vvisedome of the king of Babylon to take the young children of Israell whom they might teach the learning and tongue of Chaldaea rather then their olde men so it is the wisedome of the Devill to season these greene vesselles vvith the liâ—our of his corruption that they maie keepe the taste thereof while life remaineth But their bones are filled with the sinne of their youth and it lyeth downe with them in the dust and when their bodies shall arise then shall also their sinne to receiue iudgement So sayeth the wise preacher giving them the raines in some sort but knowing that the end of their race vvill be bitternesse Reioice O young man and let thy hearte cheare thee in the daies of thy youth walke in the waies of thine hearte and in the sight of thine eies but knowe that for all these thinges God will bring thee to iudgement Let the examples of Elie his sonnes whome hee tenderly brought vp to bring downe his house and whole stocke to the ground and the boies that mockt Elizaeus be a warning to this vnguided age that the LORDE will not pardon iniquitie neither in young nor old and that not only the bulles and kine of Basan but the wanton and vntamed heighfers and the calues that play in the grasse shall beare their transgressions It is the song of the young men Wisedome the seconde Let not the flowre of our life passe from vs c. and it is the cry of the young men in the fifth of the same booke vvhat hath pride profited vs For whilst they take their pleasures vpon earth the Lord writeth bitter thinges against them in heaven Iob. 13. and shall make them possesse the iniquities of their youth And hee cryed His manner of preaching was by proclamation lowde and audible that it mighte reach to the eares of the people hee hid not the iudgementes of God in his heart as Mary the words of her Saviour to make them his proper and private meditations but as ever the manner of God was that his prophets should denounce his minde least they might say wee never hearde of it so did Ionas accordingly fulfill it Thus Esaye was willed to cry and to lifte vp his voice like a trumpet Ieremye to crye in the eares of Ierusalem to declare amongst the nations and even to set vp a standarde and proclaime the fall of Babylon And Ezechiell had a like commaundement Clama vlula fili hominis Crie and hovvle sonne of man for this shall come vnto my people and it shall lighte vpon all the princes of Israell Our Saviour likewise bad the Apostles vvhat they heard in the eare that to preach vpon the house toppes They did so For being rebuked for their message and forbidden to speake anie more in the name of Iesus they aunswered boldly in the face of that vvicked consistory vvhether it bee fitte to obey God or man iudge yee Wisdome her selfe Proverbs the first crieth not in her closet and the secret chambers of her house but vvithout in the streetes neither in the vvildernesse and infrequent places but in the heighth of the streetes and among the prease and in the entrings of the gates that the sounde of her voice may be blovvne into all partes If Iohn Baptist vvere the voice of a crier in the vvildernesse then vvas Christ the crier and Iohn Baptist but the voice Surely it wanted not much that the very stones in the streetes shoulde haue cried the honour and povver of God for even stones vvoulde haue founde their tongues if men had helde theirs The commaundement then and practise of God himselfe is to crie to leaue the vvorlde vvithout excuse the nature of the vvord biddeth vs crie for it is a fire and if it flame not forth it vvil burne his bovvels harts that smothereth it I thought I woulde haue kept my mouth bridled saith the prophet Whilst the wicked was in my sight I was dumbe and spake nothing I kept silence even from good but my sorrowe vvas the more encreased My heart vvas hot within mee and while I was musing the fire kindled and I spake with my tongue lastly the nature of the people vvith vvhome vvee haue to deale requireth crying Deafe adders vvill not bee charmed with whispering nor deafe and dumbe spirits which neither hear nor answere God cast forth without much praier and fasting nor sleepie and carelesse sinners possessed with a spirite of slumber and cast into a heavy sleepe as Adam vvas vvhen he lost his ribbe so these not feeling the maines that are made in their soules by Sathan awaked without crying Sleepers and sinners must be cried vnto againe and againe for sinne is a sleepe What can you not watch one houre And dead men and sinners must be cried vnto for sinne is a death and asketh as manie groanings and out-cries as ever Christ bestowed vpon Lazarus Exiforas Lazare Lazarus come forth and leaue thy rotten and stinking sinnes vvherein thou hast lien too manye daies Happy were this age of ours if all the cryings in the daie time could awake vs. For I am sure that the cry at midnight shall fetch vs vp but if the meane time vvee shall refuse to hearken and pull awaie the shoulder and stoppe our eares that they shoulde not heare and make our heartes as an adamant stone that the vvordes of the Lorde cannot sinke into them it shall come to passe that as hee hath cried vnto vs and vvee vvoulde not heare so wee shall crie vnto him againe and hee vvill not answere And saide yet fortie daies and