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

3. I shall there have none of Satan's solicitations, to pervert my will: He will not have that advantage by my Sense and Fantasy, nor that access unto me as now he hath. But of this I spake before.

3. I shall there have none of Satans solicitations, to pervert my will: He will not have that advantage by my Sense and Phantasie, nor that access unto me as now he hath. But of this I spake before.

§ 2. My WILL shall there be better than here, I. Negatively, because, 1. There will be nothing in it that is displeasing to God: No sinful inclination, habit or act: Nothing to strive against God's Spirit: Nor grudge at any word or work of God: No Principles of Enmity or Rebellion left. 2. There will be nothing ⟨p. 165⟩that is against the good of others: No inclinations to injury, or any thing that is against my Neighbours or the common good. 3. There will be nothing in it that is cross to itself; no more war or striving in me; not a Law in my Mind, and a Law in my Members that are contrary to each other: No crossness between Sense and Reason, nor between the sensitive Appetite and the rational: All will be at unity and peace within.

§ 3. II. Positively; Christ will have finished his cure on my will: The work of Sanctification will be perfect: And I. My will shall there by union and communion be made conformable to the will of Christ, and so unto the Fathers will. This must needs be meant (whatever more) in the Prayer of Christ, Joh. 17. 21, 22. Where he prayeth [that they may be One as thou Father art in me, and I in thee, that they may be one in us, that they may be one, even as we are one.] The will of Christ and of the Father will be my will, that is, I shall love and will (dispositively and actually) the same that God loveth and willeth (in the measure of a Creature, infinitely below him:) And if so, 1. How can the will of Man have greater honour, than to be the same with the will of God? Assimilation to a King among us poor Mortals goeth for Honour: Assimilation to Angels is much more: That we shall be like or equal to the Angels, is a high part of the Blessed's praise: But how much more is it, to be thus far like to God! Indeed God's Image and the Divine in us here, can be no less, than this similitude to God's will in the degree that we have it: But, alas, that degree is so very low, as that we can hardly tell whether our similitude or our dissimilitude be the more; I mean, whether our wills are for more that God willeth, or against more. O how many Thousand wishes and desires