greatest trials is this, seriously consider the heinous and dangerous
days, as you may see in the two following chapters, the conspirators
are destroyed, and David's throne more firmly established. Mercy is
always nearest when a man can in quietness possess his own soul.
Salvation is at hand when a Christian comes to lay his hand upon his
mouth. Mercy will be upon the wing, loving-kindness will ride post to
put a period to that man's troubles who sits silent in the day of his
sorrows and sufferings. Ah, Christians! as you would have mercy
near, as you would see to the end of your afflictions, as you would
have deliverance come flying upon the wings of the wind, sit mute
and silent under all your troubles. As wine was then nearest when
the water-pots were filled with water, even to the brim; so when the
heart is fullest of quietness and calmness, then is the wine of mercy,
the wine of deliverance, nearest.
The heinous and dangerous nature of
murmuring,
discovered in twelve particulars
12. The twelfth and last motive to work you to silence under your
greatest trials is this, seriously consider the heinous and dangerous
nature of murmuring. Now that you may, let me propose these
following particulars to your most sober consideration.
(1.) First, Consider that murmuring speaks out many a root of
bitterness to be strong in thy soul, Heb. 3:12. Murmuring speaks out
sin in its power, corruption upon its throne, Heb. 12:1. As holy
silence argues true grace, much grace, yea, grace in its strength and
in its lively vigour, so murmuring, muttering under the hand of God,
argues much sin, yea, a heart full of sin; it speaks out a heart full of
self-love, Exod. 15:24; 16:7, 8; and full of slavish fears, Numb. 13:32,
33; 14:1–3; and full of ignorance, John 6:41, 42; and full of pride and
unbelief, Ps. 106:24, 25; 'yea, they despised the pleasant land,' or the
land of desire, Ps. 77:19, 20: there is their pride; 'they believed not in
his word': there is their unbelief; what follows? They murmured in
their tents, and hearkened not unto the voice of God. They were sick
of the sullens, and preferred Egypt before Canaan, a wilderness
before a paradise. As in the first chaos there were the seeds of all
creatures, so in the murmurer's heart there is not only the seeds of all
sin, but a lively operation of all sin. Sin is become mighty in the
hearts of murmurers, and none but an almighty God can root it out.
Those roots of bitterness have so spread and strengthened
themselves in the hearts of murmurers, that everlasting strength
must put in, or they will be undone for ever, Isa. 26:4. But,
(2.) Secondly, consider, That the Holy Ghost hath set a brand of
infamy upon murmurers. He hath stigmatised them for ungodly
persons: Jude 15, 16, 'To execute judgment upon all, and to convince
all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which
they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which
ungodly sinners have spoken against him.' But who are these
ungodly sinners? 'They are mumurers, complainers, walking after
their own lusts,' &c., ver. 16. When Christ comes to execute judgment
upon ungodly ones, murmurers shall be set in the front, they shall
experience the fierceness of his wrath and the greatness of his wrath.
The front, you know, is first assaulted, and most strongly assaulted.
Christ will bend all his power and strength against murmurers; his
little finger shall be heavier upon them, than his loins shall be upon
others, 1 Kings 12:11, 14; other sinners shall be chastised with whips,
but ungodly murmurers shall be chastised with scorpions. If you can
joy in that black character of ungodly sinners, be murmurers still; if
not, cease from murmurings. Where murmuring is in its reign, in its
dominion, there you may speak and write that person ungodly. Let
murmurers make what profession they will of godliness, yet if
murmuring keeps the throne in their hearts, Christ will deal with
them at last as ungodly sinners. A man may be denominated
ungodly, as well from his murmuring, if he lives under the dominion
of it, as from his drunkenness, swearing, whoring, lying, stealing, &c.
A murmurer is an ungodly man, he is an ungodlike man; no man on
earth more unlike to God than the murmurer; and therefore no
wonder if when Christ comes to execute judgment, he deals so
severely and terribly with him. In the wars of Tamberlain, one having
found a great pot of gold, that was hid in the earth, he brought it to
Tamberlain, who asked whether it had his father's stamp upon it?
