transmigration and Hebrew traditions

Edwards Miscellanies 969 an 973

In ibid., pp. 323–26, Prideaux states that Pythagoras when in Egypt studied with Zoroastres and the Magians, learned of the immortality of the soul, and was the first Greek to teach it—though he corrupted the doctrine by saying immortality consisted in transmigration of the soul from one body to another. See further, No. 973.

973. TRADITIONS OF THE HEATHEN FROM THE ANCIENT AND JEWS.

In the margins of this entry are the following headings: "Revelation; Future State of Rewards and Punishments; Fall of Man; Right Notions of God; Revelation." Add this to No. 969. "The author of the book De Mundo (dedicated to Alexander) says thus, ''Tis an ancient saying, and running the race of all men, that from God all things, and by God all things were constituted, and do consist.'" Barrow's Works, vol. 2, p. 89.Barrow, Works, 2, 89. The quote occurs in The Christian Faith Explained and Vindicated, in Several Sermons upon the Chief Articles of it contained in the Apostles Creed, Sermon VIII, "The Being of God Proved from Universal Consent."

"Plato, in his Timaeus, p. 105, says, "'We must yield credence to them, who first avouched themselves the offspring of God, and did sure clearly know their own progenitors; it is indeed impossible to distrust the children of the gods, although otherwise speaking without plausible, or necessary demonstrations; but, following law, we must believe them, as testifying about matters peculiarly belonging to themselves.'" Barrow's Works, vol. 2, p. 90.

Plato, speaking of the immortality of the soul and a future state of rewards and punishments, says, "'We must believe the reports of this kind, being so many, and so very ancient.' 

And Cicero says, 'We suppose that souls abide after death, from the consent of all nations.' And again saith he, 'I cannot assent unto those, who have lately begun to discourse, that souls do perish together with bodies, and that all things are blotted out by death; the authority of the ancients doth more prevail with me.' 

And Seneca saith, 'When we dispute concerning the eternity of souls, the consent of men either fearing or worshipping the inferi'" (i.e. the state of things after death) "'hath no slight moment with us.' 

Even Celsus himself (an Epicurean philosopher, and great enemy of our faith) confesses, 'that divine men have delivered it, that happy souls should enjoy an happy life hereafter.'

"The opinion concerning man having sometimes been in a better state (both in regard to complexion of mind, and outward accommodations of life), but that he did by his willful miscarriages fall thence into this wretched condition of proneness to sin, and subjection to sorrow, was an ancient doctrine (if we take Plato's word); and concerning it Cicero hath these remarkable words: 

'From which errors and miseries of human life we may conclude, that sometime those ancient prophets, or interpreters of the divine mind in the delivery of holy mysteries, who have said. that we are born to undergo punishments for the faults committed in a former life, may seem to have understood somewhat' 

('Tis true those authors assign this fall to the souls [of] singular persons in a state of preexistence; but it is plain enough, how easy it might be to mistake and transform the story.)" Barrow's Works, vol. 2, pp. 91–92.

There were some things that were very general among the heathen nations that they did not receive from the first fathers and founders of nations, but from the Jews or their ancestors, as particularly the practice of "paying tithes (that very determinate part) of the fruits of the earth, of the spoils of war, of the gains of trade, by way of acknowledgment and thankfulness to the donor and disposer of all things." See Dr. Barrow, vol. 2, p. 93. 

Aristotle's words in his Metaphysics, 12:8, are very remarkable: "'There were,' saith he, 'things conveyed traditionally by the primitive and ancient men, and left in a fabulous dress to their posterity; that there are these gods, and that divinity maintains (or encompasses) all nature: but other things were to these fictitiously superinduced for persuasion of the vulgar sort, and for the use of laws and public commodity: hence they speak of the gods, as having an human shape, or resembling other living creatures, and other things consequent upon, or agreeable to these sayings; from which things, if we separate that only which was first delivered, that they deemed the gods the first beings, we may suppose what they said divinely spoken. 

And 'tis according to probability, all art and philosophy being, as might possibly, often invented and lost again, that even these opinions of them have as relics been preserved until now: the opinion then of our fathers, and that which came from the first men, is only thus far manifested to us.' 

Thus did that philosopher, with a sagacity worthy so great a man, discern that through that coarser ore, consisting in great part of dross and feculency, a pure vein of truth did run down from the source of primitive tradition." So Dr. Barrow, vol. 2, pp. 94–95.

