If humility is the inseparable
character of a godly man, let us test our hearts by this touchstone. Are we
humble? Alas, where does their godliness appear who are swollen with pride and
ready to burst? But though men are proud, they will not confess it. This
bastard of pride is born but none are willing to father it. Therefore let me
ask a few question and let conscience answer:
1. Are not those who are given to
boasting proud? ‘Your glorying is not good’ ( 1 Cor. 5:6).
(i) Those who glory
in their riches; their hearts swell with their estates. St. Bernard calls pride
the rich man’s cousin. ‘Thine heart is lifted up because of thy riches’ (Ezek.
28:5). (ii) Those who glory in their apparel. Many dress themselves in such
fashions as to make the devil fall in love with them.Black spots, gaudy attire,
naked breasts, what are these but the flags and banners which pride displays?
(iii) Those who glory in their beauty. The body is but dust and blood kneaded
together. Solomon says, ‘Beauty is vain’ (Prov. 31:30). Yet some are so vain as
to be proud of vanity.
(iv) Those who glory in their gifts. These trappings and
ornaments do not set them off in God’s eyes. An angel is a knowledgeable
creature, but take away humility from an angel, and he is a devil.
2. Are not those who have a high
opinion of their own excellences proud? Those who look at themselves in the
magnifying mirror of self-love appear in their own eyes better than they are.
Simon Magus gave out that he was some great one (Acts 8:9). Alexander felt the
need to be the son of Jupiter and of the race of the gods. Sapor, King of
Persia, styles himself ‘Brother of the Sun and Moon’. ‘He tosses aside his
paintpots and his words one-and-a-half feet long’ (Horace). I have read of a
pope who trod upon the neck of Frederick the Emperor and as a cloak for his
pride cited that text, ‘Thou shalt tread upon the lion, and the dragon shalt
thou trample under feet’ (Ps. 91:13). There is no idol like self; the proud man
bows down to this idol.
3. Are not those who despise
others proud? ‘The Pharisees trusted in themselves that they were righteous,
and despised others’ (Luke 18:9). The Chinese people say that Europe has one
eye and they have two, and all the rest of the world is blind. A proud man
looks upon others with such an eye of scorn as Goliath did upon David: ‘when
the Philistine looked about, and saw David, he disdained him’ (1 Sam. 17:42).
They who stand upon the pinnacle of pride look upon other men as no bigger than
crows.
4. Are not those who trumpet
their own praise proud? ‘Before these days rose up Theudas, boasting himself to
be somebody’ (Acts 5:36). A proud man is the herald of his own good deeds; he
blazes his own fame, and therein lies his vice, to paint his own virtue.
5. Are not those who take the
glory due to God to themselves proud? ‘Is not this great Babylon, that I have
built?’ (Dan. 4:30). So says the proud man, ‘Are not these the prayers I have
made? Are not these the works of charity I have done?’ When Herod had made an
oration and the people cried him up for a god (Acts 12:22), he was well content
to have that honour done to him. Pride is the greatest sacrilege; it robs God
of His glory.
6. Are not those who are never
pleased with their condition proud? They speak harshly of God, taxing His care
and wisdom, as if He had never dealt well with them. A proud man God himself
cannot please but, like Momus he is for ever finding fault, and flying in the
face of heaven.
Oh, let us search if there is
none of this leaven of pride in us. Man is naturally a proud piece of flesh;
this sin runs in the blood. Our first parents fell by their pride. They aspired
to deity. There are the seeds of this in the best, but the godly do not allow
themselves in it. They strive to kill this weed by mortification. But certainly
where this sin reigns and prevails, it cannot stand with grace. You may as well
call him who lacks discretion a prudent man, as him who lacks humility a godly
man.
Thomas Watson
The Godly Man’s Picture, pp.
82-84
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