Prop. iv. Pride is a sin that of all sins makes a man most like to Satan.

Pride is Satan's disease. Pride is so base a disease, that God had rather see his dearest children buffeted by Satan, than that in pride they should be like to Satan, 2 Cor. xii. 7. When Paul, under the abundance of revelations, was in danger of being puffed up, the Lord rather than he would have him proud like Satan, suffers him to be buffeted by Satan. Humility makes a man like angels, and pride makes an angel a devil. Pride is worse than the devil, for the devil cannot hurt thee, till pride hath possest thee. If you would see the devil limned to the life, look upon a proud soul; for as face answers to face, so does a proud soul answer to Satan. Proud souls are Satan's apes, and none imitate him to the life like these: and O that they were sensible of it, before it be too late, before the door of darkness be shut upon them.

Prop. 5. Pride cannot climb so high but justice will be above her.

One asked a philosopher what God was doing; hé answered, that his whole work was to exalt the humble, and pull down the proud. It was pride that turned angels into devils; they would be above others in heaven, and therefore God cast them down to hell. 'Pride,' saith Hugo, " was born in heaven, but forgetting by what way she fell from thence, she could never find the way thither again.' The first man would know as God, and the Babel-builders would dwell as God, but justice sits above them all. This truth you see verified in the justice of God upon Pharaoh, Haman, Herod, Belshazzar and Nebuchadnezzar. All these would be very high, but justice takes the right hand of them all, and brings them down to the dust. Yea, pride cannot climb so high in the hearts of saints, but divine justice will be above it. Uzziah's heart was lifted up, Chron. xxvi. 16, but justice smites him with a leprosy, and so he died out of grief and sorrow, says Josephus. David glories in his own greatness, 1 Chron. xxi. 2; and for this seventy thousand fall by the hand of justice. Hezekiah's heart was lifted up, but wrath was upon him and upon all Judah and Jerusalem for it, 2 Chron. xxxii. 25, Pride sets itself against the honour, being, and sove

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reignty of God, and therefore justice will, in spite of all, sit above her. Other sins strike at the word of God, the people of God, and the creatures of God; but pride strikes directly at the very being of God, and therefore justice will be above her.

Nebuchadnezzar was proud, and God smites his reason, and turns him into a beast. O how many young professors are there in our days, who have been proud of their notions, and proud of their parts and gifts, and justice has so smitten them, that they have lost that life, that sweetness, that spiritualness, that quickness they once had, and are dried and shrivelled up by the hand of justice. They are like the apples of Sodom, glorious without, but rotten and worthless within. Some there are that have been very shining, yet by reason of pride have fallen from a seeming excellency, to be naught; and from naught, to be very naught; and from very naught, to be stark naught. The Lord of hosts hath purposed it, to stain the pride of all glory, and to bring into contempt, or to make light, all the honourable of the earth, Isa. xxiii. 9. The Hebrew word that is here rendered purposed, signifies to consult, or take counsel. It is consulted and agreed upon in council, that he will stain the pride of all glory, and bring into contempt the honourable of the earth; and the counsel of the Lord shall stand. The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up, and he shall be brought low, Isa. ii. 11, 12.

Divine justice will take the right hand of all proud ones on the earth, God bears, as I may say, a special spleen against pride. His heart hates it, Prov. vi. 16, 17; his mouth curses it, Psal. cxix. 21. and his hand plagueth it, as you have seen in the former instances, and as you may see further in these following instances. The king of Egypt, whom Jeremiah prophesied against, was so puffed up with pride, that he boasted his kingdom was so surely settled, that it could not be taken from him either by God or man. Not long afterwards he was taken in battle by Amasis, one of his own subjects, and hanged up. Dionysius,

the tyrant, said in the pride of his heart, that his kingdom was bound to him with chains of adamant; but time soon confuted him, for he was driven out, and forced to teach a school at Corinth for a poor living. Cares, a soldier, being proud of his valour because he had given Cyrus a great wound, shortly after ran mad. In all ages there are notable instances to prove that pride has not got so high, but justice has sat above her.

Prop. 6. Of all sins spiritual pride is the most dangerous, and must be most resisted.

