1785] JiEV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 1 49 



vention, agreeing with what I wrote you from Chester and have repeated 

 from Baltimore, concerning the Litany, etc. 



By your last letter you seem to have attended to the rubric before the 

 prayer for Congress, Avhich in my first letter (not received by you at the 

 time of writing) I wished you to notice, as it would remove your objec- 

 tions, etc. You say it has removed them in part, but leaves a contra- 

 diction between the two rubrics. This too you will find removed by 

 striking out the word "every" before the word ''morning" in the 

 rubric prefixed to the Litany, so that comparing the two rubrics to- 

 gether, sufficient latitude will be left, without either disbanding the 

 Litany, or putting a rubric and substitution of prayers after it, which 

 would stand as an invitation to the lukewarm or lazy, always to pass 

 over the Litany, which in the idea of all the clergy I have seen was 

 considered by the Convention as a part of the Morning Service, in- 

 dispensable except for some good reasons, and it hurts their feelings to 

 think the use of the Litany should be thought a burden, or that our 

 service could be complete without this excellent part. Of all this I have 

 written fully, candidly and more than enough, and only repeat lest my 

 Baltimore packet miscarry. All things will stand well, at least in this 

 first edition of our book, and till next Convention, in the order in 

 which we fixed them at Philadelphia, and as they are in the proof-sheets 

 you have sent me, only striking out the single word "every" in the 

 rubric before the Litany. 



I have no time to read critically the proofs, farther than I did in a 

 few minutes at Baltimore. They will be very safe in your hands, with 

 one or two readings. Let them be worked off as fast as possible, and a 

 thousand copies or two more than we thought of at first (which I think 

 was four thousand) if paper can be got. The book will be in great.* 



Baltimore alone a subscription is on foot, and Dr. West will 



speedily remit a large part of the ^100, if not more than the whole, to 

 which I shall add considerably from this shore, as soon as I return from 

 Dorset, which I hope will be in three or four days at farthest. 



If my letter from Baltimore is not come to your hand, you will attend 

 to the following corrections which I made in the proofs of the second 

 sheet enclosed therein. 



At the end of morning and evening prayer, viz., " Here endeth the 

 order of morning [evening] prayer" — Dele words "order of" — lest it 

 should be implied that something might yet be prayed which is dis- 

 orderly — prayer for clergy, instead of "«// bishops and other ministers, 

 and all congregations" insert "the congregations," to avoid a repeti- 

 tion of the word all so near the first all. But I think the whole sen- 

 tence might be better altered thus — "send down uj^on the bishops and 

 ministers of thy church and all congregations," etc. 



* Manuscript imperfect. 



