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The sin of envy being censured before, our apostle next condemns the sin of pride; he uses a military term when he tells us, the God resisted the proud; it signifies, that he sees himself as in battle array against the proud, in a direct oppositon to him; there are no sort of sinners whom God sets himself so much against to punish and plague as proud sinners: such are wholly out of his favour; he beholdeth them afar off, and they are the subjects of his high displeasure; like naked men in an army, they stand exposed to his wrath, they have no shelter, nothing to keep off the threatening from them: for there can be no shelter from divine wrath, but in divine love.
There are two eminent works of divine providence in the world, the one is to lift us and exalt the humble, the other is to abase and pull down the proud; some pride themselves in their natural parts, others in their acquired parts; some in their moral virues and evangelical graces, others in their holy duties and spiritual performances; we seldom do well, but we think too well of ourselves.
Learn hence, that pride is a common sin, and provoking; yea, a very provoking sin, and so must needs be, because it is an usurpation of the place and power of God, and sets itself against all the commands and threatenings of God: God resisteth the proud, but he giveth grace to the humble:
grace, that is,
1. Favour; the humble shall have his favour, and the proud his frowns.
2. God giveth grace, that is, more grace, farther measures of grace, to the humble: as we lay up our richest wines in the lowest cellars so does God lodge his choicest graces in humble and lowly hearts; he giveth not only grace, but more grace, to the humble; such as are low in their own eyes, are under the special protection and direction of the Most High God.