The Saints' Everlasting Rest - Richard Baxter

me, who can be against me?' In the work of sin, almost all things are ready to
help us, and only God and his servants are against us; yet how ill does that
work prosper in our hands! But in my course to heaven, almost all things are
against me, but God is for me; and therefore how happily does the work
succeed! Do I enter upon this work in my own strength, or rather in the
strength of Christ my Lord? And ‘cannot I do all things through him that
strengthens me?' Was he ever foiled by an enemy? He has indeed been
assaulted, but was he ever conquered? Why, then, does my flesh urge me
with the difficulties of the work? Is any thing too hard for Omnipotence?
May not Peter boldly walk on the sea if Christ give the word of command? If
he begin to sink, is it from the weakness of Christ, or from the smallness of
his faith? Do I not well deserve to be turned into hell, if mortal threats can
drive me thither? Do I not well deserve to be shut out of heaven, if I will be
frightened from thence with the reproach of tongues? What if it were father,
or mother, or husband, or wife, or the nearest friend I have in the world, if
they may be called friends who would draw me to damnation, should I not
forsake all that would keep me from Christ? Will their friendship countervail
the enmity of God, or be any comfort to my condemned soul? Shall I be
yielding to the desires of men, and only harden myself against the Lord? Let
them beseech me upon their knees, I will scorn to stop my course to behold
them, I will shut my ears to their cries: let them flatter or frown, let them
draw out tongues and swords against me; I am resolved, in the strength of
Christ, to break through and look upon them as dust. If they would entice me
with preferment, even with the kingdoms of the world, I will no more regard
them than the dung of the earth. O blessed rest! O glorious state! Who would
sell thee for dreams and shadows? Who would be enticed or affrighted from
thee? Who would not strive, and fight, and watch, and run, and that with
violence, even to the last breath, in order to obtain thee? Surely none but
those that know thee not, and believe not thy glory."
5. The last affection to be exercised in heavenly contemplation, is joy.
Love, desire, hope and courage, all tend to raise our joy. This is so desirable
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