perceived So is it with our spirituall estate Sometimes it is represented unto us as it is truly existing and thus we shall see it when we look upon it and judge of it by the word of God And sometimes it is represented unto us not as it is but as it appears in some corrupt and deceiveable testimonies and reports unto us As Josephs Ioseph chastity appeared to his Master under the nature of abominable uncleannesse when he took the testimony of it from his filthy wife So shall our most innocent upright frame appeare unto us to be nothing else but basest hypocrisie if we put the issue of it upon Satans informations For as Satan hath an art to colour over the true condition of sinfull bondage keeping close in covert the proper image or rather deformity of it So he hath a delusion too in hiding from our eyes the true powers of gracious sincerity and fetching up to the judgement all our weaknesses and present imperfections with all former knowne evils with which he doth so totally possesse the mind that it can hardly see any thing that good is in it selfe or if it doth yet it sees so much corruption and imperfection as that it is ready almost to turne the scale and ballance And here our crafty enemy ceaseth not but taking the advantage of a tender conscience he exaggerates upon us the large distance of this condition in which we now are from that which God commands and expects and hath found in some of his righteous servants in the citation of whose piety he is not very sparing that by the consideration of their fulnesse and our owne emptinesse wee might the more easily suspect our condition and credit his relations Which if we once doe Bone Deus into what labyrinths doe we wind our selves into what fears into what doubts We shall never set out to beleeve any Promise but hee checks us back with the hollownesse of our condition we shall never set upon any ordinance or duty but he foyles us with suspicions at least that all is in vaine God will not blesse and prosper his Ordinances unto such And in those Ordinances if any matter of bitternesse or uncomfortablenesse be delivered he brings home that to us and tels the soule This is thy portion Now where our estate rests upon a deceitfull informer where we take things as Satan makes them where we judge of sin as he pleads it and of Gods love to us as he conveys it and of Gods Promises as he interprets them to us and of our owne Graces and holy temper as he cleares and evidenceth them unto us there can be nothing but jealousies feares distractions and daily doubtings in the heart 13. Another spring may be A thirteenth spring some new risings of old sinnes after humiliation and some singular assurance of their pardon David gives a touch at this Psal 25. 7. I think Psal 25. 7. when he prayes Remember not the sins of my youth nor my transgressions So doth Job 13. 26. Thou writest Job 13. 26 bitter things against me and makest me possesse the iniquities of my youth It would trouble us to see a man rise up out of his grave who hath been buried a long Simile time and now to haunt us So these sins which we have long since committed and long since bewailed and long since renounced and after long humiliations their discharge hath been obtained to meet these sins like an enemy with a sword in his hand with guilt in their faces and countenances againe this will amaze the soule it will appale it and startle it and make us more then once to sigh and inquire Why is it so Two things will now fall into Two things question 1. The reality of pardon Where God saith he pardons sinne there he saith that he will remember it no more But it seemes he doth remember it else how comes it thus upon me as a debt not yet discharged as a guilt not yet removed and if he doth thus remember it against me I much feare that as yet the Book is not crossed this sin is not pardoned Upon which something else may fall in If this sinne be not pardoned perhaps the rest are not and if this be risen up against me how can I tel but all the rest may afresh set themselves in array and give a second charge upon my conscience too 2. The reality of Repentance For where God calls for sound repentance as Esay Esay 1. 16. 1. 16. Wash you make you cleane put away the evill of your doings from before mine eyes cease to doe evill there God doth promise ver 18. that Though our sins be as scarlet yet they shall be as white as snow and though they be red like crimson yet they shall be as wooll in which words are expressed a plaine change of the sinfull condition our sins shall not be what and as once they were Whereupon the soule misgives for its part God will doe what he hath promised Note if I had done what I was injoyned If my sins had beene truly left they had been fully discharged but now I possesse them againe in their guilt and therefore I exceedingly feare that I did overtly discharge my selfe of them in my repentance If Christ had slain them by his blood or if I had drowned them by true sorrow and repentance they could not thus revive in their guilt but I feare that I did onely skin over these sores which I feele now to break out or that I laid them asleep onely and not dead because they awake upon me with such terrour and clamour And if so then there hath been a long and fruitlesse veine of rotten hypocrisie in me whereas I had thought my work almost finished I am as yet to begin againe Beloved this is a secret and piercing fountaine of strong fears and doubtings especially when the sins rise up and set on us afresh after a course of humiliation and some singular assurance of their pardon and yet it is the case of many Christians incident unto them in their dayes of great losses or sicknesses or death 14. Another spring or occasion A fourteenth cause may be some long silences in the conscience God you know hath set in our selves our Law-giver our Judge and our Witnesse Conscience doth sustaine and should discharge the offices of all these In a doubtfull day it should cleare our condition and witnesse for us against the testimony of Satan and of our owne feares And therefore God hath given unto it an excusing and comforting power as you may see Rom. 2. 