took up the Sword and Pride swelled the Bishops into a Secular State and way of Rule Then it shall be Church-Government to see that the People be duely taken in the Sacramental-Covenant and learn the Creed Lord's Prayer and Decalogue and be instructed in the Word of God and Live together in Sobriety Righteousness and Godlyness And the Pastors shall leave all Secular Matters to the Magistrates and be no more troubled nor corrupted by their use of any forcing Power Their Government shall be a Paternal Authoritative Exercise of Instruction and of Love and no more Like that of a Tutor to his Pupils a Physician in his Hospital a Phylosopher in his School supposing a Divine Commission and Rule The Church it self shall be all their Courts supposing the Magistrates and the People the Witnesses and the present incumbent Pastors be the Judges without Excommunicating and Absolving Lay-Chancellors Surrogates Commissaries or Officials And all the Materials of Contention being now gone they shall have nothing to do in these Courts but to try whether the People have learnt and understand their Cathechisms and consent to God's Covenant and Communicate in his Worship with the Church And when any are accused of Wicked Living contrary to Sobriety Righteousness and Godlyness to try whether these Accusations be well proved And if so to perswade the Offenders to Repent and by plain Scripture-Arguments to convince them of the Sin and with Tears or Fatherly Tenderness and Love to melt them into Remorse and bring them to confess and forsake the Sin And if this cannot be done at once to try again and again and pray for their Repentance And when there is no other Remedy to Declare such a one openly uncapable of Church-Communion and to require the Church to avoid Communion with him and him to forbear intruding into their Communion and to bind him over by a Ministerial Denunciation of God's Displeasure as against the Impenitent to answer it at the Bar of God himself as one that is under his Wrath till he do Repent And this is the utmost of the Pastoral Power that shall then be used supposing private Admonitions And this only in that Church or Congregation wherein the Sinner had before his Communion and not at a distance nor in other Churches or Parts of the World where the Pastor hath no Charge Yea this Much shall not be exercised Irregularly and at Randome to the Injury of the Flock but under the Rules and Remedies afterward here exprest 12. The Primitive-Church-Form shall be Restored And as where there are Christians enow no Churches shall be too small so none shall be greater for Number or Distance than to be one true particular Church that is A Society of Christians united as Pastor and People for Personal Communion and Assistance in God's Publick Worship and Holy Living That is so many as may have this Personal Communion if not all at once yet per vices as oft as is fit for them to meet with the Church which all in a Family cannot usually do at once So that Ignatius his Church-Mark shall be restored To every Church there is one Altar and one Bishop with his Fellow-Presbyters and Deacons And there shall no more be a Hundred or Six Hundred or a Thousand Altars to one Bishop primi Gradus and in one Church of the first Form called a Particular Church Nor shall all the Particular Churches be Un-churched for want of true Bishops nor all their Pastors degraded into a new Order of Teaching-Ministers that have no Power of Pastoral-Government Nor the true Discipline of the Churches be made a meer impossible thing whil'st it is to be exercised by one Bishop only over many hundred Congregations which do every one of them afford full work for a present Bishop Nor shall the Bishops Office be thought so little Holy any more than Preaching and Sacramental-Administrations as to be performable by a Lay-Delegate or any one that is not really a Bishop But the People shall know them that are Over them in the Lord which labor among them and admonish them and shall esteem them very highly in Love for their Work sake and shall be at Peace among themselves 1 Thes 5. 12 13. Such Bishops as Dr. Hammond in his Annot. describeth that had but One Church and Preached Baptized Chatechized Visited the Sick took Care of the Poor Administred the Lord's Supper Guided every Congregation as present in Publick Worship and privately instructed and watched over all the Flocks shall be in every Church that can obtain such 13. Where the Churches are so great as to need as most will do and so happy as to obtain many faithful Presbyters or Pastors whether they shall Live together in a single Colledge-life or Married and at a distance and whether one as the chief or Bishop shall be President and have a Negative Voice or all be equal in a Concordant guidance of the Flocks shall be left to the choise and liberty of the several Churches by mutual Consent of Pastors and People and Magistrates to do and vary as their several States and Exigences shall require And shall neither be called anti-Anti-christian or odious Tyranny on the one side nor made of necessity to the Churches Communion or peace on the other as long as the true Pastoral or Episcopal Office is Exercised in every particular