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

5. And bethink you how unsuitable it is to your condition, to desire sumptuous buildings, and enticing accommodations to your flesh. Have you not taken God for your portion, and Heaven for your home? and are you not strangers and pilgrims here? and is not God and everlasting glory sufficient for you? You profess ⟨p. 172⟩all this, if you profess to be Christians: and if you be not, you should not profess that you are. And what! do you begin to repent of your choice? must you yet turn to the pomp and vanity of the world again? and will you quit your hopes of God and glory? Ah poor souls! what little need have you of such great matters on earth? you have but a little to do with them! and but a little while to stay with them! and will not a mean habitation, and shorter accommodations serve you for so short a time? Stay but a while, and your souls shall have house-room enough in heaven or hell, and a narrow grave of seven foot long will serve your bodies till the resurrection. And cannot you make shift with an ordinary habitation and with small & common things till then? Naked you came into the world, and naked you must go out: make not then so great a stir in dressing, and undressing, and feathering a nest, that will be so soon pulled down.

6. And it is a dangerous sign that your time on earth is short, when you have most content in outward things. I have told you once in another Discourse (which I have since seen more of) that people that much set their hearts upon any earthly thing, do use to be snatched away by death just when they have attained it, before they can have the comfort of possessing it. Just when their houses are built; just when their debts are paid, and their estates cleared and settled; just when they have such or such a thing which they earnestly desired, then they are gone; as the fool in Luke 12. 20. This night shall thy soul be required of thee: then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided?

6. And it is a dangerous sign that your time on earth is short, when you have most content in outward things. I have told you once in another Discourse (which I have since seen more of) that people that much set their hearts upon any earthly thing, do use to be snatcht away by death just when they have attained it, before they can have the comfort of possessing it. Just when their houses are built; just when their debts are paid, and their estates cleared and setled; just when they have such or such a thing which they earnestly desired, then they are gone; as the fool in