in that sentence so frequent in Scripture, " Whosoever exalteth himself shall be humbled." [1]
1. In this are included three terrible chastisements of the proud: viz., it deprives them of the excellency they have; it denies them what they desire, and instead thereof it gives them baseness and confusion, which they fear; which is verified in many ways, and may be shown by divers examples that have happened. The angels, through pride, lost the excellences of grace, and obtained not their preeminences in the seats of glory, but were cast from the empyreal heaven to the abyss of hell. [2] With this example I must terrify myself, as Christ our Lord terrified His apostles, when they boasted that the devils obeyed them, saying to them, " I saw Satan like lightning falling from heaven." [3] As if He should say, So shall you fall if you be proud; for pride of angels makes devils, and will make devils of apostles. [4] Through the like chastisements passed Adam, [5] Nabuchodonosor, [6] Cyrus, [7] Herod, [8] and others, who desired to be as God, and gave Him not the glory due to Him.
2. Hence I will go on to consider that the greatest chastisement that Almighty God in this life inflicts upon one sin is, for that one to permit many others, and to take from them the special favours of His grace, which should preserve them from them. 28 And in this manner He chastises pride, which is the cause of those interior drynesses, discomforts and abandonments that happen to us, and through it God permits grievous fallings into luxury and infidelity. Ananias and Saphira,as St. Basil says, [9] for vain-glory
