Compare: 11 Wherefore, hearken ye together and let me show unto you even my wisdom—the wisdom of him whom ye say is the God of Enoch, and his brethren,
12 Who were separated from the earth, and were received unto myself—a city reserved until a day of righteousness shall come—a day which was sought for by all holy men, and they found it not because of wickedness and abominations;
13 And confessed they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth;
(Doctrine and Covenants 45:11–13)
The True Christian's Life a Journey Towards Heaven
Hebrews 11:13–14
And confessed that they were pilgrims and strangers on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country.
The Apostle is here setting forth the excellencies of the grace of faith by the glorious effects and happy issue of it in the saints of the Old Testament. He had spoken in the preceding part of the chapter particularly of Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham and Sarah.1
Having enumerated these instances, he takes notice that these "all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on earth" [Hebrews 11:13].
In these words the Apostle seems to have a more particular respect to Abraham and Sarah and their kindred that came with them from Haran out of Ur of the Chaldees, by Hebrews 11:15, where the Apostle says, "and truly if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned." It was they that, upon God's call, left their own country. Two things may be observed in the text.
1. What these saints confessed of themselves, viz. that they were "strangers and pilgrims on earth." Thus, we have a particular account concerning Abraham; Genesis 23:4, "I am a stranger and sojourner with you." And it seems to have been the general sense of the Patriarchs, by what Jacob says to Pharaoh; Genesis 47:9, "And Jacob said to Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their
pilgrimage"; and Psalms 39:12, 2 "I am a stranger and sojourner with thee, as were all my fathers."
2. The inference that the Apostle draws from hence, viz. that they sought another country as their home: "for they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country." In confessing that they were strangers, they plainly declared that this is not their country: that this is not the country where they are at home.
And in confessing themselves to be pilgrims, they declared plainly that this is not their settled abode; but they have respect to some other country that they seek and are traveling to as their home.
I. Explain the doctrine.3
First. We ought not to rest in this world and its enjoyments, but should desire heaven. This, our hearts should be chiefly concerned and engaged about; we should "seek first the kingdom of God" (Matthew 6:33). He that is on a journey, he seeks the place that he is journeying to. Thus, he is not content with the accommodations that he meets with upon the road, to rest in them. We ought above all things to desire a heavenly happiness: to go to heaven, and there to be with God and dwell with Jesus Christ.
We ought not to be content with this world, or so to set our hearts on any enjoyments we have here as to rest in them. No, we ought to seek a better happiness.4 If we are surrounded with many outward enjoyments and things are comfortable to us; if we are settled in families and have those friends and relatives that are very desirable; if we have companions whose society is delightful to us; if we have children that are pleasant and likely,5 and in whom we see many promising qualifications, and live by good neighbors, and have much of the respect of others, have a good name and are generally beloved where we are known, and have comfortable and pleasant accommodations: yet we ought not to take up our rest in these things.
We should not be willing to have these things for our portion, but should seek happiness in another world.
We should not merely seek something else in addition to them,6 but should be so far from resting in them that we should choose and desire to leave these things for heaven, to go to God and Christ there. We should not be willing to live here in the enjoyment of these things always, if we could, in the same strength and vigor of body and mind, as when in youth or in the midst of our days, and always enjoy the same pleasant and dear friends and other earthly comforts. We should choose to leave 'em all in God's due time, that we might go to heaven, and there have the enjoyment of God.
We ought to desire that there may be an end to our living here in this world, when God shall choose. We should desire our journey's end, that we may arrive at our heavenly home. And whenever we are called to leave things, however pleasant to us, we ought so much to seek and desire heaven that we should be willing to part with them to go [to] heaven.7 We ought to possess them and enjoy and make use of them with no other view or aim but readily to quit them whenever we are called to it, and to change them for heaven. And when we are called away from them, we should go cheerfully and willingly.
