Having given you some general considerations against murmuring, I now come to particular cases.
1. Dost thou lie under deep pressing wants ? Divers have been put to great straits that have done God more glory. Musculus, a great divine, yet forced to serve a weaver for his subsistence ; Paul made tents that he might not be burdensome, and so prejudice men against the gospel ; the more destitute, the more sensible of the care of providence. God beareth the purse for us ; when we have but from hand to mouth, we are still sup})lied : the more immediately you live upon God, the more you begin the life of heaven, where God is all in all. Deep poverty is the sauce of the present life. Austin saw a beggar frisking after his belly was filled ; he could find no such delight after the use of the creatures, being daily and abundantly supplied. The spectacle much wrought upon him.
VeR. 16.] UPON THE EPISTLE OF JUDE. 311
2. Hast thou sustained great losses ? If God hath lent us bless- ings, and taken them again, shall we grudge them to the right owner? He took part that gave all.
3. Dost thou endure great pains ? There is a gradation in mise- ries ; those that light upon the estate do not sit so close as those that light upon the body, and those that light upon the body are not so terrible as those that light upon the soul : ' A wounded spirit, who can bear?' Bodily pains is the case we now speak to: you are full of pains, but Christ on the cross suffered more ; but he was God-man. The martyrs suffered more, Heb. xi. 35 : they were tortured, eTUfjuTravla- di]aav — they were stretched out like a drum; but those were rare instances, and had a singular assistance. Paul's was an ordinary case ; his * thorn in the flesh,' 2 Cor. xii., was some great bodily pain ; but Paul was a choice spirit : heathens have borne it stoutly. Epi- curus was full of solace in a fit of the colic, oh memoriam inventoinim, by calling to mind his inventions in philosophy ; and TuUy speaketh of Possidonius the philosopher, that wliilst he was under a great fit of the stone, could discourse freely that nothing was good but virtue, nothing evil but vice ; and when his pain twinged him, would say, Nihil agis, dolor! quamvis sis 7nolesfus, nunquam confitehor te esse malum — pain, thou dost nothing alter my opinion ; though thou art troublesome, yet thou art not evil. But these were men that obsti- nately maintained an insensibleness. Little children have endured great pains, and wilt thou startle at that which poor little children have suffered ? Besides all this, it is God's design to try you. There is a great deal of valour to be showed in the sick-bed :^ either the end of it will be life or death : if death, it is the last brunt, bear it patiently : ' Those enemies which ye now see, ye shall see them no more,' Exod. xiv. 13 ; heaven will make amends for all : if life, you will be ashamed, when well, that you had no more patience wliilst sick. Passive valour is the glory of a Christian ; active valour, that is fomented with plenty of blood and spirits, is a poor thing to it. Great soldiers, that will venture upon the mouth of a cannon, yet tremble at a disease and lingering death ; when they are sick they are under God's arrest, &c.
Thus I have given you remedies against murmuring by way of con- sideration : now by way of practice.
1. Divert the stream another way. As to the disposition of heart, take this rule: Be still examining thyself rather than judging God, Ps. iv. 4. If God seemeth to neglect me, have not I neglected him? &c. As to the outward expression of murmuring, turn the streams again ; express thy sorrows often in a way of prayer, thy rejoicings in a way of praise. Prayer cureth murmuring, for that is a duty wherein we profess subjection and dependence ; and besides, utterance givetli ease to the soul : an oven stopped is the more hot within ; complain more to God, and we shall not complain q/God. Praise cureth mur- muring. Job i. 23 ; as long as we can give thanks, we will not be querulous : but when we are disdainful of blessings, and we say. What ! no more ? Mai. i. 2, the distemper is getting ground upon the soul.
2. Afi'ect rather to be good than great. None murmur because of
^ ' Virtus etiam lecto exliibetur.'
312 AN EXPOSITION, WITH NOTES, [VeK. 16.
the smallness of grace ; that is not their complaint ; but because of the lowness of their condition in tiie workl. A man that looketh after the increase of grace, he can bless Grod for his outward decays, 2 Cor. iv. 16, and look upon murmurings as worse than pains or losses; those are afflictions, these are sins. So much for the first crime charged.
The next part of their character is ivalJcing after their own lusts. This is fitly subjoined to the former, for lusts make men froward and hard to be pleased, and the persons here described were exact libertines, making their lusts their rule and their law ; yea, the most brutish of all lusts, ' the lusts of the flesli ; and therefore in Peter it is, 2 Peter ii. 10, ' That walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness.' How portentious they were for impurities in this kind we told you before. Their walking after their lusts implieth their giving up themselves to such a course, contrary to all fear of God, care of laws, or restraint of nature.