But if the practice of the saints in all ages, if the customs of the pious Jews and primitive Christians be of any force with us, we have authority enough to persuade us, to make this hour a constant season of devotion.
I have in the last chapter laid before you the excellency of praise and thanksgiving, and recommended that as the subject of your first devotions in the morning.
And because humility is the life and soul of piety, the ground and security of all holy affections, this may be the subject of your devotions at this hour.
This virtue is so essential to the right state of our souls, that there is no pretending to a reasonable or pious life without it. We may as well think to see without eyes, or live without breath, as to live in the spirit of religion, without the spirit of humility.
But altho’ it is the soul and essence of all religious duties; yet is it, generally speaking, the least understood, the least regarded, the least intended, the least desired, and sought after, of all other virtues.
*No people have more occasion to be afraid of the approaches of pride, than those who have made some advances in a pious life. For pride can grow as well upon our virtues as our vices, and steal upon us on all occasions.
Every good thought we have, every good action we do, lays us open to pride.
*It is not only the beauty of our persons, the gifts of fortune, our natural talents, and the distinctions of life; but even our devotions and alms, our fastings and humiliations, expose us to fresh temptations of this evil spirit.
And it is for this reason, I so earnestly advise every devout person to the exercise of humility, that he may not fall a sacrifice to his own progress in those virtues, which are to save mankind from destruction.
As all virtue is founded in truth; so humility is a true sense of our weakness, misery, and sin.