# Timothy Rogers on Afflictions



## VirginiaHuguenot (Dec 8, 2007)

Timothy Rogers, _Trouble of Mind and the Disease of Melancholy_, pp. 124-126:



> Do not mistake those things for evidences of the certain wrath of God which, perhaps, are not really so. He may suspend the expressions of His love, though He loves us still. Joseph had the tenderness of a brother, while his brethren thought he was very angry with them. Nay, in our secret supports we are not destitute altogether of His care, though we may not know how it comes. Metals that lie deep in the ground partake of the influence of the sun, though it does not shine upon them directly with light. There are few afflictions but have rather the marks of a fatherly kindness, in the seasonable correction of our faults, than the marks of displeasure. No outward losses or inward troubles, that are but for a time, are the certain signs of wrath; no, though they are very long and very grievous. It was not so in the case of Job.
> 
> Some of us will ask, "How shall I know when afflictions are in wrath?" It is a question to be answered with great tenderness and caution.
> 
> ...


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