which barre vp thine owne sinnes Looke not into the coffers and corners of other mens infirmities Otherwise thy dissembled sinnes which thou hordest vp vvithin thy bones and arte afraide to set before thine eies shall be written in the brow of thy face brought to light and blowne abroad with the sounde of trumpets that all the world may say Lo this is the man that iustified himselfe in his life time and would not confesse his sinne THE TENTH LECTVRE Cap. 1. ver 7. And the lot fell vpon Ionas OF the foure parts before specified collected out of this verse the last onlie remaineth to be examined to wit the successe of the lottes which the last member thereof doth plainelie open vnto vs. Let me once againe remember the proverbe vnto you The lots are cast into the lap but the whole disposition thereof is of the Lord. In a matter merely casuall for ought the wisedome of man can iudge as Tullie sometimes said to a man who spake rashly and vnadvisedly Hoc non est considerare sed quasi sortiri quid loquare this is not to speake with discretion but as it were by lot and hap-hazard the triall standing herevpon who threw more who lesse who drew blacke who white so forth the choice of the whole bunch lying before him his own hands his carvers ministers in the action each man faining that hope to him selfe for his evasion which the son of Sirach mentioneth In populo magno non agnoscar quae est anima mea in taÌ„ immensâ creaturâ I cannot be known in so greate a multitude what is my one soule amongst a 100 yet doth the finger of the lot directly faithfully point him out for whose cause the storme was sent The strong perswasion that these men had that their lot would not erre in the verdit thereof giveth a singular testimony approbation to the providence of the godheade as being an vniversall imperiall art which all the affaires in the worlde are subiect vnto that in the greatest smallest thinges in matters of both choice chance as they seeme to vs the wisdome knowledge of God is at hand to manage them according to the Apostles speech Ephe. 1. He worketh all things after the counsell purpose of his will so first he hath a will secondly a counsell to go before his will thirdly an effect accomplishment to succeede it lastly as generall patent a subiect as the world hath There are Philosophers haue beene which thought that the Gods had no regard of humane affaires whose opinion saith Tullie if it be true what piety can there be what sanctity what religion Others though they went not so far as to exempt al thinges yet they withdrew the smaller from the heauenly providence For it was thought most iniurious to bring down the maiesty of God so lowe as to the husbaÌ„ding of bees pismires as if in the nuÌ„ber of Gods there were soÌ„e Myrmecides to carue procure the smaller works Elswhere he also reciteth their improvident speeches to the same purpose as for the smaller things that Gods neglect them they go not so far as to take view of euery parcell of ground and litle vine that every one hath neither if blasting or haile hath endamaged any man doth Iupiter obserue it nay they make a scorne that those who are quiet at ease in heaven should trouble themselues about petty occasions The Peripatetickes an other sect colledge of philosophers housed that providence aboue the moone and thought it had no descent beneath the circle thereof to intend inferiour businesses What doe the Epicures in Iob say lesse Eliphas at least in their names How shoulde God know can he iudge through the darke cloudes the cloudes hide him that he cannot see and he walketh in the circle of heaven A verroës sirnamed the Commenter a Spanish physitian that he may seeme to be mad with reason by reason fortifieth the former iudgements For he thinketh that the knowledge and vnderstanding of God would become vile if it vvere abased to these inferiour and infirmer obiectes As if a glasse vvere deformed because it presenteth deformities or the beames of the sunne defiled because they fall vpon muddie places or the providence of God vilified who though hee hath his dwelling on high yet he abaseth himselfe to beholde thinges in heaven and in earth As he spake the worde and all things were created so he sustaineth and beareth vp all thinges by the power of his worde His creation was as the mother to bring them forth his providence the nurse to bring them vp his creation a short providence his providence a perpetuall creation the one setting vp the frame of the house the other looking to the standing and reparation thereof I cannot determine this pointe in tearmes more graue and significant then Tully hath vsed against the Atheists and Epicures of that age He is Curiosus plenus negoâ—ij Deus a curious God exquisite in all things full of busines He is not a rechles careles improvident God or a God to halfes in part aboue not beneath the moone or as the Syrians deemed vpon the mountaines and not in the vallies in the greater and not in the lesser emploimeÌ„ts he is very precise inquisitiue having a thousand eies and as many handes yea all eie all hand both to obserue and to dispatch withal examining the least moments titles in the world that can be imagined to an handfull of meale and a cruse of oile in a poore widdowes house the calving of hindes the feeding of â—ong Lions and ravens the fâ—lling of sparrowes to the grounde cloathing of lillies and grasse of the fielde numbring of haires and to returne to that from which I first digressed the successe of lottes I cannot conceiue how the land of Canaan coulde bee devided as it was betweene many and few for so was the order by God set that many shoulde haue the more few the lesser inheritance vnlesse the hand of the Lord had beene in the lap to reach vnto every tribe familie what was convenient proportionate otherwise the fewer might haue had the more and the more the lesse inheritaÌ„ce And was it not much thinke you that vvhen Samuell had annointed Saul king over Israel he woulde afterwards goe from his right leaue a certainty put it to the hazard of lottes whether Saul should be king or no but that hee assured himselfe the providence of the Lord would never forsake his intendement Therefore of all the tribes of Israell Beniamin of all the families of Beniamin Matri of all the kindred of Matri the house of Cis and of all the house of Cis Saul was chosen to the kingdome In the booke of Esther the day and the moneth were by lot appointed when all the people of the Iewes olde and young women and children within the citty of
more matter is ministred for pitty to worke vpon Ierusalem vvas more laboured and applied by Christ in the daies of his flesh than either Bethania a country towne or any other cittye of Iudah or Samaria lesse than Ierusalem Agesilaus a renowned Lacedaemonian was grieved in his heart when he had slaine tenne thousand of his enemies and when many of the rest that were left aliue had withdrawne themselues within the citty of Corinth his friends advising him to lay siedge vnto it he answered that it was not fit for him so to do for he was a man which would compell offendours to do their duety but not pull downe citties The ruinating and overthrowing of citties are miserable either spectacles or histories to those that vvith any humanity shall consider them Nero may sing and triumph when Rome is on fire a bloudy horse-leach feedinge vpoÌ„ the spoiles of men and townes but Abraham will pray for Sodome though the sinke of the earth and not onely Ieremy will lament write lamentations but Christ will mourne for the downe-fall of Ierusalem And Titus whilste he lieth in siedge when hee shall see such slaughter of the Iewes will throw vp his hands to heaven and lay the massacre vpon God to cleare himselfe That Sodome wherof I â—pake consider but the raine that fell vpon it brimstone and fire from the Lord in heaven it selfe overthrowne with her sisters and all the plaine and all the inhabitants of the cittie and all that grevv vpon the earth turned into ashes and whatsoever came vp afterwards from that ground vnholsome and vnprofitable fruite pestelent vines bitter clusters the whole lande mingled with cloudes of pitch and heapes of ashes the people suffering the vengeance of eternall fire and notwithstanding all this it selfe made a by-word to all ages that came after it as we read in Esay 1. and Rom. 9. vnlesse the Lorde had left vs a seede wee shoulde haue bene as Sodome I say consider but these thinges and pitty her ruine and desolation though she be Sodome because she was a citty Though Iericho were Iericho a citty of the vncircumcised idolatrous in the worshippe of God and hostile towards his people can it sincke into your eares without pittying and bemoaning the gate therof to heare that her walles fell flat and all that was therein was vtterly destroyed both man and woman young and olde oxe and sheepe and asse with the edge of the sworde and the citty burnt with fire all that was in the citty except some silver and gold that was reserved Though Iericho be suncke so low that it shall never rise againe to stand long for it is sealed with a curse to his person that should adventure to reedifie Iericho with the bloud of his eldest and yongest sonnne yet say to your selues when you reade that lamentable narration alas for Iericho because it was a citty sometimes girded with walles fortified with bulwarkes stored with treasure and wealth peopled with men and furnished with other such habilities as the very name of a citty presently implieth But that Ierusalem wherof I also spake Ierusalem the sanctified citty and the cittye of the everlasting God Ierusalem builte in vnitye Ierusalem the Queene and Empresse of the provinces so defaced and levelled with the ground that not a stone was left standing vpon a stone neither in their houses walles bulwarkes turrets no nor in the altars sanctuary temple of Ierusalem the old and young matrones virgins mothers infants princes priests prophets Nazarites all slaine famished fettered skattered abroade vtterlye consumed If it come into the minde of any man either by reading or hearing vvithout commiseration I say that his heart is more barbarous and rude than the very fragments and rubbell wherein Ierusalem is lodged Who can expresse those havockes by speech or finde teares enough to equall their miseries For this cause I vveepe faith the Prophet mine eye even mine eye casteth out water which it draweth vp from the fountaine of my over-flowing heart and he calleth to the daughter of Sion to let teares run downe like a river daie night to take no rest neither to suffer the apple of her eie to cease to arise cry in the night in the beginning of the watches to power out her heart like water before the Lord. Aeneas Silvius in his oration of the spoile of CoÌ„staÌ„tinople against the Turke with great compassion relateth the murdering of their children before the faces of their parents the noble meÌ„ slaughtered like beasts the Priests torne in pieces the religious flead the holy virgins incestuously defiled the mothers their daughters despightfully vsed at leÌ„gth he crieth out O miseraÌ„ vrbis faciem O the miserable face of that citty O vnhappy people O wicked Mahomet Who is able to report such things without tears there was nothing to be seene but ful of mourning murder bloud-shed dead carkasses At last converting himselfe to Greece his mind eveÌ„ quaking starting backe with sorrow he thus bewaileth it O famous renowmed Greece behold now thy end now thou art dead alas how many mighty wealthy citties haue heretofore bin extinguished what is become of Thebes of Athens of Micene of Larissa of Lacedemon of Corinth of other memorable townes whose wals if thou seekest for thou canst not find so much as their ruines no maÌ„ caÌ„ shew the grouÌ„d werein they are are laid along our meÌ„ do oftentimes look for Greece in Greece it selfe only CoÌ„staÌ„tinople is no remaining of the carkasses of so many citties Such so lamentabl hath ever been the devastation of citties to meÌ„ of any affection such it seemed to God in this place shall not I spare Niniveh that great city Ionas could haue found in his hearte to haue seene it in the dust corne fieldes ploughed vp where the walles buildinge stood or rather an heape of nettles and salt-pits in the place thereof the smoake of the fire waving in the aire hiding away the light of the sun the flames spiring vp into heaveÌ„ the king his senatours marchants people those that walked with staues for age those that were nourished at the breasts for weaknes their flocks of sheepe heards of cattle all wasted and consumed in the saÌ„e pile if God would haue yelded to the madnes of his cruel appetite But he aunswereth with more clemency shall not I spare Niniveh that great citty Hitherto were but titles names the proofe followeth Wherein are sixe thousand persons that cannot discerne c. It may easily be ghessed quantus sit numerus alteriuâ— aetatis cúm tantus sit parvulâ—ruÌ„ how great the number of other ages when there were so many infants The prophecie was here fulfilled vvhich vvas given to Israel Iudah Ier. 31. Behold the daies come that I vvill sowe the house of Israell the house of Iudah with the seede of man and the seede of
