more then commendable arts or naturall skill could afford them either for astonishing or deluding their senses or surprizing their wits However this of the Prophet Ionas being the last signe or forewarning which this evill generation was to expect from our Saviour the consequence of their non-observance or not repenting after the exhibition of it was most contrary to this examplary patterne of the Ninivite's observance of Ionas embassage by turning to the Lord in sackcloth and ashes Iudah was now become more contrary to our God then either her sister Samaria or then Assiria or Niniveh had been and God's waies became more contrary unto her and to her children The Ninivites repenting within the forty daies limited for this purpose God repealed the sentence which he had pronounced against them although Ionas who proclaimed it did murmure or grumble at it For he expected that the Lord whose mouth and messenger he was should at the forty daies end declare him to be a true Prophet by putting his sentence in execution The Son of God expects as long for the repentance of these Iewes which doubtlesse would have pleased him much better then their destruction But seeing they would not repent within the forty daies between his Resurrection and Ascension the sentence proclaimed by Ionas against Niniveh proceeds in fullest measure against this wicked and adulterous generation or degenerate seed of Abraham 5 But shall we be concluded from these premisles to say that Ierusalem and Iudah were destroyed immediately upon our Saviour's Ascension No but this we may safely say that from the day of his Ascension which was the fortieth day after his Resurrection both the City and Nation did ipso facto jure incurre the sentence of woe denounced against Niniveh by Ionas And we may further adde that the destruction both of City and Temple the desolation of Iudea and miserable dispersion of the Iewes throughout the Nations became more necessary and more inevitable then heretofore they had been not for the indefinite substance only of the woe denounced but the very measure of their misery did dayly by the like necessity increase both for intensive decrees and for extension especially in respect of the number of persons which did incurre the sentence or decree pronounced against them and of the time ordurance of the matter of woe denounced in it Yet were none of these necessary but by their continuance in their fore-father's sins and by not repenting of them and by the dayly increase of their owne and their childrens sinnes 6 During the time of these forty yeares after our Saviour's Ascension the City and State had a possibility of being freed à tanto though not a toto though not simply from destruction yet from such fearfull desolation as afterwards befell them But continuing as impenitent all these forty yeares as they had done for the forty daies before his AscensioÌ„ the sentence within forty years after his Resurrection began to be put in execution according to the strict tenour of our Saviour's prediction Luk. 19. 41. 42. 43. 44. During the time of these forty daies God's Iudgments did lay seige against Ierusalem but the son of man Christ Iesus yet conversing as man here upon earth did bear off the punishments due to their iniquity as Ezechiel intitled and in Type the son of man had before prefigured Chap. 4. 6. Thou shalt beare the iniquitie of the house of Iudah forty daies I have appointed thee each day for a year see v. 1. 2. And thus at the end of forty yeares after our Saviour's Resurrection allotting a yeare for every day of his abode on earth the City and Temple were destroied This Calender of a day for a yeare was no new or uncouth account to this people either in the daies of Ezechiel or at the time of our Saviour's Ascension it was a Calender of God's owne making as we may read Numb 14. 33. 34. Your children shall wander in the wildernesse forty yeares and beare your whoredomes untill your Carkeises be wasted in the wildernsse after the number of the daies in which yee searched the land even forty daies each day for a year shall yee beare your iniquities even forty yeares and yee shall know my breach of promise I the Lord have said it I will surely doe it unto all this evill Congregâ—tion that are gathered together against me in this wildernesse they shall be consumed and there they shall die The people were gathered against God when they were gathered against Ioshuah and Caleb and bad stone them with stones ver 10. And the Glory of the Lord which then appeared in the Tabernacle of the Congregation before all the children of Israel had now more personally and visibly appeared in the man Christ Iesus and yet how oft were they ready to stone him to death The former people for their rebellion were to die in the wildernesse without hope of seeing the promised land 7 For the rebellion of this later generation specially after the Glory of God was now revealed by his Resurrection Ierusalem according to Micah's prophecy was to become an heape of stones and Sion the beauty of the whole Nation was to be plowed like a field and the mountaine of the house which was the glory of Sion was to become as the high places of the forrest a more gastly wildernesse then that wherein their Fathers wandred The cause of God's plague denounced Numb 14. was that generations credulity to believe the report of the other spies concerning the land of Canaan contrary to the good report which Caleb and Ioshuah had made of it And the cause why this generation were to die of a more fearfull plague in Ierusalem and why Ierusalem was to become an heape was