wherein they shall heare that sentence and that is in the resurrection There were in former times many figures of that matter euen before the light of the Gospell as when Enoch and Elias were assumed vp into heauen and translated to immortalitie to shew that other after them should haue the same vncorruptnesse although by another change and to make proofe of a life which is elsewhere for our bodies but shall not be reuealed vntill that generall rising In like sort when there were shewed vnto the Prophet Ezechiel great heapes of scattered bones which the Lord yet put together and laid sinewes vpon them and made flesh grow thereon and then couered both with skinne and afterward breathed life into them In Iob is an euident testimonie I am sure that my Redeemer liueth and he shall stand the last on the earth And although after my skinne the wormes destroy this bodie yet shall I see God in my flesh So in the end of Daniel Many of them that sleepe in the dust of the earth shall avvake some to euerlasting life and some to shame and perpetuall contempt But how euident is this in the new Testament When the Sonne of man commeth in his glorie and all the holy Angels with him then shall he sit vpon the throne of his glorie And before him shall be gathered all nations and he shall separate them one from another as a shepheard separateth the sheepe from the goates And in the second to the Corinthians that vve must all appeare before the iudgement seate of Christ that euerie man may receiue the things done in his bodie according as he hath done vvhether it be good or euill But most manifest of all other is that of Iohn in his Reuelation I saw a great white throne and one that sate on it from whose face fled away both the earth and heauen and their place vvas no more found And I saw the dead both great and small stand before God and the bookes vvere opened Then foorthwith And the sea gaue vp her dead which vvere in her and death and hell deliuered vp the dead which vvere in them So oftentimes and so plainely doth God foretell vnto vs this generall resurrection In so much that it is as certaine as that the Lord sitteth in heauen that this shall one day bee 16 As there is in all the faithful an assenting to this doctrine the like might be in very Ethnicks sauing that their eies are closed therfore they cānot see as a sound to a deaf eare is nothing which yet is discerned by another man so the miscreants of all ages belly-gods and beast-like men can in no sort endure it Indeede they haue little reason for that the portion is very small which shall then be allowed vnto them Such were those swinish Epicures falsely termed Philosophers who luxuriating in voluptuousnesse and thinking that to be felicitie to bath themselues in delight did enioy the present with the Asse but vtterly denied the immortalitie of the soule and by a consequent that the bodie shall euer be repaired Like to them was Sardanapalus who had this Epitaph on his graue Drinke and play our life is mortall and our time is short vpon earth but our death is euerlasting if a man once be come to it Pliny the elder was a man most worthy praise for his labours which were inestimable yet that speech of his was impious and vnbeseeming those good partes which were otherwise in Plinie To all men from their last day is the same state as was before their first day neither is there after death any more feeling in the bodie or the soule then was before the birthday Certainely the Saduces were in this beleefe of whom the Euangelist witnesseth that they denied the resurrection And you may put them in this number who in Saint Paules time did vse this by-word Let vs eate and drinke for to morrow we shall dye as intending that in death should be a finall end and we should be no more heard of The persecuting Gentiles were plainely of this opinion of some of whom in Fraunce Eusebius witnesseth that they in scorne of the resurrection which the Christians do beleeue did burne many of the Martyrs and afterward threw their ashes into the riuer Rhodanus with this foolish exprobration Let vs see now if their God be able to reuiue them In a word most of the Pagans in all ages of the world and all Atheists among Christians a thing in our time too well knowne do oppugne this truth beyond measure At whose liues I do not maruell if they be like their profession that is such some few ciuill respects excepted as are fit for those men who feare neither God nor Diuell I could wish that since it must needes be that Gods wrath is oftentimes by these plucked downe vpon our land the sword of the ciuill magistrate would with seueritie prouide some remedie for them that there might not be in Israel a man who should once dare to blaspheme the name of the Lord. I remember it is recorded of the Atheniens that in the respect which they caried to their false and fained Gods they so detested Diagoras for talking against their heathenish religion that he standing in feare of his life was glad to flye the countrie But herewith the other not contented did put foorth a proclamation that whosoeuer it were that would kill that Diagoras should haue an honourable reward that was a talent of siluer for his labour 17 But to leaue these lawes vnto the Christian magistrate and to proceed as a Minister the arguments of all these and a thousand more of that sute are but vanitie of all vanities when they come once to be weighed in the