Church 14. Neither Magistrates nor other Bishops shall make the Bishops or Pastors Sermons and Prayers for him but leave it as the work of the speakers Office to word his own Sermons and Prayers and to choose a set form or no set-form the same or various as the case requireth yet so as to be responsible as after for all abuses and mal-administrations and not suffered to deprave Gods Worship by confusion or hurtful Errours or passionate and perverse Expressions But to be assisted and directed to use his Office in the most edifying ways by such kind of helps as his personal weaknesses shall require And where set-forms are used none shall quarrel with them as unlawful 15. None of the People shall have the high Priviledges of Church Communion and Sacraments bestowed on them against their Wills No more than a Man impeninent and unwilling shall be Ministerially Absolved from the Guilt of Sin For every Sacramental Administration whether of Baptism or of the Body and Blood of Christ is as full an Act of Ministerial Absolution as any Pastor can perform And what he doth to particular Persons upon their Penitence after a lapse that the Pastor doth to the whole Church at the Lords Supper And as Consent is made by Christ the Condition of Pardon and Covenant-Benâ—fits which no Non-consenter hath a Title to so therefore Professed Consent is necessary to the Sacramental Collation or Investiture And those that are but constrained by the apparent danger of a Fine or Jail are not to be accounted Voluntary Consenters by the Church when the Lord of the Church will account none for Consenters
Wordly Ends. 90. And the young and indifferent sort of People in all Countrys that were engaged in neither part being but strangers to Religion and to the differences will be ready to judge of the Cause by the Persons and seeing so many of the Dignified Advanced Clergy and the more sensual sort of the People on one side and so many Men of strict lives on the other that suffer also for their Religion and hearing too that it is some Name of Preciseness that they are Reproached by will think them to be the better side And so the title of the Godly will grow by degrees to be almost Appropriated to their Party and the Title of Prophane and Persecuters to the other 91. All this while the Nonconforming Ministers will be somewhat differently affected according to the different degrees of their Judiciousness Experience and Self-denyal Some of them will think these Passions of the People needful to check the Fierceness of the Afflicters which doth but Exasperate it And therefore will let them alone though they will not encourage them Some of the younger or more injudicious hot-brain'd sort will put them on and make them believe that all Communion with any Conforming Ministers or their parish-Parish-Churches is unlawful and their forms of Worship are Sinful and anti-Anti-christian and that they are all Temporizers and Betrayers of Truth and Purity that Communicate or Assemble with them The judicious and experienced and most patient and self-denying sort will themselves abstain from all that is Sin and as far as it is in their choice and power will joyn with the Churches that Worship God most agreeably to his Word and Will But so as that they will not be loud in their Complaints nor busy to draw Men to their Opinions in Controvertible Points nor will unchurch and condemn all the Churches that have something which they dislike as Sinful nor will Renounce the Communion of all faulty Churches lest they Renounce the Communion of all in the World and Teach all others to Renounce theirs But they will sometimes Communicate with the more faulty Churches to shew that they unchurch them not so they be not forced in it to any Sin Though usually they will prefer the purest yea ordinarily they will joyn with the more faulty when they can have no better or when the publike good requireth it They will never prefer the Interest of their Nonconforming Party before the Interest of Christianity or the Publike good They will so defend lesser Truths as not to neglect or disadvantage the greater which all are agreed in They will so preserve their own Innocency as not to stir up other Mens Passions nor to make factions or divisions by their difference They will so dislike the pride and worldliness of others and their injuries against God and Godliness as not to speak Evil of Dignities nor to Cherish in the Peoples Minds any Dishonourable injurious thoughts of their Kings or any in Authority over them They will Labour to allay the passions of the people and to rebuke their censorious and too sharp Language and to keep up all due Charity to those by whom they Suffer but especially Loyalty to their Kings and Rulers and Peaceableness as to their Countrys They will teach them to distinguish between the Cruel that are Masters of the Game and all the rest that have no hand in it and at least not to separate from all the rest for the sake of a few If they will go as far as Martin in Sulpitius Severus to avoid all Communion with Ithacius and Idacius and the Councils of Bishops that Prosecuted the Priscillianists to the scandal of Godliness it self yet not for their sakes to avoid all others that