Is sometimes used to denote humility, and sometimes to express chastity. The Greek word modestus, signifies neat or clean. Modesty, therefore, consists in purity of sentiment and manners, inclining us to abhor the least appearance of vice and indecency, and to fear doing any thing which will incur censure. An excess of modesty may be called bashfulness, and the want of it impertinence. There is a false of vicious modesty, which influences a man to do any thing that is ill or indiscreet; such as, through fear of offending his companions he runs into their follies or excesses; or it is a false modesty which restrains a man from doing what is good or laudable; such as being ashamed to speak of religion, and to be seen in the exercises of piety and devotion.
Despite a stated reliance on the plain meaning of the Bible and the dictates of common sense, Buck's Theological Dictionary, first published in London in 1802, seeks to provide a textual basis for the evangelical community. By combining brief essays on orthodox belief and practice with historical entries on various denominations, Buck provided an interpretive lens that allowed antebellum Protestants to see Christianity's almost two millennia as their own history.Wikipedia
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