478 / 652
¢8$
THE SPRINGS
OF
ST. PAUL'S
BUMILITY.
{SECT.
1.
selves,
and
know
best what
our
own
former
sins
and
fol-
lies
have
been.
Some
of
us
perhaps
have been suffered
to
fall
into more criminal actions and
shameful
iniquities
than
others; but
there
is
not
one
of
us who
has
not
sinned enough to make
him lie
humble
in the dust,
and
think meanly
of
himself if
our
former iniquities were
always
kept
in
view.
But
alas
!
we
are
much inclined
to
forget our
sins,
to
cast
them
behind
our
back, to
turn
our
eyes away
from them
;
it
is
a
painful and an uneasy
sight;
while
at
the same time
we
vainly
turn
our
eyes
to
our
own
fancied
excellencies,
and
with
pleasure
we
dwell long in
the
survey
of
our
own
real or
imagined qua
-
lifications
and virtues
;
We aggrandize
our
little
worth-
less selves
into
idols,
and then
we
worship the vain
image
which
our pride
has
made.
We
pay much incense
of
self
flattery and praise
to
the
swelling
and exalted idea
of
the little
worthless name
I
or me
;
and
when
we
have
set
up
a
false god for
our
own
worship,
we
are
fond to have
other
men bow down
and
worship
it
too.
Come,
my
soul, come,
let
the
holy
apostle
teach thee
to
secure thyself against the danger and deceit
of
this
foolish
pride
:
Let
him
instruct
thee
how
to depress
and
keep
down this
rising tumour, this fermenting
swelling
thing,
self.
Take
a
frequent
survey
of thy former
sins
and
follies
;
look into
thy heart,
behold the
hourly work-
ings
of
iniquity
there;
what abatements
of
thy fancied
honour, what
defilements and stains and inward
shame
wilt thou
find
upon thee
?
Methinks,
there
is
something
elegant
and exalted
in
the language
of
a
famous English
poet
*,
while he
is
humbling the vanity
of
human
nature
beneath
the
brute creatures,
and
even
beneath
the things
which have
neither
sense
nor
life
:
°°
Let the
proud peacock
his
gay
feathers spread
,..And
court the female
to his
painted bed
Let
winds
and
seas
together rage
and
swell
;
This
nature teaches,
and't
becomes
them well.
Pride
was
not
made
for
man. A
conscious sense
Of
guilt
and
folly
and
their
consequence
Destroys the claim, and
to
beholders tells,
IJere
nothing but the
shape of manhood dwells,"
* Waller.
H
.
,.-