194 LIFE OF RICHARD BAXTER. kept secret from other men's observation. Yet he that, upon this pretense, would confound the godly ancl the ungodly, may as well go about to lay heaven and hell together. " 17. I am not so narrow in myspecial love as heretofore be- ing less censorious, and taking more. than I did for saints, it most needs follow that I love more as saints than I did formerly." " 18. I am not so narrow in my principles of church communion as once I was." " I am not for narrowing the church more than Christ himselfalloweth us ; nor for robbinghim of any of his flock." " 19. Yet I am more apprehensive than ever of the great use and need of ecclesiastical discipline." " 20. I am much more sensible of the evil of schism, and of the separating humor, and of gathering parties and making several sects in the church, than I was heretofore. For the effects have showed us more of the .mischiefs. " 21. I am much more sensible how prone many young profes-, sors are to spiritual pride, and self-conceitedness, and unruliness, and division, and so to prove the grief of their teachers, and fire- brands in the church ; and how much of a minister's work lieth in preventing this, and humbling and confirming such young, inexpe- rienced professors, and keeping them in order in their progress in religion. " 22. Yet I am more sensible of the sin and mischief of using men cruelly in matters of religion, and of pretending men's good and the order of the church, for acts of inhumanity or uncharita- bleness. Such men 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 church's peace. " 23. My soul is . much more afflicted with the thoughts of this miserable world, and more drawn out in desire, of its conversion, than heretofore. I was wont to lookbut little further than England in my prayers, not considering the state of the rest of the world; or if I prayed for the conversión 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, 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 astonishingpart of all God's providence to me, that he so far forsaketh almost all the world, and confitreth his special favor to so few; that so small apart of the worldbath the profession of Christianity, in comparison of heathens, Mahometans, and other infidels; that among professed Christians there are so few that are saved from gross delusions, and have any competent knowledge ; and that among those there are so few that are seriously religious, and who truly set their hearts on heaven.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=