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 still. 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
Christian 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.
TO THE READER.
COURTEOUS READER,
God, I hope, hath put it into my heart to write unto thee another time,
and that about matters of greatest moment—for now we discourse not
about things controverted among the godly, but directly about the
saving or damning of the soul; yea, moreover, this discourse is about
the fewness of them that shall be saved, and it proves that many a high
professor will come short of eternal life; wherefore the matter must
needs be sharp, and so disliked by some, but let it not be rejected by
thee. The text calls for sharpness, so do the times, yea, the faithful
discharge of my duty towards thee hath put me upon it.
I do not now pipe, but mourn; and it will be well for thee if thou
canst graciously lament. (Matt 11:17) Some, say they, make the gate of
heaven too wide, and some make it too narrow; for my part, I have here
presented thee with as true a measure of it as by the Word of God I
can. Read me, therefore, yea, read me, and compare me with the Bible;
and if thou findest my doctrine and that book of God concur, embrace
it, as thou wilt answer the contrary in the day of judgment. This
awakening work—if God will make it so—was prepared for thee: if there
be need, and it wounds, get healing by blood: if it disquiets, get
peace by blood: if it takes away all thou hast, because it was naught
(for this book is not prepared to take away true grace from any), then
buy of Christ “gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich, and
white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy
nakedness do not appear, and anoint thine eyes with eye-salve, that
thou mayest see.” (Rev 3:18) Self-flatteries, self-deceivings, are easy
and pleasant, but damnable. The Lord give thee a heart to judge right
of thyself, right of this book, and so to prepare for eternity, that
thou mayest not only expect entrance, but be received into the kingdom
of Christ and of God. Amen.
So prays thy Friend,
JOHN BUNYAN.
THE STRAIT GATE.
“STRIVE TO ENTER IN AT THE STRAIT GATE; FOR MANY, I SAY UNTO YOU, WILL
SEEK TO ENTER IN, AND SHALL NOT BE ABLE.”—LUKE 13:24
These are the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and are, therefore, in
especial manner to be heeded; besides, the subject matter of the words
is the most weighty, to wit, how we should attain salvation, and
therefore also to be heeded.
The occasion of the words was a question which one that was at this
time in the company of the disciples put to Jesus Christ; the question
was this, “Lord, are there few that be saved?” (verse 23) A serious
question, not such as tended to the subversion of the hearers, as too
many now-a-days do; but such as in its own nature tended to the
awakening of the company to good, and that called for such an answer
that might profit the people also. This question also well pleased
Jesus Christ, and he prepareth and giveth such an answer as was without
the least retort, or show of distaste; such an answer, I say, as
carried in it the most full resolve to the question itself, and help to
the persons questioning. “And he said unto them, Strive to enter in,”
&c. The words are an answer, and an instruction also. First. An answer,
and that in the affirmative; the gate is strait—many that seek will not
be able, therefore but few shall be saved. Second. The answer is an
instruction also; “strive to enter in,” &c., good counsel and
instruction; pray God help me, and my reader, and all that love their
own salvation, to take it.
My manner of handling the words will be—[FIRST], By way of explication;
and then [SECOND], By way of observation.
[FIRST. THE WORDS BY WAY OF EXPLICATION.]
The words are to be considered, [FIRST], with reference to their
general scope; and then [SECOND], with reference to their several
phrases.
FIRST. The general scope of the text is to be considered, and that is
that great thing—salvation; for these words do immediately look at,
point to, and give directions about salvation: “Are there few that be
saved? Strive to enter in at the strait gate.”
The words, I say, are to direct us not only to talk of, or to wish for,
but to understand how we shall, and to seek that we may be, effectually
saved, and therefore of the greatest importance. To be saved! what is
like being saved? To be saved from sin, from hell, from the wrath of
God, from eternal damnation, what is like it? To be made an heir of
God, of his grace, of his kingdom, and eternal glory, what is like it?
