Book II, Part 1, Chapter 2. Remedies against Pride,

1. Having promised in this first part to treat of vices, and their different remedies, we will begin with these seven, which are called capital, because they are the heads and sources of all the rest. For if we can but pluck up these seven vices (whence all others proceed) by the roots, the rest, which have sprung up from them, must of necessity perish ; as all the branches of a tree die when the root from which they received the sap that nourished them, is cut up. This was the occasion of Cassian's taking so much pains in writing his eight books against these vices (which has also been done by several other grave authors), because he was thoroughly convinced, that if these enemies were defeated, none of the rest would be able to make any resistance.

2. The reason of it, as St. Thomas writes, is, because all sins originally proceed from self-love, for they are all committed through a desire of some particular good this self-love makes us covet; 1. 2. 9. 77. Part. 4. From this love springs those three branches, wThich St. John speaks of in his canonical epistle, to wit, "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life" (1 John ii. 16) ; which, to speak plainer, are nothing else but the love of pleasures, the love of riches, and the love of honor ; because from the first love proceed these three, and all others come from them ; for from the love of pleasures arise three capital vices, luxury, gluttony and sloth. From the love of honor comes pride, and covetousness from the love of riches. And as for the other two, anger and envy, they serve every one of these unlawful loves. For anger is caused by meeting with any obstruction in the obtaining of what we desire ; and when another gets that which self-love desired for itself, then envy is excited. Since, therefore, these are the three universal roots of all evils, from which these seven vices proceed, it follows of course, that if we can but overcome these seven, all the others must be routed. We ought, for this reason, to employ all our strength in fighting with these mighty giants, if we have a mind to subdue all those other enemies, which have taken the land of promise from us.

3. The first and most considerable of them is pride, which is an inordinate desire of excelling. It is the common opinion of holy writers, that this vice is the mother and queen of all the rest ; and for this reason, holy Tobias, amongst much other good counsel which he gave his son, advised him particularly against this vice, saying, " Never permit any pride to rule over your thoughts, or over your discourse ; for our perdition took its beginning from it ;" Tob. iv. 34. As often, therefore, as this pestilential vice shall tempt you, you may defend yourself against it by the following considerations.

4. First of all, consider the dreadful punishment God inflicted on the bad angels for their pride and insolence ; they were flung headlong out of heaven in a moment, and cast into the bottomless pit of hell. Consider how this vice darkened and obscured him who but just before shone brighter than all the stars of heaven, and made not only a devil, but even the worst of devils, of him, who before was not only an angel, but the prince of angels. If the angels were treated in this manner, what will become of you, who are nothing but dust and ashes ? For neither is God contrary to himself, nor is there with him any respect of persons. Pride is as odious to him in a man as in an angel, and humility, on the other side, as acceptable. It was this gave occasion to St. Augustine to say, " that humility makes angels of men, and that pride makes devils of angels ;" Tom. 12. ad Etras in semo. And St. Bernard, for the same reason, says, " That pride humbles a person down from the highest degree to the lowest. The angels, for being proud in heaven, were cast down into hell ; and man, for being humble on earth, is raised above the stars of heaven." Septem. c. 2.

5. With this severe punishment inflicted on pride, consider the example which the Son of God has given you of an inconceivable humility, who has taken on him a nature so much beneath his own, for the love of you, and has for the same reason been obedient to his Fat he?', unto death, nay even to the death of the cross ; Phil. ii. 8. Base and miserable man ! let the example of your God here teach you obedience ; learn from him, O earth ! to humble yourself; learn from him, O dust ! to look on yourself as nothing ; learn, O Christian ! from your Lord and God, who was meek and humble of heart ; Matt. xi. 29. If you think it below you to imitate the examples of other men, do not think it below you to imitate that of God, who became man as well to humble as to redeem us.

