But I do not know what would become of my children if I were to die. Or if I have bread now, I do not know where I shall get it from next week, or where I shall get provision for the winter. Answer. Where did Christ teach us to pray, Lord, give us provision for so long a time? No, but if we have bread for this day, Christ would have us content. Therefore when we murmur because we have not so much variety as others have, we do, as it were, forget our Paternoster. It is against our prayers; we do not in our lives hold forth the acknowledgment of the sovereignty of God over us as we seem to acknowledge in our prayers.

Therefore when at any time you find your murmuring, then do but reflect yourselves and think thus: Is this according to my prayers, in which I held forth the sovereign power and authority that God has over me? 7. THE SEVENTH THING WHICH I ADD FOR THE EVIL OF DISCONTENT IS the woeful effects that come to a discontented heart from murmuring. I will name you five; there are five evil effects that come from a murmuring spirit: 1. By murmuring and discontent in your hearts, you come to lose a great deal of time. How many times do men and women, when they are discontented, let their thoughts run, and are musing and contriving, through their present discontentedness and let their discontented thoughts work I in them for some hours together, and they spend their time in vain! When you are alone you should spend your time in holy meditation, but you are spending your time in discontented thoughts. You complain that you cannot meditate, you cannot think on good things, but if you begin to think of them a little, soon your thoughts are off from them. But if you are discontented with anything, then you can go alone, and muse, and roll things up and down in your thoughts to feed a discontented humor. Oh, labor to see this evil effect of murmuring, the losing of your time. 2. It unfits you for duty . If a man or woman is in a contented frame, you may turn such a one to anything at any time, and he is fit to go to God at any time; but when one is in a discontented condition, then a man or woman is exceedingly unfit for the service of God. And it causes many distractions in duty, it unfits for duty, and when you come to perform duties, oh, the distractions that are in your duties, when your spirits are discontented!

When you hear any ill news from sea and cannot bear it, or of any ill from a friend, or any loss or cross, oh, what distractions do they cause in the performance of holy duties! When you should be enjoying communion with God, you are distracted in your thoughts about the trial that has befallen you, whereas had you but a quiet spirit, though great trials befell you, yet they would never hinder you in the performance of any duty. 3. Consider what wicked risings of heart and resolutions of spirit there are many times in a discontented fit . In some discontented fits the heart rises against God, and against others and sometimes it even has desperate resolutions what to do to help itself. If the Lord had suffered you to have done what you had sometimes thought to do, in a discontented fit, what wretched misery you would have brought upon yourselves! Oh, it was a mercy of God that stopped you; had not God stopped you, but let you go on when you thought to help yourselves this way and the other way, oh, it would have been ill with you. Do but remember those risings of heart and wicked resolutions that sometimes you have had in a discontented mood, and learn to be humbled for that. 4. Unthankfulness is an evil and a wicked effect which comes from discontent . The Scripture ranks unthankfulness among very great sins. men and women, who are discontented, though they enjoy many mercies from God, yet they are thankful for none of them, for this is the vile nature of discontent, to lessen every mercy of God. It makes those mercies they have from God as nothing to them, because they cannot have what they want.

Sometimes it is so even in spiritual things: if they do not have all they desire, the comforts that they would have, then what they do have is nothing to them. Do you think that God will take this well? Suppose you were to give a friend or a relation some money to trade with and he came and said: ‘What is this you have given me? There are only a few coins here.

This is no good to me.’ This would be intolerable to you, that he should react to your gift like this, just because you have not given him as much money as he would like. It is just the same when you are ready to say: ‘All that God has given me is worthless. It is no good to me. It is only a few coins.’ For you to say that what God gives you is nothing and only common gifts, all given in hypocrisy, and counterfeit, when they are the precious graces of God’s Spirit and worth more than thousands of worlds — how ungrateful it is! The graces of God’s Spirit are nothing to a discontented heart who cannot have all that he would have. And so for outward blessings: God has given you health of body, and strength, and has given you some competence for your family, some way of livelihood, yet because you are disappointed in something that you would have, therefore all is nothing to you. Oh, what unthankfulness in this!