and yet all this is included in this word saved, and in the answer to
that question, “Are there few that be saved?” Indeed this word SAVED is
but of little use in the world, save to them that are heartily afraid
of damning. This word lies in the Bible as excellent salves lie in some
men’s houses, thrust into a hole, and not thought on for many months,
because the household people have no wounds nor sores. In time of
sickness, what so set by as the doctor’s glasses and gally-pots full of
his excellent things? but when the person is grown well, the rest is
thrown to the dunghill. 1
O when men are sick of sin, and afraid of damning, what a text is that
where this word saved is found! Yea, what a word of worth, and
goodness, and blessedness, is it to him that lies continually upon the
wrath of a guilty conscience? “But the whole need not a physician”; he
therefore, and he only, knows what saved means, that knows what hell,
and death, and damnation means. “What shall I do to be saved?” is the
language of the trembling sinner. “Lord save me,” is the language of
the sinking sinner; and none admire the glory that is in that word
saved, but such as see, without being saved, all things in heaven and
earth are emptiness to them. They also that believe themselves
privileged in all the blessedness that is wrapt up in that word, bless
and admire God that hath saved them. Wherefore, since the thing
intended, both in the question and the answer, is no less than the
salvation of the soul, I beseech you to give the more earnest heed.
(Heb 12) But,
SECOND. To come to the particular phrases in the words, and to handle
them orderly, in the words I find four things. First. An intimation of
the kingdom of heaven. Second. A description of the entrance into it.
Third. An exhortation to enter into it. And, Fourth, A motive to
enforce that exhortation.
[AN INTIMATION OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN.]
First. An intimation of the kingdom of heaven; for when he saith,
“Strive to enter in,” and in such phrases, there is supposed a place or
state, or both, to be enjoyed. “Enter in”; enter into what, or whither,
but into a state or place, or both? and therefore when you read this
word, “enter in,” you must say there is certainly included in the text
that good thing that yet is not expressed. “Enter in”; into heaven,
that is the meaning, where the saved are, and shall be; into heaven,
that place, that glorious place, where God, and Christ, and angels are,
and the souls or spirits of just men made perfect. “Enter in”; that
thing included, though not expressed in the words, is called in another
place, the Mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem, the general assembly and
church of the first-born which are written in heaven. (Heb 12:23) And
therefore the words signify unto us, that there is a state most
glorious, and that when this world is ended; and that this place and
state are likewise to be enjoyed, and inherited by a generation of men
for ever. Besides, this word, “enter in,” signifieth that salvation to
the full is to be enjoyed only there, and that there only is eternal
safety; all other places and conditions are hazardous, dangerous, full
of snares, imperfections, temptations, and afflictions, but there all
is well; there is no devil to tempt, no desperately wicked heart to
deliver us up, no deceitful lust to entangle, nor any enchanting world
to bewitch us. There all shall be well to all eternity. Further, all
the parts of, and circumstances that attend salvation, are only there
to be enjoyed; there only is immortality and eternal life; there is the
glory and fulness of joy, and the everlasting pleasures; there is God
and Christ to be enjoyed by open vision, and more; there are the angels
and the saints; further, there is no death, nor sickness, no sorrow nor
sighing for ever; there is no pain, nor persecutor, nor darkness, to
eclipse our glory. O this Mount Zion! O this heavenly Jerusalem! (2 Cor
5:1-4, Psa 16:11, Luke 20:35,36, Heb 12:22-24)
Behold, therefore, what a great thing the Lord Jesus hath included by
this little word, “IN.” In this word is wrapt up a whole heaven and
eternal life; even as there is also by other little words in the holy
Scriptures of truth: as where he saith, “Knock, and it shall be opened
unto you,” and “the election hath obtained it.” This should teach us,
not only to read, but to attend in reading; not only to read, but to
lift up our hearts to God in reading; for if we be not heedful, if he
gives us not light and understanding, we may easily pass over, without
any great regard, such a word as may have a glorious kingdom and
eternal salvation in the bowels of it; yea, sometimes, as here, a whole
heaven is intimated, where it is not at all expressed. The apostles of
old did use to fetch great things out of the Scriptures, even out of
the very order and timing of the several things contained therein. See
Romans 4:9-11, Galatians 3:16,17, Hebrews 8:13. But,
[DESCRIPTION OF THE ENTRANCE INTO THIS KINGDOM.]
Second. As we have here an intimation of the kingdom of heaven, so we
have a description of the entrance into it, and that by a double
similitude: I. It is called a gate; II. A strait gate—“Strive to enter
in at the strait gate.”