He that is going on a journey, he is not wont to rest in what he meets with, that is comfortable and pleasing, on the road. If he passes along through pleasant places, flowery meadows or shady groves, he don't take up his content in those things, he is not willing to sit down and stop here. He don't desire to stay here, no,8 but he is content only to take a transient view of these pleasant objects as he goes along. He is not enticed by these fair appearances to stop9 his journey and leave off the thoughts of proceeding; no, but his journey's end is in his mind. That is the great thing that he aims at.
So, if he meets with comfortable and pleasant accommodations on the road, at an inn, yet he don't rest there. He won't take up his abode there in the inn.1 He entertains no thoughts of settling there. He considers that these things are not his own but his landlord's,2 and that this is not allotted for his home, that he is but a stranger. And when he has refreshed himself, or tarried but for a night, he is for leaving these accommodations, and going forward, and getting onwards towards his journey's end.
Though he has been comfortably entertained there, yet it is not at all grievous to him when he goes away. He goes from thence cheerfully, with the thoughts of getting to his own home, where he desires to be. And the thoughts of coming to his journey's end is not at all grievous to him. He don't desire to be traveling always, and never come to his journey's end; the thought of that would be discouraging to him. But it is pleasant to him to think that there is so much of the way is gone, that he is now near home, and that he shall presently be there, and the toil and fatigue of his journey will be over.
So, we should so desire heaven so much more than the comforts and enjoyments of this life that we should long to change these things for heaven. We should wait with earnest desire for the time when we shall arrive to our journey's end. The Apostle mentions it as an encouraging, comfortable consideration to Christians, when they draw nigh their happiness; Romans 13:11, "now is our salvation nearer than when we believed."
Our hearts ought to be loose to these things, as it is with a man that is in a journey; however comfortable enjoyments are, yet we ought to keep our hearts so loose from them as cheerfully to part with them whenever God calls; 1 Corinthians 7:29–31, "But this I say, brethren, the time is short: it remaineth, that both they that have wives be as though they had none; and they that weep as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not; and they that use this world, as not abusing it: for the fashion of this world passeth away." But heavenly happiness should be all our salvation. We ought to look upon these things as only lent to us for a little while, to serve a present turn; but we should set our hearts on heaven as our inheritance forever.
When persons have dear companions, or children that are dear to them and need their care of them, yet they should enjoy them with no other view or aim but to quit and leave them to go to heaven whenever God calls them. Or when they have a comfortable subsistence or the credit and esteem of others, they should enjoy [them] with no other thought but, only in a little time, in God's time, to leave them for heaven without discontent or any anxiety. They should consider and use all these things only as the accommodation of a journey.
Second. We ought to seek heaven by traveling in the way that leads thither. The way that leads to heaven is a way of holiness; we should choose and desire to travel thither in this way, and in no other.
We should part with all those sins, those carnal appetites, that are as weights that will tend to hinder us in our traveling towards heaven; Heb.
Hebrews 12:1, "let us lay aside every weight, and the sin that doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us." However pleasant any practice or the gratification of any appetite may be, we must lay it aside, cast it away, if it be any hindrance, any stumbling block, in the way to heaven.
We should travel on as a way of obedience to all God's commands, even the difficult, as well as the easy, commands. We should travel on in a way of self-denial, denying all our sinful inclinations and interests. The way to heaven is ascending; we must be content to travel up hill, though it be hard, and tiresome, and contrary to the natural tendency and bias of our flesh, that tends downward to the earth. We should follow Christ in the path that he has gone; the way that he traveled in was the right way to heaven. We should take up our cross and follow him. We should travel along in the same way of meekness and lowliness of heart, in the same way of obedience, and charity, and diligence to do good, and patience under afflictions.
The way to heaven is an heavenly life. We must be traveling towards heaven in a way of imitation of those that are in heaven, in imitation of the saints or angels therein, in their holy employments, in their way of spending their time in loving, adoring, serving, and praising God and the Lamb.
This is the path that we prefer before all others. If we could have any other that we might choose, if we could go to heaven in a way of carnal living, the way of the enjoyment and gratification of our lusts, we should rather prefer a way of holiness, and conformity to the spiritual, self-denying rules of the gospel.
