Spain is presented as both a major power in the history of overseas discovery and a counterpoint to Great Britain in the author’s account of religious reform and the circulation of the Bible. Its place in the narrative is less a portrait of the country itself than a role in a larger providential argument: political and commercial fortunes, including Spain’s expansion across the Atlantic, are interpreted in relation to the worldwide spread of the gospel.

Religious Setting and the Reformation

The author contrasts the success of the Reformation in England with its early failure in France and other parts of continental Europe, including Spain. In his account, Spain remains under “popish darkness,” while Great Britain’s island position and commercial capacity make it a suitable base for disseminating Bibles. This is the author’s theological explanation of the countries’ differing historical roles, not a neutral survey of their religious development.

Spain also appears in a wider contrast between Protestantism and the religious conditions of the continent. The author groups it with Portugal as a place where little light of what he calls divine truth is visible, setting both against Britain’s evangelical activity. The contrast serves his argument that religious illumination and the means to distribute Scripture have been allotted unevenly among nations.

Discovery and Overseas Expansion

Spain’s connection to exploration is traced through Christopher Columbus. The author says Columbus had been brought to Portugal by providence and gained access there to nautical knowledge before Spain employed him on a westward voyage in search of India. In 1492 he reached the West India Islands; in 1498 he discovered the continent of America. The same year, Portugal reached India by rounding the Cape of Good Hope, giving Spain and Portugal distinct places in the account of European expansion.

The author presents these voyages as part of a chain of discoveries that opened the countries of North and South America, alongside the regions of the East Indies, to later efforts to distribute the Bible. He describes the vast provinces of South America as having been given to Spain, while the passage to India and the first influx of eastern riches went to Portugal. These allocations form part of his claim that the course of discovery was providentially arranged, rather than merely the product of national ambition or navigational skill.

Commerce and National Contrast

Spain is included among the states that preceded Great Britain in commerce and discovery. The author traces commerce’s revival to the Crusades, after which it first took root among the Italian states; it later flourished in the cities of the Hanseatic League and in Portugal and Spain before Britain became pre-eminent. England’s internal and external conflicts, including the Norman Conquest and wars over the French throne, are cited as delays to its commercial development.

That chronology supports the author’s contrast between Spain’s earlier prominence and Britain’s later commercial power. He argues that Great Britain’s maritime position eventually made it especially able to carry Bibles abroad, whereas Spain’s religious condition, in his reading, meant that its commercial and imperial power did not serve the same evangelical purpose. The account thus treats trade and empire not only as measures of national strength but as means whose significance depends on how they are put to use.

Providential Interpretation

Spain’s role belongs to the book’s broader interpretation of history as a sequence in which political acts, discoveries, and apparently contingent events serve purposes beyond the intentions of their human agents. Columbus’s employment by Spain, the discovery of the Americas, and the division of overseas opportunities between Spain and Portugal are woven into the author’s claim that the world’s opening to travel also opened routes for the gospel.

This framework gives Spain a double significance: it is an early leader in exploration and a foil for the Protestant Britain that the author regards as especially equipped to spread Scripture. His account connects national religious identity, commercial power, and overseas expansion, while presenting the resulting historical pattern as an instrument of divine providence.