is in the law of the Lord who make it his delights entertainments for that man wil yeeld the fruit of good works like a tree which is planted by the River side CHAP. XVII Of some means for the obtaining of this second degree of Humility and particularly of the example of Christ our Lord. THey ordinarily use to assign two several wayes or means for the obtaining of moral vertues The one is of reasons and considerations which may convince and animate us thereunto and the other is exercise of the acts of that vertue whereby we may acquire the habits thereof To begin with the first kind of means one of the most principal and efficatious considerations whereof we may help our selves towards being humble or rather the most principal and most efficatious of them all is the example of Christ our Lord our Master and our Redeemer whereof though we have already said somewhat there will ever be enough to add The whole life of Christ our Lord was a most perfect Original of Humility from the very time of his birth to that other of his expiring upon the Crosse But yet to this purpose St Augustine doth particularly ponder the example which he gave us by washing the feet of his Disciples upon that Thursday of the last supper when he was even upon the very brim of his passion and death Christ our Lord saith Saint Augustine was not content with having given us the examples of his whole life past nor yet with them also which he was shortly to give in his passion the same being then so close at hand and wherein he was to appear according to the Prophet Isaiah the very last or lowest of men and as the royal Prophet David saith the very reproach and scorn of men yea the very outcast of the world But our Lord Jesus knowing that his hour was now at hand wherein he was to passe out of this World to his Father he carried a great love to his Disciples was resolved that he would expresse it now towards the end of his life And supper being ended he rises from the Table he puts off his upper garment he girds a towel to himself he puts water into a basen he prostrates himself at the feet of his Disciples yea and of Judas too he washes them with those divine hands of his and he wipes them with the towel wherewith he was girt O unspeakable mistery What is this O Lord which thou art doing saith the Apostle Saint Peter Thou O Lord to wash my feet The Disciples undestood not then what he did saith our Lord You understand not now what I am doing but yet ere long I will declare it to you He returns to the Table and declares the mistery thus at large You cal me Master and Lord and you say well for so I am If then I being your Master and your Lord have humbled my self and have washed your feet you are also to do the like to one another I have given you an example to the end that you may learn of me and do as I have done This is the mistery that you learn to humble your selves as I have humbled my self The importance of this vertue of humility is on the one side so great and so is the difficulty also on the other that our Lord was not content with so many examples as he had already given us and haâ—â— then so neer at hand to give but that as onâ— who wel knew our weaknes and who perfectly understood the malignity of that peccant humor wherof our nature was sick he would needs give us this strong Physick against it and put it amongst the chief Legacies of his last Will and Testament that so it might remain the more deeply imprinted in all our hearts Upon those words of Christ our Lord Learn of me for I am meek and humble of heart Saint Augustine exclaims thus O soveraign Doctrine O Master Lord of all men into whom death entred by means of pride what is it O Lord which thou wilt have us come and learn of thee That I am meek and humble of heart This is that which you are to learn of me In this are the treasures of the wisdom and knowledge of the Father summed up which have been hidden in thee that thou tell us for the highest point that we must come and learn of thee that Thou art meek and humble of heart it is so high and great a thing for a man to make himself little that unlesse thou who art so great hadst made thy self little no man could have learnt it of thee yea saith Saint Augustine so great and so hard a thing it is for a man to humble himself and make himself little that if God himself had not humbled himself and become little men would never have been brought to humble themselves For there is nothing so deeply conveyed into their very bowels and so incorporated as it were into their hearts as this desire of being honored and esteemed and therefore was all this necessary to the end that we might grow to be humble for such Physick did the infirmity of our pride require and such a wound such a cure But if such a receipt as this for God to have made himself man and to have humbled himself so much for our sakes will not recover us and cure our pride I know not saith Saint Augustine what will ever be able to do it If to see the Majesty of our Lord so abased and humbled will not suffice to make us ashamed of desiring to be honored and esteemed and that hereupon we yet will not grow to a thirst of being despised and abased with him and for the love of him I know not what will ever serve the turn Holy Guericus being amazed and convinced by the great example of our Lords humility exclaims and expresses that which it is reason that we should also say and draw from hence Thou hast overcome O Lord thou hast overcome my pride thine example hath bound me hand and foot behold I render and deliver up my self into thy hands for an everlasting slave It is also an admirable conceit which the glorious Saint Bernard brings to this purpose The Son of God saith he saw two creatures and both were generous noble and capable of that blessed state to which they had been created by Almighty God and they both lost themselves because they would needs be like him God created the Angels and instantly Lucifer had a mind to be like Almighty God And then he carried others after him and God cast them instantly down to Hell and so of Angels they became devils God also created man instantly the devil struck him with his own leaprosie and poyson They fell gluttonoully upon what he told them namely that they should be as God and then they broke the divine commandment and so became like the devil The Prophet Elisus said to his servant Giezi after he took the
