to the dictates of his owne will and wisdome He is one And who can turne him Or Who can turne him away Or as another renders Who can make him returne backwards that is who can make him goe back from what he hath determined and once resolved upon True repentance or conversion is the change of the minde in man Every man that is converted from his sinfull state course by the power of God becomes another man as to his morals and spiritualls then he was before but man cannot turne God and make him any other then he is God can cause man to change his minde but man cannot make God change his minde nor turn him backward The Prophet saith of God Isa 44.25 That he turneth wise men backward and maketh their knowledge foolish The turning of the wise backward is the altering of their councells When they will not alter them God can He saith Their councells shall not stand nor shall they reach the end to which they were appoynted And it is so Sed quid ego similis cum sit sibi semper idem Quis rationem ab eo facti dictivè reposcat But can the wisest of men or all wise men plotting and laying their heads together turne the most wise God backward They cannot So that these words hold forth the efficacie and stabilitie of the purposes counsells and decrees of God Who can turne him And what his soule desireth even that he doth God is not like man consisting of a soule and body Man is the result of soule and body united together A soule is not a man nor is a body a man man is a third thing rising out of both But God is a spirit Animam alicujus sumi pro eo cujus est anima res est nota quare anima dei deus est Sanct And when Job sayth What his soule desireth The meaning is what himselfe desireth The soule of a man is indeed the man because the choycest part of man though man hath another part namely a body yet the soule is he The soule of man being his best part is often put for the whole man But the soule of God is not put here for God because it is the best part of Him His soule is himselfe Further This phrase or manner of speaking what his soule desireth notes onely the intensnes and strength of his desires or what he desiereth strongly The Lord sometimes makes offers to doe that which is not in his heart or desire to doe But what ever his soule goes out upon indeed or would have done that shall be done Thus the word is used frequently to set forth the full purpose of God to doe a thing Levit. 26.30 And I will destroy your high places and cut downe your images and cast your carkases upon the carkases of your idols and my soule shall abhorre you That is extreamly abhorre you I will abhorre you with the utmost abhorrence And againe Isai 1.14 Your new moones and your appointed feasts my soule hateth That is I hate them with a perfect hatred to shew how deepe his hatred was of those things as done by them he saith my soule hateth them As if he had sayd I hate your formality in my worship from the bottome of my heart We have the same sence Jer. 6.8 Be thou instructed O Jerusalem lest my soule depart from thee That is lest I totally depart I will depart not onely by withdrawing some of your outward comforts but even those which are the more intimate and immediate discoveries of my love my soule shall depart from thee or be loosed and dis-joynted from thee as we put in the Mergin that is I will be of no more use to thee or a helpe to thee then a member of the body is to the body when it is dislocated or removed from its proper joynt Once more Jer. 32.41 I will rejoyce over them to doe them good and will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soule That is I will doe it for them entirely and affectionatly or with entirest affection What his soule desireth That is What he desireth or whatsoever pleaseth him Velle est hoc loco aliquid peculiarius expetere concupiscere solet ad rem quam piam delectabilem referri We desire onely those things which are very pleasing And those things which are most pleasing to us are to us very desirable The desire of man is love in motion as his joy is love at rest But in God desire and joy are not distinguishable in him there is no motion all is rest What his soule desireth Even that he doth The Hebrew is very concise His soule desireth and doth That is he no sooner desireth a thing but he doth it Optat tantam protinus fectum est Merc or when he desireth it is done The will of God is execution though he willeth many things which as to man are not presently no nor till a long time after executed yet as to himselfe whatsoever God willeth is executed and whensoever he pleaseth his will is actually executed among men He desireth and it is done From the words thus opened we may observe according to the first reading of the former part of the verse That God is one There is one God and but one Thus the Lord speaks of himselfe by the Prophet Isa 44.8 Is there a God besides me Yea there is no God I know not any Isai 45.5 I am the Lord and there is none else there is no God besides me He is one himselfe and he hath not a second The Heathens having many gods when they were oppressed by any one god Saepe premente deo dat deus alter opem they sought reliefe from another As Sorcerers and Witches goe to a stronger spirit for help against what a weaker spirit hath done Heathen gods were devill-gods and they are many The Jewes degenerating into Idolatry multiplyed their Gods according to the number of