[Pryr-1.2-41] It is this Loss of Love, that was
in truth the Fall of Man, for it opened in him a Kingdom of Self, in which
Satan, the World, and the Flesh, could bring forth their own Works & delude
Man that they were his own.
If
therefore up to Man is to rise from his Fall, and return to his Life in God. There
is an absolute necessity that Self, with all his Brood of gross Affections, be
deposed, and the first Love of his Maker may be born again in him. Christ came
into the World to save Sinners, & destroy the Works of the Devil, part of
that is the Self, for it is not only the Seat and Habitation of Sin and Sloth,
but the very vehicle that spreads that wrongheaded idea about.
It has to
be understood, that the Works of the Devil are all wrought in Self; this is his
peculiar Workhouse, and therefore Christ is not come as a Savior from Sin, as
much as Destroyer of the Works of the Devil in any of us.
If it is
literally true, what our Lord said, that his Kingdom was not of this World, but
then it is also the Truth that no one is a Member of his Kingdom, until he
renounces the Material Spirit of this World. So Christians might as well part
with half the Articles of their Creed, or just half believe them, because in
reality they steadily refuse, to rid themselves of their belonging or embrace
Self-denial.
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