CHAP. VIII.

Wherein fome of the principal Remedies against Pride, or Means for the better attainment of Humility, are confider

I.

ed.

PRID

RIDE though a great, is not an incurable Vice. It is great enough to need, but not fo great as not to admit of a Remedy. Which is that very state and degree of Evil that ferves to quicken and ingage our Care and Diligence to be delivered from it. We do not use to apply Remedies either to flight Hurts, or to apparently mortal Wounds, to fuch as will be Cured without, or to fuch as will not be Cured with them, when a Remedy is either needlefs or in Vain. But when neither of these is the Cafe, then is the proper season to seek out for help, and to apply the means of Recovery. Now this is our State. The Devil's Pride is Incurable, both as to the Guilt, and as to the Power and Habit of it. As to the Guilt, for want of a Mediatour to make fatisfaction for their Offence, fince he that only could do it was pleased not to take upon him the Nature of Angels, but the Seed of Abraham.

And

*

a fix'd

* Hoc eft Iominibus Mors quod Angelis Cafus. Aquinas.

And as to the Power, by reason of his Malice and Obftinacy in Evil, arifing not fo much from the greatness of the Sin, as from the peculiar condition of his Nature and State, whereby he immoveably adheres to whatever he once chufes. In which refpect, the Fall as to Angels is the fame as Death is to Men, leaving them bound in and permanent state, as in Chains of Darkness. But our Condition, Bleffed be God, is far otherwise in both refpects. The guilt of our Pride, as of our other Sins, is remiffible by the Blood of Chrift, and the power of it is Conquerable by his Grace, with the concurrence of our own fincere endeavours in the use of such proper Means as serve in fubordination to it. The principal of which I fhall now briefly confider.

2. In the first place then,the first and most general remedy against Pride,as indeed against all other Sin, I take to be Confideration, or the actual attending to what we Habitually know. For all Sin is from Ignorance as I fhewed before, not habitual Ignorance, (for in that respect as Sin may be, so most of our Sins are against Knowledge) but actual Ignorance, that is, an Ignorance which we labɔur under at the inftant when we act, the light of the Mind being then under an Eclipfe, whereby

whereby we lofe the view of certain Moral or Practical Truths which we habitually and in the general know well enough, but at that point or inftant of time not having them in our fight, at leaft clearly and fully, we may for that Interval be faid to be ignorant of them, and that though we have the knowledge of them in our power. Now this actual Ignorance proceeds from Inadvertency or Inconfideration, from our not applying our Attention to what we habitually know. For 'tis our not attending to our habitual Knowledge that makes us actually Ignorant, as 'tis our actual Ignorance that makes us Sin. And then again, this our Inconfideration, or not attending to what we habitually know, is from our Minds being at that time fill'd, ingaged and divided by the force of the prefent Temptation, the ftrong impreffion of fome fenfible Good or Evil, which diverts our thought from the Confideration of those governing Truths (fuch as, that Sin is the greatest Evil) which regulate our Practice ; by the means of which Non-attention to them we become actually ignorant of them, and fo act as foolishly as if we did not know them, as indeed for that time we do not. This feems to be the true rise and procedure of Sin, to which therefore the proper and moft direct remedy, as ftriking at the very root of it, must be Confideration, or Atten

tion to our habitual Light, the keeping it always in our View, and walking with our Eyes open and fix'd upon it, that so having our Light always with us we may not stumble, as our Saviour affures us that those who walk in the day do not. The proper remedy then against Pride, is Confideration. I do not yet fay of what, but Confideration at large, as it implies a waking and recollected ftate of the Soul, a certain prefence of Mind, as I may call it, whereby we have the actual use and command of our general Knowledge, in oppofition to that Sleepy and Lethargic ftate of Soul, wherein we are apt ever now and then to let our Light go out and be benighted, to forget our felves, take a nod,and fall.

3. What is here faid of Confideration, may also as truly and indeed more directly and immediately be faid of Knowledge, which is the effect of it. For fince Ignorance is the caufe of Pride, and the remedy of any Distemper is that which is contrary to its Cause, it hence follows that one proper and direct remedy against Pride is Knowledge. Indeed the Apostle tells us that Knowledge puffeth up; and it is very true of fome kinds of Knowledge, and of fome degrees of Knowledge, and of fo much common Experience informs us, those that know little being generally obferv'd to be moft Proud of their Knowledge.

But

But then the fame experience will also inform us, that the proper method of Cure in this Cafe is not to take that little away, but to increase it, by adding more degrees of Knowledge to it. By which it plainly appears, that Knowledge does not properly puff up as Knowledge, but only as it partakes of Ignorance; that is, that 'tis not our knowing what we do, but our knowing no more than we do that puffs us up with Pride and Selfconceit. And that indeed is very right. 'Tis our knowing no more than we do,that is our not knowing, that is our Ignorance, that is the Cause of all the Pride that is in the World; and the way to make Men more Humble is to make them Wifer. But as for Knowledge it felf as fuch, if that fhould directly tend to Pride, (for as for its doing fo fometimes by Accident, that's another matter) I fhould be but ill imploy'd in endeavouring to write an inftructive Treatife to inform People in the Nature, Reason, and Duties of Humility. But I hope I am about a Good and Chriftian Undertaking, and that I fhall not contribute to any Man's Pride by making him Wifer, efpecially fince we have a very Wife Man's word for it, that with the lowly is wisdom, Prov. 11. 2. The Connexion is mutual. For as Lowliness is a friend to Wisdom, so true Wisdom is a friend to Lowlinefs. It does not only confift with it,

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