For the enemy without is sooner overcome, if the inward man be not laid waste.
There is no more troublesome or worse enemy to the soul than thou art to thyself, not agreeing well with the spirit.
Thou must in good earnest conceive a true contempt of thyself, if thou wilt prevail over flesh and blood.
Because thou yet hast too inordinate a love for thyself, therefore art thou afraid to resign thyself wholly to the will of others.
2. But what great matter is it, if thou, who art but dust and a mere nothing, submittest thyself for God's sake to man; when I the Almighty, and the Most High, who created all things out of nothing, have for thy sake humbly subjected myself to man.
I became the most humble and most abject of all men, that thou mightest overcome thy pride by my humility.
Learn, O dust, to obey, learn to humble thyself thou that art but dirt and mire, and to cast thyself down under the feet of all men.
Learn to break thy own will, and to yield thyself up to all subjection.
3. Conceive an indignation against thyself, suffer not the swelling of pride to live in thee: but make thyself so submissive and little, that all may trample on thee, and tread thee under their feet, as the dirt of the streets.