Works of Hooker, Sermon 2
A LEARNED SERMON OF THE NATURE OF PRIDE.
HABAK. 2. 4.
His mind swelleth, and is not right in him: But the Iust by his Faith shall live.
THE nature of Man being much more delighted to be led than drawn, doth many times stubbornly resist Authority, when to Perswasion it easily yieldeth. Whereupon the Wisest Lawmakers have endeavoured always, that those Laws might seem most reasonable, which they would have most inviolably kept. A Law simply commanding or forbidding, is but dead in comparison of that which expresseth the reason wherefore it doth the one or the other. And surely, even in the Laws of God, although that he hath given Commandment, be in it self a reason sufficient to exact all obedience at the hands of men; yet a forcible inducement it is to obey with greater alacrity and chearfulnesse of minde, when we see plainly, that nothing is imposed more than we must needs yield unto, except we will be unreasonable. In a word, whatsoever be taught, be it Precept for direction of our Manners; or Article for instruction of our Faith; or document any way for information of our mindes, it then taketh root and abideth, when we conceive not onelyonly what God doth speak, but why. Neither is it a small thing, which we derogate as well from the honour of his Truth, as from the comfort, joy and delight which we our selves should take by it, when we loosely slide over his speech, as though it were as our own is, commonly vulgar and trivial: Whereas he uttereth nothing but it hath, besides the substance of Doctrine delivered, a depth of wisdom, in the very choice and frame of words to deliver it in: The reason whereof being not perceived; but by greater intention of brain, than our nice mindes for the most part can well away with, fain we would bring the World, if we might, to think it but a needless curiosity, to rip up any thing further than extemporal readness of wit doth serve to reach unto. Which course, if here we did list to follow, we might tell you, that in the first branch of this Sentence, God doth condemn the Babylonian's pride; and in the second teach, what happiness of state shall grow to the righteous by the constancy of their Faith, notwithstanding the troubles which now they suffer; and after certain notes of wholsome instruction hereupon collected, pass over without detaining your mindes in any further removed speculation. But, as I take it, there is a difference between the talk that beseemeth Nurses among Children, and that which men of Capacity and Judgment do or should receive instruction by.
The minde of the Prophet being erected with that which hath been hitherto spoken, receiveth here for full satisfaction a short abridgement of that which is afterwards more particularly unfolded. Wherefore as the question before disputed of doth concern two sorts of men, the Wicked flourishing as the Bay, and the righteous like the withered Grass, the one full of pride, the other cast down with utter discouragement: so the answer which God doth make for resolution of doubts hereupon arisen, hath reference unto both sorts, and this present sentence containing a brief Abstract thereof comprehendeth summarily as well the fearful estate of iniquity over-exalted, as the hope laid up for righteousness opprest. In the former branch of which Sentence, let us first examine what this rectitude or straitness importeth, which God denieth to be in the minde of the Babylonian. All things which God did create, he made them at the first, true, good, and right. True, in respect of correspondence unto that pattern of their Being, which was eternally drawn in the Counsel of God's fore-knowledge; Good, in regard of the use and benefit which each thing yieldeth unto other; Right, by an'apt conformity of all parts with that end which is outwardly proposed for each thing to tend unto. Other things have ends proposed, but have not the faculty to know, judge, and esteem of them, and therefore as they tend thereunto unwittingly, so likewise in the means whereby they acquire their appointed ends, they are by necessity so held, that they cannot divert from them. The ends why the Heavens do move, the Heavens themselves know not, and their motions they cannot but continue. Only men in all their actions know what it is which they seek for, neither are they by any such necessity tyed naturally unto any certain determinate mean to obtain their end by, but that they may, if they will, forsake it. And therefore in the whole World, no Creature but onelyonly man, which hath the last end of his actions proposed as a recompence and reward, whereunto his minde directly bending it self, is termed right or strait, otherwise perverse.