their Cities Jer. 2.28 But Jehovah The living God The Lord is one God We affirme from Scripture that there are three Hees or subsistences in the God-head commonly called persons Father Sonne and Spirit but these three are one not onely by consent but by nature and essence Heare O Israel sayd Moses Deut. 6.4 The Lord our God is one Lord. Secondly From our reading He is in one or as we supply He is In one minde Observe that great truth God is unchangable I the Lord change not Mal. 3.6 The unchangeablenes of God may be considered in divers things First In his essence or nature God knoweth no decay He is a spirit an eternall spirit He hath nothing mingled or mixed in him which should worke or tend to alteration God is simple He is most simple even simplicity it selfe There is no composition in him no diversitie of qualities in him Man changeth in his natural constitution because compounded and made up of
Job disclaime all selfe-Justification Chap. 9.20 21. If I justifie my selfe mine owne mouth shall condemne mee if I say I am perfect it shall also prove mee perverse Though I were perfect yet would not I know my owne soule I would despise my life What can be sayd more fully to the tenour of the Gospel for the abasement of selfe and the advancement of free grace in justification He sayd indeed Chap. 13.18 Behold now I have ordered my cause I know that I shall be justified But he never sayd that he should be justified for the cause sake which he had ordered There is a twofold justification First The justification of a man in reference unto some particular act or in his cause Secondly The justification of a man in his person When Job sayd I know that I shall be justified his meaning was I shall be justified in this case in this buisines I shall not be cast as an hypocrite for hee alwayes stood upon and stiffely maintained his integrity or I know I shall be justified in this opinion which I constantly maintaine That a righteous man may be greatly afflicted by God while in the meane time hee spareth the unrighteous and the sinner A man may have much to justifie himselfe by before God as to a controversie between him and man but he hath nothing at all to justifie himselfe by as to his state towards God Againe As these words are referred to Jobs complaint of the severity of Gods dealings with him Observe Whosoever complaines of the dispensations of God towards him cannot be justified in it Thus the Jewes of old complained Ezek. 18.25 Ye say the way of the Lord is not equall But were they justified in this complaint with God How doth the Lord expostulate with them in the next words Heare O house of Israel is not my way equall is not your way unequall As if he had sayd All the inequality is on your part there is none on mine The wayes of God how hard and grievous soever they may be as they were towards Job yet unequall or unrighteous they can never be The usuall dealings of God with us are full of mercy his severest dealings with us have no want of Justice How then can man be Justified with God Or how then can he be clean that is borne of a woman Here 's another question of the same tenour and in the 15th Chap ver 14th Eliphaz spake almost in the same termes What is man that he should be clean and hee that is borne of a woman that hee should be righteous Jobs friends beate often upon this poynt vehemently suspecting that he did over-weene his owne condition and thought too highly of himselfe Whereas Job did not onely freely and ingeniously but with a great deale of holy rhetorique and elegancy confesse against himselfe againe and againe that hee neither was nor could be cleane before God Onely hee would not admit their plea against him that hee suffered for his uncleanenes or that hee was uncleane because he suffered Master Broughton translates thus Or The borne of woman locke to be cleared We say How can hee be cleane that is borne of a woman that is how can hee have a nature at all cleane or be altogether cleane in his life who commeth into the world through a world of uncleanenes Can the streame be cleane when the fountaine is uncleane or the product be better then that which is produced Man borne of a woman by natural generation so Bildad is to be understood comes from an uncleane fountaine from an impure Original and therefore how can he be pure or cleane What the particular Emphasis and importance of this phrase To be borne of a woman is hath been opened already Chap 14.1 Chap 15.14 and therefore I referre the reader to those texts for a further Exposition And shall here onely give out this Observation All men borne of a woman by natural generation are impure and uncleane There was never but one man the Lord Jesus Christ borne of a woman who was not uncleane and he was borne of a woman not in an ordinary but miraculous way The holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the most high shall overshadow thee Luk. 1.35 All else borne of a woman have been and are uncleane It is sayd Gen. 5.3 Adam lived an hundred and thirty yeares and begat a Son in his owne likenes after his Image and called his name Seth. Adam begat a son in his owne likenes what likenes it is not meant of his outward likenes of the figure or feature of his body that was the least part of the likenes there intended in which his son was borne every father begets a son in a humane shape and we say the child is like his father not