and must iudge all See what it is in our life time to thirst after this trash to repose our full contentment and blessednesse in this drosse When the heart should be lifted vp to celestiall contemplation this hangeth so about it that it cannot but lye groueling vpon the the rotten ground 12 Vaine glory or any sinister passion which doth possesse the mind hath the same effect and so hath ignorance of the true God which ignorance and vaine glory as I suppose were the reasons wherfore Titus the Romaine Emperor who was amōg the heathen a mirrour of men was so loath to depart from this earth when knowing that he must dye being caried as he was in his horse-litter he looketh vp toward heauen most bitterly maketh complaint that his life should so be taken away from him not deseruing so ill How vaine are all the shewes of vertue without the knowledge of Christ Iesus Yet the end of Saint Ambrose was in a more holy maner when he being spoke vnto by his friends to pray that yet he might not dye made his answer as he lay at the very dore of death I haue not liued so ill among you that I am ashamed to liue any longer neither am I afraid to dye because we haue a good Lord vpon whom he then did trust There can be no better meditation to any man at that time of departure then to thinke on that good Lord. It causeth a willing and safe leauing of this world a perfecting and completing of all that hath bene here begun which is more to be desired then all the land or treasure which euer the Sunne did see When the time of receiuing the reward commeth it is good to be ready It is best to be aduised of our standing but most of all of our falling He that for a long time runneth nimbly but stumbleth immediatly before the marke hath lost his former labour and is depriued of the price If at any time then at that time when our soule doth faint within vs and is leauing her habitation together with our Prophet let vs thinke vpon our God Now let vs come to the next circumstance and that is how he did speed And my prayer came vnto thee into thy holy Temple 13 Ionas in great misery and expectation of his end hath his mind vpon his maister with faith he remembred him and he remembred him to pray to him Now his prayer was not vnfruitfull as that which is made to idols or vnto hard hearted men but by the fauour of the Iudge it hath audience to the full It came to God in his Temple which is not to be intended as taken of the heauen the chiefe seate of his maiesty and residence of his power although in generall all the prayers of his elect and chosen do ascend and go vp thither but in more speciall manner it is meant of the Temple which Salomon did erect where together with the Arke of the couenant and the Cherubims and the mercy-seate the presence of Gods grace was in most peculiar sort And this house was to the Iewes a visible signe and Sacrament thereof so that according to the request which Salomon made to God they repaired thither when any thing did oppresse them as appeareth by Hezechias who layd open the letter of Senacherib in the Temple before the Lord. Yea when soeuer the Israelites were in a strange land in bondage or captiuity and called vpon the Lord earnestly they did turne themselues to that coast which way this house did stand as I then made plaine vnto you by the example of Daniel when I handled the fourth verse of this present Chapter Then to say no more of that point his prayer was directed to him who sate in this Temple 14 But obserue withall with what reuerence he speaketh here of Gods house the Temple of thy holinesse for so it is in the Hebrew or into thy holy Temple as we commonly do translate it If we referre the appellation of holinesse to the Lord who is so holy as he whose sacred goodnesse and sanctitie doth exceede the thought of all creatures In Leuiticus he speaketh thus be you holy for I the Lord your God am holy So in Exodus it was written in that plate which was in Aarons forehead Holinesse to the Lord. If we take it of the Temple this also was a holy place consecrated vnto piety and dedicated to religion whose inner part by an excellencie was called Sanctum Sanctorum the holy of holies as implying that the rest was also of good qualitie From hence all profaned persons and polluted things were precisely bid to be kept The violating of this house did much offend the Lord as may be seene many times in the Prophets and Iosephus is of opinion that nothing sooner brought destruction to Ierusalem then the execrable deedes committed in the Temple The place was made for all kind of goodnesse and deuotion to the Lord but it was so farre abused as any thing which is most filthie These are warnings to vs that since in our age Churches are as much to the Christians as that Temple was to the Israelites or at least they are sequestred houses to serue God truely in that we vse them with all reuerence for his sake to whom they belong that as we repute them to be consecrated matters so in truth we do vse them as Gods most holie Temple Which whether men do or no let the chopping and the changing in symoniacall sort the buying and the selling of these Churches as of most profane things witnesse vnto the world If we should be silent yet let the preassing in of the vilest right Ieroboams Priests proclaime the truth herein Let the carelesnesse of those Pastours whom God hath blessed with skill make open declaration who do mind that field or barne whence corne or wooll commeth to them oftener in one moneth then the pulpit in a yeare They can enquire for a Curate where one may be had best cheape not respecting whether he be able to teach or what payments be to the Prince or impositions to the state but how the people shall be instructed they do not regard at all And on the other side let the generall behauiour of men throughout the land speake whether those that be of the congregation do vse these houses as sanctified things or no. Looke into their cold coming on the weeke daies in such places where Lectures are continued their talking and gazing about when their soule should be instructed their reuoluing of their worldly businesse their obseruing rather of eloquence in the minister or preacher or in some what may be carped at then how their owne life may be bettered or their conscience informed their perfunctorie praying and formall inuocation of him who requireth the heart These matters shew that it is made vnholy by vs which in it selfe is ordained to be holy Of likelyhood the temple at
times we heare not of any Dolphine which delighted in Musicke or saued any man in the sea or caried any ouer the water Besides that Rondeletius whose worke is many times ioyned with Gesners denieth that a Dolphine hath any such sinnes as they in old time did describe him to haue for that saith he there is onely one in his backe and it is not all along him which may be thought vnfit to beare a man But imagine that it were true which Plinie hath concerning them yet his speech is that they were brought to that custome by much practise and feeding them with bread which agreeth with the qualities of that straunge fish Matum which the Historian Peter Martyr reporteth to haue bene in the West Indies But how could this acquaintance with men and feeding by hand happen to this fish of Arion who was found at al-aduenture in the midst of the Mediterrane sea 14 Neither doth the report at Lesbos any whit confirme this tale For who knoweth not that euery countrie hath straunge reports of it selfe which by the common sort are reputed for great truths If we looke on our owne land how many things haue bene said of King Arthure and of the Prophet Merlin who although they may haue in them some ground of truth which I will not stand to dispute yet questionlesse much vanitie is mixed there withall We need no better example then the selfe same Herodotus who although in his positiue declarations he be held a good Historian and therefore is named by Tully Historiae pater the father of storie yet in his by-digressions by heare-saies and reports he hath so many vntruths that by other men he is termed with a censure too too gauling mendaciorum pater the father of lyes That such fames haue gone for currant euen among Christians the words of Paule to Timothie and Titus may shew where he speaketh of fables and Iewish fables and of old wiues fables also Now for the picture or image of the Dolphin and the man sitting vpon it that doth make a great deale lesse for inuentions and wrong deuises are wrought as well as truthes by painters and image-makers Saint Austen telleth how the Gentiles reported that Christ was a sorcerer and that he did his workes by Magicke and because they had seene Iesus in windowes painted with Peter and Paule standing by him they gaue out that hee wrote vnto them some things concerning Magicke not knowing saith Saint Austen that Paule was conuerted to the faith somewhat after Christs death But he maketh this conclusion vpon them Thus haue they deserued to erre who haue sought Christ and his Apostles not in holy bookes but in painted wals and windowes That which he iudged in a matter of farre greater importance that I may say of this A picture or image is not an argument of an approoued truth although Maister Campian do call such in church windowes for witnesses of the veritie of his cause So the song which is now extant and said to be Arions is as weake a proofe as any for why might not another man beleeuing the tale to be true put it out in his name Yea peraduenture if hee did not beleeue it as in Poets we haue many speeches fayned on other mens persons Then we may gather that either the narration is altogether fabulous or if he were so throwne by any into the water that another shippe intercepted him the badge whereof was a Dolphin as in the Actes of the Apostles the badge of that shippe wherein Paule sayled was Castor and Pollux And thereupon together with the inuention of Antiquitie grew the fable as some other haue imagined 15 To apply this somewhat nearer to my bresent purpose and to a true vse in Diuinitie if there were any such matter of the Dolphin and Arion as I in no sort do beleeue it we must hold it for a miracle wrought by the Diuell who by the Lords permission hath false wonders of his as God hath true of his Christ saith that false Christes and false Prophets shall shew great signes and wonders so that if it were possible they should deceiue the very elect The beast in the Reuelation doth bring fire downe from heauen When Moses was in Egypt the sorcerers had their sleights wrought by the finger of Sathan Eusebius speaketh of straunge deedes done by the Diuell and by Magicke Saint Austen in his tenth booke De ciuitate Dei doth attribute such credite to the stories of the Romanes that he thinketh that the Troiane Penates which were a kind of images did go from place to place and that Tarquine with a razor Liuie saith it was Actius Nauius did cut a whetstone in peeces and other such like things named there but he addeth that these were done by the power of infernall spirits So in his booke De Vnitate Ecclesiae speaking of miraculous matters he maketh this diuision of them Let these things be set aside being either fained inuentions of lying men or monstrous actes of cousining spirits supposing that some strange reports were fained and inuented by men and some other things were indeed brought about and effected by the Diuell If we would hold this of the Musitian in Herodotus for a truth then it teacheth vs this doctrine that as an Ape is the imitatour of man in his acts and gestures so is Sathan the Ape of God to follow him in his powerfull workes But how farre doth he come short of the originall which he looketh at He followeth him indeed but it is non passibus aequis with very vnequall steppes He seeth that God is mightily glorified in doing such straunge and rare deedes as he pleaseth and he will study to do the like that himselfe also may be glorified among the sonnes of darkenesse As the Lord shall haue his Ionas to be spoken of euery where so he will haue his Arion both of them throwne downe into the sea and both saued by a fish 16 Hence it is that we haue so many arguments of his suttle imitation God hath appeared like an Angell and Satan transformeth himselfe into an Angell of light God rayned stones on the enemies of Iosuah when they fled before him from the battell and Liuie writeth of credit that in the time of the Romane wars with Hannibal it rained stones for two dayes together on the hill called Mons Albanus So Hirtius that great welwiller of Iulius Caesar doth write that when Caesar was personally present in his wars in Africa very stones fell on the armie as it vseth to haile God rayned Manna from heauen and fire and brimstone vpon Sodome the one to helpe the other to hurt So the stories of the Romanes do mention that it rayned bloud and rayned flesh and wooll too saith Orosius in the dayes of the Emperour Valentinian and milke other such stuffe which as the learned do gather were