ballāce of the Sanctuary and are counterpoised onely with the high Gods omnipotencie For why should we tye his power vnto our foolish wit Suppose that there be dying vpon dying and deuouring vpon deuouring that a man be slaine and his members consumed some by birdes some by beastes some by fishes and imagine that those creatures be taken and eaten againe by men and those men be then burnt and their ashes throwne into the water and if we can go farther let there be as many mutations more what is all this to plunge his abilitie who can do euerie thing whatsoeuer himselfe shall please He can do euery thing and therefore raise this man If nature cannot conceiue it learne to looke a little higher to grace and faith beyond nature Plato an heathen man did much reprooue Anaxagoras because tying himselfe too farre to naturall causes and reasons he omitted to thinke on the efficient cause of all things which is surely God the first moouer This is a monstrous errour of vs also But will we allow that to God the like wherof we do allow vnto men If an image should be made of lead to the proportion of a man and the workman
was agreed vpon whence it followeth to be considered who it was that sent it thither The Lord God prepared this Ricinus And manifest it is that he prepared it suddenly for it followeth afterward Thou hast pity on the gourd which grew vp in the night and perished in another night Therfore if it were not made in a moment which may probably be disputed yet it was but one night in growing This sheweth the power of God in the generall dispensation of all things in the world that when he listeth he can make and send creatures on the earth which shall complete his designements He can raise vp vnto vs both trees and fruits and graines when the earth seemeth to be barren and the seede to be rotten in it by too much or too little moisture he can amend all with a word and make the fields to be fruitfull and the drowned ground to be chearfull Of him Dauid sayth truly He turneth the flouds into a wildernesse and drieth vp the water-springs A fruitfull land he maketh barren for the wickednesse of them that dwell therein Againe he maketh the wildernesse a standing water and water-springs of a dry ground Where it pleaseth him to visite the basket shall be blessed and blessed shall be the store blessed the fruite of the cattell and blessed the fruite of the ground blessed the comming in and blessed the going out In the time of dearth in Samaria within the space of a day he can make a measure of fine flowre to be sold for a sicle and two measures of barley to be at the selfe same rate when to the vnbeleeuer it seemeth a thing incredible though the very windowes of heauen should open and raine downe corne We haue had some late experience of his power in this behalfe when after yeares spent in moisture and haruests seasoned with teares he hath sent a more blessed reaping and gathering in of corne It is a great comfort to his seruants that euermore he can and oftentimes he doth prouide for his in their neede not a shadow onely with Ionas to hang ouer their heads but satiety or sufficiency of all good things besides If he do not yeeld abundance yet patience and obedience doth hold it selfe content it hath to do with a father it hath to do with a Lord a father who surely loueth a Lord who can do all things in his wisedome he best knoweth what it is which will serue the turne in his kindnesse knowing of it he certainely will bestow it But if it were for our good what combining or conspiring of all the world against vs what aduersity or extremity shall hinder vs from our happinesse If among our owne we find not that comfort which we should then as he did to Ioseph and as he did to Daniel he can send it among strangers If both our owne and strangers and all mankind should leaue vs yet birds and beasts he hath for vs the rauens to feede Elias the dogges to licke the sores of Lazarus the poore begger If all liuing things do forsake vs yet the dumme and the dead shall bring protection to vs the sea shall part for the Israelites and Iordan for Elizeus So powerfull and so mighty is the Lords right hand to to those who are his vnfained seruants they shall â—ant nothing that is good He meaneth not such as they thinke of in their fancy but as he surely knoweth Some fig-trees whereof they thought not before shall yeeld them meate some strange tree shall yeeld them shadow that euen when they deserue it not as here it was with Ionas they might sit in the shadow 7 As the raising of this plant doth note his vnmeasured power so the word which here is vsed doth note his all-seeing prouidence He prepared this Ricinus I finde this word in the first Chapter the Lord prepared a fish but here it is thrise together he prepared this tree to shadow him and in the next verse after he did prepare a worme and in the verse after that he prepared a feruent East-wind What is a litle blast of wind the immediate worke of God and a litle tree for a shadow was it made by his finger yea was the worme his ordinance such a base and creeping creature Doth God take care of these things Where is the Atheist and the Epicure who if he will be so good as to allow the being of an high power which sitteth aboue in maiestie yet he will not be perswaded that he meaneth to trouble himselfe with inferiour small matters Perhaps he regardeth the tumbling about of heaueÌ„ the going out of