FOURTHLY, a very great proportion of Asia and Africa, with some part of Europe, 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, the danger of being killed by them, the difficulty of procuring the necessaries of life, or the unintelligibleness of their languages.