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

The suitableness of things below to my fleshly Nature, hath detained my affections too much on Earth! And shall not the suitableness of things above to my Spiritual Nature, much more draw up my Love to Heaven. There is the GOD whom I have sought and served: He is also here; but veiled, and but little known: But there he shineth to heavenly Spirits in heavenly Glory. There is the Saviour in whom I have believed: He hath also dwelt in Flesh on Earth: B•t clothed in such meanness, and humbled to such a Life ⟨p. 246⟩and Death, as was to the Jews a stumbling Block, and to the Gentiles matter of reproach: But he Shineth and Reigneth now in Glory, above the malice and contempt of Sinners. And I shall there Live because he liveth; and in his Light I shall have Light. He loved me here with a Redeeming, Regenerating and preserving Love: But there he will love me with a perfecting, glorifying joyful Love. I had here some Rays of heavenly Light: But interpositions caused Eclipses and Nights, yea, some long and winter Nights: But there I shall dwell in the City of the Sun, the City of God, the heavenly Jerusalem, where there is no Night, Eclipse or Darkness! There are the heavenly Hosts whose holy Love and Joyful Praises I would fain be a partaker of? I have here had some of their Loving assistance, but to me unseen, being above our fleshly way of Converse. But there I shall be with them, of the like Nature, in the same Orb, and of the same Triumphant Church and Chore! There are perfected Souls gathered home to Christ: Not, as here, striving like Esau and Jacob in the Womb, not yet as John when he leaped in the Womb, because of his Mothers joy; nor as wrangling Children that are hardly kept in the same House in Peace: Not like the Servants of Abraham and Lot, like Paul and Barnabas, like Epiphanius and Chrysostom, like Luther and Carolostadius, like Ridley and Hooper, or the many striving Parties now among us; nor like the Disciples striving who should be the greatest: Not like Noah's Family in a wicked World, or Lot in a wicked City, or Abraham in an Idolatrous Land, nor like Elijah left alone, nor like those that wandered in Sheep Skins and Goat Skins, destitute, afflicted, and tormented, hid in Dens and Caves of the Earth; not like Job on the Dunghill, or ⟨p. 247⟩like Lazarus at the rich Man's Doors: Not like the African Bishops whose Tongues were cut out;