Page:MeditationsOnTheMysteriesOfOurHolyV1.djvu/244

 Pride is an inordinate appetite of excellence, and it is twofold. The one is carnal and worldly, which places its excellence in corporal goods, as wealth, parentage, beauty, honourable office, (fee. The other pride is spiritual, which cherishes itself in the spiritual goods of sciences and virtues, and this has four acts. i. The first is to attribute to oneself that which is God's,  as if it were his own, due to his nature or acquired by his own industry, without acknowledging God for the author of it ii. The second is, that although one thinks that what he has is from Almighty God, yet he attributes to km own merits that which is of pure grace, iii. The third is, to think of oneself that he has much more good than in truth he has, as well in virtue as in learning and other natural or acquired gifts, and to flatter oneself with them. iv. The fourth is, to think that one is singular and excellent above all in those good parts which he has, or to desire vainly to be so, that all may yield and subject themselves to him.

2. Prom pride spring many other vices with sundry acts of sins, which, like the seven heads of this infernal dragon, we may reduce to

i. The first is her eldest daughter, vain-glory, which is an inordinate appetite to be known, esteemed and praised of men; whose acts are, to boast oneself of what one has, as if one had not received it from Almighty God; to boast of what in truth one has not, or of a thing unworthy of glory, by reason of its being wicked and most base; to desire vainly to delight men, saying or doing things that they may praise one; to rejoice vainly when one is praised, delighting to hear one's own praises, though they be false flatteries. This vain-glory is most abominable in matter of virtues, for it is