The operations of this principle may not only be traced by those things which furnish occasion for it, but by other things which have a direct and positive influence in producing it. The occasion and the cause must not be confounded. The one is the object upon which pride fastens, and which it perverts to its use; the other is the principle by which it is produced. The apostle himself was in danger of being “exalted above measure, through the abundance of revelations that were given him:” not that those revelations tended in their own nature to produce this effect; but, like all other good things, they were capable of being abused through the remains of indwelling sin. To be the occasion of spiritual pride reflects no dishonour; but that which in its own nature causes it must needs be false and pernicious. The principal sources of this overwhelming stream will be found among the dark mountains of error and delusion.

It may not be in our power to determine with certainty whether the spiritual pride which we see in others originates in their religion or operates notwithstanding it; but if we be only able to show that the former may possibly be the case, we shall at least furnish grounds for self-examination; and if withal it can be proved that certain notions have a natural tendency to produce that very effect which is manifest in the spirit of those who avow them, we shall thereby be able to judge with some degree of satisfaction what is true and false religion. That which worketh lowliness of mind is from above; but that which produces self-complacency is assuredly from beneath.

It requires also to be noticed that these things may prevail in different degrees. The religion of some is wholly false; and spiritual pride compasseth them as doth a chain; that of others is partly so; and they are greatly affected by it: but the tendency is the same in both.

Once more, It requires to be noticed that the prevalence of true or false religion in individuals cannot be ascertained with certainty by the truth or falsehood of their professed creed. This may be true, and we, notwithstanding, be essentially erroneous; or, on the other hand, it may include much error, and yet the principles which really govern our spirit and conduct may be so different that the truth may nevertheless be said to dwell in us. Such cases may, however, be considered as rare—a kind of exception from a general rule.

It is a general truth, manifestly taught in the Scriptures, that spiritual pride is fed by false religion. All the false teachers of whom they give us an account were distinguished by this spirit. “They loved to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they might be seen of men.—They loved the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi.—There was a certain man called Simon, who beforetime in the same city used sorcery, and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one.—I will come unto you shortly, and not know the speech of them that are puffed up, but the power: for ye suffer if a man bring you into bondage, if a man devour you, if a man take of you, if a man exalt himself, if a man smite you on the face.—Let us not be desirous of vain-glory; if a man think himself to be something when he is nothing he deceiveth himself.—As many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh constrain you to be circumcised. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.—Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility, and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind.—Presumptuous are they, self-willed; they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities.—When they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.—Diotrephes, who loveth to have the pre-eminence, receiveth us not.”

It should seem, from hence, that though all spiritual pride does not arise from false religion, yet all false religion produces spiritual pride. The best of men, and those who adhere to the best of principles, are in danger of this sin: but as there is a wide and manifest difference between sinning and living in sin, so it is one thing to be occasionally lifted up, and that at a time when the great principles we imbibe are in a manner out of sight, and another to be habitually intoxicated with self-complacency, and that as the immediate effect of our religion. See you a man whose meditation, preaching, or writing produces humble charity, a pure heart, a good conscience, and you may expect to find in him faith unfeigned. But if you perceive in him a fondness for unprofitable themes of discourse, which “minister questions rather than godly edifying which is in faith,” with a forwardness to affirm what he does not understand, you may be almost certain that he has “swerved from the truth, and turned aside to vain jangling.”

As true religion principally consists in “the knowledge of the true God, and of Jesus Christ whom he hath sent,” or in just sentiments of the Lawgiver and the Saviour of men; so almost every species of error will be found in the contrary. If we err in our conceptions of the Divine character, it resembles an error at the outset of a journey, the consequence of which is that the farther we travel the farther we are off. Without a proper sense of the holy excellence of the Divine nature, it will be impossible to perceive the fitness of the law which requires us to love him with all our heart. Such a requirement must appear rigorous and cruel. Hence we shall be disposed either to contract it, and imagine that our Creator cannot now expect any thing more at our hands than an outward decency of conduct; or, if we admit that perfect love is required, we shall still perceive no equity in it, and feel no manner of obligation to comply with it. The law will be accounted a task-master, and the gospel praised at its expense. In both cases we shall be blinded to the multitude and magnitude of our sins; for as where no law is there is no transgression, so in proportion as we are insensible of the spirituality or equity of it, we must needs be insensible of the evil of having transgressed it. And thus it is that men are whole in their own esteem, and think they need no physician, or one of but little value. Thus it is that degrading notions are entertained of the Saviour, and diminutive representations given of his salvation. In short, thus it is that justification by free grace, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, either becomes inadmissible, or, if admitted in words, is considered as a victory over the law, and as exonerating from all obligations to obey its precepts. Here, or hereabouts, will be found the grand springs of spiritual pride.

It is difficult to conceive whence the notion of sinless perfection in the present life, and all the spiritual pride that attaches to it, could arise, unless it was from ignorance of the glorious holiness of God, the spirituality of his law, and the corruption of the human heart. A proper sense of these truths would impel the best character upon earth to exclaim, with the prophet, “Woe is me! I am a man of unclean lips.”

And how is it that an obligation to love the Lord supremely, and with all our hearts, should be so hard to be understood? Yet few think themselves obliged to love him. “We are sinners,” say they, “and cannot love him! and if we now and then yield him a little formal service, though it be by putting a force upon our inclinations, we imagine we do great things, nearly as much as ought to be required of us, and much more than many do whom we could name!”

Thus the sin of not loving God from our heart, and our neighbour as ourselves, is made nothing of in the world, though it be the fountain and sum of evil. The conscience itself is so defiled, that if we manifest but a decent behaviour in our relations among men, it very nearly acquits us. We claim a kind of exemption from every thing else. And whether it be by the dint of repetition with which this claim has been preferred, or whether those who ought to resist it be themselves too much inclined to favour it, so it is, that too many ministers give it up, contenting themselves with exhorting their hearers to things with which they can comply consistently with reigning enmity to God in their hearts—to things which contain nothing truly good in them, and which a sinner may therefore perform through his whole life, and be shut out of heaven at last as “a worker of iniquity.” There is not a precept in the Bible that can be obeyed without love, or with which a man may comply and be lost for ever: to exhort sinners, therefore, to things which merely qualify them for this world, or even to reading, hearing, or praying, in such a manner as cannot please God, is deviating from the Scriptures, and yielding up the first principles of moral government to the inclinations of depraved creatures. In short, it is no better than to enforce the tithing of mint and cummin, to the neglect of judgment, mercy, and the love of God.

On this sandy foundation rests the whole fabric of self-righteous hope, and all the spiritual pride which attaches to it. So long as we are blinded to the spirituality and requirements of the Divine law, we are in effect without the law and alive in our own conceit; and while this is the case, we shall see no necessity for salvation by free grace through a mediator, nor any fitness in it. Seeking to be justified, as it were, by the works of the law, we shall continue to stumble at the stumbling-stone. But when the commandment, in its true extent, comes home to the conscience, we find ourselves the subjects of abundance of sin, of which we never before suspected ourselves; and then, and not till then, we die, or despair of acceptance with God by the works of our hands.

Fuller, A. G. (1988). “Spiritual Pride,” The Complete Works of Andrew Fuller: Expositions—Miscellaneous (J. Belcher, Ed.; Vol. 3, pp. 574–577). Sprinkle Publications.