difficulties which we have generally thought to be insuperable? Have
not the missionaries of the _Unitas Fratrum_, or Moravian Brethren,
encountered the scorching heat of Abyssinia, and the frozen climes of
Greenland, and Labrador, their difficult languages, and savage
manners? Or have not English traders, for the sake of gain, surmounted
all those things which have generally been counted insurmountable
obstacles in the way of preaching the gospel? Witness the trade to
Persia, the East-Indies, China, and Greenland, yea even the accursed
Slave-Trade on the coasts of Africa. Men can insinuate themselves into
the favour of the most barbarous clans, and uncultivated tribes, for
the sake of gain; and how different soever the circumstances of
trading and preaching are, yet this will prove the possibility of
ministers being introduced there; and if this is but thought a
sufficient reason to make the experiment, my point is gained.

It has been said that some learned divines have proved from Scripture
that the time is not yet come that the heathen should be converted;
and that first the _witnesses must be slain_, and many other
prophecies fulfilled. But admitting this to be the case (which I much
doubt[1]) yet if any objection is made from this against preaching to
them immediately, it must be founded on one of these things; either
that the secret purpose of God is the rule of our duty, and then it
must be as bad to pray for them, as to preach to them; or else that
none shall be converted in the heathen world till the universal
down-pouring of the Spirit in the last days. But this objection comes
too late; for the success of the gospel has been very considerable in
many places already.

[Footnote 1: See Edwards on Prayer, on this subject, lately re-printed
by Mr. Sutcliffe.]