omitted clause should be restored to the Apostles' Creed, and negatived a proposition to replace the Athanasian Creed in the Prayer Book. The English Bishops were satisfied with the action that was taken; and on the 4th of February 1787, in the chapel of Lambeth Palace, the Rev. Dr. William White was consecrated Bishop of Pennsylvania and the Rev. Dr. Samuel Provoost Bishop of New York. Before the next Convention met, wise and godly Churchmen in all parts of the country were preparing the way for a complete union of the Church in all the States; and at length in Philadelphia, on the second day of October 1789, the bishop and delegates from the north gave in their consent to a modified constitution, and the Church in the United States was united in one Convention, of which the Bishops formed a separate house. Action was at once taken in regard to the Prayer Book. Bishops Seabury and White (Bishop Provoost being detained at home by illness) entered upon the work in their house as proposing amendments to the English Prayer Book; the House of Clerical and Lay Deputies appointed committees as if to propose new services, but they also practically undertook a revision of the English formularies; the 'Proposed Book,' though it furnished some suggestions, was not taken as a basis for the work of either house. At the end of two weeks the Convention adjourned, having set forth and ratified 'The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church,' requiring it to be used from and after the first day of October in the following year. Although the work of revision was accomplished thus rapidly in the Convention, the new Prayer Book was not in reality carelessly or hastily prepared. The two bishops and such men among the deputies as Dr. Smith of Maryland, Dr. Parker of Massachusetts, and Dr. Jarvis of Connecticut, had long had the matter in mind both in its general outlines and in its details. They were well acquainted with the English book and with the objections which had been made to its use in the Colonies; and they knew no less well the needs of the Church in the new Republic, just beginning to recover from the shock of the Revolution. The two bishops in particular, both of whom gave their consent to everything that was admitted into the new book, were men in whom were united practical wisdom and strong convictions, while they looked at the great truths of theology American Prayer Book. American Prayer Book. from different standpoints; and the more the revision of 1789 is studied in the light of the time when it was made, although it is found open to criticism in one way or another, the more it will command the respect of posterity. In this revision of the Prayer Book of the Church of England -for such in fact it was-a considerable number of minor changes were made, which it is unnecessary to mention in detail and for most of which the reason is apparent. A few words, used in an obsolete sense, were changed for words which would be better understood; thus, 'adorable' was substituted for 'honourable' in the Te Deum; 'prevent,' in the Collect of which it is the first word, was changed to 'direct,' and 'indifferently,' in the Prayer for the Church Militant, to 'impartially'; while for 'leasing,' in the two places where it occurs in the Psalter, there was substituted in one place 'falsehood' and in the other 'lies,' due regard being paid here as elsewhere to the rhythm of each verse. In some instances a sentence was recast; thus, in the Collect for Grace at Morning Prayer, the phrase 'but that all our doings may be ordered by thy governance, to do always that is righteous in thy sight' was changed to 'but that all our doings, being ordered by thy governance, may be righteous in thy sight.' Certain other changes show an over-precision in language which was characteristic of the times; as, for instance, the frequent use of 'those who' for 'them which,' the omission of 'again' in the Apostles' Creed, and the change of 'which' into 'who' at the beginning of the Lord's Prayer. Perhaps undue scrupulousness led to the change of the phrase in the Te Deum, 'thou didst not abhor the virgin's womb' to 'thou didst humble thyself to be born of a virgin'; a fear of misunderstanding may account for the alteration of the good estate of the Catholic Church,' in the Prayer for All Conditions of Men, to 'thy holy Church universal'; and a criticism of earlier days may explain the alteration of 'who alone workest great marvels,' at the beginning of the Prayer for the Clergy and People, to 'from whom cometh every good and perfect gift.' A desire to avoid repetitions must account for the omission of the Lord's Prayer after the Creed in the daily services and the permission to omit it at the beginning of the Communion Office 'if Morning Prayer hath been said immediately before,' as also for the provision that the Creed is not to be said after the Gospel if it hath been read immediately before in the Morning Service,' and the other provision that the Collect for the Day is to be ་ 6 omitted in Morning Prayer when the Communion Service is read.' A desire to shorten the ordinary Sunday Service, and to make it possible to mark special solemn days or seasons, probably led to the permission for the minister to omit at his discretion the part of the Litany beginning 'O Christ, hear us' and ending 'As we do put our trust in thee.' Special care seems to have been taken to use the word 'Priest' in the rubrics only when the particular part of the service could not be read by a deacon or a layman; thus, in the daily offices the word 'Minister' was employed except in the rubric before the Absolution, and in like manner 'Minister' was substituted for 'Priest' in the Litany and in the introductory part of the Communion Office. The variations of any importance between the English and American books will be noted as the several offices come under review in Part II. of this work. But the more characteristic changes may be mentioned here, as giving a general idea of the form of the American book. Three new sentences, Habakkuk ii. 20, Malachi i. 11, and Psalm xix. 14, 15, were prefixed to those at the beginning of Daily Morning and Evening Prayer; the