15. Their thoughts excusing one another or accusing And 2 Cor. 1. 12. Our rejoycing is this the testimony of our conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity c. Here consider some particulars 1. Concerning Testimonie 2. Concerning our Condition 1. There is a three-fold testimony A threefold testimony about our estate 1. One is
How to know whether Satan revives former sins your sins are revived by Satan from two effects 1. One is from the desperate issues of their reviving you may know whether a man be a friend or a malicious enemy who doth revive the errors and failings amongst men a friend hee revives them that you may be bettered either to reforme if the thing be evill or to be circumspect whether the thing be true or false but the malicious enemy he revives them onely to make you odious and loathsome Now Satans reviving of former sins is ever odious it is of evill for evill his end is desperate What is that That is that we might give up all possible interests in mercy all hope of pardon and acceptance Whence it is where he revives sins former sins hee bends the heart to some present mischiefe to renounce all hope of mercy and to selfe-murder and such desperate issues both which are against the ends of God and the desires of an holy heart which upon their reviving of sinne doe ever propose mercy and betterment unto the soule 2. Another is from the filthy issues which is this Hee revives the sting of sinne that he may make us more bold and mad in sinning He revives sin unto sin there is no hope of mercy of recovery therefore as good to goe on as not Whence he inclines the heart to a leaping into the water to a wallowing in the mire to a greedinesse in the course of sinning which hee doth the more easily win from the evill hearts of evill men by those temporary allayments and cessations of stinging guilt which they observe in themselves by their furiousnesse constant and hardning revolutions or exercise of the same sins So that if you whose hearts are tender have been humbled for former sins and are so upright as still to hate them if former gâ—â—ilts be revived with an inclination either to give up all mercy or to give over your selves now with licentiousnesse to the same or other sins here is Satan in this Satan now revives thy guilt and now another course is to be taken 2. The course then is this and I beseech you mark it 1. Strengthen thy heart with more detestations of the sins The more he revives the guilty accusation the more doe thou revive thy upright detestations And as he poures out malice to disturb thy conscience so doe thou poure out revenge to sub due the grounds of it And if he vexeth thee doe thou goe and vexe thy sinnes 2. Beleeve not a malicious Thy case is not wicked because a wicked devill saith so accuser Satan doth oft times serve a Writ in the Kings name without the Kings seale he forgives where God doth not and he binds where God hath released And this know It is God that justifieth who then shall condemne If the King himselfe hath pardoned thee how unjust is it for the under-officer to arrest and challenge 3. But in case of frequent inquietations when Satan will not be answered but still chargeth now make thine appeale The Christian must appeale from him to God and if he charge thee in the Court of Conscience remove it wisely to the higher court of heaven let God once more have the hearing and the deciding And now Satan what hast thou to say unto me Thou hast sinned heretofore saith Satan and thy Judge doth know the truth of this indictment I have Satan I confesse it and my God doth know the truth of my sorrow and repentance Lord dost thou not know my teares my returnings my judgings of my self my feeling of mercy grace Lord thou hast knowne it and hast knowne my soule with thy pardoning and accepting mercy 4. Rest the soule and fasten it unto the bloud of Christ which will alwayes cry downe the testimonies and clamours of guilt Nothing but that wil satisfie God and vanquish Satan and then by faith not onely lay hand on mercy but hold out the stability of mercy The Kings pardon will serve twenty years hence in case of suit Satan may often trouble question but Gods accepting of thee into mercy will I am sure it may quiet and uphold thee 14. The last spring of doubtings was silence in the conscience long silence there For the closing of this spring and with it this subject of doubtings observe these particulars in a word 1. The speech of conscience what that is 2. The speechlesnesse of conscience what and how 3. To make conscience speak againe what required 4. To support our selves in the times of its silence what can and may 1. The speech of conscience The speech of conscience what This is no more then its testimony for us or