Bearing the Cross By John Calvin

Still, however, we see not how necessary that obedience is, unless we at the same time consider
how prone our carnal nature is to shake off the yoke of God whenever it has been treated with some
degree of gentleness and indulgence. It just happens to it as with refractory horses, which, if kept
idle for a few days at hack and manger, become ungovernable, and no longer recognize the rider,
whose command before they implicitly obeyed. And we invariably become what God complains
of in the people of Israel—waxing gross and fat, we kick against him who reared and nursed us,
(Deut. xxxii. 15.) The kindness of God should allure us to ponder and love his goodness; but since
such is our malignity, that we are invariably corrupted by his indulgence, it is more than necessary
for us to be restrained by discipline from breaking forth into such petulance. Thus, lest we become
emboldened by an over-abundance of wealth; lest elated with honour, we grow proud; lest inflated
with other advantages of body, or mind, or fortune, we grow insolent, the Lord himself interferes
as he sees to be expedient by means of the cross, subduing and curbing the arrogance of our flesh,
and that in various ways, as the advantage of each requires. For as we do not all equally labour
under the same disease, so we do not all need the same difficult cure. Hence we see that all are not
exercised with the same kind of cross. While the heavenly Physician treats some more gently, in
the case of others he employs harsher remedies, his purpose being to provide a cure for all. Still
none is left free and untouched, because he knows that all, without a single exception, are diseased.
[John Calvin—On the Christian life-Ch. 3]