WILLIAM LAW, AN 18th century Anglican pastor, wrote the powerful words below. The truths
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| William Law 1686-1761 |
expressed are universal, and they are an especially important corrective to our age of self-esteem. Meditate and rejoice.
“Because an humble state of soul is the very
state of religion, because humility is the life and soul of piety, the
foundation and support of every virtue and good work, the best guard and
security of all holy affections; I shall recommend humility to you, as highly
proper to be made the constant subject of your devotions, at this third hour of
the day; earnestly desiring you to think no day safe, or likely to end well, in
which you have not thus early put yourself in this posture of humility, and
called upon God to carry you through the day, in the exercise of a meek and
lowly spirit."
"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. And although it is thus 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, amongst all sorts of Christians."
"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 steals upon us on all
occasions. Every good thought that we have, every good action that we do, lays
us open to pride, and exposes us to the assaults of vanity and
self-satisfaction. 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 and strong
temptations of this evil spirit. And it is for this reason that I so earnestly
advise every devout person to begin every day in this exercise of humility,
that he may go on in safety under the protection of this good guide, and not
fall a sacrifice to his own progress in those virtues which are to save mankind
from destruction."
"Humility does not consist in having a worse opinion of
ourselves than we deserve, or in abasing ourselves lower than we really are;
but as all virtue is founded in truth, so humility is founded in a true and
just sense of our weakness, misery, and sin. He that rightly feels and lives in
this sense of his condition, lives in humility."
"The weakness of our state appears from our inability to do anything
as of ourselves. In our natural state we are entirely without any power; we are
indeed active beings, but can only act by a power that is every moment lent us
from God. We have no more power of our own to move a hand, or stir a foot, than
to move the sun, or stop the clouds. When we speak a word, we feel no more
power in ourselves to do it, than we feel ourselves able to raise the dead. For
we act no more within our own power, or by our own strength, when we speak a
word, or make a sound, than the Apostles acted within their own power, or by
their own strength, when a word from their mouth cast out devils, and cured
diseases. As it was solely the power of God that enabled them to speak to such
purposes, so it is solely the power of God that enables us to speak at all. We
indeed find that we can speak, as we find that we are alive; but the actual
exercise of speaking is no more in our own power, than the actual enjoyment of
life."
"This is the dependent, helpless poverty of our state; which
is a great reason for humility. For, since we neither are, nor can do anything
of ourselves, to be proud of anything that we are, or of anything that we can
do, and to ascribe glory to ourselves for these things, as our own ornaments,
has the guilt both of stealing and lying. It has the guilt of stealing, as it
gives to ourselves those things which only belong to God; it has the guilt of
lying, as it is the denying the truth of our state, and pretending to be
something that we are not."
"Secondly, Another argument for humility is founded in the
misery of our condition. Now the misery of our condition appears in this, that
we use these borrowed powers of our nature to the torment and vexation of
ourselves, and our fellow creatures. God Almighty has entrusted us with the use
of reason, and we use it to the disorder and corruption of our nature. We
reason ourselves into all kinds of folly and misery, and make our lives the
sport of foolish and extravagant passions; seeking after imaginary happiness in
all kinds of shapes, creating to ourselves a thousand wants, amusing our hearts
with false hopes and fears, using the world worse than irrational animals,
envying, vexing, and tormenting one another with restless passions, and
unreasonable contentions.”
Labels: Humility, Sanctification