onely as having the same specifical nature but as having the personal figure and proportions of his father But when it is sayd Adam begat a son in his owne likenes in his Image the meaning is he begat a son that was a sinner as himselfe was and corrupt as himselfe was even Seth who was given in the place of Abel God in the creation made man in his image after his likenes Man by procreation begets a son not in Gods image but in his owne And that not onely like him in constitution as a man but in corruption as a sinner David confesseth of himselfe Psal 51.5 Behold I was shapen in Iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive mee Some to avoyd the strength and dint of that text as to the proofe of the corruption of nature by propagation put a most corrupt and base glosse upon it As if David had therein onely confessed his parents sinfullnes or inordinate affections in begetting and conceaving him not his owne natural sinfulnes as begotten and conceaved I know no better argument of the corruption of nature then such corrupt interpretations of Scripture For doubtlesse as Bildad here in the Text so David was acquainted not onely with the doctrine of original sin and the corruption of nature but had found and felt the sad effects of it in himselfe And from that experience could say I was shapen in iniquity c. as also consent to what Bildad saith in this place What is man that is borne of a woman that hee should be clean doe but acknowledge that any one is borne ordinarily of a woman and wee may conclude him to be sinfull and uncleane That I may make this a litle clearer I shall touch at three things which are distinctly considerable in the sin of Adam First That particular act or fact against the Law which he committed in eating the forbidden fruit Secondly The legal guilt that flowed from that act both upon his person and upon his posterity Thirdly The naturall Corruption which as a consequent of the former stayned all mankinde Or there was first the transgression of the Commandement which was his eating the forbidden fruit Secondly there was
people Stupidus esplanè nisi tua scelera harum tuarum calamitatū aquae more inundantium obruentium causam esse vides Merc heare ye indeed but understand not and see ye indeed but perceive not Make the heart of this people fat and make their eares heavy and shut their eyes What were these eyes and eares that were to be made heavy and shut Surely they are to be understood not of Organicall but of intellectuall eares and eyes But who was to shut these eyes A holy Prophet And how was hee to shut them By prophecying or speaking to them in the Name of the Lord. The proper worke of the Word is to open the eyes and enlighten the minde But when a people have long shut their owne eyes against or onely dallyed with that transcendent mercy the light then God which is the severest judgement shuts their eyes and darkens them with light Of this Judiciary darkness some interpre◠the present Text as if Eliphaz had sayd there is a worse plague upon thee then all those spoken of even blindness and confusion of minde so that thou canst neyther see what brought thee into them nor how to finde thy way out but art as a man under water or in the darke amuzed in these thy afflictions not knowing what to doe or which way to turne thy selfe Secondly Darkness taken improperly is Externall so a state of sorrow and affliction is a state of darkness As before snares so here darkness notes any troublesome condition or the trouble of any mans condition And when to darkness this is added Darkness that thou canst not see it may import the greatest degree of darkness even darkness in perfection or as the Scripture speaks thick darkness yea outer darkness There is a darknes in which wee may see a darknes which hath some kinde of light in it but when darknes is so thicke that we cannot see that is that we cannot see any thing in it as we commonly say of extreame darkness 't is so darke that a man cannot see his hand then 't is perfect darkness Light is not properly seene but 't is the medium or meanes by which wee see much lesse is darknes seene it being properly that which intercepts and hinders sight yet 't is rare to meete with darknes which hath not some mixture or tinctures of light or with such darknes as in which nothing at all can be seene yet such was this metaphoricall darknes with which he supposed Job was muffled up I have more then once in other passages of this Booke met with and explained this terme shewing how and why afflictions and troubles are expressed by it and therefore I shall not now stay upon it Onely here take notice Gentiles idem sentire gustiebant dum non eosdem in prosperis quos in adversis adibant deos In prosperis quidem solē Jovem opulentū Minervam Mercurium Apollinem hos omnes quasi lucis secundarum rerum largitores at in adversis tellurem Neptunum alios malorum depulsores nocte multum potentes quasi tenebrarum ipsi domini essent Bold That the old Heathens had such conceptions of darkness And therefore being in a prosperous state they had recourse to the Sunne to Jupiter Minerva Mercury their Idol-Deities as the dispensers of light and comfort but being under sufferings and sorrows they made their applications to the Earth to Neptune and others whom they vainely beleeved were Rulers of the Night and Lords of darkness as if these could command and chase away all