It is very remarkable, that the pride and ambition of Nebuchad- nezzar did usher in the destruction of the Assyrian monarchy ; and the ambition and pride of Cyrus that did usher in the overthrow of the Babjdonian monarch}^ ; and the ambition and pride of Alexander was the cause of the annihilation of the Persian monarchy; and it was the pride and ambition of the Roman commanders that was the cause of the utter subversion of the Grecian monarchy. There is no tongue that can express, nor heart that can conceive, the horrid sins and miseries that pride hath ushered in among the children of men. All sin will down with a proud heart that is resolved to rise. Great sins are no sins with such a soul ; he makes nothing of those very sins that would make the very heathen to blush.
[2,] The second proposition that I shall lay down concerning pride is this,
Where ijride hath possessed itself thoroughly of the soul, it turns the hfia7't into steel, yea., into a rock.
As you may see in Pharaoh. Pride turned his heart into steel, yea, into a very rock. God strikes again and again ; he sends plague upon plague ; and yet the more he is plagued, the more he is hardened. His pride turned his soul into a rock : he is no more sensible of the frowns of God, the threateniugs of God, the plagues, the strokes of God, than a rock. Pride had hardened his heart ; he stirs not, he yields not.2
It was the pride of Saul that turned his heart into steel : ' I have sinned,' saith he, ' yet honour me before the people,' 1 Sam. xv. 30. God gave him many a blow, many a knock, and many a check, and yet, after all, ' Honour me before the people.' Oh how desperately was his heart hardened in pride ! In Dan. v. 1 8, Nebuchadnezzar's mind, saith the text, ' was hardened in pride.' He saw the vengeance of the Almighty upon his predecessors, and God took him up, and lashed him till the blood came, and yet he made nothing of it, because his heart was hardened in pride. Pride sets a man in opposition against God. Other sins are aversions from God, but this sin is a coming against God. In other sins a man flies from God, but in this sin a man flies upon God : James iv. 6, ' God resisteth the proud.' A man doth not resist another till he is set upon ; the traveller doth not resist until such time as the thief sets upon him. Saith the text, 'God resisteth the proud.' It intimates thus much to us, that the proud heart sets upon God him- self, and therefore God resists him. The Greek word is avzirdaoirai ; he places himself in battle array against the proud. God brings forth his battalia against the proud, and they bring forth their battalia against God. A proud heart resists, and is resisted ; this \sduro diii'um,
' A world of instancca out of histories might be given, if it were needful, further to evidence thi.s truth.
' Proud souls are of his mind that said, ^Ton persuadebis, etiam si pcrsitaseris, tliough you do convince me, yet will 1 not bo convinced.
EpH. III. 8.] RICHES OF CHRIST. 43
flint to flint, fire to fire; yet in the day of God's wrath the proud shall be burnt up as stubble, both branch and root, Mai. iv. 1. [3.] The third proposition concerning pride is this, Pride is a sin that shales forth and sheivs itself not one way, but many ways. For instance,
First, Sometimes it shews itself in the looks, Prov. vi. 17: he tells you of seven things that the Lord hates, and one is a proud look. The Hebrew word there is, ' The haughty eye.' The haughty eye God hates. Men's hearts usually shew themselves in their eyes : Ps. cxxxi. 1, ' Mine heart is not haughty, nor mine eye lofty.' There be such who shew pride in their very looks, but the Lord looks aloof at them, Ps. cxxxviii. 6.^
Secoridly, Sometimes pride shews itself in words : Dan. iv. 30, ' Is not this great Babylon that I have built, for the house of the kingdom, by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?' and in chap. iii. 15, ' Who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?' It was a very proud saying of one, Coelum gratis non accipiam, I will not have heaven but at a rate ; and of another, ' We have not so lived and deserved of God that the enemy should vanquish us.' These were the proud ones, that spake loftily, and that set their mouths against the heavens, as the psalmist speaks, Ps. Ixxiii. 6, 8, 9, compared. And such a one was Henry the Second. Hearing that his city Mentz was taken, he used this proud blasphemous speech, * I shall never love God any more, that suffered a city so dear to me to be taken away from me.' Such a proud wretch, both in words and actions, was Sennacherib, as you may see in Isa. xxxvii., from ver. 8 to 18.
Thirdly, Sometimes pride shews itself in the habit of the body ; so Herod's pride appeared : Acts xii. 21, Herod was ' arrayed in royal ap- parel.' In cloth of silver, saith Josephus,^ which, being beaten upon by the sunbeams, dazzled the people's eyes, and drew from them that blas- phemous acclamation, ' It is the voice of God, and not of man.' The people being most commonly like the Bohemian curs, that used to fawn upon a good suit ; so the rich man, Luke xvi. 19, was clothed in purple, xai ^{jaaov, and in silk. He was commonly so clothed ; it was his every- day's wear, as the Greek word svididvaxsro impHeth.
Quest. But here a question may be asked. May not persons habit themselves according to their dignities, ranks, and places that God hath put them in in the world ?
Ans. I answer, They may, and ought so to do. If God hath lifted them up in the world above others, they may wear better apparel than others, Gen. xU. 42, Esther vi. 8, Ps. xlv. 13, 14, 2 Sam. xiii. 18, Lam. iv. 5, Mat. xi. 8, Gen. xxvii. 15, Isa. Iii. 1, Hosea ii. 13, Exod. xxviii. 40. I cite these scriptures so much the rather, because some, through weak- ness and peevishness, stumble and are not satisfied herein. There is nothing in the law of God or nature against it.
Quest. But you may say. May not persons sin in their apparel ?
Ans. I answer, Yes, and that in four cases.
[1.] When it is not modest, but carries with it provocation to lust
' Frofecto ocuUs animus inhabitat. — Pliny. [Of. Nat. Hist., lib xi. cap. 64, et alibi, — G.] » Aniiq., xix. 8, 2.— G.
44 THE UNSEARCHABLE [EPH. III. 8.