God expects that every day you should spend some time in blessing his name for what mercy he has granted to you. There is not one of you in the lowest condition but you have an abundance of mercies to bless God for, but discontentedness makes them nothing. I remember an excellent saying that Luther has: ‘This is the rhetoric of the Spirit of God’ he said, ‘to extenuate evil things, and to amplify good things: if a cross comes to make the cross but little, but if there is a mercy to make the mercy great.’ Thus, if there is a cross, where the Spirit of God prevails in the heart, the man or woman will wonder that it is no greater, and will bless God that though there is such a cross, yet that it is no greater, and will bless God that though there is such a cross, yet that it is no more: that is the work of the Spirit of God; and if there is a mercy, he wonders at God’s goodness, that God granted so great a mercy. The Spirit of God extenuates evils and crosses, and magnifies and amplifies all mercies; and makes al mercies seem to be great, and all afflictions seem to be little. But the Devil goes quite contrary, says Luther, his rhetoric is quite otherwise: he lessens God’s mercies, and amplifies evil things. Thus, a godly man wonders at his cross that it is not more, a wicked man wonders his cross is so much: ‘Oh’, he says, ‘none was ever so afflicted as I am.’ If there is a cross, the Devil puts the soul to musing on it, and making it greater than it is, and so it brings discontent.

And on the other side, if there is a mercy, then it is the rhetoric of the Devil to lessen the mercy. ‘Aye, indeed’, he says, ‘the thing is a good thing, but what is it? It is not a great matter, and for all this, I may be miserable.’ Thus the rhetoric of Satan lessens God’s mercies, and increases afflictions.

I will give you a striking example of this which we find in Scripture: it is the example of Korah, Dathan and Abiram in Numbers 16:12,13: ‘And Moses sent to call Dathan, and Abiram, the sons of Eliab: which said, We will not come up: Is it a small thing that thou hast brought us up out of a land that floweth with milk and honey, to kill us in the wilderness, except thou make thyself altogether a prince over us?’

Mark, the slighted the land that they were going to, the land of Canaan; that was the land that God promised them should flow with milk and honey.

But mark here their discontentedness, because they met with some troubles in the wilderness: oh, it was to slay them, they make their affliction in the wilderness greater than it was, oh, it was to kill them, though indeed it was to carry them to the land of Canaan. But though their deliverance from Egypt was a great mercy, they made it to be nothing, for they say ‘You have brought us out of a land that floweth with milk and honey’ — what land was that? It was the land of Egypt, the land of their bondage, but they call it a land that flowed with milk and honey, though it was the land of their most cruel and unbearable bondage; whereas they should have blessed God as long as they lived for delivering them out of the land of Egypt. Yet, meeting with some cross they make their deliverance from Egypt no mercy, no, it was rather a misery to them. ‘Oh’, they say, ‘Egypt was a land that flowed with milk and honey.’ Oh, what baseness there is in a discontented spirit! A discontented spirit, out of envy to God’s grace, will make mercies that are great little, yea to be none at all. Would one ever have thought that such a word could have come from the mouth of an Israelite, who had been under bondage and cried under it? and yet when they meet with a little cross in their way they say, ‘You have brought us out of the land that floweth with milk and honey.’ To say they were better before than now, and yet before, they could not be contented either: this is the usual, unthankful expression of a discontented heart.

It is so with us now when we meet with any cross in our estates, any taxation and trouble, especially if any among you have been where the enemy have prevailed, you are ready to say: ‘We had plenty before, and we are now brought to a condition of hardship, we were better before when we had the Prelates and others to domineer,’ and so we are in danger of being brought into that bondage again. Oh, let us take heed of this, of a discontented heart; there is this woeful cursed fruit of discontent, to make men and women unthankful for all the mercies God has granted to them, and this is a sore and grievous evil. 5. Finally, there is this evil effect in murmuring, it causes shiftings of spirit . Those who murmur and are discontented are liable to temptations to shift for themselves in sinful and ungodly ways; discontent is the ground of shifting courses and unlawful ways. How many of you are condemned by your consciences of this, that in the time of your afflictions you have sought to shift for yourselves by ways that were sinful against God, and your discontent was the bottom and ground of it? If you would avoid shifting for yourselves by wicked ways, labor to mortify this sin of discontent, to mortify it at the root. 8. THERE IS A GREAT DEAL OF FOLLY, EXTREME FOLLY, IN A DISCONTENTED HEART; IT IS A FOOLISH SIN.

