1/86] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 203 



We have proposed to retain the prayer and yet avoid the exceptionable 

 part, and it will run thus : 



Hear us, O Merciful Father, we most humbly beseech thee, and with thy word and 

 Holy Spirit vouchsafe so to bless and sanctify these thy creatures of bread and wine, 

 that we receiving the same, according to thy Son our Saviour, Jesus Christ's holy in- 

 stitution, etc. 



This I think will be a proper amendment, and it perfectly satisfies 

 such of our clergy and people as were attached to the Scots' ^nd other 

 ancient liturgies, all of which have an invocation of a blessing on the 

 elements, as is indeed most reasonable and proper. 



I am anxious to write you by this post to have a chance of your re- 

 ceiving this before the meeting of your Convention. I have therefore 

 no time to be more particular. Where Ave have gone further than was 

 hinted in the alterations you formerly sent us, viz., in the arrangement 

 of the reading and singing psalms, the calendars and rubrics, the col- 

 lection of hymns on evangelical subjects as a supplement to the de- 

 ficiencies of David's Psalms and other matters, which we have set forth in 

 the preface, I say in all this I know you will exercise a candid and liberal 

 judgment, and let me hear from you. We can only in the different 

 States receive tlie book for temporary use, till our churches are organ- 

 ized, and the book comes again under review of conventions having 

 their bishops, etc., as the primitive rules of Episcopacy require. 



Excuse this hasty scrawl from 



Your affectionate brother, etc., 



Wm. Smith. 



P. S. — I shall write to Bishop Seabury next post. 



CHAPTER XLVIII. 



The " Proposed Book " — Absurd Pretensions of the so-called " Reformed 

 Episcopal Church," that the Schism of their Sect found Support in 

 IT — History of the Formation of the Book — Dr. Smith chiefly en- 

 titled to the Credit of it — Some Description of the Respective 

 Ecclesiological Characters and Tastes of Dr. Smith, Dr. White and 

 Dr. Wharton, as applied to this Subject — Dr. Smith's Services in 

 Procuring the Episcopal Succession — Adjourned General Convention 

 of 1786 at Wilmington — A Partial Compliance with the Suggestions 

 of the English Archbishops — Dr. White, Dr. Provost and Dr. Griffith 

 Recommended to the English Bishops for Consecration — Maryland 

 Convention of 1786 — Attestation by his Parish Officers in Maryland 

 of Dr. Smith's Fitness for Consecration. 



■ The correspondence in the last chapter runs through two years 

 (1785-86) ; therefore this chapter does the same. 



