dren, chiefly those of his old Friends (the rest are hardened just like the Jews who please not God and are contrary to all men), we have gathered several hundreds together for the Church of England, and what is more, to build houses for her service. There are four or five going forward now in this province and the next. That at Burlington is allmost finished. Mr. Keith preached the first sermon in it before my Lord Cornbury, whom the Queen has made Governour of Jersey to the satisfaction of all Christian people. Churches are going up amain where there were never any before. They are going to build three at N. Carolina to keep the people together, lest they should fall into Heathenism, Quakerism &c. &c., and three more in these lower counties about New Castle, besides that at Chester, Burlington and Amboy.

“And I must be so just to a member of your Society, his Excellency Francis Nicholson, Governour of Virginia, as to acknowledge him to be the Prime Benefactor and Founder, in chief of them all; so generous has he been to the church; so just to the State, so far from taking of bribes, that he will not receive a present from any, great or small. Therefore we have hopes that it will please God and the Queen to give him time to perfect the good works that he has begun; that he may see the Church prosper and prevail against all her enemies, which I dare say is all that he desires; being zealous for the honour of the Church of England which is the mother of us all. Upon her account it was that I was willing to travel with Mr. Keith, indeed I was loath he should go alone, now he was for us, who I'm sure would have had followers enough had he come against us. Besides, I had another end in it, that by his free Conversation and Learned Disputes both with his Friends and Enemies, I have Learnt better in a year to deal with the Quakers, then I could by several years' study in the schools. We want more of his narratives which would be of good use here where we often meet with the Quakers and their Books. More of his answers to Robert Barklay would come well to the clergy of Maryland and Virginia, &c. Barklay's book has done most mischief, therefore Mr. Keith's answer is more requisite and necessary. Mr. Keith has done great service to the Church where ever he has been, by Preaching and disputing, publicly and from house to house; he has confuted many (especially the Anabaptists); by Labor and Travel night and day, by writing and printing of books mostly at his own charge and costs and giving them out freely, which has been very expensive to him. By these means People are much awakened, and their Eyes opened to see the good old way, and they are very well pleased to find the Church at last take such care of her children. For it is a sad thing to consider the years that are past, how some that were born of the English, never heard of the name of Christ, how many others were baptized in his name and follow away to Heathenism, Quakerism, and Atheism for want of confirmation.

"It seems the strangest thing in the world and 'tis thought History can not parallel it, that any place has received the Word of God so many years, so many hundred Churches built, so many thousand proselytes made, and still remain altogether in the wilderness as sheep without a shepherd. The poor church of America is worse off in this respect than any of her adversaries.

"The Presbyterians here come a great way to lay hands one on another;

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but after all I think they had as good stay at home, for the good they do. The Independents are called by their Sovereign Lord the People. The Anabaptists and Quakers pretend to the spirit.. But the poor Church has no body upon the spot to comfort or confirm her children. No body to ordain severall that are willing to serve, were they authorized for the work of the ministry. Therefore they fall back again into the Herd of the Dissenters, rather than they will be at the Hazard and Charge to go as far as England for orders; so that we have seen severall Counties, Islands and Provinces, which have hardly an Orthodox minister amongst them, which might have been supplied had we been so happy as to see a Bishop or Suffragan apud Americanos.

"We count ourselves happy, and indeed so we are, under the protection and Fatherly Care of the Right Rev. Father in God, Henry Lord Bishop of London, and we are all satisfied that we can't have a greater Friend and Patron than himself. But alas! there is such a great Gulph fixt between us, that we can't pass to him nor he to us; but may he not send a Suffragan ? I believe I am sure there are a great many learned and Good men in England, and I believe also did our Gracious Queen Anne but know the necessities of her many good subjects in these parts of the world, she would allow £1000 per annum, rather than so many souls should suffer; and then it would be a hard case if there should not be found one amongst so many pastors and Doctors (de tot millibus, unus qui transiens, adjuvet nos); meanwhile I don't doubt 7 but some learned and good man would go further, and do the Church more service with £100 per annum than with a coach and six, 100 years hence.

