this behalf it is not to be wondred at by vs who know their malice in denying of Christ Iesus to be the true Messias in peruerting of such scriptures as in their owne bookes are written of him in cursing of the Christians daily in their assemblies vnder the name of Nazarites in vilefying the new Testament but in magnifying their Talmud that irreligious booke with such celestiall praises that as Viues writeth of it they hold this for an opinion that God himselfe bestoweth the first foure houres of euery day in reading of that booke like a scholer at his task Nay more that when the Temple at Ierusalē was destroyed by Titus the Romane that then the Lord did sit reading vpon that booke within three or foure cubits of the place belike so busie at that that he could not haue any leisure to thinke on the ouerthrow of the Temple which you know was but a trifle Let all men take heed of their errours and let vs that be Preachers of the word especially take heed how we credulously reach any thing that vnaduisedly commeth from them 5 The widow of Sareptha was not Ionas his mother but himselfe doth let vs know that Amittai was his father where also another fable may iustly be reproued which Lyra writing vpon this place reporteth to be broched by the self same Iewes to wit that our Prophet was sonne vnto another Prophet because his fathers name is here mentioned for so say they are all the Prophets whose fathers are named in the Scripture Marke their worthy reason for it Amos saith of himself that he was no Prophet nor the sonne of a Prophet and if you will looke in his book you shal see that his father is not mētioned A reason most inconsequent and not worthy to be refuted Amos was not the son of a Prophet his father is not named Ergò they whose fathers are named had Prophets to their fathers Hosea was the son of Beeri and Ioel the son of Pethuel but no signification is there in their writings that their fathers were also Prophets Zephaniah was the son of Chuzi who was the son of Gedaliah who was the son of Amariah who was the son of Hizkiah If this their reason were good there should here thē be no lesse thē a whole generation of Prophets But I rather approue of the reasons of Arias Montanus who saith that they are named either because their fathers were men famous wel knowne in their times or else for distinctions sake to make them differ frō some other of that name The new Testament doth yeeld vs examples of both in other persons as when aged Anna is sayd to be the daughter of Phanuel of the tribe of Aser it may probably be imagined that Phanuel when he liued was a man of reputation well knowne to very many But in the Epistle of Iude the title which is there giuen vnto the Apostle not from his father but from his brother Iudas the seruant of Christ and brother of Iames was to make him differ from Iudas Iscariot who did betray Christ. And hauing thus touched the person of our Prophet and the time wherein he liued let vs come a litle neare vnto the words of the text Not forgetting notwithstanding that this whole booke by many is diuided many wayes but I shall vse no curious partition of it and therefore do only note that the foure Chapters herein do containe seuerall arguments In the first is the fall of Ionas and his suffering for it In the second his repentance which is vttered in a prayer In the third the fruite of his preaching that is the conuersion of the Niniuites In the fourth his anger against the Lords proceeding and Gods answer thereunto Now to the first in the first place The word of the Lord came also Also 6 Tremelius and Iunius do expound the Coniunctiue Hebrew particle which is vsed in the beginning of this booke by the time when The Septuagint and all other whom hitherto I can find both Translators and Expositors do reade and or againe or also and therby do intend that when Ionas before had preached in Israel and done litle good there the word of the Lord came a second time to him to send him elsewhere to the Citie of Niniue Wherein Gods purpose was to take away his word together with his Prophet from those who long had it brought forth no fruites accordingly and to giue it vnto other who were aliens from the couenant and strangers from the promise And if that these Niniuites should haue that grace as by hearing a message to fructifie in great abundance they might then exprobrate ingratitude and grieuous rebellion to the people of Israel because these being but once preached vnto did apparantly repent but the other hearing often did still increase their sinne This is a fearfull iudgement when God remoueth his word or ministers from a nation giueth them to other For where there is no vision where prophecy ceasseth the people decay Azariah the man of God could tell the people of Iuda that for a long season they had bene without the true God without priest to teach and without the Law as signifying that these curses do iointly go together that where is neither Priest nor Law there also is not God It is threatned as a plague to the people of Hierusalem that the Lord would make the tong of the Prophet to cleane to the roofe of his mouth that he should not exhort thē that he should not reproue them Except thou amend saith Christ the sonne of man to the Angell of Ephesus I will remoue thy candlesticke out of his place I will take away thy ministerie It is a fearefull sentence from the mouth of Christ him selfe The kingdome of God shall be taken from you and shall be giuen to a nation which shall bring forth the fruites thereof 7 The miseries which follow this are vnspeakable discomforts to such as are able aright to conceiue them To be blind and haue no guide and yet to walke there where treading awry is the tumbling into hell to be hungry and to famish to sucke but on dry breasts to be pined not perceiue it which is an euill of all euils For there is no truer miserie then not to know a mans own want or if he do know it not to be of power to helpe it but to wander from sea to sea and from the North euen to the East to run to and fro and not be able to amend it But when Ionas like a Doue for so his name doth signifie must flie or must go from Samaria to Niniue when what the Iew must lose that the Gentile must winne when the elder is disinherited and the yonger made the heire no maruell then if griefe possesse the very soule What maruell if Esau a naturall man did grudge and would not ceasse did weepe
which containeth thrise fiftie Psalmes the second our Ladies Psalter and containeth thrise fiftie Aues and the third is Iesus Psalter containing fifteene petitions which being ten times repeated do make in all thrise fiftie And indeede sutable hereunto there are fifteene Petitions where Iesu Iesu Iesu mercie is ten times word for word to be repeated in the beginnings of them And if you faile in the compt the deuotion is not perfect What is it to put superstition in numbers if this be not And where are the people kept in bondage and blindnesse of darkenesse and grosse errour if it be not in these toyes Iesus Christ open the heart of many of our nation but especially of that sex◠which is the weaker vessell that at the last they may shake off this yoke of vanitie and superstition 6 Of the third kind who offend rather in curiositie and do not deserue to be reprooued so sharply as those two other sorts are some that fault in Diuinitie and some other in other matters In Diuinitie such as if they can catch any nūber in a peece of Scripture which is to be intreated of their people aboue all things shall haue that for a note either in their preaching or writings as if there were more in that then in the best text of the Bible yea such mysteries and such secrets as that he is scant a Christian man who doth not vnderstand them or at the least he is but a simple fellow and fit to be despised As for example sake there is much in the number of seuen The seuenth day in the creation was the day wherein the Lord did rest the seuenth day was the Sabboth of the Iewes at Hiericho seuen Priests did take seuen trumpets of Rammes hornes and they went seuen dayes about and the seuenth day seuen times and the Deacons were seuen whom the Apostles chose and Iohn wrote to the seuen Churches where seuen starres and seuen candlesticks are mentioned in like manner And this is vrged without any reason which may imply fruit of doctrine or sound edification or without any necessitie of the place and yet is pursued and followed more then if it were an Article of the faith as if the whole lawe and the Prophets and the greatest meanes of comming to saluation consisted in such points as these and in the ripping vp of Genealogies It is good to be wise but yet be wise to sobrietie Not so much trickes of our owne wit and the glorifying of our selues is to be respected of vs as an vpright zeale to magnifie our eternall and fearefull maker But for the matter it selfe how many numbers be there which might be amplified in such sort As for two to say the two tables