evills from them Scripture Language is full of such Descriptions about men in sorrow Darkness that thou canst not see And abundance of waters cover thee * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quamvis multitudinē aut inundationē significat cum celeretate quadam strepitu The word rendred abundance signifies a company or troope of waters which meete and march together even as horses prepared for battell and ready to give the charge So the word is translated 2 Kings 9.17 A Watchman from the Tower sayd I see a company And that was Jehu with his troopes who came marching furiously with the revenge of God in his hand upon the house of Ahab And so Ezek. 26.10 By reason of the abundance of their horses their dust shall cover thee thy walls shall shake at the noyse of the Horsemen and of the Wheeles and of the Chariots Reade the same use of the word Isa 60.6 The multitude some read the inundation of Camels shall cover thee They shall come in such abundance that they shall come like a floud and shall be as the gathering of many waters Troopes of Horses and Camels rush together as many waters And waters rush and throng together even as many horses Thus here abundance or an Army of waters come in upon thee and cover thee Waters in Scripture frequently signifie afflictions Isa 43.2 When thou passest thorow the waters that is thorow great afflictions I will be with thee Psal 18.16 Hee drew me out of many waters That is out of many afflictions Psal 66.12 Wee went through fire and water but thou broughtest us forth into a wealthy place Fire and water note all sorts of afflictions hot and cold moyst and dry And some conceive that water in a metaphoricall sence is so often used in Scripture to signifie affliction because water in a proper sence did once afflict the whole world As the generall Judgement upon the world at the last day shall be by fire so the first generall Judgement upon the world was by water it was a floud of waters by which the Lord destroyed the old world Likewise Pharaoh and his Host of Aegyptians which was the second most Eminent Judgement that ever was in the world were overwhelmed by the waters of the red Sea Thus Moses sang Exo. 15.4 5. Pharaohs Chariot his host hath he cast into the Sea his chosen Captaines also are drowned in the red Sea The depths have covered them they sanke into the bottome as a stone And againe v. 10. The Sea covered them they sanke as Lead in the mighty waters Water being the Element and the Instrument which God hath so often used in his angry dispensations towards sinfull men it may emphatically expresse any dispensation of his anger Yet if we consider the very nature of the thing it selfe it carrieth significancy enough to be the Embleme of saddest and soarest affliction First There is in water a swallowing power as water is easily swallowed so it swallowes all up Man cannot subsist in it when it is most peaceable and he can hardly escape out of it when 't is enraged Sorrow and affliction are swallowers also unlesse mercy appeare and moderate them they drowne and overthrow all The Apostle useth that expression when he adviseth the Corinthians 2 Ep 2.7 To forgive and comfort the incestuous person whom according to his advice they had formerly Excommunicated or cast out from fellowship in the
them downe without time or before their time we may observe Wicked men are often ripe for Judgement before they are ripe in yeares It is said in the 15th of Genesis Cum potuissent diutive persistere Tygur Capti sunt immaturi Sep. The Iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full their sin is not come to a full stature for as there is a fullnes of stature in holynes unto which Saints at last arrive in Christ so there is a fullnes of stature in wickednes to which the Lord suffers sinners to arrive and as when Saints have attained their full stature in holynes they are received into glory so when wicked men have attained a full stature in wickednes they are cut off and turned downe to destruction Though the Lord suffer long yet he will not alwayes suffer And as some are but young men yet old Saints and have had much Experience of God and of the wayes of grace though but little of the world that distinction which the Apostle gives of Saints into little children young men and fathers 1 Joh. 2.13 14. is not to be understood in reference to naturall yeares but to standing in grace or to a growth and progress in holynes so some wicked men are but of few yeares or but young in reference to their naturall age who yet are old in sinne aged in wickednes they are fathers in abomination while but children in time and so are cut downe before time Wicked men are never cut downe till they are ripe in sinne but they are often cut downe before they are ripe in nature Thirdly Which were cut downe out of time namely in little time or without delay Hence Note That God can quickly make an End of wicked men Hee needs not take any long time to doe it hee tooke but very little time to make the world it was made in six dayes which in reference to the greatness of the worke is no time when a great thing is done in a little time wee may say it was done without any time at all Now if the Lord could frame a world without time surely he can cut downe the world or the inhabitants of it in a little time Ruining worke is easier then building worke He that built in this sence without time