Richard Baxter's dying thoughts upon Phil. I, 23 written for his own life and…

§ 9. 2. Besides Presence with Christ, there will be such an Union as we cannot now distinctly know. A political Relative Union is past doubt, such as Subjects have in one Kingdom with their King: But little know we how much more. We see that there is a wonderful Corporeal continuity or contact among the material works of God: And the more Spiritual, pure and noble, the more inclination each Nature hath to Union. Every Plant on Earth hath a Union with the whole Earth in which it liveth; they are real parts of it. And what Natural Conjunction our Bodies shall have to Christ's and what influence from it, is past our Knowledge: Though his similitudes in Joh. •5. & Joh. 6. & Eph. 5. & 1 Cor. 12. seem to extend far, yet being but similitudes, we cannot fully know how far.

§ 10. The same (variatis variandis) we may say of our Union with Christ's humane Soul. Seeing Souls ⟨p. 69⟩are more inclinable to union than Bodies, when we see all Vegetables to be united parts of one Earth, and yet to have each one its proper individuating form and matter, we cannot (though Animals seem to walk more disjunct) imagine that there is no kind of Union or Conjunction of invisible Souls; though they retain their several substances and forms. Nor yet that our Bodies shall have a nearer Union with Christ's Body, than our Souls with his Soul: But the nature, manner, and measure of it, we know not.

§ 11. Far be it from us to think that Christ's glorified Spiritual Body is such in form, parts, and dimensions, as his earthly Body was: That it hath Hands, Feet, Brains, Heart, Stomach, Liver, Intestines, as on Earth: Or that it is such a Compound of Earth, Water, and Air, as here it was, and of such confined extent; for then as his Disciples and a few Jews only were present with him, and all the World besides were absent, and had none of his Company, so it would be in Heaven. But it is not such only as Paul, but all true Believers in the World, from the Creation to the end, shall be with Christ, and see his Glory. And though inequality of Fitness (or Degrees of Holiness) will make an inequality of Glory, no Man can prove an inequality by local distance from Christ; Or if such there be (for it's beyond our reach) yet none in Heaven are at such a distance from him, as not to enjoy the Felicity of his Presence.