for my part I have no ability for so high a Ministery as that but you are able to make me sufficient you can put words into my mouth which will have a power to make a change in the hearts of men If you send me I may well go for going in your name I shall be able to perform the work Then God said to him Vade Go See here saith Saint Basil how the Prophet Esay took his degree for being a Preacher and an Apostle of God because he could answer very well in the Doctrine of Humility and attributed not his going to himself but acknovvledg his own insufficiency and weaknes he placed all his confidence in God beleeving he could do all things in him and that if God sent him he might go For this reason God gave him the charge and bad him go and so made him his Preacher Embassador and Apostle This is to be our strength and our magnanimity for the enterprising and undertaking great things Be not therefore disanimated or dismayed when you consider your own insufficiency and weakness Jer. 1.7.8 Say not I am a child saith God to the Prophet Jeremiah for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak Be not afraid of their faces for I am with thee So that for as much as concerns this part of Humility not only it is not contrary to magnanimity but rather it is the foundation and root thereof The second point which belongs to the magnanimous person is to desire to do great things and that in themselves they may be worthy of honour But this also is not contrary to Humility because as Aquinas saith very well although the magnanimous person desire to do such things yet he desires it not for humane honour nor is this his end He will take care indeed to deserve it but not either to procure or esteem it Nay rather he hath a heart which so truly despiseth both honour and dishonour that he holds nothing to be great but vertue and for love thereof he is moved to do great things despising the honour which men can give For vertue is a thing so high that it cannot be honoured or revvarded sufficiently by men and deserves to be honoured rewarded by Almighty God therfore the magnanimous person values not al the honours of the World at a straw It is a mean thing and of no price at al with him his flight is higher For the only love of God and vertue is he invited to do great things and he despises all the rest Now then for the having of a heart which is so great so generous such a despiser of the honour and dishonour of men such as the magnanimous person ought to have it is necessary that he have also much Humility To the end that a man may arrive to so great perfection as to be able to saywith S. Paul I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry both to abound and to suffer need Phil 4.12 By honour and dishonour by evill report and good report as deceivers and yet true 2 Cor 6.8.9 As unknown and yet well known as dying and behold we live To the end that so stiffe and so contrary winds as they of honour and dishonour of praise and murmuring of favours and persecutions may cause no change in us nor make us stumble or shrink but that we may still remain in our own being it is necessary to have a great foundation of Humility and of wisdom from Heaven I know not whether you will be able to keep your self free for the doing of all good works when you are in abundance like the Apostle Saint Paul As for suffering poverty and to be humble in the midst of dishonors and affronts this perhaps you will be able to do But to be humble in honours chairs pulpets and the higher sort of Ministeries I know not whether you will be able Alas those Angels once of Heaven knew not how to do this but they grew proud and fell Boetius saith Though both estates are to be feared yet prosperity more then adversity It is harder for a man to conserve himself in Humility in honour and estimation of the World and in high imployments and Ministeries then in dishonour and contempt and in the discharge of places which are mean and poor for these things draw humility after them and those others vanity and pride Scientia inflat knowledg and all other high things do naturally puff us up and make us giddy and therefore the Saints say that it is the humility of great and perfect men to know how to be humble and amongst the great gifts and graces which they receive from God and amongst the honours and estimations of the World We must therefore procure to arrive to this humility by the grace of our Lord we I say who are called not to the end that we should be shut up in corners or be hidden under a bushel but set up on high like a City upon a hil or like a taper upon a Candlestick to shine and give light to the World For which purpose it will be necessary for us to lay a very good foundation and for as much as is on our part to have great desire to be dis-esteemed and despised and that this may flow out of a profound knowledg of our own misery our basenes and our nothing CHAP. XXXIII Of the great benefits and advantages which are in this third degree of Humility AFter King David had prepared much gold and silver and many rich materials for the building of the Temple he offered them up to God and said these words All things O Lord are thine and that which we have received at thy hands that do we render return again This is that which we must do and say in all our good works O Lord all our good works are thine and so we return what thou hast given us Saint Augustine saith very well He who puts himself to recount the duties and the services which he hath done thee of what other thing doth he tell thee O Lord but of the benefits and gifts which he hath received from thy holy hand This is an effect of thy infinite mercy and goodnes towards us to qualifie thine own benefits and gifts to us to be as new vertues of ours and so when thou payest us for our services thou rewardest thine own benefits and for one grace of thine thou givest us another and for one favour another Gratiam pro gratia Our Lord is content to proceed with us like another Joseph by giving us not only corn but he will also give us the price and mony which it cost All is Gods gift and all must be ascribed and returned to him he giveth both grace and glory One of the great helps and benefits which is to be
that it is the foundation and cause thereof page 207 Chap. XXXIII Of the great benefits and advantages which are in this third degree of Humility page 216 Chap. XXXIV Of the great mercies and favours which God shews to the humble and why he exalts them so high page 224 Chap. XXXV How much it imports us to betake our selves to Humility to supply thereby whatsoever is wanting to us in vertue and perfection and to the end that God may not humble us by punishing us page 229 A TREATISE OF THE VERTUE OF HVMILITY CHAP I. Of the excellency of the vertue of Humility and of the need we have thereof LEarn of me saith Jesus Christ our Saviour for I am meek and lowly in heart and you shall find rest unto your souls Mat. 11.29 The whole life of Christ our Lord on earth was led for our instruction and he was the Master and teacher of all the virtues but especially of this of Humility which he desired cheifly that we should learn And this consideration alone may well serve to make us understand both the great excellency of this vertue and the great need also which we have thereof since the Son of God himself came down from Heaven to earth to teach us the practise and to make himself our instructor therein and that not only by word of mouth but much more particularly by his actions For indeed his whole life was an example and lively pattern of Humility Saint Basil discoursing of the whole life of Christ our Lord even from his birth observes and shews how all his actions served to teach us this vertue in most particular manner He would needs saith he be born of a mother who was poor in a poor open stable and be layed in a manger and be wrapped in miserable clouts be would needs be circumcised like a sinner and fly into Egypt like a poor weak creature and be baptized amongst Publicans and sinners like one of