in the parable of the gourd I do deferre it thither But the mercie of these men here is enforced to turne to iustice They are compelled to leaue him whome they willingly would keepe Ionas goeth ouer shipboord where behold appeareth a miracle the sea ceasseth from her furie That which roared so before was so disquieted with winds which wrought and was so troublous which so becalmed them with a storm that forward they might not get backward they could not go that ceasseth vpon the sudden The disturbance was not naturall nor the quieting is not naturall because it commeth in a moment It was not by degrees not one step after another as in tempests which are ordinarie but in that very instant when he was throwne into the water So miraculous is Gods power to haue the mightiest creatures to mooue and rest at his becke If he commaund the world to be drowned with water the Ocean shall breake foorth the fresh springs shall gush out the very floud-gates of heauen shall be opened with a word and so all the earth shall perish If he bid his seruant Moses but stretchfoorth his hand the red sea shall part in two and stand vp as a wall on the right side and as a wall on the left This is a great comfort to the faithfull that they serue such a maister who so commaundeth all the frame of heauenly and earthly bodies that he turneth them and windeth them as with a hooke in their nostrels and leadeth them so vp and downe that nothing shall assault them without Gods speciall pleasure It is he that made the sea here to cease from her raging and boyling with such violence 9 But the reason why it then stayed was because it had effected the thing which it desired The fugitiue being taken the pursuer is now quiet It is punishment inflicted on the sinner which in temporall causes allayeth the Lords anger When Achan had his hire the Israelites did proceede in their conquest as before Saules crueltie to the Gibeonites did procure three yeares of dearth to be sent vpon the land in the time of Dauid but when once the posteritie of the offending sinner was hanged vp by the wronged parties Gods indignation toward the land was appeased Princes and Iudges haue here a pathway laid out readie to them wherein they ought to walke If God do awaken a land with a rod of his displeasure be it famine or be it pestilence or be it the sword of the enemie after a view taken of the actions and ouersights of their people let theÌ„ purge their land from iniquitie by cutting off malefactors and breaking the backe of sinne and wilfull transgression There is no sacrifice more pleasing in the eyes of the Lord of hostes then that those who dishonour him should be suppressed by iustice He did whippe vs not long since with a rod of pestilent sickenesse this yeare he threateneth otherwise with some feare of a pinching famine Very likely it is that if grosse faultes were remooued from amongst our nation his wrath would cease with the cleansing as the sea did with receiuing our Ionas If the vserie of the citie the oppression of the Landlord the symonie of the Cleargie the extortion of the Patrone the idlenesse in the Minister the want of loue in the Communaltie and securitie in all sortes did but so much decay or so fast diminish as it hath increased lately Gods wrath would turne to fauour and we shold more feele his blessings 10 But here in the ceassing of the tempest by the drowning of the Prophet we are notably put in mind of him of whome our Ionas is a figure in this case It hath bene mentioned before out of the twelfth of Mathew that his lying in the whales belly was a signe of the death of Christ by the witnesse of Christ himselfe as his casting vp againe was a signe of his resurrection The dying of Ionas alone for all doth signifie the same thing as was taught out of the twelfth verse of this present chapter which I now handle But nothing in plainer sorte doth expresse vnto vs the force of the suffering of our Sauiour then rhe ceassing of the storme at the drowning of the Prophet euen as Gods wrath was appeased by the death of the vnspotted lambe By the fall of our first parents wee all were fallen from grace Wee had chaunged not a Niniue for a Tharsus but a Paradise for a torment and a heauen for a hell The coldnesse of our disobedience was followed with heate of iustice not windes and waues did make after vs to take vengeance on our bodies but a waight of angry furie of purpose to destroy our soules Not one shippe but a world was endaungered in this hazard The Gentile and the Iewe the ciuill man and Barbarian were euerie moment readie to be drowned in desperation In this state of extremitie God pitieth forlorne man and sendeth a better ghest then Ionas was among those who are passengers thorough this vale of miserie And although this ghest was clothed with humanity like an ordinarie passenger yet in this he differed from Ionas that our Prophet alone had sinned when all his fellowes were free but Christ alone was innocent when all his fellowes pleaded guiltie 11 We can neuer sufficiently admire the effectuall force of him who quieted this great rage Iustice called for a death take my death quoth the Sauiour let one dye for the peopâ—e the head for all his members An Oracle had once answered that either the king of the Atheniens or else their army must perish Codrus who was then king neuer stoode or staggered at it but gaue his life for his citizens to saue them from destruction The king of men and Angels had this choise put vnto him that either himselfe or his the mysticall head or bodie should vndergo a death He tooke the turne on himselfe so wrought a reconcilement from his Father toward his Church So by his stripes we are healed The chastisement of our peace was vpon him So he being the Lambe of God hath taken away the sinnes of the world He hath freed vs and deliuered vs from the wrath to come His bloud speaketh better things then that crying bloud of Abell that cryed vengeance from the earth this from the crosse cryeth redemption reconcilement and atonement So he hath by his bloud bought a spouse vnto himselfe whome else he had not had By the dying of Christ the Church is made as Eue was made by Adams sleeping which is Saint Austens comparison The Adamant is so hard a stone that it can be softened with nothing but the bloud of a goate Mans heart was grown so hard mans case was growne so hard that it could be lenified by nothing but by the bloud of him whome the skape-goate in Leuiticus so liuely did represent 12 But to procure our peace he plucked warres on himselfe
fearefull desolation But what now may we imagine that those sinnes were which are sayd in this place to lye so grieuously vpon them 18 It is likely that such generall sinnes were in Niniue as are sayd by Ezechiel to haue bene in Sodome that is Pride and fulnesse of bread and abundance of idlenesse that she did not strēgthen the hand of the poore and needy but I thinke that in particular some falts may be picked out which were great in that place As first witchcraft and inchantment and sorcery necromancie and diuination by the starres which were exercised beyond measure in all the Easterne parts where Niniue stood When the true wisdome of Salomō is in the scripture compared with mens counterfeit wisdome it is said that his wisdome excelled all the wisdome of the children of the East that is their Philosphers and Diuiners and all of that sort There came to adore Christ wise men as they are called Magi Diuiners or Soothsayers and it is sayd in the text that they came out of the East In the second of Daniel what a rabble of such are reckened vp to be in Babylon a citie not far from Niniue Inchanters Astrologians Chaldeans and Sorcerers how doth God himself deride scoffe at thē by his Prophet Esay for entertaining of such for retaining of so many In one word the censure that is set on the Chaldaeans men not far frō Niniue by Tully in the second of his Diuination and by Cornelius Tacitus in the first of his History where that by his Mathematicians he meaneth Chaldaeans or the scholers of them may be wel gathered from that which elsewhere he hath of Tiberius who as he saith was skilled in their Arts together with the Narration of the Magi in Herodotus who would haue had the kingdom after the death of Cābyses do make this most plaine that in the East country these Arts were vsed much and therfore likely so in Niniue But how odious these sins are in the sight of God whosoeuer doth reade the Scriptures can not be ignorant In the tenth of Ieremy the least of these faults are called the way or customes of the heathen and therefore are they vnfit for Gods people Balaam could say there is no sorcery in Iacob nor soothsaying in Israel God himselfe doth giue charge that among his people should be none that vseth witchcraft or a regarder of time or a marker of the flying of foules or a sorcerer or a charmer or that counselleth with spirits or a soothsayer or that asketh counsell at the dead and the reason is there assigned because all that do such things are an abomination to the Lord. Nay God doth so hate these as that all such who seeke to them are odious to him as by Saule and Ahaziah may most plainly appeare who for seeking vnto such lost their kingdomes and their liues The audaciousnesse of men who are acquainted with these arts may be seene by those enchanters of whom we reade in Exodus who at Pharaos intreatie did dare not only to braue but to resist God and his seruant Moses Plinie himself although he were but a heathen man doth laugh at and deride the vanities of such S. Cyprian doth describe their vnfruitful superstitiō Regulus saith he obserued the flying of birds and yet he was taken by the Carthaginians Mancinus kept their religion yet was he sent vnder the gallowes sub iugum a token of disgrace to him selfe and his armie Paulus had the birds eating lustily which they held as a signe of good lucke yet was he slaine at the battell of Cannae But the execrable custome of some who be of this kind may partly be learned by that wherwith Athanasius sometimes although falsely was charged that he in his Magicke should vse the hand of a dead man which by experience in our time hath bene declared to be a practise of some who vse those trades And partly by the example of Iulian the Apostata who not long before his death going to warre in Persia did cause a woman to be hanged vp by the haire of the head to haue her hands stretched abroad her belly to be ripped open that as the author iesteth at it her liuer perhaps being cut vp he might thereby diuine what should be the end of that his voyage and whether that he should safely returne againe As it may seeme he him selfe was ashamed of that deede for he caused the church or chappell wherein this fact was done not onely to bee locked but to be sealed vp also and watchmen continually toward there that no man might come in Yet afterward it was discouered when report came of his death No maruell if such sinnes did come vp vnto the Lord or any other which draw in this line if they were to be found in Niniue Let Christians still take heed of these most filthy crimes yea and of all curious arts and among them of that too which whatsoeuer be sayd for it by many who are young and delight in experiments is truly sayd by Basil to be nothing else but a busie tickle vanitie 19 A second sin in Niniue was robbery and oppression That in some sort may be gathered from their large and mightie gouernement which could not be maintained but by somewhat indeed was vp-held and born out with the spoiles of other But the Prophet Nahum doth put the case beyond question when he calleth it a bloudy citie full of lyes and robbery from whence the pray departeth not They had then conquered a great part of the inhabited world The tributes and exactions which they had of them whom they conquered could not chuse but be great And for the beautifying of that their City which for a thousand yeares and more was mistresse of the world and chiefe seate of the Empire it may well be supposed that they tooke the selfe same course which afterward was taken vp by the Romanes who to garnish and adorne Rome did take away from all places whither their authority and soueraignty did stretch not onely gold and siluer but images and pictures and painted tables and hangings of tapistrie and plate and armour yea whatsoeuer else was precious in their eyes So did that great Marcellus at the sacking of Syracusa and other in other places who feared not to spoile many townes to make one trim glorious Now God who loueth iustice and in iustice hateth oppression and the robbing of other men can not like of this How sped Pharao with his people for dealing hard with the Israelites If he shall be cast into the fire saith Saint Austen being moued as it seemeth by that place of the 25. of Matthew who did not giue his bread to the hungry where thinke you shall he be put who hath taken away the bread of other men If he shall be throwne into the fire who clothed not the naked whither shall
Gods permission haue sometimes a finger in them 10. How the sinne of one bringeth punishment vpon manie 13. Bad companie is to be auoided 14. The description of the tempest 16. Life is dearer then goods 18. Affliction driueth to deuotion IONAH 1.4.5 But the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea and there vvas a mighty tempest in the sea so that the ship was like to be broken Then the mariners were afrayd and cried euery man vnto his God and cast the wares that were in the ship into the sea to lighten it of them OVr Prophet as a man who would verie gladly be rid of his maister hath gotten him to the sea the land cannot hold him but his maister not so willing to part with his seruant sendeth such a message after him as will bring him back againe or make him do farre worse He would not haue his messenger run so to his owne ruine and lie obdurate in his sinne he wold not haue his purpose of preaching at Niniue be vtterly relinquished but rather because it hath so long bin deferred he by whom the stay hath bin made shall heare of it with a witnesse Here followeth such a tempest to bid him welcome to the sea that if such should be common it needed not be noted to be the speech of a wise man that he wondred that anie one wold come twise at the sea hauing seene the perill of it wold come at it againe for euerie wise man wold so say The wind doth now so blow the waues do so beate the sea doth so worke the ship is so endangered the sea-men are so afraid Ionas so by a lot is singled out to death that drowning was the least that could befall vnto him We neede make no doubt but all this was done for Ionas his sake For the question is here true which a Prophet elsewhere asketh Was the Lord angry against the riuers or was thine anger against the flouds or was thy vvrath against the sea No it was against the sinne of Ionas that all this came as vengeance and that God so sent his messengers of wrath and of displeasure 2 He desireth that his Prophet should be warned for all the dayes that he was to liue in the world to play no more such parts for what end should the next haue if he sped so ill with this And he would haue other men to take example by him that they run not no not with his owne seruants to grosse notorious crimes least they smart for it with his seruants For if the greene wood so burne what shall become of the drie if a leader do such penance what shall a common man if a Prophet do so pay for it how shall a meane bodie escape By this example the presumptuous heart of such is broken as when they haue sinned wilfully in steed of asking pardon by confession and repentance can sooth themselues in their follies saying that the best men haue offended and whie should it be strange for them to go astray since Gods Saints haue done worse Not onely Ionas here forsaketh his vocation but Noe offendeth in drunkennesse and Lot in worse euen in incest and Dauid in adulterie and Salomon that wise king in marying manie infidels The grosse falles of all which men are not proposed vnto vs in the holy booke of God to incourage vs to transgression for that were a Spiders propertie to sucke such poison from them but rather as S. Austen teacheth vs to put vs in minde of that warning of the Apostle that he who standeth should take heed least he fall to humble vs to obedience not to puffe vs vp to pride But withall if they could remember that although the Lord did couer the infirmities of his children with the skirts of his Sonnes mercie least they should finally perish yet to shew how he hateth sinne euen in the best of his people he sendeth them in this world whipping with temporall rods enough they may verie well find that there is small reason why they should be in loue with the bargaine For was there not a Cham to deride his father so farre to moue the patience of that righteous preacher Noe as in bitternesse to curse him Was there not an Absolon readie so with all kind of contumelie to scourge offending Dauid as to abuse his fathers concubines and to seeke his fathers life Here was a Hadad and there a Rezon and a Ieroboam in the third place to vexe wife-doting Salomon that he could not rest in his old age and afterward his sonne Roboam did lose ten tribes of twelue 3 And as for the Prophet here he bestoweth on himselfe a whole Chapter to shew the fruite of his fall that other might forbeare to offend by the example of that grieuous punishmēt which he sustained If he had bene as nimble to haue excused his fault as these be in our dayes he might haue made some Apologie for himselfe or at least haue concealed his penance which befel him that when no man had bene frighted by his case other might haue walked in his steps and the commonnesse of the fault might haue excused the crime For when multitudes do as we do we thinke that they do ease our burthen as the Emperour Valentinian imagined if Socrates report truth of him when hauing one wife of his owne called Seuera whom he was vnwilling to leaue he was in loue also with another virgin called Iustina and he maried her too And least this fault should seeme most grosse if he alone were noted for so scandalous behauiour by a law of purpose made he giueth leaue to all that would to marrie two wiues a peece thinking that when manie transgressed he should be more free from blame Our Ionas is so charitable as to take another course not to induce men to the like by himselfe but to terrifie them much rather by recording how he sped To fall because the Patriarkes and Prophets haue oft fallen is as much as willingly to tast of poyson because Socrates once drunke poyson which were but a foolish triall His poyson was his death And so had sinne bene death to the holiest if God had not giuen repentaunce to expell the force of iniquitie But what man is he who can promise to himselfe repentaunce or rising when he is fallen Manie hope for it but few haue it manie speake of it but few vse it which maketh that worthie saying of S. Austen to be true Manie will fall vvith Dauid but they will not arise with Dauid No example of falling is in him proposed to thee but of rising if thou haue fallen Take heed thou go not downe Let not the slip of the greater be the delight of the lesser but let the fall of the greater be the trembling of the lesser Thus that holie father speaketh If the greatest fall thou mayest fall therefore do not presume but if the greatest be
