_Of pride, Satan’s chief engine to bring on presumption.—What pride
is, and how it prepares men for sinning presumptuously.—Considerations
against pride.—The remedies for its cure.—Pride kindled by a
confidence of privileges and popular applause._
The aims of Satan in this temptation being thus explained, I must now
offer to your consideration the means by which he sought to bring his
end about, which we have noted already, was pride: this he endeavoured
to raise up in him two ways:—
(1.) First, By urging to him the privileges of his condition, as taking
himself to be the Son of God.
(2.) Secondly, By offering him the occasion of popular applause; to
which purpose he brought him into the holy city, where he might be sure
of many spectators. I shall hence note,
_Obs._ 10. _That pride is Satan’s proper engine to bring men on to
presumption._
If we should trace the history of presumptuous sins, we shall ever find
it to have been so. Adam’s first sin was a high presumption against
God’s express command, but pride was the stair by which he knew they
must ascend to it; and therefore he used this argument to corrupt the
hearts of our first parents, ‘Ye shall be as gods.’ The presumption
of Uzziah in burning incense upon the altar, was from his pride, 2
Chron. xxvi. 16, ‘His heart was lifted up, because he was become
strong.’ David’s presumption in numbering the people was from hence.
Thus might we run through many instances. But Satan’s own case may be
instead of all. His first sin, though we have but conjecture what it
was particularly, is concluded by all to have been highly presumptuous,
and the Scripture expressly asserts that it was his pride that brought
him to it. 1 Tim. iii. 6, ‘He that is lifted up with pride, falls into
the condemnation of the devil.’ And in the general we are told by the
prophet, Hab. ii. 4, ‘that the soul that is lifted up,’ cannot be so
upright as patiently to wait upon God in a way of believing, but it
will be presuming to evade a trouble by indirect contrivances.
To explain the observation, I shall do no more but shew what pride is,
and how fit it is to beget presumption.
_Pride is a self-idolising, an over-valuation or admiration of
ourselves, upon a real or supposed excellency, inward or outward,
appertaining to us._ It is in Scripture frequently expressed by the
lifting up or exaltation of the soul. And this is done, upon the
consideration of any kind of thing, which we apprehend makes us excel
others; so that inward gifts of mind, as knowledge, humility, courage,
&c., or outward gifts of the body, as beauty, strength, activity, &c.,
or additional advantages of riches, honour, authority, &c., or anything
well done by us, &c., may all be abused to beget and nourish pride, and
to fill us with high and lofty thoughts concerning ourselves; and being
thus blown up, we are fitted for any presumptuous undertaking. For,
(1.) First, _The mind thus corrupted begets to itself apprehensions
of a self-sufficiency_: and therefore, as it is not apt to remember
from what fountain all those excellencies come, and to what ends they
are to serve; so it brings them to a contempt of others, and to a
confidence of themselves. Thus are men by degrees so intoxicated by
their own humour, that they mount up to irrational and absurd conceits,
fancying that they are more than they are, and that they can do far
more than is possible for them to accomplish, till at last they become
apparently foolish in the pursuit of their imaginations. I need not
instance in the follies of Alexander, who being elated in mind, would
be Jupiter’s son, and go like Hercules in a lion’s skin. Or in the mad
frenzies of Caius, who as he would need fancy himself a god, so would
he change his godship when he pleased: to-day he would wear a lion’s
skin and club, and then he must be Hercules; to-morrow in another garb
he conceits himself Apollo; a caduceus made him Mercury, a sword and
helmet made him Mars, &c. Or in Xerxes, who would whip the seas, and
fetter Neptune. The Scripture affords enough of this nature, as the
boast of Nebuchadnezzar; ‘Is not this great Babel that I have built?’
In the insolency of Nineveh, Zeph. ii. 15, ‘I am, and there is none
besides me.’ The blasphemy of Tyre, Ezek. xxviii. 2, who set her heart
‘as the heart of God, saying, I am a god, I sit in the seat of God.’
The arrogancy of Sennacherib, Isa. xxxvi. 19, 20, ‘Where are the
gods of Hamath ... that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my
hand?’ Though all pride in all men ariseth not to so great a height of
madness, yet it is the nature of it, and none have any of it without
this humour of conceiting themselves above themselves, which strangely
prepares them for any presumption.
(2.) Secondly, He that is proud, _as he looks upon himself in a
flattering glass, and measures himself by the length of his shadow; so
doth he contemn and undervalue things that lie before his attempts as
easy and small_. Hence doth he put himself upon things that are far
beyond him. David notes the working of a proud heart, Ps. cxxxi. 1, in
this particular, ‘Neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or
in things too high for me,’ shewing that it is the guise of pride to
outbid itself in its attempts.
