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T H E "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."– Matthew 7:13, 14 By J O H N.B U N Y A N. |
ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR.
f any uninspired writer has been entitled to the
name of Boanerges, or a son of thunder, it is the author of the following treatise.
Here we have a most searching and faithful display of the straitness or exact dimensions
of that all-important gate, which will not suffer many professors to pass into the
kingdom of heaven, encumbered as they are with fatal errors. Still "it is no
little pinching wicket, but wide enough for all the truly gracious and sincere lovers
of Jesus Christ; while it is so strait, that no others can by any means enter in."
This is a subject calculated to rouse and stimulate all genuine professors to solemn
inquiry; and it was peculiarly intended to dart at, and fix convictions upon, the
multitudes of hypocritical professors who abounded in Bunyan's time, especially under
the reigns of the later Stuarts.
During the Protectorate, wickedness was discountenanced, and skulked in the holes
and corners of Mansoul; but when a debauched monarch, who had taken refuge in the
most licentious court in Europe, was called to occupy the throne of his fathers,
the most abandoned profligacy and profaneness were let loose upon the nation. Vice
was openly patronized, while virtue and religion were as openly treated with mockery
and contempt. Bunyan justly says, "The text calls for sharpness, so do the times."
"With those whose religion lieth in some circumstantials, the kingdom swarms
at this day." When they stand at the gate, they will "shake like a quagmire–their
feigned faith, pretended love, shows of gravity, and holiday words, will stand them
in little stead; some professors do with religion just as people do with their best
apparel–hang it on the wall all the week, and put it on on Sundays; they save it
till they go to a meeting, or meet with a godly chapman." This state of society
called for peculiar sharpness, and Bunyan preached and published, in 1676, this awful
alarm to professors. No subject could be more peculiarly applicable than "The
Gate of heaven," and "the difficulties of entering in thereat"; a
subject of the deepest interest to all mankind–to stimulate the careless to find,
and to enter the gate of this the only city of refuge from eternal misery–to fill
the heart of God's children with love and joy in their prospects of a blessed immortality–and
to sting the hypocrites with the awful thought of finding the gate shut against them
for ever. Their cries and tears will be too late; they will stand without and vehemently
cry, "Lord, Lord, open unto us"; in vain will be their outcry, "the
devils are coming; Lord, Lord, the pit opens her mouth upon us; Lord, Lord, there
is nothing but hell and damnation left us, if thou hast not mercy upon us."
These were professors who pretended to have found the gate and way to heaven; who
passed for pilgrims who were seeking a better, even a heavenly country; such deluded
victims must be, of all men, the most miserable.
Faithfulness becomes the ministers of Christ in dealing with the souls of men; and
pre-eminently faithful is John Bunyan in this treatise. Reader, he will be clear
of thy blood. Enter upon the solemn inquiry, Have I sought the gate? Shall I be admitted
into, or shut out from, that blessed kingdom? The openly profane can have no hope.
Are you a professor?–there is danger sill. In vain will it be to urge, "We have
prophesied in thy name, and in thy name cast out devils." To the secretly profane,
whatever may be their profession, there can be no well-grounded hope of entrance
in at this gate. Those only will be admitted whom the Lord knows to be his–the sheep
of his pasture, who have heard his voice, and obeyed it. Against all others the door
will be shut, and the awful words, "I know you not–depart, ye cursed,"
will hurry them to eternal darkness. The question, "Are there few that be saved?"
will suggest itself to our minds; may the answer fix upon our conscience, "STRIVE
to enter in." It is very probable that it was in preaching upon this text, Bunyan
was assailed with a want of charity.
The anecdote is thus narrated by Mr. Doe in The Struggler:–"As Mr. Bunyan was
preaching in a barn, and showing the fewness of those that should be saved, there
stood one of the learned to take advantage of his words; and having done preaching,
the schoolman said to him, You are a deceiver, a person of no charity, and therefore
not fit to preach; for he that [in effect] condemneth the greatest part of his hearers
hath no charity, and therefore is not fit to preach. Then Mr. Bunyan answered, The
Lord Jesus Christ preached in a ship to his hearers on the shore (Mat 13), and showed
that they were as four sorts of ground, the highway, the stony, the thorny, and the
good ground, but those represented by the good ground were the only persons to be
saved.
And your position is, That he that in effect condemneth the greatest part of his
hearers, hath no charity, and therefore is not fit to preach the gospel. But here
the Lord Jesus Christ did so, then your conclusion is, The Lord Jesus Christ wanted
charity, and therefore was not fit to preach the gospel. Horrid blasphemy; away with
your hellish logic, and speak Scripture." Of one thing we are certain, that
while hollow-hearted hypocritical professors will ever complain of faithful dealing
with their soul's eternal interests; the sincere and humble Christina will be most
thankful for searching inquiries, that, if wrong, he may be set right before his
final destiny is irrevocably fixed. May our souls submit to a scriptural measurement
of this gate, and the terms upon which alone it can be opened unto us.
The difficulties that prevent "the many" from entering in are, 1. Forgetfulness
that we can only enter heaven by the permission of the law–every jot and tittle must
be fulfilled. Now, if we could live from our conversion to our death in the holiest
obedience to all its precepts, yet, having previously violated them, the stain must
not only be washed away in the blood of atonement, but we, as part of the body of
Christ, must, in him, render perfect obedience. 2. In addition to the disinclination
of our hearts to submit to this perfect righteousness, we have outward storms of
temptation and persecution. "The world will seek to keep thee out of heaven
with mocks, flouts, taunts, threats, jails, gibbets, halters, burnings, and a thousand
deaths; therefore strive! Again, if it cannot overcome thee with these, it will flatter,
promise, allure, entice, entreat, and use a thousand tricks on this hand to destroy
thee; and many that have been stout against the threats of the world have yet been
overcome with the bewitching flatteries of the same. O that we may by grace escape
all these enemies, and so strive as to enter into the joy of our Lord."
GEO. OFFOR.
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