24 Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.



Ver. 24. Strive to enter] Strive even to an agony; or as they did for the garland in the Olympic games, to the which the word áãùíéæåóèå , here used, seemeth to allude. All would come to heaven, but all like not the way; they would not per angusta ad augusta pervenire: come through the narrow way to paridise, they like well of Abraham’s bosom, but not of Dives’ door. But let none think to live in Delilah’s lap, and then to rest in Abraham’s bosom; to dance with the devil all day, and then to sup with Christ at night; to fly to heaven with pleasant wings, to pass a deliciis ad delicias, e caeno ad coelum, &c., from pleasure to pleasure, out of the mud to heaven, to go to heaven in a feather bed.