Third. We should travel on in this way in a laborious manner. The going of long journeys is attended with toil and fatigue, especially if the journey be through a wilderness. Persons in such a case expect no other than to suffer hardship and weariness, in traveling over mountains and through bad places.
So we should travel in this way of holiness in a laborious manner, improving our time and strength to surmount the difficulties and obstacles that are in the way. The land that we have to travel through is a wilderness; there are many mountains, and rocks, and rough places that we must go over in the way, and there is a necessity that we should lay out our strength.
Fourth. Our whole lives ought to be spent in traveling this road.
1. We ought to begin early. This should be the first concern and business that persons engage in when they come to be capable of acting, or
doing any business. When they first set out in the world, they should set out on this journey.
2. And we ought to travel on in this way with assiduity. It ought to be the work of every day to travel on towards heaven. We should often be thinking of our journey's end; and not only thinking of it, but it should be our daily work to travel on in the way that leads to it.
He that is on a journey, he is often thinking of the place that he is going to, and 'tis his care and business every day to get along, to improve his time to get towards his journey's end. He spends the day in it; 'tis the work of the day whilst the sun serves him, and when he has rested in the night he gets up in the morning and sets out again on his journey. And so, from day to day, till he has got to his journey's end. Thus should heaven be continually in our thought; and the immediate entrance or passage to it, viz. death, should be present with us, and it should be a thing that we familiarize to ourselves. And so it should be our work every day to be preparing for death and traveling heavenward.
3. We ought to persevere in this way as long as we live. We should hold out in it to the end; Hebrews 12:1, "let us run with patience the race that is set before us." Though the road be difficult, and it be a toilsome thing to travel it, we must hold out with patience and be content to endure the hardships of it. If the journey be long, yet we must not stop short; we should not give out in discouragement, but hold on till we are arrived to the place we seek. We ought not to be discouraged with the length and difficulties of the way, as the children of Israel were, and be for turning back again. All our thought and design should be to get along; we should be engaged and resolved to press forward till we arrive.
Fifth. We ought to be continually growing in holiness and, in that respect, coming nearer and nearer to heaven. He that [is] traveling towards a place, he comes nearer and nearer to it continually; so we should be endeavoring to come nearer to heaven, in being more heavenly, becoming more and more like to the inhabitants of heaven, and more and more as we shall be when we are arrived there, if ever that be.
We should endeavor continually to be more and more as we hope to be in heaven, in respect of holiness and conformity to God. We should endeavor to be more & more {as we hope to be in heaven},3 with respect to light and knowledge, should labor to be continually growing in knowledge of God and Christ, and divine things,4 clear views of the gloriousness
5 and excellency of divine things, that we come nearer and nearer to the beatific vision.
We should labor to {be continually growing} in divine love, that this may be an increasing flame in our hearts, till our hearts ascend wholly in this flame. {We should labor to be continually growing} in obedience, and an heavenly conversation, that we may do the will of God on earth, as the angels do in heaven.
{We should labor to be continually growing} in comfort and spiritual joy, in sensible communion with God and Jesus Christ. Our path should be as "the shining light, that shines more and more to the perfect day" (Proverbs 4:18).
We ought to be hungering and thirsting after righteousness, after an increase of righteousness; 1 Peter 2:2, "As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby." And we should make the perfection of heaven our mark. We should rest in nothing short of this, but be pressing towards this mark, and laboring continually to be coming nearer and nearer to it; Philippians 3:13–14, "this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."
Sixth. And lastly, all other concerns of life ought to be entirely subordinated to this. As when a man is on a journey, all the steps that he takes are in order to further him in his journey and subordinated to that aim of getting to his journey's end; and if he carries money or provision with him, 'tis to supply him in his journey.
So we ought wholly to subordinate all our other business and all our temporal enjoyments to this affair, of traveling to heaven. Journeying towards heaven ought to be our only work and business, so that all that we have and do should be in order to that. When we have worldly enjoyments, we should be ready to part with them whenever they are in the way of our going towards heaven; we should sell all this world for heaven. When once anything that we have becomes a clog and hindrance to us in the way heavenward, we should quit it immediately. When we use our worldly enjoyments and possessions, it should be with such [a] view and in such a manner as to further us in our way heavenward: thus we should eat, and drink, and clothe ourselves, and thus we should improve the conversation and enjoyment of friends.
