Pride and Humility Are the Two Master Powers

William Law, in his masterpiece, An Humble, Earnest, and Affectionate Address to the Clergy, writes the following about the results of pride and humility in the human. The first comes from Satan's interior influence on the race and in the individual, the second from Christ's divine presence and life within us. No amount of study can remove the one and create the other. Only our living union with Christ produces the change. It can come in no other way.

Here are his words:

In what lies the great struggle for eternal life? It all lies in the strife between pride and humility: all other things, no matter what they are, are but as under workmen; pride and humility are the two master powers, the two kingdoms of strife for the eternal possession of man.

And here it is to be observed, that every son of Adam is in the service of pride and self, no matter what he is doing, until a humility that comes solely from heaven has been his redeemer. Until then, all that he does will be only done by the right hand, that the left hand may know of it. And he that thinks it possible for the natural man to have a better humility than this from his own right reason (as it is often miscalled) refined by education, shows himself quite ignorant of this one very plain truth of the gospel, namely, that there never was, nor ever will be, but one humility in the whole world, and that is the one humility of Christ, which man since the fall of Adam never had the least degree of, except from Christ. Humility is one, in the same sense and truth, as Christ is one, the mediator is one, redemption is one. There are not two lambs of God that take away the sins of the world. But if there was any humility besides that of Christ, there would be something else besides Him that could take away the sins of the world. "All that came before Me," says Christ, "Were thieves and robbers": We are used to confining this to persons; but the same is as true of every virtue, whether it has the name of humility, charity, piety, or anything else; if it comes before Christ, however good it may pretend to be, it is but a cheat, a thief, and a robber, under the name of a Godly virtue. And the reason is, because pride and self have all of man, until man has his all from Christ. He therefore only fights the good fight, whose strife is, that the self-idolatrous nature which he has from Adam may be brought to death, by the supernatural humility of Christ brought to life in him.

The enemies to man's rising out of the fall of Adam, through the Spirit and power of Christ, are many. But the one great dragon-enemy, called anti-Christ, is self-exaltation. This is his birth, his pomp, his power, and his throne; when self-exaltation ceases, the last enemy is destroyed, and all that came from the pride and death of Adam is swallowed up in victory.

There has been a lot of discussion, as to where and what anti-Christ is, or by what signs he may be known. Some say he has been in the Christian world ever since the gospel times, yes, that he was even then beginning to appear and show himself. Others say he came in with this, or that pope; others that he is not yet come, but near at hand. But to know with certainty, where and what anti-Christ is, and who is with him, and who is against him, you need only read this short description which Christ gives of Himself. "(1) I can do nothing of myself. (2) I came not to do my own will. (3) I seek not my own glory. (4) I am meek and lowly of heart." Now if this is Christ, then self-ability or self-exaltation, being the highest and fullest contrariety to all this, must be alone the one great anti-Christ, that opposes and withstands the whole nature and Spirit of Christ.

What therefore has everyone so much to fear, to renounce and abhor, as every inward sensibility of self-exaltation, and every outward work that proceeds from it. But now, at what things shall a man look, to see that working of self which raises pride to its strongest life, and most of all hinders the birth of the humble Jesus in his soul? Shall he call the pomps and vanities of the world the highest works of self-adoration? Shall he look at the fops, and painted ladies, to see the pride that has the most of anti-Christ in it? No, by no means. These are indeed marks, shameful enough, of the vain, foolish heart of man, but yet, comparatively speaking, they are but the skin-deep follies of that pride which the fall of man has brought forth in himself. If you would like to see the deepest root, and iron-strength of pride and self-adoration, you must enter into the dark chamber of man's fiery soul, where the light of God (which alone gives humility and meek submission to all created spirits) being extinguished by the death which Adam died, Satan, or self-exaltation, which is the same thing, became the strong man that kept possession of the house, Until a stronger than he should come upon him. In this secret source of an eternal fiery soul, glorying in the astral light of this world, a swelling kingdom of pomp's and vanities is set up in the heart of man, of which, all outward pompous vanities are but its childish transitory playthings. The inward strong man of pride, the diabolical self, has his higher works within; he dwells in the strength of the heart, and has every power and faculty of the soul offering continual incense to him. His memory, his will, his understanding, his imagination, are always at work for him, and for no one else. His memory is the faithful repository of all the fine things that self has ever done; and lest anything of them should be lost or forgotten, she is continually setting them before his eyes. His will, though it has all the world before it, yet goes after nothing, but as self sends it. His understanding is ever searching for new projects to enlarge the dominions of self; and if this fails, imagination comes in, as the last and truest support of self, she makes him a king and mighty Lord of castles in the air. This is that full-born natural self, that must be pulled out of the heart, and totally denied, or there can be no disciple of Christ; which is only saying this plain truth, that the apostate self-idolatrous nature of the old man must be put off, or there can be no new creature in Christ.