wrought by the finger of God the two Testaments old and new the two persons in Christ the Diuinitie and the manhood the two parts of a man the bodie and the soule For three the blessed Trinitie and the three who came to Abraham For foure the foure beastes in Daniel the foure wheeles in Ezechiel the foure Euangelistes in the new Testament For fiue the fiue bookes of Moses the fiue sences the fiue wise virgins This may be said for ten and twelue and thirtie and fiftie and many more whom I follow not lest I my selfe may iustly be reprooued in this my reproofe of other Yet I giue a tast by the way of the Non sequitur of the matter In cases of other nature those come within this compasse who do tye the euent of things to Pythagorean numbers as the chaunges of states and kingdomes to the ends of seuen yeares and of nine yeares being multiplied vp and downe Herein Bodine in his Methode of Historie is too free howsoeuer for other matters of inuention and good wit scant thought of before his time his industrie is praise-worthie Now if any should make a booke containing nothing else but examples of some one number and seruing in truth to no purpose that should neede no other censure but to be termed the fruite of an idle wit From which I would that our countreymen at last would keepe their hands cleane leauing iudgement and iudicious workes to our nation for which some Critickes will say that we are fit by the stayednesse of our constitution and robustiousnesse of nature but trickes to the Italians who suppose that their wits more abound Thus let numbers of curiositie of superstition and of sanctitie be quite remooued and separated from vs. 7 Yet being kept in measure they haue their good and profitable vse As first where the word of God doth apply them directly and apparantly to any purpose we may also do the like and amplifie them so farre as they serue naturally to expresse the text in question In the last of the Reuelation there is speech of the tree of life which is said to beare twelue fruites and to giue fruite euery moneth and that the leaues thereof do heale all kinds of diseases Here to speake of the twelue moneths of the yeare and of twelue fruites is fitly to the matter Yea to note that euery moneth in the yeare hath seuerall pleasures and that some things are more seasonable in one moneth then in another as some fishes are for speciall times and fruites in hotter countreys where the daintie orchards are are more kindly at set seasons And moreouer that many diseases do follow termes of the yeare but yet that by the tree of life there is prouision made for all these matters in the diuersitie of whose good things the various ioyes of heauen are painted out vnto vs and that nothing is conuenient for heauen but there it is to be had all this is consonant to the place and both for the matter and number it may be soberly discoursed Where there is an vse which is not forced and wrested there the Spirit of God is so farre off from forbidding vs to apply numbers and make ou◠benefite by them that it giueth vs the example In the beginning of Saint Matthewes Gospell in shewing the discent from Abraham to Christ are named fourteene generations and then fourteene generations and so againe the third time but that is partly to helpe memorie but most of all to note the times which were of fame as that of Dauid and the other of the captiuitie In such cases as are manifestly offered by the text which is in hand we may very well stand on numbers Secondly I do not thinke but we may also apply them when we vse some allusion which is consonant and agreeable to the analogie of faith or in which there is reason to thinke in the true feare of God that the Lord himselfe had a reference to such matters Iosephus doth expound the seuen candles which did burne in the Candlesticke in the Tabernacle to signifie the seuen planets and the twelue loaues of shew-bread to note the twelue signes of the Zodiacke Here if we beleeue the assertion
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
punished then feare Gods righteous iudgement You shall heare how Ionas sped The Lord sent out a vvind 4 It is well said by Dauid that God rayneth on the wicked fire and brimstone and stormy tempest But more fitlie to my purpose that fire and haile and snow and vapours and stormie vvind do execute his word For these and other meteors are his creatures made by him his subiects that liue vnder him his messengers sent from him to punish or to helpe to execute his will The voyce of the Lord is vpon the vvaters the God of glorie maketh it to thunder If it do haile in Egypt where it raineth verie few times God sendeth that haile on Pharao If an East wind bring in grashoppers and a West wind driue them out Moses telleth vs in Exodus that both come from the Lord. The wind and the tempest depend not on chaunce or anie blind fortune but on the soueraigne power of the Almightie Creatour If nature be here vsed or the ordinarie course of Sunne and Moone and starres to attract ought or beate it backe againe these are but Gods hand-maidens to worke his designements If Carus the Emperor be blasted to death with lightening it is the Lords doing If Theodosius haue the skie to warre against his enemies and the winds as his sworne seruants to helpe forward his victorie some Claudian must sing that he or his sonne Honorius who was then present with him is much beloued of God O ninimium dilecte Deo If our Spaniards when they are beyond Scotland be brought backe againe by Ireland and when men looke not after them winds and waues do pursue them in miraculous sort in which I feare lest we offend that we speake not of it oftener parents tell it not vnto their childrē if we would do as we should do we must sing with S. Ambrose Te Deum laudamus We praise thee ô God Who so walketh by the land or passeth by the sea if winds promote his businesse or hinder his purpose and disquiet him in his enterprise let him assigne it to his prouidence who ruleth all with power who sent that tempest here to Ionas for from him they do all come 5 Those Ethnickes who knew little or nothing of true pietie did yet ayme at this euen by the verie light of nature when by the glimsing sight of reason they layd it downe that a diuine substaunce did gouerne these creatures although they missed much of his maiestie when Neptune for the sea was Lord of the waues and Aeolus for the aire was maister of the winds People ruder then the Greekes and more barbarous then the Romanes haue gessed at such a thing and had such a like conceit I meane the Westerne Indians the dull people of America who thought that thunder and lightning tempest were sent by the Sunne whom they reputed for a God as Peter Martyr letteth vs know The more absurde the while were the Thurij in my iudgement a people of Italie where both learning and ciuilitie did grow For as Aelian writeth of them when Dionysius the tyrant of Sicilia came vp against them with three hundreth sayle of ships intending to destroy them they being almost oppressed with his violēce yet had this good hap befallen vnto them that a great Northrē wind blew so wracked those ships that they were spilled almost all In remēbrance whereof they by a cōmon consent made this North-wind a God admitted him into their Citie incorporated him among them appointed him an house and goods of his owne and euerie yeare besides did sacrifice vnto him These men looked too low they were too too much base minded when they made the wind a God whom nature and reason had taught other Gentiles to be but a Gods seruant The wind obeyeth and ruleth not it is not at pleasure to do what it would if there were a will in it it hath a maister not Aeolus but one that fitteth farre higher 6 Yet the question is here offred whether that inferiour creatures do not sometimes stirre vp tempests as wind or rayne or thunder for I put them in one degree and consider them as being of like nature concerning this point Whether Satan by him selfe or the ministers of Satan enchaunters or witches or necromancers and coniurers cannot stirre vp such things and if they can how they then are said to be wrought by Gods finger That learned man Seneca did thinke it so plaine that nothing could be plainer that tēpests could not be raised by any inchauntments when he speaketh on this sort Antiquitie being yet rude did beleeue both that rayne could be brought and driuen away too by charmes of vvhich things that neither can be done it is so manifest that for this matters sake no schoole of any Philosopher is euer to be entred No doubt there be many also of the Christians and those very learned men who are altogether of that opinion In that booke which Wierus hath written De Praestigijs Demonum is a sermon which Brentius made by occasion of a great hayle that fell in some parts of Germanie and did much hurt to the corne and vineyards And therein are these words It is the opinion of vvicked men that the diuell and vvitches and sorceresses