But when he saw that it had not his father's stamp, but the Roman
stamp upon it, he would not own it, but cast it away. The Lord Jesus,
when he shall come with all his saints to execute judgment, Oh! he
will not own murmurers; nay, he will cast them away for ever,
because they have not his Father's stamp upon them. Ah, souls!
souls! as you would not go up and down this world with a badge of
ungodliness upon you, take heed of murmuring.
(3). Thirdly, Consider that murmuring is the mother-sin; it is the
mother of harlots, the mother of all abominations; a sin that breeds
many other sins, viz., disobedience, contempt, ingratitude,
impatience, distrust, rebellion, cursing, carnality; yea, it charges God
with folly, yea, with blasphemy, Num. 16:41, 17:10, Judges 17:2. The
language of a murmuring, a muttering soul is this, Surely God might
have done this sooner, and that wiser, and the other thing better, &c.
As the river Nilus bringeth forth many crocodiles, and the scorpion
many serpents at one birth, so murmuring is a sin that breeds and
brings forth many sins at once. Murmuring is like the monster hydra;
cut off one head, and many will rise up in its room. Oh! therefore,
bend all thy strength against this mother-sin. As the king of Syria
said to his captains, 'Fight neither with small nor great, but with the
king of Israel,' 1 Kings 22:31, so say I, Fight not so much against this
sin or that, but fight against your murmuring, which is a mother-sin.
Make use of all your Christian armour, make use of all the
ammunition of heaven, to destroy the mother, and in destroying of
her, you will destroy the daughters, Eph. 6:10, 11. When Goliath was
slain, the Philistines fled. When a general in an army is cut off, the
common soldiers are easily and quickly routed and destroyed. So,
destroy but murmuring, and you will quickly destroy disobedience,
ingratitude, impatience, distrust, &c. Oh! kill this mother-sin, that
this may never kill thy soul. I have read of Sennacherib, that after his
army was destroyed by an angel, Isa. 37, and he returned home to his
own country, he inquired of one about him, what he thought the
reason might be why God so favoured the Jews? He answered that
there was one Abraham, their father, that was willing to sacrifice his
son to death at the command of God, and that ever since that time
God favoured that people. Well! said Sennacherib, if that be so, I
have two sons, and I will sacrifice them both to death, if that will
procure their God to favour me; which, when his two sons heard,
they, as the story goeth, slew their father, Isa. 37:38, choosing rather
to kill than to be killed. So do thou choose rather to kill this mother-
sin than to be killed by it, or by any of those vipers that are brought
forth by it, Ps. 137:8, 9.
(4.) Fourthly, Consider that murmuring is a God-provoking sin; it is
a sin that provokes God not only to afflict, but also to destroy a
people: Num. 14:27–29, 'How long shall I bear with this evil
congregation which murmur against me? I have heard the
murmuring of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me.
Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith the Lord, as you have spoken
in mine ears, so will I do to you. Your carcases shall fall in this
wilderness, and all that were numbered of you, according to your
whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have
murmured against me.' 1 Cor. 10:10, 'Neither murmur ye, as some of
them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer.' All our
murmurings do but provoke the Lord to strike us and destroy us.
I have read of Cæsar, that, having prepared a great feast for his
nobles and friends, it so fell out that the day appointed was extreme
foul, that nothing could be done to the honour of their meeting;
where upon he was so displeased and enraged, that he commanded
all them that had bows to shoot up their arrows at Jupiter, their chief
god, as in defiance of him for that rainy weather; which, when they
did, their arrows fell short of heaven, and fell upon their own heads,
so that many of them were very sorely wounded. So all our
mutterings and murmurings, which are as so many arrows shot at
God himself, they will return upon our pates, hearts; they reach not
him, but they will hit us; they hurt not him, but they will wound us:
therefore it is better to be mute than to murmur; it is dangerous to
provoke a consuming fire, Heb. 12:29.
