That's the Moral of it; when Greedinefs and Power meet together, they will foon find Pretences to undo the Weak. There are Forgeries now at hand; they can devife Crimes that never were thought on, and be believed perhaps by those who worship their Greatness. But let us leave this, and obferve once more, which is the fourth Thing, that

4. It is the Cause of fuch Sins, as are the Punishment of those who are difcontented: It tempts them not only to think ill of God, but to fpeak ill of Him; nay, to with Mischief upon themselves. Sometimes Men fay, would to God we were dead, when they have loft something to which they have extreamly ingaged their Affection: To fay no body in the World is fo miferable as I am, is a very light and favourable Expreffion of their Difcontent; they proceed fometimes fo far, in defperate Speeches against divine Providence, that God takes them at their Word, when they call for fome Mischief upon themfelves.

An eminent Example of which, you have in the murmuring Ifraelites, who in a raging Fit of Difcontent, when they were juft upon the Borders of Canaan, cryed out, would God we had died in Egypt, or would God we had died in this Wilderness. Numb. 14. 2. Now tho' the former part of their Wifh could not be fulfilled, because they were come alive out of Egypt, yet latter, you may obferve, God granted them, much to their Grief and Affliction, when it was too late to bethink themselves better. For he faith,

Ff

the

yea,

yea, fwears, ver 28, 29. As truly as I live, and as you have spoken in mine Ears, fo will I do unto you; your Carcaffes fball fall in this Wilderness, and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole Number, which have murmured against me doubtless ye shall not come into the Land, concerning which I fware to make you dwell therein, &c.

The like you may obferve again, that when they faid there, ver. 4. one to another, Let us make a Captain, and let us return into Egypt. They feem to me to have had their With in great Part; for God faith to Mofes, ver. 25. Turn you and get you into the Wildernefs, by the Way of the Red fea. Tho' this Command might be partly to fecure them from the Irruption of the Amalekites (as feems to be fuggefted in the foregoing Words) yet I cannot but look upon it as a punishment alfo for their Rebellion, that they should be fent back in the Way that led to Egypt, and brought_nigh_it again, (according to their froward Defire) tho' they did not enter into it.

Nay, you may obferve more than this, that fome of them were fo difcontented with their prefent Condition, that they praised their Slavery in Egypt far more than it, and cared not what Lyes and Slanders they uttered in their perverfe Humour, of Murmuring against God. Read but Numb. 16. 13. and there you will find Korah, Dathan and Abiram, have the Face to fay, that Mofes had brought them out of a Land flowing with Milk and Honey to kill them in the Wilderness. Which was fo notori

ous

ous a Calumny, that there could not be one more impudent, they wearying Mofes with their Complaints there, because of their Labour in the Iron Furnace, under an intolerable Bondage: But their difcontented Paffions, after God had shown himself fo merciful and gracious to them, made them forget both all their former Miferies, and all his Favours, and rail most shamelefly at the Officers of God, who had been the Inftruments of their Deliverance. Men mind not what they fay, when they are difpleafed and vexed at the State wherein God's Providence places them; they utter many Times not only falfe and ungrateful, but bitter Language, againtt every thing that they think is the Caufe of their Trouble; yea, even against God himself. And therefore God fhewéd a ftrange Judgment upon thefe Rebels, for this among other Crimes; and made the Earth fwallow them up, that they should not fo much as live in a Wilderness any longer. And fo I could tell you how many others having fpoken discontented Words, have fuffer'd the very thing that they wish'd should come upon them.

And let this be added, that they who will give way to this complaining and murmuring Humour, will be fo apt to find fault with every thing that God himself cannot please them, but there will be fomething or other to breed a Quarrel. You may fee it in this Story which I have recited of the Ifraelites, who were as Mofes, as they had been at Pharaoh; better pleafed out of Egypt, than in it; Ff2

angry at and no

and no

better

better pleafed in Canaan, than they had been either in Egypt or in the Wilderness. For there they forfook their God, and thought strange Gods better, till they fmarted for it foundly, and then they returned to his Worship, and then fell off again, to and fro, backward and forward, I know not how many Times.

Take heed therefore to your felves, leaft you fhould fall by the like Unbelief and Distrust of God; remember the Advices I have formerly given you; labour after this heavenly Temper, of being well pleafed in every Eftate, and if you would prevent all the Mischiefs that else may come upon you, give not way to the Beginning of any evil Defire; ftay it before it proceed any further and grow unruly; for you know not where it will end, if you put not an End to it then, where it begun.

And for a Conclufion of all these Discourses, let me defire you again to refolve, that it is beft to fubmit your felves, and all you have, to God's Will; believe that he hath already made choice of that better Condition for you, of which you are fo defirous; lay this down for a firm Principle, that to have your own Will in every thing, is not fafe, nor the Way to be fatisfied: You may draw greater Inconveniencies on your felvés, fome time or other, than the Will of God ever doth. It was a pretty Confideration of Socrates, that if all the evil Things which Men endure, were thrown off their Backs, and laid upon one great Heap, and then every Man in the World being at perfect Liberty from all Burden, was to come and

take

take an equal Share with the reft of Mankind in thefe Miferies, moft Men would be willing to take up rather the Burden that they brought and go their Way with it, than make fuch a Change as to bear as much as any body else. There is no Man but would fee fomething or other there, that he would have no Mind so much as to taste of; and therefore would fay, give me my own again, I will have no other.

Men are well, if they could fee it, and we may fay a great deal more than Socrates did, that that if God fhould lay before us all the good Things of the World, and bid us chufe what Portion we pleafed of them, we fhould be very Fools if we did not defire God to take that Work into his own Hands and chufe for us. Nay, if we did not wish to be as we are, unless he faw any thing else to be better and more conducing to our Welfare. It would be fafeft for us to go away as we are, and fay, I like not to be my own Carver, I am not wife enough to chufe my own Portion; Lord, give me what thou feeft beft for me, for I fend all these Things back again to thee, that thou mayft diftribute them as thou pleaseft.

O continue thy loving Kindness, faith the Pfalmift, to them that know thee, and thy Righteoufness to Men of upright Heart. Pfal. 36. 11. who are these Recticordes, faith St. Austin, they that are right and straight in Heart? Even they that follow the Will of God in all Things; to them God will ever continue his Goodness and his Faithfulness. The Will of God is, that fome