John Cassian

In his own words on 2 Chronicles

• 2 Chronicles 24:17-25

  Some such thing we read of in the book of Chronicles. For Joash the king of Judah at the age of seven was summoned by Jehoiada the priest to the kingdom and by the witness of Scripture is commended for all his actions as long as the aforesaid priest lived. But hear what Scripture relates of him after Jehoiada's death and how he was puffed up with pride and given over to a most disgraceful state. "But after the death of Jehoiada the princes went in and worshiped the king: and he was soothed by their services and hearkened to them. And they forsook the temple of the Lord, the God of their fathers, and served groves and idols, and great wrath came on Judah and Jerusalem because of this sin." And after a little: "When a year was come about, the army of Syria came up against him: and they came to Judah and Jerusalem and killed all the princes of the people, and they sent all the spoils to the king to Damascus. And whereas there came a very small number of the Syrians, the Lord delivered into their hands an infinite multitude, because they had forsaken the Lord the God of their fathers; and on Joash they executed shameful judgments. And departing they left him in great diseases." You see how the consequence of pride was that he was given over to shocking and filthy passions. For he who is puffed up with pride and has permitted himself to be worshiped as God, is (as the apostle says) "given over to shameful passions and a reprobate mind to do those things that are not convenient." And because, as Scripture says, "everyone who exalts his heart is unclean before God," he who is puffed up with swelling pride of heart is given over to most shameful confusion to be deluded by it, that when thus humbled he may know that he is unclean through impurity of the flesh and knowledge of impure desires, a thing that he had refused to recognize in the pride of his heart; and also that the shameful infection of the flesh may disclose the hidden impurity of the heart, which he contracted through the sin of pride, and that through the patent pollution of his body he may be proved to be impure, who did not formerly see that he had become unclean through the pride of his spirit.

  INSTITUTES 12.21

• 2 Chronicles 26:15-16

  Of Uzziah, the ancestor of this king of whom we have been speaking, himself also praised in all things by the witness of the Scripture, after great commendation for his virtue, after countless triumphs that he achieved by the merit of his devotion and faith, learn how he was cast down by the pride of vainglory. "And," we are told, "the name of Uzziah went forth, for the Lord helped him and had strengthened him. But when he was made strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction, and he neglected the Lord his God." … You see how dangerous the successes of prosperity generally are, so that those who could not be injured by adversity are ruined, unless they are careful, by prosperity; and those who in the conflict of battle have escaped the danger of death fall before their own trophies and triumphs.

  INSTITUTES 11.11

• 2 Chronicles 32:24-26

  "In those days," we are told, "Hezekiah was sick unto death, and he prayed to the Lord, and the Lord heard him and gave him a sign," that, namely of which we read in the fourth book of the kingdoms, which was given by Isaiah the prophet through the going back of the sun. "But," it says, "he did not respond to the benefits which he had received, for his heart was proud. And wrath was kindled against him and against Judah and Jerusalem. He humbled himself afterwards because his heart had been proud, both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and therefore the wrath of the Lord did not come upon them in the days of Hezekiah." How dangerous, how terrible is the malady of vanity! So much goodness, so many virtues, faith and devotion, great enough to prevail to change nature itself and the laws of the whole world—all destroyed by a single act of pride! The result would have been that all his good deeds would have been forgotten as if they had never existed, and he would at once have been subject to the wrath of the Lord unless he had appeased him by recovering his humility. Thus, he who, at the suggestion of pride, had fallen from so great a height of excellence, could only mount again to the height he had lost by the same steps of humility.

  INSTITUTES 11.10