And he too declared that he had found the people "generally tender and open," and rejoiced to have made among them "a little entrance for truth." The church of Christ had been begun.

As yet there had been neither baptism nor sacramental supper; these outward and visible signs were absent; but inward and spiritual grace was there, and the thing signified is greater than the sign.

The influence diffused itself like leaven.

Within a decade the society was extended through both the Carolinas and became the principal form of organized Christianity.

It was reckoned in 1710 to include one seventh of the population of North Carolina.[65:1] The attempt of a foreign proprietary government to establish by law the church of an inconsiderable and not preeminently respectable minority had little effect except to exasperate and alienate the settlers.