HEre, for ought I can guess, my stay is like to be long enough, to afford me the leisure of a Reflection on it: For I have found already, in this narrow Lane, a very large Scene to exercise my Patience in; and this Churlish Dray-man seems resolv’d to be as tedious to me, as Ludgate-hill is to his Horse, when his Cart is overloaden. They that are going on Foot to the same place this Coach should carry me to, find not their Passage hindred, or their Way obstructed by that which keeps me here; and were I dispos’d to leave my Coach behind, and Foot it after them, I might in their Company sooner reach the place my Designs and Affairs call me to, than I shall (probably) be supply’d with hopes of getting quickly out from hence. Alas! How frequently falls it out thus in our Journeys towards Heaven? Those whom their adverse Fortune, or a Noble Scorn, hath stript of, or releas’d from, these troublesome and intangling Externals, may tread the Paths of Life nimbly, and cheerfully, being unstopt by many Obstacles, that intercept the Progresses of others. But those stately Persons, whose Pride or Effeminacy will not permit them to move an Inch towards Heaven, unless they may be carry’d thither in Pleasure’s easie Coaches, and who will not bate a Superfluity, or lay by the least Circumstance or Punctilio of Grandezza, to lessen themselves into a capacity of entring in at the strait Gate, may soon find these treacherous and over-lov’d Conveniences turn’d into cumbersome Cloggs, and real Impediments, that will, if not Block up, at least Obstruct the passage to the Seat of so much Joy; that ev’n to be cast Ashore there, by Shipwrack, were a Blessing; and that he is thought unworthy to be admitted there, that cannot think it his Happiness to reach that place himself, though he leave all behind him to get thither.
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