ll, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be
a light unto me."

THE EIGHTH DIRECTION.--_Take heed of being offended at the cross that
thou must go by, before thou come to heaven_. You must understand (as
I have already touched) that there is no man that goeth to heaven but
he must go by the cross. The cross is the standing way-mark, by which
all they that go to glory must pass.

"We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God."
"Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer
persecution." If thou art in thy way to the kingdom, my life for
thine, thou wilt come at the cross shortly. The Lord grant thou dost
not shrink at it, so as to turn thee back again. "If any man will
come after me," saith Christ, "let him deny himself, and take up his
cross daily, and follow me." The Cross! it stands, and hath stood,
from the beginning, as a way-mark to the kingdom of heaven. You know
if one ask you the way to such and such a place, you, for the better
direction, do not only say, 'this is the way,' but then also say, 'You
must go by such a gate, by such a stile, such a bush, tree, bridge,'
or such like. Why, so it is here. Art thou enquiring the way to
heaven? Why, I tell thee, CHRIST IS THE WAY; into him thou must get,
even into his righteousness, to be justified. And if thou art in him,
thou wilt presently see the cross. Thou must go close by it; thou must
touch it; nay thou must take it up, or else thou wilt quickly go out
of the way that leads to heaven, and turn up some of those crooked
lanes that lead down to the chambers of death.

Now thou mayst know the cross by these six things: 1. It is known in
the doctrine of justification. 2. In the doctrine of mortification. 3.
In the doctrine of perseverance. 4. In self-denial. 5. In patience. 6.
In communion with poor saints.

1. In the doctrine of _justification_ there is a great deal of the
cross. In that, a man is forced to suffer the destruction of his own
righteousness for the righteousness of another. This is no easy matter
for a man to do. I assure you it stretcheth every vein in his heart,
before he will be brought to yield to it. What! for a man to deny,
reject, abhor, and throw away all his prayers, tears, alms, keeping of
sabbaths, hearing, reading with the rest, in the point of
justification, and to count them accursed; and to be willing, in the
very midst of the sense of his sins, to throw himself wholly upon the
righ