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

§ 6. For I am far from thinking that I shall be above Service, and have none to do! For Activity will be my Perfection and my Rest: And all such Activity must be Regular in harmony and order of Causes, and for its proper use. And what though I know not now fully what service it is that I must do? I know it will be good, and suitable to the blessed state which I shall be in: And it is enough that God and my Redeemer know it; and that I shall know it in due time, when I come to practice it: (of which more afterward.)

§ 7. The inordinate Love of this Body and present composition seduceth Souls to think that all their use and work is for its maintenance and prosperity, and when the Soul hath done that, and is separated from Flesh, it hath nothing to do▪ but must lie idle, or be as nothing, or have no considerable work or pleasure: As if there were nothing in the whole World, but this little fluid mass of matter, for a Soul to work upon? As if itself, and all the Creatures, and God were nothing, or no fit Objects for a Soul? And why not hereafter as well as now? Or as if that which in our compounded state, ⟨p. 134⟩doth Operate on and by its Organs, had no other way of Operation without them? As if the Musician lost all his power, or were dead, when his Instrument is out of tune or broken, and could do nothing else but play on that! As if the fiery part of the Candle were annihilated or transmutate (as some following-Philosophers imagine) when the Candle goeth out; and were not fire, and in action still: Or as if that Sun beam which I shut out, or which passeth from our Horizon, were annihilated, or did nothing, when it shineth not with us? Had it no other individual to illuminate or to terminate its beams or action, were it nothing to illuminate the common Air? Though I shall not always have a Body to Operate in and upon, I shall always have God, and a Saviour, and a world of fellow-Creatures; and when I shine not in this Lantern, and see not by these Spectacles, nor imaginarily in a Glass, I shall yet see things suitable intuitively and as Face to Face. That which is essentially Life (as a Living Principle) will Live: And that which is essentially an Active, Intellective, Volitive principle, force and Virtue, will still be such while it is itself, and is not annihilated or changed into another thing? (which is not to be feared:) And that which is such can never want an Object, till all things be annihilated.