Reliquiæ Baxterianæ, or, Mr. Richard Baxters narrative of the most memorable passages of his…

28. I am farther than ever I was from expecting great matters of Unity, Splendour or Prosperity to the Church on Earth, or that Saints should dream of a Kingdom of this World, or flatter themselves with the Hopes of a Golden Age, or reigning over the Ungodly, (till there be a new Heaven and a new Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness). And on the contrary I am more apprehensive that Sufferings must be the Churches most ordinary Lot, and Christians indeed must be self-denying Cross-bearers, even where there are none but formal nominal Christians to be the Cross-makers: And though ordinarily God would have Vicissitudes of Summer and Winter, Day and Night, that the Church may grow extensively in the Summer of Prosperity, ⟨p. 133⟩and intensively and radicatedly in the Winter of Adversity; yet usually their Night is longer than their Day, and that D•y its self hath its Storms and Tempests. For the Prognostics are evident in their Causes: 1. The Church will be still Imperfect and Sinful, and will have those Diseases which need this bitter Remedy. 2. Rich Men will be the Rulers of the World; and Rich Men will be generally so far from true Godliness, that they must come to Heaven as by Human Impossibilities, as a Camel through a Needles Eye. 3. The Ungodly will ever have an Enmity against the Image of God, and he that is born of the Flesh will persecute him that was born after the Spirit, and Brotherhood will not keep a Cain from killing an Abel, who offereth a more acceptable Sacrifice than himself: And the Guilty will still hate the Light, and make a Prey to their Pride and Malice of a Conscionable Reprover. 4. The Pastors will be still troubling the Church with their Pride and Avarice and Contentions; and the worst will be seeking to be the Greatest, and they that seek it are likest to attain it. 5. He that is highest will be still imposing his Conceits upon those under him, and Lording it over God's Heritage, and with Di•trephes casting out the Brethren, and ruling them by constraint, and not as Volunteers. 6. Those that are truly judicious will still comparatively be few; and consequently the Troublers and Dividers will be the Multitude; and a judicious Peace-maker and Reconciler will be neglected, slighted, or hated by both Extremes. 7. The Tenor of the Gospel Predictions, Precepts, Promises and Threatenings, are fitted to a People in a suffering State. 8.

28. I am farther than ever I was from expecting great matters of Unity, Splendor or Prosperity to the Church on Earth, or that Saints should dream of a Kingdom of this World, or slatter themselves with the Hopes of a Golden Age, or reigning over the Ungodly, (till there be a new Heaven and a new Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness). And on the contrary I am more apprehensive that Sufferings must be the Churches most ordinary Lot, and Christians indeed must be selfdenying Cross-bearers, even where there are none but formal nominal Christians to be the Cross-makers: And though ordnarily God would have Vicissitudes of Summer and Winter, Day and Night, that the Church may grow extensively in the Summer of Prosperity,