"'There is,' saith Cicero, De Divinatione, 'an ancient opinion, drawn even from the heroical times,[…] that there is among men a certain divination, which the Greeks call prophecy (or inspiration), that is a presensionI.e. foreknowledge or foresight. and knowledge of future things.'" Barrow's Works, vol. 2, p. 99.Barrow, Works, 2, 99, in The Christian Faith Explained and Vindicated, Sermon IX, "The Being of God Proved from Supernatural Effects."

This is a very great argument that the heathen nations borrowed many things from the Jews and Jewish patriarchs in their principles and practices, that several great nations used the rite of circumcision, which undoubtedly began with Abraham, as appears both by sacred and profane accounts (see what the Phoenicians say of Saturn's being circumcised and all his friends in note on Genesis 1:27, which is evidently taken from the story of Abraham).

The "Blank Bible" note on Genesis 1:27 paraphrases Gale, Court of the Gentiles, 1, Pt. 1, Bk. 2, ch. 3, p. 32, including this and other parallels between Saturn and Abraham as well as parallels between Saturn and Adam. Herodotus says "that the Colchians, Egyptians and Ethiopians, and the Phoenicians and Syrians that lived in Palestine used circumcision"; and questions whether the Egyptians borrowed the custom from the Ethiopians, or the Ethiopians from the Egyptians. And Diodorus Siculus speaks of the Colchians and Egyptians as using circumcision. This is taken from an extract of Shuckford's History, in the Republic of Letters, vol. 5, pp. 53–54.The Present State of the Republick of Utters. For January 1730. Vol. V (London, 1730), 53–54, in Article 3, an excerpt from Samuel Shuckford, The Sacred And Profane History Of The World, vol. 1 (London, 1728).

Another argument that the heathen derived much from the Jews is that the name of Jupiter, or Iao Pater, was derived from Jehovah, which name was not revealed or at least not much known before Moses. 

So the heathen songs to Bacchus and Apollo that began with ελελω were evidently derived from the Jews' hallelujah. See No. 1012. See note on Psalms 106:1.The "Blank Bible" note on Psalms 106:1 explains that the Hebrew "Hallelujah" was usually rendered in pagan hymns to Apollo and Bacchus as "Eleleus." (Gale, Court of the Gentiles, 1, Pt. I, Bk. 2, ch. 4, pp. 39–40, and Pt. I, Bk. 3, ch. 1, pp. 13–14.)

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Edwards on "Revealed Religion"

 

979. REVEALED RELIGION.

Add this to No. 977. "In a word: Socrates himself always openly professed, that he pretended to be wiser than other men, only in this one thing, that he was sensible of his own ignorance." 

And particularly they were entirely ignorant of the manner in which "God ought to be worshipped.[…] Accordingly, the very best of them complied with the outward religion of their country, and advised others to do the same.[…] Plato, after having delivered very noble and almost divine truths concerning the nature and attributes of the supreme God, weakly advises men to worship likewise inferior gods, demons and spirits," and dared not to condemn the worshipping even of "statues and images dedicated according to the laws of their country.[…] 

After him, Cicero, the greatest and best philosopher that Rome, or perhaps any other nation ever produced, allowed men to continue in the idolatry of their ancestors; advised them to conform themselves to the superstitious religion of their country, in offering such sacrifices to different gods, as were by law established"; and yet "in many of his writings he largely and excellently proves these very practices to be extremely foolish." 

And "that admirable moralist Epictetus, who, for a true sense of virtue, seems to have had no superior in the heathen world; even he also advises men to offer libations and sacrifices to the gods, everyone according to the religion and custom of his country."

"But that which above all other things these best and wisest of the philosophers were most absolutely ignorant of," was the method in which those that have offended God may be restored to his favor. As to "those divers ways of sacrificing, and numberless superstitions, which overspread the face of the heathen world,[…] the more considering philosophers could not forbear frequently declaring that they thought those rites could avail little or nothing towards appeasing the wrath of a provoked God or making their prayers acceptable in his sight; but that something still seemed to them to be wanting, though they knew not what. (See Plato's Alcibiades, throughout.)"

And as to the immortality of the soul and a future state of rewards and punishments, the greatest and wisest of the philosophers, notwithstanding the undeniable strength of the arguments which sometimes convinced them of the certainty of a future state, did yet at other times express themselves with great hesitancy and unsteadiness concerning it. 

"'I am now,' said Socrates a little before his death, 'about to leave this world; and ye are still to continue in it: which of us have the better part allotted us, God only knows.'" 