them And afterward in the course of his life when they had a mind to do him honour and take him up for their King he hid himself but when they put dishonour and affronts upon him he then presented himself to them when he was honoured and admired by men yea and even by persons who were possessed with the devill he commanded them to hold their peace but when they thought fit to reproach and scorn him he held his peace And neer the end of his life that he might leave us this vertue by his last Will and Testament he confirmed it by that so admirable example of washing his Disciples feet as a so by undergoing that so ignominious death of the Crosse Saint Bernard saith The Son of God abased and diminished him elf by taking our nature upon him and he would have his whole life to be a pattern of Humility so to teach us by actions that which he would also teach us by words A strange manner of instruction But why Lord must so high a Majesty be abased so low To the end that from henceforth there may not so much as one man be found who shall once adventure to be proud and to exalt himself upon the earth It was ever a strange boldnes or rather a kind of madnes for a man to be proud but now saith he when the Majesty of God hath humbled and abased it self it is an intollerable shame and an unspeakable kind of absurdity that this little wretched worm man should have a mind to be honoured and esteemed That the Son of God who is equall to the Father should take the form of a servant upon him and vouchsafe to be dishonoured and abased and that I who am but dust and ashes should procure to be valued and admired With much reason did the Saviour of the world declare that he is the master of this vertue of Humility and that we were to learn it of him for neither Plato nor Socrates nor Arisiotle did ever teach men this vertue For when those heathen Philosophers were treating of those other vertues of fortitude of temperance of wisdom and of Justice they were so far off the while from being humble therein that they pretended even by those very works and by all their vertuous actions to be esteemed and recommended to posterity It is true that thee was a Diogenes and some others like him who professed to contemn the world and to despise themselves by using mean cloaths and certain other poverties and abstinencies but even in this they were extreamly proud and procured even by that means to be observed and esteemed whilst others were despised by them as was wisely noted by Plato in Diogenes For one day when Plato had invited certain Philosophers and amongst them Diogenes to his house he had his rooms well furnished and his carpets laid and such other preparations made as might be fit for such guests But as soon as Diogenes entred in he began to foul those fair carpets with his durty feet which Plato observing asked him what he meant Calco Platonis fastum saith Diogenes I am trampling saith he upon Platos pride But Plato made him this good answer calcas sed alio fastu thou tramplest indeed but with another kind of pride insinuating thereby that the pride wherewith he trod upon Platos carpets was greater then Platos pride in possessing them The Philosophers did never reach to that contempt of themselves wherein Christian humility consists nay they did not so much as know humility even by name for this is that vertue which was properly and only taught by Christ our Lord. Saint Augustine observes how that divine sermon made by our Saviour in the Mount began with this vertue Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven For both Saint Augustine and others affirm that by poor in spirit such as be humble are understood So that the Redeemer of the world begins his preaching with this he continues it with this and he ends it with this This was he teaching us all his life and this doth he desire that we should learn of him He said not as Saint Augustin observes Learn of me to create heaven and earth learn of me to do wonderful things and to work miracles to cure the sick to cast out divels and to revive the dead but learn of me to be meek and humble of heart For better is the humble man who serves God than he who works miracles That other way is plain and safe but this is full of stumbling blocks and dangers The necessity which we have of this vertue of humility is so great that without it a man cannot make one step into spirituall life Saint Augustine saith it is necessary that all our actions be very well accompanied and fenced by humility both in the beginning in the middle and in the end thereof for if we be negligent never so little and suffer vain complacence and self-pleasing to enter in the wind of pride carries all away And
of the primitive times where we read of ugly and abominable fals of Men who had already spent many of their years in a religious solitary penitential life all which proceeded from want of humility from confiding and presuming on themselves which God is wont to punish by permitting men to fall into those other sins Humility is also so great an ornament to chastity that Saint Bernard saith I dare adventure to say that even the virginity of the blessed Virgin Mary would not have been pleasing to God without humility Finally for the vertue of obedience it is a cleer truth that both he cannot be truly obedient who is not humble and that he who is humble must needs be obedient The humble Man may be commanded to do any thing but so may not he who is not humble The humble Man frames no contrary judgments but conforms himself in all things to his superior and not only in the work but even in the will and understanding also nor makes he any contradiction or resistance If now we will come to speak of prayer upon which the very life of a religious and spirituall man relies if it be not accompanied with humility it is of no worth Whereas prayer with humility pierces heaven The prayer of him who humbles himself doth penetrate heaven saith the wise man and he will not give over till he obtain all that which he desires at the hands of God That holy and humble Judith being shut up in her Oratory clad with sackcloath and covered with ashes and prostrate upon the earth cries out in these words The prayer of the humble and meek of heart was ever pleasing to thee O Lord. God beheld the prayer of the humble and despised not their Petitions Never think that the humble man shall be driven away or depart out of countenance he shal obtain what he asks God will hear his prayer Do but consider how highly that humble prayer of the Publican in the Gospel pleased God he who presumed not so much as to lift up his eyes to heaven but disposing himself far of into a corner of the Temple and knocking his brest with humble acknowledgment of himself said O Lord have mercy upon me for I am a greivous sinner I tell you of a truth saith Jesus Christ our redeemer that this man went justified out of the Temple and that proud Pharisee who held himself for a Saint went condemned In this very manner might we discourse of the rest of the vertues and therefore if you desire to go the next way for the getting of them all and to learn a short and compendious document for the speedy obtaining of perfection this is it Be humble CHAP IIII. Of