I shall open the folly of it in many respects. 1. It takes away the present comfort of what you have, because you have not something that you would have . What a foolish thing is this, that because I have not got what I want, I will not enjoy the comfort of what I have! Do you not account this folly in your children?: you give them some food and they are not contented, perhaps they say it is not enough, they cry for more, and if you do not immediately give them more they will throw away what they have. Though you account it folly in your children, yet you deal thus with God: God gives you many mercies, but your see others have more mercies than you and therefore you cry for more; but God does not give you what you want and because of that you throw away what you have — is not this folly in your hearts? It is unthankfulness. 2. By all your discontent you cannot help yourselves, you cannot get anything by it . Who by taking care can add one cubit to his stature, or make one hair that is white to be black? You may vex and trouble yourselves but you can get nothing by it. Do you think that the Lord will come in mercy a whit the sooner because of the murmuring of your spirits? Oh, no, but mercy will be rather deferred the longer for it; though the Lord was about to send mercy before, yet this disorder of your hearts is enough to put him out of his course of mercy, and though he had thoughts that you should have the thing before, yet now you shall not have it. If you had a mind to give something to your child, yet if you see him in a discontented, fretting mood you will not give it him. And this is the very reason why many mercies are denied to you, because of your discontent. You are discontented for want of them, and therefore you do not get them, you deprive yourselves of the enjoyment of your own desires, because of the discontent of your hearts, because you do not get your desires, and is not this a foolish thing? 3. There are commonly many foolish attitudes that a discontented heart is guilty of . They carry themselves foolishly towards God and towards men .

Such expressions, and such kinds of behavior come from them, as to make their friends ashamed of them many times. Their carriages are so unseemly, they are a shame to themselves and their friends. 4. Discontent and murmuring eats out the good and sweetness of a mercy before it comes . It God should give a mercy for the want of which we are discontented, yet the blessing of the mercy is, as it were, eaten out before we come to have it. Discontent is like a worm that eats the meat out of the nut, and then when the meat is eaten out of it, you have the shell. If a child were to cry for a nut of which the meat has been eaten out, and is all wormeaten, what good would the nut be to the child? So you would fain have a certain outward comfort and you are troubled for the want of it, but the very trouble of your spirits is the worm that eats the blessing out of the mercy.

Then perhaps God gives it to you, but with a curse mixed with it, so that you were better not to have it than have it. If God gives the man or woman who is discontented for want of some good thing, that good thing before they are humbled for their discontent, such a man or woman can have no comfort from the mercy, but it will be rather an evil than a good to them.

Therefore for my part, if I should have a friend or brother or one who was as dear to me as my own soul, whom I saw discontented for the want of such a comfort, I would rather pray, ‘Lord, keep this thing from them, till you shall be pleased to humble their hearts for their discontent; let not them have the mercy till they come to be humbled for their discontent over the want of it, for if they have it before that time they will have it without any blessing.’ Therefore it should be your care, when you find your hearts discontented for the want of anything, to be humbled for it, thinking thus with yourselves: Lord, if what I so immoderately desire were to come to me before I am humbled for my discontent for want of it, I am certain I could have no comfort from it, but I should rather have it as an affliction to me.

There are many things which you desire as your lives, and think that you would be happy if you had them, yet when they come you do not find such happiness in them, but they prove to be the greatest crosses and afflictions that you ever had, and on this ground, because your hearts were immoderately set upon them before you had them. As it was with Rachael: she must have children or else she died — ’Well’, said God, ‘seeing you must, you shall have them,’ but though she had a child she died according to what she said, ‘Give me children or else I die.’ So in regard of any other outward comforts, people may have the thing, but oftentimes they have it so as it proves the heaviest cross to them that they ever had in all their lives.