do stirre vp hayle and therewith do hurt and destroy vvine and corne To these may be added more And yet on the other side that such gracelesse people do chalenge to themselues a power in these cases that they attempt to stirre vp thunders that they trie to raise vp winds to crosse things at sea or to effect things at land and that they affirme that they can do thus may be well knowne to anie who either in experience shall conferre with such offenders or else reade such matters as are written of them To say nothing of the one that is what they assume but to speake to the other I am satisfied that in Poetrie that speech is too much Carmina de caelo possunt deducere Lunam Charmes and inchantments can fetch the verie Moone downe out of heauen and other like in that place for that is a thing impossible and onely deliuered from an old imagination or rather boasting of the Thessalian women who were much addicted to that wickednesse But the saying of Medea in one of the Tragedies of the younger Seneca hath some more reason to confirme it Et euocaui nubibus siccis aquas I haue forced rayne out of the cloudes vvhich before vvere drie The soothsayers of Hetruria as Sozomen doth write would haue made men beleeue that they could raise vp thunderbolts to driue away their enemies The storie is notable which Dion hath of Sidius Geta a Romane leader This Captaine saith he pursuing the Moores in the hote countrie of Affrike had both himselfe and his armie almost perished for want of water One of the confederate Moores commeth in this extremitie vnto
the head of Isboseth the sonne of Saule to Dauid and professed that they two had slaine him he tooke it for a truth and rewarded them thereafter that is he destroyed them with the sword The idle and carelesse seruant of whom we reade in the Gospell that he folded vp his talent in a napkin and hid it in the ground had this doome for his labour afterward that he had confessed it Of thine owne mouth I will iudge thee ô euill seruant The Iewes did roauâ— at this although they failed in their ground for Christ did not speake blasphemy when they could reply vpon him vvhat need we any farther vvitnesse for we our selues haue heard it of his owne mouth The commonnesse of which argument doth so enter the heart of all that these mariners enquired no farther when Ionas had once made his declaration against himselfe Vpon a firme perswasion of the truth of all his tale they fall into great feare they grow to farther counsell So that this beleeuing of the Prophet is the foundation of all that followeth after which may it please you for order sake to reduce to these two heads First the behauiour of the mariners and secondly the aunswere of the Prophet In the former are three circumstances the great feare wherein they were their rebuke which they vsed toward him and their question proposed to him all which by the Lords permission I do purpose to touch in order Then were the men exceedingly afrayd 4 These idolatrous heathen are here taught one lesson more then they euer learned before and that is that there was a God who in fearefull maner could take vengeance on offenders and did vse to follow after them as well by sea as by land in a wonderfull sort and therefore if their heart did now ake if all their ioynts did quiuer if their limmes did shake for feare and their knees beate together it was not to be maruelled at since at this time they were in triall of wrath aboue them and wrath vnder them and wrath euery way about them Before they had bene vsed to vaine and idoll Gods whose threates did little mooue them The knowledge was so light and the certainty so vncertaine which the heathen generally had of their Gods either for their power or for their bounty that they feared not to bestow iestes vpon them as vpon their fellowes Timaeus as Tully sayth is to be commended for his wit that whereas he had sayd in his history that the selfe same night wherein Alexander was borne the Temple of Diana at Ephesus was on fire he added withall that it was no maruell for the mistresse thereof was a great way from home in Macedonia with Olympias as a mid-wife attending her who then was in trauell for that was sayd to be the charge of Diana The adulteries which we reade in the bookes of Homer and Ouid that Iupiter and his fellowes are sayd to haue committed do shew the high conceipt and the goodly reuerence which the Gentiles in old time did beare to their Painim Gods They did not onely saith Saint Austen write such matters in their fables but represented them in their threaters and played them on their stages vvhere many times vvere to be seene plura crimina quam numina more great faults then good Gods Yet bewitching superstition had so possessed their soules that they would after a sort adore somewhat although they adored it but at their pleasure no true feare no due reuerence 5 The case is altered here they see that the God of Israel doth cary another sway no iesting with his Maiesty no playing with his power if his seruant do run from him he can fetch him backe again if he sleep soundly he can waken him if he will not returne in time he can send such a tempest after him as will make his bones to shake and his very marrow to tremble The lightning and the thunder the wind and haile and storme are all at his commandement Then it is a fearefull matter to fall into his hands to vndergo his wrath How then must the conscience of these poore sinners needs worke If a Prophet were so punished how should a priuate man be lashed If it were thus in the greene wood how should it be in the dry If one who had that place of honor with his God as to be employed froÌ„ him as a messenger to so worthy a place as Niniue yet should for one sin be endangered with so great a waight of displeasure what should become of them who in all likelyhood were polluted with many enormous crimes If God should meate to them such measure as he did to Ionas how doleful lamentable wold their state be This is a true effect of the iust consideration of Gods punishments vpon others First to know them to be terrible with a kind of amasednesse to take full notice of them Behold saith the Lord to Samuel I will do a thing in Israel whereof whosoeuer shall heare his two eares shall tingle Next to apply it to our selues make a benefit of it by descending into our soules sifting of our harts acknowledging that if God shold deale with vs in iudgemeÌ„t verily tâ—â—t should be our reward which is now befalleÌ„ vnto others 6 It is a perpetual fault euermore annexed vnto flesh bloud that if any punishment in strange sort do be fall to our brother or neighbor by and by with a precipitate headlong iudgement we condeÌ„ne him as a sinner if not notorious yet in some secret maner more grieuous then other meÌ„ Hierome obserueth this if that worke be S. Hieromes on the 93. Psalme Some vse to say he who is killed had not bene slaine vnlesse he had bene a fornicatour or stayned with some grosse sin He had not bene quelled with the ruine or falling downe of a house vnlesse he had bene wicked he had not suffered ship-wracke vnlesse he had bene profane or a mighty malefactor But what sayth the Scripture They shall condemne innocent bloud The innocent they shall suffer such deaths as well as other The Sauior of the world doth reprooue this rash conceipt when he biddeth that men should not thinke that those Galileans whose bloud Pilate had mingled with their owne sacrifices were greater sinners then all other Galileans or those eighteene on whom the Tower in Siloam fell and slue them were sinners aboue all men that were in Hierusalem but sayth he vnto them I tell you except ye amend your liues ye shall all likewise perish Whereas they and we are ready to exorbitate by looking on other men he sendeth vs backe to our selues that by scanning of our owne wayes and viewing our owne pathes we may see that vnto vs belongeth shame and confusion The hand of God vpon other should be a glasse to vs to see our owne deformity When the Angell destroyed so many of the Israelites with the pestilence Dauid
