USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Annals of King's Chapel from the Puritan age of New England to the present day > Part 6
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pected of you is to read the service of the church twice every Sunday, and also on Saints' days; to deliver a sermon of your own composing as often as is convenient ; and at other times to read such other sermons as are most approved by you. The Proprietors consent to such alterations in the service as are made by the Rev. Mr. Parker, and leave the use of the Athana- sian Creed at your discretion.'"
For the first six months Mr. Freeman received a compensation of fifty pounds sterling, or about two hundred and fifty dollars. . On April 21, 1783, he was chosen pastor of the church, on a salary of two hundred pounds, - a sum which, in relation to its purchasing power and to the simple habits of the time, would compare not unfavorably with the salaries of the present day. He lived, and continued to live till his marriage, in the family of his friend George R. Minot,1 the ancestor of the well-known family of that name, which has members in the fifth generation still among the worshippers at King's Chapel.
At a very early period after his election as minister, Mr. Free- man began to feel serious doubts with reference to the Trinity. He accordingly ceased to read such portions of the Liturgy as recognized this dogma, and proposed to the congregation an amended form of Public Prayer as eminently desirable. He at the same time preached a series of sermons on Christian doc- trine, presenting in the most explicit form of statement the belief which he had reached, in the confident expectation that the avowal of his opinions would result in his immediate dismis- sal from the ministry. But Unitarianism was in the air, as we . showed in the last chapter. Probably there was not a church in Boston in which such discourses would not have been met with warm sympathy, and few in which the majority of the hear- ers would not have recognized the view of the Divine nature which they had derived from the Christian Scriptures, but to which they had not given a distinctive name.
Of course the worshippers at King's Chapel had been much
1 George Richards Minot was born in Boston in 1758, and graduated at Har- vard College, at the head of his class, in 1778. Ilis intimacy with Dr Freeman probably began in college. He attained eminence as a lawyer, filled several im- portant judicial offices, and had the reputation, which he has transmitted to his descendants in successive genera- tions, of uncorrupt integrity and the highest type of moral worth. He was
the author of two historical works, which were regarded as second to no similar productions of their time in lit- erary merit and in the tokens of pains. taking research, and are still of unques- tioned authority as to the periods and events which they embrace. Ile was one of the founders of the Massachusetts Historical Society. He died midway in a career of prosperity and honor, at the age of forty-four. See ante, p. 364.
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scattered during the years for which their service had been sus- pended, and some of them, like Dr. Caner, their rector, had preferred exile to the new political regime. It was found that twenty-nine pews were legally forfeited to the church. Most or all of these were already occupied, and most of them were sold to the occupants, with a vote of ample compensation (which was not legally due) to the former owners, if application should be made within a year from the passage of the vote (January 10, 1785).
On February 20th of that year it was voted to make the desired changes in the Liturgy. The Committee for this purpose con- sisted of the Wardens, Thomas Bulfinch and Shrimpton Hutchin- son, and seven other members of the society ; namely, John Haskins, John Gardiner, Charles Williams, Perez Morton, Samuel Breck, Charles Miller, and John Wheelwright, with the understanding that the work should be performed with the advice and approval of Mr. Freeman. Of course the revision was made for the most part by Mr. Freeman, and the alterations were principally those that had appeared in Dr. Samuel Clarke's draft of a reformed Liturgy. On the 28th of March the Committee made their Report, and the alterations which they recommended were dis- cussed at several successive meetings, till, on the 19th of June, the proprietors voted " that the Common Prayer, as it now stands amended, be adopted by this church as the form of prayer to be used in future by this church and congregation." The vote was passed by yeas and nays, and there were twenty yeas to seven nays, three of the seven dissentients, though still proprietors, having been worshippers at Trinity Church since 1776.1
The revised Prayer Book was put to press immediately on its adoption, and was ready for use before the end of the year. It was printed by Peter Edes, in a small octavo of 422 pages, in fair, large type, and in the best style of the time. Dr. Free- man, in his correspondence, speaks of it as entirely satisfactory so far as doctrine is concerned, though still, on the score of taste,
1 " The yeas were Thomas Bulfinch, John Gardiner, John Wheelwright, Jo- seph May, John Jutau, Eben. Oliver, George R. Mmnot, John Amory, John Templeman, Joseph Barrell, Andrew Johonnot, Charles Miller, Henry John- son, Joseph Coolidge, Jacob Porter, Robert Hewes, Thomas Clement, Jo- seph Eayres, Samuel Breck, Perez Mor- ton. The nays were James Ivers, Theo- dore Dehon, John Box, John Haskins,
Matthew Nazro, Charles Williams, Am- brose Vincent. Messrs. Dehon, Box, and Nazro were those who had worshipped at Trinity Church since 1776." - Green- wood's History of King's Chapel, p. 138.