Spiritual pride is the lifting up of the mind against God. It is a tumor and swelling in the mind, and lies in contemning and slighting God, his word, promises, and ordinances; and in the lifting up of a man's self, by reason of birth, breeding, wealth, honour, place, relation, gifts or graces; and in despising others. Of this spiritual pride Habakkuk speaks Chap ii. 4, His soul which is lifted up, is not upright in him. Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord; or, that lifteth up his heart against God or his decrees; as Louis the eleventh did, in that proud speech of his, ' If I shall be saved, I shall be saved; and if I shall be damned, I shall be damned; and there is all the care that I shall take.' Spiritual pride is a white devil, as one calls it, a gilded poison, by which God is robbed of his honour, a man's own soul of his comfort and peace, and others of that benefit and fruit which otherwise they might receive from us. Satan is subtile; he will make a man proud of his very graces; he will make him proud, that he is not proud. Pride grows with the decrease of other sins, and thrives by their decay. Other sins are nourished by poisonous roots, as adultery is nourished by idleness; and gluttony and murder, by malice and envy; but this white devil, spiritual pride, springs from good duties, and good actions towards God and man.

Again; spiritual pride is a very great enemy to the good and salvation of men. The Greek word signifies swelleth, for pride is like a great swelling in the body, which unfits it for any good service. Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life, John v. 40, and ver. 44. How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another? Christ blesses his Father that he had hid those things from the wise and prudent,

and had revealed them unto babes and sucklings. It is the pride of men's hearts that makes them throw off ordinances, as poor and low things, when, alas, in their practices they live below the power, beauty, glory, and holiness of the least and lowest ordinance. There is more holiness, purity, and glory manifested in the lowest administrations of Christ, than is held forth by them in their highest practices.

Prop. 7. Pride unmans a man; it makes him do acts that are below a man; as you may see in Pharaoh, Haman, Herod, Nebuchadnezzar. It makes men lunatics, to say they know not what, and to do they care not what. It was pride that made Hildebrand cause Henry the fourth to stand three days at his gate, with his wife and his child, barefooted. It was pride that made Adonibezek cause threescore and ten kings, with their thumbs and great toes cut off, to gather their meat under his table. Ŏ, what wretched unmanly acts has the pride of many persons put them upon!

Prop. 8. The poorest are oftentimes the proudest.

Pretty is the parable of Jotham; the best trees refused to be king, but the bramble affected it, and did hope and aspire after it, Judges ix. 15. So in 2 Kings xiv. 9; The thistle that was in Lebanon, sent to the cedar that was in Lebanon, saying, Gave thy daughter to my son to wife. Hagar the servant maid will be proud, and insult over her mistress Sarah. The poor sons of Zebedee would sit at Christ's right hand and left; and those that Job disdains to sit with, the dogs of his flock, contemn him in the day of his sorrow. The foot strives to be equal with the head, the servant with his master, and the peasant with the prince. Prop. 9. Pride is a sure forerunner of a fall.

Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall, Prov. xvi. 18. Herod fell from a throne of gold to a bed of dust. Nebuchadnezzar fell from the state of a mighty king to that of a beast. Adam fell from innocency to mortality. The angels fell from heaven to hell, from felicity to misery.

Prop. 10. God will, by an invisible power, carry the day against proud souls.

You that ruffle it out and carry it with a high hand,

remember this, God will by an invisible power carry the day against you. When you think not of it, he will eat you like a moth. For thou hast trusted in thy wickedness, thou hast said, None seeth me: Thy wisdom and thy knowledge, it hath perverted thee: And thou hast said in thine heart, I am, and none else besides me. Therefore shall evil come upon thee; thou shalt not know from whence it riseth; and mischief shall fall upon thee; thou shalt not be able to put it off. And desolation shall come upon thee suddenly, which thou shalt not know, Isaiah xlvii. 10, 11. Impunity oftentimes causeth impudency, but forbearance is no acquittance. The longer the hand is lifted up, the heavier will be the blow at last. Of all metals, lead is the coldest, but being melted, it becomes the hottest. Humble souls know how to apply this, and proud souls shall sooner or later experience this.

CHAPTER II.

ON DIFFERENT DEGREES OF GRACE.

I SHALL now proceed to a second observation, namely, that all saints are not of an equal size and growth in grace and holiness.

Some are higher and some are lower, some are stronger and some are weaker, in spiritual graces and heavenly excellencies. Unto me, who am less than the least.

Among true believers, some may be found to be but weak believers. This point flows as naturally from the words, as the stream does from the fountain; and no point more clear in all the scripture than this. In Rom. xiv. 1, you read of some that are weak in the faith, Them that are weak in the faith receive, saith the apostle. None are to be rejected in whom any thing of Christ is to be found. And so in Matt. xiv. 31, there is mention made of little faith. To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak, 1 Cor. ix. 22. You read of babes in grace. As new-born babes desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby, if so be that ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious, 1 Pet. i. 2, 3. In 1 John ii. 12-14,