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

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.

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 shortneth 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.

§ 12. Willingly submit then O my Soul: It is not thou, but this Flesh that must be dissolved; this troublesome, vile and corruptible Flesh: It is but the other half thy meat and drink, which thy presence kept longer uncorrupted, going after the excremental part. Thou diest not when Man (the compositum) dieth, by thy departure. And as thou livest not to thy self, I die not to my self; whether I live or die, I am the Lords: He that set up the Candle, knoweth how long he hath use for the light of it. Study thy duty, and work while it is Day, and let God choose thy time, and willingly stand to his disposal. The Gospel dieth not when I die: The Church dieth not: The Praises of God die not; the World dieth not: And perhaps it shall grow better, and those Prayers shall be answered which seemed lost: Yea, & it may be some of the Seed that I have sown, shall spring up to some benefit of the dark unpeaceable World when I am dead. And is not this much of the end of life? & is not that Life good, which attaineth its End? If my End was to do Good and Glorify God, if Good be done, and God be Glorified, when I am dead, yea though I were