BAXTER'S DYING THOUGHTS. 67 loth make my thoughts of heaven the more familiar to me. O, how many of them could I name ! 7. And it is no small encour- agetnenf to one that is to enter upon an unseen world, to think that he goeth not an untrodden path, nor enters into a solitary or singular state ; but followeth all from the creation to this day, that have passed by death to endless life. And is it not an em- boldening consideration, to think that I am to go no other way, nor to no other place or state, than all the believers and saints have gone to before me, from the beginning to this time ? . Of this more -anon. To depart. But I must be loosed or depart, lfore I can thus be with Christ. And I must here consider, I. From what I must depart. H. And how, or in what manner: and I must not refuse to know the worst. I. And, 1.1 know that I must depart from this body itself, and the life which consisteth in the animating of it. These eyes must here see no more ;. this hand must move no more ; these feet must walk no more ; this tongue must speak no more. As much as I have loved and over-loved this body, I must leave it to the grave. There must it lie and rot in darkness, as a neglected and a loathed thing. This is the fruit of sin, and nature would not have ,it so : I mean the nature of this compound man; but,what, though it be so? 1. It is but my shell, or tabernacle, and the clothingof my soul, and not itself. 2. It is but an elementary composition dissolved ; and earth going to earth, and water to water, and air to air, and fire to fire, into that unionwhich the elementary nature doth incline it. 3. It is but an instrument laid by when all its work is done, and a servant dismissed when his service is at an end. And what should I do with a horse when I shall need to ride or travel no more, or with a pen, when I must write no more ? It is but the laying by the passivereceiver of my soul's operations, when the soul bath no more to do upon it as I cast by my lute or other instrument, when I have better; employment thanmusic to take up my time. 4. Or, at most, it is but as flowers die in the fall, and plants in winter, when the retiring spirits have done their work, and are undisposed to dwell in so cold and unmeet a habitation, as thesea- son maketh their former matter then to be. And its retirement is not its annihilation, but its taking up a fitter place. 5 It isbut a separation fronyya troublesome companion, and put- ting off a shoe that pinthed me ; many a sad and painful hour I have had in this frail and faltering flesh ; many a weary night and
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