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THE
PREFACE.
I
HOPE
there
will
he
something
found in
these
papers,
which
is
suit-
ed
to rectify the
vicious disorders
of
the mind,
£o
subdue the
foolish
vanity
of human nature, and promote a
meek and humble
spirit: But
I
am sure,
they can have
no
such influence,
while they
continue
to
sleep
in
a
desk where
they have lain many years
already.
If
the di-
vine
grace shall
so
far attend
the publication of them
now, as to
make
them attain
these happy
ends,-my
duty
will
be
thankfulness and praise.
While
1
have endeavoured
to
trace out the
pride
of
the
heart,
in
the
various
and general
appearances of it, both
in
higher and lower
life,
I
have
carefully avoided
the
particular
description
of
any person
living.
By this means my
representation of
true
humility
in
the moral and re-
ligious
springs and
advantages of it, together with some
views
of the
opposite
vice, may
have
a
more kindly and powerful
effect
upon every
reader.'
Conviction and reproof are much
better
received when such
hints
only
are
given, as may lead conscience
in
secret to search
out the
criminals, and may teach them
to
set their
own folly
and guilt and dan-
ger before
themselves. We all
like
to
do
this work best
in
retirement
and
silence. And
I
hope
my
readers
will
be
so
kind and
so
just,
both
to themselves
and
to
me, as
to be more diligent
in
the
discovery and curt,
of
any weakness of
their
own,
than
in
pointing
out censure
for
their
neighbours
;
though
it
must he
confessed,
there
is
sufficient
matter
for
it
in
every corner
of the
world.
Surély,
if
we
could
but look
down
upon mankind with an
all-
survey-
ing eye, as
the great God doth,
we
should
see
a dreadful
and
universal
spread
of
this
vice
of pride over all the race of
mail, and
an infinite
number of
mischiefs
derived from it, and
diffused
through
.kingdoms
and churches, through all
human
societies and personal affairs.
Had
we
such
a
view as
this, one would think every son and
daughter of
Adam should labour night
and
day to
root out
this cursed and poison-
ous
plant, till
not a branch or
fibre
of
it
remained to infect the
earth.
Pride
was
the ruin of
angels
:
Pride
was
the
fall
of man
:
as
Ye shall
be
as
Gods,"
was
the great temptation,
and
the event
is, we
are be-
come like
devils
:
Nor
doth the array
of
flesh
and
blood
which we
wear,
cover
our
shame
or
excuse
our iniquity.
God has
sent
his Son
Jesus
into
the
world in
the
likeness
of
man,
and
in
all the
forms of
humiliation,
that
he
might teach
us by bis
word
and
his
example
to be meek and lowly,
and
shew us
how to
regain the
divine favour
and
image, by laying
the foundation
of
his gospel and
of
our
recovery in humility
of
soul
:
"
Blessed
are the poor
in
spirit,
for
their's
is
the
kingdom
of
heaven
;" Mat.
v.
3.
And
next
to
his own
Son,
God
has
set
his
servant Paul
for
our pattern,
who
calls himself,
"
less
than the least
of
all
the saints," and persuades
us
"
to
be
fol-
lowers
of
him
as
he
is
of Christ."
I
have not drawn
out at.large here
the
particular rules
and direc-
tions for
acquiring these
lovely
virtues of christian humility
and
meek-
ness, having
written
so
many chapters
of
advice how
to subdue pride
and
wrath
and
other
vices'
in my
little Treatise of
the
Passions, and
to these
I
refer my
readers under the divine
blessing.
Newington, March
25,
1737.