giuen ouer to heare any thing of my prayers Among the old Romane historians which haue written who was wiser then Cornelius Tacitus men do now study him for policy Yet in the first of his history recounting those great grieuances which befell Rome by the ciuill warres vnder Galba and Vitellius he vseth this desperate speech Neuer by greater slaughters on the Romane people or by more iust iudgements vvas it approoued vnto vs that the Gods do not at all respect our safety and security but to take vengeance on vs they are ready inough Here policy hath forgotten the very first grounds of piety which are patience and humility Liuie a graue writer although otherwise superstitious inough as appeareth by his Prodigia and yearely monsters yet tasteth of these dregs when in his fourth booke he writeth thus Here followeth a yeare which for slaughters and ciuill vprores and famine was very famous Onely forreine warre was vvanting wherewithall if our state had bene laded things could hardly haue bene stayed by the helpe of all the Gods but that they had run to ruine 9. Thus the wisedome of this world is nothing else but foolishnesse nothing but doting folly when it commeth indeed to the crosse or to the fiery triall The knowledge of God is wanting or at least the laying hold aright by faith is wanting And where faith is not to be found there is neither hope nor patience which are two infallible notes of a iust and Christian man There is nothing sayth Saint Cyprian which putteth more difference betweene the iust and the vniust then this that the euill man in his aduersity doth complaine and impatiently blaspheme but the good doth suffer quietly The iust hath trust in his Sauior but the other hath no part in him What maruell then is it if the wicked do fret and rage without comfort since he hath no share in him who is the God of comfort What maruell is it if he perish Plutarch telleth that this is the quality of Tigres that if drums or tabours sound about them they will grow madde and then they teare their owne flesh and rent themselues in peeces If the vnbeleeuing reprobate do heare the noyse of affliction he is ready to rent himselfe but by cursing and by swearing he will teare the body of Christ from top to toe in peeces As Ionas did remember God so the reprobate will not forget him but it is not to pray vnto him not to beleeue vpon him for he harh not so much grace but to ban him and blaspheme him I could wish that such prophanenesse as this might neuer be heard off in earnest or in play in the life or death of any man We should thinke of him with a reuerence we should mind him with a feare in prosperity with a trembling in aduersity with a hope There should be no fretting against his prouidence no grudging against his punishment When my soule did faint within me I remembred the Lord sayth Ionas I remembred him to beseech him I remembred him to intreate him I remembred him to embrace him to trust in him as a deliuerer to beleeue in him as a father I called to him and doubted not and he afterward heard my voyce 10 Saint Hierome doth giue this note vpon this place taking it out of the Septuagint That because he thought vpon the Lord when his soule did faint and he was ready to dye we by his example should aboue all things mind our maker when we are in the fits and pangs of death A very needefull doctrine if any thing may be needefull that when we must dislodge and be remooued hence when our glasse is so farre runne that immediatly a change must follow and that not to a trifle or toye which is to bee contemned but either to heauen or hell either to perpetuall ioy or to euerlasting torment we haue him in our meditations who is to see our iudge who is to scanne our actions and to peruse our conscience and giue the last sentence on vs that then with our best remembrance we thinke vpon his mercy and contemplate on his great loue in the redemption of his sonne and desire him for his blouds sake to take vs into his fauour That this lesson might the better be taught vnto vs Iesus the sonne of God and fore-runner of our faith when he was ready to yeeld vp his spirit did commend his vnspotted soule to his most righteous father Father into thy hands I commend my spirit Good Steuen the eldest martyr did tread these steps right after him when at the time of his death he cried Lord Iesus receiue my spirit And euery Christian man should struggle and striue to do so to shake off as much as may be the heauinesse of his sicknesse and as hauing that one prize that last great prize to play should stirre vp his spirit in him and should then pray to God to comfort him to conduct him vnto heauen to leade him along to glorie It is a good thing to liue well but because death is the vp-shot which maketh or marreth the rest it is the best thing to dye well He who hath begun aright hath halfe that whereat he aimeth but to begin is our hurt it shall bee a witnesse against our conscience vnlesse we do perseuere The man who shall bee blessed must continue to the ende 11 Then may the dangerous state of such be iustly deplored who in their life time haue so fondly doated vpon the world that when death which is Gods baylife doth summon them to appeare before the iudgement seate they do least of all other things know wherewith he should be furnished who commeth there but as before in the time of their health so in their despaired sicknesse do thinke only vpon their Mammon admiring it and embracing it and kissing it in their thought as if they were wedded to it But neither of themselues nor by the instigation of the Minister who is a remembrancer for the Lord can they be any way vrged to speake of celestiall things to call on God for mercy or to professe their faith and confidence in their Sauiour And this wordly imagination first ministreth hope of life they not dreaming that death will take them till on the sudden both body and soule do eternally dye together Next if they do conceiue that it must be so and there is no way with them but the graue then is their heart oppressed with sorrow and a huge waight of griefe that there must be a separation from their beloued treasure And lastly if their memory do serue there must be an vnsetled and vnresolued disposing with disquietnesse and much vexing of that which hath bene ill gotten to this child or to that friend and much stirre there must be about the pompe of a funerall by which meanes all good motions are so stifled and choaked that there is scant one word of him who made all
touch thee but thou shalt escape from their clutches as a bird from the snare How much lesse shall mortall man oppresse thee or triumph ouer thee if it be he that doth vexe thee God doth but cast an eye vpon thee and the mist before the Sunne can not be dispersed so suddenly as thy sorrow and heauinesse In steed of sadnesse ioy and mirth shall compasse thee embrace thee If once his refreshing spirit cast but an aspect vpon thee thou art as safe as thy selfe wouldest euer desire to be Onely to win God hereunto be thou sorie for thy transgression and grieue at thine owne iniquitie If thou haue fallen with Dauid spare not to sing with Dauid a Psalme of Miserere if thou haue offended with Peter with Peter go thou foorth and cease not to weepe bitterly With Ionas pray and call and thou shalt be deliuered A comparison betweene the Prophet and Arion 11 Looke what hath bene spoken hitherto may manifestly be gathered by the plaine words of my text and therefore as you haue seene I haue passed it very briefly But pondering farther on this Scripture and looking nearer into it yea withall comparing it with some things of the Gentiles it seemeth vnto me to offer a farther doctrine For thinking with my selfe how strangely those mariners who in the Chapter before threw him into the sea and made account they had drowned him would looke vpon him if they met him any where afterward as that was no impossible matter maruelling how he should liue whom they left in the sea and how he should be at land whom they cast into the water and there relinquished him remedilesse and past hope I called to mind the narration of Arion in Herodotus who being said to be throwne into the Ocean by mariners and supposed by them to be drowned was afterward seene at Corinth in the court of Periander to the great amazement of them who before had consented to his death And I thought of this the rather because Saint Austen in his first booke De ciuitate Dei doth compare this storie of Ionas vnto that of Arion reproching the Gentiles that whereas they would not beleeue this which was written of our Prophet yet they would giue credite to that which their Poets and other writers reported of Arion Whereupon conferring yet farther the likenesse of these two matters although not in euery circumstance yet in the mainest points I could not but suspect that the Greeke tale of the one meant the Hebrew truth of the other And therein I imagined that the Musitian of the Gentiles was the Israelite mentioned here although the storie were peeced vp with another narration after the custome of the Heathens in dealing with the Scriptures And moreouer the note of a learned interpreter writing vpon this place did further this opinion who nameth our Ionas here Arion Christianus the Arion of the Christians I find also that this report is very auncient among the Greekes and therefore might well sort with the antiquitie of the Prophet Now as if we will allow this to be true it doth yeeld vs fruitfull doctrine fit to be handled in this place before so learned and iudicious an auditorie so being otherwise that is vntrue and false it is also worthie of our consideration and therefore giue me leaue to speake a little vnto it You shall see anon to what end 12 Herodotus in his Clio hath a narration to this purpose that Arion a skilfull harper going from Greece his owne countrey into Italy there and