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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	believe_v	church_n	prove_v	1,851	5	5.9447	4	false

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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

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-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-wa●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

and to do apparently more hurt than good But as to all worthy and able Ministers if they commit any fault they shall be punished as other Subjects only with such Penalties as shall not by silencing or restraint be a punishment to the innocent peoples Souls nor hinder the Preaching of the Gospel of Salvation Even as if the common Bakers Brewers Butchers Carpenters perform their work perniciously Poisoning their Beer Bread and Meat they shall be forbid the Trade But for other faults they shall be so punished that the People be not left without Bread Beer Meat Houses for their faults 33. If any Hereticks as Arrians Socinians c. would creep into the Ministry there shall not be new-forms of Subscription made to keep them out which its like with their vicious Consciences would be uneffectual and would open a Gap to the old Church-Tyrannies and Divisions nor an uncertain Evil be uneffectually resisted by a certain greater Mischief But while he keepeth his Errour to himself he is no Heretick as to the Church non apparere being equal to non esse And when he venteth his Heresy he is responsible all the ways aforesaid and may be by the Magistrate punished for his Crime and by the Churches be branded as none of their Communion which is the regular way of reforming Crimes ' viz. By Judgment and Execution and not by making new Rules and Laws as fast as Men break the old As though Laws could be made which no Man can break 34. The Magistrate shall countenance or tolerate no Sin or Errour so far as he can cure it by just Remedies which will not do more harm than good But he shall unwillingly tolerate many tolerable Errours and Faults because it is not in his Power to remedy them by such means But 1. The Sound and Concordant Ministry only shall have his Countenance and Maintenance 2. Smaller Errours and Disorders shall be best cured by gentle Rebukes and Discountenance and denyal of Maintenance together with the disgrace that will be cast upon them by the judgment and dissent of all the united Concordant Ministers and Churches which two together will do more and better than Exasperating Cruelties will do 3. The publishing of pernicious Principles shall be restrained more severely But though Men may be restrained from venting pernicious Falsehoods they cannot be Constrained to believe the Truth we are not so happy Nor shall they be Constrained to lie and say that they believe it when they do not 35. All matters of Quarrels division and cruel usage of each other being thus cut off and gone bitterness and revengeful thoughts will cease and Love will revive in all Mens Breasts and Unity and Peace will follow of its own accord And if any Heretical or contentious Sect arise the Hearts of all United People will so rise against them that desertion and shame will quickly Kill them 36. Then will the Hearts of the People cleave to their Pastors And they will be no more put on the great difficulties of Loving the Bishops that hurt them or of Loving them in Jailes But it will be as easy to Love them when they feel the Love to their Souls in the labours and kindness of their Pastors as to Love their dearest and nearest Friends And then Love will open the Peoples Ears to the Teachers Doctrine and it will do them good And then the labours and lives of faithful Ministers will be sweet and easy when the Love and the Unity and Faithfulness of the People is their dayly Encouragement O how good and how happy will it be for Pastors and People thus to Live in Love and Unity It will not only mind us of Aarons perfume but of the Spirit of Love that dwelt in our Redeemer and which he promised should be his Seal and Mark upon all his true Disciples Yea and of the Celestial Society and Life of perfect Love 37. Then shall Neighbours exercise their Charity for the help of the Ignorant about them without the suspicions of venting Heresies or Sedition or Encroaching on the Pastors Office And Neighbours when they come together shall not take Praying together or holy Conference or singing Gods Praise or Reading good Books or repeating their Teachers Sermons or Counselling each other to be a bad or dangerous work But the Ignorant that cannot spend the Lords day in holy Exercises at home because they cannot Read or remember much shall joyn with the Families of their more Understanding Neighbours who can help them as they met Act. 12. 