profession, or for his Religious Practice; 

 unless, under colour of Religion, any man shall disturb the good Order, 

 Peace, or Safety of the State, or shall infringe the Laws of Morality, or 

 injure others in their Natural, Civil, or Religious Rights:" And 

 whereas the Ecclesiastical and Spiritual Independence of the different 

 Religious Denominations, Societies, Congregations, and Churches of 

 Christians in this State, necessarily follows from, or is included in, their 

 Civil Independence. 



Wherefore we, the Clergy of the Protestant Episcopal Church of 

 Maryland (heretofore denominated the Church of England, as by Law 

 established) with all duty to the civil authority of the State, and with 

 all Love and Good-will to our Fellow-Christians of every other Re- 

 ligious denomination, do hereby declare, make known, and claim, the 

 following, as certain of the Fundamental Rights and Liberties inherent 

 in and belonging to the said Episcopal Church, not only of common 

 Right, but agreeably to the express Words, Spirit and Design of the 

 Constitution and Form of Government aforesaid, viz., 



I. We consider it as the undoubted Right of the said Protestant 

 Episcopal Church, in common with other Christian Churches under the 

 American Revolution, to complete and preserve herself as an entire 

 Church, agreeably to her ancient Usages and Profession, and to have 

 the full enjoyment and free exercise of those purely Spiritual Powers, 

 which are essential to the being of every Church or Congregation of 

 the faithful, and which, being derived only from Christ and his Apostles, 

 are to be maintained independent of every foreign or other Jurisdiction, 

 so far as may be consistent with the civil Rights of Society. 



II. That ever since the Reformation, it hath been the received 

 Doctrine of the Church whereof we are Members ("and which by the 

 Constitution of this State is entitled to the perpetual Enjoyment of 

 certain Property and Rights under the denomination of the Church of 

 England) "That there be these three Orders of Ministers in Christ's 

 Church: Bishops, Priests, and Deacons," and that an Episcopal 

 Ordinatio7i and Commission are necessary to the valid Administration of 

 the Sacraments, and the due Exercise of the Ministerial Eunctions in the 

 said Church. 



