happens when they find that it is a necessary means for the doing good and giving help to their Neighbours souls And this saith Saint Gregory is not to rejoyce at his own credit or estimation but for the fruit and good of his Neighbours Which is a very different case It is one thing for a man to love humane honour and estimation for it self and to dwell as it were therein for his own respect and contentment that so he may grow great and be celebrated amongst men and this is naught but another thing it is when this is liked for some good end as for the good of our Neighbours and to give help to souls and this is not ill but good and thus we may well desire opinion and estimation of the World and that they may have us in good conceir for the greater glory of God and because it may be necessary for the edification of our Neighbours and for the benefit of their souls For thus a man shall not rejoyce in his own honour and estimation but in the spiritual good of others and the greater glory of Almighty God And as he who for his health desires to take a purge which he naturally abhors may well say that to admit and like the purge is to love his health so he who admits and likes humane honour which otherwise he despises only because in that case it is a necessary or at least a profitable means for the service of God and the good of souls may affirm with truth that he desires and likes nothing in it but the glory of Almighty God But let us now consider how we may know whether a man delight in honour and estimation for the meer glory of God and the good of his Neigbours or else for his own sake and for the affection which he bears to his own honour for this indeed is a nice point wherein the whole difficulty of this busines consists Saint Gregory answered thus Our being glad of honour and estimation is to be so meerly for God that when it is not necessary for his greater glory and the good of souls not only we are not to rejoce therein but to be troubled at it So that our desire and heart for as much as may depend on us is ever to be inclined to dishonour and contempt and therefore when any occasion thereof is presented we must embrace it with our whole hearts and be glad of it as men who have met with what they wished for And as for honour and estimation we are only to desire it and be glad thereof so far forth as it may be necessary for the edification and further good of our Neighbours souls and for the greater honor and glory of Almighty God By this you shall therefore know if you be glad of honour and estimation for the good of souls and the glory of God or else for your own honour and same If when any occasion of humility and contempt is offered you imbrace it in good earnest and with the heart and if you rejoyce thereat it is then a good signe that when such a Sermon or such another imployment hath succeeded well and that you are valued and esteemed for it you rejoyce not for your own honour and estimation but meerly for the glory of God and the good of souls which grows thereby But when on the other side some occasion of humility and of being held in smal account is offered you reject it or you carry it not well and if when it is not necessary for the good of others you will yet be glad of estimation and praise of men and procure also to have it this indeed is a signe that you are glad also in those other things as for a thing which hath relation to your self and your own estimation and honor and not meerly for the glory of God and the good of souls So that it is true that the honour and estimation of men is not ill but good if we use it rightly and it may lawfully and vertuously be desired Yea even a mans praising himself may be holy and good if it be done as it ought And so we see that Saint Paul writing to them of Corinthus began to praise and recount great things of himself relating the high favours which our Lord had imparted to him and saying That he had labored more then the rest of the Apostles yea and he began to tell them of his Revelations and rapture whereby he had been carried up to the third Heaven But all this he did because it was convenient yea and necessary for the glory of God and good of them to whom he wrote that so they might grow to hold and value him for an Apostle of Christ and embrace his Doctrine and take benefit thereby and he spoke these things of himself with a heart which did not only despise honour but love dishonor for the love of Christ our Lord and when his honour was not necessary for the good of others he knew very well how to empty and abase himself saying That he was not worthy to be called an Apostle because he had persecuted the Church of God and stiling himself blasphemous and abortive and the greatest of sinners and when the occasions of dishonour and contempt were presented to him therein was his contentment and joy Such hearts as these we may well trustwith receiving honour and with saying somtimes such things as may conduce towards it because they will never do it but when it may be necessary for the greater glory of God yea and even then they do it so much without the sticking of any part thereof to themselves as if they had not done it at all for they love not their own honour but the honour of Almighty God and the good of souls But because it is a matter of much difficulty to receive honour and not to grow proud by it nor to take any vain contentment or complasence therein therefore the Saints through their fear of the great danger which lurks in estimation and dignity and high place fled as far as they could from it and they procured to busie themselves in mean and contemptible imployments because they saw that they profited thereby in Humility which was the most secure way for them One said very well I am not a religious man if I take not dishonour with the same both inward and outward joy wherewith I take honour For if I joy in that honour which others allow me when I preach or perform any other office of charity to them for their good whereby yet I put my soul to run some hazard through the danger of vanity much more ought I joy in mine own good and in the salvation of mine own soul which I preserve with more security when I am scorned and it is evident that we are more obliged to joy in our own good and profit then in that of others because charity wel ordered begins at home If then you
