This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1920 edition. Excerpt: ...taken up in England in 1619. Edward Duffield Neill, Memoir of Patrick Copeland, Rector Elect of the First Projected College in the United States, pp. 17, 88. and sent with the consent of their churches, together with whoever else should freely offer themselves for that service, "to make known the ...
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1920 edition. Excerpt: ...taken up in England in 1619. Edward Duffield Neill, Memoir of Patrick Copeland, Rector Elect of the First Projected College in the United States, pp. 17, 88. and sent with the consent of their churches, together with whoever else should freely offer themselves for that service, "to make known the Heavenly counsel of God among the Indians." The General Court of Massachusetts might thus be called the first missionary society in the history of Protestant Christendom.1 News of this missionary work in New England soon reached the motherland, where it was received with great delight. A pamphlet called "The Day-Breaking" soon drew public attention to the new undertaking. This perhaps was the first missionary tract in England. Shepherd, the minister at Cambridge, then sent further information. So important was this considered that twelve of the most eminent Presbyterian and Independent ministers in England provided for its publication. In this work there was an address under their names to the "Lords and Commons assembled in High Court of Parliament," and another " to the godly and well affected of the Kingdom of England." Evangelizing the natives of New England was commended to the patronage of the State and of private Christians. Winslow promoted the matter with such diligence that he finally succeeded in getting Parliament to take action in furtherance of the cause. It instructed the Commissioners for Foreign Plantations to prepare and bring in an " Ordinance for the encouragement and advancement of learning and piety in New England." It is said that four or five years before an attempt to accomplish the same thing had been made by William Castell, who had addressed Parliament on the subject in...
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