vt pueri Iunonis avem and schollers wondering more at men that they doe so little for them learning never departeth ashamed and discontented from your face I adde with most zealous and thankefull commemoration in behalfe of my mother and all the children at her knees your loue to our Vniversitie Of whose age and nativity which others haue beene carefull to set downe I dispute not But whither shee bee the elder sister it seemeth by that neglect wherein shee now standeth that shee hath lost the honour and inheritance of her birth-right or vvhither the younger your Lordship hath not many companions to ioine with you in compassion and say in these daies soror est nobis parva we haue a little sister and shee hath no breastes or rather hath not succor to fill out her breastes what shall vvee doe for her How many commō respectes to let private alone a vvhile haue naturally borne me to the centre and pointe of your Honours onely patronage I deny not when at my comming from the North it first came into my head to divulgate these readings my purpose was to haue made the chiefe founders and procurers thereof my two deceased Lords the chiefe patrones also that as the rivers runne to the place from whence they come so these tokens of my gratefull minde might returne to the principall authours Wherein the worlde might iustly haue censured me with the words of the Prophet what from the living to the dead contrary to the vse and fashion of all other men But so I meane both to avoide the suspicion of a fault which the world laboureth of flattering of great personages who was and am content that all mine expectations in any respecte from them or theirs bee laid in the same dust vvherein their bones lye and to shew that loue is stronger then death and that the vnexorable barres of the graue cannot forbid a man to continue that affection to the memory of the dead vvhich he carried to the living For which cause as others provided spices and balmes and monuments of stone or brasse to preserue their bodies so I intended a monument of paper and such other preservatiues as I coulde to keepe their names in life which the violence of time cannot so quicklye iniurye as the fatall vngratefulnesse of these latter daies But your Lordshippes most vndeserved and vnlooked for bounty towards mee hath altered that meaninge In whose countenance speech evermore from the first houre that I came into your honorable presence there dwelt such plentifull comfortes and encouragements to make me hope for better times that I never went a way but with more fatnesse to my bones And now the world can witnesse vvith mee how largely you haue opened your hand and sealed vp that care in freely bestowing vpon mee not Leah but Rahel even the daughter of your strength the best that your Honour had to bestow I say not for my service of twice 7. yeares but being yet to begin my first houres attendance Which more then credible benignity my right hande were vvorthye to forgette her cunninge if shee tooke not the first occasion to write and report with the best skill shee hath Notwithstanding I haue bene bold thus farre after the trees shaken and the vintage gathered to your Honours vse to leaue as it were a berrye or two in the vtmost boughes to my former Lordes and by making some little mention of their happy memories both to testify mine auncient duety towards them and to deliver them what I might from the night of forgetfulnesse who were the shining lampes of the North in their life time Such a Moses and such an Aaron such a Josuah to lead the people and such a Priest to beare the Arke such a Zorobabel and such a Jehozadak such a Centurion in Capernaum to rule the country and such a Jairus to governe the Synagogue when the Lorde shall send togither againe I will then saie hee hath restored his blessing amongst them To this purpose I haue added two sermons more to these Lectures vppon Ionas the one preached at the funeralles of my former Lord the late Archbishop of Yorke the other no way pertinent to the latter the right noble Earle of Huntingdon except because hee commanded it and it was not many weekes before his death and the subiect was so agreeable to his most faithfull and vnsteined heart For if the sound of the tongue and applause of the handes may perswade for him he never behelde the light of heaven within this land that more honoured the light of England Long may it sparkle and flame amongst vs according to his harty wishes Let neither distempered humours within quench it nor all the waters of the sea betwixt Spaine and vs bring rage and hostility enough to put it out but let the light of Gods owne most blessed countenance for ever ever shine vpon it It nowe remaineth that in the humblest manner I can I wholy resigne my selfe and the course of my life to your honourable both protection and disposition askinge pardon for my boldnesse and defense for these my simple endeavours beseeching the God of heaven earth to multiply his richest blessings vpon your Honour your Lady and your Children whither within or without the land Your Lordshippes most bounden and dutifull Chaplaine JOHN KINGE THE FIRST LECTVRE Cap. 1. verse 1.2 The word of the Lord came also vnto Ionah the sonne of Amittai saying Arise and go to Niniveh c. COmparisons betwixt scripture and scripture are both odious and dangerous In other sortes of thinges whatsoeuer is commendable may either be matched or preferred according to the worth of them I will not make my selfe so skilful in the orders of heaven as to advance angel aboue angel but I am sure one star differeth from another in glorie And God hath giuen the rule of the day to the sunne of the night to the moone because they differ in beauty The captaines of the sonnes of Gad without offence might beare an vnaequall report One of the least could resist an hundred and the greatest a thousand because their prowesse and actes were not aequall There was no wrong done in the Antheme which the women song from all the citties of Israell Saul hath slaine his thousande and David his tenne thousande The vnlike desertes of these two princes mighte iustly admit an vnlike cōmēdation One Cato may be of more price then hundreth thousandes of vulgar men and Plato may stande for all Our Saviour in the gospell preferreth old wine before new Aristotle liketh better of the wine of Lesbos thē the wine of Rhodes he affirmeth both to be good but the Lesbian the more pleasant alluding vnder that parable to the successour of his schoole and noting his choise rather of Theophrastus borne at Lesbos then Menedemus at Rhodes But the whole scripture is giuen by inspiration of God neither in his greate house of vvritten counsels is
and cannot be satisfied with the pure and vndefiled word of God converting their soules but being called out of darkenesse into a marveilous light they call themselues out of light into a marveilous darkenesse againe What is this but to feele for a wall at noone day as Iob speaketh that is when the clearest light of the gospell of Christ shineth in the greatest brightnesse and perfection thereof to wrap it vp in the darknes of such disputations as bring no profit You see the occasion of my speech the indiscretion and abuse of those men who take the scriptures as it were by the necke writhe them from the aime and intention of the holy ghost The substance of the commission followeth Arise and goe to Niniveh that great citie c. Every word in the charge is weighty and important 1 Arise In effect the same commaundement which was giuen to Ieremy Trusse vp thy loines arise and speake to them the same which to Ezekiel Sonne of man stand vpon thy feete that is set thy selfe in a readines for a chargeable service sit not in thy chaire lie not vpon thy couch say not to thy soule take thine ease Arise It craueth the preparation and forwardnes not onely of the body but also of the minde and spirit of Ionas 2 Goe When thou art vp keepe not thy tabernacle stand not in the market place nor in the gates of Ierusalem nor in the courtes of the Lords house but girde vp thy reines put thy sandales about thy feete take thy staffe in thine hand thou hast a iorney and voiadge to be vndertaken Goe 3 To Niniveh Not to thine owne country where thou wast borne and bredde and art familiarly acquainted linked with thy kindred and friends and hast often prophecied but to a forreign nation whose language will be ridles vnto thee to the children of Assur the rod and scourge of Israell Goe to Niniveh 4 To Niniveh a citie c. No hamlet nor private village but a place of frequencie and concourse proud of her walles and bulwarkes plentifully flowing with wealthe her people mutiplied as the sandes of the river and the more populous it is the more to be feared and suspected if thy message please them not The first that ever built a city was Cain and it is noted by some divines that his purpose therein was to in viron himselfe with humane strength the better to avoide the curse of God 5 A greate city Large and spacious which had multiplied her marchantes aboue the starres of heaven and her princes as grasshoppers the Emperours courte the golden heade of the picture the ladie of the earth the seate of the monarch the mother city and heade of the whole land 6 Cry When thou art come to Niniveh keepe not silence smoother not the fire within thy bones make not thy heade a fountaine of teares to vveepe in secret for the sinnes of that nation vvrite not the burden in tables vvhisper not in their eares neither speake in thy vsuall and accustomed strength of speech but Crye lifte vp thy voyce like a trumpet charme the deafest adder in Niniveh let thy voice bee heard in their streetes and thy sounde vppon the toppes of their houses 7 Against it Thou mightest haue thought it sufficient to haue cried vvithin the cittie of Niniveh it vvoulde haue dravvne the vvonder of the people vppon thee to haue seene a matter so insolent and seldome vsed But thou must cry against it even denounce my vengeance and preach fire and brimstone vppon their heades if they repent not 8 For their wickednesse c. But the reason shal be handled in the proper place thereof For brevities sake I will reduce the whole vnto three heades 1 The place which the prophet is sent vnto Arise and goe to Niniveh 2 What he is to doe in Niniveh Cry against it 3 For what cause For their wickednesse is come vp before me These two former words differing sōwhat in degree the one calling vp Ionas as it were from sleepe Arise the other setting him forward in his way Go and the one happily belonging to the inward the other to the outward man as they import a dulnes and security in vs without Gods instigation and furtherance so they require a forwardnes and sedulity of every seruant he hath in his severall calling Our life is a warfare vppon the earth saith Iob the condition whereof is still to be exercised Iacob the patriarch after his long experience of an hundred and thirty wearisome winters called it a pilgrimage of fewe and evill daies therefore no rest to be taken in it They that accounte it a pastime shewe that their heart is ashes their hope more vile then the earth we walke vpon We must awake from sleepe stande vp from the dead for idlenes is a very graue vnto vs that Christ may giue vs light we are called into a vineyard some one or other vocation of life and christianity the vniversall vineyard common to vs all Shall wee stand to see and to bee seene as in a market place and doe nothing Are wee now to learne that the penny of eternall blisse is reserved for workemen and the difference betweene the hiring of God and the divell is that God requireth the labour before hee payeth the wages the divell paieth the wages before hand that so he may dull our edge vnto labour and nurse vs in idlenesse for paines to come VVhen wee heare the messengers of God returne with these vnwelcome tidings vnto him wee haue gone through the whole world beholde it sitteth still and is at rest can wee bee ignorant what echo resoundes vnto it for when they shall say peace and safetie then shall come vpon them sodaine destruction as travell vpon a woman with childe and they shall not escape Haue wee not red that idlenesse and security was one of the sinnes that overthrewe Sodome and her daughters that allthough themselues slept and snorted in pleasure yet their damnation slept not And what els is an idle man but a citie vvithout defence which when the enemy of the soule hath destroyed he saith as that other enemy in Ezechiel I will go vp to the land that hath no walled towers I will go to them that are at rest and dwell in safety which dwell all without walles and haue neither barres nor gates The fodder the whip and the burthen belong to the asse meate correction and worke vnto thy servant Send him to labour that hee grow not idle for idlenes bringeth much evill it is the counsell of the sonne of Syrach happy is that man that ordereth his servant according to that counsaile I meane that saith vnto his flesh arise and it ariseth goe and it goeth As the Centurion in the gospell said to his souldiour do this and he did it Augustus the emperour hearing that a gentleman of Rome notwithstanding a great burthen of
