Chapter XXI.

Showing That A Man Ought To Rest In God Alone, And Not In His Gifts; And That He Must Deny Himself.

Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, ye righteous.—Ps. 32:11.

The genuine love of God proposes God alone for its end. It delights not in the creatures, but in that supreme, eternal, and uncreated Good, whence they proceeded; and this not only outwardly, but even in the very bottom of the soul. For the soul, besides its natural powers, by which it gives life and motion to the body, has a deep and central essence, having no relation to the creature. This is the seat and city of God, abstracted from all external and earthly things; here the Holy Spirit pours out his gifts through all the faculties of the soul, in the different manifestations of wisdom, understanding, and knowledge. But when corrupt nature begins to delight itself inordinately with these visitations, loving the gifts more than the Giver, it immediately pollutes them by corrupt mixtures of self-love. All the love and joy which result thence, are blind, vicious, and deceitful. For as the gifts of God are not God himself, so we must not place the same love upon both. Most men rest in the gifts of God, and upon the least perception of divine light in the understanding, or warmth in the affections, imagine themselves at the summit of perfection; not considering that they are yet far short of it. Man was made for greater things, even to receive God into the soul; and God is displeased if we stop short of this. There is nothing 416 he so much desires as to bestow himself upon us, and that after the most exalted and glorious way; and certainly the least we can do in return is thankfully to accept this divine love, and to delight in God alone.

2. But so corrupt is human nature, and so addicted to self-love, that it catches greedily at everything that may gratify its passions, placing its happiness in those delights, which, like Jonah's gourd, perish in the enjoyment. This satisfaction, though in the gifts of God, defiles them, and hinders His operations in us. So great, and so deep, is the corruption of our nature, introduced by Original Sin, that scarce one in a thousand can know his secret faults. Ps. 19:12. Hence proceeds that inordinate love which men have for themselves more than for God. This abyss of corruption, the most learned men could never fully fathom nor explain: and yet much more difficult is it to root it out of human nature. This rooting it out is the denying of ourselves, required by our blessed Lord, if we will be his disciples. Matt. 16:24. And yet it is much easier to forsake all earthly things, gold, silver, houses, and estates, than to forsake one's self: so deeply is this poison rooted in our nature! But as this self-denial is absolutely necessary, so God disposes and prepares us for it by various tribulations. This is the only end of all the crosses and afflictions, inward or outward, spiritual or bodily, with which he is pleased to visit us; namely, to bring us to the practice of self-denial.