such factes if they will Let Calanus and his wise Indians hate to dye a naturall death but end their dayes by burning themselues in the fire Let the scholers of that Philosopher Egesias Cyrenaicus so far beleeue their maister disputing of the immortality of the soule that to the end that they might be depriued of life and enioy that spoken of immortality they go home and kill themselues Let Vibius Virius in Capua professe that he hath poyson for himselfe and all his friends which is able to free thē from the Romanes from punishment and from shame and let him drinke and dye Yea let the younger Cato a man held to be admirably wise be a butcher to himselfe rather then endure to see Caesar who was then become a Conquerer Yea let Seneca himselfe try the maner of Cato his death although in another sort after that himself a Philosopher a mirrour of heathen wisedome had so often and so highly commended that deed of Cato that it was not bloud but honour which gushed out of his side Yea let ten thousand more with Dido and Lucretia be recorded in Gentile stories yet all these are no warrāts for Christians we haue a better maister who hath taught vs a better lesson That aduersity and bitter afflictiō must be born with patience that we must expect Gods end in misery calamity and not hasten the issue in our selues that true fortitude is in bearing the sorrowes which are assigned allotted out for our portion that to fly from thē fearefully is cowardise Where is valure but in sustaining the greatest crosses with constancie and where is timiditie but in this to kill thy selfe that thou mayest be freed from that which doth not like thee What daunting force saith S. Austen had those euils which cōstrained Cato a wise man as they accounted of him to take that away from himselfe that he was a man whereas men say that truly that it is after a sort the first and greatest speech of nature that a man should be reconciled to himselfe and therefore naturally flye death so be a friend to himselfe as that earnestly he should desire to be a liuing creature and to continue in this coniunction of the body and soule He did not resist and stand strong against his euils but indeede fainted as a coward he sunke vnder his burthen I may conclude of him and of all that do treade his steps with that learned man who wrote the treatise De duplici Martyrio which is commōly called Cyprians If we reade that any haue killed themselues valiantly it was either weaknesse which by death did seeke an end of sorrowes or ambition or madnesse So farre in truth are they off from any iust commendation in Christianitie and Diuinitie 22 Nay what if it were held a thing vnlawfull among the very Gentiles See the Poet Virgils iudgement of it When Aeneas came downe to hell as the Poet there doth deuise he seeth in a seuerall and disiunct place such as had made away themselues He maketh their estate to bee so wofull as that gladly they would do any thing to be aliue againe quà m vellent aethere in alto Nunc pauperiem duros perferre labores How gladly now would they be content to endure pouertie and take hard paines in the world See the iudgement of Tully concerning this in his Somnium Scipionis When Scipio vpon the tale of his father being growne into admiration of the glorie of men which are dead asked What do I then vpon earth why hasten I not to dye his father maketh him answere with a very diuine speech although he were but a heathen man No son thou mayest not haue any passage hither but when that God whose temple all that thou seest is shall free thee out of this body For men are borne to that purpose and haue soules giuen them to that end to rest themselues on this earth which soules they must keepe safely within the ward of their bodies And they are not to flit from this life without his commaundement least they should seeme to flye that dutye of a man which is assigned them by God I might adde to these the iudgement of Aristotle in his Ethicks where he saith that to kill a mans selfe for the auoyding of infamie or pouertie is not the part of a valiant man but of a coward But I leue these forraine testimonies 23 Some among the Christians haue thought that maydens for sauing and preseruing their virginitie inuiolate might kill themselues An opinion voyde of any shadow of warrant out of Gods word For ought we to do euill that good may come therby Shall we aduenture the greater sinne for the auoyding of a lesse euill Nay is it a fault in a virgin at all that she is defloured by force Was Tamar to be condemned because Amnon did defile her It is consent that maketh iniquitie Tarquinius and Lucretia were two bodies saith Saint Austen but there vvas but one adulterer I adde no more of that matter The Donatistes and furious Circumcellions in old time because they were restrained by the ciuill sword of the Magistrate from the exercise of their heresies and keeping of their Conuenticles would cast themselues from the rockes and breake their neckes by the fall they would drowne and kill themselues Thereupon Theodoret hath a very pretie narration concerning them Many of them on a time met a young man on the way and giuing him a sword commaunded him to wound them and threatned him that if he would not they would kill him for refusing The young man being put vnto his shifts told them that he durst not do it because he had iust cause to feare that whē some of thē should see their fellowes slaine the rest would turne on him for doing it and murther him But if they would first suffer him to bind thē all fast and sure he would tell thē another tale They liked well of this motion in their sencelesse stupiditie yeelding to be bound the yong man got good store of rods shrewdly swinged them all so went his wayes and left them They imagined that God did well accept of their murtherings in this or the like kind caried an opinion that now they were become martyrs of Iesus Christ. Gaudentius their Bishop writeth in defence of the deedes of these Donatistes in behalf therof vrgeth the exāple of Razias in the Machabees who when he should be slaine in maintenance of the religiō of the Iewes to saue himself frō the infidels first ran vpō his sword And whē that would not serue the turne he threw himselfe from a wall and when all this could not kill him he ranne to the top of a rocke and there plucked out his bowels and threw them among the people That holy man Saint Austen the most iudicious of all the fathers comming to