the Sunne or Moone or starres but for these lower bodies no care nor account of them Or if the earth in generall or the sea be thought vpon yet these indiuiduall substances which be of lesser kinds come not within his reckening Who wil think that God will be busied about the riding and going the inuentions and deuises the trades and occupations of wise men and of fooles Hearken Atheist and listen Epicure not the meanest man on earth not the smallest child in the wombe not a sleeping or a waking a waxing or decreasing yea not a thought of the heart but is distinctly knowne seuerally considered of He that plaÌ„ted the eare shal he not heare or he that made the eye shal not he see or he that teacheth man knowledge shall not he vnderstand Thou art about my path and about my bed and spiest out all my wayes There is not a word in my tongue but thou knowest it altogether Nay doest thou make any doubt of man Verie trees and winds and wormes the smallest dust and Atomus is made and guided by God He who in the first creation framed the heauen and earth and their armies hath not the least souldier there not a gnat not a flie but he knoweth counteth on him It was he who made the frogges and grashoppers and flies and verie creeping lice in Egypt Not a sparrow lighteth on the ground not a haire falleth off the head but by his leaue and licence Therefore tremble thou vnbeleeuer and thinke what a case thy case is thou hast liued so manie yeares and in euerie moment of them thou hast bene watched and looked on thou hast spoken so manie foolish wordes and vttered so manie froward sayings thou hast done so many wicked things thou hast thought so many wanton and irreligious thoughts thou must haue all discouered and disclosed to thy face when the throne shall be set and the bookes shall be opened when the sea shall yeeld vp her dead and the graue shall yeeld vp hers and there shall not be any escaping but thou must heare thy doome Then thou shalt feele him condemning whom thou wouldest not beleeue calling But thou poore and mild one in spirit whosoeuer thou art which trustest in Christ and hast a will to serue him lift vp thy
magnifie themselues and make their wordes seeme glorious dare oppose their wits against heauen and earth against Iewes and Gentiles against God and men could remember the endlesse wisedome of the word of life they might plentifully admire their spirit who to giue God the glory do reioyce in their infirmities proclaime their owne follies And if they would compare the maner of these writers inspired with the holy Ghost with the workes of other men of what sort soeuer they must either shut their eyes or confesse a great difference 3 For the writers of this world howsoeuer against enemies they speake all and more then all as Zozimus did against the Christians or for their friendes and countrymen set all at the highest as Salust doth obserue that the Athenien and Greeke writers did long before his time yea howsoeuer sometimes they speake truth where it cometh to their notice or toucheth not themselues or their partiall friends yet in them we find few examples of laying open the errors of themselues or of their friēds especially when in any sort it may be concealed Let Tully be a witnesse of whose faults we do not reade in any thing of his owne but that Rome was saued by him from the furie of Catiline that when he was Consul he did more then good seruice to the common-wealth his tong and his pen haue neuer done What learned man hath not heard of his Cedant arma togae concedat laurea linguae In the Commentaries of Caesar a booke worthily penned may we find any thing which maketh against himselfe yea in his ciuill warres But in his friend Hirtius what is there to be read that doth not make for him The writings of Mahomet I meane such as are written of him do make him the onely Prophet in the last age of the world the great seruant of the Highest hauing messages from aboue and oracles from heauen yea such a one as was able bodily to rise againe from the dead but that must be after eight hundred yeares he taketh a pretie time for the trying of that conclusion whereas Christ tooke but three dayes yea as Viues obserueth that he was the Cōforter whom Christ promised to send into the world after his ascension and that it was written in the Gospell of Saint Iohn I will send you a Comforter and that shall be Mahomet but that those last words concerning Mahomet were razed out by the Christians 4 By these we may iudge of the rest But it is so farre off from men who are but naturall men to be detectors and discouerers of their owne falles to posterity that they cannot with patience endure that they should be opened by other For that is a common fault and not proper to one which Pliny reporteth of one in his time And that was that whereas according to the custome of that age a certaine writer had read and rehearsed in the presence of diuerse a peece of a booke which truly deciphered the faults of some men and sayd that he would reserue the rest vntil the next day to be heard the friends of one party who was touched in that booke and not without desert came in the meane while to the Author and most earnestly intreated him in their friends behalfe that he would forbeare to reade of that matter any further Which made Pliny to inferre this in one of his Epistles Such shame is there of hearing such things as are done by them who shame not