cursing of him for his neglect as if Surius do say true Barbarossa did a Generall of the Turkes being ouercome in battell by Charles the fifth in Africke where he often reuiled his Mahomet and in exceeding bitternesse did curse him Perhaps shuffle out that God and chuse some other in for him as Licinius did in his battels when he was ouercome by Constantine When his old Gods in whom he put his trust had deceiued him he sought out new ones to worship At least take it vnkindlie as Silla did at the hands of his Apollo For whereas his custome was as often as he went into anie battell euermore to beare in his bosome a little image of gold representing that God being on a time in daunger of an ouerthrow he drew it out and kissed it and vsed these wordes vnto it How now Apollo Pythius wilt thou who hast prospered and aduaunced that happie man Cornelius Silla in so manie foughten battels now destroy him and his fellow citisens eueÌ„ at the gates of Rome Thus when men make Gods to themselues or do single out each man one they are the bolder with them An action of vnkindnesse may be easilie entred against them perhaps there shall be a reuiling of them it may be a plaine renouncing 14 The companie of our Prophet is not yet come so far As you see they will fall to their prayers Who knoweth whether this mans God be a greater God then ours is whether that this sleepy felow be more accepted of him for it was an opinioÌ„ entertained eueÌ„ by heatheÌ„ meÌ„ that one person was more loued by their Gods theÌ„ another was that the prayers of some were better accepted as of their Priests or their Prophets a Helenus or a Calchas and these knew not whether Ionas might in such sort be more gracious with his God or no. The truth is that he might haue beene if he were not if he had but kept his owne For we finde in true diuinitie that the prayers of a few holie and sanctified meÌ„ are at al times more acceptable to the euerlasting Lord then the requests of ten thousand sinners In so much that he bestoweth vpon such their owne liues and the liues of others It seemeth that God in former time did vse to heare Ieremie wheÌ„ once so precisely he forbad him to intreat for the people There were giuen vnto Lot his wife and his daughters and his sonnes in law if they would might haue had their portion in that fauour How much did the Lord loue and tender Abraham when hee yeelded to his prayer that for ten iust mens sakes hee would spare the Citie Sodome But vnto my purpose this is most agreeable that when there was great daunger of a wreck that time that S. Paule was sayling toward Rome the Angell of God did stand by the Apostle in a vision and told him that the Lord had bestowed vpon him all that were in the ship who were to the number of two hundred and â—euentie and fiue that not one of all these should perish for Paules sake his good seruaunt But alas the case is otherwise in this ship then it was in the other where the Apostle sayled for here he that should haue helped all hurted all the Prophet now is become a runagate not a preacher but a sleeper he alone is pursued with vengeance and the other poore folkes are free 15 Yet call vpon thy God if so be that God will thinke vpon vs that we perish not Looke what ignorance on the one side and necessitie on the other could enforce them to do It might haue bin a harme vnto them to pray to so many Gods For wheÌ„ such a number should be sought to and yet some other should be left out as it was impossible for them to thinke on all some one maister God who was of the better sort might be angrie and drowne them all in despite that he should be omitted and not be had in account I should thinke that our simple Romanists the simpler sort I say who haue little in their owne knowledge should stumble much at this stoue least while they are creeping and crooching to some one Saint some other should take it in dudgeoÌ„ that any should be preferred or sought to before themselues But I thinke that to amend the matter their Church hath taken the paines to put All the Saints in one day together to keepe them quiet and All the soules in another least the first should not be sufficient Gods grace is more vpon vs since he hath let vs know that one Lord and onely he is to be worshipped that Christ is our mediatour and diligent intercessour and not any other creature that prayer is a sacrifice peculiar vnto him and that the Saints in heauen are to be imitated of vs for their faith and good example and not to be called vpon And yet God hath dealt better with those Romanists and better with these sea-men then with some lewd ones in our time who being in all their actions and conuersation most profane are so farre from praying with the heathen to many Gods that they rather say there is none These idolaters vnder errour of religion or deuotion know that something is to be adored the light of nature hath taught them that but these deuils come not so far I giue that name vnto them because in this although not in all things they are worse then deuils for the deuils beleeue that there is a God albeit they quake and tremble at it What other name should I giue them fooles nay these exceede the foole for the foole hath said in his hart there is no God as we may reade in Dauid But these go one degree beyond Dauids foole for they say it too with their mouthes 16 These poore soules neuer coÌ„ming where pietie or goodnesse grew conceiue by a generall apprehension that there was a power or powers who ruled all things though they knew not what it was They were as men in darknesse like those of whom S. Austen speaketh who know that they haue a countrey but the sea doth lye betweene they willingly would go to it but they do not know the meanes whither they would go they gesse but which way they cannot tell They know that there is something but they know not how to conceiue what it should be they cannot tell how to yeeld it his right reuereÌ„ce or whether it be one or manie But all coasts and all countreys accord that there is somewhat The West Indians had certaine spirits whom they named their Zemes accounted them their Gods euermore in extremities crying and calling to them But what should I name any particulars when Tullie can say for all that there is no nation so barbarous no people so rude but knoweth that there is a God although they caÌ„not tell who Tullie it shall be easier for thee in the day of iudgement and for
then euer Ionas did because his word was wrath but theirs is reconcilement in the bloud of Christ our Sauiour I find a very great difference I speake it with some grief euen for the Gospels sake which by this meanes is reproched I find a very great difference For in the countries abroad it is a matter not straunge that painefull and carefull pastours who labour in the word and doctrine and therefore by the testimony of Saint Paule are worthy of double honour who studie to frame themselues to the rule of the Apostle to shew themselues examples of patience of long suffering of mildnesse of sound doctrine of industrie in Gods businesse are vilefied and conteinned are slâ—â—ndered and reproched being made as the filth of the world the of scouring of all things Whereof there needeth no farther witnesse then the libellings which in some places haue bene made against the Preachers for rebuking of sinne the rimes and meeters which elsewhere haue bene song and resounded out the manifold cauillations and false exceptions taken to that which they teach yea sometimes reports most constantly auouched of this or that point of doctrine deliuered openly which is both absurd and monstrous These things partly arise by ignorance want of iudgement in discerning causes aright but the truest and most ordinary cause is the lacke of zeale to God and of charity toward man and of dutifull regard to those who should not be wilfully grieued but esteemed as such who waite for mens soules and must giue an account which they would be glad to do with ioy Hereunto may be ioyned the pulling and renting away of the maintenance of the minister that whereas Ethnicke people yea and our forefathers too in the dayes of superstition did thinke that they could neuer be too prodigall in heaping much of their substance on those who were no better then blind guides now cleane contrarie he is held the most wise and prudent man who either by cunning deuise can steale something secretly from the portion of the Leuite or with strong hand will maintaine his open and grosse oppression 6 And if the iniuried person taking knowledge of the wrong which is smartingly done vnto him seeme but to thinke how he may procure due satisfaction although it be by intreaty his actions are straight pryed into his fame is called in question he is generally reproched for a hard man and a couetous for a peace-breaker and contentious Now see whether this be the regardfull cariage which should for his maisters sake be borne to him who standeth betweene God and the people whose handes do reach foorth that sacrament which is the representation not only of the Communion of the Saints each with other but of the vnion also of them with Christ their head For the office which he beareth for the message which he bringeth let him haue that immunity that if thou wilt not honour him and regard him as thou oughtest yet do no ill vnto him nay say to him nothing euill When Saint Cyprian once was enformed that a Deacon had giuen ill and railing speeches against Rogatianus who was of eminent place in the Church his spirite could not endure it but he writeth back againe that the Deacon should be enforced to do some penance for that his foule abuse And yet this man was by vocation a kind of spirituall person who therefore had some more prerogatiue then a common body to rebuke sharply if he saw any thing amisse But in these daies men go farther then to vse vnseemely speeches when they are ready in bitternesse of heart not to stay till occasion be offered but to waite opportunity and spie nay seeke meanes true or false of turning the Prophets of the Lord out of their liuings and houses As Ionas might not rest and be harboured in the ship so they shall be remoued as he was throwne into the sea where in the reason of man nothing was to be expected but that he should drowne perish so these shall be cast out into the wide world as men without a place wherein to rest their heade so that for ought which their aduersaries intend they may famish for want of foode But whereas all was done to Ionas vnwillingly and forced and at the last cast they honoured him men of our age do take their victories ouer their Pastours as things to be triumphed on they hold those acts as their crowne their glorie and commendation much to be boasted of When in truth there is no one thing more infamous in the eyes of all good men or more to be shamed at then for sheepe to arise against the carefull shepheard the children and congregation against their spirituall Father 7 We do find in the booke of God that an euerlasting blot is layd on wicked Doeg for one part which he played although he were an Edomite and no Israelite and therefore the more likely to commit any such outrage When Saul in his malicious humour picked a quarrell against Ahimelech and the Priestes for giuing foode to Dauid in his necessitie and commaunded such as attended vpon him to run on them and slay them not one man of all the Israelites dared to lay hands vpon them but Doeg the Edomite was he who spilt their innocent bloud This as an euerlasting spot is registred of him to all posterities It is for infidels and Edomites to do such deedes as these But Christian men should submit them selues with patience and mildnesse to the moderate reproofs of their wise carefull Pastors and not to be offended with them who labor to do them good by the word and by their prayers It is a good memorandum which Saint Cyprian hath in this case Thou art angry with that man who laboureth to turne away the wrath of God from thee he speaketh of the Minister thou threatnest him who desireth the mercie of God vpon thee who feeleth that wound of thine which thou thy selfe doest not feele who sheddeth those teares for thee which thou thy selfe doest not shed And God knoweth that the good Pastor doth most diligently perfourme these duties that is grieue to see ought amisse and pray that all may be well take pleasure in the true and spirituall welfare of his charge as well as in his owne Let him therefore be esteemed as a friend and reuerenced as a father I will presse this note no farther They cast him into the sea and the sea ceassed from her raging 8 Saint Chrysostome in that one Homily which he hath vpon this Prophet doth note that by the curtesie which these mariners shewed to Ionas and their very great vnwillingnesse that he should come to destruction God would teach the Prophet to haue mercie vpoÌ„ the Niniuites as these men had on him that he should by his preaching reclaime them from their sins so saue them froÌ„ ruine which because God more at large laieth downe in the fourth chapter
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
