his letters, to behold his opinions on that subject,

"Cultivate humility with care, in all those things which depraved nature
has in horror; and make sure, by the assistance of divine grace, to gain
a thorough knowledge of yourselves; for that understanding of ourselves
is the mother of Christian humility. Beware especially, lest the good
opinion, which men have conceived of you, do not give you too much
pleasure: for those vain delights are apt to make us negligent; and that
negligence, as it were by a kind of enchantment, destroys the humility of
our hearts, and introduces pride instead of it.

"Be distrustful of your proper strength, and build nothing upon human
wisdom, nor on the esteem of men, By these means you will be in condition
to bear whatsoever troubles shall happen to you; for God strengthens the
humble, and gives him courage; he is proof against the greatest labours,
and nothing can ever separate him from the charity of Jesus Christ; not
the devil with his evil angels, nor the ocean with its tempests, nor the
most brutal nations with all their barbarity. And if God sometimes
permits that the devil put impediments in his way, or that the elements
make war against him, he is persuaded, that it is only for the expiation
of his sins, for the augmentation of his merits, and for the rendering
him more humble.

"They who fervently desire to advance God's glory, ought to humble
themselves, and be nothing in their own opinion; being diffident, even in
the smallest matters, of their own abilities; to the end, that in great
occasions, becoming much more diffident of themselves, through a
principle of Christian humility, they may entirely confide in God; and
this confidence may give them resolution; for he who knows that he is
assisted from above, can never degenerate into weakness.

"Whatever you undertake will be acceptable in the sight of God, if there
appear in your conduct a profound humility, and that you commit the care
of your reputation into his hands; for he himself will not be wanting to
give you both authority and reputation with men, when they are needful
for you; and when he does it not, it is from his knowledge that you will
not ascribe to him that which only can proceed from him. I comfort myself
with thinking, that the sins of which you find yourselves guilty, and
with which you daily upbraid your own consciences, produce in you an
extreme horror of windy arrogance, and a great love of perfection;