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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26958	A moral prognostication I. what shall befall the churches on Earth, till their concord, by the restitution of their primitive purity, simplicity, and charity, II. how that restitution is like to be made, (if ever) and what shall befall them thence-forth unto the end, in that golden-age of love / written by Richard Baxter ...	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1680 (1680)	Wing B1311; ESTC R5743	36,590	70

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-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-Ben●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

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

that will not forsake all and endure Fines and Jailes rather than to be deprived of the benefits of Mystical and Visible Church-Communion The Magistrate therefore will Wisely and Moderately bring all the People to Hear that which is necessary to their good but will not by Penalties force the unwilling to receive either Absolutions or Communion with the Church in its special priviledges But if the Baptized refuse Church-Communion afterwards they lamentably punish themselves And if it be found meet to declare them Excommunicate it will be a terrible penalty sufficient to its proper use 16. The Magistrate will not Imprison Harm Confiscate Banish or otherwise punish any of his Subjects eo nomine because they are Excommunicate For that is to punish his Body because his Soul is punished Nor will he hearken to those unbelieving Clergy-Men that cry up the Power of the Keys as their Office and when they have done scorn it as an uneffectual shaddow of Power which will do nothing without the Magistrates force But he will himself hear and judge before he Punish and not be debased to be the Clergies Executioner to punish before he have tryed the Cause Because Clergy-Mens Pride and Passions may else ingage him to be the Instrument of their Vices and Revenge Yea as he that seeth a Man punished in one Court will be the more delatory to bring him to punishment in another for the same Crime so the Magistrate that seeth a Man Excommunicated for his fault will rather delay his civil force against that Man to see what effect his Excommunication will have Because the Conjunction of the Sword against the Excommunicate as such doth corrupt Christs Ordinance and make the Fruit of it utterly undiscernable so that no one can see whether ever it did any thing at all or whether all was done by the fear of the Sword And verily a faithful Minister that seeth a Sinner come to Confession of his fault but when he must else lye in Jail and be undone will be loath to take that Man for a true Penitent And to force Pastors to absolve or give the Sacrament to every one that had rather take it than lye in Jail and be undone is to set up such new Terms of Church Communion which Christ will give Men little thanks for Church Communion is only a Priviledge due to Volunteers and Penitents But yet the Magistrate may punish Men with Fines or other Penalties for the same faults for which they are Excommunicate having Tryed and Judged them in his own Court But not quaterus Excommunicate but according to the nature of the Crime 17. The Schools of Learning and Academies shall not Educate Youth either in Idleness Luxury or Hypocritical formality but under Learned Pious Tutors in Learning Sobriety and Piety From whence they shall not over-hastily leap into the Pastoral Office 18. None under Thirty Years of Age at what time Christ himself entered on his publick Works shall take a Pastoral Charge except in case of meer necessity of the Church no not on pretence of Extraordinary fitness But till then shall imploy themselves as Learners Catechists School-Masters or Probationers Nor shall they meddle in the Pulpits with matters of such Controversies as the Church is in Danger to be troubled with 19. Ministers shall all be commanded by the Magistrate and advised by the Neighbour Pastors to forbear all unnecessary Controversies in the Pulpits and to teach the people the foresaid Substantials the Covenant of Grace the Creed Lords Prayer and Decalogue the Duties of Faith Love Repentance and Obedience And shall reserve their Subtiler and curious Speculations for Schools and Theological Writings And so the Christian People shall be bred up in the Primitive Plain Simplicity of Doctrine and Religion And their Brains shall not be heated and racked with those new-coined Phrases and Subtilties which will but distemper them into a proud contentious wrangling Disease but will not be truly understood by them when all 's done And so when it is the peoples work to hear only usually the Doctrine of the Catechisme and simple old Christianity and to talk of no other 1. Their time will be employed in promoting Faith Repentance Love and Obedience which was wont to be spent in vain Janglings and strife of Words And 2. Religion will be an easier thing and consequently will be more common as cheap Food and Rayment is every ones Penny-worth And Ministers may hope to bring the generality of their People to be savingly and practically Religious Whereas the Fine spun Religion of Novelists and Wranglers that pretend new Light and Increase of Knowledge doth not only dwindle into a Cob-web of no Use or Life or Power but must be confined to a Few that can have leisure to learn to Talk in new Phrases and will but become the Matter of ignorant Men's Pride and Ostentation and make them think that they only are the Religious People and all that cannot talk as they are Prophane and not to be admitted to their Communion When as the Apostolick Primitive plain Religion without the Laces and Whimsies that Dreamers have since introduced would make Men Humble Holy Heavenly Obedient Meek and Patient and spare Men the Loss of a great deal of Time 20. The Maintenance of the Ministry shall neither be so poor as to discourage Men from devoting their Children to the Office or disable them from a total Addictedness to their proper Work by any distracting Wants or Cares or yet wholly disable them from Works of Charity Nor yet so Great as may be a strong Bait to Proud Covetous Worldly minded Men to intrude into the Ministry for fleshly Ends. It shall be so much as that the Burden of their Calling may not be increased by Want But yet not so much but that Self-denyal shall be Exercised by all that under-take the Ministry and of the Two the Burden of the Ministerial Labors with its proper Sufferings shall to Flesh and Blood seem to preponderate the worldly Advantage So greatly needful is it to the Church that all Ministers be Self-denying Men that valuing Things spiritually can practise Humility Mortification and Contempt of the World as well as preach it 21. There shall be a Treble-Lock upon the Door of the Ministry 1. Whether they are fit to be Ministers in the general the Ordainers shall judge 2. Whether they are fit to be the Pastors of this or that particular Church the Members of the Church shall so far judge as that none shall become their Pastors without their own consent 3. Whether they be fit for the Magistrates Countenance Maintenance and Protection the Magistrate himself shall judge And therefore all Three shall severally try and approve each Pastor Yet so that the Two First only be taken as necessary to the Office it self and the Third only to the Maintenance and Encouragement or Defence of the Officer And though sometimes this may occasion Disagreements and Delayes for a time yet ordinarily the

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