Directions for this part of self-denial CHAP. XXII False Stories Romances and other tempting Books 5. ANother point of sensuality to be denied is The reading or hearing of false and tempting Books and those that only tend to please an idle fancy and not to edifie Such as are Romances and other feigned histories of that nature with Books of tales and jests and foolish complements with which the world so much aboundeth that there 's few but may have admittance to this Library of the Devil Abundance of old feigned Stories and new Romances are in the hands especially of Children and idle Gentlemen filthy lustful Gallants or â—…ty persons that savour not greater matters but have spirits sutable to such gawds as these But if they were only toyes I should say the less but having seen by long observation the mischief of them I desire you to note it in these few particulars 1. They ensnare us in a world of guilt by drawing us to the neglect of those many those great and necessary things that all of us have to mind and study O for a man or woman that is under a load of sin unassured of pardon and salvation that is near to death and unready to die to be seen with a story or Romance in their hand what a gross incongruity is this It 's fitter the Book of God should be in your hand It 's that which you must live by and be judged by There 's much that you are yet ignorant of which you have more need to be acquainted with than Fables Are you not ignorant of an hundred truths that you should know that God hath revealed to further your salvation and can you lay them all by to read Romances Are you travelling towards another world with a Play-book in your hand O that you did but know what greater matters you have to mind and to to do Do all that you have to do first that 's of a thousand times more worth and weight and need and then come to me and I will answer your Objections What harm is it to read a Play-book First Quench the fire of sin and wrath that is kindled in your souls and see that you understand the Laws of God and read over those profitable Treatises of Divines that the world aboundeth with and your souls more need and then tell me what mind or time you have for Fables 2. Moreover it dangerously bewitcheth and corrupteth the minds of young and empty people to read these books Nature doth so close with them and delight in them that they presently breed an inordinacy of affection and steal away the heart from God and his holy Word and ways It cannot be that the Love and delights of the heart can be let out on such trash as these and not be taken off from God and the most needful things That is the most dangerous thing to the soul that works it self deepest into the affections and is most delighted in instead of God And therefore I may well conclude that Play-books and History-Fables and Romances and such like are the very poyson of youth the prevention of grace the fuel of wantonness and lust and the food and work of empty vicious graceless persons and it 's great pity that they be not banished out of the Common-wealth 3. Moreover they rob men of much precious time in which much better work might be done much precious knowledge might be got while they are exercised in these Fables Those hours must be answered for And there is not the worst of you but then had rather be able to say I spent those days and hours in prayer and meditating on the life to come and reading the Law and Gospel of Christ and the Books which his Servants wrote for my instruction than to say I spent it in reading Love-books and Tale-books and Play-books All these considered I beseech you throw away these pestilent vanities and take them not in your hands nor suffer them in the hands of your children or in your houses but burn them as you would do a conjuring-book as they did Acts 19. 19. that so they may do no mischief to any others CHAP. XXIII Vain Sports and Pastimes to be denied 6. ANother part of fleshly interest to be denied is vain sports and pastimes and all unnecessary Recreations For this also is one of the harlots that the flesh is defiled with Recreations are lawful and useful if thus qualified 1. If the matter of them be not forbidden For there 's no sporting with sin 2. If we have an holy Christian end in them that is to fit our bodies and minds for the service of God and do not do it principally to please the flesh If without dissembling our hearts can say I would not meddle with this recreation If I thought I could have my body and mind as â—ell strengthned and fitted for Gods service without it 3. If we use not recreations without need as to the said End nor continue them longer than they are useful to that End and so do not cast away any of our precious time on them in vain 4. If they be not uncivil excessively costly cruel or accompanied with the like unlawful accidents 5. If they contain not more probable incentives to vice than to vertue as to Covetousness Lust Passion Prophaneness c. 6. If they are not like to be more hurtful to the souls of others that joyn with us than profitable to us 7. If they be not like to do more hurt by offending any that are weak or dislike them than good to us that use them 8. If they be used seasonably in a time that they hinder not greater duties 9. If we do it not in company unfit for us to joyn with 10. Especially if we make a right choice of Recreations and when divers are before us we take the best that which is least offensive least expensive of time and cost and which best furthereth the health of our bodies with the smallest inconvenience These Rules being observed Recreations are as lawful as sleep or food or Physick But alas they are made another thing by the sensual ungodly world Sometime they must sport themselves with sin it self in the abuse of Gods Name and Servants and Creatures Tipling and prophane Courses are some mens chiefest recreations And though the Law of the Land forbid most of their sports and the Law of God commandeth them to obey all the Laws of men that are not against the Law of God yet this is a matter of nothing to their consciences And let the matter be never so lawful they make all impious by a carnal end It 's none of their intention to strengthen and fit themselves for the service of God and an holy righteous life by their recreations but it 's meerly because their fancy and flesh is pleased in them Even as the Drunkard Glutton or Whoremonger that have no higher end than Pleasure and can give you no better account