their distrust unto the promise concerning the Kingdome of heaven whereof the land of Canaan in her highest prosperity was but the mappe avouched by Iohn Baptist the Preacher of Repentance and by Iesus the Son of David which had viewed it and presented the fruits of it unto them And for this their distrust as their Fathers had wandred forty yeares in the wildernesse and never admitted to the land of Canaan so this rebellious generation had forty yeares time before they were cast out of the earthly Ierusalem never to be admitted into new Ierusalem which came down from heaven CHAP. 43. That place of Zachary Chap. 14. v. 3. expounded shewing that God did fight with the Gentiles against the Iews as formerly he had done with the Iewes against the Gentiles How the forty daies of Christ's abode upon earth after his Resurrection was fore-told THis wath of God against Ierusalem was fore-told by the Prophet Zachary Chap. 14. ver 1. 2. 4. Behold the day of the Lord commeth saith the Prophet and the spoile shall be divided in the mid'st of thee that is her enemies should not come against her as rievers ' or boot-halers which dare not stay to divide the spoile where they catch it
esse or accomplishment of it It was not terminated till the day of his Resurrection from the dead But of this argument more at large Sect. 5. in the Article of the Resurrection of the Son of God That this eternall Son of God was not actually consecrated or made an high Priest untill his Resurrection from the dead our Apostle in the fift verse of this Chapter before cited to another purpose fully instructs us Christ tooke not to himselfe this honour to be made the high Priest but hee that said unto him Thou art my Sonne this day have I begotten thee put it upon him And this day or this Ego hodiè genuite as this our Apostle elswhere instructs us referres unto the day of his Resurrection or begetting from the dead After which day death hath no more dominion over him but Hee such an absolute power over death and the powers of darknesse that neither can annoy or assault him And from this day and not before doth his endlesse everlasting Priesthood commence And being thus actually consecrated by his Resurrection from the dead that is made both Lord and Christ hee is become the Author of everlasting salvation which was the second Point CHAP. 5. That the Sonne of God by his Consecration being once accomplished became the Author and Fountaine of everlasting salvation to all such and only such as obey him In what sence he is said to have dyed for all men or to be the redeemer of all mankind Hee became Author of Salvation to all that obey him THe signification of the single termes in this proposition is so plaine that it needs no paraphrase or explication and the connexion of them so firme as requires no distinction All the difficultie is about the limitation of the entire proposition it selfe as whether he be the Author or cause of everlasting salvation only to them which obey him or unto all to the end that they may obey him or whether this proposition be equivalent and but equivalent unto this proposition whosoever beleeveth in him shall be saved or a restraint of it Surely if in all these places of the old and new Testament wherein salvation is ascribed to faith or unto faith alone the Apostles or Prophets had substituted obedience instead of faith there could have beene no dangerous misnomure for as the faith is such is the obedience and è contra Both terms equally imply two the same things necessary to salvation First a submission of our wills to Gods will or a readinesse to doe his will revealed Secondly when wee have done as well as wee can to deny our selves and renounce all confidence in our best workes whether of faith or obedience But however the termes be fully equivalent yet the word obedience better befits this place then if he had said He became the Author of everlasting salvation to all that beleeve in him because obedience is the very formall effect of true faith or beliefe as they are set upō this particular truth or mystery here taught by our Apostle the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or impression or the ingrossment of the patterne here commended to our imitation For if we syncerely and stedfastly believe that the Son of God became obedient to his Father even unto the death of the Crosse that for our sakes he was consecrated through grievous afflictions through unknowne paines and terrors to the end he might be our faithful and compassionate high Priest This Doctrine it selfe being laid to our hearts will bring forth the like affection or obedience towards him specially if our faith be seconded by hope of being consecrated through obedience to be Kings and Priests with him unto our God which is the full paraphrase of our everlasting salvation here meant the true expression of that perfection mentioned by our Apostle Heb. 11. v. the last But if the Apostles punctuall meaning be that the Sonne of God is the Author of everlasting salvation only to such as obey him shall we not hence be concluded to grant that hee died only for such as finally shall be saved or that he redeemed none but the Elect because the Author of salvation to none but these Thus many in our dayes and which is more to be lamented some of this Church of England have from the former premisses collected and peremptorily taught that Christ dyed for none but the Elect without vouchsafing any mannerly answer to the Church their Mother who expressely maintaines the contradictony as that he dyed for all men that he redeemed not only every one of us in particular