(3). Thirdly, Consider tltat murmuring is the mother-sin ; it is the mother of harlots, the mother of all abominations ; a sin that breeds many other sins, viz., disobedience, contempt, ingratitude, impatience, distrust, rebellion, cursing, carnality ; yea, it charges God with folly, yea, with blasphemy, Num. xvi. 41, xvii. 10, Judges xvii. 2. The language of a murmuring, a muttering soul is this, Surely God might have done this sooner, and that wiser, and the other thing better, &c. As the river Nilus bringeth forth many crocodiles, and the scorpion many serpents at one birth, so murmuring is a sin that breeds and brings forth many sins at once. Murmuring is like the monster hydra ; cut off one head, and many will rise up in its room. Oh ! therefore, bend all thy strength against this mother-sin. As the king of Syria said to his captains, ' Fight neither with small nor great, but with the king of Israel/ 1 Kings xxii. 31, so say I, Fight not so much against this sin or that, but fight against your murmuring, which is .a mother-sin. Make use of all your Christian armour, make use of all the ammunition of heaven, to destroy the mother, and in destroying of her, you will de- stroy the daughters, Eph. vi. 10, 11. When Goliath was slain, the
336 THE MUTE CHRISTIAN [Ps. XXXIX. 9.
Philistines fled. When a general in an army is cut off, the common soldiers are easily and quickly routed and destroyed. So, destroy but murmuring, and you will quickly destroy disobedience, ingratitude, im- patience, distrust, &c. Oh ! kill this mother-sin, that this may never kill thy soul. I have read of Sennacherib, that after his army was de- stroyed by an angel, Isa. xxxvii., and he returned home to his own country, he inquired of one about him, what he thought the reason might be why God so favoured the Jews ? He answered that there was one Abraham, their father, that was willing to sacrifice his son to death at the command of God, and that ever since that time God favoured that people. Well ! said Sennacherib, if that be so, I have two sons, and I will sacrifice them both to death, if that will procure their God to favour me ; which, when his two sons heard, they, as the story goeth, slew their father, lsa. xxxvii. 38, choosing rather to kill than to be killed. So do thou choose rather to kill this mother-sin than to be killed by it, or by any of those vipers that are brought forth by it, Ps. exxxvii. 8, 9.
(4.) Fourthly, Consider that murmuring is a God-provoking sin ; it is a sin that provokes God not only to afflict, but also to destroy a people : Num. xiv. 27-29, ' How long shall I bear with this evil con- gregation which murmur against me ? I have heard the murmuring of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me. Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith the Lord, as you have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you. Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness, and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me.' 1 Cor. x. 10, ' Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer/ All our murmurings do but pro- voke the Lord to strike us and destroy us.
I have read of Caesar, that, having prepared a great feast for his nobles and friends, it so fell out that the day appointed was extreme foul, that nothing could be done to the honour of their meeting ; where- upon he was so displeased and enraged, that he commanded all them that had bows to shoot up their arrows at Jupiter, their chief god, as in defiance of him for that rainy weather ; which, when they did, their arrows fell short of heaven, and fell upon their own heads, so that many of them were very sorely wounded. So all our mutterings and murmur- ings, which are as so many arrows shot at God himself, they will return upon our pates, hearts ; they reach not him, but they will hit us ; they hurt not him, but they will wound us : therefore it is better to be mute than to murmur ; it is dangerous to provoke a consuming fire, Heb. xii. 29.
(5.) Fifthly, Consider, That murmuring is the devil's image, sin and punishment.1 Satan is still a-murmuring ; he murmurs at every mercy that God bestows, at every dram of grace he gives, Job i. 8, 9 ; he mur- murs at every sin he pardons, and at every soul he saves. A soul cannot have a good look from heaven, nor hear a good word from beaven, nor receive a love-letter from heaven, but Satan murmurs at it; he mur- murs and mutters at every act of pitying grace, and at every art of preventing grace, and at every act of supporting grace, and at every act 1 Iremuus calleth inurmurers ora diaboli, the devil's mouth.
PS. XXXIX. 9.] UNDER THE SMARTING ROD. 337
of strengthening grace, and at every act of comforting grace that God exercises towards poor souls ; he murmurs at every sip, at every drop, at every crumb of mercy that God bestows. Cyprian, Aquinas, and others conceive that the cause of Satan's banishment from heaven was his grieving and murmuring at the dignity of man, whom he beheld made after God's own image, insomuch that he would relinquish his own glory, to divest so noble a creature of perfection, and rather be in hell himself, than see Adam placed in paradise.1 But certainly, after his fall, murmuring and envy at man's innocency and felicity put him upon attempting to plunge man into the bottomless gulf of sin and misery ; he knowing himself to be damned, and lost for ever, would needs try all ways how to make happy man eternally unhappy, Mr Howell tells it as a strange thing, that a serpent was found in the heart of an Englishman when he was dead;2 but, alas! this old serpent was by sad experience found to have too much power in the heart of Adam whilst alive, and whilst in the height of all his glory and excellency. Murmuring is the first-born of the devil ; and nothing renders a man more like to him than murmuring. Constantine's sons did not more resemble their father, nor Aristotle's scholars their master, nor Alex- ander's soldiers their general, than murmurers do resemble Satan. And as murmuring is Satan's sin, so it is his punishment. God hath given him up to a murmuring spirit ; nothing pleases him ; all things go against him ; he is perpetually a-muttering and murmuring at per- sons or things. Now, oh what a dreadful thing is it to bear Satan's image upon us, and to be given up to be the3 devil's punishment ! It were better not to be, than thus to be given up ; and therefore cease from murmuring, and sit mute under your sorest trials. But,