For though I would rejoice, I should not be a fool, for I will say the truth: but I refrain, lest any man should think of me above that he seeth in me, or that he heareth of me.

[a]And lest I should be exalted out of measure through the abundance of revelations, there was given unto me a [b]prick in the flesh, the messenger of [c]Satan to buffet me, because I should not be exalted out of measure.

For this thing I besought the Lord [d]thrice, that it might depart from me.

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Footnotes

  1. 2 Corinthians 12:7 An excellent doctrine: why God will have even his best servants to be vexed of Satan and by all kinds of temptations, to wit, lest they should be too much puffed up, and also that they may be made perfect by that continual exercise.
  2. 2 Corinthians 12:7 He meaneth concupiscence, that sticketh fast in us, as it were a prick, insomuch that it constrained Paul himself being regenerate, to cry out, I do not that good that I would, etc. And he calleth it a prick, by a borrowed kind of speech taken from thorns, or stumps, which are very dangerous and hurtful for the feet, if a man walks through woods that are cut down.
  3. 2 Corinthians 12:7 Which setteth those lusts on fire.
  4. 2 Corinthians 12:8 Oft.

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