I. How prone we are to self-complacent thoughts —
There are many things which men would not utter with their lips, which yet they will " speak in their hearts." " The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God." But no rational man would be such a fool as to say it with his lips. So, one can scarcely con- ceive any man absurd enough to impute in express terms to himself, his successes, either in temporal or spiritual matters : yet, " in the spirit of our minds," we are prone to do it in reference to both.
1. In reference to temporal matters —
[In the event of our succeeding in trade, in husbandry, in war, how apt are we to ascribe to ourselves what really has proceeded from God alone. We may have shewn wisdom in our use of means : but who has rendered those means effectual? Can the merchant command the seas, or the husbandman the clouds, or the warrior the events of war ? Yet we take the glory to ourselves, as if we had reaped nothing but the fruits, the ne- cessary fruits, of our own superior skill. Now what should we have thought of the disciples, if, when they had " toiled all the night in fishing, and had taken nothing," and afterwards, in obedience to their Lord's directions, had " launched out into the deep again, and taken at one draught so many fishes that both their ships began to sink" — what, I say, should we have thought of them, if they had ascribed this success to their own wisdom and skill a? Yet this is the very thing which we do, in reference to our successes in any matter ; " we sacrifice to our own net, and burn incense unto our own dragb."]
2. In reference to spiritual matters —
[In relation to things of a spiritual nature, we should suppose that no man would think of indulging this propensity ; because in the natural man there is not so much as one good desire. But, strange as it may seem, we are more tenacious of our supposed self-sufficiency in reference to these things than to any others. There is not any one who does not hope to conciliate the divine favour by something that he shall do ; and that does not imagine himself capable of doing it by his own inherent strength, whensoever he shall be pleased to undertake the work. To self-righteousness, in particular, men cleave with an obstinacy that nothing but Omnipotence can overcome. This was the real cause of the rejection of the Jews, that they would persist in labouring to establish a righteousness of their own by the works of the Law, when they should have embraced
a Luke v. 4 — 7. and again John xxi. 3 — 6. b Hab. i. 16.