The child whom you were discontented for the want of, may have been sick, and your hearts were out of temper for fear that you should lose it; God restores it, but he restores it so as he makes it a cross to your hearts all the days of your lives. Someone observes concerning manna, ‘When the people were contented with the allowance that God allowed them, then it was very good, but when they would not be content with God’s allowance, but would gather more than God would have them, then, says the text, there were worms in it.’ So when we are content with our conditions, and what God disposes of us to be in, there is a blessing in it, then it is sweet to us, but if we must needs have more, and keep it longer than God would have us to have it, then there will be worms in it and it will be no good at all. 5. It makes our affliction a great deal worse than otherwise it would be . it in no way removes our afflictions, indeed, while they continue, they are a great deal the worse and heavier, for a discontented heart is a proud heart, and a proud heart will not pull down his sails when there comes a tempest and storm. If a sailor, when a tempest and storm comes, is perverse and refuses to pull down his sails, but is discontented with the storm, is his condition any better because he is discontented and will not pull down his sails? Will this help him? Just so is it, for all the world, with a discontented heart: a discontented heart is a proud heart, and he out of his pride is troubled with his affliction, and is not contented with God’s disposal, and so he will not pull down his spirit at all, and make it bow to God in this condition into which God has brought him. now is his condition any better because he will not pull down his spirit? No, certainly, abundantly worse, it is a thousand to one but that the tempest and storm will overwhelm his soul.

Thus you see what a great deal of folly there is in the sin of discontentment. 9. THERE IS A GREAT DEAL OF DANGER IN THE SIN OF DISCONTENT, FOR IT HIGHLY PROVOKES THE WRATH OF GOD.

It is a sin that much provokes God against his creature. We find most sad expressions in Scripture, and examples too, how God has been provoked against many for their discontent. In Numbers 14 you have a noteworthy text, and one would think that it was enough for ever to make you fear murmuring: in the 26th verse, it is said, ‘The Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron saying’ — what did he say? — ‘How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against me?’ How long shall I bear with them? says God, this evil congregation, oh it is an evil congregation that murmur against me, and how long shall I bear with them? They murmur, and they have murmured; as those who have murmuring spirits, and murmuring dispositions, they will murmur again, and again. How long shall I bear with this evil congregation that murmur against me? How justly may God speak this of many of you who are this morning before the Lord: how long shall I bear with this wicked man or woman who murmurs against me, and has usually in the course of their lives murmured against me when anything falls out otherwise than they would have it?

And mark what follows after, ‘I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel.’ You murmur, and maybe others do not hear you, it may be that you do not speak at all, or but half-words; yet God hears the language of your murmuring hearts, and those muttering speeches, and those halfwords that come from you. And observe further in this verse how the Lord repeats this sin of murmuring,’ ‘How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against me?’ Secondly, ‘I have heard their murmuring.’ Thirdly, ‘which they murmur against me’. Murmur, murmur, murmur — three times in one verse he repeats it, and this is to show his indignation against the thing. When you express indignation against a thing, you repeat it over again, and again; now the Lord, because he would express his indignation against this sin, repeats it over again, and again, and it follows in the 28th verse, ‘Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith the Lord, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so I will do to you.’ Mark, God swears against a murmurer. Sometimes in your discontent perhaps you will be ready to swear. Do you swear in your discontent? — So does God swear against you for your discontent. And what would God do to them? ‘Doubtless your carcasses shall fall in the wilderness; and you shall not come into the land concerning which I sware, to make you dwell therein.’ It is as if God should say, ‘If I have any life in me your lives shall go for it, as I live it shall cost you your lives.’ A discontented, murmuring fit of yours may cost you your lives. You see how it provokes God; there is more evil in it than you were aware of. If may cost you your lives, and therefore look to yourselves, and learn to be humbled at the very beginnings of such disorders in the heart. So in <19A624> Psalm 106:24,25: ‘Yea, they despised the pleasant land, they believed not his word; but murmured in their tents, and hearkened not unto the voice of the Lord. Therefore he lifted up his hand against them to overthrow them in the wilderness.’

