Numbers 11

REFLECTIONS UPON CHAP. XI.—How often men sin outrageously, immediately after the most solemn exercises; and make the very commandments of Heaven the occasions of such sinning! We often murmur against the dispensations of providence, even without any shadow of reason; nay, in direct contradiction to every reason; for ingratitude is the basest vice. Discontented persons loathe their very blessings, and seem solicitous to make themselves miserable; readily preferring the worst things which God withholds to the best which he bestows; and even the filthy pleasures of sin and sense to his unspeakable gift of grace.—It is a fearful mark of the curse of God upon the heart when men repine amidst plenty! Those, who follow the people of God for base and carnal ends, quickly become murmurers when they meet with disappointments. A mixture of carnal and self-seeking men are ruinous to the church; and a mixture of carnal affections are the plague of the renewed heart. Through these it is that even the greatest saints are apt to lose their temper, extol their service, quarrel with the disposals of providence, and distrust the power and kindness of God, when they meet with great provocations from their fellow-creatures—and to have fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, when they are especially called to reprove them by a contrary conduct. But God often tries his people, chiefly in respect of their most eminent graces, to humble them and to prove them, when he finds them wanting; for the meekest are ready to wish themselves freed from trials, rather than to glorify God under them; nay, to wish death when their temper is very unfit for it! But how richly God qualifies men for work when he calls them to it! Let me then never grudge to any the honours for which God hath fitted him; never contemn the government which God hath appointed; never forbid those who act for the honour of God, even though they follow not with us; nor ever neglect to accept the assistance which God affords me in my work, though it should eclipse my renown! But let me always remember that a curse or frown attends even God’s granting of that which men ask in a murmuring and peremptory manner, and that he can easily render created comforts a tremendous and destructive plague!