opinion and affection whereof perhaps he hath need but that for which this serves indeed is to make you a veryer fool then you were before because he praises you for what you said or did ill and so you are the more animated and confirmed in committing the same errors another time Men dare not now a dayes speak what they think because they know that truth is grown troublesome Truth procures hatred And they know that he who is mad and frantick refuses to take Physick and spits in the Doctors face when he desires to cure him so doth the proud man resist admonition and reformation and therefore men will not tell such a one that which will discontent him but they think it the shorter way to make him think they like that which yet indeed they mislike and the other beleeves all and is well pleased with it Whereby also we may see the truth of that which we delivered in the last Chapter namely how great a vanity and madnes it is to make any account of the praises of men since we see that in this age all is complement deceit flattery and lies For even they are able to derive and interret the word after this manner Complimento cumploy miento that is to say I comply and I lye and the cause why I lye is that I may comply Bu prou men saith Saint Chrisostom are abhorred by all First by Almighty God as the Wiseman saith Every arrogant man is a very abomination in the sight of God Prov 16.5 And of seven things which God abhors he places pride for the first And not only are they abhorred by God but by men also As they who have ill lungs have so unsavery breath that there is no induring of it so also have proud men But novv even this very World gives them here the pay of their pride for it punisheth them in that very thing to vvhich they most pretend and all proves vvith them the contrary vvay They pretend to be valued esteemed by all and they are held by al to be sots and fools They pretend to be beloved by al indeed they are abhorred by all By their betters because these men make themselves their equals by their equals because these men make themselves their betters by their inferiors because these men depresse them more then they should Even the domesticks and servants speak il of their master and indure him not Where pride is there is reproach And on the other side the humble man is valued and esteemed affected and beloved by all As children who for their goodnes their innocency their simplicity of heart are beloved so saith Saint Gregory are the humble For that clearnes and plainnes of theispeech and that conversing without doublenes or deceit even robs men of their very hearts Humility is a loadstone which dravvs all mens affections to it and it seems that all men if they could vvould take this humble man into their very hearts To the end that vve may at length be fully persvvaded that it is a meer madnes to go desiring and procuring the estimation and opinion of men Saint Bernard makes a very good dilemma and concludes thus Either it is madnes in the Son of God to abase and empty himself so far as to choose contempt and dishonor for himself or else it is extream madnes in us to be in so great desire of the honor and estimation of the World It vvas not folly or madnes in the Son of God neither could it be though the World thought it vvas as Saint Paul saith To the blind and proud Gentiles and Jews Christ our Lord seems to be a folly or madnes but unto us who have the light of Faith he is infinite wisdom and love Novv if his vvere infinite vvisdom it wil follovv that ours is stupidity and folly and that vve are very sots in making such account as vve do of the opinions estimation and honor of the World CHAP. XX. That the certain way for a man to be valued and esteemed even by men is to give himself to vertue and humility IF vvithal that vvhich vve have said you vvil not yet forsake these sumes and abate that edg and desire of honor and estimation but will stil be saying that in fine it is a great point to hold a good opinion and estimation amongst men and that this imports very much even for the edification of your Neighbors and for many other things and that the Wiseman counsels us to have a care thereof Have a care of thy good name I say let it be so in the name of God I am content that you have care to keep the good name you have and that you be esteemed and held in good opinion by the World But yet I give you to understand withal that if you desire it as you say you do you err even in order to that for vvhich you desire it and that you shall never obtain that end by this means but the direct contrary The safe and certain vvay vvherby you shall infallibly come to be much valued and esteemed by men is vertue and humility as Saint Chrisostome saith Procure every one of you in particular to be a good religious man and to be the meanest and humblest of all the rest and that you may appear to be so by your manner of living and in the occasions vvhich shal present themselves so you shall be valued and esteemed by all men This is indeed the honor of a religious man vvho hath forsaken the World and professeth himself to be a Citizen of Heaven And on the contrary side for him to desire to be valued and esteemed by men is a dishonor and affront to him for vvhich men vvould justly despise him Because this man began to build and could not finish it And so it is vvith such as desire and pretend to be valued and esteemed by men which indeed is to return to the World vvith the heart For this estimation is the most truly and properly belonging to the World and that vvhich you forsook and from which you fled vvhen you made that holy vow at your Baptism Will you cleerly see how shamefull and reproachful a thing it is for such men to affect the estimation of the World who profes to aspire towards perfection Let such a desire come but once so to light as that others may discern that you desire it and you will quickly find how much your self will be confounded and out of countenance that any such thing should be conceived of you We have a very good example of this in the holy Gospel The Evangelists relate that the Apostles went once with Christ our Lord but yet at such distance from him that they might think he heard them not and so they went discoursing and arguing amongst themselves Which of them was to be the chief and best man amongst them But when they were al come home to Capernaum he asked them what that waâ— about
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