As there is nothing pertaining to holiness which renders us more like our Lord Jesus Christ than lowliness of mind, so there is nothing pertaining to sin which approaches nearer to the image of Satan than pride. This appears to have been the transgression for which he himself was first condemned, and by which he seduced our first parents to follow his example. It was insinuated to them that they were kept in ignorance and treated as underlings, and that by following his counsel they would be raised in the scale of being: “Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.”

All the evil that is in the world is comprehended in three things—“the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life.” Each of these cardinal vices implies that man is alienated from God, and that all his affections and thoughts centre in himself; but the last is the most subtile in its influence. It consists in thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought to think. It is a mental flatulency that pervades all the soul, and and puffs it up with vain conceits. It is visible to all about us, but to us invisible. It seizes those revenues of glory which are due to God, and applies them to selfish uses. Strength, beauty, genius, opulence, science, the success of labour, and the achievements of enterprise, all are perverted to its purpose. Finally, It renders man his own idol; he worshippeth the creature more than the Creator; he sacrificeth to his own net, and burneth incense to his own drag.

Excerpt: “Spiritual Pride: Or the Occasions, Causes, and Effects of High-mindedness in Religion; with Considerations Exciting to Self-abasement, ” in Miscellaneous Tracts, Essay Letters, Etc.

Fuller, A. G. (1988). The Complete Works of Andrew Fuller: Expositions—Miscellaneous. (J. Belcher, Ed.) (Vol. 3, pp. 564–565). Harrisonburg, VA: Sprinkle Publications.