[It is called a gate.]
I. It is set forth by the similitude of a gate. A gate, you know, is of
a double use. It is to open and shut, and so, consequently, to let in
or to keep out; and to do both these at the season; as he said, “Let
not the gates of Jerusalem be opened until the sun be hot”; and again,
“I commanded that the gates should be shut, and charged that they
should not be opened till after the Sabbath.” (Neh 7:3, 13:19,20) And
so you find of this gate of heaven, when the five wise virgins came,
the gate was opened; but afterwards came the other virgins, and the
door was shut. (Matt 25) So then, the entrance into heaven is called a
gate, to show there is a time when there may be entrance, and there
will come a time when there shall be none; and, indeed, this is a chief
truth contained in the text—“Strive to enter in at the strait gate; for
many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.” I
read in the Scriptures of two gates or doors, through which they that
go to heaven must enter. 2
1. There is the door of faith, the door which the grace of God hath
opened to the Gentiles. This door is Jesus Christ, as also himself doth
testify, saying, “I am the door,” &c. (John 10:9, Acts 14:27) By this
door men enter into God’s favour and mercy, and find forgiveness
through faith in his blood, and live in hope of eternal life; and
therefore himself also hath said, “I am the door; by me if any man
enter in, he shall be saved”; that is, received to mercy, and inherit
eternal life. But,
2. There is another door or gate—for that which is called in the text a
gate, is twice in the next verse called a door—there is, I say, another
gate, and that is the passage into the very heaven itself; the entrance
into the celestial mansion-house, and that is the gate mentioned in the
text, 3 and the door mentioned twice in the verse that follows. And
this Jacob called it, when he said, Bethel was the house of God, and
this is the gate of heaven; that is, the entrance, for he saw the
entrance into heaven. One end of Jacob’s ladder stands in Bethel, God’s
house, and the other end reacheth up to the gate of heaven. (Gen
28:10-17) Jacob’s ladder was the figure of Christ, which ladder was not
the gate of heaven, but the way from the church to that gate which he
saw above at the top of the ladder. (Gen 28:12, John 1:51) But again,
that the gate in the text is the gate or entrance into heaven,
consider—
(1.) It is that gate that letteth men into, or shutteth men out of that
place or kingdom where Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob is, which place is
that paradise where Christ promised the thief that he should be that
day, that he asked to be with him in his kingdom; it is that place into
which Paul said he was caught, when he heard words unlawful or
impossible for a man to utter. (Luke 13:28, 23:42, 2 Cor 12:1-6)
Quest. But is not Christ the gate or entrance into this heavenly place?
Answ. He is he without whom no man can get thither, because by his
merits men obtain that world, and also because he, as the Father, is
the donor and disposer of that kingdom to whom he will. Further, this
place is called his house, and himself the Master of it—“When once the
Master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door.” (Luke
13:25) But we use to say, that the master of the house is not the door.
Men enter into heaven, then, by him, not as he is the gate, or door, or
entrance, into the celestial mansion-house, but as he is the giver and
disposer of that kingdom to them whom he shall count worthy, because he
hath obtained it for them.
(2.) That this gate is the very passage into heaven, consider the text
hath special reference to the day of judgment, when Christ will have
laid aside his mediatory office, which before he exercised for the
bringing to the faith his own elect; and will then act, not as one that
justifieth the ungodly, but as one that judgeth sinners. He will now be
risen up from the throne of grace, and shut up the door against all the
impenitent, and will be set upon the throne of judgment, from thence to
proceed with ungodly sinners.
Object. But Christ bids strive: “Strive” now “to enter in at the strait
gate”; but if that gate be as you say, the gate or entrance into
heaven, then it should seem that we should not strive till the day of
judgment, for we shall not come at that gate till then.
