ABSTRACT
As Mayhew celebrated America as the enduring home of political liberty under the pressure of British policy in the 1760s, so Amos Adams divined American origins in the search for religious liberty and defined the religious history of the colonies as the establishment and maintenance of liberty of conscience and the right of private judgment. By providential favour, the preservation of these principles meant the rejection of institutional or other prescriptive authority in matters of faith and worship. Christ was the only source of authority, and churches the voluntary banding together of the faithful. Thus as crisis mounted in the 1760s, ministerial rhetoric played its part in constructing America as the home of liberty in its several dimensions, and prepared the ideological ground for its defence.
