RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES.
The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge was the parent of another society of not less importance. Dr. Bray was deeply interested in Missions abroad; with extraordinary efforts for the diffusion of the Gospel in England, he combined extraordinary efforts for the diffusion of the Gospel in the American colonies. He went out to Maryland at his own expense, as Ecclesiastical Commissary to the Bishop of London, and did not return to England until after he had exhausted his resources. It appears that in March, 1697, when a Bill was being read in Parliament respecting estates devoted to superstitious uses, he presented a petition, praying that a portion of such estates might be set apart for the propagation of the reformed religion in Maryland, Virginia, and the Leeward Isles, or that some other provision should be made for the purpose. Animated by this spirit, he induced the Society to approve of libraries in North America for the use of the Clergy. He visited Holland to obtain from His Majesty a grant in aid, and reported the design of Sir Richard Bulkeley to settle on his Irish estate a rent-charge of £20 a year, and his gift of a share in certain mines for the furtherance of this object. At length, floating desires assumed definite shape, and steps were taken to secure a charter for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts. Dr. Bray, through the instrumentality of Archbishop Tenison and Bishop Compton, succeeded in accomplishing this object, and in May, 1701, the draft of a charter “was read and debated, and several amendments made, and the names of the secretary and other officers proposed and agreed to.”[452] Repeated conferences took place at the meetings of the Society, touching points connected with the new undertaking; and on the 9th of June, Dr. Bray stated that His Majesty in Council had signed an order for incorporating the Society. Convocation had turned its thoughts to Foreign Missions, but relinquished further proceedings upon finding this charter was granted. The instrument described the objects of the new Society as being, first, the providing of learned and orthodox ministers for the administration of God’s word and sacraments amongst the King’s loving subjects in the plantations, colonies, and factories beyond the seas. So far the enterprise was strictly colonial, intended for the spiritual instruction and welfare of English emigrants to distant shores. The charter, secondly, contemplated the making of such other provision as might be necessary for the propagation of the Gospel in those parts; and this, read in the light of subsequent operations, might be interpreted to signify the diffusion of Christian knowledge amongst such of the heathen as lived in the neighbourhood of English colonists. Still the objects remained limited; it was confined to the British dominions, and took no account of pagan countries lying outside. Now that our Indian dominion is so extensive, the old charter may be construed as pointing to an immense field of labour there; but the charter at first—when our colonial dependencies were of comparatively narrow extent—contemplated, consistently with its nature as an incorporation under the English crown, a range of effort far within the wide sweep which Missions since have happily taken. Power was given to hold property, to carry on legal proceedings, to make bye-laws, and to collect subscriptions. To stamp the whole with a Church of England character, the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, the Bishops of London and Ely, the Lord Almoner, the Deans of Westminster and St. Paul’s, the Archdeacon of London, and the Regius and Margaret Professors of Divinity at Oxford and Cambridge for the time being, were constituted trustees, the selection of some of these dignitaries at first being doubtless determined on personal grounds.
RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES.
Under the presidency of his Grace of Canterbury, a meeting of members took place within one of the apartments of Lambeth Palace on the 27th of June, 1701; and we can fancy Compton, Williams, Fowler, Sherlock, and others, coming in barges along the Thames, or in coaches, on horseback, or a-foot through the narrow streets, to the well-known gateway of the Archiepiscopal abode. The charter was read. Five hundred printed copies of it were ordered. Melmoth was chosen treasurer, and Chamberlayne secretary. According to a vote on the occasion, there was prepared a symbolical seal, representing a ship in full sail, with a gigantic clergyman, half-mast high, standing by the bowsprit with an open Bible in his hands, whilst diminutive negroes, in an attitude of expectancy, are sprinkled over a hilly beach. Overhead is one of those awkward scrolls, devised to convey words uttered by the persons introduced; and here it contains in Latin the Macedonian prayer, which the little blacks are supposed to be offering: “Come over and help us.” At the top is a face surrounded by sun rays, apparently intended to denote the presence and benediction of God vouchsafed to the undertaking.
Meetings afterwards were held at the Cockpit, in Whitehall, or in the vestry of Bow Church, and afterwards in Archbishop Tenison’s library, in St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields. Soon the secretary prepared parchment rolls for the use of members deputed to receive subscriptions, amongst whom were Bishop Patrick, Archdeacon Stanley, and others. The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge had at least contemplated missionary work in our western colonies; but now that a new Society had been incorporated for extending the Gospel in foreign parts, these fields of labour were placed under its care.
As a precursor of publications in religious literature, issued within a short time in such numbers as would fill a library, there was presented, at the close of the first year’s operations, a report, from which it is worth while to extract a passage or two illustrating the way in which such documents were then drawn up, and of the nature of the work accomplished by the Society.
Mention is made of “one missionary for the service of the Yeomansee Indians to the South of Carolina;” of regard had to infidels amongst English settlers in North America; and of the determination also to resist the progress of “Quakerism, Antinomianism, ignorance, and immorality, which have hitherto fatally overspread those infant churches.” Provision was made for “some of the islands by a supply of two ministers;” further, there had been “a settlement compassed for a congregation at Amsterdam, with the consent of the magistrates of the place;” and encouragement had been given to commence a church at Moscow, of which the Czar had laid the foundation. The expense of these undertakings was paid out of a fund of about £800, aided by subscriptions amounting to £1,700.
RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES.
In an appendix of the year 1701 is found a plan, proposed by Patrick Gordon, for establishing seminaries on the verge of the Indian territory, where boys from London charity-schools should be sent; the main object being to “induce Indian children to play with these boys, that marriages might be promoted among them, and a mixed race of Christians might thus arise.”[453]
It is a curious fact that in the year 1703 overtures were made by White Kennet on behalf of the Society to Thomas Hearne, to settle in Maryland in a parochial cure. He was to be ordained at the charge of Dr. Bray, to have a library of books to the value of £50, to receive for his cure £70 per annum, and by degrees to be better preferred. He was to be librarian to the province, at an additional salary of £10 a year; and it was added: “When you have been there any time, you have liberty to return with money in your pocket and settle here in England, if you are not more pleased with all the good accommodations of that place.” The offer was not accepted. Hearne felt no vocation to colonial work.[454] By his refusal, the Society lost one who might have been no very successful missionary, and Oxford gained an illustrious archæologist.