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

Naturally men are prone to spin themselves a web of opinions out of their own brain, & to have a Religion that may be called their own: And it's their Own in two respects: 1. Because it is of their own devising, and not of Gods revealing or appointing: 2. Because it suiteth with their own carnal ends and interests. Men are far readier ⟨p. 94⟩to make themselves a faith, than to receive that which God hath formed to their hands. And they are far readier to receive a Doctrine that tends to their carnal commodity, or honour, or delights, than one that tends to self-denial, and to abase themselves, and exalt the Lord. 2. And when they have hatched or received such opinions which are peculiarly their Own, they are apt to like them the better, because they are their own, and to value them because of the Interest of self. O Sirs, that you did but know the commonness and danger of self-conceitedness in the world! Even with many that seem humble, and verily think that it is the spirit of God that beareth the greatest sway in their understandings, yet self doth there erect its throne. O how secretly & subtly will self insinuate, and make you believe that it's a pure self-denying light which guideth you, andt hat what you hold is merely by the cogent evidence of truth, or the illumination of the Spirit, when it is but a Viper that self hath hatched and doteth on, because it is her own. Because the Papists have gone too far in teaching men to depend on the Church and on their Teachers, therefore self-conceitedness takes advantage of their error, to draw men into the contrary extreme, and make every Infant-Christian to think himself wiser than his most experienced Brethren and Teachers; and every raw unstudied Christian to think himself wiser than those that have been searching into the word of truth by study and prayer almost all their days: and therefore to cry down that learning, wisdom and study, which they are unacquainted with; that seeing they have it not themselves, they may at least be thought as wise men without it, as those that have it, and so may provide for the reputation and interest of self: O what sad work hath this great sin of self-conceitedness made in the world! In too many ⟨p. 95⟩places men make it their Religion to strive who shall be greatest for wisdom and abilities in the eyes of men:

Naturally men are prone to spin themselves a web of opinions out of their own brain, & to have a Religion that may be called their own: And it's their Own in two respects: 1. Because it is of their own devising, and not of Gods revealing or appointing: 2. Because it suiteth with their own carnal ends and interests. Men are far readier