never consented to it nor with Gildas to say of all the bad Ministers that he was not Eximius Christianus that would call them Ministers or Pastors rather than Traitors They will perswade the People to discern between Good and Evil and not to run into Extreams nor to dislike all that their Afflicters hold or use nor to call things lawful by the name of Sin and Anti-christianity nor to suffer their Passions to blind their Judgments to make superstitiously New Sin and Duties in opposition to their Adversaries Nor to disgrace their Understandings and the Truth by Errours Factions Revilings or Miscarriages nor to run into Sects nor to divide Christs House and Kingdom while they pretend to be his Zealous Servants They will perswade the People to Patience and Moderation and Peace and to Speak Evil of no Man nor by Word or Deed to Revenge themselves Much less to resist the Authority that is set over them by God but to imitate their Saviour and quietly Suffer and being reviled not to revile again but to Love their Enemies and Bless their Cursers 92. The soberer sort of the People will be Ruled by these Counsels and will do much to quiet the rest But the Heretical part with their own Passions will Exasperate many Novices and Injudicious Persons to account this Course and Counsel aforesaid to be but the effect of Luke-waâ—mness and Carnal Compliance with Sin and a halting between two Opinions and a Participation in the Sin of Persecutors and Malignant Enemies of Godliness And they will believe that whoever joyneth with the Parish Churches in their way is guilty of Encouraging them in Sin and of false Worship 93. Hereupon they will defame the Non conforming Ministers last described as Men of no Zeal neither Flesh nor Fish and perhaps as Men that would Save their Skin and shift themselves out of Sufferings and betray the Truth And when such Ministers acquaint them with their unsound Principles and Passions they will say of them that they speak bitterly of the Godly and joyn with the Persecutors in reproaching them 94. And they will carry about among themselves many false Reports and Slanders against them Partly because Passion taketh off Charity and Tenderness of Conscience and partly because an Opinionative Modal and Siding Religiousness hath ever more Followers and a quicker Zeal than true Holiness And partly because they will think that humane converse obligeth them to believe the Reports which those that are accounted good Men utter And partly because that they will think that the upholding of their Cause which they think is Gods doth need the Suppression of these Mens Credit and Reputation that are against it 95. But the greater part of the honest Non-conformist Ministers will dislike the headiness and rashness of the Novices and the Sectaries and will approve of the aforesaid moderate Wayes But their opportunities and dispositions of Expressing it will be various Some of them will do it freely whatever be thought of it And some of them that have impatient Auditors will think that it is no duty to attempt that which will not be endured and that it is better to do what good they can than none And some will think that seeing the Worldly Clergy forbid them to
of but do not despair of I proceed to my Prognosticks of the way 2. God will stir up some happy King or Governour in some Country of Christendome endowed with Wisdom and consideration who shall discern the true nature of Godlyness and Christianity and the Necessity and Excellency of serious Religion and shall see what is the Corruption and Hinderance of it in the VVorld and shall place his Honour and Felicity in pleasing God and doing Good and attaining everlasting Happyness and shall subject all worldly Respects unto these high and glorious Ends. And shall know that Wisdom and Godlyness and Justice leave the most precious Name on Earth and prepare for the most Glorious Reward in Heaven In comparison of which all fleshly Pomp and Pleasure is Dross and Dung and worthy of nothing but Contempt 3. This Prince shall have a discerning Mind to know Wise Men from Foolish Good from Bad and among the Ministers of Christ to discern the Judicious Spiritual Heavenly Sober Charitable and Peaceable sort from Self-seeking Worldly Men that make but a Trade of the Ministry and strive not so much for Heaven and the Peoples Salvation as they do for worldly Honours Power and Wealth And he shall discern how such do trouble the Churches and the World and cause Divisions and stir up Violence for their own VVorldly Interests and Ends. 4. He will take the Councel neither of Worldlings nor true Fanaticks and dividing Persons but of the Learned Godly Self-denying Sober Peaceable Divines with his Grave and Reverend Senators Judges and Counsellors that know what is Reason and Justice and what belongeth to the Publick Good as well as to the true Interest of the Church and of Mens Souls 5. He will know those Men whom he is concerned to use and to judge of as far as may be by Personal Acquaintance and Observation and not by the partial Reports of Adversaries behind their Backs And so he will neither be deceived in his Instruments nor disappointed by them 6. He will call together the wise peace-making Persons