#35 Why denying our appetites is so hard

 [Pryr-1.2-35] Secondly, in quiet you make your Soul he true Ground of that universal Mortification and Self-denial as you are ignoring your Senses, Appetites, Tempers, Passions and Judgments.

That is necessary for your whole Nature, has fallen from the Life of God, and is currently in a State of Contrariness to the True Order and End of our Creation; it is a continual Source of disorderly Appetites, of corrupt Tempers, and false Judgments. It is feasting on an earthly banquet blind to all else.

So, every Motion must be mortified, changed and purified from its natural & current State, so we can enter into the Kingdom of God. "Except a Man hated his Father and Mother, yea, and his own Life, he cannot be my Disciple", so our Lord and Savior told us, and this was the best of advice, because while our Tempers are carnal, and full of the Imperfections of our fallen Nature, we are cut off from him and cannot Hear him.

The Doctrine is just and good; not hated; but in the unregenerate Person, or natural Man, all good is hated, because anything outside of the Self is external and not of himself.  That is the lot the fallen Man loves, honors, esteems, as he cleaves to himself in Weakness and Stubborn Pride.

This false Love, born from corrupt Flesh and Blood, and polluted with Self, is to be hated and parted with, like filthy rags, so that we grow to love everything with a Love born of God, with a Love, such as Christ has loved us. Then and only then we will be able to be a Disciple of Christ, as we realize that His love far exceeds all others, because it is born as in the Love of Parents.

And with that, our own current Life is to be hated; because there is nothing lovely in it. It is a Legion of Evil, a monstrous Birth of the Serpent, the World, and the Flesh; it is an Apostasy from the Life and Power of God in the Soul, a Life that is Death to Heaven, that is pure unmixed Idolatry, that lives wholly to Self, and not to God;

It is a Self that has to be denied and mortified, if the Nature, Spirit, Tempers and Inclinations of Christ are to be brought to Life in us. For it is as impossible to live to both these Lives at once, as for a Body to move two contrary Ways at the same Time. And therefore all these Mortifications and Self-denials have an absolute Necessity in the Nature of the Thing itself.

#34 Denying the will so as to yield to His

[Pryr-1.2-34] A child that obediently denies his own Will, and own Reason, and is guided by the Will and Reason of a truly wise and understanding Tutor, can never be said to make himself a Fool, because he is giving up the Benefit of his rational Nature, and instead allowing his own Will and Reason work in his behalf as a true Blessing. 

#33 In stillness you will find Him

[Pryr-1.2-33] So from all this, we may gather these following Truths: First, the true Ground and Reason that when the Call of God to Repentance arises in your Soul, you should be retired, silent, passive, and so that you are humbly attentive to this new risen Light within You. 

By wholly stopping, and disregarding the Workings of your own Will, Reason, and Judgment you will hear his voice clearly. This is necessary because of all the false Counselors, sworn Servants, bribed Slaves of your fallen Nature, Born and Bred in your Kingdom of Self will try to shut Him out.

Therefore, if a new Kingdom is to be set up in You, if the Operation of God is to have its Effect in You, at all, these natural Powers of Self must have silenced and suppressed, till they have learned Obedience and Subjection to the Spirit of God.

Now this is not requiring You to become a Fool, or to give up your Claim to Sense and Reason, not at all, but the shortest Way to have your Sense and Reason delivered from Folly, and your whole rational Nature strengthened, enlightened, and guided by that Light, which is Wisdom itself is to be still.

#32 The Spiritual Society of Christ

[Pryr-1.2-32] This is Christianity, is a spiritual Society, not because it has no worldly Concerns, as long as we are of this World, we will always have them, but because all its Members, are born of the Spirit, and they are kept alive, animated and governed by the Spirit of God.

The Peaceable Kingdom by Edw. Hicks c. 1845, American at the Brooklyn Museum

This constant discourse is with our Lord, and the Kingdom of God, or as we know it best, Heaven, because all its Ministry and Service, is done in Obedience as we Subject ourselves to that Greater Spirit by which Angels live, and are governed in Heaven.

Hence our blessed Lord taught his Disciples to pray, that this Kingdom might come, that so God's Will might be done on Earth, as it is in Heaven; which could not be, but by that same Spirit, by which it is done in Heaven.

