2 86 Motives : r . selghnefs thegrand Idolatry of the world. everlafting felicity of the Saints. The felfifb muff have their own humors pleafed and their own wills accom- plifhed, and their own defires granted : But the felf-de- vying do flay their own carnal will , defires, and *conceits, and lay them dead at the feet of Chrift, that his will alone may be exalted. The pp would have all men Love them, admire them, and commend them. But the felf-deny- ing would have all men to Love , Admire, and Glorifie the Lord, abovehimfelf and all the world. The felfifh can bear with Gods enemies, but not with their Own : and they can fuf- fer men to wrong God, and fin againft him, more patiently then they can fuffer them to wrong themfelves. But it is con- trarywith thefelf-denying: Awrong to God and his Church feemeth far greater to them then awrong againft themfelves. In a word, the fe0 intend themfelves, and live to themfelves, and the felf-denying intend God, and live to him, in the courfe of their lives. And therefore when thefelfifh are troubled about may things, theft/J.-denyingare minding the One thing Neceffary : And when the fe1M are feeking to know what ts good or evil to their flefh ; thePelf-denying are feeking toPleafe the Lord, and defire toknow nothingbut him in Chrift cru- cified ; and they could part with all the knowledge of the cre- atures, as ufeful to themfelves, if they could but know more ofGod in Chrift. The fe/Rh would be in his own hands, at his own difpofe and government ; and the felf-delving Would be in the hands of God, and at his difpofe and Government. And doubtlefs, the very Rate of mans Apollacy did lie in turning fromGod tofe/f, and to the creature for felf fo that he now fludyeth, and ufeth, and loveth the Creaturebut for loimfelf : And fo hewould have himfelf, and all-as far out of the hands of God in his own, as poffibly he, can. I gave you my thoughts in the beginning, that this was themeaning of mans knowing Good and Evil by the Fall : And lince I wrote -that, I meet with the fame Expofition in Dionolceple,doOrtho. . dm% jid. li. t t . c. p. (mai) 113. part of whofe words I Mall here translate [In the nridft of Paradife, God planted the Tree of Life, and the Treeof Knowledge And the Tree ofKnowledgewas for the tryal, and prof and the exercife of
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