debt vvherewith he was oppressed slept quietly and tooke his ease desired to buy the pallet that hee lodged vpon his servants marveâ—ling thereat he gaue them this answere that it seemed vnto him some wonderfull bed and worth the buying whereon a man could sleepe that was so deepely indebted Surely if we consider with our selues the duety and debt vve owe to God and man to our country to our family to homeborne to strangers that is both to Israell and to Niniveh and most especially to those of the houshold of faith that as it was the lawe of God before the law that we shoulde eate our bread in the sweat of our face so it is the law of the gospell also that hee that laboureth not should not eate that the blessed sonne of God ate his bread not onely in the sweate but in the bloud of his browes rather he ate not but it was his meate to doe his fathers will and to finish his worke that even in the state of innocency Adam was put into the garden to dresse it that albeit all labourers are not chosen yet none are chosen but labourers that the figge tree was blasted by the breath of Gods owne lippes with an everlasting curse because it bare but leaues and the axe of heavy displeasure is laide vnto the roote of every tree that is barren of good fruites and if it be once dead in naturall vegetation it shall bee twise deade in spirituall malediction and pluckt vp by the roote It would make vs vow vvith our selues I will not suffer mine eie-liddes to slumber nor the temples of my head to take any rest vntill I haue finished that charge vvhereunto I am appointed Iacobs apologie to Laban may be a mirrour to vs all not to neglect our accountes to a higher maister then ever Laban vvas These twentie yeares haue I beene in thy house I was in the daie consumed with heate and with frost in the night and the sleepe departed from mine eies So industrious vvas Iacob to discharge the dueties of his place and carefull to make his reckoning straight vvith his maister vpon the earth But I speake of an heavier reckoning to an heavier Lord that will aske an account of everie idle worde much more of an idle habite and therefore let them foresee that heate and that frost to come those restlesse eies the hire of their forepassed drowsinesse for daies for nightes for everlasting generations that are ever framing an excuse It is either hotte or cold that I cannot worke there is a Lyon in the streete or a Beare in the way that I dare not goe forth that being called to an office and having their taskes laide forth vnto them say not vvith Samuell at the call of the Lorde Speake Lord thy servant heareth but in a stubborne and perverse veine speake and command Lord and appoint my order wherein I shall vvalke but I neither heare thy voice neither shall my heart goe after thy commaundements I passed by the field of the sloathfull saith Salomon and by the vineyard of the man destitute of vnderstanding and loe it was all growen over with thornes and nettles had covered the face thereof Peruse the rest of that scripture The wise king behelde and considered it well and received instruction by it that a litle sleepe brought a greate deale of poverty and a little slumber a greate deale of necessity And surely as the field of the slouthfull is covered with nettles and thornes so shall his body be overgrowen vvith infirmities his minde vvith vices his conscience shall want a good testimony to it selfe and his soule shal be empty of that hope hereafter which might haue reioiced it I ende this point Ionas his arise and go to Niniveh giueth a warning to vs all for wee haue all a Niniveh to go vnto Magistrates arise and go to the gate to execute Gods iudgementes Ministers arise and go to the gospel to do the workes of Evangelists people arise and go to your trades to eate the labours of your handes eye to thy seeing foote to thy walking Peter to thy nettes Paul to thy tents Marchant to thy shipping Smith to thy anvile Potter to thy wheele vvomen to your whernes and spindles let not your candle go out that your workes may praise you in the gates Your vocations of life are Gods sanctions he ordeined them to mankinde he blesseth them presently at his audite hee will crowne them if when he calleth for an account of your forepassed stewardships you be able to say in the vprightnes of your soule I haue runne my race and as the maister of the house assigned me so by his grace and assistance I haue fulfilled my office But why to Niniveh Niniveh of the Gentiles vncircumcised Niniveh Niniveh of the Assyrians imperious insolent intolerable Niniveh Niniveh swollen with pride and her eies standing out of her heade with fatnesse Niniveh setled vpon her lees not lesse then a thousand three hundred yeares Niniveh infamous for idolatrie with Nisroch her abhomination Niniveh with idlenes so vnnaturallie effeminated and her iointes dissolued vnder Sardanapalus as some conceiue their 38. Monarch who sate and spanne amongst women that as it was the wonder and by-word of the earth so the heavens aboue could not but abhorre it Foure reasons are alleadged why Ionas was sent to Niniveh First God will not smite a citye or towne without warning according to the rule of his owne lawe that no city bee destroyed before peace hath beene offered vnto it The woman of Abell in her wisedome obiected this law vnto Ioab when he had cast vp a mounte against Abel where shee dwelt They spake in olde time and said They should aske of Abell and thus haue they continued that is first they should call a parle and open their griefes before they vsed hostility against it The sword of the Lord assuredly is ever drawne and burnished his bow bent his arrowes prepared his instrumentes of death made ready his cuppe mingled yet hee seldome powreth dovvne his plagues but there is a showre of mercie before them to make his people take heede Pax domui huic peace be vnto this house was sounded to everie doore vvhere the Apostles entered but if that house vvere not vvorthy of peace and benediction it returned backe vnto them Vertues were vvroughte in Chorazin and Bethsaida before the vvoe tooke holde vpon them Noah vvas sent to the olde world Lot to Sodom Moses and Aaron to the Aegyptians Prophets from time to time to the children of Israell Iohn Baptist and Christ and the Apostles togither vvith signes in the host of heauen tokens in the elementes to Ierusalem before it was destroied Chrysostome vpon the first to Timothie giueth the reason hereof that God by threatning plagues sheweth vs howe to avoide plagues and feareth vs with hell before hande that we may learne to eschew it And it was his
immortality of their soules others disputing doubting knowing nothing to purpose til their knowledge commeth to late others obiecting themselues to death rather in a vaineglorious ostentation then vpon sound reason I say compare with them one the other side christian consciences neither loving their liues more than a good cause and yet without good cause not leaving them and aske them what they thinke of this temporall life they will answere both by speech and action that they regard not how long or how short it is but how well conditioned I borrow his words of whome I may say concerning his precepts and iudgements for morall life that he was a Gentile-christian or as Paul to Agrippa almost a christian as in the acting of a comedy it skilleth not what length it had but how well it was plaide Consider their magnanimous but withall wise resolutions such I meane as should turne them to greater advantage Esther knew that her service in hand was honourable before God and man and her hope not vaine therefore maketh her rekoning of the cost before the worke begun If I perish I perish her meaning assuredly was If I perish I perish not though I loose my life yet I shall saue it If there were not hope after death Iob would never haue said lo though he kill me yet will I trust in him And what availeth it him to know that his redeemer lived but that hee consequently knewe the meanes wherby his life should be redeemed If the presence of God did not illighten darknes and his life quicken death it selfe David woulde never haue taken such hart vnto him Though I shoulde walke through the valley of the shadowe of death I woulde feare no evill for thou art with mee and thy rodde and thy staffe comforte mee If his shepheardes staffe had fayled him against the Lyon and the Beare which hee slevve at the sheepe-foulde or his sling against Golias that he had fallen into their handes yet this staffe and strength of the Lord could haue restored his losses The sentence that all these bare in their mouthes and harts and kept as their watch-worde was this Death is mine advantage The Apostle taketh their persons vpon him and speaketh for them all Therefore we faint not because we know that if our outward man perish yet the inward man is renued daily God buildeth as fast as nature and violence can destroy Wee know againe that if our earthly house of this tabernacle bee destroyed wee haue a building given of God that is an house not made with handes but eternall in the heavens Vpon the assurance of this house not made of lime and sande nor yet of flesh and bloude but of glorie and immortalitie hee desireth to bee dissolved and to bee with Christ and by his reioycing that hee hath bee dyeth dayly though not in the passion of his body yet in the forwardnesse and propension of his minde and and he received the sentence of death in himselfe as a man that cast the worst before the iudge pronounced it I may say for conclusion in some sort as Socrates did Non vivit cui nihil est in mente nisi vt vivat He liveth not who mindeth nothing but this life or as the Romane orator well interpreteth it cui nihil est in vitâ iucundius vitâ who holdeth nothing in his life dearer then life it selfe For is this a life where the house is but clay the breath a vapour or smoake the body a body of death our garment corruption the moth and the worme our portion that as the wombe of the earth bred vs so the wombe of the earth must againe receiue vs and as the Lorde of our spirites said vnto vs receiue the breath of life for a time so he will say hereafter returne yee sonnes of Adam and go to destruction By this time you may make the connexion of my text The master of the shippe and his company 1. worshippe and pray vnto false Gods that is builde the house of the spider for their refuge 2. Because they are false they haue them in ielousie and suspicion call vpon thy God 3. because in suspicion they make question of their assistaunce