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

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 ⟨p. 93⟩we have now) it shall vanish away: When I was a Child I spake as a Child, understood as a Child, I thought as a Child; but when I became a Man, I put away childish things: For now we see through a Glass (per species) darkly (as men understand a thing by a Metaphor, Parable or Riddle) but then Face to Face (even Creatures intuitively as in themselves naked and open to our sight:) Now I know in part (not Rem sed aliquid Rei; in which sense Sanchez truly saith, Nihil scitur:) But then shall I know, even as I am known: (Not a God knoweth us; for our knowledge and his must not be so comparatively likened: but as Holy Spirits know us both now and for ever: we shall both know and be known by immediate intuition)

4. But the chief Answer is yet behind. No Knowledge is lost, but perfected, and changed for much nobler, sweeter, greater Knowledg: 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,