Latest / Philosophy and Faith / 31 - Upon our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount, Discourse XI - Sermons on Several Occasions

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31 - Upon our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount, Discourse XI - Sermons on Several Occasions · Philosophy and Faith

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  Speaker 1: Sermon thirty one upon our Lord's Sermon on the Mount
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  Speaker 1: Discourse eleven, Enter ye Inn at the strait gate. For
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  Speaker 1: wide is the gate, and broad is the way which
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  Speaker 1: leadeth to destruction. And many there be which go in thereat,
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  Speaker 1: because straight is the gate, and narrow is the way
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  Speaker 1: which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
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  Speaker 1: Matthew Chapter seven, Verses thirteen and fourteen. Our Lord, having
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  Speaker 1: warned us of the dangers which easily beset us at
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  Speaker 1: our first entrance upon real religion, the hindrances which naturally
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  Speaker 1: arise from within from the wickedness of our hearts, now
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  Speaker 1: proceeds to apprise us of the hindrances from without, particularly
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  Speaker 1: ill example and ill advice by one or the other
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  Speaker 1: of these thousands who once ran well have drawn back
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  Speaker 1: unto perdition. YEA many of those who were not novices
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  Speaker 1: in religion, who had made some progress in righteousness. His caution.
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  Speaker 1: Therefore against these he presses upon us with all possible earnestness,
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  Speaker 1: and repeats again and again in variety of expressions, lest
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  Speaker 1: by any means we should let it slip. Thus effectually
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  Speaker 1: to guard us against the former, Enter ye in saith
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  Speaker 1: He at the straight gate, for wide is the gate,
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  Speaker 1: and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and
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  Speaker 1: many there be which go in thereat. Because straight is
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  Speaker 1: the gate, and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life,
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  Speaker 1: and few there be that find it. To secure us
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  Speaker 1: from the latter, beware, saith He, of false prophets, We
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  Speaker 1: shall at present consider the former. Only Enter ye in,
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  Speaker 1: saith our blessed Lord, at the straight gate, for wide
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  Speaker 1: is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth
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  Speaker 1: to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat,
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  Speaker 1: because straight is the gate, and narrow is the way
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  Speaker 1: which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
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  Speaker 1: In these words, we may observe first the inseparable properties
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  Speaker 1: of the way to Hell. Why do is the gate?
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  Speaker 1: Broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many
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  Speaker 1: there be that go in thereat. Secondly, the inseparable properties
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  Speaker 1: of the way to heaven. Straight is that gait, and
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  Speaker 1: few there be that find it. Thirdly, a serious exhortation
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  Speaker 1: grounded thereon, Enter ye in at the strait gate. We
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  Speaker 1: may observe first the inseparable properties of the way to Hell.
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  Speaker 1: Whyde is the gate and broad is the way that
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  Speaker 1: leadeth to destruction, And many there be that go in thereat.
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  Speaker 1: Wide indeed is the gate, and broad the way that
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  Speaker 1: leadeth to destruction. For sin is the gate of hell,
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  Speaker 1: and wickedness the way to destruction. And how wide a
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  Speaker 1: gate is that of sin? How broad is the way
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  Speaker 1: of wickedness? The commandment of God is exceeding broad, as
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  Speaker 1: extending not only to all our actions, but to every
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  Speaker 1: word which goeth out of our lips. Yea, every thought
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  Speaker 1: that rises in our heart, and sin is equally broad
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  Speaker 1: with the commandment. Seeing any breach of the commandment is sin, yea. Rather,
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  Speaker 1: it is a thousand times broader, since there is only
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  Speaker 1: one way of keeping the commandment, for we do not
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  Speaker 1: properly keep it unless both the thing done, the manner
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  Speaker 1: of doing it, and all the other circumstances are right.
