Nothing can render affliction so heavy as the load of sin; would you
therefore be fitted for afflictions, be sure to get the burden of your
_sins_ laid aside, and then what afflictions soever you meet with will be
very easy to you.
If thou canst hear and bear the rod of affliction which God shall lay
upon thee, remember this lesson, thou art _beaten_ that thou mayst be
better.
The Lord useth his _flail_ of tribulation to separate the chaff from the
wheat.
The school of the cross is the school of light; it discovers the world’s
vanity, baseness, and wickedness, and lets us see more of God’s mind.
Out of dark affliction comes a spiritual light.
In times of affliction we commonly meet with the sweetest experiences of
the love of God.
Did we heartily renounce the pleasures of this world, we should be very
little troubled for our afflictions; that which renders an afflicted
state so insupportable to many, is because they are too much addicted to
the pleasures of this life; and so cannot endure that which makes a
separation between them.