6. Cast your eyes on yourself, and you will there find motives enough of humility. Do but consider what you were before you were born, what you are since you have been born, and what you are like to be after your death. Before your birth, you were a filthy matter unworthy to be named ; at present you are a dunghill covered with snow, and in a short time will be meat for worms. What have you now, O man, to be proud of? You whose birth is sin, whose life is misery, and whose end is rot-

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tenness and corruption ! If the temporal riches you possess are the subject of your pride, stay but a moment, death will come and make us all equal. For as we are all born equal as to our natural condition, so we shall all die equal according to the common necessity of mankind, with this only difference, that they who have had the most here, will have the largest accounts to make up after death. Whereupon St. Chrysostom, speaking to the same purpose, says, "Consider seriously the graves of the dead, and find, if you can, the least marks of all that splendor and magnificence they lived in, or of the riches and pleasures they enjoyed. Tell me now what is become of their rich furniture and costly clothes ? where are all their sports and pastimes? what have they done with all their servants and attendants ? their sumptuous entertainments, their merriments, their jests and worldly mirth are now all over : Do but go near any one of their graves, and you will find nothing but dust and ashes, with worms and rotten bones." This, therefore, is the end their bodies are to come to, how tenderly and nicely soever they have been treated. And I wish there were no evil beyond or greater than this. But this is not all : there is something follows, that is much more to be apprehended : it is the dreadful tribunal of the Divine Justice, the sentence which will be passed there, the weeping and gnashing of teeth, the never-dying worm, which bites and gnaws the consciences, and the fire which shall never be extinguished.

7. Consider the danger of vain-glory, pride's daughter, of which St. Bernard speaking, says, " It flies lightly, it enters lightly, but it wounds not lightly;" Serm. 6. in Psalm Qui habitat. For this reason you ought, whenever men commend or respect you, to consider immediately whether you really have those qualities they commend you for or not. For if you have not, you have no reason at all to be proud ; but if you should perhaps have them, say with the apostle, " By the grace of God I am what I am ;" 1 Cor. xv. 10. So that you have no reason to be proud on that account, but, on the contrary, to humble yourself, and to praise God, to whom you are indebted for all you have, that by this means make yourself not unwTorthy of what he has been pleased to bestow on you ; for it is certain, that the respect which men pay to you, and the reason for their doing so, comes from God ; and, therefore, you rob God of as much honor as you appropriate to yourself. Can any servant be more unfaithful than he that steals his master's glory ? Consider, further, what a folly and madness it is to rate your worth and merit according to the opinion and esteem of men, who have the liberty of turning the scale which way they please, of taking away in a short time what they now give you, and of stripping you of the honor they at present afford you. If you build your reputation on what they say of you to-day, perhaps you will be a great man, as mean to-morrow, and next day nothing at all ; just as a company of inconstant and changeable men shall think fit to talk of you. Your business, therefore, is, never to value yourself on the commendations others give you, but only on what you know of yourself. And though they should cry you up to the very skies, hearken at the same time to what your conscience says, and be persuaded, that you are better acquainted with yourself than other men are, who have only a distant view of you, and can judge of you by nothing else but by what they hear. Take no notice of what men say or think of you, but commit your honor and glory into God's hands ; he is wise enough to lay it up for you, and faithful enough to give it you back again.

8. Consider also, O ambitious man, what dangers the desire you have of commanding others exposes you to. For how shall you be able to command others, who have not yet learned to obey ? What account shall you be able to give Almighty God of many others, when you are scarce able to answer for yourself? Consider what a hazard you run, by adding to your own those persons' sins who are committed to your care ; for they will be all placed to your account. For this reason the Scripture says " That those who are the ministers of justice shall have severe sentence passed against them, and that the mighty shall be mightily tormented ;" Sap. vi. 6, 7. Besides, who is able to express the cares and troubles those persons live in who have many others to look after ? We have an excellent example hereof in a certain king, who, just as he was going to be crowned, took the crown in his hands before they placed it on his head, and, having looked steadfastly on it for a while, cried out, " O crown, much more thorny than rich ! if a man did but know thee thoroughly, he would never stoop to take thee up, though he found thee lying on the ground."