All that it has or does, will be either the glory of God manifested in it, or the power of hell in full possession of it!

Now what is it in the human soul that most of all hinders the death of this old man? What is it that above all other things strengthens and exalts the life of self, and makes it the master and governor of all the powers of the heart and soul? It is the fancied glitter of genius, the flights of imagination, the glory of learning, and the self-conceited strength of natural reason: these are the strong holds of fallen nature, the master-builders of pride's temple in the heart of man, and which, as so many priests, keep up the daily worship of idol-self. And here let it be well observed, that all these magnified talents of the natural man are started up through his miserable fall from the life of God in his soul. Wit, genius, learning, and natural reason, would never have had any more of a name among men, than blindness, ignorance, and sickness, had man continued, as at first, an holy image of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Everything then that dwelt in him, or came from him, would have only said so much of God, and nothing of himself, have manifested nothing to him but the heavenly powers of the triune life of God dwelling in him. He would have had no more sense or consciousness of his own wit, or natural reason, or any power of goodness in all that he was, and did, than of his own creating power, at beholding the created heavens and earth. It is his dreadful fall from the life of God in his soul, that has furnished him with these high intellectual riches, just as it has furnished him with the substantial riches of his bestial appetites and lusts. And when the lusts of the flesh have spent out their life, when the dark thick body of earthly flesh and blood shall be forced to let the soul go loose, all these bright talents will end with that system of fleshly lusts, in which they begun; and that which remains of man will have nothing of its own, nothing that can say, I do this, or I do that; but all that it has or does, will be either the glory of God manifested in it, or the power of hell in full possession of it. The time of man's playing with wit, and abilities, and of fancying himself to be something great and considerable in the intellectual world, may be much shorter, but can be no longer, than he can eat and drink with the animals of this world. When the time comes, that fine houses, rich settlements, acquired honors, and rabbi, rabbi, must take their leave of him, all the stately structures, which genius, learning, and flights of imagination, have painted inwardly on his brain and outwardly on paper, must bear full witness to Solomon's vanity of vanities.

Let then the high accomplished scholar reflect, that he comes by his wit, and acute abilities, just as the serpent came by his subtlety; let him reflect, that he might as well dream of acquiring angelic purity to add to his animal nature by multiplying new invented delights for his earthly passions and tempers, as of raising his soul into Divine knowledge through the well exercised powers of his natural reason and imagination.

The finest intellectual power, and that which has the best help in it towards bringing man again into the region of Divine light, is that poor despised thing called simplicity. This is that which stops the workings of the fallen life of nature, and leaves room for God to work again in the soul, according to the good pleasure of His holy will. It stands in such a waiting posture before God, and in such readiness for the Divine birth, as the plants of the earth wait for the inflowing riches of the light and air. But the self-assuming workings of man's natural powers shut him up in himself, closely barred up against the inflowing riches of the light and Spirit of God.

Yet so it is, in this fallen state of the gospel church, that with these proud endowments of fallen nature, the classic scholar, fully weighed down with pagan light and skill, comes forth to play the critic and orator with the simplicity of the salvation mysteries; mysteries which mean nothing else but the inward work of the triune God in the soul of man, nor any other work there, but raising up a dead Adam into a living Christ of God.