to strike vs because otherwise he cannot awake vs but let vs watch to him that his anger may sleepe to vs. 21 If our Ionas haue offended by wilfull disobedience let vs dread to do the like if he were punished for that then let not vs presume to sinne by his example if God sent a tempest against him he can vse his rods against vs if Satan be sometimes the instrument of Gods iustice let vs feare to come in his fingers if the Lord so hateth iniquitie that the companions of the wicked are oft punished for their sakes let vs hate sinne as a serpent and flie from the profane if heathen men preferre their liues before their wares let not vs aduenture our soules to get temporall trash on earth if idolaters serue their Gods once when they be in daunger let vs serue our God euer to keepe vs free from daunger if they pray when they haue neede let vs pray euerie day because euerie day we neede Lord guide vs still with thy grace and bring vs vnto thy kingdome To thy name be prayse for euer THE IIII. LECTVRE The chiefe points 1. The drowsinesse of Ionas in his daunger 2 Sinne breedeth sinne 4 Satan is desirous to make vs secure 6 A superuising diligence should be in all that haue charge 10 The ship-maister teacheth the Prophet 11 Idolaters had many Gods and their vsage toward them 14 One man is more acceptable to God thē another 15 Danger of praying to many Gods 16 Heathē men know there is a God 17 In crosses it is good to suspect that there is some sin 18 The vse of lots and diuerse circumstances in them 23 Sinne will be discouered IONAH 1.5.6.7 But Ionah was gone down into the sides of the ship he lay down and was fast a sleepe So the ship-maister came vnto him and said vnto him what meanest thou ô sleeper Arise call vpon thy God if so be that God vvill thinke vpon vs that vve perish not And they said euery man to his felow Come let vs cast lots that we may know for whose cause this euill is vpon vs. So they cast lots and the lot fell vpon Ionah WHen Alexander the Great with his happy temeritie as a Philosopher doth call it but by the prouidence of God as Daniel doth describe it had proceeded so farre as that after one great ouerthrow giuen to Darius in person in the straights of Cilicia he was now a second time in the fields neare Arbela or as the best writers haue in the fields neare Gaugamela to ioyne battell against him whereas many things should haue inforced him to looke about him as the smalnesse of his armie the strength of his aduersarie the widenesse of the field where he had none aduauntage his distaunce from his owne home and no place to flie vnto yet when it was farre day that verie morning when the battell was to be tried and by that time his armie should haue bene ordered and raunged into aray the enemie comming forward the Generall Alexander who otherwise did stirre with the formost was fast asleepe in his tent Parmenio and his Nobles who for no cause of their owne but for his sake and his honour there aduentured their liues were troubled aboue measure they were in a sea of cares and scant knew which way to turne them onely he whom all concerned and whose making or marring depended on that dayes triall and for whom and whose sole sake they endured all things which they were then to sustaine as a man that knew not of it or one that tooke no care which end went forward lay in his bed soundly sleeping The Prophet in this place shall be no whit behind him but rather much beyond him He hath listes to enter with the verie wrath of God his life doth lye vpon it and his soule too if his God should not deale kindly with him the ayre is now disturbed and yeeldeth a mightie tempest the waues they froath and roare the windes they beate and blow the sea is moued exceedingly the ship is almost broken the sea-men are afrayde happie man that can pray fastest the burthen of the ship be it costly or be it necessarie it must out into the water and all for Ionahs sake his cake it is that is baking the euent concerneth him onely and he alone as the man who of all other did know least and was a straunger to the action doth seeke a secret corner the inner sides of the ship where he may lye rest Oh Ionas thou who shouldst be a mā beyond a many euen the Prophet of the highest thou art now short of a mā thou art now below thy selfe sleeping snorting then when all the powers of thy spirits were too few to looke about thee 2 If the man had not liked of Niniue for reasons which once I named but yet wold still haue kept his calling and wold haue held on his preaching his sin had weighed the lighter he might haue bestowed his talent at Tarshish when he came there and done some good on the marchants by the way going thither he might haue giuen exhortatiō to his fellow trauellers to serue the true God of Israel If he had not had so many auditours as were in Niniue or so many as S. Peter had when at one sermon he won three thousand soules to Christ yet he should haue had some hearers if it had bene but one Plato to haue attended Socrates he had not vtterly lost his labour he who hath conuerted one sinner from going astray out of his way shall saue a soule from death and shall hide a multitude of sinnes which either the conuerted or conuerter hath committed But it is not for this cause that our Ionas goeth to the sea his preaching is turned to sleeping Let the world go how it wil he is got away from his maister will thinke no more of the matter See what the best man on earth is if God withdraw his Spirit eclipse his grace but a moment We are desperate to all wickednesse but beetles and blocks to goodnesse Here is an obdurate sinner a hard brawne is ouer his heart a thicke skin and insensible let the sea roare and the mariners crie and tumble out their packs our Ionas taketh a nap in verie supine securitie and maketh no more of it Oh the stubburnnesse of iniquitie and mans auersenesse from his maker But when we haue once passed the lines of duty obedience and grosse sinnes haue taken hold vpon vs then we must iustifie our actions we will run we care not whither from the shoes vp to the shoulders yea sometimes ouer head and eares 3 Sin stealeth on vs by degrees but cōmonly the last step is the deepest Dauid being idle had spied out Bethsabe there idlenesse was the beginning then did his eye as the window of his mind let in concupiscence into his hart Of idlenesse cometh cōcupiscence Therof foloweth
seruice of the coÌ„mon wealth in humane societie be euermore to be respected what comfort can such persons who indeede are but a burthen to a land or the Citie where they dwell take to go on forward to their graues in in that which to speake of it most moderately is but doubtfull I can hardly be perswaded that the consciences of such men do alwayes conteÌ„t and satisfie themseluâ—â— I am sure that according to the proportion of their calling with his they are not able to say as the Apostle Paule sayd a little before his death I haue fought a good fight or as Beza readeth it I haue fought that excellent fight I haue finished my course and so take ioy in their calling Such men who make a life of playing vpon a stage may bethinke themselues in this reckening If you will put vnto these our common dauncing-maisters and others of like sort Mistake me not in these wordes as if I did condemne all honest recreation I dare not to do so I know the priuilege and prerogatiue is great which men aboue all the creatures of God haue if we do not abuse our libertie but it is one thing for one man after his honest labour in that trade wherein the Lord hath placed him to vse fit and moderate recreation and other thing for another to haue no other kinde of life but to make of such exercises an occupation Many kindes of businesse are warranted both by the lawes of God and men apparantly but these at least may come vnder question 10 The next demaunde here made to our Prophet is from what place he did come presuming that a maÌ„ may draw froÌ„ some places such a staine as caÌ„not be washed off but with veÌ„geance He that toucheth pitch shall be defiled vvith it Holy Ioseph being among the Aegyptians had learned new deuised oathes he could sweare by the life of Pharao Lots wife did so well like the companie which she had in Sodome that she longed to be there againe although for her labour it cost her the turning into a pillar of salt Some places are hatefull to God his people must out of Babylon The companions of the wicked are supposed to be wicked It may well be feared that the young man was a sinner of whom Salomon telleth that he went to the house of the harlot entring in thither at the twilight and comming out perhaps at the midnight It could be no great credit for Demosthenes to be seene to come from the house of Lais. It is a case well knowne that there be at Rome whole streetes of Curtisans Onely Surius to extenuate the filthinesse of the matter saith they be but the baser streets and lanes of lesse account where these honest folkes do inhabite And he holdeth it for a great praise to Pope Pius the fifth that hee brought it to that passe This multitude must haue money to maintaine theÌ„ in their abuses whereby it may be collected that many and that frequently resort vnto them Now if Christ should aske of those who returne from those places whence come you where haue you beene they might right well quake with Ionas feare his heauie iudgemeÌ„t But if it be but his holinesse the Vicar or vicegerent of Christ vpon earth the successour of Saint Peter as he merily termeth himselfe there needeth no great dread for the matter From a knowne place of your Citie from that which yeeldeth you money which you permit for tribute Rome how rightly wast thou termed by the name of the vvhore of Babylon which sufferest such abuses in open professed sort and therby giuest incouragement to some to embrace that sinne For whereas in the dayes of our old forefathers the ignorant did account it a crime to keepe a concubine now when they see that euen at Rome in the verie eye of his holinesse in the chiefe Citie of residence for Christes Vicar such matters be maintained they may thinke that now to keepe two or three is a worke meritorious the more the more meritorious But to leaue them to their filthinesse if it do so much touch our Prophet to be asked from whence he came those of the yonger sort who come to this place for learning for vertue and good instruction may reuolue this ouer and ouer If any day in the euening when they should be at home in their beddes or else quiet in their studies or if vpon the Sabaoth in seruice time or while other are at the sermon a tauerne should be their rest which doth not well agree with a long gowne how farre should they be forgetfull or blush to heare that question whence come you where haue you bin or as God spake to our forefather in the bushes where art thou Adam If there should be any such as God be praised that custome is well left how will they hereafter lament that those good houres which should and might by the Lordes good blessing be well imployed are ill and fruitlessely spent that idlenesse and vnthriftinesse yea peraduenture drunkennesse also should be that whereunto they bend their studie when in the meane while knowledge and precious learning might adorne them Time foolishly wasted can neuer be recalled and it is hard to call backe our selues when we are once growne to a custome of any euill 11 The ship-maister and his fellowes yet haue not inough of Ionas some more questions for their money They aske him of his countrey and from what people he did come God sometimes is angry with a whole laÌ„d for the wickednesse of the inhabitants The goodly fields of Sodome do find that vnto this day This also is witnessed vnto vs by the barrennesse of Palestina which was sometimes the holie land somtimes the happie land flowing with milke and hony which now answereth in no measure to the fertilitie of auncient time When sinne hath ouergrown a countrey each inhabitant feeleth a wo euen the good in temporall punishments do smart as well as the wicked For the iniquitie of their nation both Daniel and the three children together with the rest of their countrimen were led into captiuitie Some kind of people euen almost in generall are displeasing to the Lord. The Ammonites and the Moabites were litle accepted of him But Amelechs name was so cursed that the Lord would haue the remembrance of them to be rooted out from vnder the heauen Aboue all the people who liue vpon the earth the Iewes do demonstrate this doctrine to vs whose children and childrens children haue for many ages bene blinded with the grosse and grieuous sinne of their fathers who put Christ cruelly to death Other nations had their faults and so might be hatefull to men who bordered neare vpon them and they might also prouoke wrath from God S. Paule did obserue out of the Poet Epimenides that the Cretians were great lyers Now least some such generall sinne of parentage or countrey should hang
disease shew the remedie how to cure it A little before he hath this also That great was he who fled but greater was he that followed They dare not deliuer him they know not how to conceale him So there is as it seemeth a great wrastling in the minds of these poore men what they should do or should not do They now know that he was a Prophet a man reuerend in his calling and therefore they were loath to lay any violent hands vpon him They would rather suppose that he who was so contrite and had made such an acknowledgement of the fault which he committed would proceede to let them know the meanes to escape from drowning 14 Many gracelesse ones in our dayes would haue taken another course A runne-away so pursued a fugitiue so made after we will soone ease our selues of the feare we will quickely free our shippe from the daunger what should so vile a person be roosting in our vessell Perhaps without many wordes he might haue gone ouer boord he might haue diued vnder water they would neuer haue stood to aske what they should do vnto him So much doth the inciuilitie and barbarous behauiour of our age passe the manners of rude men in old time But they had a good remembrancer to keepe them in moderation euen their reuerence vnto God whose hand they did find vpon them as knocking at the doore On the one side how could they tell least by sufferance and impunitie toward Ionas they should incurre the displeasure of the Almightie And on the other side how could they tell least in punishing and taking away his life the reward which belonged to murtherers might be layd vpon them Ionas for his refusing to go to preach at Niniue was chased with wrath from heauen Then what vengeance might befall them in a greater fault as in crueltie and in shedding of his bloud who neuer had offended them Thus they feare to spill his life although they see shew of very fit occasion They aske aduise of him The maine note from this place is the care which men should haue to destroy the life of none that they should be auerse from bloud which because it is the full subiect of those verses which follow next after my text I do deferre it thither And so I come to the aunswere of Ionas which is my second part And he sayd vnto them Take me and cast me into the sea c. 15 It seemeth that the Prophet is now as farre in his penaunce as possibly he can go He knew that he had sinned and Gods wrath must be satisfied with some temporall punishment and therefore he yeeldeth himselfe with patience to the very death Better drowne then dye eternally better loose his life here then loose his life elsewhere He is therefore content to sustaine the vttermost extremitie He knew that God was glorifyed in the execution of iustice as well as in mercie A lesson which Iosuah did once teach Achan when he willed him to confesse and giue God the glorie and by a consequent endure his death with patience An instruction which we can neuer too much teach to prisoners and such as are to suffer by iugdement of law that they should beare with mildnesse and quietnesse of behauiour that which they wilfully haue deserued The conscience of their sinne the astonishment at their iudgement the feare of violent death the shame of such a suffering is inough to amaze their thoughtes and ouerwhelme resolution Whereas on the other side the putting of them in remembrance that at one time or another they must be content to dy and the vrging that God doth lay such temporall punishments vpon malefactors for the sauing of their soules the recounting of that benefite which ariseth from Christs passion to wit a pleading before his father to get pardon for all that be repentaunt doth settle the disquieted and affrighted mind right well I would to God that our English were as backeward to transgresse as in this case they are forward to satisfie euen with their liues the extremitie of the lawe and that in a peaceable resolued sort I impute it to nothing but to the ordinarie passage of the word of God among vs which is euerie way able to quiet and settle the penitent sinners heart Other nations do admire it in our men as the Italians most of all and the French as we may see it obserued in the defence of Henry Stephanus for Herodotus It sheweth a right firme constancie and sure hope in Christ Iesus And as those two brought the theefe which dyed with Christ into Paradise so no doubt but that many with vs go by execution into heauen who if they were not recalled by violence and by lawe would prooue firebrands of hell 16 I remember the patience of our countrey-men by the quietnesse of Ionas here who alone desireth to dye because he alone had offended in the sinne which now is in question He would not that other innocent men should perish by his means This is the course of Gods children to haue remorse vpon other and not to intangle them in their plagues It is I saith Dauid that haue offended not these sheepe alas what haue they done But contrariwise the reprobate if destruction must befall them would haue all other to take part in that their iudgement that themselues might not be singular They would haue company to hell If they needes must from hence they care not if all the world come to ruine together with their fall They earnestly desire that other men should be partakers of their smart The name of Herode the great is very odious in this respect who layd a plot that when he dyed many other might dye with him And gaue expresse commaundement that one of euery noble family in his kingdome should be slaine that by that meanes his death might of necessitie be lamented if not for loue of him which the tyrant had no reason to expect yet for the losse of others Such are the vnnaturall passions of cruell and bloudie miscreants But the blessed sons of God be of another spirit they would rather purchase peace to others by their losses then hurt others by their errours Ionas would dye alone because he alone had offended 17 Here now is it worth the discoursing why the Prophet in this manner should vrge and hasten himselfe to death Was it as Arias Montanus thinketh because yet he is so obstinate that in no case he will to Niniue but rather dye in a frowardnesse then teach them who afterward should worke harme to his people No his confession before handled doth keepe me from that opinion I hold him now very carefull to commit no farther sinne He feeleth the weight of the former inough too much on him Is it then for a fretting indignation which he beareth vnto himself or for hatred of his life because his consciēce did now pricke him as the conscience of