the particular necessity which they have of this vertue who professe to procure the salvation of their neighbours souls BY how much thou art greater see thou humble thy self saith the wise man so much the more and thou shalt find grace in the sight of God We who make profession to gain souls to God may say for our confusion that God hath called us to a very high state since our office is to serve the Church in certain ministeries which are very eminent and high even the same to which God chose the Apostles namely the preaching of the Gospel the administration of the Sacraments and the dispensation of his body and blood so that we may say with Saint Paul God hath given us the ministery of reconciliation He cals the preaching of the Gospel and the dispensation of the Sacraments by which grace is communicated the ministery of reconciliation God hath made us his servants his Embassadors as his Apostles were the first of that cheif Bishop Jesus Christ tongues instruments of the holy Ghost God exhorting and perswading men by us Our Lord is pleased to speak to souls by our tongues by these tongues of flesh will our Lord move the hearts of men for this have we therefore more need than others of the vertue of Humility and that upon two reasons first because by how much the more high our Office and vocation is so much more hazard shall we run and so much the greater will be the combate of vanity and pride The highest hils as St Hierome saith are assaulted by the highest winds We are imployed in very high Ministeries and for this are we respected and esteemed over the world We are held to be Saints and even for other Apostles upon earth and that all our conversation is sanctity so by all means it ought to be and woe unto us if it be not and that our study is to make them also Saints with whom we converse Here is need of a great foundation of Humility that so high a building as this may not be driven down to the ground We had need have great strength of vertue that we may be able to bear the weight of honour with all the circumstances thereof A hard task it is to walk in the midst of honours and that yet no part thereof should fasten it self to the heart It is not every bodies case to have a head that can be safe so high O how many have grown giddy and fallen down from that high state wherein they were for want of the foundation of Humility how many who seemed Eagles towring up in the exercise of severall vertues have through pride become as blind as Bats For this do we therefore stand in particular need to be very well grounded in this vertue for if we be not we shall run great hazzard of being giddy and of falling into the sin of pride yea and that the greatest of all others spirituall pride Bonaventure declaring this saith That there are two kinds of pride one which concerns temporall things and this is called carnall pride and another which concerns things spirituall and this is called spirituall pride and so saith that this second is a greater pride and a greater sin than the former The reason hereof is clear for as he saith the proud man is a theef and commits robbery â—â—or he runs away with the goods of another against the will of the owner by having stollen the honour and glory which is proper to God and which he will not give away but reserve to himself My glory I will not give to another saith he by the Prophet Isay and this doth the proud man steal from God and he runs away with it and applies it to himself Now when a man grows proud of any naturall advantage as of nobility of agility and strength of body of quicknes of understanding of learning or the like this man is a robber but yet the theft is not so great For though it be true that all these blessings are of God they are yet but as the chaffe of his house but he who shall grow proud of his spirituall gifts as namely of sanctity or of the fruit which is gathered by gaining souls this is a great theef a robber of
the honour of God and who steals those jewels which he esteems the most rich and of the greatest price and value and which indeed were set at so high a rate that he thought his own blood and life wel imployed upon the purchase thereof For this reason a certain holy Father being full of care and fear lest he should fall into pride was wont to say thus to God O Lord if thou give me any thing keep it for me who dare not trust my self with it for I am no better then a theef and am still running away with thy goods And now let us also walk on with the same fear since we have much more reason to be afraid and are far from being so humble as he was Let us not fall into this so dangerous pride let us not run away with those goods of God which he hath put with so much confidence into our hands Let no part thereof stick to us let us artribute nothing to our selves but return the whole back to God It was not without great mistery that Christ our Saviour when he appeared to his Disciples upon the day of his glorious Ascension reprov'd them first for their incredulity and hardnesse of heart and commanded them afterward to go and preach the Gospel throughout the whole world and gave them power to work many and mighty miracles For he gives us thereby to understand that he who is to be exalted to the doing of great things hath need to be humbled first and to be abased in himself and to have a true knowledge of his own faculties and miseries that so though afterward he come to great perfection he may yet remain still intire in the knowledge of himself and stick fast to the understanding of his own basenes without attributing any other thing to himself then unworthinesse Theodoret to this purpose notes that God resolving to chuse Moses for their Captain and conductor of his People and to work by his means such wondrous and admirable things as he resolved to let the world see thought fit for the cause aforesaid that first that very hand wherewith he was to divide the Red Sea and effect other things so very strange being first put into his bosome should be then drawn forth and seen by himself to be full of leprosie A second reason for which we stand in more particular necessity of Humility is to the end that we may gather fruit in those very ministeries wherein we are imployed so that Humility is necessary for us not only in regard of our own improvement lest otherwise we should grow vain and proud and so cast away our selves but besides for the gaining of our neighhours and the bringing forth fruit in their souls One of the most principal means towards this end is Humility and that we distrust our selves and that we rely not upon our own industry or prudence or other parts but that we place all our confidence in God and ascribe and refer all to him according to that of the wise man Put your confidence in God with your whole heart and rely not upon your own prudence And the reason hereof is as afterward I shall declare more at large because when through distrust of our selves we place all our confidence in God we ascribe it all to him and put the whole busines to his accompt whereby we oblige him much to take care thereof O Lord dispatch thine own busines the conversion of souls is thine and not ours alas what power can we have to save fouls