A TREATISE OF Self-Denial By Richard Baxter Pastor of the Church at Kederminster Phil. 2. 20 21. I have no man like minded who will naturally care for your estate For all seek their own not the things which are Jesus Christs LONDON Printed by Robert White for Nevil Simmons at the Princes Arms in Saint Pauls Church-yard 1675. A PREMONITION Concerning this 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 the second of the Oppositive or Negative part And I judge of the measure of my own and all other mens 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 true 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 Churches 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 Orthodoxness and wisdom as in them is not from above but from beneath Jam. 3. 15 16 17. O that men knew what hearts-ease self-denial bringeth by mortifying all that corrupteth and troubleth the souls of sinners And if that part of Religion which seemeth hardest harshest be so sweet what is our Love and Delight in God but the foretaste of Heaven it self 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 Self-denial 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 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 PUBLICK 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 to obey than to be Imperious and domineer 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 â—…r and to press that on others which we find most necessary to our selves 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 joyned to the Epistle by my consent but I have very oft prohibited it in vain whether by the oblivion or self-conceit of the Booksellers or the 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 R. B. To the Honourable Colonel JAMES BERRY c. SIR PRovidence having deprived me of the opportunity of nearer converse with you which heretofore I have enjoyed yet leaving me the same affections they work towards you as they can and have chosen here to speak to you in the hearing of the world that my words may remain to the ends intended when a private Letter may be burnt or cast aside Flattery I am confident you expect not from me because you know me and know me to be your friend And yet my late Monitor hath made many smile by accusing me of that fawning crime I am told what it is to bless my friend with a loud voice Prov. 27. 14. I have learnt my self that Open rebuke is better than secret love and that faithful are the wounds of a friend but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful Prov. 27 5 6. And therefore I shall do as I would be done by Faithfulness and Usefulness shall be the measure of my message to you And they have commanded me to set before you this lesson of Self-denial and earnestly to intreat you and again intreat you that you will faithfully Read and Learn and Practise it Though I judged you have learnt it long ago I think it not needless to mind you of it again my soul being astonished to see the power of Selfishness in the world even in those that by Confessions and Prayers and high Professions have frequently condemned it Yet this is the Radical-mortal sin Where this lives all sins virtually lives Say that a man is Selfish and in that measure you say all that is naught of him as to his inclination That Selfishness is the summe of Vice and the Capital enemy of God of Common-wealths of Order and Government of all Grace and Vertue of every holy Ordinance and Duty especially of Unity and Brotherly Love and of the welfare of our neighbours and of our own salvation I have manifested to you in the following Discourse But alas what need we words to manifest it when the flames of discord and long-continued divisions among Brethren do manifest it When hatred strife variance emulation backbiting violence rebellions bloodshed resisting and pulling down of Governments have so lamentably declared it When such havock is made by it before our eyes and the evil spirit goes on and prospereth and desolation is zealously and studiously carried on and the voice of Peace-makers is despised or drowned in the confused noise Presumptuous are they self-willed they have not been afraid to speak evil of dignities 2 Pet. 2. 10. To speak evil was that the height of presumption and self-willedness then Alas how much further hath it proceeded now even under the Cloak of Liberty and
because they would get most themselves so Proud persons like not Pride in others because they would not have any to vie with them or overtop them and be look'd upon and preferr'd before them None look with such scorn and envy at your bravery as those that are as silly and sinful as your selves who cannot endure that you should excel them in vanity so that good and bad do ordinarily despise or pity you for that which you think should procure your esteem 5. Consider also that Apparel is the fruit or consequent of sin that laid man naked and open unto shame and is it fit you should be proud of that which is ordained to hide your â—â—ame and which should humble you by minding you of the sin that caused the necessity of it 6. And you should bethink you better than most Gallants do what account you mean to make to God for the money that you lay out in excess of bravery will it think you be a good and comfortable account to say Lord I laid out so much to feed and manifest my Pride and Lust when such abundance of pious and charitable uses did call for all that you could spare Many a Lord and Knight Gallant bestoweth more in one suit of cloaths or in one set of hangings or in the superfluous dress of a Daughter than would keep a family of poor