being like brute beasts, but be put into a capacity of moral improvements, how low soever they must remain as to others, and so into a capacity of qualifying themselves for a higher state of life hereafter.
All our affairs should be carried on in the fear of God, in subserviency to his honour and the good of mankind. And thus navigation and commerce should be consecrated to the service of religion, by being made the means of propagating it in every country with which we have any intercourse. And the more widely we endeavour to spread its light and influence, as the fore-mentioned circumstances, and others of the like kind, open and direct our way, the more faithful shall we be judged in the discharge of that trust[1] which is committed to us as Christians, when our Lord shall require an account of it.
And it may be some encouragement to cheerful perseverance in these endeavours, to observe, not only that they are our duty, but also that they seem the means of carrying on a great scheme of Providence, which shall certainly be accomplished. For "the everlasting gospel shall be preached to every nation," Rev. xiv. 6; "and the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ," Rev. xi. 15.
However, we ought not to be discouraged in this good work, though its future success were less clearly foretold; and though its effect now in reforming mankind appeared to be as little as our adversaries pretend. They indeed, and perhaps some others, seem to require more than either experience or Scripture give ground to hope for, in the present course of the world. But the bare establishment of Christianity in any place, even the external form and profession of it, is a very important and valuable effect. It is a serious call upon men to attend to the natural and the revealed doctrine of religion. It is a standing pub-
- ↑ Page 186.