can pull downe without time wee need not trouble our selves with such thoughts as these when wee see wicked men Enemies of God and his people in their height and strength O what a length of time will it require O how many yeares must be spent in cutting downe these strong Oakes those tall Cedars the Lord can cut them downe in a moment Our late experinces have shewed us wicked men cut downe without time before they thought they could be shaken yea toucht they have beâ—n cut downe when they concluded they could not be reached they have been ruined The Jesuites and other Matchavillian politicians have a received Maxime of State among them Take time and you may doe any thing If you are disappointed in a project this yeare waite a few yeares longer say they and you shall eyther finde or make a way to accomplish it But the Lord can doe any thing he hath a minde to at any time or without taking time The Apostle prophecying of the Antichrist saith 2 Thes 2.6 7. Now ye know what withholdeth that he may he revealed in his time for the mystery of iniquity doth already worke onely he who now letteth will let till he be taken out of the way The power and splendour of the Romane Empire stood in Antichrists way and he could not cut it downe without time He was hacking and hewing heaving and thrusting many yeares yea some ages before he could remove that blocke out of his way and so make way for his owne Greatnes The wisest of men must have time to bring about their ends Onely God the onely wise God can cut downe and remove whatsoever stands in his way though it stand like a great mountaine without time or without taking time if once his time be come in which he would have it removed The wicked of those elder times were cut downe suddenly without time Eliphaz confirmes it further in the next words Whose foundation was overflowne with a flood In this latter clause Eliphaz seemes more clearly to hint at some particular wicked men or to shew who those wicked men were that hee Intends as the object of his observation namely those whose foundation was overflowne with a flood It is usuall in Scripture by some one word to alude to great actions and changes past Take two or three Instances for Illustration of this Psal 55.15 David Imprecates vengeance upon his enemies in this Language Let them goe downe quick into hell Which expression carrieth a plaine allusion unto that dreadfull judgement Numb 16.31 32. It came to passe as hee that is Moses had made an End of speaking all these words the ground clave asunder that was under them and the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up and their houses and all the men which appertained unto Corah and all their goods They and all that appertained to them went downe alive into the pit c. This historicall Narration the Psalmist hints at in his imprecation as is plaine by that word quick or alive Let them goe downe quick or alive into hell that is let such wrath seaze upon them as seazed upon Corah Dathan and Abiram on whom the earth closed and they perished from among the Congregation Againe when the Apostle makes promise to Saints in the behalfe of Christ what assistance they might expect from him in time of temptation and what issue from it he thus assures them The God of peace shall tread Satan under your feete shortly Rom. 16.20 Which plainly beares upon that first grand Promise that Christ the seede of the Woman should breake the Serpents head Gen. 3.15 for it is by vertue of that act of Jesus Christ bruising the head of Satan that Satan is troden under our feet As Christ bruised him under his owne feete so hee will bruise or tread him under out feete the seede of the woman in person as well as in their representative shall breake the Serpents head Lastly those words Rom. 9.16 hold a cleare correspondence with that Story Gen. 27. concerning Jacob and Esau So then it is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of God that sheweth mercy Hee had sayd before that God loved Jacob and hated Esau and concludes upon it So then it is not of him that willeth c. Wee may take notice in that famous peice of the divine History that much meanes was used that Jacob might obtaine the Blessing Rebecca her heart was set upon it shee did what shee could to procure the Blessing for her younger Sonne her will was wholy in it and Jacob hee run for it too for as soone as Ever his mother had given him counsell he ran presently to the
yea these are not yet dead but alive and in force against you If we doe not take hold of the preceptive part of the Law by obedience the poenal part of the Law will take hold of us for our disobedience Thus the Lord professeth Mal. 3.5 And I will come neare to you to Judgement and I will be a swift witnes against the sorcerers and against the adulterers and against false swearers and against those that oppresse the hireling in his wages the widow and the fatherlesse and that turne aside the stranger from his right and feare not me saith the Lord of hosts for I am the Lord I change not I will certainly be not onely a Judge but a witnesse and that a swift one against such wicked ones There is no evading my Judgement seing I am both witnes and Judge as a witnes I know all that ye have done and as a Judge I have power not onely to condemne you but also to give you up into the hand of the executioner for I am the Lord of hosts I have all the Armyes of