the wicked vseth to do when some villanie is cōmitted as Iudas was pricked in his heart after his treason practised on our Sauiour whē he went out male-cōtented and hanged himselfe in despaire No I hold the reason of it to be another matter as anon I shall shew vnto you This had bene a sinne more fearefull then any that went before For murthering of himselfe whereof he had bene guiltie if for that intent he had spoken it though other mens hands had done it is a sin so grieuous that scāt any is more hainous vnto the Lord. This sheweth a graund solemne possession which Satan hath in a man a distrust of all Gods loue when a man groweth to the summitie of such malice against himselfe as that naturall affection and the account to be giuē of all our deedes vpon the earth is quite exiled out of memory A doctrine which I take to be nothing besides the purpose if largely it be discoursed of in the iniquitie of these times wherin wretchednesse hath so fearefully preuailed in some persons and almost daily doth preuaile that they dare to plunge themselues into this pit of terrible destruction 18 Our God in his ten commandements hath set this down for one thou shalt commit no murther He is so precise vpon bloud that he not onely hath sayd at the hand of a man euen at the hand of a mans brother will I require the life of man And who so sheddeth mans bloud by man shall his bloud be shed And yee shall take no recompence for the life of the murtherer which is worthy to dye but he shall be put to death But the verie Oxe that goreth a man or woman that he dye this oxe shall be stoned to death and his flesh shall not be eaten He that slue a man vnwillingly at the wood with an axe flying out of his hand should loose his life for his labour if the pursuer did so follow him as that he ouertooke him before he came to the city of refuge This was to make men the more vigilant that they did no such mischaunces as we commonly do terme them But if it were wilfull murther the offender was to be taken from the very hornes of the altar and slaine as Ioab was serued a man of so noble birth a man of such seruice before These are the lawes which were made concerning the murthering of other men And doth not the law of God and the explication of it by Iesus Christ his sonne originally require of vs that all fit things which we owe to other men should be done by our selues to our selues Thou oughtest to loue thy neighbour but as thou louest thy selfe The example of thy charitie is drawne from thy selfe at home Thy soule thy preseruation the good wished to thy selfe should be the true direction of thy deedes vnto thy neighbour But thou must not lay any bloudy and murthering hands vpon another therefore much lesse on thy selfe 19 God hath placed thee in this world as in a watch or a standing from whence thou must not stirre thy foote till he bid thee to remooue He hath imprinted a most passionate loue betweene thy soule and thy body that they grieue to leaue one another The mind will haue many inuentions the body will beare many stripes before that either from other of them do willingly depart and be dissolued Wise men haue no greater reason of perswasion to induce that the parting with any friend or the loosing of the nearest and dearest must be borne with patience then that a dearer couple the nearest that this world hath that is our soules and our bodies must depart and flye a sunder The affection is so entire the coniunction is so inward which the one of these hath to the other God would haue our natiuitie to be bitter to our mothers that they might loue vs the dearer but he would haue our death to be soure vnto our selues that we might the more feare to hasten it And therfore although the spirite may be willing in any man yet surely the flesh is weake in the laying downe of the life for a good conscience and the Gospell What one is he whome Gods spirite hath not in great measure mortified that feeleth not in himselfe oftentimes an horrour and a quaking to thinke of this dissolution that he who in some sort may yet be called the image of God should become dust and clay that the goodliest of those creatures whome the Almightie hath framed vnder the heauen should prooue a rotten carcasse that he who hath seene the starres and beheld the heauen in his beauty yea hath meditated on the highest and contemplated on the Trinitie should be put into a graue and tumbled into the earth to be amongst worms and vermin in darkenesse and corruption all which a naturall man doth loath he could wish that it might not be Now when our owne hand shall hasten that which nature doth so far hate which our heart doth so dislike which God doth so detest how wicked is our wickednesse 20 Egesippus in his third booke of the destruction of Hierusalem rehearseth a worthy Oration although in some other words then I find it in Iosephus himselfe which Iosephus that great and learned Iewe made to his souldiers in a caue where they lay hid after the losse of the citie Iotapata which Vespasian the Romane Generall tooke There his owne men would take no naye but that they must murther downe one another whereupon he vseth a speech which in my iudgement is most patheticall The Almighty God hath giuen vnto vs our life as a most precious treasure he hath shut it and sealed it vp in this earthen vessell and giuen it vs to be kept till that himself do aske for it againe And were it not a fault now as on the one side to deny it when he shall require it againe so on the other side to spill and cast this treasure forth which was thus committed to vs before he do demaund it And after a few other words he goeth thus forward If we should kill our selues who is he that should admit vs into the company of good soules Shall it not be sayd to vs as once it was sayd to Adam Where art thou so where are yee who contrary to my precept are come where you should not be because I haue not yet loosed you from the bonds of your bodies This is a Christian speech out of the mouth of a Iewe which caryeth such matter with it as is worthy to be reuolued It was not well with Adam when he who should haue bene in the plaine was crept into the bushes his misery then began And without Gods exceeding mercie whereof no man can presume nay great and mightie preiudice is to the contrary it wil be most ill with them who do aduenture vpon such deedes they do rush themselues into torments 21 Let heathen men be famous for
by that knowledge which he yet retained notwithstanding his fall that this punishment was assigned to him by the Lord. This must be the satisfaction for his great disobedience Now againe his faith reuiueth by which he had some foresight of all Gods purpose ouer him This was peculiar to our Ionas by his Propheticall knowledge and may not be followed by vs. It is not any protection for vs to bid any other throw our selues into the sea 27 Besides this I do not doubt but as Samson was a figure of the Sauiour of the world so Ionas also was although not in euerie matter as once before I haue noted yet in this his drowning here Christ himselfe did expound the lying of the Prophet for three dayes in the whales bellye to be a signe of his owne buriall and lying in the earth The death of the Sauiour was to him a meanes of his buriall so here the casting out of Ionas into the sea by the mariners was the meanes whereby he lay three dayes and three nightes in the bellye of the whale Ionas is willingly drowned here Christ also there dyeth willingly he yeelded vp his Ghost no man could take it from him Ionas alone must suffer to saue the rest of the ship Christ alone did treade the wine-presse and Christ doth dye alone to stay his fathers wrath to saue all his elect You see that he is an excellent type of Iesus Christ the righteous But as it is impossible that comparisons should hold in all things and there is none who in euery matter may be likened vnto Christ because he had no fellowes he cannot be tryed by his peeres so there is this one difference that Ionas when he suffered was alone in all the fault and Iesus in his suffering was onely without all fault because he was that immaculate lambe in whose mouth was found no guile When I first looked into this text which I haue now opened vnto you I did thinke to haue said something farther in or concerning the person of Christ whom our Prophet doth represent I meant to haue mentioned his readinesse to dye that he might redeeme vs sinners and so briefly out of the new Testament to haue giuen some comfort amidst all these threates of Ionas But in handling this last question matter hath growne vpon me and I loue not to be tedious I will therefore deferre that till I come to the fifteenth verse where the like occasion is againe fitly offered vnto me In the meane time let vs meditate on the excellent loue of Christ who would dye so willingly for vs the iust for the vniust to bring vs vnto his kingdome To the attaining whereof he alwayes further vs to whom in the perfection of the Trinitie be glorie and prayse for euermore THE VII LECTVRE The chiefe points 1 The vnwillingnesse of the mariners to put Ionas to death 4 Great slownesse should be vsed in taking away life 6. Against killing of men to offer to Idols 7. and other cruell massacrings 9. As that of the Anabaptistes 14. The force of the sea 16. It is some sinne that maketh many not to prosper 20. God reuengeth innocent bloud 22. Enforcement doth not excuse euill 23. We must yeeld to Gods will Ionah 1.13.14 Neuerthelesse the mē rowed to bring it to the land but they could not for the sea wrought and was troublous against thē Wherefore they cried vnto the Lord said We beseech thee ô Lord vve beseech thee let vs not perish for this mans life and lay not vpon vs innocent bloud for thou ô Lord hast done as it pleased thee IOnas being of a Prophet become a sinner of a sinner a prisoner as oft times you haue heard is examined by his companie but condēned by himselfe as a grieuous malefactour worthy to be drowned in the sea So much did his sinne crie for vengeance so vehemently did his God make after him But the miserie of his miserie is that since he must needes suffer for otherwise the fault which his owne mouth hath acknowledged cannot be satisfied for he wanteth some man that may do the deed The place is ready and the person who thinketh euerie thought of time to be verie long before the matter be dispatched but there wanteth an executioner He might not do as Saule did fall on his owne sword point himselfe when his harnesse-bearer would not depriue him of his life This had argued too great dispaire But he might wish with Nero that in the course of iustice he might haue some friend or enemie to helpe him vnto his end But among these blustering mariners he could not finde that fauour Although himselfe accuse himselfe and lay his fault plaine before them although windes and waues did confirme it although the lot throwne did assure it although in wordes he did desire to be cast into the water yet those who should haue done it do so ill like of the matter that if sayles or oares can serue they will backe againe to the land rather leaue their intended iourney then vse any violence toward him They rowed to bring the ship backe vnto the land 2 The word which is vsed here comming of Chathar in the Hebrew doth signifie they did digge either because men do thrust into the water with oares as in digging they do with other instruments on the land like as in Latin Poetry the bottome of the ship is sayd to plow the water sulcare to make things like furrows in it or because as men in digging do turn this way and that way stir moue the ground so they stirred vp their wits did beate their brayns and thoughts to free him from the danger For his sake they vsed all such helpes as they had at sea We know that they be not many either sayling by the wind or rowing by the oare tall ships do know the one the galleys goe with the other But as it may be iudged out of the monuments of antiquitie and partly may be seene in some at this day euerie ship in old time had both the one the other When the wind wanted for their sayling their armes did vse to fall a rowing In this place I doubt not but that the storme had so ouerlayd them that their tackling in generall did serue them to little purpose The shift which then remained was to see if by cleane strength against both wind and water they might winne the land by their rowing backward Forward they could not get therfore they wil retire rather then drown the Prophet Their businesse is forgotten their hast shall stay a while rather then destroy his life 3 When aduisedly I consider how many things here should vrge those mariners to hasten him vnto death their disturbance in their iourney the casting foorth of their wares which goeth against the soule of a wordly minded creature the indangering of their liues the discouery by a lot the confession of himself
Theodoricke king of the Gothes who slue Boētius and Symmachus two both noble and innocent persons But afterward the guilt of that sinne sticking fast in his conscience he grew to an imagination that the head of a certaine fish that was set vpon his table was the head of Symmachus which gaped yawned vpon him Vpon which conceit he trembling and quaking fell into a sharpe sicknesse and quickly thereof dyed Some other times it is deferred but yet the punishment neuer resting commeth tumbling on at last as Euagrius in the fifth of his Ecclesiasticall storie doth tell of one Addaeus which in his time was reputed one of the speciall friends of the Emperour Iustinian This man when he had escaped the law for one murther yet was afterward put to death for a fact wherewith he was charged but in truth had neuer done it So the Lord did change the matter and the Lord did change the time but the punishment was not changed He escaped for that which he did and dyed for that which he did not Sometime God doth punish the fathers sinne vpon the children as he did Dauids murther vpon Vriah on his owne sonnes Absolon and Ammon These mariners might heare of such examples among the Gentiles For Gods finger is euery where he is Lord ouer all the earth and therefore they might well feare least that themselues should perish for the bloud of this dying Prophet 22 The second thing which I note is that although they were enforced against their will to destroy him yet because the deed it self was in his own quality vnlawful they cannot satisfie themselues but still make scruple of it Althogh there were a kind of commandement from God that it should be done for they had signes to that purpose yet they doubt at it grieue to do it Oh how far doth the cōscience of these weake ones exceed the mindes of many now who thinke that they may do vnlawfull things if they be enforced to it by any temporall reason not hauing for their warrant a notice from God as these men here had but all piety cleane against them Such are they who wil not refuse to go to the seruice of an idoll if their Prince shold cōmand them This was the great perswasiō which was vsed by Magnus a noble man toward diuerse Christiās that they shold embrace the faith opinions of the Arrians because Valens the Emperour had made lawes to that purpose Suppose saith he to them that your religion be very good yet if you be enforced to turne vnto another your God will forgiue it to you And much more of that matter Such are they who being vrged by nothing but the concupiscence of their own affections will do things most vngodly Steale to maintaine their brauerie they cannot else liue like men Ly for to match their enemie they may reach him so in pollicie In like sort wrastle against their cōscience in oppugning of the righteous in slaundering of the innocent because he is not for thē he standeth somtimes in their light although they know that they do amisse that they shall answer for it This is a small necessity my idlenesse or my wantonnesse my engrocing of filthie gaine to make me do that which mine owne hart knoweth that Gods booke daily forbiddeth to me Although they were deepely persuaded that it was the Lords determinatiō yet what doubting is in these seamen to do a thing vnlawfull for so it is in it self but Gods wil doth make it lawful To this wil they thē yeld 23 And this is the third point which I obserued in them thou hast done as it pleaseth thee They do not accuse God here and lay the fault on him as men commonly vse to do We all haue learned that of Adā The woman which thou gauest me she gaue me of the tree and I did eat Not the womā simply saith S. Austē but the woman which thou didst giue me For nothing is so familiar as for sinners to lay vpon God that whereof they be accused These do not so in this place but assume that to be righteous which God will haue to be done because they see him will it that he will take no nay therfore they know it is iust accordingly yeeld vnto it This is a sound direction for man to submit his will to the will of his maker that as we are taught to pray O Lord thy vvill be done so we yeeld vnto it in mildnesse He is wiser then wee be and therefore let him leade Not my vvill in my manhoode but thy vvill in thy Godheade be done saith Christ our Sauiour Let the Lord saith old Eli doe as seemeth good in his owne eyes Although therfore any thing be vnlawfull seem vnto vs to be vnnaturall yet if God do cōmand it we ought not to resist It was vnlawfull for Abraham to kill but more vnnaturall to kill his onely sonne and that with his owne hands yet when the Lord commanded he was ready to do thē both Let other learne this lesson thence that if their friends or children be as deare to them as Isaac was vnto his father Abraham yet if God take them hence they say in all obedience the will of the Lord be done or with these shipmen here thou hast done as it pleaseth thee The like we shold say of sicknesse banishment losse of goods or whatsoeuer else in this world Although it go as much against vs as it did against these men to drown the Prophet Ionas yet if God do require it let vs do as it pleaseth him And so let vs pray vnto him first that he will keepe vs alwaies from bloud-guiltinesse and from murther and then that he will giue vs grace to make conscience of such deedes as are against his word but that euermore we may learne to submit our selues to his pleasure that walking here as deare children we may be brought along to the inheritance of his glorie Vnto the which ô Father bring vs for thine owne sonne Christ his sake to whome with thee and the holy Spirite be laud and praise for euer THE VIII LECTVRE The chiefe poynts 2. Reuerence to the Prophet euen in his death 4. Such reuerēce is not borne to our Preachers 8. Gods creatures are all at his becke 9. The magistrate punishing sinne turneth away Gods plagues 10. Christs death appeaseth the Fathers wrath 11. Cōfort to vs by Christs death 13. The punishment of others should make vs tremble 16. The vowes of seamen 17. The temporary faith of the mariners 19. Hypocrites can make shew of religion 20. We must perseuere in good things Ionah 1.15.16 So they tooke vp Ionah and cast him into the sea and the sea ceassed from her raging Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly and offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vowes YOu haue oftentimes heard of our Prophet on the sea now his turne is to be in the sea