against us for conscience is intimate with our secret frames and intentions and motives and actions By its naturall light it can tell much by implanted light more by renewed and sanctified light most of all Now the speech of conscience for us is nothing else but an approbation of our estate answerable to the Word acquiting us against all feares and objections that we are the sons of God that we are truly changed that we sincerely love him beleeve in Christ and walk before him for really the voice of Conscience is but the eccho of the voice of the Word and saith that unto us touching our particular what the Word delivers in the generall It s voice is but the Assumption and the voice of the Word is but the Proposition The Word saith that should be and Conscience saith here it is The Word requires such and such things in a man to be saved and who is in favour with God and Conscience brings them out and answers for the person 2. The speechlesnesse or silence The speechlesnesse of conscience what it is of conscience is the suspension of its determining and acquiting acts touching our estate in generall or touching some particular doubts Sometimes conscience calls upon us and sometimes we call upon conscience In matters of direction to practise or forbearance we usually heare a reall and inward word Do it not or Thou mayst do it In after doubts we call upon conscience for its testimony In the uprightnesse of my heart did I it and my conscience doth beare me witnesse Now of all the silences of conscience that is heaviest which befalls us in our spirituall combats and tryals wherein our gracious condition is questioned but cannot be issued because conscience holds up and doth not testifie for us by any sensible approbation and acquitance which is caused diversly 1. Sometimes through particular Silence in conscience diversly caused mis-behaviours against the directing voice of conscience these hold in the acquiting voice of conscience for conscience will not speak for us if we presume to sinne against it 2. Sometimes through disregard to the voice of God in the Ministery for Conscience takes not that well which the Word takes ill and therefore God doth usually make us know our
neglects of his Word by the silences of our consciences And assuredly something is ordinarily amisse when Conscience speaks unto us neither good nor bad 3. Sometimes Conscience is silent to make us look higher then Conscience and that wee might know there is a higher Court to which wee must make our addresses 4. Sometimes Conscience is silent to make us see upon what bottomes our faith is grounded whether we can beleeve because God saith as well as rejoyce because Conscience speaketh 3. But to make Conscience speak what must we doe We have had its gracious testimonies by which we have been much comforted and supported How shall we recover it to speech againe I answer 1. Speak to God and then The waies to recover conscience to speeâ—h againe God may speak to Conscience and Conscience will speak to thee God hath a greater command over Conscience then it hath over us It is with God and Conscience as with a King and his Courtiers let the King speake kindly to a Petitioner the Courtiers will then imbrace him lovingly and indeed Conscience will carry Gods face and expresse his dispositions of love Therefore this doe speak to the Lord 1. To shew thee the cause of Consciences silence 2. To give thee the testimony of his owne Spirit which will draw with it againe the testimony of thine owne conscience Rom. 8. 16. 2. Speak to duty Be sure thou doe not displease Conscience If thou hast repent and adde no more to make Conscience displeased or silent 4. But how may we support our selves in the times of silence I answer thou mayst comfort thy selfe if 1. The Word can approve thee the testimony of the Word is ever open though that of Conscience be not What is the reason Because men may have a constant audience and tryall of their estates And take one thing by the way If the Word which is alwayes open and speaking if it acquits thee Conscience though now silent whensoever it speakes will cleare thee 2. Thou hast and dost approve the Word How is that That is If the Word be thy rule thy light by which thou hast and dost walk for when Conscience comes to speak it gives its sentence from the Word by which thou walkest and of thy frame and course which thou preservest in an upright answerablenesse to the directions of the Word An Addition of foure other causes of Doubtings with a briefe resolution of them 1. SEnse of sinfull workings O! saith a distressed soul Certainly my condition is stark naught and I have no right to Christ nor to any mercy I may not beleeve Why Because I never found such vile workings of heart as of late I feele a wonderfull rebellion in my heart I cannot think on any good nor set upon any good but an army of evill is in me opposing and hindering me To a soule in such a condition Sol. I would for his help prescribe these five subsequent considerations 1. When grace comes in truth it is ever of that power to make such discoveries and to raise such stirs as the soule never felt before for Grace is a new nature and a new light and a new active principle It is put into the soul for that very end to find and lay out sin yea and to expell and thrust it out The judgement was never so convinced before nor Conscience so qualified before nor the will and affections so spiritualized before therefore