in Sicilia by the excellencie of his musicke had gained a great deale of money Being now desirous with his wealth to returne againe to Corinth to his old Prince Periander he found a vessell at Tarentum which belonged to certaine ship-men of Corinth who were returning home and with them he agreeth for his fare When they had him at sea being men of ill conditions and desirous of his money they intended to drowne him He now in this perill maketh request for his life but when nothing would serue those hard-hearted persons but that such must be his doome he begged this fauour of them that yet before he died he might cloth himselfe with his best clothes which being done he taketh his harpe and singing and playing to it a most melodious song then threw himselfe into the sea There a Dolphin a kind of fish delighted as it seemeth with the musicke doth vndertake him and ceassed not to beare him on her backe till it landed him safe at Taenarus whence he going to Periander the tyrant then raigning at Corinth so apparelled as he was when he came out of the water informeth him of all the matter who beleeued it not till at length sending for the selfe same mariners who were arriued in his countrey and shewing them Arion who vpon the sight of him were exceedingly amazed as indeed they had great cause he learned that all was so This saith Herodotus is reported at Lesbos and at Corinth and at Taenarus there is a very great image made of brasse which is a man sitting on a Dolphin and that image was set vp there by Arion This tale with all his circumstaunces is so common among the auncient that Plinie and Plutarke and Ouid and Gellius both do report it at large and Plinie giueth other examples that Dolphines couching downe their pinnas their sinnes which as he seemeth to say go all along their backes haue caried diuerse other ouer the water and so saued them 13 If I shall giue my iudgement concerning this I do not at all doubt but that it is a fable The diuersitie of the report which is among the auncient doth argue the vncertaintie For although the most record it to be one Dolphines doing one that caried him all the while yet Plutarke hath it otherwise that they were diuerse Dolphines which caried him in the sea meaning belike by turnes or many at once supporting him So they agree not in the manner But whether it were one or many why did not the mariners see it that it was so straunge a thing vnto them when they met him on the land If he went aboue the water they of likelyhood might haue spied him and so made some shift to vnhorse him if it were vnder the water how came it about that he was not drowned in all that time The auncient full well saw that this was but a fained thing That made Suidas in Arion to say nothing of the fish nor his escape from drowning although he haue other things of him Strabo in his thirteenth booke saith plainely it is a fable The late writers thinke no otherwise and hold these tales of Plinie to be but fained matters and they giue this reason for it because the nature of Dolphines and of all other fishes as also of all other creatures is the same in our dayes which it was in ages long agone but since those auncient
directly in any place determine it for ought that I find and the reasons which the interpreters do draw by consequent concerning this faith of the Niniuites are such as conclude not substantially without doubting I passe ouer that question and rather come to that which literally and apparantly euen at the first sight the narration of the Prophet doth offer vnto me 2 Then in the tenth verse followeth Gods accepting of their sorrow and how mightily their deiection and debasing of themselues in sackcloth and ashes with fasting and lamentation wrought effectually with the Highest to diminish his displeasure yea to remooue his wrath But because the closing and shutting vp of that serious Proclamation in the ninth verse doth intimate some opinion although it be with a fearefull mammering of some such thing as might be that the Lord might be appeased although that were not very likely in the eyes of flesh and bloud that must not be slipped ouer but taken in the way For thereby it shall appeare that sinne is very horrible to the conscience of the sinner conceiuing the guiltinesse thereof that it may well make a trembling and shaking and dread a suspition that God will not be mooued to mercie and yet this distrust doth not so kill the minde but if faith be vnderneath it will presume the contrarie be it neuer so weakely It doth not resolue for neither yet define against On these termes in these words standeth the great King of Niniue But that which was to him vncertaine and vnresolued is determined by God and he spareth indeede Now that the doctrine may be orderly deduced from these rootes for our better instruction we may deuide the words as the verses are deuided into these two generall heads First the doubt of the King Who knoweth if God vvill turne and then the Lords resolution And God savv their vvorkes and repented of the euill The first part doth touch the prisoner who standeth vpon his triall the second the Iudge who is to giue the sentence Of both these as Gods Spirit shall at this time enable me The doubt of the King 3 He doth not speake here confidently Surely God will returne and take mercy vpon vs but he vseth a word of more extenuation as supposing that it was not very likely to be done For euen in the strongest faith when such a phrase is vttered as I doubt or peraduenture or it may be or vvho knoweth it importeth that men conceiue much difficultie and hardnesse in bringing that about which is in question Caleb maketh request that the mountaine wherein the Anakims and great Giants did dwell might be assigned him for his portion If sayth he the Lord vvill be vvith me to expell them as the Lord himselfe hath spoken He beleeued that he should compasse it but that if intendeth much difficultie in the reason of man And so did that of Ionathas when he speaketh thus to his armour bearer Let vs go vp against the Philistines It may be or peraduenture the Lord vvill vvorke vvith vs. That saying of Peter vnto Simon Magus Repent of this thy vvickednesse and pray vnto God if perhaps the thought of thy heart may be forgiuen vnto thee doth note much more hardnesse because as it should seeme the Apostle did much feare it so rotten was Simon at the roote But as a meane betweene these and most resembling my text is that of Ioel where after a denouncing of verie horrible iudgements the Prophet exhorting to repentance doth adde Who can tell if he vvill turne and repent and leaue a blessing as if he had sayd it may be that God may do this although it be much vnlikely and it may be much despaired of our sinnes are so plentifull and his wrath is so furious In the first booke of Samuel when the people of the Philistines were stricken with the Emerods they asked counsell of their Soothsayers how this plague might be stayed They enioyned that some solemnities should be vsed to the Arke which was now to be sent away and thus they speake as it is nearest to the Hebrew Peraduenture God vvill lift his hand from you Gregorie writing on that place doth draw this doctrine from those words When they say peraduenture God may stay his hand from you vvhat else can be taken in this vvord of doubting but that the reconciling of men who are grieuous sinners is shewed to be difficult as sayth he doth appeare in the third Chapter of Ionas Who knovveth if God vvill turne Then by the iudgement of Gregorie it is noted in this place that the reconciling of the Niniuites to the Lord was a matter of much hardnesse 4 Then in the heart of this heathen man it is firmely imprinted by that little light which he had receiued that sinne in the iustice of some supreme power doth deserue a punishment that the greater the sinne is the more it doth prouoke that if by obâ—tinacie and impietie it bee vnmeasurable it will scant be remitted And this is a common opinion in all the world that impietie is horrible and may well be wondred at for those punishments which it draweth vppon men The mariners who were in the shippe with Ionas seeing the tempest to grow terrible and much beyond ordinarie conceiued by and by that sinne was at one end of it and drew downe that seueritie The people in the Iland Melite which we now a dayes call Malta did misse in their particular when they tooke Paule for a murtherer but their generall gesse was good that vengeance doth follow intollerable transgressions That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there spoken of being the supposed Goddesse of iudgements and punisher of guiltie persons as also that Nemesis which the Ethnickes and their Poets did hold for an vnauoydable reuenger of euill men appointed to be so by their Iupiter doth witnesse that euery where was a setled opinion that crimes leudly done would not lightly be passed ouer And herein the wisedome of the Almightie Lord is very highly to be admired that whereas he hath not giuen downe any law written in bookes yet by the finger of his power he hath written it in mens hearts that there is a good and an euill lawfull things and vnlawfull that their wise men should teach that the obseruing eye of some superiour Iudge was euer at hand to looke on the deedes of men and at one time or another to make them smart for committing of euill That their law-giuers should forbid that which God himselfe forbiddeth and should punish that in their people which the Lord doth punish in his owne The Scythians to condemne theft the Romanes adulterie the Egyptians idlenesse That among them should be required a strictnesse of life a performing of ceremonies an offering of sacrifices a consulting of Oracles a frequenting of Temples and a reuerence to such who did performe those things as in Rome a high opinion was had of Scipio when he omitted not
