The Art of Happiness, Part 3 · Chapter 9
CHAP. IX. Of Humilitie.
TO increase in the Spirit, and so to grow in happinesse, wee must carrie about vsus a perpetuall Humilitie. For Humilitie is the Fore-runner of Grace, and it neuer goes before, but Grace followes after. This excellent Vertue casts out the old ADAM, and makes roome for the New; it puts away the fulnesse by which wee are full of our selues, and so makes place for Christ, that we may bee full of his Spirit. Man (as before) hath gotten a God-head into him, hee is filled and puffed vp with his knowledge of good & euil, euen with a selfe-happines, which keeps out the true Happinesse. God will not hauehave any gods but himselfe, neither will he allow Man to hauehave two Felicities, but he imposeth a necessitie on him to louelove the one, and hate the other, to lose the one, and to gaine the other. Therefore as much as wee retayne of this corrupt felicitie, so much doe we abate of true Happinesse; and the roome that is giuen to the one, is denyed to the other. And surely too true it is, that euen after our Regeneration, there abides a great remnant of our proud corruption. It is of kin to the Serpent which perswaded it; when the head of it is broken in pieces, the tayle will still bee moouing. And in what degree this corruption remaineth, in that degree is grace abated; but in what degree this swelling euill is abated, in the same degree is Grace increased. Therefore if we be much proud, wee are much gracelesse, if we be much humble, we be much gracious. Wherefore let vsus take vp Humilitie, which as a Corrosiue will fret away the proud flesh, & make way for the prosperitie of the liuely and quickning Spirit. Towards this, let vsus consider that the Naturall Man, being stuft vp with himselfe, and not regarding any thing beyond the Lust and Law of his owne heart, sits downe in himselfe, and takes vp his rest, Sabbath, and felicitie in his owne imagination. But while God is vnregarded and vnsought, he also as little regardeth these vnregarders; yea hee beholdeth the proud a-far-off. He knowes the weight and end of their swelling, that it is Nothing, that ere long it shall come to Nothing; and that at last these swellers must come before him as a Iudge, who refused him here for a Sauiour, and happinesse. On the other side, the spirituall Man plainly seeth, that this imaginarie happinesse of pride, is true miserie: since Man, the more hee stands vponupon himselfe without God, the more weakly & wretchedly he stands; and the fuller Man is of himselfe, the fuller is he of Corruption, Vanitie, and Miserie. Therefore desireth hee to goe out of himselfe into God, & to vnlade himselfe of himselfe, that hee may be filled with God; hee purgeth his heart of the tree of false knowledge, that he may satiate it with the Tree of Life. And Humilitie hauing thus fulfilled her Worke, then enters Grace into the Soule so swept and trimmed; for the same God who resisteth the Proud, giueth Grace to the humble. God will be a welcome, and not a fulsome Guest: he loues not to come when there is no neede of him, he desires not to thrust vnnecessarie Happines vponupon Men sufficiently happie. But the hungrie soules hee filleth with good things, he guideth the meeke & humble, in his wayes, and the poore in Spirit are allowed only to receiue the Gospell. These hauehave set open their doores to the King of Glorie; they hauehave forgotten their Fathers house, euen their naturall condition, and therefore the LORD hath pleasure in their beautie. His Light takes pleasure, yea, gets Glory in comming into confessed Darknesse; his Grace is delighted, and magnified, by pardoning and sanctifying an acknowledged corruption, and his blessednesse reioyceth in blessing apparant and desperate miserie. Wherefore let vsus striue for a practicall skill of this profitable humilitie; that by not louing our selues, wee may louelove our soules best; & by the greatest emptinesse, we may purchase the most true & happy fulnesse. To this end let vsus euer be pricking the tumours of our nature, that we die not of a spirituall Timpany. Let vsus striue to make our selues nothing, that hee which made all things of nothing, may make some-thing of vsus. Let vsus willingly walke downe into the Vale of humilitie, from whence God calls for all whom hee exalteth vp to his holy Mountaine. And for the furtherance of this holy vertue, let watchfulnes vndertake, as a speciall part of this taske, to marke the first swellings of the heart, that they may bee abated, as soone as lifted vp. Let no degree bee allowed to that, which so much as it is; so much euill, so much losse it is; so much hauehave wee offended God, and so much hauehave wee abated his Grace. But still let vsus be paring and fretting off the proud flesh, with meditations of our owne naturall miserie; and