yeelding them dry footing as if it had bene on the land when they were so pursued and made after by the chariots and horsemen of the Egyptians How fitly vnto my purpose was the daughter of king Pharao brought forth and put in mind to pity poore drowning Moses How was the iaw-bone of the asse made ready to be as a sword for Samson wherewith he slue so many Philistines and how was one of the teeth thereof prepared to yeeld him drinke when he fainted So admirable is the Lord in the assistance of his Saints that one thing or another shall be borne to do them good in their bitter extremitie as if it were made onely for that purpose There be few which haue liued many yeares and in Christian meditation contemplated in themselues on the kindnesse of their God who know not this ouer and ouer Such comforts and such stayes arising by such meanes as themselues could not conceiue of vntill they see things done Oh the loue of God inestimable oh his straunge wayes for our good The wicked on the one side may feare his hand who can raise such meanes to perplexe them and the faithfull on the other side may embrace his mercy who hath such helpes at need and both of them may stand amased and wonder at his power who hath his instruments euermore so ready 5 I know not whether in our Prophet is more to be respected Gods punishment or his protection If we thinke vpon his drowning he doth fauour him since he had at hand a great fish to receiue him so that he did not perish If we thinke of the time and place where he lay and how long that is in the dungeon of that fishes belly for three dayes and three nights it doth double and often multiply Gods angry wrath vpon him The euent doth giue this testimony that since Ionas howsoeuer at the first he fell was appointed and predestinated to good and not to euill his deliuerance was as readie as his chastisement was for him one hand to cast him downe another to helpe him vp when the ship might not any longer containe him the fishes bellie was in steede of a sea-vessell to bring him on toward Niniue But in the meane while his lying was such in so many dreades and horrours and anguishes for his life nay for doubte of the life eternall because wrath was vpon him which endangered his best part euen his inward man and his soule that many deaths had bene easier then a languishing in that prison where now he had his best repose So sowre a thing is sinne and disobedience to the Lord. It may be sweete in the mouth but it is bitter in the belly like a cup of deadly poyson Certainely it is a daughter of those Locustes which haue faces faire as men but killing stings in their tailes It is pleasure with too much paine sweete meate with too sharpe sauce And therefore it may well be likened to that herbe Sardonia in Sardinia of the which Solinus writeth that it maketh the eaters thereof to looke as if they laughed but in their laughing they dye Thus Ionas is preserued but to testifie Gods displeasure in the meanes of his preseruation he endureth full many sorowes Let vs now see if you please what that was whereby God so wrought for him The Lord prepared a great fish to swallow 6 In the Hebrew it is a great fish but it is not added of what kinde or species this fish was Our Sauiour Christ doth briefly touch this storie and there the Euangelist in the Greeke doth vse the word Ketos which although sometimes like to the Latine Cete it be applied to diuerse sorts of great fishes yet properly it noteth that one who is the king of fishes and ruler of the sea Balaena the great whale and it is euermore so Englished in that text A fish which in diuerse seas is of seuerall shapes and fashions as in the Indian Oceane in the red sea neare Arabia in the Northren waters toward Island and in our English Oceane but euery where verie huge and euery where very mighty And so this had neede to be who had so wide a mouth as to receiue the Prophet who had so large a throate as to swallow him and not hurt him who had so vaste a paunch as to lodge him there and not stifle him A matter to some men incredible that among all liuing creatures should be any so capacious but so vndoubtedly a knowne truth to men that liue neare the sea or that haue trauelled much by ship and a verity so confirmed so consented vpon by all who haue read the writers either olde or new vpon that argument that he were a man much absurde who would make question of it They all agree that at sea there are fishes farre exceeding the greatest beast on land And thereof particularly Olaus Magnus doth assigne these reasons the abundance of the moysture which is fit to dilate and increase any liuing creature and the very great depth vvhere is both store of foode and safe meanes to escape such other fishes as are ready to hurt them They farther adde that the Elephant is but little when he is compared with these water-monsters That the bellies and mouthes and throtes of some fishes are so spacious that a man may well be receiued in by them Gulielmus Rondeletius who hath taken great paines in displaying the proportions and qualities of fishes as appeareth in that excellent worke of Gesner De Aquatilibus for those two are oft ioyned together reporteth of a little small fish in comparison of a whale which he calleth by the name of Lamia that in the Mediterrane sea some of those haue oftentimes bene found hauing a whole man swallowed into each of their bellies Yea he telleth that neare vnto Marseilles an auncient city oâ— Fraunce there haue bene found of them which haue had within them virum loricatum a man in some kind of armour So huge-bellied is this fish which commeth not neare to the great ones 7 But for the whale it selfe if any list to reade of the bignesse of it and should esteeme that too much Pliny speaketh positiuely that in the Indian seas there are some of two hundred cubites in length and the same Pliny out of the bookes of Iuba that in the seas neare Arabia haue bene seene some of foure hundred cubites for so much is sixe hundred feete which also Munster deliuereth to vs in the fifth of his Cosmography then let him heare what Dion a good Historien doth lay downe of certainty in his fifty and fourth booke and that is that in the dayes of Augustus sometimes Emperour of Rome a whale leaped to the land out of the Germane Ocean full twenty foote in breadth and threescore foote in length This was so bigge a body as might well receiue the Prophet But adde to this what I find in Gesner taken
wherein they shall heare that sentence and that is in the resurrection There were in former times many figures of that matter euen before the light of the Gospell as when Enoch and Elias were assumed vp into heauen and translated to immortalitie to shew that other after them should haue the same vncorruptnesse although by another change and to make proofe of a life which is elsewhere for our bodies but shall not be reuealed vntill that generall rising In like sort when there were shewed vnto the Prophet Ezechiel great heapes of scattered bones which the Lord yet put together and laid sinewes vpon them and made flesh grow thereon and then couered both with skinne and afterward breathed life into them In Iob is an euident testimonie I am sure that my Redeemer liueth and he shall stand the last on the earth And although after my skinne the wormes destroy this bodie yet shall I see God in my flesh So in the end of Daniel Many of them that sleepe in the dust of the earth shall avvake some to euerlasting life and some to shame and perpetuall contempt But how euident is this in the new Testament When the Sonne of man commeth in his glorie and all the holy Angels with him then shall he sit vpon the throne of his glorie And before him shall be gathered all nations and he shall separate them one from another as a shepheard separateth the sheepe from the goates And in the second to the Corinthians that vve must all appeare before the iudgement seate of Christ that euerie man may receiue the things done in his bodie according as he hath done vvhether it be good or euill But most manifest of all other is that of Iohn in his Reuelation I saw a great white throne and one that sate on it from whose face fled away both the earth and heauen and their place vvas no more found And I saw the dead both great and small stand before God and the bookes vvere opened Then foorthwith And the sea gaue vp her dead which vvere in her and death and hell deliuered vp the dead which vvere in them So oftentimes and so plainely doth God foretell vnto vs this generall resurrection In so much that it is as certaine as that the Lord sitteth in heauen that this shall one day bee 16 As there is in all the faithful an assenting to this doctrine the like might be in very Ethnicks sauing that their eies are closed therfore they cānot see as a sound to a deaf eare is nothing which yet is discerned by another man so the miscreants of all ages belly-gods and beast-like men can in no sort endure it Indeede they haue little reason for that the portion is very small which shall then be allowed vnto them Such were those swinish Epicures falsely termed Philosophers who luxuriating in voluptuousnesse and thinking that to be felicitie to bath themselues in delight did enioy the present with the Asse but vtterly denied the immortalitie of the soule and by a consequent that the bodie shall euer be repaired Like to them was Sardanapalus who had this Epitaph on his graue Drinke and play our life is mortall and our time is short vpon earth but our death is euerlasting if a man once be come to it Pliny the elder was a man most worthy praise for his labours which were inestimable yet that speech of his was impious and vnbeseeming those good partes which were otherwise in Plinie To all men from their last day is the same state as was before their first day neither is there after death any more feeling in the bodie or the soule then was before the birthday Certainely the Saduces were in this beleefe of whom the Euangelist witnesseth that they denied the resurrection And you may put them in this number who in Saint Paules time did vse this by-word Let vs eate and drinke for to morrow we shall dye as intending that in death should be a finall end and we should be no more heard of The persecuting Gentiles were plainely of this opinion of some of whom in Fraunce Eusebius witnesseth that they in scorne of the resurrection which the Christians do beleeue did burne many of the Martyrs and afterward threw their ashes into the riuer Rhodanus with this foolish exprobration Let vs see now if their God be able to reuiue them In a word most of the Pagans in all ages of the world and all Atheists among Christians a thing in our time too well knowne do oppugne this truth beyond measure At whose liues I do not maruell if they be like their profession that is such some few ciuill respects excepted as are fit for those men who feare neither God nor Diuell I could wish that since it must needes be that Gods wrath is oftentimes by these plucked downe vpon our land the sword of the ciuill magistrate would with seueritie prouide some remedie for them that there might not be in Israel a man who should once dare to blaspheme the name of the Lord. I remember it is recorded of the Atheniens that in the respect which they caried to their false and fained Gods they so detested Diagoras for talking against their heathenish religion that he standing in feare of his life was glad to flye the countrie But herewith the other not contented did put foorth a proclamation that whosoeuer it were that would kill that Diagoras should haue an honourable reward that was a talent of siluer for his labour 17 But to leaue these lawes vnto the Christian magistrate and to proceed as a Minister the arguments of all these and a thousand more of that sute are but vanitie of all vanities when they come once to be weighed in the ballāce of the Sanctuary and are counterpoised onely with the high Gods omnipotencie For why should we tye his power vnto our foolish wit Suppose that there be dying vpon dying and deuouring vpon deuouring that a man be slaine and his members consumed some by birdes some by beastes some by fishes and imagine that those creatures be taken and eaten againe by men and those men be then burnt and their ashes throwne into the water and if we can go farther let there be as many mutations more what is all this to plunge his abilitie who can do euerie thing whatsoeuer himselfe shall please He can do euery thing and therefore raise this man If nature cannot conceiue it learne to looke a little higher to grace and faith beyond nature Plato an heathen man did much reprooue Anaxagoras because tying himselfe too farre to naturall causes and reasons he omitted to thinke on the efficient cause of all things which is surely God the first moouer This is a monstrous errour of vs also But will we allow that to God the like wherof we do allow vnto men If an image should be made of lead to the proportion of a man and the workman
separated from the bodie and that it commeth to an account and if it haue so deserued suffereth punishment and great torment yea he mentioneth such a iudgement as wherein the good are set on the right hand and the euill on the left as if he had perused the bookes of the sacred Bible The French Prophets those Druides as Pomponius Mela noteth did both beleeue and teach the immortalitie of the soule which was a good inducement to inferre the resurrection For when they held this vndoubtedly that the better part doth not die and by a consequent that the soules of them which had done well for their good life in this place should come vnto felicitie they might haue easily bene perswaded that by a good congruitie the instrument and copartner and sister of the soule I meane this flesh of ours being ioyned in all actions should in vprightnesse of iustice be ioyned in the reward whether it be good or euill 20 How much to blame are the Atheists and Epicures of our time who come not so farre as this but as they depriue our bodies of all future reuiuing so they teach that our soules in nothing are different from the beasts but that in the dissolution the spirit shall be dissolued as well as the exteriour man in which thoughts they shew thēselues to be worse then many Ethnicks They little conceiue the dignity and simplicity of that spirit the single in compoundnesse of that self-moouing soule for so I may well call it in comparison of the flesh For as Chrysostome maketh his argument If the soule can giue such life and beautie vnto the bodie with what a life and fairenesse doth it liue in it selfe And if it can hold together the bodie which is so stinking and so deformed a carcasse as appeareth euidently after death how much more shall it conserue and preserue it selfe in his owne being So pregnant is this reason that an infidell may conceiue it and very well apprehend it but we which are Christian men may remember a farther lesson That our Sauiour hath dyed for vs and payed a price very great his owne most precious bloud For whom or what was this for our body which liueth and dieth and rotteth and neuer returneth againe for our soule which is here this day and too morrow spilt and corrupted How vnworthy were this of him to endure so much for so little Shall we thinke him so vnwise or repute him so vnaduised No he knew that this soule of ours must stand before his throne and this rottennesse must come foorth by a fearefull resurrection And if this should not be so if there should be no accompt no recompence for ill deedes no retribution for the good to what end should men serue the Lord or what difference should there be betweene the iust and the vniust the holy and the profane nay betweene man the best creature that mooueth vpon the ground and the basest and vilest beast which hath little sence and no reason Because it were impiety to think this of our iust Lord that so slenderly he disposeth things let vs with an assured faith conceiue our immortality and the hope of a resurrection 21 As this hath bene deduced from the example of our Prophet by this or the like sort Ionas was in the fishes belly so was Christ in the graue Ionas came forth from thence so did Christ rise againe his rising doth bring our rising his resurrection ours because he was the first fruits of all those that do sleep So to cōclude this doctrine by making vse of it very briefly if this be determined ouer vs the houre shal one day come that all that is in the graue shall arise heare Gods voice neither the mountains nor the rocks can couer vs frō the presence of the Lambe what ones then how perfect shold we study to be how shold we prepare our selues against that day of reckning that our iudg may acknowledge vs to be his friends his brethren vnspotted vndefiled that so we might not trēble to see him heare his iudgement But alas how far are we from it indeed frō thinking of it For as Chrysostome speaketh some do say that they beleeue that there shal be a resurrectiō a recōpēce to come But I listen not to thy words but rather to that which is done euery day For if thou expect the resurrectiō a recōpence why art thou so giuē to the glory of this present life why doest thou daily vexe thy self gathering more mony then the sand I may go a little farther applying it to our time why do we bath our selues in folly as in the water why do we drinke in iniquitie bitternesse in such measure why hunt we after gifts and thirst after rewards why seeke we more to please men then labour to please the Lord Briefly why doth security in inward sort so possesse vs as if with Hyminaeus Philetus we did think the resurrection past Why do we as that man of whome Saint Bernard speaketh that is eate and drinke and sleepe carelesse as if we had now escaped the day of death and iudgement and the very torments of hell So play and laugh and delight as if we had passed the pikes and vvere now in Gods kingdome Who seeth not this to be so although he could wish it to be farre otherwise 22 The remembrance of this accompt should be as a snaffle to vs or as a bridle to keepe vs backward from profanenesse enormitie And in these euils let them take their portiō who are incredulous and vnbeleeuers of whome it is no maruell that they do hotely embrace them and egerly follow after them For take away an opinion of rising vnto iudgement and all obseruance of pietie falleth presently to the ground and men will striue to be filthie in impietie and in sinne But because we professe Christ Iesus and the hope of immortalitie let vs liue as men that expect it And since that it is appointed that all men shall die once and after it commeth the iudgement and since the day of death is as vncertaine to vs as it euer was to Isaac let vs furnish our selues before hand that with the oyle of faith and of good life in our lampes we may go to meete the bridegroome If Christ as our head be risen from the dead let vs arise from the vanities and follies of this earth which are not worth the comparing with eternitie in the heauens If he as the chiefe of his Church be ascended and gone before let vs who wish to be members wrestle to follow after him Let it be enough that hitherto with Ionas we haue fled from our dutie which we owe to our maker and that we haue lyen not dayes but yeares oft three times and three ouer not in the fishes belly but in the belly of sin And let vs beseech the Lord that since
Sathan is more desirous to swallow vs into hell then the whale was to deuour the Prophet that he will free vs from that enemie and bring vs into his kingdome there to raigne with his owne Sonne to both whome and the holy Spirite be laud and praise immortall Amen THE X. LECTVRE The chiefe poynts 2. The anguish of Ionas in the whale 3. The vse and force of prayer 6. Our negligence herein 8. Inuocation is to be vsed to God onely 10. Some things in the Fathers fauouring inuocation of Saints 11. Those places discussed 14. Some of the ancient are against praying to Saints 15. Afflictiō stirreth vs vp to piety 19. The great miserie of the Prophet 21. We are to repute God the authour of our afflictions 22. God heareth our prayers 23. There are circumstances to be obserued in prayer Ionah 2.1.2.3 Then Ionah prayed vnto the Lord his God out of the fishes belly And said I cried in my affliction to the Lord and he heard me out of the belly of hell cried I and thou heardest my voice For thou hadst cast me into the bottome in the midst of the sea and the flouds compassed me about all thy surges and all thy waues passed ouer me WHen Ionas was in the sea being cast out by the mariners and was now of all likelyhood ready to be drowned God had a fish prepared as before you haue heard to swallow vp the Prophet And in the belly thereof he lay three daies and three nights after such a manner as was neuer heard of before but no doubt much tormented between hope and distrust almost quite in dispaire yet by faith againe comforted This faith of his when at length it had preuailed he breaketh forth euen there in prison into good meditations and after his deliuerie when he wrote this prophecie he digested them into a prayer which is here set downe in a kind of Hebrew verse not much vnlike to the Lyrikes of the Greek or Latin Poets Those words which I haue read vnto you are some part of this prayer and that which followeth after is another part in both which if something sound as from him being in danger and some thing againe as from him being escaped impute the one vnto the time wherein he did write it and the other to those conflicts which he sustained while he lay in the belly of the whale where his bitter meditations and troubled thoughts did answere vnto that which is here proposed vnto vs. 2 For the space of those three dayes he did not lye asleepe as a man in a traunce or one vnsensible amated for right happie he had bene if that might haue be fallen him but boiling in the extremitie of anguish and great sorrow as he that had on him a burthen so vnsupportable by his shoulders that he knew not how to turne him or to manage himselfe He felt the wrath of God perpetuated on him without intermission which wrath was not contented to haue him ouer ship-boord and so once to drowne him but dying he must liue and liuing he must dy in a torturous execution so terribly and vncomfortably that the like had bene neuer heard of The horror of death still present yet prolōged stil in the middle of the sea in the belly of a whale a prison and monstrous dungeon did vrge him oft to tremble but the feeling of Gods displeasure vpon his soule for sinne and the very great expectatiō of eternall pains in hell what thoughts did these now raise in him Now the soure of his disobedience is fully tasted by him he may tumble it and reuolue it and chew it againe againe Now if Niniue had bene distant as farre as the Easterne Indies or the South part of Aethiopia there he had bene sure to be murthered and massacred by the tyrannie of the gouernour or ruler of that countrie he could haue bene wel cōtented to haue gone thither euen bare-footed thanked God on his knees who had brought him to such a bargaine For it is better to trace ouer all the world then once to go to hell better to suffer many sorrowes in body then in soule to die eternally With which thoughts being so perplexed as neuer was man before him not knowing what else to do with a faith tried in out ouer ouer again he falleth at length to prayer the effect wherof is in this second chapter by it selfe laid downe vnto vs. But because this prayer is so lōg as that at many seueral times it must be handled for distinction and orders sake I thinke good first to deuide it into a Preface and a Prayer The Preface is in the first verse the Prayer in that which followeth And there what subdiuisions are afterward to be made it shall in his place appeare The Preface noteth these two things what he did that is pray and to whome vnto the Lord his God Then Ionah prayed 3 Many are the temptations and spirituall inuasions which in this life do befall vs while the enemie of mankind doth often assaile vs by himselfe and by the world and by our owne flesh that domesticall foe and many are the afflictions which the great God in his wisedome and our good Father in his loue doth lay sharply vpon vs to punish vs for our sinnes to make triall of our patience to strengthen vs in the faith to make vs loath the world to teach vs true humilitie to inure vs to a suffering of greater things for his sake for so many are the ends wherfore he sendeth his crosse to those whom he best fauoreth In respect whereof our life is by Iob well called a warfare wherin we are to fight wrastle against great matters to the which Saint Paule alluding saith that he had fought a good fight being exercised all his time against powers and principalities against anguishes and great grieuances much within more without The onely stay of all which perplexities in the very best of Gods children is earnest and heartie prayer to him who sitteth aboue who plucketh downe and setteth vp who ouerturneth and raiseth who striketh and then maketh whole who correcteth and then comforteth who bringeth to the pit of euill and then doth not cast in who tempteth not aboue our strength but in the midst of temptation doth giue an issue that we may be able to beare it The sacrificing of our souls vnto this blessed Father the bēding of our knees the bedeawing of our cheeks the lifting vp of our hands the beating of our brest but withall and aboue all the compunction of our hearts and the earnestnesse of our spirites are the altar that we must flye to are the anchor that wee must trust to This is that chaine whereof one end is tyed to the eare of God and the other end to our toung if we plucke he will listen if we call he will hearken 4 Then it is for our good that so often in the
