whose prevailing words I shut up all my imperfect wishes, saying, Our Father, etc. Amen. This service is in the main a reproduction of the Scotch Office of 1764. Bishop Seabury, however, introduced certain changes and additions. In the rubrics the word "Presbyter" was removed and Priest" substituted. Most of the alterations. are of a verbal nature and do not materially affect the sense. The direction to put "a little pure water into the cup," also that the Priest and the people recite the General Confession, "all humbly kneeling upon their knees," and the use of the "Private Ejaculations" and the Private Devotions for the Altar" are in the way of additions, as they do not occur in the Scotch Office of 1764. The Rev. Samuel Hart, D.D., of Trinity College, Hartford, in 1883 reprinted in fac-simile the Seabury Communion Office. The book is accompanied with an historical sketch and ample notes. Bishop Williams, in the American Church Review of July, 1882, says that in giving the American Episcopal Church the Oblation and Invocation contained in the Seabury Office, "Scotland gave us a greater boon than when she gave us the Episcopate," Fac-simile of the title page of the Seabury Prayer Book, issued at New London, Conn., by Thomas C. Green, in 1795. Exact size. THE BISHOP SEABURY PRAYER BOOK OF 1795. CLASSED among the rarest of Americana is a little book of fifteen unnumbered sheets, printed by Thomas C. Green, at New London, Conn., in 1795. Great interest is attached to it, because it was edited by Bishop Seabury, who amended the Psalter. What were the reasons that prompted this free handed translation cannot be stated with certainty. Dr. Beardsley, in his life of Bishop Seabury, says, "This Liturgy was not in the least degree intended to supersede the Prayer Book, and no evidence has been found that it was ever followed for a single day in the public worship of any parish within the jurisdiction of Seabury. It was probably designed for private or family use, and he may have adopted this method for the purpose of meeting objections sometimes raised to the divine imprecations in this part of Scripture.” 1 Life of Samuel Seabury, pp. 338, 339, English edition. The edition of the book must have been remarka bly small, as only a few copies are now in existence. The account here given was collated from the volume in the possession of Mr. James J. Hoadley, of Hartford, the State Librarian of Connecticut. The book is bound in leather and the pages are 6% inches long by 3% inches wide. It is more of a Psalter than a Prayer Book, as indicated by the title page reading: "The Psalter or Psalms of David, Pointed as they are to be sung or said in Churches. With the Order for Morning and Evening PRAYER Daily throughout the Year." The reverse of the title page is blank. On the next page is found the ADVERTISEMENT. It is remarked by the learned and pious Dr Horne, the late Bishop of Norwich, in the preface to his commentary on the psalms, p. 53, That "the offence taken at the supposed uncharitable and vindictive spirit of the imprecations, which occur in some of the psalms, ceases immediately, if we change the imperative for the future, and read, not Let them be confounded, &c., but They shall be confounded, &c., of which the Hebrew is equally capable. Such passages will then have no more difficulty in them than the other frequent predictions of divine vengeance in the writings of the prophets, or denunciation of it in the gospel, intended to warn, to alarm, and to lead sinners to repentance, that they may flee from the wrath to come." The same observation was formerly made by Dr. Hammond in his preface to his commentary on the psalms, p. 32. Supported by the authority of |