However, to make way for division, criticism, and language-learning, to have the full management of salvation doctrines, the well-read scholar declares, that the ancient way of knowing the things of God, taught and practiced by fishermen-Apostles, is obsolete. They indeed needed to have Divine knowledge from the immediate continual operation of the Holy Spirit, but this state was only for a time, until genius, and learning entered into the church. Behold, "The abomination of desolation standing in the holy place!" For as soon as this doctrine is set up, that man's natural elements and acquired learning have full right and power to sit in the divinity chair, and to guide men into that truth which was once the office and power of the Holy Spirit, as soon as this is done, and so far as it is received, it may with the greatest truth be said, that the kingdom of God is entirely shut up, and only a kingdom of scribes, Pharisees, and hypocrites, can come instead of it. For by this doctrine the whole nature and power of gospel religion is much more denied, than by setting up the infallibility of the pope; for though his claim to infallibility is false, yet he claims it from and under the Holy Spirit; but the protestant scholar has his divinity knowledge, his power in the kingdom of truth, from himself, his own logic, and learned reason. Christ has nowhere instituted an infallible pope; and it is as certain, that He has nowhere spoken one single word, or given the least power to logic, learning, or the natural powers of man, in His kingdom. He didn’t say to them, "It is also expedient for you that I go away, that your own natural abilities and learned reason may have the guidance of you into all truth?" This is nowhere said, unless logic can prove it from these words, "Without Me you can do nothing," and, "Lo, I am with you to the end of the world."

The first and main doctrine of Christ and His apostles was, to tell the Jews, "That the kingdom of God was at hand," or was come to them. Proof enough surely, that their church was not that kingdom of God, though by God's appointment, and under laws of His own commanding. But why not, when it was thus set up by God? It was because it had human and worldly things in it, it consisted of carnal ordinances, and had only types, and figures, and shadows of the kingdom of God that was to come. Of this kingdom, Christ says, "My kingdom is not of this world"; and as a proof of it, he adds, "If it was of this world, then would My servants fight for Me"; which was saying, that it was so different in kind, and so superior in nature to this world, that no sort of worldly power could either help, or hinder it. But of this world, into which the kingdom of God was come, the holy one of God says, "In the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good comfort, I have overcome the world." Now how was it that Christ's victory was their victory? It was, because He was in them, and they in Him, "Because I live, you shall live also; in that day you shall know that I am in the Father, and you in Me, and I in you."

This kingdom of God that was come to them, was the same kingdom of God in which Adam was born and began his first glorious life, when the image and likeness of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit had an outward glory, like that which broke through the body of Christ, when on "Mount Tabor His face did shine as the sun, and His raiment was white as the light." To the children of this kingdom, says its Almighty King, "When they bring you before magistrates and powers, take no thought how, or what you shall answer, or what you shall say unto them, for the Holy Ghost shall teach you in that same hour what you ought to say. For it is not you that speaks, but the Spirit of your Father that speaks in you."

No higher, or other thing is said here, than in these other words, "Take no thought, what you shall eat, or drink, or wherewithal you shall be clothed, but seek first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." This is the truth of the kingdom of God, come unto men, and this is the birth-right privilege of all that are living members of it, to be delivered from their own natural spirit which they had from Adam, from the spirit and wisdom of this world, and through the whole course of their lives only to say, and do, and be that, which the Spirit of their Father works in them.

But now, is it not true that this kingdom has gone away from us, are we not left comfortless, if instead of this Spirit of our Father speaking, doing, and working everything in us and for us, we are left again to our own natural powers, to run to every lo here, and lo there, to find a share in that kingdom of God, which once was, and never can be anything else but God, the wisdom and power of God manifested in our flesh? Would it not have been as well, no, better for us, to have been still under types and figures, sacrificing bulls and goats by Divine appointment, than to be brought under a religion that must be Spirit and life and then be left to the interests of the wisdom of the Greek, and the carnality of the Jew, and we are taught how to be living members of it? For where the Spirit of God is not the continual immediate governor of Spiritual things, nothing better can come of it. For the truth and full proof of this, no more need be looked at, but all the libraries and churches of Christendom for the past many ages and even to this very day.

