Words whereby we may be saved. By Thomas Vincent, sometime minister of Maudlins milk-street,…

II. This salvation is a Rare Salvation: I mean, that few do obtain it; Many are called, few are chosen, Matth. 20. 16. Many are damned, few are saved: There are many troops of sinners that are prosting in the broad way of destruction, it is but a thin scattered company that are pressing forward in ⟨p. 16⟩the narrow way of life and salvation; this is evident from the Answer of our Saviour upon the Question propounded unto him, Luk. 13. 23, 24. Then said one unto him, Lord are there few that be saved? And he said unto them, Strive to enter in at the strait gate, for many I say unto you will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. In which words he doth in effect say, that Few, very Few should be saved, for he tells them plainly, that the gate of salvation is a strait gate, and many cannot pass through a strait gate; and although many should seek to enter in at this gate, yet they should not be able; and if many that seek to enter in shall not be able, then it follows, that none of those which do not seek to enter in shall be able: Hence then we may gather a strong argument to prove, that very few shall be saved; If the most of men and women in the world do not seek salvation at all, and they cannot possibly attain it, and many that seek salvation shall never find it, then there are but few that shall be saved; but the most in the world do not seek salvation at all, to say nothing of the Heathen world which is by many degrees the far greater part of the world, who sit in darkness, and from whom the Gospel of salvation is hid, and therefore are expressly said to be lost, 2 Cor. 4. 3. Even in the Christian world where the light of the Gospel doth shine, the most of men and women, that bear the name of Christians, are ignorant, or profane, or only civil and moral, and live in the total neglect of the salvation of the Gospel, and such cannot possibly attain salvation that do not at all seek after it: And of them that make some profession of Religion, and do something in order to salvation, many shall not be able ⟨p. 17⟩to attain it; our Saviour saith, that many shall seek to enter in and shall not be able, because they do not seek in a right manner, because they do not seek salvation chiefly; they seek the satisfaction of their lusts, before the salvation of their souls; because they do not seek it diligently, they are careless and formal in the use of the means of salvation;