A26921:296
Richard Baxter's dying thoughts upon Phil. I, 23 written for his own life and…
Richard Baxter's dying thoughts upon Phil. I, 23 written for his own life and the latter times of his corporal pains and weakness.
London: printed by Tho. Snowden for B. Simmons, 1683
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
And God, (who made us not gods but poor Creatures as it pleased him) doth know best our measures: And he will not try us with too long a Life of Temptations, lest we should grow too familiar where we should be Strangers, and utterly Strangers to our home: No wonder if that World was ready for a deluge, by a deluge of sin, in which men lived to Six, Seven, Eight and Nine hundred Years of Age: Had our Great Sensualists any hope of so long a life, they were like to be like incarnate Devils, and there would be no dwelling near them for the Holy Seed? If Angels were among them, they would like the Sodomites seek furiously to abuse them.
And God, (who made us not gods but poor Creatures as it pleased him) doth know best our measures: And he will not try us with too long a Life of Temptations, lest we should grow too familiar where we should be Strangers, and utterly Strangers to our home: No wonder if that World was ready for a deluge, by a deluge of sin, in which men lived to Six, Seven, Eight and Nine hundred Years of Age: Had our Great Sensualists any hope of so long a life, they were like to be like incarnate Devils, and there would be no dwelling near them for the Holy Seed? If Angels were among them, they would like the Sod•mites seek furiously to abuse them.
Nor will God tire us out with too long a life of ⟨p. 115⟩earthly sufferings: We think short cares, and fears, and sorrows, persecutions, sickness, and crosses to be long: And shall we grudge at the Wisdom and Love which shorteneth them. Yea, though holy duty it self be excellent and sweet, yet the weakness of the Flesh maketh us liable to weariness, and abateth the willingness of the Spirit: And our wise and merciful God will not make our warfare or our race too long, lest we be wearied and faint, and fall short of the prize. By our weariness, and complaints, and fears and groans, one would think that we thought this life too long, and yet when we should yield to the call of God, we draw back as if we would have it everlasting.