1786] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 1 89 



2d. Protestant Episcopal Churches should be in the singular num- 

 ber; and yet if all our New England brethren should not join us, 

 they niay say we take too much on us to call seven or eight States 

 the whole Protestant Episcopal Chnrch of America. I do not remem- 

 ber the connection of the paragraph; but if it be churches, in the 

 plural, some such idea must have been in my head; or it is a mistake 

 of the pen. Make this and other like things consistent according to 

 your best judgment; for I know you will not Aitkenise'^ anything, 

 being too judicious to put a patcJi that would not consort with the gar- 

 ment at large. 



3d. Page 12. The apology for not revising the Collects may be 

 omitted in this preface. Yet not for fear of hinting the probability of 

 further reviews, but because there were other things besides the Collects 

 which the Church of England at and before the Revolution had in con- 

 templation to review, and which we have not yet touched upon ; and 

 therefore every reader may be left to his own conclusion, as to the 

 necessity of future reviews, by a comparison of our book on the whole, 

 with the intended alterations at the Revolution, and I think the credit 

 of our work will rise on the comparison. 



Ibid — You may say "The service is arranged so as to stand as nearly 

 as possible in the order wherein it is appointed to be read, without the 

 necessity of turning backwards and forwards, etc." 



Page 13. Say "for the greater facility of choosing Psalms adapted to 

 particular subjects and occasions of divine worship;" or some such 

 amendment. 



Page 14 — in the note — Bishop Burnet, being a great name, and the 

 expositor of the articles, seems to me very proper to be mentioned, and 

 I should think, it being only a note, there is no need of leaving it out. 

 There is no alteration made in the whole book, which is like to create 

 so much difficulty as the omission of the descent into hell; and yet wher- 

 ever I have had occasion to explain the matter as in the note alluded 

 to, it seems to have given content. I would not give any reasons for 

 omitting the two other creeds. The Athanasian seems freely to be parted 

 with on all hands, and as to the Nicene I would say nothing concerning 

 it in this edition of the Prayer Book; because I believe some whole 

 States will agree with the three New England States, in having it inserted 

 at their next Convention, and left optional either to be used, or to use the 

 Apostles' Creed, although not both in the same Morning or Evening Ser- 

 vice; while others (I fear much from Virginia) will be for no creeds at all, 

 and also for striking out the Trinitarian introduction to the Litany. Yet, 

 I hope, calmness and sound argument, through the blessing of God, may 

 reconcile all, and preserve the unity of the faith in the bond of peace. 



* A reference, doubtless, to Robert Aitken, a Philadelphia printer of some note at 

 that time. 