Of actual worshippers in King's Chapel at this time, Dr. Freeman writes that there were about ninety families, of which only fifteen were indisposed to favor the revised Liturgy.
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demanding further alterations, - such, no doubt, as have since been made, and principally during his lifetime. So many of the changes, not of a doctrinal bearing, are identical with those sub- sequently adopted by the American Episcopal Church that the book must have been in the hands of the compilers of their Book of Common Prayer. The regular morning and evening services are greatly abridged from the English. The Nicene Creed is of course omitted; the Apostles' Creed is retained, with the exception of the clauses, " He descended into hell " and " The holy Catholic Church." For the Trinitarian doxology is substituted that " to the King eternal, immortal, invisible." In the Litany the petitions addressed to the second and third persons of the Trinity are modified ; that to the Trinity collec- tively, suppressed. The petitions adjuring Christ by the human experiences of his earthly life are omitted, and in all probability a large proportion of those who use them repeat them virtually under protest, as they are not in accordance with the now pre- valent belief of Trinitarian Christians. The prayer, " Good Lord, deliver us," is offered, not, as in the English and Ameri- can Episcopal Prayer Books, concerning " sudden death," but more fittingly, concerning " death unprepared for." There was evi- dently no intention or expectation of seceding from or of being disowned by the Episcopal Church, which had then no corporate organization, and was thus incapable of authoritative action, whether friendly or adverse, as to the new departure. Accord- ingly, the " Prayer for the Clergy and People " is offered for "all Bishops and Ministers of the Gospel," and the petition in the Litany, for " all Bishops, Priests, and Deacons."
The Collects, Epistles, and Gospels are retained -- with slight changes in the Collects -for Sundays, for all the great epochs of the Christian year, and for the Saints' days, "Whit-Sunday" (more properly Whitsun-day), instead of Trinity Sunday, being the date from which the Sundays are numerically reckoned till the first in Advent. The services for the Holy Communion, Baptism, Matrimony, the Visitation of the Sick, and the Burial of the Dead are retained in substance, but shortened, simplified, and where such change seemed necessary, modernized in phra- scology, while reference to the Trinity is of course excluded. The Catechism is almost entirely reconstructed ; and for much that is unintelligible to children, some things, too, which it requires special illumination for an adult of superior culture to under- stand, was substituted a compend of Christian truth and duty in language so simple that a child of tender years could hardly
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require a word of explanation. In the Catechism we find the earliest, if not the only, recognition, in a manual of religious in- struction, of a very important department of practical ethics, - "In what manner should we treat the inferior animals ?" The Psalter is retained in full ; but passages deemed unfit for respon- sive reading or devotional use, such as imprecations, are printed in italics. The book closes with eight Doxologies, in as many different metres, five of them addressed to God, two to Jesus Christ, and one to God and Christ successively. These are stanzas of high poetical merit, eminently fitted for worship, and three of them are redolent of that tender, loving loyalty to Christ which characterizes the entire volume, and has been equally characteristic of the King's Chapel pulpit and ministry. The author of these Doxologies was Joel Barlow, who, though in later years a freethinker, was then the poet laureate of Con- necticut Congregationalism, having been employed by the "General Association " to revise, for use in the churches, Watts's version of the l'salms, and to supply translations of the twelve which Watts had omitted.
Tate and Brady's version of the Psalms was still used for worship, till superseded by a collection of Psalms and Hymns specially prepared for the Chapel, by Mr. Freeman and Joseph May,1 in 1799.
