When God is about to confer a great offer on any man,
God first exercises his mind with suffering,
and his sinews and bones with toil.
God exposes his body to hunger,
and subjects him to extreme poverty.
God confounds his undertakings.
By all these methods,
God stimulates his mind, hardens his nature,
and supplies his incompetencies.
Men for the most part err,
and are afterwards able to reform.
They are distressed in mind and perplexed in their thoughts,
and then they arise to vigorous reformation.
When things have been evidenced in men's looks,
and set forth in their words,
then they understand them.