but all mankind Others have been so courteous as to vouchsafe their Mother and Bretheren some distinctions or limitations of that universall assertion as thus That he died for all sufficientèr not efficientèr sufficiently not efficiently for all that he redeemed all mankind with this limitation that is singula generum some o◠all mankind some rich some poore some Iewes some Gentiles The later distinction is very dangerous the former impertinently unnecessary for if by all mankind we once come to understand some of all sorts of men we shall commit no new error but only extend the same if by the whole world which God the Father is said to have created wee understand only some portion of every principall part of this universe as some portion of the heavens some of the starres some part of the earth some of the water some part of theayre some of every sort of vegetable or living things but not absolutely all The other distiction of sufficientèr and efficientèr falls under the common error of most moderne Catechists or Divines which is to take upon them to divide things which in their nature are indivisible as the Will of God the Death of Christ or the Value of his sufferings to leave other termes which import matter divisible undistinguished Such is the terme or word Redemption passively taken not as it is an act of God or as it in his prescience For however the will of God or the value of Christs sufferings be altogether indivisible because absolutely infinite yet of Redemption purchased for us by Christs bloody death and passion there are as you please to call them severall parts or degrees Now that may be absolutely true of some one or more parts of degrees which is not true of all The first degree of our Redemption purchased by Christ was the payment of the ransome for our sinnes unto his Father and our freedome from slavery by his conquest over Satan This part or these degrees of Redemption are alike common to all mankind Christ whether in his death upon the Crosse or in his conflict with the powers of darknesse in the Garden did suffer asmuch for any one as for all God was in him reconciling all men unto himselfe All were set free de iure from Satans servitude The second part or degree of Redemption is our actuall admission into the Catholique Church or which is all one our
were two The first the solemne memorial the commeration or reiteration of God's Covenant made with Abraham and with his seede or the continuall acceptance of it by performing the obedience which God required at their hands in all their sacrifices The second was a perpetuall representation of the accomplishment of this Covenant on God's part in and by the promised Seede or Messias God had promised by oath to Abraham that in his seede not only Abraham's seede after the flesh but all the Nations of the earth that follow the steps of Abraham should be blessed And in this promise confirmed by oath it was implied as hath beene often mentioned before that the Sonne of God should become Abraham's seede and that the seede of Abraham thus made the Sonne of God should be offered up to God in such a manner as God required Abraham to offer up his sonne Isaac that is in a true and bloody sacrifice Isaac's approach to death was a type a figure or representation of our Saviour's bloody death Isaac's strange deliverance from this bloody death menaced by his Fathers outstretehed hand armed with a bloody knife was a type or shadow of our Saviour's Resurrection from death which God his Father had not only threatned but inflicted upon him Now as that which Abraham intended to have done to his sonne Isaac was accomplished by God upon his only sonne so Abraham's words to Isaack when hee intended to offer him up in bloody sacrifice became a true prophecy of our Saviour's bloody sacrifice Isaac bearing the wood of the burnt offering upon his back and observing his Father to cary fire in the one hand and a knife in the other no creature in the world besides themselves being present moved this question Behold the fire the wood but where is the Lamb for the burnt offring And Abraham answers God will provide himselfe a Lambe for a burnt offering my Sonne Gen. 22. 7. 8. Whatsoever the naturall construction of Abraham's answer in these words might import Abraham at this time had no other intention then to offer up his son Isaack for a burnt offering Howbeit his words without wrong to their grammaticall construction in the originall might imply as much and as the Hebrewes conceive they did to Isaac's apprehension imply as much as if hee had said God will provide himselfe a Lambe for a burnt offering even thee my Sonne or God will provide theâ— my Sonne for a burnt offering And from this apprehension or construction of Abraham's words Isaac as the Hebrewes have a tradition forthwith became willing to be offered up in sacrifice for a burnt offering suffering himselfe to be bound upon the Altar by his Father being able if he had been so disposed to make resistance as being now at least 25 years of age 2 However it were Isaac was as willing to be offered as Abraham was to offer him And yet Abraham's former words are more exactly fulfilled even for the present then if Isaac had been then offered upon the Altar For though God had commanded Abraham to offer his only begotten sonne Isaac for a burnt offering yet hee had been a burnt offering of Abraham's providing but the Ramme which was caught by the hornes in the thicket was a burnt offering of God's provision meerly It was no part of Abraham's store of Abraham's provision fore-cast or fore-sight The Ramme questionlesse