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

§ 6. And 1. If a man be but uncertain what he ⟨p. 4⟩should make the End of his Life, or what he should live for, how can he pitch upon an uncertain End? And if he waver so as to have no End, he can use no Means: And if End and Means be all laid by, the Man liveth not as a Man, but as a Brute. And what a torment must it be to a considering mind, to be uncertain what to Intend and Do in all the tenor and actions of his life? Like a man going out at his door, not knowing whither, or what to do, or which way to go: Either he will stand still, or move as Brutes do by present sense, or a Windmill or Weathercock, as he is moved.

§ 6. And 1. If a man be but uncertain what he ⟨p. 4⟩should make the End of his Life, or what he should live for, how can he pitch upon an uncertain End? And if he waver so as to have no End, he can use no Means: And if End and Means be all laid by, the Man liveth not as a Man, but as a Brute. And what a torment must it be to a considering mind, to be uncertain what to Intend and Do in all the tenour and actions of his life? Like a man going out at his door, not knowing whither, or what to do, or which way to go: Either he will stand still, or move as Brutes do by present sense, or a Windmill or Weathercok, as he is moved.

§ 7. 2. But if he pitch upon a wrong End, it may yet be worse than none; for he will but do hurt, or make work for Repentance: And all the actions of his life must be formally wrong, (how good soever materially) if the End of them be wrong.

§ 8. 2. And if I fetch them not from this End, and believe not in God as a Rewarder of his Servants, in a better Life, what Motives shall I have which in our present difficulties, will be sufficient to cause me to live a holy, yea or a truly honest life? All piety and honesty indeed is good, and Goodness is desirable for it self: But the goodness of a Means is its aptitude for the End; and we have here abundance of impediments, competitors, diversions and temptations, and difficulties of many sorts; and all these must be overcome by him that will live in piety or honesty. And our Natures (we find) are diseased, and greatly indisposed to unquestionable duties; and will they ever discharge them, and conquer all these difficulties and temptations, if the necessary Motive be not believed? Duty to God and Man is accidentally hard and costly to the flesh, though amiable in it self: It may cost us our Estates, our Liberties, our Lives. The world is not so happy