The zealous Christian taking heavenThe zealovs Christian taking heaven

5 In respect of heaven it self, Luke 13. 24. Strive to enter in at the strait gate; for many ¹I say unto you will seek to enter in, and shall ²not be able. Strive to an agony, or as in an agony men strive for life: it is not enough to seek; many seekers shall never find, but there must be striving: there must be a kind of holy impatience to get into heaven, 1 Cor. 9. 24, 25. Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize: So run that ye may obtain. And every man that ³striveth for the mastery is temperate in all ⟨p. 33⟩things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. 2 Tim. 2. 5. ⁴And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned except he strive lawfully. Heaven is compared to a hill, and hell to a pit. It ⁵vvill cost a man sweat and labour to get up an hill, but it is an easy thing to go down into a pit. Heaven is as Canaan (the type of it) was, though a land of promise, yet of conquest too. There were many Giants there, the sons of Anak in the land. Heaven is not had without eagerness, Luk 16. 16. Every man presseth into it. It is an ⁶allusion to soldiers that storm a City or strong Garrison, with all the speed and violence they can. Should soldiers go about that great work in a marching pace, they might all be cut off. And thus much shall suffice for the second thing, to show the necessity of this holy violence.