(2.) Secondly, Parents choose what rods they please to correct their children with. The child shall not choose what rod he pleaseth to be corrected with. Oh, no ! It is the prerogative of the father to choose
' The contemporary use of the word, common in Bishop Pearson G.
142 THE PRIVY KEY OF HEAVEN.
the rod. The father may choose and use either a great rod or a little rod, a long rod or a short rod, a rod made of rosemary branches or a rod made up of a green birch. It is so here ; God chooseth what rod, what affliction he pleaseth, to exercise his people with, Lev. xxvi., Deut. xxviii., Lam. iii. 9-18. You read in the Scriptures of very many rods, but they are all of God's choosing: Amos iii. 6, ' Is there any evil in the city, and hath not the Lord done it V Though there be many rods to be found in the city, yet there is not one of them but is of God's choosing: Ruth i. 13, ' It grieveth me much for your sakes that the hand of the Lord is gone out against me.' Ver. 21, * I went out full, and the Lord hath brought me home again empty; why then call ye me Naomi, seeing the Lord hath testified against me, and the Almighty hath afflicted me V Isa. xlv. 7, ' I form the light, and create darkness : I make peace, and create evil: I, the Lord, do all these things.' Micah i. 12, * For the in- habitants of Maroth waited carefully for good, but evil came down from the Lord unto the gates of Jerusalem.' David was whipped with many rods, but they were all of God's own choosing, Ps. xxxix. 9 ; and Job was whipped with many rods, but they were all of God's own choosing, chap. i. But,
(3.) Thirdly, Parents take no pleasure, they take no delight, to use the rod. Every lash the father gives the child, fetches blood from his own heart. The father corrects the child, and sighs over the child ; he whips the child, and at the same time weeps over the child. Nothing goes more against the parents' heart, nor against their hair, than the bringing of their children under the rod of correction. It is so here. Lam. iii. 33, ' For he doth not afflict willingly,' or, as the Hebrew runs, * he doth not afflict,' Tnillihbo, * from his heart, nor grieve the children of men.' You often read that he delights in mercy, Micah vii. 15 ; but where do you once read that he delights in severity, or in dealing roughly with his people ? God very rarely takes up the rod but when our sins have put a force upon him, 2 Chron. xxxvi. 16, Jer. V. 19. It is grievous to God to be a-grieving his people ; it is a pain unto him to be a-punishing of them : Hosea xi. 8, ' How shall I give thee up, Ephraim ? how shall I deliver thee, Israel ? how shall I make thee as Admah? how shall I set thee as Zeboim? Mine heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together.* My justice, saith God, calls upon me to rain hell out of heaven upon thee, as once I did upon Sodom and Gomorrah ; but then mercy interposeth her four several hows : how ? how ? how ? how ? how shall I give thee up ? God puts these four pathetical interrogations to himself, because none else in heaven or earth could answer them. The prophet brings in God speak- ing after the manner of men, who, being provoked a thousand thousand ways by the vanities and follies of their children, think to give them up to take their own coui*ses, and to look no more after them ; but then their bowels begin to work, and their hearts begin to melt, and they begin to interrogate themselves thus : ' How shall we give up these children ? for though they be disobedient children, yet they are children ; how can we turn them out of doors ? how can we disown them ? how can we disinherit them ? for though they are rebellious children, yet they are children, &c. Afflictions are called God's work, yea» his ' strange work ;' his act, yea> 'his strange act ;' as if God were
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out of his element "when he is afflicting or chastising his people, Isa. xxviii. 21. But,
(4.) Fourthly, The rod is smarting, grievous, and troublesome; and so are afflictions to our natures : Heb. xii. 11, * Now, no chasten- ing for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous/ Flesh and blood startles and is troubled at the least trouble. Affliction is a sort of physic that makes most sick. Some write that tigers will grow mad, and tear their own flesh, and rend themselves in pieces, if they do but hear drums or tabors sound about them.^ Were not Job and Jeremiah such tigers, who, in the day of their afflictions, did more than curse the day of their birth ? Job iii., Jer. xx. Oh what a bitter cup, what a heavy burden was affliction to them ! Job x. 1, 'My soul is weary of my life.' Job vii. 15, ' My soul chooseth strangling and death rather than life.' Ps. vi. 6, ' I am weary with my groaning.' Ps. Ixix. 1-3, ' Save me, O God, for the waters are come in unto my soul. I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing. I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me. I am weary of my crying, my throat is dried : mine eyes fail, while I wait for my God.' Doubtless many good men have sat under Elijah his juniper, 1 Kings xix. 4, wishing them- selves out of the world, if it might stand with divine pleasure, that they might rest from their sins and sorrows, and be rid of their many bur- dens and bondages, looking upon life [as] little better than a hell, were it not for the hopes of a heaven hereafter. But,
(5.) Fifthly, When parents take up the rod into their hands, they will not lay it down till they have subdued the spirits of their chil- dren, and brought them to submit and to kiss the rod, and to sit still and quiet before them? It is so here : when God takes up the rod, he will not lay it down till he hath brought us to lie quietly at his feet : Lev. xxvl 40-42, * If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they have trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary to me ; and that I also have walked contrary unto them, and brought them into the land of their enemies ; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity, then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember ; and I will remember the land.' When God takes up the rod, his children must either bow or break ; they must say, the Lord is righteous ; they must kiss the rod of correction, or else destruction will come like a whirlwind upon them, Isa. v, 3, 6.
It is reported of the lion, that he spares those creatures that fall down before him, and submit unto him ; but as for those that endeavour to run from him, or to contend with him, those he tears in pieces. It is iust so with the Lion of the tribe of Judah, as you may see in that iHosea v. 14, 15.
King Edward riding furiously after a servant of his' that had highly [displeased him, with a drawn sword in his band as purposing to kill