Me ,myself and I (various)

Crush its viper head with the heel of our boot!

(Philpot, "The Walk in the Fields and among the Vineyards")

"Whoever will come after Me, let him deny himself,
and take up his cross and follow Me" Mark 8:34

To deny and renounce self lies at the very foundation
of vital godliness.

It is easy in some measure to leave the world; easy
to leave the professing church; but to go forth out of
self, there is the difficulty, for this "self" embraces
such a variety of forms.

What varied shapes and forms does this monster
SELF assume! How hard to trace his windings! How
difficult to track this wily foe to his hidden den; drag
him out of the cave; and immolate him at the foot of
the cross, as Samuel hewed down Agag in Gilgal.

Proud self,
righteous self,
covetous self,
ambitious self,
sensual self,
deceitful self,
religious self,
flesh-pleasing self.

How difficult to detect, unmask, strip out of its
changeable suits of apparel, this ugly, misshaped
creature, and then stamp upon it, as if one would
crush its viper head with the heel of our boot!

Who will do such violence to beloved self, when every
nerve quivers and shrinks; and the coward heart cries
to the uplifted foot, "Spare, spare!"

But unless there is this self crucifixion, there is
no walking hand in hand with Christ, no heavenly
communion with Him; for there can no more be a
partnership between Christ and self, than there
can be a partnership between Christ and sin.

A self-loather

(Thomas Brooks, "The Crown and Glory of Christianity,
or, HOLINESS, the Only Way to Happiness", 1662)
True repentance is a daily turning of the soul further
and further from sin—and a daily turning of the soul
nearer and nearer to God.

True repentance includes . . .
a true sense of sin,
a deep sorrow for sin,
a hearty loathing of sin, and
a holy shame and blushing for sin.

To repent is to make . . .
a clean head and a clean heart;
a clean lip and a clean life.

To repent is for a man to loathe himself, as well as his sin.
Is this easy for man, who is so great a self-lover, and so
great a self-exalter, and so great a self-admirer—to
become a self-loather? To repent is to cross sinful self,
it is to walk contrary to sinful self, yes, it is to revenge
a man's self upon himself.

True repentance lies in a daily dying to sin, and in a
daily living to Him who lives forever.

Slaves of SELF

(J. C. Philpot, "The Master's Bounty")

In our natural state, we are all the slaves of SELF.

Self in its various forms . . .
proud self,
lustful self,
covetous self,
righteous self,
self in some shape or other, is
the idol before whom all carnal knees bow,
the master whom all carnal hearts serve.

The worst enemy I have?
(Thomas Reade, "Christian Meditations")

Strange to tell; yet, no less strange than
true, the worst enemy I have is MYSELF!

I may flee from other enemies,
but from this I cannot escape.

Wherever I go, SELF still is there.

The inbred evil travels with me.

I may cross mighty oceans, traverse extensive
deserts, plunge into the deepest recesses of
the tangled forest, or the caverned earth, yet,
in the profoundest solitude, SELF is there!

None but the true believer knows the dreadful
conflicts between the flesh and the Spirit.

His cry is; "Oh that I had wings like a dove!
for then would I flee away and be at rest!"

But soon he feels the vanity of this wish;
for even if could he fly on eagle's wings to
the earth's remotest bounds, he would
carry with him all the evil he deplores.

He therefore prays for present grace and
strength, for present power to conquer sin,
and glorify his Savior in the place divine
wisdom has appointed for him.

Lord Jesus, you alone can enable me...
to vanquish the powers of darkness,
to overcome the corruptions of my heart,
to crucify the lustings of the flesh

Our greatest enemy

(Letters of J. C. Philpot)

I am more afraid of myself--my lusts and passions,
and strong and horrible corruptions--than of anybody
in the whole world.

SELF is and ever will be our greatest enemy. And
all our enemies would be as weak as water against
us, were we not such vile wretches in ourselves.

This is true, so true.

Christians often bemoan the world, flesh and devil as their archenemies, but I have come to learn that my true archenemy is self. The world, flesh, and devil can only cause damage when self opens the door. Self determines how close I get to God, not the world. Self has the final word on how much time I devote to prayer, not the devil. Self holds the key to a disciplined Bible reading life, not the flesh. Self, self, self.

