Christ went more willingly to the cross than we do to the throne of grace.

It is hard to carry a full cup without spilling, and a full estate without sinning.

There is more evil in a drop of sin than in a sea of affliction.

Affliction has a sting, out withal a wing: sorrow shall fly away.

It is absurd to think that anything in us could have the least influence upon our election. Some say that God did foresee that such persons would believe, and therefore did choose them; so they would make the business of salvation to depend upon something in us. Whereas God does not choose us FOR faith, but TO faith. "He hath chosen us, that we should be holy" (Eph. 1:4), not because we would be holy, but that we might be holy. We are elected to boldness, not for it.

God's decree is the very pillar and basis on which the saint's perseverance depends. That decree ties the knot of adoption so fast, that neither sin, death, nor hell, can break it asunder.

Whoever brings an affliction, it is God who sends it.