ing about him. The doctrine was termed the Half-Way
Covenant System, and was adopted in the church at Northampton. Jonathan
Edwards succeeded Stoddard, who was his grandfather; and, a few years
after the great revival in which the former took an active part, he
adopted the opinion that the Half-Way Covenant was injurious. Edwards
refused to practice it, and in his _Treatise on the Qualifications for
Full Communion_, he declared the necessity of regeneration. He was
accordingly dismissed from his church.

This was the germ of American Unitarianism. Stoddard's adherents clung
to their loose view of communion, while the friends of Edwards, being
more spiritual, and many of them the fruits of the Whitefieldian
revival, sustained the orthodox construction with energy. The Half-Way
Covenant in due time called a party into existence, which "avoided all
solicitude concerning their own spiritual condition or that of others;
were repugnant to the revival spirit; must have a system of doctrines
which could contain nothing to alarm the fears or disturb the repose of
the members of the party. The doctrines of apostasy, dependence on grace
for salvation, necessity of atonement, and special influence of the Holy
Spirit, were all thought to be alarming doctrines. They were therefore
laid aside silently and without controversy. Men were suffered to forget
that the Son of God, and the Spirit, have anything to do with man's
salvation."[235]

King's Chapel, Boston, was the first Episcopal church of New England.
Its rector leaving with the British troops upon their evacuation of the
town, Rev. James Freeman was chosen in April, 1783, to occupy the
vacant position. The services of the church were conducted after the
Episcopal form, the Book of Common Prayer being still used. Mr.
Freeman's views underwent a change, and he delivered a course of
doctrinal sermons in which he indicated decided Unitarian proclivities.
Accordingly he introduced a revised liturgy, corresponding with Dr.
Samuel Clarke's _Revision of the Liturgy of the Church of England_, from
which the doctrines of the Trinity and of the divinity of Christ were
excluded. The congregation addressed a letter to Bishop Provost, of New
York, in which inquiry was made, "whether ordination of Rev. Mr. Freeman
can be obtained on terms agreeable to him and to the proprietors of this
church." The bishop proposed to refer the question to the next general
convention. But the congregation, dis