MY Song shall be alway of the loving kindness of the Lord : with my Mouth ever be shewing his Truth from one generation to another. Psal. 89. 1. The merciful and gracious Lord hath so done his marvellous Works : that they ought to be had in remembrance. Psal. 111. 4. Who can express the noble Acts of the Lord : or shew forth all his praise? Psal. 106. 2. The works of the Lord are great : sought out of all them that have pleasure therein. Psal. 111.2. For he will not alway be chiding : neither keepeth he his anger forever. Psal. 103.9. He hath not dealt with us after our sins : nor rewarded us according to our wickedness. Verse 10. For look how high the heaven is in comparison of the earth : so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. Verse 11. Yea, like as a father pitieth his own children : even so is the Lord merciful unto them that fear him. Verse 11. Thou, O God, hast proved us; thou also hast tried us, like as silver is tried. Psal. 66.9. Thou didst remember us in our low estate, and redeem us from our enemies for thy mercy endureth forever. Psal. 136. 23, 24.
Then shall be said or sung the Psalm; which shall be the same as is appointed Day, Part 2.
The first Lesson shall be, Deut. 8; and the second Lesson shall be, [1] Thess. 5.12 to 24.
A thanksgiving for the day, to be said after the general thanksgiving.
O God, whose Name is excellent in all the earth, and thy glory above the heavens, who as on this day didst inspire the direct the hearts of our delegates in Congress, to lay the perpetual foundations of peace, liberty, and safety; we bless and adore thy glorious Majesty, for this thy loving kindness and providence. And we humbly pray that the devout sense of this signal mercy may renew and increase in us a spirit of love and thankfulness to thee its only author, a spirit of peaceable submission to the laws and government of our country, and a spirit of fervent zeal for our holy religion, which thou hast preserved and secured to us and our posterity. May we improve these inestimable blessing for the advancement of religion, liberty, and science throughout this land, till the wilderness and solitary place be glad through us, and the desert rejoice and blossom as the rose. This we beg through the merits of Jesus Christ our Saviour. Amen.
The Collect: to be used instead of that for the Day.
ALmighty God, who hast in all ages shewed forth thy power and mercy in the wonderful preservation of thy church, and in the protection of every nation and people professing thy holy and eternal Truth, and putting their sure trust in thee; We yield thee our unfeigned thanks and praise for all thy public mercies, and more especially for that signal and wonderful manifestation of thy providence which we commemorate this day; Wherefore not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy Name be ascribed all honor and glory, in all churches of the Saints, from generation to generation, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Epistle. Philip. 4. 4.
REjoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice. Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
The Gospel. St. John 8.31.
Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. They answered him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free? Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.
57 The comment continues, “and on which our communion, the true, legitimate, Protestant Episcopal Church is based; while Bishop Seabury, a non-juror in principle and orders, and a pensioner of the British Government till his death, has impressed his principles of Episcopal and Sacerdotal exclusiveness, and of Sacramental, mechanical grace, upon the liturgy and Rites of the Church we have been forced to abandon.” A Chapter of Unwritten History. The Protestant Episcopacy of the Revolutionary Patriots Lost and Restored. A Centennial Offering, by Reverend Mason Gallagher (Philadelphia: Reformed Episcopal Rooms, 1833), p. 4.
58 See chapter on religious liberty.
59 A Chapter of Unwritten History. The Protestant Episcopacy of the Revolutionary Patriots Lost and Restored. A Centennial Offering, by Reverend Mason Gallagher (Philadelphia: Reformed Episcopal Rooms, 1833), pp.; 4-5, 12.
60 A Revolution that Led To A Church, Prepared for the 200th Anniversary of the establishment of the Episcopal Church in the United States. Journal of the Proceedings of the Bishops, Clergy, and Laity of the Protestant Episcopal Church, 1789 (Cincinnati: Forward Movement Publications,: 1990). Seven years of war knocked the wind out of the Anglican churches in America. Without an episcopate and a common bond of union, the Church in America was in danger of disintegrating. As the war drew to a close, however, churches in some states took independent action to protect their rights and liberties and to establish their own identity without regard to the larger issue of union of the church as a whole. Maryland took the lead in 1780 when it was agreed that “the Church formally known as the Church of England should now be called the Protestant Episcopal Church.” But there had to be more!