Elias troubled when he cryed It is enough Lord take away my soule How did Peter striue in himselfe whether he shold deny Christ or no and imagine what he thought of it when he had done it and wept bitterly What disquietnesse did the pricke in the flesh bring to Saint Paule when it made him pray thrise that is very many times that he might be deliuered from it But how hote is his conflict betweene the flesh and the spirit when he termeth himselfe a wretched man and knoweth not how to be freed from the bondage of sinne that bodie of death Yet at the last to his inward consolation he remembreth himselfe that it should be done by Christ Iesus Now who were dearer to God then these who higher in his fauour then Iob a mirrour of patience and Dauid a man after his owne heart and Ieremie who specially was preserued in the desolation of Ierusalem and Elias who was taken vp into heauen with a whirle-wind and Peter a great Apostle Paule the Doctor of the Gentiles Ioyne Ionas here to the number of these a Prophet once and appointed to euerlasting life yet in one place he would needes be dead and in this place he thinketh that he should be damned And as it was with these so it is in our dayes The Ministers of the Gospell who are employed in their calling and know any thing in the world haue manifold experience of such cases of conscience although they speake it not to euery man 15 Some for one thing and some for another are troubled euery day for fancies and temptations do arise a thousand waies especially in those who are weake in mind or body by reading or by hearing by being too much alone by children and by friends by prosperitie or aduersitie by a word spoken at aduenture by any thing which the mind of the troubled partie doth apprehend Where faith is not extinguished or plucked vp by the root but weakned for a time as the Sunne vnder a cloud is shadowed for a moment or as fire vnder the ashes is raked vp and not seene And when it hath bene amated and discouraged for a time then it breaketh foorth againe and peraduenture it is then a second while dismayed as the ship vpon the sea sometimes is caried vp to the heauen and then downe againe to the deepe or as the winter water which freezeth in the night and melteth in the day and hath his intermissions and therein many alterations In this appeareth Gods prouidence and his endlesse loue in protecting that he so ballanceth discomfort with an equall weight of comfort that euill and distrust doth not preuaile but if the scale do tippe downe it raiseth vp againe vpon the sudden If the challenger be on the left hand readie to defie vs the defendant is on the right hand as readie to maintaine vs. If the inuader be behind vs the protectour is before vs yea if a strong armed man haue set-footing in our house a stronger then himselfe commeth and driueth him from the possession But he will keepe vs thus exercised and he doth it in great wisedome 16 If we had not this to quicken vs we should yeeld our selues to securitie be ouergrowne with the weedes mosse of carelesse negligence For as flesh saith Origen if it be not sprinkled with salt doth putrifie corrupt although there be great store of it and that of the best so the soule will presently grow loose and licentious if it be not as it were salted with continuall temptations The best would grow to be high minded proud in his own conceit but by this we are much humbled So we are made the fitter to receiue the crowne in heauen which is for the lowly minded is neuer giuen to any but to those who do get a victorie And how can there be a conquest vnlesse there be a fight how a fight without an enemie Then this life is our striuing the other is the reward which we receiue for our striuing Here we wrastle saith Saint Ambrose but we are crowned elsewhere here is the striuing there the reward here the warfare there the wages Therfore while I am in this world I do yet wrastle I do yet striue I am yet driuen at that I may fall But the cōfort is that which followeth which Ambrose addeth in that place But the Lord is mightie who supporteth me when I am thrust at who setteth me vp when I am slipping who raiseth me tilting aside This is phisike for thy sicknesse remedie for thy euill whosoeuer thou art that gronest in thy soule thou hast much readie to hurt thee but thou hast more to helpe thee thou hast a strong one against thee but thou hast a stronger for thee one who loueth thee respecteth thee pitieth thee at thy need And if he do stand for thee what matter who is against thee He bringeth thee vnto this battell his hand is vpon thine enemie to limit how far he shall vrge thee farther he cannot go no tempting aboue thy strength He looketh on thee relieueth thee doth as much saith S. Austen as cry to thee out of heauen I looke vpon you do you wrastle I will helpe you do you conquer I will crowne you Nay he maketh vs conquer he breatheth into vs a strength which shall neuer be ouerborne Well thou maiest haue blowes and bruses and shrewd brushes in the heat of thy fight but the victorie shall be thine floating thou shalt not sinke encountring thou shalt not perish 17 If he were ignorant of that case wherin thou art then thou mightest iustly feare and suspect his ignorance but he conceiueth of thy infirmitie therefore as a father he taketh cōpassion on thee He knoweth wherof thou art made he remēbreth that thou art but dust Yea to the end that he might the better vnderstand what thy miseries be amidst such strong throbbes of temptation he let his owne sonne take flesh vpon him who became a man clothed with mortalitie that therein by humane practise and not onely by diuine contemplation he might be tempted and feele assaults and so as the authour of the Epistle to the Hebrewes speaketh he might the better be able to succour those that are tempted Now what needest thou at all to shake or quiuer when his shield and his safegard do perpetually attend thee The experience of things past should encourage thee for hereafter Remember how he hath kept thee and cherished thee in his bosome in former times when thou wast in daunger That did abode good vnto thee He who loued thee then will loue thee still When Dauid had to do against Goliah no impression wrought so forcibly with him as recounting what he had done before When I was a boy and kept my fathers sheepe a Beare came and tooke a sheepe out of my flocke and I killed that Beare
then a Lyon came and did as much and I killed that Lyon also Surely that Lord which saued his seruant from the paw of the Lyon and of the Beare will deliuer me also from this Philistine Bethinke thy selfe in the like Thy God hath euer fauoured thee euen from thy mothers wombe when thou wast not then he made thee when thou wast lost he redeemed thee when thou wentest astray he reclaimed thee whē thou wast naked he clothed thee when thou wast hungrie he fed thee he hath nourished thee and maintained thee whē thou wast ignorant he did teach thee and hath giuen thee some good measure of knowledge and will to serue him he hath admitted thee by baptisme into the fellowship of his Saints he hath sealed his affection toward thee by the Sacrament of his body and his bloud in great griefes he hath stood by thee in anguishes he hath blessed thee the pit hath bene open for thee but yet thou neuer didst fall in Satan hath gaped and roared but yet his fangs haue not touched thee in conflicts thou hast bene safe thou hast bene preserued in combats How fully should these sound experiments confirme thee in thy faith how should this liuely feeling for the delightfulnes of the ioy cōceiued therby as it were melt thee in kindnes toward thy God Why sholdest thou not say with Dauid what shall I render vnto the Lord for all his benefits toward me Or I will loue thee dearely ô Lord my strength I will honour thee I will embrace thee I want words to expresse it I will ioy in thee I will deuote my selfe wholly vnto thy seruice With thy fauour and louing countenance with thy hand and thy hart thou hast helped me kept me saued me thou hast strengthened me raised me blessed me and I know that thou wilt neuer leaue me For thou art the same God for euer and continuest thy goodnesse daily ouer me 18 He who hath learned these lessons maketh true vse of the battels betweene hope and despaire betweene the flesh and the spirit and the farther he goeth forward the more alwaies he doth conquer He recounteth thus with his owne heart God might haue suffered me to haue frozen in my dregs to runne on to all filthines vncleannesse with the worldlings to haue died before that I had vnderstood what belonged vnto his seruice and so to haue dropped downe to hell before that I knew what I did but he hath dealt better by me he hath afforded me more grace Now he bringeth this fire of temptation to warme me and resolue me but it is to good and not to euill I doubt not but I am his I shall not perish finally He slubbereth me to scoure me he rubbeth me to make me brighter he whetteth me to make me sharper If I were not pressed and vrged I should not know what he doth for me but to releeue me when I neede to helpe me when I am readie to drowne to saue me when I am sinking to quicken me when I am at deaths doore is an argument of such fauour as he can better giue then I can well conceiue And since I haue these testimonies of his assured fauour let the world allure and slily entice let the flesh insult while it will let Satan tempt and not spare let doubts and thoughts distrusts be eger and eger againe in life and death either day or night I know who it is that bought me and payed for me with his bloud and I know that he will not leaue me As Saint Austen saith A mightie man will not lose that which he hath bought for his monie and will Christ loose that which he hath bought vvith his bloud I doubt not but my Ionas in his troubled meditations did grow to these resolutions and by thinking thereon did shake off that his heauie passion that he should be cast away from Gods sight It was a liuely feeling of former mercies which made him to breake forth into so religious an insinuatiō as if he did bleed with tendernesse and softnesse calling vpon God ô Lord my God Wherin he shewed so sound an hope that although he should kill him as Iob saith of himselfe yet he would not leaue him but wold euermore trust in him although his sin did more then abound yet Gods grace did superabound 19 These words well vnderstood and applied vnto the cōscience may serue for euery soule which languisheth with griefe taken for euill motions But because euery tender spirit is not growne so farre in Gods schoole and where so hard a siege is laid by Satan there cannot be too many helpes therefore some other remedies may be added vnto this before named for the describing whereof I could wish more leisure to meditate vpon them and more time to vtter them but it shall now suffice to poynt at them Then first when any Christian shall feele himselfe hardly laid at let him haue recourse to Gods word and the comfortable writings of other wise and learned men There is better balme in the Scriptures then euer was in Gilead there is a refreshing riuer the very well of life which will giue strength to the fainting And therein no booke more profitable then be the Psalmes of Dauid Secondly let him resort vnto the temple where the word of God is taught Ionas did thinke of this before all other matters Here that is in the house of God Dauid did find wholesome instruction when he was so affretted with the prosperitie of the wicked that he had almost renounced the seruice of the Lord. How was he troubled with that conceit and could not be resolued vntill he went into the Sanctuarie God directeth the mouth of the preacher that when himselfe scant thinketh of that particular fruite he speaketh to the heart of some one man in this point of some other in another Thirdly let him pray to God both in publike and in priuate The Lord loueth to be sought to by vs and it pleaseth him to be called vpon and in the midst of our prayer if it be with vehement intention of our spirits he will distill downe a deaw of the sweet influence of his grace that we shall arise vp more setled Heartie and earnest prayer what cloudes doth it not pierce what heauens doth it not enter Fourthly let him not feare to impart his griefe to his friend but especially to the minister who is learned and feareth God They are made for such purposes and such things are not straunge vnto them Man is ordained for man to helpe him and to comfort him and more eyes do see better thē fewer and what a ioy to the mind is a word spoken in season But the faithfull minister of all other things doth hold this for his charge to hearken to such complaining to raise vp such mē lamenting He that conuerteth a sinner doth saue a soule from death and couereth a multitude of sinnes If that precept of Iude do
pleasure to be so detained there but when he began to stirre it felt it selfe ouercharged and could last out no longer And in my iudgement the Metaphore which is vsed here in the type doth expresse this in Christ Iesus for the Originall hath it Vajake eth-Ionah which Vajake comming of Ko with Aleph in the end signifying Vomere is as much as if it were said the fish did vomite vp Ionas the qualitie of which word Vomite doth imply that which I haue spoken For when the stomake of any liuing thing hath receiued that which either for the weaknesse of it selfe or by reason of the strength of the meat it hath no power to digest it doth cast it vp and vomite The hardnesse for digestion of that which is the ingredient or the weaknesse of the part receiuing more then it ought doth cause that euacuation The case was so with death and the graue when they receiued Christ. 8 It was no common meat which it had taken into it but that which it was impossible should be concocted by it not an ordinarie man but one who had no fellowes His body was but a bait to entise the graue to swallow him but vnderneath was the hooke of eternitie and that Godhead which caught both graue and death and made them glad to put vp such a one out of their bowels Faine they were to be rid of him because he did ouerbeare them The Godhead raised him vp loosed the sorrowes of death because it was impossible that he should be holden by them When Samson was disposed he brake the cordes and ropes wherewith he was tyed they fittered and dissolued euen as the flaxe which is burnt with the fire he rent off the gates of Azzah and postes and barres and all and putting them on his shoulders he caried them whither he pleased So when Christ was disposed be shooke off the graue-clothes from him and bore vp all before him the rocke which was about him and the stone which was vpon him resigned their strength vnto him and he commeth foorth victorious as a Champion who had slept or a Giaunt refreshed with wine As a tamed Lyon he had suffered death and Satan and the infernall spirits for a time to play with him and disgrace him and haue some hand vpon him but when it seemed good vnto him he rowzed vp his bodie and roaring in his might this he renteth and that he teareth he knappeth their chaines in sunder and maketh them glad to fly happie he who could get farthest The whale was not so glad to part here with our Ionas as the earth was with our Iesus Here the drowned man is restored there the dead man is reuiued being the first fruite of the resurrection 9 As he dyed so we shall dy and as he rose againe so we also need not doubt but we shall rise againe Onely he did it by his owne power but we not by our owne force but by the power of him The head is gone before the members shall follow after Many of them that sleepe in the dust of the earth shall awake some to euerlasting life and some to shame and perpetuall contempt Gods children shall be translated into a better state recouering the same puritie which was giuen to Adam in Paradise where he was after the image of God in innocencie and integritie But first by death they must be beate in sunder and knocked in peeces that so they may be remoulded and new cast by the workeman not onely to their old figure but to a better forme in the day of the resurrection But as their captaine was so must they first by death be dissolued and separated that their bodies may be refined and made a great deale better When we plucke downe a house this is Saint Chrysostomes comparison meaning to build it new or repaire the ruines of it we withdraw such from the house as inhabited it before lest they should be soyled with the dust or offended with the noise and bid them for a time to rest in some other place but when we haue new trimmed and dressed it wee bring them backe againe to a better habitation So God when he ouer-turneth the rotten roome of our flesh calleth out the soule for a little and lodgeth it with himselfe in some corner of his kingdome but repaireth the brackes of our bodie against the resurrection and then hauing made it decent yea glorions and incorruptible hee doth put the soule backe againe into her acquainted mansion He hath determined this concerning vs that dust shall recouer breath and rottennesse shall haue life against all Atheists and Epicures there shall be a resurrection But I pursue this no farther because in the end of the first Chapter I handled it at large 10 If in another sence we will turne the present example to the benefite of our selues this giueth great consolation to the deiected conscience which groneth vnder the waight of her sinnes Such things as are written are written for our learning This wretched suffering man had displeased the Lord most grieuously For the haynousnesse of his fault wrath was gone out against him The Lord would not be satisfied but with drowning and deuouring in the belly of such a monster where the feare of death and almost the paines of hell were vpon him The passions of his heart had bene desperate and distrustfull if faith had not come to the rescue Yet we see that he did not perish but when his woe was passed ouer him he came to good againe God did but giue signification as small a thing as might be as if a man should nodde or winke vpon another and his sorrowes are shaked off from him he is set aliue on the land If griefe do assault our minds that we thinke our hearts will breake if temptation haue so rent vs that we suppose wee are all to shiuers if pangs of desperation with remembraunce of sinnes past haue beate faith so out of countenance that wee see no way but our soules must be a pray to Sathan yet there is hope with God and mercie with the Highest He bringeth men to the doore of death but he doth not turne them in Or he putteth them into the pit that they are halfe way downe to the bottome but his hand goeth along with them and suddenly in a trice he draweth them backe againe If we be within the iawes of Sathan he putteth a gagge in his mouth that it shall not close vpon vs. It is neuer too late for him to helpe while life and soule hang together He who bid the dust become Adam and Adam was made of dust he who spake to the graue and bad Lazarus come foorth from it and Lazarus came out of the graue he who commaunded the fish to loose Ionas and Ionas was loosed in a moment This Lord if he speake to hell or diuell or all the feends of darknesse they shall not dare once to
