Therefore humiliation, is said by our Saviour Christ to be an effect of the work of the Comforter: "I will send the Comforter, and he will convince the world of sin." Because comfort always goes along with true humiliation, it is not an enemy but a friend to our spiritual rejoicing but discouragement is an enemy to spiritual joy. He grieves, and rejoices that he can grieve for sin. The more a man is humbled for sin committed, the more he will rejoice in God, and rejoice that he can grieve for sin. True humiliation, it is no enemy, but a real friend unto spiritual joy, to our rejoicing in God. So that I say, when a man is truly humbled and grieved for sin, the object of his grief is sin, as a dishonour done unto God: when a man is discouraged and not humbled, then his trouble is all about his condition, and what will become of him. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: behold, I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me." All the time, you see, his eye is upon his sin, and not upon his condition only. Read verses 2 and 3, and so on: "Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin, for I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. He was humbled but not discouraged, for still he did keep his assurance verse 14, "Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation." But what was his repentance, his trouble, about? It was about his sin, and not about his condition. How may that appear? His trouble was about his sin, and not about his condition: "I will return unto my Father (says he), and I will say unto him, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and I am no more worthy to be called thy son make me as one of thy hired servants." David was sometimes both discouraged and humbled, and then you find his repentance and humiliation to be very brackish but if you look into the 51st Psalm, you will find David humbled but not discouraged, for it is a penitential Psalm. On the other side, the poor prodigal was humbled, but not discouraged. Ah, says he, my punishment is greater than I can bear. How may that appear? Cain was troubled about his condition. To clear this by Scripture: you know Cain was discouraged, but Cain was not humbled. But when a man is grieved and truly humbled for sin, his trouble is about sin itself, as a dishonour done unto God. Oh, says a discouraged person, I have sinned I have thus and thus sinned, and therefore my condition is bad, and if my condition be bad now, it will never be better Lord, what will become of my soul? His trouble is always about his own condition. When a man is discouraged, you will always find that his trouble is all about his own condition. The object of discouragement is a man's own condition, or sin producing that condition, the ultimate object of discouragement being a man's own condition. When a man is humbled, truly humbled, the object of his grief or sorrow or trouble is sin itself, as a dishonour done unto God. It is a profitable question, and worth our time. You will say, then, but what is the difference between these? A man is to be humbled, and not discouraged not discouraged and yet to be humbled! What is the difference between these two, being humbled and being discouraged? William Bridge ~ A Lifting Up For the Downcast His parishioners viewed him as a charitable and candid pastor whose ministry helped many people.Discussion Forum : Devotional Thoughts : William Bridge ~ A Lifting Up For the Downcast William Bridge was an excellent preacher, able scholar, and prolific writer with a well-furnished library, but he was no ivory tower theologian. He laboured there until 1662, when he was ejected by the Act of Uniformity.īridge spent his last years at Yarmouth and Clapham, Surrey, where he died in March 1670. That same year he accepted a position as town preacher at Yarmouth, where he organized an Independent church, and formally became its pastor in autumn 1643. Returning to England in 1641, the following year he was appointed a member of the Westminster Assembly, and proved himself a noted Independent. In 1636 he was forced to flee to Rotterdam in Holland, because of Bishop Matthew Wren’s campaign against nonconformity, and co-pastored a church there with John Ward and then Jeremiah Burroughs. He was ordained a priest in the Church of England in 1627, and served in Saffron Walden and Colchester in Essex, then becoming rector of St. William Bridge in Cambridgeshire around 1600 and entered Emmanuel College, Cambridge in 1619, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in 1623 and a master’s degree in 1626, before serving as a fellow at the college.
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