In the Summer of 1782, thirty-four-year-old William White, Rector of the United Churches of Christ Church and St. Peter’s, Philadelphia, published a pamphlet titled, The Case of the Protestant Episcopal Church... Considered. As the most important writing on the subject of union and reorganization at the time, it made White the central figure in the reorganization of the church.
White argued that because the ties with England had been broken, the churches were free to decide to unite or to remain separate. If they decided for union, they should build their organization from the parish up and not for the diocese down, this allowing laity a voice in the formation and operation of the church. To provide a forum where problems and solutions could be aired, White advocated a state convention of clergy and elected lay representatives.
On the matter of the episcopacy, White proposed that until that “higher office” could be obtained (and only until then), there be a Presbyterian type of ordination, and clergymen elevated to the “superior order” would serve in a parish. Since he believed (then) that the episcopate would be long in coming, he was convinced that his plan was in the best interest of the churches. As was expected, his proposal met with mixed reviews.
But more important than the immediate reactions to “The Case” was that by the time the Treaty of Paris had been signed, the former colonial churches had the outline of a plan for reorganization. Though all churchmen would not agree with White’s proposals, his pamphlet opened up communications among various church leaders and attention began to be paid to the needs of the churches. Moreover, by 1785 the reorganization of the Episcopal Churches from New York to South Carolina was accomplished in open conventions of clergy and laity.
In contrast, the clergy of Connecticut, who apparently had received an early copy of White’s pamphlet, met secretly in 1783 to discuss what they called the “Philadelphia Plan.” Horrified, they went their own way: the episcopate first, union second. They elected Tory Samuel Seabury as bishop. Armed with a letter from the clergy to the archbishops, Seabury sailed for England to seek consecration. Though cordially received, his request was refused; and he turned to the non-juror bishops of Scotland and was consecrated in 1784, returning to the States the following spring (wearing a mitre, an ornament not used by the English bishops in the eighteenth century).
61 Reverend Mason Gallagher, A Chapter of Unwritten History, p. 12.
CHAPTER 16
1 WGW, vol. 30, 4-1779.
2 Boller, George Washington & Religion, p. 40.
3 From an interview done by Jerry Newcombe for Coral Ridge Ministries, 2005.
4 Johnson, Washington the Christian, p. 18.
5 WGW, vol. 2, 10-12-1761.
6 Ibid., vol. 3, 7-15-1772.
7 Ibid., vol. 2, 5-30-1768.
8 See Lane, Washington Collection, Boston Athenaeum, p. 23.
9 See WGW, vol. 2, Catalogue of Books for Master Custis Referred to on the Other side.
10 See the chapter on the Godly Leader.
11 WGW, vol. 27, 6-11-1783. To Reverend John Rodgers, “Dear Sir: I accept, with much pleasure your kind Congratulations on the happy Event of Peace, with the Establishment of our Liberties and Independence.
Glorious indeed has been our Contest: glorious, if we consider the Prize for which we have contended, and glorious in its Issue; but in the midst of our Joys, I hope we shall not forget that, to divine Providence is to be ascribed the Glory and the Praise.1
“Your proposition respecting Mr Aikins Bibles [Note: Rodgers’s letter (May 30) suggested that Congress present each soldier with a Bible. This letter is in the Washington Papers.] would have been particularly noticed by me, had it been suggested in Season; but the late Resolution of Congress for discharging Part of the Army, takg off near two thirds of our Numbers, it is now too late to make the Attempt. It would have pleased me, if Congress should have made such an important present, to the brave fellows, who have done so much for the Security of their Country’s Rights and Establishment.
“I hope it will not be long before you will be able to go peaceably to N York; some patience however will yet be necessary; but Patience is a noble Virtue, and when rightly exercised, does not fail of its Reward.”