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  Speaker 1: But there are a thousand ways of breaking every commandment,
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  Speaker 1: so that this gait is wide. Indeed, to consider this
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  Speaker 1: a little more particularly, how wide do those parent sins
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  Speaker 1: extend from which all the rest derive their being? That
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  Speaker 1: carnal mind which is enmity against God, pride of heart, self, will,
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  Speaker 1: and love of the world. Can we fix any bounds
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  Speaker 1: to them? Do they not diffuse themselves through all our
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  Speaker 1: thoughts and mingle with all our tempers? Not the leaven
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  Speaker 1: which leavens more or less the whole mass of our affections.
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  Speaker 1: May we not, on a close and faithful examination of ourselves,
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  Speaker 1: perceive these roots of bitterness continually springing up, infecting all
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  Speaker 1: our words and tainting all our actions. And how innumerable
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  Speaker 1: an offspring do they bring forth in every age and nation,
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  Speaker 1: even enough to cover the whole earth with darkness and
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  Speaker 1: cruel habitations? Oh, who is able to reckon up their
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  Speaker 1: accursed fruits? To count all the sins, whether against God
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  Speaker 1: or our neighbor, not which imagination might paint, but which
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  Speaker 1: may be matter of daily melancholy experience. Nor need we
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  Speaker 1: range over all the earth to find them. Survey any
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  Speaker 1: one kingdom, any single country, or city or town. And
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  Speaker 1: how plenteous is this harvest? And let it not be
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  Speaker 1: one of those which are still overspread with Mahometan or
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  Speaker 1: Hagen darkness, but one of those which name the name
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  Speaker 1: of Christ, which profess to see the light of His
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  Speaker 1: glorious gospel. Go no farther than the kingdom to which
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  Speaker 1: we belong. The city wherein we are now we call
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  Speaker 1: ourselves Christians, yea, and that of the purest sort we
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  Speaker 1: are Protestants, reformed Christians. But alas who shall carry on
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  Speaker 1: the reformation of our opinions into our hearts and lives.
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  Speaker 1: Is there not a cause? For how innumerable are our
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  Speaker 1: sins and those of the deepest dye, do not the
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  Speaker 1: grossest abominations of every kind abound among us? From day
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  Speaker 1: to day? Do not sins of every sort cover the
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  Speaker 1: land as the waters cover the sea? Who can count them?
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  Speaker 1: Rather go and count the drops of rain or the
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  Speaker 1: sands on the seashore. So wide is the gate, so
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  Speaker 1: broad is the way that leadeth to destruction. And many
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  Speaker 1: there are who go in at that gate, Many who
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  Speaker 1: walk in that way, almost as many as go in
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  Speaker 1: at the gate of death, as sink into the chambers
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  Speaker 1: of the grave. For it cannot be denied, though neither
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  Speaker 1: can we acknowledge it, but with shame and sorrow of heart,
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  Speaker 1: that even in this which is called a Christian country,
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  Speaker 1: the generality of every age and sex, of every profession
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  Speaker 1: and employment, of every rank and degree, high and low,
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  Speaker 1: rich and poor, are walking in the way of destruction.
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  Speaker 1: The far greater part of the inhabitants of this city
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  Speaker 1: to this day live in sin, in some palpable habitual,
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  Speaker 1: known transgression of the law they profess to observe, YEA,
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  Speaker 1: In some outward transgression, some gross visible kind of ungodliness
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  Speaker 1: or unrighteousness, some open violation of their duty, either to
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  Speaker 1: God or man. These, then none can deny, are all
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  Speaker 1: in the way that leadeth to destruction. Add to these
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  Speaker 1: those who have a name, indeed that they live, but
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  Speaker 1: were never yet alive to God. Those that outwardly appear
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  Speaker 1: fair to men, but are inwardly full of all uncleanness,
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  Speaker 1: full of pride or vanity, of anger, or revenge, of ambition,
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  Speaker 1: or covetousness, lovers of themselves, lovers of the world, lovers
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  Speaker 1: of pleasure more than lovers of God. These indeed may
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  Speaker 1: be highly esteemed of men, but they are an abomination
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  Speaker 1: to the Lord. And how greatly will these saints of
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  Speaker 1: the world swell the number of the children of Hell? YEA.