if so bee 4. because question of better thinges to come they are content to holde that which already they haue in possession and therefore say that wee perish not With vs it fareth othervvise Because our faith is stedfast and cannot deceiue vs in the corruption of our bodies vexation of our spirites orbity of our vviues and children casualty of goods wracke of ships and liues wee are not removed from our patience we leaue it to the wisedome of God to amend all our mishappes we conclude with Ioab to Abishai The Lorde doe that which is good in his eies honour and dishonour good reporte and evill reporte in one sense are alike vnto vs and though wee bee vnknowne yet wee are knowne though sorrowing yet wee reioyce though having nothing yet wee possesse all thinges though wee bee chastened yet are we not killed nay though we die yet we liue and are not dead we gather by scattering we win by losing we liue by dying we perish not by that which men call perishing In this heauenly meditation let me leaue you for this time of that blessed inheritance in your fathers house the peny nay the poundes the invaluable weight and masse of golde nay of glory after your labours ended in the vineyard meate drinke at the table of the Lord sight of his excellēt goodnes face to face pleasures at his right hand and fulnes of ioy in his presence for euermore Let vs then say with the Psalmist my soule is a thirst for the living God oh whē shall I come to appeare in the presence of our God For what is a prison to a pallace tents boothes to an abiding citty the region of death to the land of the living the life of men to the life of angels a bodie of humility to a body of glory the valley of teares to that holy and heauenly mounte Sion whereon the lambe standeth gathering his saints about him to the participation of those ioies which himselfe enioieth and by his holy intescession purchaseth for his members THE NINTH LECTVRE Cap. 1. ver 7. And they saide euery one to his fellowe Come and let vs cast lottes c. AS the māner of sick men is in an hote ague or the like disease to pant within themselues and by groning to testifie their pangs to others to throw of their clothes and to tosse from side to side in the bed for mitigation of their paines which whether they doe or do not their sicknes still remaineth till the nature thereof bee more neerely examined and albeit they chaunge their place they change not their weaknes so do these Marriners sicke of the anger of God as the other of a feuer disquieted in al their affectiōs
vvhich are not vvilling to redeeme the liues of their brethren shall I say vvith the hazarde of their owne liues no nor with the losse of their shoe-latchets with the hazarde I meane of transitory and fading commodities vvhich never are touched with the afflictions of Ioseph and though a number be greeued and pinched as if they belonged to a forreine bodie neuer vouchsafe to partake the smart with them vvith whome it is a common speech that that dieth let it die that they may knovve at length they were not borne to singe or say laugh or ioy to themselues not to eate and drinke thriue or liue to their priuate families but that others which stand in neede by very prerogatiue of mankinde haue also an interest in their succour and seruice I noted the humanity of the marriners by occasion of some circuÌ„stances before past and I woulde now haue spared you in the repetition of the same argument but that my texte spareth you not I vvere vvorthy of much blame if when my guide shewed mee the way I would purposedly forsake it neither caÌ„ I iustly make mine excuse if when the scripture taketh me by the hand biddeth me commend humanity once againe I then neglect it You may perceiue hovve vvell they affected Ionas both by the continuance and by the excesse of their paines I make it a further proofe that it is saide in the text The men rovved as if hee had saide they vvere meere straungers vnto mee I cannot say they are Grecians or Cilicians I knowe not their countries or dwelling places I knowe not their private generations and kindreds much lesse their proper names and conditions I know them no more then to be men after the name commonly belonging to all mankinde It is an vsuall manner amongst vs when we know not men by their other differences and proprieties to tearme them by that generall appellation which apperteineth equally to vs all When Paul was disposed to conceale his person as touching the visions and revelations which were sent vnto him I knovve saith he a man in Christ whether in the bodie or out of the body c. I say not that he was an Hebrewe I name no Apostle I name not Paul I knovve a man of such a man I vvill reioice of my selfe I vvill not excepte it bee of mine infirmities They asked the young man vvhose sight vvas restored Iohn 6. Hovve his eies were opened who because hee knew not Christ in the propriety either of his nature or office to be the sonne of God or the Messias that shoulde come he answered thus for himselfe The man that is called Iesus made clay and anointed mine eies Concerning whom he afterwardes bevvraieth his ignoraunce whether a sinner or no I cannot tel but one thing I know that I was blinde and now I see Is it not thinke you a vvonderfull blemish and maime to Christianity that those vvho were but men even straungers vnto Ionas aliens in countrey aliens in religion but that they beganne a litle to bee seasoned with the knowledge of the true God shoulde thus bee minded vnto him vvee that are ioyned and builte togither not onely in the frame of our common kinde but in a new building that came from heauen vvee that are men and more than men men of an other birth than vvee tooke from Adam men of a better family than our fathers house regenerate sanctified sealed by the spirite of God against the day of redemption men that are concorporate vnder one heade Iesus Christ knitte and vnited by nature grace by fleshe faith humanity Christianitie shoulde be estranged in affection Christians towards Christians protestantes towards protestants more than ever were Iewes and Samaritanes of whom we read in the gospel that they might not converse Doubtlesse there are many thinges that haue an attractiue vertue to winne and gaine the opinions of men vnto them The vnestimable vvisedome of Salomon drevve a vvoman a Queene from a farre countrey that shee might but heare and question with him The admirable learning of Origen caused vngracious and wicked Porphyrie to go froÌ„ his natiue land â—o the citty of Alexandria to see him and Mammaea the Empresse to send for him into her presence It never wanteth honor that is excellent The voice of friendship where it is firmely plight is this as Ambrose observeth in his offices Tuus sum totus I am wholy thine What difference was there betwixte Alexander Hephestion Marriage by the ordinaÌ„ce of God knoweth no other methode but composition of two it maketh one as God of one before made two by resolution The first day of marriage soleÌ„nized amongst the heathens the bride challenged of the bridegrome Vbi tu Caius ego Caia where you are master I will be mistresse But the onely load-stone attractiue vpon the earth to draw heauen and earth men angels East West Iewes Barbarians sea and lande landes and Islandes togither and to make one of two of thousands of all is religion by which they are coupled and compacted vnder the government of one Lord tied and conglutinate by the sinewes of one faith washed from their sinnes by the same laâ—er of new birth nourished by the milke of the same word feasted at the supper of the same Lambe and assumed by the same spirit of adoption to the vndoubted inheritance of one and the same kingdome And I cannot mislike their iudgement who thinke that the little knowledge of God but elementary learning which Ionas preached when he made his graue confession of the true God laide the foundation of all this kindnes which proceeded from these marriners How hath religion bin a band vnto Christendome the discordes dissensions whereof like a fire in the midst of the house consuming both timber stones haue laide more countries to the dition of the Turke than ever his bow shield could haue purchased Wee maie truely say as they in Athens sometimes we of Athens our selues haue amplified strengthned Philip our enimy It was prudeÌ„tly espied by Cortugal one of the Turkish princes in his oration perswasiue to his Lord to besiege Rhodes Christianus occasus discordijs intestinis corroboratur the fal of Christendome is set forward by civil disagreemeÌ„t In the daies of Mahomet the second they had gleaned out of Christendome I mean those polluted Saracens like scattered eares of corne neglected by the owners 200. cities 12. kingdomes 2. empires What an harvest they haue reaped since that time or rather wee reaped for them who knoweth not yet the canker runneth on fretting and eating into Christendome because the whole neglecteth the partes seeketh not to preserue them VVho is not mooved with that lamentable description which AEneas Silvius maketh of Greece in his oration against the Turkes for the composing and attoneing of Christened kingdomes O noble Greece beholde nowe thine ende thou art deade and buried If vvee seeke for
hee angrye with mee So these affirme in speech that sorrowe is nothing vseth no violence against a wiseman yet when it commeth vpon them they are no more able to endure the gripings of it than other fooles As Taurus spake of the Stoickes ague so may I of the misery of Ionas The force and nature of his miserye did her parte reason and the nature of saith on the other side vvere not idle in their offiâ—es Ionas behaved not himselfe as the deafe roâ—kes of the sea which the waves beating and breaking vpon yet they feele nothing dolere inter dolores nesciens not knowinge how to bee grieved amiddest his griefes but according to the measure and quality of his sorrowes so was his sense and so was the purpose of God by whome they were inflicted To descend now to partâ—culars The matter of his feare or the daunger intended against him arose from two mightye adversaries the sea and the lande His daunger from the sea is tripled in the fifth verse according to the number of the clauses therein First the vvaters compassed him about vnto the soule To have beene in the vvaters had not beene so much nor much to bee compassed and intrenched as those that are helde in siege But that they come vnto his soule the meaning is that his spirite whereof the quickeninge and life of his bodye consisted vvas at hande to departe from him and to yeelde it selfe prisoner to the waters that assaulted it there was the daunger Secondly The depth closed him rounde about The depthe or rather no depthe Some measure of water where the bottome might have beene reached woulde also have kept his feare within a measure But to bee closed about with a bottomelesse water maketh a bottomelesse griefe whereof there is no end 3. the weedes were wrapt about his heade the sedge the flagges the bul-rushes and other the like trashe the very skorne and contempt of the sea daungerous impedimentes to those that by swimming put themselves vpon the mercy of the mercilesse waters they were not now fluent and loose but tied and entangled not about the armes or the legges alone but about the head of Ionas the principall spire of his body the highest tower and as it were capitolle to the city the leader and captaine to all his other partes Now whether his head were bound about with weedes when he was first swallowed vp and so they remained about it still or whither the head of the whale be here the head of Ionas because he is now incorporate into the whale and liveth within him as a part of the whale I examine not but this was the mind of Ionas to omit no word not so much as of the excrementes and superfluities of the sea whereby his inextricable perill might be described His danger by land is likewise expressed in two members of the 6. verse First he was descended to the bottomes or endes or rootes or cuttinges of of the mountaines for where a thing is cut of there it endeth Man by nature and stature was made to ascende God gave him his head vpwardes But Ionas was descended which is the state of the dead according to the phrase of the scripture Descendam lugens c. I shall goe downe sorrowing