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

But, alas, it is a far worse mistake than Peter's which deceiveth the greatest part of men. They say indeed as he, It's good to be here, (till melancholy or misery make them intolerable to themselves.) But it is ⟨p. 340⟩not because they have seen a glimpse of Heaven on Earth, or tasted the sweetness of Holy society and work, but because their Bodies are in Health, their Purses full, their Appetites pleased, and their inferiors do their wills and honour them. This is all the Heaven that they love, and to leave all this is the Death which they abhor and fear. And they will not hear God, and the experience of all Mankind befooling them, till near the Night that their Souls shall be required, and then, Whose will all their Treasure be?

But, alas, it is a far worse mistake than Peter's which deceiveth the greatest part of men. They say indeed as he, It's good to be here, (till melancholy or misery make them intollerable to themselves.) But it is ⟨p. 340⟩not because they have seen a glimpse of Heaven on Earth, or tasted the sweetness of Holy society and work, but because their Bodies are in Health, their Purses full, their Appetites pleased, and their inferiours do their wills and honour them. This is all the Heaven that they love, and to leave all this is the Death which they abhor and fear. And they will not hear God, and the experience of all Mankind befooling them, till near the Night that their Souls shall be required, and then, Whose will all their Treasure be?

§ 28. But yet it was a greater part of Peter's dotage, to think of Tabernacles for Christ, Moses, and Elijah, and of detaining of heavenly Inhabitants upon Earth: If you should offer the lowest Saint in Heaven an earthly Kingdom in exchange for his Condition, with what disdain would he despise the offer? Christ's Kingdom was not of this World, nor would Moses and Elijah change their lot with Alexander or Caesar. Poor trifles allure us, and seem somewhat to us (as toys to Children) while we are dreaming in the Flesh; but if once we be delivered and see what the Celestial Glory is, what a change will it make upon our judgments. We fear now in the dark to go unto that World of Light, and are loth to put off the rags of Flesh, and to depart from a known though a dirty falling habitation: But if we get to Heaven we shall be loth to return to Earth again, and to be so coarsely clothed: When once we are there, a World would not hire us to come back into this corruptible Body, till God will make it Spiritual and Incorruptible. Our Friends whose Death we passionately lamented, would be loth now to change their company for such as we are, or their abode for such a wicked World as this, or their work for the best of ours on Earth: No wonder that departed blessed Souls appear not to their friends on Earth: Most Apparitions are of Devils, or