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  Speaker 1: Add all, whatever they be in other respects, whether they
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  Speaker 1: have more or less in the form of godliness, who,
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  Speaker 1: being ignorant of God's righteousness and seeking to establish their
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  Speaker 1: own righteousness as the ground of their reconciliation to God
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  Speaker 1: and acceptance with Him of consequence, have not submitted themselves
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  Speaker 1: unto the righteousness which is of God by faith. Now
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  Speaker 1: all these things joined together in one how terribly true
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  Speaker 1: is our Lord's assertion. Wide is the gate, and broad
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  Speaker 1: is the way that leadeth to destruction. And many there
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  Speaker 1: be who go in thereat. Nor does this only concern
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  Speaker 1: the vulgar herd, the poor, base, stupid part of mankind.
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  Speaker 1: Men of eminence in the world, men who have many
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  Speaker 1: fields and yoke of oxen, do not desire to be
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  Speaker 1: excused from this. On the contrary, many wise men after
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  Speaker 1: the flesh, according to the human methods of judging, many
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  Speaker 1: mighty in power, in courage, in riches, many noble, are
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  Speaker 1: called called into the broad way by the world, the
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  Speaker 1: flesh and the devil, And they are not disobedient to
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  Speaker 1: that calling. Yea, the higher they are raised in fortune
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  Speaker 1: and power, the deeper do they sink into wickedness, the
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  Speaker 1: more blessings they have received from God. The more sins
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  Speaker 1: do they commit using their honor or riches, their learning
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  Speaker 1: or wisdom, not as means of working out their salvation,
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  Speaker 1: but rather of excelling in vice. And so insuring their
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  Speaker 1: own destruction. And the very reason why many of these
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  Speaker 1: go on so securely in the broad way is because
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  Speaker 1: it is broad. Not considering that this is the inseparable
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  Speaker 1: property of the way to destruction. Many there be saith,
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  Speaker 1: our Lord, which go in thereat, for the very reason
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  Speaker 1: why they should flee from it, even because straight is
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  Speaker 1: the gait, and narrow the way that leadeth unto life,
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  Speaker 1: and few there be that find it. This is an
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  Speaker 1: inseparable property of the way to heaven. So narrow is
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  Speaker 1: the way that leadeth unto life, unto life everlasting, So
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  Speaker 1: straight the gait, that nothing unclean, nothing unholy, can enter.
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  Speaker 1: No sinner can pass through that gait until he is
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  Speaker 1: saved from all his sins, not only from his outward sins,
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  Speaker 1: from his evil conversation received by tradition from his fathers.
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  Speaker 1: It will not suffice that he hath ceased to do
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  Speaker 1: evil and learn to do well. He must not only
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  Speaker 1: be saved from all sinful actions and from all evil
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  Speaker 1: and useless discourse, but inwardly changed, thoroughly renewed in the
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  Speaker 1: spirit of his mind. Otherwise he cannot pass through the
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  Speaker 1: gate of life. He cannot enter into glory for narrow
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  Speaker 1: is the way that leadeth unto life, the way of
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  Speaker 1: universal holiness, narrow, indeed is the way of poverty of spirit,
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  Speaker 1: the way of holy mourning, the way of meekness, and
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  Speaker 1: that of hungering and thirsting. After righteousness narrow is the
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  Speaker 1: way of mercifulness, of love unfeigned, the way of purity
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  Speaker 1: of heart, of doing good unto all men, and of
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  Speaker 1: gladly suffering evil all manner of evil for righteousness sake.