ordaineth to the kingdome he doth teach the way to that kingdome Christ Iesus who is the life is also the way he that giueth the one graunteth the other Where he intendeth to bestow the end there he doth first bestow the meanes which shall leade to that end We are chosen not being holy but that we should be holy God then contemplating in himselfe his counsell which is immutable retaineth still his secret purpose and whom he hath once choâ—en that man he chooseth euer Whome he loueth he loueth to the end neither doth he for euermore cast one of his little ones out of his sight 5 Then it is a wrong opinion either of the Papist teaching or the Prophet here mistrusting that any of Gods faithfull ones can be finally cast away Saule may haue a spirite of Prophecie and Iudas another spirit of doing miracles and both of these may come to naught but where the spirite of adoption that spirite of sanctification hath once made his residence it doth euer inhabite there The child of God shall be brought to repentance and acknowledgement of his fault to confession and contrition and faith and hope and glorie through many seas of temptation and downefals of despaire through Vrias his death with Dauid through denying of Christ with Peter Either youth or age life or death in him that is elected shall apprehend the promises Be it the ninth houre or the eleuenth houre yet there shall be a time The Eternals beneplacitum shall haue his effect vndoubtedly And although that holy man Moses can desire to be razed out of Gods booke rather then his people should perish and Saint Paule wisheth that he might be accursed to saue those which were his countreymen in the flesh yet this shall but shew their great zeale and loue vnto their brethren as also their earnestnesse for Gods glorie which they thought might more appeare by sauing of a multitude then by their priuate safetie but this tainteth not Gods decree who will certainely make vp his worke wheresoeuer he beginneth it And if the Spirit of the Almightie doe in some places of the Scripture speake of blotting out of that booke which is the booke of life this is not by and by to be taken literally but that God therein doth frame himselfe to our capacitie as sometimes in like sort he attributeth a foote or hand or eare or eye to his owne diuine Maiestie In all which other places of the same qualitie the speech of Origene is most true that as the most ciuill man if he were to goe among Barbarians as suppose the Moores or Tartarians had neede to learne the language of that people if he meane to speake vnto them or do any good among them so when the Lord would teach vs in the Scriptures he contempereth his phrases to our capacitie and speaketh to vs in our owne toung And this he doth in the case in question resoluing by the speech of wiping out of Gods booke an assurednesse that they shall neuer haue anie portion in the fellowship of eternitie But if it seemed vnto anie that they were likely to be of the number of the elect yet that seeming should be frustrate Notwithstanding the purpose of his good pleasure in truth is neuer varied 6 Then whosoeuer is once growne vnto that measure of faith that vpon a setled knowledge he can meditate in himselfe of Gods true loue toward him and can satisfie his owne soule not with a foolish lightening or hastie fond perswasion which may befall an hypocrite or temporarie beleeuer but with a resolued confidence that his God is his father also and dareth to cry Abba father that he is sealed vp by his maker against the day of redemption that he is one of that number whome Christ hath bought with his bloud that whether he liue or dye yet euermore he is the Lords that neither death nor life nor Angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come no that neither hell nor diuell shall be able to separate him from the loue of God which is in Christ Iesus our Lord this man neede not stand in feare of casting out of Gods sight or perishing from his fauour And if that his sinne or Satan sometimes suggest the contrarie or his owne heart do discourage him this is but a temptation which notwithstanding must be strongly resisted with heartie and earnest prayer For the infallible word of God hath taught vs to say with Saint Paule if God be on our side what matter vvho be against vs And God iustifieth vvho shall condemne And with Saint Iohn in his first Epistle I vvrite those things that ye may knovv that ye haue eternall life And vve know that he heareth vs And vve know that vve are of God We doe not rest vpon our selues this full certaine perswasion this assurednesse of hope for that were to build on the sand that were to leane on a reede which breaketh and the splints thereof do run into the hand but we stay it vpon the power of God and on the loue of our Christ from the hands of whom none are able to plucke that away which they haue chosen In confidence of this a man may be bold to say although I be sicke yet God is mighty although I be weake yet Christ is strong looke what is too light in my flesh that his Spirit doth make vp His grace is sufficient for me I dare to say with Saint Bernard and it is an excellent saying Three things I consider vvherein my hope doth consist the loue of his adoption the truth of his promise the power of his performance Novv let my foolish cogitation murmure as long as it vvill saying Who art thou or knowest thou hovv great that glorie is or by vvhat merites thou hopest to obtaine it And I vvill aunswer boldly I knovv vvhom I haue trusted and I am assured that in very great loue he adopted me and that he is true in his promises and able in his performance for he can do vvhat he vvill This is that strong foundation whereon we may build safely this is the stay of a Christian vnto the measure whereof if any shall find that yet he hath not attained let him pray to God to enlarge his knowledge and vnderstanding But let vs most firmely hold this that whom he hath once chosen to a true feeling of his grace he doth neuer vtterly cast them away from his sight and good fauour This then was the fault of our Ionas and argued in him great infirmity when he broke foorth into this passion which sauoured so of desperation And so much of this matter Yet vvill I looke againe toward thy holy Temple 7 You haue now seene him at the worst for worse he could not well be a prisoner in a straunge dungeon without light without company without comfort in a whales belly so disquieted in his
was hindered from assembling within those courts of the Lord that he witnesseth for his owne part that neuer heart did so bray to find the brooke of water as his hart and conscience did thirst for that place yea his teares did trickle downe to thinke that he might not come there And elsewhere he complaineth that the sparrow and the swallow were happy being compared to him for they might come to the Altar to make their nest neare about it but leaue to do that was denied vnto him But afterward when Salomon had erected his famous house to the Lord that had many extraordinarie blessings granted to it at the time of the dedication when God witnessed by his presence that he heard the requests of Salomon among which these were some that if famine or plague or any other affliction did vexe the hearts of the Israelites and they theÌ„ came into that Temple and there prayed to be deliuered from that crosse the Lord would remooue it from them Yea if they were out of their owne land either going against their enemies or captiues in other countries if they turning their faces about to the coastward of this house should either pray for victorie or for release from their captiuitie their God would graunt it vnto them The Iewes afterward obserued this euermore in the earnestnesse of their prayer in what land soeuer they were turning them toward the Temple not tying superstitiously the power of God to that place but knowing that the same house was not erected in vaine And witnessing withall their obedience vnto the Lord and to men the constancie of their profession who held that place as the seale of the Lords assured protection ouer them So when Daniel in Chaldaea would pray he set his windowes open toward Hierusalem to the hazard of his life And truely the maiestie and great fame of the place was such that when the second Temple which was a farre meaner matter was raised vp the Princes of the earth which were of the very Gentiles did repute it and esteeme it a thing most holy The regard which was borne to that sanctuarie by Alexander the great sometimes king of the Macedonians by Ptolomeus Philadelphus by Pompey the great Romane some wherof did there offer sacrifice as it is testified by Iosephus and the coming vp of the Eunuch of Candace the Queene of Aethiopia who resorted thither of purpose for to worship do make this very plaine vnto vs. Then our man who sometimes had bene a Prophet and of likely hood had gone vp to Hierusalem to do his deuotions contrarie to the custome of the Israelites in his time had great reason to bethinke himselfe of this place 11 The doctrine to be deriued vnto vs from hence is this that since in substance we are inheritours of that faith which the Israelites and Iewes did holde and in steade of their Temple haue the Churches of the Christans which are places seuered to Gods seruice for the assembly of his Saints and the gathering together of his people that we therefore should beare the like affection to these as they did to that house and this so much the rather because the substance is here when there was but the shadow there the figure but here the truth there sacrifices made of beasts here the true Lambe Iesus Christ. We should therfore resort to these Sanctuaries with greedinesse euen as to the type of heauen we should ioy to be there and see all other there whom we loue and a Christian man loueth euery man Christ did frequent the Temple he called it an house of praier Anna that widow so much coÌ„mended liued in the TeÌ„ple the Apostles came to this and after that Christ was ascended the holy men who were in the time of the Primitiue Church did reioyce to see the Oratories and places of deuotion which were built in honour of Christ. They knew that if the priuate prayers or lifting vp of the hands of one man were acceptable to the Lord theÌ„ the voyce of a multitude making their requests ioyâ—tly together would more sound in the eares of God If the Sauior hath made a promise to be in the middle of them where two or three are gathered together with what an eye of coÌ„passion is he present to looke vpon hundreds or thousands of his assembled into one place Then let vs account it our happinesse that we may ioyne our prayers vnto a great congregation which God denieth to his best children in the time of persecution and of banishment great sicknesse and let vs presse to this place as to that where bread is broken which is the very food of life For herein God giueth a most approoued argument of his loue that we are not forced to runne from this sea to another from this land vnto that so to enioy this blessing but we need no more but euen step out of doores it is so brought home vnto vs. And let vs each man exhort that brother of his who yet wanteth vnderstanding to hasten vnto this banket for it is a good token of more grace which is afterward to follow when men come to this place although it be for other purposes God catcheth them vpon the sudden the hooke is fastened in them before themselues be aware Austen came with another mind to heare Saint Ambrose preach it was to obserue his words and his eloquence and the manner of his gracious deliuery for Ambrose was an eloquent and sweete man but at length the matter of his Sermons tooke him and made him a good Christian. So mighty Gods word is and hearing is the meanes to bring men vnto faith by which faith they are saued and this is the place of hearing If any man sayth Chrysostome vpon Iohn do sit neare to a perfumer or a perfumers shop euen against his will he shall receiue some sauour from it much more shall he who frequenteth the Church receiue some goodnesse from it 12 Then they are much to be blamed who do willingly and of purpose absent themselues from this place be they either the stiffe and stubburne recusants whose fancy and refractary will is called by the name of conscience who being inuited to the Supper of the Lambe yet keepe themselues away and therefore according to Christs parable are well compelled by the Magistrate to come in It is a most blessed compulsion for a man to be driuen to truth for a woman to be forced to heauen Or be it the idle person who preferreth his rest and sleepe before his owne soules saluation In which case he is worse then the Iew of whom as Ambrose well obserueth the Prophet sayth that he honoureth God with his lips although his heart be farre from him The Iew did yeeld his speech and the Iew did yeeld his presence seemed to giue some countenance to the word but this slouthfull man commeth not so farre Or
