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
forsake wickednesse of life And as for us we can only make a little noise with the trumpet of the Gospel and if we shall break these earthen pots of our bodies with mortification and if men may be able to see the light of a very exemplar life shine in us we shall indeed have done our parts but yet still it is only God who must give us the victory Let us gather and draw two things from hence that so we may exercise our functions with much comfort and with the profit both of our selves and our neighbors The first is that whereof we have already spoken to distrust our selves to place all our confidence in God and to attribute the whole fruit and good successe of all things to him St Chrysostome saith Let us not wax proud but let us confesse our selves to be unprofitable that so we may grow to be profitable and usefull and Saint Ambrose saith if you will produce much fruit amongst your neighbors observe the rule which we are taught by the Apostle St. Peter He who speaks let him make account that God put these words into his mouth he who works let him make account that it is God who works by him and let him give the honour and glory of it all to him Let us not ascribe any thing to our selves nor run away with strange conceit nor take any vain contentment in the act The second thing which we are to fetch from hence is that we be not disanimated or dejected when we consider our own wretchednes and misery Of this we have also great need for who observing himself to be called to so high an Office and to so supernaturall an end as it is to convert souls to draw them out of sin out of heresies out of infidelity who I say considering this will not faint under the thought and say O Jesus how great a disproportion is this Such an imployment fits not well with me who am the most needy and miserable creature of all others But yet in this you are deceived for even for this very reason this enterprize is fit for you Moses could not beleeve that he was ever to perform so great a work as to draw the people of Israel out of the captivity of Aegypt and he excused himself thus to God who was desirous to send him What am I that I should go treat with the King and procure him to let the people of Israel depart out of Egypt send him O Lord whom you are to send for as for me I am a stammerer and unfit for the imployment This is that saith God which serves my turn it is not thou shalt do it I will be with thee and I will teach thee what thou art to say The same hapned also to the Prophet Jeremy whom God sent to preach to the world but he began to excuse himself thus A. A. A. do you not see O Lord that I can hardly pronounce my words but am a very child and how then will you have me undertake so great an enterprise as this Even for this very reason he will use thee and thou art just the man he seeks and perhaps if thou wert indued with many parts God would not have chosen thee to this end but now thou shalt have no colour to steâ—â—â— the praise and attribute any thing to thy self and by such weak instruments is he desirous to do great things The holy Evangelists recount that the Apostles coming from preaching and Christ our Lord observing the fruit which they had gathered and the wonderfull things which they had wrought did highly rejoyce in the Holy Ghost and gave great thanks and glorified his eternal Father I give thee thanks O eternall Father Lord of Heaven and earth for that thou hast hidden these things from the wise and prudent of the world and hast revealed and communicated them to thy little ones and by their means dost work so great wonders Blessed and praised be thou O Lord for ever because thou hast been pleased to do thus O happy little ones happy humble souls for these are they whom God exalts and by whom he works wonders and whom he takes for his instruments in doing great things in working great conversions and gathering great fruit of souls therefore let no man be discouraged or dismaid Be not afraid little flock be not disanimated or put out of heart because thou seest thy self very little and least of all others for it hath been pleasing to your heavenly Father to give you power over the hearts and souls of men I will be with you said Christ our Saviour I will assist you unto the end of the world let us then hold for certain that Jesus will ever be our succour as himself promised to our Fathers the blessed-Apostles and that we shall ever have him for our conductor and Captain and therefore let us not grow weary or be discouraged in this so great affair of helping souls to which God hath called us CHAP. V. Of the first degree of Humility which is for a man to think meanly of himself LAurentius Justinianus saith that no man knows well what humility is but he who hath received the gift of being humble from God It is really a very hard thing to be known A man saith he deceives himself in nothing more then in thinking that he knows what true Humility is Do you think it consists in saying I am a miserable sinfull creature I am proud c. If it consisted in this the thing were easie enough and we should all be humble for we all say of our selves that we are this and we are that and I pray God that we may all speak as we think and that we may not say it with the mouth alone and by way of complement do you think that Humility consists in wearing poor and mean cloaths or in imploying our selves about object and contemptible things It consists not in this for herein may be much pride and as man may desire to be much esteemed and valued even for this and to hold himself to be better and more humble then others which is the height of pride True it is that these exterior things do help toward true humility if they be used as they ought whereof I shall say more afterward but yet in fine Humility doth not consist in this Saint Hierome saith many follow the apparence and shadow of Humility few the truth An easie thing it is to carry the head bowed down the eyes low the speech submisse and soft to sigh often and at every word to be calling themselves miserable and sinfull creatures but yet if you touch these very men with any little word though it be but very lightly you shall instantly be able to see how far they are from true Humility Let all feigned words be laid aside away with Hipocrisies and exterior shews for the true humble man saith he is shewed by his sufferance and patience This is that touchstone whereby