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  Speaker 1: And few there be the finder alas. How few find
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  Speaker 1: even the way of heathen honesty. How few are there
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  Speaker 1: that do nothing to another which they would not another
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  Speaker 1: should do unto them? How few that are clean before
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  Speaker 1: God from acts either of injustice or unkindness. How few
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  Speaker 1: that do not offend with their tongue, that speak nothing unkind,
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  Speaker 1: nothing untrue. What a small proportion of mankind are innocent
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  Speaker 1: even of outward transgressions. And how much smaller a proportion
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  Speaker 1: have their hearts right before God, clean and holy in
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  Speaker 1: His sight? Where are they whom his all searching eye
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  Speaker 1: discerns to be truly humble, to abhor themselves in dust
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  Speaker 1: and ashes in the presence of God their savior, to
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  Speaker 1: be deeply and steadily serious, feeling their wants, and passing
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  Speaker 1: the time of their sojourning with fear, truly meek and gentle,
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  Speaker 1: never overcome of evil, but overcoming evil with good, thoroughly
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  Speaker 1: a thirst for God, and continually panting after a renewal
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  Speaker 1: in His likeness. How thinly are they scattered over the earth,
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  Speaker 1: whose souls are enlarged in love to all mankind, and
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  Speaker 1: who love God with all their strength, who have given
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  Speaker 1: him their hearts and desire nothing else in earth or heaven.
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  Speaker 1: How few are those lovers of God and Man that
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  Speaker 1: spend their whole strength in doing good unto all men,
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  Speaker 1: and are ready to suffer all things, yea death itself,
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  Speaker 1: to save one soul from eternal death. But while so
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  Speaker 1: few are found in the way of life, and so
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  Speaker 1: many in the way of destruction, there is great danger
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  Speaker 1: lest the torrent of example should bear us away with them.
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  Speaker 1: Even a single example, if it be always in our sight,
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  Speaker 1: is apt to make much impression upon us, especially when
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  Speaker 1: it has nature on its side, when it falls in
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  Speaker 1: with our own inclinations. How great then, must be the
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  Speaker 1: force of so numerous examples continually before our eyes, and
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  Speaker 1: all conspiring together with our own hearts to carry us
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  Speaker 1: down the stream of nature. How difficult must it be
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  Speaker 1: to stem the tide and to keep ourselves unspotted in
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  Speaker 1: the world. What heightens the difficulty still more is that
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  Speaker 1: they are not the rude and senseless part of mankind,
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  Speaker 1: at least, not these alone who set us the example,
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  Speaker 1: who throng the downward way. But the polite, the well bred,
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  Speaker 1: the genteel, the wise, the men who understand the world,
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  Speaker 1: the men of knowledge, of deep and various learning, the rational,
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  Speaker 1: the eloquent. These are all, or nearly all against us.
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  Speaker 1: And how shall we stand against these? Do not their
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  Speaker 1: tongues drop mena And have they not learned all the
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  Speaker 1: arts of soft persuasion and of reasoning? Too? For these
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  Speaker 1: are versed in all controversies and strife of words. It
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  Speaker 1: is therefore a small thing with them to prove that
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  Speaker 1: the way is right, because it is broad, that he
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  Speaker 1: who follows a multitude cannot do evil, but only he
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  Speaker 1: who will not follow them. That your way must be wrong,
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  Speaker 1: because it is narrow, and because there are so few
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  Speaker 1: that find it. These will make it clearer to a
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  Speaker 1: demonstration that evil is good and good is evil, That
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  Speaker 1: the way of holiness is the way of destruction, and
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  Speaker 1: the way of the world the only way to heaven. Oh,
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  Speaker 1: how can unlearned and ignorant men maintain their cause against
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  Speaker 1: such opponents. And yet these are not all with whom
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  Speaker 1: they must contend, however, unequal to the task. For there
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  Speaker 1: are many mighty and noble and powerful men, as well
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  Speaker 1: as wise, in the road that leadeth to destruction. And
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  Speaker 1: these have a shorter way of confuting than that of
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  Speaker 1: reason and argument. They usually apply not to the understanding,
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  Speaker 1: but to the fears of any that oppose them, a
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  Speaker 1: method that seldom fails of success, even where argument profits nothing,
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  Speaker 1: as lying level to the capacities of all men. For
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  Speaker 1: all can fear whether they can reason or know, And
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  Speaker 1: all who have not affirm trust in God a sure
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  Speaker 1: reliance both on His power and love, cannot but fear
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  Speaker 1: to give any disgust to those who have the power
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  Speaker 1: of the world in their hands. What wonder, therefore, if
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  Speaker 1: the example of these is a law to all who
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  Speaker 1: know not God, many rich are likewise in the broad way.