him These circumstances are they which make or marre a matter the Lord standeth much vpon them To go and when and whither and to speake and what and to whom and with what manner of spirit When Moses went to Pharao he failed not in any one of these In the building of the Tabernacle the matter and figure and number of euery thing was prescribed and kept Moses was the most carefull man that euer liued on earth therefore he had that Elogium or testimonie giuen concerning him that he was faithfull in all Gods house What was it which cost Saule his kingdome but the failing in these particulars He went and fought with Ameleck and conquered and destroyed but not the king and the cattell therefore the Lord was offended with anger which neuer was appeased Saule thought himselfe to haue reason for those things which he did but God will be obeyed and not taught by his potsheards nor rectified by his creatures The Romanes in their discipline would not haue an inferiour swarue from the words of his commaunder much lesse to chop speech for speech with him or giue him reason out of the conceit of his fancie When Crassus being on a time Generall had written to Magnus Gaius that he should send him the bigger of two ship-masts which were in his custodie that thereof he might make a Ramme which was an Engin vsed to batter Gaius knowing that the lesser was fitter for that purpose sent him that lesser but because he obeyed him no otherwise Crassus caused him to be beaten with rods most seuerely How much more should our God stand vpon his glory that what he biddeth should be done and his will should be fulfilled according to his word 10 In which respect I doubt not but our Ionas now is so wise as to looke to that word onely and to be obsequious to it in euery the least thing When he was bid foorthwith to repaire to that place he doth it without delay When Themistocles being banished from his countrey would needs into Persia to the great king Artaxerxes in one yere he would not come into his presence but spent that time in learning the Persian tong that he might be able personally to speake to that Prince tell his tale himselfe Here now is no such doubt made by Ionas but either he could already the speech of the Niniuites or was sufficiently instructed that he who once at Babel made so many tongues of one could giue his seruant so many of those tongues as were fit for his businesse That euidently was shewed some hundreds of yeares afterwards in the gift powred vpon the Apostles Therefore he stood not vpon this but presently went his way Neither doth he make scruple of another matter that himselfe was but a stranger and therefore he should not be beleeued that he was to speake to a king for the which he was vnsufficient that such things as were necessary might be denied to him as his diet and his lodging but looking on nothing else sauing Gods commaundement and nakedly vpon that he betaketh himselfe to his iourney True faith and true obedience do not busie themselues with that which resteth vpon the commaunders direction It was a most commendable rule of that worthy Paulus Aemilius that his souldiers should take care of three things and no more First that their bodies should be nimble and such order taken for them as should be needefull Secondly that their armour were fit And thirdly that their minde should be ready for euery thing which their Generall should giue them in charge although it came vpon the sudden but for other matters they should not trouble themselues about them but know that those were cared for by God and by their leader There can be no better precept euen in our Christian warfare against powers and principalities and euery thing that withstandeth then to haue all things in readinesse which belong to our vocation and to respect the voyce of Iesus who is the Captaine and finisher of our faith but not to medle at all with his secret counsels or with casting too many perils He requireth a duty of vs and that is it which he himselfe inioyneth and he will haue vs in many cases to depend vpon his prouidence This is not alwayes remembred when we forbeare to speake a necessarie truth fearing to vtter it lest this or that should come of it I do not incite men to presumption or to speake they know not what but I vrge them to performe that which is commaunded them with all singlenesse of heart and to discharge a good conscience by the example of the Prophet And so I come to my second part The greatnesse of the Citie Niniueh 11 The charge vnto which this messenger of God is at this time sent is a maruellous great charge described in more places then one in this Prophecy and in different termes to be mightie and huge In the first Chapter it is called that great Citie and so in this third Chapter and in this verse great to God for so it is in the Hebrew which is expounded to signifie as much as excellent euen as in the thirtith of Genesis Rahel sayth of her selfe I haue wrastled with my sister vvith vvrastlings of God which yet commonly is translated vvith excellent vvrastlings Some other more literally say great to God because for a very long time he placed there the seate of the Assyrian monarchie and therefore much aduanced it in all kind of temporall blessing Or else great to God that is before God in sinnes which for the odiousnesse of them were ascended vp before him In the fourth Chapter it is sayd that there were a hundred and twentie thousand such infants and young ones that they knew not their right hand from their left But here which is most of all that it vvas a Citie of three dayes iourney Which is not to be taken as if a man riding apace could but crosse it in three dayes from the wall of the one side to the wall of the other as from an East-gate to a West-gate but that the circuite was such as by the compasse of the wall in the outward circumference a man trauelling on foote might by reasonable iourneyes be well three dayes in compassing it And that it was the greatest custome of those Easterne countries to iourney on foote may be very well collected by washing of their feete so commonly after iourneyes and by the trauels on foote of Christ and his Apostles Now by such testimonies as we do manifestly gather from profane writers this is found to be so There be that do cite some thing to this purpose out of Herodotus but that is not so plaine But Diodorus Siculus in his second booke as Stephanus doth recken them speaketh fully to this point And in the times of Herodotus and Diodorus the rudera the ruines and desolations of Niniue
stood so that if they had written falsly common men might haue controlled them Diodorus then sayth that this city had walles of maruellous bredth so that carts might not onely go but very well meete vpon them that it had fifteene hundred towers which argueth a great bignesse that the walles being foure wayes set although not equally square had no lesse in the compasse of the out-side then foure hundred and fourescore furlongs Where if we accompt after eight furlongs to the mile all amounteth to threescore miles and not onely to eight and fortie as the Geneua note in the English Bible hath vpon the first Chapter So then threescore miles in circuite may be reckened for three dayes iourney twenty miles to a day which is more then souldiers march and for ordinary footemen in the winter it is harder in the sommer it is easier And this I take to be the true meaning of the Prophet and not onely as some would haue it which may be true also that it was full three dayes labour to go through euery lane or broade streete in the Citie 12 When I opened the first verses of this prophecy speaking out of this place I more fully handled this argument and shewed that in old time the Easterne Cities were very huge as for example sake Babylon which Aristotle reporteth to be so great as that when one part thereof was taken by an enemy the the other part heard not not of it in three whole dayes together Moreouer that the city stood on a riuer and therefore had store of water that the fertility of the soile was such that Herodotus on