2. Swelling Pride: I will pursue, &c. Pride is provoking, because it is a self-deifying, and sets up the creature as God's Mate. God stands upon his honour, and loves to attack those that would equal themselves with him. Pride sunk the glory of the fallen Angels into misery, and so it will that of the Serpents seed; this is the immediate forerunner of destruction, Prov. 16.18. Men have their hairy scalp, the prime of their strength, and pride of their hearts, when God wounds them, Psal. 68.21. Egypt was become Rahab, pride it self, as the word signifies, and so God called it by that name, Isa. 51.9. When Egypt mounted to Rahab, to the top of pride, then God cut it. When the Dragon bristled, and erected his stately head to seize upon the prey, then God wounded him, put an end to Aegypts pride, and the Israelites fear: He loves to beat down the pride of the one, and raise up the lowliness of the other. When Herod will assume the title of a God given him by the acclamations of the People, an Angel shall immediately make him a Banquet for Worms, Acts 11.22, 23. When Sennacherib had prospered in his Conquest of Judea, had taken many strong Towns, closely be leaguered Jerusalem, thundered out blasphemies against God, and threatenings against his People, then comes an Angel, makes an horrible slaughter in a night, sends him back to his own Country, where after the loss of his Army he lost his life by the hands of his own children. A greater pride cannot be expressed, than what the Apostle predicts of the Man of Sin, and that hath been extant for some time in the world*: And perhaps it will yet amount to a higher step than it hath yet done before he be consumed by the brightness of the Lord's coming, since all that yet lets and hinders is not taken out of the way. The higher the pride, the nearer the fall. When Goliath shall defy the God of Israel, a stone from a sling thrown by the hand of David, our great David, the Antitype, shall lay him vomiting out his soul, and blasphemies on the Earth. We are many times more beholding to the Enemies insolence, than our own innocence. Deut. 32.17. Were it not that God feared the wrath of the Enemy, i. e in their pride, lest their Adversaries should behave themselves strangely, and say, Our hand is high; a sinful Israel should not have so many preservations*.
2. Swelling Pride: I will pursue, &c. Pride is provoking, because it is a self-deifying, and sets up the creature as God's Mate. God stands upon his honour, and loves to attaque those that would equal themselves with him. Pride sunk the glory of the fallen Angels into misery, and so it will that of the Serpents seed; this is the immediate forerunner of destruction, Prov. 16.18. Men have their hairy scalp, the prime of their strength, and pride of their hearts, when God wounds them, Psal. 68.21. Aegypt was become Rahab, pride it self, as the word signifies, and so God called it by that name, Isa. 51.9. When Aegypt mounted to Rahab, to the top of pride, then God cut it. When the Dragon bristled, and erected his stately head to seise upon the prey, then God wounded him, put an end to Aegypts pride, and the Israelites fear: He loves to beat down the pride of the one, and raise up the lowliness of the other. When Herod will assume the title of a God given him by the acclamations of the People, an Angel shall immediately make him a Banquet for Worms, Acts 11.22, 23. When Sennacherib had prospered in his Conquest of Judea, had taken many strong Towns, closely be leaguered Jerusalem, thundred out blasphemies against God, and threatnings against his People, then comes an Angel, makes an horrible slaughter in a night, sends him back to his own Country, where after the loss of his Army he lost his life by the hands of his own children. A greater pride cannot be exprest, than what the Apostle predicts of the Man of Sin, and that hath been extant for some time in the world*: And perhaps it will yet amount to a higher step than it hath yet done before he be consumed by the brightness of the Lord's coming, since all that yet lets and hinders is not taken out of the way. The higher the pride, the nearer the fall. When Goliah shall defie the God of Israel, a stone from a sling thrown by the hand of David, our great David, the Antitype, shall lay him vomiting out his soul, and blasphemies on the Earth. We are many times more beholding to the Enemies insolence, than our own innocence. Deut. 32.17. Were it not that God feared the wrath of the Enemy, i. e in their pride, lest their Adversaries should behave themselves strangely, and say, Our hand is high; a sinful Israel should not have so many preservations*
- *2 Thes. 2.4, Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, in additions to the word, clipping the Institutions of God, and adding new, and canonizing new Mediators of Intercession, who sits in the Temple of God in a profession of Christianity, showing himself that he is God, assuming the name of God, and the title of God, in being called most holy.2 Thes. 2.4, Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, in additions to the word, clipping the Institutions of God, and adding new, and canonizing new Mediators of Intercession, who sits in the Temple of God in a profession of Christianity, shewing himself that he is God, assuming the name of God, and the title of God, in being called most holy.
- *Trap on Exod. p. 9.
