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

§ 7. But how came Moses to have a Body on the Mount, who is said to have been buried, and therefore took none with him into Heaven? We must still remember that we enquire of things above our certain knowledge: But in humble conjecture we may say, That it's no more impossible for Moses to assume such a Body as he appeared in on the Mount, for that occasion, than for Angels to appear in humane shapes; and departed Souls too, as many Apparitions have told men. And if bad Souls can do it, why not good ones when God will have it? The Tradition seemeth but a Jewish Dream, that God kept the Body of Moses uncorrupted in the Grave; and that this was it that the Devil is said to strive for against Michael, ⟨p. 310⟩that the Body might be corrupted. (And say others, that at this Transfiguration it rose again.) There need no such conceits to our satisfaction. The Soul of Moses could assume a Body.

§ 8. But still the dissimilitude of Enoch and Elijah from all the Saints in Heaven, is an unresolved difficulty. If we knew that God would have it so, it might satisfy us. But there is a symmetry in the Body of Christ. And it's like that the same Region hath Inhabitants of the same Nature. What shall we think then? That Enoch and Elijah at their entrance into those Regions laid by their Bodies, and became such as Abraham, and other holy Souls? Why are they taken up to be so laid by? (The corruptibility no doubt they did lay by.) God knoweth: but its much unknown to us. Or shall we think as all those Fathers cited by Faustus Regiensis, and as Dr. More, and some of late, that all Spirits are Souls. and animate some Bodies; and so that all in Heaven have some Bodies: If so, what Bodies are they? And how differ they from the Resurrection state? As the Soul here operateth in and by the Igneous Spirits in our Bodies, it may be so lodged in these as to take some of them with it at Death, as the life of a dying Plant, yet dieth not in the Seed. And a Man may be said to go unclothed to Bed, though he put not off his shift or nearest Garment, and to be clothed again when he puts on the rest: And at the Resurrection, as there will be a New Heaven and Earth, so Spirits now in Heaven may have much more delightful business on the New and Righteous Earth, than now they have, and therefore may have use for an additional Body, as much differing from what they have now in Heaven, as the New Earth, and their employment there require; and as the Seed doth differ from the Plant. And Spirits being communicative