4. (3) There was a man in the city of Armagh,[179] where Malachy was brought up--a holy man and of great austerity of life, a pitiless _castigator of his body_,[180] who had a cell near the church.[181] In it he abode, _serving God with fastings and prayers day and night_.[182] To this man Malachy betook himself to receive a rule[183] of life from him, who had condemned himself while alive to such sepulture. And note his humility. From his earliest age he had had God as his teacher--there is no doubt of it--in the art of holiness; and behold, he became once more the disciple of a man, himself a man _meek and lowly in heart_.[184] If we did not know it, by this one deed he himself gave us proof of it. Let them read this who attempt to teach what they have not learned, _heaping to themselves_ disciples,[185] though they have never been disciples, _blind leaders of the blind_.[186] Malachy, _taught of God_,[187] none the less sought a man to be his teacher, and that carefully and wisely. By what better method, I ask, could he both give and receive a proof of his progress? If the example of Malachy _is_ for them _a very small thing_,[188] let them consider the action of Paul. Did not he judge that his _Gospel_, though he had _not received it of man but_ from _Christ_,[189] _should be discussed_ with men, _lest by any means he was running or had run in vain_?[190] Where he was not confident, neither am I. If any one be thus confident[191] let him take heed lest it be not so much confidence as rashness. But these matters belong to another time.