9. Consider once again, O proud man, that your pride is acceptable to no person. It is not acceptable to God, because he is your enemy ; for " he resists the proud, and gives grace to the humble ;" 1 Pet. v. 5. It cannot but be odious to the humble, because every body sees what a horror they have of any thing that is proud and haughty ; nor will those who are themselves as proud as you like it, because they hate you on the very same account that you value yourself, and can endure none that is greater than they are. And what is worst of all, you will never be satisfied with yourself in this world, if you do not but enter into yourself and reflect on your own vanity and folly ; and you will have much less contentment in the next world, when you shall be condemned, in punishment of your pride, to eternal torments. God confirms this by the mouth of St. Bernard, when he says, si O man, if you were but thoroughly acquainted with yourself, you would be disagreeable to yourself, and thereon agree able to me ; but for want of knowing yourself, you. are puffed up with pride, and therefore it is that I hate you." The time will come when you will neither please yourself nor me ; you will not please me, because of the crimes you have committed, nor yourself, because of the torments you shall be condemned to for all eternity. There is none but the devil, that approves your pride ; it was this changed him into a most hideous and deformed spirit, from a most glorious and beautiful angel, and, therefore, it is natural to him to be pleased when he sees others like himself.

10. Another motive you may use for humbling of yourself, is the consideration of the small services you have done God, such at least as are sincere and true, and consequently the little favor you are to expect from him ; for there are many vices hid under the appearance of virtue, and very often those actions which are good of themselves are spoiled by the pride we take in them ; and what men imagine to be as bright as noon-day, frequently proves to be dark as night before God. This most just Judge makes another judgment of things than we do; and an humble sinner is not so odious to him as a proud just man, though we cannot properly call him just who is proud. But after all, let us suppose, that you have done some good works ; do but call to mind the ill actions you have been guilty of, and you will find they far outweigh the other, nay, perhaps you will find the good you have done has been so faulty and imperfect, that there would be much more reason to ask pardon than to pretend to any reward for it. And, therefore, St. Augustine said, "Wo to a virtuous life, if God should lay aside his mercy when he examines into it" (St. Aug. L. 9. Cor. c. 13) ; because it is not at all improbable, that he may condemn it, for those very things we thought would please him ; for the evil actions we commit are entirely and purely evil, but the good we do are not always perfectly and absolutely good, being frequently mixed with a great many imperfections. This, duly considered will make you acknowledge that it is far more reasonable to fear than to value yourself on your good works. Job, holy as he was, dreaded it, when he said, " I know, O God, that thou dost not spare him that sins, and therefore I was afraid of all my works ;" Job. ix. 28.

§ I. Of some other more particular Remedies against Pride. — 11. But because the knowledge of man's self is the chief foundation of humility, so that of pride is man's ignorance of himself; whosoever has a mind to be truly humble must endeavor to acquire this knowledge, and by this means he will know how to humble himself. For how can he choose but have a mean opinion of himself, when, looking into his own breast without partiality, by the light of truth, he finds himself full of sinsj- defiled all over *vith the dregs of carnal pleasures, under a thousand mistakes and errors, scared with a thousand idle frights and fancies, entangled in a thousand perplexities, pressed down by the weight of a mortal body, so forward to all kind of evil, and so backward to any thing that is good ? So that if you examine yourself with due care and attention, you will be easily convinced that you have nothing in you to be proud of.

12. But there are some who, though on looking into themselves they are humbled, yet they grow proud by looking on others, finding themselves on comparison better than they. They who are puffed up on this account ought to consider, that if they are better than others in some things, there are many other things, in which, did they perfectly understand themselves, they would see those others are better than they. Why, therefore, should you have a good opinion of yourself, and despise your neighbor, for being more abstemious or more laborious than he is, when, though you excel him in these virtues, he is, perhaps, more humble, more prudent, more patient or more charitable than you ? So that it is your business to look not so much upon what you have, as upon what you want, and to take more notice of those virtues you observe in others, than of those you see in yourself; by this means you will preserve your humility, and excite and increase in your soul a desire of perfection. Whereas, if you look only on what you have yourself, and what others want, you wrill have a better opinion of yourself than of them, and will grow tepid and idle in the study of virtue. The reason is plain, because you will imagine, on comparing yourself with others, that you are something, and so you will come by degrees to be pleased with the state you find yourself in, and wTill not care for going any further.

