Temptations serve to abase the servant of God, and to bring him down in his own conceit, that he be not proud of those things that are in him, or puffed up with conceit that there is more in him than indeed there is. This we saw in Paul’s example: he was buffeted of Satan, lest he should be exalted with abundance of revelations. We may see a type hereof in worldly affairs. The best ship that floateth on the sea, when it carrieth in it most precious jewels, is ballasted with gravel or sand to make it sink into the water, and so sail more surely, lest, floating too high, it should be unstable: even so dealeth the Lord with his servants; when he hath given them a good measure of his graces, then doth he also lay temptations upon them, to humble them, lest they should be puffed up in themselves.