Niniveh shall bee overthrowne The matter of the prophets sermon is altogither of iudgement For the execution whereof 1. the time prefined is but forty daies 2. the measure or quantity of the iudgement an overthrow 3. the subiect of the overthrow Niniveh togither with an implication of the longe sufferance of almighty God specified in a particle of remainder and longer adiourment in the fourth place yet forty daies asmuch as to say I have spared you long enough before but I will spare you thus much longer The onely matter of question herein is how it may stande vvith the constancie and truth of the aeternall God to pronounce a iudgement against a place which taketh not effect within an hundred yeares For either he was ignorant of his owne time which we cannot imagine of an omniscient God or his minde vvas altered vvhich is vnprobable to suspect For is the strength of Israell as man that hee shoulde lie or as the sonne of man that hee shoulde repent is hee not yesterday and to day and the same for ever that vvas that is and that is to come I meane not onelye in substance but in vvill and intention doeth hee vse lightnes are the wordes that hee speaketh yea and nay Doth hee both affirme and deny to are not all his promises are not all his threatnings
greate and vvide sea vvherein are thinges creeping innumerable both small and greate beastes There goe the shippes the artificiallest wonder that ever vvas framed and there goeth that Leviathan the wonder of that nature vvhom thou hast made to play therein In the booke of Iob two argumeÌ„ts are produced to amplifie the incomparable power of God Behemoth by land Leviathan by sea and for the power and perswasion of wordes I do not thinke that ever more was vsed than where the power of those 2. creatures is expressed Of the latter of these it is professed in open tearms I wil not keepe silence coÌ„cerning his parts nor his power nor his comely proportion Indeed they are all worthily described by the tongue of the learned eveÌ„ the learnedst tongue that the holy ghost had Never were there rivers flouds of eloqueÌ„ce neither in the orators of AtheÌ„s Rome nor in the Seraphins of heaveÌ„ equal to those that are powred forth in that narratioÌ„ Augustine some-where noteth that al men marvailed at Tullies tongue but not his inveÌ„tion At Aristotles inveÌ„tioÌ„ all men but not his tongue At Platoes invention tongue both But for a tongue wisdome to not to be vttered by the tongue nor to be coÌ„prehended by the wisdoÌ„e of mortal man I remit you to those chapters Ierome writeth of the whole booke Singulain eo verba plena sunt sensibus Every word of it is very sententious But no where through the whole more sense more substance grace and maiestie spent than where the meaning and intent was that the maiesty of the most high God should fully be illustrated To cast mine eies backe againe from wheÌ„ce I am digressed it is writteÌ„ of the whale that wheÌ„ he swimmeth sheweth himselfe vpoÌ„ the flouds you would think that ilaÌ„ds swam towards you and that very high hils did aspire to heaven it selfe with their tops Pliny giveth the reasoÌ„ why many beasts in the sea are bigger theÌ„ those vpoÌ„ land Causa evidens humoris luxuria The evideÌ„t cause saith he is superfluity of moisture Howbeit it holdeth not in birds whose ofspring is froÌ„ the waters to quibus vita pendentibus because they liue haÌ„ging as it were hovering or waâ—ting in the aire But in the open champian sea being of a soft fruitfull encrease semperque pariente naturâ of a nature that is ever breeding and bringing forth monsters are often engendred He writeth of Balaeâ—a the whirle-poole or we may english iâ— also a whale so doth Tremelius interpret the name of Leviathan in Iob the Psalme that in the Indian sea there are some founde to the largenes of fowre acres of grounde that they are laden surcharged with their owne waight Likewise he reporteth of other beasts in the sea that the dores of houses were made of their iawes and the rafters of their bones some of which bones were 40. cubites in length and that the skins of some were broad enough to cover habitable houses So true is the opinion of the people coÌ„monly received that whatsoeuer is bred in any part of nature is in the sea many creatures besides which are no where els And therfore the lesse marvaile may it seeme eveÌ„ to a natural man by the course of nature it selfe his lady mistresse that God should prepare a fish great enough to swallow vp Ionas For the attribute is not adioyned for naught A great fish Seneca the philosopher writeth of one Senetio sirnamed Grandio others haue beene called Magni for the greatnes of their vertues Alexander in Greece Pompey in Rome Arsaces in Parthia Charles amongst the Emperors the great and Gregory the great amongst the Popes but Senetio had to name the graÌ„d or the great for his great vanity He liked of nothing that was not great He would not speake but what was great He kept no servants but great Vsed no plate but great The shoes he ware were over great The figs he ate were great outlaÌ„dish figs And he had a wife besids of a great stature But whosoever is greatest vpoÌ„ the face of the earth though his stile be as great as that emperours of whoÌ„ Eusebius writeth whose titles were