or milder torment Ionas comming from vnder the hatches where he slept but a little before like Lazarus from his graue is beset among these mariners with a multitude of such questions What is the cause that this storme is in this sort vpon vs felow whence doest thou come what countreyman art thou sirra what is thine occupation 4 Thus the place must be vnderstood if we respect the egernesse of men in such perplexitie or the hast which daunger breedeth or the manners of common mariners But in verie deede I see more in it Here may be noted to vs a proceeding much more sober and iudgement with discretion That which goeth before will well beare it that which foloweth will more enforce it The fearefulnesse whereunto they were growne by hazard of a shipwracke was of force to allay their heate it made them amated with it their deuotion to their Gods did put them from their choler the maister is supposed to be a man wise and careful as not long since you haue heard the casting of their lots doth intend a slaking stay their milde intreating of Ionas when the crime appeared to them their referring of all to him the desire which they had to saue him the griefe which they had to drowne him are presumptiōs of much sobrietie These circūstances import a iust kind of inquirie which was vsed vpon the Prophet so to wring out by cōiectures or by plaine declaratiō what was this grieuous crime which plucked such a tempest downe from heauen how Gods wrath was to be satisfied what punishment should be taken if punishment must be taken It were much to be suspected that if this case which is here among these Gentiles should come to triall among many Christians the man should find hard iustice For now vpon how light occasions are many inflamed to wrath what bitternesse what reuiling what blasphemie euen to God with swearing and with tearing if for anothers sake mens liues should be indaungered if they should be inforced as these were here to throw their wealth and substaunce with their owne hands into the sea Call to minde that if any negligence haue raised a fire in a towne and harme be done to their building how little it is remembed that it is a crosse from God sent on them for their sinnes or to teach them patience or to make trial of their faith but the next immediate cause that presently is looked too seethe villanie of this boy see the cursednesse of this wenche see the diuellishnesse of this felow that should haue taken care of this fire if he had his desert how oft should he dye for it 5 But if it were a straunger an outlandish man as Ionas was who brought this scathe vpon them how many Crucifiges should he haue tumbling on him A French man as I take it although some other men be of another opinion euen greeuing in his soule at the vnkindnesse of our nation I meane in the cōmon sort hath by occasion of the hādling of their last great Massacre noted it to posteritie that by a most inhospitall kinde of phrase our Englishmen vse to terme them no better then French dogs that fled hither for Religion and their conscience sake Vnto this ioyne the many conspiracies which by some of the meaner people in one Citie of our land haue bene oftentimes intended against outlandish folkes the disposition of men in this point will well appeare Those which are wise and godly make vse of those aliaunts as of brethren considering their distresses with a liuely felow-feeling holding it an vnspeakable blessednesse that this little Iland of ours should not onely be a tēple to serue God in for our selues but an harbour for the weather-beaten a sanctuarie to the straunger wherein he may honour the true Lord remembring the precise charge which God gaue to the Israelites to deale well with all straungers because the time once was when themselues were straungers in that cruell land of Egypt not forgetting that other nations to their immortall praise were a refuge to the English in their last bloudie persecution in Queene Maries dayes and in briefe recounting that by a mutuall vicissitude of Gods chastisements their case may be our case which day the Lord long keepe from vs. These mariners with that humanitie which beseemeth all men of reason reproch it not to the Prophet that he an outlandish aliaunt should bring such trouble on them should put them to such losse or thrust them into such daunger but in verie good course of iustice they desire to be informed and take notice of his cause The presentnesse of the perill or the hast which they had to be satisfied could not stay them from doing iustice they will attend his aunswere 6 Such persons as through whose hands the liues of others passe be they Iudges or be they iusticers yea be they but common Iurours may hearken to these heathen and the maner of their proceeding and learne so much as that they shall not dare rashly to destroy or take away the life of their Christian brother Life is a most precious thing it cannot be made by men but it may be marred in a moment And if it be once marred there is no benefite on earth whereby it may be requited as Alexander once told his owne mother Olympias when she desired him to execute an innocent harmelesse man and that she might the more preuaile with him remembred him that her selfe for the space of nine monethes had caried him in her wombe and for that reason he must not say her nay Aske saith he my good mother some other gift of me for the life of a man can be recompenced by no good turne that can be done Before that death be inflicted let truth appeare if it may be Stay the asking of many questions and the scanning out of all doubts ere the last sentence come Certainely God knew the wickednesse of Sodome and Gomorrha as he sat aboue in heauen yet meaning to destroy them he saith I vvill go downe now and see vvhether they haue done altogether according to that crie vvhich is come vnto me and if not that I may knovv thereby teaching all gouernours that they passe not otherwise to the death of any but with verie mature aduisement It is a wise law in the meane time which Munster reporteth to be put in practise in a towne called Clagea belonging to Carinthia where if any be taken suspicious of theft he is by and by hanged vp and some two or three dayes afterward enquirie is made vpon him wherein if he be found giltie he is let to hang till he rot away peece-meale but if he be found innocent then he is taken downe and buried with some solemnitie This is contrarie to the common rules of humanitie but much more repugnant to diuinitie In cases of lesse importaunce then life and death all Magistrats ought to affoord that measure to their people which these
by that knowledge which he yet retained notwithstanding his fall that this punishment was assigned to him by the Lord. This must be the satisfaction for his great disobedience Now againe his faith reuiueth by which he had some foresight of all Gods purpose ouer him This was peculiar to our Ionas by his Propheticall knowledge and may not be followed by vs. It is not any protection for vs to bid any other throw our selues into the sea 27 Besides this I do not doubt but as Samson was a figure of the Sauiour of the world so Ionas also was although not in euerie matter as once before I haue noted yet in this his drowning here Christ himselfe did expound the lying of the Prophet for three dayes in the whales bellye to be a signe of his owne buriall and lying in the earth The death of the Sauiour was to him a meanes of his buriall so here the casting out of Ionas into the sea by the mariners was the meanes whereby he lay three dayes and three nightes in the bellye of the whale Ionas is willingly drowned here Christ also there dyeth willingly he yeelded vp his Ghost no man could take it from him Ionas alone must suffer to saue the rest of the ship Christ alone did treade the wine-presse and Christ doth dye alone to stay his fathers wrath to saue all his elect You see that he is an excellent type of Iesus Christ the righteous But as it is impossible that comparisons should hold in all things and there is none who in euery matter may be likened vnto Christ because he had no fellowes he cannot be tryed by his peeres so there is this one difference that Ionas when he suffered was alone in all the fault and Iesus in his suffering was onely