to do that which they blush to heare What his friends could not endure himselfe would much lesse what to heare had bene grieuous to write had bene ashame The Prophets and pen-men of the Spirit of God by a peculiar prerogatiue are singular in this kind to shew that their bookes are the bookes of their Maister and so by that one meanes among other to stop the mouths of blasphemers and miscreants who measure God by themselues and pietie by their profanenesse Ionas was better taught not to giue the glory to himself but to God hauing learned that lesson which Saint Austen afterward did mention that he who hath failed in the first degree of wisedome that is vertue and obedience should betake him to the second that is modestie in confessing and acknowledging his fault Heare now therefore what he did and how he performed his message He arose to flie into Tarshish 5 Ionas thus farre was obedient to arise when he was bidden but he might as well haue sate still for anie good which he did He rouzeth vp himselfe as if he intended to fall hardly to his matters but after the first step he trode not one foot right He should haue rose to crie and he arose to flie he should haue gone East to Niniue and he went Westward to Iapho But euen cleane contrary A liuely example of the infirmitie of man that without Gods grace we very soone plunge into all maner of sin without measure or meane when a Prophet so experienced in the mysteries of saluation could play so foule a part But there is no man that sinneth not as Salomon saith And the iust man doth fall seuen times whereof although Hierome aske If he be iust how doth he fall and if he fall how is he iust yet he answereth himselfe that he looseth not the name of a righteous man who ariseth by repentance and we may say further he falleth by nature and ariseth by grace he falleth by sinne and is righteous by faith In many things we sinne all saith S. Iames not you only who be the people but we also the Apostles And if that there should haue come any other after the Apostles that should not haue sinned it is very likely that our Sauiour in the midst of his wisedome wherewith he gouerneth his Church would haue appointed for them some other prayer then the ordinary Lords prayer they should not haue sayd forgiue vs our trespasses because they had none This is a cooler both to the Pharisees and Nouatians who were wont to despise sinners If Ionas fall and Iob and Noe and Lot and Dauid whom the scripture calleth iust and righteous persons and after Gods owne heart let other men take heed of presumption and trusting in themselues Yet this is a comfort to sinners in the weakenesse of their soules If God forgaue Ionas repenting and beleeuing he will forgiue vs also if we beleeue and repent Therfore let not despaire deuour our wounded consciences Yet let not this be an incouragement to offend in any wilfulnesse Many will fall with Dauid but they will not arise with Dauid Our Prophet at the length amendeth but his fall was great the while Let vs first see the reasons that moued him to his flight and then the maner of it 6 We need not to doubt but Satan who is euer at hand to promote bad causes could yeeld reasons enough for the hinderance of this worke He had cause to
booke of God prayer is both commended and commanded to vs and not any way for his profit who is to be sought too but for ours who are to cry Aske and it shall be giuen you knocke and it shall be opened to you Watch and pray saith our Sauiour Christ. Continue sayth Paule in prayer Is any of you afflicted let him pray sayth Saint Iames for the prayer of a righteous man preuaileth much if it be feruent The faithfull euermore haue had recourse to this in their necessity as when Iacob feared Esau he called on the name of the Lord that he would send him safety When the Israelites were driuen to that extremity that nothing in mans reason but present death did remaine for them behind them being Pharao and their enemies to slay them before them the red sea a fit place to drowne them then Moses being troubled in his spirit although he sayd neuer a word hauing his heart as bleeding within him cried vnto the Lord. When it went hard with that people fighting against the Amalekites what did Moses but pray for them when he held vp his hands from which when by wearinesse he did cease they sped ill but while he continued it they did conquer What are the Psalmes of Dauid but recourses in his passions vnto the highest God Did not Ieremy in the pit and bottome of the dungeon fall to calling vpon the Lord And our Prophet in worse case then euer was any of these had nothing else to comfort him but to addresse himselfe to his prayers When all other helpes do faile yet this is neare at hand we neede not runne farre to seeke it And blessed is the reward which oftentimes doth follow these requests either the hauing of that which we desire or a contententednesse to leaue it 5 The Church of God and the faithfull haue euermore retained the vse hereof somtimes men which haue bene infidels haue bene glad to seeke to them for it When the Emperor Marcus Aurelius had almost lost his army in Germany for want of water a legion of the Christians which were then in his seruice had recourse vnto this remedy and by vehement inuocation did begge raine at Gods hands which he sent them in great abundance to the amazing of the Emperour but the safety of all his army That noble and