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

So that by this you may see, that it is our Relations, carnally considered that are the fleshly interest which we must not know; that is, As they are looked upon as any part of that self, or of the Interest of that self which would be its own End and God, and which is opposite to God, or not subordinate to him. To look upon your children more as yours than as God's, is a carnal selfish▪thought: To love them inordinately, and more because they are your own, than because they are Gods, and to love your own interest in your children more than Gods interest in them, is a selfish regarding them after the flesh: Grace doth not destroy nature, nor natural Relations or affections; but it sanctifieth them all to God and carrieth us above it, and destroyeth it as glorious intuition destroyeth gracious knowing in part, that is, by perfecting it. Before ⟨p. 197⟩Sanctification we know, esteem, regard, and love our parents, children, husbands, wives, merely as thus related to us, and in these Carnal respects, and rise no higher: and if we had conversed with Christ himself, and eat and drank in his presence, and loved him accordingly, it would have been but by a selfish, carnal knowledge, esteem, and love: But now we are sanctified, as God is exalted, and self denied and annihilated, as opposed or separated from God, so are all things that belong to self: And therefore if we had loved parents or Christ himself but with such a carnal selfish love before, yet now we love them with higher love, that carrieth self and all to God. And thus even self is so destroyed (as opposite to God and separate from him) as thereby to be exalted as united and subservient to him. And so is the love of friends, Relations, or Christ himself (if we had loved him as a natural Kinsman or brother, as some did that yet believed not in him) it's destroyed, but by an exalting, perfecting destruction. Just so far as self is dead, so far Carnal knowledge and self-interest in friends is dead, and their dearness to us for that interest, and self and they are all advanced and dedicated unto God. And thus it is that the Apostle would be understood, and thus it is that self must be denied in your Relations;

So that by this you may see, that it is our Relations, carnally considered that are the fleshly interest which we must not know; that is, As they are look'd upon as any part of that self, or of the Interest of that self which would be its own End and God, and which is opposite to God, or not subordinate to him. To look upon your children more as yours than as God's, is a carnal selfishthought: To love them inordinately, and more because they are your own, than because they are Gods, and to love your own interest in your children more than Gods interest in them, is a selfish regarding them after the flesh: Grace doth not destroy nature, nor natural Relations or affections; but it sanctifieth them all to God and carrieth us above it, and destroyeth it as glorious intuition destroyeth gracious knowing in part, that is, by perfecting it. Before