losse in the other Vpon such is Gods care and labour ill bestowed that they be not bettered by it Yet our Ionas in this place doth make a sounder benefit of that which he hath suffered He who in the whales belly being compassed with the pangs and anguishes of death had groned for his sinnes and acknowledged his errours and vowed many good things if he euer might get out doth not straight vpon his parting with his keeper and his prison forget what he had sayd but imagining that his God would require an accomplishment doth fit himselfe to that which should be required of him In his suffering and enduring of such smarting tribulation vt in palaestrâ crucis as in a place of practising to play feates of actiuity he hath profited and growne better A happy time that so he suffered a happy man who was so righted 5 This is the good which ariseth from affliction when it is put on him who hath grace to beare it he looketh vp to God and yeeldeth himselfe with patience he knoweth that it is his burthen and he must sustaine it he acknowledgeth that all is deserued and thinketh that he is well dealt with in that he hath felt no more but for that which is to come he is the most vigilant man aliue to amend what is amisse with diligent assiduity to recompence his negligence and to make good whatsoeuer was omitted So that those things which seemed to another exceedingly to hurt him haue helped him exceedingly by teaching him and reforming him As the Bee according to Plutarkes speech doth sucke out honey from the Thyme a most hard and dry hearbe so the faithfull minded man sucketh knowledge and obedience from the bitter potion of aduersitie and the crosse and turneth all to the best That slurrying which was vsed toward him to scoure him and rub him hath made him shine the brighter The waight which was on him being like as if it had bene on a good Palme tree hath made him grow the faster The hammer which hath beaten him hath made him the broader and much inlarged him In incude in malleo dilatasti me Thou hast made me broader on the anuill and vvith the hammer Although it be with the hammer yet dilatasti me thou hast made me grow the vvider And then when once he sheweth himselfe in his kind as he who in former times was kept from the right course by affection or idlenesse or forgetfulnesse he presseth on to the marke and shaking off all that hindereth with violence and great vehemency he vrgeth as for his soule The fire which hath bene suppressed flieth foorth with the greater force If a water-course hath bene stopped when it shall find a passage it commeth with a more mighty streame Achilles as a man of mettall fought not the worse but with a great deale more egernesse when he had layen so long idle in the Graecian army It was long ere Paule was called but as if he would redeeme the time which he had lost he bestirreth him and layeth about him as a champion indefatigable Now there is nothing which doth more quicken this spirite of regaining and recouering that which is lost and omitted then the spurre of affliction The remembrance of whose pricking doth keepe the soule from drowsinesse and from sleeping forgetfulnesse and maketh it busie to procure the good will of God lest a worse thing fall vpon it 6 But as this rule holdeth in him of whom it may be sayd truly that he is sound at the bottome and there is in him no euill or froward heart to fall away from the liuing God that nothing so prepareth his heart to vvisedome as calamitie and temptation and affliction as Saint Chrysostome supposeth so in him which is putrified and rotten at the roote vexation and the crosse hath contrary effect for he falleth to desperation and hatred of the Lord vnto hardnesse of heart and farther disobedience Either wilfully with Pharao he will trye what God can do yea and when he beholdeth it yet he will scant beleeue it or wounded with indignation he languisheth away dissoluing as the ice which melteth in the sun-shine or vanishing like a vapour The wicked are the worse when they are vnder the ferular and either do rage with furie or else do sinke with fainting Hence they are likened to the chaffe which is whiffed away with the wind but the righteous are compared to good corne which remaineth and abideth So the wicked are but as drosse which is burned and consumed but the faithfull are as the gold which is made the brighter for melting It is no ill comparison to compare them both to iron but such as is of different sorts and qualities Suppose one kind to be heated in the forge but the other to be in the substance and body of the anuill the hammer doth strike them both but the anuill is made the harder and mooueth not to any forme whereas the other for the time is made the softer and is framed and fashioned to that which the workeman will The faithfull like a twigge will rather bend then breake the vngodly breaketh and bendeth not Hereupon without any kind of stowping or seeking to the Lord the wicked doth seeke deuises how he may shake off the euill which he feeleth hanging on him and if he could tell how to do it in despite of God he would with strong hand ouerbeare him All the friends which may be made all the money that can be gotten no spare to ride or runne the Physitian for his aduise the Lawyer for his counsell which are good helps if they be vsed well if this serue not the turne no sorceresse shal scape free nor witch shall be vnsought if it will not come from heauen it shall be fetched from hell if it will not be had in Gods name it shall be had in a worse Thus euill is tyed to euill and sinne is heaped vpon sinne the rod which should haue bettered hath made a great deale badder and by this the wrath of the Lord is more more prouoked and the reporbate at the last is swallowed vp with euerlasting destructiō When he seeth that all his euill meanes do faile him either dying he rageth hotely or pensiuely droopeth till he dye This rule then is very true that euery thing is receiued according to the quality of that which doth receiue the euill man afflicted is not amended by it but with our Prophet it is otherwise God doth but put vp his finger and he is ready to runne no sticking nor no standing he hath payd well for his learning he will no more of those bargaines 7 In handling this argument of the diuerse effects of the crosse in diuerse sorts of men when I thinke vpon our selues I cannot chuse but maruell of what mettall we are made For to iudge that this assembly are not louers of God and againe beloued by God were as I
of that learned man I hold it to be very lawfull to obserue those seuen and twelue for the one and for the other So he saith that the veile in the Tabernacle of blew silke and purple and scarlet and fine linnen did intend the foure elements and he giueth good reason for that And the same is also the opinion of Saint Hierome Here to compare foure and foure hath a naturall vse in discoursing of the elements the good creatures of God Nay it will not do amisse if by a farther allusion we shall make application thus that as we reade in Exodus that the veyle made of those foure things did hang betweene the holy place whither the Priests did come to offer and the Sanctum Sanctorum the Holy of Holyes where the presence of God was so that they who stoode in the one could not behold the other vntill the veyle which was betweene them were rent or remooued So the holyest man that is euen the very Priest at the altar cannot see God as he should in the high abode of his holinesse vntill that his flesh and bodie which are made of those foure elements be torne off and remooued away by death and by the graue This or the like about numbers may be thought to be naturall and not strayned so that I dare not determine against it as also against nothing else which apparantly hath true and proper vse of doctrine or due application But I leaue to your consideration whether the authour of the booke De Spiritu sancto who sometimes but not rightly is supposed to be Saint Cyprian or other like to him do keepe close within these bounds when he especially magnifieth the number of seuen aboue other because it consisteth of three and foure where saith he three shew the three persons of the Trinitie and foure noteth the foure elements which intendeth that God who is signified in the mysterie of the Trinitie is caried with a loue ouer his creatures who are figured in the compasse of the foure elements A man may go too farre And this I haue obserued by reason of Saint Hieromes note vpon this place concerning fortie which I hold to be not vnfit for this auditorie because it is few times touched But now for the benefite of the vnlearned I come to doctrine which is more morall 8 When God giueth the Niniuites fortie dayes to bethinke themselues it implyeth his exceeding mercie who as he was very louing to them when he sent them warning of their destruction so is his loue more abundant when he giueth them space of repentance that they might turne away his wrath which was to breake out against them The prayer of the Leuites is true Thou art a God of mercies gracious and full of compassion of long suffering and of great mercie And so is that of Dauid The Lord is full of compassion and mercie slow to anger and of great kindnesse We can neuer sufficiently admire his bearing patience That citie which for the manifold euill of it had deserued to haue perished in one day shall haue a day and a day and fortie dayes of grace to purge it selfe if it will The tree which bore no fruit shall haue this yeare of probation and the next yeare of expectation and shall be pruned and dounged before it be cut downe So that Lord who is iealous in his anger is yet a mild God in his suffering It is obserued in men that they are long in making any thing but very quicke in marring of it A house built in a yeare may be plucked downe in a moneth A castle which hath bene long in setting vp by mining and powder may be blowne vp in a moment A citie whom many ages haue but brought to her beautie is consumed in a little time by fire put to it of the enemie Onely God is quicke in making but pawseth vpon destroying he commeth not but by steppe after steppe and when he should strike he stayeth and turneth and looketh away and will not roote vp till iustice can no longer endure He made the heauen in a day and might haue done in a moment but Niniue that one citie shall haue fortie dayes to breath in before her ruine come The Sunne and Moone and starres had but one day for their creation but man had warning for a hundred and twentie yeares before the comming of the floud in the time of Noe and Hierusalem shall haue admonishment by the Scriptures before the appearaunce of Christ by Iohn the Baptist afterward by our Sauiour personally and when they haue killed that iust one yet fortie yeares shall passe ouer before that it be quite destroyed Sixe dayes made the whole world but almost sixe thousand yeares haue beene affoorded to it before that the end ouertake it Thus iustice in many cases is if not swallowed and deuouted vp yet much shadowed by mercie which sometimes ouer-weigheth it and other times ouer-layeth it when it is readie to rise preuenting it and holding it downe And there be few of vs who may not feele this proposition true in our selues 9 If we looke vpon our own land how may we breake out and say that pitie and compassion haue abounded on vs from him See whether he hath not lent vs as many yeares to repent as he did dayes to Niniue when the infinit prouocations wherwith we haue prouoked him in hypocrisie in luke-warmnesse in gluttony and in wantonnesse in securitie and vnthankfulnes haue called on him for a shorter time Seueritie might haue said Fortie yeares I haue bene grieued or contended with this generation yet clemeÌ„cie stayeth that speech He lent not so much time to our fathers next before vs his mercie did straine it selfe to affoord sixe yeares to them of free passage of his word vâ—der his gracious instrument King Edward whose memorie liâ—e for euer and yet that was encombred with seditions of the subiect and tumults of the Commons as also with much hurrying and banding of the Nobilitie But concerning our time the question may be whether is more to be admired the greatnesse or the goodnesse the length which is very memorable or the varietie of those blessings which we do little conceiue because we most enioy them euen as no man noteth the benefit of the ayre whereon we breath because we haue store of it and yet nothing is more precious then it or nearer to life it selfe So in a common generalitie God doth beare with vs all But farther if each man will take the paines to looke on himselfe in priuate he may say that he hath had his fortie dayes oft-times told together with Niniue our citie here Saint Bernard in one of his Sermons shall speake that which I do meane The mercie and expectation of the Lord is great toward thee for when the Angell had offended he stayed not at all for him but threw him downe to hell and when Adam transgressed
delicacy and luxurious attire the ioy of their hearts formerly and pleasure of their eyes should lye grouelling on the ground in sobbing bitternesse as vilefied creatures and as deiected wormes So mightily did Gods word and the horrour of their sinne preuaile among them But this was a happy fall to shrinke once and stand long for it to sinke a while and rise againe Here because the things are diuerse which my text saith they did in signe of repentance to the end that you may particularly vnderstand so much of them as I thinke fit at this time to deliuer I suppose it best for plainnesse sake to braunch all into these two heads First the force of the word whereby they were brought to beleeue the Lord So that is vpon his preaching they beleeued God And secondly the effect which followed of their beleeuing they proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth For auoiding of confusion I do not now name such subdiuided circumstances as do arise from these but they shall be touâ—hed as they lye The people beleeued God 3 I stand not to dispute whether Belohim in this place with the prepositiue letter B being put to Elohim be better translated by they beleeued Deo or in Deo or in Deum they beleeued God or they beleeued in God or they beleeued on God as diuerse diuersly haue it for howsoeuer otherwise these may haue their difference yet in this place as I take it they come all to one end they beleeued that the Prophet had reported from God whatsoeuer he reported But I rather obserue the excellent vertue of the word of truth and such a force in it as cannot be vttered that in so short a time as the preaching of one day for so the text best beareth it by a man so vnacquainted with that place in a Citie so auerse from sanctitie and deuotion it should worke so strong an effect that flesh and bloud may maruell and the naturall man may stand amazed at it But is not this it which Esay hath compared to the snow and raine who come downe from aboue but returne not thither againe but water the earth and procure a fruite out of it Is not this it which the Apostle doth affirme to be liuely and mightie in operation and sharper then any two edged sword and entreth through euen to the diuiding a sunder of the soule and the spirit and of the ioynts and the marrovv and is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart Is not this it which by Christ is called a net which doth take the greatest fishes euen against their will Which as it made Iosias a religious Prince to melt at the heart vpon the reading of it so it forced Felix also an irreligious Deputie to tremble at the hearing of Saint Paule when he disputed of iustice and temperance and the iudgement to come Then surely this also might do good among the Niniuites 4 The Law of the Lord as Dauid hath taught vs giueth vvisedome to the simple I may adde that it maketh the rough wayes plaine and crooked things straight it remooueth away that which is scandalous it doth rectifie the vntoward Giue me a man sayth Lactantius vvho is angry an euill speaker and vnbridled and by a fevv vvords of God I vvill make him as milde as a lambe Giue me a man that is greedie couetous and hard and I vvill returne him to thee liberall and such a one as vvith his owne and full hands vvill bestovv his money Giue me one that is afrayd of smart and death and foorthwith he shall contemne the gallowes and fire and the very bull of Phalaris Let sinne sayth Saint Chrysostome be like an Oke which hath taken deepe roote in thee yet Gods word is like an axe which will hew downe that Oke and if it do it not at one stroke yet it will be brought about with doubled and multiplied blowes Saint Austen or whosoeuer he is who is the authour of that Treatise De sanctis alluding to the parable of Christ sayth that the word is like to mustard seede which being first ground and then tasted by the biting thereof maketh the countenance sowre the forehead contracted or drawne into a narrow roome the teares to breake foorth but it is wholesome and purgeth the head So the word of the Lord being receiued maketh the minde heauie the bodie disquieted the teares to drop downe but yet all this in such sort as that saluation is gayned with this weeping and bitternesse Then if it be so powerfull and the basenesse of the messenger detract nothing from it but rather adde honour to it for by weake things and foolish things God will confound the wise and his power is made perfect by vveakenesse and the vvords of fishermen are read but the neckes of Oratours are subdued by them as the afore named Saint Austen hath then no maruell if so many were pricked in their hearts at the speech of this poore Prophet and as being wounded to the bone could not bee at any quiet till the sore were both searched and healed No maruell if this Sermon did worke as much with them as once a letter of Paules did with the people of Corinth whereof himselfe doth witnesse thus What great care it hath vvrought in you yea vvhat clearing of your selues yea indignation yea feare yea great desire yea zeale yea punishment So this here procured that all the faculties of their minde were frighted and mooued and busied to the full to turne away that wrath which now did hang ouer them 5 And although they had many things yea all the things that might be to deteyne them from these good motions prosperitie securitie satietie of bread a wall of sinne about them a sea of sinne within them superstition and ignorance and contemning pride which so loueth it selfe that it loueth not to bee controlled yet the breath of one mortall man although inspired indeede from an immortall God doth ouertumble all For first albeit the words of his Sermon be most briefly set downe here yet without question he inueighed against their sinnes the enormitie of their liues the crookednesse of their wayes their outragious impiety their insolent intemperancie And vppon this they were stricken with a biting remorse and feare that some diuine essence or supreme Iusticer would take vengeance vppon them For the minde of all euill men agreeth with Adam in this that after that a sinne is done there is a horrour for the same and blushing and concealing and there is an impression by the very light of nature that transgression is punishable and the integritie of iustice is louely and acceptable The Atheniens and Greekes who neuer knew God did admire vertue as may be euident by the deedes of Socrates and Aristides and the writings of Plato and Xenophon and they seuerely chastised some iniquitie yet they knew not the Scripture But where the
