ore the world, how hard is it for
such to enter into the kingdom of heaven? Hard indeed! for they must be
stripped naked of that, ere they can enter through this narrow gate, I
mean, the opinion and conceit, of any worth or excellency, and so
diminished in their own eyes, that they may go through this needle s eye
without crushing.

The stream of enmity runs under ground often, and so hides itself under
some other notion, till at length it burst forth openly. I find it
commonly runs in the secret channel of amity or friendship to some other
thing opposite to God. So James iv. 4, The amity of the world is enmity
with God, and 1 John ii. 15, He that loveth the world, the love of the
Father is not in him. There are two dark and under ground conduits, to
convey this enmity against God,--amity to the world, and amity to
ourselves, self love, and creature-love. We cannot denounce war openly
against heaven, but this is the next course, to join to, or associate
with, any party that is contrary to God, and thus, under the covert of
friendship to ourselves, and love to the world, we war against God, and
destroy our own souls. I say, first, amity to the world carries enmity to
God in the bosom of it, and if you believe not this, hear the apostles
sharp and pungent question, you adulterers and adulteresses, know you not
that the amity of the world is enmity with God? He doth not speak only to
persons guilty of that crime, but to all natural men, who are guilty of
adultery or whoredom of a more spiritual nature, but as abominable and
more dangerous. There is a bond and special tie betwixt all men and God
their Maker, which obligeth them to consecrate and devote themselves,
their affections and endeavours, to his honour, especially when the
covenant of the gospel is superadded unto that, in which Jesus Christ our
Lord reveals himself, as having only right to us and our affections, as
willing to bestow himself upon us, and notwithstanding of all the distance
between him and wretched sinners, yet filling it up with his infinite love
and wonderful condescendency, demitting himself to the form of a servant,
out of love, that so he might take us up to be his chaste spouse, and
adorn us with his beauty. This he challengeth of us, whoever hear and
profess the gospel, this is your profession--if ye understand it--that Jesus
Christ shall be your well-beloved, and ye his, that ye shall separate
yourself to him, and admit no stranger in his