OR GREAT DIFFICULTY OF GOING TO HEAVEN PLAINLY PROVING, BY THE SCRIPTURES, THAT NOT ONLY THE RUDE AND PROFANE, BUT MANY GREAT PROFESSORS, WILL COME SHORT OF THAT KINGDOM.

by John Bunyan

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'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

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.

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.'

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR

TO THE READER

THE STRAIT GATE

AN INTIMATION OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN

DESCRIPTION OF THE ENTRANCE INTO THIS KINGDOM

AN EXHORTATION TO STRIVE TO ENTER INTO THIS KINGDOM

MOTIVE TO STRIVE TO ENTER INTO THIS KINGDOM

SECOND THE WORDS BY WAY OF OBSERVATION

REASONS WHY SO FEW ARE SAVED

USE AND APPLICATION OF THE WHOLE