Riches of mercy to men in misery, or, Certain excellent treatises concerning the dignity…

First, He that will do that, must be utterly emptied of himself; that is, he must see no beauty, nor excellency, nor goodness in himself, he must make nothing of himself, think of himself as a man not worth the looking after. And not so only, but he must see also an emptiness of all power and ability to help himself. And this doth not bring the creature upon his knees only, but it lays him flat upon the ground with his face in the dust, and viles him in his own eyes.

First, He that will do that, must be utterly emptied of himself; that is, he must see no beauty, nor excellency, nor goodness in himself, he must make nothing of himself, think of himself as a man not worth the looking after. And not so onely, but he must see also an emptinesse of all power and ability to help himself. And this doth not bring the creature upon his knees onely, but it layes him flat upon the ground with his face in the dust, and viles him in his own eyes.

When a man shall see that he is not able to sustain himself, together with the sight of the worthlessness that is in him, not having any thing to move another to do it. I say this is one thing, wherein this exalting of God consisteth. When a man seeth neither any beauty, or excellency in himself, nor any power or ability to help himself, nothing to deserve help nor ability to afford himself any help. But this is for the first thing, wherein the exalting of God as God doth consist.

There is a second thing, and that is to see (on the other side) all fullness in God, to see in him all excellency and beauty, and all goodness, and all power and strength, and out of that to magnify him, to extol him in your hearts, to set him high as he is God, to love him above all. In a word, to look upon him as being all in all things, to answer our being nothing in every thing. These two must concur together to make up godliness, to enable us to exalt God as God in our hearts, to be fully convinced that there is nothing but emptiness in our selves, and withal to see all fullness in God; for so long as a man sees any thing in himself, so long as he thinks that there is either excellency in himself, or strength and power in him, so long he will lean upon himself, and trust himself,