came not thither from any neighbour place by chance God did provide it for a burnt offering by a manner extraordinary and miraculous For if David would not offer a sacrifice to God of that which cost him nothing or of that which was another mans by former possession untill he had made it his owne by a better title then by free donation or his owne by a just price or valuable consideration Abraham doubtlesse would not have offered a sacrifice unto the Lord of that which he might justly suspect to be the goods of another man untill he had bought it of the known owner But knowing this Ramme to have been of God's own or meere provision by meanes miraculous or extraordinary hee forthwith offered it for a burnt offring instead of his son So then the League or Covenant betwixt God and Abraham is concluded and subscribed unto on Abraham's part with the sacrifice of a Ramme and was to be continued or accepted of by Abraham's posterity with continuation of like sacrifices The high Priests themselves who were in their ranke and order mediators or intercessors for continuing and establishing this Covenant between God and Abraham's seede were to be solemnely consecrated by the sacrifice of Rammes And in memoriall or commemoration of Isaac's deliverance from death the Iewes did celebrate that day wherein God provided this sacrifice instead of Isaac that was according to their Kalendar the first of September or feast of Trumpets with the sacrifice of Rammes But they considered not that in the words of God's oath to Abraham it was implyed that God would give his Sonne his only Sonne for such a bloody sacrifice or burnt offering as Abraham intended to have made of his sonne Isaac They considered not that in Abraham's answer to Isaac The Lord would provide himselfe of a burnt offering and in the miraculous provision of the Ramme for a burnt offering instead of Isaac it was implyed or fore-signified as well by matter of fact as by expresse word of prophecy that God would provide matter of sacrifice when he should offer his only Sonne after a more excellent miraculous manner then he had now done the Ramme instead of Isaack For seeing the Sonne of God as God could not dye he therefore provides him a mortall body taken from the seede of Abraham the substance of the blessed Virgin and so unites it to his divine person that whilst this seede of Abraham was offered in sacrifice the Sonne of God was likewise offered that whilst Abraham's seede was thus consecrated by bloody sacrifice the Sonne of God was likewise consecrated to be the high Priest after the order of Melchisedech that is to be the Author Donour and Dispenser of that blessing which Melchisedech in the name of the most high God whose Priest he was bestowed on Abraham and which God upon Abraham's readinesse to offer Isaac did by solemn oath bind himselfe to perform and to performe it in Abraham's seede The necessary consequence or abstract of which oath as it is before manifested was this that Abraham's seede should be that most high God in whose name Melchisedech had blessed Abraham 3 The unusuall and unexpected fulfilling of Abraham's words to Isaac Gen. 22. 8. Iehovah lireh the Lord will see or the Lord will provide himselfe a Lambe for a burnt offering gave Abraham occasion to name that place Iehovah â—ireh as also to a common Proverbe taken up from the name of this place and from the event In the Mount of the Lord it shall be seene Gen. 22. 14. or as the originall without straining will more
was to come Yet their bodies were to inherite their Father Adam's curse Dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt returne Subject they were to to corruption altogether incapable of incorruption or immortalitie untill their expected Messias became their first fruits for them Christ saith our Apostle 1. Cor. 15. 20. is risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that sleepe for since by man came death by man came also the Resurrection of the dead So generally true is that of the Apostle that which sanctifieth and that which is sanctified are both of one that is both of one kind Heb. 2. And in this sense that saying of S. Ambrose which some in later ages have much quarrelled is most true When thou hadst overcome the sharpnesse of death thou didst open the Kingdome of heaven to all believers The body of no Saint was capable of entrance into the Kingdome of heaven before this time None could be consecrated unto this service before the Consecration of the high Priest himselfe which was not accomplished till he was begotten from the dead and made the first fruits of them that sleepe 5 Briefly to mould up the scattered or dispersed notions in this and some other former treatises how the fulnesse of all things which were fore-shadowed in the feast of the Passeover with its rites did as our Apostle saith dwel in Christ or how in all things he the preheminence First he is in the literall and most exquisite sense the Israel of God the Son of God which was to passe out of this world unto his Father Secondly hee was the true Paschall Lambe which was slaine for our deliverance from the destroyer and for our safety in this our passage from this world into a better Thirdly he is the reall Moses that must conduct us for he was conductor unto Moses Fourthly he is the first borne of every creature which by his sacrifice did sanctifie all the rest and make them acceptable unto God Fiftly he is the first-borne or first begotten from the dead the first fruits of them that sleepe that is he by whom such as sleepe in death and inhabite darknesse shall be made meete