1. A little is enough; too much is a snare : Luke xii. 15, 'Man's life consisteth not in the abundance of what he possesseth.' The wants of nature are very few, till lust make it ravenous ; a garment too long will soon prove a dirty rag ; the greater gates open to the greater temptations and cares ; it is a hard lesson to ' learn to abound,' Phil, iv. 12. We say such a one would do well to be a lord or a lady ; it is a harder thing than you think it to be. A little sufiiceth to keep us till we come to heaven ; if we have clothes for warmth, though not for pomp, it is enough. What need a Christian care how finely dust and ashes be wrapped up, ^ or of what stuff his excrements be made of ?
2. God hath a hand in all things, Ps. xxxix. 9, Isa. xxxviii. 15. God is the party with whom we have to do in sickness or any other trouble ; every wheel moveth according to the motion of the first; when we see the hand of God, it is a piece of religious manners to keep silence.
3. God seeth what is fittest for us. If a man should be left to carve out his own portion, he would be his own greatest enemy. None hath more love than God, more wisdom and justice than God ; there- fore count the present estate best, because it is of his choosing. Should the shepherd choose the pastures, or the sheep ? AVe are all for the delicacies of pleasure and prosperity ; chiklren think green fruit the best diet because it suiteth with their appetite. What a strange crea- ture would man be if he were what he would be himself ! ^Vell, then, let us leave it to God to choose our portion, and to appoint us what part we shall act in the world. Usually we set up a court in our own affections, and enact laws, presciibe to providence, w^e would have this and we would have that ; and when our expectations are not answered we fall a-murmuring. It is very hard to repeal the decrees of our own will ; therefore it is good to resign ourselves to the disposal of providence, as David doth, 2 Sam. xv. 26, 27 ; and to keep our desires low till God's will be declared. It is easier to add than to subtract, and to ascend with providence, when ' the master of the feast biddeth us to sit higher,' than to be compelled to descend and lie in the dust.
^ ' Qui Christum curat non multum curat quam de preciosis cibis stercus conficiat.' — Hicrom.
310 AN EXPOSITION, WITH NOTES, [VeR. 16.
4. If it be bad, it might have been worse, in regard of God's ab- sokite power and our desert. Your sufferings are not so great as your sins : Ezra ix. 13, ' Thou hast punished us less than we have deserved.' God is too just to do us wrong. If lie will exchange hell for Babylon, there is much of mercy in it, nothing of injustice. If you do not de- serve this usage from the hands of men, you have deserved this, and much more, from God : it is deserved of God, and therefore to be l3orne patiently ; it is not deserved of men, therefore to be borne cheerfully. Whose cross would we bear, Christ's or the thieves' cross ? When we suffer deservedly and as malefactors, we bear the thieves' cross.
5. The Lord disposeth all for the benefit of his own people, so that if it be not good for the present, it will turn to good, Kom. viii. 28. If God should not thus exercise us, we would have more cause to complain. He is too gentle a physician that lets his patient die for want of putting him to the trouble of physic. Consult with God's aim rather than your present feeling ; let him cut and burn here that he may save hereafter — Domine, hie ure, Mc seca, &c.
6. Murmuring is so bad in none as in God's children. It doth not become their privileges, their vows, their hope. God in covenant is theirs, and he hath all things that hath him that made all things : all things are comprised in God. If our lumber be changed into silver, our silver into gold, our gold into one rare pearl, that is all the other virtually. If God hath given us himself, his Christ, his Spirit, will not all this content us ? It doth not become our vows, and the promises which thou madest to God when thy terrors were upon thee ; then thou didst say, 0 Lord, let me have Jesus Christ, and I will be content, though I should beg my bread, and be reduced to rags, and extremity of want. When thy heart was stung with sin, thus desirous wert thou to reckon upon Christ as thy all-sufficient portion. How grew the 'consolations of God to be small' with thee? Job xv. 11. Now God trieth whether thou wilt stand to thy word, and thou fallest a-murmuring: it may be just with God to dip his arrows in venom and vengeance, and shoot them into thy soul again. Once more, it is below your hopes ; you should have a spirit as high as heaven, and will you storm at every petty loss ? as he said, * Art thou the king's son- in-law, and art so lean from day to day ? ' are you heu's of glory, and stand so much upon trifles? It should not be.