There are several things to be observed in this Scripture.

We spoke before of how a murmuring heart slights God’s mercies, and so it is here: ‘They despised the pleasant land.’ And a murmuring heart is contrary to faith: ‘they believed not his word, but (says the text) they murmured in their tents, and hearkened not to the voice of the Lord.’ Many men and women will hearken to the voice of their own base murmuring hearts, who will not hearken to the voice of the Lord. If you would hearken to the voice of the Lord, there would not be such murmuring as there is.

But mark what follows after it; you must not think to please yourselves in your murmuring discontentedness, and think that no evil shall come of it: ‘Therefore he lifted up his hand against them to overthrow them.’ You who are discontented lift up your hearts against God, and you cause God to lift up his hand against you. Perhaps God lays his finger on you softly in some afflictions, in your families or elsewhere, and you cannot bear the hand of God, which lies upon you as tenderly as a tender-hearted nurse lays her hand on a child. You cannot bear the tender hand of God which is upon you in a lesser affliction; it would be just for God to lift up his hand against you in another kind of affliction. Oh, a murmuring spirit provokes God exceedingly.

There is another place in 16th of Numbers: compare the 41st verse, and the 46th verse together: ‘But on the morrow all the congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron, saying, Ye have killed the people of the Lord,’ and mark in the 46th verse: ‘And Moses said unto Aaron, Take a censer and put fire therein from off the altar, and put on incense, and go quickly unto the congregation and make atonement for them, for there is wrath gone out from the Lord, the plague is begun.’

Mark how God’s wrath is kindled: in the 41st verse, the congregation had murmured, and they murmured only against Moses and Aaron (perhaps you murmur more directly against God) and that was against God, in murmuring against God’s ministers. it was against God but not so directly; if you murmur against those whom God makes instruments, because you have not got everything that you would have, against the Parliament, or such and such who are public instruments, it is against God. It was only against Moses and Aaron that the Israelites murmured, and they said that Moses and Aaron had killed the people of the Lord, though it was the hand of God that was upon them for their former wickedness in murmuring. It is usual for wicked, vile hearts to deal thus with God, when God’s hand is a little upon them, to murmur again and again, and so to bring upon themselves infinite kinds of evils. But now the anger of God was quickly kindled: ‘Oh’, said Moses, ‘go, take the censer quickly, for wrath is gone out from Jehovah, the plague is begun.’

So while you are murmuring in your families, the wrath of God may quickly go out against you. In a morning or evening, when you are murmuring, the wrath of God may come quickly upon your families or persons. You are never so prepared for present wrath as when you are in a murmuring, discontented fit. Those who stand by and see you in a murmuring, discontented fit, have cause to say: ‘Oh, let us go and take the censer, let us go to prayer, for we are afraid that wrath is gone out against this family, against this person.’ And it would be a very good thing for you, who are a godly wife, when you see your husband come home and start murmuring because things are not going according to his desire, to go to prayer, and say: ‘Lord, pardon the sin of my husband.’ And similarly for a husband to go to God in prayer, falling down and beseeching him that wrath may not come out against his family for the murmuring of his wife.

The truth is that at this day there has been, at least lately, as much murmuring in England as there ever was, and eve in this very respect the plague has begun. This very judgment comes many times on those who are discontented in their families, and are always grumbling and murmuring at any thing that falls out amiss.

I say this text of Scripture in Numbers clearly holds forth that the Lord brings the plague upon men for this sin of murmuring; he does it in kingdoms and families, and on particular persons. Though we cannot always point out the particular sin that God brings it for, yet we should examine how far we are guilty of the sin of murmuring, because the Scripture holds forth this so clearly, that when Moses but heard that they murmured: ‘Do they murmur?’ he said, ‘go forth quickly and seek to pacify the anger of God, for wrath is gone out, and the plague is begun.’ And you have a notable example of God’s heavy displeasure against murmuring in 1 Corinthians 10:10: ‘Neither murmur ye as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer.’

