Matthew 7:13,14

Enter ye in at the strait gate— That is, strive to enter. See Luke 13:24. By the figurative expressions used in these verses, our blessed Saviour gives us to understand how easy it is to enter into destruction, and how hard it is for proud man to come to him for salvation through the infinite merit of his blood and by the power of his almighty grace: intimating at the same time,that the generality of mankind tread in the wide paths of error, and follow their passions; while few, comparatively, find out truth, and adhere thereto, in opposition to all the obstacles and discouragements that they meet with in their way. See Proverbs 14:12. The reflections of Erasmus upon the strait gate are lively. How strait, says he, is the gate, how narrow the way, that leadeth to life! In the way nothing is to be found which flatters the flesh, but many things opposite; poverty frequently, fasting, watching, injuries, chastity, sobriety. And as for the gate, it receives none who are swollen with the glory of this life, none that are elated and lengthened out with pride; none who are distended with luxury. It does not admit those whose spirits are laden with the fardels of riches, nor those that drag along with them in affection the other implements of the world. None can pass through it but naked men, who are stripped of all worldly lusts, and sealed with the image of God. In order to reconcile what is here advanced with those passages which assert Christ's yoke to be easy, and the ways of wisdom to be ways of pleasantness, &c. some think it necessary to suppose, that this text refers entirely to the case of persecution; and that the strait gate is a violent death, which lay at the end of the narrow way, and concluded the injuries and calamities which persecutors would bring upon Christians. See Hallet's Discourses, vol. 3: p. 24, &c. But nothing is more certain than that Christ requires from all his disciples, in all ages and places, a life of mortification and self-denial; which, though it is mingled with and introductory to pleasures abundantly sufficient to counterbalance it, yet to corrupt nature is difficult. See Doddridge; and Whitby, Grotius, and Wetstein, for many parallel passages from heathen writers.