All Things Are His Servants

In The Spirit of Love William Law explains how God uses the things that are painful to us to accomplish His purposes, how He determines the trouble that sinners go through to bring them to an end of themselves:

"Now this Language of Scripture, which teaches us to call the Pains and Torments of our Sins, the Arrows, Darts, and Strokes of God’s Hand upon us, which calls us to own the Power, Presence, and Operation of God, in all that we feel and find in our own inward State, is the Language of the most exalted Piety, and highly suitable to that Scripture which tells us, 'That in God we live, and move, and have our Being.' For by teaching us to find, and own the Power and Operation of God in every Thing that passes within us, it keeps us continually turned to God for all that we want, and by all that we feel within ourselves, and brings us to this best of all Confessions, that Pain, as well as Peace of Mind, is the Effect and Manifestation of God’s infinite Love and Goodness toward us . . .

"The meek, merciful, and compassionate Jesus, who had no Errand in this World but to bless and save Mankind, said, 'If thy right Eye or thy right Hand offend thee, pluck out the one, cut off the other, and cast them from thee.' And that He said all this from mere Love, he adds, 'It is better for thee to do this, than that thy whole Body should be cast into Hell.' Therefore, if the Holy Jesus had been wanting in this Severity, he had been wanting in true Love toward Man.

"And therefore, the pure, mere Love of God, is that alone from which Sinners are justly to expect from God, that no Sin will pass unpunished, but that his Love will visit them with every Calamity and Distress, that can help to break and purify the bestial Heart of Man, and awaken in him true Repentance and Conversion to God. It is Love alone in the holy Deity, that Will allow no Peace to the wicked, nor ever cease its Judgments, till every Sinner is forced to confess, That it is good for him that he has been in Trouble, and thankfully own, That not the Wrath, but the Love of God, has plucked out that right Eye, cut off that right Hand, which he ought to have done, but would not do, for himself and his own Salvation."