Hierusalem was vsed in another sort when the Prophet here called it holy otherwise he might iustly haue feared that God had not bene there to haue heard him when he cried out of the fishes belly 15 But hitherto the Temple was not relinquished by him as the later house was afterward when a voyce was heard in the night saying Migremus hinc let vs be gone from this place and therefore the Prophets prayer which was directed hither found the successe which it wished It came thither to the Lord. The distance of the place the great depth of the water the shutting vp in the whale yea the odiousnesse of his sinne could not detaine his crying and seeking to the Lord. He who in the fourteenth of Exodus did heare the crye of Moses although neuer a word were vttered and he who heard Hannas prayer when her lippes onely did mooue and no word was spoken out did attend Ionas when hee besought him with faith and implored his gracious goodnesse ouer him He hath bid vs call vpon him in the day that is in euery day of trouble and he hath said that he will heare It is he who neuer failed any of those who seeke to him As in all other matters so in this he hath a prerogatiue aboue all other he can heare and he will heare Heathenish Gods are but delusions and imaginarie toyes he who prayeth to them prayeth to nothing Baal may be iested at as sleeping or being busie Idols are but dead stockes they cannot mooue themselues and therefore not helpe themselues much lesse those that pray to them Yet a man exceedeth all these if they were in number ten thousand although oftentimes he debaseth himselfe as a seruant vnto these But how short of God doth this man come This will not if he could another could if he would a third both could and would but is absent and therefore ignorant what it is that is begged of him The power of all is so limited that the greatest cannot graunt the tenth thing which is asked and either themselues do confesse this or vse base shifts to couer it And how hardly do men part with that which is in their power As Seneca writeth on a time a Cynike Philosopher asked a talent of Antigonus who would gladly haue bene reputed a bountifull Prince His answer was that a talent was too much for a Cynike to receiue Then the other asked him a peny That saith he is too little for a king as I am to giue How oft soeuer such answers be giuen from men they do neuer come from God He giueth without reproching he heareth without delaying But we must aske that which is lawfull and we must aske in faith and we shall not haue a denyall 16 It pleaseth him to yeeld so much vnto our prayer appointing that as the instrument whereby we do approch him And indeed it is a good meanes to come into his presence For prayer is so piercing that it will get to the seat of God through the very heauens and cloudes It is winged and ascendeth vpward being made light by the heat of fierie pure deuotion The wind is not so quicke the lightning is not so nimble which goeth from East to West as this is in his passage In a moment it ascendeth from our tongs to Gods eares His eyes see our eyes weeping he well conceiueth our grones he well vnderstandeth our sighs If heauinesse do oppresse vs and sorrow weigh vs downe yet if our knees be bent vnto him or our hands held vp on high or our breasts be beaten before him or our cheeks bedewed with teares we shall be eased from all Then this is the onely remedie in agonies and in anguishes for the afflicted soule to seeke to It hasteneth to and fro and neuer returneth emptie Our sinning and suffering Prophet this drowning and dying Ionas did crye fâ—om the middle of the whale from the bottome of the sea from the very belly of hell and as he said before so here againe he professeth it the Lord did heare his voyce his prayer came to Gods temple Now you haue heard what he did and how likewise he sped Let vs here come to the second part which noteth some other persons whose words and deedes are otherwise They that wayt vpon lying vanities forsake their owne mercie 17 These words do imply a kind of Antithesis or contrarie successe betweene him before mentioned and those who do now follow as if he should say I scant looked for mercie and yet I did find it I prayed and was heard but these might receiue mercie and themselues do forsake it These are such which obserue or keepe or wayte vpon lying vanitie in stead of truth not ignorantly falling into it but wilfully pursuing it Such as set their whole labour on that which is but errour and make a studie of it Now those who with such egernesse do follow wrong paths the farther they go on the more they go astray They bend indeede all their diligence to somewhat but it is to lying vanitie vnder which name the Scripture doth comprehend all things which are besides pietie and the true seruice of God I haue hated them saith Dauid who giue themselues to deceitfull vanities And in another place Trust not in oppression and robberie be not vaine Gods Spirit doth account euery thing to be but vaine and lying and deceitfull which cannot endure the tryall which faileth vs and falleth from vs and when we most trust to it is least able to do vs good Such are all earthly things without the grace of God being ioyned to them as riches which are so much desired and honour which is so hotely sought or beautie or strength or friends which helpe not in that day when iudgement or vengeance commeth 18 Such are all the inuentions and deuised figments of men superstitions and false religions Pharisaicall obseruations papisticall dreames and fancies for whose sake whosoeuer will leaue the true prescript of Gods word he may be said to forsake the fountaine of liuing water and digge vnto himselfe broken pits He may be said to haue turned from the Lord who is only truth and to haue embraced falshood to haue refused grace and forsaken his owne mercie For where as God hath promised to be mercifull to all such who serue him as he hath taught by their neglecting of true deuotion they also neglect that mercie which was offered to them before So they make themselues vnworthie of remission and pardoning of their sinnes And in this case the end doth prooue heauie like to that rule of Aristotle where he saith that it must needes be in progresse of time that of counterfeited good things should grow that which is truly euill That wherein Zedechias trusted was but a lying vanitie and had a dolefull issue when as Iosephus did well gather he thought that the two Prophets Ezechiel and Ieremie had spoken contrarie things therefore that
piling vp those hils was in imitation of the story of the tower of Babel If Lots wife for her fault be turned into a salt-stone their Niobe for her fault shall be turned to a stone likewise If there be a Sampson of the Israelites exceeding for his strength there is a Hercules among the Gentiles who shall do as much as he If there be hell for the damned and heauen for those that be blessed Virgil will haue his Paradise those Elysian fields and tortures also for wicked ones among the ghosts below But if all of them should be serued as Virgil was for his labour they would gaine little by the bargaine for as he had hell from vs so the Papists to be quit with him haue Purgatory from him And if in our Prophet here there be any thing worth the looking on both Satan and his Poets will not be behind hand with him If he be in the whale for three dayes and three nights their Hercules shall be also for three dayes in a whale And if one will not serue theÌ„ turne they will make it vp in two If Ionas drenched in one place be seene aliue in another Arion cast into the sea shall appeare againe at Corinth 19 This is the deadly fraud of the enemy of our soule who in suggesting lyes for truth by himselfe and his instruments would defame the word of God For he himselfe being a suttle spirit and euery where at hand knew the Scriptures well inough where they lay he did reade them where they were read he could heare them he knew them well inough when he cited the text to Christ and he brought many of his agents and ministers in place where they might heare what the Iewes receiued for the grounds of their religion The Israelites were once in bondage vnder Pharao in Egypt and afterward they liued not farre from that countrey Palestina being a neare borderer so that the Egyptians by a neighbourly conuersation with them did well know the manners of the Israelites and afterward by the intercession of king Ptolomee the bookes of their lawes were by the Septuagint translated into Greeke and by that meanes were well knowne in Egypt And whither but into Egypt did the great scholers of old time trauell to increase their learning I find in Diodorus Siculus that the priests of the Egyptians had it in record that Orpheus and Musaeus and Homer and Lycurgus and Plato and Democritus were there to increase their knowledge Saint Austen citeth it out of Ambrose that Plato being in Egypt met with Ieremy the Prophet and learned many things of him concerning the faith of the Israelites but afterward that learned father better looking into the Chronology or computation of yeares reformeth that opinion For indeede Plato was after Ieremy As it was with the Egyptians so it was with the Chaldeans The Iewes in their Babylonish captiuity were in Chaldea whereby they also of that nation did heare of much in the Scripture But the Chaldees as men studious of learning did trauell often into other countries yea it seemeth as farre as Rome by Tullies second booke de Diuinatione where he nameth their figure-casters by no name so much as Chaldees Thus diuerse wayes an ignorant kind of knowledge was spread among the Gentiles which in their study of Poetry and Philosophy gaue them occasion of many things for their bookes Clemens Alexandrinus maketh it euident that the old Philosophers did take all their diuiner matters from the bookes and reports of Moses Iustinus Martyr whom so oft before I haue named sayth that whatsoeuer their Poets and Philosophers did record of the immortality of the soule of the paines of hell of things in heauen or any other matter of that kind they tooke occasion from the Israelitish Prophets both to thinke them and to speake them By which it is plaine that those old Ethnickes did heare some sound of the Scriptures and whatsoeuer truth is in their bookes they deriued it from this fountaine 20 But when it was once come into the hands of heathen and polluted men it must needes tast somewhat of their handling some drosse must be mixed with the gold some water powred in with the wine it must tast of the caske Sometimes the tale shall be told otherwise as that of Sennacherib is in the second booke of Herodotus whose losse of so many men by the Angeâ—l of God striking them at his siege against Hierusalem is sayd to be in Egypt and that by an army of mice who did no other harme but this in the night time they did eate vp the leathers of their armours and targets and horse-bridles and thereupon he was glad to flye away with great losse of his souldiers Sometimes that shall be reported to be deriued from the Gentilels to the Iewes which cleane coÌ„trariwise came from the Iewes to the Gentiles So Plutarke writeth that some of the principall feasts amoÌ„g the Iewes yea their very Sabaoth day the word Sabbos as he calleth it were deriued from the feasts of Bacchus whereas in truth the solemnities of Bacchus rather came from the other being is no comparison so auncient as those which were vnder Moses Some other times like must go for like but a lye for a true story shall be broched to the world as this which I haue handled Arion for our Ionas Sathan thought that the story reported of him was a very great miracle and wrought the Lord much honour and therefore he enuied it And besides that it had a reference to Christ who was afterward to come and was to giue him a crush and therefore he thought it a point which was very well worth his labour to disgrace it if he could If there had bene any foregoing prophecy of this matter we should haue had a tricke before hand for our Ionas as he made Iupiter many sonnes and daughters too for failing vpon the words of Esay that the Lord would send a child who should be the mighty God But it was not spoke of before vntill the deed were done therefore he thought not of it and therefore it must come after And in the dayes of the Prophet while himselfe liued it had bene too grosse to speake it therefore he will stay one age or two ages at the most before that he publish his fable For Ionas liued a good time before the captiuity of Babylon either in or sooner then the dayes of the latter Ieroboam and Arion as it seemeth liued in the time of the captiuity for as we reade in Herodotus he liued with Periander who liued with Halyattes who was father vnto Craesus who was conquered by Cyrus who gaue out the first proclamation for restoring the Iewes from Babylon 21 Thus not a misse as I suppose especially in an auditory of such learning and iudgement as this is by comparing our Prophet here with that fable of the Gentiles I
