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

3. Moreover, Selfishness is contrary to the State of Holiness and Happiness: contrary to every grace, and contrary to the life of Glory. For it is the use of all grace to recover the soul from selfishness to God: that God may be Loved, and Self-love may be overcome: that God may be trusted, and pleased, and his service may be our care and business, when before our care was to Please our selves.

3. MOreover, Selfishness is contrary to the State of Holiness and Happiness: contrary to every grace, and contrary to the life of Glory. For it is the use of all grace to recover the soul from selfishness to God: that God may be Loved, and Self-love may be overcome: that God may be trusted, and pleased, and his service may be our care and business, when before our care was to Please our selves.

And the very felicity of the soul consisteth in a closing and communion with God. The soul that will be happy, must be conscious of self-insufficiency, and must go out of it self, and seek after life in God; It must forsake it self, and apply it self to him. Men lose their labour till they deny themselves, by going to a broken empty cistern, and forsaking the fountain of living waters. The nearer men are to God, and the more fully they are conformed to him, and close with him, and know him, and love him, the happier they are. Glory it self is but the nearest and fullest intuition and fruition of God: And he that hath most of him here in his soul, and in the creatures, providences, and ordinances, is the happiest man on Earth, and likest to the glorified. And there is no approach to God but by departing from carnal self. I know self-seeking men do think of finding more peace and comfort in that way: but they are alway deceived of their hopes: It is self-denial that is the way to peace and comfort. While we rest on our selves, or are taken up with anxious caring for our selves, we are but tossed up and down as on a tempestuous sea, and are seeking Rest but never find it: but when ⟨p. 366⟩we retire from our selves to God, we are presently at the harbour, and find that Peace which before we sought in vain. I confess, in the too-little experience that I have my self of the way of peace and quiet to the soul, I must needs say, there is none to this: There is none but this. Never can I step out, but self meets with somewhat that is vexatious and displeasing to it: This business goes cross, and that business is troublesome: this person is troublesome, and that person is abusive and injurious: One is false and treacherous, or slanderous; and another is imprudent, and weak, and burdensome: what between the baits of prosperity, and the troubles of affliction, the perverseness of adversaries, and the weakness of friends, and the changes that all States and persons are liable to; the multitudes that would be pleased, and the labour and the cost that it will stand us in to please them, and the multitudes that will be displeased when we have done our best; and the murmurings, reproaches, and false accusations that we shall be sure of from the displeased;