A Golden Chain

LIX.

Hence ariseth a notable difference, between the godly and the wicked, in the suffering of afflictions. A Reprobate the more the Lord layeth his hand on him, the more he^p murmureth & rebelleth against God: it is contrary with the true Christian: none feeleth more the power and rebellion of sin then he: none is more assaulted by Satan then he, and oftentimes it cometh to pass that God withdraweth the signs of his favour from him, & lets him feel his wrath. And this is the greatest temptation of all other, when a man shall see the Lord to be his enemy, and to his thinking to arm himself against him to his destruction. As ^qHezekiah did, who saith, that the Lord did crash his bones like a Lyon. Or ^ras Job saith, that the arrows of the almighty were in him, and the venom thereof drunk up his spirit, and the terrors of God did fight against him. Yet the true Christian when the world, the flesh, and the devil, and God himself too are against him, doth even then most of all rest in the Lord, and by faith cleave to him. ^sThough God should destroy me, yet would I trust in him (saith Job.) ^tAnd David saith, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? When he saith that God had forsaken him, it may seem to be the complaint of a desperate man, not having so much as one spark of faith: yet then he saith, My God, my God: which words contain a confession proceeding from true faith: so that in David it appeareth, that the faithful when they feel themselves forlorn, and utterly rejected of God, according to the sense and judgement of the flesh, yet by faith they can apprehend his hidden mercy, and behold it a far off in the glass of his promise. And so they do often show contrary affections in their prayers as David doth.