"The Reverend author of the 'Snake in the Grass' has done great service here by his Excellent Book; no body that I know since the Apostles' dayes has managed controversie better against all Jews, Heathens and Heretics; many here have desired to see the author, however I hope we shall not want his works, especially against the Quakers, and the five discourses which have convinced many, and are much desiderated.

"Those boxes of books that were sent over last year, Mr. Keith has disposed of in their several Places as directed. I have carried of the small sort, in a wallet, some hundred miles, and distributed them to the people as I saw need. They have been long upon the search for truth in these parts, they see through the vanity and pretences of all Dissenters, and generally tend directly to the Church. Now is the time of harvest, we want a hundred hands for the work, meanwhile two or three, that are well chosen, will do more good there than all the rest; for we find by sad experience that people are better where they have none, than where they have an ill minister. Next unto God, our eyes are upon the Corporation for help in this heavy case. I dare say nothing has obtained more reputation to the Church and nation of England abroad than the honorable society for Reformation of manners and the Reverend and honorable corporation for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts.

"The Quakers compass sea and land to make proselytes; they send out yearly a parcel of vagabond Fellows that ought to be taken up and put in Bedlam rather than suffered to go about raving and railing against the Laws and Orders of Christ and his Church; and for why? Their preaching is of cursing and Lyes, poysoning the souls of the people with damnable errors and heresies, and not content with this in their own Territories of Pensylvania, but they travel with mischief over all parts as far as they can goe, over Virginia and

Maryland, and again through Jersey and New York as far as New England; but there they stop, for they have prevented them by good Laws and due Execution; Fas est ab hoste doceri. Sir

66 Your most humble and obedient servant,

"JOHN TALBOT."

"WORTHY SIR:

Mr. Talbot to the Secretary.

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Philadelphia, 7th April, 1704.

"Mr. Keith has fought the good fight, finished his race, 4bravely defended the Faith, done the Church of Christ true and laudable service, which I trust will be regarded here and rewarded hereafter. I may say he has done more for the Church than any, yea than all that have been before him. He came out worthy of his mission and of the Gospell of Christ. Taking nothing of the Heathen that he came to proselyte; besides his ordinary or rather extraordinary travels, his preaching excellent sermons upon all occasions, his disputes with all sorts of Heathens and Hereticks (who superabound in these parts;-Africa has not more monsters than America). He has written or printed ten or a dozen Books and Sermons, much at his own charge, and distributed them freely; which are all excellent in their kind, and have done good service all along shore. Now, since friends must part, I pray God, shew some token upon him for good, that he may arrive safe in England where he would be, that all his adversaries may see it, and be ashamed of their impious omens, &c. I have one prayer more to God for the sake of his Church in the deserts, viz.: That the Reverend and Honorable Corporation may find one amongst the thousands of the Reverend and Learned Clergy of England, worthy, honest, and willing to succeed, that the People of the Lord may not be scattered abroad in the wilderness like sheep without a Shephard.

"As for the affairs of the Church here, wee have said much formerly in Schemes and Letters, but have heard no great matter how or whether received; therefore I don't mean to be tedious at present; something I think I should say because you desired me to keep a Journall. To begin then where we began our Travells, at Boston New England. There is one Church, and there were two ministers, both sober and discreet men in the main, and I believe would have done good service at a distance; they were both our Friends, and I could wish they had been so to one another, or that those representations were true that are now gone to his Grace and to the Right Reverend Bishops of the Corporation, which say they parted good Friends; but to say the Truth as it is, there is such a variance that the Church can't flourish between them. Mr. Vesey does very well with his people at New York; Mr. Honyman is arrived but not yet settled, because he had been scandalized by an evil report which we have no reason to believe. I should not have forgott my honest brother Lockier of Rhode Island, who is very industrious when well. The Quakers themselves as far as I can hear, have