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  Speaker 1: And these apply to the hopes of men and to
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  Speaker 1: all their foolish desires, as strongly and effectually as the
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  Speaker 1: mighty and noble to their fears, so that hardly can
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  Speaker 1: you hold on in the way of the kingdom unless
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  Speaker 1: you are dead to all below, unless you areified to
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  Speaker 1: the world and the world crucified to you, unless you
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  Speaker 1: desire nothing more but God. For how dark, how uncomfortable,
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  Speaker 1: how forbidding is the prospect on the opposite side, a
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  Speaker 1: straight gait, a narrow way, and few finding that gait,
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  Speaker 1: few walking in the way. Besides, even those few are
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  Speaker 1: not wise men, not men of learning or eloquence. They
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  Speaker 1: are not able to reason, either strongly or clearly. They
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  Speaker 1: cannot propose an argument to any advantage. They know not
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  Speaker 1: how to prove what they profess to believe, or to
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  Speaker 1: explain even what they say they experience. Surely, such advocates
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  Speaker 1: as these will never recommend, but rather discredit the cause
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  Speaker 1: they have espoused. Add to this that they are not noble,
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  Speaker 1: not honorable men. If they were, you might bear with
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  Speaker 1: their folly. They are men of no interest, no authority,
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  Speaker 1: of no account in the world. They are mean and base,
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  Speaker 1: low in life, and such as have no power if
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  Speaker 1: they had the will to hurt you. Therefore, there is
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  Speaker 1: nothing at all to be feared from them. And there
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  Speaker 1: is nothing at all to hope for the greater part
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  Speaker 1: of them. May say, silver and gold have I none,
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  Speaker 1: at least a very moderate share. Nay, some of them
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  Speaker 1: have scarce food to eat or raiment to put on.
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  Speaker 1: For this reason, as well as because their ways are
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  Speaker 1: not like those of other men, they are everywhere spoken against,
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  Speaker 1: are despised, have their names cast out as evil, are
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  Speaker 1: variously persecuted, and treated as the filth and off scouring
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  Speaker 1: of the world. So that both your fears, your hopes,
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  Speaker 1: and all your desires, except those which you have immediately
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  Speaker 1: from God Yea, all your natural passions continually incline you
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  Speaker 1: to return into the broad Way. Therefore it is that
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  Speaker 1: our Lord so earnestly exhorts us enter ye in at
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  Speaker 1: the strait gate, or as the same exhortation is elsewhere,
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  Speaker 1: express strive to enter in a godness s thee I
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  Speaker 1: sell thee, nay, strive as in an agony. For many
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  Speaker 1: saith our Lord shall seek to enter in indolently strive,
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  Speaker 1: and shall not be able. It is true he intimates
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  Speaker 1: what may seem another reason for this, for their not
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  Speaker 1: being able to enter in in the words which immediately
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  Speaker 1: follow these, For after he had said many, I say
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  Speaker 1: unto you will seek to enter in, and shall not
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  Speaker 1: be able. He subjoins. When once the master of the
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  Speaker 1: house is risen up and hath shut to the door,
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  Speaker 1: and ye begin to stand without arkses, they exo s tanai,
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  Speaker 1: Rather ye stand without for arks s thee seems to
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  Speaker 1: be only an elegant expletive. And to knock at the door, saying,
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  Speaker 1: Lord Lord, open unto us, he shall answer and say,
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  Speaker 1: unto you, I know you not depart from me, all
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  Speaker 1: ye workers of iniquity, Loop, chapter thirteen, verse twenty four.