When this Prayer Book appeared, Mr. Freeman was still un- ordained, and by Congregational as well as by Episcopal usage was incompetent to celebrate the ordinances of Baptism 2 and
1 Joseph May was born in Boston in 1760, and spent there nearly the whole of his eighty-one years of life. Ile com- menced life as a merchant, but for the greater part of his active years was sec- retary of the Boston Marine Insurance Company, and for more than thirty years, by appointment of the Judge of l'robate, held the office of Commissioner for the settlement of insolvent estates. He was Dr. Freeman's most intimate friend and his constant helper, and was Warden of the Chapel for thirty years. IIe had the gift of sacred song, for a considerable part of the time led the singing, and dur- ing his entire term of office had the principal, virtually the sole, charge of that department of worship. He was in every sense a man of the beatitudes. With limited means, but with a warm heart, he ministered to want, need, and sorrow with unwearied assiduity, was the
means of rescuing many families from utter destitution, with its attendant moral perils, and was the life-long friend and benefactor of not a few who owed all that they were to his fatherly protection and guidance. Of no man of his time could it be said with more literal truth that " he went about doing good." The law of heredity had its conspicuous illustration in his son, the well-known philanthropist, Rev. Samuel Joseph May, who simply carried into the great moral enterprises of his generation the Christian zeal, fidelity, and love with which his father had dispensed relief, consolation, and hope among the grief-stricken and sin- stricken in Boston. See pp. 483-487, post.
2 According to the best authorities in the Episcopal, as also in the Roman, Church, lay-baptism, though irregular, is valid.
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the Lord's Supper. The Wardens of King's Chapel had indeed addressed a letter to Bishop Seabury shortly after his return to America, requesting him to ordain their minister, but probably with little or no hope of a favorable answer, as he was not only a high churchman, but a half-pay ex-chaplain in the British army, while the survivors of the dispersion that re-assembled in King's Chapel must have been looked upon with little favor by one whose political as well as religious sympathies were with those who had left the church rather than with those who ad- hered to it. In March, 1786, Bishop Seabury being in Boston, a committee of the King's Chapel congregation called upon him and renewed their request.1 He replied that in a case so un- usual it was necessary for him to consult his clergy. Mr. Free- man, accordingly, in the following June, appeared before the Episcopal Convention of Connecticut. He thus describes his reception : -
" I rode to Stratford, where a convention was holding, carrying with me several letters of recommendation. I waited upon the Bishop's pres- byters and delivered my letters. They professed themselves satisfied with the testimonials which they contained of my moral character, etc., but added that they could not recommend me to the Bishop for ordina- tion upon the terms proposed by my church. For a man to subscribe the Scriptures, they said, was nothing ; for it could never be determined from that what his creed was. Hereticks professed to believe them not less than the orthodox, and make use of them in support of their peculiar opinions. If I would subscribe to such a declaration as that I could conscientiously read the whole of the Book of Common Prayer, they would cheerfully recommend me. I answered that I could not con- scientiously subscribe a declaration of that kind. 'Why not?' -' Be- cause there are some parts of the Book of Common Prayer which I do not approve.' 'What parts?' - ' The prayers to the Son and the Holy Spirit.' 'You do not, then, believe the doctrine of the Trinity?' -' No.' 'This appears to us very strange. We can think of no texts which countenance your opinion. We should be glad to hear you mention some.' -' It would ill become me, Gentlemen, to dispute with persons of your learning and abilities. But if you will give me leave, I will repeat two passages which appear to me decisive : There is one God, and one Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. - There is but one God the Father, and one Lord Jesus Christ. In both these passages Jesus Christ is plainly distinguished from God, and in the last, God is expressly declared to be the Father.' To this they made no other reply than an 'Ah !' which echoed round the room. 'But are not all the attributes of the Father,' said one, 'attributed to the Son in the Scriptures? Is not omnipotence, for instance?' -' It is
