A30209:93
The strait gate, or, Great difficulty of going to Heaven plainly proving
The strait gate, or, Great difficulty of going to Heaven plainly proving by the Scriptures that not only the rude and profane, but many great professors will come short of that Kingdom / by John Bunyan.
London: printed for Francis Smith, 1676
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
5. Strive, because there is nothing of Christianity got by idleness, idleness clothes a man with rags, and the vineyard of the slothful is grown over with nettles, Pro. 23. 21. chap. 24. 30. 31. 32. profession that is not attended with spiritual labour cannot bring the soul to heaven, the fathers before us were not slothful in business, but fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. Therefore be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises; Rom. 12. 11. Heb. 6. 12.
5. Strive, because there is nothing of Christianity got by idleness, idleness cloaths a man with rags, and the vineyard of the slothful is grown over with nettles, Pro. 23. 21. chap. 24. 30. 31. 32. profession that is not attended with spiritual labour cannot bring the soul to heaven, the fathers before us were not slothful in business, but fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. Therefore be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises; Rom. 12. 11. Heb. 6. 12.
Strive to enter in.
Methinks the words at the first reading, do intimate to us, that the Christian in all that ever he does in ⟨p. 37⟩