A26921:403
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.
Richard Baxter's Dying Thoughts. › Part 4: IV. The Constitutive Reasons from the state of my will.
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.
§ 13. II. Under God as I shall see, so I shall delightfully Love the glorious Perfection of the Universe; even the Image of God in all the World; as my Love will be my delight, so I shall love best that which is best, and most delight in it: And the whole is better than any part: And there is a peculiar Beauty and Excellency in the whole World, as perfect, compaginate, harmonious, which is not to be found in any part, no not in Christ himself as Man, nor in his Church.
The marvellous inclination that all things have to Union, even the Inanimates, might persuade me, if I felt it not certainly in my self, that it is most credible that Man also shall have the like inclination, and such as is agreeable to the nature of his Faculties: And therefore our love and delight in all things, is that uniting inclination in Man.
§ 14. III. And I shall have a special Love to the Holy Society, the triumphant Universal Church, consisting of Christ, Angels, and Saints, as they are specially amiable, in the Image and Glory of God: God himself loveth them more than his inferior works: (that is, his Essence, which is Love, and hath no degrees or change, doth send forth fuller streams of good upon them, or maketh them better and happier than the rest:) And my love will imitate the love of God, in my Capacity. And if Societies on Earth, more holy and wise than others, though imperfectly, are very amiable, what then will the heavenly Society be? Of this I spake before (of knowing them.)
§ 14. III. And I shall have a special Love to the Holy Society, the triumphant Universal Church, consisting of Christ, Angels, and Saints, as they are specially amiable, in the Image and Glory of God: God himself loveth them more than his inferiour works: (that is, his Essence, which is Love, and hath no degrees or change, doth send forth fuller streams of good upon them, or maketh them better and happier than the rest:) And my love will imitate the love of God, in my Capacity. And if Societies on Earth, more holy and wise than others, though imperfectly, are very amiable, what then will the heavenly Society be? Of this I spake before (of knowing them.)