never marvell at the strange workings When a child is conceived in the wombe it is not now with the woman as in former times and whensoever Christ is formed in the soule it is not with that soule as in old times There is that now falne in which must purge thee and rule thee 2. If good be wrought evil will work and 〈◊〉 When Christ was born all Jerusalem was troubled so when grace is wrought sin will stir Indeed if grace came into the soule either by a finall and totall cessation of sin that there were no sin residing in the soule into the which grace comes then thou shouldst feele no stir at all Thus it shall be in heaven Grace there shall be alone Holinesse and nothing but holinesse there and therefore no combat no stir But thus it never will be on earth Sinne may be alone in some mens hearts but grace is never alone in any mans heart in this life Or if grace came into the soule by a peaceable resignation if sinfull flesh would without any more adoe make a full and free surrender and give it possession without any dispute and cavill then also thou mightst expect a calmnesse and a cessation of armes no vile stirrings But O Christian Grace and sin The Spirit Gal. 5. 17. and the flesh are contrary one to the other and therefore they lust one against the other Fire and water will not lie quiet Sad indeed were thy condition if thou hadst such a frame of vaine good against which no sinfull part in thee would oppose Every regenerate man hath a double man in him the new man and the old man that would doe good this would not doe good that would pray this would not that would mourn this would not that would beleeve this would not 3. But then thirdly thou who feelest such a rebelling and opposing flesh in thee what is that which thou dost oppose It is true thou feelest an untoward rebellious nature yet within thee but what side takest thou It is not I said Rom. 7. Paul but sin that dwelleth in me Sin in him opposed good but Paul himselfe approved good and delighted in good and willed good The same Apostle speaking of the co-habitation and the co-operation of flesh and spirit in regenerate persons that the one did lust against the other and the one was contrary to the other and that by reason of the rebellion and unrulinesse of the one we could not Gal 5. 17. doe the good which we would he yet comforteth them in such a condition in the next words If ye be led by the Spirit ver 18. ye are not under the Law As if he had said Notwithstanding all this rebellious opposition of your flesh if yet ye yeeld not to be servants to it but approve of and incline unto and follow in your hearts courses the rules of the Spirit the condition is very good safe So that though the evill remaining in us doth oppose the good in us yet if we our selves oppose not the good our condition may be good 4. Fourthly as there is evill in thee opposing of thee in any good so there is something in thee also opposing of that evil Dost thou not condemne that hardnesse which hinders thee from mourning and sheddest many a teare because thou canst not mourne Dost thou not strive with the Lord by many prayers and in the use of all his ordinances against that unbeleeving and rebelliously working nature of thine Dost thou not with Paul conflict with it
Jesus Christ Whence two things arise to keep doubtings and feares off viz. 1. That though our holinesse be weak yet Christs is strong that righteousnesse which justifies is full When And so it must be or else wee could not truly be reputed just we look upon our selves Ah Lord think we How shall we appeare before God! How will he accept of us Such poor such weak such sinfull hollow people I answer Christs righteousnesse is full his coat was seamlesse ours is made up and strangely cut but his righteousnesse is compleat and He is made unto us righteousnesse yea and that of God 1 Cor. 1. 30. God hath set him out to be our righteousnesse and he justifies us by it 2. Though our services be weak yet we are justified by Christs righteousnesse Aaron was to beare the iniquity of the holy offerings Exo. 28. 38. Their holy offerings had some unholy mixtures but Aaron was to beare them i. he was to take the iniquities away from them and to make the offerings accepted Christ is this Aaron who by his righteousnesse covers all the blemishes makes up all the weaknesses in holy duties Therefore my brethren in all our approaches to God wee should not doubt It is the Apostles own argument Heb. 10. 21. Having such an High-priest over the house of God 22. Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith And ver 23. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering c. It is as if the Apostle had said If men did know what a Christ they have what a full righteousnesse there is in him what he doth with it how he justifies their persons and justifies their services pleads for them beautifies them ingratiates them with the Father they would not doubt so much as they doe they would be better perswaded of God when they come and pray unto him I remember the Apostle hath an excellent phrase in Heb. 9. 