without all fault because he was that immaculate lambe in whose mouth was found no guile When I first looked into this text which I haue now opened vnto you I did thinke to haue said something farther in or concerning the person of Christ whom our Prophet doth represent I meant to haue mentioned his readinesse to dye that he might redeeme vs sinners and so briefly out of the new Testament to haue giuen some comfort amidst all these threates of Ionas But in handling this last question matter hath growne vpon me and I loue not to be tedious I will therefore deferre that till I come to the fifteenth verse where the like occasion is againe fitly offered vnto me In the meane time let vs meditate on the excellent loue of Christ who would dye so willingly for vs the iust for the vniust to bring vs vnto his kingdome To the attaining whereof he alwayes further vs to whom in the perfection of the Trinitie be glorie and prayse for euermore THE VII LECTVRE The chiefe points 1 The vnwillingnesse of the mariners to put Ionas to death 4 Great slownesse should be vsed in taking away life 6. Against killing of men to offer to Idols 7. and other cruell massacrings 9. As that of the Anabaptistes 14. The force of the sea 16. It is some sinne that maketh many not to prosper 20. God reuengeth innocent bloud 22. Enforcement doth not excuse euill 23. We must yeeld to Gods will Ionah 1.13.14 Neuerthelesse the mē rowed to bring it to the land but they could not for the sea wrought and was troublous against thē Wherefore they cried vnto the Lord said We beseech thee ô Lord vve beseech thee let vs not perish for this mans life and lay not vpon vs innocent bloud for thou ô Lord hast done as it pleased thee IOnas being of a Prophet become a sinner of a sinner a prisoner as oft times you haue heard is examined by his companie but condēned by himselfe as a grieuous malefactour worthy to be drowned in the sea So much did his sinne crie for vengeance so vehemently did his God make after him But the miserie of his miserie is that since he must needes suffer for otherwise the fault which his owne mouth hath acknowledged cannot be satisfied for he wanteth some man that may do the deed The place is ready and the person who thinketh euerie thought of time to be verie long before the matter be dispatched but there wanteth an executioner He might not do as Saule did fall on his owne sword point himselfe when his harnesse-bearer would not depriue him of his life This had argued too great dispaire But he might wish with Nero that in the course of iustice he might haue some friend or enemie to helpe him vnto his end But among these blustering mariners he could not finde that fauour Although himselfe accuse himselfe and lay his fault plaine before them although windes and waues did confirme it although the lot throwne did assure it although in wordes he did desire to be cast into the water yet those who should haue done it do so ill like of the matter that if sayles or oares can serue they will backe againe to the land rather leaue their intended iourney then vse any violence toward him They rowed to bring the ship backe vnto the land 2 The word which is vsed here comming of Chathar in the Hebrew doth signifie they did digge either because men do thrust into the water with oares as in digging they do with other instruments on the land like as in Latin Poetry the bottome of the ship is sayd to plow the water sulcare to make things like furrows in it or because as men in digging do turn this way and that way stir moue the ground so they stirred vp their wits did beate their brayns and thoughts to free him from the danger For his sake they vsed all such helpes as they had at sea We know that they be not many either sayling by the wind or rowing by the oare tall ships do know the one the galleys goe with the other But as it may be iudged out of the monuments of antiquitie and partly may be seene in some at this day euerie ship in old time had both the one the other When the wind wanted for their sayling their armes did vse to fall a rowing In this place I doubt not but that the storme had so ouerlayd them that their tackling in generall did serue them to little purpose The shift which then remained was to see if by cleane strength against both wind and water they might winne the land by their rowing backward Forward they could not get therfore they wil retire rather then drown the Prophet Their businesse is forgotten their hast shall stay a while rather then destroy his life 3 When aduisedly I consider how many things here should vrge those mariners to hasten him vnto death their disturbance in their iourney the casting foorth of their wares which goeth against the soule of a wordly minded creature the indangering of their liues the discouery by a lot the confession of himself
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
then a Lyon came and did as much and I killed that Lyon also Surely that Lord which saued his seruant from the paw of the Lyon and of the Beare will deliuer me also from this Philistine Bethinke thy selfe in the like Thy God hath euer fauoured thee euen from thy mothers wombe when thou wast not then he made thee when thou wast lost he redeemed thee when thou wentest astray he reclaimed thee whē thou wast naked he clothed thee when thou wast hungrie he fed thee he hath nourished thee and maintained thee whē thou wast ignorant he did teach thee and hath giuen thee some good measure of knowledge and will to serue him he hath admitted thee by baptisme into the fellowship of his Saints he hath sealed his affection toward thee by the Sacrament of his body and his bloud in great griefes he hath stood by thee in anguishes he hath blessed thee the pit hath bene open for thee but yet thou neuer didst fall in Satan hath gaped and roared but yet his fangs haue not touched thee in conflicts thou hast bene safe thou hast bene preserued in combats How fully should these sound experiments confirme thee in thy faith how should this liuely feeling for the delightfulnes of the ioy cōceiued therby as it were melt thee in kindnes toward thy God Why sholdest thou not say with Dauid what shall I render vnto the Lord for all his benefits toward me Or I will loue thee dearely ô Lord my strength I will honour thee I will embrace thee I want words to expresse it I will ioy in thee I will deuote my selfe wholly vnto thy seruice With thy fauour and louing countenance with thy hand and thy hart thou hast helped me kept me saued me thou hast strengthened me raised me blessed me and I know that thou wilt neuer leaue me For thou art the same God for euer and continuest thy goodnesse daily ouer me 18 He who hath learned these lessons maketh true vse of the battels betweene hope and despaire betweene the flesh and the spirit and the farther he goeth forward the more alwaies he doth conquer He recounteth thus with his owne heart God might haue suffered me to haue frozen in my dregs to runne on to all filthines vncleannesse with the worldlings to haue died before that I had vnderstood what belonged vnto his seruice and so to haue dropped downe to hell before that I knew what I did but he hath dealt better by me he hath afforded me more grace Now he bringeth this fire of temptation to warme me and resolue me but it is to good and not to euill I doubt not but I am his I shall not perish