The heart God chooses for his cabinet:  there he hides his treasure; there is the seat of justice, mercy, and of every grace of God.

Here is naught but open war, acts of hostility, and shameful rebellion on the sinner’s side; and what delight can God take in that?  Wherefore, if God will bend and buckle the spirit of such a one, he must shoot an arrow at him, a bearded arrow, such as may not be plucked out of the wound—­an arrow that will stick fast, and cause that the sinner fall down as dead at God’s foot.  Then will the sinner deliver up his arms, and surrender up himself as one conquered into the hand of God, and beg for the Lord’s pardon, and not till then sincerely.

And now God has overcome, and his right hand and his holy arm have gotten him the victory.  Now he rides in triumph, with his captive at his chariot-wheel; now he glories, now the bells in heaven do ring, now the angels shout for joy, yea, are bid to do so:  “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost.”

Regeneration.

Thou thinkest that thou art a Christian; thou shouldst be sorry else.  Well, but when did God show thee that thou wert no Christian?  When didst thou see that; and in the light of the Spirit of Christ see that thou wert under the wrath of God because of original sin?  Rom. 5:12.  Nay, dost thou know what original sin means?  Is it not the least in thy thoughts?  And dost thou not rejoice in secret that thou art the same that thou ever wert?  If so, then know for certain that the wrath of God to this very day ahideth on thee, John 3:36; and if so, then thou art one of those that will fall in the judgment, except thou art born again and made a new creature. 2 Cor. 5:17

The strait gate.

The porch, at which was an ascent to the temple, had a gate belonging to it.  This gate, according to the prophet Ezekiel, was six cubits wide.  The leaves of this gate were double, one folding this way, the other folding that.  Ezek. 40:48.

Now here some may object, and say, “Since the way to God by these doors was so wide, why doth Christ say the way and gate is narrow?”

Answer.  The straitness, the narrowness, must not be understood of the gate simply, but because of that cumber that some men carry with them that pretend to be going to heaven.  Six cubits!  What is sixteen cubits to him who would enter in here with all the world on his back?  The young man in the gospel who made such a noise for heaven, might have gone in easy enough, for in six cubits breadth there is room; but, poor man, he was not for going in thither unless he might carry in his houses upon his shoulders too; and so the gate was strait.  Mark 10:17-23.

Wherefore, he that will enter in at the gate of heaven, of which this gate into the temple was a type, must go in by himself, and not with his bundles of trash on his back; and if he will go in thus, he need not fear but there is room.  “The righteous nation that keepeth the truth, they shall enter in.”