to my grave Neither vvas hee descended into the sides or some shallowe cave and vawte of the mountaines but as if hee were numbred with those forlorne soules who call vpon whole mountaines fall on vs and vpon whole hils cover vs so vvas he descended ad radices praecisa montium to the rootes and cragges of them lodged in so lowe a cabbin that all those heapes and svvellinges of the earth lay vpon him 2. The earth with her barres was about him for ever What is the strength of a citye or house but the barres of it as we reade in the Psalme Praise the Lord O Ierusalem praise thy God O Sion for he hath made the barres of thy gates stronge and blessed thy children within thee So then the barres of the earth that is the strongest muniments and fenses it hath are the promontories and rockes which God hath placed in the frontiers to withstand the force of the waters These are the barres and gates in Iob which God hath apointed to the sea saying vnto it Hitherto shalt thou passe heere will I stay thy prowde waues and if you wil these also are the pillers of the earth which god hath fixed in such sort that it cannot bee mooved The meaning of the prophet was that hee was lockt and warded within the strengh of the earth never looking to bee set at liberty againe I tolde you before that the nature of the sea wherein Ionas travailed besides the over-naturall working of God did adde much more trouble vnto him than if he had past through the Ocean where he had gained more sea roume and the continent being farther of would haue yelded a liberall current and lesse haue endaungered him Now he hath land round about him by reason whereof the sea is more narrow rockie and hilly apter to stormes skanter of rodes for safety and subiect to a number of other incommodities The course of the seas through which hee past was this First hee tooke shipping at Iapho and was carried thorough the Syriack sea theÌ„ce through Archipelago or the Aegean thence thorough Hellespont betwixt Sestus and Abydus where Asia and Europe are divided not by more than seven furlonges others say but fiue afterwardes thorough Propontis where the sea is patent againe hath his forth from thence through Bosphorus Thracius betwixt Constantinople and Natolia where the passage is so narrow that an oxe may swimme over and lastlie to the Euxine sea where they hold hee was set to land Thus was hee often encumbred with straightes and never had cause to complaine of overmuch liberty where he was most favoured till he came to the dry grounde Thus far of the daungers both by sea and land The first extended his rage not to the chin or lippes of the prophet but to his soule and threatned him with a depthe bottomelesse and vnmeasurable and came not against his life with limpide and pure waters alone but with other impedimentes the vnprofitable pelfe and corruption of the waters The later gaue him not rest vpon a plaine floore of the earth but clasped him vnder the cragges of roâ—kes and held him close prisoner vnder the strongest barres and bounders it had But as in the former staffe of the song so also in this there is a touch of a distrustfull conscience but there it was openly expressed and here it is closely conveyed in The earth with her barres was about mee for ever For what meaneth in seculum for ever but that he was cast away from the saving health helpe of the Lord without all hope of redemption Did hee not know that although his life were taken from him for a time it shoulde bee restored
soule vvhen he is well-nigh spent and it is a question whether his faith be quicke or dead there commeth an other veruntamen like a showre of the later raine in the drought of summer to water his fainting spirite yet hast thou brought vp my life from the pitte O LORDE my GOD. The readings are diverse The Hebrewes sâ—y thou hast brought vp my life or caused it to ascende The septuâ—ginte my life hath ascended Ierome Thou shalt lifte vp Some say from the pitte some the graue some from death some from corruption There is no oddes For whither of the two times bee put the matter is not great Thou hast or thou shalt For the nature of hope is this futura facta dicit Thinges that are to come it pronounceth of as alâ—eadie accomplished In the eigth to the Romanes we are saved by hope though we are not yet saved And whome God hath iustified those hee hath also glorified though not yet glorified Ephesians the second wee are raised from the dead though our resurrection heereafter to be fulfilled But I stay not vpon this It is a rule in Seneca that by the benefite of nature it is not possible for any man to bee grieved much and long togither For in her loue shee beareth vnto vs shee hath so ordered our paines as that shee hath made them either sufferable or shorte that which Seneca imputed to nature I to hope grounded in the promises of God immutable things the safe and sure anchor of the soule of man The sorrow of Ionas was wonderfully vehement but soone alaied Whence had he that speedy mittigation from nature nothing lesse Here what the voice of nature is When the people of Israell crieth vpon Moses for flesh what is his crie to God I am not able to beare this people If I have founde favour in thine eies kill mee that I behold not this misery When Iezabell threatneth to make Elias like one of the dead prophets he hasteth into the wildernes and breaketh out into impatience and irkesomnes of life O Lord it is sufficient either he had lived or he had bene plagued long enough take away my soule from me The woman in the 2. of Esdras having lost her sonne be it a figure or otherwise it is true in both ariseth in the night season goeth into the field decreeth with her selfe neither to eate nor drinke but there to remaine fasting and weeping till shee were dead Esdras councelleth her foolish woman doe not so returne into the city goe to thine husband c. shee answereth I will not I will not goe into the citye but here will I die You heare how nature speaketh Was Ionas thus relieved no. The sense of his owne strength or rather his weakenesse woulde have sent him hedlong as the devils the heard of swine into the lake of desperation It is the Lord his God whose name is tempered according to the riddle of Sampson both of strong and sweete who is forâ—â—ter suavis suaviter fortis strong in sweetenes and sweete in strength fortis pro me suavis mihi strong for me and sweete to me that hath done this deede Behold my brethren there is hoâ—ie in the lion there is mercy in the fearefull God of heaven He is not only a Lord over Ionas to note his maiesty feare but the Lord his God to shew the kindnes of a father It is the Lord his God to whom he repaireth by particular applicatioÌ„ with the disciple of Christ leaneth as it were in his maisters bosome that delivered his life from the pit his soule from fainting Before he lay in the depthes was desceÌ„ded to the ends of the mouÌ„taines c. All that is aunswered in one worde eduxisti thou hast brought me vp from the pit wherein I was buried Before the waters were come even vnto his soule ready to drinke it in and to turne him to corruption but now God hath delivered that soule from the corruption it was falling into What shall we then say the sea hath no mercy the weedes no mercy the earth with her promontaries and bars no mercy the whale no mercy the Lord alone hath mercy It fared with Ionas as with a fore-ruÌ„ner of his when his spirit was coÌ„fused folden vp within him when hee looked vpon his right hand and behold there was none that would know him much lesse at his left wheÌ„ all refuge failed and none cared for his soule then cried he vnto the Lorde his God and saide Thou art my hope and my portion in the land of the living O harken vnto my cry for I am brought very low even as low as the earth is founded and bring my soule out of prison this pit wherin I lie that I may praise thy name O let not life nor death I name noe more for death is the last and worst enemy that shal be subdued bee able to take your hope from you When your heart in thinking or tongue in speaking hath gone too far correct your selues with this wholesome and timely veruntamen yet notwithstanding I will go to the Lorde my God and trust in his name The nailes that were driven into the handes and feete of our Saviour were neither so grievous nor so contumelious vnto him as that reproch that was offered in speech he trusted in the Lorde let him deliver him This was the roote that preserved Iob and Iob preserved it when his friends became foes and added affliction vnto him he willed them to hold their tongues that he might speake not caring what came of it Wherfor do I take my flesh in my teeth saith he and put my soule in my hand that is why should I fret and consume my self with impatience If he shoulde kill me would I not trust in him so far is it of that I despaire of the mercies of God that my life shall sooner leaue me than my assurance of his graces This was the deepe and inwarde matter he ment in the 19. of his booke from the abundance wherof he made that propheticall and heavenly protestation O that my words were written written in a booke and graven with an iron pen in lead or stone for ever I knowe that my redeemer liveth Wormes rottenes shall consume me to nothing but my redeemer is aliue behold he liveth for evermore hath the keies of hell and of death The graue shal be my house and I shall make my bed in darkenes but I shall rise againe to behold the brightnes of his countenance These eies of nature shal sinke into the holes of my head but I shall receiue them againe to behold that glorious obiect And though many ages of the worlde shall run on betwixt the day of my falling his long expected uisitation yet he shalâ— stand the last day vpon the earth himselfe α and ω the first and the last of all the creatures of God to recapitulate former
as never were more rare in the rarest Queene and in the sex of woman-hode carry admiration Why doe I saye woman-hode Vertue is tied neither to revenew nor kinde Iulita a vvoman one that witnessed a good confession for the name of Christ as shee was going to the stake to be burnt exhorted womeÌ„ that they should not complaine of the weakenes of nature because first they were made of the same matter whereof man was finished Secondly to the image of the same God Thirdly as fit and as capable to receive any goodnes Fourthly invested into the like honour Why not saith shee Seeing vvee are kinned vnto men in all respectes For not their flesh alone was taken for the creation of women but wee are bones of their bones for which cause vvee are endebted to God for courage patience virility aswell as men And Basile addeth his owne advise that setting excuse of their sexe aside they shoulde set vpon piety and see vvhither nature hath debarred them of any thing that was common to men I note it the rather because I know it greeveth Abimelech at the heart that a vvoman shoulde cast downe a milstone vpon his head to kill him and therefore hee calleth his page to thrust him thorough that men might not say A woman slew him It greeveth Abimelech of Rome and his whole faction that the church of England and the whole estate of our land vnder the government of a woman shoulde bee better able to defend it selfe against his tyranny than any country in Christendome Their heartes breake with envy hereat their tongues and pennes dissemble not their grudge at the foeminine primacie that a woman should bee the head vnder Christ of the church of Englande But as Chrisostome sometimes spake of Herodias and Iohn Baptist so by a contrary application of their manners may I of two as vnlike as ever fire and water the one to Herodias the other to Iohn Baptist Mulier totius mundi caâ—ut truncavit A woman hath beheaded within her realmes and dominions the falsely vsurpinge and surmised heade of the whole worlde Her father and brother of most famous memory had broken his leggs before as they brake the leggs of the theeues vpon the crosse the one his right legge of rentes and revenewes the milke and hony of our lande the other his left legge of idolatrous worshippes the doctrine of men false and erronious opinions wherewith the children of this realme had beene poisoned a longe time Queene Elizabeth hath bruised his heade for though his legges were broken hee began to gather