people for a 12 moneth or than would maintain a poor Scholar for higher service than ever they themselves will do And many a poor boy or girl goeth without a Bible or any good books that they may lay out all they have on their backs 7. Lastly I beseech you do not forget what it is that you are so carefully a doing and what those bodies are that you so adorn and are so proud of and set out to the sight of the world in such bravery Do you not know your selves Is it not a lump of warm and thick clay that you would have men observe and honour When the soul that you neglect is once gone from them hey will be set out then in another garb That little space of earth that must receive them must be defiled with their filthiness and corruption and the dearest of your friends will have no more of your company nor one smell or sight of you more if they can choose There is not a carrion in the ditch that is loathsomer than that gallant painted corpse will be a little after death And what are you in the mean time Even bags of filth and living graves in which the carkasses of your fellow-creatures are daily buried and corrupt There is scarce a day with most of you but some part of a dead carkass is buried in your bodies in which as in a filthy grave they lie and corrupt and part of them turneth into your substance and the rest is cast out into filthy excrements And thus you walk like painted sepulchres Your fine clothes are the adorned covers of filth and flegm and dung If you did but see what is within the proudest Gallant you would say the inside did much differ from the outside It may be an hundred worms are crawling in the bowels of that beautiful damsel or adorned fool that set out themselves to be admired for their bravery If a little of the filth within do but turn to the scab or the small pox you shall see what a piece it was that was wont to have all that curious trimming Away then with these vanities and be not children all your days nay be not proud of that which your children themselves can spare Be ashamed that ever you have been guilty of so much dotage as to think that people should honour you for a borrowed bravery which you put off at night and on in the morning O poor deluded dust and worms-meat lay by your dotage and know your selves Look after that which may procure you deserved and perpetual esteem and see that you make sure of the honour that is of God Away with deceitful ornamens and gawds look after the inward real worth Grace is not set out and honoured by fine clothes but clouded wronged and dishonoured by excess It is the inward glory that is the real glory The Image of God must needs be the chiefest beauty of man Let that shine forth in the holiness of your lives you will be honourable indeed Peter telleth you of such a conversation of women as may win their unbelieving husbands without the word And what is it while they behold your chast conversation coupled with fear whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair and of wearing of gold or of putting on of apparel but the hidden man of the heart in that which is not corruptible even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit which is in the sight of God of great price For after this manner in old time the holy women that trusted in God adorned themselves being in subjection to their husbands 1 Per. 3. 1 2 3 4 5. CHAP. XXVII Ease Quietness and worldly Peace to be denied 10. ANother part of Carnal self-interest to be denied is Ease and Quietness and worldly Peace which the slothful and self-seekers prefer before the pleasing of God Both the ease of the mind and of the body are â—here comprehended and slothfulness in Gods nearest service and also in the works of our callings to be reprehended The same fleshly Power that draweth one man to whoredom and drunkenness and covetousness doth draw another to sloth and idleness It is but several ways of Pleasing the same flesh and obeying the same sensuality And because that Idleness and Sloth is so great and common a sin yet made so light of by the most I shall briefly tell you the mischiefs of it and the Reasons that should make you hate it 1. Slothfulness doth contradict the very end of our creation and preservation and the frame of our nature and so provoketh God to cut us off and cast us as useless into the fire Who dare so wrong the wisdom of God as to say or think that he made us to do nothing If a man make an house it is to dwell in if he make a watch it is to tell him the hour of the day and every thing is for its proper use And is man made to be idle what man that is the noblest inferior creature and an active creature fitted for work and the highest work shall he be idle Justly may God then hew him down as a dead and withered tree and suffer him no more to cumber his ground 2. Slothfulness is a sin that loseth the precious gifts of God Our faculties and our members are his gifts and talents which he hath committed to us to use for his service so are our goods and all that we have and shall we hide them in a napkin or idly neglect to use them O what abundance of excellent mercies lie useless and idle