(5.) Fifthly, Consider, That murmuring is the devil's image, sin and
punishment. Satan is still a-murmuring; he murmurs at every mercy
that God bestows, at every dram of grace he gives, Job 1:8, 9; he
murmurs at every sin he pardons, and at every soul he saves. A soul
cannot have a good look from heaven, nor hear a good word from
heaven, nor receive a love-letter from heaven, but Satan murmurs at
it; he murmurs and mutters at every act of pitying grace, and at every
act of preventing grace, and at every act of supporting grace, and at
every act of strengthening grace, and at every act of comforting grace
that God exercises towards poor souls; he murmurs at every sip, at
every drop, at every crumb of mercy that God bestows. Cyprian,
Aquinas, and others conceive that the cause of Satan's banishment
from heaven was his grieving and murmuring at the dignity of man,
whom he beheld made after God's own image, insomuch that he
would relinquish his own glory, to divest so noble a creature of
perfection, and rather be in hell himself, than see Adam placed in
paradise. But certainly, after his fall, murmuring and envy at man's
innocency and felicity put him upon attempting to plunge man into
the bottomless gulf of sin and misery; he knowing himself to be
damned, and lost for ever, would needs try all ways how to make
happy man eternally unhappy, Mr Howell tells it as a strange thing,
that a serpent was found in the heart of an Englishman when he was
dead;2 but, alas! this old serpent was by sad experience found to
have too much power in the heart of Adam whilst alive, and whilst in
the height of all his glory and excellency. Murmuring is the first-born
of the devil; and nothing renders a man more like to him than
murmuring. Constantine's sons did not more resemble their father,
nor Aristotle's scholars their master, nor Alexander's soldiers their
general, than murmurers do resemble Satan. And as murmuring is
Satan's sin, so it is his punishment. God hath given him up to a
murmuring spirit; nothing pleases him; all things go against him; he
is perpetually a-muttering and murmuring at persons or things.
Now, oh what a dreadful thing is it to bear Satan's image upon us,
and to be given up to be the devil's punishment! It were better not to
be, than thus to be given up; and therefore cease from murmuring,
and sit mute under your sorest trials. But,
(6.) Sixthly, Consider, That murmuring is a mercy-embittering sin, a
mercy-souring sin; as put the sweetest things into a sour vessel, it
sours them, or put them into a bitter vessel, and it embitters them.
Murmuring puts gall and wormwood into every cup of mercy that
God gives into our hands. As holy silence gives a sweet taste, a
delightful relish, to all a man's mercies, so murmuring embitters all.
The murmurer can taste no sweetness in his sweetest morsels; every
mercy, every morsel, tastes like the white of an egg to him, Job 6:6.
This mercy, saith the murmurer, is not toothsome, nor that mercy is
not wholesome; here is a mercy wants salt, and there is a mercy
wants sauce. A murmurer can taste no sweet, can feel no comfort; he
can take no delight in any mercy he enjoys. The murmurer writes
marah, that is, bitterness, upon all his mercies, and he reads and
tastes bitterness in all his mercies. All the murmurer's grapes are
grapes of gall, and all their clusters are bitter, Deut. 32:23. As to 'the
hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet,' Prov. 27:7, so to the
murmuring soul every sweet thing is bitter. The mute Christian can
suck sweetness from every breast of mercy, but the murmurer cries
out, Oh it is bitter! Oh these breasts of mercy are dry!
(7.) Seventhly, Consider, That murmuring is a mercy-destroying sin,
a mercy-murdering sin. Murmuring cuts the throat of mercy; it stabs
all our mercies at the heart; it sets all a man's mercies a-bleeding
about him at once: Num. 14:30, 'Doubtless ye shall not come into the
land concerning which I sware to make you dwell therein, save Caleb
the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.' God promises
them that they should possess the holy land upon the condition of
their obedience. This condition they brake; and therefore God was
not foresworn though he cut them off in the wilderness, and kept
them out of Canaan, Deut. 31:16, 17. But what is the sin that provokes
the Lord to bar them out of the land of promise, and to cut them off
from all those mercies that they enjoyed which entered into the holy
land? Why, it was their murmuring; as you may see in Numbers
14:1–3, 26–29. As you love your mercies, as you would have the
sweet of your mercies, and as you would enjoy the life of your
mercies, take heed of murmuring. Murmuring will bring a
consumption upon your mercies; it is a worm that will make all your
mercies to wither. As there be some that love their mercies into the
grave, and others that plot their mercies into the grave, so there be
some that murmur their mercies into the grave. As you would have
your mercies always fresh and green, smiling and thriving, as you
would have your mercies to bed and board with you, to rise up and
lie down with you, and in all conditions to attend you, murmur not,
murmur not. The mute Christian's mercies are most sweet and most
long-lived; the murmurer's mercies, like Jonah's gourd, will quickly
wither. Murmuring hath cut the throat of national mercies, of
domestical mercies, and of personal mercies; and therefore, oh how
should men fly from it as from a serpent! as from the avenger of
blood! yea, as from hell itself!
