A history of the work of redemption. Containing the outlines of a body of…

3. I proceed now to show what success the gospel has more lately had, or what success it has had in these later times of the Reformed church. This success m•y b• reduced to these three heads: 1. Reformation in doctrine and worship in countries called Christian; 2. Propagation of the gospel among the Heathen; 3. Revival of religion in the power and practice of it.

(1) As to the first, viz. reformation in doctrine, the most considerable success of the gospel that has been of late of this kind, has been in the empire of Muscovy, which is a country of vast extent. The people of this country, so many of them as call themselves Christians, professed to be of the Greek church; but were barbarously ignorant▪ and very superstitious, till of late years. Their late Emperor Peter the Great, who reigned till within these twenty years, set himself to reform the people of his dominions, and took great pains to bring them out of their darkness, and to have them instructed in religion. A•d to that end, he set up schools of learning, and ordered the Bible to be printed in the language of the country, and made a law that every family should keep the holy scriptures in their houses, and that every person should be able to read the same, and that no person should be allowed to marry till they were able to read the scriptures. He also reformed the churches of his country of many of their superstitions, whereby the religion professed and practised in Muscovy is much nearer to that of the Protestants than formerly it used to be. This emperor g•ve great encouragement to the exercise of the Protestant religion in his dominions. And since that Muscovy is become a land of light, in comparison of what it was before. Wonderful alterations have ⟨p. 231⟩been brought about in the face of religion for the better within these fifty years past.