professed to love him, and believe in him, "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do." And the apostle Paul in his epistle to Timothy represents selfishness in the most odious light. "This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their ownselves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce-breakers, false-accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God." There is no evil affection, and no evil conduct but what selfishness will, under certain circumstances, produce. It is the directly opposite affection to true benevolence, and therefore the root of all moral evil. It is the carnal mind, which is enmity against God, and not subject to his law, neither indeed can be. It seeks a personal interest, which is diametrically opposite to the glory of God, and the general interest of his kingdom. It opposes the good of sinners themselves, and makes them, as the apostle says, "hateful, and hating one another." It tends to spread misery and destruction through the universe. It makes creatures as bad as they can be, and would destroy them all, were it not for the power and wisdom and goodness of God, which are employed in restraining, directing, and overruling its pernicious influence. Though sinnes may love those which love them, and do good to those that do good to them, yet the nature of their feelings and conduct is still the same. Their apparent goodness is the essence of moral evil. love is general malevolence, and their an abomination to the Lord. All their affections and exertions terminate in themselves, whom they value and regard more than all other beings put together, Their partial best deeds are and whose interest they would sacrifice to promote their own. And can there be any thing virtuous, or amiable, or praise-worthy in such a totally selfish love, which is disconformity to God, disobedience to his law, and, in its nature and tendency, destructive of all the good of his holy kingdom? IMPROVEMENT. 1. If sinners may love themselves and others from mere selfish motives; then it is easy to account for all their kind and friendly conduct towards their fellow creatures, consistently with their total depravity. Their selfishness naturally prompts them to do any thing, which they think will turn to their own personal advantage. To gain friends, they will show themselves friendly. To gain the love, esteem, and confidence of others, they will do acts of kindness, compassion, and even liberality. And the most depraved and selfish creature in the universe would do the same things, to obtain the same selfish ends. Satan always acts from this motive, when he transforms himself into an angel of light, and appears to seek the good of others. When he tempted our first parents, he professed to be more concerned to promote their knowledge and happiness, than even their Creator. When he tempted Christ to turn stones into bread, and commit himself to the divine care and protection, he appeared like a kind and friendly angel. And we have reason to believe, that he loves his infernal subjects who love him, and are heartily engaged to promote his cause and interest in this world; otherwise, as our Saviour says, his kingdom could not stand. But such things are no evidence against his total depravity, and therefore they are no evidence against the total depravity of sinners, Indeed, there is nothing can be said against their total If it be said, that depravity, but what may be said, with equal plausibility against his total depravity. they love themselves; so does he. If it be said, that they love those that love them; so does he. If it be said, that they are kind and friendly to those that promote their interest; so is he. If it be said, that they do, in their conscience, approve of what is holy, just, and good in others; so does he. He approved of the holiness of Christ, when he called him, "the Holy One of God." If it be said, that they do, in their conscience, disapprove of what is selfish and sinful in others; so does he. He represented Job as selfish, and condemned him as wicked. If Satan were placed in the same situation in which sinners are now placed, he would appear as good as they: Or if they were placed in the same situation in which he is now placed, they would appear as bad as he. There is no more difficulty, therefore, in accounting for the conduct of sinners, consistently with their total depravity, than in accounting for the conduct of the devil, consistently with his total depravity. Total selfishness in Satan and in sinners will satisfactorily account for the good as well as bad appearances in both. 2.. If the moral depravity of sinners consists in selfishness; then the moral depravity of Adam consisted in selfishness, and not in the mere want of holiness. Supposing he had lost his holiness at the moment he was tempted to eat of the forbidden fruit, yet his loss of holiness could not have rendered him morally depraved. All his natural powers, instincts, and appetites must have remained as innocent, after he lost his holiness, as before he lost it. There was no possibility of his becoming morally depraved, without a free, voluntary exercise of selfishness. And it appears from the account given of his first offence, that it essentially con sisted in loving himself supremely. He voluntarily partook of the forbidden fruit, from the motive of increasing his own knowledge and happiness, in opposition to the glory of God and the good of all his posterity. This was freely and voluntarily turning from benevolence to selfishness, which is the essence of moral depravity. He became morally depraved in the same manner, that Satan the first sinner in the universe became depraved. Satan had no corporeal instincts or appetites to tempt him to rebel against his Maker. He loved his own glory more than the glory of God, and aspired to become independent and supreme, which was the essence of selfishness, or moral depravity. The prevailing notion, that Adam became morally depraved, by the mere want of holiness, is repugnant to the very nature of moral depravity, and to every dictate of reason and scripture. 3. If sinners love themselves, because they are themselves, and love others, only because they suppose them to be subservient to their interest; then their affections are always selfish and sinful, let them rise ever so high, or extend ever so far. They often do love those who love them very ardently. But they never love such persons so ardently as they love themselves. For all their love to others flows from love to themselves, and the streams cannot rise so high as the fountain. Hence their most ardent and raised affections to others are as really selfish and sinful, as if they were ever so low and languid. Their nature is precisely the same, whether they are stronger or weaker. It is morally impossible, that their love to their friends, or to their Creator should rise so high, as to become disinterested or virtuous love. And as their affections do not become any better, by rising ever so high; so they do not become any better by extending ever so far. The same mercenary motives, which induce them to love their intimate friends, may induce them to extend their regards to their country, and to their Saviour. Many sinners undoubtedly love their country, because the prosperity of their country tends to promote their prosperity; and some sinners love their Redeemer, because they think he loves them. Multitudes followed Christ for the sake of the loaves and the fishes, and loved him because they thought he loved them, and would promote both their temporal and eternal good. But in all these cases, the love of sinners is perfectly selfish and sinful. It is exactly of the same nature as the love of the miser to his money. Could sinners have a clear and extensive view of all created and uncreated objects, and did they love them all for the sake of their own private, personal benefit, their selfish love, instead of becoming any better, would become unspeakably worse. For the guilt of their selfishness would be in exact proportion to the extent of their knowledge. If it be criminal for one person to prefer his interest to a greater interest of another; it must be more criminal to prefer his interest to the greater interest of a nation, and for the same reason, it must be . unspeakably more criminal still, to prefer his interest to the whole interest of the universe. The consequence irresistibly follows, that the higher the love of sinners rises, and the further it extends, the more criminal it becomes. 4. If sinners are constantly under the governing influence of selfishness; then they must experience an essential change in their affections in order to be saved. If they naturally possessed the least degree of disinterested love or true holiness, there would be no need of a radical and essential change in their moral exercises, They might love God, and repent of sin, and believe |