finally He slubbereth me to scoure me he rubbeth me to make me brighter he whetteth me to make me sharper If I were not pressed and vrged I should not know what he doth for me but to releeue me when I neede to helpe me when I am readie to drowne to saue me when I am sinking to quicken me when I am at deaths doore is an argument of such fauour as he can better giue then I can well conceiue And since I haue these testimonies of his assured fauour let the world allure and slily entice let the flesh insult while it will let Satan tempt and not spare let doubts and thoughts distrusts be eger and eger againe in life and death either day or night I know who it is that bought me and payed for me with his bloud and I know that he will not leaue me As Saint Austen saith A mightie man will not lose that which he hath bought for his monie and will Christ loose that which he hath bought vvith his bloud I doubt not but my Ionas in his troubled meditations did grow to these resolutions and by thinking thereon did shake off that his heauie passion that he should be cast away from Gods sight It was a liuely feeling of former mercies which made him to breake forth into so religious an insinuatiō as if he did bleed with tendernesse and softnesse calling vpon God ô Lord my God Wherin he shewed so sound an hope that although he should kill him as Iob saith of himselfe yet he would not leaue him but wold euermore trust in him although his sin did more then abound yet Gods grace did superabound 19 These words well vnderstood and applied vnto the cōscience may serue for euery soule which languisheth with griefe taken for euill motions But because euery tender spirit is not growne so farre in Gods schoole and where so hard a siege is laid by Satan there cannot be too many helpes therefore some other remedies may be added vnto this before named for the describing whereof I could wish more leisure to meditate vpon them and more time to vtter them but it shall now suffice to poynt at them Then first when any Christian shall feele himselfe hardly laid at let him haue recourse to Gods word and the comfortable writings of other wise and learned men There is better balme in the Scriptures then euer was in Gilead there is a refreshing riuer the very well of life which will giue strength to the fainting And therein no booke more profitable then be the Psalmes of Dauid Secondly let him resort vnto the temple where the word of God is taught Ionas did thinke of this before all other matters Here that is in the house of God Dauid did find wholesome instruction when he was so affretted with the prosperitie of the wicked that he had almost renounced the seruice of the Lord. How was he troubled with that conceit and could not be resolued vntill he went into the Sanctuarie God directeth the mouth of the preacher that when himselfe scant thinketh of that particular fruite he speaketh to the heart of some one man in this point of some other in another Thirdly let him pray to God both in publike and in priuate The Lord loueth to be sought to by vs and it pleaseth him to be called vpon and in the midst of our prayer if it be with vehement intention of our spirits he will distill downe a deaw of the sweet influence of his grace that we shall arise vp more setled Heartie and earnest prayer what cloudes doth it not pierce what heauens doth it not enter Fourthly let him not feare to impart his griefe to his friend but especially to the minister who is learned and feareth God They are made for such purposes and such things are not straunge vnto them Man is ordained for man to helpe him and to comfort him and more eyes do see better thē fewer and what a ioy to the mind is a word spoken in season But the faithfull minister of all other things doth hold this for his charge to hearken to such complaining to raise vp such mē lamenting He that conuerteth a sinner doth saue a soule from death and couereth a multitude of sinnes If that precept of Iude do
belong vnto any man it is vnto him haue compassion of some in putting difference and other saue with feare pulling them out of the fire This is to imitate Christ who will not breake a brused reede nor quench the smoking flaxe This is to seeke out the lost and to bind vp that which is broken Vnto these this may be added that it shall not a little helpe to haue conference with such who in former times haue bene exercised with the like temptations that out of their experience being plentifully powred out the distressed mind may be relieued None can speake more sufficiently and vnto better purpose then he that hath felt the same fire wherein this grieued soule is now burned And they who are in this cafe are not a little reuiued to know that any other hath bene troubled like themselues which they will hardly beleeue thinking that none did euer beare such a burthen as is vpon their shoulders Lastly as they ought rather to remember their former deliuerances then the griefe which presently is vpon them so they are rather to beleeue the speeches of other men I meane Gods children who come to yeeld comfort to thē then their own troubled thoughts which being perplexed and disquieted with frightfull imaginations can giue no setled iudgement This matter were worthie a longer speech but I am forced here to end Lord comfort those which are comfortlesse and strengthen thy weake children that they may not be so cast downe and plunged into perdition but that in their greatest temptation they may retaine thee still for their Sauiour that liuing in thy feare and dying in thy faith they may come to eternall glorie To the which ô Father bring vs for thine owne sonne Christ his sake to whom with thee and thy holy Spirit be glorie for euermore THE XII LECTVRE The chiefe poynts 2 The circumstances aggrauating his daunger 6. which do the more shew Gods mercie toward him and other sinners 8. Why God suffereth his to be in miserie 9. Particular consideration doth most stirre vp our affection 14. By fearing small crossings in doing our duties we incurre other very great daungers 16. All helpe is to be ascribed to God 17. How a godly man may desire that his life may be prolonged 20. The faithfull ought particularly to apply Gods loue to themselues 22. which the Church of Rome doth not Ionah 2.5.6 The waters compassed me about vnto the soule the depth closed me round about and the weedes were wrapped about mine head I went downe to the bottome of the mountaines the earth with her barres was about me for euer yet hast thou brought vp my life from the pit ô Lord my God THe fearefull conflict which the Prophet sustained in the verse next before going hath bene made plaine vnto you A passion of little lesse then distrustfull despaire did vexe him and disquiet him for the time From the terrour and danger wherof being recouered by the effectuall apprehension of grace by a liuely faith he returneth to contemplate the perill of his body which as it was great in the middle of the sea in the belly of the whale which was irrecouerable in mans iudgement so he seeketh to expresse it by multitude of words repeating it and reuoluing it with varietie of phrase but all tending to one end yet with such copiousnesse especially being in so short a prayer that a man would wonder at first how the Spirit of God which vseth to speake pressely and briefly so that no one word may fitly