And whatever business we are setting about, whatever design we are engaging, we should inquire with ourselves whether this business or undertaking will forward us in our way to heaven; and if not, to quit our design. We ought to make use of worldly enjoyments and to pursue worldly business in such a degree and manner as shall have the best tendency to forward us in our journey heavenwards, and no otherwise.
[II.] Reasons.
First. This world is not our abiding place. Our continuance in this world is but very short: man's "days on earth are as a shadow" [1 Chronicles 29:15].
It was never designed by God that this world should be our home. We were not born into this world for that end; neither did God give us these temporal things that we are accommodated with for that end. If God has given us good estates, if we are settled in families and God has given us children, or other friends that are very pleasant to us, 'tis with no such view or design that we should be furnished or provided for here as for a settled abode. It was with that design, that we should use them for the present, but leave them again in a very little time.
If we are called to any secular business, or if we are charged with the care of a family, with the instruction or education of children, we are called to these things with that design, that we shall soon be called off from them again: [they are] not to be our everlasting employment.
So that if we improve our lives to any other purpose than as a journey towards heaven, all our labor will be lost. If we spend our lives in the pursuit of a temporal happiness; if we set our hearts on riches and seek happiness in them; if we seek to be happy in sensual pleasures; if we spend our lives to seek the credit and esteem of men, the good will and respect of others; if we set our hearts on our children and look to be happy in the enjoyment of them, in seeing them well brought up, and well settled, etc.,6 all these things will be of little significancy to us. Death will blow up all our hopes and expectations, and will put an end to our enjoyment of these things. The places that have known us will know us no more, and the eye that hath seen us shall see us no more. We must be taken away forever from all these things. And 'tis uncertain when. It may be soon after we have received them and are put into the possession of them; it may be in the midst of our days, and from the midst of our enjoyments. Where will be all our worldly employments and enjoyments
when we are laid in the silent grave? For "man lieth down, and riseth not again: till the heavens be no more" (Job 14:12).
Second. The future world was designed to be our settled and everlasting abode. Here it was intended that we should be fixed, and here alone is a lasting habitation, and a lasting inheritance, and enjoyments to be had. We are designed for this future world. We are to be in two states: one in this world, which is our present state, the other in the world to come. The present state, in this world, is short, and transitory; our state in the other world is everlasting.
When we go into another world, there we must be to all eternity; and as we are there at first, so we must be, without change. Our state in the future world, therefore being eternal, is so exceedingly of greater importance than our state in this world, that it is worthy that our state here and all our concerns in this world should be wholly subordinated to it.
Third. Heaven is that place alone where is to [be] obtained our highest end, and highest good. God hath made us for himself: "of God, and through God, and to God are all things" (Romans 11:36). Therefore then do we attain to our highest end, when we are brought to God. But that is by being brought to heaven, for that is God's throne; that is the place of his special presence, and of his glorious residence. There is but a very imperfect union with God to be had in this world: a very imperfect knowledge of God in the midst of abundance of darkness, a very imperfect conformity to God, mingled with abundance of enmity and estrangement. Here we can serve and glorify God but in an exceeding imperfect manner, our service being mingled with much sin and dishonoring to God.
But when we get to heaven, if ever that be, there we shall be brought to a perfect union with God. There we shall have the clear views of God's glory: we shall see face to face, and know as we are known [1 Corinthians 13:12]. There we shall be fully conformed to God, without any remains of sin: "we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is" [1 John 3:2]. There we shall serve God perfectly. We shall glorify him in an exalted manner, and to the utmost of the powers and capacity of our nature. Then we shall perfectly give up ourselves to God; then will our hearts be wholly a pure and holy offering to God, offered all in the flame of divine love.