miserable condition, with the asperitie of the exercises of Humiliation, & with feruent and violent Prayer sent vp to the Giuer of perfect gifts. Let vsus intreate him, that hee will discouer vntounto vsus, our selues, & himselfe; our owne vilenesse, & his Glory; that so wee may rightly glory in Gods true Glorie, & not (like Fooles) in our owne shame. In our Meditations let vsus fasten our eies on the wickednesse of Man, & the wretchednes deseruedly annexed to it. In our wicked corruption, let vsus first see our owne blindnes, and bring our darknesse into the light. There shall we see, that we see little or nothing; yea, in the mayne matters of our life, such as are our beginning and end; whence we come, and whither wee goe, wee are naturally blind. Therefore our life is but a thing at randome, without knowing what it doth, and wherefore it is. And if we hauehave gotten a little knowledge, then let vsus behold our filthinesse: How doe wee defile our selues in the things which wee know? how weake are our resolutions of Pietie & Vertue? they are like a Mist or the Morning dew, blown away and dryed vp with eueryevery blast of Temptation: So that they seeme to be set vp only for shewes; and to stand no longer then nothing toucheth them. But the motions of our concupiscence are strong, and continuall. The flesh of Man is powerfull vponupon the Soule, and in Man that opinion is verified, that the Earth runs round, and the Heauen stands still: For there breatheth vp from the defiled bodie, euen the Earth of Man, a continuall, and mightie Venom, which by perpetuall motion changeth the aspect and influence of the heauenly Soule, as it selfe lifteth. But the whiles it fastneth and nayleth the Soule, that shee cannot stir about her owne businesse of Immortalitie, but shee must wholly fixe and employ her selfe in a carefull studie, how to execute fitly the lusts of this beastly dust. And if at any time the Soule lothing the filth and mire wherewith shee hath sullied her selfe, euen to vglinesse, lay downe a plot for repentance, euen for the clean washing of her face; how soone doth the old dirt of sinne spowt into her visage again; so that her businesse in this life, if it be a life of penitence, seemes to be nothing, but a washing of that which is fouled, and a fouling of that which was washed? and if wee turne our eyes from this filthines vntounto the bordering wretchednesse, we shall find our selues subiect to a thousand infirmities: Miserie & Vanitie hauehave both liuerie and seisin in vsus, and we are their Tenants for terme of life. One trouble calleth to another, as the waues of the Sea; and miseries, like Beacons, giuegive notice one to the other, vntill the whole life of man bee set on fire. The sound of the old is but newly gon out of our eares, but there is a new which presently soundeth as ill as the old. It is the very kind of man to bee miserable while hee breatheth; as it is the kinde of sparks to flie vpward. And if a man striue to cure his present miserie with present mirth, commonly the miserie of such is not taken away but changed, and of temporall made eternall. The rich Man that was eueryevery day gorgeously arrayed, and eueryevery day fared deliciously, ended his luxurie in miserie, and his iudgement is, Thou hast taken thy pleasure, therefore art thou now tormented. The cure of our miserie must be by vulneraric potions, not by outward playsters, by the bloud and Spirit of Christ inwardly receiued, not by the naturall Balme of Gilead, euen the pleasures of this world. The things of this world are, to serue and cherish vsus in our way to happines, not to be taken as our happines, or the absolute cure of our miserie. For if so vsed, they cure our miserie, but with a greater miserie, and by making vsus happy, they make vsus lose a greater happinesse. Thus must man bee content to see himselfe of himselfe, wretched and miserable. He must needes crie out, What is Man, that he is so regarded? And Man is of a short continuance, and his life is full of trouble; & surely, Man is altogether vanitie. Hee must also complaine of his filthinesse; our righteousnesse is as a filthy cloth, and if wee should wash our selues, our clothes would defile vsus. In iniquitic hauehave we beene begotten, & conceiued in sinne: And vvho can bring a cleane thing out of filthinesse? Thus lothing and condemning our selues, and being weary of our selues, Christ IESVS stands with open armes, ready to receiue such weary & laden soules, and to refresh them. Hee will refresh vsus with the Riuer of the Citie of God, euen with fresh streames of grace: and the holy Oile shall drop downe from the head of our high Priest vntounto vsus who are the skirts, euen the humblest parts of his garment: And then shall wee be filled with the sweet sauour of Holinesse, and life Eternall.