and with the strictest Charge commit to them the Endeavours of Reconciling and Uniting the several Parties by drawing their Differences into the narrowest Compass and stating them rightlier than passionate Men do and by perswading them to Love and Peace and to all such Abatements and Forbearances as are necessary And his own prudent Over-sight and Authority like Constantine's at Nice will facilitate the Success 7. He and his People will enquire what Terms of Concord are meet not only for some One Corner or Country but for All the Christian World that when he hath found it out he and his Kingdom may be a Pattern to all Christendome and the Spring and Leven of an Universal Concord of all true Christians 8. Therefore he will enquire of Vincent Lerinensis Catholick Terms of Quod 1. Ab omnibus 2. Ubique 3. Semper receptum est 1. What all Christians are agreed in as Christians in the Essentials of their Religion 2. What all Christians did agree on in the Apostles Time which was the Time of greatest Light Love and Purity 3. VVhat all Christians in all Kingdoms of the VVorld since then to this day in the midst of all their other Differences have been and still are agreed in as their Religion For he will see that there is no hope of Agreeing the Disagreeing VVorld at least in many an Age by changing Mens Judgments from what they are and bringing them all in Controverted Things to the Mind of some Party nor to agree them on any Terms in which they do not really Agree But that their Concord must be founded in that which they are indeed all Agreed in Leaving the Superfluities or Additions of each Party out of the Agreement 9. The Peace-makers will then find that Christian Religion is conteined in Three Forms 1. In the Sacramental-Covenant with God the Father Son and Holy-Ghost as the briefest Formula 2. In the Creed Lord's Prayer and Decalogue as the Summaries of the Credenda Appetenda and Agenda Matters of Faith Will or Desire and Practice as the larger Form 3. In that Canon of Scripture which all the Churches receive as the largest Form or Continent And that he who is understandingly a Sacramental-Covanter with God the Father Son and Holy-Ghost was ever taken for a Visible Christian And therefore Baptism was called our Christening and the Baptized taken for Christians before they knew the Controversies of this Church or that And that the competent explicite Understanding of the Creed Lord's Prayer and Decalogue was ever taken for a competent Understanding of the Sacramental-Covenant and more And that he that implicitely receiveth the commonly-received Canonical Scripture as God's Word though he understand no more than as followeth and that explicitely understandeth the Creed Lord's Prayer and Decalogue and receiveth them and consenteth to the Sacramental-Covenant alwayes was accounted and is still to be accounted a Christian On these Terms therefore the Peace-makers will resolve to endeavour the Union of the Churches 10. Therefore they will pare off and cast away as the greatest Enemy to Unity all those unnecessary Controversies or Things doubtful which Christians yea or Divines were never agreed in and which never were the happy and successful Means or Terms of any Extensive Concord and which have long been tryed to be the great Occasions of all the Scruples and Contentions and Divisions and woful Consequents in the Churches And they will once more say IT SEEMETH GOOD TO THE HOLY-GHOST and to Us TO LAY UPON YOU NO GREATER BURDEN THAN THESE NECESSARY THINGS Act. 15. 28. All Christians shall in general receive the Canonical Scripture as God's Word and more particularly the Creed Lord's Prayer and Decalogue as the Summary of Necessaries and shall profess with competent Understanding of it their Consent to the Sacramental-Covenant and vow and devote themselves therein to God And this shall be all the Title which they shall be forced to shew for their Visible Church-Communion And though a higher Measure of the Understanding of the same Principles and Rules shall be required in Teachers than in the Flock and accordingly the Ordainers shall try their Understandings together with their Utterance and Ministerial Readiness of Parts Yet shall the Teachers themselves be ordinarily forced to no other Subscriptions Professions or Oaths besides their civil Allegiance than to Assent and Consent to all afore-said and to promise Ministerial Fidelity in their Places All Councils called General or Provincial Canons Decretals Articles Formula's Rubricks c. shall be reserved to their proper Use but be no more used for ensnaring and dividing Subscriptions Professions or Oaths or made the Engines to tear the Churches 11. When all those Superfluities and Foot balls of Contention are cast out of the way the Power of the Keys or Pastoral Government shall come to be better known and exercised and the Primitive Discipline set up which took place before Cyril of Alexandria
