Commentary on the Gospels and Acts, Commentary 1 · Chapter 7 · Verse 14
Verse 14. Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, &c.]
In Lollards tower, passing through six or seven doors I came to my lodging (saith Philpot Martyr) through many straits: where I called to remembrance, that strait is the way to heaven.Act. and …. fol 1 46. The old copies read Oh how strait is the gate! by way of admiration, q. d. It is wondrous strait. Not of it selfe, for Christs yokeforeign i e. foreign …, foreign is easy, and his burden light: but we make it so hard and heavy to our selves, by our singular peevishnesse and perversnesse. Besides, the Prince of darknesse and his black guard favour this way, that is called holy, as little as the Philistim-Princes did David, yeasaith the …. they persecute it to the death, as Saul did, Act 9. Hence the way to heaven is an afflicted way, a perplexed, persecuted way, crusht Non quia dura, sed … molles ….close together with crosses (as the word importeth) as was the Israelites way in the wildernesse, or that of Ionathan and his armour-bearer,foreign Pressa: res enim compressione fiunt …. …. manibus pedibus que obnixe omnia facere. that had a sharp rock on the one side, and a sharp rock on the other. And, whilst they crept upon all four, flinty stones were under them, briers and thornes on either hand of them, mountaines, crags and promontories over them, sic petitur caelum, so heaven is caught, by pains, by patience, by violence, affliction being our unseparable companion. The crosse-way is the high-… to heaven, said that Martyr. And another, If there Terent.be any way to heaven on horse-back, it is by the crosse. Q. Elizabeth Act. and Mon.is said to have swum to the crown, through a sea of sorrows.Engl. Elisab. They that will to heaven, must sail by hell gates. They that will have Knight-hood, must kneel for it: and they that will get in atforeign. the strait gate, must croud for it. Strive to enter in at the streight …. …. 1.gate, saith our Saviour. Strive and strain even to an agony (as the word signifieth.) Heaven is compared to a hill; Hell to aforeign …. hole. To hell a man may go without a staff (as we say:) the way thereto is easy, steep, strawed with roses. 'Tis but a yeelding to Sathan, a passing from sinne to sinne, from evill purposes to evil practises, from practise to custom, &c. Sed revocare gradum, but to turne short again, and make straight steps to our feet, thatBradford. we may force through this strait gate, (so strait that as few can walk in it, so none can halt in it, but must needs go upright,) … ….labor, hoc opus est, opus non pulvinaris sed pulveris, this is a workThere must … both stooping and …. of great pains, a duty of no small difficulty. Many I say unto you, shall seek to enter, but seeking serves not turn: men must strive, and strive lawfully; run, and run lustily, tug and take pairs till they sweat and faint, to get through this strait gate, this perplext way, as unpleasant to nature, as the way to Niniveh was to Ionas, as rough and rugged as that was to the Church, Hos. 2 6. as little traced and trod, as the high-… to Sion-hill, which were over-grown with grasse, because few or none cameLam. 1. to the solemn feasts.
And few there be that finde it]
So hard is it to hit, and as dangerous to …. Many by-waies there are (these are so many highwayes to …) … false-guides and back-biasses not a few, to divert us. The devil with his false directions leading men hoodwinkt to hell, as Elisha did the Syrians to Samaria. The world…. with it's allurements and affrightments: Oh how hardly scape we through the corruptions that are in the world through lust! 2 Pet. 1. 7.Our own hearts, how heavy are they to be drawn this way! a bear comes not so … to the stake. It goes hard with a man when he must peremptorily deny himself; when he must deny foreign …. 2. ….all ungodlinesse and werldly lusts, as dear unto him as himself, and be … to live holily, righteously and soberly in this present world; making conscience of those duties which the most mens hearts rise at, as to be hot in religion, servent in spirit, precise in his whole course, conscientious and cautelous of the least sin &c. Heaven is a stately pallace, with a narrow portall, hence so few enter it. The proud man with his high looks cannot stoope to it. The ambitious with his aspiring thoughts cannot bend to it. The malicious is swollen too big for it. The covetous with his load of … clay cannot get through it. The drunkard with his rotten lungs: the adulterer with his wasted loines, can have no admittance into it. There can in no wise enter any thing filthy, or loathsome,foreign … foreign, …. abhominable, or detestable, which a man would abhorre for the ill savour, (as the word signifieth, Reve. 21. 27.) such as for the basenesse thereof cannot be … named, it is so noysome to the …. Assoon may … men finde … swimming in a wood, …-trees growing in the sea, heaven in hell, as enter into the … gate, not living strictly. Which … few can frame to, but … those that do (counting and calling them as the Spaniards … …. … 63.are said to do the Partugalls, pocosy locos few and foolish) therefore few are saved. Our Saviour calleth his flock a little little …, two diminutives, Luk 12. 42. standing (as that smallforeign. army … Israel in Ahahs time) like two little flocks of kids, when the wicked, (as those Syrians then) … the countrey. Was it not …, when Hierome complained that the whole world was turned1 King. 20. 17. …, et miratus est … factumesse … … Hier. Arrian? and Basil cryed out An Ecclesias suas prorsus dereliquit …? Hath God utterly forsaken his Church? &c. The love of many shall wax cold, but he that endureth to the end, &c. It is but a He in the singular that endureth to the end, the Many fall away from their former stedfastnes.