A26921:301
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.
To Depart and to be with Christ is far better (or rather to be chosen.)
§ 1. TO say and hear that it is far better to be with Christ, is not enough to make us willing; Words and Notions are such instruments as God useth to work on Souls, but the convincing, satisfying, powerful Light, and the inclining Love are other things. The Soul now operateth ut forma hominis, on and with the Corporeal Spirit and Organs; and it perceiveth now its own perceptions; but it is a stranger to the Mode of its future Action, when it is separated from the Body, and can have no formal conception of such conceptions as yet it never had. And therefore its Thoughts of its future ••ate, must be Analogical and General, and partly •range. But General notices when certain may be very powerful, and satisfy us in so much as is needful to our consent, and to such a measure of Joy as is suitable to ⟨p. 121⟩this earthly state. And such notices we have from the Nature of the Soul, with the Nature of God, the course of Providence, and Government of Mankind, the internal and external conflicts which we perceive about Mens Souls, the Testimony and Promises of the Word of God, the Testimony of Conscience, with the Witness of the sanctifying Spirit of Christ, and in it the Earnest and the foretaste of Glory, and the beginnings of Life eternal here; of all which I have before considered.
§ 1. TO say and hear that it is far better to be with Christ, is not enough to make us willing; Words and Notions are such instruments as God useth to work on Souls, but the convincing, satisfying, powerful Light, and the inclining Love are other things. The Soul now operateth ut forma hominis, on and with the Corporeal Spirit and Organs; and it perceiveth now its own perceptions; but it is a stranger to the Mode of its future Action, when it is separated from the Body, and can have no formal conception of such conceptions as yet it never had. And therefore its Thoughts of its future ate, must be Analogical and General, and partly range. But General notices when certain may be very powerful, and satisfie us in so much as is needful to our onsent, and to such a measure of Joy as is suitable to