Part 1 › Chapter 4 › Part 5 › Signs of the worst part of PRIDE against GOD., A Christian Directory by Richard Baxter (1673) | AskReformation

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§. 29. Sign 19. A proud man is discontented with his Degree, especially if it be low: He would be¹ higher in power, and honour, and wealth: yea, he is never so high but he would fain be one step higher. If he had a Kingdom, he would have another: and if he had the Dominions of the Turkish or Tartarian Emperor, he would desire to enlarge them, and to have more; and would not be satisfied till he had all the world: Men feel not this in their low condition: They think, If I had but so much or so much, I would be content: But this is their ignorance of the insatiable Pride that dwelleth in them. Do you not see the greatest Emperors on Earth still seeking to be greater: Every man naturally would be a Pope, the Universal Monarch of the world: And every such Pope would have both Swords, and have Princes and people wholly at their will: And when they have no mind to hurt, they would have power to hurt; that all the world might hold their Estates, and Liberties, and Lives, as by their clemency and gift, and they might be as God to other men: And if they had attained this, Pride would not stop, till it had caused them to aspire to all the prerogatives of God, and to depose him and dethrone him of his Godhead and Majesty that they might have his place.

§. 29. Sign 19. A proud man is discontented with his Degree, especially if it be low: He would be¹ higher in power, and honour, and wealth: yea, he is never so high but he would fain be one step higher. If he had a Kingdom, he would have another: and if he had the Dominions of the Turkish or Tartarian Emperour, he would desire to enlarge them, and to have more; and would not be satisfied till he had all the world: Men feel not this in their low condition: They think, If I had but so much or so much, I would be content: But this is their ignorance of the insatiable Pride that dwelleth in them. Do you not see the greatest Emperours on Earth still seeking to be greater: Every man naturally would be a Pope, the Universal Monarch of the world: And every such Pope would have both Swords, and have Princes and people wholly at their will: And when they have no mind to hurt, they would have power to hurt; that all the world might hold their Estates, and Liberties, and Lives, as by their clemency and gift, and they might be as God to other men: And if they had attained this, Pride would not stop, till it had caused them to aspire to all the prerogatives of God, and to depose him and dethrone him of his Godhead and Majesty that they might have his place.

1Sign 19.

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§. 31. Sign 1. A Proud heart is very hardly brought to see the greatness of its sins, or to know its¹ emptiness of Grace, or to be convinced of its unpardoned miserable state, or of the Justice of God² if he should damn it to everlasting torments. Concerning others it may confess all this; but hardly of it self. Its own unbelief, and averseness from God and holiness, seemeth to it a small and tolerable fault: Its own pride, and lust, and worldliness, and sensuality, seem not to be so bad as to deserve damnation: Much less the smallest sin which it committeth. Though customarily they may say that God were just, if he did condemn them, yet they believe it not at the heart. The most convincing Preacher shall have much ado to bring a proud man heartily to confess that he is an enemy to God, a child of wrath, and under the guilt of all his sins, and sure to be condemned unless he be converted. He will confess that he is a sinner, or any thing else which the most godly must confess, or which doth not conclude him to be in a damnable unrenewed state: But to make an ungodly man know that he is ungodly, and an impenitent person know that he is impenitent, and and unsanctified person know that he is unsanctified, is wonderful hard, because that Pride hath dominion in them. Are we blind also? Say the proud incorrigible Pharisees to Christ, Joh. 9. 40.

§. 31. Sign 1. A Proud heart is very hardly brought to see the greatness of its sins, or to know its¹ emptiness of Grace, or to be convinced of its unpardoned miserable state, or of the Justice of God² if he should damn it to everlasting torments. Concerning others it may confess all this; but hardly of it self. Its own unbelief, and aversness from God and holiness, seemeth to it a small and tollerable fault: Its own pride, and lust, and worldliness, and sensuality, seem not to be so bad as to deserve damnation: Much less the smallest sin which it committeth. Though customarily they may say that God were just, if he did condemn them, yet they believe it not at the heart. The most convincing Preacher shall have much ado to bring a proud man heartily to confess that he is an enemy to God, a child of wrath, and under the guilt of all his sins, and sure to be condemned unless he be converted. He will confess that he is a sinner, or any thing else which the most godly must confess, or which doth not conclude him to be in a damnable unrenewed state: But to make an ungodly man know that he is ungodly, and an impenitent person know that he is impenitent, and and unsanctified person know that he is unsanctified, is wonderful hard, because that Pride hath dominion in them. Are we blind also? Say the proud incorrigible Pharisees to Christ, Ioh. 9. 40.

1Sign 1.
2Men sick in mind as witless fools, and loose persons, and unjust, and injurious, think no• that that they do am•ss and sin, &c. Plutarch. Tract. tha• Maladies o• the mind are worse than those of the body.Men sick in mind as witless fools, and loose persons, and unjust, and injurious, think no• that that they do am•ss and sin, &c. Plutar•h. Tract. tha• Maladies o• the mind are worse than those of the body.

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§. 33. Sign 3. A Proud heart hath very little sense of the necessity of a Saviour, to die for his sins,¹ and satisfy Gods justice, and reconcile him to God: Notionally he is sick of sin; and notionally he thinks he needeth a Physician: But practically at the heart, he feeleth little of his disease, and therefore little s•ts by Christ. He feeleth not that which should throughly acquaint him with the Reasons of this blessed work of our Redemption: And therefore indeed is a stranger to the mystery, and an unbeliever at the heart: and would turn Apostate if the trial were strong enough. He never felt himself a condemned man, under the curse and wrath of God, and liable to Hell: And therefore never lay in tears with Mary at his Saviours feet, nor melted over his bleeding Lord; nor feelingly said with Paul, [He came to save sinners of whom I am chief] nor esteemed all things as loss and dung for the knowledge of Christ, that he might be found in him, Phil. 3. 7, 8. He is a Christian but as a Turk is a Mahometan, because it is the Religion of the King, and the Country, in which he was bred.

§. 33. Sign 3. A Proud heart hath very little sense of the necessity of a Saviour, to die for his sins,¹ and satisfie Gods justice, and reconcile him to God: Notionally he is sick of sin; and notionally he thinks he needeth a Physicion: But practically at the heart, he feeleth little of his disease, and therefore little s•ts by Christ. He feeleth not that which should throughly acquaint him with the Reasons of this blessed work of our Redemption: And therefore indeed is a stranger to the mystery, and an unbeliever at the heart: and would turn Apostate if the tryal were strong enough. He never felt himself a condemned man, under the curse and wrath of God, and lyable to Hell: And therefore never lay in tears with Mary at his Saviours feet, nor melted over his bleeding Lord; nor feelingly said with Paul, [He came to save sinners of whom I am chief] nor esteemed all things as loss and dung for the knowledge of Christ, that he might be found in him, Phil. 3. 7, 8. He is a Christian but as a Turk is a Mahom•tane, because it is the Religion of the King, and the Country, in which he was bred.

1Sign. 3.