To make this somewhat more plain, we must note, that as they which travel from City to City, enquire ever for the straightest way, because the streightest is that which soonest bringeth them unto their journeys end: So we having here, as the Apostle speaketh, no abiding City, but being always in travel towards that place of joy, immortality, and rest, cannot but in every of our deeds, words, and thoughts, think that to be best, which with most expedition leadeth us thereunto, and is for that very cause termed right. That Soveraign good, which is the eternal fruition of all good, being our last and chiefest felicity, there is no desperate Despiser of God and godliness living, which doth not wish for. The difference between right and crooked mindes, is in the means which the one of the other eschew or follow, Certain it is, that all particular things which are naturally desired in the world, as Food, Rayment, Honor, Wealth, Pleasure, Knowledge, they are subordinated in such wise unto that future Good which we look for in the World to come, that even in them there lyeth a direct way tending unto this. Otherwise we must think, that God making promises of good things in this life, did seek to pervert men, and to lead them from their right minds. Where is then the obliquity of the minde of man? his minde is perverse, cam, and crooked, not when it bendeth it self unto any of these things, but when it bendeth so, that it swerveth either to the right hand or to the left, by excess or defect, from that exact rule whereby Human actions are measured. The rule to measure and judge them by, is the Law of God. For this cause, the Prophet doth make so often and so earnest suit, O direct me in the way of thy Commandments: As long as I have respect to thy Statules, I am sure not to tread amiss. Under the name of the Law; we must comprehend not only that which God hath written in Tables and Leaves, but that which Nature also hath engraven in the hearts of men. Else how should those Heathens which never had Books, but Heaven and Earth to look upon, be convicted of Perverseness? But the Gentiles which had not the Law in Books, had, saith the Apostle, the effect of the Law written in their hearts.
Then seeing that the heart of man is not right exactly, unless it be found in all parts such, that God examining and calling it unto account with all severity of rigour, be not able once to charge it with declining or swarving aside, (which absolute perfection when did God ever finde in the Sons of mere mortal men?) Doth it not follow, that all Flesh must of necessity fall down and confess, We are not dust and ashes, but worse, our mindes from the highest to the lowest are not right? If not right, then undoubtedly not capable of that blessedness which we naturally seek, but subject unto that which we most abhorr, Anguish, Tribulation, Death, Wo, endless Misery. For whatsoever misseth the way of Life, the issue thereof cannot be but Perdition. By which reason, all being wrapped up in sinne, and made thereby the Children of Death, the mindes of all men being plainly convicted not to be right, shall we think that God hath indued them with so many excellencies, more not onelyonly than any, but then all the Creatures in the World besides, to leave them in such estate, that they had been happier if they they had never been? Here commeth necessarily in a new way unto Salvation, so that they which were in the other perverse, may in this be found strait and righteous. That the way of Nature, this the way of Grace. The end of that way, Salvation merited, presupposing the righteousness of mens works; their Righteousness, a natural hability to do them; that hability, the goodness of God which created them in such perfection. But the end of this way, Salvation bestowed upon men as a Gift, presupposing not their righteousness, but the forgiveness of their unrighteousness, Justification; their Justification, not their natural ability to do good, but their hearty sorrow for their not doing, and unfeigned belief in him, for whose sake not-doers are accepted, which is their Vocation; their Vocation, the Election of God, taking them out from the number of lost Children; their Election a Mediator in whom to be elect: This Mediation, inexplicable Mercy; his Mercy, their Misery, for whom he vouchsafed to make himself a Mediator. The want of exact distinguishing between these two wayes, and observing what they have common, what peculiar, hath been the cause of the greatest part of that confusion whereof Christianity at this day laboureth. The lack of diligence in searching, laying down, and inuring mens mindes with those hidden grounds of Reason, whereupon the least particular in each of these are most firmly and strongly builded, is the onelyonly reason of all those scruples and uncertainties wherewith we are in such sort intangled, that a number despair of ever discerning what is right or wrong in any thing. But we will let this matter rest, whereinto we stepped to search out a way how some mindes may be, and are right truly, even in the sight of God, though they be simply in themselves not right.
Howbeit, there is not onelyonly this difference between the just and impious, that the minde of the one is right in the sight of God, because his obliquity is not imputed; the other perverse, because his sin is unrepented of: but even as lines that are drawn with a trembling hand, but yet to the point which they should, are thought ragged and uneven, nevertheless direct in comparison of them which run clean another way; so there is no incongruity in terming them right-minded men, whom though God may charge with many things amiss, yet they are not as those hideous and ugly Monsters, in whom, because there is nothing but wilful opposition of minde against God, a more than tolerable deformity is noted in them, by saying, that their mindes are not right. The Angel of the Church of Thyatyra, unto whom the Son of God sendeth this greeting, I know thy works, and thy love, and service, and faith, notwithstanding, I have a few things against thee, was not as he unto whom Saint Peter, Thou hast no fellowship in this business, for thy heart is not right in the sight of God. So that whereat the orderly disposition of the minde of man should be this; Perturbation, and sensual Appetites all kept in awe by a moderate and sober will, in all things frained by Reason; Reason, directed by the Law of God and Nature; this Babylonian had his minde, as it were, turned upside down: In him unreasonable cecity and blindnesse trampled all Laws both of God and Nature under seet; Wilfulness tyrannized over Reason; and Brutish Sensuality over Will: An evident token, that his out-rage would work his overthrow, and procure his speedy ruine. The Mother whereof was that which the Prophet in these words signified, His minde doth swell.