But now when we are confident in the means we use and in the discourses which we are able to make we bring our selves to be parties to the busines and attribute much to our selves and all that we do we take from Almighty God They are like two balances for look how much the one rises so much the other will be sure to fall as much as we attribute to our selves so much we take from God and run away with the glory and honour which is only his and thus he comes to permit that no effect is wrought And I pray God that this be not sometimes the cause why we do our Neighbours no more good We read of many Preachers in former times and remember some of our own time who though they were not very learned men no nor very eloquent yet by their Preaching Catechising and private communications in an humble and low way have converted quickened inflamed and strengthened many of their flock not in the perswading words of humane wisdom but in the manifestation of spirit and truth as Saint Paul saith They were distrustfull of themselves and placed all their confidence in God and so God gave strength spirit to their words which seemed even to dâ—rt burning slames into the hearts of their hearers And now I know not whether the reason why we produce not at this day so great fruit be not because we stick much closer to the opinion of our own prudence because we rest and rely much upon our own means of perswasion and our learning and discourse and our polite and elegant manner of declaring our minds and we go gusting and delighting our selves much with our selves O well then saith God when you conceive that you have said the best thing and delivered the most convincing reasons and remain content and jolly with conceit that you have done great matters you shall then effect least of all And that shall be fulfilled in you which the Prophet Isay said give them a barren womb and dry breasts I will take order that thou shalt be a barren Mother and thou shalt have no more thereof but the name I will give you dry breasts such as no child shall hang upon nor any thing stick by them which thou sayest for this doth he deserve who will needs usurp the goods of God and attribute that to himself which is proper and only due to his divine Majesty I say not but whatsoever Men shall preach must be very well studied and considered but yet this is not all for it must also be very well wept upon and very well recommended to God and when you shall have made your head ake with studying it and ruminating upon it you must say We have but done what we ought and we are unprofitable servants what am I able to effect I have made a little noise of words like a peece which shoots powder without a bullet but if the heart be wounded it is thou O Lord who must do it The Kings heart is in Gods hand and he inclines it to whatsoever he will It is thou O Lord who art to move and wound the heart alas what are we able to do to them What proportion can our words all our humane means carry to an end so high and so supernaturall as it is to convert souls No such matter But how comes it then to passe that we are so vain and so well pleased with our selves when
very gibbet which he had caused to be provided for Mardochaeus This is the pay which the world is wont to give to such as serve it And now let us consider from whence al this catastrophe grew Because forsooth Mardochaeus would not rise up and do him reverence when he passed by For such a foolery as this is able to keep proud men so unquiet and restles that they shall ever be wounded by it and made sad at the heart And so we see it at this day in worldly men and so much more do we see it as the men are in more eminent place For al such things as these are as so many needles points to them which gall and transpeirce them from side to side nor is there any sharper launce which they can feel nor do they ever want their part of this how much soever they are extolled and whatsoever they possesse but they ever have their hearts as bitter as gall and they ever walk up and down the World with perpetual unquietnes and want of rest From hence we may understand another particular which we experiment very often namely that although it be true that there is a sicknes of melancholy yet many times it happens that a mans being melancholy and sad is not the humor of melancholy or any corporal infirmitie but it is the very humor of pride which is a sicknes of the soul You are melancholy and sad because you are forgotten and cast aside into some corner and because they make no account of you You are melancholy and sad because you performed not such or such a thing with so much credit and reputation as you fancied to your self but rather you conceive that you are disgraced The busines proved not as you desired that Sermon that disputation those conclusions but you rather think that you have lost opinion and credit by it and therefore you are melancholy and sad yea and when you are to do any of these publique things the-very fear of the successe and whether you shal gain or loose honour by it makes you afflicted and greived These are some of those things which make the prond man melancholy and sad But now the humble of heart who desire no honour or estimation and contents himself with a mean place is free from all this restlesness and disquiet and enjoyes great peace according to the words of Christ our Lord from whom that Saint took this saying of his If there be peace in this World the humble of heart possesses it And therefore though there were no way of spirit or perfection to be looked after but only our own interest and the keeping our hearts in peace and quietnes even for this and this alone we were to procure humility for thus we should come to live whereas the other is but to lead a kind of dying life Saint Augustine to this purpose recounts a certain thing of himself whereby he saith that our Lord gave him to understand the blindnes and misery wherein he was As I went one day saith he full of affliction and care in thought of a certain Oration which I was to recite before the Emperor in his praise whereof the greatest part was to be false and my self procuring to be praised for my pains even by them who knew that it would be false that men may see how far the vanity and folly and madnes of the World extends it self as I went I say with much thought hereof and was full of trouble and care how the busines might succeed and having as it were even a kind of feaver upon me of consuming thoughts it hapned that in one of the streets of Milan there was a poor beggar who after he had gotten wel to eat and drink was playing tricks and taking his pleasure and in fine was very merry and jolly But when I saw this I fel to sigh and represent to my friends who were present there to what misery our madnes hath made us subject Since in all our troubles and namely in those wherein we found our selves at that time carrying a great burthen of infelicity upon our backs and being wounded with the vexation of a thousand inordinate appetites and daily adding one burthen to another we did not so much as procure to seek any other thing than only some secure kind of contentment and joy wherein that poor beggar had out-stripped us already