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
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
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
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
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
far forth as our Lord hath been graciously pleased to give it and is still pleased to continue it Now in this doth the third degree of humility consist saving that no poor words of ours can arrive to express the profunditie and great perfection which is therein notwithstanding all that which we can say sometimes after one manner and sometimes after another and not only is the practise hereof hard but even the speculation also This is that annihilation of a mans self which is so often repeated and recommended by the masters of spiritual life this is that holding and coufessing a mans self for unworthy and unprofitable to all purposes Which is set down for the most perfect degree of Humility This is that distrust of a mans self and that being still depending upon God which is so recommended to us in holy Scripture This is that holding himself in no account at all whereof we are ever talking and hearing but O that we might find it once for all in our very hearts That we might understand and feel in very truth and practically as a man who sees things with his eyes and touches and feels them with his hands that for as much as is on our part we neither have any thing but misery nor can do any thing but commit sin and that all the good which we effect or work we neither exercise it nor have it of our selves but only of God and that the honor and glory of all is his And if with having said all this you yet understand not fully the perfection of this degree of humility do not wonder at it for this is a very high peece of Divinity and therfore it is not strange though it be not so easily understood A certain Doctor saith very well that it happens in all arts and sciences that every body arrives to know such things as are common and plain but as for such others as are curious and choice they are not to be reached by every hand but by such only as are eminent in that science or art And just so it is in our case for the ordinary and usuall things belonging to any vertue are understood by al the World but such as are extraordinary and choice and nice and high can only be comprehended by such as are eminent and fully possessed of that vertue And this is that which Laurentius Justitinianus saith namely That no man knows well what humility is but he vvho hath received the gift of being humble from God And from hence it also grows that in regard the Saints were indued vvith such a most profound Humility that they thought and said such things of themselves that we who fall so far short of them cannot understand exactly what they say but their speeches seem exaggerations as namely that they were the greatest sinners of the whole world and the like where of I will speak ere long But if we cannot say or think such things as they no nor even understand them it is because we have not arrived to so great Humility as theirs was and so we understand not the curious and subtill parts of this faculty Procure you to be humble and to grow up in this science and to profit therein more and more and then you vvill understand hovv such things as those may be said vvith truth CHAP XXIX The third degree of Humility is further declared and how it grows from thence that the true humble man esteems himself to be the least and worst of all TO the end that vve may yet better undestand this third degree of Humility and may ground our selves vvell therein it vvill be necessary for us to go back and take up the matter neerer the fountain And as according to vvhat vve said before all our natural being and all the naturall operations vvhich vve have vve have from God because we were nothing and then we had no power either to move our selves or to see or hear or tast or understand or will but God who gave us our natural being gave us these faculties and powers and we must ascribe our being as also these namral operations to him so in the self same manner and with much greater reason must we say in the case of a supernatural being and of the works of grace and that so much more as these are greater and more excellent than those We have not our supernaturall being of our selves but of God In sine it is a being of savour and grace and therefore it is so called because out of his meer goodnes he added that to our natural being Ephes 2 3. We were born in sin we were the children of wrath and the enemies of God who drew us out of that darknes into his admirable light as the Apostle Saint Peter saith 1 Pet 2.9 Of enemies God made us friends of slaves Sons from being nothing worth he brought us to be acceptable in his own eies And the cause why God did all this was not for any respect either of our merits past or services to come but only for his own bounty and mercy and through the merits of Jesus Christ our only Lord and Saviour as Saint Paul saith Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ Now then as we were not able to get out of that nothing wherein we were into the natural being which now we have nor were able to perform the acts of life nor see nor hear nor feel but all this was the gracious gift of God and to him we must ascribe it all without taking the glory of it to our selves so could we never have gone out of that darknes of sin wherein we were and in which we were conceived and born if God of his infinite goodnes and mercy had not drawn us out from thence nor could we now perform the works of spiritual life if he gave us not his grace to that end For the vertue and worth of good works grows not from that part thereof which they have from us but from vvhat they have from the grace of our Lord just so as the legal value which curtant money hath it hath not from it self but from the stamp or coyn And therefore we must not ascribe any glory at all to our selves but all to God from whom both our natural and supernatural being is derived carrying ever that of St Paul both in our mouths and in our hearts I am whatsoever I am by the meer grace of God But now as according to what we said God not only drew us out of our nothing and gave us that being which now we have but after we are created and have received our being we do not subsist in our selves but God is ever sustaining upholding and conserving us with his hand of power that so we may nor fal into that former profound Abisse of nothing from whence he took us before in the same manner is it also in the case of our supernatural being for