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
also must we dwell as little here but turn our eyes quickly in again upon our selves and upon our own miseries and frailties For if we stick upon the knowledge of the goodnes the mercy and liberality of God and forget what we are in our selves we shall run much hazard of presumption and pride and we shall grow to be too secure of our selves and to be over-bold and not so humble and carefull as were fit which is a dangerous course and hath been the foundation and root of many fearfull and great ruins O how many men who were very spiritual and who seemed to be exalted as high as Heaven in the exercise of prayer and contemplation have cast themselves down headlong by this precipice O how many who seemed to be Saints have come by this means to have most wretched fals Because they forgot themselves because they made themselves too sure through the favours which they had received from God They grew to be ful of confidence as if there had already been no more danger for them and so they came miserably to destruction We have books which are ful of such accidents Saint Basil saith that the cause of that miserable fal of King David both into adultery and murther was the presumption which once he had when he was visited by the hand of God with abundance of consolation so far as that he presumed to say I shall never be moved or altered from this state Psal 30. Wel stay a while God will a little take off his hand these extraordinary favours and graces shall cease and you shall see what will happen Thou turned away thy face from me and I was troubled God leaves you in your poverty then you wil be like your self you shal know to your cost whou you are once fallen that which you would not know whilst you were visited and favoured by Almighty God And Saint Basil also saith that the cause of the fal and denial of the Apostle Saint Peter was the confiding and presuming vainly in himself Because he said with arrogancy and presumption that though all men should be scandalized yet would not he be scandalized but would rather dye with Christ For this did God permit that he should fall that so he might be humbled and know himself We must never give way that our eyes may wander from our selves nor ever be secure in this life but considering what we are we must go ever on with great care of our selves and with great care and fear lest the enemy whom we carry still about us put some trick upon us and provide some snare into which he may procure us to fall So that as we must not stay upon the knowledge of our own misery and weaknes but passe instantly on to the knowledge of the goodnes of God so neither must we stay upon the knowledge of God and his mercies and favours but return with speed again to cast our eyes down upon our selves This is that Jacobs ladder whereof one end is fastened to the earth in our knowledg of our selves and the other reaches up to the very height of Heaven By this ladder must you ascend and descend as the Angels ascended and descended by that other Rise up by the knowledge of the goodnes of God but stay not there lest you grow into presumption but descend to the knowledge of your selves yet stay not also there lest you fall into despair but still return again to the knowledge of God that so you may have confidence in him In fine the busines consists in that you be still ascending and descending by this ladder We read of a certain devout Woman that did use this exercise to free her fell from severall temptations which the divel brought against her as she her self related when the devil would tempt her by way of confusion desiring to make her beleeve that her whole 〈◊〉 was nothing but sin error and abuses then she would raise her self up but yet sill with Humility by the consideration of the mercies of God and she would be saying to this effect I confesse O my creator that my whole life hath been led in darknes but yet I will hide my self in the wounds of Christ Jesus crucified and I will bath my self in his blood and so my wickednes shall be consumed and I will rejoice in my Creator my Lord Thou shalt wash me and I shall be whiter then snow And so also when the divel would offer to put her up to pride by tentations of a contrary kind seeking to make her think that she was perfect and pleasing to God and that there was no cause why she should any longer afflict her self and lament her sins then would she humble her self and make the devil this answer O wretched creature that I am Saint John Baptist was sanctified in his mothers womb and yet notwithstanding all that was continually exercised about repentance And I have committed so many defects and have never lamented them no nor even considered them as they deserved With this the devil not liking to endure so great Humility on the one side nor so great confidence in the other as we may imagine said thus to her Be thou accursed and he also who hath taught thee this for I know not how to make enterance here since if I abase thee by confusion thou raisest thy self up as high as Heaven by the considetation of the mercy of God and if I raise thee up towards presumption thou abasest thy self by the consideration of thy sins as low as hel by way of Humility Now after this very manner are we to use this exercise and so shall we on the one side be full of circumspection and fear and on the other ful of courage and joy Fearful in regard of our selves and joyfull through our hope in God These are those two lessons which God gives daily to his elect the one to make them see their defects and the other to make them see the goodnes of God who takes them from us with so much love CHAP. IX Of the great benefit and profit which grows by this exercise of a mans knowing himself TO the end ha◠we may yet be more animated to this exercise of the knowledge of our selves we will go on declaring some great benefits and advantages which are conteined therein One of the cheif thereof hath been shewed already namely that this is the foundation and root of Humility and the necessary means both for the purchase and preservation thereof One of those antient Fathers being asked how a man might do to obtain true humility made this answer If he consider only his own sins sounding digging deep into the knowledge of himself this man shall obtain true humility This alone were sufficient to make us attend much to this exercise since it imports us so very much towards the obtaining of this vertue But yet we may pass further on and say that the humble knowledge of