12 WGW, vol. 3-5-1794. To Charles Thompson. “Dear Sir: Weeks have passed since I finished reading the first part of your translation of the Septuagent; but having neglected (when I had the pleasure to see you last) to ascertain the medium through which I was to return it, and being unwilling to hazard the production to an uncertain conveyance, I give this letter to the Post Office in hopes of its reaching you, and of my receiving the information above.”
13 See Boller, George Washington & Religion, p. 40.
14 WGW, vol. 37, Last Will and Testament,
15 Reverend Bryan Fairfax, Minister of Christ Church, Alexandria, Sermon; from Christ Church, Rare BV 4500 P14.
16 “While President, Washington followed an invariable routine on Sundays, The day was passed very quietly, no company being invited to the house. After breakfast, the President read aloud a chapter from the Bible, then the whole family attended church together. Washington spent the afternoon writing personal letters, never neglecting his weekly instructions to his manager at Mount Vernon, while Mrs. Washington frequently went to church again, often taking the children with her. In the evening, Lear read aloud to the family some sermon or extracts from a book of a religious nature and everyone went to bed at an early hour. The President was an Episcopalian and in New York at first went to Saint Paul’s Chapel, as Trinity Church, which had been burned in the great fire of September, 1776, was then being rebuilt. The new church, when completed in March following, contained the ‘President’s Pew,” which was offered to Washington and accepted and after the new edifice was consecrated on the twenty-fifth of March, 1790, he attended services there until his departure from the city the following autumn.” (Stephen Decatur, Private Affairs of George Washington: From the Records and Accounts of Tobias Lear, Esquire, his Secretary, pp. 90-91.)
17 M’Guire, Religious Opinions, p. 134 and following; Johnson, George Washington The Christian, p. 229-230; Meade, Old Churches, vol. 2, p. 246.
18 Custis, Recollections, p. 477.
19 Boller, George Washington & Religion, p. 40. See also P. Marion Simms, The Bible in America (New York, 1936), p. 132.
20 Consider here Uzal Ogden’s 1795 work, Antidote to Deism, against Thomas Paine’s Age of Reason that Washington declined to endorse. Boller, p. 80, following Eliot Morison (The Young Man Washington (Cambridge, 1932), p. 37), implies that this was because of his sympathies for Deism. Washington received the two volumes on March 22, 1796. Ogden had written, “Dear Sir—I beg your acceptance of a Publication (which I have taken the Liberty to inscribe to you) designed to check the Progress of Infidelity and Vice, and to promote the Interests of Truth and Virtue—I shall be happy if the work shall be honored with your approbation, and am with sincere and great Esteem, Dear Sir, Your most obedient and very humble Servant Uzal Ogden.” (William Lane, A Catalogue of the Washington Collection, (The Boston Athenaeum, 1897) pp. 154-55; The George Washington Papers at the Library of Congress, Series 4. General Correspondence. 1697-1799, Uzal Ogden to George Washington, March 22, 1796, Image 20 of 1122.) The truth is Washington by this time had determined to deal with Paine in total silence. To have endorsed a book that critiqued Paine would have opened him up for further wrangling with his erstwhile friend. See chapter two above. This view is corroborated by the fact that Washington in this instance did not even acknowledge Ogden’s letter, although earlier he had clearly enjoyed an evangelical and biblically based sermon by Ogden, as is evident from Washington’s letter to Ogden (WGW, vol. 16, 8-5-1779), and in another instance, although declining to endorse a publication by him, he graciously explained that he could not (WGW, vol. 30, 7-6-1789.) Interestingly, Washington not only retained Ogden’s anti-Deistic work in his library, but Washington’s autograph is on the title page of both volumes. Lane, Washington Collection, Boston Athenaeum p. 154.
21 WGW, vol. 30, April 1789.
22 Ibid., vol. 29, 4-25-1788.
23 Ibid., vol. 26, 6-8-1783.
24 Ibid., vol. 28, 7-25-1785.
25 Ibid.
