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

§ 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 ⟨p. 311⟩will be more happy by more communication. As God delighteth to do good to all his works, so the Souls now confined to Heaven, will delight to be employed in doing good to the New Earth, and to animate the Bodies suited to such work. Though now they have use for no other than such Spiritual lucid Receptacles as are fit for the Regions where they dwell. And it will be no debasement or dejection for a Spirit now in Heaven to animate a Body at the Resurrection fit for the New Earth; no more than it was to Angels to speak to Adam, and to Moses, to Abraham, Jacob, Manoah, and others; or then it is to the Sun to enlighten and enliven things on Earth.

§ 8. But still the dissimilitude of Henoch and Elias from all the Saints in Heaven, is an unresolved difficulty. If we knew that God would have it so, it might satisfie 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 Henoch and Elias 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