Reliquiæ Baxterianæ, or, Mr. Richard Baxters narrative of the most memorable passages of his…

21. I am much more sensible how prone many young Professors are to Spiritual Pride and Self-conceitedness, and Unruliness and Division, and so to prove the Grief of their Teachers, and Firebrands in the Church; and how much of a Minister's work lieth in preventing this, and humbling and confirming such young unexperienced Professors, and keeping them in order in their progress in Religion.

22. Yet am I more sensible of the Sin and Mischief of using Men cruelly in Matters of Religion, and of pretending Mens good, and the Order of the Church, for Acts of Inhumanity or Uncharitableness: Such know not their own Infirmity, nor yet the nature of Pastoral Government, which ought to be Paternal and by Love; nor do they know the way to win a Soul, nor to maintain the Churches Peace.

23. My Soul is much more afflicted with the thoughts of the miserable World, and more drawn out in desire of their Conversion than heretofore: I was wont to look but little further than England in my Prayers, as not considering the state of the rest of the World: Or if I prayed for the Conversion of the Jews, that was almost all. But now as I better understand the Case of the World, and the method of the Lord's Prayer, so there is nothing in the World that lieth so heavy upon my heart, as the thought of the miserable Nations of the Earth: It is the most astonishing part of all God's Providence to me, that he so far forsaketh almost all the World, and confineth his special Favour to so few: That so small a part of the World hath the Profession of Christianity, in comparison of Heathens, Mahometans and other Infidels! And that among professed Christians there are so few that are saved from gross Delusions, and have but any competent Knowledge: and that among those there are so few that are seriously Religious, and truly set their hearts on Heaven. I cannot be affected so much with the Calamities of my own Relations, or the Land of my Nativity, as with the Case of the Heathen, Mahometan, and ignorant Nations of the Earth. No part of my Prayers are so deeply serious, as that for the Conversion of the Infidel and Ungodly World, that God's Name may be sanctified, and his Kingdom come, and his Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven: Nor was I ever before so sensible what a Plague the Division of Languages was which hindereth our speaking to them for their Conversion; nor what a great Sin Tyranny is, which keepeth out the Gospel from most of the Nations of the World. Could we but go among Tartarians, Turks, and Heathens, and speak their Language, I should be but little troubled for the silencing of Eighteen hundred Ministers at once in England, nor for all the rest that were cast out here, and in Scotland and Ireland: There being no Employment in the World so desirable in my Eyes, as to labour for the winning of such miserable Souls: which maketh me greatly honour Mr. John Eliot, the Apostle of the Indians in New-England, and whoever else have laboured in such work.