God's anger

It is a general complaint; Afflictions environ me. In my short pilgrimage, through the sharp ¹wilderness of this world, on the one side the Thorns wound me, the Briers and Brambles scratch me on the other. This is not only the deserved penalty of sinful nature; Man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upwards, But even a kind of fatality inseparable to militant grace; All that will live godly in Christ, shall suffer persecution. ²That is a rare path upon earth, which hath never a rub: and a calm passage by water, that escapes all molestation. But more,

It is a generall complaint; Afflictions environ me. In my short pilgrimage, through the sharp ¹wildernesse of this world, on the one side the Thorns wound me, the Briers and Brambles scratch me on the other. This is not only the deserved penalty of sinfull nature; Man is born to trouble as the sparks flie upwards, But even a kind of fatality inseparable to militant grace; All that will live godly in Christ, shall suffer persecution. ²That is a rare path upon earth, which hath never a rub: and a calm passage by water, that escapes all molestation. But more,

1. 18.
2. 22 Tim. 3. 12

Be there not some Afflictions, that conduce much to our preservation? We have found, that the falling into one grievous sin, the worst of all dangers, hath brought us to repentance, one of the best preservatives. I have heard some Seamen report by experience, that in a tempest, some raging billow hath swept a man from off the Decks into the main Ocean: yet another wave on the other side, hath tossed him up into the ship again: so that he was only drenched; but not drowned. The violent pressure of one Affliction hath sunk a man to distrust in God: another with a more furious Storm hath left him destitute of all earthly succour: He now resolves, the world hath forsaken