Immoderate swelling, a token of very eminent breach, and of inevitable destruction: Pride, a vice which cleaveth so fast unto the hearts of men, that if we were to strip our selves of all faults one by one, we should undoubtedly finde it the very last and hardest to put off. But I am not here to touch the secret itching humour of vanity wherewith men are generally touched. It was a thing more than meanly inordinate, wherewith the Babylonian did swell. Which that we may both the better conceive, and the more easily reap profit by the nature of this vice, which setteth the whole World out of course, and hath put so many even of the wisest besides themselves, is first of all to be inquired into. Secondly, the dangers to be discovered, which it draweth inevitably after it, being not cured. And last of all, the ways to cure it.
Whether we look upon the gifts of Nature, or of Grace, or whatsoever is in the World admired as a part of man's excellency, adorning his Body, beautifying his Minde, or externally any way commending him in the account and opinion of men, there is in every kinde somewhat possible which no man hath, and somewhat had which few men can attain unto. By occasion whereof, there groweth disparagement necessarily; and by occasion of disparagement, Pride through mens ignorance. First therefore, although men be not proud of any thing which is not, at lest in opinion good, yet every good thing they are not proud of, but onelyonly of that which neither is common unto many, and being desired of all, causeth them which have it, to be honoured above the rest. Now there is no man so void of brain, as to suppose that Pride consisteth in the bare possession of such things; for then to have Vertue were a Vice, and they should be the happiest men who are most wretched, because they have least of that which they would have. And though in speech we do intimate a kinde of vanity to be in them of whom we say, They are Wise men and they know it, yet this doth not prove, That every Wiseman is proud which doth not think himself to be blockish. What we may have and know that we have it without offence, do we then make offensive, when we take joy and delight in having it? What difference between men enriched with all aboundance of earthly and heavenly Blessings, and Idols gorgeously attired, but this, The one takes pleasures in that which they have, the other none? If we may be possest with Beauty, Strength, Riches, Power, Knowledge, if we may be privy to what we are every way, if glad and joyful for our own wel-fare, and in all this remain unblameable; nevertheless some there are, who granting thus much, doubt whether it may stand with humility to accept those testimonies of Praise and Commendation, those Titles, Rooms, and other Honours which the World yieldeth, as acknowledgements of some mens excellencies above others. For inasmuch as Christ hath said unto those that are his; The Kings of the Gentiles raign over them, and they that bear rule over them are called, Gracious Lords; Be ye not so: the Anabaptist hereupon urgeth equality amongst Christians, as if all exercise of Authority were nothing else but Heathenish Pride. Our Lord and Saviour had no such meaning. But his Disciples feeding themselves with a vain imagination for the time, that the Messias of the World should in Ierusalem erect his Throne, and exercise Dominion with great pomp and outward statelinesse, advanced in honour and Terrene Power above all the Princes of the Earth, began to think how with their Lord's condition, their own would also rise: that having left and forsaken all to follow him, their Place about him should not be mean: and because they were many, it troubled them much, which of them should be the greatest man. When suit was made for two by name, that of them one might sit at his right hand, and the other at his left, the rest began to stomack, each taking it grievously, that any should have what all did affect; their Lord and Master, to correct this humour, turneth aside their cogitations from these vain and fansieful conceits, giving them plainly to understand, that they did but deceive themselves. His coming was not to purchase an earthly, but to bestow on heavenly Kingdom, wherein they (if any) shall be greatest, whom unfeigned Humility maketh in this World lowest and least amongst others: Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations, therefore I leave unto you a Kingdom, as my Father hath appointed me, that ye may eat and drink at my Table in my Kingdom, and sit on Seats, and judge the twelve Tribes of Israel. But my Kingdom is no such Kingdom as ye dream of. And therefore these hungry ambitious contentions are seemlier in Heathens, than in you. Wherefore from Christ's intent and purpose nothing is further removed, than dislike of distinction in Titles and Callings annexed for Order's sake unto Authority, whether it be Ecclesiastical or Civil. And when we have examined throughly what the nature of this Vice is, no man knowing it, can be so simple, as not to see an ugly shape thereof apparent many times in rejecting Honours offered, more than in the very exacting of them at the hands of men. For as Iudas his care for the Poor was meer covetousness; and that frank-hearted wastfulness spoken of in the Gospel, thrift… so, there is no doubt, but that going in raggs may be Pride, and Thrones be cloathed with unfeigned humility.