(3.) Thirdly, _It is not only forward to attempt, but also desperate
to execute without consideration of hazard_. Difficulty and danger,
when they stand in the way, should usually deter men from their
enterprise; but pride hardens the heart, and, in a blind rage, engageth
it to contemn all inconveniencies. If sin and the breach of God’s
law be set before a person, whose pride engageth him to an unlawful
undertaking, he overlooks it as a thing of nought: ‘Through the pride
of his countenance he will not seek after God: God is not in all his
thoughts,’ Ps. x. 4.
(4.) Fourthly, Pride ariseth up _to a scornful competition with
anything that opposeth it_; and the more it is opposed, the more it
rageth, for the contest is for having its will. This was the voice of
pride in Pharaoh, ‘Who is the Lord, that I should serve him?’ [Exod.
v. 2.] Hence men are said to ‘despise the commandments of God,’ [Lev.
xxvi. 15,] when in the strength of their pride they are carried on
to an open contest for their own ways and desires against peremptory
commands and threatenings.
(5.) Fifthly, All this is done by _a pleasing allurement_. It is
a witchcraft that strongly holds men, _Amabilis insania mentis
gratissimus error_; and they think they are sufficiently rewarded
if they be but gratified. Though other things go to wreck, yet they
apprehend, if credit and honour be kept up, it is enough. Saul, when
Samuel had declared that God would forsake him, yet sought to please
himself by keeping up his esteem and authority; ‘Honour me,’ saith he,
‘before the people,’ [1 Sam. xv. 30.]
If all these particulars be weighed, what presumptuous act can be
propounded by Satan which pride may not lead to? He that swells himself
to a conceit of absoluteness, that will needs be attempting things
too high, that contemneth all hazards, and is made more forward by
opposition, and yet pleaseth himself in all, as in a golden dream, he
is as much prepared for any figure or shape that Satan is ready to
impress upon him, as melted metals for their mould or stamp.
_Applic._ _Hence must we be warned against pride, as we would avoid
presumption._ If we admit this, we cannot well escape the other. And we
are the more concerned to resist pride,
[1.] First, _Because it is a natural sin_. It was the first sin, and
our natures are so deeply tainted with it, that it is a sin that first
shews itself in our infancy; for children will express a pride in their
clothes very early, and it is a general infection, from which none are
exempted in some degree or other. The apostle’s phrase, 1 John ii. 16,
shews that our whole life, and all the concerns thereof, is but the
sphere in which pride acts; and therefore, whereas he restrains other
lusts to some particular ends or peculiar instruments, he calls this
iniquity the ‘pride of life,’ implying how impossible it is to confine
it in a narrow compass.
[2.] Secondly, _It is a subtle sin, and often lies where it is least
suspected_. Every man sees it, as it is expressed in ‘haughty looks,’
in ‘boasting speeches,’ in ‘gorgeous apparel,’ in ‘insolent behaviour;’
but often men are insensibly possessed with this sin and know not
of it. Under an affected contempt of honours and fine clothes they
secretly hug themselves in their private conceits, and raise up in
their own thoughts imaginary trophies of honour and victory, for
despising what others so much dote upon. It was observed of Diogenes
that he did _intus gloriari_, inwardly boast, and with greater pride
contemned honour, riches, plenty, &c., than they were troubled with
that enjoyed them. Some decry pride in others, vehemently declare
against it as a sin, recommend humility as an ornament of great price
in the sight of God, and yet are proud that they are above others in
a fancied humility; and, in the management of themselves in their
reproofs and exhortations, express such sad symptoms of an insulting
humour, that the latent pride of their heart doth appear by it. It is
possible for men to give thanks to the Almighty for all they have,
and yet to be proud of what is in them. The Pharisee was proud, for
so Christ calls him, that ‘he was not as other men,’ and yet he could
‘thank God,’ as ascribing all to him; nay, he that is truly sensible
of the working of this pride in himself, and dares not approve it,
yet he shall find in his heart such a delight when he is stroked or
praised; and when some actions, praiseworthy, are not taken notice of,
the best shall find that, without great watchfulness, they shall not be
able to hold from giving some hints to others, as a memorial to them,
of observing their excellency, or from some insinuations of their own
commendation.