his knowledge speaketh it in his first booke that the seed thereabout sowed did returne two or three hundred fold so many bushels for one The water then being plentifully there the soile answering to it to yeeld food for such a multitude the place being the royal city of the Assyrian Monarchy and therefore built with all magnificence for the honor of the kingdome yea the profane writers confirming it but that which is most of all the Spirit of God affirming it we may very well take Niniue for an excellent and great city such a one as I suppose that neither the old world nor the new world had any like vnto it Not Babylon not Hierusalem not Rome with her seuen hils not Quinzay in the East nor Mexico in the West not Millaine as it is nor Antwerpe as it was not Paris in her late glory nor Venice in her now beautie Which since the holy Scripture hath described so plainely we must needs labour to find some thing in it which may be applied to our learning It is worth the thinking on that the Prophet is not discouraged to go to such a place a single one to so many a sole man to such a citie Who would not haue thought that himselfe should there haue bene contemptible and derided for the paucity of his attendants not a fellow to beare him company not a boye to do him seruice Appian in his booke of the warres of the Romanes with Mithridates telleth how Tigranes iested when he sawe the small number of souldiers which the Romanes sent against him he must needes bestow one scoffe on them What are these men sayth he I thinke they come as Ambassadors but then they be too many or if they come as souldiers alas they be too few It is likely that if he had seene this Ambassadour and his traine to be none and peraduenture his apparell to be base and disgracefull he would not haue left at one speech but doubled his wit vpon him 13 Our man standeth not at this neither feareth he his life among them although their number were so great that with ease they might haue deuoured him and euery one of them taken so litle that it needed not offend them His faith and his resolute mind now put him through thicke thin his confidence in his maister maketh him contemne the greatnesse of a world He knoweth that if God be on his side what matter is it who be against him All that is borne of God saith S. Iohn in his first Epistle ouercommeth the world so doth that also which is borne out by God I will not be affraid saith Dauid for ten thousand of the people that should be set me round about Then what the Niniuites should thinke of him or how the king would frowne vpon him he reckeneth not to dispute they were all in the hands of his maister so himselfe was also therefore he only stroue how to please him and not any other man And this is a good resolutiō more to thinke on one God and retaining of his fauor then of all the world besides His loue is incōparably greater then the loue of Niniue ten Niniues yea of all the frame of creatures For instruction herein Chrysostome directeth vs to chariot driuers of whom he speaketh in this maner Dost thou not see the driuers of chariots who passing swiftly by all the part of the race where the whole city sitteth to behold the coursing of the horses do there striue to ouerturne the chariots of them whith whom they cōtend where they behold the Emperor sitting do say that the eye of him alone is more worthy to trust vnto thē the faces of so many mē But when thou seest the very king of Angels to sit as the iudge and rewarder of thy striuing passing by him thou fliest to the eyes of thy fellow-seruants seeking to please them We should imitate these chariot-riders preferring Gods liking and loue before a many of Niniuites For put them in the ballance and he ouer-weigheth them all 14 His setled mind at this time remembreth this well inough therfore feareth not this mighty city Nay on the cōtrary side if his heart were vpright as it should be and I thinke that at this time so it was the greatnesse of the company to which he was to be sent should giue him larger hope and yeeld him greater spirits for if God did blesse his labour here was good indeede to be done to angle where was such store to speake where was such an auditory For by this meanes how many thousands might he winne to the Lord and what ioy might he conceiue that his mouth should be the instrument to winne their soules from destruction If God be glorified in gaining one how is he honoured in gaining many If men labour and spend themselues to obtaine a little what should they do for much Then the Prophet need not feare but take it as a mercy of his God shed vpon him that he must go to great Niniue For I doubt not but he was furnished with the powerfull grace of the Spirit that he needed not feare himselfe or distrust his owne ability And indeed I am of that mind that whē a man is prouided with sufficient meditation and earnest prayer to God to
sort of things which be they or be they not it maketh not any matter A conceipt which is very earthie and dull as is the clay and in no sort beseeming a reasonable soule who should carry his face vpright to God and to the heauens and thinke himselfe to be made for somewhat to glorifie the Almightie to be a part of the Church to helpe to adorne the world to be doing honest actions while he is here in this life and not to go poring forward as a beast which looketh onely downeward Is it nothing that he hath giuen thee speech and reason which he denieth to euery thing but man Is it nothing that his sonne redeemed thee with his bloud and payd such a raunsome for thee Or to note what my text doth note is it nothing that thy life is dayed and houred and inched out by a fearefull God and a terrible who among so many motions and directions and disposings and altering transmutations of heauen and earth and water yet hath thee so in his reckening and beareth such an eye vpon thee on thy in-going and thy out-going of thy lying owne thy rising of thy sicknesse and thy health of thy liuing and thy dying as if onely he did intend vnto thy selfe in speciall Do not thou esteeme that to be vile which he reckeneth of so much worth let that soule be precious to thee which he accounteth of so great price do not hang downe thy head but with industrie adorne thy soule and with diligence in his seruice thinking it a shame to see that actiue nimble and stirring substance to be ouergrowne with mossinesse and rust of such neglect as hitherto hath possessed it 6 Now as it is not vnproper to obserue this in glauncing sort because the Prophet giueth that attribute to the Lord that it is his prerogatiue to take away life so from this there euidently ariseth as a doctrine to be thought of in the next place that it is a great fault and a transgression not excusable to thrust our selues into that which belongeth vnto our maker and so by an vsurpation to depriue God of that singular priuiledge which is proper to himselfe of taking away life from man I do not here speake of the Magistrates who carry the sword as from God and are bound not to acquit or excuse the guiltie To them the charge is giuen against murtherers and manquellers that he vvho sheddeth mans bloud by man shall his bloud be shed Moses stoned the blasphemer Iosuah did so by Achan and Salomon in his vprightnesse tooke away the life of Ioab But I speake here of that case which might touch our Prophet nearer that is that although he did pretend that he willingly would be dead yet he doth not take a course violently to lay hands on himselfe and his owne bodie but prayeth the Lord to dissolue him Wherein it appeareth that although he were peruerse and discontent yet he was not come to that height of iniquity and impietie as to destroy himselfe A sinne of the most straunge nature that any is in the world that whereas all other sinnes are to preserue the body indeed or in a fancie in circumstance or in substance this is to ouerthrow it Yea to ouerthrow it with God and ouerthrow it with man in this world and the next without hope and all recouerie vnlesse the Lords mercie which cannot be limited do that whereof is no warrant His commandement is in generall Thou shalt commit no murther If no murther vpon other then much lesse on thy selfe For thou must loue thy neighbour but as thou louest thy selfe and the patterne of all dutie to be extended in him is taken from thine owne person Then when the Lord hath created thee and put thee into the world and bid thee there to keepe as in a standing place as in a watch or ward from whence thou mayest not mooue till he come to discharge thee wilt thou dare to leaue thy ground and forsake that which he hath enioyned thee When thy soule shall come before his iust and fearefulll countenance how must it needes be dismayed when that speech shall come from his mouth what doest thou in this place who sent for thee who dismissed thee As thou with violence hast cut thy selfe from thy bodie so with violence I do cut thee from all hope of participation in my glorie 7 