In heaven alone is attainment of our highest good. God is the highest good of the reasonable creature. The enjoyment of him is our proper happiness, and is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied. To go to heaven, fully to enjoy God, is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here: better than fathers and mothers, husbands,
wives, or children, or the company of any or all earthly friends. These are but shadows; but God is the substance. These are but scattered beams; but God is the sun. These are but streams; but God is the fountain. These are but drops; but God is the ocean.
Therefore, it becomes us to spend this life only as a journey towards heaven, as it becomes us to make the seeking of our highest end, and proper good, the whole work of our lives; and we should subordinate all the other concerns of life to it. Why should we labor for anything else, or set our hearts on anything else, but that which is our proper end, and true happiness?
Fourth. Our present state, and all that belongs [to it], is designed by him that made all things to be wholly in order to another world. This world was made for a place of preparation for another world. Man's mortal life was given him here only that he might here be prepared for his fixed state. And all that God has here given us is given us to this purpose. The sun shines upon us, the rain falls, the earth yields her increase to us, civil affairs, ecclesiastical affairs, family affairs, all our personal concerns, are designed and ordered in a subordination to a future world by the maker and disposer of all things. They therefore ought to be subordinated by us.7
Use I is of Instr.
First. This doctrine may teach us moderation in our mourning for the death of such dear friends that, while they lived, improved their lives to right purposes. If they lived a holy life, then their lives were a journey towards heaven. And why should we be immoderate in mourning, when they are got to their journey's end?
Death to them, though it appears to us with a frightful aspect, is a great blessing to them. Their end is happy and better than their beginning: the "day of their death" is better to them than "the day of their birth" (Ecclesiastes 7:1). While they lived, they desired heaven and chose it above this world or any of the enjoyments of it. They earnestly sought and longed for heaven. And why should we grieve that they have obtained heaven that they so desired and so earnestly sought?8
Now they are got to heaven; they are got home; they never were at home before. They are got to their Father's house. They find more comfort, a thousand times, now they are got home, than they did on their journey. While they were on their journey, they underwent much labor and toil. It was a wilderness that they traveled through, a difficult road; there were abundance of difficulties in the way, mountains and rough places. It was a laborious, fatiguing thing to travel the road: they were forced to lay out themselves to get along and had many wearisome days and nights. But now they have got through; they have got to the place they sought. They are got home, got to their everlasting rest. They need travel no more, nor labor any more, nor endure any more toil and difficulty, but enjoy perfect rest and peace, and will, forever; Revelation 14:13, "And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, for they rest from their labors; and their works do follow them." They don't mourn that they are got home, but greatly rejoice. They look back upon the difficulties, and sorrows, and dangers of this life rejoicing that they have got through them all.
We are ready to look upon death as though it was a calamity to them. We are ready to mourn over them with tears of pity, to think that these that were so dear to us should be in the dark, rotting grave, that they should there turn to corruption and worms, that they should be taken away from their dear children, and other pleasant enjoyments, and that they should never more have any part in anything under the sun. Our bowels are ready to yearn over them, and to look upon it as though some sorrowful thing had befallen them, and as though they were in awful circumstances.
But this is owing to our infirmity, that we are ready thus to look upon it. They are in an happy condition; they are inconceivably blessed. They don't mourn, but rejoice with exceeding joy; their mouths are filled with joyful songs. They drink at rivers of pleasures. They find no mixture of grief at all that they have changed their earthly houses, and earthly enjoyments, and earthly friends, and the company of moral mankind, for heaven. They think of it without any degree of regret.
This is an evil world in comparison of that they are now in. Their life here, if attended with the best circumstances that ever any earthly life was, was attended with abundance that was adverse and afflictive. But now there is an end to all adversity; Revelation 7:16–17, "They shall hunger no more, nor thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them,
and lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes."
'Tis true, we shall see them no more while we are here in this world; yet we ought not immoderately to mourn for that, though it used to be pleasant to us to see them and though their company was sweet. For we should consider ourselves as but on a journey too: we should be traveling towards the same place that they are gone to. And why should we break our hearts with that, that they are got there before us, when we are following after them as fast as we can and hope, as soon as ever we get to our journey's end, to be with them again, to be with them in better circumstances than ever we were with them while here?
