Self-Denial
Richard Baxter
You hear ministers tell you of the odiousness and
danger and sad effects of sin; but of all the sins that you ever heard of,
there is scarce any more odious and dangerous than selfishness, and
yet I doubt there are many that never were much troubled at it, nor
sensible of its malignity. My principal request therefore to you is, that
as ever you would prove Christians indeed, and be saved from sin and the
damnation which follows it, take heed of this deadly sin of selfishness,
and be sure you are possessed with true self-denial; and if you have, see
that you use and live upon it.
And for your help herein, I shall tell you how your
self-denial must be tried. I shall only tell you in a few words, how the
least measure of true self-denial may be known. And in one word that is
thus: Wherever the interest of carnal self is stronger and more
predominant habitually than the interest of God, of Christ, of everlasting
life, there is no true self-denial or saving grace; but where God's
interest is strongest, there self-denial is sincere. If you further ask me
how this may be known, briefly thus:
1. What is it that you live for? What is that good
which your mind is principally set to obtain? And what is that end which
you principally design and endeavor to obtain, and which you set your
heart on, and lay out your hopes upon? Is it the pleasing and glorifying
of God, and the everlasting fruition of Him? Or is it the pleasing of your
fleshly mind in the fruition of any inferior thing? Know this, and you may
know whether self or God have the greatest interest in you. For that is
your God which you love most, and please best, and would do most for.
2. Which do you set most by, the means of your
salvation and of the glory of God, or the means of providing for self and
flesh? Do you set more by Christ and holiness, which are the way to God;
or by riches, honor, and pleasures, which gratify the flesh? Know this,
and you may know whether you have true self-denial.
3. If you are truly self-denying, you are ordinarily
ruled by God, and His Word and Spirit, and not by the carnal self. Which
is the rule and master of your lives? Whose word and will is it ordinarily
that prevails? When God draws, and self draws, which do you follow in the
tenor of your life? Know this, and you may know whether you have true
self-denial.
4. If you have true self-denial, the drift of your
lives is carried on in a successful opposition to your carnal self, so
that you not only refuse to be ruled by it, and love it as your god, but
you fight against it, and tread it down as your enemy. So that you go
armed against self in the course of your lives, and are striving against
self in every duty; and as others think, it then goes best with them, when
self is highest and pleased best; so you will know that then it goes best
with you, when self is lowest, and most effectually subdued.
5. If you have true self-denial, there is nothing in
this world so dear to you, but on deliberation you would leave it for God.
He that has anything which he loves so well that he cannot spare it for
God, is a selfish and unsanctified wretch. And therefore God has still put
men to it, in the trial of their sincerity, to part with that which was
dearest to the flesh. Abraham must be tried by parting with his only son.
And Christ makes it His standing rule, "He who forsakes not all that he
has, cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:33).
Yet it is true that flesh and blood may make much
resistance in a gracious heart; and many a striving thought there may be,
before with Abraham we part with a son, or before we can part with wealth
or life; but yet on deliberation, self-denial will prevail, and there is
nothing so dear to a gracious soul, which he cannot spare at the will of
God, and the hope of everlasting life. If with Peter we would flinch in a
temptation--we should return with Peter in weeping bitterly, and give
Christ those lives that in a temptation we denied Him.
6. In a word, true self-denial is procured by the
knowledge and love of God, advancing Him in the soul--to debasing of self.
The illuminated soul is so much taken with the glory and goodness of the
Lord, that it carries him out of himself to God, and as it were estranges
him from himself, that he may have communion with God; and this makes him
vile in his own eyes, and to abhor himself in dust and ashes; he is lost
in himself, and seeking God, he finds himself again in God. It is not a
stoical resolution, but the love of God and the hopes of glory, that make
him throw away the world, and look contemptuously on all below, so far as
they are mere provision for flesh.
Search now, and try your hearts by these evidences,
whether you are possessed of this necessary grace of self-denial. O make
not light of the matter! For I must tell you that self is the most
treacherous enemy, and the most insinuating deceiver in the world. It will
be within you when you are not aware of it and will conquer you when you
perceive not yourselves much troubled with it; and of all other vices is
both the hardest to find out and the hardest to cure. Be sure therefore in
the first place, that you have self-denial; and then be sure you use it
and live in the practice of it.