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

Had Peter seen Heaven as he saw the Glory on the Mount, he would never have made so blind a motion, for Christ, Moses, and Elijah to continue there, who have so much better a habitation.

Had Peter seen Heaven as he saw the Glory on the Mount, he would never have made so blind a motion, for Christ, Moses, and Elias to continue there, who have so much better a habitation.

§ 29. But this glorious Apparition was but short: As the Glory of God's back parts to Moses, which did but pass by. Presently a cloud cometh, and separateth the company, and ends the pleasant sight. When Christians receive some extraordinary sense of the Love of God, some sweet foretasts of promised happiness, they must not look that this should be ordinary, or always so! When some fervent Prayer is extraordinarily answered, and a Sacrament sweetened with unusual drops of heavenly sweetness, or a holy Discourse or Meditation hath raised us higher than ever before, we must not expect that this should be our constant diet, ⟨p. 342⟩and God should thus feast us all the Year. The times of fasting also have their turn. Moses did not dwell on Mount Horeb, nor Mount Nebo or Pisgah, from whence he saw the Land of Promise: God's Children do not always laugh and sing: while they have their sinning times, they will have their suffering and crying times. How suddenly doth the Lark come down to the Earth, who before was soaring out of sight, and singing pleasantly in the higher Air, as if it had been aspiring towards the Sun. A luscious diet is not best for such as we, that have so many corruptions to be cured by cleansing means: Cordials must not be all our Physic; unwarrantable expectations of greater or more continued Joys then we are meet for, is injurious both to God and to our selves. Desires of more we may and must have: But those desires must look up to Heaven where indeed they may be satisfied.

§ 29. But this glorious Apparition was but short: As the Glory of God's back parts to Moses, which did but pass by. Presently a cloud cometh, and separateth the company, and ends the pleasant sight. When Christians receive some extraordinary sense of the Love of God, some sweet foretasts of promised happiness, they must not look that this should be ordinary, or always so! When some fervent Prayer is extraordinarily answered, and a Sacrament sweetned with unusual drops of heavenly sweetness, or a holy Discourse or Meditation hath raised us higher than ever before, we must not expect that this should be our constant diet,