A26921:503
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. › The Concluding Application.
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.
for mine Eyes are toward thee, & my trust is in thee, Psa. 14. 8. I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the Land of the Living: Even where they that live shall die no more. The Sun may cease to shine on Man, and the Earth to bear us; but God will never cease to be Love, nor to be faithful in his Promises. Blessed be the Lord, who hath commanded me so safe and quieting a duty, as to trust him, and cast all my cares on him, as on one that hath promised to care for me!
for mine Eyes are toward thee, & my trust is in thee, Psa. 14. 8. I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the Land of the Living: Even where they that live shall die no more. The Sun may cease to shine on Man, and the Earth to bear us; but God will never cease to be Love, nor to be faithful in his Promises. Blessed be the Lord, who hath commanded me so safe and quietting a duty, as to trust him, and cast all my cares on him, as on one that hath promised to care for me!
11. And blessed be God who hath made it my Duty to HOPE for his Salvation: HOPE is the Ease, yea, the life of our Hearts that else would break, yea, die within us. Despair is no small part of Hell. God cherisheth Hope as he is the lover of Souls: Satan our Enemy cherisheth Despair, when his way of blind Presumption faileth. As Fear is a ⟨p. 232⟩foretaste of Evil, before it is felt; so Hope doth anticipate and foretaste Salvation before it is possessed. It is then worldly Hypocrites Hope that perisheth, for all that Hope for true or durable Happiness on Earth, in the pleasures of this perishing Flesh, must needs be deceived. But happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose Hope is in the Lord his God, which made Heaven and Earth, which keepeth Truth for ever, Ps. 146. 5, 6. Woe to me, were my Hope only in the time and matters of this fleshly life, 1 Cor. 15. 19. But the Righteous hath hope in his Death,