de Borgia that no one thing troubled him so much as when he found himself to be honoed for a Saint and servant of God And being asked once why he afflicted himself so much for this himself not desiring it nor procuring it he made answer that he feared the account which he was to give to God When he found himself to be so far another man from that which he was conceived to be which is that which we said before of Saint Gregory After this manner are we to be very deeply grounded in the knowledge of our selves that so the wind of praise and estimation of men may not blow us up and draw us out of our nothing But we must rather be the more ashamed thereof and confounded thereby considering how false those praises are and that we have no such vertue in us as may deserve them and that we be not such as the world conceives and publishes and as indeed we ought to be CHAP. XV. Of the fourth step which is to desire to be disesteemed and despised and to be glad thereof THe fourth step for arriving to the perfection of humility is for a man to desire to be despised and disesteemed and be glad of dishonors injuries and contempt Saint Bernard saith The man who is truly humble desireth to be held by others in smal account and not to be accounted humble but unworthy and mean and to be glad thereof This is the perfection of the second degree of humility And for this reason humility is compared to Nard which is a smal and odoriferous hearb according to that of the Canticles My spikenard sendeth forth the smel thereof Cant 1.12 For then doth the Odour of this Nard of humility extend and impart itself to others when not only you put little esteem upon your self but when you also desire and like wel that you be despised and disesteemed by others Saint Bernard notes that there are two kinds of humility One is when a man considering himself and perceiving his misery and basenes is convinced by the truth and holds himself in no esteem and resolves that he is worthy to be despised and dishonored by all men He saith that the former humility namely that of the understanding was not in Christ our Lord for it was not possible for him to think that he deserved to be held in mean account and much lesse to be dishonored and despised Because he understood himself perfectly wel and knew that he was true God and equal to his Father But the second kind of humility was in him namely that of the heart and wil. For in regard of the great love which he bare us he was pleased to abuse and disauthorise himself and to seem vile and contemptible in the eyes of men And he saith Learn of me for I am meek and humble of heart But as for us we are to have both these humilities because the first without the second is deceitful and false To desire to seem and to be held for other then that which really you are is falshood and deceit He who really is humble and indeed thinks basely and disesteems and despises himself is also to be glad that others may despise and disesteem him This is that which we are to learn of Christ our Lord. Consider how cordially and with how ardent desire and will he embraced dishonor and contempt for love of us For he was not satisfied with abasing and emptying himself by making himself man and taking the form of a servant upon him he who was is the Lord of Heaven and earth but he would needs assume the form and habit of a sinner As saith the Apostle God sent his Son in the habit and similitude of a sinful man He took not sin because sin could not be in him but he took the mark and sign of sinners for he would be circumcised as a sinner and baptized amongst Publicans and sinners as if he had been one of them and would be lesse esteemed then Barrabas and judged to be a worse man and more unworthy of life then he To conclude the desire which he had to suffer affronts and scorns and reproach for love of us was so very great that he thought the hour to stay very long wherin al inebriated and sick with love he might remain naked like another Noah to be scorned by men With baptism saith he am I to be baptised which was a baptism of blood and how am I in pain till I may be able to put it in execution with desire have I desired that the hour may once arrive wherein there shal be nothing for me but buffets and spurns as to any slave For he knew that they would spit upon his face as a blasphemer and cloath him with white as a fool and with purple as a counterfeit King and above all that they would load him with scourges which was the punishment of malefactors and murdering theeves and finally with the torment of the Crosse in the company of murderers which then was the most ignominious reproachful manner of death that could be found in the world This is that which Christ our Redeemer desired with so great desire As saith the Prophet in his name I was expecting reproach and affronts as one would expect somewhat which were very pleasing to him and were to give him much delight And the Prophet Jeremy saith he desired and thirsted after this hour that he might as a man may say even have his belly ful of reproaches and affronts and scorns as of things to which he carried an extreme appetite and of which he was very greedy and indeed they were most savory to him for the love of us But now if the Son of God desired dishonor and contempt with so great appetite and received them with so much contentment and gust for the love of us he having no way deserved them me thinks it should be no such strange matter for us who have so wel deserved all kind of dishonor and contempt to desire for love of him to be held for no other then what we are and to rejoyce in suffering those disgraces and affronts which we deserve as Saint Paul did when he said For which reason I rejoyce in my infirmities and injuries and affronts and necessities and persecutions and all kind of difficulties for Christ our Lord. And writing to the Philippians and treating of his imprisonment he desires them to bear him company in the joy he had to see himself in chains for Christ our Lord. He had such an abundance of joy in the persecutions and afflictions which he suffered that he had to spare for his friends and therefore he invited them to partake thereof with him This is that milk which the blessed Apostles sucked from the brest of Christ And so we read thus of them They were ful of joy rejoycing when they were carried Prisoners before their Presidents and into their Synagogues and esteemed it for a great
