4. Murmur not at providence. Though we do not clearly resist it, if
frame models of government that can never reduce them into practice. Now God being infinitely wise, and his will infinitely good, it must needs be that goodness and wisdom are the rules whereby he directs himself in his actions in the world. And what greater motive can there be to persuade our submission, than wisdom and goodness transacting all things? God's counsel being the firmest, as well as the wisest, it is a folly both ways to resist it.
(2.) God discovers his mind to us by providences. Every work of God being the result of his counsel, when we see it actually brought forth into the world, what else doth it discover to us but that counsel and will of his? Every single providence hath a language wherein God's mind is signified, much more a train and contexture of them: Luke
7:22, 'Tell John what things you have seen and heard: how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, to the poor the gospel is preached.' Our
Saviour informs John's disciples from acts of providence, he gives them no other answer, but turns him over to interpret and construe his works in the case. Providence therefore must not be resisted, when God's mind in it is discovered. It is disingenuous to act against his pleasure and manifest mind; it is the devil's sin. Aaron, when he lost his two sons in so judicial manner by fire from heaven, yet held his peace, Lev. 10:1–3; because God had declared his mind positively, 'I will be glorified.' It is dangerous to resist the mind of God, for the word of his providence shall prosper in spite of men and devils: Isa. 55:11, 'My word that goes forth of my mouth, shall not return unto me void; it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it;' and therefore a resisting of it is termed θεομαχεῖν, a fighting against God, by Gamaliel, no great friend to the church, Acts 5:38, 39.
4. Murmur not at providence. Though we do not clearly resist it, if there be a repining submission, it is a partial opposition to the will of God. We might as well murmur at God's creation as at his providence, for that is as arbitrary as this; he is under no law but his own righteous will: we should therefore leave the government of the world to God's wisdom, as we acknowledge the frame of it to be an
act of his power. If God should manage his ways according to our prescriptions, what satisfaction would God have? what satisfaction would the world have? He might be unjust to himself, and unjust to others. Your own complaints would not be stilled, when you should feel the smart of your own counsels; yet if they were, what satisfaction could there be to the complaints of others, whose interests and therefore judgments and desires lie cross to yours?
Man is a cross creature. The Israelites exclaimed to God against Pharaoh, and when the scene was changed, they did no less murmur against Moses in the wilderness. They were as troublesome when they were delivered, as when they were afflicted. In Egypt they would have their liberty, and in the wilderness their stomachs turn, and they long for the onions and garlic, though attended with their former slavery. Let God govern the world according to his own wisdom and will, till all mankind can agree in one method to offer to him, and that I think will never be, though the world should last for ever. Murmur not, therefore; whatsoever is done in the world is the work of a wise agent, who acts for the perfection of the whole universe; and why should I murmur at that which promotes the common happiness and perfection, that being better and more desirable than the perfection of any one particular person? Must a lutenist break all his strings because one is out of tune? And must
God change his course because things are out of order with one man, though in regard of divine providence things are not out of order in themselves, or without any care, for God is a God of order? This temper will hinder our prayers; with what face can we pray to that God whose wisdom we thus repine at? If God doth exercise a providence in the world, why do we murmur? If he doth not take care of those things, why do we pray to him? It is a contradiction. It also hinders us from giving God the glory, and ourselves the comfortable sight of his providence. God may have taken something from us, which is the matter of our sorrow, and give another thing to us, which might be the matter of our joy. Jacob lost a joint, and got a blessing, Gen. 32:29, 31. What advantage can it be to murmur? Can all your cries stop the motions of the heavens, when a storm reaches you? Can your clamours make the clouds move the faster, or