Volume I, Treatise III, Chapter II

In What the Malignity of Vainglory Consists

Tue malignity of this vice consists in this; that those who are infected with it endeavour to rob God of the glory that belongs to him alone, according to the words of St. Paul: “‘ To God alone be glory and honour” (1 Timothy 1:17); of which he is so jealous that he himself says, in the prophet Isaiah, “I will] not give my glory to another.” (Isa. xlii. 8; Aug. c. 16. Solil.) Wherefore St. Austin, speaking on this subject: Lord, says he, whoever would be praised for your gifts, and seek not your glory, but his own, in the good he does, is a robber; and is like the devil himself, who attempts to rob you of your glory. In all the works of God there are two things, utility and glory: as to the utility he leaves that entirely to men; but he reserves all the glory of them to himself alone. “The Lord has wrought all things for himself”

(Proverbs 16:4), that is to say, for his glory: “and has created all nations to praise and glorify his name.” (Deuteronomy 26:19) We see that all things preach his wisdom, his goodness, and his providence; and it is for this reason that he inspired the Psalmist to make this petition: “Be thou exalted, O Lord! above the heavens, and thy glory over all the earth.” (Psal. cvii. 6.) When, therefore, it happens, that we seek to attract to ourselves the esteem and praise of men, we pervert that order which God established, and we do him an injury, because in a manner we endeavour to make men, who should have no other employment than to praise and honour him, employ themselves in praising and honouring creatures; and we endeavour to replenish with an esteem of ourselves, the hearts of creatures which God has made, as vessels to be filled with nothing else than with his own honour and praises. What is this but to rob God of his creatures’ hearts, and in a manner, to drive him out of his own house? Can one commit a greater evil than this? Or imagine anything worse, than in such a manner to rob God of his glory?_ For though by

our words you exhort men to regard none but, him, yet you wish in the bottom of your heart that they would turn their eyes from him, and fix them upon yourself. He who is truly humble, desires not to live in the heart of any creature, but in the heart of God alone; he seeks not his own glory, but that uf God alone; desires not that any person should entertain himself with him, but with God alone: and in fine, he wishes that all the world should have God so in their hearts, that no other object may ever have the least place in them.

The grievousness of this sin may also be easily understood b this comparison. Ifa married woman dresses and adorns herself to please any other man than her husband, she would, without doubt, do her husband very great injury. The good works are the dresses and ornaments of your soul; if you do them to please any one but God, who is your spouse, you do him a signal injury. Moreover, imagine what a shame it would be, if any private person should set a great value upon some small service he had done to some mighty king or prince, who had before, through love of him, exposed himself to a thousand pains and dangers? If, besides this, he should boast all over the world of some small service he had rendered his prince; whilst the prince, in all he had done for this man, had not received the least assistance from him; but the same man would not have been able to doAbything, without the prince’s help—to whose services he Aas also oxeited,

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Ve 4 v by the great recompense the prince had beforehand promised,. and afterwards bestowed upon him. Would not this vanity appear intolerable, and this procedure appear base and unworthy? Every one of us in particular ought to apply this to ourselves, to the end that we may blush at the good opinion which, with so little reason, we have of ourselves; and be ashamed hereafter to praise ourselves for anything whatsoever; because, in comparison of that which God has done for us, and of that we ought to do for him, that which we do is so little, that we ought rather to feel a great confusion, than to harbour any vanity for having performed it.

But what sufficiently demonstrates the deformity of this vice is, that the saints and divines rank it amongst those sins ordinarily called mortal, or which are more properly styled capital sins; because they are, as it were, the head and source of all others. Some reckon eight of this nature, and say, that the first is anger, and the second vainglory; but the common opinion of saints, and that which is received by the Church, is, that there are seven capital sins. And St. Thomas, who names vainglory as the first, says, that pride is the root of all the rest, according to the words of the Wise Man: “The beginning of all sins is pride.” (Ecclesiasticus 10:15)

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