who perhaps should never be able to overtake him therein For that which he had now obtained by means of a little alms namely the joy of temporal felicity I still went seeking and hunting out with so much solicitude and care It is true saith Saint Augustine that the poor man had no true joy but it is also true that the contentment which I sought was more false then this and in fine he then was merry and I said he was secure and I ful of cares and fears And if any man should ask me now whether I had rather be glad or grieved I should quickly make answer that I had rather be glad and if he should ask me yet again whether I had rather be that beggar or my self I should then rather choose to be my self though I were then ful of afflictions but yet for ought I know I should have no reason to make this choise For I ask what cause I can alledge For my being more learned gave me then no contentment at all but only desired to give contentment to others by my knowledge and yet that not by way of instructing them but without doubt saith he that poor man was more happy then I not only because he was merry and jolly when I was full of cogirations and cares which drew even my very bowels out of my body but because he had gotten his Wine by lawful means whereas I was hunting after vain glory by the way of telling lies CHAP. XXII Of another kind of means more efficatious for the obtaining the vertue of Humility which is the exercise thereof WE have already spoken of the first kind of means which are usually assigned for the obtaining of vertue which is certain reasons and considerations both divine and humane But yet the inclination which we have to this vice of pride is so very great by reason that the desire of Divinity Eritis sicut dii remains so rooted in our hearts from our first parents that no considerations at all are sufficient to make us take our last leave of the impulse and edge which we have to be honored and esteemed It seems that that happens to us herein which ours to others who are full of fear For how many reasons soever you give to perswade such persons that they have no cause to fear such or such a thing they yet make this answer I see well that all you say is true and I would fain not fear but yet I cannot obtain it of my self For just so some say in our case I well perceive that al those reasons which you
have brought against the opinion and estimation of the World are good true they convince that all is but meer vanity and Wind but yet with all this I cannot by any means Win so much of my self as not to make some account thereof I would fain do it if I could but me thinks I know not how those kind of things transports and disquiers me strangely Wel then as no reasons and considerations are sufficient to free the fearful man from fear but that besides this we must entreat him to put his hand to work and bid him draw neer to feel touch those things which seemed to him to be bugbears sprights advise him to go sometime by night and alone to the same places where he thought he saw them that so he might find by experience that there was nothing indeed but that all was his imagination and apprehension that so by this means he may loose his fear so also for the making us give over the desire of opinion and estimation of the World the Saints affirm that no reasons or considerations are sufficient but that we must also use the means of action and of the exercise of Humility for this is the principal and most efficatious means which we for our parts can imploy towards the obtaining of this vertue Saint Basil saith that as Sciences and arts are acquired by practise so also are the moral vertues That a man may be a good Musitian a good Rethorition a good Philosopher and a good Workman in any kind let him exercise himself herein and he wil grow perfect And so also for obtaining the habit of Humility and all the rest of the moral vertues we must exercise our selves in the acts thereof and by this means we shall possesse them And if any man will tell me that for the composing and moderating our passions and the affections of the mind and for the obtaining also of vertue the considerations and reasons the documents and counsels of holy Scripture are sufficient he is deceived as Saint Basil saith This would be like him who should learn to build a house or coyn money and would never exercise himself therein but that all should passe in hearing the documents and rules of art in which case it is certain that he would never prove a good Workman And as little will he grow to possesse humility or any other vertue who will not exercise himself therein And in confirmation hereof the Saint brings that of the Apostle Saint Paul For not the hearers of the Law are just before God but the doers of the Law shall be justified Rom 2.13 It is not enough for this purpose to hear many documents and reasons but they must be put in execution For practise conduces more to this busines then all the speculation in the World And though it be most true that al vertue and every thing which is good must come to us from the hand of God and that we cannot compasse it by our own strength yet the same Lord who is to give it is pleased that we should help our selves by our own endeavours Saint Augustine upon those words of Christ our Lord. If I then your Lord and Master have washed your feet ye also ought to wash one anothers feet Joh 13.14 saith that this is that which Christ our Lord intended to teach us by this example of washing his Disciples feet This is that O blessed Peter which thou didst not know when thou wouldst not consent that Christ should wash thy feet He promised that thou shouldst know it afterward and now that afterward is come and now thou shalt understand it And it is that if we will obtain the vertue of humility we must exercise our selves in the exterior acts thereof For I have given you an example to the end that you may do as I have done Since the omnipotent and soveraign Lord humbled himself since the Son of God abased and imployed himself in mean and lowly exercises washing the feet of his Disciples serving his blessed Mother and the holy Joseph and being subject and obedient to them in whatsoever they commanded let us learn of them and exercise our selves in humble and mean imployments and thus we shall come to obtain the vertue of Humility This is also that which Saint Bernard saith The humiliation of the extericur man is the way and means to obtain the vertue of Humility as patience is for the obtaining peace and reading or study for the obtaining knowledge And therefore if you will obtain the vertue of Humility donot fly from the exercise of humiliation for if you say that either you cannot or will not humble or abase your selves as little have you a mind to obtain the vertue of humility St. Augustine proves it very wel gives the reason why this exercise of humiliation is so useful important and necessary for the obtaining of true humility of heart The interiour and exteriour man are so interlaced and united together and the one depends so much upon the other that when the heart is humbled and abased the heart is stirred up towards the love of humility That humbling my self before my Brother and kissing