24. that Christ doth appeare for us It is a Metaphor from a Lawyer If a man hath a case he goes to his Lawyer and reports all to him desires him to undertake the whole businesse and upon the committing of the Case to him he appeares for his Plaintiffe opens the Case pleads for him before the Judge and the Cause is carryed So is it with Christ he appears for us i. When a poore sinner a weak beleever comes to him and opens his condition his wants his infirmities Christ undertakes for him he pleads for him he ever lives to make intercession he moves his Father in his behalfe brings out his righteousnesse his bloud and merits and what he did and suffered for him c. And thus doth Christ for every particular service duty and prayer for him who beleeves on him The tenth cause of doubtings was disputation against the Promises O saith the troubled and fearfull soule all these promises which you produce and apply to my condition they are nothing to me they belong not to me There is indeed goodnesse and truth a wonderfull worth in them and they suit with my condition exactly but I may not lay hold on them I should but presume to take the bread which belongs to children but not to dogs not to such a sinner as I am Good Christian doe but track thine owne spirit or the spirit of any distressed in conscience thou shalt find this to be the last hold usually of unbeliefe namely a reasoning against Gods Promises the which reasoning is sometimes through meere tendernesse of spirit as when the soule hath arguments to it selfe of that force to represent a present incapacity of any good which God hath promised and till they be removed it dares not lay hold on the Promises but if they could be satisfied then it is drawne in to beleeve But sometimes there is a reasoning against the Promises through wilfulnesse of spirit as when all the arguments of a doubting sinner are so clearly resolved and answered by the expresse words of God that the person cannot gainsay it yet the person rather bends still against the Promises then labours to honour God in them by beleeving This later reasoning is an irrationall way and unworthy of our abetting I should think such a Christians doubtings to arise rather from a fixed and heavy melancholy then any other speciall cause Neverthelesse somewhat to help the other Christian who argues reasoneth against the Promises meerly out of tendernesse and feare of his right and title I would commend a few things to his consideration 1. No spirituall good is furthered nor evill weakned by keeping the soule and Gods Promises asunder Tell me seriously Is not all our help for sould and body in the full and whole latitude of it couched in Gods Promises Are they not our wells of salvation and breasts of consolation our sun and shield and what vessell hath a poore sinner to draw with out of those wells what mouth hath he to milk out those breasts but faith It is faith which knits the Promises and our conditions together it is faith which makes them to meet each other And till the Promises meet in their vertue and influence with this condition of thy soule thou shalt never be helped or bettered by them Till the plaister and the wound doe meet it will never be an helping nor healing plaister Thou shalt be utieras as thou wast and the Promise shall be ubi erat where it was it shall never do thee good till thou dost apply it 2. It is beleeving which must cleare our title O saith the Christian if I knew that the Promises belonged unto me I would then beleeve I answer First this is a preposterous course and utterly impossible as if there could be any well-grounded perswasion of our interest before we have any such interest No but personall perswasion is a consequent worke it cannot be the antecedent or leading work You must buy the lands before you can be perswaded that they are yours But secondly if ever you would cleare your title to the Promises you must then beleeve for it is faith which doth intitle you and gives you interest and propriety As the Apostle spake of a great good After ye beleeved ye were sealed with the holy spirit of promise Ephes 1. 13. that I say in this case I fever you would be perswaded that God seales his Promises unto you then doe you first put your seal unto the Promises Beleeve and then thou shalt see the good of them to be thy good 3. The ground of a Christians beleeving Gods Promises must not be in him who is to apply them but onely in him who makes them O! this is it which gravels and labyrinths and still distresseth us that we set up the grounds of faith in our selves and not in God We are loth to acknowledg that the sole ground of beleeving is to be found only in that God who promiseth It is said of Abraham when God promised him a child in
be disclosed and Gods righteous judgement shall be evident to the hearts of all the world Whence it is that in this day of meeting they shall cry unto the mountaines to fall on them and the rocks to hide them but in vaine from the wrath of him who sits upon the throne 2. There are severall causes of the rising of sin Some are Divers causes of sins rising afresh on Gods part some on our part some on Satans 1. For Gods part God doth many times cause our former sins to rise by the power of his mighty spirit in the ministery of his Word For whereas the sinner would hush his fears and griefs and conscience asleep yet the Lord will not have it so He doth rub the sore and gall the conscience makes it sensible of the guilt and wounds Hee doth pierce by the two-edged sword of his Word even to the dividing asunder of soule and spirit and of the joynts and marrow and discernes the very thoughts and intents of the heart He meets the person oft times many years after the commission of the sinnes and most expresly revives and remembers them in all the acting circumstances which the