Imatges de pàgina
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kind, it is pride; and in this refpect, this is the captain fia, the most general and univerfal fin in all the world. Unbelief may have that name, and be well called our master fin in refpect of juftification; but the chief fin, which is our greatest moral vice, and carries continually the greatest power with it in refpect of fanctification, it is the in of pride. All other fins do a kind of homage to pride, was to their king and lord. Other fins that we (fpeaking from feeling) do call our master fins, are made ufe of by God to humble his faints, and to eat out this fio, and therefore this fin of pride is in that refpect alfo the chicfeft hafin. As we fee in trees there is a mafter root, fo in original fin the mafter root is pride; and therefore God who Crefifts all other fins, is faid especially to refift this fin afor off, Pfal. cxxxvii. 6. he cannot abide the fight of it. Now Satan that knows this fuil well, labours with might and main to provoke all men to this fin; it was his own fin, the very fin that made him of a blessed angel a cursed devil, and therefore he chiefly labours to derive this fin to all the fons of men; and indeed he fo far prevailed on our first parents by telling them, Ye fall be as gods, Gen. iii. 5. that ever fince this fin hath claimed

kind of regency in the hearts of all: as we are finful, fo we are all proud, all would be flattered to an esteem of themselves, Te fhall be as gods, is a temptation to all forts of men. Hence we fay pride is a weed that grows in every ground, yea, on humility itself. Do we not fee men pretend to humility for their greater rife in the world? What felf-denial and hardship will men and women endure for this very fin? Witnefs naked breasts, and naked arms, and naked (houlders, we all hold of Adam in capite; pride was the firft and great fin in Adam, and fo it is in all his feed; we had this luft from him, and he had this luft from the angels: O the pride of angels! it gives them their fall; and O the pride of Adam! it gave him his fall; and O the pride that is in us! and therefore without repentance we may also perish by this epidemical fin.

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SECT. XI.

Of our Wrestling with Satan to overcome this Sin in fema

particulars.

HAT by God's grace we may be able to wrefle THA with Satan and this fin; we may do well to ob ferve fome things in particular, and then deal with it in general.

1. In particular. Pride is either converfant about carnal objects, as pride of beauty, ftrength, riches, apps. rel, &c. or about fpiritual objects, as pride of gifts, graces, privileges. I fhall speak to both these.

1. For the former, as the objects are feveral, fo in re spect of them feverally, confider thus,

1. For beauty. Confider thy beauty is but skin deep; and never was any fo beautiful, but the flowers of the field, fuch as the rofe and lily, do in beauty of colours go beyond them. This made the wife man fay, Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vanity, but a woman that feareth the Lord, fhe foall be praised, Prov. xxxi, 30. that is the true comeliness and best beauty which a picture cannot exprefs. Art thou fair and beautiful, faith Chryfoftom, why, this is the glory of daws and not of men; thou art not fairer than the peacock or the fwan: Do we not fee harlots and effeminate men have a great fhare in this glory? Befides, what lothsome matter lieth hid under this fair skin? What filthy excrements are they that issue out of the nofe, eyes, and ears, and pores, and other paffages? It the fountain within were but viewed whence all these come, how might this humble thee? I may add this ill of beau ty, it is ufed most frequently by the devil most ordinarily for a bait to fin, it is a fhining flame to fet men's hearts on fire with unlawful lufls. But if there were nothing elle, alas! to what purpofe art thou proud of a thing fo muts. bie, a little fcratch impaireth it, and a greater wound doth quite deform it; a day's ficknefs doth much abate it, or if it be but of a week's continuance, it doth quite deface it; yea, fo fading is it, that a little fun-fhine robbeth us of it; or if it be preserved from the violence of extraordinary accidents, yet time will by little and little fteal it away. When old age cometh, it ploughs deep furrows in the

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most beautiful vifage, it changeth the colour, and when "death comes, the moft amiable countenance will be deformed, that they who moft admired it will then loath it. Oh that thou would turn the edge of thy affections from this earthly trash to spiritual and heavenly beauty! Oh that thou wouldst mind the beauty of the mind, which confifts in virtue, and the fanctifying graces of God's Spirit! Old age shall never make any wrinkles in the face of this, fickness fhall never hurt this, violence fhall pever deface this, grief and forrow thall not impair this, death itfelf fhall not blemish or difgrace this, but rather it Chall crown this beauty of grace with the beauty of glory.