his feet hath somewhat in it that poor and mean coat that low and base Office hath I know not what which goes ingenering and breeding Humility in the heart and if it be there already it conserves and increases it And thus Saint Dorotheus answers this question how a man with a poor and mean coat which belongs to the body may come to obtain the vertue of humility which inhabits the soul It is certain saith he that the body in many cases gives a good or ill disposition to the soul And so we see the soul hath one kind of disposition when the body is well and another when it is sick one when it is full fed and another when it is very hungry Now in the self same manner the soul vests it self with one kind of inclination when a man is seated upon a throne or upon a Horse richly adorned and with another when he sits upon the ground or is riding upon a jade and one kind of inclination it hath when he is set out in sumptuous cloaths and another when he is but covered with a poor coat Saint Basil also noted this very well and saith that as a gallant and shining attire lists up the hearts of Worldly men and ingenders in them certain sumes of vanity of proper estimation and pride so doth a poor and mean habit awake in the heart of religious men and of the servants of God an inclination to Humility and it breeds a disesteem of ones self and it makes men endure better to be despised And the Saint adds further That as Worldly men desire rich and glorious cloaths that so they may be the better known and the more honored and esteemed thereby so the good servants of God and such as are truly humble desire to be poor
what Nobility is good the other answered very vvell To be despised as Wealth is Saint Basil saith he vvho is born by another nevv birth and hath contracted a spiritual and divine kindred vvith God and received a power to become his Son grows ashamed of that other carnal kindred and layes it utterly aside Whosoever the man be Words of praise sound ill out of his own mouth And so the Proverb saith A mans praise in his own mouth is little worth Prov 27.2 And the Wiseman saith better Let another man praise thee and not thine own mouth a stranger and not thine own lips But in the mouth of a religious man they do much worse as being so contrary to that which he professes and so be grows to be slightly thought of and disesteemed by means of that very thing whereby he meant to be honored Saint Ambrose upon those words of the Prophet Behold O Lord my humility and deliver me saith that although a man be sick and poor and of mean condition yet if he grow not proud not prefer himself before any other By humility he makes himself to be esteemed and beloved So that humility supplies all defects and on the other side though a man be very rich and noble and powerful though he be very learned and excell in abilities and good parts yet if withall he boast thereof and look big upon it By this he lessons and abases himself and grows to be disesteemed and despised because he grows to be held proud The History of devout Arsenius recounts that although he had been so illustrious in the World and so eminent in learning for he had been the instructer or Master of the Sons of the Emperor Theodosius and of Arcadias and Honorius who also came both to be Emperors yet no word was ever heard to fall from him which might favour of greatnes or which gave to understand that he had learning but he converst and lived amongst his Brethren with so great humility and simplicity of heart as if he had never known any thing and he would also ask questions of others concerning the most ordinary things of spiritual life affirming that in thâ— suâ—lime science he deserved not to be their Disciple And it is related of the Blessed Saint Hieroine that he was of most noble extraction and yet we find not in alâ— his works that he hath so much as insinuated any thing therof Bonaventure gives a very good reason against this vanity and it is this Know that there can hardly be any good thing in you worthy of praise which breaks not and shines not out to others so that they may understand and know it and if you use silence and conceal it you shall gain more upon them and be more worthy of praise both for the vertue it self and for your hiding it but if you will needs become the publisher thereof and will needs serve it out in a full dish they will make sport at it And whereas before they were edified and you esteemed they now grow to vilifie and despise you Vertue is in this like musk which the more you hide it the stronger smell it gives but if you carry it open it looses his sent CHAP. XXIV In what manner we are to make a particular examination of our consciences concerning the vertue of Humility THe particular examination as we have said already in the proper place is to be of some one only thing for thus will this means be more efficatious and have greater force then if we carried o're many things together and it is therefore called particular because it concerns one only thing And this is of so great importance that ordinarily it is necessary to take many times one vice which we would avoid and one vertue which we would obtain into parts that so by little and little we may be able to compasse that which we desire So is it therfore in this vertue If you will make your particular examination about rooting up the pride of your heart and of obtaining the vertue of Humility you must not take it in hand after a kind of general way For humility and pride imbrace many particulars and if you take it but so in grosse as to say I will be proud in nothing but humble in all things it is too much to examine your selves upon at once and it will be more if you do it upon two or three vertues at once and thu in fine you will do nothing But you are to take it into parts and to go on by little and little Consider in what you are chiefly wont to sail concerning Humility or in exercising of pride and begin there and having ended with one particular thing take another to heart and then another and thus by little and little you will go rooting up the whole vice of pride out of your souls and planting the vertue of Humility in place thereof Let us therefore now go parting and dividing these things that so you may the better and with the more profit make this particular examination concerning this vertue which is so necessary The first shall be not to speak a word which may redound to our own estimation and praise For the appetite of honour and estimation is so natural to us and we carry it so rooted in our hearts that even as it were without thinking or reflecting upon it our tongues tun voluntarily to say somewhat which either directly or indirectly may redound to our own praise The mouth is wont to speak out of the abundance of the heart As soon as any occasion is offered whereby honour may be gained we instantly come in for our parts as by saying I was in place I was partly the cause If I had been absent I was interessed in that from the beginning c. And the while I dare warrant you that if the thing had not brought honour with it you would have been content to hold your peace though you had been present yea and partly had been the cause thereof Of this kind there are other words which many times we observe not till they be past and therefore it will be very well done to make a particular examination upon this point that so by care and good custome we may take away this other ill one which is so connatural to us The second may be that which Saint Basil advises us namely that we be nor willing to hear any other praise or speak well of us for in this there is also great danger Saint Ambrose saith that when the divel cannot beat us down by pusillanimitie and dismay he procures to blow us up by presumption and pride and when he cannot overthrow us by the way of affronts he procures that we may be honoured and praised and so to be undone by that means Saint Hierome saith Keep your selves safe from these Syrens for they inchant men and put them out of their wits The musick of the praises of men is so delightful