Take heed of murmuring as some of them did — he speaks of the people of Israel in the wilderness — for, he says, what came of it? They were destroyed of the destroyer. Now the destroyer is thought to be the fiery serpents that were sent among them. They murmured and God sent fiery serpents to sting them. What! do you think that a certain cross and affliction stings you? Perhaps such an affliction is upon you, and it seems to be grievous for the present; what! do your murmur and repine? God has greater crosses to bring upon you. Those people who murmur for want of outward comforts, for want of water, and for the want of bread, murmur, but the Lord sends fiery serpents among them. I would say to a murmuring heart, ‘Woe to you that strive with your maker! Woe to that man, that woman who strives against their maker! What else are you doing but striving against your maker? Your maker has the absolute disposal of you, and will you strive against him? What is the murmuring, discontented heart of yours doing but wrangling and contending and striving even with God himself? Oh, woe to him who strives against his maker! I may further say to you, as God spoke to Job, when he was impatient ( Job 38:1,2): ‘Now God spake’, says the text, ‘out of the whirlwind, and said, Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?’ So, do you speak against God’s way, and his providences which have taken place concerning your condition and outward comforts? Who is this? Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? Where is the man or woman whose heart is so bold and impudent that they dare to speak against the administration of God’s providence? 10. THERE IS A GREAT CURSE OF GOD UPON MURMURING AND DISCONTENT; SO FAR AS IT PREVAILS IN ONE WHO IS WICKED, IT HAS THE CURSE OF GOD UPON IT.

In Psalm 59:15, see what the curse of God is upon wicked and ungodly men: ‘Let them wander up and down for meat, and grudge if they be not satisfied.’ That is the imprecation and curse upon wicked and ungodly men, that if they are not satisfied they shall grudge. When you are not satisfied in your desires and find your heart grudging against God, apply this Scripture — what! is the curse of the wicked upon me ? This is the curse that is threatened upon wicked and ungodly ones, that they shall grudge if they be not satisfied.

And in Deuteronomy 28:67, it is threatened as a curse of God upon men that they cannot be content with their present condition: ‘But they shall say in the morning, Would God it were even! and at even, Would God it were morning!’ So they lie tossing up and down and cannot be content with any condition that they are in, because of the sore afflictions that are upon them.

Therefore it is further threatened as a curse upon them, in the 34th verse, that they should be mad for the sight of their eyes which they should see: this is but the extremity of their discontentedness, that is, they shall be so discontented, that they shall even be mad. Many men and women in discontented moods are a mad sort of people, and though you may please yourselves with such a mad kind of behavior, you should know that it is a curse of God upon men to be given up to a kind of madness for evils which they imagine have come upon them, and which they fear. In the 47th verse, there is a striking expression to show the curse of God on murmuring hearts: The Lord threatens the curses which shall be upon them, and says (verses 45-47): ‘The curses shall pursue thee, and they shall be upon thee for a sign, and for a wonder, and upon thy seed for ever: Because thou servedst not the Lord thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things.’

God here threatens to bring this curse upon them, so as to make them a wonder and a sign to others. Why? Because they served not the Lord with joyfulness of heart, therefore God would bring such a curse upon them as would make them a wonder to all that were about them. Oh, how far are you, then, who have a murmuring heart, from serving the Lord with joyfulness! 11. THERE IS MUCH OF THE SPIRIT OF SATAN IN A MURMURING SPIRIT.

The Devil is the most discontented creature in the world, he is the proudest creature that is, and the most discontented creature, and the most dejected creature. Now, therefore, so much discontent as you have, so much of the spirit of Satan you have. It was the unclean spirit that went up and down and found no rest; so when a man or woman’s spirit has no reset, it is a sign that it has much of the unclean spirit, of the spirit of Satan, and you should think with yourself, Oh, Lord, have I the spirit of Satan upon me?

Satan is the most discontented spirit that is, and oh! how much of his spirit have I upon me who can find no rest at all? 12. IF YOU HAVE A MURMURING SPIRIT, YOU MUST THEN HAVE DISQUIET ALL THE DAYS OF YOUR LIFE.