A degree of mourning for near relations, when departed, is not inconsistent with Christianity, but very agreeable to it; for as long as we are flesh and blood, no other can be expected than that we shall have animal properties and affections. But we have not just reason to be overborne, and sunk in spirit. When the death of near friends is attended with these circumstances,9 we should be glad that they are got to heaven. Our mourning should be mingled with joy; 1 Thessalonians 4:13, "But I [would not] have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope"—i.e. that they should not sorrow as the heathen that had no knowledge of a future happiness nor any certain hope of anything for themselves or their friends after they were once dead. This appears by the following verse: "For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him."
Second. If it be so, that our lives ought so {to be spent by us, as to be only a journey toward heaven}, how ill do they improve their lives that spend them in traveling towards hell. Some men spend their whole lives, from their infancy to their dying day, in going down the broad way to destruction. They don't only draw nearer to hell in1 time, but they every day grow more and more ripe for destruction; they are more assimilated to the inhabitants of the infernal world. While others press forward in the straight and narrow way to life, towards Zion, and laboriously travel up the hill against the inclination and tendency of the flesh, these run with a swift career down towards the valley of eternal death, towards the lake of fire, towards the bottomless pit.
This is the employment of every day with all wicked men; the whole day is spent in it. As soon as ever they awake in the morning, they set out anew
towards hell, and spend every waking moment in it. They are constant in it; it is a work that they are very assiduous in. They are earnestly engaged in it.2 They begin in early days, before they begin to speak; Psalms 58:3, "The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies." They hold onto it with perseverance. Many of them that live to be old are never weary of it; if they live to be an hundred years old, they won't give out traveling in the ways to hell till they arrive there.
And all the concerns of life are subordinated to this employment. A wicked man is a servant of sin: his powers and faculties are all employed in the service of sin, and in fitting [them] for hell. And all his possessions are so used by him as to be subservient to the same purpose. Some men spend their time in "treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath" (Romans 2:5). Thus do all unclean persons, that live in lascivious practices in secret. Thus do all malicious persons. Thus do all profane persons, that neglect duties of religion. Thus do all unjust persons, and those that are fraudulent or oppressive in their dealings. Thus do all backbiters and revilers. Thus do all covetous persons, that set their hearts chiefly on the riches of this world. Thus do tavern-haunters, and frequenters of evil company; and many other kinds of persons that might be mentioned.
Thus do far the greater part of man. The bulk of mankind are hastening onward in the broad way to destruction. The way, as broad as it is, is, as it were, filled up with the multitudes that are going with one accord this way. And they are every day flowing3 into hell out of this broad way by thousands. Multitudes are continually flowing in to the great lake of fire and brimstone out of this broad way, as some mighty river constantly disembogues its waters into the ocean.
Third. Hence, when persons are converted they do but begin their work, and set out on the way they have to go. They never, till then, do anything of that work which their whole lives ought to be spent in, which we have now shown to be traveling towards heaven. Persons before conversion never take a step that way. Then does a man first set out on this journey, when he is brought home to Christ. And he is but just set out in it; so far is he from having done his work, that he only begins first to set his face towards heaven. His journey is not finished; he is only then first-brought to be willing to go to and begins to look that way. So that his care and labor in his Christian work and business is then but begun, which he must spend the remaining part of his life in.
Those persons do ill who, when they are converted and have obtained hope of their being in a good condition, don't strive as earnestly as they did before, while they were under awakening. They ought henceforward, as long as they live, to be as earnest and laborious as ever, as watchful and careful as ever; yea, they should increase more and more.
It is no just objection or excuse from this, that now they han't the same to strive for: before, they strove that they might be converted, but that, they have obtained. Is there nothing else that persons have as much reason to strive, and lay out their strength for, as their own safety? We should will to be diligent and laborious that we may serve and glorify God, as that we ourselves may be happy. And if we have obtained grace, yet that is not all obtained that may be obtained. 'Tis but a very little grace that we have obtained; we ought to strive, that we may obtain more. We ought to strive as much as that we may [obtain] the other degrees that are before as we did to obtain that small degree that is behind. The Apostle tells that he forgot "what was behind," and "reached forth towards what was before" (Philippians 3:13).
