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Prov. 27.3. ‘It is a very uncommon thing for men not to receive at least one part of the glory that is offered them. This is the touchstone by which the fidelity of the Minister of Christ is tried. We value ourselves upon rejecting gross commendations, and extravagant flattery, because we would not make ourselves ridiculous. But when the praise is fine and delicate, and the incense prepared with art, how seldom it is that we will refuse to be intoxicated by it!’—Quesnel on Acts 14.13. 14. ‘Si minister verbi, laudatur, versatur in periculo.’ Augustine.— If a minister of the word is praised, he is concerned with the danger. ‘They are not our best friends that stir the pride of our hearts by the flattery of their lips. The graces of God in others (I confess) are thankfully to be accepted, and under discouragements and temptations they are to be wisely and modestly spoken of; but the strongest Christians scarcely show their own weakness in any one thing more than they do in hearing their own praises. Christian! You know you carry gunpowder with you.—Desire those that carry fire to keep their distance from you. It is a dangerous crisis, when a proud heart meets with nattering lips. Faithful, seasonable, and discreet reproofs are much safer for us and advantageous to mortify sin in our souls.’ Flavel. Mr. Walker mentions among ‘the things principally to lament—the workings of conceit—especially in talking or hearing of what was done by me, which has cost me a deal of self-condemnation, and needed much fear and watchfulness to oppose. In the beginning I saw little of it, and less of its evil; and though now it is only rarely that I experience what I call a sensible conceit—the pleasing tickling of the heart—yet I have cause to fear a worse thing: a more settled self-opinion which wants to receive commendation as its due, and expects submission in others.’ Life, p. 453.