1 In this connection see p. 621, post.
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true,' I answered, ' that our Saviour says of Himself, All power is given unto me in Heaven and Earth. You will please to observe here that the power is said to be given. It is a derived power. It is not self-existent and unoriginated, like that of the Father.' 'But is not the Son omnis- cient? Does He not know the hearts of men?' - ' Yes, He knows them by virtue of that intelligence which He derives from the Father ; but by a like communication did Peter know the hearts of Ananias and Sapphira.' After some more conversation of the same kind, they told me that it could not possibly be that the Christian world should have been idolaters for seventeen hundred years, as they must be according to my opinions. In answer to this, I said that whether they had been idolaters or not I would not determine, but that it was full as probable that they should be idolaters for seventeen hundred years as that they should be Roman Catholicks for twelve hundred. They then proceeded to find fault with some part of the new Liturgy. 'We observe that you . have converted the absolution into a prayer. Do you mean by that to deny the power of the Priesthood to absolve the people, and that God has committed to it the power of remitting sins?' -' I meant neither to deny nor to affirm it. 'The absolution appeared exceptionable to some persons, for which reason it was changed into a prayer, which could be exceptionable to nobody.' ' But you must be sensible, Mr. Freeman, that Christ instituted an order of priesthood, and that to them He com- mitted the power of absolving sins. Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto him, and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained? To this I made no reply than a return of their own emphatic Ah ! Upon the whole, finding me an incorrigible heretick, they dismissed me without granting my request. They treated me, however, with great candor and politeness, begging me to go home, to read, to alter my opinions, and then to return and receive the ordination which they wished to procure me from the Bishop."
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Mr. Freeman next applied in person to Rev. Dr. Provoost, Bishop-elect of New York, who received him kindly, and ex- pressed his approval of the King's Chapel Liturgy, but very properly made no promise as to his action in the case, which, as he intimated, must depend in part on judgments other than his own. Though he did not commit himself, all that is known of him renders it probable that he had no objection to admitting to orders persons whom a rigid dogmatic standard would have cx- cluded. After Bishop Provoost's consecration a new application was made to him in a document drawn up by Mr. Freeman and signed by the Wardens, and a courteous answer was returned, declining, in accordance with the advice of the council of his diocese, to give a decision till the meeting of the General Con- vention, the time for which was probably not determined, but
VOL. II .- 25
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which was actually held in 1789. Weary of delays, the society raised the question of an ordination other than Episcopal. The alternatives were the method then practised in the Congrega- tional churches, and lay ordination. To the former it seemed a sufficient objection that the society would thus formally separate itself from the Episcopal Church, and would virtually take its place in a denomination with traditions, customs, and methods widely different from its own, and that the minister would then be precluded from the possibility of what still seemed possible and desirable, -ordination by a bishop at some later period. For the latter alternative it was urged that on the Congregational theory, as promulgated in the Cambridge Platform, the right of ordination resides in the church itself, the officiating ministers serving merely as its agents, and that in some then well-known instances the members of the church had exercised this right in person, without objection or protest on the part of the clergy. Mr. Freeman himself also, in 1784, while still desirous, and not without reasonable hope, of episcopal ordination, had become convinced that all that was essential to constitute ordination is the solemn ratification of the choice of the people in such mode as may be most expedient and edifying. On mature delibera- tion the society adopted this view, and agreed upon a plan and mode of ordination. November 18, 1787, was the time agreed upon. On the 17th of the same month the following protest was received, with a request that it be entered in the church records : -
" Whereas certain persons calling themselves proprietors of the Stone Chapel in Boston have of late declared that the pews of a number of the original proprietors are forfeit, on account of their absence, and have sold said pews to persons who never were of the Episcopal Church, and who hold sentiments diametrically opposite to said Church ; and said new proprietors have introduced a Liturgy, different from any now used in the Episcopal churches in the United States, and articles of faith which in our opinion are unscriptural and herctical ; and have thereby deprived many of the proprietors of said house of their property and the privilege of worshipping God therein according to the dictates of their consciences ; and whereas we are informed by a Committee from said proprietors that they intend, next Lord's day, to take. upon themselves to authorize Mr. James Freeman to administer the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper in said church, and to receive him as a regular ordained Minis- ter, which step in our opinion is unprecedented, irregular, and contrary to apostolic and primitive usage, and to the common sentiments of al- most every sect and denomination of Christians, a step which may be attended with fatal consequences to the interests of religion in general
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and that of the Episcopal Church in particular, - we therefore the sub- scribers, in behalf of ourselves and other original proprietors of this church, who have authorized us to act for them, do hereby enter our most solemn and serious protest and dissent against all such proceedings, and particularly against the settlement and pretended ordination of the said James Freeman, declaring our utter abhorrence of measures so con- trary to the doctrine, discipline, and worship of an Episcopal church, and which will include in them a total alienation of the property of said house from the use intended by the original donors or founders.