What is the difference between man's own righteousness and man's own light in religion? They are exactly the same thing, and do the same work, namely, they keep up and strengthen every evil, every vanity, and corruption of fallen nature. Nothing saves a man from his own righteousness, but that which saves and delivers him from his own light. The Jew that was most of all set against the gospel, and unable to receive it, was he that trusted in his own righteousness; this was the rich man, to whom it was as hard to enter into the kingdom of heaven as for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. But the Christian, that trusts in his own light, is this very same Jew that trusted in his own righteousness; and all that he gets from the gospel, is only that which the Pharisee received by the law, namely, to be further from entering into the kingdom of God than publicans and harlots. Why is that so, that a beast, a scarlet whore, a horned dragon, and the most horrible descriptions of diabolical power, were made by the Spirit of God when describing the Christian church? Why is it, that the Spirit describes the gospel-church as driven into a wilderness; the two faithful witnesses, Moses and Jesus, as prophesying so many ages in sackcloth, and slain in the streets of Spiritual Sodom and Egypt? It is because man's own natural light, man's own conceited righteousness, his serpentine subtlety, his self-love, his sensual spirit and worldly power, have seized the mysteries of salvation that came down from heaven, and built them up into a kingdom of envious strife and contention, for learned glory, spiritual merchandise, and worldly power. This is the beast, the whore, and dragon, that has governed, and will govern in every Christian, and every church, till, dead to all that is self, they turn to God; not to a God that they have only heard of with their ears, and their fathers have told them about, but to a God of life, light, and power, found living and working within them, as the essential life, light, and power of their own lives. For God is only our God, by a birth of His own Divine nature within us. This, and nothing but this, is our whole relation to, our only fellowship with Him, our whole knowledge of Him, our whole power of having any part in the mysteries of gospel-salvation. Nothing can seek the kingdom of God, or hunger and thirst after His righteousness, nothing can cry, Abba Father, nothing can pray, "Thy kingdom come," nothing can say of Christ, "My Lord, and my God," but that which is born of God, and is the Divine nature itself having become born in us. Nothing but God in man can be a Godly life in man. Hence the apostle declares, "The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life." But you will say, can this be true of the Spiritual Divine letter of the gospel? Can it kill, or give death? Yes, it kills, when it is rested in; when it is taken for Divine power, and supposed to have goodness in itself; for then it kills the Spirit of God in man, quenches His holy fire within us, and is set up instead of the Spirit of God. It gives death, when it is built into systems of strife and contention about words, notions, and opinions, and makes the kingdom of God to consist, not in power, but in words. When it is used in this way, then of necessity it kills, because it keeps us from that which alone is life and can give life. This then is the whole of the matter; all the literal truths, and variety of doctrines and expressions of the written word, have but one nature, one end, and one errand, they all say nothing else to man but that one thing which Christ said, in these words, "Come unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest"; just the same, as when it is said, "Jesus Christ, who is of God made unto us wisdom, righteousness, and sanctification"; this is the only refreshment from Christ. Again, "But you are washed, but you are cleansed in the name of our Lord Jesus"; just the same as when it is said, "Except you abide in Me, and I in you, you have no life in you." Again, "By grace you are saved, through faith," all of this says neither more nor less than this, "He that eats My flesh, and drinks My blood, has eternal life"; the same as when Christ says, "Without Me you can do nothing"; the same as when Paul said, "Yet not I, but Christ that lives in me"; the same as "Christ in us the hope of glory; if Christ is not in you, you are reprobate. Therefore to come to Christ, to have our heavy laden, fallen nature refreshed by Him, to be born Spirit of His Spirit, to have His heavenly flesh and heavenly blood made living in us, before we put off the bestial body and blood of death which we have from Adam, is the one and only thing taught and meant by all that is said in the scriptures of the merits and benefits of Christ to us.