52.]
hour's sleep, or a small intermission of pain, or the services of his attendants, than he ever was for all the ease and sleep that he enjoyed, or the services that were rendered him, in the days of his health. We have a very striking instance of the dif- ferent effects of prosperity and adversity in the history of Heze- kiah. In his sickness he exclaimed, " The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day : " but when restored to health, he forgat his Benefactor, and " rendered not again according to the benefits that had been done unto him." In this, I say, he is an example of the ingratitude which obtains in the world at large ; for we are told, that " God left him to try him, and that he might know all that was in his heart."]
III. That the want of it is hateful in proportion to the obligations conferred upon us —
[We suppose that no man ever read attentively the words of our text without exclaiming (in thought at least, if not in words), WTiat base ingratitude was this ! Whether we con- sider his obligations to Joseph, who had been to him a mes- senger of such glad tidings, or his obligations to God, who had overruled the heart of Pharaoh to restore him to his place, he surely was bound to render that small service to his fellow- prisoner, and to interpose in behalf of oppressed innocence. And we cannot but feel a detestation of his character on account of his unfeeling and ungrateful conduct. Indeed it is thus that we are invariably affected towards all persons ; and more especially those who have received favours at our hands. If we receive an injury or an insult, or are treated with neglect by persons whom we have greatly benefited, we fix immediately on their ingratitude, as the most aggravating circumstance of their guilt : it is that which pains us, and which makes them appear most odious in our eyes. And though this sentiment may be easily carried to excess, yet, if kept within due bounds, it forms a just criterion of the enormity of any offence that is committed against us. It was this which in God's estimation so greatly aggravated the guilt of the Jewish nation ; " They forgat God who had done so great things for thema." And we shall do well to bear it in mind, as the means of awakening in our own minds a just sense of our condition before God: for ingratitude, above all things, sub- jects us to his displeasure b.]
This subject may be fitly improved —
1 . To fill us with shame and confusion before God —
[If we think of our temporal mercies only, they call for incessant songs of praise and thanksgiving : but what do we
a Ps. cvi. 7, 13, 21.
b Rom. i. 21. 2 Tim. hi. 2. Isai. i. 3. Deut. xxviii. 45, 47.