strengh againe Hee now commaundeth not liveth not within our land saving in a few disordered and luxate members which as the parts of an adder cutte a sunder retaine some life for a time but never I trust shall growe into a body againe neither ever is hee likely to revive amongst vs vnlesse the Lord shall raise him vp for a plague to our vnthankefulnesse And therefore as they saide of Tarquinius Priscus in Rome a Corinthian borne and a straunger to their city hee hath vvell deserved by his vertues that our city shall never repent it of chusing a straunger to the king so by her gracious and religious government amongst vs hath her most excellent Maiesty worthily purchased that England shall never be sory that a woman was the Queene thereof When shee came to her crowne shee found the country as Augustus the city of Rome of bricke shee turned it into marble Shee founde it in the sandes she set it vpon a rocke the foundation of prophets and apostles shee founde it a lande of images ignorances corruptions vanities lies shee hath hitherto preserved it and I hope shall leave it to posterity a lande possest of the truth and seasoned with the gospell of Christ crucified This this is the savingest salvation that the Lorde hath this the blessing and happinesse that we enioy vnder her gracious government besides our peace such as our fathers never presumed to hope for plenty prosperity corporall benefites in that we lend and borrowe not not onely our milke but our bloud mony and men too to those that want and when wee ringe our belles for ioy and give eare to the noise of timbrelles and tabrets others are frighted with other kindes of soundes the neying of horses roaring of great ordinance howling of women and children to see their orbities and miseries before their eies I say this is the blessing vvee reape that the gospell is free by her procurement our consciences not enthralled to the ordinances of men our zeale rectified by knowledge and our religion reformed by the statutes of the highest God Now as we have great reason to singe merily vnto the Lorde and vvith a good courage Salvation is the Lordes for these graces so vvhat was the cause of her owne so many miraculous deliverances both before and since shee sate vpon the seate of her fathers but the same Salvation that by saving her saved vs I am sure shee was in daunger either of vvolves or of butchers when her rightuous soule cried Tanquam ovis and as a sheepe was shee led to the slaughter or not far from it When her innocency coulde not be her shield but though shee were free from crime and God and man might iustly have cleared her yet shee was not free from suspicion When she feared that the scaffolde of the Lady Iane stood for an other tragedie wherein her selfe should haue plaide the wofullest part Since which almost despaired escapes but that her time as David spake and her soule was in the handes of that Lord who deposeth and setteth vp Princes how it hath fared vvith her both at home and abroade we al know partly from trayterous and false-hearted Achitophels which haue served her with an hearte and an hearte partely from the bloudy bishops of Rome and their pernicious seminaries as full of mischiefe to Christendome as ever the Troian horse to the inhabitants of Troy partly from the king of Spaine whose study long hath beene to bee the Monarke of Europe of whom it is true that they spake of another Philippe of Macedon that hee bought the more part of Greece before hee conquered it so he buyeth countries before he winneth them and would doe that by his Indian gold which will be little ease for him to doe by men They haue long maliced her and I trust long shall and malice shall doe the nature of malice that is drinke out the marrowe and moysture of those that foster it and bring their devises vpon their owne heades as Nadab and Abihu were consumed with the fire of their owne censors So long as Salus Iehovae endureth which is as long as Iehovâ—h himselfe our hope shall not perish He hath even sworne by his holinesse as he did to David his servaunt not to faile Queene Elizabeth He that prevented her with liberall blessings before shee tooke the scepter into
to day neither too shorte least they might despaire of mercy by thinking themselues overmuch straightned But as Salomon bounded his estate in a middle and convenient sort betweene povertie and ririches little and much least â—f hee were too full he might deny his maker and aske who is the Lord or if hee were too emptie he might steale and take the name of God in vaine so is the time of this people temperatly measured vnto them betweene long and shorte that neither abundaunce of daies may make them forget GOD nor skarsitie driue them from the hope of their vvished salvation Auncient woundes saieth Ierome are not cured in haste the plaister must long lie vpon them and the olde festared sinnes of Niniveh coulde not be done away vvith a daies repentance The measure and quantitie of their iudgement is an overthrow Niniveh shall bee destroyed Shee might haue beene plagued many vvaies and yet haue stood vpon her pillers and foundations plagued vvith the want of raine as Samaria in the daies of Ahab with skarsitie of breade with pestilence vvith siege of enemies with the tyranny and exaction of her own kings and governours but these are all too light in the eies of God and nothing will satisfie his iustice but her finall subversion If the grape-gatherers come to a vine saith Ieremie vvill they not leaue some grapes if theeues come by night they vvill but steale till they haue enough but Niniveh must bee gathered and prayed vpon by the vnsatiable iudgment of God till it hath left her nothing Some of the Hebrewes thinke that Niniveh should haue beene destroyed by fire from heaven as Sodome and Gomorrhe were Others suppose by the sworde of a forreigne enimie If by the former of these tvvo what a fearefull thinge vvas it that in steede of the fatnesse of the clowdes the greater and the smaller raine the sweete dewes of heauen comfortable showers which God hath engendered in the aire and devided by pipes to fall vpon the earth in their seasons their ground should be watered nay vvithered and the fruites of the earth cherished nay consumed their temples and buildinges resolved into cinders yea their very skinnes and bones molten from their backes with the heate of Gods vengeance The other in effect is not much behinde though in manner and kinde different vvhen so forcible and fierce an enemy commeth that destructions shall not need to arise vp the second time where neither the aged hath reverence for his gray haire nor the suckling release for the innocency of his age where neither matrone nor virgin priest nor Senatour shall be priviledged from slaughter When mourning shall be in their streetes and they shall saie in all their high waies alas alas or as it is in the fourth of Ieremy Woe is mee for my soule fainteth because of the murders vvhen there shall bee no man lefte to carry nevves to the next citye none to say to his friende leave thy fatherlesse children to mee and I will preserve them alive and let thy vviddowes trust in mee Finallye when the bloud of men shall bee powred out as dust and their flesh as dung and all the beastes of the field togither with the foules of the aire shall be called to a sacrifice of dead corpses The subiect of that overthrow is Niniveh Niniveh in state and magnificence as the stars of God Niniveh that excellent city which had her name from God himselfe Niniveh of such antiquity that from the floud of Noah she had stood vpright Niniveh that over-avved Babylon destroyed Samaria brought Ierusalem vnder tribute and was the rod of Gods anger to smite the nations with Niniveh that glorious city which dwelt in confidence and saide in her hart I am there is none besides me Niniveh must be subverted Niniveh built with so much labor and ambition by infinite numbers of men exquisite artificers vnmesurable chardges Niniveh with her walles 400. miles about their heighth and theit bredth wondered at vvith her thousand five hundred turrets so glorious to the eie Niniveh must bee subverted Her wealthy insoleÌ„t imperious inhabitaÌ„ts not only those of Assiria but the choise of al the couÌ„tries rouÌ„d about father son nephew old young all must be destroied It is not the losse of their king alone that is here threatned nor decay of marchants men of war nor the rooting out of the noblest families in Niniveh nor the funerals of private houses It is the fal overthrow without restraint of the whole city Thus pride when it commeth to the highest I say not in the sonnes of men and women but in the very sonne of the morning and the angels of heaven and not onely in common and singular persons but in societies citties kingdomes monarchies shall be brought downe Notvvithstanding vvrite it in tables and let it be a monument for the last day hovv gracious the Lord is towardes vngracious sinners Niniveh is threatned to be overthrowen and hath yet forty daies stinted to repent her in but vvho can number the yeares vvhich Niniveh hath enioyed aforetime yet God is content to sustaine the losse and profusion of all those and as he added in mercy 15. yeares to the life of Ezechias so to the life and being of Niniveh 40. daies The particle of remainder yet 40. daies doth woÌ„derfully set forth the bounty of God that albeit ten generations had past before and ten more succeeded vvithout fruit yet he woulde spare them thus much longer to try their amendment The people of the Iewes endured sufficiently in the vvildernes when he protested in the Psalme forty yeares long was I grieved with this generation not only provoked offended discontented but grieved at his very soule vvho could haue grieved all the vaines of their harts and taught them the price of angring so dreadfull a maiesty as his is In the prophecie of Ieremie he repeateth their disobedience from farther antiquity The children of Israell and the children of Iudah haue surelie done evill before mee from their youth and this city hath beene vnto mee a provocation of anger from the day that they first built it But I neede not labour to prooue the patience of God when the worst servant in his house confesseth it My master is gone into a farre countrey and vvill not returne in hast yea when the Athiest and skorner himselfe acknowledgeth no lesse For if they vvere not acquainted vvith his patience and long sufferance they vvoulde never haue called it slacknesse nor askt in derision for the promise of his comming nor taken advantage of impiety because al things had stoode in their state from the daies of their fathers nor put the evill daie farre from them and slaundered the footsteppes of Gods anointed sonne The time of this life is as the forty daies of Niniveh a time of repentance to some it is forty yeares as it was to
