WILLIAM THE THIRD, BY THE GRACE OF GOD, OF ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, FRANCE, AND IRELAND, KING, DEFENDER OF THE FAITH, &C. TO ALL CHRISTIAN PEOPLE, TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, GREETING: I. WHEREAS WE ARE CREDIBLY INFORMED, THAT IN MANY OF OUR PLANTATIONS, COLONIES AND FACTORIES BEYOND THE SEAS, BELONGING TO OUR KINGDOM OF ENGLAND, THE PROVISION FOR MINISTERS IS VERY MEAN, AND MANY OTHERS OF OUR SAID PLANTATIONS, COLONIES AND FACTORIES ARE TOTALLY DESTITUTE AND UNPROVIDED OF A MAINTENANCE FOR MINISTERS, AND THE PUBLICK WORSHIP OF GOD, AND FOR LACK OF SUPPORT AND MAINTENANCE FOR SUCH, MANY OF OUR LOVING SUBJECTS DO WANT THE ADMINISTRATION OF GOD'S WORD AND SACRAMENTS, AND SEEM TO BE ABANDONED TO ATHEISM AND INFIDELITY ..

[London: Printed by J. Downing in Bartholomew-Close near West-Smithfield, 1702. Folio sheet, folded to 4pp. Each page 9" x 14-3/8." The imprint is from the colophon. Printed in dark Gothic type, with woodcut of Royal Arms at head of the title and large ornamental initial "W." Signed in type at the end, "COCKS", i.e., Richard Cocks. Old horizontal fold, minor dusting, generously margined. Very Good or better.

This is one of three 1702 printings of the Charter of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. All were printed by Downing, all are quite scarce, and differ only in minor typographic detail. Our copy has the catchword "Univer-" on page 1; signature "A" beneath the final "S" of "Professors"; the final paragraph of page 4 has twelve lines, naming 25 "members." The Charter was first printed in June 1701, at London.
The Society's mission was to establish a stronghold in the American Colonies. Otherwise, "our loving subjects" will become the victims of "divers Romish priests and Jesuits" who will be "the more encouraged to pervert and draw over our said loving subjects to Popish superstition and idolatry." The Society's legitimacy in America faced another, perhaps more serious threat when American clergymen like Thomas Mayhew and Charles Chauncy asserted the authority of American congregations to govern themselves. The struggle for independent, self-governing American congregations paralleled developing sentiment favoring political independence from the Mother Country. "In Massachusetts the attack on the evil of an over-all establishment of religion was a response to efforts of the Church of England to extend its influence into the heartland of American dissent" [Bailyn, Ideological Origins of the American Revolution 254].
"The Charter was granted June 15, 1701. . . In B.M. are two issues of 1702, and an undated edition, all with the imprint of J. Downing in Bartholomew Close, and containing additional material. Pascoe, in reprinting the Charter. . . has side notes supplied from 'the earliest printed edition now available, viz. that of 1706'." [Sabin 85933A.]
Sabin 59035, 85933A. ESTC T52539 [3 in USA- Lilly, U VA, JCB; 3 in Britain- Brit. Lib., Bodleian, Lambeth Palace].