sin and misery I might have these mens consent so it reflected not upon themselves Were I to wring the unlawful gains out of the hands of another I might have their consent or were I to perswade another from his Pride or lust or passion they would give me free leave because it is not self that is concerned in it nor self-denial that is necessary to it in them But when we come to themselves there is no dealing with them till God by Grace or Judgement deal with them They cannot endure to know the worst by themselves much less to come out of it If we tell them of their sin and danger they say we speak against them And therefore they say It is out of malice or humour or pride And as well might all diseased persons say so of their Physicians that when they tell them of their disease and danger they speak against them and speak out of malice or ill will It is natural for men to think well of all that they love and of all that they do and whom do they love better than themselves Pride will not let men think so meanly and hardly of themselves as the Scripture speaks of them and Ministers must plainly tell them The Prophet wept that foresaw the cruelty of Hazael but he had so good a conceit of himself that he would not believe he should be so cruel 2 Kings 8. 13. Is thy servant a dog that he should do this The false Prophet Zedekiah could not forbear but struck Micaiah when he made it known that he was a lying Prophet 1 Kings 22. 24. And Ahab hated him because he prophesied not good of him but evil It was all the Proud men that rose up against Jeremiah and contradicted his prophecie and rejected his word Jer. 43. 2. The word of God is quick and powerful and a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart and it is the plain word of that God that feareth not the faces of the Proudest sinners on earth and will not flatter nor daub with any of them all but will tell them to their faces what they are and what will become of them if they do not turn and what they must trust to This is the word that God hath put into our mouths and commanded us to preach to them not the flattering words of an inferior nor the tender language of a man-pleaser but the commanding words of the God of heaven and the peremptory threatnings of everlasting fire against all unconverted unsanctified men denounced from him that feareth none of them all but will make them all stoop at last to him and fear and tremble before his Majesty And is it any wonder if Proud and selfish sinners are displeased with such a word as this They stand all the while they are hearing a plain and powerful Preacher as prisoners arraigned at the bar and sometime are ready to tremble as Felix did when he heard Paul dilating of righteousness and temperance and the judgement to come Acts 24. 25. And can self endure to be thus used and arraigned for its life especially when they think it is but by a man For they have not the understanding to know that it is Christ that owneth all that his Messengers speak by his Commission Hence it is that men hate those Ministers that they feel thus to judge them in their Doctrine and take them for their enemies for telling them the truth Gal. 4. 16. and think they are but the troublers of the Countrey as Ahab called Elijah the troubler of Israel which he had troubled himself 1 Kings 18. 17. and meet them as he did the same Prophet 1 Kings 21. 20. Hast thou found me O mine Enemy They meet not a Minister as the Messenger of God that calls them to repentance but as an enemy in the field to strive against him and raise up all the reasonings and passions of their souls against him because he condemneth their unregenerate state tells them but what God hath charged him to tell them when the poor sinners consider not that before God hath done with them as sure as they breathe he will make them either by grace or Judgement condemn themselves as much as any of his Ministers condemned them from the word of God at whom they were most offended Ah little do these Proud worms that rage at us now for faithful dealing and for telling them that which they will shortly find true little do they think that they shall shortly say the very same against themselves which they hated us for saying Nay with an hundred times more bitterness and self-revenge will they speak these things against themselves than ever we spoke them Hence it is that faithful plain-dealing Ministers are commonly hated and persecuted by the ungodly especially by the great ones and honourable sinners For their message is against self and therefore self will rise up against them and so many selfish unmortified persons as there be in the Congregation so many enemies usually hath such a Minister And therefore the Lords of Israel petition the King that Jeremy may be put to death Jer. 38. 4. And Amaziah the Priest calls Amos a conspirator against the King and tells the King that the Land was not able to bear his words and commands him to preach no more at the Kings Chappel or his Court Amos 7. 10 11 12 13. And what was the matter that deserved all this yea and the death of almost all the Prophets and Apostles of Christ why it was for speaking against self and its carnal interest But was it not a truth that was spoken True or false if it be against self it cannot be born As the Bishop of Ments that Luther speaks of meeting with a Bible and reading an hour in it I know not saith he what book this is but I am sure it is against us Meaning the Popish Clergy So these men say by our preaching and by the word of God it self Be it never so true we are sure it is against us Or rather we will not believe it because it is against us But if these men had their wits about them they would see that this is for them which they think is against them It is for their healing and salvation had they hearts to entertain it though it be for the troubling of them at the present by humiliation O how tender are carnal persons of this self How quickly do they feel if a Minister do but touch them How impatiently do they smart if he meddle with the galled place and plainly open their most disgraceful sins and most dangerous courses as one that had rather be guilty of displeasing them than of silently permitting them to displease God and undo their souls They fret and fume at the Sermon and go home with passion in their hearts and reproaches in their mouths against the Ministers And are of the mind of the desperate Sodomites Gen. 19. 9. that said to Lot when he
