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

7. Yet more, to Depart from such a Body, is but to be loosed from the Bondage of Corruption, and from a Clog and Prison of the Soul. I say not that God put a preexistent Soul into this Prison Penally, for former faults: I must say no more than I can prove, or than I know: But that Body which was an apt Servant to innocent Man's Soul, is become as a Prison to him now: What alteration sin made upon the Nature of the Body, as whether it be more terrene and gross than else it would have been, I have no reason to assert: Of Earth, or Dust, it was at first, and to Dust it is sentenced to return. But no doubt but it hath its part in that dispositive depravation which is the fruit of sin. we find that the Soul as sensitive, is so imprisoned or shut up in Flesh, that sometimes it is more than one Door that must be opened before the Object and the Faculty can meet: In the Eye indeed, the Soul seemeth to have a Window to look out at, and to be almost itself visible to others: And yet there are many interposing tunicles, and a suffusion, or winking, can make the clearest sight▪ to be as useless for the time as if it were none: And if sense be thus shut up from its Object, no wonder if Reason also be under difficulties from corporeal impediments; and if the Soul that is yoked with such a Body, can go no faster than its heavy pace.

7. Yet more, to Depart from such a Body, is but to be loosed from the Bondage of Corruption, and from a Clog and Prison of the Soul. I say not that God put a preexistent Soul into this Prison Penally, for former faults: I must say no more than I can prove, or than I know: But that Body which was an apt Servant to innocent Man's Soul, is become as a Prison to him now: What alteration sin made upon the Nature of the Body, as whether it be more terrene and gross than else it would have been, I have no reason to assert: Of Earth, or Dust, it was at first, and to Dust it is sentenced to return. But no doubt but it hath its part in that dispositive depravation which is the fruit of sin. we find that the Soul as sensitive, is so imprisoned or shut up in Flesh, that sometimes it is more than one Door that must be opened before the Object and the Faculty can meet: In the Eye indeed, the Soul seemeth to have a Window to look out at, and to be almost itself vi•ible to others: And yet there are many interposing tunicles, and a suffusion, or winking, can make the clearest sight▪ to be as useless for the time as if it were none: And if sense be thus shut up from its Object, no wonder if Reason also be under difficulties from coporeal impediments; and if the Soul that is yoaked with such a Body, can go no faster than its heavy pace.