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    dictates of a bishop . The bishop therefore refused to engage in the service , to which Mr . Freeman , upon his otvn terms , would have oladly acceded . This conduct of the overseer led Mr . Freeman to

    think more deeply upon the subject than be had usually done . The affair became the topic of oynoral conversation . Most of the Bostonians were advocates for Mr . Freeman . But , Mr . Parker , a hi « h priest belonging to the first

    episcopal Church , exerted himself to the utmost against him , though with little success , as there was no establishment there , nor any Doctors' Commons , to punish

    him according to their arbitrary decisions , from a merciful regard to his soul , and a pious discharge of that supreme homage which is ever , p erf as et ncfas , due to the friends oi' the Church .

    About this particular crisis , a gentleman from this country , who had suffered much for his attachment to the American cause , and who had his share of that evil

    report , which the orthodox usually circulate amongst their brethren 9 gainst Unitarians , embarked fbr America with his family , which his friends humorously { o ^ d him was his land of promise . After spending some months in the sou .,

    them States , be arrived at Boston the 15 th pt May , 1784 : and having a letter to Mr . Eliot , who received him with great kindness , he \ vas introduced on that very

    day to the Association . The venerable Chauncey , at whose hou § e it happened tP be held , entered into a famijiar conversation with him , and . shewed him every possible respect , as he , learned that he liad been acquainted with Di \ fiice . Without &no \ ytog ' $ t the

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    time any thing of the occasion which led to it , ordination hap * pened to be the genera ) subject of discourse . After the different

    gentlemen had severally delivered their opinions ^ the stranger was requested to deplare his sentiments ; who unhesitatingly replied , that the people or the con - gregation , who chose any man to

    be their rninister , were his proper ordainers . Air . Freeman , upon hearing this , jumped from his seat in a kind of transr / prt , saying , cc I wish you could prove that , Sir /

    The gentleman , whom I shall in future call Bereq , nus , answered that few things could admit of an easier proof : and from that moment a thorough intimacy commenced between him and Mr ,

    Freeman . Soon after , the Boston prints being iinder no imprimatur , he published several letters in svipporting the cause of Mr , Freeman . At the solicitation of

    Mr . Freeman , he ? ilso published a scriptural confutation of the 39 Articles . Notice being circulated that this publication would , appear on a particular day , the

    printer , apprized of this circum stance , threw off above a hundred papers beyond his usual number , and had not one paper * remaining upon his hands at noon , Thi ^

    publication , in its consequences , converted Mr . Freeman ' s cohgrc * , gation into an Unitarian Church , which , as Mr- Freeman repea t * cdl y acknowledged , could never have been done without the labours

    of Bcre ^ uius . A committee was , appointed to reform the book of Common Prayer , mid ^ o striken out all thp ^ C ' passages w , hich san you red of Trinitarian worshi p * Tbis object being pursued witfy great delibeiatiori * t , \ ie / ordrnaJv ^

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    State of Rational Religion in America * ~ 303

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1808, page 303, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2393/page/11/