Page:The works of the Rev. John Wesley, M.A., late fellow of Lincoln-College, Oxford (IA worksofrevjohnwe3wesl).pdf/15



II. 1. And the very reason why many of these go on so securely in the broad way, is because it is broad: not considering that this is the inseparable property of the way to destruction. ''Many there be, saith our Lord, who go in thereat'': for the very reason why they should flee from it; Even ''because strait is the gate, and narrow the way that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it''.

2. This is an inseparable property of the way to heaven. So narrow is the way that leadeth unto life, unto life everlasting; so strait the gate, that nothing unclean, nothing unholy can enter. No sinner can pass thro' that gate, until he is saved from all his sins, not only from his outward sins; from his evil ''conversation received by tradition from his Fathers''. It will not suffice, that he hath ceased to do evil, and learned to do well. He must not only be saved from all sinful actions, and from all evil and useless discourse; but inwardly changed, throughly renewed in the spirit of his mind. Otherwise he cannot pass thro' the gate of life, he cannot enter into glory.

3. For narrow is the way that leadeth unto life: the way of universal holiness. Narrow indeed is the way of poverty of spirit, the way of holy mourning: the way of meekness, and that