Humility

In one of the earliest Puritan devotional manuals, first published exactly 400 years ago, A Garden of Spirituall Flowers Planted by Ri. Ro. [Richard Rogers], Will. Per. [William Perkins], Ri. Green. [Richard Greenham], M.M. [Miles Mosse] and Geo. Web. [George Webbe] (1610, 1613), Rogers gives us a succinct definition of the virtue of humility, which it is worthwhile to ponder.

Humility is a virtue whereby one man thinks better of another than of himself: for this makes a man think basely of himself, in regard of his own sins and corruptions, whereupon he is contented to give place unto other, and to y[i]eld of his own right, for the maintenance of peace: when as on the othe[r] side, pride causes men to seek for more than their due, & so causes contention.