*_Secondly_, Hence is to be seen the true ground of universal mortification and self-denial with regard to all our senses, appetites, tempers, passions and judgments. It is because our whole nature, as fallen from the life of God, is in a state of contrariety to the order and end of our creation, a continual source of disorderly appetites, corrupt tempers, and false judgments. And therefore every motion of it is to be mortified, changed and purified from its natural state, before we can enter into the kingdom of God. Thus when our Lord saith, _Except a man hateth his father and mother, yea, and his own life, he cannot be my disciple_; it is because our best tempers are yet full of the imperfections of our fallen nature. Not as if father and mother were to be hated; but _that love_ which an unregenerate person hath towards them, is to be _hated_; as being a blind self-love, full of all the _weakness_ and _partiality_ with which fallen man loves, honours, and cleaves to himself. This love, born from corrupt flesh and blood, is to be _hated_ and _parted_ with, that we may love them with such a love, and on such a motive, as Christ hath loved us. And then the _disciple_ of Christ far exceeds all others in the love of parents. Again, our own life is to be hated; the reason is plain, because there is nothing lovely in it. It is a _legion_ of evil, 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 not to God, and therefore _all this own life_ is to be absolutely _hated_, if the nature, spirit, tempers and inclinations of Christ are to be in us.