What a trembling may this sentence procure vpon this soule what mountaines may it not cry to or what hils to fall vpon it to be freed from such a doome It is good therefore that euerie Christian who desireth to haue his part in the holie resurrection should flie from this as the way to euerlasting damnation This is a pranke for such as despairing Saule was to fall vpon his owne sword or of cursed craftie Ahitophell to go home and hang himselfe or of Iudas to go foorth and worke himselfe to his end How many are the miseries and vexations which a Christian should suffer all his life time here before that he should once thinke of this With what earnestnesse of prayer should he resist this tentation Should I say that Iosephus a Iew with full reasons refuted that which was vrged for this vngodly fact at such time as he was pressed vnto it by his bloudy minded fellowes Yea heathen men haue taught this as Plato in Phaedone from whom we find that Macrobius hath collected seauen reasons why we should not dare to attempt this But the speech of Tully is excellent in that Somnium Scipionis whereupon Macrobius there commenteth For when Scipio had said If true life be onely in heauen vvhy stay I then vpon earth vvhy hast I not to come to you No it is not so sayth his father for vnlesse that God vvhose Temple all this is that thou seest free thee from the fetters of thy body thou canst not haue an entrance thither For men are begotten and bred vpon that condition that they should maintaine that round thing vvhich thou seest in the middest of that Temple and vvhich is called the earth And there is giuen vnto them a soule of those euerlasting fires vvhich you call starres and planets Wherefore ô Publius both thy soule and the soules of all good men is to be kept by them in the safe custodie of thy body neither vvithout his commandement by vvhom it is giuen vnto you are you to leaue this life lest you should seeme to flye this duty assigned by God If a heathen man by the light of nature could go so farre it were a thing very admirable that bare reason should be able to teach so much But we may very well imagine that this came from the Diuinitie of the lewes For Tully in that place deriueth his position from Plato which Macrobius plainely noteth and Platoes diuine Philosophy was by hearing or reading sucked from the bookes of Moses which thing Eusebius in his booke De
Praeparatione Euangelica doth manifestly lay downe citing there Numenius the Pythagorian who writeth that Plato was nothing else but Moses speaking Greeke or in the Attike language But be this so or be it otherwise the doctrine is most true 8 First then in this are condemned those who yeelding themselues too much vnto Satans suggestions wilfully destroy their owne bodies frō whom as I dare not generally withdraw the hope of saluation and euerlasting life for Gods mercy may giue grace and a sudden hastie repentance betweene the bridge and the water betweene the deed the dying so that then they could wish all were well and no violence offered so on the other side I cannot but pronounce that the case is very daungerous and in the highest sort to be suspected and feared vnlesse the Lord do giue apparant tokens of penitencie Do not first take strong poyson and then afterward seeke some such remedie as may be offered in an instant whereunto to trust thou hast no warrant but almost all to the contrarie Secondly they are here taxed who wilfully and without cause aduenture vppon such things as are the wayes of death by that meanes tempting God to see whether he will preserue them for so it must needs be if they thinke of him at all Remember how Christ discountenanced all leaping off from the Temple which in nature had bene a meanes to dash himselfe to peeces Some dangerous tumbling trickes and walking vpon ropes not without danger of life and other sports of that qualitie are very neare to this Here let me acknowledge one thing to you wherof I haue oftētimes thought in my selfe by occasion of that text which was cited to our Sauiour by Satan the great tempter in the story last mentioned When he would haue Christ throw himselfe from the pinnacle of the Temple he incouraged him by that place of the Psalme He shall giue his Angels charge ouer thee and with their hands they shall lift thee vp that thou dash not thy foote against a stone Where as euerie man may see he cited the Scripture falsly leauing out that which is very materiall to keepe thee in all thy wayes He shall giue his Angels charge ouer thee to keepe thee in all thy wayes I haue heard that a reuerend mā preaching on a time in our sister Vniuersity at the buriall of one or two gentlemen who came to an vntimely end by swimming enforced out of that place of Mathew that it is the pollicy of the tempter to draw men from their owne wayes to the waies of other creatures And therin as I haue heard he obserued that a mās way was to go a birds way was to flie as fishes way was to swimme and if we would leaue our owne pathes dangerously and without cause to do as fishes or birds do we tempt God in that case and suppresse as much of the Psalme to our selues as Satan did to Christ. For God will keepe thee in all thy wayes not in the wayes of a bird not in the wayes of a fish I cannot say that at that time by collection from that text or by the dolefull example which was then before his eyes that reuerend learned man vtterly forbad that exercise as impious vnlawfull neither dare I do so for fishermen haue vse of it and Peter in the presence of our Sauiour girded his linnnen garment to him and threw himselfe into the sea and the meanes that some escaped from the ship-wracke in the company of Saint Paule was their swimming and souldiers in passing waters are oftentimes constrained to betake them to this exercise So that vtterly to condemne it or dislike it I thinke it not conuenient or warrantable but certainely in that sort as many vse it and too many in great cities and perhaps some in this place that is to say young ones in the deepe and without company or good helpe yea and vpon the Sabaoth day which the Lord hath notedly punished as some of vs may remember doth fall within iust reproofe of being too much accessarie of shortening mens owne liues Let the elder and the younger lay this to their owne consciences and make the vse to themselues Onely vppon occasion of this sommer time of the yeare I do briefly mention it 9 Within this compasse there come plainely our chalenges and defendances for combats in the fields for euery trifling braule where not for God and their countrey or for their Princes safetie but vpon euerie brauling disgrace the life is thrust into danger How vncomfortable a thing is it in a mortall deadly wound which may very well be thy share to thinke that thou hast sought the dissolution of thy soule from thy body and to haue rather stood on thy manhood and fame with other men then vpon thy Christian dutie How many lawes did Moses make but none for the duellum or combat betweene two Nay he who layd it downe that if the head of an axe flie off as a man is cutting wood and slay his neighbour being neare vnto him with whom he had no quarrell if the pursuer should take his person before he came to the city of refuge it was lawfull to kill him what would he haue thought of these men who will thrust themselues into this straigth to slay or to be slaine What the Emperour Honorius sonne to that good Theodosius thought of this appeareth hereby that as Theodoret writeth he tooke away all sword-playings and gladiatorie fights which so long had bene vsed in Rome because they were the meanes of many slaughters The very Turkes in this case are worthie of commendation of whom I find in the Epistles of Augerius Busbequius Embassadour sometimes among them for Ferdinandus the Emperour that while he was in the countrey when one of the Turkish Captaines had reported before the Bassas that he had challenged into the field another of the San-iacks or Lieutenants of the Turke of whom he had receiued some grieuance the Bassas that Graund Segnieur thrust him presently into prison and vsed these words vnto him Didst thou dare to denounce the combat against thy fellow souldier vvere there not Christians to fight vvith You liue both by the bread of our Emperour and would you trye for each others life Knovv you not that vvhether soeuer of you had ben◠slaine it had bin a losse to our Soueraigne he had lost a man a souldier This was but a worldly reason which yet holdeth among vs also But for the auoiding of slaughter vpon other men or our selues which point concerneth the Lords commandement we should flie from these great occasions of murther which is so horrible a sinne But to returne to the maine cause if these accessaries and helpes to bring our selues to the graue be things not to be iustified then what a great fault is man-slaughter directly done vpon our selues 10 I haue sayd more of these adiacents then my purpose was to speake but for