dead mens bones Thy speaking of good things or condemning that which is euill is but to condemne thy selfe who in word doest renounce it and yet in deede doest embrace it Tacitus reporteth that in the ciuill warre betweene Vitellius and Vespasian a souldier had killed his owne father who was of and in his enemies army This was bruted about the host and euery man complained and execrated that warre which caused such vnnaturalnesse And yet sayth Tacitus they neuer the lesse nor slower spoyled their neighbours and kinsmen and brethren who were slayne by them they cryed that naught vvas done and yet themselues still did it This is thy case who speakest against sinne and yet euerie day committest it Thy fasting and thy abstaining is so farre from being acceptable in the eyes of the most High that it is exceeding odious For as here the King of Niniue did ioyne vertue with his abstinence and a turning away from wickednesse with his fast so God doth still expect that it should be done in all fasts The mind must forbeare malice and iniurie and oppression as well as the belly doth meate See how plainely God speaketh to this purpose You fast to strife and debate and to strike vvith the fist of vvickednesse Is this the fast vvhich I haue chosen that a man should afflict his soule for a day and bovv downe his head like a bulrush and lye in sackcloth and ashes vvilt thou call this a fasting and an acceptable day to the Lord Is not this the fasting vvhich I haue chosen to loose the bands of vvickednesse to take off the heauie burthens and to let the oppressed go free and that yee breake euery yoke Is it not to deale thy bread to the hungrie and that thou bring the poore that vvander vnto thy house vvhen thou seest the naked that thou couer him Then it is the leauing of sinne which the Lord doth more respect then the emptinesse of the belly And of this the holy Saints of God haue alwayes thought As Ambrose This is the vvill of the Lord that vve should fast together from meats and from sinnes Let vs impose an abstinence on our bodies that vve may the more estrange our soules from vices For the body vvhen it is sucked dry is a bridle to the luxuriant soule And Origene Fast from all sinne do thou take no meate of malice neither any delights of pleasure And Gregory To sanctifie a fast is vvhen other good things are adioyned to shevv an abstinence of the flesh vvorthy of God Let anger cease let chidings be layd asleepe for the flesh is in vaine tired out if the mind be not refrained from his naughtie pleasures 14 I wish that such of our people as yet haue familiarity with that filthy harlot of Babylon wold thinke vpon this matter that it is not only ceremonie or bare performing of outward things which doth appease the Lord when he is offended no not if it be to macerate and pine the body to death vnlesse a sincere faith do purifie all within and an honest conuersation do make all cleare without It must be a liuely conuersion which God taketh for payment of vs. And we who professe religion may hold this for an assured ground that our faith is but a dead faith vnlesse it shine by loue that all our speaking and seeming is fraudulent and deceiptfull if our life be not ioyned to it Our repayting to the Church and professing of strict holinesse will be reiected as too light if we either oppresse our neighbour or grind the face of the poore or scratch we care not what be it neuer so vnlawfull or leade liues polluted with whoredome and adulterie If we make our selues rich with vsurie or briberie if we circumuent men in bargaining if we profane the Sabaoth or despise the ministerie we frustrate that which we do pretend And the verie King of Niniue who could learne with little teaching that amendment of life was the truest deuotion and that as a most necessarie clause must be ioyned with all ceremonies shall in the iudgement condemne vs who after the hearing of manie yeares vse to bring but halfe-repentance and would willingly be the Lords but we would be this worlds also And so wishing that this doctrine of amendment may euermore be remembred by vs I leaue you to Christ Iesus who multiplie all good graces in vs to the end and bring vs to his father to whom with himselfe and his Spirite the Vnitie in Trinitie and Trinitie in Vnitie be glorie for euermore THE XXIII LECTVRE The chiefe poynts 1. It is not defined whether the faith of the Niniuites were onely temporall 3. 6. Sinne is not to be thought of lightly 5. The force of conscience in the guilt of sinne 7. Faith hopeth when there is little likelihood 8. We are to trust on Gods mercie 9. God respecteth repentance 10. Workes must follow faith 12. How the Lord is sayd to repent 14. His threatnings are conditionall 15. How Niniue may be sayd to be destroyed 16. Comfort to vs. Ionah 3.9.10 Who can tell if God vvill turne and repent and turne away from his fierce vvrath that we perish not And God savv their vvorkes that they turned from their euill vvayes and God repented of the euill that he had sayd that he vvould do vnto them and he did it not THe broken melting heart and contrite spirit of the king of Niniue hath bene signified vnto you in the words before going how as a good Prince he giueth his people a religious example and first by his deed comming off from his throne and putting sackcloth on him and afterward by his word and commanding Proclamation he stirreth his people vp to a rare humiliation Here it might be discussed of what sort their faith was by which they apprehended the feare of the Lord and how farre their repentance went either to be a permanent and iustifying faith a faith sauing eternally which could not be in them but by hearing of Christ Iesus the redeeming Messias for among men there is no name giuen vnder heauen whereby we must be saued but that name of Christ or whether their beleeuing was a temporarie assent to that which they heard and vnto nothing else of the destruction of their city which might strike a mighty horror into their minde for a time as the preaching of Elias did to that wicked King Ahab when he humbled himselfe and fasted yet they might relent afterward and returne to their vomit allured by the world or inueigled by such lusts as were vsuall in former time Howsoeuer it was if you allow it to the least but a short and particular faith it teacheth vs thus much that if they in â—heir ignorance arose to so high a measure then we in so much knowledge should arise to much more and so their example is not to vs in vaine But for the maine point since the Spirite of God is silent therein and doth not
another time being at Hierusalem spake vnto them they heard him with great patience till he came to that sentence Depart for I vvill send thee a great vvay hence to the Gentiles but when once they heard that from him as men able to hold no longer they lift vp their voyces and sayd Away vvith such a fellow from off the earth for it is not fit that he should liue Surely charity and humanity should haue weaned them from that fault but piety should much more haue remembred Ionas not to dislike Gods will although it had bene to destroy But when it sauoured of clemency and recouering that which was lost he should more vehemently haue loued it Gods seruants ioy when those graces which are most visible in themselues be communicated to other When two were sayd to prophecy Moses was not troubled at it but he rather wished that all the Lords people could do so When Paule grew to be a preacher the pillars of the Apostles enuied him not that office but gaue to him and Barnabas the right hands of good fellowship being glad to see many more besides themselues in the liuery of their maister Yea we reade of some other men that being now ready to step into heauen by the bloudy way of martyrdome grudged not that other should follow but whereas there were some whom their carnall reason might rather haue wished to be secluded from eternall comfort I meane their murtherers and persecutours they notwithstanding setting aside their priuate iniuries desired and earnestly prayed that they might be admitted into the same glory whither themselues are going Let Steuen be an example for this of whom Fulgentius noteth that whither he went before being slaine by the stones of Paule thither did Paule come after helped by the prayers of Steuen He meaneth those requests which he made as he was dying when he kneeled downe and cryed vvith a loud voyce Lord lay not this sinne to their charge He did not maligne his enemies but wished them the same fauour which he himselfe enioyed If the calling home of the Niniuites was that whereat Ionas grieued how far was he froÌ„ the minde of Steuen or froÌ„ another holy man named Paul of whoÌ„ Eusebius reporteth that when he went to be martyred he prayed for the Iewes Gentiles that both might be conuerted to the faith He begged of God also for the Emperor by whose lawes he was coÌ„demned for the Iudge who pronouÌ„ced the sentence against him yea for the very hangman who executed him that his death might not be layd as a sinne against them Then it was a fault in Ionas that when as by his education and knowledge in Gods seruice he knew as much as those other yet he would suffer malice emulation to carry him so coÌ„trary a way 11 But Hierome writing vpon this text doth disclaime that to be the reason of this mans choler here and cannot thinke that the Prophet was so simple as to vexe at it And indeed I am of this mind thaâ— this was not the cause For it seemeth in the next verse that he oftentimes thought of that that God was pitifull and mercifull and very slow to anger Whereby he might well gather that it was no newes nor strange thing that he should spare offenders But what then was it which caused this sorow Hierome giueth a more pregnant reason that he by this foresaw that the fall of Israel was come so that it must be reiected He remembred that of Moses They angred and prouoked me by those who were no Gods and I vvill anger them againe by those vvho are no people I vvill stirre them vp to wrath by a very foolish nation Hence sayth Hierome he despaireth of Israels saluation and breaking foorth into sorrow he vttereth it thus in a manner Am I the onely Prophet who by sauing of other men should foreshew ruine to mine owne To make this the more plain he bringeth in that for this cause Christ wept ouer Hierusalem that he would not take the childrens bread and giue it vnto dogges that he first sent his Apostles to preach to the lost sheepe of Israel and for this saith he Paule desired to be Anathema for his brethren Now in truth this were a more tollerable case to be iealous in that sort for his countreymeÌ„ For if the rising of others had bin the staÌ„ding of Israel that ioyntly as two sisters they might haue serued the Lord two people but of one church it had bin a gaine to the latter but no losse to the former But being that it was with theÌ„ as the Poets imagined it to be with Castor Pollux that when the one liued the other died or as with two buckets in one well while the one dippeth the other drieth this might trouble disquiet a man otherwise much resolued The Iewes could not be blamed when they were displeased at Agrippa as Iosephus sheweth for wheÌ„ he had built Caesarea he did not only adorne that being a forreine city so neglected all his owne but tooke away such ornameÌ„ts as were any way in his kingdome and remooued them to that place so that the flourishing of this new one was the sinking of al the rest If the fault of Ionas were of this nature it was a very commendable fault agreeing with all good Israelites yea with euery Christian mind who would desire the celestiall and spirituall good of his countrey and people yea with our Sauiour Christ who did so loue the Iewes and was so troubled at theiâ—â—â—sll that it made him shed teares for it 12 But as sometimes it was sayd by Tully declaring how Romulus pretended a law to kill his brother Remus it vvas a fault by the leaue of Romulus or Quirinus so by the leaue of Hierome so rare and renowmed a father there was a fault in the matter and this could not be the reason for the Prophet imputeth the cause of his anger to Gods mercy and not to his iustice I knevv thou vvast a mercifull God not I saw that thou wouldest leaue the Israelites Not one word of reiecting not any thing of his people But to put it out of question That had bene a zelous iealousie toward the honour of the Lord an affection to the Church an imitation of Moses a drawing neare to Christ a thirst that his people should be saued But my text doth not grace it so but calleth his passion anger He vvas displeased he vvas angry And lest any man should imagine him to be angry and not to sinne God himselfe is in dislike with him for it which he vseth not to be but toward those who transgresse Doest thou vvell to be angry Then let vs go a little farther and take it that he murmured because the Niniuites perished not this not because he desired their destruction as principally intending it neither because he originally enuied their finding grace with the
the great point which naturally ariseth from my text I haue therein sayd lesse because I debated this question at large vpon the twelfth verse of the first Chapter of this Prophecy and in the opening of this booke I haue euer aymed at that not to repeate the same things oft in manner or in matter Yet one word more before I leaue this and that is that in the Primitiue Church it was somewhat a strange kind of opinion that men confessing Christ might make away themselues to withdraw their bodies from torments which their persecutours would offer to them and they knew not certainely whether their strength were able to sustaine Eusebius in his historie telleth that in the bloudie time of cruell Diocletian there were diuerse who for the reason named did procure death to thēselues by throwing their bodies from floores and lofts high places And he addeth farther there that a certaine Chistian mother her two daughters being taken and fearing lest she or they should be defloured which of all things she detested stepped aside from their keepers threw themselues into the riuer and so perished in the water Afterward the same Eusebius speaketh of another matrone who going into her chamber as it were to attire her selfe while the officers of the Emperor expected her returne thrust her selfe through with a sword And these matters Eusebius doth not onely historically relate but by an insinuation doth little lesse then commend them but of certainty he euidently approoueth them Now true diuinitie doth maintaine that this praise is not good but such deeds are very vnlawfull God who simply forbiddeth all murther on our selues doth also forbid this because he giueth no exception in this point or case either directly or indirectly The Prophets and the Apostles and our Sauiour Christ himselfe did with humilitie expect that the will of God should be wrought vpon them by others they did not make themselues guiltie by laying violent hands on their owne flesh That were not patience but impatiencie and breaking away from the crosse imposed on them By occasion of the example of Razias mentioned in the second booke of the Machabees and there sayd to destroy himselfe Saint Austen very excellentlie disputeth this against the Donatistes whose treatise who so listeth to reade shall see that he plainely and substantially prooueth that this is not to be liked in any Christian. Hierome vpō the first of Ionas desirous as it seemeth to make excuse for such facts giueth thus his iudgement on this matter It is not our part to hasten death to our selues but vvillingly to receiue it being layd vpon vs by other Whereupon euen in persecutions it is not lawfull for vs to perish with our owne hands vnlesse it be vvhere chastity is indangered but to submit our selues vnto the striker In generall he condemneth it and that particular exception where our chastity is indangered may verie well be left out for violence which is offered to the bodie of man or woman and cannot be resisted doth not make the partie sinfull It is consent which staineth vs with transgression and not that force which we cannot auoide and which we approoue in no sort He who liued in a deeper time of darknesse and superstition that is Sarisburiensis in the fifth of his Policraticus could see definitely and positiuely to determine all this doubt His words are plaine and direct and therefore I thinke good to cite them None of them who haue layd hands on themselues are sufficiently excused by me although the Ecclesiasticall storie vvith great commendation doth extoll some who hastened their owne death because they had leyfer that their temporall life should be indangered then their chastitie His iudgement therein is sound although the faults of those who were surprized and deceiued with such an opinion should be couered with silence and left to Gods secret iudgement Now to come to my third circumstance 11 Ionas being full of errours yet knoweth that it is the Lords part to giue life and take it away and he is not ignorant that to vse violence on himselfe were a very grieuous sinne but yet he goeth so farre as to wish himselfe dead he prayeth God to end his life and concludeth it to be better for him to dye then to liue Here is a double fault in the Prophet one that the cause which did mooue him to such vehemency of thoughts was a matter much vnbeseeming for all his anger was that the Lord would spare the Niniuites which he thought was against his credit and the esteeme of a Prophet and Ionas by a consequent is in this case growne bloudy But of this before in this Chapter The second fault is that in this his mad and raging anger he doth wish himselfe dead For this in him proceeded from a vexed vnquiet heart possessed with impatiency and not from a sanctified resolution We deny not but in some cases a man who is here on earth warfaring and in a combat with his spirituall enemies may wish himselfe out of life As when there is a meere and feruent desire to be ioyned with his head to be with the blessed Trinitie and the Angels about the throne as accoūting that glory to be the garland for which we must sigh and grone And this doth Saint Paule teach vs by his euident example where he professeth of himselfe that he longed to be dissolued and to be with Christ. And this loue hath filled the minds of many of the martyrs who thought all to be dung in comparison of that heauenly celestiall beatitude which is aloft with God And therefore they feared not to presse on to that marke by fire and sword and racking And is these dayes of the Gospell that is one of the consolations wherein we do abound that we see many of our Christian brethren and sisters when in the extremitie of their sicknesse they lye vpon their death-beds to embrace our Sauiour Christ and thirst for their dissolution to thinke each houre a yeare before they be in heauen Againe when there is truly in vs a setled hate against sinne which ariseth from a seruent loue to the Lord whom we grieue to displease not for feare but for kindnesse toward so gracious a father then it it is a good desire soberly and with ripe iudgement to wish our selues out of this body where dayly we prouoke him whom we loue so entirely And in this also we haue the steps of holy Paule to treade and to walke in who considering the great burthen of sinne which was vpon him and how it did euermore disturbe him doth cry out passionatly O wretched man that I am who shall deliuer me from this body of death Where certainely he intendeth so much as that in this consideration he could wish himselfe from this earth But on the other side if they be but froward thoughts and werying perturbations which distemper vs too much or if it be for some
