But why should God resist
the proud? How does a man's being proud injure God, who is "I AM THAT I
AM;" perfectly self-sufficient, having neither parts nor passions, who
tempteth no man, neither is tempted of any? "Why should God go out of
His way, as it were, to care for such a paltry folly as the pride of an
ignorant, weak, short-sighted creature like man?
Now, let us take care that we do not give a wrong answer to this
question--an answer which too many have given, in their hearts and minds,
though not perhaps in words, and so have fallen into abject and cruel
superstitions, from which may God keep us, and our children after us.
They have said to themselves, God is proud, and has a right to be proud:
and therefore He chooses no one to be proud but Himself. Pride in man
calls out His pride, and makes Him angry. They have thought of God as
some despotic Sultan of the Indies, who is surrounded, not by free men,
but by slaves; who will have those slaves at his beck and nod. In one
word, they have thought of God as a tyrant. They have thought of God,
and, may God forgive them, have talked of God as if He were like
Nebuchadnezzar of old, who, when the three young men refused to obey him,
was filled with rage and fury, and cast them into a burning fiery
furnace.
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