Volume II, Treatise III, Chapter XXXVII

Of Several Other Great Advantages, Which Are Found in the Third Degree of Humility

““ALL belongs to thee, O Lord—what we have received from thy hand, we have given back unto thee,” (1 Paralipomenon 29:14) said David to God, when he offered him the gold, silver, and other materials which he had amassed for the building of the temple. Thus also ought we to express ourselves, when we do any good work; for as St. Austin says very well, “whoever enumerates his merits to thee, what else does he do, but enumerate, O Lord, thy own merits?” It is by an effect of thy infinite goodness and liberality, that thou ascribest anything to our merit, so that when thou rewardest our services, thou dost but crown thy own gifts, and heap upon us one favour after another. God deals with us as Joseph did with his brethren; he is not satisfied with giving us the corn we have need of for our substance; he gives us also the money that it costs. “He gives us grace and glory.” (Psalms 83:11) Everything comes from him, and we ought also to return every thing to him, by ascribing still to him the honour of all things. One of the greatest advantages of the third degree of humility, is, that the actions it produces, express best our return of thanks to God for the gifts received. We know well enough, that thanksgiving to him, is exceedingly recommended in scripture; for we see that when he had done any signal] favour to his people, he commanded forthwith to have a feast of thanksgiving instituted, that hereby he might give us to understand, that to deserve new favours, it is necessary to shew gratitude for the old. Now this is done in an eminent manner by the third degree of humility, which consists as we have said, in attributing to one’s self nothing of those gifts it has pleased God to bestow upon us, and in ascribing and giving the glory of all to him alone. For that is to be truly thankful, and not only to say with our lips; we give thee thanks, O Lord, for all thy benefits; though we ought also this way to give him thanks, but if we do it-only with our lips; it is no true thanksgiving, being only verbal thanks. Wherefore we must not only utter a few bare words, but heartily express our thanks, and that the heart may. share therein as well as the lips, we must acknowledge, that whatever good we have in ourselves comes from God; we must by ascribing all the glory thereof to him, make entire restitution, without reserving the least part; and thus by stripping ourselves of an honour which we know belongs not to us, we restore it wholly to God, to whom alone it appertains. Our Saviour was pleased to instruct us to do this, when having healed the ten lepers, of whom one alone, who was a Samaritan, returning to give him thanks for his cure, “there is not found,” says he, ‘one that returned to give glory to God, except this stranger.” (Luke 17:18) The same instruction is given also to the people of Israel in Deuteronomy, where God speaking by the mouth of Moses, “beware,” says he,“that thou forgetest not the Lord thy God, beware, when thou hast plenty of all things, lest thy heart be exalted and puffed up, and thou rememberest not the Lord thy God, who has brought thee out of the land of Egypt. Say not, that it is my power, and the might of my own hand, that hath procured me all this; but remember the Lord thy God, for it is he that gives the power, that he may accomplish his promise, which he swore unto thy forefathers.’’ (Deuteronomy 8:11,14) To attribute to ourselves, the gifts we have received from God, is to forget God, and to shew him the greatest ingratitude in the world. On the other hand to acknowledge the benefits which we hold from his divine bounty, is to return the true thanks required of us. This is the “sacrifice of. praise, whereby,” he says, ‘ he will be glorified;” (Psalms 49:23), and this is the acknowledgment the apostle teaches us to express, when he says; “‘to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God be honour and glory.” (1 Timothy 1:17)

Hence arises another advantage, which is, that whatever gifta, he who is truly bumble may have received, and whatever esteem he may have gained thereby, he values not himself the more for it, but remains as deeply impressed with the sense of his own baseness. and nothingness, as if he had received none at all; because he knows how to distinguish, between what belongs not to him; and what is properly his own; and understands how to attribute to. every one what is his due. Thus looking upon the favours he has received from God, as foreign and borrowed goods, he never turns his eyes off his own meanness, and the condition he should be in, if God abandoned him but for one moment, and did not hold him continually by the hand. But the more he is crowned with divine favours, the more he humbles himself before God. When trees are much loaded with fruit, says St. Dorotheus, the quantity bends, nay sometimes breaks the branches; whereas, those which are not so loaden remain straight—and when ‘the ears of corn are full, they hang down, so that the stalk seems ready to break, but when they stand straight up, it is a sign. there is little in them. Just so it is, as to spiritual things. They who bear no fruit shoot still upwards, but they who are loaden with the fruit of grace and good works, are always hanging down their heads, in an humble posture; they make the favours they have received from God, a subject of further humiliation and fear. St. Gregory says that as a man who has borrowed a great sum, feels his joy for having the money, allayed by the obligation he lies under to restore it, and by the disquiet ‘he is in, not knowing whether he shall be able to pay it at the time appointed: so he who is humble, the more gifts he receives from Almighty God; the more he acknowledges himself a debtor, and that he has a stricter obligation to serve him; and fancying still that his gratitude and services answer not, as they ought, the greatness of the favours and benefits he has received, he believes at the same time, that any one, but himself would have made better use of them. And this it is, which makes the servants of God more humble than all others; for they know that God will call them to account, not only for the sins they shall commit, but also for the benefits they shallreceive. ‘That much shall be required of him, to whom much has been given, and to whom much has been intrusted, more shall be required and demanded of him.” (Luke 12:48) St. Micharius was used to say, that the humble man looked upon the gifts of God in himself, as a man does upon things that are. deposited in his hands; or as a faithful treasurer looks upon the money, which he has in keeping. So far is he from being proud, that he is in continual fear of it; because he knows that it is money which he must give an account of, and that if he loses it by his fault, the loss will fall upon his own head.

There is yet another advantage in being humble, which is, that he who is truly so, never despises his neighbour, whatever sins he sees him fall into, nor does he thereupon esteem himself the more. But on the contrary, he takes occasion the more to humble himself; because he considers that he is framed of the same mass that he is, who is fallen; and because in his brother’@ fall be beholds his own. For as St. Austin says very well, our brother commits no sin, which we should not also commit, if God by his mercy did not continually hold us up by the hand. And therefore an ancient father of the desert, when he heard of any one’s fall, used to weep bitterly and say, “such a@ one is fallen to-day, as much may happen to me to-morrow,” since J am a man like him; subject to all human weaknesses, and if I am not yet fallen, it is a particular grace of God which has supported me. For as when we look upon a blind, deaf, or lame man, or any one afflicted with any other distemper, we ought to reflect upon all those calamities in others, as so many obligations which we have to God, for having exempted us from them; so ought we in like manner to consider the sins of all men, as so many gracious favours of God to us; since we might have fallen into the same, if by his infinite mercy, he had not preserved us. Thus it is, that the servants of God keep themselves humble, without ever despising, or being angry with their neighbour, by reason of his sins. ‘ For true justice is full of compassion,” says St. Gregory, ‘but pretended justice is full of disdain.”—(Hom. xxxiv. sup. Evang.) They, therefore, who are only angry at the faults of their neighbour, ought, as St. Paul says, ‘‘to consider themselves, for fear of being tempted” (Galatians 6:1) with the same things themselves, which they, with so much severity, condemn in others; and lest God should by 2 punishment, which falls usually on this sort of pride, permit them to find to their cost, how great human weakness is. An ancient father of the desert was used to say, that he had without pity judged his brethren upon three things, and that he happened to fall into the three himself. God, therefore, will “have us learn that we are men,” (Psalms 9:21) and. therefore ought not to take upon us to judge or despise any one.

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