298 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1789 



sibly — in what is purely ecclesiastical — practically and in fact, be 

 the same. It our Liturgy is ever reviewed again, let it be done 

 by a committee of our own Bishops and clergy in conjunction with 

 Bishops and clergy of the Church of England, and then submitted 

 and adopted or rejected by our Convention and their Convoca- 

 tion or Parliament, without debate. I see no reason why, except 

 in the matter of the State Prayers, the services should not be 

 wholly consentaneous. Indeed, if the Preface of our Books — that 

 of the Proposed Book and that of the Book of 1789 alike — cor- 

 rectly say — as I think they do say correctly — that the " proper end 

 of all prayers for civil rulers should be that they may have grace, 

 wisdom and understanding to execute justice and to maintain 

 truth, and that the people may lead quiet and peaceable lives in all 

 godliness and honesty " — why shall not the Prayer Books of 

 England and America be absolutely identical ? Some things 

 which America prefers, as the Bomnn est Confitcri and the Bcncdic, 

 Aninia Mca, to be retained along with the English originals of the 

 Magnificat and Nujic Dimittis, with an option for the minister to 

 take any one of the three songs, anthems, or whatever else they 

 may be, instead of either of two. And so generally; giving what 

 each nation prefers, and a liberty of choice. Rome's boast that 

 the voices of her ministers alone are heard ever ascending in the 

 language of one Liturgy from the whole circle of the round world 

 — a boast never founded in fact — could no longer be made. " The 

 Church of England," " The Protestant Episcopal Church in the 

 United States in America," one and the same body, — " The 

 Catholic Church Reformed " — with but diversity in name, would 

 henceforth in the people's estimation, as in the gospel's truths 

 they now are, be the Catholic Church of Christ. Hasten, O God, 

 if it be thy good will, this happy day ! that as we have one Lord, 

 one faith and one baptism, we may, under one shepherd, be more 

 completely than ever, one, thy own blessed Fold ! 



Among the early acts of the Convention which was still sitting 

 in the form of a single Convention was the appointment of Dr. 

 Smith, the Rev. Benjamin Moore, D. D., and the Rev. Uzal Ogden, 

 to prepare an address to the President, George Washington, who, a 

 few months before, had entered upon the untried duty of Chief 

 Magistrate of the United States. And Dr. Smith, the Rev. Abra- 

 ham Beach, D. D,, and Robert Andrews, Esq., were appointed a 