to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light as well in their bodies as in their soules SECT 6. He Ascended into Heaven CHAP. 35. How the Ascension of the Son of God was presigured by the translation of Enoch and by the taking up of Elias And foretold by the Psalmist Psal 15. and Psal 24. THE Son of God in the day of his sufferings as he was man did ascend in soule into that Paradise into which the soules of Patriarchs of Prophets with the soules of holy and just men that dyed immediately after him or at the same time with him were admitted And on that day at least before the dawning of the next which was the Sabbath he consecrated the celestiall Sanctuary or Paradise with his owne blood But his Ascension into Paradise what part soever of Heaven that were on that day is not the Ascension mentioned in our Creed For when it is said HE ASCENDED into Heaven this must be understood of his Ascention thither in body which was forty dayes after his Resurrection from the dead And into Heaven or that part of Heaven mentioned in our Creede hee did not then ascend only as an high Priest but also as King of Heaven and earth The Day of his Ascension as was mentioned before was the day of his solemne enthronization 2 The manner of his Ascension is punctually related specially by the Evangelist S. Luke in the last Chapter of his Gospell and in the first of the sacred history of the Acts of the Apostles The speciall quaerees concerning his or other Evangelicall or Apostolicall avouchments of his Ascension are but two The first how that which they historically relate or avouch was fore-pictured The second how or by what Prophets fore-told in the sacred Writings of the Old Testament And these two quaeries must be discust not by dichotomy or by way of opposition but either severally or promiscuously as the Texts of the Old Testament shall minister occasion 3 The Ascension of this just and holy one of the great Prophet promised by Moses was first prefigured by the translation of Enoch which was long before the Law was given long before Moses was borne But of Enoch's translation litle can be said upon sure grounds or by just warrant of Scripture Only this we know from authentique testimonies that hee was an holy man and one that pleased God A man both in life and in his translation from this life unto a better who did truly fore-shadow him in whom alone God was and is and ever will be best pleased 4 The manner of Eliah's Ascension or rather of his being taken up from earth into heaven or to a farre better place then earth was more visible and more conspicuous and the time of his taking up more publiquely knowne then the time or manner of Enoch's translation was He was taken or caried up out of Elishah's sight who with many others did expect the time and day of his translation in a fiery Chariot a fit embleme of Eliah's propheticall spirit alwaies burning with zeale towards the service of God even to the destruction of the enemies of it or disturbers of the peace of Israel Our Saviour did rather ascend in a Cloud then was taken up by it albeit taken by it out of their sight which saw him ascend from earth to heaven The cloud it selfe in which he did ascend being an embleme of his sweet and milde spirit of those gracious lips which did alwaies distill words of mercy and love allaying the terrible heat and fervency of Eliah's and other Prophets spirits which had fore-told his first comming into and his going out of this world and his second comming to judge it 5 Two illustrious predictions of his Ascension we have Psal 15. Psal 24. but whether the one or both of these Psalmes which illustrate or confirme the truth of the Evangelicall story be meerly propheticall or typically propheticall or mixt id est thus literally verified in the Psalmists themselves or Pen-men of these hymnes and afterward mystically fulfilled in Christ is more then I dare peremptorily either affirme or deny Most probable it is that the Author of the 15 th Psal which doubtlesse was David himselfe did pen his owne part and exercise his hopes and interest in the future Ascension of his Son and Lord of which he had a present pledge or token by his late restitution into the tabernacle of the Lord from which he had sometimes been excluded not for any crime or demerite nor by any Ecclesiasticall censure of excommunication or suspension but by secular violence of hostile persecution During the time of his exile from the tabernacle hee or the sonnes of Chorah for him uttered those patheticall complaints How amiable are thy tabernacles thou Lord of hosts
darknesse made the morning of the first natural day God faith Moses divided the light from the darknesse and called the light day and the darknesse he called night and the evening and the morning were the first day As was the condition of this visible world or form lesse earth before the Creation of light or the division betwixt it and darknesse such altogether was the condition or state of the intellectuall world before it was new made or redeemed by the Son of God The corrupted masse of mankind was overspread with darknesse and covered with the mantle of Death but this long darknesse became more palpable then that of Egypt during the time of the Son of God's surprizall and his inclosure in the region of Death These were the houres wherein it was permitted the powers of darknesse to domineere but these powers were conquered and the darknesse dispelled by his Resurrection from Death which was on the same day and at the same houre wherein God the Father by him did first divide darknesse from light From this houre of his