230 BAXTER'S DYING.THOUGHTS. other habitation, when he knew that he must be no longer steward.' God hath so constantly confuted and befooled me, by his mar- velous providence, whenever I have said, ' Soul, take thy ease,' and have thought of building tabernacles on earth, as hath con- vinced me, that such folly is not the least part of the danger of a soul, from which his mercy did so watchfully save me. if a little health and ease, or a pleasant habitation, or beloved company and friends, have but flattered me into earthly delight and hopes, and made me say, " It is good to be here ; " I never was long without some pains, and dangerous sickness, or some loss or cross in friends, or some removal by personal or public changes, to tell me, that I knew not what I said, and that rest and happiness are not here. As the laborious ants and bees are long gathering a heap of treas- ure, and furnishing a hive with winter provisions, and a contemp- tuous foot soon spurneth about the one, and the chief owner of the hive destroyeth the other; so (while I. neglected wealth and honor) when I have but treasured up the choicest books, and taken pleasure in my works and friends, God saw that such pleas- ures needed an allay, and .hath taken away books and friends together, or driven me oft from. them and my habitation, to tell me, sensibly; that I have higher to look, and further to go; and that Moses and Elias appeared not to turn earth into heaven, and make me think that now I amwell, but to invite my soul to their celestial habitation. When Christ bath comforted me by hearing prayers, by great deliverances, by wonderful success of my defec- tive labors, by comfortable friends, by public mercies, it was not, by making my condition pleasant,, to keep down my desires from heaven, but to draw them thither by such foretastes. Content- ment with our condition, as without more of the world, is a great duty; but to be content with the world, or any thing on earth, without more holiness and communion with. God, and without a part in the heavenly perfection, is a heinous and pernicious sin. But, alas ! it is a far worse mistake than Peter's, which deceiv- eth. the greatest part of men. They say, indeed, as he, " It is good to be here," (till melancholy or misery make them intoler- able to themselves ;) but it is not because theyhave seena glimpse of heaven on earth, or tasted the sweetness of the holy society and work, but because their bodies are in health, their purses full, their appetites pleased, and their inferiors du their wills and honor 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 ? 30. But yet it was a greater part of Peter's dotage, to think of
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