*Thus when our Lord further saith, unless a man forsake _all that he hath he cannot be my disciple_. The reason is plain; all that the natural man hath, is in the possession of self-love, and therefore this possession is to be absolutely forsaken, and parted with. All that he hath is to be put into other hands, to be given to divine love, or this _natural man_ cannot be changed into a disciple of Christ. For self love in _all that it hath_, is earthly, sensual, and devilish, and therefore must have _all_ taken away from it; and then to the natural man all is lost, he hath nothing left, all is laid down at the feet of Jesus. Then all things are common, as soon as self-love has lost the possession of them. And then the disciple of Christ, _though having nothing, yet possesseth all things_, all that the natural man hath forsaken, is restored to the disciple of Christ an hundred fold. For self-love, the greatest of all thieves, being now cast out, and all that he had stolen and hidden, thus taken from him, and put into the hands of divine love, every _mite_ becometh a large treasure, and mammon openeth the door into everlasting habitations. This was the spirit or the first draught of a Christian church at _Jerusalem_, a church made truly after the pattern of heaven, where the love that reigns in heaven reigned in it, where divine love broke down all the selfish fences, the locks and bolts of _me_, _mine_, and laid all things common to the members of this new kingdom of God on earth. Now tho’ many years did not pass after the age of the apostles, before _Satan_, got footing in the church, and set up merchandize in the house of God; yet this one heart, and one spirit, which then appeared in the _Jerusalem_ church, is that _one heart_ and _spirit_ of divine love, to which all are called, that would be true disciples of Christ. And tho’ the practice of it is lost as to the church in general, yet it ought not to have been lost: and therefore every Christian ought to make it his great care and prayer to have it restored in himself. And then tho’ born in the dregs of time, or living in _Babylon_, he will be as truly a member of the first church at _Jerusalem_, as if he had lived in it in the days of the apostles. This spirit of love, born of that celestial fire, with which Christ baptizes his true disciples, is alone that spirit, which can enter into heaven, and therefore is that spirit which is to be in us, while we are on earth. For no one can enter into heaven till he is made heavenly, till the Spirit of heaven is entered into him. And therefore all that our Lord hath said of a man’s parting with all that he hath, is absolutely necessary from the nature of the thing.