[3.] Thirdly, Pride is a sin _no less dangerous than subtle_. There are
no attempts so strange, unreasonable, monstrous, or absurd, but it may
prompt to them. It was a strange arrogancy in Herod to deify himself in
his own thoughts, and yet the acclamations of the people swelled him
into such a blasphemous imagination, that God thought fit to chastise
him, and instruct others by so dreadful a judgment, as clearly baffled
his insolency, and made him and his flatterers confess he was but a
poor, frail man. Ordinarily pride is attended with a judgment, it is
the very prognostic of ruin: ‘Pride goeth before destruction, and a
haughty spirit before a fall,’ Prov. xvi. 18. But these judgments have
something in them peculiar, which other judgments for other sins do
not always express, to a manifestation of a special abhorrency in God
against pride; as, (1.) He commonly smites the thing for which they are
proud. Staupitius boasted of his memory, and God smote it; Hezekiah
boasted of his treasure, and for that God designed them for captivity;
David glorified [himself] in the multitude of his people, but God
lessened them by pestilence; Nebuchadnezzar is proud of his Babel, and
God drove him from the enjoyment of it. Men are proud of children or
relations, and God oft removes them, or makes them a shame and sorrow.
(2.) He doth not only this, but also orders the judgment so that it
shall bring a shame and contempt upon men in that thing wherein they
prided themselves. He will not only punish, but also stain their pride.
The haughty daughters of Zion were not only plagued by removing their
ornaments, bracelets, and the rest of their bravery, but over and above
he ‘smites with a scab the crown of their head, and discovers their
secret parts, and brings a stink and baldness upon them instead of a
sweet smell and well-set hair, and burning instead of beauty,’ Isa.
iii. 17, 24.
So sad a distemper stands in need of a special care; and for that end
we should,
[1.] First, _In all things we have or do, not so much consider what is
excellent, or wherein we excel, as what we have not, and wherein we
come short_. We should be strange to ourselves, and design that the
‘right hand should not know what the left hand doth,’ which must be by
having our eye upon the imperfections that attend us at the best.
[2.] Secondly, _It must be our care to be suspicious of the working of
pride in us_; and also by an industrious watchfulness to give a stop or
check to thoughts of this nature when they arise.
[3.] Thirdly, _The conquest of this cannot be expected without a
serious and constant labour herein_. A humble soul is compared by David
to a weaned child, Ps. cxxxi. 2. But a child is not weaned easily.
Wormwood must be laid on the breast, and time allowed, before the child
will forget it. He only that is content to exercise a discipline upon
himself, and by frequent practices to habituate himself to low and
careful thoughts, is likely to overcome it.
Pride, we have seen, was Satan’s great engine to bring on presumption.
The means by which he endeavoureth to beget pride, as was before noted,
were,
[1.] First, _The consideration of privileges_, as being ‘the Son of
God.’ For this expression, ‘If thou art the Son of God,’ is now urged
in a sense different from that which it had in the first temptation.
There he propounded it as unlikely that he should be the Son of God,
and yet be under such a disregard of providence. In this sense it
notably suited his design of drawing him to a distrust of God’s care,
and consequently of his sonship. Here he is upon a contrary temptation,
and therefore propounds this as a thing of which Christ was assured,
and from that assurance he thus disputes: ‘Thou believest thou art the
Son of God, and dost well depend on his care; therefore needest thou
not to distrust thy preservation, if thou castest thyself down.’
[2.] Secondly, To help his confidence forward to the undertaking, he
suggests _what credit and honour it would be to him, in the sight of
all the people, to be so miraculously kept from hurt_. Hence note,
_Obs._ 11. _That Satan doth usually kindle and nourish pride, by a
perverse confidence of our privileges._
It is very hard for Christians to carry their assurance _even_: not but
that grace in its proper working begets humility, and a watchful care
against sin and folly; but such is our infirmity that we are easily
drawn to be proud of our mercies, and to persuade ourselves that we may
make bold with God because we are his children. Hence was that paradox
of Mr Foxe, ‘That his sins did him most good, and his graces most
hurt;’ he means, sins occasioned his humility, whereas his graces were
apt, through his weakness, to make him proud. And to hide this pride
from man, God is forced to keep them sometime from the sight of their
assurance, or to discipline them by other temptations, as he did with
Paul, lest they should be ‘exalted above measure.’
Note further, _Obs._ 12. _That popular applause Satan finds, and useth
accordingly, to be a great instigator to pride._
The great thing that moved the Pharisees in their often fastings and
large charity, was that they might have praise of men, and therefore
took they care to be seen of men.[426] The heathens noted this to be
the great feeder of that humour which animated them, as a drum or
trumpet animates soldiers to adventurous acts.[427] And some good men
have found no small difficulty to carry steadily, when they have been
hoisted up by the breath of men’s praise; which hath also occasioned
those serious cautions against the danger of flattery and high
commendations, ‘A flattering mouth worketh ruin,’ Prov. xxvi. 28.