be spared should so runne vpon one thing with difference of speech but in substance all agreeing Yet the vse of it is such as of words fully replenished with sanctitie and holinesse as shall appeare in his due place In the meane time that which he saith is this 2 First the waters did compasse me about vnto the soule to the death saith the Chaldee Paraphrase as intending that he was now likely to be drowned his life to depart from him his soule to be seuered from her carnall habitation Dauid also doth vse such vehemencie of words Saue me ô God for the waters are entred euen to my soule Neither is there any speech which more liuely discouereth the earnestnesse of that which is presently in hand be it prayer or perill or desire or detestation then the name of soule doth As the Hart brayeth for the riuers of water so panteth my soule after thee ô God My soule thirsteth for God This noteth an entire affection and earnest desire wherewith Dauid was mooued As the Lord liueth and as thy soule liueth I will not leaue thee saith Elizaeus to Elias A very passionate affirmation Iacob in Genesis giueth this censure of Simeon and Leui. The instruments of crueltie are in their habitations Into their secret let not my soule come This argueth a perfect detestation So the depth of danger is purported here when he speaketh thus the waters compassed me vnto the soule the enemie of my life the water which hath no mercie was aboue me and below me and round about me without me and within me that my being was death my hope was but destruction nothing possible vnto me but drowning as farre as mans wit might imagine Secondly the depth did close me round about I was not in the shallow as a man in a lake who lying downe may be stifled but standing may be safe but I was in the maine Ocean which is called for the hugenesse of it the gathering of waters and elsewhere Tehom a gulfe or bottomelesse pit I was in that vastnesse which sometimes cannot be sounded by very long lines I was in waters by multitudes and there not diuing or floating vp and downe but as closed and shut vp as included in a sepulcher or made fast in a prison this deepe pit this darke pit this vncōfortable dungeon had closed her mouth vpon me 3 Thirdly the weedes were wrapped about mine head The sea doth beare weedes as well as shallow water yea somewhere very straungely strangely I say that in such places as where the depth seemeth to be of incredible greatnesse weedes should be seene in abundance in the vpper superficies the very toppe of the water and that so plentifully that in nauigation the course of ships is stayed sometimes by them Experience hath confirmed this in the huge Atlantike sea as men saile to America whereout doth grow a very strange Dilemma or Diuision because either they be there without any rootes at all and that is very maruellous or because the rootes do go downe exceeding deepe in the water which is not otherwise affoorded by nature in thinne spindie bodies But that weedes do grow in the sea those of some price Solinus letteth vs know saying that shrubs and weedes in the Ligustike sea are those from whence our Corall commeth Such then being in the bottome are about the head of our Prophet he is wreathed and tangled in them
me I remembred the Lord and my prayer came vnto thee in thy holy Temple They that waite vpon lying vanity forsake their owne mercy IT is euident vnto vs by the whole processe of the Chapter before going that the transgression of Ionas did seeme vnto the Lord a grieuous transgression And his fall may seeme to vs a very strange fault that a Prophet exercised before in Gods seruice among the Israelites acquainted with secrets and reuelations from aboue should so vary from the tenure of piety and obedience But great sinnes require great punishments straunge faults require straunge chastisements Our Ionas as I thinke may make his profession that it hath bene so with him A tempest did follow him which would not giue him ouer a lot did discouer him to be a malefactor and when he could aunswer to the euidence no one word but guilty which imported his confession the mariners will they nill they must cast him ouer ship-boord where after sinking downe to the bottome of the water after wrapping and intangling of his head within the weedes he is caught vp by a fish in whose belly he is lodged for three dayes and three nights Here how perplexed his state was who cannot imagine Without foode without light without company and comfort a man drowned and not drowned deuoured but not digested aliue but yet as dead in perpetuall expectation of the fearefull dissolution of his soule from his body Nay the torment was greater which he sustained in his heart that horrour in his conscience that conflict in his soule as if God had forsaken him and giuen sentence vpon him as on a reprobate cast-away a firebrand of hell an inheritor of damnation Woful sinner who for his fancies sake and vpon the suggestion of flesh and bloud would draw such a iudgement to himselfe as which a man well aduised would not haue sustained but the space of one day for any treasure on earth For it is a fearefull thing to grapple with the Highest or to wrastle with our maker 2 As this anguish hath bene largely before touched so to make it vp complete he addeth as the conclusion of his misery although not of his prayer that his soule fainted in him it doubled it selfe together as some men do translate it as the knees of a man dying do double it was as ouerwhelmed fainting as in a swound his life was at last cast euen ready now to go out as a consumed lampe the gaspes and grones and pangs of very death were vpon him Yea throbs of desperation did oppugne him with such violence that the hope of eternall life seemed for some moments to be exiled from him his forlorne soule was sinking in diffidence and distrust So the best are deiected when God doth eclypse his presence and comfortable aspect But that absence and forbearing maketh a more tender feeling of succour when it returneth a more aboundant thankfulnesse for it deserueth gratefulnesse in great measure to be brought from the depth of sorrow to the height of ioy to be saued from extremity Ionas yet striketh this string amplifying Gods mercy ouer him from the circumstance of the time when my ghost was giuing vp when all hope was past and gone Which argument because I fully handled in my last Lecture I would now leaue it and teach some other doctrine These two verses note two persons the former of them the Prophet the latter some other men who waite on lying vanities The actions of the one of them and the other are here specified and the fruite which both of them do reape Then these two persons yeeld two parts to be handled by Gods assistance In the former which concerneth the Prophet these circumstances are what he did and how he sped what he did in that he saith he remembred the Lord how he sped in that he addeth that his prayer came vnto God in his holy Temple I remembred the Lord 3 The purpose of Gods election in fore-appointing some vnto life eternall is a matter so immutable and vnchangeable in it selfe that nothing can impeach it The flesh with her frailty the world with his suttlety the multitudes and millions of infernall spirits cannot alter that decree There may be some shadowes and seemings to the contrary but the substance is kept inuiolable