VeR. 16.] UPON THE EPISTLE OF JUDE. 303
I wait upon the Lord any longer?' An unsubjection of will to God will inevitably put us upon repining.
[3.] Presumption of merit. Where all is of free cost there is no complaining. Men ascribe to themselves when they prescribe to God what he shall do for them, or how bless them. Everything is wel- come where nothing is deserved. If you keep a man of alms, you take it ill that he should not be pleased with his diet. When we look to desert, we may wonder more at what we have than what we want. God would do us no wrong if we were reduced to a less pittance. If in a prison, it is a favour we are not in hell. A malefactor would be glad to commute his punishment, a greater for a less, death for exile, exile for loss of estate, and then the whole for a part. Can a firebrand of hell murmur ? There is our desert ; but we think God is bound, and that it is a wrong that he taketh no more notice of us : ' Where- fore have we fasted?' &c., Isa. Iviii. ; *I am not as other men,' &c., Luke xviii.
[4.] Carnal affection. We are too ravenous and greedy upon out- ward things,^ and therefore the disappointment breedeth the more vexation. Our desires and hopes of more destroy the memory and consideration of what we have. God giveth sufficiently to satisfy our necessities, and we seek to supply our lusts. Lust is more given to murmuring than necessity. Nature is contented with a little. It is soon satisfied ; but lust enlargeth the desire as hell.
[5.] Unbelief and distrust : Ps. cvi. 24, 25, ' They believed not his word, but murmured in their tents.' Men quarrel with God's provi- dence because they do not believe his promises. Distrust will be sure to breed discontent. It is ill for the present, and they cannot see how it will be better. They could not believe that the wilderness was the way to Canaan, that God can love one whom he corrects, and there- fore as soon as they feel the smart of the rod they give vent to their passions.
2. The injustice of it. It is injurious to God, to others, to ourselves.
[1.] It is injurious to God. Murmuring is a sin that pulleth God out of the throne ; you ' enter into judgment' with him ; as David, on the other hand, prayeth, ' Enter not into judgment with thy servant, 0 Lord.' Murmurers either deny his providence or tax it. Implicitly they deny it, as if God did not set out to every man his portion. If men did believe that God did govern the world, even as he made the world, why do they not complain of creation as well as providence ? We would laugh at him that would murmur because God did not make him an angel or a star. Why ! is it not as ridicu- lous to murmur because God hath made thee a subject and not a prince, a beggar and not a rich man, a servant but not a master, but that they own the hand of God in one and not in the other, as if the world were governed by blind chance ? Or else they tax provi- dence of indiscretion or unrighteousness. It is marvellous to see how murmuring robbeth God of all his attributes. It clippeth his sove- reignty. We will not let him do with his own as it pleaseth him. The great contest between him and us is, "Whose will shall stand, his
1 'Quod enis^ concupiscunt ut sit, contabescunt quod esse non possit.' — Gilbert, in Cant. xix.
304 AN EXPOSITION, WITH NOTES, [YeR. 16.
or ours ? It limits his poioer, and slights it. When God doth not satisfy us we think he cannot, Ps. Ixxviii. 20. We set him a task, and if God perform it not, we question his sufficiency. It is a con- tention with our maker, an entering into the lists with God, as if we could make our party good against him, Ps. Ixxviii, 17. We tax his luisdom. Men will be teaching God how to govern the world, for we prescribe to him as if he did not understand what is fit for us. He pleaseth us not in his wisest dispensations, and we bear it out as if we could mend his works : Job xxi. 22, ' Shall any teach God knowledge, seeing he judgeth those that are high ?' They that disallow of God's proceedings take upon them to be God's teachers. It was a blasphe- mous speech of Alphonsus, Si Deo a consiliis adfuisset in creatione mundi, midta se consultius ordinaturum — if he had been of God's council when he made the world, he would have ordered many things better. Many abhor the blasphemy, and yet think almost to the same effect. If they had the governing of the world, such men should not prosper, and such and such things should not be done. Thus do we ' darken counsel with words without knowledge,' Job xxxviii. 2, and cast a reproach of folly and injustice upon God's providence. Again, to his goodness we are injurious, by dis valuing what we have in com- parison of what we expect : Mai. i. 2, ' Wherein hast thou loved us ?' as if they had nothing, because not fully what they expected.^ It is man's nature to forget what is granted, and pitch only upon what is denied,2 as children in a pet throw away what they have if you do not give them more. Saith Haman, 'All this availeth me nothing,' &c., Esther v. 13 ; and the whole kingdom of Israel would not content Aliab when he falleth sick for Naboth's vineyard, 1 Kings xxi. 4. As in the body, if one humour be out of order, or one joint broken, the soundness of all the rest availeth us nothing ; a little is enough to set the creature a complaining. His justice also we tax, as if he did defraud us of our due. We think somewhat is due, or else why do we complain? Mat. xx. 13, ' Friend, I do thee no wrong,' &c.