and treats, in His great mercy, every Christian man when He sees him
puffed up, to bring him to his senses, and make him live by faith in
God. If he takes the warning, well; if he does not, he remains in a
lie, and must go where all lies lead. So perfectly does it hold
throughout a man's whole life, that he whose soul is lifted up
within him is not upright; but that the just must live by faith.

Now there is one objection apt to rise in men's minds when they hear
such words as these, which is, that they take such a "low view of
human nature;" it is so galling to our pride to be told that we can
do nothing for ourselves: but if we think of the matter more
closely, and, above all, if we try to put it into practice and live
by faith, we shall find that there is no real reason for thus
objecting. This is not a doctrine which ought to make us despise
men; any doctrine that DOES, does not come of GOD. Men are not
contemptible creatures--they are glorious creatures--they were
created in the image of God; God has put such honour upon them that
He has given them dominion over the whole earth, and made them
partakers of His eternal reason; and His Spirit gives them
understanding to enable them to conquer this earth, and make the
beasts, ay, and the very winds and seas, and fire and steam, their
obedient servants; and human nature, too, when it is what God made
it, and what it ought to be, is not a contemptible thing: it was
noble enough for the Son of God to take it upon Himself--to become
man, without sinning or defiling Himself; and what was good enough
for Him is surely good enough for us. Wickedness consists in
UNMANLINESS, in being unlike a man, in becoming like an evil spirit
or a beast. Holiness consists in becoming a TRUE MAN, in becoming
more and more like the likeness of Jesus Christ. And when the Bible
tells us that we can do nothing of ourselves, but can live only by