Chapter 53
Of the secret pride, whereby many use to be much deceived in the way of Virtue; and of the danger that such are in, to be snared by the illusions of the Devil.
BUT thou art further to note, that many, do find in themselves, their own meanness; and that of themselves they are nothing; and they seem to attribute the glory to God, for all the blessings that they receive; and they have many other signs of humility; but notwithstanding all this, they are full of pride; and that, so much the more dangerously, as they conceive themselves to be most free from it. The reason of this is, because although they do live, as in the sight of Truth, by not attributing those blessings to themselves; yet do they live in error, by conceiving them to be more and greater, than indeed they are; and they take themselves to have so much light from God, as that they are able, not only to rule themselves in that way, but others also; and no man is of sufficiency, in their opinion, to govern them. They are greatly friends to their own fancy; yea and sometimes, they make not much reckoning, of that which former Saints have said, or that which the servants of God, living in their own time, conceive.
They1 boast themselves to have the spirit of Christ, and to be governed by it; and to have no need of human counsel, since God with so great certainty, and the unction of his spirit, doth give them comfort in their prayers. They think (as S. Bernard saith) of other men's houses, but that the sun, doth only shine in their own: and they defy, and despise all wisemen, as Goliath did the people of God. Only he is good in their opinion, who conformeth himself to them; and to them nothing is more troublesome, then to meet with a man that contradicteth them. They will be the masters of all men, and believed by all men, and they will believe none. The wary discretion of men who are well experienced, they call tepidity, and fear; but as for unbridled fervours, & noveltyes, full of singularity; & which are the occasions of tumult, these men call the liberty of spirit, and the strength of God; and they have, almost ever, in their mouths, This my spirit telleth me; God satisfyeth me in this; and the like. At other times, they allege the Scripture of God, but they will by no means understand it, as the Church, and the Saints have understood it; but only as they list themselves. Believing that they have not less light, than the former Saints: nay that God hath taken them for instruments of greater matters, than those others; and so they make Idols of themselves; and place themselves upon the heads of all men, with intolerable presumption. So miserable is the error of these men, that being extremely proud they hold themselves for perfectly humble; and believing that God only dwelleth in them, he is indeed far from them; and that which they take to be light is profound darkness.
Of these, or such as these, Gerson saith, There are some to whom it is a thing very agreeable, to be governed by their own conceit, and they walk under the conduct of their own inventions; or rather they are cast headlong, upon their own opinion, which is a most dangerous guide. They2 macerate themselves with too extreme fasting; they watch too much: they trouble and empty their brain, with excess of tears, and in the midst of all this, they follow no man's admonition or counsel. They care not to ask the opinion of them that are wise in the law of God; nay they care not to hear them; & when either they do hear, or ask their counsel, they despise their sayings. And the cause of this is, that they conceive themselues to be some great men; and that they know better than all the world, what is fit for them to do. Of these I pronounce, that speedily they shall fall into the illusion of the Devil; speedily shall they fall upon the stone of offence, because they are conducted by a blind kind of rashness, and an excessive kind of lightness. And therefore, what soever they shall tell thee of any extraordinary Revelations, know thou that it is to be suspected. All this saith Cerson.
Footnotes
Chapter 55 of 115