Humility

Henry Scougal:

That which makes anybody esteem us, is their knowledge or apprehension of some little good, and their ignorance of a great deal of evil that may be in us; were they thoroughly acquainted with us, they would quickly change their opinion.

The thoughts that pass in our heart in the best and most serious day of our life, being exposed unto public view, would render us either hateful or ridiculous; and now, however we conceal our failings from one another; yet sure we are conscious of them ourselves, and some serious reflections upon them would much qualify and allay the vanity of our spirits. Thus holy men have come really to think worse of themselves than any other person in the world: not but that they knew that gross and scandalous vices are in their nature more heinous than the surprisals of temptations and infirmity, but because they are much more intent on their own miscarriages, than on those of their neighbors, and did consider all the aggravations of the one, and everything that might be supposed to diminish and alleviate the other.

But it is well observed by a pious writer, that the deepest and most pure humility does not so much arise from the consideration of our own faults and defects, as from a calm and quiet contemplation of the divine purity and goodness. Our spots never appear so clearly as when we place them before this infinite Light; and we never seem less in our own eyes than when we look down upon ourselves from on high. Oh! how little, how nothing do all those shadows of perfection then appear, for which we are wont to value ourselves! That humility which comes from a view of our own sinfulness and misery, is more turbulent and boisterous, but the other lays us full as low, and wants nothing but that anguish and vexation wherewith our souls are apt to boil when they are the nearest object of our thoughts.

(pp. 131-132 in The Life of God in the Soul of Man)