The very gates of hell preuaile not against him whose the determination is neither preuaile they against his No creature can crosse the intent of the Creator He can bring vs he can force vs from sin vnto sorrow and heauinesse for sinne from filthinesse vnto innocency from transgression to repentance from forsaking of goodnesse to embracing of grace He it is who can regenerate vs renew vs and reforme vs remould vs and reframe vs that naturall corruptions and actuall deprauations euen idolatry with Naaman or extortion with Zacheus or persecution with Paule or denying Christ with Peter or entertaining of seuen diuels with sinfull Mary Magdalene shall be to vs no preiudice no detayning of his fauour Where he appointeth saluation there euery thing in his time shall worke vnto saluation but it must be in his time He draweth the vnwilling to him the broken he bindeth vp the lost he seeketh out he toucheth that with remorse which was before as the Adamāt the hardest hart he doth mollifie He that ordaineth glory to any will giue him grace to attaine it He who is the life is the way leading to that life he who giueth the one graunteth the other Where he determineth the end there also he offereth the meanes to apprehend that end As before more at large 4 But there is no meane more direct to bring any to God then to teach him to know God who neuer knew him before and such a man as did know him and now is as if he were fallen away to bring him to remember him that he may once againe assume that confidence and resolution to himselfe that he who loued him before will returne his affection toward his soule if it do seeke vnto him Which fauour looke to whom God in his mercy graunteth it is an assured argument that he is not such a lost child as who finally shall perish For with his sweete remembrance for so I may well terme it when it commeth after bitter temptation and a grieuous fall doth go a faith of that nature that if it be once admitted to presence it will neuer out againe no iustice can dismay it no iudgement can affright it but although it creepe on his knees it will to the mercy seate from which albeit rigour should offer to repell it remooue it yet it clingeth clutcheth so fast that it will not out any more Then the best men who haue fallē by the infirmity of their flesh thinke their case very happy if that may be graunted to them to haue God in their mind and to haue recourse to him and they make much of that motion retaining it and pursuing it as the best
sorowes and afflictions which fall on vs or because by one or other we are thwarted in our designements then in wishing for death we prooue plainely to be offenders for want of submitting our will vnto the Lords will for lacke of waiting with patience and attending the leysure of the Almightie If Elias that powerfull Prophet be ouertaken thus to cry novv it is enough O Lord take away my soule for I am no better then my fathers because Iezabel pursued him to destroy him if she could take him he may not be excused 12 But for our man it is euident that he was in this bracke it was no earnest motion to be with God which did stirre him for now he was angrie with him neither was it because he loathed sinne for he heaped that as fast on him as possibly he could but because in a testie peeuishnesse and vnbeseeming curstnesse he could not see that effected which he so hotely desired that was to see all Niniue brought to vtter desolation And in this fury the man would be nothing else but dead He had neuer bin dead before and therefore did not know what it was to come vnprouided and vnfurnished yea indeed clothed with frowardnesse before so high a Iudge If it then had bene remooued when it was in that fury with what comfort could his soule approch before the tribunall Whereby it appeareth how mercifully the Eternall dealeth with vs who oftentimes in his loue denieth to vs those things for which we wish which if we should euermore enioy we were better be without them Theseus as Tully saith by obtaining the thing which he desired gained this that his only sonne Hippolytus was lost and torne in peeces The same which that fable reporteth of those wishes which Neptune graunted to him that they did hurt and not helpe Theseus is true of Gods part toward vs if he should euermore graunt that which we wish on our selues or other it would ouerturne our bodies and make our soules to perish Do we not many times vnaduisedly wish our selues in our graue as Ionas did in this place when I wis we little thinke it And if then there should come any who would take vs at our word should we not make twentie pauses yea a hundred exceptions before we would be readie It is but Aesopsfable but the morall thereof is true that a poore and desolate old man turning home from the wood with a burthen of stickes vpon him threw them downe and in remembrance of the miserie which he sustained called oftentimes for death to come to him as if he would liue no longer But when Death came to him in earnest and asked what he should do the old man presently chaunged his mind and sayd that his request vnto him was that he would helpe him vp with his wood This most commonly is our case we would find some other businesse to set Death about if he should come to vs when vainly we haue wished for him And it is not much vnlikely that our Prophet in this place would haue played such a pranke when he prayed to God with such vehemency to take away his soule But be that as it will be let this stand good betweene vs that with anger and with chasing at that which the Lord decreed and with wishing death in his rage the Prophet highly offended Which being so largely discoursed now come we in the second place to see how the Lord taketh this which I shall passe as briefly ouer as I haue bene long in the former And the Lord sayd Doest thou vvell to be angry 13 That which Ionas had witnessed in the second verse of this Chapter that the Lord is very mercifull and slow to anger is in this place experimented for when the pot-sheard so grossely had ouerseene it selfe to grudge against the potter the creature against his maker the hote spirite of man would easily haue imagined that he to whom the wrong was done to the end that he might preserue his greatnesse entire would haue let him knowne his owne and receiued all roughnesse from him How would a land-lord here haue ruffled vp his tenaunt but the Prince would haue rung such a lesson to his subiect that he should well haue remembred with whom he had to deale Nay may we not iustly thinke that the mighty Iehoua who is couered with the thunder and clothed with the lightening who speaketh and the earth doth tremble who mooueth and the heauen doth quake who blasted Nadab and Abihu dead in the instant who stroke Vzzah in a moment that he neuer spake againe who made the body of Gehazi and the face of King Vzziah to be couered with a leaprosie who so disgraced Herode that in the ruffe of his maiestie he was eaten vp with wormes would haue shaken vp Ionas so with tauntings and reproches that he should neuer haue forgotten it But the Lord to giue a token of his infinite moderation and vnconceiuable softnesse maketh no answer but this Doest thou vvell to be angry Wherein as he doth shew that Ionas was to blame and therein ouerturneth the excuse of Saint Hierome who most willingly would couer all as if there were