instrument of their deliverance : but love for ourselves, and in- difference about others, always bear a proportion to each other in the mind of man : and their connexion with each other was never more strongly seen than on this occasion.]
His inordinate joy at the acquisition of the gourd was more than equalled by,
II. His intemperate sorrow at the loss of it —
God, seeing the ingratitude of Jonah, withdrew the gift soon after it had been been bestowed —
[He prepared a worm, which smote the gourd, so that it withered as suddenly as it had grown up. And where is there any gourd without a worm at the root of it ? Our comforts may continue for a longer season than Jonah's ; but there is in every creature-comfort a tendency to decay ; and our most san- guine expectations are usually followed by the most bitter dis- appointments. Indeed God has wisely and graciously ordained, that abiding happiness shall not be found in any thing but Him alone : and the withdrawment of this comfort was in reality a greater blessing than its continuance would have been ; since the gourd could only impart a transient comfort to his body ; whereas the removal of it tended to humble and improve his soul.]
But the impatient spirit of Jonah only raged and complained the more —
[As soon as the heat became oppressive to him, Jonah renewed his former wish for death ; and, when reproved by God for his impiety, he vindicated himself in the very presence of his God, and declared, that "he did well to be angry, even unto death." Who would conceive that such impiety as this should exist in the heart of any man, but especially of one who had received such signal mercies as he, and been so honoured as an instrument of good to others? But hereby God did indeed shew, that the excellency of the power was of him alone, and that he can work by whomsoever he will. It seems strange too, that, when God appealed to his conscience, an enlightened man could possibly be so blinded by passion as to give judgment in his own favour in such a case. But man has neither reason nor conscience, when biassed by his own lusts : and his very appeals to God can be little more depended on than the testimony of a man who is deliberately deceitful. But this we may observe in general, that the more there is of unhallowed boldness in any man's confidence, the more it is to be suspected ; and the more ready he is to wish himself dead, the more unfit he is for death and judgment.]