13. If, after any good actions, you discover any inclination to think well of yourself, and to take pride in what you have done, your business then will be to watch more carefully over yourself for fear you should spoil and lose all the merit of it, by pride and vain-glory, the very bane of all that is good. You ought to be so far from attributing any good to your own merits, that you are, on the contrary, to thank God for all, and suppress your pride with those words of St. Paul : " What have you that you have not received ? And if you have received what you have, why do you grow proud as if you had not received it ?" 1 Cor. iv. 7. You should endeavor to conceal all those good works you do, which are not of duty, but for your further advance in perfection, unless the state you are in requires they should be more public : you should not as much as let your left hand know what your right hand does, because we are more apt to be proud of the good works we do openly than of others. As soon as you perceive your heart but beginning to swell, you are immediately to make use of the remedy, that is, to call to mind your sins, but particularly one or more of the most heinous of them ; and thus, like the physicians, you will expel one poison by another : follow the example of the peacock, look on that which is most deformed in you, and you will soon remove the very occasions of your vanity. The greater you are, the more humble you ought to be : for it is no great matter to be humble, if you are a mean person ; but if you are a person of honor and quality, and yet are thus disposed, 30U will acquire a very excellent and great virtue, because humility in the midst of honor is an honor to honor itself, and one dignity added to another; but if you have no humility, your honor and dignity will fall to the ground.

14. If you desire to acquire the virtue of humility, follow the part of humiliation, for you will never be humble if you cannot endure to be humbled: and though there are several persons who pretend to be humble, when in reality they are far from being so, it is certainly true, " that the way to humility (as St. Bernard says) is humiliation ; as patience is the way to peace, and study to learning ;" St. Bern, ad Fratres De Monte Dei. Obey God, therefore, with all humility, and according to St. Peter's advice, " submit to every creature for the love of God ;" 1 Pet. ii. 13.

15. St. Bernard would have us alway keep three sorts of fears in our hearts ; one when we are in the state of grace, another when we are out of it, and the third when we recover grace again. " Be afraid (says he) when you are in grace, lest you should do something unworthy of it : be afraid when you have lost grace, because without it you are deprived of the guard that watched over you to secure you : be afraid, too, if, after having lost it, you should ever recover it again, that you may not be so unhappy as to lose it a second time ;" St. Bern. Serm. 1. in Cantic. Do but keep yourself continually in these apprehensions, and you will never presume on your own strength and virtue, being always thus full of the fear of God.

16. Suffer all your persecutions with patience, for it is the bearing of injuries and affronts in this manner, that shows us whether a man be truly humble or not. Never despise those who are poor and in distress ; our neighbor's misery should rather excite us to compassion than to a contempt of them. Be not too curious and expensive in your dress, for it is impossible a man's heart should be always humble when he is perpetually solicitous about costly apparel, nay, he that is so cannot but make it too much his business and study to please men; for a man would never take such pains to dress himself, if he thought no one would take any notice of him. But whilst you endeavor to avoid this extreme, have a care at the same time of running into the opposite, of going meaner than your state and condition requires, otherwise you will meet with vain-glory whilst you are running from it, as several persons do, who then seek most for commendations when they pretend most to despise it; thus cunningly-studying to be admired, under the pretence of running from it. You ought not to disdain mean and base employments ; for a man that is truly humble will be so far from refusing such, as thinking them beneath him, that he will rather seek after them with all the cheerfulness imaginable, because he is base and vile in his own eyes.