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_. *The _weakness_ of our state appears from our inability to do any thing 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_.