A treatise of self-denial. By Richard Baxter, pastor of the church at KidderminsterA treatise of self-denial. By Richard Baxter, pastor of the church at Kederminster

4. If you have true Self-denial, the drift of your lives is carried on in a successful opposition to carnal Self, so that you not only refuse to be ruled by it, and love it as your God, but you fight against it, and tread it down as your enemy: So that you go armed against Self in the course of your lives, and are striving against Self in every duty; and as others think, it then goes best with them, when Self is highest, and pleased best; so you will know that it then goeth best with you, when Self is lowest, and most effectually subdued.

5. If you have true Self-denial, there is nothing in this world so dear to you, but on deliberation you would leave it for God. He that hath any thing which he loveth so well that he cannot spare it for God, is a selfish and unsanctified wretch. And therefore God hath still put men to it, in the trial of their sincerity, to part with that which was dearest to the flesh. Abraham must be tried by parting with his only Son. And Christ makes it his standing rule, [He that forsaketh not all that he hath, cannot be my Disciple] Luke 14. 33. Yet it is true that flesh and blood may make much resistance in a gracious heart; and many a striving thought there may be, before with Abraham we can part with à Son, or before we can part with wealth or life: But yet on deliberation self-denial will prevail, and there is nothing so dear to a gracious soul, which he cannot spare at the will of God, and the hope of everlasting life. If with Peter we should flinch in a temptation, we should return with Peter in weeping bitterly, and give Christ those lives that in a temptation we denied him. For Habitually God is dearest to the soul.

6. In a word, true self-denial is procured by the Knowledge and Love of God, advancing him in the soul to the debasing of self. The illuminated soul is so much taken with the Glory and Goodness of the Lord, that it carrieth him out of himself to God, and as it were estrangeth him from himself, that he may have communion with God; and this makes him vile in his own eyes, and abhor himself in dust and ashes; He is lost in himself; and seeking God, he finds himself again in God. It is not a Stoical Resolution, but the Love of God and the Hopes of Glory that make him throw away the world, and look contemptuously on all below, so far as they are mere provision for the flesh.