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

Hold out then poor desponding Soul: Lift up the Hands which hang down, and the feeble Knees, and run with patience the Race which is set before thee, looking to Jesus who for the joy that was set before him, endured the Cross. God will not deceive thy hopes! Sin hath brought pain and death on Man; but Christ hath sanctified it, and is the Lord of Life. Yet a little while, and the heavenly Possession shall turn thy sorrows into everlasting Joy, and thy moans and groans into thanks and praise, and there shall be no more sickness, pains or death. O foolish unbelieving Hearts that cry out of suffering, and fear deliverance; that would fain be free from all affliction, and yet fly from the only state of freedom: That are impatient under their calamity, and yet afraid of passing to the only rest.

§ 12. But it is neither Pain alone, nor Death alone that will sufficiently try our strength and exercise our Faith and Patience. It must be Great Pain (and often Long) in order to a certain or expected Death. These two conjunct were the Case of Christ. The torment of his Agony, Scourging, Crucifying, Piercing and Desertion, and the certainty of Death that followed. Great pain with hopes of recovery and ease, may be born even by a worldly Man: Because there is still the worldly hope of better; and so there is no denial of All, while Life it self is not denied: We must receive ⟨p. 321⟩the Sentence of Death in our selves, if we will find that we trust in God alone, and trust him as one that raiseth the Dead, that is, for another and better life.

As long as a Man hath any hope of life and ease, a Man's Faith is not tried to the uttermost, by actual forsaking all. And yet an easy Death alone, doth not fully try a Man: For they that know that all must die, may submit to this, who cannot bear long pains before it. But great and long pains, and the Sentence of Death together are the trial.