of Ionas againe which the first verse yeeldeth in generall And the vvord of the Lord came vnto Ionah the second time saying Then secondly in what speciall words this charge was deliuered vnto him Arise and go to Niniue Such sub-diuided notes as do arise out of these shall be touched in their order And the vvord of the Lord the second time came vnto Ionah saying 3 The manner of men is that if they intend any thing of the greatest importance they are at first earnest and peremptorie for it but afterward time perhaps doth slaken their heate and coole their resolution But if there come an hinderance or stop in the way they sinke vnder their burthen and desist from their enterprise attempting little farther Hence common obseruation hath taken that vp for a speech that in fights the first conflict is euer most daungerous and if that be resisted the rest will be but easie Hence such as by their guiltinesse haue prouoked the wrath of him who is like to deale with them in seuerity do take what course they can to prolong and put off their conuenting and arraignement both conceiuing that the Iudge being asswaged with time will abate of his rigour and the pursuer sleeping on it will remit of his furie Great warres and great iourneyes receiuing great crosses in the entrance vnto them end before that they begin and so the greatest preparations oftentimes turne vnto nothing Neither euer was there purpose hauing maine impediment which was seconded by any and followed afresh but by him whose hate was strong or his loue exceeding great to that which he did aime at which would not be rebuked or choked with a little Of this kind was Paules loue as he specifieth of himselfe who intending many times to visite the Saints at Rome and being often stayed by vnauoydable occasions yet still burneth in desire of the personall seeing of them and holdeth not himselfe satisfied till it were done indeed He speaketh of it and he writeth of it and he wisheth it and prayeth for it he is so setled in it 4 The greater was the loue of the maker of mankind to this retchlesse city Niniue to the which meaning to send a message full of threatnings but such a one as should in the end bring peace and quietnesse to them although he were stayed for a while and as a man may say put from his first ground to worke on his seruant running from him and causing him to follow him and chastise him when in the meane while much good might haue bene done by preaching to that people yet he is not quite stopped with it or put from his first meaning but secondly he will send that they may haue some warning to flye the rod hanging ouer them If he had not intended their good and safety with a purpose which he meant should not be controlled he might right well haue suffered that doome to fall on them which he threatneth by the Prophet Ezechiel both to the Iewes and to him that if he being set for a watchman would not tell them of such plagues as were to come vpon them they should dye in their sinnes but their bloud would he require at the hands of Ezechiel So the Niniuites being not acquainted with that vengeance which was neare them might haue perished in their ignorance and bene damned for their iniquitie but their bloud might haue bene required at the hands of our poore Ionas But to make it manifest that his purpose was inuariable in it selfe and full of good to them he doth but deferre his sending some few dayes may be slipped but it assuredly commeth at last His intendments depend not on the ability or want of any of his creatures the stubburnenesse of the reprobate or falling away of him who seemeth to be somewhat or the apostasie of a great one or the depraued errour of any of his owne seruants do not hinder his designement If this man will not serue then there shall come another or if yesterday will not do yet it shall be too morrow The Philistines shall be conquered if Saules sinnes will not suffer that he shall haue a victory Dauid shall be the man The Temple must be erected if the father may not do it because he hath shed much bloud the sonne Salomon shall be peaceable and he shall begin and ende it 5 But when he hath once purposed good vpon a nation that it shall be called home and rectified in his wayes be there neuer so manie difficulties as they seeme in mans iudgement he cleereth them euery one For to God nothing is difficult but himselfe hath a finger in that which seemeth to hinder as diuines commonly do shew in determining that question that God is not the authour of sinne and yet doth vvorke in all things He resolued to make the Gentiles like the Iewes to call those for a people who were no people before There was in the time of Christ a decree and barre against it Go not into the vvay of the Gentiles and into the cities of the Samaritanes enter yee not But go rather to the lost sheepe of the house of Israel Yet afterward Peter shall see the vncleane made cleane and God will be no longer a respecter of any persons He by his Apostle hath foretold that the Iewes shall againe be called home to the adoption before the day of iudgement Then Gods election being ouer them and his words being truth and veritie they shall come to the sheepefold that all Israel may be saued Although the bloud of Christ be on their heads and on the heads of their children although they yet to this day hate and reuile the Sauiour of the world and vnder the name of Nazarites do curse vs in their Synagogues In this last age of the world when the fulnesse of time was come that by the breath of his mouth the preaching of the Gospell God would weaken and consume that wicked one that aduersary the very sonne of perdition and the light of the word should clearely shine againe in a great part of the world not all the cloudes of ignorance nor the thicke mistes of darkenesse could stay from vs his decreed mercie When the Pastours had conspired either not to preach at all to their charges as Ionas would not at Niniue or if they did bring any thing it was poyson for meate and venime in steed of water when Antichrist with his pompe and his followers with the brightnesse of earthly and carnall glorie had dazeled the peoples eyes that they could not see truth from errour when the knowledge of the tongues and almost all other literature was raked vp vnder the ashes when the decrees of Popes and the Canons of Councels and customes and traditions were in place of the written word when the schoolemen had conspurcated and abused true Diuinitie with their filthinesse when a liuely faith and vnderstanding knowledge were not heard
how they haue bestowed themselues yet because many thousands are more then one soule the accompt for their charge shall more strictly be stoode vpon 5 Inferiour Magistrates may herein take instruction that it is not for themselues that they are hoissed to their places but to the good of other Be they neuer so eminent for sanctitie or synceritie it is not enough vnlesse they whom they rule do sauour like to themselues God expecteth of each of them that they and their houses as Iosuah said should serue him euen so many as they rule ouer And that if a blessing come vpon them it should like Aarons ointment droppe from the beard to the skirts of their clothing that the low valleis may haue the benefite of that fruitfull raine which falleth vpon the mountaines And if plagues and woes should come that then the rest should be retired from the daunger of the shot as well as the fairest That there should be a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and naturall affection to all that be in their custodie principally to saue them from the wrath which is to come and afterward to encourage them that they go with an vpright foote to quell that which is rebellious to take pitie vpon the weake to rectifie the vntoward to thinke that to be the field wherein God hath bestowed them and they will striue to make it like the Paradise of the Highest by planting choise plants in it by pruning them by watering it by fencing it and hedging it by keeping out the boare to take comfort in the beautie and prosperitie thereof and to delight in all happinesse which shall befall vnto it Thus the faithfull steward doth being alwaies pleased best when the common good doth flourish not thinking himselfe a bodie besides the publike bodie and so as two substances to be contradiuided things and all well which is scraped and scratched away from the members but a head vnto that bodie where and in whom he liueth and so to haue a fellow-feeling of the sufferings of other This doth well in all things but in nothing so much as vrging them to ayme at things celestiall to beg of God the continuance of his graces vpon them or to intreat him to be pleased to turne away that furie which is comming out against them And in this last case the king of Niniue may well be proposed as an example very singular who thinketh not his dutie to be discharged at all vnlesse besides the subiecting and debasing of himselfe he do stirre vp his people to a liuely apprehension of the state wherein they stoode that they as the followers he as the leader but both they and he he as well as they like humble suppliants might make intercession to recouer Gods fauour or at least to be pardoned He sheweth himselfe a man worthie to beare a scepter worthie to weare a crowne who is so considerate as to thinke that since they should haue part of the punishment he might do well to bring them to part of the penance 6 Now as this in generall is gathered of that act which is imported to vs by the scope of this verse the next so I iudge that some farther matter is naturally yeelded in this that he put foorth a precept or mandamus an imperiall Edict and an vrging Proclamation that euery one should fast And this is that Princes by the prerogatiue of their dignitie haue vnder God a power not onely to animate and encourage and exhort but by commaundement to constraine and by lawe to enforce their people to the performance and practise of those religious proceedings which they warranted by the word shall thinke fit They may ordaine lawes in Ecclesiasticall causes as we commonly terme them and vse compelling meanes to bring men to God He who should dispute this against the Church of Rome may easily declare out of the Scriptures both in particular and sufficiently concerning all the circumstances whereupon they do stand that it is holy iust which our Princesse doth claime and our Church doth maintaine And this most plentifully hath beene shewed in excellent workes extant to the view of the world Therefore it shall be enough for me now to touch and go Wise Salomon deposed Abiathar from the Priesthood and placed Sadoc in his roome Therefore Princes may depriue their Bishops of their dignities if they deserue it and place other in their steede Iehoash doth call the Priests to an accompt for their negligent carelesnesse in repairing the Temple Good Iehosaphat Hezechiah and Iosiah do make lawes for the recalling and exercising of the seruice of God they restore it and renew it according to the lawe and therefore Christian Princes by their example may do the like And if we will looke lower how great was Constantines care for setling the faith of Christ how did he labour both in the Nicene Councell and otherwise Doth he not call himselfe as Eusebius reporteth a Bishop out of the Church Others were Bishops within the Sanctuarie because they were to preach and administer the Sacraments but himselfe one without by reason of his care to discharge that dutie which was imposed on him How many lawes did he make in causes of the Church and Theodosius after him yea this prerogatiue was retained vntill the time of Charles the Great and Lodouicus after him as appeareth by so many decrees extant to this day These and many other knowing more fully then the Niniuite spoken of by Ionas did that God had appointed them to beare the sword not in vaine made Edicts and put out Proclamations to commaund men to the exercise of Christian deuotion Yea some of them went farther and by lawes repressed diuerse heresies and enforced men to an embracing of the Orthodoxe Catholike faith 7 A matter which may seeme most straunge and improbable vnto such as in truth mistaking the issue of this question do much vse that Maxime Fides non cogitur faith cannot be enforced It is very true that faith is an assent of the inward man which indeede cannot be extorted if we will speake of the actuall and complete apprehension in beleeuing for in that there must be a willing framing of the mind it selfe from within But the meanes whereby men get faith are visible and externall as the hearing of the word the receiuing of the Sacraments the repairing to the Churches where religion is set foorth the flying from the Synagogues of heretikes and schismatikes lest other should be infected the forbidding of their assemblies and these things Princes may not onely vse and set on foote but they are bound by dutie to the highest Lord to exercise and execute them Iosiah in his feruent zeale compelled all in the land or bound them as other translate it to serue the Lord their God And his deed is commended Doth not Christ in the Parable shew that he who made the banket bid his seruants go foorth and enforce them vnder the
