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

24. Yet am I not so much inclined to pass a peremptory Sentence of Damnation upon all that never heard of Christ; having some more reason than I knew of before, to think that God's dealing with such is much unknown to us! And that the Ungodly here among us Christians are in a far worse Case than they.

25. My Censures of the Papists do much differ from what they were at first: I then thought that their Errors in the Doctrines of Faith were their most dangerous Mistakes, as in the Points of Merit, Justification by Works, Assurance of Salvation, the Nature of Faith, &c. But now I am assured that their mis-expressions, and mis-understanding us, with our mistakings of them, and inconvenient expressing our own Opinions, hath made the difference in these Points to appear much greater than they are; and that in some of them it is next to none at all. But the great and unreconcilable Differences lye, in their Church Tyranny and Usurpations, and in their great Corruptions and Abasement of God's Worship, together with their befriending of Ignorance and Vice. At first I thought that Mr. Perkins well proved that a Papist cannot go beyond a Reprobate: but now I doubt not but that God hath many sanctified Ones among them, who have received the true Doctrine of Christianity so practically, that their contradictory Errors prevail not against them, to hinder their Love of God, and their Salvation: but that their Errors are like a conquerable Dose of Poison which Nature doth overcome. And I can never believe that a Man may not be saved by that Religion, which doth but bring him to the true Love of God, and to heavenly Mind and Life: nor that God will ever cast a Soul into Hell that truly loveth him. Also at first it would disgrace any Doctrine with me, if I did but hear it called Popery and Antichristian: but I have long learned to be more impartial, and to dislike Men for ⟨p. 132⟩bad Doctrine, rather than the Doctrines for the Men; and to know that Satan can use even the Names of Popery and Antichrist, against a Truth.

25. My Censures of the Papists do much differ from what they were at first: I then thought that their Errours in the Doctrines of Faith were their most dangerous Mistakes, as in the Points of Merit, Justification by Works, Assurance of Salvation, the Nature of Faith, &c. But now I am assured that their mis-expressions, and mis-understanding us, with our mistakings of them, and inconvenient expressing our own Opinions, hath made the difference in these Points to appear much greater than they are; and that in some of them it is next to none at all. But the great and unreconcilable Differences lye, in their Church Tyranny and Usurpations, and in their great Corruptions and Abasement of God's Worship, together with their befriending of Ignorance and Vice. At first I thought that Mr. Perkins well proved that a Papist cannot go beyond a Reprobate: but now I doubt not but that God hath many sanctified Ones among them, who have received the true Doctrine of Christianity so practically, that their contradictory Errours prevail not against them, to hinder their Love of God, and their Salvation: but that their Errours are like a conquerable Dose of Poyson which Nature doth overcome. And I can never believe that a Man may not be saved by that Religion, which doth but bring him to the true Love of God, and to heavenly Mind and Life: nor that God will ever cast a Soul into Hell that truly loveth him. Also at first it would disgrace any Doctrine with me, if I did but hear it called Popery and Antichristian: but I have long learned to be more impartial, and to dislike Men for