But thou wilt perhaps say, if all self-love is to be renounced, then all love of our neighbour is renounced, because the commandment is, only _to love our neighbour as ourselves_. The answer is easy. There is but one love in heaven, and yet the angels of God love one another in the same manner as they love themselves. The matter is thus; The one supreme _rule_ of love, which is a _law_ to all intelligent beings, and will be a law to all eternity, is this, _God alone is to be loved for himself_, and _all other beings only in him, and for him_. Whatever intelligent creature lives not under this rule, is so far fallen from the order of his creation, and is, till he returns to this eternal law of love, an apostate from God, and incapable of the kingdom of heaven. Now if God alone is to be loved for himself, then no creature is to be loved for itself: and so all self-love in every creature is absolutely condemned. And if all created beings are only to be loved in and for God, then my neighbour is to be loved as I love myself, and I am only to love myself as I love my neighbour, or any other created being, that is, only in and for God. And thus the command of loving our neighbour as ourselves stands firm, and yet all self-love is plucked up by the roots. But what is loving any creature, only in and for God? It is when we love it merely as it is God’s and belongs to him, this is loving it _in_ God. And when all that we wish, intend, or do to it, is done from a love of God, for the honour of God, and in conformity to the will of God, this is loving it for God. This is the _one love_ that is, and must be the spirit of all creatures that live united to God. Now this is no speculative refinement, but the simple truth, a first law of nature, and a necessary band of union between God and the creature. The creature has lost the life of God whenever its love does not thus begin and end in God. _Thirdly_, Hence we may learn the true nature and worth of all _self-denial_ and _mortification_. As to their nature, considered in themselves, they have nothing of _goodness_ or _holiness_, nor are any real parts of our sanctification, they have no _quickening, sanctifying power_ in them; their only worth consists in this, that they break down that which stands between God and us, and make way for the _quickening, sanctifying Spirit_ of God to operate: which operation of God is the _only_ thing that can raise the divine life in the soul, or help it to the smallest degree of real holiness. As in our creation we had only _that degree_ of divine life, which the power of God derived into us; so in our redemption, or regaining _that_ first perfection, all must be again the operation of God.