rich and charitable men the more they move them to pity and the more aims they receive at their hands so the more a man knows and humbles himself and confesses his misery the more doth he invite and incline the mercy of God to take pitty and compassion on him and to communicate the gifts of his grace with the more abundance For he gives strength to the weak and to to them who are as if they were not but he multiplies courage and strength To declare in few words the great benefits and advantages of this exercise I say that the true knowledge of a mans self is the universal remedy of all inconveniences And so in the questions which we use to ask in spiritual conferences whence such or such a thing uses to grow what may be the remedy thereof we may in effect answer in them all that they proceed from want of a mans knowing himself and that the remedy thereof would be to know and humble himself as he ought For if you ask whence it grows that I judge of my Brethren I say from the want of knowing my self For if I would diligently watch over my self and duly examine mine own heart I should find so much for me to do and so many miseries to bewail that I would not mark the faults of others If you ask from whence it comes that sometimes I speak sharp and unmortified words to my Brethren that also grows from the want of knowing my self For if I knew my self well and held my self for the worst of the company and looked upon every other man as if he were my superior I should not be so bold as to use such language to them If you ask from whence grow those excuses and those complaints and those murmurings as why they do not give me this or that or why they treat me in such a fashion it is cleer that it rises from the same root If you ask from whence it comes that a man is so much troubled and dejected when he finds himself molested by variety of temptations or grows melancholy and is discouraged when he fals often into any defect this also grows from want of a mans knowing himself For if you were truly humble considered wel the malice of your hearts you would not be troubled or dismaid at this but you would rather be in wonder that you commit no worse things how you came not to have more dangerous faults and you would be giving great thanks and prais to God for holding you so fast in his hand that so you fall not into those things into which infallibly you would have fallen if he had nor held you up For from a very source and sink of vice what sin is that which would not flow From such a filthy dunghill what should we expect but an odious and abominable stink and from such a tree such fruit upon those words of the Prophet He remembreth that we are but dust Saint Anselme saith what wonder is it if dust be blown away by wind If also you desire a means whereby you may come to shew much charity towards your Brethren and that you may be obedient and patient and very penitent you may here find the remedy of all CHAP. XII How much it concerneth us to be exercised in the knowledge of our selves IT will appear by what is said how much it concerns us to be exercised in the knowledge of our selves Thales Male sius one of the seven wise men of Greece being asked which of all natural things was the hardest to be known made this answer A mans self Because the love which a man bears himself is so great that it distracts and hinders this knowledge and from hence grew that saying which was so much celebrated amongst the antients Nosce te ipsum know thy self And another said Tecum habita dwell with thy self But let us leave these strangers and come home to others of our own communion who are bettter masters of this science The blessed Saint Augustine and Saint Bernard say that the science of a mans knowing himself is the most profitable and most high that ever was invented or found Men saith Saint Augustine are wont to esteem much the knowledge of the Heavens and of the earth by Astrology and Cosmography and to know the motions of the skie and the course of the planets With their proprieties and influences but yet the knowledge of a mans self is the most high and profitable science of them all Other sciences blow a man and puffe him up as Saint Paul saith but we are humbled and edified by this And so the Fathers end all spiritual conductors do greatly charge us to imploy our selves in prayer upon this exercise and they reprove the error of some who passe too lightly over the consideration of their own delects and detain themselves in thinking upon other devout things because they find consolation in them but none in the consideration of their defects and faults because they take no pleasure in looking into themselves and in this they are like such as are deformed who because they are so dare not look upon themselves in a glasse Saint Bernard speaking to Man in the person of God saith thus O man if thou didst see and know thy self thou wouldest be displeasing to thy self and thou wouldest be pleasing to me but now because thou doest not see and know thy self thou art pleasing to thy self and art displeasing to me Take heed that there come not once a time when thou shalt neither be pleasing to God nor to thy self not to God because thou hast sinned nor to thy self because thou art damned by thy self through thine own fault Saint Gregory treating of this saith there are some who as soon as they begin to serve God and to take vertue a little into their consideration think presently that they are holy and good and do so place their eyes upon the good they do that they forget their miseries and sins past yea and sometimes their present sins too for they are so very busie about gazing upon the good they do that they attend not nay and see not the il which sometimes they commit But such as indeed are good and the elect of God proceed alter a very different manner For whereas indeed they are full of vertue and good works they are yet ever looking upon the ill they do and are considering and ruminating upon their in perfections and defects And we shall quickly see what become of both these kinds of men For they who are most considering their sins secure their good deeds and conserve the great vertues which they possesse remaining ever in Humility and on the contrary side those others who are looking so earnestly upon their good deeds loose them because they grow vain and proud thereof So that good men serve themselves of their very sins and draw good and spiritual profit from thence whereas ill men draw hurt and losse even from their