censure. After all, as has been
already observed, I greatly question whether most of the barbarities
practiced by the savages upon those who have visited them, have not
originated in some real or supposed affront, and were therefore, more
properly, acts of self-defence, than proofs of ferocious dispositions.
No wonder if the imprudence of sailors should prompt them to offend
the simple savage, and the offence be resented; but _Elliot_,
_Brainerd_, and the _Moravian missionaries_, have been very seldom
molested. Nay, in general the heathen have shewed a willingness to
hear the word; and have principally expressed their hatred of
Christianity on account of the vices of nominal Christians.

FOURTHLY, _As to the difficulty of procuring the necessaries of life_,
this would not be so great as may appear at first sight; for though we
could not procure European food, yet we might procure such as the
natives of those countries which we visit, subsist upon themselves.
And this would only be passing through what we have virtually engaged,
in by entering on the ministerial office. A Christian minister is a
person who in a peculiar sense is _not his own_; he is the _servant_
of God, and therefore ought to be wholly devoted to him. By entering
on that sacred office he solemnly undertakes to be always engaged, as
much as possible, in the Lord's work, and not to chuse his own
pleasure, or employment, or pursue the ministry as a something that is
to subserve his own ends, or interests, or as a kind of bye-work. He
engages to go where God pleases, and to do, or endure what he sees fit
to command, or call him to, in the exercise of his function. He
virtually bids farewell to friends, pleasures, and comforts, and
stands in readiness to endure the greatest sufferings in the work of
his Lord, and Master. It is inconsistent for ministers to please
themselves with thoughts of a numerous auditory, cordial friends, a
civilized country, legal protection, affluence, splendor, or even a
competency. The flights, and hatred of men, and even pretended
friends, gloomy prisons, and tortures, the society of barbarians of
uncouth speech, miserable accommodations in wretched wildernesses,
hunger, and thirst, nakedness, weariness, and painfulness, hard work,
and but little worldly encouragement, should rather be the objects of
their expectation. Thus the apostles acted, in the primitive times,
and endured hardness, as good soldiers of Jesus Christ; and tho