the light of his countenance the life of his compassions taken away his wrath kindled nay his fierce and furious wrath the length and breadth whereof no more than of his mercies canne be measured there ensueth an abundance of misery vvith a diligent traine of all kindes of plagues having an open field to range in because there is no wil in God to resist them Therfore they beleeved in the fourth place that if his presence were recovered his decree changed and his wrath stopt they should be freed from the danger threatned vnto thē assuring thēselues otherwise that the buildings of their city should sinke downe stone after stone and that the children thereof should all be buried and entombed togither in one cōmon destruction Therefore miserable is their estate who liue within the vapour and heate of Gods displeasure We are all by nature the children of wrath borne to inherite it as we inherite our fathers lands but Christ hath purchased vs favour by his bloud we confirme it to our selues in some sort by making conscience to offend walking warily in the feare of the Lord. But such as run on their wicked race without turning draw their vnhappy breath vvithout repenting heaping anger vpon anger and not caring to pacifie the force therof their ende is the ende of the sentence that they are sure to perish not in themselues alone but in al that appertaineth vnto them their tabernacles children posteriey memortials nor onely in the life of their bodies but in the life and eternity of their soules nor for an age and generation of time but whilst God raigneth in heaven able to do iustice To avoide this danger it shal be safe for vs all to quēch the anger of God in time to take the bloud of the Lambe and cast vpon the flames therof and through the riches of his merites to seeke the acceptance and to hold acquaintance friendship vvith our God that we perish not And God sawe their workes c. We are now come to the fourth part of the chapter the mercy of God towardes Niniveh greater than both the former because it is not exhibited to one as vnto Ionas nor vnto a fewe as vnto the mariners but vnto a whole citty plentifully peopled and stored with inhabitantes Even so it is whither one or more many or fewe man woman childe citties kingdomes Empires worldes all generations past present and those that are to come wee drawe out waters of ioy and comfort out of this well of salvation There is a degree also in the wordes of this sentence For 1. God approoveth their workes and conceaveth a liking of their service done if you will knowe what works you haue it by explication made plaine their conversion from their evill waies that is their whole course of repentance Secondly vpon that approbation hee repented him of the evill which hee saide hee woulde bringe vpon them Thirdly vpon that repentance and change of minde he doth it not The words are not greatly obscure a little explanation may serue to vnfold them God saw Why was he a straunger till that time in Niniveh or did he but then begin to open his eyes to take the knowledge of their works or is ther any thing in heavē or earth or in the deepe that he seeth not with his eies tē thousand times brighter than the sun yea though it were hid I say not within the reines hearts of our bodies but in the reines and hart of the lowest destruction Some interpret it thus he saw that is he made thēselves to see or the world to see that hee was well pleased with their workes others more simplie and truly he saw their works that is himselfe approved them as Gen. 1. hee saw that the light was good that is he allowed it by his iudgement so heere hee shewed by his fact event that followed that the repētance of Niniveh highly cōtented him Likewise Gen. 4. God looked vnto the gift of Abel but not vnto the gift of Cain he saw thē both with his eie of knowledge but not of liking good affection Or to say further God saw that in the works of the Ninivites which if Ionas or the whole world had presumed to have seene they had deceived themselves he saw their hearts from whence those works proceeded how truly syncerely they were done without dissimulatiō In this sense we say that the church is invisible as we are taught in our Creede we rather beleeve that it is thā with our eies can behold it not that we turne men into spirits not having flesh bones or into trāsparēt substāces such as the aire is which we cannot see but because although we behold the body the outward appearance wee cannot search into their spirites neither are able to discerne them in that whereby they are Christians and of the householde of faith Wee thinke they are myrtles when they are but netles lambes when they are but vvoolues and citizens of Ierusalem vvhen they are but Iebusites Their workes Not onely their workes of ceremony order and discipline as fasting sackcloth crying which are not godlinesse it selfe but gestures and behaviours setting it forth nor onely their morall workes of charity towardes God and man in forsaking their wicked waies and making restitution of ill gotten goodes for these are most of them outwarde workes but hee sawe the workes also of the inward man and as it is expounded in the next vvordes hee saw their perfect and full conversion which consisted not in fasting and sackcloth alone or in formall professions but in the change and alteration of all their powers Thus to acknowledge the true and immortal God is a worke but a worke of the spirit both because the spirit of God is the author and because the spirite of man is the actour and administer thereof To beleeue is also a worke of the spirit for when they asked Ioh 6. What shall wee doe that wee might worke the workes of God Iesus answered them this is the worke of God that yee believe in him whome hee hath sent GOD sawe all these workes in them what they thought howe they beleeved which way the purposes of their heartes were bente hee sawe their faith as well as their ceremonies their iustice Evangelicall aswell as their Legall hee sawe their whole bodye of repentance wherein there was knowledge desire iudgement affection faith hope and whatsoever else was requisite to bee vsed in that worke And God repented Wee had the worde before who knoweth if God will repent But can this bee Repentance hath ever some griefe annexed vnto it and an accusation of our selues of something done amisse which wee woulde gladly retract both these are far from God who sitteth in heaven having all sufficiencye of pleasure and contentment in himselfe and for his workes abroade they are so exactly done by rule that wee cannot suspect any errour
chardge you at this time with these particulars 1. what Ionas made a booth 2. for what vse to sit vnder the shadowe of it 3. how long to continue till hee mighte see vvhat vvas done in the cittie The 1. and the 2. shew vnto vs the one the nature the other the vse of all buildinges By nature they are but boothes and tabernacles and such as the Prophet reporteth of Sion that shee shoulde remaine as a cottage in a vineyarde and like a lodge in a garden of cucumbers Or as Iob speaketh in the 27. of his booke like a lodge that the watchman maketh no longer to abide than till that service is ended I would be loth to tearme them the houses of spiders and moathes as Iob doth but compared with eternity such they are The patriarches and people of auncienter times dwelt but in tentes easily pight and as easily remooved and as many other things in antiquity so this amongst the rest was a figure to all the ages of the world to come that so long as they dwell vpon the earth they haue but a temporall and transitory habitation The earth which we dwel vpon is but our place of soiourning and wherein vvee are strangers as God tolde Abraham Gen. 17. In the 47 of the same booke Pharaoh asked Iacob howe many were the daies of the yeares of his life Iacob to expresse our condition of travailing and flitting vpon the earth to and fro aunswered the king the whole time not of my life but of my pilgrimage or rather pilgrimages by reason of often remooues is an hundreth and thirty yeares Few and evill haue the daies of my life beene and I haue not attained vnto the yeares of the life of my fathers in the daies of their pilgrimages David 1. Chron. 29. giveth thankes vnto the Lord in behalfe of himselfe and his people that they were able to offer so willingly towards the building of the temple because all thinges came of him and from his owne hande or liberalitie they had given vnto him For saith he we are strangers before thee and soiourners like all our fathers our daies are as the shadowe vpon the earth and there is none abiding Thus Iacob and his fathers David and his Princes and his people and their fathers al were pilgrimes Let vs see nowe what vse the Apostle maketh hereof Hee saith of Abell Enoch Noah Abraham Sarah and the rest that all these died in faith and received not the promises but sawe them a farre of and beleeved them and receaved them thankefullie and confessed that they vvere strangers pilgrimes on the earth For they that say such things declare plainly that they seeke a country It may bee their owne from whence they were exiled the Apostle aunswereth no. For if they had beene mindefull of that countrey froÌ„ whence they came out they had leasure to haue returned But now they desire a better that is an heavenly Wherefore God is not ashamed of them to be called their God for he hath prepared for theÌ„ a citty Likewise he exhorteth vs Heb. 13. As Iesus to sanctifie the people vvith his owne bloud suffered without the gate so that we should goe forth of the campe bearing his reproach for here we haue no continuing citty but wee seeke one to come And our Saviour told his disciples Ioh. 4. that in his fathers house there were many mansions or settled dwellings for here wee haue but tabernacles Houses I confesse we haue as foxes haue thtir holes birdes their nestes and bees their hiues to be chased and driven from them but till the promise be fulfille which is mentioned Revel 21. that the tabernacle of God shal be with men that is men shal be with the tabernacle of God and God dwell with vs and we with him in heavenly Ierusalem we must trust to that other prophecie Mich. 2. surgite ite arise and depart for this is not your rest The vse of buildings is that we may sit vnder the shadowe thereof The posterity of Noah Gen. 11. having fouÌ„d out a place in the plaÌ„ie of Sinar said go to let vs build vs a citty towre to get vs a name Was that the end of buildings Nabuchodonosor Dan. 4. built them a palace for the house of his kingdome and for the honour of his maiesty to vaunt of the mightines of his power and to forget the God of heaven Was that the end of building It seemeth by the wordes of Salomon Eccles. 2. that hee made him great worke and built him houses to prooue his hearte vvith ioie and to take pleasure in pleasant thinges Or was that the end of building Some build wonders of the world as the walles of Babylon set vp by Semiramis the house of Cyrus the tombe of Mâ—usolus All which buildings whither they be summer-parlours as Eglons Iud. 3. or winter-caÌ„hbers houses in the citty or TusculaÌ„ farmes in the couÌ„try were they as stately for heigth as the spires of Egypt or as the teÌ„ple of the great Diana of the Ephesians which as they were woÌ„dred at for their buildings so for their ruine dissipation or were they as sumptuous for cost as that pallace of king Alcinous the wals wherof were of brasse the gates of gold the entries of silver they are all but vanity and vvhen vvee haue all done there is none other vse of building than to sit and shadovve our selues and to defend our bodies from the violence of the weather and other forreigne iniuries It is a sickenesse that some men haue to spend their time in building as the Epigramme noted Gellius Gellius aedificat semper Gellius is alvvaies building or repayring or chaunging or doing somewhat to keepe his hand in If a friend come to borrowe money of him Gellius hath no other word in his mouth but I am in building Alas to what purpose are these lardge and spacious houses without inhabitants chimneyes without smoake windowes not for prospect but for martins to breed and owles to sing in Such are the tenants insteed of families heretofore kept hospitality maintained nowe hedge-hogs lying vnder the walles wesels dwelling in the parlours Ieremy doth notably taxe the vanity of a great builder Hee saith I wil build me a wide house and lardge chambers so he wil make himselfe greate windowes and seele theÌ„ with Cedar paint them with Vemiâ—ton But shalt thou raigne saith the prophet because thou closest thy selfe in Cedar did not thy father thy grandfather eate and drinke and prosper when they executed iudgement and iustice kept houses relieved the poore but thine eies thy heart are but only for covetuousnes oppression for vainglory to coÌ„maund and over-looke the country round about and to leaue a name behind thee even to do this and according to the endes thou proposest herein so shall the Lord visite thee Till he might see what should be done in the citty But the
