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

A Man that resolveth not to be deceived by ambiguous words, and maketh it his first work in all his Reading and disputings to difference between Words, and Sense, and Things, and strictly to examine each disputed term, till the Speakers meaning be distinctly known, will see the lamentable case of the Church, and all Mankind, and what shadows of knowledge deceive the World, and in what useless dreams the greatest part of men, yea of Learned men do spend their days: Much of that which some men unweariedly study, and take to be the honour of their understandings, and their lives, and much of that which Multitudes place their Piety and Hopes of Salvation in, being a mere game at words, and useless Notions; and as truly to be called Vanity and Vexation as is the rest of the Vain show that most men walk in. My sad and bitter Thoughts of the Heathen, Infidel, Mahomet World, and of the common corruptions of Rulers and Teachers, Cities and Countries, Senates and Councils, I will not here open to others, lest they offend; nor cry out as Seneca, Omnes mali sumus, or stultorum plena sunt omnia, nor describe the furious Spirits of the Clergy, and their ignorance, and unrighteous Calumnies and Schisms, as Gregory Nazianzene and others do, nor voluminously lament the seeming hopeless case of Earth, by the boldness, blindness, and fury of men that make use of such sad considerations, to loosen my love from such a World, and make me willing to be with Christ.

A Man that resolveth not to be deceived by ambiguous words, and maketh it his first work in all his Reading and disputings to difference between Words, and Sense, and Things, and strictly to examine each disputed term, till the Speakers meaning be distinctly known, will see the lamentable case of the Church, and all Mankind, and what shaddows of knowledg deceive the World, and in what useless dreams the greatest part of men, yea of Learned men do spend their days: Much of that which some men unweariedly study, and take to be the honour of their understandings, and their lives, and much of that which Multitudes place their Piety and Hopes of Salvation in, being a meer game at words, and useless Notions; and as truly to be called Vanity and Vexation as is the rest of the Vain shew that most men walk in. My sad and bitter Thoughts of the Heathen, Infidel, Mahomet World, and of the common corruptions of Rulers and Teachers, Cities and Countries, Senates and Councils, I will not here open to others, lest they offend; nor cry out as Seneca, Omnes mali sumus, or stultorum plena sunt omnia, nor describe the furious Spirits of the Clergy, and their ignorance, and unrighteous Calumnies and Schisms, as Gregory Nazianzene and others do, nor voluminously lament the seeming hopeless case of Earth, by the boldness, blindness, and fury of men that make use of such sad considerations, to loosen my love from such a World, and make me willing to be with Christ.