Yea, those that have converted have now a further reason to strive for grace than they had before, for now they have tasted and seen something of the sweetness and excellence of it. A man that has once tasted the blessings of Canaan has more reason to press forward towards Canaan than he had before.
And then, those that are converted should strive that they may make their calling {and election sure}.4 All those that are converted are not sure of it, don't know that they shall be always so. Still seeking and serving God with the utmost diligence is the way to have assurance, and to have it maintained.
Use II may be of Exh. So to spend the present life that it may only be a journey towards heaven. Labor to be converted, and sanctified, and to obtain such a disposition of mind that you may choose heaven for your inheritance and home, and may earnestly long for it, and be willing and desirous to change this world and all the enjoyment of it for heaven. Labor to have your heart so much taken up about heaven and heavenly enjoyments, as that you may rejoice at any time when God calls you to leave your best earthly friends and those things that are most comfortable to you here to go to heaven, there to enjoy God and Christ.
Be persuaded to travel in the way that leads to heaven, viz. in a way of holiness, in a way of self-denial and mortification, in a way of obedience
to all the commands of God, in a way of following Christ's example, in the way of a heavenly life, an imitation of the saints and angels that live in heaven. Be content to travel on in this way in a laborious manner, to endure all the fatigues of it. Begin to travel it without delay, if you have not already begun it. And travel on it with assiduity; let it be your daily work, from morning to night, and hold out in it to the end. Let there be nothing that shall stop or discourage you, or turn you aside from this road. Labor to be growing in holiness, to be coming nearer and nearer to heaven, in that you are more and more as you shall be when you get to heaven, if ever that be. And let all other concerns be subordinated to this great concern of getting forwards towards heaven.
Consider the reasons that have been mentioned why you should thus spend your life. Consider that the world is not your abiding place and was never so intended of God. Consider how little a while you are to be here, and how little worth your while it is to spend your life to any other purpose. Consider that the future world is to be your everlasting abode, and that the enjoyments and concerns of this world have their being only and entirely in order to another world.
And consider further, for motive,
First. How worthy is heaven, that your life should be wholly spent as a journey towards it. To what better purpose can you spend your life, whether you respect your duty or your interest? What better end can you propose to your journey than5 heaven?
Here you are placed in this world, in this wilderness, and have you your choice given you, that you travel which way you please; and there is one way that leads to heaven. Now where can you direct your course better, than this way? What can you choose better for your journey's end? All men have some aim or other in living. Some mainly seek worldly things; they spend their days in the pursuit of those things. But is not heaven, where is fullness of joy, forever and ever, much more worthy to be sought by you? How can you better apply your strength, and use your means, and spend your days, than in traveling in the road that leads to the everlasting enjoyment of God, to his glorious presence, to the city of the new Jerusalem, to the heavenly Mount Zion, where all your desires will be filled and [there is] no danger of ever losing your happiness?
No man is at home in this world. Whether he chooses heaven or no, yet here he is but a transient person. Where can you choose your home better than in heaven? The rest and glory of heaven is so great that 'tis worthy that we should desire it above riches, above our fathers' houses or
our own, above husbands, or wives, or children, or all earthly friends. It is worthy that we should subordinate these things to it, and that we should be ready cheerfully to part with them for heaven whenever God calls.
Second. This is the way to have death comfortable [to] us: if we spend our lives so as to be only a journey towards heaven. This will be the way to have death, that is the end of the journey and entrance into heaven, not terrible, but comfortable.
This is the way to [be] free from bondage through the fear of death, and to have the prospect and forethought of death comfortable. Does the traveler think of the journey's end with fear and terror? Especially when he has been many days traveling, it being a long and tiresome journey, is it terrible to him to think that he has almost got to his journey's end; are not men, rather, wont to rejoice at it? Were the children of Israel sorry, after forty years travel in the wilderness, when they had almost got to Canaan? This is the way to have death not terrible when it comes. 'Tis the way to be able to part with the world without grief. Does it grieve the traveler when he has got home to quit his staff and load of provisions that he had to sustain him by the way?