(8.) Eighthly, Consider, That murmuring unfits the soul for duty,
Exod. 6:7–10. A murmurer can neither hear to profit, nor pray to
profit, nor read to profit, nor meditate to profit. The murmurer is
neither fit to do good, nor receive good. Murmuring unfits the soul
for doings of duties; it unfits the soul for delighting in duties; it unfits
the soul for communion with God in duties. Murmuring fills the soul
with cares, fears, distractions, vexations; all which unfits a man for
duty, 1 Cor. 7:33–35. As a holy quietness and calmness of spirit
prompts a man to duty, as it makes every duty easy and pleasant to
the soul, Prov. 3:17; so it is murmuring that unhinges the soul, and
indisposes the soul, so that it takes off the chariot wheels of the soul,
that the soul cannot look up to God, nor do for God, nor receive from
God, nor wait on God, nor walk with God, nor act faith upon God,
&c., Ps. 40:12. Oh! therefore, as ever you would be in a blessed
preparedness, and a blessed fittedness for duty, take heed of
murmuring, and sit mute and silent under the afflicting hand of God,
Isa. 26:9–11.
(9.) Ninthly, Consider, That murmuring unmans a man; it strips him
of his reason and understanding; it makes him call evil good, and
good evil; it puts light for darkness and darkness for light, bitter for
sweet and sweet for bitter; it calls saviours destroyers, and deliverers
murderers, Isa. 5:18–20; as you see in the murmuring Israelites,
Exod. 14–16. Murmuring uncrowns a man. The murmurer may say,
'My crown is fallen from my head,' Lam. 5:16. Murmuring strips a
man of all his glory; it spoils all his excellency; it destroys the nobility
of man; it speaks him out to be a base ignoble creature. Murmuring
clouds a man's understanding; it perverts the judgment, it puts out
the eye of reason, stupefies his conscience; it sours the heart,
disorders the will, and distempers the affections; it be-beasts a man,
yea, it sets him below the beasts that perish; for he were better be a
beast, than be like a beast. The murmurer is the hieroglyphic of folly;
he is a comprehensive vanity; he is a man and no man; he is sottish
and senseless; he neither understands God nor himself nor anything
as he should; he is the man that must be sent to school, to learn of
the beasts of the field, and the birds of the air, and the creeping
things of the earth, how to cease from murmuring, and how to be
mute, Isa. 3:8, Jer. 7:6. Ah! sirs, as you would have the name, the
honour, the reputation of being men, I say men, Take heed of
murmuring, and sit silent before the Lord.
(10.) Tenthly, Murmuring is a time-destroying sin. Ah! the precious
time that is buried in the grave of murmuring? When the murmurer
should be a-praying, he is a-murmuring against the Lord; when he
should be a-hearing, he is a-murmuring against the divine
providences; when he should be a-reading, he is a-murmuring
against instruments. The murmurer spends much precious time in
musing; in musing how to get out of such a trouble, how to get off
such a yoke, how to be rid of such a burden, how to revenge himself
for such a wrong, how to supplant such a person, how to reproach
those that are above him, and how to affront those that are below
him; and a thousand other ways murmurers have to expend that
precious time that some would redeem with a world; as Queen
Elizabeth on her deathbed cried out, 'Time, time, a world of wealth
for an inch of time.' The murmurer lavishly and profusely trifles
away that precious time, that is his greatest interest in this world to
redeem, Eph. 5:16. Every day, every hour in the day, is a talent of
time, and God expects the improvement of it, and will charge the
non-improvement of it upon you at last, Rev. 2:21, 25; 1 Peter 4:2.