The short of it all, is this: The Kingdom of Self is the Fall of Man, or the great Apostasy from the Life of God in the Soul; and everyone wherever He be, that lives just for his Self, that he is still suffering from the scourge of the Fall living the animal life & still is in great Apostasy (Defection) from God.

The Kingdom of Christ is the Spirit and the Power of God.  It dwells and manifests itself in the Birth of a new inward Man; and everyone who is a Member of this Kingdom, is true to the Birth of the Christ Spirit that was brought forth in him.

But leave no mistake, these two Kingdoms are all there are in all Mankind, and he that is not of one, is certainly in the other; one is Dying or already Dead – the alive Living and Alive.

#31 Pentecost as the Dispensation of God for Man

[Pryr-1.2-31] All the Sacrifices and Institutions of the ancient Patriarchs -- the Law of Moses, with all its Types, and Rites, and Ceremonies, is all to this end:  and that is that they were the methods of Divine Wisdom for a Time, so as to keep the Hearts and Minds  of Men from the Wanderings of Idolatry, busy in a State of Holy Expectation upon God, and so that they could keep the first Seed of Life in a State of Growth, and make Way for a further Operation of God upon the Soul; or, as the Apostle himself says, to be as a Schoolmaster unto Christ, waiting patiently for the Birth, the Death, the Resurrection and the Ascension of Christ, should conquer Death and Hell, opening  a new Dispensation of God, and baptize Mankind once again  with the Holy Ghost, and Fire of Heaven.

Church of the Pentecost, Romania c. 1672

That day – the Day of Pentecost, a new Dispensation of God would come forth; which on God's Part, was to be the activity of the Holy Spirit visible in the Gifts and Graces to the whole Church; and on Man's Part, his Adoration of God throughout his Spirit and in adherence to the Truth.

So all this was done by God: from the Bruiser of the Serpent given to Adam, to Christ's sitting down on the right Hand of God.  

Done so that He could remove all that stood between Himself and Man, and there be a continual  relationship of God with the Soul; so Man, now baptized with the Holy Spirit, and thus born again from Above, would  absolutely renounce his animal Self.

Once this renunciation was complete, Man could then fully  give up  his Soul to God's Spirit, wholly and willingly, and that way  come to know, love, will, pray,  worship, preach, exhort, and  so use all the Faculties of his Mind, towards communicating to all the  things of this World, as an enlightened & inspired person of Soul would, and so Man would be moved and guided by the Holy Ghost, who would be his continual Comforter &  Teacher, and Friend & Guide to the Church, so that he could abide & converse with it, as one, forever, freely.

#30 God leads to freedom

Lot and his daughters leaving Sodom -- Guido Reni

[Pryr-1.2-30] On the other Hand, all that is Grace, Redemption, Salvation, Sanctification, Spiritual Life, and Birth, is the Operation of God found  in the Soul. 

For it is Man come back again into his Centre or his Place in God, which had been broken off. 

This Beginning is the new again: it is the Life of God in the Soul, as it was when first made, when the Mercy of God inspoke into Adam a Seed of the Divine Life, & should have bruised the Head of the Serpent, instead of embracing it as its human Nature. 

And so while the Kingdom of God is only a Seed, it was still a piece of the Divine, which if cultivated rightly, would overcome all the Evil that was in us, and make every fallen Man a new born Son of God.

#29 The true center of life

Grayson Perry -- Fleeing Eden

[Pryr-1.2-29] The reason for all of this, is that Man, by his Fall, broke off from his true Centre, and lost his proper Relationship with God.  Once that happened then that singular relationship with Him was no more, but broken.

For with the Fall, Man left a Life in God and instead  went into a Life of the Self, -- one of animal self-narcissism, fantasies, and other vain escapes and lost all touch with his Source.

As self-esteem, and self-seeking, through the vehicle of Pride becomes their own ends & ultimate Enjoyment, the Natural State of Man, became now a grasping, wanting, self-absorbed animal. He was now an Apostate from God,  as his natural Life became all Idolatry, and the Self became the Greatest Idol of all --  worshiped, coddled and encouraged instead of following the path of devotion, responsibility and love of something greater and better than himself : God. 

So it is easy to see, that all Sin, Death, Damnation, and Hell is nothing but this Kingdom of Self.  There reside various vehicles of Self-love, Self-esteem, and Self-seeking, Self-worship, Self-Pride, Self-Will, Self-Desire, all of which separate the Soul from God, and end lead to eternal Death and Hell.