vex, when they are under the afflicting hand of God. Many when they
they. Ah, England, England! hadst thou no more sins upon thee, thy
murmuring were enough to undo thee, did not God exercise much
pity and compassion towards thee. But more of this hereafter, and
therefore let this touch for the present suffice.
2. Secondly, This truth looks sourly upon those that fret, chafe, and
vex, when they are under the afflicting hand of God. Many when they
feel the rod to smart, ah, how they do fret and fume! Isa. 8:21, 'When
they were hardly bestead and hungry, they fret themselves, and curse
their king and their God;' Prov. 19:3, 'The foolishness of man
perverteth his way, and his heart fretteth against the Lord.' The heart
may be fretful and froward when the tongue doth not blaspheme.
Folly brings man into misery, and misery makes man to fret; man in
misery is more apt to fret and chafe against the Lord, than to fret and
chafe against his sin that hath brought him into sufferings, 2 Kings
6:33, Ps. 37:1, 7, 8. A fretful soul dares let fly at God himself. When
Pharaoh is troubled with the frets, he dare spit in the very face of
God himself: 'Who is the Lord, that I should obey him?' Exod. 5:2.
And when Jonah is in a fretting humour, he dares tell God to his face,
'that he doth well to be angry,' Jonah 4:8. Jonah had done well if he
had been angry with his sin, but he did very ill to be angry with his
God. God will vex every vein in that man's heart, before he hath done
with him, who fumes and frets, because he cannot snap in sunder the
cords with which he is bound, Ezek. 16:43. Sometimes good men are
sick of the frets, but when they are, it costs them dear, as Job and
Jonah found by experience. No man hath ever got anything by his