Sign III. Pride maketh men more desirous to be over-loved themselves, than that God be loved by themselves or others. They would fain have the eyes and hearts of all men turned upon them, as if they were as the sun, to be admired and loved by all that see them.
Sign IV. Pride causeth men to depend upon themselves, and contrive inordinately for themselves, and trust in themselves; as if they lived by their own wit, and power, and industry, more than by the favour and providence of God. Isa. ix. 9; Obad. 3.
Sign V. Pride makes men return the thanks to themselves which is due to God for the mercies which they have received. God is thanked by them but in compliment; but they seriously ascribe it to their care, or skill, or industry, or power, Dan. iv. 30; they sacrifice to their net, Hab. i. 16, and say, Our hand, our contrivance, our power, our good husbandry hath done all this.[209]
Sign VI. Pride setteth up the wisdom of a foolish man against the infinite wisdom of God; it makes men presume to judge their Judge, and judge his laws, before they understand them; and to quarrel with all that they find unsuitable to their own conceits; and say, How improbable is this or that! and how can these things be? He that cannot undo a pair of tarrying irons, or unriddle a riddle till it be taught him, which afterwards appeareth plain, will question the truth of the word of God about the most high, unsearchable mysteries. Proud men think they could mend God's word, and they could better have ordered matters in the world, and for the church, and for themselves, and for their friends, than the providence of God hath done.[210]
Sign VII. Pride maketh men set up their own love and mercy above the love and mercy of God. Augustine mentioneth a sort of heretics called Misericordes, merciful men; and Origen was led hereby into his errors. When they think of hell fire, and the number of the miserable, and the fewness of the saved, they consult with their ignorant compassion, and think that this is below the love and mercy which is in themselves, and that they would not thus use an enemy of their own; and therefore they censure the holy Scriptures, and pride inclineth them strongly to unbelief; while they forget the narrowness and darkness of their souls, and how unfit they are to censure God, and how many truths may be unseen of them, which would fully satisfy them if they knew them; and how quickly God will show them that which shall justify his word and all his works, and convince them of the folly and arrogancy of their unbelief and censures.
Sign VIII. Pride makes men pretend to be more just than God; and to think that they could more justly govern the world; and to censure God's threatenings, and the sufferings of the good, and the prosperity of the wicked, as things so unjust, as that they thereby incline to atheism. So James and John would be more just than Christ, and call down fire on the rejecters of the gospel; and the prodigal's brother, Luke xv. repined at his father's lenity.
Sign IX. Pride maketh men slight the authority and commands of God, and despise his messengers, and choose to be ruled by their own conceits, and lusts, and interest, Jer. xiii. 15, 17; xliii. 2, 3; when the humble tremble at his word, and readily obey it, Isa. lvii. 15; Neh. ix. 16, 29; Isa. ix. 9.
Sign X. A proud man in power will expect that his will be obeyed before the will of God; and that the subjects of God displease their Master rather than him: he will think it a crime for a man to inquire first what God would have him do; or to plead conscience and the commands of the God of heaven, against the obeying of his unjust commands. If he offer you preferment, as Balak did Balaam, he looketh you should be more taken with it, than with God's offer of eternal life: if he threaten you, as Nebuchadnezzar did the three witnesses, he looks that you should be more afraid of him than of God, who threateneth your damnation; and is angry if you be not.
Sign XI. A proud man is more offended with one that would question his authority, or speak diminutively of his power, or displease his will, or cross his interest, than with one that sinneth against the authority, and will, and interest of God. He is much more zealous for himself and his own honour, than for God's; and grieved more for his own dishonour, and hateth his own enemies more than God's; and can tread down the interest of God and souls, if it seem but necessary to his honour or revenge: he is much more pleased and delighted with his own applause, and honour, and greatness, than with the glory of God, or the fulfilling of his will.
Sign XII. Proud men would fain steal from God himself the honour of many of his most excellent works.[211] If they are rulers, they are more desirous that the thanks for the order and peace of societies, be given by the people to them, than unto God. If they are preachers, they would fain have more than their due, of the honour of men's conversion and edification: if they are pastors, they would encroach upon Christ's part of the government of his church. If they be bountiful to the poor, and do any good works, they would have more of the praise than belongeth to a steward, or messenger that delivereth the gifts of God. If they be physicians, they would have the real honour of the cure, and have God to be but a barren compliment: like the atheistical physician, that reviled and beat his patient for thanking God that he was well, When, saith he, it was I that cured you, and do you thank God for it?