raging pestilence, is to cleave and cling close to God under the rod. Oh how doth the child cling and hang upon his father when he takes up the rod. Let such a child-like spirit be found in you, when the Father of spirits takes up the rod. When the rod was upon David's back, oh how doth he cleave to God, even as the wife cleaves to her husband ; for so much the Hebrew word dabak in that Psalm Ixiii. 8 imports. So when Job was under the rod, oh how doth he cling about God ! Job^ xiii. 15, ' Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.' Job will hang upon a killing God ; so the church in that Psalm Ixxx. 15-18, &c. ; so those hundred forty and four thousand that had their fathers' names written in their foreheads. Rev. xiv. 1-6. O friends ! you never shew so much child-like love, nor so much child-like ingenuity,^ nor so much child-like integrity, as you do. shew when, under tlie smarting rod, you are found clinging about the Lord, and hanging upon the Lord by an exercise of grace. When Antisthenes held up his staff, as if he intended to beat one of his scholars out of his school, the scholar told him ' that he might strike him if he pleased, but he should never find a staff of so hard wood as should ever be able to beat him from him.'^ When no staff, no rod, no afEiction, can drive us from Christ, it is a sure argu- ment that we have profited much in the school of Christ. But,
(6.) The sixth lesson that you are to learn by the rod, or by the raging pestilence, is, to prepare to meet the Lord whilst the rod is in his hand : Amos iv. ] 2, ' Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel : and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.' Now there is a twofold preparation.
[1.] The first is a negative preparation : and this lies in taking heed of sinning against light and conscience ; for those sins that are against a clear light and an awakened conscience are most wounding, wasting, terrifying, and damning.
[2.] Secondly, There is a positive preparation : and that consists in repentance and returning to the Lord, and in abasing and humbling yourselves before the Almighty, 2 Chron. vii. 14. As there is no run- ning from God, so there is no contending with God ; for what is the chaff to the whirlwind, or the stubble to a consuming fire ? and there- fore the voice of the rod is. Prepare to meet the Lord in a way of faith and repentance; prepare to meet the Lord in an exercise of grace ; pre- pare to meet the Lord with prayers, and tears, and strong cries. But,
(7.) The seventh lesson that you are to learn by the rod, or by the raging pestilence, is, to acknowledge God's sovereign 'power and autho- rity over the rod, to how it, or break it, or hum it, or take it off, or lay it more or less on as he pleaseth, Micah vi. 13, Deut. xxviii. 58-61. All diseases and sicknesses are under the command of God ; they are all his sergeants, his servants, to execute his pleasure. That Mat. viii. 5 is an observable text. Christ tells the centurion that he would come and heal his servant ; the centurion tells him that he was not worthy fcthat he should come under his roof; only, if he would but speak the word, his servant should be healed: ' For,' saith he, ver, 9, ' I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me : and I say to this man. Go, and he goeth ; and to another. Come, and he cometh ; and to my ser-
^ • Ingenuousness,' — G.
* The ' scholar' was Diogenes. Cf. Antisthenes' Frac/menta, by "Winckelmann — G.
156 THE PRIVY KEY OF HEAVEN.
vant, Do this, and he doth it. Now when Jesus heard this, he mar- velled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel,' ver. 10. But wherein did the greatness of the centurion's faith appear ? Why, in this very ac- knowledgment, that all diseases were to Christ as servants, and that they were as much under the command of Jesus Christ, as any servant iinder heaven is under the command of his master. When Christ bids them go and afflict such a man, they go ; and torment such a man, they go ; and kill such a man, they go ; and so, when he calls them off, they come off at his call. Dear friends, it is a very great point of faith to believe these five things.
[1.] First, That God is the author of all the diseases, maladies, and sicknesses that be in the world, and that he sets them on and calls them off at his own good will and pleasure: Amos iii. 6, ' Is there any evil in the city, and hath not the Lord done it V He speaks of the evil of punishment, and not of the evil of sin. It was a mad principle among the Manichees, who referred all calamities to the devil for their author, as if there could be evil in the city, and the Lord have no hand in it.
[2.] Secondly, It is a great point of faith to believe that all diseases and sicknesses are limited by God in respect of places. God sent diseases of all sorts into Egypt, but he forbade them Goshen, Exod. viii. 20-23, ix. 23-26. Ponder seriously upon these scriptures. God's shooting his arrows into one town and not into another, into one city and not into another, into one kingdom and not into another, into one family and not into another, doth sufficiently evidence that all diseases and sicknesses are limited by the Holy One of Israel in respect of places.
[3.] Thirdly, It is a very great point of faith to believe that all sick- nesses and diseases are limited by God in respect of persons. That they are so, is evident in that Psalm xci. 3-8, Isa. Ixv. 12. But who lives in the faith of this truth ? Sometimes in the same house one is infected, and the other is not ; sometimes in the same bed the one is smitten, and the other is not ; sometimes at the same table the one is taken away, and the other is left, &c. ; and this doth roundly evidence and witness that all sicknesses and diseases are limited by God in respect of persons as well as in respect of places. But,
[4.] Fourthly, It is a great point of faith to believe that all diseases and sicknesses are limited by God in respect of the degrees to which they shall arise. That God that sets bounds to the raging sea, and that saith unto it, ' Thus far shalt thou go, and no farther,' that God sets bounds to all raging diseases and sicknesses, and saith unto them. Thus far you shall go, and no farther. He sets bounds to the fever ; he saith to it, Go and scorch and burn up such a body so much, and no more ; and to the dropsy. Go and drown such a body so much, and no more ; and to the raging pestilence, Go and weaken such a body so much, and • no more ; and to the stone, Go and torment such a body so much, and no more. But,
[5.] Fifthly, It is a very great point of faith to believe that all diseases and sicknesses are limited by God as to tJieir continvxince. God saith to one disease, Go, hang upon such a man so many years ; to another,
EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 157