mighty Constantine knowing that one in heauen is the true Lord of hostes and all victory commeth of him that the ioyning of a battell is the loosing of a kingdome vnlesse he do assist would neuer enter fight but that first himselfe and his forces with knees bended vpon the ground would desire the Lord to blesse them When his enemies on the other side and Licinius aboue other would begin with incantation and seeking to the Diuell But the good Emperour hauing many things of great waight still vpon him which he knew not how to weild without the helpe of the Highest and that was to be had for asking did so delight in prayer that in memory thereof not as the dissembling Pharisee but in true feare to his God and the better to instruct his people in it by his owne example he ordained that his image which we know that Princes do vse to coine vpon their money should be stamped with the resemblance of him praying The example of Theodosius is in this case not vnfit Being in a battell which was hardly fought on both parts but at length his men being put to the worse and now apparantly ready to flye he throweth himselfe on the ground and with all the powers of his soule he desireth the Lord to pity him and to prosper him in that daunger God heard the voice of his seruant and in miraculous manner did graunt to him the victory To this comfort he found that of Origene to be true One holy man preuaileth more in praying then innumerable sinners do with their fighting For the prayer of a holy man doth pierce vp to the heauen I need not vrge other examples of other in latter ages who haue euermore made this their refuge in daungers and extremities to flye with speede vnto the Lord. For Diuinity buildeth vpon it Christianity doth enforce it no faithfull man maketh doubt of it very Ethnickes in their seruices to their Gods continually did frequent it and openly did practise it 6 In the meane while the supine security of our age shall I say cannot be inough rebuked nay cannot be inough lamented of which it may be sayd as one speaketh of the Monkes that their fasts are very fat but their prayers exceeding leane for if we will compare matters that be in secret with such things as are open and iudge the one by the other how cold are all our prayers If we looke into our Churches we shall find many of our Pastours to go through their common prayers with very small deuotion little mooued and little moouing The people that is not onely young ones who are of-ward inough from God and whose feeling is not so passionate as the Lord in time may make it but the elder sort very slowly do repaire vnto the tabernacle euery light occasion doth keepe them away halfe-seruice doth serue the turne and for that which is it were as good to be neuer a whit as not to be the better they sit there as in a giddinesse neither minding God nor the Minister but rather obseruing any thing then that for which they come thither If it be thus in publicke what may be thought of those prayers which in secret are powred forth betweene God and our selues in our closets or our studies when we rise vp or lye downe It is to be feared that they are few and those which be are very sleepy rather perfunctory and customary then warmed with zeale of affection And how shall God know what we say when we our selues do not know how shall he heare that prayer which we our selues do not heare Let vs brethren stirre vp our selues and be feruent in this if in any thing and the tutour for his scholers the parents for his children the maister for his family the Magistrate for his people the Minister for his flocke pray euery day that the Lord will blesse them in their inward man and their outward in their businesses and their studies in their piety and their safety Remember how holy Iob did sacrifice for his children least in vanity of their youth they should forget the Lord. 7 And let euery man for himselfe giue no rest to his God but begge of him oftentimes to double and multiply his gracious spirite on him For how dangerous are these wayes wherein we here do walke What perils and great hazards are euery day about vs What drawings on are there to sinne what entisements to iniquity How is the Diuell more ready to swallow vs into hell then the fish was to swallow Ionas What Atheisme doth increase what worldly lusts
fellowes do with open mouth most bitterly inueigh yet they neuer can be able by sound truth to condemne them Their choyse was hard that either their vow must be broken by them or else they must beare about a dayly sinne in their bodies They aduentured on the lesser fault I doubt not but asking pardon for the rash and vnaduised oath which they had taken And God doth forgiue vs such things when we call to him by repentance as may very well be gathered from the fifth Chapter of Leuiticus where was appointed an offering as a kind of satisfaction for him who had vowed any thing which he afterward doth find out not to be in his powor to accomplish Charitie doth bid me thinke that those fathers in the Gospell and excellent men in the faith did enter into wedlocke with all labour to satisfie a good conscience towards God And therein their owne hearts might be the best witnesse and direction to themselues Yet the person who hath so vowed and in so doing hath not done well let him feare to breake that vow causelesse by a licentious libertie and if God do giue the gift of chastitie let him liue in