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

It is easier for Houses and Towns and Mountains to stand in the Air ⟨p. 405⟩without the Earth; than for you or any thing to subsist a moment without the Lord. Who keeps your heart and pulse still beating, and your blood and spirits in continual motion, and warm in your veins? Is it God or you? Who is it that causeth your lungs to breathe, your stomach to turn your meat to nourishment; and that nourishment into blood and spirits and strength? Is it God or you? Who is it that causeth the Sun to rise upon you in the morning to light you to your labours, and to set upon you at night, that the Curtains of darkness may be drawn about you, and you may quietly repose your selves to rest? Who giveth you strength to labour in the day, and refe••eth you with sleep at night, and provideth all the creatures for your assistance? Is it you or God? O Sirs, me thinks such silly worms, that cannot live a minute of themselves, and cannot fetch a breath of themselves, should easily see that they should not live to themselves, but to him from whom and by whom they live.

Direct. 7. If you would live in self-denial, be sure that you keep the mastery of your senses: and do not let them be ungoverned, but shut them up when reason doth require it. It is your Appetite and senses that feed this carnal selfish vice: but reason and faith are both against it. Whenever you consult with sense, you may know what brutish advice you may expect. Ask not therefore what is delightful, nor what is for your carnal ease and peace; but what is necessary to please the Lord, and for your everlasting peace. And if the tempter tell you, [This is the easier and the broader way] tell him that it is not the honester nor the safer way: And the question is not which is the fairest way? but, which is the way to Heaven? It's better go the hardest way to glory, than the smoothest to damnation. ⟨p. 406⟩If you cannot keep under your sensitive appetite, and subdue the eager desires of the flesh, and learn to want as well as to abound, to be empty as well as to be full, you will never attain to self-denial.