body of a litle Ant is no lesse to be wondered at thaÌ„ the huge body of Behemoth And as Vulcane is coÌ„meÌ„ded in the Poet for beating out chaines nets so thin that the eie could not see theÌ„ smaller than the smallest thred or thaÌ„ the web of the spider so the smaller the creature is the more is the workmanship of God to bee admired both in the shaping in the vsing therof We al know that God hath scourged the mightiest tyraÌ„t in the earth as much with worms as if he had sent out whole armies against him As he plagued Zenacharib with an Angel froÌ„ heaven the Sodomites with fire brimstone Corah his conspiratours with the opening of the earth so he destroied Herode with wormes Antiochus with wormes against many other bloudy persecutours of his church vsed none other executioners And bee it spokeÌ„ to the dauÌ„ting of all flesh to pull downe the pride thereof that the day shal come when wormes shall cover them they shall say to the wormes you are our brethren sisters to the coÌ„fusion of all the wicked daÌ„ned of the earth that their worme dieth not wherby though an infinite tormeÌ„t be meant yet the gnawing of a poore worme is made to expresse it The time which God chose for smiting the gourd was in the rising of the morning a litle before the sun caÌ„e forth of his chaÌ„ber when the shadow of the gourd should most haue pleasured him for in the night season the aire was cold enough Ionas passed it with sleepe so that the covering of the boughes was superfluous for that time But when the morning arose the rightest houre that the crosse could haue falleÌ„ vpoÌ„ Ionas the worme is sent They say in Esay let the couÌ„sell of the holy one come what need they cal for it it shal not only coÌ„e but come in a time which God hath apointed fittest for their smarte Al the iudgmeÌ„ts of the Lord are nuÌ„ber measure he reckoneth the houre and the minute of the houre when it is most convenient to inflict them Sisera shall not die in an army nor by the handes of a man nor any bow bent nor sword drawne against him the Lord hath reserved him to a tent to a ten-penny nayle to be driven in to his head by the hands of a feeble woman This was the time these the meanes which the Lord made choise of to punish him Zenacherib shall not be slaine in the field nor by the Angell of the Lord which smote a greate part of his army but at home in his owne citty and in the temple of his idoll and by the handes of his sonnes that sprange from his bowels This is the time and these the meanes that the Lord hath kept him vnto to shew his iustice Therefore the day of vengance and destruction is evermore called the day of the Lord not that the rest are not his but these he hath specially marked out and allotted to exercise his iudgementes in There is a time to plant and a time to roote vp that that hath beene planted Babylon is as a threshing floore saith the prophet the time of her threshing is come yet a little while and her harvest is come so Babylon you see hath a time for her threshing Our Saviour Revel 3. speaketh of an houre of temptation which shall come vpon all the world to try them that dwell vpon the earth And in the fourteenth of the same booke the Angell flyeth in the midst of heaven saying with a lowd voice feare God giue glory to him for the houre of his iudgment is come And another Angel cried vnto him that sate vpon the clovvd thrust in thy sickle and reape the harvest of the earth for the time is come to reape it God suffered the gourd in the night time when Ionas had litle benefite by it but when the morning arose and when his soule most desired the comfort thereof then it vvithered Rich men shall haue riches when they haue least vse of them but when the evill day commeth they shall cast them avvaye to the mowles of the earth and Epicures shall haue their pleasures for a time but when they shall say vnto pleasures stand vp and helpe vs they shall flie away from them And as he chose the vnhappiest time for the plaguing of Ionas so he made speede to plague him for how shorte a time did Ionas enioy the pleasure of the gourd God prepared a worme the very next day to smite it Where are those greedie dogges that never haue enough of pleasure Who say come wee vvill bring wine and wee will fill our selues vvith strong drinke and to morrow shall bee as this day and much more abundant What els is this drunkennesse of yours in wine strong drinke and fulfill of pleasures but the merry madnes of one houre to be recompenced with sorrow for ever and ever Go to you that say to daie and to morrow wee will doe this and that and yet yee cannot tell what shall be to morrow for what is your life or what is your pleasure intended It is even a vapour that appeareth for a litle time and aftervvarde vanisheth away Boast not thy selfe of to morrowe for thou knowest not what a day may bring foorth Nescis quid serus vesper ferat thou knowest not what a chandge the next evening may make Did Elah the king of Israell thinke vvhen he was feasting in his stewardes house that his time had beene so shorte and that a capitaine of his own should haue slaine him Did the sonnes and daughters of Iob vvhen they were banqueting in their eldest brothers house dreame of the winde that came from the wildernesse smote the foure corners of the house that it overwhelmed them Did Babylon which was called tender and delicate and the Lady of kingdomes which assumed to her selfe I am and there is none else I shall not â—it a vvidowe nor know the losse of children shee that trusted in her wickednesse and said none seeth mee did shee imagine how neare they were that came with a contrary newes Advenit finis tuus Thine ende is come Dumah calleth to the prophet in scorne Esa. 21. watch-man vvhat is in the nighte watch-man vvhat is in the night The watch-man aunswereth The morning commeth and also the night that is thou hast had a time of light and delightes thou shalt also haue a time of darknes Thus the Edomites and Epicures of our daies mocke their prophetes and watch-men You speake of a night yee watch-men and of a day of iudgement but when commeth that night or where is the promise of his comming We tell you againe The morning commeth and also the night If yee will aske aske to amendement of life aske not to scoffe vs and to deceiue your selues enquire returne and come that is continue not still in your former abominations The
beast So was the house of Niniveh sowen for her inhabitants were multiplied as the grashoppers her marchaÌ„ts as the stars of heaven her princes and captaines as the locustes Nah. 3. Shall not I spare Niniveh wherein there is such a multitude Or if thou art not mooved with a multitude doth not the age of infants and suckelings touch thy heart that cannot speake caÌ„not stand cannot helpe themselves that sticke to their mothers as apples to their trees if thou plucke them away before their time they perish Is this thy welcome of babes into the world is this the milke thou wilt feede them with Is this thy stilling and pacifying of them to quiet theÌ„ with death Is this thy nursing of their teÌ„der vngrown limmes to wrap theÌ„ vp in flames of fire as in swath-baÌ„des to rocke theÌ„ a sleepe with pittiles destructioÌ„ can thine eares endure that lamentable confused harmony of so many young musitiaÌ„s singing in their kind as nature hath taught them crying vp togither into heaveÌ„ wilt not thou cry for coÌ„pany say O Lord stay thine haÌ„d forbeare theÌ„ or can thine eies behold the shrinking of their soft members at every pull of griefe their sprawling vpon the ground their flesh scorched with heat as a scrole of partchmeÌ„t not be moved I stay not vpoÌ„ this point but the age of youÌ„g infants hath evermore bin pittied The midwives of Egypt Ex. 1. though straÌ„gers and chardged with the kings coÌ„mauÌ„dement yet would not slay the childreÌ„ of the Hebrews Even the daughter of Pharaoh himselfe Exo. 2. finding Moses hid in the bulrushes had compassion on the babe for it was a goodly child wept One of the properties of an impudeÌ„t barbarous cruell nation described Deut. 28. is it shall not regard the person of the olde nor have compassion vpoÌ„ the young There is a notable place to this purpose 2. King 8. where it is saide that Elizaeus looked vpon Hazael a servant and messenger vnto him from Benhadad the king till he was ashamed the man of God wept Hazael demauÌ„ding why weepeth my Lord he auÌ„swered because I know the evill that thou shalt doe vnto the children of Israell for their strong cities shalt thou set on fire and their young men shalt thou slay with the sword and shalt dash their infants against the stones and rend in pieces the women with child then Hazaell said what is thy servant a dogge that I should doe this great thing So brutish a part he held it to doe such villany vpon the mothers and their infants Or if thou regardest not their age doth not their innocency affect thee say that the elder sort have sinned because they have iudgment and election in them but what have these infantes done who know not their right hand from their left nor haue attainned to their yeares of discretion nor able to distinguish betvveene straight and crooked good and evill but are altogither innocent It is a circumlocution of their ignorance simplicity the like wherof we haue Esay 8. before the childe shall haue knowledge to crye my father or my mother that is before he can speake or discerne the one from the other Which was no more than went before in the 7. of the same prophecy before the childe shall haue knowledge to eschewe the evill and choose the good The sonne of Syrach speaketh of a foole in the same manner hee knoweth not the way into the citty that is ordinary and common things which every man knoweth We shall reade that God hath evermore had a speciall regard to the infant because of his harmelesnesse and innocency he commaunded Deut. 21. that they shoulde bee spared in warre and the women and the cattle excepting those of the Ammonites in the same place and of those citties which were altogither execrable in the sight of God as of Iericho Iosh. â— and of Edom and Babylon Psalme 137. Their innocencye is every where proposed as a patterne for the riper ages to imitate Our Saviour tolde his disciples Mat. 18 having first placed a little child in the midst of them except yee bee converted and become as this little childe yee shall not enter into the kingdome of heaven And in the 19. of the same Evangelist suffer little children to come vnto mee for to such as these are belongeth the kingdome of God The Apostles of Christ framed their exhortations from the same presidents brethren be not children in your mindes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But in malice be you infants and as new borne babes desire the sincere milke of the worde that yee may grow therby But if thou hatest the children togither with their parents as wee destroy the whelpes of wolues even for their kinde sake because the fathers haue eaten the sowre grape the childrens teeth must needes be set on edge and the infants smart for their offences shall I not spare Niniveh wherin there is much cattle What haue the dumbe beasts deserved that they shoulde also perish Salomon in the 12. of the Proverbs sheweth what the practise of the iust is even in this case A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast but the mercies of the wicked are cruell And his rule agreeth with that practise Prov. 27. Bee diligent to knâ—w the state of thy flockes and take heede to thy heardes Iacob hath pitty vpon the children and vpon the ewes and the kire with yong vvhich were vnder his hand for hee saide to his brother Esau if I should over-driue them one day all the flocke would die The errand that he sent Ioseph in Genes 37. was goe see whether it bee well with thy brethren and how the flockes prosper David 1. Sam. 17. obiecteth his life vnto a Lion afterwards to a beare rather than on sheepe should miscarry Howsoever Philip complayned cuiusmodt est vita nostra cum ad asâ—llorum occasiionem videndum est how basely is our life conditioned vvhen we must liue to make provision for asses to one in his army who told him that there wanted foode for their beasts yet it is true that some part of our care forecast must this way be imployed We also know that the lavv of God favoureth them Deut. 25· Thou shalt not muzzle vp the mouth of the oxe that treadeth out the corne and the Sabboth though made for man yet it extended to the resting of the beast And either nature or profit or something else mooved the hard hearted Iewes if their oxe or asse were fallen into a pit even vpon the sabboth day to pull him out Moses kept lethroes sheepe Iacob Labans the Patriarches his sonnes were all sheepheardes David followed the ewes Saul sought asses Amos was taken from the heardes that you may know the care of these vnreasonable creatures not to haue bene small in former times The last branch of amplificatioÌ„ which God vseth against Ionas was the store of