12. for Prayer and as Neighbour-Families were to joyn in Eating the Passover with the Family that had not enow to Eat it For Love and Unity shall end these Jealousies And all shall be done under the Guidance and Over-sight of their Pastors and not in Enmity or Opposition to them or to the Concordant Church-Assemblies And O what Helps and Comfort will this be to all Faithful Pastors when all the Work lyeth not on them alone but every one sets his Hand to Build in his proper place And when they that Converse together all the Week are seconding that which he more seldom teacheth them in Publick 38. The Younger sort of Ministers that are now Bred up in Vulcan's Forge shall be then Trained up under grave and peaceable Men where uniting and peace-making Principles shall be the Rudiments of their Literature 39. And the Younger sort of the People shall be no more tempted into envious Heats against their Afflicters nor into contentious Sects because of Controversies But shall be fed with the Milk of peaceable Principles and be Educated in the Love of Love it self And the names of Sects and Church-Divisions and proud Pretendings shall by use be made as disgraceful as now the Names of Swearing Drunkenness and Whoredom are 40. And O how Dear how Amiable how Honourable will their Governours be to such a People Especially that Blessed Prince that shall first perform this Work How heartily will they Pray for them Plead for them and Fight for them And How freely will they Contribute any thing in their Power to their Aids And How impatient will they be against every Word that would dishonour them How Blessed will the People be under such a Prince And How Sweet and Easie will the Life of that Prince be that is to Govern such a People Grant O Lord that this great Honour and Comfort may fall into the Hands of the King of England before all others in the World Kings will then see that it is their Interest their Honour and their greatest Happyness on Earth to be the Wise Pious Righteous Governours of a Wise Pious Just United People that Love them so much that still they would fain serve them better than they are able 41. The Ignorant Vulgar and Ruder sort observing this Amiable Concord and all the blessed Fruits thereof will admire Religion and fall in Love with it And Multitudes that shall be saved will be dayly added to the

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 When by the KING's Commission we in vain treated for Concord 1661. And now Published not to Instruct the Proud that scorn to Learn nor to make them Wise who will not be made Wise But to Instruct the Sons of Love and Peace in their Duties and Expectations And to tell Posterity That the Things which befall them were Fore-told And that the Evil might have been prevented and Blessed Peace on Earth attained if Men had been but willing and had not shut their Eyes and hardened their Hearts against the Beams of Light and Love LONDON Printed for Thomas Simmons at the Princes-Arms in Ludgate-Street 1680. TO THE READER Reader IT is many Years since this Prognostication was written 1661 except the Sixteen last Lines but it was cast by lest it should offend the Guilty But the Author now thinketh that the Monitory Usefulness may over-weigh the Inconveniencies of Mens Displeasure at least to Posterity if not for the Present Age of which he is taking his Fare-wel His Suppositions are such as cannot be denyed Viz. 1. Eccles 1. 9. The Thing that hath been is that which shall be and that which is done is that which shall be done and there is no New Thing under the Sun 2. The same Causes with the same Circumstances will have the same Effects on Recipients equally disposed 3. Operari sequitur esse As Natures are so they act except where over-power'd 4. The Appetite Sensitive and Rational is the Principle of Motion and what any Love they will Desire and Seek 5. Therefore Interest will turn the Affairs of the World and he that can best understand all Interests will be the best Moral Prognosticator so far as Men are Causes of the Events 6. The Pleasing of God and the Happyness of their own and others Souls being the Interest of True Believers and Temporal Life Pleasure and Prosperity being the seeming and esteemed Interest of Unbelievers cross Interests will carry them contrary wayes 7. Contraries when near and Militant will be troublesome to each other and seek each others Destruction or Debilitation 8. The Senses and Experience of all Men in all Ages are to be believed about their proper Objects 9. Men of Activity Power and Great Numbers will have advantage for Observance and Success above those that are Modest Obscure and Few 10. Yet Men will still be Men and the Rational Nature will yield some Friendly Aspect towards the Truth 11. Those that are Ignorant and misled by Passion and carryed down the Stream by Men of Malignity or Faction may come to themselves when Affliction Experience and Considerateness have had time to work and may Repent and undo some-what that they have done 12. As Sense will be Sense when Faith hath done its best so Faith will be Faith when Flesh or Sense hath done its worst 13. Men that fix on a Heavenly Everlasting Interest will not be Temporizers and changed by the Worldly Mens Wills or Cruelties 14. When all Men have tired themselves with their Contrivances and Stirs Moderation and Peace must be