Resurrection the night is gone and the day is come as many as believe in him raised from death and adore the Son of righteousnesse who as the Apostle saith having abolished death brought life and immortalitie to light they are the Sons of God Heires of Glory but such as love darknesse more then the light of his gospel they must remaine the sons of darknesse and of death All this and more is implied in the circumstance of the time and place which the day and houre of his Resurection had in that holy weeke being the first houre of the first day The other mystery is implied in the circumstance of the time and place which the day of his Resurrection held in that solemne feast of unleavened bread 3 So it fell out by the sweet disposition of God's speciall providence that the day of our Saviour's Resurrection should for that yeare fall upon the second day of the Feast of unleavened bread or the morrow after the Sabbath of that great solemnity Now on that precise day the Israelites were peremptorily bound by a strict Law to offer up the first fruits as eares and blades of corne unto the Lord Lev. 23. 10. 11. When yee become into the land which I give unto you and shall reap the harvest thereof then ye shall bring a sheafe of the first fruits of your harvest unto the Priest and he shall wave the sheafe before the Lord to be accepted for you on the morrow after the Sabbath the Priest shall wave it From this peculiar reference or parallel of the circumstance of time between the day of our Saviour's Resurrection and the day appointed for this legall feast of offering the eares of corne The analogy or parallel between the Type and the substance is thus As the use of the corne was not allowable to the people untill some eares or blades of the same kind were offered up in sacrifice by the Priest unto the Lord So neither could the seed of Adam or of Abraham or of any man else seeing all had been sowen in corruption be either holy or acceptable to the Lord or partakers of his Table or prefence or put on incorruption untill the high Priest of our soules the Son of God had offered a sacrifice of the same kind to wit a body subject to like mortality as ours are untill it was consecrated to glory and immortality by the sufferings of Death 4 All were sanctified all were reconciled to God by this one oblation of himselfe as the first fruits of them that sleepe Yet even such as were upon the day of his Resurrection really sanctified and actually reconciled unto God the very Apostles themselves were not made up or wrought into one body or loafetill fifty daies after not until that very day wherein the new reaped corne made into bread was solemnly offered and presented to the Lord. Lev. 23. 15. 16. 17. And yee shall count unto you from the morrow after the Sabbath from the day that yee brought the sheafe of the wave offering seven daies shall be compleat even unto the morrow after the seventh Sabbath shall yee number fifty daies and yee shall offer a new meat offering unto the Lord yee shall bring out of your habitations two wave-loaves of two tenth deales they shall be of fine flowre they shall be baken with leaven they are the first fruits unto the Lord. The one holy Catholique Church and Communion of Saints which we professe in our Creed did not begin to be in esse as by God's helpe it shall appeare hereafter or heare true life untill the effusion of the holy Ghost which is the soule of the one holy Catholique Church or of the mystioall Body of Christ And that was upon the fiftieth day inclusively from the day whereon the eares of corne or sheafe of blades was offered unto the Lord. On that fiftieth day the holy Curch received the first fruits of the spirit it being likewise another solemne day appointed for the legall offering up of the first fruits 4 Thus much of the accomplishment of the Type of Ionas his imprisonment in the belly of the Whale and of the mysteries contained in those three speciall daies and nights or evenings and mornings wherein our Saviour was in the wombe of the earth and the time of his rising againe But the two former queries First what our Saviour's abode forty daies on the earth from his Resurrection to his Ascension or which is all one what the signe of Ionas did portend to this evill and adulterous generation of the Iewes Secondly how the space of his forty daies abode upon the earth after his Resurrection was prefigured are points worth the discussion and for ought I know will make the fittest Period of this long work concerning the knowledge of Christ and him crucified CHAP. 42. That the sentence proclaimed against Nineveh by the Prophet Ionas was in a full measure executed upon the adulterous Generation of the Iewes not believing or repenting at our Saviour's preaching THat a state so strong and mighty as Niniveh was then when Ionas was sent unto it should upon these or the like briefe Summons of a forrainer Yet fory daies and Niniveh shall be destroied be so deeply stricken on a suddaine with extreme feare of death and ruine Or that a Court so dissolute luxurious and proud as that Court was should so readily change their soft rayment into sackcloth and laying aside their perfumes and sweet odours as the Text saith the King himselfe did may well seeme a greater wonder to a Reader qui ad pauca respicit then God almost at any time had wrought in Israel But the strangenesse of the suddaine change perswades or rather assures me or any diligent Reader that the constant fame of Ionas his miraculous deliverance or escape out of the Whales belly had come before him into Niniveh and made way for the efficacy of