no fault and therefore goeth not right since the text is to the contrarie so he beareth with the infirmity of the distracted Prophet and doth rather warne him kindly then intreate him very roughly Doest thou vvell to be angry as if he should haue sayd Thou frettest when thou shouldest not wilt thou be the Iudge Ionas to decide what is most for my glorie thou takest on thee to preiudice my wisedome or my will that either my discretion is not such as it should be or when I know the best yet I will follow the contrary This is not aright Ionas for if any haue occasiō to be angrie it is I who must be ruled now and not rule be directed and not gouerne This mild increpation would haue mooued any man but him who was steeped in anger as Ionas was I do not here any farther pursue Gods patience in his owne person because I haue oftentimes touched it 14 My lesson which I gather here is rather for our selues that when we haue to do with passionate persons that is to say brethren which are weake but not desperately euill and see them ouertaken with affections of anger of sorrow or displeasure we by our mild behauiour seeke to win them from that fault When rage is repelled with rage it increaseth farther fury and so oyle is put to flame and contention to strife A soft answer appeaseth vvrath but grieuous vvords stirre vp anger Although to equals this may fitly be applied and to superiours yet the saying is generall and hath place toward inferiours also The bending yeelding spirit is most likely to preuaile with the most robustious persons but a good man will haue an eye that he yeeld not in things vnlawfull The Apostle dealeth thus with the Corinthians I
write not these things to shame you but as my beloued children I do warne you The Apostle would not of purpose shame those whom he saw comming willingly inough to God but the matter it selfe will shame yet with a bashfulnesse to good purpose the man who is intelligent when he shall see another who is greater then himselfe to be calme when he is troubled yea more more to be calme when he seeth another troubled when himselfe is surprized with heate to behold his better to stand vnmoueable no more but to heare him and be silent or onely to looke vpon him or to turne away to be gone vntill the storme be past or if there be a speaking onely to say as God sayth here without further prouocation Doest thou well to be angry He who is wise and prudent hath learned to pity those who are blind and deafe or distracted in wit and not to study to be like such but those who are impatient are for the time no better Blind in that they see not what is commodious deafe from heating any reason yea possessed with a frensie to speake and do things vnlawfull Where although flesh and bloud would suggest that as one noyse is best of all beaten backe with another noyse or one woodden pin with another so violence with violence and great words with great speeches are soonest done downe and appeased yet Christian imitation of the best and patience fit for Saints biddeth treade another path of quietnesse and of softnesse 15 I know not to whom this precept may rather be commended then to the Ministers of the Gospell who should not be ouer readie to take knowledge of such censures as their people do passe vpon them for those things which they preach when it is not of any malice or pretended thought to disgrace but of idle curiosity and because men haue their fancies Into what flames do these matters breake forth whē heate cā hold no longer but on the next Sabaoth day to sound out of the pulpit an inuectiue declaration against such carping iudges when perhaps the words were mistaken perhaps increased and aggrauated by the carier of the tale But the end is that whereas before the party was a brother and a hearer now he prooueth to be an enemy and forbeareth to heare the Sermons from whence he onely looketh to be galled the congregation is disquieted and in steed of one speaking before now each mans mouth is open and the pastour himselfe being now torne and rent on euery side is troubled in his mind and discouraged in his calling How much safer were it here if it could not be auoided but knowledge must be taken in priuate thus to appease the thing which is not right Do you well to be angry or do you well thus to say But if it be a thing possible the way were to heare and not to heare to auoide all notice of it There was neuer man wiser then Salomon and he taught much to that purpose The glory of a man is to passe by an offence And in his Ecclesiastes Do not giue thy heart also to heare all vvords that men speake lest thou heare thine owne seruant cursing thee These precepts are true in all therefore much more in the pastour who should shine before other men and should be more obseruant because if it be not in the matter yet in manner or circumstance he possibly may erre And blessed is the man that feareth alway sayth Salomon To which sence may be applied the beginning of ano-speech of his A vvise man feareth Yea the first point of wisedome is to distrust himselfe And so much of Gods mild reproofe Let vs pray to him so to guide vs that we may walke aright while we be here in this world and acknowledging him the giuer and sender of life and death submit our selues in both to his most holy will vnto whom with his Sonne Christ and their most blessed Spirite be glorie and praise for euer THE XXVII LECTVRE The chiefe poynts 1. The whole Prophecy of Ionas is not to be applied to Christ. 3 Reasons why Ionas went out of Niniue 4. Christians are to flie danger 6. Reasons why he sate on the East side 8. We should grieue at the ruine of others 9. Gods seruants are oftentimes meanly entertained in this world 10. Therfore none should murmure at their want 11. We may vse any of Gods gifts of foorded vs. 12. Reasons why Ionas waited neare the city 13. Sathan is the authour of all doubts which are against Gods word Ionah 4.5 So Ionah vvent out of the city and sate on the East side of the city and there made him a booth and sate vnder it in the shadow till he might see vvhat should be done in the city HOw some of the ancient fathers of the Primitiue Church haue by allegorizing laboured to apply the greatest part of the whole Prophecy of Ionas to the person of Christ may easily appeare to those who are conuersant in the volumes of those reuerent writers And I feare that to a iudicious and sober reader it will too plaine appeare that those excellent lights and great pillars of the Church haue somewhat troubled their owne wits and forced the text also to make that good in Iesus which is onely true in Ionas For although there be some thing which by the open witnesse of our Sauiour himselfe hath good place in him that as the Prophet vvas three dayes and three nights in the belly of the vvhale so the sonne of man should be three dayes and three nights in the belly of the earth and some things more besides which not vnfitly may resemble him yet it is most apparant that very many matters are as far from him in the one whereof and other he may quickly be satisfied who listeth to looke but on the obseruations of Mercerus vpon the booke of this Prophecy But if any would be refractary and stand stiffe for that which is past in the Chapters fore-going yet here he must needes yeeld or be mightily ouertaken For how fitly shall this going out and expecting what shall become of the city be applied vnto Christ What shall the gourd be which is spoken of in the next verse and the worme which did destroy it Shall the one be his flesh and the other his death or some thing farther fetched The gourd brought ease to Ionas and delight and contentment but Christs flesh brought him none but rather sorrow and much anguish The Prophet grieued to leaue the thing which shadowed him but Christ willingly died gaue vp the ghost But aboue al this messenger which now was at Niniue was offended with God and did chide and chafe at him and when the Lord disliked that as it is in the ninth verse and asked him whether he did well to be angry for the gourd which was destroyed he most furiously and testily foorthwith replied that he did well to be angry
