Thomas Boston, Works, 1:213:
Here all we meet with is mixed. There is never a mercy we get, but there is a cross in it; and never a cross, but there is a mercy in it. Observe the mixture of your mercies, to make you humble and heavenly; for the fairest rose that grows here has a prickle with it, and there is a tartness in our sweetest enjoyments. Observe the mixture of your crosses, to make you patient and thankful; for the bitterest pill God gives you to swallow has a vehicle of mercy; Lam. 3:22, “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.” And wise observers will see many mercies in one cross, if they will but allow themselves to see how God could and might have made it worse.
Here all we meet with is mixed. There is never a mercy we get, but there is a cross in it; and never a cross, but there is a mercy in it. Observe the mixture of your mercies, to make you humble and heavenly; for the fairest rose that grows here has a prickle with it, and there is a tartness in our sweetest enjoyments. Observe the mixture of your crosses, to make you patient and thankful; for the bitterest pill God gives you to swallow has a vehicle of mercy; Lam. 3:22, “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.” And wise observers will see many mercies in one cross, if they will but allow themselves to see how God could and might have made it worse.