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  Speaker 1: It may appear, upon a transient view of these words,
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  Speaker 1: that their delaying to seek at all, rather than their
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  Speaker 1: manner of seeking, was the reason why they were not
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  Speaker 1: able to enter in. But it comes in effect to
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  Speaker 1: the same thing. They were therefore commanded to depart because
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  Speaker 1: they had been workers of iniquity, because they had walked
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  Speaker 1: in the broad road, in other words, because they had
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  Speaker 1: not agonized to enter in at the straight gate. Probably
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  Speaker 1: they did seek before the door was shut, but that
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  Speaker 1: did not suffice, And they did strive after the door
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  Speaker 1: was shut, but then it was too late. Therefore, strive
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  Speaker 1: you now in this your day to enter in at
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  Speaker 1: the straight gate, and in order there too, settle it
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  Speaker 1: in your heart, and let it be ever uppermost in
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  Speaker 1: your thoughts, that if you are in a broad way,
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  Speaker 1: you are in the way that lead us to destruction.
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  Speaker 1: If many go with you, be sure, as God is true,
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  Speaker 1: both they and you are going to hell. If you
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  Speaker 1: are walking as the generality of men walk, you are
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  Speaker 1: walking to the bottomless pit. Are many wise, many rich,
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  Speaker 1: many mighty or noble traveling with you in the same way?
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  Speaker 1: By this token, without going any farther, you know it
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  Speaker 1: does not lead to life. Here is as short a
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  Speaker 1: plain and infallible rule. Before you enter into particulars. In
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  Speaker 1: whatever profession you are engaged, you must be singular, or
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  Speaker 1: be damned. The way to hell has nothing singular in it,
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  Speaker 1: but the way to Heaven is singularity all over. If
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  Speaker 1: you move but one step toward God, you are not
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  Speaker 1: as other men are. But regard not this. It is
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: far better to stand alone than to fall into the pit.
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: Run then, with patience the race which is set before thee.
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: Though thy companions therein are but few, they will not
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: always be so. Yet a little while, and thou wilt
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: come to an innumerable company of Angels, to the general
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: Assembly and Church of the first Born, and to the
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: spirits of just men made perfect. Now, then strive to
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: enter in at the straight gate, being penetrated with the
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: deepest sense of the inexpressible danger your soul is in,
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: so long as you are in a broad way, so
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: long as you are void of poverty of spirit, and
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: all that inward religion which the many, the rich, the
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: wise account madness. Strive to enter in, being pierced with
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: sorrow and shame for having so long run on with
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: the unthinking crowd, utterly neglecting, if not despising, that holiness
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: without which no man can see the Lord. Strive as
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: in an agony of holy fear, lest a promise being
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: made you of entering into His rest, even that rest
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: which remaineth for the people of God, you should nevertheless
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: come short of it. Strive in all the fervor of desire,
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: with groanings which cannot be uttered. Strive by prayer, without ceasing,
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: at all times, in all places, lifting up your heart
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: to God and giving him no rest till you awake
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: up after His likeness and are satisfied with it. To conclude,
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: strive to enter in at the strait gate. Not only
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: by this agony of soul, of conviction, of sorrow, of shame,
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: of desire, of fear, of unceasing prayer, but likewise by
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: ordering thy conversation aright, by walking with all thy strength
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: in all the ways of God, the way of innocence,
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: of piety, and of mercy, Abstain from all appearance of evil,
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: Do all possible good to all men. Deny thyself thy
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: own will in all things, and take up thy cross daily.
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: Be ready to cut off thy right hand, to pluck
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: out thy right eye, and cast it from thee to
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: suffer the loss of goods, friends, health, all things on earth,
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: so thou mayst enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. End
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: of Section thirty one