Cæsar observing some ladies in Rome to spend much of their time in
making much of little dogs and monkeys, asked them, Whether the
women in that country had no children to make much of? Ah!
murmurers, murmurers, you who by your murmuring, trifle away so
many godly hours and seasons of mercy, have you no God to honour?
have you no Christ to believe in? have you no hearts to change, no
sins to be pardoned, no souls to save, no hell to escape, no heaven to
seek after? Oh! if you have, why do you spend so much of your
precious time in murmuring against God, against men, against this
or that thing? Eternity rides upon the back of time. Hoc est
momentum, this is the moment: if it be well improved, you are made
for ever; if not, you are undone for ever. Aut malè, aut nihil, aut aliud
agendo.
I have read of Archias a Lacedæmonian [Plutarch], that whilst he was
rioting and quaffing in the midst of his cups, one delivers him a
letter, purposely to signify that there were some that lay in wait to
take away his life, and withal desires him to read it presently,
because it was a serious business and matter of high concernment to
him. Oh, said he, seria cras, I will think of serious things to-morrow;
but that night he was slain. Ah! murmurer, cease from murmuring
to-day, or else thou mayest be for ever undone by murmuring to-
morrow. The old saying, Nunc aut nunquam, now or never; so say I,
Now or never, now or never give over murmuring, and let it swallow
up no more of your precious time. What would not many a
murmurer give for one of those days, yea, for one of those hours
which he hath trifled away in murmuring, when it is a day too late!
The Rabbins glory in this conceit, that a man hath so many bones as
there be letters in the decalogue, and just so many joints and
members as there be days in the year; to shew that all our strength
and time should be expended in God's service. Ah, murmurers! you
will gain more by one day's faithful serving of God, than ever you
have gained by murmuring against God. But,
(11.) Eleventhly, Consider this, Christians, that of all men in the
world, you have least cause, yea, no cause, to be murmuring and
muttering under any dispensation that you meet with in this world.
Is not God thy portion? Chrysostom propounds this question, Was
Job miserable when he had lost all that God had given him? and
gives this answer, No, he had still that God that gave him all. Is not
Christ thy treasurer? is not heaven thine inheritance? and wilt thou
murmur? Hast thou not much in hand, and more in hope? Hast thou
not much in possession, but much more in reversion; and wilt thou
murmur? Hath not God given thee a changed heart, a renewed
nature, and a sanctified soul; and wilt thou murmur? Hath he not
given thee himself to satisfy thee,2 his Son to save thee, his Spirit to
lead thee, his grace to adorn thee, his covenant to assure thee, his
mercy to pardon thee, his righteousness to clothe thee; and wilt thou
murmur? Hath he not made thee a friend, a son, a brother, a bride,
an heir; and wilt thou murmur? Hath not God often turned thy water
into wine, thy brass into silver, and thy silver into gold; and wilt thou
murmur? When thou wast dead, did not he quicken thee; and when
thou wast lost, did not he seek thee; and when thou wast wounded,
did not he heal thee; and when thou wert falling, did not he support
thee; and when thou wert down, did not he raise thee; and when
thou wert staggering, did not he establish thee; and when thou wert
erring, did not he reduce thee; and when thou wert tempted, did not
he succour thee; and when thou wert in dangers, did not he deliver
thee; and wilt thou murmur? What! thou that art so highly advanced
and exalted above many thousands in the world? Murmuring is a
black garment, and it becomes none so ill as saints.
(12.) Twelfthly, and lastly, Consider that murmuring makes the life of
man invisibly miserable. Every murmurer is his own executioner.
Murmuring vexes the heart; it wears and tears the heart, it enrages
and inflames the heart, it wounds and stabs the heart. Every
murmurer is his own martyr, every murmurer is a murderer; he kills
many at once, viz. his joy, his comfort, his peace, his rest, his soul.
No man so inwardly miserable as the murmurer; no man hath such
inward gripes and griefs as he, such inward bitterness and heaviness
as he, such inward contentions and combustions as he. Every
murmurer is his own tormentor. Murmuring is a fire within that will
burn up all, it is an earthquake within that will overturn all, it is a
disease within that will infect all, it is a poison within that will prey
upon all.
And thus I have done with those motives that may persuade us not to
murmur nor mutter, but to be mute and silent under the greatest
afflictions, the saddest providences and sharpest trials that we meet
with in this world.