It is as if a man in a great crowd were to complain that other folks touch him. While we are in this world God has so ordered things that afflictions must befall us; and if we will complain and be discontented at every cross and affliction, why, we must complain and be discontented all the days of our lives! Indeed, God in just judgment will let things fall out on purpose to vex those who have vexing spirits and discontented hearts; and therefore it is necessary that they should live disquieted all their days. People will not be troubled much if they upset those who are continually murmuring. Oh, they will have disquiet all their days! 13. FINALLY, THERE IS THIS FURTHER DREADFUL EVIL IN DISCONTENT AND MURMURING: God may justly withdraw his care of you, and his protection over you, seeing God cannot please you in his administration.

We would say so to discontented servants: If you are not pleased, better yourselves when you will. If you have a servant not content with his diet and wages, and work, you say, Better yourselves; so may God justly say to us — we who profess ourselves servants to him, to be in his work, and yet are discontented with this thing or that in God’s household, God might justly say — Better yourselves. What is God should say to any of you, If my care over you does not please you, then take care of yourselves, if my protection over you will not please you, then protect yourselves? Now all things that befall you, befall you through a providence of God, and if you are those who belong to God, there is a protection of God over you, and a care of God. If God were to say, ‘Well, you shall not have the benefit of my protection any longer, and I will take no further care of you’, would not this be a most dreadful judgment of God from Heaven upon you? Take heed what you do then in being discontented with God’s will towards you, for, indeed, on account of discontent this may befall you. That is the reason why many people, over whom God’s protection has been ver gracious for a time, when they have thriven abundantly, yet afterwards almost all who behold them may say of them that they live as if God had cast off his care over them, and as if God did not care what befell them.

Now then, my brethren, put all these points together, those we spoke of in the last chapter, and these points that have been added now in this chapter, for setting out a murmuring and discontented spirit. Oh, what an ugly face has this sin of murmuring and discontentedness! Oh, what cause is there that we should lay our hands upon our hearts, and go away and be humbled before the Lord because of this! Whereas your thoughts were wont to be exercised about providing for yourselves, and getting more comforts for yourselves, let the stream of your thoughts now be turned to humble yourselves for your discontentedness. Oh, that your hearts may break before God, for otherwise you will fall to it again! Oh, the wretchedness of man’s heart!

You find in Scripture, concerning the people of Israel, how strangely they fell to their murmuring, again and again. Do but observe three texts of Scripture for that, the first in the 15th of Exodus at the beginning. There you have Moses and the congregation singing to God and blessing God for his mercy: ‘Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord, and spake, saying, I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously, the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.’ And then: ‘The Lord is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation, he is my God and I will prepare him an habitation, my father’s God and I will exalt him.’ So he goes on: ‘and who is like unto thee, O Lord, amongst the gods? who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?’ Thus their hearts triumphed in God, but mark, before the chapter is ended, in the 23rd verse: ‘When they came to Marah (in the same chapter) they could not drink of the waters of Marah for they were bitter, therefore the name of it was called Marah; and the people murmured against Moses.’

After so great a mercy as this, what unthankfulness was there in their murmuring!

Then God gave them water, but in the very next chapter they fell to their murmuring. You do not read that they were humbled for their former murmuring, and therefore they murmur again ( Exodus 16:1 ff.): ‘All the congregation of the children of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, etc.

And the whole congregation’ (in the second verse) ‘of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron in the wilderness, and the chlordane of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh-pots, and when we did eat bread to the full.’ now they want flesh; they wanted water before, but now they want meat. They fell to murmuring again, they were not humbled for this murmuring against God, not even when God gave them flesh according to their desires, but they fell to murmuring again: they wanted somewhat else. In the very next chapter (they did not go far), in the <021701> 17th of Exodus at the beginning: ‘And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin and pitched in Rephidim; and there was no water for the people to drink.’

Then in the second verse: ‘Wherefore the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? Wherefore do ye tempt the Lord?’

And in the third verse: ‘And the people thirsted for water, and the people murmured against Moses and said, Wherefore is this, that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us, and our children, and our cattle with thirst?’