the quiet State 15. When all Worldly Wisdome hath done its utmost an● Mens Endeavours are w●inged with the greatest Expectations God will be God and Blast what he Nilleth and will Over-rule all Things to the Accomplishment of his most Blessed will Amen On these Suppositions it is that the following Prognostications are founded which I must admonish the Reader not to mistake for Historical Narratives But I exhort him to know what Hath been and what Is if he would know what Will be and to make sure of Everlasting Rest with Christ when he must leave a sinful restless world A Moral Prognostication Of what must be Expected in the Churches of Christendome TILL THE GOLDEN AGE RETURNS OR Till the Time of True Reformation and Vnity 1. MAnkind will be Born in a State of Infancy and Nescience that is without actual Knowledge 2. Yea with a Nature that hath the innate Dispositions to sloath and to diverting pleasures and business and more than so to an aversness from those Principles which are needful to Sanctification and Heavenly Wisdom The Carnal Mind will have an Enmity against God and will not mind the things of the Spirit nor be subject to God's Law Rom. 8. 5 6 7 8. 3. Sound Learning or Wisdom in things of so high a Nature as are the matters of Salvation will not be attain'd without Hard Study and Earnest Prayer and Humble Submission to Instructions and all this a long time Patiently Endured or rather willingly and delightfully Performed 4. And if the Seeds of Wisdom be not Born with us in a capacious disposition of understanding but contrarily a Natural Unapprehensiveness Blocks up the Way even Time and Labour will never without a Miracle bring any to any great Eminency of Understanding 5. And they that have both Capacity and an Industrious Disposition must have also sound and able and diligent Teachers or at least escape the Hands of Seducers and of partial factious guides 6. There are few Born with good natural Capacities much less with a special dispositive acuteness and few that will be at the pains and patience which the getting of Wisdom doth require and few that will have the happiness of sound and diligent Teachers But fewest of all that will have a concurrence of all these three 7. Therefore there will be but few very Wise Men in the World Ignorance will be common Wisdom will be rare 8. Therefore Errour or false Opinions will be common For unless Men never think of the things of which they are Ignorant or Judge nothing of them one way or other they are sure to err so far as they Judge in Ignorance But when things of greatest Moment are represented as True or False to be believed or rejected the most Ignorant Mind is naturally inclined to pass its Judgment or Opinion of them one way or other and to Apprehend them according to the light he standeth in and to think of them as he is disposed So that Ignorance and Errour will concur 9. He that Erreth doth think that he is in the Right and Erreth not For to Err and to know that he Erreth in Judgment is a Contradiction and Impossible However in Words and Deeds a Man may Err and know that he Erreth 10. He that knoweth not and that Erreth perceiveth not that Evidence of Truth which should make him receive it and which maketh other Men receive it And therefore knoweth not that indeed another is in the right or seeth any more than he 11. Especially when every Man is a Stranger to anothers Mind and Soul as to any immediate inspection And therefore knoweth not

described 115. Carnal and discontented States-men and Politicians will set in on both sides to blow the Coals and draw on feuds for their own Ends and head the discontented People to their Ruine 116. But in those Countrys where the difference never cometh to such disorders there will be a War bred and kept up in the Peoples Hearts and Neighbours will be against Neighbours as Guelphes and Gibellines 117. When Kingdomes are thus weakened by intestine discontents it will increase the Hopes and Plots of forreign Enemies and make them think that one Party that Suffer will be backward to their own defence as thinking they can be no worse which is the Hopes of the Turks in Hungary 118. It will be a great injury and grief and danger to Christian Kings and States to have their Kingdomes and Common-wealths thus weakened and the Cordial Love and Assistance of their Subjects made so loose and so uncertain 119. And it will be a continual vexation to Wise and Peaceable Princes to Govern such divided discontented People But to rule a United Loving Concordant Peaceable People will be their Delight and Joy 120. A WORLDLY Covetous Proud Domineering Malignant Lazy Clergy will in most Christian Nations be the great Plague of the World and troublers of Princes and Dividers of Churches who for the Interest of their Grandure and their Wills will not give the Sober and Peaceable and Godly Ministers or People Leave to serve God quietly and live in Peace And the Impatient Self-conceited Sectarian Spirit which like Gun-Powder takes Fire upon such Injuries is the secondary divider of the Churches and hinderer of