13, 14, ' If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people; if my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways ; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land ;' that is, ' I will remove the judgments that are upon the land, and I will confer upon my reforming people all those favours and bless- ings that they stand in need of.' Consult these scriptures, Ezra x.
14, 19 ; 2 Chron. xxx. 8, 9 ; and chap. xxix. 8, 10, 15, 16. But,
(15.) The fifteenth lesson that you are to learn by the rod, or by the raging pestUence, is, to make God your habitation, your shelter, your refuge. Ponder seriously upon those scriptures, Ps. xci. 2, 9, 10; xc. 1 ; Ixxi. 3 ; Ivii. 1. They dwell most safely, most securely, most nobly, who dwell in God, who live under the shadow of the Almighty, and who every day lodge their souls in the bosom of eternal loves. But,
(16.) The sixteenth lesson that you are to learn by the rod, or the raging pestilence, is, to set up God as the great object of your fear : Ps. cxix. 119, 120 ; Isa. viii. 7, 8, 13, 14, compared. When the judg- ments of God are either threatened or executed, feared or felt, it highly concerns us to lift up God as the main object of our fear. We should fear the hand that lays on the rod, more than the rod itself. Job. xiii. 11, Jer. xxxvi. 24. When God takes up the rod, when he draws his sword, and when he shoots his pestilential arrows amongst us, oh how highly doth it concern us to fear before him with a child-like fear, with a reverential fear, with a fear that fortifies the heart against sin, and with a fear that fits the soul for duty, and that draws, yea, drives the soul to duty. But.
(17.) The seventeenth lesson that you are to learn by the rod, or by the raging pestilence, is, to expect God's singular presence with you, and his admirable protection over you. Consult these scriptures, Isa. xliii. 2 ; Dan. iii. 24, 25 ; Gen. xxxix. 39, 40 ; Ps. xxiii. 4, 5 ; Ps. xci. ; Isa. Ixiii. 9 ; Isa. xxvi. 20, 21 ; Ezek. ix. 4, 6. God is above his people and beneath them, Deut. xxxiii. 25-27. He is under them and over them. Cant. ii. 6. He is before them and behind them, Isa. Iii. 12, and chap. Iviii. 8, He is on the right hand of his people, and he is on the left hand of his people, Ps. xvi. 8, cxxi. 5, cxviii. 15, 16 ; Exod. xiv. 22, 29. God is round about his people, Ps. xxxiv. 7, cxxv. 2. And God is in the midst of his people, Zech. ii. 5 ; Ps. xlvi. 5, xii. 6. Oh ! the safety, the security of the poor people of God ! for God is above his people and beneath them, he is under them and over them, he is before them and behind them, he is in the front and in the rear, and he is round about them and in the midst of them. But,
(18.) The eighteenth lesson that you are to learn by the rod, or by the raging pestilence, is, to live every day in a fresh, choice, and frequent exe^xise of grace. Consult these scriptures, Ps. xci. 2-4 ; Jer. xxxix. 17, 18; Micah vii. 7-9 ; Ps. xl. 1, 2 ; Hab. ii. 1-4 ; Jer. xxx. 21. That
160 THE PRIVY KEY OF HEAVEN.
man that lives daily in an exercise of grace, that man lives every day in heaven on this side heaven, whatever affliction or judgment he is under.
(19.) The nineteenth lesson that you are to learn by the rod, or by the raging pestilence, is, to quicken up your hearts to seek the Lord by ex- tram-dinary ways and means, viz., by fasting and prayer. Consult these scriptures. Num. xvi. 46, seq. ; Ps. cvi. 23, 29, 30 ; Isa. xxil 2—5, 12, 13 ; Jonah iil 5, seq.; 2 Chron. xii. 2-7 ; 1 Kings xxi. 21, seq.; Joel ii. 12-17. But,
(20.) The twentieth, and so the last, lesson that you are to learn by the rod, or by the raging pestilence, is, to jyt^epare for death ; it is to he in actual readiness to die. Ah, friends ! every ache, every pain, every disease, is one of death's warning pieces. There is not a headache, not a toothache, not a gripe, not a grief, not a fall, not a wrench, not a plague-sore, but is a divine warning to man to prepare to die. It is a solemn work to die ; and therefore we had need prepare to die. It is a work that is to be done but once ; and therefore we had need prepare to do that work well that is to be done but once. In this world we hear often, and pray often, and read often, and meditate often, and eat often, and drink often, and that which is worst, we sin often ; but we must die but once. Job xiv. 14, Heb. ix. 27. Death will try all our graces, and all our experiences, and all our evidences, and all our comforts, and all our attainments, and all our enjoyments ; and therefore we had need to pre- pare to die.^ Though there is nothing more certain than death, yet there is nothing more uncertain than, (1.) the time when we shall die; (2.) the place where we shall die ; and, (3.) the manner how we shall die : as whether we shall die a sudden death, or a lingering death, or a violent death ; or whether we shall fall by the sword abroad, or by famine or pestilence at home, or whether we shall fall by this disease or that ; and therefore we had need be always in an actual readiness to die. No man shall die the sooner, but much the easier and the better, for preparing to die ; and therefore let us always have our loins girt and our lamps burning. As death leaves us, so judgment wiU find us ; and therefore we have very great cause to secure our interest in Christ, a changed nature, and a pardon in our bosoms, that so we might have nothing to do but to die. Except we prepare to die, all other preparations will do us no good. In a word, death is a change, a great change ; it is the last change till the resurrection ; it is lasting, yea, an everlasting change ; for it puts a man into an eternal condition of happiness or misery ; it is an universal change ; all persons must pass under this flaming sword. That statute law, ' Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return,' will sooner or later take hold on all mortals, Gen. iii. 18 ; and therefore it highly concerns us to prepare for death.^
And thus I have shewn you these lessons that you are to learn by the rod. The Lord grant that your souls may fall under those fresh, those choice, those full, and those constant influences and communica-
* He that would see more of this, may read my ' String of Pearls,' and the funeral ser- mon that is at the end of my book of Assurance. [The former, ' String of Pearls,' is giyen in Vol. I. ; the latter, * The Believer's Last Day his Best Day," is given in Vol. VI. -G.]
» Cf. commencement of Brooks's "Will, as given in our Memoir, VoL I. page Izsxi.
EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 161