urope, are _Mahometans_; and those in Persia, who are of the sect
of _Hali_, are the most inveterate enemies to the Turks; and they in
return abhor the Persians. The Africans are some of the most ignorant
of all the mahometans; especially the Arabs, who are scattered through
all the northern parts of Africa, and live upon the depredations which
they are continually making upon their neighbours.

FIFTHLY, in respect to those who bear the Christian name, a very great
degree of ignorance and immorality abounds amongst them. There are
Christians, so called, of the greek and armenian churches, in all the
mahometan countries; but they are, if possible, more ignorant and
vicious than the mahometans themselves. The Georgian Christians, who
are near the Caspian Sea, maintain themselves by selling their
neighbours, relations, and children, for slaves to the Turks and
Persians. And it is remarked, that if any of the greeks of Anatolia
turn mussulmen, the Turks never set any store by them, on account of
their being so much noted for dissimulation and hypocrisy. It is well
known that most of the members of the greek church are very ignorant.
Papists also are in general ignorant of divine things, and very
vicious. Nor do the bulk of the church of England much exceed them,
either in knowledge or holiness; and many errors, and much looseness
of conduct, are to be found amongst dissenters of all denominations.
The lutherans in Denmark, are much on a par with the ecclesiastics in
England; and the face of most Christian countries presents a dreadful
scene of ignorance, hypocrisy, and profligacy. Various baneful, and
pernicious errors appear to gain ground, in almost every part of
Christendom; the truths of the gospel, and even the gospel itself, are
attacked, and every method that the enemy can invent is employed to
undermine the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.

All these things are loud calls to Christians, and especially to
ministers, to exert themselves to the utmost in their several spheres
of action, and to try to enlarge them as much as possible.

SECT. IV.

_The Practicability of something being done, more than
what is done, for the Conversion of the Heathen._

The impediments in the way of carrying the gospel among the heathen
must arise, I think, from one or other of the following things;
--either their distance from us, their barbarous and savage manner of
living,