Absolution in the daily offices was headed 'The Declaration of Absolution, or Remission of Sins,' and the form in the Communion Office was allowed as an alternative for it; the Venite was composed of Psalms xcv. 1-7 and xcvi. 9, 13; permission was given to use the Gloria in excelsis at the end of the portion of Psalms for the day; only the first four verses were printed for the Benedictus1; the Nicene Creed was printed as an alternative to the Apostles' Creed; the rubric as to the Litany was placed after the Prayer for the President and other Civil Rulers, and but one supplication for all Christian Rulers and Magistrates' was left in the Litany in place of the six petitions in the English book for the Civil Authority; the Prayer for All Conditions of Men and the General Thanksgiving were inserted in their place before the Prayer of St. Chrysostom; in Evening Prayer the Magnificat and the Nunc Dimittis were omitted, the first four verses of 2 1 However much this is to be 2 This change is said to have been aeplored on principle, it has kept made because President Washington the Benedictus within the range of did not ordinarily attend Evening practical use, and prevented its being Prayer. nearly displaced by the Jubilate. American Prayer Book. American Prayer Book. Psalm xcii. being allowed for use after the first Lesson, and the first four and the last three verses of Psalm ciii. after the second Lesson; and the opening words of the Collect for Aid against Perils were changed to a form more like that of the corresponding Morning Collect, 'O Lord, our heavenly Father, by whose Almighty power we have been preserved this day.' The Athanasian Creed was omitted, the New England Bishop and Deputies 'giving it up with great reluctance.' To the special prayers were added five, taken from the works of Bishop Jeremy Taylor: For a Sick Person, For a Sick Child, For a Person going to Sea, For a Person under Affliction, and For Malefactors after Condemnation; and the Thanksgiving from the Churching Office was placed among the special thanksgivings, and Thanksgivings For a Recovery from Sickness and For a Safe Return from Sea were added. In the Communion Service, permission was given to say after the Commandments our Lord's Summary of the Law with the Collect for grace to keep the Commandments (the second of those at the end of the English office); the Gloria tibi was ordered to be said after the announcement of the Gospel; it was provided that either the Apostles' or the Nicene Creed should be said after the Gospel, unless it had been read immediately before in the Morning Service; the words 'here in earth' were omitted from the title of the Prayer for the Church Militant; an alternative Preface was provided for Trinity Sunday, and the use of any Proper Preface on that day was left discretionary; a hymn was required to be sung after the Consecration, and a metrical hymn was allowed in place of the Gloria in excelsis; and the 'Black Rubric,' with all but two of the other rubrics at the end, was omitted. And, most important of all the changes made in the whole book, the Scottish form of the Prayer of Consecration was adopted, with a single modification, itself in the direction of primitive usage and almost identical with one formerly suggested by Dr. Sancroft, which was proposed at this time by deputies from Maryland. As modified, the Invocation, following the words 1 Bishop Seabury wrote a year later that he never was fully convinced as to the propriety of reading the Athanasian Creed,' but that he was clear as to the impropriety of banishing it out of the Prayer Book.' of Institution and the Oblation, ends with these words: “that we, receiving them according to thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ's Holy Institution, in remembrance of his death and passion, may be partakers of his most blessed Body and Blood.' The adoption of the Scottish form of the Prayer of Consecration, derived from primitive Eastern liturgies through the service-book of the English Non-jurors, was due to Bishop Seabury, who, it will be remembered, had set forth an edition of the Scottish office for the use of his diocese. But Bishop White did not oppose its adoption; and in the House of Deputies the President, Dr. William Smith, read it so solemnly and impressively that it was accepted without objection. In the Office for the Baptism of Infants, it was provided that parents might be admitted as sponsors; and permission was given to omit the Gospel and other parts of the service, provided that the whole should be read once a month if there were a baptism. In the Catechism, 'spiritually' was substituted for 'verily and indeed' in the answer to the third question on the Lord's Supper, In the Marriage Service, the first exhortation was shortened, and the service was made to end with the first blessing. In the Visitation of the Sick, the rubric as to a special confession of sins and the special Absolution were omitted, leaving the ancient form for the reconciliation of a dying penitent (the prayer beginning 'O most merciful God') in its proper place and with its full significance. In the Burial Office, it was left to the discretion of the minister to use one or both of the closing prayers, and the phraseology of the first prayer was made more general. The Commination Service was not retained, but the last three prayers were ordered to be said at the close of the Litany on AshWednesday. The Forms of Prayer to be used at Sea were placed after the Churching Office; and they were followed by a Form for the Visitation of Prisoners from the Irish Book of 1711, a Form of Service for the annual Thanksgiving for the fruits of the earth and the other blessings of God's Providence, and Family Prayers adapted from those drawn up by Bishop Gibson of London. To the Psalter were prefixed ten Selections of Psalms which might be used at any service instead of the Psalms regularly appointed. In the preliminary part of the book a new Preface was inserted, the black-letter days with all vigils were dropped from the Calendar, and the ornaments rubric was omitted. The table of Daily Lessons was nearly the same as that prepared Amariesa Prayer Book |