a number of
rules respecting the regulation of the plan, and the persons who are
to be employed as missionaries, the means of defraying the expence,
&c. &c. This society must consist of persons whose hearts are in the
work, men of serious religion, and possessing a spirit of
perseverance; there must be a determination not to admit any person
who is not of this description, or to retain him longer than he
answers to it.

From such a society a _committee_ might be appointed, whose business
it should be to procure all the information they could upon the
subject, to receive contributions, to enquire into the characters,
tempers, abilities and religious views of the missionaries, and also
to provide them with necessaries for their undertakings.

They must also pay a great attention to the views of those who
undertake this work; for want of this the missions to the Spice
Islands, sent by the Dutch East-India Company, were soon corrupted,
many going more for the sake of settling in a place where temporal
gain invited them, than of preaching to the poor Indians. This soon
introduced a number of indolent, or profligate persons, whose lives
were a scandal to the doctrines which they preached: and by means of
whom the gospel was ejected from Ternate, in 1694, and Christianity
fell into great disrepute in other places.

If there is any reason for me to hope that I shall have any influence
upon any of my brethren, and fellow Christians, probably it may be
more especially amongst them of my own denomination. I would therefore
propose that such a society and committee should be formed amongst the
_particular baptist denomination_.

I do not mean by this, in any wife to confine it to one denomination
of Christians. I wish with all my heart, that every one who loves our
Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, would in some way or other engage in
it. But in the present divided state of Christendom, it would be more
likely for good to be done by each denomination engaging separately in
the work, than if they were to embark in it conjointly. There is room
enough for us all, without interfering with each other; and if no
unfriendly interference took place, each denomination would bear good
will to the other, and wish, and pray for its success, considering it
as upon the whole friendly to the great cause of true religion; but if
all were intermingled, it is likely their private discords might throw
a damp upon their spirits, and much retard th