We must go further therefore and enter somewhat deeper, before we can come to the Closet wherein this Poyson lyeth. There is in the heart of every proud man, first, an errour of understanding; a vain opinion whereby he thinketh his own excellency, and by reason thereof; his worthiness of estimation, regard and honour, to be greater than in truth it is. This maketh him, in all his affections, accordingly to raise up himself, and by his inward affections his outward acts are fashioned. Which, if you list to have exemplified, you may either by calling to minde things spoken of them, whom God himself hath in Scripture specially noted with this fault; or, by presenting to your secret cogitations that which you daily behold in the odious lives and manners of high-minded men. It were too long to gather together so plentiful an harvest of examples in this kinde as the sacred Scripture affordeth. That which we drink in at our ears, doth not so piercingly enter, as that which the minde doth conceive by sight. Is there any thing written concerning the Assyrian Monarch in the tenth of Esay, of his swelling minde, his haughty looks, his great and presumptuous taunts: By the power of mine own hand I have done all things, and by mine own wisdom I have subdued the World? Any thing concerning the Dames of Sion, in the third of the Prophet Esay, of their stretched-out Necks, their immodest Eyes, their Pageant-like, stately, and pompous Gate? Any thing concerning the practises of Corah, Dathan, and Abiram, of their impatience to live in subjection, their mutinies, repining at lawful Authority, their grudging against their Superiours Ecclesiastical and Civil? Any thing concerning Pride in any sort of Sect, which the present face of the World doth not, as in a glass, represent to the view of all mens beholding? So that if Books, both prophane and holy, were all lost, as long as the manners of men retain the estate they are in: for him that observeth, how that when men have once conceived an over-weening of themselves, it maketh them in all their affections to swell, how deadly their hatred, how heavy their displeasure, how un-appeaseable their indignation and wrath is above other mens, in what manner they compose themselvs to be as Heteroclits, without the compass of all such Rules as the common sort are measured by; how the Oaths which religious hearts do tremble at, they affect as principal graces of speech; what felicity they take to see the enormity of their crimes above the reach of Laws and punishments; how much it delighteth them when they are able to appale with the cloudiness of their looks; how far they exceed the terms wherewith man's nature should be limited; how high they bear their heads over others; how they brow-beat all men which do not receive their Sentences as Oracles, with marvellous applause and approbation; how they look upon no man, but with an indirect countenance, nor hear any thing saving their own praise, with patience, nor speak without scornfulness and disdain; how they use their Servants, as if they were Beasts, their Inferiors as Servants, their Equals as Inferiors, and as for Superiors they acknowledg none; how they admire themselves as venerable, puissant, wise, circumspect provident, every way great, taking all men besides themselves for cyphers, poor, inglorious, silly creatures, needless burthens of the earth, off-scowrings, nothing: in a word, for him which marketh how irregular and exorbitant they are in all things, it can be no hard thing hereby to gather, that Pride is nothing but an inordinate elation of the minde, proceeding from a false conceit of mens excellency in things honored, which accordingly frameth also their deeds and behaviour, unless they be cunning to conceal it; For a foul scarr may be covered with a fair cloath: And, as proud as Lucifer, may be in outward appearance lowly.
No man expecteth Grapes of Thistles; nor from a thing of so bad a nature, can other than suitable fruits be looked for. What harm soever in private Families there groweth by disobedience of Children, stubbornness of Servants, untractableness in them who although they otherwise may rule, yet should, in consideration of the imparity of their sex, be also subject; whatsoever, by strife amongst men combined in the fellowship of greater Societies, by tyranny of Potentates, ambition of Nobles, rebellion of Subjects in Civil States; by Heresies, Schisms, Divisions in the Church; naming Pride, we name the Mother which brought them forth, and the onelyonly Nurse that feedeth them. Give me the hearts of all men humbled; and what is there that can overthrow or disturb the peace of the World? Wherein many things are the cause of much evil; but Pride, of all.