not only did God shew us the favour to bring us out of the darknes of sin wherein we were into the admirable light of his grace but he is ever conserving and holding us up with his hand that so we may not return to fall And this to such a proportion as that if God should take off his hand of custody from us but for one instant should give the Devil leave to tempt us at his pleasure we should return both to our former and to greater sins said the Prophet David Thou O Lord art ever at my side holding me up that I may not be pluckt down it is thy work O Lord to have raised me up from sin thine to have kept me from returning to sin again If I rose up it was because thou gavest me thy hand and if now I be on foot it is because thou holdest me from dropping down Since therefore as we shewed it before to be sufficient to make us hold our selves for nothing because on our part we are nothing we were nothing and we should be nothing if God were not ever conserving us so this is also sufficient to make us ever keep our selves in the account of being wicked sinners because for as much as is on our part we are sinners we were sinners and we would be sinners if God were not still upholding us with his holy hand Albertus Magnus saith that whosoever would obtain Humility must plant the root thereof in his heart which consists in that he know his own weaknes and misery and understand and weigh not only how vile and wretched he is now but how vile and wretched he may be yea and would be even very now if God with his powerful hand did not keep him and sin asunder and did not remove the occasions and assist and strengthen him in temptations Into how many sins had I fallen if thou O Lord through thy infinite mercy hadst not kept me up how many occasions of my sinning hast thou prevented which were sufficient to have pulled me down as they pulled down the Prophet David if thou knowing my weaknes if thou I say hadst not hindred them How many timeshast thou tyed the devils hands to the end that he might not rempt me at his pleasure and if he would tempt me that yet he should not be able to overcome me How often might I have said those words of the Prophet with much truth If thou O Lord hadst not holpen me this soul of mine had already been little lesse then in the very bottom of Hell Hovv often have I been assaulted and even almost tripped up tovvards falling and thou O Lord didst hold me and didst apply thy sweet and strong hand that I might take no hurt Psal 94.18 If I said that my foot slipt thy mercy O Lord came to help me O how often should we have been lost if God through his infinite mercy and goodnes had not preserved us This is then the account wherein we are to hold our selves because this we are and this we possesse on our parts and this we were and this we should also be again if God took off his hand and custody from us From hence it came that the Saints despised humbled and confounded themselves so far that they were not content to esteem little of themselves and to hold that they were vvicked and sinful men but they thought themselves the meanest of all others yea and the most unvvorthy and sinful men in the World The same did the holy Apostle Saint Paul affirm touching himself Our Lord Jesus Christ came into this World to save sinners of whom I am the first or chief And so he advises us to procure to obtain this Humility that vve hold our selves for inferior and lesse then all others and that we acknowledg them all for our superiors and betters Saint Augustine saith The Apostle deceives us not when he saith That we must hold our selves for the least of all and that we must esteem all others to be our superiors and betters Phil. 2 3. Rom 12.10 he commands not hereby that we should use any words of flattery or courtship towards them The Saints did not say with counterfeit humility and telling a lye that they were the greatest sinners in the world but meerly according to truth because they thought so in their very hearts and so they also give us in charge that we think and say the same and this not by complement or with fiction Saint Bernard ponders very well to this purpose that saying of our blessed Saviour Luk 14.10 When you shall be invited sit you down in thelast and lowest place He said not that you should choose a middle place or that you should sit amongst the lowest or in the last place but one but he will only have you sit in the very lowest place of all Not only are you not to prefer your selves before any but not so much as to presume to compare or equal your selves with any other but you are only to remain in the last place without any equal in your basenes esteeming your selves to be the most miserable sinners of the whole World It puts you saith he to no danger if perhaps you should humble your selves too much and put your selves under the feet of all but the preferring your selves before any one alone may put you to a great deal of prejudice And he brings this ordinary comparison As when you passe by a low gate the stooping too much with your head can do you no hurt but if you stoop never so little lesse then the gate requires you may do your selves so much hurt as to break your head so it is also in the foul For to abase and humble your selves too much cannot be hurtful but to forbear to humble yourselves though it be but a little to prefer or even equal your selves to any one it is a dangerous thing What knowest thou O man whether that one whom thou takest not only to be worse than thou for perhaps it seems to thee now that thou art grown to live well but that he is a wicked man and the greatest sinner in the whole World may not prove perhaps a better man than either they or thou yea and that he is so already in the sight of God Who knows whether God will nor change hands as Jacob did and that the lots will be also changed and that thou wilt come to be the forsaken and the other chosen How do you know what God hath wrought in that heart since yesterday yea and in this last minute In one instant is God able to make Apostles of a Publican and a Persecutor as he did of Saint Mathew and Saint Paul Of sinners more stony and hard than a Diamond can God make sons for himself How mightily did that Pharise find himself deceived when he judged Saint Mary Magdalen for wicked and when Christ our Lord reproved him and gave him to understand that she whom