nothing to fear. Of the former, however, I am free to confess, that I have my fearful apprehensions, and that for the following reasons.
Intellectual activity, when separated from that humility and self-abasement which the love of GOD alone inspires, appears to be the nurse of the most dangerous pride and arrogance that can enter into the heart of man, and thus to set a man at the greatest possible distance from GOD, from heaven, from peace, and from every thing that can be called true happiness. For what is such activity but the activity of a defiled and domineering self-love, which seeks to exalt itself above every other being, whether on earth or in heaven; and like its prototype, Lucifer, “saith in its heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of GOD: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the MOST HIGH?” [Isaiah xiv. 13, 14.]. Can any thing then be more frightful than such an activity? For can any thing be more directly opposed to the DIVINE WISDOM, which, in making the scale of human blessedness, has been pleased to assign the highest rank to the poor in spirit, when it began its long catalogue of heavenly graces and virtues by declaring, “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven?”
