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

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.)

§ 15. 1. Think here, O my Soul, how sweet a state▪ unto thee it will be to Love the Lord Jesus thy glorified Head with perfect love! When the glory of God which shineth in him, will feast thy love with full and everlasting pleasure: The highest created Perfection of Power, Wisdom, and Goodness, refulgent in him, will not give leave to thy Love, to cease, or intermit, or abate its fervour. When thou shalt see in the glorified Church the precious fruits of Christ's Redemption, Grace, and Love, this also will feed thy love to him, from whom this heavenly Glory cometh: And when thou shalt feel thy self possest of perfect happiness, by his Love to thee, will not this also do its part? Yea the remembrance of all his former Love; what he did for thee, and what he did in thee here on Earth, how he called thee with a Holy calling, how he washed thee in his Blood from all thy sins, how he kindled in thee those desires which tended to that perfect Glory, how he renewed thy Nature, how he instructed, and guided, and preserved thee from thy Childhood, and how many and how great sins, enemies, dangers, and