not flesh and bloud and sensuall carnality which is swayed with affection are the composers of them but an authour more glorious first made them and now keepeth them 4 There are many demonstratiue proofes of the vnmatchable excellency and incomparable rarity of the volumes of the Bible although the dazeled eyes of some know not how to behold them That the truth of so many things should be fulfilled in their time when they had bene spoken of so long before that their credit should continue from the dayes of Moses vnto our age that there should be an vniuersall approbation of them in all parts of the world by men tongues so different that euery part thereof should haue such coherence and agreement with it selfe when it was written by so diuerse parties in seueuerall ages and places that the scope of it should be to build vp no worldly thing but to direct all to Christ that there should be such a maiesty in the stile thereof not so powerfull in words yet in words very mighty as forcible and effectuall in working and operation renting the heart and marrow and diuiding the bones in sunder Saint Hierome can say of Paule As oft as I reade him it seemeth vnto me that they be not vvords but thunders vvhich I heare And Bernard confesseth this of himselfe In times past Tully seemed sweete vnto me Virgil stole away my affection and being as Mermaides sweete to destroy had inchanted mine vnderstanding The Lavv the Prophets the Gospell the Epistles and all the glory of the sentences of my Lord and his seruants seemed either small or none vnto me But now I knovv not vvhat sweeter thing the sonne of lesse doth vvhisper into me vvho by the diuerse harmony of his speeches and sentences doth make all those vvhom I vvas accustomed to loue vneloquent and very dumme Eusebius speaketh more generally When I do compare the Philosophers of the Gentiles either among themselues or vvith other I vvill not deny but they vvere excellent men But when I compare them to the Diuines and Philosophers of the Hebrewes and I lay the doctrine of the one vvith the doctrine of the other all those things which their Philosophers haue deuised seeme to me to be brittle and friuolous Furthermore that we should haue the old Testament deliuered to vs from the Iewes who as friends do not conspire with vs to make a packe for both purposes but are enemies both to vs and to our Sauiour Christ. And yet as Saint Austen obserueth those Iewes are scattered ouer the world and beare those bookes with them that the enemies of our faith may be witnesses to our truth Moreouer that those who were the holy Spirits secretaries should be in request with all not while they liued but when they were dead and rotten whereupon Basile hath well noted that they were made Princes ouer Princes and Lords ouer the highest Kings yea more mighty then they for they swayed vvhile they liued but these most after death This made Chrysostome compare them to the flesh of beasts which no man at all doth eate off while they are aliue but when they are dead men taste of them So scant any man respected the Sermons of the Prophets and other diuine writers while they were liuing vpon earth but after their death euery one layeth hold vpon them These matters and many moe do shew that there is a singularity in the sacred volumes of the Bible but that whereof I spake being ioyned to them is not the least that the compilers of those bookes were not free and had liberty to touch their owne fansies but they were taught in the first place to renounce all their affections and as men inspired to deliuer the message of another euen against their owne glory and reputation 5 Looke vpon the workes of other men who were not directed so immediatly by this spirit as those were and this shall be more euident There is not any worldly writer but although he professe to lay downe the onely truth yet somtimes he strayneth a string either by ignorance or affection this friend or that faction shall receiue a partiall â—auour If wisedome beare some stroke it shall not be palpably and grossely to be noted but secretly and couertly and by insinuation and his owne industry in searching out the depth of deeds or his truth in reporting or boldnesse in detecting shall deserue commendation Not Liuy not Plutarke not Seneca as it may easily be shewed but may this way be touched Herein they are all fellowes more or lesse Yet there be bookes in the Scripture which appeare not to come so farre But that any one should in sobriety and aduisedly and of purpose make a treatise to declare the faults of himselfe and haue no other argument but what must needes be ioyned with that as it is here with our Ionas I verily am perswaded is no where to be found in all the workes of the heathen no not in the most sober and graue To giue examples from the greatest sort of them Tully will not haue it buried that Rome was beholding to him for Catilines cause and otherwise too Dion will haue the world know that he was a man of imployment in businesses of the Common-wealth Xenophon will record his counsels to posterity and Iosephus is plentifull in relating his owne stratagemes But if we will looke among the Poets we shall haue Ouide ending his Metamorphosis tell vs Iámque opus exegi quod nec louis ira nec ignis Nec ferrum poterit nec edax abolere vetustas I haue ended such a worke as neuer any thing shall deface Horace will not be behind him but will conclude one of his bookes thus Exegi monumentum aere perennius RegalÃque situ Pyramidum altius I haue set vp a monument which will last longer then brasse and is more eminent then the Pyramides in Egypt But Martial for his part rather then he will be out will tell vs that for trifles he is equall with the best I I le ego sum nulli nugarum laude secundus Thus men will be men that is to say humorous and ambitious full of selfe-loue and it will not be restrained but that directly or indirectly they will to their kind Nature will not be driuen away no not with a forke Yet where grace is predominant and God doth rule the sterne there selfe-loue is layd aside and out it shall come I will confesse my sinnes against my selfe yea commend them to posterity that the ages to come and the ends of the world shall take notice of mine errors Thus as God hath no peeres so his booke hath no fellowes but is euery way full of iudgement and iustice and truth and wisedome and perfection God will euer be the Lord and euery man is a sinner But in the third verse of the first Chapter I touched this somewhat more largely and therefore I now leaue it
filled with such wandring thoughts and stragling cogitations of Mammon and of ambition of enuy or of lust that rather we do any thing then that which we are doing Whereas all the heart and all the soule and all the strength should be the Lords the vigour of our wit the intentnesse of our braine the most fixed meditation of the spirit that if it were a thing possible we should be wrapped from the earth and sequestred from that body while we be in that holy exercise Some other times the manner is not the onely thing wherein we trip but the matter it selfe is naught For gold and precious stones we bring stubble and straw we aske such things of him who is an immaculate vnspotted and vndefiled spirit as we would be ashamed that men should know We tender that to our maker which we would not aske of our neighbour I do not here speake of such vanity as wherein the Pharisee abounded I thanke God I am not as other but rather of carnall deuotions We intreate for our sports and for our wantonnesse as for euerlasting matters I had leyfer that you should heare from the words of Saint Gregory rather then from mine what things we do aske In the house of Iesus you seeke not Iesus if in the Temple of eternity you importunely aske for temporall things Behold one in his prayer asketh for a vvife another beggeth for a farme a third maketh request for a garment another would haue meate giuen vnto him Nay may not we go farther euen as sometimes Erasmus noted how in the dayes of superstition the Virgin Mary was sollicited for the souldier prayeth for his booty the theefe for his rich cheate the dicer for his good fortune Do not these things very sutably agree with so sacred a Maiesty Do they not become vs very well I doubt not but that we may aske for such things as are needfull to this life if we place them in their fit place and sue for them with condition If it shall seeme good to the Lord but those other things are toyes and trifles and do fauour of carnall motions And it is no maruell if in such cases we speed not for as once it was sayd to the mother of Iames and Iohn Ye aske you know not what so it is with vs in our prayers God seeth that such things do hurt vs and therefore in his kind loue he denieth them vnto vs. Here that of Saint Iames hath place Yee aske and receiue not because yee aske amisse to consume vpon your lusts And that also of Saint Bernard When his little child asketh bread the father reacheth it vnto him but when he asketh for a knife he denieth it So God doth graunt fit things to those who aske them but vnto him who intreateth for voluptuous or bad matters he doth deny them And surely if he should giue them they were rather tokens of his displeasure then of his fauour to vs. But how mercifull doth God appeare to be when he beareth these things at our hands and doth not consume vs as he did those who brought strange fire vnto his Altar Let vs study to amend this fault neither begging in bad manner with other nor bad matters with Ionas but let vs be earnest in that which we know to be good as that intreaty of Fulgentius is where he prayeth for himselfe I beseech him who is the truth that by his mercy preuenting me and following after me he will teach me vvhatsoeuer things are healthfully to be knowne and I know them not that he vvill keepe me in those true things which I do know that wherein as a man I am deceiued he will correct me in what true things I do stumble he will confirme me and that from false and hurtfull things he will deliuer me And thus much of the preface Now come we to the words themselues which do mention his excuse Was not this my saying when yet I was 7 It were well for the Prophet if his choyse had bene as good as his resolution was Those things which he apprehended had need be iust and holy for were it well or otherwise if he once had entertained a matter he would strongly haue maintained it He imagined that God in the end would not destroy the Niniuites but that his mercy would ouer-way and ouer-ballance his iustice therefore fearing lest himselfe denouncing their destruction should be taken but for a lyer and so Gods name should be blasphemed he thought to end all at once and runne away from his calling as it is in the first Chapter In steed of land he getteth him to sea for Eastward he goeth Westward for Niniue to Tharsus What God thought of this he had prety well felt already The tempest which belaboured him the lot which deprehended him the whale which deuoured him might acquaint him what the Lord conceiued of him But to the end that no doubt may remaine God a second time biddeth him go and preach to the Niniuites Here duty would haue supposed that the Lord knew well inough what he did and the issue of the matter would be his glorie But Ionas thinketh otherwise that God might spare his honor and himselfe might saue his labour and stay at home at the first and not come with a great shew and all but in a sleeuelesse errand And whereas he ranne to Tharsus he supposeth that he had reason for it he tooke the best course that might be and if the Lord might be pleased so to thinke of it he did well he did as he should that did he Oh the incredible folly of man that to iustifie it selfe in a most vndecent action careth not how it layeth about it and rappeth it esteemeth not whom The Highest was ouerseene not the best but sometimes sleepeth and the seruant was in the right Yet welfare king Dauid Against thee haue I sinned and done euill in thy sight that thou mightest be iust when thou speakest and pure when thou doest iudge And when the Angell with the pestilence destroyed seuenty thousand he standeth not to defend his folly but confesseth that he had sinned Old Eli wanted no faults yet he had learned that lesson not to stand on his iustification when threats were denounced against him but replieth It is the Lord and let him do what seemeth good vnto him But our man where he taketh an opinion will not be remooued from it be it right or be it otherwise Although here he would withdraw from himselfe the blame of his former flight which while he goeth about to maintaine he maketh himselfe twise guilty yet still he will be innocent Wherein appeareth how blind man naturally is when it commeth to him or his there will be a selfe-weening a selfe-liking a selfe-conceipt in the grossest errours that may be This sinne of thinking well of our selues sitteth close and long euen when other sinnes are shaken off which
