Richard Baxter on Pride

Title: Causes, Evils, Cures, of Heart and Church Divisions

Part One: The Causes of Divisions

Section One: Distempers that Divide

Chapter One: Pride the Chief Dividing Distemper

Pride is the greatest master of misrule in the world; it is the great incendiary in the soul of man, in families, in towns, in cities, in all societies, in church and state: this wind causes tempests to arise. “Only by pride comes contention” (Proverbs 13.10). The Holy Ghost singles out PRIDE as the only cause of all contentions because it is the chief; though there be many in a riot, the whole is usually laid upon the ringleaders. Pride is the ringleader to all riots, divisions, disturbances among us. “Proud and haughty scorner is his name, who deals in proud wrath” (Provers 21.24). Pride may be well indicated for the great common barrator, or wrangler, in all our towns and cities; it makes woeful troubles wherever it comes.

We read in Scripture of the manna that God gave his people; such was the nature of it that the heat of the sun melted it. You will say, “How would it then endure the heat of the oven? For they baked it in the oven.” Yet so it was of a strange kind of nature that it could bear the heat of the oven and not the heat of the sun. Even of such a temper are our hearts; the heat of the sun of prosperity dissolves us, causes us to run one from another. But the heat of the fire of affliction bakes us, brings us and settles us together. It makes us to be one. It takes away our rawness. It consumes many of our ill humors and so composes our spirits into one. The stupidness of our hearts is such that we do not make our brethren’s case our own. But we, for the present having some more liberty than formerly, are lifte up, and in the pride of our hearts push at our brethren and smite our fellow servants. If the troubles be at a little distance from us, though we even hear the cries of our brethren who are in the midst of them, yet we foolishly bless ourselves in our present ease, enjoyments, and hopes, as if our flesh must be spared, our estates and enjoyments continued–yea, raised–whatever becomes of others. O sinful vain spirits befooled and hardened by their pride!

But what are the several workings of pride that make such a stir in the world?

A proud man thinks himself too great to be crossed. “Shall I bear this? I will make you know what it is to do such things against me!” He thinks it a great dishonor to himself to bear anything; therefore he mus needs quarrel and contend, if it is but to show what a man of spirit he is, or to show that he is a man of such worth, that whatever others bear, it is not fit for him to bear it. It is but reason that such a man should make men, who will presume to cross him, to yield to him, to stoop under him. Now when one proud man thinks it a dishonor to him to put up with wrongs from another, who it may be is as proud as himself, and he thinks it a dishonor to put up with wrongs, what peace can their be? Some wrongs must be put up with, but proud men will never agree who shall begin.

PRIDE makes men swell beyond their bounds. The way to keep all things in union is for every man to keep within his bounds. The swelling beyond tends to the breaking all in pieces. “He is a proud man, neither keeps at home, who enlarges his desire as hell, and cannot be satisfied” (Habbakuk 2.5). If any humor of the body goes beyond its bounds, it brings much trouble to it. The health and peace of the body consists in the keeping of aevery humor within its vessel in due proportion.

PRIDE hardens men’s hearts. “His mind is hardened in his pride” (Daniel 5.10). If you would have things cleave, you must have them soft. “Two flints will not join,” the Spaniard have a proverb. Lime and stone will make a wall. If one be hard, yet if the other be yielding, there may be joining, and good may be done, not else.

PRIDE causes men to despise the persons, actions, and sufferings of others. And nothing is more insufferable to a man’s spirit than to be vilified. A proud man despises what others do, and others what he does. Every man, next to his person, desires the honor of his actions. If these two be held in contempt, his sufferings will likewise be held in contempt by the proud. This also goes very near to a man: One man thinks what another man suffers is nothing, no matter what becomes of him. Another thinks his sufferings nothing, and no matter what becomes of him. O at what a distance now are men’s hearts one from another!

PRIDE causes every man to desire to be taken notice of, to have an eminence in some thing or another; if he cannot be eminent on one side, he will get to the other; he must be taken notice of, one way or other; when he is in a good and peaceable way, God makes use of him. Yet because he is not observed and looked upon as eminent, he will rather turn to some other way, to contend, strive, to oppose, or anything, that he may be taken notice of, to be somebody, that he may not go out of the world without some noise. “What shall such a man as I, of such parts, such approved abilities, so endued by God to do some eminent service, be laid aside and nobody regard me? I must set upon some notable workd, something that may draw the eye of observance upon me!” I have read of a young man who set Diana’s temple on fire, and being asked the reason, he said, “That he migh have a name that the people might talk of him.” Because he could not be famous for doing good, he would for doing evil. Proud spirits will venture the setting the timle of God–yea, church and state–on fire, that they may have a name. Whatever they do or suffer to get a name, they will rather venture than die in obscurity: that above all things they cannot bear.

A proud man makes his will the rule of his actions, and would have it be the rule of other men’s too. And other men, being proud, would have their wills the rule of their actions, and of his too. Thus the blustering wind of PRIDE in men’s hearts causes them to jostle one against another, and so to split themselves upon another–as when ships lie together, a violent wind breaking their anchor cables causes them to dash one upon another, and so to make shipwreck even in the haven.

Proud men will venture upon things unseemly; thinking their esteem and greatness will bear them out; and others who are proud will venture upon the like, upon the same ground. For every man is ready to high thoughts of himself. “Deliver me from presumptious sins” (Psalms 19.14): a superbis, so some ab insolentibus, so others, from proud, from insolent sins.

If there is anything to be done that is conceived to be mean and low, a proud man will strive to put it upon others, and others who are proud, will strive to put it upon him. And if it be a work of credit, then he seeks it to himself, and others seek it to themselves, and hence are jarrings and divisions.

One proud man thinks himself the only worthy man to have his counsel followed and his desires satisfied, and the other thinks himself the man that should have his counsel followed and his desires satisfied; and thus men struggle and oppose one another.

Here we see what a make bate PRIDE is. That which Tertullus said to Felix (Acts 24.2) is true humility: “By you we enjoy great quietness.” But the contrary is true of pride: “By you are made woeful divisions; by you we suffer miserable disturbances.” Though there be no occasion of querrel, yet pride will make some. Only by pride comes contention (as before: Proverbs 13.10).

Now let every man look into his own heart and see what pride has been, and still is, there; and be humbled befor the Lord for this. All you contentious, froward, quarrelsome people, you are charged this day from God with being men and women of proud spirits, and what evil there is in our sad divisions, that pride in your bosom is a great cause of it. St. Paul “did keep under his body, lest after he had preached to others, he should become a castaway,” or a reprobate. Let us all look to it, and especially ministers, lest after all our profession and glorious shows, we at last become reprobates, at least such as God may cast out for destruction, even in this world, taking no delight in make use of; what, in such times as these to have hearts swollen and lifted up with pride? God is now about staying the pride of the earth. How unseasonable and dangerous for a mariner to have his topsails up, and all spread in a violent storm. It is time then to pull down all, lest he sink irrevocably. The point of a needle will let the wind out of a bladder, and shall not the swords of God, the swords of war and plague, that have got so deep into our bowels, let out the windy pride of our hearts? “The haughtiness of men shall be bowed down and the Lord himself will be exalted.” The Lord humbles us that he may reconcile us, not only to himself, but to one another.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *