“Consider that a heart set on heaven will preserve the vigor of all your graces, and put life into all your duties. It is the heavenly Christian that is the lively Christian; and, on the other hand, it is our strangeness to heaven that makes us so dull and lifeless.
It is the end that quickens to the use of all the means; and the more frequently and clearly this end is beheld, the more vigorous will all our motions be. How unweariedly do men labor, and how fearlessly do the venture, when they have the prospect of a rich prize!”
Richard Baxter (1615-1691) in “Motives to Heavenly Mindedness” from the collection of his writings, The Saint’s Everlasting Rest; Or a Treatise on the Blessed State of the Saints in Heaven (Philadelphia: PNP, 1847) 245.