continency if he can as otherwise for the honour giuen to virginitie in the Scripture so for his vowes sake also And so much I thought good to teach concerning vowes by occasion of the words of the Prophet Ionas wherein if I haue bene ouer-long let this excuse the matter that this doctrine is few times handled and now the text did minister opportunitie That second part which now followeth I will ouerrunne most briefly Saluation is of the Lord. 19 Many of the old interpreters and Hierome among other not obseruing such a distinction or point which ought to be in the sentence haue ioyned these words with the former and so caused the sence of all to be troubled The Hebrew hath it thus Saluation is to the Lord which the most carefull expositours do plainely expresse by Saluation is from the Lord. Tremelius doth interprete it All manner of saluation or sauetie is to Iehouah So that here the Prophet gathering by a constant faith that after his great feares in the sea and in the whale he should be freed from all perill and enioy his life once againe ascribeth all to God and with this Epiphonema maketh conclusion of his prayer acknowledging that whatsoeuer came vnto him well was from the Almightie For to whom should he impute it but onely vnto him whose inconceiuable power he had felt before to the full who to punish and chastise him had the ayre and water at his commaundement and had for three dayes kept him aliue in the fishes bellie Now if he should bring him to libertie out of bondage and desolation and should pardon his sinne and transgression he had great reason to magnifie his mercie and goodnesse ouer him Mine ayde commeth not from me I cannot helpe my selfe it cometh not from fortune or blind chaunce there is no such thing in nature not from any lying vanitie of idoll or heathen God but from the all-sufficient Lord who can helpe when he pleaseth and raise vp when he lifteth he putteth downe and setteth vp he doth what himselfe will If I haue hope of any thing it is deriued from him 20 Yea vnder this generall speech he remembreth vnto all that euery of their escapes from daunger are onely from the Lord. If the Israelites be deliuered from the bondage of the Egyptians if Dauid get from Saul if Elias be freed from Iezabel this good doth come from that father who sitteth aboue in heauen Or if any one of vs being layd for by the malice of cruell and wicked men be not made a pray to their power or deceiuing pollicy it is not of our wit neither is any flesh our arme but this safety is of the Lord. And if we will looke higher the deliuery of our soules from the chaynes and bands of Satan the sauing of vs from the violence of all our ghostlie enemies the redeeming of vs from sinne the incorporating of vs into his owne Sonnes body the bringing of vs to that glorious liberty of the sonnes of God is the worke of the Almighty Not vnto vs ô Lord not vnto vs but vnto thy name giue the glorie We may say as the Elders say in the Reuelation of Iohn to Christ the Lambe of God Thou art vvorthy to take the booke and to open the seales thereof because thou vvast killed and hast redeemed vs to God by thy bloud out of euery kinred and tongue and poeple and nation and hast made vs vnto our God kings and priests and vve shall raigne on the earth nay we shall raigne in the heauen But the whole worke of our ransome onely belongeth to the Trinitie As Ionas concludeth that prayer of his which hath bene so full of passion so do I end at this time saluation is to the Lord. Let vs pray to him to blesse vs still that by grace giuen vnto vs we may be sonnes of adoption and at last be brought to saluation which himselfe graunt vnto vs for his blessed Christs sake to both whom with the holy Spirite be maiesty power and glory both now and euermore Amen THE XV. LECTVRE The chiefe poynts 1. Gods fatherly affection toward sinners 4. He commandeth his creatures at his pleasure 6. Ionas is cast on land 7. A figure of Christs resurrection 9. We also shall rise againe 10. Comfort to the heauy heart 11. A comparison betweene Ionas and Arion 13. The whole narration of Arion is a fable 15. Some wonders are wrought by the Diuell 16. who doth much imitate God 17. and seeketh to discredit Gods word by his fables 19. How the Scriptures might be obscurely knowne by the old Poets and Philosophers 20. But they corrupt the diuine stories 21. Humane learning is fit for a Minister Ionah 2.10 And the Lord spake vnto the fish and it cast vp Ionas vnto the drye land IT is not without cause that so oftentimes in the Scriptures God is compared to a father and called by that name as Our father vvhich art in heauen and Ye shall therefore be perfect as your father vvhich is in heauen is perfect And as a father hath compassion on his children so hath the Lord compassion on them that feare him for he beareth a verie father-like and naturall affection to all those who are chosen to be his If they be led by weakenesse into diuerse temptations or by infirmity of their flesh be stained with great transgressions he looketh angrily for a time and with a terrible countenance seuerely frowneth on them but yet in the middle of his iustice he remembreth mercy and doth not vtterly reiect them nor cast them away It may be that he doth chastise them with parent-like correction according to the measure and qualitie of their crime yea he layeth smart blowes on them not sparing to strike them till he