A26921:221
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.
§ 13. Their fear is vain and carnal, who are afraid lest their Union with Christ or one another will be too near; even lest thereby they lose their individuation, as Rivers that fall into the Sea, or extinguished Candles whose Fire is after but a Sun-beam, or part of the common Element of Fire in the Air; or as the Vegetative Spirits which in Autumn, retire from the Leaves into the Branches and Trunk of the Tree: I have proved before, that our Individuation or numerical Existence ceaseth not: And that no Union is to be feared, were it never so sure, which destroyeth not the Being, or formal Powers or Action of the Soul; and that it is the great radical disease of SELFISHNESS and want of Holy LOVE to God and our Saviour, and one another, which causeth these unreasonable Fears; Even that Selfishness which now maketh men so partially desirous of their own wills and pleasure in comparison of God's, and their own Felicity in comparison of other, and which maketh them so easily bear God's injuries, and the Sufferings of a Thousand others, in comparison of their own. But he that put a great desire of the Bodies preservation into the Soul while it is its form, will abate that desire when the time of separation is come, because there is then no use for it till the Resurrection: Else it would be a torment to the Soul.
§ 14. 3. And as we shall have UNION, so also COMMUNION with the Divine and Humane Nature of ⟨p. 71⟩Christ, respectively. Both as they will be the Objects of our Souls most noble and Constant acts, and as they will be the Fountain or Communicative cause of our receptions.
§ 15. 1. We find now that our various Faculties have various Objects suitable to their Natures: The Objects of Sense are things sensible; and the Objects of Imagination things Imaginable, and the Objects of Intellection things Intelligible, and the Objects of the Will things amiable: The Eye that is a nobler Sense than some others, hath Light for its Object, which to other Senses is none: and so of the rest. Therefore we have cause to suppose, that as far as our Glorified Souls, and our Spiritual Glorified Bodies, will differ, so far Christ's Glorified Soul and Body will respectively be their several Objects: And beholding the Glory of both will be part of our Glory.