suÌ„med togither in a long catalogue The greatest bishop greatest in Thebes greatest in Sarmatia in Persia fiue times the greatest greatest in Germany greatest in Egypt yet I will say vnto him as the Psalme to the princes of that time Give vnto the Lord yee sons of the mightie giue vnto the Lord glorie and strength giue vnto the Lord the honour due vnto his name That greatnesse belongeth vnto the Lord alone wee are taught by an excellent phrase of speech proper to the Hebrews The striving of Raâ—ell with her sister Leah about the bearing of childreÌ„ because it was very great is called the wrastling of God The mountaines of the earth wherwith the righteousnesse of God is coÌ„pared because they were very great are called the mountaines of God The city of Niniveh because very great of 3. daies iourney is called the citie of God In all which singular idiotismes the letter it selfe directeth vs rightly where to bestowe all greatnes Vndoubtedly it was the great God of heaven and earth that prepared great lightes in the firmament great fishes in the sea great men great beasts vpon the drie land magnitudinis eius non est finis and there is no ende no limits of his greatnesse To swallowe vp Ionas They have an history in prophane reading that Arion the Lesbian a famous musitian beeing embarked with some who for the gaine of his money woulde haue cast him into the sea he craved a litle respite of them before his casting forth taking his harpe in hand playing a while theron at length himselfe leapt into the waters was caried vpon the backe of a dolphin to the landing place intended before the Mariners could possibly ariue there In Herodotus the father of history saith Tully there are innumerable fables happily this amongst the rest But I alleadge it to this end that if God had prepared a whale to have borne Ionas vpon his back to have held him aboue the waters where he might have beheld the light of heaven drawn the comfort of the aire as other living souls there had been no fear of miscariage It is quite contrarie for the Lorde prepared a fish to swallow vp Ionas Whereof one spake a thing not hearde of before the belly of a fish is the habitation of a man If of a man dismeÌ„bred dissolved piece-meale I would never haue doubted The crocodiles of Nilus in Egypt Gangs in India other rivers of Mexico Peru will devour not onely men but whole heards of cattell And a physitian of our latter times hath written Calvin not sparing to testifie the seme that in the bowels of a Lamia hath beene found a whole armed man But Ionas is taken in
verse The rest to the end of the 7. though it be speÌ„t vpon the same argument yet is it with such descante and variety to grace the plaine-song the phrase so delectably altered and the sense of the wordes so mightily augmented as I cannot faine to my selfe how the description of his troubles coulde haue beene furnished with better lightes of speach I haue hearde the descriptions both of auncient Poets and of those in our latter daies Tassus Ariostus and the like so highly extolled as if wisedome had lived and died with them alone And it may be the sinne of samaria the sin of this lande and age of ours perhappes the mother of our atheisme to commit idolatry with such bookes that insteed of the writings of Moses and the prophets and Evangelistes which were wont to lie in our windowes as the principall ornaments to sit in the vppermost roumes as the best guests in our houses now we haue Arcadia the Faery Queene and Orlando Furioso with such like frivolous stories when if the wanton students of our time for all are studentes both men and women in this idle learning would as carefully read and as studiously obserue the eloquent narrations and discourses contained in the Psalmes of David and other sacred bookes they would finde theÌ„ to be such as best deserved the name coÌ„mendation of the best Poets So rightly did Ierome pronouÌ„ce of David to Paulmus that he is our Simonides Pindarus Alceus Flaccus Catullus Serenus in steed of al others For the warrant of my sayings coÌ„sider but this scripture now in hand The danger of Ionas one might haue thought was so handled before as if he had powred forth his whole spirit at once He tolde you of the deepest and of the midst and of the number of the seas with as many perturbations for ought I know as the sea is subiect vnto the confluge of repugnant waters ebbing flowing and breaking of the surges Yet is he stil as ful as the moone and as if he were freshly to begin entreth againe with an other stile much more abundance into the same narration Now he acquainteth you how farre the waters came He was in the waters and waues before but within the bowelles of the fish as it were in a christall cage here it is otherwise for the waters compasse him ad animan vsque even vnto the soule hee was now in the presentest daunger of his life there was not an haires breadth betwixte him and death his soule lay even at the gates of his body ready to passe forth He told you of a bottome before but now of a depth without a bottome there profundum here abyssus and he addeth to his former encumbrances weedes about his head mountaines and promontories and rockes the barres of the earth wherewith he was imprisoned The son of Syrach speaketh of