And again, "at the end of his most admirable discourse concerning the immortality of the soul, 'I would have you to know,' says he to his friends who came to pay him their last visit, 'I have great hopes I am now going into the company of good men. Yet I would not be too peremptory and confident concerning it: but if death be only as it were a transmigration from hence into another place; and those things, which are told us be indeed true; that those who are dead to us do all live there; then, etc.' 

So likewise Cicero, speaking of the same subject: 'I will endeavor,' saith he, 'to explain what you desire; yet I would not have you depend upon what I shall say, as certain and infallible; but I may guess, as other men do, at what shall seem most probable; and further than this, I cannot pretend to go.' 

Again, 'Which of these two opinions,' saith he, that the soul is mortal or that it is immortal, 'be true, God only knows; which of them is most probable, is a very great question.' 

And again in the same discourse, having brought all those excellent arguments before-mentioned in proof of the immortality of the soul, 'Yet we ought not,' saith he 'be overconfident of it: for it often happens that we are strongly affected at first, with an acute argument; and yet a little while after, stagger in our judgment and alter our opinion, even in clearer matters than these: for these things must be confessed to have some obscurity in them.' 

And again, 'I know not how,' saith he, 'when I read the arguments in proof of the soul's immortality, methinks I am fully convinced; and yet after I have laid aside the book and come to think and consider of the matter alone by myself, fall again insensibly into my old doubts.'"

And Seneca says (Epist. 102), "'Credebam facile opinionibus magnorum virorum, rem gratissiman (animæ immortalitatem) promittentium magis quam probantium.'"The translations in this and in nn. 6 and 9, below, all occur on p. 165 of Miscellaneous Observations. "I easily believed the opinions of great men promising, rather than proving, a most agreeable thing (the soul's immortality)."

And these great philosophers themselves confessed that their philosophy was attended with so much obscurity and uncertainty, and such abstracted speculation and such nice and subtle disputations, that it was no proper or fit means for the reforming of the world of mankind and leading them to happiness. 

Thus Cicero, De repub.,Clarke cites "fragm[ent]." says, "'Profecto omnis istorum disputatio, quanquam uberrimos fontes virtutis et scientiæ contineat, tamen collata cum horum (qui rempublicam gubernant) actis perfectisque rebus, vereor ne non tantum videatur attulisse negotiis hominum utilitatis, quantum oblectationem quandam otii.'""Although the disputes of philosophers contain the most abundant sources of virtue and science, yet compared with the actions of those who govern the state, I am apprehensive that they will be found not to have brought so much real advantage to the business of men, as amusement in their leisure hours." 

So Lactantius,Clarke cites "Lib. 3." speaking of Cicero, says, "Est, inquit Cicero, philosophia paucis contenta iudicibus, multitudinem consulto ipsa fugiens… maximum itaque argumentum est, philosophiam neque ad sapientiam tendere, neque [ad sapientiam tendere, neque]JE's omission. ipsam esse sapientiam; quod mysteriium ejus, barba tantum celebratur et pallio.""Philosophy, says Cicero, is contented to be known but by a few, and designedly avoids the multitude. Therefore, it is a great argument, that philosophy neither tends to wisdom, nor is itself wisdom that its mysteries are celebrated by those only, who wear the long beard and the cloak." 

"'In this case,' as Cicero excellently expresses it, 'in like manner as in physic it matters nothing, whether a disease be such that no man does, or no man can recover from it; so neither does it make any difference, whether by philosophy no man is, or no man can be made wise and good.'[…]"

"For these reasons there was plainly wanting a divine revelation, to recover mankind out of their universally degenerate state, into a state suitable to the original excellency of their nature: which divine [revelation], both the necessities of men and the natural notions" which the wise heathens had "of God, gave them reasonable ground to expect and hope for; as appears from the acknowledgments which the best and wisest of them have made, of their sense of the necessity and want of such a revelation; and from their expressions of the hopes they had entertained that God would, sometime or other, vouchsafe it unto them." 

"'Ye may even give over all hopes of amending men's manners for the future,' says Socrates, 'unless God be pleased to send you some'" other person to instruct you. "

And Plato, 'Whatever,' saith he, 'is set right and as it should be, in the present evil state of the world, can be so only by the particular interposition of God.'"

"There [JE refers to this paragraph at the end of No. 971.] is an excellent passage in Plato to this purpose, and one of the most remarkable passages indeed in his whole works," as follows:

"'It seems best to me,' saith Socrates to one of his disciples, 'that we expect quietly; nay, 'tis absolutely necessary, that we wait with patience, till such time as we can learn certainly, how we ought to behave ourselves both towards God and towards men.' 

