The strait gate, or, Great difficulty of going to Heaven plainly proving

4. Strive, because thou hast a ⟨p. 34⟩whole world against thee, the world hateth thee, if thou bee•t a christian: the men of the world hate thee, the things of the world are snares for thee, even thy bed and table, thy wife and husband, yea, thy most lawful enjoyments have that in them that will certainly sink thy soul to hell, if thou doest not strive against the snares that are in them, Rom. 11. 9.

The world will seek to keep thee out of heaven, with mocks, flouts, taunts, threatenings, goals, gibbets, halters, burnings, and a thousand deaths, therefore strive Again, if it cannot overcome thee with these, it will flatter, promise, allure, […], entreat, and use a thousand tricks on this hand to destroy thee; and observe, many that have been stout against the threats of the world, have yet been overcome with the bewitching flatteries of the same: there ever was enmity betwixt the devil and the Church, and betwixt his seed and her seed too; Michael ⟨p. 35⟩and his Angels, and the dragon and his angels: these make war continually. Gen. 3. Revel. 12. There hath been great desires and endeavours among men to reconcile these two in one, to wit, the seed of the serpent, and the seed of the woman, but it could never be yet accomplished: the world says, they will never come over to us, and we again say, by Gods grace, we will never come over to them, but the business has not ended in words, both they and we have also added our endeavours to make each other submit, but endeavours have proved ineffectual too: They for their part have devised all manner of cruel torments to make us submit, as flaying with the sword, stoning, sawing asunder, flames, wild beasts, banishments, hunger, and a thousand miseries; we again on the other side have laboured by prayers, and tears, by patience, and long-suffering, by gentleness, and love, by found doctrine,