A

TREATISE

OF

SELF-DENIAL.

"I have no man likeminded who will naturally care for your state. For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's."

PHIL. . 20, 21.

VOL. XI.

B

PREMONITION

CONCERNING

THE SECOND EDITION.

READER,

I TAKE the love of God and Self-denial to be the sum of all saving grace and religion; the first of the positive part, and the second of the oppositive or negative part: and I judge of the measure of my own, and all other men's true piety, by these two. And it is the rarity of these two, which assureth me of the rarity of sincere godliness. O how much selfishness, and how little love of God, are too often found among those contenders for supposed true doctrine, trye worship, true discipline, and the true church! Who can say that their zeal for these things doth eat up themselves, their charity, their peaceableness, and their brethren? The same men that will not abate an opinion, a formality, a singularity, for the church's peace and concord, or for the interest of love, and the healing of our wounds, will as hardly abate a jot of their wealth, their worldly honour, their carnal interest, or selfish wills; which shews that their zeal and seeming orthodoxy and wisdom (as in them) is not from above, but from beneath; James iii. 15-17.

O that men knew what heart's-ease Self-denial bringeth, by mortifying all that corrupteth and troubleth the souls of sinners! And if that part of religion which seemeth hardest and harshest, be so sweet, what is our love and delight. in God, but the foretaste of heaven itself.

But the soul is seldom fit to relish this doctrine aright, till some special providence or conviction have made all the world notoriously insufficient for our relief. But he that in or after sharp affliction, will still be selfish in a predominant

degree, is next to hopeless. I remember, that one accounted of eminent wisdom, a little before he forsook the land of his nativity, made this the first word that ever he spake to me, I thank you especially for your book of Self-denial;' and when we are going out of the world, we shall all be much fitter to relish and understand the doctrine of Selfdenial, than now we are.

But though undeniable reason thus presented, by the grace of God, do much cure some particular souls, yet alas, the world, the most of the church visible, and the land is so far uncured, as that selfishness still triumpheth over our innocency, piety and peace, and seemeth to deride our hopes. of remedy. Were profession as rare as true Self-denial, I should be of their mind who reduce the church into a much narrower room than either the Roman, the National, the Presbyterian, or Independent. Alas, how few are those true believers, whose inordinate SELF-LOVE, SELF-CONCEITEDNESS, SELF-WILL, and SELF-SEEKING, are truly conquered by FAITH, and turned into the LOVE of GOD as GOD, and of the PUBLIC GOOD, and of their NEIGHBOUR as themselves; and into a HUMBLED UNDERSTANDING, conscious of its ignorance; and into a HUMBLED SUBMISSIVE WILL, which is more disposed to follow, than to lead; and into a life entirely devoted to God, and to the common good!

But this complaint was made before; but what we most feel, we are most inclined to utter; and to press that on others which we find most necessary to ourselves. And I must say, that of all the books which I have written, I peruse none so often for the use of my own soul, in its daily work, as my "Life of Faith," and this "Of Self-denial," and the last part of the "Saints' Rest."

One little thing I will here tell the reader, that no book of mine (except the two first) had ever the word' dedicatory' joined to the Epistle by my consent, but I have very often prohibited it in vain; whether by the oblivion or self-conceit of the booksellers or printers, I cannot tell. Not that I condemn the word in others, but that my Epistles were still of so different an importance, as did require a different title.

RICHARD BAXTER.

The late Lord Chief Justice Oliver St. John.