The Mute Christian Under the Sm
overboard, to cool him, and quell him, and keep him prisoner in the whale's belly, till his stomach be brought down, and his spirit be made quiet before the Lord. What you get by struggling and grumbling, you may put in your eye, and weep it out when you have done: Jer. 7:19, 'Do they provoke me to anger, saith the Lord? Do they not provoke themselves to the confusion of their own faces?' By provoking of me, they do but provoke themselves; by angering of me, they do but anger themselves; by vexing of me, they do but fret and vex themselves: 1 Cor. 10:22, 'Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy?
Are we stronger than he?'
Zanchy observes these two things from these words:
1. That it is ill provoking God to wrath, because he is stronger than we.
2. That though God be stronger than we, yet there are those who provoke him to wrath; and certainly there are none that do more provoke him than those who fume and fret when his hand is upon them. Though the cup be bitter, yet it is put into your hand by your Father; though the cross be heavy, yet he that hath laid it on your shoulders will bear the heaviest end of it himself; and why, then, should you mutter? Shall bears and lions take blows and knocks from their keepers, and wilt thou not take a few blows and knocks from the keeper of Israel? Why should the clay contend with the potter, or the creature with his creator, or the servant with his lord, or weakness with strength, or a poor nothing creature with an