A26921:1034
Richard Baxter's dying thoughts upon Phil. I, 23 written for his own life and…
Richard Baxter's dying thoughts upon Phil. I, 23 written for his own life and the latter times of his corporal pains and weakness.
London: printed by Tho. Snowden for B. Simmons, 1683
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
VI. Were Love thus shed on the Heart by the Holy Ghost, it would give me a livelier apprehension of the state of Blessedness which all the faithful now enjoy: I should delightfully think of them as living in the joyful Love of God, and ever fully replenished therewith. It pleaseth us to see the Earth flourish in the Spring; and to see how pleasantly the Lambs and other young things will skip and play: Much more to see Societies of Holy Christians loving each other, and provoking one another to delight in God: O then what a pleasant thought should it be, to think how all our deceased godly Friends, and all that have so died since the Creation, are now together in a World of Divine perfect Love! How they are all continually wrapped up in the Love of God, and live in the delight of perfect Love to one another.
VI. Were Love thus shed on the Heart by the Holy Ghost, it would give me a livelier apprehension of the state of Blessedness which all the faithful now enjoy: I should delightfully think of them as living in the joyful Love of God, and ever fully replenished therewith. It pleaseth us to see the Earth flourish in the Spring; and to see how pleasantly the Lambs and other young things will skip and play: Much more to see Societies of Holy Christians loving each other, and provoking one another to delight in God: O then what a pleasant thought should it be, to think how all our deceased godly Friends, and all that have so died since the Creation, are now together in a World of Divine perfect Love! How they are all continually wrap't up in the Love of God, and live in the delight of perfect Love to one another.
O my Soul, when thou art with them, thou wilt dwell in Love, and feast on Love, and rest in Love; for thou wilt more fully dwell in God, and God in thee: And thou wilt dwell with none but perfect Lovers: They would not silence thee from praising God in their Assembly: Tyrants, Malignants, and Persecutors are more strange there (or far from thence) than Toads, and Snakes, and Crocodiles are from the Bed or Bedchamber of the King. Love is the Air, the Region, the World they live in: Love is their Nature, their Pulse, their Breath, their Constitution, their Complexion, and their work: It is their life, and even themselves and all. Full loth would one of those Spirits be, to dwell again among blind Sodomites, and mad self-damning Malignants upon Earth.