" JAMES IVERS, for himself and Jas. Trecothick, Esqr. GILBERT DEBLOIS, for himself, Lewis Deblois, and Henry Leddell. JAMES LLOYD, for Wm. Vassall, Esqr. HENRY SMITH, for Henry Lloyd. JAMES APTHORP. CHARLES WILLIAMS. THEODORE DEHON. JOHN Box. JOHN HASKINS. LYDIA BOX. MATTHEW NAZRO. AMBROSE VINCENT. GRIZZELL APTHORP. DOROTHY FORBES." 1
The following account of the ordination is copied from Green- wood's History of King's Chapel : ---
"On Sunday, 18th November, 1787, after the Rev. Mr. Freeman had finished the reading of Evening Prayer, the Wardens joined him in the reading-desk, when the Senior Warden (Thomas Bulfinch, M. D.) made a short but pertinent address to the vestrymen, proprietors, and con- gregation, on the importance of the service in which they were now engaging.
"' Brethren of the Vestry, proprietors, and congregation who statedly worship in this church, at your last meeting at this place you appointed this day for the ordination of the Rev. Mr. Freeman ; you then deter- mined it by a vote which I shall now read, to be signed by the Wardens on your behalf. But as this mode of procedure may appear new and unprecedented to some of this audience, it may not be amiss to assign a reason for adopting it.
"' It is now upwards of four years since you made choice of the Rev. Mr. Freeman for your Minister, since which time you have been anxious for his ordination, that he might be empowered to administer the ordi- nances of the Gospel; and although you have repeatedly sought for this power, yet you have not been able to obtain it. Some hopes have been conceived from the American Bishops, the Right Rev. Dr. Seabury, and since from the Rt. Rev. Dr. Provost ; but that prospect being still distant, you have adopted the present mode rather than be longer de- prived of those ordinances. As the business before us is of a serious and important nature, it becomes us to begin it with a solemn address to the great Parent of mankind.'
" The first ordaining prayer was then read by the Rev. Mr. Freeman. 'The Senior Warden then read the ordaining vote ; viz. -
1 Greenwood's History, pp 183-185.
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"' WVe the Wardens, vestry, proprietors, and congregation of King's Chapel, or First Episcopal Church in Boston, do by virtue of the third article in the Declaration of Rights hereby solemnly elect, ordain, consti- tute, and appoint the Rev. James Freeman, of said Boston, to be our Rector, Minister, Public Teacher, Priest, Pastor, and teaching Elder, to preach the word of God, and to dispense lessons and instructions in piety, religion, and morality ; and to minister the holy sacraments in the congregation ; and to do, perform, and discharge all the other duties and offices which of right belong to any other Rector, minister, public teacher, Pastor, teaching elder, or Priest in orders.
". And it is hereby understood and intended that the authority and rights hereby given to the said James Freeman to be our Rector, Min- ister, public Teacher, Priest, teaching Elder and Pastor, are to remain in full force so long as he shall continue to preach the word of God, and dispense instructions in piety, religion. and morality, conformably to our opinions and sentiments of the Holy Scriptures, and no longer ; and that our judgment of his not thus conforming to our religious sentiments and opinions shall be ascertained by the votes of three fourths of the Wardens and vestry, and of three fourths of the proprietors usually wor- shipping in said church, separately and individually taken.
". Brethren, if this vote be agreeable to your minds, if you readily and cheerfully adopt it, if you mean to convey all the powers expressed in it, please to signify it.'
" In token of their unanimous approbation, the proprietors lifted up their right hands.
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