LIX.
Hence ariseth a notable difference, betweene the godly and the wicked, in the suffering of afflictions. A Reprobate the more the Lord laieth his hand on him, the more hep murmureth & rebelleth against God: it is contrary with the true Christian: none feeleth more the power and rebellion of sinne then he: none is more assaulted by Satan then he, and oftentimes it commeth to passe that God withdraweth the signes of his fauour from him, & lets him feele his wrath. And this is the greatest temptation of all other, when a man shal see the Lord to be his enemie, and to his thinking to arme himselfe against him to his destruction. As q Ezechias did, who saith, that the Lord did crash his bones like a Lyon. Or r as Iob saith, that the arrowes of the almightie were in him, and the ve∣nime thereof drunke vp his spirit, and the terrours of God did fight against him. Yet the true Christian when the world, the flesh, and the deuill, and God himselfe too are against him, doth euen then most of all rest in the Lord, and by faith cleaue to him. sThough God should destroy me, yet would I trust in him (saith Iob.) tAnd Dauid saith, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? When he saith that God had forsaken him, it may seeme to be the complaint of a desperate man, not hauing so much as one sparke of faith: yet then he saith, My God, my God: which wordes containe a confession proceeding from true faith: so that in Dauid it appeareth, that the faithfull when they feele themselues for∣lorne, and vtterly reiected of God, according to the sense and iudgement of the flesh, yet by faith they can apprehend his hidden mercie, and behold it a farre off in the glasse of his promise. And so they doe often shew contrarie af∣fections in their praiers as Dauid doth. u Iacob when he wrastled with the Angel for life and death, neuer gaue ouer: and when he was foild he would not cease before the Lord had blessed him. This his wrastling is a type of the conflicts which the faithfull are to haue with the Lord himselfe, who vseth to bring his owne children (as it were) to the field: and he assaileth them with the one hand, and with the other he holdeth them vp, that so he may prooue and exercise their faith. And for this cause the Church x is called by the name of Iacob. An example may be had in the woman of Canaan. y First, our Sa∣uiour Christ gaue her faith, and by that faith shee was mooued to seeke to him: but when shee was once come to him, he gaue her three repulses. First, by saying nothing. Secondly, by denying her. Thirdly, by calling her dogge. Thus Christ in appearance made shew, as though he would neuer