by any means I may attain unto the resurrection of the dead." If, therefore, by your affliction, the Lord make your soul to live, if he cure a worse disease in your heart than any other, i. e. the world in your heart; if you are thus enabled, in any degree, to walk with God in the fire, then he will walk with you in the fire. Leave the gold to the Refiner. If he says, "I will cause him to draw near, and he shall approach unto me,” that is enough.

3rdly. Is any one resolutely determined, like Caleb and Joshua, to seek and serve God? Let him mark the high authority on which he proceeds; and let him take encouragement from the only safe quarter. "He shall approach unto me, SAITH THE LORD." Lay it up in your mind, that it is not a hard thing to please God. Do not think that religion is an impracticable thing. It is not so. God is very gracious. He says, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." I cast out none that come unto me.

4thly. But are there those who will set all God's proposals and promises at defiance? To such he says, "Behold, the whirlwind of the Lord goeth forth with fury, a continuing whirlwind: it shall fall with pain. upon the head of the wicked. The fierce anger of the Lord shall not return, until he have done it, and until he have performed the intents of his heart: in the latter days ye shall consider it." Verses 23, 24. It is an awful thing when men only find out God by his judgments. An unbeliever is a candidate for nothing. He has no proposal, no object, no ground for the sole of his foot. What is quality and rank? What is human science-though a thing far more sublime than rank or quality to a man that is without understanding? and

surely he is without spiritual understanding that rejects the Gospel.

The Bible gives the greatest encouragement to all who seek God, and walk in his ways. "The ways of the Lord are right, and the just shall walk in them." He shall know and understand them: he shall not only set out, but have strength to go on. He shall have provision all the way: he shall come safely to the end: and if he meet with enemies, they shall not make him afraid. It is truth alone that will stand the test of time and experiment. God does not leave a Christian to doubt if there be "a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." Heb. xi. 6.

THE STRAIT GATE.

Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.-MATT. vii. 13.

[1802.]

THERE are many desultory inquirers after Christianity, but not many seriously disposed to hear a scriptural account of it. It is a great point to be willing to submit to the standard, with no desire to lower it.

If we would be Christ's disciples indeed, we must not ask the world what it thinks of Christ, and his word, but we must sit at his feet, and hear him say, "Enter ye in at the strait gate." In discoursing on these words, I shall,

I. EXPLAIN The terms.

II. ANSWER A FEW OBJECTIONS.

III. STATE THE DOCTRINE OF THE TEXT.

I. Let us endeavor TO UNDERSTAND THE TEXT. Man is a traveller: he must travel; it is not put to his choice, he must go on. Here are presented two roads. The Scripture knows of no third path. It divides all characters into two classes, namely, the righteous and the wicked; and these are described as travelling in two distinct paths. The latter are described as entering in at the wide gate, and walking in the broad way: because this way will admit all sorts of characters— all names; it will accommodate corrupt nature in all sorts of forms; it will admit of any incumbrance, any notions; it will admit of those swollen with pride, the sensualist, the formalist, and the hypocrite. It will conform itself to the mode and fashion of the times. You may walk in this road with reputation, whether you are a Deist, an Atheist, or a Socinian. "For wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat."

But there is another way spoken of here. "Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." The true way is never such as flesh and blood will like. It is a strait way, marked out; and it has its boundaries. It is a self-denying way, an afflictive way, and a despised way. A way hedged in by the holy law of God; a way of appointment, through Christ. This way will make no allowance for taste or education. It will not accommodate itself to the fashion of the times. It has no regard to what is called "respectable religion." It is the way of the new birth, the way of regeneration. It counts all things loss for Christ. A Christian, while walking in this way, reasons down the reports of sense; for it is a way of faith.

In old times, the world was populous as it is now. But the wickedness of it was so great that" the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth." But a godly man was warned to prepare an ark. "The Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation." Do not debate about it; do not philosophize; leave the management of the world to me; but enter thou into the ark; and if there be but eight persons within, be thankful that there are eight saved."

Christ says to us, "I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved." No man can go to heaven who is not determined to go in this way; "All that ever came before me, are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them." They that would enter in at the strait gate, must both stoop, and strip. But many cannot receive this saying. I propose therefore,

· II. TO ANSWER SOME OBJECTIONS.

Why, says one, if this is the case, if you will be thus rigid, and take up the text literally, you will exceedingly narrow the path, and exclude many good sort of people. I answer, Should we attempt to widen that path which Christ has declared to be narrow? Are we to give our opinion, or to reason after our Lord's express declaration? What should be the conduct of a messenger? Is he to alter or change his message, or to deliver it? Is he to accommodate it to corrupt nature? God forbid, that we should try to render the way more strait; but God forbid, that we should endeavor to widen what he has made narrow!

Again, it is objected, that if we represent religion as so difficult, people will be deterred from it. But every

such objection is answered by the verses which precede the text: "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: for every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him!"-The battle is not ours, but the Lord's. No man ever sought scripturally, the way of salvation, who did not find it. Ten thousand witnesses shall rise up against that sluggard who says, "There is a lion in the way !"

Another objection made by the unrenewed heart is, that to walk in this narrow way implies being singular-that its motto is, "Come out from among them, and be ye separate." I allow this objection: for it is a real one. But who is it that makes it? The worldling the sensualist-the "lovers of pleasure, more than lovers of God;" not those who love Christ: not those, who follow "the footsteps of the flock!"

When we speak of singularity, we do not mean fanatically singular. That is not what Christ has commanded. But if we would contend for real religion, we must contend for determined singularity, as far as Christ has commanded it. It is he who has said, "Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." And if few, they must be singular. Those who wish to walk in this road, must "mark the footsteps of the flock" every step of the way. They will find this the way in which Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob walked. They shall find, as they proceed, the approbation of the Judge..

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