wisedome that shee is set vp like a cedar in Libanê° and as a cypres tree vpon the mountaines of Hermon exalted like a palme-tree in Cades and as a rose-plant in Iericho as a faire oliue-tree in a pleasant fielde and as a plane-tree by the waters as a terebinth so shee stretcheth out her branches and her boughes are the boughes of honour and grace Her roote is so rich and so ful of sap that an heart endued therewith never lacketh matter or wordes whereby to perswade It is written of Salomon one of the ofspring of wisedome that God gaue him prudence and vnderstanding exceeding much and a large hearte even as the sande that is vpon the sea-shore and that his wisedome exceeded the vvisedome of all the children of the East and all the vvisedome of Egypt That he was able to speake of trees from the cedar of Lebanon to the hysope that springeth out of the wall hee also spake of beastes and fowles and creepinge thinges and of fishes 1. King 4. Compare the hearte of Ionas a little vvith the hearte of Salomon You see howe large it is Larger I am sure if it be wisely weighed than of all the people of the East and children of Egypt before mentioned He speaketh of all his troubles by sea from the greatest to the least even to the weede and bulrush that lyeth in the basest part of it Wee say where the griefe is there commonly the finger· It is not an easie matter for those that are pintâ—ht with griefe indeede hastily to departe either from the sense or report of it A man must speake sometimes to take breath Ieremy wrote a whole booke of Lamentations and in the person of the people of the Iewes as if all the afflictions vnder heaven had beene stored vp for that one generation proclaimed Ego vir ille sum I am that man that haue had experience of infirmities that one and only singular man This is the manner of al that are afflicted as Ionas before all thy surges and all thy waues passed over me they thinke their miseries to bee alone and that no other in the worlde hath any parte with them Contrary to the iudgement of Solon the wise Athenian who thought that if men were to laye their griefes vpon one common heape and thence to take out an equall portion with their fellowes they woulde rather carry their owne home againe and beare their burthen aparte than divide at the stocke where they should finde their wretchednesse much more encreased David in many Psalmes declameth at large of his miseries In the 69. by the same words which Ionas here vseth happily borrowed from that ancienter prophet The waters are entred in vnto my soule and I sticke fast in the deepe mire where no stay is I am come into deepe waters the streams runne over me I am weary of crying my throaâ—e 〈◊〉 dâ—ie and mine eies faile whilest I waite for my GOD. It is thoughâ— that the 102. Psalme was a praier written by Daniell or some other prophet for the children of Israell whilst they were at Babylon in captivity My daies are consumed like smoake my bones are burnt vp like an hearth Mine heart is smitten and withered like grasse I forget to eate my breade for the voice of my groaning my bones doe cleaue to my skinne I haue eaten ashes like bread and mingled my drinke with vveeping These were perswaded that the sunne was no where overcast so much as vvhere they were and that it woulde bee happy for them to exchange their woes with any other living creatures Howe often did our Saviour the heade corner stone of the building tell his disciples before hand of his perils to come at Ierusalem The emperour Otho thought it a parte of dastardy to speake too much of death the emperour over Otho thought otherwise If you search the Evangelistes you shall finde his arraignement and death often repeated from his owne mouth Matth. the 17. as they abode in Galilee The twentieth of that Evangelist he tooke them apart in the way as they were
condeÌ„ne philosophers simply but the philosophers of this world And if any man thought that all philosophy was to be shunned his meaning was none other thein than not to haue vs loue wisedome In an other he speaketh for eloqueÌ„ce thinketh it no reasoÌ„ that because some beare armes against their countrey others should be debarred of armour to defend it or that Phisitians instruments should bee denied to the skilfull because the vnlearned haue vsed them to kill with Eloquence he saith is not evill which for the vttering of his minde he wisheth had fallen vnto him to his harts desire but a sophisticall malignaÌ„t professions proposing to it selfe not is it meaneth but either of coÌ„tentioÌ„ or for commodity sake to speake for al things and against all thinges What vvere more profitable than the eloquence of Donatus Parmenian and others of your secte if it ranne with as free a streame for the peace vnity trueth and loue of Christ as it floweth against it for else it is venenata fafacundia a venemous eloquence as Cyprian wrote of the eloquence of Novatus in his epistle to Cornelius I know there is much amisse both in the matter in the vse of prophane learning But this we are sure of that if wee bring it to the touchstone of scripture whatsoever wee read in forraine authors if it be vicious it is there condemned if holesome we shâ—ll there finde it and many things besides which we haue founde no where els