"As a result of this, there arose those common expressions in the Holy Scriptures in which afflictions and perils are compared to an intoxicating cup. Surely, a striking understatement. Thus in Ps. 110:7 the passion of Christ is called a draught from a brook, as though one were to call it a medicinal potion or syrup, which, though bitter, heals by its bitterness and makes alive through its killing action. These disparaging terms have the effect of comforting us, that we may learn to disdain death and other perils, and to endure them with a more ready heart.
Satan, too, has his cup; but it is a sweet one and one that intoxicates to the extent of bringing on vomiting. Those who have been seduced by its sweetness and drain it lose their life and die an eternal death. Such was the cup that the Babylonian drained, as the prophet says (Jer. 25:15). Let us, therefore, receive the salutary cup with thanks, just as Paul says that the believers glory in tribulations (Rom. 5:3)."
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