on Humility, by writers of yesteryear

The quotation below has been on my mind since I read it several weeks ago, particularly the part in bold.  The quotation is from John Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion.  It causes me to wonder, "What if the foundation of my philosophy of life really were humility before God?"  What if I deeply understood that the most basic principle is that I live  in humility and dependence on God?  That would change much in the way I approach life, and it would give me a more proper view of myself, my neighbor, and, above all, my God.
Looking into the Chrysostom quote led me to some of Jonathan Edwards' writings on this topic, so you may hear more from me on this topic later because the first page of Edwards proved even deeper than Calvin.


I have always been exceedingly delighted with the words of Chrysostom, "The foundation of our philosophy is humility"; and still more with those of Augustine, "As the orator, when asked, What is the first precept in eloquence? answered, Delivery: What is the second? Delivery: What the third? Delivery: so, if you ask me in regard to the precepts of the Christian Religion, I will answer, first, second, and third, Humility." By humility he means not when a man, with a consciousness of some virtue, refrains from pride, but when he truly feels that he has no refuge but in humility. This is clear from another passage, "Let no man," says he, "flatter himself: of himself he is a devil: his happiness he owes entirely to God. What have you of your own but sin? Take your sin which is your own; for righteousness is of God." Again, "Why presume so much on the capability of nature? It is wounded, maimed, vexed, lost. The thing wanted is genuine confession, not false defence." "When any one knows that he is nothing in himself, and has no help from himself, the weapons within himself are broken, and the war is ended." All the weapons of impiety must be bruised, and broken, and burnt in the fire; you must remain unarmed, having no help in yourself. The more infirm you are, the more the Lord will sustain you. So, in expounding the seventieth Psalm, he forbids us to remember our own righteousness, in order that we may recognise the righteousness of God, and shows that God bestows his grace upon us, that we may know that we are nothing; that we stand only by the mercy of God, seeing that in ourselves eve are altogether wicked. Let us not contend with God for our right, as if anything attributed to him were lost to our salvation. As our insignificance is his exaltation, so the confession of our insignificance has its remedy provided in his mercy. (Institutes, 2.2.11; italics and bolding mine)