out Kings make Samgar with an Oxe-goade destroy sixe hundred Philistines and Samson a thousand of them with the iaw-bone of an Asse What could more sound out his honour then the ouerturning of Hierico with trumpets made of rammes hornes and the victorie of Gedeon vpon the Madianites or the slaying of Goliah with a sling and a stone It had bene lesse fame to haue brought great things about with great and mightie meanes In like sort it demonstrateth his powerfull abilitie that he can so dispose of his creatures as that a Cocke should fright a Lion a mouse trouble an Elephant an Ichneumon a little serpent destroy a huge and bigge Crocodile Euen so in the course of the Gospell it declared Gods owne finger when fishers conuerted Oratours and poore men perswaded Kings And so it singeth out his saluation that sinners should bring home sinners and faultie persons men blame-worthie As it was answered to Paule complaining of his weaknesse My grace is sufficient for thee for my power is made perfect by weaknesse so where the grace and strength of God do accompanie the toungs of sinners in proclaiming forth his word they shall preuaile and prosper albeit not for the commers cause yet for the senders sake Though it be but an earthen vessell which containeth that which is brought yet because there is treasure in it some there be which shall receiue it This is no protection for sinne for all faults are worthie blame but especially in the Minister in whome all things are conspicuous like spots in the fairest garment If the eye be darke what shall see if the guide be blind who shall leade if he who should shine for puritie be impure beyond other men who shall profite by good example You are a citie set on an hill Yet this is a iust defence against our runagates Seminarie priests of Rome who take occasion by reason of some slippes in our Cleargie defects in our ministerie which yet may easily be demonstrated to be greater at this time in their Papacie and in the highest of their Hierarchie their owne stories resound them to haue bene exceeding filthie to vnder-mine any good opinion of our religion in the simple But this is practised most of all to the ignorant and to silly women into whose houses they creepe and leade them captiue being laden with sinnes and led with diuerse lustes In like sort it is an answere to Atheists and hypocrites liuing among vs who to couer their oppression their auarice and extortion pretend it to be no fault to detaine and hold away any thing from men so culpable by that meanes requiring that their brethren the Preachers of the word should be no lesse theÌ„ Saints when they themselues who require it are most farre off from all sanctified and good things God hath made his Pastours and Ministers of like mould with other men he expecteth it not neither can it be that they should liue here like Angels for this is the way and not the countrie yet by his Spirit he keepeth his seruants from delighting and persisting in grosse sinnes and he couereth their errours and imputeth them not vnto them But he pinneth not the veritie of his doctrine vpon men As Moses chaire was Moses chaire when the Pharisees did sit in as Christs faith was the assured faith although the traitour Iudas might preach it and the Prophecie was Gods message when weake Ionas did carie it so the Gospell is the Gospell when ignorant men and young men and sinfull men do deliuer it Blessed be the God of our hope who will not haue vs depend on flesh or bloud or man but on his assured truth and his ouer-ruling Spirit God guide vs so by his grace that by the good we may learne good and by the euill to flye from euill that so we may be fit members of that body whereof his Sonne is the true and liuing head to both whom and to the holy Ghost the Trinitie in Vnitie be honour for euermore THE XXX LECTVRE The chiefe poynts 3. Parables may be vsed 4. and all good eloquence by the Minister 6. Ionahs words returned vpon himselfe 7. The comparison betweene God and Ionah 8. The multitude of inhabitants in Niniue 9. with whom the gourd was not to be ballanced 10. God prouideth blessings for man without his labour 11. Gods care ouer infants and all beasts 12. Therefore parents should not be too carefull 13. Ionas at length yeeldeth 14. The conclusion of the Prophecie ioyned with exhortation Ionah 4.10.11 Then said the Lord thou hast had pittie on the gourd for the which thou hast not laboured neither madest it grow which came vp in a night and perished in a night And should not I spare Niniue that great city wherein are sixe score thousand persons that cannot discerne betweene their right hand and their left hand and also much cattâ—ll IN that which goeth before the intemperate furie and vnaduised rashnesse of the Prophet hath bene such that he is readie to take an occasion of chiding with the Lord vpon a most trifling cause euen the withering of a gourd And being reprooued for it not by his fellow seruant but by his maisters owne mouth he standeth on his owne iustification that he did well to be angry yea if it were to the death In which moode if he had departed his iudgement now was so peruerted that he would haue thought that he had had a great hand vpon God that he himselfe had bene in the right and the Lord had bene to blame because he had not fitted his fancie But the inconceiuable wisedome of the euerlasting Father doth so farre ouermatch him that where he expected victorie although it were but in words and thoughts he is taken at that aduantage that he is for euer put to silence in this matter For his owne speech is so fitly returned vpon himselfe and he is so caught and entangled in the words of his owne mouth that he is enforced to yeeld a greater thing then that whereof the present question was and that is concerning Niniue that since iustice was pleased to turne it selfe into mercie and seueritie into clemencie nothing was done vniustly or vnbeseeming him who is the rule of truth For that was it which the Prophets maister in this place especially did ayme at that his seruant shold be satisfied and thereby all the world be aduertised to the full that the holy one of Israel is delighted to shew pittie vpon the sonnes of men that where repentance ascendeth from the earth to the heauen there a pardon will come downe from the Highest vpon his creatures that Niniue it selfe whose sinnes did crye for vengeance vpon submission and conuersion should be spared from destruction So that mankind in generall taking notice of such grace and propensenesse vnto clemencie might confesse that the Lord is gracious and that his mercie endureth for euer 2 But to make this the more
eloquence If in my cause I were sure to haue the Iudges wise and wise men to my auditours that enuie might beare no sway nor fauour nor fore-conceit nor false witnesses might hurt then the vse of eloquence were small and it should serue onely for delight but if the minds of the hearers be so moueable and inconstant and truth be subiect to iniuries we are to contend by art to vse any thing which may profite For one who is out of the way cannot be brought in againe but by another turning This is as true of the Preacher as it euer was of the Oratour If we had none to heare vs but Lidia or Cornelius persons right deuout and affected with religious attention we needed not be very carefull but because among such as come to vs some are weake and must be comforted some rude and must be informed some drousie and must be awaked some hard and must be suppled some peruerse and with full streame of power must be ouerwhelmed to please the tastes of so many and to helpe on those which hang backward all good meanes are to be vsed that God himselfe may be glorified and our brethren may be bettered See whether Paule writing to the Corinthians do not thus when handling the resurrection he prooueth and illustrateth it by naturall similitudes of seede sowne in the ground of difference of flesh of the starres in heauen and the like Such libertie for comparisons for Parables for Examples is left to vs in time and place to be vsed in Gods businesse Prouided euermore that it be not for oftentation of the vanitie of mans wit but onely for edification and to the benefite of the hearers that we turne not all into Allegories to make plaine things obscure and to destroy the letter as Origene sometimes did that we alwaies keepe the maiestie of the sacred word of God and not giue other men occasion to thinke vnfitly and vnreuerently of so high a mysterie by bringing that which pleaseth vs but no bodie besides euen ridiculous and base stuffe As we must euer speake those things which sauour of sound doctrine so we must euermore handle them as the pure and chast word of God 6 As this may most generally be said of Parables that they haue an vse in diuine things so to speake a little more specially we find some of these in the Scripture which in particular cases go exceedingly to the quicke of that which is in question and being personally applied do very much confound the guiltie Such a one was that which Iotham vttered to the Sichemites where the trees would choose a king and the Bramble must be he by the which he doth reproch vnto them their vnthankfulnesse toward him and his fathers house Such a one was that of Nathan to Dauid of him who had many sheepe yet tooke one from his poore neighbour whom when Dauid had condemned the Prophet so turned all vpon him that as Dauid sometimes killed Goliah with his owne sword so Nathan tooke him in his owne word That is the wisedome of God that he can deprehend another man as in the Gospell he caught the bad seruant in his owne talke and replied From thine owne mouth I shall iudge thee That which was said in the person of a stranger if another will apply to his owne person he will then amend his iudgement This was the case of Ionas to whom the Lord vsed a Parable but rather reall then verball He had a gourd and enioyed it then he loosing it raged at it but knew not what all this meant The Lord then to bring him forward and make him see his hard heart toward that great citie Niniue asked if he did well to be angrie Ionas balketh him not at all but forth with replieth that he did well to be angrie yea if it had bene to the death Here indeede the Lord doth come on him Thou hast pittie vpon this trifle and shall not I vpon Niniue Thus with his owne rod he beat him and with his owne net he caught him After the battell of Cannae when Mago being sent from his brother Hannibal had in the Carthaginian Senate much boasted of the victorie how many armies and Generals of the Romanes they had ouerthrowne and withall for the finishing of that conquest desired a new supply of souldiers and monie It is written that one Himilco a friend to Hannibal tooke occasion to insult ouer Hanno another noble man who was of the aduerse factiō and who euermore had disswaded their making warre with the Romaines That he was a proper counseller who had sought to hinder that which had brought them such aduantage such a victorie and such honour But it was the wisedome and art of Hanno being thus prouoked to retort the matter vpon him ex tempore as he did You speake of a glorious victorie but what gaine we thereby for if you had lost the field what could you haue asked more then now ye do that is fresh men and monie Haue the Romanes yeelded vnto you or haue they sued for peace If they haue not then their stomacke is as great as it was before and if their force be diminished so is yours as well as theirs so that peize the one with the other you are as farre from your purpose as you were at the beginning It was there the praise of Hanno that he turned their owne tale vpon them In this place God being so much wiser as infinite and vnlimited may be beyond dust and ashes turneth both matter and words vpon the head of our Ionas and doth teach him such a lesson that what the Prophet thought made most for him he shewed made most against him By his anger for the gourd he condemned his former anger If he would grieue that the greene thing should be marred because he liked it how vniustly did he fret that Niniue should be spared when the Lord had a liking to it So step by step and by degrees God is faine to teach him to know himselfe and that wherein he thought himselfe very cunning Yet at length by a demonstration plainely gathered from the precedents he euicteth what he desireth Now let vs see what that was 7 The second thing which I note is the forme or expression of the Parable by entring a comparison betweene the Lord and Ionas There is a great Antithesis betweene the persons cōpared and the things whereabout they stroue and the end of their intention Of the persons one was a man whose breath was in his nostrels who had neither wisedome to iudge what was fittest to be done nor power to bring about what he fondly had imagined whose pleasure if it were amisse must be censured by a iudge if right then it must depend vpon the becke of another The one was he who was fancifull and mutable and humorous and inconstant in all his waies who would doate on a greene bough and be spitefull to a
