Basil of Caesarea, on Ps 33:4

“O magnify the Lord with me; and let us extol his name together.”

“The whole life of the just person is filled with affliction.… But God delivers his saints from their afflictions. Though he does not leave them without trial, yet he bestows on them patient endurance. For if "tribulation works out endurance, and endurance tries virtue," he who excludes tribulation from himself deprives himself of his tried virtue. As no one is crowned without an adversary, so also he cannot be declared tried except through tribulations.”

Imported from an open dataset — not yet checked against the printed edition.