sinning person either had or would have buried in silence and forgetfulnesse 2. For our part Thus there is double cause of new rising of old sins One whereof is good and the other is bad 1. A new commission of the old sins which brings back upon us the sting of the old guilt for relapses into the disease occasion a relapse of the burden and ache Cut thy finger againe and it will smart againe fall into thy ague againe it will make thee shake againe Relapses have ever this judgement with them that they make a fresh wound and the old also to bleed againe You know in some Wells there are two buckets put downe the one and you bring up the other so the falling into the same sin againe brings up the old burden againe Though we may not revive sinne to practise it yet we may to mourn for it 2. Renewed humiliations for then we doe voluntarily look back upon our former accounts that thereby we may more humbly sue out a totall discharge Though wee may sin the sin over no more yet we may weep it over and over and though the acting of it may be no more yet the bewailing of it should last us ever 3. On Satans part who like an envious and malicious wretch never gives over to throw unto us our errors and failings though corrected with truest reformation So Satan who is the great cause and incentive to sin will not cease after our truest repentance to vexe and sad and if he could to despaire our hearts with the fresh memory of former and forsaken sins so that we seldome or never lay hand on a blessed promise or gaine our selves into the comfortable favour of God or delight our selves in the sweet peace of conscience but he falls in and checks and troubles us with the representations of former sins and perchance makes us let goe our gracious hold with the feares and suspicions and chargements of former guilts 3. Now according to the variety of the causes fetching up upon us our former guilts must we deliver unto you severall helps and remedies Consider therefore on Gods The ends of reviving of sin part there are severall ends in respect of severall persons why he brings on the sinnes againe 1. To make the ground-work more deep and sure We make our tents too short for our wounds Wee sinne much and defile our selves much and we think that a little washing will serve the turne O! this businesse of self-tryall of laying the axe to the root of the tree of diving into the secrets of sin of applying the corrasives unto the core heart of our natures this goes against us wee are quickly weary of it Indeed some trouble and some bitternesse we grant to be convenient but to be still accusing our selves before God still to be lashing and wounding our hearts for wounding of God Ah this this goes against us You shall see people sometimes very sensible of their diseased bodies O now some physick were good they find such aches such distempers surely some physick were good and some they take which makes them excessively sick but then away with it no more physick yet at length the disease comes upon them againe and the Physitian prescribes more physick even that which must goe to the root of the disease which though it makes them more sick yet it procures their safety and better health Beloved God would have men perhaps a longer space to sit upon their sinnes they stint themselves after great sins and make themselves friends with God prefently Now the Lord knowes that this skinning of the sore will spoile all and therefore after a short time he returnes them their sins againe makes Conscience to startle at the guilt againe and deales with us as the skilfull Chirurgion with a man whose leg is broken and ill set he breaks it againe that it may be well set So doth the Lord he breaks our soules againe with the guilt of sins He will make us know that wee must bring him more broken hearts we shall know what it is to sinne against him and shall not make a reall and lasting peace without a sound and solid humiliation And truly this is the great mercy of his wisdome to work thus for hereby he makes our foundation low and sure and hereby he prevents subsequent stirs and makes way for our surer and more comfortable apprehensions and applications of his love in Christ You know that a wise Schoolmaster when a boy skips from a hard lesson to that which is more easie he puts him back againe and makes him say it over and over ere he takes it forth Men think to be catching at Christ however they love to lay load on him and throw their vile burdens upon him though perhaps they never yet weighed their vile sinings and dishonourings of God But the Lord will turne them back againe he will take off these pragmaticall presumers and set them to learne their first lesson better He will make them more sensible of their vile hearts and waies and actions they shall not so easily come off from their accursed transgressions the Lord will hold up the comfortable answers of his favours and the sweet tasts of the Lord Jesus Christ and make them againe to sit downe in bitter sorrow for piercing the Lord Christ and shedding his bloud and grieving of his Spirit and all that men might be more humbled and more really fitted for Christ 2. To make us more humble I assure you oft times our very victories make us proud and that very grace which should be a cause to abase us occasionally and accidentally is a means to puffe us we rise too often above our selves beyond measure And therefore as to Paul there was given a sting to abase him