thou shalt find all that thy heart can desire, immortal honours, immense riches, pure and eternal pleasures, life, health, beauty never fading, &c. O! this alone is thy true home, the land of the living.
THE EIGHTEENTH DAY.
On the small Number of the Elect.
CONSIDER these words of Christ: many are called but few are chosen; which contain a great and dreadful truth, frequently inculcated by the mouth of truth itself, to rouse unthinking mortals from their profound lethargy, into which the enemy has lulled them. This is one of those lessons, which he has laid down for a foundation of Christian morality, in his divine sermon on the mountain, where he bids us: St. Mat. vii. 13, 14. Enter in at the narrow gate, for broad is the gate, and wide is the way, that leads to damnation, and many there are that enter by it. O! how narrow is the gate and strait the way that leads to life, and few there are that find it. Hence in the same sermon, he declares to us: not every one that says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven: but he that doth the will of my Father, who is in heaven: viz. by a faithful compliance with the law of God and his gospel. Without this, he assures us, that it will avail us nothing, even to have done miracles in his name. Many shall say to me in that day: (of judgment) Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and cast out devils in thy name, and done many wonders in thy name? And then I will declare to them: I never knew you, depart from me, ye workers of iniquity. Good God! what will become of us, if those, that have even done miracles in thy name, shall nevertheless be excluded thy eternal kingdom?
