And yet as common as this sin of ingratitude is, there is nothing we ought more earnestly to pray against. For what is more absolutely condemned in holy scripture than ingratitude? Or what more peremptorily required than the contrary temper? Thus says the Apostle, “Rejoice evermore; in every thing give thanks,” 1 _Thessalonians_ v. 16, 18. “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto GOD,” _Philippians_ iv. 6.
On the contrary, the Apostle mentions it as one of the highest crimes of the _Gentiles_, that they were not thankful. “Neither were they thankful,” _Romans_ i. 21. as also in another place, he numbers the “unthankful,” 2 _Timothy_ iii. 2. amongst those unholy, prophane persons, who are to have their portion in the lake of fire and brimstone.
As for our sins, GOD puts them behind his back; but his mercies he will have acknowledged, “There is virtue gone out of me,” says JESUS CHRIST, _Luke_ viii. 46. and the woman who was cured of her bloody issue, must confess it. And we generally find, when GOD sent any remarkable punishment upon a particular person, he reminded him of the favours he had received, as so many aggravations of his ingratitude. Thus when GOD was about to visit _Eli_’s house, he thus expostulates with him by his prophet: “Did I plainly appear unto the house of thy fathers, when they were in _Egypt_, in _Pharaoh_’s house? And did I chuse him out of all the tribes of _Israel_, to be my priest, to offer upon mine altar, to burn incense, and to wear an ephod before me? Wherefore kick ye at my sacrifice, and at mine offering, which I have commanded in my habitation, and honourest thy sons above me, to make yourselves fat with the chiefest of all the offerings of _Israel_ my people? Wherefore the LORD GOD of _Israel_ saith, I said indeed, that thy house, and the house of thy father, should walk before me for ever; but now the LORD saith, Be it far from me, for them that honour me will I honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.” 1 _Samuel_ ii. 27, 28, 29, 30.
It was this and such like instances of GOD’s severity against the unthankful, that inclined me to chuse the words of the text, as the most proper subject I could discourse on at this time.
Four months, my good friends, we have now been upon the sea in this ship, and “have occupied our business in the great waters.” At GOD Almighty’s word, we have seen “the stormy wind arise, which hath lifted up the waves thereof. We have been carried up to the heaven, and down again to the deep, and some of our souls melted away because of the trouble; but I trust we cryed earnestly unto the LORD, and he delivered us out of our distress. For he made the storm to cease; so that the waves thereof were still. And now we are glad, because we are at rest, for GOD hath brought us to the haven where we would be. O that you would therefore praise the LORD for his goodness, and declare the wonders that he hath done for us, the unworthiest of the sons of men.”
Thus _Moses_, thus _Joshua_ behaved. For when they were about to take their leaves of the children of _Israel_, they recounted to them what great things GOD had done for them, as the best arguments and motives they could urge to engage them to obedience. And how can I copy after better examples? What fitter, what more noble motives, to holiness and purity of living, can I lay before you, than they did?
Indeed, I cannot say, that we have seen the “pillar of a cloud by day, or a pillar of fire by night,” going visibly before us to guide our course; but this I can say, that the same GOD who was in that pillar of a cloud, and pillar of fire, which departed not from the _Israelites_, and who has made the sun to rule the day, and the moon to rule the night, has, by his good providence, directed us in our right way, or else the pilot had steered us in vain.
Neither can I say, That we have seen the “sun stand still,” as the children of _Israel_ did in the days of _Joshua_. But surely GOD, during part of our voyage, has caused it to withhold some of that heat, which it usually sends forth in these warmer climates, or else it had not failed, but some of you must have perished in the sickness that has been, and does yet continue among us.
We have not seen the waters stand purposely on an heap, that we might pass through, neither have we been pursued by _Pharaoh_ and his host, and delivered out of their hands; but we have been led through the sea as through a wilderness, and were once remarkably preserved from being run down by another ship; which had GOD permitted, the waters, in all probability, would immediately have overwhelmed us, and like _Pharaoh_ and his host, we should have sunk, as stones, into the sea.