Six reasons of it
thus, seeing our head, Christ Jesus, hath suffered for us? I answer, we must suffer, Six Reasons for It Reason 1. First, That we may know what Christ suffered for us by our own experience, without which we should but lightly esteem of our redemption, not knowing how to value Christ's sufferings sufficiently, which is a horrible sin, Heb. 2:3.
Reason 2. Secondly, By our sufferings we know what a bitter thing sin is, Jer. 2:19, as by the ill consequents thereof: for without the taste of God's wrath, we find nothing but sweetness and pleasure in sin; and therefore, we have so much sense of God's wrath as to humble us, but shews not the extremity of the depth of sin, lest we should sink down into despair.
Reason 3. Thirdly, By our afflictions and depths, we manifest God's power and glory the more in our deliverance: for the greater the trouble is, the greater is the deliverance; as the greater the cure is, the greater credit the physician gets.
Reason 4. Fourthly, Many times, by less evils, it is God's manner to cure greater; and thus he suffers us to feel wrath, to cure us of security, which is as a grave to the soul; as also to cure spiritual pride, that robs us of grace, dealing with us as he did with the Israelites. He would not cast out all the nations from before them, but left some that might be employed in hunting and destroying the wild beasts, which might else multiply against the children of Israel.
And thus God dealt with Paul, gave him to be vexed by a base temptation, lest he should be lifted up with spiritual pride, through the abundance of revelations, 2 Cor. 12:7.