belong vnto any man it is vnto him haue compassion of some in putting difference and other saue with feare pulling them out of the fire This is to imitate Christ who will not breake a brused reede nor quench the smoking flaxe This is to seeke out the lost and to bind vp that which is broken Vnto these this may be added that it shall not a little helpe to haue conference with such who in former times haue bene exercised with the like temptations that out of their experience being plentifully powred out the distressed mind may be relieued None can speake more sufficiently and vnto better purpose then he that hath felt the same fire wherein this grieued soule is now burned And they who are in this cafe are not a little reuiued to know that any other hath bene troubled like themselues which they will hardly beleeue thinking that none did euer beare such a burthen as is vpon their shoulders Lastly as they ought rather to remember their former deliuerances then the griefe which presently is vpon them so they are rather to beleeue the speeches of other men I meane Gods children who come to yeeld comfort to thē then their own troubled thoughts which being perplexed and disquieted with frightfull imaginations can giue no setled iudgement This matter were worthie a longer speech but I am forced here to end Lord comfort those which are comfortlesse and strengthen thy weake children that they may not be so cast downe and plunged into perdition but that in their greatest temptation they may retaine thee still for their Sauiour that liuing in thy feare and dying in thy faith they may come to eternall glorie To the which ô Father bring vs for thine owne sonne Christ his sake to whom with thee and thy holy Spirit be glorie for euermore THE XII LECTVRE The chiefe poynts 2 The circumstances aggrauating his daunger 6. which do the more shew Gods mercie toward him and other sinners 8. Why God suffereth his to be in miserie 9. Particular consideration doth most stirre vp our affection 14. By fearing small crossings in doing our duties we incurre other very great daungers 16. All helpe is to be ascribed to God 17. How a godly man may desire that his life may be prolonged 20. The faithfull ought particularly to apply Gods loue to themselues 22. which the Church of Rome doth not Ionah 2.5.6 The waters compassed me about vnto the soule the depth closed me round about and the weedes were wrapped about mine head I went downe to the bottome of the mountaines the earth with her barres was about me for euer yet hast thou brought vp my life from the pit ô Lord my God THe fearefull conflict which the Prophet sustained in the verse next before going hath bene made plaine vnto you A passion of little lesse then distrustfull despaire did vexe him and disquiet him for the time From the terrour and danger wherof being recouered by the effectuall apprehension of grace by a liuely faith he returneth to contemplate the perill of his body which as it was great in the middle of the sea in the belly of the whale which was irrecouerable in mans iudgement so he seeketh to expresse it by multitude of words repeating it and reuoluing it with varietie of phrase but all tending to one end yet with such copiousnesse especially being in so short a prayer that a man would wonder at first how the Spirit of God which vseth to speake pressely and briefly so that no one word may fitly be spared should so runne vpon one thing with difference of speech but in substance all agreeing Yet the vse of it is such as of words fully replenished with sanctitie and holinesse as shall appeare in his due place In the meane time that which he saith is this 2 First the waters did compasse me about vnto the soule to the death saith the Chaldee Paraphrase as intending that he was now likely to be drowned his life to depart from him his soule to be seuered from her carnall habitation Dauid also doth vse such vehemencie of words Saue me ô God for the waters are entred euen to my soule Neither is there any speech which more liuely discouereth the earnestnesse of that which is presently in hand be it prayer or perill or desire or detestation then the name of soule doth As the Hart brayeth for the riuers of water so panteth my soule after thee ô God My soule thirsteth for God This noteth an entire affection and earnest desire wherewith Dauid was mooued As the Lord liueth and as thy soule liueth I will not leaue thee saith Elizaeus to Elias A very passionate affirmation Iacob in Genesis giueth this censure of Simeon and Leui. The instruments of crueltie are in their habitations Into their secret let not my soule come This argueth a perfect detestation So the depth of danger is purported here when he speaketh thus the waters compassed me vnto the soule the enemie of my life the water which hath no mercie was aboue me and below me and round about me without me and within me that my being was death my hope was but destruction nothing possible vnto me but drowning as farre as mans wit might imagine Secondly the depth did close me round about I was not in the shallow as a man in a lake who lying downe may be stifled but standing may be safe but I was in the maine Ocean which is called for the hugenesse of it the gathering of waters and elsewhere Tehom a gulfe or bottomelesse pit I was in that vastnesse which sometimes cannot be sounded by very long lines I was in waters by multitudes and there not diuing or floating vp and downe but as closed and shut vp as included in a sepulcher or made fast in a prison this deepe pit this darke pit this vncōfortable dungeon had closed her mouth vpon me 3 Thirdly the weedes were wrapped about mine head The sea doth beare weedes as well as shallow water yea somewhere very straungely strangely I say that in such places as where the depth seemeth to be of incredible greatnesse weedes should be seene in abundance in the vpper superficies the very toppe of the water and that so plentifully that in nauigation the course of ships is stayed sometimes by them Experience hath confirmed this in the huge Atlantike sea as men saile to America whereout doth grow a very strange Dilemma or Diuision because either they be there without any rootes at all and that is very maruellous or because the rootes do go downe exceeding deepe in the water which is not otherwise affoorded by nature in thinne spindie bodies But that weedes do grow in the sea those of some price Solinus letteth vs know saying that shrubs and weedes in the Ligustike sea are those from whence our Corall commeth Such then being in the bottome are about the head of our Prophet he is wreathed and tangled in them
But I haue handled that question twise before in this Prophecie and therefore I leaue this whole matter and come to the second verse Doest thou well to be angrie for the gourd 10 Here the maner of Gods reproofe might yeeld good matter to vs to note in what mild sort he doth it that whereas it had bene fitter that Ionas should haue bene meeke and the Lord should haue bene mooued Ionas is the stirring partie and God himselfe doth speake calmely But I haue touched this before in this present Chapter and what we should learne from it Againe it might be noted that he speaketh not here simply thou doest ill to be angrie but by an interrogation which as in Rhetorike we are taught doth vrge and pierce the deeper And therefore euen in the Scripture for more vehemēcie sake things are propounded by questions But to leaue all this concerning the manner the matter is it which I do point at wherein God doth as much as demaund thus Sonne of man art thou wise or art thou obedient to rage thus for the gourd See what thy wisedome is thou ragest at the death of this greene thing and why doest thou aske for thine owne death Thou canst not endure the spilling of that which is as nothing and yet thou wilt preasse earnestly to the killing of thy selfe a creature farre more excellent And is there not great reason why thou shouldst be thus offended to chafe and brawle with thy maker It is on the one side for a gourd and on the other for a sweate procured by the wind and Sunne Are not these great spurrings and prouocations to anger a blast of wind and a shadow because thou hast too much of the one and too little of the other I did looke that thou shouldest suffer farre greater things for my sake not the shadow onely of thy head to be taken from thee but thy head it selfe by the sword not the heate of the Sunne alone but of the fire to burne thee as a martyr if I would I see that thou wouldest shrinke at great things as at torture or cruell torment when thou sinkest so at a little But where is thy obedience that as yet thou hast not learned to subscribe to all my pleasure Thus might God iustly reprooue him by his words illustrate the malignitie of his humour if we onely will vnderstand it that now he meant the gourd But if we will conceiue it that he blameth him for all his anger and not alone for the gourd but because Niniue should be spared then Ionas lyeth more open to him for that he who had bene fauoured should not grieue that other men should find the selfe same mercie He sinning had bene deliuered from drowning and the whale therefore he did ill to vexe that others also sinning should liue When one seruant hath found fauour peraduenture for a hundred talents he should not grudge if another his fellow seruant do find the selfe same measure But I will not extend this doctrine so farre as to this point because the text euidently deliuereth it that the reproofe of him was for his anger about the gourd 11 We may make this vse thereof that if it were such a fault fit to be blamed by Gods owne mouth to be so much disquieted for a matter of so small consequence I will not say farre from Gods kingdome but from the life and being of a man see whether we may not iustly be taxed by the selfe same Lord for fretting and such distemper in things of like importance If an office or small preferment which is a thing of more burthen then recompence any way be desired or intended by vs and we faile in our hope how do we grow male-contented with our Colleges and studies with our calling and vocation who would liue to be thus disgraced This ariseth from some root of preposterous emulation or auarice or ambition or such a plant as by right should not haue place in the heart But because we haue not more shall we loath that which we haue How worthily may the Lord take from vs that which we do enioy when we will so prescribe vnto him But because we haue too much learned to embrace these worldy things although they be but shrubs and shadowes therefore we so take the losse of them and vse worse meanes to gaine them euen dissembling and deceiuing and lying and forswearing such parts as become not Christians May not God now say to vs as here he saith to Ionas Do you well thus to be mooued for the gaining or the loosing of matters of so small moment May it not be much suspected that in the day of great triall when temptations shall grow strong you will slippe your necke from the yoke or sinke vnder your burthens when such petty points ouerthrow you Would you with the Apostles leaue all or be offered vp with Saint Paule How would you breake faith or honestie if it were for a kingdome since you do thus for a moale-hill how would hundreds or thousands leade you when thus you do transgresse for a few peeces of siluer I wish that this were laid to the heart of all of vs in this place that with consciences content and resting vpon Gods prouidence we might chearefully go forward with that which is assigned to vs for our share or lot to the honour of the Lord the Church and Vniuersitie In a wife religious man nature is content with a little and if we could defalke and pluck that away from our mind which otherwise may not be had there be few but haue enough vntill God do send more And by reason of the want of this mind in vs it falleth out oftentimes that they haue least contentment who seeme to enioy the most But beware of comming to that passe of murmuring and of fretting when we haue not what we would If we needs will follow the Prophet let vs follow him otherwise then in that for the which so iustly he is in this place rebuked 12 But himselfe still like himselfe meaneth not thus to giue ouer but he commeth on with an answere Doest thou well to be angrie Yea that I do saith he to be angrie to the death Was there euer man vnder heauen so testie and so peeuish to chop thus with his maker And still the further he goeth the more to be out of square Yet his moderation was farre greater in the fourth verse where being asked the same question he tooke it for a checke and answered all with silence not replying a word againe But here as if he had meant to vie who should speake last he will breake if he hold his toung and therefore answere he must though with such extreme peruersenesse as neuer man did the like If we may gesse by his words all the gesture of his bodie was sutable thereunto his teeth set his eyes glowing his countenance very red but his words are plaine that he did well to
be angrie to the death How do we fall without measure if Gods grace preuenting and following vs be not ouer vs and leade vs all the way when such a choise man as Ionas who was singled out for a Prophet shall be thus ouertaken We had need pray for assistance and diligently take heed that in all our deeds we yeeld not Sathan the least footing for if once we let him land and giue a consent vnto him to abide with vs although it be but in a corner he will certainly haue more When Dauid by the doore or window of his eye had let it into his heart that Bethsabe must be fancied it worketh him on to adulterie then to cousening of Vrias after that to make him drunke and lasâ— of all to slay him Ionas is first content to desire the death of the Niniuites then he is angrie to thinke that it should be otherwise afterward he who had no loue to a citie of that quantitie yet is in loue with a tree and more setteth his heart vpon it then a maÌ„ should on any creature then he grieueth because he had lost it and being rebuked for it he chideth hand-smooth with God So one sinne breedeth another whereas obedience at the first had marred all that rancke Let vs all take heede of too much delighting in any earthly thing in husband or wife or children oâ— any matter of like nature because sinne which groweth froâ— the losse of these will spreade it selfe farre as first to grieue 〈◊〉 Gentiles and heathens who haue no hope then impatiently 〈◊〉 murmure against the diuine dispensation and that is suted with like effects Perhaps chaunging of religion as if when the God of the mountaines being coldly serued would not helpe and saue from such perplexities they would to the God of the valleis peraduenture refusing to come to church as if they had bin holy too long yea perhaps fasting or soliâ—aâ—inesse till that the vnderstanding and memorie being â—razed almost past recouery giue such an entrance to Sathan that there is little power of nature or faith or grace left to resist fearefull temptations or to take comfort or counsell The enemie of our soules so windeth in by degrees that he is hardly expelled if at first wee yeeld vnto him to giue him place but a little I do well to be angrie vnto the death 13 What would he haue done to men who dealeth thus with God or how brauely wold he haue spoken if he had done some good deed who in so foule a matter his iudgement is so depraued by selfe-loue and selfe-opinion both excuseth and commendeth that which was in truth so outragious Dauid was very far gone but being once touched by NathaÌ„ he staÌ„deth not on his owne iustification but out he cryeth Peccaui I haue sinned against the Lord. Yea Cain when he was conuicted of murthering his brother tooke knowledge that he deserued much ill And concerning Iudas himselfe indeede I find that the Cainites who were a kind of heretikes as Epiphanius writeth did commend him that since he saw that Sathans force was to be diminished by the death of Christ he made all the meanes which he could to hasten him to his death but I do not find that Iudas for his owne part did so thinke of it but confessed that he had sinned in betraying innocent bloud But our man for want of good neighbours standeth in his owne commendations for it is more then an Apologie I do well to be angrie yea if I should do more it were so much the better euen to be angrie to the death How farre is he out of temper he who should haue bene a light to other is in darknesse and desperatnesse he who should haue bene mild to men is now cocking with God he who should be renoumed for patience is impatient in the highest degree he whom much should not mooue is vp-side downe with a little the Preacher worse then the people the Prophet more to seeke then any priuate man Paule writing to the Ephesians saith that they were built vpon the foundation of the Prophets and the Apostles Iesus Christ being the chiefe corner stone If our Prophet had bene taken now he had bene full vnfit to haue bene in this foundation yea in any part of Gods building for those who are therein must be wrought and squared stones But God knoweth he was not neare that for as Gregorie doth remember vs Whosoeuer in prosperitie is not puffed vp too high whosoeuer in aduersitie is not cast downe too low whosoeuer by perswasion is not drawne to euill whosoeuer by dispraise is not kept backe from good he is a squared stone Then was Ionas out of square who being proud of his gourd a matter farre from prosperitie and vexed with the losing of it and the heate beating vpon his head loued what he had too dearely and lost what he left too grudgingly 14 But we doubt not but he recouered this and grew to grace againe for the Spirit of the Lord was not extâ—nguished in him although now the fire thereof seemed to be raked vp vnder the ashes now the sappe of his election seemed to lye hid within the roote and not to flourish aboue the ground but although his heart did seeme frozen yet afterward it thaweth againe For as Saint Austen speaketh as when the water congealeth with too much cold and when the Sunne commeth on it it resolueth againe and the same Sunne againe departing it beginneth againe to be hard so with the frost of sinne the loue of many doth waxe cold he might haue said so of their obedience and they are hardened like the ice but when the heate of the Lords mercie commeth againe on them they are resolued and relent So doubtlesse it was with Ionas else he had neuer bene reckened among the Lords holy Prophets from the which as we see his grieuous fall did not seclude him But in the meane while here is a maruell neuer sufficiently wondered at that God who hath the choise of all things in the world will vse such brittle meanes to the ministerie of his word and building of his kingdome shall I say heardmen with Amos or fishermen with Andrew or shepheards as was Dauid or customers as was Mathew some vnlearned all of base calling nay men nore-able for their weaknesse and reprochable for their folly not onely Paule before his calling but Moses and Aaron who in their calling were oftentimes much to blame Ieremie who raged bitterly and Ionas who was made of fretting and impatiencie This sheweth how great God himselfe is omnipotent and Almightie who by weake confoundeth the strong by foolish confuteth the wise by base conuinceth the noble by men vnder exception doth things beyond exception and all because his name therein may be the more glorified 15 It was his greater praise that by grashoppers and flies he could make Pharao crouch by hornets driue