A26921:833
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.
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.
And as I can think of Heaven as a Region of glorious Light, so can I think of it as a place and state of Life and Love: I know somewhat of the difference of Life and Death; and that a living Dog is better than a dead Lyon. And I have felt what it is to love my Friends, and thence to desire their near communion as my delight. And can I then have no Idea of that World, where Life, Light and Joyful Love are the very Element of Souls, as Water is to the Fishes.
And as I can think of Heaven as a Region of glorious Light, so can I think of it as a place and state of Life and Love: I know somwhat of the difference of Life and Death; and that a living Dog is better than a dead Lyon. And I have felt what it is to love my Friends, and thence to desire their near communion as my delight. And can I then have no Idea of that World, where Life, Light and Joyful Love are the very Element of Souls, as Water is to the Fishes.
And as I can have some Idea of that state in general, so may I of the state of the perfected Spirits of the Just which are there. They are con-natural to their proper Element. They are Essential created Life, Light, and Love. And they want not substance to be the Basis of those formal Powers, nor Objects on which to exercise them. Think not then that Heaven is so far unconceivable as not by any Idea to be thought of: If we have no Conception of it, we can have no desires of it, and no delightful hope. What can we conceive of more certainly, than of Life, and Light, and Love; of a Region, and of Persons essentiated of these? Do we not know what Knowledge is? and see what Light is? and feel what Life and Love are?
But it's true that our Conceptions hereof are lamentably imperfect; and so they must be till Possession, Fruition, and Exercise perfect them. Who knoweth what Light or Sight is, but by Seeing; or what Knowledge is but by knowing? Or what Love, and Joy are but by loving and rejoicing? And who knows what Perfect Sight, Knowledge, Love, and Joy are, but by perfect Seeing, Knowing, Loving, and Rejoicing? No Man by an intuitive or immediate perception: But some abstractive Conceptions of it we may have by reasoning deduction, from that poor Degree