2. For ftrength. Confider this is common to men and beasts; how vain is it therefore that any fhould be proud of fuch bafe vanities? Art thou ftrong, faith Chryfoftom, and art thou therefore proud? Why the lion is hardier than thou, and the boar is stronger than thou; yea, robbers, thieves, ruffians, and thy own fervants excel thee herein, and doft thou think this is a thing praife worthy? Thou art strong, but can this deliver thee from thofe innumerable dangers unto which this frail life is daily fubject? The king is not faved by the multitude of an hoft, neither is the mighty man delivered by his great frength, Pfal. xxxiii. 16. It can neither defend thee from the judgments of God, nor from the affaults of the devil; it can neither deliver thee from fickness nor death. Oh that thou wouldst be ftrong in the Lord, and in the power of his might, Eph. vi. 10, 11. Oh that thou wouldst put on the whole armour of God, that thou mightest be able to ftand against the wiles of the devil, Phil. iv. 13. Why, this is ftrength to purpose, hereby thou mighteft be able to do all things thro' Chrift that ftrengthaeth thee, hereby thou mightest stand manfully in the day of battle againft all the affaults of thy fpiritual enemies; bodily ftrength without this is little worth: Oh what will become of thee in the day of trial?

3. For riches; confider thy riches will not avail in the day of the Lord's fierce wrath; what is a fat portion to a lean foul? Outward things never mend us, but often worfen us, for a man to be proud of riches, it as if an

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horfe fhould be proud of his trappings, thy riches are but thorns, which unlefs a man hold warily, he is fure to be pricked: Hence are fo many epithets of riches in fcripture, that they may wean our affections from priding in them, as the mammon of unrighteousness, the riches of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, Luke xvi. 6. 1 Tim. vi. 17. Mat. xiii. 22. Auguftine adds, that they are an evil master, a treacherous fervant, fathers of flattery, fons of grief, a caufe of fear to those that have them, and a cause of sorrow to thofe that want them. Oh that men, Chriftians, profeffors of religion, fhould ever be choaked with these thorns, or intangled with thefe fnares, or especially o vertaken with pride, of fuch fordid, carnal, worldly things.

4. For apparel; confider, that this was the effect of fin; had our first parents continued in their state of in nocency, they had remained glorious in themselves, but fin brought shame, and this hame they would cover by the help of garments: What then is our apparels but a daily monitor to call our fin and fhame to remembrance? Oh that men should aunt themselves in this vanity! As if a thief being adjudged to wear an halter for his crimes, fhould make him one of filk, or golden twift, and because it glitters, fhould prefcntly grow proud of that, which indeed fhould humble him: Why, our apparel is the ve ry figa of our fin, and fhall we convert that which is given us to hide our fin, into fia itfelf? Before Adam fioned, the most glorious garment would have been to him but as a cloud to the fun, and after Adam finned (to put him in mind of his fin and (hame) God clothed him not with filks or velvets, curiously embroidred with gold and filver, but with beafts-fkins, furely this was to humble him, and not to puff him up with pride; this was to mind him of his brutish condition, yea of his frailty and mortality, feeing the creatures for his fake, were already fubject to death and vanity. Oh that thou wouldst mind the word, which bids thee array thyfelf with fhamefacednefs and modesty, not with broidered hair, or gold, or pearls, or coftly apparel, 1 Tim. ii. 9. 1 Pet, iii. 3. Oh that thou wouldft confider thyfelf a pilgrim upon the earth, and toerefore

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therefore thou shouldft not go as a citizen, or courtier of this world! Oh! that as a nobleman would be ashamed to borrow cloths of a beggar, fo thou wouldst rather be afhamed than glory in the ornaments which thou borrowest from inferior creatures, as from one his fleece, and from another his fkin, and from another his feathers, and from another his bones, and from another his entrails, excrements, what not? Why alas, beasts, and birds, and filly worms, have the first title, and moft natural interest to all thou weareft, and thou comest to it only by conqueft, violence and force of arms? Oh that thou wouldst remem ber, that thy gay apparel doth not make thee more religi ous, humble, juft, and temperate, it doth not abate thy pride, but rather encreafeth it, it doth not extinguish the heat of luft, but rather inflames it; it doth not warm thy heart with charity, nor expel the force of Satan's darts, e eff but rather caufeth thy love to freeze, and lays open thy tefoul to Satan's blows! A vicious man adorned with glori ous garments, is like a dead corps ftuck with flowers, or like the ftately temples of Egypt, which had the outward courts, porches, walls, and roofs richly adorned with gold and filver, and curious carving and engraving, but if a man went into the inmoft parts to see the idol which was there worshipped, instead of fome stately image fet out ac cording to the rest of the bravery and pomp, he could find nothing but the base picture or refemblance of fome cat, or crocodile, or ugly ferpent: Thefe men who load them. felves with coftly apparel, if this outward glory were but removed, and they more narrowly fearched into the inmoft temple of their hearts, inftead of God's image fhining in edits fpiritual graces, we should find perhaps crocodiles and ferpents, lufts and pride, and wantonnefs immodefty, and fuch like fins. O that men profeffing mortification should ever be thus vain!

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2. For the other objects of pride, as they are more fpiritual, fo it concerns Chriftians to be more heedful: A meer natural man is proud of his beauty, ftrength, riches, apparel, or the like; but a Chriftian is chiefly prone to be puffed up with higher and more raifed perfections, as being more fuitable to his Chriftian calling. Now as thefe objects

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