cises 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, Gen. iii. was his grieving and murmuring at the dignity ofman, 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 Howel tells it as a strange thing, that a serpent was found in the heart of an Englishman when he was dead. 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 it is to bear Satan's image upon us! and to be given up to 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.) Consider, that murmuring is a mercyembittering 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 vi. 6. A murmurer can taste no sweet, he 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. xxxii. 32. As to the hungry soul, every bitter thing is sweet; 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.) Consider, that murmuring is a mercydestroying sin, a mercy murdering-sin; mur

muring cuts the throat of mercy, it stabs all our mercies at the heart, Numb. xiv. 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," Psal. lxxxix. 30, 31. Deut. xxxi. 16, 17. God promises them that they should possess the holy land, upon condition of their obedience; this condition they brake, and therefore God was not forsworn, though he cut them off in the wilderness, and kept them out of Canaan. 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 ver. 1, 2, 3, 26, 27, 28, 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; mur mur 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 doméstic 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.) Consider, that murmuring unfits the soul for duty. 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 doing of duties, it unfits the soul for delighting in duties, 1 Cor. vii. 33, 34, 35. 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. As a holy quietness and calmness of spirit prompts a man to duty, Prov. iii. 17. as it makes every duty easy and pleasant to the soul; so it is murmuring that unhinges the soul, that indisposes the soul, that takes off the chariotwheels of the soul, Psal. xl. 12. 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, 2 Kings vi. 33. &c. Oh therefore, as ever you would be in a blessed preparedness, and a blessed fittedness for duty, Is. xxvi. 9, 10, 11. take heed of murmuring, and sit mute and silent under the afflicting hand of God.

(9.) Consider, that murmuring unmans a man, Is. v. 18, 19, 20. 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; as you see in the murmuring Israelites, Exod. xiv. xv. xvi. chapters. Murmuring uncrowns a man; the murmurer may say, My crown is fallen from my head, Lam. v. 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 his judgment, it puts out the eye of reason, it stupifies 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 a man had 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 any thing. as he should, Is. iii. 8. Jer. vii. 6. 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, Matt. vi. Prov. vi. how to cease from murmuring, and how to be mute. Ah Sirs! as you would have the name, the honour, and the reputation of being men, I say men, take heed of murmuring and sit silent before the Lord.

(10.) Murmuring is a time-destroying sin. Ah the precious time that is buried in the