devil is a broad gate; but he tells us how he came to be so, Non magnitudine potestatis extensus, sed superbiæ licentia dilatatus; not that God put such a power into his hands, at first, as that we might not have resisted him, but that he hath usurped upon us, and we have given way to his usurpations: so, says that father, Angusta porta Christus, Christ is a narrow gate, but he tells us also wherein, and in what respect, Non parvitate potestatis exiguus, sed humilitatis ratione collectus; Christ is not a narrow gate, so as that the greatest man may not come in, but called narrow, because he fits himself to the least child, to the simplest soul, that will come in: not so strait, as that all may not enter, but so strait, as that there come in but one at once, for he that will forsake father and mother, and wife, and children for him, cannot enter in. Therefore we call the devil's way broad, because men walk in that, with all their equipage, all their sumpters, all their state, all their sins; and therefore we call Christ's way strait, because a man may strip himself of all the inordinate affections, of all desires of ill getting, and of all possessions that are ill gotten. In a word, it is not strait to a man's self, but if a man will carry his sinful company, his sinful affections with him, and his sinful possessions, it is strait, for then he hath made himself a camel, and to a camel heaven-gate is as a needle's eye: But it is better coming into heaven with one eye, than into hell with two1; better coming into heaven without master, or mistress, than into hell for over-humouring of either. There, the gates are not shut all day; says the prophet', and, there is no night there; and here, if we shut the door, yet Christ stands at the door and knocks"; be but content to open thy door, be but content to let him open it, and he will enter, and be but thou content to enter into his, content to be let in by his preaching, content to be drawn in by his benefits, content to be forced in by his corrections, and he will open his: since thy God would have died for thee, if there had been no man born but thou, never imagine, that he who lets in multitudes, which no man can number, of all nations, &c., would ever shut out thee, but labour to enter there; ubi non intrat inimicus, ubi non exit amicus 18, where never any that 15 Matt. xviii. 9. 17 Rev. iii. 20. 18 Isaiah LX. 11. 18 Augustine. hates thee, shall get to thee, nor any that loves thee, part from thee. We have but ended our first part, the assurance which we have from God's manner of proceeding, that religion is not a sullen, but a cheerful philosophy, and salvation not cast into a corner, but displayed as the sun, over all. That which we called at first, our second part, must not be a part, admit it for a conclusion; it is that, and beyond that; it is beyond our conclusion, for it is our everlasting endowment in heaven and if I had kept minutes enough for it, Who should have given me words for it? I will but paraphrase the words of the text, and so leave you in that, which, I hope, is your gallery to heaven, your own meditations : the words are, You shall stand before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands. First, stabitis, you shall stand; which is not, that you shall not sit, for the saints shall sit and judge the world; and they shall sit at the right hand of God; it is not, that you shall not sit, nor that you shall not lie, for you shall lie in Abraham's bosom: but yet you shall stand, that is, you shall stand sure, you shall never fall, you shall stand, but yet you shall but stand, that is, remain in a continual disposition and readiness to serve God, and to minister to him. And therefore account no abundance, no height, no birth, no place here, to exempt you from standing and labouring in the service of God, since even your glorious state in heaven is but a station, but a standing in readiness to do his will, and not a posture of idleness: you shall stand, that is, stand sure, but you shall but stand, that is, still be bound to the service of God. Stabitis ante thronum; you shall stand, and stand before the throne; here in the Militant church, you stand, but you stand in the porch, there, in the Triumphant, you shall stand in sancto sanctorum, in the choir, and the altar. Here you stand, but you stand upon ice, perchance in high and therefore in slippery places; and at the judgment you shall stand, but stand at the bar; but when you stand before the throne, you stand, (as it is also added in this place) before the Lamb: who having not opened his mouth, to save his own fleece, when he was in the shearer's hand, nor to save his own life, when he was in the slaughterer's hand, will much less open his mouth to any repentant sinner's condemnation, or upbraid you with your former crucifyings of him, in this world, after he hath nailed those sins to that cross, to which those sins nailed him. You shall stand amicti stolis, (for so it follows) covered with robes, that is, covered all over: not with Adam's fragmentary rags of fig-leaves, nor with the half-garments of David's servants: though you have often offered God half-confessions, and halfrepentances, yet if you come at last, to stand before the Lamb, his fleece covers all; he shall not cover the sins of your youth, and leave the sins of your age open to his justice, nor cover your sinful actions, and leave your sinful words and thoughts open to justice, nor cover your own personal sins, and leave the sins of your fathers before you, or the sins of others, whose sins your temptations produced and begot, open to justice; but as he hath enwrapped the whole world in one garment, the firmament, and so clothed that part of the earth, which is under our feet, as gloriously as this, which we live, and build upon: so those sins which we have hidden from the world, and from our own consciences, and utterly forgotten, either his grace shall enable us to recollect, and to repent in particular, or (we having used that holy diligence, to examine our consciences so) he shall wrap up even those sins which we have forgot, and cover all with that garment of his own righteousness, which leaves no foulness, no nakedness open. You shall be covered with robes, all over; and with white robes; that as the angels wondered at Christ coming into heaven, in his ascension, Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth the wine fat"? They wondered how innocence itself should become red, so shall those angels wonder at thy coming thither, and say, Wherefore art thou white in thine apparel? They shall wonder how sin itself shall be clothed in innocence. And in thy hand shall be a palm, which is the last of the endowments specified here. After the waters of bitterness, they came to seventy (to innumerable) palms; even the bitter waters. were sweetened, with another wood cast in the wood of the cross of Christ Jesus, refreshes all tears, and sweetens all bitterness, even in this life: but after these bitter waters, which God shall wipe from all our eyes, we come to the seventy, to the seventy thousand palms; infinite seals, infinite testimonies, infinite extensions, infinite durations of infinite glory: go in, beloved, and raise your own contemplations to a height worthy of this glory; and chide me for so lame an expressing of so perfect a state, and when the abundant Spirit of God hath given you some measure of conceiving that glory here, Almighty God give you, and me, and all, a real expressing of it, by making us actual possessors of that kingdom, which his Son, our Saviour Christ Jesus hath purchased for us, with the inestimable price of his incorruptible blood. Amen. END OF THE FOURTH VOLUME. LONDON: JOHN W. 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