the imagination of
some excellency beyond others, which lowliness hath razed out. He hath
placed himself so low for every man's edification and instruction, that
others can put him no lower, and there he sits quietly and peaceably.
_Bene qui latuit bene vixit._(425) Affronts and injuries fly over him, and
light upon the taller cedars, while the shrubs are safe.

Qui cadit in plano, (vix hoc tamen evenit ipsum,)
Sic cadit, ut tacta surgere possit humo.(426)

He sits so low, that he cannot fall lower, so a humble man's fall upon the
ground is no fall indeed, but in the apprehension of others, but it is a
heavy and bruising fall from off the tower of self conceit.

Now the example that is given us, "Learn of me," is certainly of greater
force to persuade a man to this humble, composed, and quiet temper of
spirit, than all the rules in the world. That the Son of God should come
down and act it before our eyes, and cast us a pattern of humility and
meekness, if this do not prevail to humble the heart, I know not what can.
Indeed this root of bitterness, which is in all men's hearts by nature, is
very hard to pluck up, yea, when other weeds of corruption are extirpated
this poisonable one, pride groweth the faster, and roots the deeper.
Suppose a man should be stript naked of all the garments of the old man,
this would be certainly nearest his skin and last to put off. It is so
pestilent an evil, that it grows in the glass window as well as on the
dunghill and, which is strange, it can spring out of the heart, and take
moisture and aliment from humility, as well as from other graces. A man is
in hazard to wax proud that he is not proud, and to be high minded because
he is lowly. Therefore, it is not good to reflect much upon our own
graces, no more than for a man to eat much honey.

I know not any antidote so sovereign as the example of Jesus Christ, to
cure this evil, and he himself often proposes this receipt to his
disciples, (John xiii. 13-17) "Ye call me Master and Lord, and ye say
well, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet
ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example,
that ye should do as I have done to you. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
the servant is not greater than his lord, neither he that is sent greater
than he that sent him. If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do
them." Matt xi. 29, 30, "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am
me