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

§ 4. II. In Departing from this Body and Life, I must depart from all its ancient Pleasures: I must taste no more sweetness in meat or drink, or rest, or sport, or any such thing that now delighteth me; House and Lands, and Goods and Wealth must all be left; and the place where I live must know me no more. All my possessions must be no more to me, nor all that I laboured for or took delight in than if they had never been at all.

And what though it must be so? Consider O my Soul, 1. Thy ancient Pleasures are all past already: Thou losest none of them by Death, for they are all lost before, (if immortal Grace have not by sanctifying them, made the benefits of them to become immortal.) All the sweet draughts, and morsels, and sports, and laughters, all the sweet Thoughts of thy worldly Possessions, or thy Hopes, that ever thou hadst till this present Hour, are past by, dead, and gone already. All that Death doth to such as these is to prevent such, that on Earth thou shalt have no more.

2. And is not that the Case of every Brute, that hath no comfort from the prospect of another Life, to repair his loss: And yet as our dominion diminisheth their pleasure while they live, by our keeping them under fear and labour, so at our will their lives must end: To please a Gentleman's Appetite for half an hour or less, Birds, Beasts, and Fishes must lose life itself, and all the pleasure which life might have afforded them for many Years; yea perhaps many of these (Birds and Fishes at least) must die to become but one Feast to a rich Man, if not one ordinary Meal. And is not their sensual pleasure of the same Nature as ours? Meat is as sweet to them, and ease as welcome, and lust as strong (in season;) And the pleasure that Death depriveth our Flesh of, is such as is common to Man with Brutes: ⟨p. 84⟩Why then should it seem hard to us to lose that in the Course of Nature, which our Wills deprive them of at our Pleasure? When if we are Believers we can say that we do but exchange these delights of Life, for the greater delights of a Life with Christ, which is a comfort which our fellow Creatures (the Brutes) have not!