securing of a Faithful Ministry and other good Effects will countervail many such Inconveniences 22. No One Church shall have the Government of Another Church And the secular Differences of Metropolitans Patriarcks c. which was set up in one Empire upon secular Accounts and from secular Reasons shall all cease And no Differences shall be made necessary among them which Christ hath not made necessary But Christian Princes shall take warning by the Greek and Latine Churches and by all the Calamities and Ruins which have been caused in the Christian World by Bishops striving who should be the Greatest when Christ decided the Controversie long ago Luk. 22. 23. As Christians hold Personal Christian Communion in their several particular Churches so Churches shall hold a Communion of Churches by necessary Correspondencies and Associations Not making a Major Vote of Bishops in Synods to have a proper Government over the Minor Part. But that by counsel and concord they may help and strengthen one another and secure the common Interest of Christianity And that he that is a Member of one Church may be received of the Rest and he that is cast out of One may not be received by the Rest unless he be wronged So that it shall not be One Politick Church but a Communion of Churches 24. The Means of this Communion shall be 1. By Messengers 2. By Letters and Certificates Communicatory 3. By Synods 25. These Synods shall as to a few Neighbour Churches be ordinary and stated And the Meetings of Ministers in them shall be improved 1. To the Directing and Counselling of one another in matters doubtful especially of Discipline 2. To edify each other by Conference Prayer and Disputations 3. That the Younger may be Educated under the grave Advice and Counsels of the Elder 4. That the Concord of Themselves and the Churches under them may be preserved But if they would grow Imperious Tyrannical Heretical or Contentious the Magistrate shall hinder their stated ordinary Meetings that it be not accounted a thing simply necessary nor used to the Disturbance of the Church or States And all Provincial National and larger Councels shall be held by the Magistrates Consent 26. He that taketh himself to be wrongfully Excommunicated in one Church shall have a Treble Remedy 1. To have his Cause heard by the Associated Pastors of the Neighbour-Churches though not as Rulers of the Bishop or Pastor of that particular Church yet as Counsellors and such whose Judgment bindeth to Concord in lawful things 2. To be admitted by another Church if it appear that he is wronged And 3. To appeal to the Magistrate as the Preserver of Justice and Order in all Societies 27. The Magistrate shall appoint some of the most Grave and Wise and Godly and Moderate of the Ministers to have a general Inspection over many Churches and to see that they be well Taught and Ordered and that Pastors and People do their Duty who shall therefore oft Visit them and shall Instruct and Exhort the Younger Ministers and with the countenance of the Magistrate and their own Seigniority and Ability shall rebuke the Sloathful and Faulty Ministers and perswade them to Diligence and Fidelity But shall Exercise no outward Force by the Sword nor any Excommunication by themselves alone or otherwise than in the fore-said Regular way 28. All Ordinations shall be performed except in case of Necessity either in the Assembly of the Associated Pastors with their President or in the Vacant Church by some of them appointed by the rest Or by the General Visiter last mentioned with a competent Number of Assistants But still an Ordination to the Ministry in general shall not be taken to be formally the same as the affixing him to this or that Church in particular No more than the Licensing of a Physician is the same with the Affixing him to a particular Hospital 29. A Catalogue shall be drawn up of some of the greatest Verities which are not expresly found in the Creed Lord's Prayer or Decalogue which as the Articles of Confession of the Associated Churches of the Nation shall serve for these Three Uses 1. To satisfie all Forreign Churches against any Accusation that they are Orthodox 2. To examine the Knowledge of such as are admitted to the Ministry by but not to be Subscribed unless only as to a general Acknowledgment of the Soundness of their Doctrine without saying that There is nothing Faulty in them 3. To be a Rule of Restraint to Ministers in their Preaching that none be allowed publickly after Admonition to Preach against any Doctrine contained in them 30. The Usurped Ecclesiastical Power of Bishops and Presbyteries and Councils which were co-ercive or imitated secular Courts or bound the Magistrate to execute their Decrees being cast out and all Pastors restrained from playing the Bishops in other Churches out of their own Charge The Magistrate shall Exercise all Co-ercive Church-Government himself and no more trust the Sword directly or indirectly in the Hands of the Clergy who have long used it so unhappily to the Disturbance of the Christian World and the shedding of so much Innocent Blood Where it may be had there shall be a Church-Justice or Magistrate in every considerable Parish who being present shall himself hear how Ministers preach and behave themselves among their People And all Ministers and Churches shall be Responsible to the Magistrate for all Abuses and mal-Administration If any Minister Preach or Pray seditiously abusively factiously railingly against tolerable Dissenters