To declaim of the swarms of Evils issuing out of Pride, is an easie labour. I rather wish, that I could exactly prescribe, and perswade effectually the remedies, whereby a sore so grievous might be cured, and the means how the pride of swelling mindes might be taken down. Whereunto so much we have already gained, that the evidence of the Cause, which breedeth it, pointeth directly unto the likeliest and fittest helps to take it away: Diseases that come of fulness, emptiness must remove. Pride is not cured, but by abating the Errour which causeth the Minde to swell. Then seeing that they swell by mis-conceit of their own excellency; for this cause, all which tend to the beating down of their Pride, whether it be advertisement from men, or from God himself chastisement; it then maketh them cease to be proud, when in causeth them to see their errour in over-seeing the thing they were proud of. At this mark Iob, in his Apology unto his eloquent Friends, aimeth. For perceiving how much they delighted to hear themselves talk, as if they had given their poor afflicted familiar a schooling of marvellous deep and rare instruction, as if they had taught him more than all the World besides could acquaint him with: his Answer was to this effect: Ye swell, as though ye had conceived some great matter; but as for that which ye are delivered of, who knoweth it not? Is any man ignorant of these things? At the same mark the blessed Apostle driveth: Ye abound in all things, ye are rich, ye raign, and would to Christ we did raign with you: But boast not. For what have ye, or are ye of your selves? To this mark, all those humble Confessions are referred, which have been always frequent in the mouths of Saints, truly wading in the tryal of themselves: as that of the Prophet's, We are nothing but soreness and festered corruption: our very light is darkness, and our righteousness is self unrighteousness; That of GREGORY, Let no man ever put confidence in his own deserts: Sordet in conspectu Iudicis, quod fulget in conspectu operantis, In the sight of the dreadful Judge, it is noysom, which in the doer's judgment maketh a beautiful shew: That of ANSELM, I adore thee, I bless thee, Lord God of Heaven, and Redeemer of the World, with all the power, ability, and strength of my heart and soul, for thy goodness so unmeasurably extended; not in regard of my merits, whereunto onelyonly torments were due, but of thy mere unprocured benignity. If these Fathers should be raised again from the dust, and have the Books laid open before them, wherein such Sentences are found as this: Works no other than the value, desert, price, and worth of the joyes of the kingdom of Heaven; Heaven, in relation to our works, as the very stipend, which the hired Labourer covenanteth to have of him whose work he doth, as a thing equally and justly answering unto the time and waight of his travels, rather than to a voluntary or bountiful gift. If, I say, those reverend fore-rehearsed Fathers, whose Books are so full of Sentences, witnessing their Christian humility, should be raised from the dead, and behold with their eyes such things written; would they not plainly pronounce of the Authors of such Writs, that they were fuller of Lucifer than of Christ; that they were proud-hearted men, and carried more swelling mindes than sincerely and feelingly known Christianity can tolerate?
But as unruly Children, with whom wholsom admonition prevaileth little; are notwithstanding brought to fear that everafter, which they have once well smarted for; so the Mind which falleth not with Instruction, yet under the rod of Divine chastisement ceaseth to swell. If therefore the Prophet David, instructed by good experience, have acknowledged: Lord, I was even at the point of clean forgetting my self, and so straying from my right minde: but thy Rod hath been my Reformer; it hath been good for me, even as much as my Soul is worth, that I have been with sorrow troubled: If the blessed Apostle did need the corrosive of sharp and bitter strokes, left his Heart should swell with too great abundance of heavenly Revelations, surely, upon us whatsoever God in this World doth, or shall inflict, it cannot seem more than our Pride doth exact, not only by way of revenge, but of remedy. So hard it is to cure a sore of such quality as Pride is, in as much as that which rooteth out other Vices, causeth this, and (which is even above all conceit) if we were clean from all spot and blemish both, of other faults; of Pride, the fall of Angels doth make it almost a question, whether we might not need a Preservative still, left we should haply wax proud that we are not proud. What is Vertue, but a medicine, and Vice, but a Wound? Yet we have so often deeply wounded our selves with Medicine; that God hath been fain to make wounds medicinable; to cure by Vice where Vertue hath strucken; to suffer the just man to fall, that being raised, he may be taught what Power it was which upheld him standing: I am not afraid to affirm it boldly with St. Augustin, That men puffed up through a proud opinion of their own sanctity and holiness, receive a benefit at the hands of God, and are assisted with his Grace, when with his Grace they are not assisted, but permitted, and that grievously to transgress; whereby, as they were in over-great liking of themselves supplanted, so the dislike of that which did supplant them, may establish them afterwards the surer. Ask the very Soul of Peter, and it shall undoubtedly make you it self this Answer; My eager Protestations, made in the glory of my ghostly strength, I am ashamed of… but those Crystal tears wherewith my sin and weakness was bewailed, have procured my endless joy; my Strength hath been my Ruine, and my Fall my Stay.