How I despise my wretched self, how excuseless I am when I fail God. Nothing and no one to blame but myself. Self is lazy, fickle, manipulative. Self loves God and wants to live holy...but can easily be diverted when flesh comes knocking on the door to play.

It's true we cannot improve the flesh, and we cannot lessen the world's evil, and we certainly cannot change the devil, but we can and must [b]discipline[/b] self.

Brother Paul

but we can and must [b]discipline[/b] self.

[i]I buffet ... bringing it into subjection[/i]

This inward conflict

(Philpot, "The Knowledge of Good and Evil" 1845)

"I know that nothing good lives in me—that is, in
my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what
is good—but I cannot carry it out." Romans 7:18

Now it is this which makes the Lord's people such a
burdened people—that makes them so oppressed in
their souls as to cry out against themselves daily,
and sometimes hourly—that they are what they are
—that they would be spiritual, yet are carnal—that
they would be holy, yet are unholy—that they would
have sweet communion with Jesus, yet have such
sensual alliance with the things of time and sense—
that they would be Christians in word, thought, and
deed; yet, in spite of all, they feel their carnal mind,
their wretched depravity intertwining, interlacing,
gushing forth—contaminating with its polluted stream
everything without and within—so as to make them
sigh, groan, and cry being burdened, "What a wretched
man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?"
Romans 7:24

He would not be entangled in these snares for ten thousand
worlds—he hates the evils of his heart, and mourns over the
corruptions of his nature. They make the tear fall from his
eye, and the sob to heave from his bosom—they make him
a wretched man—and fill him day after day with sorrow,
bitterness, and anguish.

None but a saved soul, under divine teaching, can see
this evil—and mourn and sigh under the depravity, the
corruption, the unbelief, the carnality, the wickedness,
and the deceitfulness of his evil heart.

This inward conflict, this sore grief, this internal burden,
that all the family of God are afflicted with—is an evidence
that the life and grace of God are in their bosoms.

"Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord!
So you see how it is—in my mind I really want to obey
God's law, but because of my sinful nature I am a
slave to sin." Rom. 7:25

A spiritual monster!

(Thomas Boston, "Human Nature in its Fourfold State")

The unrenewed man's affections are wholly corrupted,
disordered and distempered. Man's heart naturally is
a mother of abominations! "For from within, out of
men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality,
theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness,
envy, slander, arrogance and folly." Mark 7:21, 22

"Men loved darkness." John 3:19

The natural man's affections are wretchedly misplaced.
He is a spiritual monster!

His heart is where his feet should be—fixed on the earth.

His heels are lifted up against heaven—which his heart
should be set on.

His face is towards hell; his back is towards heaven.

He loves what he should hate; and hates what he should love.

He joys in what he ought to mourn for; and mourns for
what he should rejoice in.

He abhors what he should desire; and desires what
he should abhor.

"Lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God." 2 Tim. 3:4

(J. C. Philpot, "The Master's Bounty")

In our natural state, we are all the slaves of SELF.

Self in its various forms . . .
proud self,
lustful self,
covetous self,
righteous self,
self in some shape or other, is
the idol before whom all carnal knees bow,
the master whom all carnal hearts serve.

Self dies!

Winslow "The Nature and Source of Spiritual Life"

Self is the first citadel of the soul against
which Grace directs its battery.

Self righteousness, Self trust, Self glorifying,
must yield to the humbling, emptying power
of the Spirit.

Self must be mortally wounded before Christ
lives in us. The two sovereigns cannot reign at
the same time and upon the same throne.

Self righteousness, Self glorifying, Self seeking,
must fall when Christ enters triumphantly to
set up His kingdom, to erect His throne, and to
subjugate all the powers and faculties of the
soul to His own holy and gracious supremacy.

Oh what vigilance it demands, lest this wretched
Self in us obtain a partial, or even a momentary,
ascendancy!

The two principles; Self and Grace, are in deadly
antagonism the one to the other in the regenerate.

In proportion as Christ lives in us, Self dies!