presents of the leprous Naaman Thou hast taken the goods of Naaman and behold his leaprosie shall also stick to thee and to all thy descendents for ever This was the judgment of God against man that since he would needs have the riches of Lucifer which was his pride he should also have his leaprosie vvhich was the punishment thereof You see therefore here that man was also undone and made like the devil because he vvould needs be like God And what might novv be fit for Son of God to do finding his eternal Father to be so jealous and careful to maintain his ovvn honor I see saith he that by my occasions my Father looseth his creatures The Angels vvould needs be as I am they overthrevv themselves man vvould also be so and he vvas also overthrovvn They al have envy at me and vvould fain be such as I am Well then behold saith the Son of God I vvill go in such a form that vvhosoever vvil from hencefoorth become like me shall not lose but gain and for this came the Son of God from Heaven and made himself man Otherefore let such a bounty and mercy be blessed and praised and glorified which moved Almighty God to condescend to that so great desire which we had to be like him for now we may be as God not according to falshood and with a lye and according to what the devil said but according to truth and not now with pride malice but with much sanctity humility Upon those words Vnto us a child is born The same Saint saith since God being so great made himself little for us let us procure to humble our selves and make our selves also little that so it may not be to no purpose for us that the great God made himself so little as to become a child for us Because if you become not like this little child you shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven CHAP. XVIII Of some humane considerations and reasons whereby we are to help our selves for being humble FRom the very beginning of this Treatise we have been declaring many considerations and reasons which may help and animate us much towards the getting of the vertue of humility shewing that it is the root and foundation of all the vertues the short way to acquire them the means to conserve them and that in fine if we possesse this we shall be masters of them all But yet that it may appear that we mean not to carry it all by the only way of spirit it will not be amisse that we deliver some humane considerations and reasons which may be more proportionable and connatural to our weaknes to the end that being so convinced not only by way of spirit and of perfection but even of natural reason also we may have both more courage and more affection to the contempt of honour and estimation of the world and to proceed in the way of humility for all this will be needful for the acquiring of a thing so hard as this and so it will be well that we help our selves of it Let it therefore be the first that we put our selves to consider and examine at good leisure and with attention what thing this honour and estimation of men is which makes so continual War against us and gives us all so much to do Let us see what weight and bulk it hath that so we may esteem it no better then it deserves and may animate our selves to despise it and not continue in so much error as now we find our selves subject to Seneca said very well that there are many things which we hold to be great not because indeed they are great but because our poornes and wretchednes is such that the smal seems great the little much to us and he brings the example of that weight which is ordinarily carried by Ants which in respect of their Body is very great being yet very smal in it self and just so it is with the honor and estimation of the World If you deny it I would ask whether you be indeed either the better or the worse because they esteem you not Infallibly you are not Saint Augustine saith Neither is the ill man made good by being esteemed praised nor the good man made il by being discommended and reproached Think of Augustine what thou wilt that which I desire is that my conscience may not reproach me in the sight of God This is that which imports the rest is foolery for it neither gives nor takes away This is that which another saith What is a man the better for being praised by another And as much as any man is in the sight of God so much indeed he is and no more As was said by the Apostle Saint Pauâ— For not he that commendeth himself is approved but whom the Lord commendeth 2 Cor 10.18 Saint Augastine brings a good comparison to this purpose Pride and estimation of the world is not greatnes but swelling and wind And as when any part is swelled it seems but is not truly great so proud men who are valued and esteemed by the world seem as if they were great but they are not so because that is not greatnes but swelling There are certain sickly men who sometimes are thought to be upon recovery because they seem to look fat and wel but that fatnes is not sound and good but it is rather sickly and swelling So saith Saint Augustine is the applause and estimation of the World it may puff you up but it cannot make you great If then it be so that the opinion and estimation of the World is not any thing of greatnes in it self but rather of sicknes and swelling why do we go up and down like Camelions sucking in wind with our mouths open that so we may be the more swellen and sick It is better for a man to be in health though he seem sick then to be sick and seem sound so also is it better to be good though he seem wicked then to be wicked and be held for good For what good will it do you to be held vertuous and spiritual if indeed you be not so Saint Hierome upon these words His works shall praise him in the gates Not the vain praises of men but your good works must needs defend and praise you vvhen you appear in judgment before Almighty God Saint Gregory recounts how in the Monastery of Hiconia there was a certain Monk who vvas generally in the opinion of being a Saint and especially for being very abstinent and ful of penance also otherwise But the hour of his death being come he defired that all the Monks might be called to him For their parts they vvere very glad of it as conceiving that they vvere to hear from him some matter of much edification but he trembled and vvas ful of anguish and found himself compelled from vvithin to declare his true state to them And so he made them
