Through many afflictions we must enter into the kingdom of God ... It is folly to think to steal to heaven with a whole skin.
Samuel RutherfordChrist's enemies are but breaking their own heads in pieces, upon the Rock laid in Zion; and the stone is not removed out of its place. Faith hath cause to take courage from our very afflictions; the devil is but a whetstone to sharpen the faith and patience of the saints. I know that he but heweth and polisheth stones, all this time, for the new Jerusalem.
Samuel RutherfordHowbeit your faith seeth but the black side of providence, yet it hath a better side, and God shall let you see it. ... โFor we know that all things work together for good to them that love God,โ ergo, shipwreck, losses, &c., work together for the good of them that love God: hence I infer, that losses, disappointments, ill tongues, loss of friends, houses, or country, are God's workmen, set on work to work out good to you, out of everything that befalleth you.
Samuel Rutherford