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LEt those Christians who are under the Rod, confess they have deserved it; He hath not punished us according as our Sins have merited at his hands.
II. Let us from hence also learn to submit to the Rod, and not strive and struggle with God. O how uneasy are some Men and Women under Affliction. O I could bear, saith the Soul, any thing but this. Alas! is it necessary that thou shouldest chuse thy own Rod? God will correct us with what Rod he pleases, according to his good pleasure it must be, for the degree and kind of it too; and are you troubled at the Rod, at this Rod? It may be you had rather God should afflict you some other way; but God sees this is the best, and no other will do the work upon your Hearts. It may be, if we had committed some other Sins, and not such and such a Sin, we should have been corrected but with such and such Rods, and not with this which seems most cross and grievous to us.
* 1.1III. Let us labour to find out what God speaks to us by the Rod: Let us search and try our Ways. Many times we may find out our Sin in the Punishment of it.
* 1.2IV. Let us confess our Faults when we are under the Rod; God hearkens to hear what we say: Against thee only have I done this thing, and in thy sight.
V. Let us labour to be throughly humbled when under the Rod.
Quest. Some may say, Why does God use the Rod?
Answ. 1. Because Believers are his Children; Fathers will look after the Good of their Children.* 1.3 To spare the Rod, may be the Ruin of the Child.
* 1.42. Because the Sins of God's own People are grievous in his Sight. You have I known above all the Families of the Earth, and therefore will I punish you for your Iniquities.
VI. Hear the Rod: The Lord's Voice crieth to the City, and the Man of Wisdom shall see thy Name: Hear ye the Rod, and who hath appointed it.
1. The Man of Wisdom is one that fears God, Prov. 9.10. A holy Man is a wise Man, and a Sinner is a Fool; Holiness is the best Wisdom, and Wickedness is the greatest Folly.
2. He that escapes the greatest Evil, and chuses the greatest Good, is a Man of Wisdom.
3. He that prefers the Good of his Soul, before the Good of his Body, is a Man of Wisdom.
2. The Man of Wisdom will hear the Rod. (1.) He will commune with his own Heart, to find out the Cause of God's Anger, the Cause of Affliction. (2.) He will tremble at God's Judgments. (3.) He will justify God under the Rod. (4.) He is one that finds out God's Name in the Rod: He finds out Anger in the Rod, Mercy in the Rod, Wisdom in the Rod, Power in the Rod, Faithfulness in the Rod, &c.
3. A wise Man under the Rod will endeavour to turn away and pacify the Anger of God.
There is (it appears) a Voice in the Rod, which a wise Man strives to understand. (1.) There is a chiding Voice in the Rod. (2.) And not only so, but in some Rods an ama∣zing Voice. (3.) A threatning Voice. (4.) An awakening Voice. (5.) A convincing Voice. (6.) There is an humbling Voice in the Rod.
Quest. Why do so few Men and Women hear and understand the Voice that is in the Rod?
Answ. 1. Because the Affliction or Judgment perhaps is general, 'tis hard for Men to make special and particular Application of common Calamities.
2. Because Men are more subject to look to secondary Causes in the Rod, than to the immediate Hand of God.
3. Because Men are so heedless and unsensible, they will not trouble themselves to find out the Voice that is in the Rod.
4. 'Tis because Men are so full of other Business, that they have not Time to hearken to God's Voice in the Rod.
5. 'Tis because they do not see any present Effects of God's Hand; he is loth to strike: How shall I give thee up, O Ephraim? &c.