from speaking with God he carried a great brightnes in his face which the children of Israel saw but for his part he saw it not So the humble man sees no vertues in himself all that which he sees seems faults and imperfections to him yea and he further beleeves that the least part of his miseries is that which he knows and that he is ignoraht of the greater and now in the midst of this it will be eafie for him to esteem himself below all and for the greatest sinner of the whole World It is most certain to the end that we may conceal nothing that as there are many several wayes whereby God is wont to conduct his Elect so he leads many by this way whereof vve have spoken namely of concealing his gifts from them so that them selves may not see them nor conceive that they have them but he manifests them to others and makes them know them to the end that they may esteem his servants and be pleased in them And so saith the Apostle Saint Paul We have not received the spirit of this World but the Spirit of God that we may know the gifts and graces which we receive from his hand And the most holy Virgin Mary did very well both knovv and acknovvledg the great graces and gifts vvhich she possessed and had received from Almighty God as she faith in her Canticle My souldoth magnifie and exalt our Lord because he who is omnipotent hath wrought mighty things in me And this is not only not contrary to humility and perfection but it is accompanied with an humility so very much elevated and so high that for this reason the Saints are wont to stile it the humility of great and perfect men But yet here there is a great error and danges whereof we are advertised by the Saints and it is when some think of themselves that they have more graces of God than indeed they have In which error was that miserable Creature to whom God commanded this to be said in the Apocalipse Thou sa i st that thou art rich and that thou hast need of nothing but thou dost not understand thine own case for thou art miserable and poor and blind and naked In the same error was that Pharise who gtave God thanks that he was not like others beleeving of himself that he had what indeed he had not and that therefore he was better then other men And sometimes this kind of pride steals in upon us so secretly and with such disguise that almost before we know where we are we grow very full of our selves and of our own estimation And for this it is an excellent remedy that we ever carry our eyes open towards the vertues of others and shut up towards our own and so to live ever in a holy kind of fear whereby we our selves will be more safe and the gifts of God better kept But yet in fine forasmuch as our Lord is not tyed to this he conducts his servants by several wayes Sometimes as the Apostle Saint Paul saith he will do his servants the particular favour of making them know the gifts which they have received from his hand And in this case it seems that the thing in question hath more difficulty namely how these Saints and spiritual men who know and see in themselves so great gifts which they have received from God can with truth esteem themselves below all and affirm of themselves with all that they are the greatest sinners of the whole World When our Lord conducts a man by that other way of hiding his gifts that so he sees no vertue in himself but all his faults and imperfections the difficulty is not so great but in these others how can it be Notwithstanding all this it may be very well Be you humble like to that holy Father and you shall know how His companion pressing to understand how he could think and say so of himself with truth he made this answer Really I understand it as I speak it and I beleeve that if God had stewed those mercies and imparted those graces to any murthering theef or to the greatest sinner in the whole World which he hath vouchsafed to me he would have been much better and more grateful than I. And on the other side I conceive and beleeve that if our Lord should take off his hand from me and not hold me fast I should commit greater sins and should prove the most wicked man in the whole World And for this reason he saith I am the greatest sinner and the most ungratef of all men And this is a very good answer and a very profound humility and it carried Doctrine in it of admirable instruction This knowledg and consideration is that which made the Saints dive down so low under the carth and cast themselves at the feet of all men and really esteem themselves for the greatest sinners of the whole World for they had that root of Humility vvhich is the knovvledg of their own misery and frailty wel planted and deeply rooted in their hearts and they knevv very vvell hovv to penetrate and ponder both vvhat they vvere and vvhat they had of themselves and this made it easie for them to beleeve that if God should not hold them fast but once take off his hand from their heads they would have proved the greatest finners of the World and so they held themselves for such And as for those gifts and graces vvhich they had received from God they beheld them not as any thing of their ovvn but as the goods of another and only lent to them And not only did the having of all these gifts not distract or hinder them from remaining intire in their poorness and baseness or from esteeming themselves belovv all others but it rather helpt them on tovvards that end because they thought they profited not thereby as they ought to have done So that vvhich vvay soever vve turn our eyes whether vve cast them inward upon what we have of our solves or wherther we cast of God we shall find occasion enough to be humbled and to esteem our selves below al. Saint Gregory to this purpose ponders those words which David said to Saul after he might have killed him in the Cave into which Saul had entred And when David spared his life and let him go he yet went after him saying Whom dost thou persecute O King of Israel thou persecutest a dead dogg and a singleflea as I am The Saint poinders it thus very well David was already anointed for King and had understood from the Prophet Samuel who anointed him that God would take the Kingdom from Saul give it him yet neverthe less he humbles and lessens himself before him though he knew that God had preferred him and that in the sight of God he was a better man than Saul Whereby we may learn to esteem our selves less than them of whom we know not in what condition or degree