of the Church, he conceived the' noble idea of founding the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, and that for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. lie latter was chartered in June, 1701, the former in 1698. Early in March, 1700, I>r. Bray arrived in Mary- land, and entered at once with zeal and diligence upon his work. He assembled the clergy, delivered charges, administered discipline, and was active in having a bill passed by the legislature for the settlement and main- tenance of the- parochial clergy. By this bill it was provided "that the' Hook of Common Prayer and ad- ministration of the sacraments, with the rites and cer- emonies of the' Church, according to the' use of the Church of England, the Psalter and Psalms of David, and morning and evening prayer, therein contained, he
solemnly read by all and .'very minister or reader in every church or other place' of public worship within this province'." 1 lespite some opposition, the king gai e' ihe enactment hi- consent, and it became law. Al- though Dr. Pray's stay in Maryland was terminated in 1701, he never ceased his efforts in behalf of the t 'hurch
there; and it is on re'eord that out of some thirty thou- sand inhabitants in Maryland at this date, the' majority were in communion with the- Church ol England.
The Caroliuas and Georgia wire anion- the later colonies in the' southern pan of America. Several in- effectual efforts hail been made' from 1630 60 to found settlements in the region of Albemarle Sound: but it wa- not tin after the restoration of Charles II that a body of noblemen (Clarendon, Albemarle, etc.) under- took the task, and met with succe'ss. " Being excited," as they declared. •• by a laudable' and pious zeal for the propagati f the Gospel, they begged a certain coun- try in the parts of America not yet cultivated anil planted, and only inhabited by some barbarous people w ho have no knowledge of God." The charter allowed
PROTESTANT EPISC. CHURCH 071 PROTESTANT EPISC. CHURCH
entire freedom of religious opinion, and no one was to be disturbed on these matters by the public authorities. We are sorry to say, however, that, notwithstanding the pious and proper language quoted above, the noble proprietaries made no provision for the spiritual inter- ests of the colonists or for the conversion of the Indians. The famous John Locke's "grand model" of govern- ment (1670) turned out to be a grand failure, and was abolished in 1693. George Fox, the founder of the Quaker denomination, visited Carolina and gave quite an impulse to the peculiar notions in religion which he entertained. The religious condition of the colony at the close of the century was on the whole very unsat- isfactory, and ungodliness prevailed to a lamentable extent. Early in the 18th century the majority of the colonists were dissenters, yet acts were passed in 1704- 6, establishing the Church of England as the religion of the province. This produced trouble and resistance cf course, and was of no real advantage to the Church. The Society for Propagating the Gospel sent mission- aries into the Carolinas, and some, though mostly in- effectual, struggles were made to stay the floods of un- godliness, fanaticism, and semi-heathenism ; it was a hard and almost hopeless contest during the greater part of the century. Georgia owed its origin to Ogle- thorpe's benevolent designs and efforts from 1732 on- ward. Religious privileges were freely accorded. The German Lutherans and Moravians were early in the field. A small company of Jews came also; and a body of Scotch Highlanders founded New Inverness in 1736. At this date, too, John and Charles Wesley were in Georgia. John Wesley was parish minister in Savan- nah, and for a while matters went on very well and sat- isfactorily, but ere long the strictness of Wesley in en lolling the rubrics, and the dissatisfaction of the col- onists who were very restive under Church discipline, led to dissension and irreconcilabel differences; so that Wesley "shook off the dust of his feet," as he phrases it, and left Georgia in disgust. George Whitefield soon after came to Georgia, and though he was continually itinerating to and from England and through the northern colonies, stirring up great excitement by his fiery zeal and energy, yet his labors in Georgia as a clergyman of the Church of England met with fair success. The same statement may here be made as in the case of the Carolinas, that missionaries of the So- ciety for Propagating the Gospel did what they could in behalf of religion and the Church; but they were far too few and ill-supported to accomplish much.
Turning our attention from the southern colonies, where, as in Virginia, the Church of England was plant- ed at the date of the earliest settlement in America, and where it flourished despite the fact of being de- prived of an essential element in the life and growth of the Church, viz. episcopal presence and supervision, we may next glance at the more northerly portion of the continent. New York (formerly New Netherland) was first colonized by the Dutch in 1615 onward, and of course was in its religious character presbyterian, like the Hollanders at home. In 1664 it was seized by the English, and became a part of the colonial em- pire of England. After a time the Church of England obtained precedence, and for a while was supported by public tax. Trinity Church was founded in New York city in 1696; the Kev. W. Vesey was its first rector, and was also for fifty years commissary of the bishop of London; it is probably the wealthiest church cor- poration in the United States. New Jersey (New Sweden), in like manner, and the banks of the Dela- ware from the mouth inland, were settled by Swedes in 1638. Later (1676), the Quakers came in as colonists, and though in religious profession the inhabitants were principally Presbyterians and Quakers, yet there was open toleration to all other Christian believers. Mis- sionaries of the Society for Propagating the Gospel were at an early day earnestly and zealously at work, at several points in New Jersey, and besides the names