'Eye the wisdom of God in all your afflictions. Behold it in the choice of the kind of your affliction, this, and not another; the time, now and not at another season; the degree, in this measure only, and not in the greater; the supports offered you under it, not left together helpless; the issue to which it is overruled, it is to your good, not ruin. Look upon these and then ask your heart, that question God asked Jonah, "Doest thou well to be angry?" (4.9). Surely, when you consider all - what need you had of these rods, that your corruptions will require all this, it may be much more, to mortify them; that without the perishing of these things you might have perished for ever - you will see great reason to be quiet and well-satisfied under the hand of God.'
John Flavel, The Mystery of Providence, p.131.