to the destroying of Christian Love and Unity or Heretically to the Danger of the Peoples Souls or shall exercise Tyranny over the People or live a Vicious Life or be negligent in his Office of Teaching Worship or Discipline or otherwise grosly mis-behave himself He shall be Responsible both as afore-said to the Associated Pastors and Visitor or Arch-Bishop and also to the Magistrate who shall Rebuke and Correct him according to the measure of his Offence And it shall appear that the Magistrate is sufficient for all Co-ercive Church-Government without all the Clergies Usurpations which uphold the Roman and other Tyrannical Societies 31. The Question Who shall be Judge of Heresie Schisme or Church-Sins shall be thus decided 1. The Bishops or Pastors of the particular Churches shall be the Judges who is to be denyed Communion in their Churches as Hereticks Schismaticks c. 2. The Associated Churches shall be Judges in their Synods or by other Correspondence who is to be commonly denyed Communion in all their Churches and what Pastors and Churches shall have the Dextram Communionis and who not 3. The Magistrate shall be the only Judge who is to be punished for Heresie or Schism c. with Fines or any Outward Corporal Penalty And no one shall usurp the others Right 32. The Magistrate shall silence all Preachers that after due Admonition so grosly mis-behave themselves in Doctrine Worship or Conversation as to be the Plagues of the Churches
seriously Religious and the House of Christ will be filled with Guests 42. Hereupon the Scandalous and Flagitious Lives of Common Protestants will be much cured For the Number of the Flagitious will grow small and Crimes will be under common Disgrace Besides that they will be punished by the Magistrate So that gross Sin will be a Marvail 43. The Books of plain Doctrine and holy Living with the Pacificatory Treatises of Reconcilers will then be most in Esteem and Use which now are so Dis-relished by turbulent discontented siding Persons And abundance of Controversal-Writings about Church-Government Liturgies Ceremonies and many other Matters will be forgotten and cast aside as useless Things For the Swords shall be made into Plow-Shares and Pruning-Hooks 44. The happy Example of that happy Prince and Country that shall begin and first accomplish this Work will be Famous through all the Protestant-Churches and will enflame such Desires of Imitation in them all and be such a ready Direction in the way that it will greatly expedite their answerable Reformation And the Famous Felicity of that Prince in the Reformation and Concord of his Subjects will kindle in the Hearts of other Protestant-Princes and States an Earnest Desire of the same Felicity And so as upon the Invention of Printing and of Guns the World was presently possessed of Guns and of Printed-Books that never before attained any such thing So here they that see the Happyness of one Kingdom brought about and see how it was done will have Matter enough before their Eyes both to excite their Desires and guide their Endeavours in the Means to bring all this to pass 45. The Protestant Kingdoms and States being thus Reformed and United in themselves will be enflamed with an earnest desire of the good of all other Churches and of all the World And therefore as Divines have held something called General Councils for the Union of all those Churches so these Princes will by their Agents hold Assemblies for maintaining Correspondency to the carrying on of the common good of the World by the Advantage of their United Counsels and Strength And then no Enemy can stand long before them For they that Love and serve them Zealously at home will venture their Lives for them Zealously abroad if there be Cause 46. The excellent and successful use of the Magistrates Government of the Churches in their Dominions will quite shame all the usurping claims of the Pope and General Councels and their mungrel Ecclesiastick Courts and all the train of Artifices and Offices by which their Government of the World is managed And the World and especially Princes will plainly see how much they were abused by their Usurpations and that there is no need of Pope or Cardinal nor any of those Officers or Acts at all But that these are the meer Contrivances of Carnal Policy to keep up an Earthly Kingdom under the name of the Catholick Church And also the Purity and Unity of the Reformed Churches where the vulgar have more Religion and Union than their Monasteries will dazzle the Eyes of the Popish Princes States and People And when they see better and especially the happiness of the Princes they will forsake the Usurper that had Captivated them by fraud and will assume their freedom and felicity And so the Roman Church-Kingdom will fall 47. The deluded Mahometans seeing the Unity and Glory of Christendom as they were before kept from Christ by the Wicked Lives and the Divisions of Christians thinking that we are far worse than they so now they will be brought to admire and honour the Christian Name and fear the Power of the Christian Princes And one part of them will turn Christians and the rest even the Turkish Power the Christians force by the Power of God will easily