For it shall never bee denied but that here are the riches and treasures of wisedome and that the knowledge collected out of the bookes of the Gentiles with this of the booke of God compared is no more than the treasure carried out of Egypt which to the riches of Ierusalem especially when Salomon was the king there was in a maÌ„ner as nothing For as the wine that commeth from the vines of the mountaines is both finer and pleasanter than that of the vallies so the heavenly knowledge which descendeth from the highest hils from the throne of God must needs be sweeter to our tast than the sowre vnsavory knowledge of the world which groweth in the valley of teares To conclude what things soever in what authors soever were wel spokeÌ„ they are ours I meane the christians we may take our own where we find it Plato is sometimes alter Moses Moses Atticus an other Moses and Moses at Athens wheresoever therefore he speaketh as Moses did that is ours Orpheus and Sybilla haue delivered certaine introductioÌ„s or assaies of propheticall learning those are ours What Poet what Philosopher is there that hath not drunke at the well of the Prophets that is ours ClemeÌ„s Alexandrimus calleth theÌ„ theeues chargeth them to haue stollen their best opinions from holy writers those are ours also Many things they speake at vnawares tanquam per recantationem at a fit as it were recanting their errors many things ingratis compelled and against their wils which in them are but ghesses and presumptions in vs grounded knowledge these are ours likewise It skilleth not in what ground the hearbe grew nor what gardener sowed it or brought it vp so it heale And what matter is it though the crowne were the kings of Ammon so it be meete for the king of Ierusalem to take away and to set vpon his ovvne heade A country-man of our owne though an obscure author wrote not obscurely touching this controversie For in the prologue of his tripartite worke he giveth a reason why he induceth the lawes of the Heathen The wisedome of God saith hee hath brought the storke and the kite and the swallow to witnesse against sinners VVherefore by his example and assistance who hath brought an hony-combe out of the mouth a lion and abondance of water from an asses iawbones and who is able of stones to raise vp children to Abraham I haue endevoured of the lawes of Pagans to make childrens bread fit for the information and instruction of a christian life I haue long troubled you with the opinions of the auncient Fathers some later Divines touching these Gentile and externall helpes But where shall I seeke patrones if neede be for these fatherlesse and friendlesse Fathers themselues for these we also account to be spottes in our sermons our labours seeme the worse if the names of Augustine Ierome other reverend Doctours do but sound therein Surely according to that image of the vvorlde which I haue found pictured with the feete vpwardes to note that all thinges are turned vpside downe we the PuÌ„ies proselytes of good learning controle and correct our fathers and although in many of vs there be very small cause yet we presume to say with David not speaking from the humble spirit of God but from a stroÌ„g conceite of our owne weaknesse and a weaker iudgement of the strength of others I am vviser than my teachers I haue more vnderstanding than the auncient ever had Howsoever we account of them it is most true that they haue labored for vs and we are entred vpon their labours The fruites whereof if wee reape without acknowledgement we are vnthankfull or if we passe theÌ„ over vvith contempt and disdaine and thinke it the loosing of good houres to peruse their bookes we are too fond of our owne learning Other men as they list Let them esteeme the light of antiquity no better worth than to be hid vnder a bushell and quite supprest that they may set their owne vpon a candlesticke and cause it to blaze to the view of the whole house Ego vero illos veneror tantis nominibus semper assurgo But for mine owne parte I haue them in great reverence and honour their very names and I say of their workes in generall as Theotimus a Bishoppe amongst the Scythians spake of the workes of Origen when Theophilus and Epiphanius vrged him to ioine in the condemnation of them I vvill neither discredit him who is long since happily fallen a sleepe in the LORDE neither dare I attempt so blasphemous a thing as to reprooue those writings which our fore-fathers haue not reproved They carried memorable names in former ages Cyprian called Tertullian his maister Vincentius Lirinensis saieth of him that his argumentes were as the lightninges to beate downe heretickes The testimonies that Augustine giveth vnto Cyprian are very large and this amongst the rest that the Mother Church reputed him in the number of a verye fevv of most excellent condition But who can study to spend more honour vpon him than hee vvho saide Loquitur aâ—serta sed magis foâ—â—ia quam diserta neque tam loquitur fortia quam vivit His speech is eloquent yet hath more strength in it than eloquence and his life more strength thâ—n his speech Augustine they termed not vnworthily the hammer of heretickes Athanasius called Ambrose the eye of the worlde Athanasius himselfe was surnamed the Greate for his