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

O what sad Instances of this are, 1. The Case of the Confessors in Cyprian's Days, who as many of his Epistles show, became the great disturbers of that Church. 2. And the Egyptian Monks at Alexandria, in the Days of Theophilus, who turned Anthropomorphites, and raised abominable Tumults, with woeful scandal and odious bloodshed. 3. And O that this Age had not yet greater Instances to prove the matter, than any of these.

O what sad Instances of this are, 1. The Case of the Confessors in Cyprians Days, who as many of his Epistles shew, became the great disturbers of that Church. 2. And the Egyptian Monks at Alexandria, in the Days of Theophilus, who turned Anthropomorphites, and raised abominable Tumults, with woful scandal and odious bloodshed. 3. And O that this Age had not yet greater Instances to prove the matter, than any of these.

And now should a Man be loth to die, for fears of leaving such troublesome costly Learning and Knowledge, as the wisest men can here attain?

4. But the chief Answer is yet behind. No Knowledge is lost, but perfected, and changed for much nobler, sweeter, greater Knowledge: Let men be never so uncertain in particular de modo, Whether acquired Habits of Intellect and Memory die with us, as being dependant on the Body: Yet (by what Manner soever) that a far clearer Knowledge we shall have, than is here attainable, is not to be doubted of. And the cessation of our present Mode of knowing, is but the cessation of our ignorance and imperfection: As our wakening endeth a dreaming Knowledge, and our Maturity endeth the trifling Knowledge of a Child: For so saith the Holy Ghost, 1 Cor. 13. 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. Love never faileth, (and we can Love no more than we know:) But whether there be Prophesies they shall fail: (that is, Cease:) Whether there be Tongues they shall cease: Whether there be Knowledge (Notional and Abstractive such as