'When will that time come,' replies the disciple, 'and who is it that will teach us this? For methinks I earnestly desire to see and know who the person is that will do it.' 

'It is one,' answers Socrates, 'who has now a concern for you. But in like manner, as Homer relates that Minerva took away the mist from before Diomedes' eyes, that he might be able to distinguish one person from another; so 'tis necessary that the mist that is now before your mind, be first taken away, that afterwards you may learn to distinguish rightly between good and evil; for, as yet, you are not able to do it.' 

'Let the person you mentioned,' replies the disciple, 'take away this mist, or whatever else it be, as soon as he pleases: for I am willing to do anything he shall direct, whosoever this person be; so that I may but become a good man.' 

'Nay' (says Socrates), 'that person has a wonderful readiness and willingness to do all this for you.' 

'It will be; best then' (replies the disciple), 'to forbear offering any more sacrifices, till the time that this person appears.' 

'You judge very well,' answers Socrates; 'it will be much safer so to do, than to run so great a hazard of offering sacrifices which you know not whether they are acceptable to God or no.' 

'Well then,' replies the disciple, 'we will then make our offerings to the gods when that day comes, and I hope, God willing, it may not be far off.' 

And in another place, the same author, having given a large account of that most excellent discourse, which Socrates made a little before his is death, concerning the great doctrines of religion, the immortality of the soul, and a life to come, he introduces one of his disciples replying in the following manner: 

'I am' (saith he) 'of the same opinion with you, O Socrates, concerning these things; that, to discover the certain truth of them, in this present life, is either absolutely impossible for us, or at least exceeding difficult; yet, not to inquire with our utmost diligence into what can be said about them, or to give over our inquiry before we have carried our search as far as possible, is the sign of a mean and low spirit: on the contrary, we ought therefore by all means to do one of these two things; either by hearkening to instruction, and by our own diligent study, to find out the truth; or, if that be absolutely impossible, then to fix our foot upon that which to human reason, after the utmost search, appears best and most probable; and, trusting to that, venture upon that bottom to direct the course of our lives accordingly: unless a man could have still more sure and certain conduct to carry him through this life; such as a divine discovery of the truth, would be.' 

I shall mention but one instance more, and that is of Porphyry; who, though he lived after our Savior's time, and had a most inveterate hatred to the Christian religion in particular, yet confesses in general, that he was sensible there was wanting some universal method of delivering men's souls, which no sect of philosophy had yet found out."

See Clarke's Evidences of Natural and Revealed Religion, pp. 138–159.Clarke, Discourse Concerning the Unchangeable Obligations, 1706 ed., pp. 220–22, 224–25, 228–32, 239, 241, 244, 246–50.

From a general notion that prevailed in the first ages among all nations, that religion was to be taught by a revelation from the gods, all such as gave institutions and rules for religion pretended to have received them from the gods by divine revelation, as Romulus, Numa, Lycurgus, and Styphis, king of Egypt. 

"If reason only had been the first guide in matters of religion, rulers would neither have thought of, nor have wanted the pretense of revelation, to give credit to their institutions: whereas, on the other hand, revelation being generally esteemed, in all nations, to be the only true foundation of religion; kings and rulers, when they thought fit to add inventions of their own to the religion of their ancestors, were obliged to make use of that disposition, which they knew their people to have, to receive what came recommended to them under the name of a revelation." 

This from Shuckford's History in Republic of Letters, vol. 5, pp. 112–113.Shuckford, The Sacred and Prophane History of the World Connected (2 vols. London, 1728), in The Present State of the Republick of Letters. For February 1730 (London, 1730), Article VIII, pp. 112–13.

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transmigration

https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/conversations-with-robert-matthews-9-11-november-1835/1

Press forward

Excerpt from the 1808 edition of the collected works of Jonathan Edwards, on sale in the Palmyra print shop. Nonbiblical terms/phrases found in latter-day scriptures are in red.

_____

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?

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. 

45 Thou shalt live together in love, insomuch that thou shalt weep for the loss of them that die, and more especially for those that have not hope of a glorious resurrection.

46 And it shall come to pass that those that die in me shall not taste of death, for it shall be sweet unto them;

 47 And they that die not in me, wo unto them, for their death is bitter.

(Doctrine and Covenants 42:45–47)

When the death of near friends is attended with these circumstances, 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 in 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 strait 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.

[Note: for "draw nearer" and more, see https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/conversations-with-robert-matthews-9-11-november-1835/1]

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. 

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 flowing 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. 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.