BAXTER'S DYING THOUGHTS. 137 we go from loving friends on earth, the shall go to them that love us far more. The love of those here doth but pityus in our pains, and go weeping with our carcasses to the grave ; but the love of those above will joyfully convoy, or welcome, our souls to their triumphant society. All the holy friends that we thought we had lost, that went before us, we shall find rejoicing there with Christ. And, O, what a glorious state will be that common uniting, and united love ! If two or three candles joined together make a great- er flame and light, what would ten thousand stars united do? When all the love of angels and saints in full perfection shall be so united, as to make one love, to God that is one, and to one another, who are there all one in Christ, O what .a glorious love will that be! That love and joy will be the same thing; and that one uni- versal love will he one universal joy. , Little know we how great a mercy it is to be here commanded to love our neighbors as ourselves ; and much more, to be effectu- ally taught of God so to love one ,another. And did we all here, live in such unfeigned love, we should be like to heaven, as bear- ing the image of theGod of Love ; but,,alas ! our societies here are small ; our goodness, which is our amiableness, wofully imperfect and mixed with loathsome sin and discord : but there, a whole heaven full of blessed spirits will flame forever,' in perfect love to God, to Christ, and one another.. Go, then, go willingly, Omy spul ! Love joinethwith light to draw up thy desires ! Nature . inclineth all things unto union : even the lifeless elements have anaggregative motion, by which the parts, when violently separated, do hastily return to their natu- ral adhesion. Art thou a lover of wisdom., and wouldest thou not be united to the wise ? Art thou a lover of holiness, and wouldest thou not be united to the holy, who are made of love ? Art thou a hater of enmity, discord, and divisions, and a lover of unity here on earth, and wouldest thou not be where all thejust are one ? It is not an unnatural union to thy loss ; nothing shall be taken from thee by it : thou shalt receive by it more than thou canst con- tribute ; it shall not be forced against thy will ; it is but a union of minds and wills; a perfect union of loves.' Let not natural or sin- ful selfishness cause thee to think suspiciously or hardly of it, for it is thy happiness and end. What got the angels that fell to self- ishness, from unity ? andwhat got Adam, thatfollowed them here- in? The further any man goeth from unity, by selfishness, the . deeper he falleth into sin and misery from God. And what doth grace but call us back from sin and selfishness, to God's unity again ? Dote not, then, on this dark, divided world. Is not thy body, while the parts by an uniting soul; are kept together, and make one, in a better state, than when it is crumbled into lifeless VOL. II. 18
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