exhorted them Stand back This one fellow came in to sojourn and he will needs be a Judge now will we deal worse with thee than with them what say they can he not preach and let me alone hath he none to rebuke before the Congregation but me And thus will every ungodly person reject the Word as they are selfish and self must be let alone in all But why must you be let alone will you be ever the safer or better for that will God let you alone if we should let you alone No he will not be frightened from dealing with you as you are whatever his word hath said against you he will certainly make good though you should never more be told of it by Ministers You have not silenced your Judge when you have silenced his Messengers He will handle you in another manner than Ministers do O how easie is it to hear a Preacher threatning the everlasting wrath in comparison of hearing the sentence of the Judge and feeling the execution If we should yield to your desires and let you alone God would neither let you nor us alone you would but go the quietlier to hell and your blood will be required also at our hands Ezek. 33. 6 7 8 9. and then what would become both of us and you O were it not for the Powerful resistance of this selfishness what work would every Sermon make that we preach to you O what abundance would be converted at a Sermon for what should hinder it I should make no doubt of perswading you all to close with the Lord upon his reasonable terms and to become a holy and heavenly people and presently to forsake your former sin even this hour Nay some ordinances there are that selfishness hath almost shut out of the Church as most of the exercise of the antient Discipline in open and personal admonitions and publick confessions and lamentation of sin with rejection of the impenitent and the Absolution of the penitent Besides most of that private address to Pastors for their advice in case of falls and spiritual decays or weaknesses and difficulties that meet them in doctrine or duty Self will not suffer men to stoop to most of these What will they be brought to open confessions and lamentations of sin and to follow the guidance and perswasions of a Priest no all the Priests in England shall not make such fools of them so wise are these selfish men for a little while But how long will this hold and how long will madness go for wisdom when they are dying then they will send for the Minister and confess and when some of them come to the Gallows they will confess And every one of them shall confess at last whether they will or no and God will indite their confession for them and open their shame to all the world in another manner than Ministers required them to open it But then Confession will do nothing for Remission and the preventing of execution as now it might have done So also the duty of brotherly reproof and admonition of offendors is almost quite cast out by selfishness and especially the patient and thankful receiving of it And those ordinances that are continued are very much frustrated by the opposition of selfishness It is a very hard task that Scripture and good books and preachers have to do when we speak every word to enemies of the Doctrine which we preach and we can do them no good but by their own consent And who will consent to that which he is an enemy to Our work is to subdue their Flesh and Carnal wills to Christ and this flesh is so dear to them that it is themselves so that they take all that Doctrine to be against them which should save them And we have as many Enemies as unconverted hearers in our Assemblies No wonder therefore if they carp and quarrel and strive when the self-denying humbly submit and obey Self-denial openeth the heart to Christ and giveth the Ordinances leave to work It taketh down all opposition and contradiction so that though the soul may stay to search the Scripture and see whether the things that are taught be so yet it searcheth with a childlike charitableness and willingness to learn and know and obey It hath no mind to quarrel with God how easily will a self-denying man submit to those duties which another man abhors How easily will he be perswaded to forgive a wrong to part with his right for a greater good to others to let go a gainful Trade that is unlawful or any sinful way of thriving How easily is he brought to ask forgiveness of those that he hath wronged to make a publick confession of his sins if the greatness of them or his duty to God or the good of others do require it to make restitution of all that he hath gotten wrongfully to bear a plain and sharp reproof to part with his own for the relief of the poor to lay out his estate to the best advantage of the Cause and Church of God and the common good to let go any unlawful vanity any excess in meat and drink or sport or sleep or any vanity in apparel or other work of Pride How easily can he bear all rebukes reproaches and neglects and undervaluing ingratitude from others But what ado shall we have with carnal unsanctified wretches to perswade them to all or any of this From them a Preacher hath such a work to pull their beloved profitable sins they seem profitable to them till the reckoning comes as a man hath to pull the prey from the jaws of a hungry Wolf or meat from the mouth of a greedy Dog But when we require the self-denying to do the same thing it is but as to bid a child obey his Father whom he loveth and honoureth The doing of these duties and forsaking these sins is to an ungodly man as the parting with a right hand or a right eye or the skin from his back or the flesh from his bones as we see by the rarity and the unsuccessfulness of the plainest reasons and great Authority of God himself and the few works of Piety charity or self-denyal that are done by such at any great cost But to the self-denying it is but as the casting away a handful of earth or casting off an upper garment for the doing of their work CHAP. LXVIII Enemy of all Society Relations and Common good 6. MOreover this selfishness is the enemy to all Societies and Relations and consequently to the common good And it is not only indirectly and consequentially but directly that it strikes at the very foundation of all For the manifesting of this consider in what respects this selfishness is at enmity with Societies 1. The End of Societies is essential to them and this End is the Common good of the Society and therefore a Republick hath its name from hence because it is constituted and to be administred for the