break And so the Eastern Churches will be delivered and reformed and the Mahometans come into the Faith of Christ 48. The poor scattered Jews also when they see the Glory and Concord of Christians will be convinced that Christ is indeed the true Messias And being Converted perhaps shall by the Christian Powers be some of them Re-established in their own Land But not to their antient peculiarity or policy and Law 49. And then the Christian Zeal will work to the Conversion of the poor Idolatrous Heathen World And part of them will yield to Reason and Faith and the rest by just victories be subdued And so the Kingdoms of the World will become the Kingdoms of the Lord and his Christ And the Gospel shall be Preached in all the World 50. And when the Kingdom of Grace is perfected and hath had its time the Kingdom of Glory shall appear upon the Glorious appearing of Christ our King and the Dead shall Arise and they that have overcome shall Reign with Christ and sit with him upon the Throne even as he overcame and is set down with the Father on his Throne Amen Even so come Lord Jesus John 17. 20 21 22 23 24. Neither Pray I for these alone but for them also which shall believe on me through their word that they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us that the World may believe that thou hast sent me And the Glory which thou gavest me I have given them that they may be One even as we are One I in them and Thou in Me that they may be made perfect in One and that the World may know that thou hast sent Me and hast Loved them as thou hast Loved Me Father I will that they also whom thou hast given Me be with Me where I am that they may behold My Glory which thou hast given Me. Object But if this World should ever become so happy it would be more amiable and so be a greater snare to our Affections and make us willing to stay from Heaven Answer No Amiableness or Pleasantness stealeth the Heart from God or keepeth it from Heaven but that which hideth the Glory and Goodness of God and Heaven from our Minds or corrupteth and diverteth the will and affections by some inconsistency or contrarity But the spiritual excellency of the Reformed Concordant Church on Earth will so much more clearly Represent Heaven to our conceptions and give our Hearts so pleasant a foretast of it that above all things it will Excite our desires of that fuller Glory and call us most Powerfully to a Heavenly Mind and Life As the first-fruits and earnest do make us desire the Harvest and the full Possession And as now those that Live in the most Heavenly Society and under the most Excellent helps and means have usually more Heavenly Minds and Lives than they that in more tempting and distracting Company never enjoy such Heavenly beams Consectary ALL the Romish-Dreams of Church-Union arise from Ignorance of the true State and Interest of the Church and the true and necessary Terms of Union And all the Plots also of the Moderating Papists that Talk of a Political Church-Catholick having a Visible Constitutive or Governing-Head whether Monarchial the Pope or Aristocratical or Democratical the Patriarchs or a General-Council And that Talk of Universal Laws of this Church made by such a Universal-Head besides the Universal Laws of Christ And falsly feign the Councils called General in a Particular Empire called or ruled by one Emperour only in his own Dominions to have been Universal as to all the Catholick Churches on Earth And that feign these Councils to have been Infallible which so often erred and crost each other And that set the World upon the undeterminable Controversie Which were true General Councils and How many we must Receive and Conform to Whether only Four or Six or Eight and till what Age. And that would perswade the Christian World that what-ever diversity of Canons Customs or Church-Laws or Ceremonies are allowed among them it must all be done or held by this same Authority of the Pope or Council or Both to which though Forreign Kings and Bishops must all be subject and from which they must receive their Christianity and by which all their Reformations must be tryed And that none must be taken as Catholicks nor any Churches tolerated that hold not such a Factious Union under such an Usurping Head Personal or Collective But as Tertullian speaketh rather than endure such Wiser and Better Societies Solitudinem facerent vocarent Pacem And as a Worldy Clergy whose Church and Kingdom is only of and in this World would banish from it all save a Lifeless-Image which hath any Kin to Heaven and suffer none to Live in this World among them but themselves I say all this is 1. From Ignorance of the True Nature of the Christian Religion Church-State and Terms of Unity and Concord which I have lately opened in a Book Entituled The true and only Terms of the Concord of all the Churches 2. And from Contention about Ambiguous Words and Self-Conceitedness in their Controversies ignorantly thence raised which I have sought to End in a Book called Catholick Theology 3. And from vicious Passions and Partiality which I have sought to Heal in a Book called The Cure of Church-Divisions All written long since the Writing of this Foregoing Prognostication FINIS