Christian Love and Peace and by their mutual Enmity and abuses they will drive each other so far into the Extremity of Aversation and Opposition that they will but make each other Mad and then like Mad-men run and quarrel while sober Men stand by and pitty them but can help neither the one party nor the other nor preserve their own or the publike Peace 121. The grand Endeavour of the Worldly Clergy will be in most Kingdoms of the World to Engage Princes on their side and to borrow their Sword to do their work with against Gain-sayers For they have no Confidence in the Power of the Keys but will despise them secretly in their Hearts as leaden uneffectual Weapons while they make it the glory of their order that the Power of the Keys is theirs 122. If Princes suppress disorders by the Sword the said Clergy will ascribe the honor of it to themselves and say It was their order that kept up so much Order in the Churches And when they have put Princes to that trouble will assume to themselves the praise 123. The Devil will set in and do his utmost to make both Rulers and People believe that all this Confusion is long of the Christian Religion and the strict Principles of the Sacred Scriptures and so to make Men cast off all Religion and take Christianity to be contrary to their Natural and Civil Interests 124. And the Papists will every where perswade High and Low that all this cometh by meddling so much with the Scriptures and busying the Common People with Religion and leaving every Man to be a Discerning Judge of Truth and Duty instead of trusting implicitely in the Judgment of their Church And so they would tempt Princes tamely to surrender half their Government that is in all Matters of Religion to the Pope and perswade the People to Resign their Reason or Humanity to him that He who is so far off may Rule it all over the World by his Missioners and Agents who must live upon the Prey And then he knoweth that he shall have both Swords and be the Universal King 125. To this end they will strive to make some Rulers as bad as they would have them to do their Work and to make the rest thought worse of than they are that they may have a fair Pretense for their Treasons and Usurpations which was the Case of all the Writers that plead for Pope Gregory the Seventh against the German Emperours who took that Advantage to settle the Cardinals Power of Elections and in a Council at Rome to declare the Pope to be above the Emperour and to Have Power to Depose him And as bad was done in the General-Council at Later under Innocent the Third Can. 2 3. 126. Concerning Princes I shall give you no Prognosticks but Christ's That it will be as hard for a Rich Man to enter into Heaven as for a Camel to go through a Needles Eve And therefore that you may know what Men the Rich will be in most Countries of the World 127. And the Rich will be the Rulers of the World and it s meet it should be so Not that Men should Rule because they are Rich but that they that Rule should be Rich and not exposed to Contempt by a Vulgar Garb and State 128. But some Wise and Good Princes and Magistrates God will raise up to keep the Interest of Truth and Justice from sinking in Barbarousness and Diabolical Wickedn●ss 129. And where Princes and Magistrates are bad they will seldom do so much Hurt as Good or prove very Cruel where the Worldly or Corrupt Clergy do not animate and instigate them Their Reason their Interest and their Experience will lead them by Man-like Usage to seek the Peoples Love and Quietness and their Kingdomes Unity and Strength But Bloody Persecutions such as that of the Waldenses Piedmont lately France Ireland Queen Maries c. are ordinarily the Effects of Clergy-Interest and Zeal 130. The Grand Designe of the Devil through the World will be to Corrupt the Two great Ordinances of Cod Magistracy and Ministry and turn them both against Christ who giveth them their Power The Instances of his Success are most Notorious in the TURKISH EMPIRE and the PAPAL KINGDOME called by them The Catholick-Church Which Campanella de Regno Dei doth labour to prove by all the Prophesies cited by the Millenarians or Fifth-Monarchy-Men to be the True Universal Kingdom of Christ in which by his Vicar the Pope he shall Reign over all the Kings and Kingdomes of the Earth A Prognostication OF THE CHANGES That will be in CHRISTENDOM IN THE Golden Age AND Time of True Reformation and Unity 1. BEcause it is made part of our Prayers Thy Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven and We look for a New Heaven and a New Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness I hope their Opinion is not True who think that the Earth shall still grow liker and liker to Hell till the general Conflagration turn it into Hell and make it the proper Seat of the Damned Yet lest this should prove True I will place my Chiefest Hopes in Heaven remembring who said Sell all and follow me and thou shalt have Treasure in Heaven and not on Earth But supposing that ever the World will come to Full Reformation and Concord which I am uncertain