In his account of the mission, where his veracity is most to be
suspected, he neither exaggerates overmuch the merits of the
Jesuits, if we consider the partial regard paid by the Portuguese to
their countrymen, by the Jesuits to their society, and by the
Papists to their church, nor aggravates the vices of the Abyssins;
but if the reader will not be satisfied with a Popish account of a
Popish mission, he may have recourse to the history of the church of
Abyssinia, written by Dr. Geddes, in which he will find the actions
and sufferings of the missionaries placed in a different light,
though the same in which Mr. Le Grand, with all his zeal for the
Roman church, appears to have seen them.

This learned dissertator, however valuable for his industry and
erudition, is yet more to be esteemed for having dared so freely in
the midst of France to declare his disapprobation of the Patriarch
Oviedo's sanguinary zeal, who was continually importuning the
Portuguese to beat up their drums for missionaries, who might preach
the gospel with swords in their hands, and propagate by desolation
and slaughter the true worship of the God of Peace.

It is not easy to forbear reflecting with how little reason these
men profess themselves the followers of Jesus, who left this great
characteristic to His disciples, that they should be known by loving
one another, by universal and unbounded charity and benevolence.

Let us suppose an inhabitant of some remote and superior region, yet
unskilled in the ways of men, having read and considered the
precepts of the gospel, and the example of our Saviour, to come down
in search of the true church: if he would not inquire after it
among the cruel, the insolent, and the oppressive; among those who