they assented thereunto that they would neither drinke wine nor sowe seede nor plant vineyeard nor dwell in any house but onely remaine in tents that so they might the better remember themselues to be strangers in the land where they inhabited and of likelihood moreouer that they were but pilgrimes vpon the earth And he who maketh such vowes vnder these fore-named conditions is now bound to obserue them For although at the first and in themselues they were things indifferent yet now they are become otherwise because an oath is passed vpon them He who was free is made bound by a voluntary offering and therefore hath lost his liberty Then these three positions may be gathered thus in briefe Euill things ought not to vowed at all and if they be rashly spoken yet they should not be kept Some good things we must vow as especially those in Baptisme and when we haue vowed we must performe them Other matters which are indifferent may be vowed or not be vowed as I haue shewed aboue by circumstances but being once vndertaken they are not to be broken 17 Here the pretences of Popish votaries may be in a word examined Their common vowes are of such things as be not absolutely euill neither are they of such matters as being simply good do lye vpon vs by a duty of necessity but they may much rather be accounted indifferent although by their vsage of them they make them to be otherwise they make them to be wicked A great part of their vowes is the going to places farre distant in pilgrimage as they call it to Rome or to Hierusalem or Saint Iames of Compostella or to the three kings of Coleyn their keeping of the great Iubilees their abstaining from all flesh and feeding rather on fish as their Carthusian Monkes do their wearing of a haire-cloth or sack-cloth next their bodie and other things of like stampe All which as they do vse them may well be accounted in the number of those wil-worships that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 against which Saint Paule doth inueigh and concerning which the Lord may aske vvho required this at your hands They do faile in diuerse circumstances which should make their vowes to be lawfull as first they cannot be warranted to them as assuredly holy by faith which is grounded vpon the word of God Secondly they put a great deale of superstition in them while they account them meritorious Thirdly they tye themselues rather to the externall thing then to a sound reformation and bettering of the minde It were better therefore that such vowes were omitted then made by them Their vow of wilfull pouertie is a thing of their owne deuising Rich Abraham and king Dauid and Iob with his multitude of cattell knew how â—o serue the Lord in the abundance of their riches and did not thinke that religion onelie was in them who begged And although our Sauiour Christ and other of his Apostles had little of their owne yet they left vs no such precept nay they rather did teach the contrary saying that it is more blessed to giue then to receiue And it is sayd that a Bishop of whom it is presumed that he should be a man of religion should be hospitall that is an entertainer of strangers which implyeth a set kind of maintenance When the Gospell was first preached miraculous meanes were vsed to bring men to the faith and this was one that God could mightily prouide for those who were the messengers of his will and releeue them from day to day although they had nothing of their owne His purpose also was to shew his power that by meanes most contemptible in the eye of the world he could settle his kingdome and withall he would leaue their wants as an example to encourage his children in succeeding ages that they should not be dismayed if sometimes they were driuen to penurie and necessitie since his deare seruants and his sonne were in that case before them But these times now are past and miracles are ceased and such extraordinary feeding as the Apostles had is not wilfully to be sought lest we tempt God and liue without a lawfull calling The Church now hath an established gouernement and therein the Ministers which are needefull are to be prouided for And the word hath inioyned this that where spirituall things are sowed there temporall should be reaped as knowing that in the end of the world mens charity would waxe cold and they who liued of almes oftentimes should haue hungrie bellies The liuing then of their Friers in a voluntary beggery is a worship of their owne and he who voweth therunto doth vow to that wherein his conscience can neuer haue good warrant 18 They stand as much vpon chastity that their religions men should vow a single life wherein although I might shew by good proofe from the Scripture and from the auncient Church that Bishops and Priests did marry yet omitting that I will rather speake of the qualitie of their vow Virginity without controuersie is an excellent gift in him to whom the Lord doth giue it Christ himselfe was borne of a virgin and did leade a virgins life and both he and Saint Paule haue commended it vnto vs that we ought to striue for it But who is he that so farre hath power of his owne flesh as that before hand he can sweare to quench the lust of concupiscence so that it shall not burne I suppose that no man on earth who is in his strong age and in good health of his body can promise that to himselfe then how much lesse their young ones their Nouices or Nunnes of lesser age who before the time that themselues come to experience are put into the monastaries by their parents or their friends or are inueigled by others to take their rules vpon them which hath bene a great occasion of much vile fornication and the killing of many infants besides the enduring of such vntamed affections as haue boyled in their bodies It is a good lesson of Salomon that we should not suffer our mouth to make our flesh to sinne he meaneth in vowing that which is not in our power He had commaunded before that we should pay our vowes intending it in those things which we haue promised to the Lord but lest thereby we should take occasion to promise any thing whatsoeuer he giueth a restraint downe with it that we should be aduised that we vow not that which our flesh afterward cannot make good For want of this wholesome caueat they were put to much extremitie who were votaries first in monasteries but afterward by the true light of the Gospell did shake off the heauie yoke of Antichrist and became great setters out of Gods truth in this last age They had entred a rash vow in their minoritie and young yeares which afterward they found themselues not able to performe and therefore they did marry Against which although our Campian and his
fellowes do with open mouth most bitterly inueigh yet they neuer can be able by sound truth to condemne them Their choyse was hard that either their vow must be broken by them or else they must beare about a dayly sinne in their bodies They aduentured on the lesser fault I doubt not but asking pardon for the rash and vnaduised oath which they had taken And God doth forgiue vs such things when we call to him by repentance as may very well be gathered from the fifth Chapter of Leuiticus where was appointed an offering as a kind of satisfaction for him who had vowed any thing which he afterward doth find out not to be in his powor to accomplish Charitie doth bid me thinke that those fathers in the Gospell and excellent men in the faith did enter into wedlocke with all labour to satisfie a good conscience towards God And therein their owne hearts might be the best witnesse and direction to themselues Yet the person who hath so vowed and in so doing hath not done well let him feare to breake that vow causelesse by a licentious libertie and if God do giue the gift of chastitie let him liue in continency if he can as otherwise for the honour giuen to virginitie in the Scripture so for his vowes sake also And so much I thought good to teach concerning vowes by occasion of the words of the Prophet Ionas wherein if I haue bene ouer-long let this excuse the matter that this doctrine is few times handled and now the text did minister opportunitie That second part which now followeth I will ouerrunne most briefly Saluation is of the Lord. 19 Many of the old interpreters and Hierome among other not obseruing such a distinction or point which ought to be in the sentence haue ioyned these words with the former and so caused the sence of all to be troubled The Hebrew hath it thus Saluation is to the Lord which the most carefull expositours do plainely expresse by Saluation is from the Lord. Tremelius doth interprete it All manner of saluation or sauetie is to Iehouah So that here the Prophet gathering by a constant faith that after his great feares in the sea and in the whale he should be freed from all perill and enioy his life once againe ascribeth all to God and with this Epiphonema maketh conclusion of his prayer acknowledging that whatsoeuer came vnto him well was from the Almightie For to whom should he impute it but onely vnto him whose inconceiuable power he had felt before to the full who to punish and chastise him had the ayre and water at his commaundement and had for three dayes kept him aliue in the fishes bellie Now if he should bring him to libertie out of bondage and desolation and should pardon his sinne and transgression he had great reason to magnifie his mercie and goodnesse ouer him Mine ayde commeth not from me I cannot helpe my selfe it cometh not from fortune or blind chaunce there is no such thing in nature not from any lying vanitie of idoll or heathen God but from the all-sufficient Lord who can helpe when he pleaseth and raise vp when he lifteth he putteth downe and setteth vp he doth what himselfe will If I haue hope of any thing it is deriued from him 20 Yea vnder this generall speech he remembreth vnto all that euery of their escapes from daunger are onely from the Lord. If the Israelites be deliuered from the bondage of the Egyptians if Dauid get from Saul if Elias be freed from Iezabel this good doth come from that father who sitteth aboue in heauen Or if any one of vs being layd for by the malice of cruell and wicked men be not made a pray to their power or deceiuing pollicy it is not of our wit neither is any flesh our arme but this safety is of the Lord. And if we will looke higher the deliuery of our soules from the chaynes and bands of Satan the sauing of vs from the violence of all our ghostlie enemies the redeeming of vs from sinne the incorporating of vs into his owne Sonnes body the bringing of vs to that glorious liberty of the sonnes of God is the worke of the Almighty Not vnto vs ô Lord not vnto vs but vnto thy name giue the glorie We may say as the Elders say in the Reuelation of Iohn to Christ the Lambe of God Thou art vvorthy to take the booke and to open the seales thereof because thou vvast killed and hast redeemed vs to God by thy bloud out of euery kinred and tongue and poeple and nation and hast made vs vnto our God kings and priests and vve shall raigne on the earth nay we shall raigne in the heauen But the whole worke of our ransome onely belongeth to the Trinitie As Ionas concludeth that prayer of his which hath bene so full of passion so do I end at this time saluation is to the Lord. Let vs pray to him to blesse vs still that by grace giuen vnto vs we may be sonnes of adoption and at last be brought to saluation which himselfe graunt vnto vs for his blessed Christs sake to both whom with the holy Spirite be maiesty power and glory both now and euermore Amen THE XV. LECTVRE The chiefe poynts 1. Gods fatherly affection toward sinners 4. He commandeth his creatures at his pleasure 6. Ionas is cast on land 7. A figure of Christs resurrection 9. We also shall rise againe 10. Comfort to the heauy heart 11. A comparison betweene Ionas and Arion 13. The whole narration of Arion is a fable 15. Some wonders are wrought by the Diuell 16. who doth much imitate God 17. and seeketh to discredit Gods word by his fables 19. How the Scriptures might be obscurely knowne by the old Poets and Philosophers 20. But they corrupt the diuine stories 21. Humane learning is fit for a Minister Ionah 2.10 And the Lord spake vnto the fish and it cast vp Ionas vnto the drye land IT is not without cause that so oftentimes in the Scriptures God is compared to a father and called by that name as Our father vvhich art in heauen and Ye shall therefore be perfect as your father vvhich is in heauen is perfect And as a father hath compassion on his children so hath the Lord compassion on them that feare him for he beareth a verie father-like and naturall affection to all those who are chosen to be his If they be led by weakenesse into diuerse temptations or by infirmity of their flesh be stained with great transgressions he looketh angrily for a time and with a terrible countenance seuerely frowneth on them but yet in the middle of his iustice he remembreth mercy and doth not vtterly reiect them nor cast them away It may be that he doth chastise them with parent-like correction according to the measure and qualitie of their crime yea he layeth smart blowes on them not sparing to strike them till he