Answ. Christ, by this exhortation, Strive, &c., doth not at all admit
of, or countenance delays, or that a man should neglect his own
salvation; but putteth poor creatures upon preparing for the judgment,
and counselleth them now to get those things that will then give them
entrance into glory. This exhortation is much like these: “Therefore be
ye also ready, for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man
cometh.—And they that were ready went in with him to the marriage, and
the door was shut.” (Matt 24:44, 25:10)
So that when he saith, “Strive to enter in,” it is as if he should say,
Blessed are they that shall be admitted another day to enter into the
kingdom of heaven; but they that shall be counted worthy of so
unspeakable a favour, must be well prepared and fitted for it
beforehand. Now, the time to be fitted is not the day of judgment, but
the day of grace; not then, but now. Therefore, strive now for those
things that will then give you entrance into the heavenly kingdom. But,
[It is called a strait gate.]
II. As it is called a gate, so it is called a strait gate—“Strive to
enter in at the strait gate.”
The straitness of this gate is not to be understood carnally, but
mystically. You are not to understand it, as if the entrance into
heaven was some little pinching wicket; no, the straitness of this gate
is quite another thing. This gate is wide enough for all them that are
the truly gracious and sincere lovers of Jesus Christ, but so strait,
as that not one of the other can by any means enter in: “Open to me the
gates of righteousness: I will go into them, and I will praise the
Lord: this gate of the Lord, into which the righteous shall enter.”
(Psa 118:19,20) By this word, therefore, Christ Jesus hath showed unto
us, that without due qualifications there is no possibility of entering
into heaven; the strait gate will keep all others out. When Christ
spake this parable, he had doubtless his eye upon some passage or
passages of the Old Testament, with which the Jews were well
acquainted. I will mention two, and so go on.
1. The place by which God turned Adam and his wife out of paradise.
Possibly our Lord might have his eye upon that; for though that was
wide enough for them to come out at, yet it was too strait for them to
go in at. But what should be the reason of that? Why, they had sinned;
and therefore God “placed at the east of that garden cherubims, and a
flaming sword, which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of
life.” (Gen 3:24) The cherubims, and the flaming sword, they made the
entrance too strait for them to enter in. Souls, there are cherubims
and a flaming sword at the gates of heaven to keep the way of the tree
of life; therefore none but them that are duly fitted for heaven can
enter in at this strait gate; the flaming sword will keep all others
out. “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of
God? Be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor
adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor
thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners,
shall inherit the kingdom of God.” (1 Cor 6:9,10)
(2.) Perhaps our Lord might have his eye upon the gates of the temple
when he spoke this word unto the people; for though the gates of the
temple were six cubits wide, yet they were so strait, that none that
were unclean in anything might enter in thereat (Eze 40:48), because
there were placed at these gates, porters, whose office was to look
that none but those that had right to enter might go in thither. And so
it is written, Jehoiada set “porters at the gates of the house of the
Lord, that none which was unclean in anything should enter in.” (2
Chron 23:19) Souls, God hath porters at the gates of the temple, at the
gate of heaven; porters, I say, placed there by God, to look that none
that are unclean in anything may come in thither. In at the gate of the
church, none may enter now that are openly profane, and scandalous to
religion; no, though they plead they are beloved of God: “What hath my
beloved to do in mine house,” saith the Lord, “seeing she hath wrought
lewdness with many?” (Jer 11:15)
I say, I am very apt to believe that our Lord Jesus Christ had his
thoughts upon these two texts, when he said the gate is strait: and
that which confirms me the more in the things is this, a little below
the text he saith, “There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when
ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in
the kingdom of heaven, and you yourselves thrust out.” (Luke 13:28)
Thrust out, which signifieth a violent act, resisting with striving
those that would—though unqualified—enter. The porters of the temple
were, for this very thing, to wear arms, if need were, and to be men of
courage and strength, lest the unsanctified or unprepared should by
some means enter in. We read, in the book of Revelations, of the holy
city, and that it had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels; but
what did they do there? Why, amongst the rest of their service, this
was one thing, that there might “in no wise enter in to it any thing
that defileth, or worketh abomination, or that maketh a lie.” (Rev
21:27)
[Three things that make this gate so strait.]
But more particularly, to show what it is that maketh this gate so
strait. There are three things that make it strait—1. There is sin. 2.
There is the word of the law. 3. There are the angels of God.
1. There is sin; the sin of the profane, and the sin of the professor.
(1.) The sin of the profane. But this needs not be enlarged upon,
because it is concluded upon at all hands, where there is the common
belief of the being of God, and the judgment to come, that “the wicked
shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.” (Psa
9:17)