no evil to say of that Priest. Nova Cesarea or New Jersey has been most unhappy; there is not, nor ever was, an orthodox minister settled amongst them. But there is one Mr. Alexander Innes a man of great Piety and Probity, who has by his Life and Doctrine preached the Gospell, and rightly and duly administered the Holy Sacraments. We hope he will find favour with the Noble Corporation because he is worthy, and has need of it; as the people have need of him and are not so able or willing as we could wish to support the ministry;-'tis pity those hands should be put to dig that are fitt to cultivate the vineyard. I come now to Philadelphia where there is now none but Mr. Evans a very sober, decent man, who has doubled his diligence since Mr. Thomas departed; he does the whole service of the Church now, and is more constant and frequent in preaching and performing divine service than any that I know upon the Continent; but the school is supplyed here by a Swede untill one can be sent from England, which I hope will not be long. Now there is a good salary paid, and it would be a very good school were there but a good master; 'tis hard that the Heathens should have schools in the town, and the Christians not one. The Church at Chester is almost finished, and one at New York is going to be reared, both by the care and industry of Mr. Jasper Yeates, and all by the generous bounty of Governour Nicholson. God send us such a Publick Spirited Minister in the Church here, as he is always and everywhere the best Friend and Patron of the Church, the Crown and Country that ever came over. I dare say this because I know it to be true, having had the honor to know his Excellency many years, though I know he has as many adversaries as the Church herself, and the more I dare say upon her account. . . . We received a box of books, by the hands of his Honor Governour Evans, written by the Reverend Author of the "Snake in the Grass;" we know not who sent them, but, being directed for Mr. Keith, we ventured to lend them abroad for the Publick good, and pray God to bless the Author and the Donors. There were the first and second defence of the Snake &c. but not the Snake itself; and four of his five discourses, but not that of Episcopacy, which are most desiderated here; we cannot purchase either of those books at any rate; we want 1000 Common Prayer Books; we can hardly get one in America, and when we do find one, it costs five times as much as it's worth in England. The Church wants to be published here, which can't be done without the Liturgy, and something to shew for what we say. Mr. Tate's and Mr. Brady's Psalms have obtained here, and would do so every where, if they had in them the Bishop of London-derry's book of the "Inventions of Men in the Worship of God" and Dr. Beveridge's sermons of the "Excellency of the Common Prayer," which have gone a great way here to save the Church. I can't tell what would do more except the Doctors should come themselves; however I hope they will send those books we mentioned with some others in the scheme, as Mr. Brent's of Bristol against Lying, which is not to be forgotten at this time and place. I'm sorry Mr. Barclay returned so soon from his post at Braintree in New England, the poor Christians are mightily opprest there by a sort of Hypocrites, who pretend to receive the Church, but indeed are her mortal enemies; their College also has gone a great way to poison this country with Damnable doctrines, which appears by the Learned books of the Rev. Mr. Keith to be worse than Heathenism or Atheism; we

hope that care will be taken in this heavy case that some Grave and Wise Tutor and Philosopher will be sent to preside at the College of Cambridge in New England to teach them humanity in the first place, that in time they might be brought to Christian Principles and Practices; for at present they are not much better than the Quakers, and in the latter particular, much worse. If I had an Estate I could not have laid it out better than in the service of God, apud Americanos along with Mr. Keith, who is a true son of the Church of England, sound in faith and holy in Life, whom I love and reverence as my Father and Master, and shall be as Loath to part with him as if he were so indeed. Therefore I am the more obliged to the Reverend and Honorable Society for their generous allowance to me, that I might not be burdensome to him nor to others, but beneficial to all as far as we could goe. God be praised a Door is opened to the Gospel, and the true light shines to them in the Wilderness, but there are many adversaries; and now our Champion is gone, we must make a running fight out by God's blessing and his books. I shall do my best. I mean to gather up the arrows that he has shot so well at the mark, and throw them again where there is most need.

"Your most humble

"And obedient servant,

"JOHN TALBOT."

[The foregoing letters of Messrs. Keith and Talbot will have prepared the reader for the Journal of the former, to which allusion is made in the letters. This Journal was the official report of the Society's agent, and on its statements the Society acted in selecting the first missionary stations in what is now the United States.-PUB. COMMITTEE.]