LIFE OF RICHARD BAXTER. 195 I cannot be affectedso much with thecalamities ofmy ownrelations, or the landof my nativity, as with the case of the heathen, Mahom- etan, 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 is, which hindereth our speaking to them for their conversion ; nor what a great sin tyranny is, which keepeth out the gospel from most ofthe nations ofthe world. Could we but go among Tartars, Turks, and heathens, and speak their language, I should be but little troubled for the silencingof eighteen hundred ministers at once, in England, hor for all the rest that were cast out here, and in Scotland, and in Ireland; therebeing no employment in the world so desirable in my eyes as to labor for the winningof such miserable souls ; which maketh me greatly honor Mr. John Elliot, the apostle of the Indians in New England, and whoever else have labored in such work. " 24. Yet am I not so much inclined to pass a peremptory sen- tence of damnation upon all that never heard of Christ ; having some more reason thanI knew ofbefore, to think that God's dealing with such is unknown to us ; and that the ungodly here amongus Christians are in a far worse case than they. " 25. My censuresof the Papists do much differ fromwhat they were at first. I then thought that their errors in the doctrine of faith were their most dangerous mistakes." " But the great and irreconcilable differences lie in their church tyranny and usurpations, and in their great corruptions of God's worship, together with their befriending of ignorance and vice." " 26. I am deeplier afflicted for the disagreements of Christians than I was when I was a younger Christian. Except the case of the infidel world, nothing is so bad and grievous to my thoughts as the caseof the divided churches." " 27. Ihave spent much of my studies about the terms of Chris- tian concord, etc. "28. I am farther than ever I was from expecting great matters of unity, splendor, or prosperity, to the church on earth, or that saints should dream of akingdom of this world, or flatter themselves with the hope of a golden age, or reigning over the ungodly, till therebe anew heavens, andanew earth, whereindwelleth righteous- ness. On the contrary, I am more apprehensive that suffering must be the church's most ordinary lot ; and indeed Christians must be self-denying cross-bearers, even where there arenone but formal, nominal Christians to bethe cross-makers ; and though, ordinarily, God would have vicissitudes of summer and winter, day and night, t
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