Third. No more of your life will be pleasant to think of, when you come to die, than has been spent after this manner. All of your past life that has been spent on a journey {to heaven} will be comfortable to think of on a death bed, and no more.
If you have spent none of your life [after this manner], your whole life will be terrible to you to think of unless you die under some great delusion. You will see then how that all of your life that has been spent otherwise is lost. You will then see the vanity of other aims you may have proposed to yourself. The thought of what you have possessed and enjoyed in the world will not be pleasant to you unless you can think, withal, that you have subordinated them to this purpose.
Fourth. Consider that those that are willing thus to spend their lives as a journey {to heaven} may have heaven. Heaven, as high as it is, and as glorious as it is, is attainable. It is attainable for such poor, worthless creatures as we are. Even such as we may have for our home that glorious region that is the habitation of the glorious angels: yea, the dwelling place of the glorified Son of God, and where is the glorious presence of the great Jehovah.
And we may have it freely. There is no high price that is demanded of us for this privilege. We may have it without money or price, if we are but willing to set out and go on towards it, are but willing to travel the road that leads to it, and bend our course that way as long as we live. We may, and shall, have heaven for our eternal resting place.
Fifth. Let it be considered that if our lives ben't a journey to heaven, they will be a journey to hell. We can't continue here always, but we must go somewhere else. All mankind, after they have been in this wilderness a little while, they go out of it. And there is but two places that they go to: the two great receptacles of all that depart out of this world. The one is heaven, whither a few, a small number in comparison, travel; the way hither is but thinly occupied with travelers. And the other is hell, wither the bulk of mankind do throng. And one or other of these must be our journey's end, the issue of our course in this world.
[III.] Directions.
First. Labor to get a sense of the vanity of this world: of the vanity of it upon the account of the little satisfaction [that] is to be enjoyed here, and upon the account of its short continuance and unserviceableness when we must stand in need of help, viz. on a death bed.
All men that live any considerable time in the world see abundance that might convince 'em of the vanity of the world, if they would but consider. Be persuaded to exercise consideration when you see and hear, from time to time, of the death of others. Labor to turn your thoughts this way; see if you can't see the vanity of the world in such a glass. If you were sensible how vain a thing this world is, you would see that it is not worthy that your life should be spent to the purpose thereof, and that all is lost that is not some way aimed at heaven.
Second. Labor to be much acquainted with heaven. If you are not acquainted with it, you will not to be like to spend your life as a journey thither; you won't be sensible of the worth of it, won't long for it. Unless you are much conversant in your mind with a better good, it will be exceeding difficult to you to have your hearts loosed from these things, and to use them only in subordination to something else, and to be ready to part with them for the sake of the better good. Labor to obtain a realizing sense of the heavenly world, to get a firm belief of the reality of it, and to be very much conversant with it in your thoughts.
Third. Seek heaven only by Jesus Christ. Christ tells us that he is "the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6). He tells us that he is the door of the sheep; John 10:9, "I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and go in and out, and find pasture." If we therefore would improve our lives as a journey towards heaven, we must seek it by him and not by our own righteousness: as expecting to obtain [it] only for his sake, looking to him, having our dependence on him only for the purchase of heaven, and procuring it for us by his merit. And expect strength to walk in a way of holiness, the way that leads to heaven, only from him.
Fourth. And lastly, let Christians help one another in going this journey. There are many ways that Christians might greatly help and forward one another in their way to heaven: by religious conference and otherwise. And persons greatly need help in this way, which is, as I have often observed, a difficult way. Let Christians be exhorted to go this journey, as it were, in company, conversing together about their journey's end and assisting one another. Company is very desirable in a journey, but in no journey so much as this. Let Christians go united, and not fall out by the way, which will be the way to hinder one another, but use all means they can to help one another. This is the way to be more successful in traveling and to have the more joyful meeting at their Father's house in glory.