heaven and earth at my command and bidding Thus I will doe and be ye assured of it that I will doe so for I am the Lord I change not Sixthly God is unchangeable or of one minde in his gifts Rom. 11.29 The gifts and calling of God are without repentance That is The gifts of his effectuall calling shall never be repented of As they who receive them will have no cause to repent yea they will have cause to reioyce in them for ever so God who gives them will not repent He is in one minde he will not alter his gifts As Pilate when he was moved to alter his writing upon the Crosse of Christ answered What I have written I have written that is what I have written shall stand so what motion soever should be made to God to recall the gifts of effectuall calling he would surely answer What I have given I have given my gift shall stand There are gifts of a meere outward calling which God takes away againe His gifts doe not stand with such because they stand still with his gifts That was the doome of the idle servant who had one talent given him Take the talent from him and give it to him that hath ten Talents Math. 25.15.28 But the gifts of effectuall calling shall not be taken away Jam. 1.17 Every good gift and every perfect gift such is the gift of effectuall calling is from above and cometh downe from the father of lights with whom is no variablenes nor shadow of turning And as there is no variablenes in God as to the matter or generall nature of the gifts which he bestoweth they are all good and perfect gifts in their kinde though they are not all in the same degree of goodnes and perfection God doth not give his people sometimes bread and sometime a stone now an egge and anon a scorpon now I say as there is no variablenes in God as to the nature of the gifts which he bestoweth so there is no variablenes in him as to the act of giving or bestowing As the Lord giveth liberally and upbraydeth not Jam. 1.5 so he giveth liberally and repenteth not Thus we see he is not onely one but in one minde He is unchangeable And that not onely in his essence and glorious attributes or perfections but in his counsels and decrees in his promises and threatnings in his gifts and bounties to all his people He giveth and repenteth not Before I passe from this poynt it will be needfull to answer some Objections which are raised against it from those Scriptures which seeme to say that God is not of one minde or that his minde doth alter and change First That report which Moses makes of God seemes to say so Gen. 6.6 And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth and it grieved him at his heart What is repentance but the change of the mind therefore he that repents is not in one mind Seing then God repents how is he unchangeably in one minde A like appearance of contradiction we find 1 Sam. 15. not onely with this text in Job but between the 11th verse compared with the 29th of the same Chapter The 11 â—h verse speakes thus Then came the word of the Lord unto Samuel saying it repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be King c. ver 29. And also the strength of Israel will not lie nor repent for he is not a man that he should repent The strength or victory of Israel is God for it was by his strength that Israel had all his victories and of him Samuel saith He will not repent when as himselfe had sayd a little before It repenteth me c. To these Scriptures we may adde 2 Kings 20th which in words holds out a great change in the minde of God concerning Hezekiah if we compare the first and the fift verses of that Chapter together ver 1. In those dayes Hezekiah was sicke unto death and the Prophet Isaiah the son of Amos came to him and said unto him thus saith the Lord set thine house in order for thou shalt dye and not live Here is a strong affirmation that Hezekiah should dye And to the affirmative the negative is also added Thou shalt dye and not live 'T is the strongest manner of asserting any thing when the contrary is denyed As it is sayd of John the Baptist John 1.20 And he confessed and denied not but confessed I am not the Christ c. So here Thou shalt die and not live Yet we read vers 5. And it came to passe before Isaiah was gone out of the middle Court that the word of the Lord came to him saying Turne againe and tell Hezekiah the Captain of my people thus saith the Lord the God of David thy father I have heard thy prayers I have seene thy teares behold I will heale thee on the third day thou shalt goe up unto the house of the Lord and I will adde unto thy dayes fifeene yeares Doth not this import an evident change in the minde of God Having dispatcht the Prophet to tell Hezekiah that he shall die and not live He presently after even before he was got out of the Court sends the same Prophet backe to tell him that he shall live and not die We have the same difficulty in that knowne place in the Prophesie of Jonah Chap. 3.4 Jonah is sent to Nineveh with a direct message Yet fourtie dayes and Nineveh shall be overthrowne Notwithstanding as soone as the fast was proclaimed and kept and the Ninevites had repented and turned from their evil wayes The Lord also repented of the evil denounced against them ver 10. And God saw their workes that they turned from their evil way and God repented of the evil that he had said that he would doe unto them and he did it not Here God repented of his threatning He had said