which did make it remaining still aliue should retaine the mould or remember the fashion of it with his best obseruation although this image were now broken into peeces and some of the lead thereof did perchance in a wall ioyne some stones vnto other or iron to stones in windows or if some were framed into bullets or put to other vses be they neuer so different yet afterward the artificer hauing these fragments brought together can refound them and renew the image in that resemblance wherein they were before That which man can do in his trade can mans maker do much more in new framing man himselfe 18 I haue borowed this reason from the maister of the Sentences whereunto if anie reply that the comparison is much different because here the substance remaineth in the selfe same nature as before whereas it is oftentimes altered in the corruption of the flesh and bones in man I might answere that it is recompenced by the greatnesse and the power and the skilfulnesse of this framer which so farre doth exceede the abilitie of all workers But I rather will strengthen it with that argumēt of Tertullian who speaketh to this purpose We were alreadie once made of nothing when our matter went not before and is it not as easie that we should be againe made when we haue bene before If after our corruption our substance should be little yea very nothing at all yet can we thinke it lesse then it was before our breeding The authour of the first can as well do the latter This reason seemed strong vnto Gregory the great where he speaketh in this sort If a man who hath bene dead shold be raised vp all men breake foorth into admiration and yet daily is man borne who neuer was before and no man wondreth at that whereas without doubt it may appeare vnto all men that it is a greater worke when that is made which neuer was then when that shall be but repaired and new made which was before To follow this a little farther which of vs doth remember what we were before that we were borne where was our forme or our matter Yet we are growne to this quantitie and come vp to this fashion If we will speake as Philosophers the sonne is said to be in potentia of the father so of the grandfather and great grandfather although much more remooued If we will speake as the Spirite of God doth speake Leui the sonne of Iacob who was the sonne of Isaac who was the heire of Abraham is said to be in the loines of Abraham his great grandfather The line by this proportiō may be reached a great deale higher Now how many alterations corruptions dissolutions in nutriment and in food within men and without of necessitie must there be within ten generations before that he be produced who is the tenth successor Where shall we say was the seed or what shall we thinke was the matter from whence he was deriued Yet God hath so disposed that by order of propagation it should be so and no otherwise and a thousand alterations cannot hinder the course thereof and a million of corruptions shall not crosse his purpose afterward but that from earth and sea and stones and rockes and ashes chaunged ouer and ouer againe he can rowze vs and reuiue vs. The perpetuated order of his actions here among vs doth shew that he can doe things which are as farre vnlikely To adde somewhat more of man of how small a thing doth he make him euen that which hath no proportion how doth he bring out the limmes and members of the infant where were his bones and his sinewes his arteryes and his veynes where was his head and his feete his countenance and his visage how were these things distinguished in his first generation We may haue the same consideration of the kernell of any fruite which being small in quantitie and in resemblance very different from that whereunto it spreadeth is put into the ground From this there groweth a roote with many things sprowting from it from thence a stemme ariseth a barke percase without a pith perhaps within here a branch and there a bough here a blossome and there a fruit A graine of wheat is put by the husbandman into the ground and then it is but a small thing and in respect as nothing Yet from thence commeth roote and blade and stalke and eare and corne yea when the originall of all was dead and euen dissolued From these things God each day doth raise such sensible matters and maketh the earth and raine whereof much commeth from the sea to depart with their owne nature and to be turned into them Why then should it be impossible or why should it be straunge that he should bring this to passe in man the best of his creatures that is to fetch him out of the dust or from the middest of the water Why not one daye that in generall when this in speciall euery daye why not all which to each Reuolue these things aduisedly and ioyne faith with thy sence and thy externall feeling and we shall haue a resurrection 19 Remember how that euerie winter the glorie of the trees and all woods is decayed their leaues lye in the dust their cheerefull greene is but blacknesse the sap and life is hid in the roote within the ground all the tree doth seeme as dead But when the Sunne commeth forward with his warming aspect they resume their former beautie So it is with the medowes so it is with the floures and most delightfull gardens Their winter is as our death their spring like our resurrection The putting of our clothes off should remember vs of mortalitie that we must put our flesh off and yeeld it to corruption When we put them on in the morning and go forth as before we represent to our selues the receiuing of our flesh againe in the day of iudgement What is our bed but a graue what is our sleepe but a death wherein we are to our selues as if we had neuer bene without sence and in darknesse what is our hastie awaking at the sound of bell or other noise but as our starting vp at the sound of the last trumpet to appeare before Christs throne Herein indeed is the difference that the graue doth hold vs longer the bed a lesser while Thus hath the Lord euery way put remembrancers in our actions daily obseruations that certainly we shall dy certainly rise againe certainly be then iudged The veritie of which matter euen by the light of nature hath appeared vnto some who neuer did know the Lord. The heathen man Zoroastres did fore-prophecie of a time wherein there should be a rising of all that euer had liued They were not farre from this who beleeued an immortalitie of our souls after death So did Plato aboue all other of the auncient Philosophers who both saith that the soule liueth
separated from the bodie and that it commeth to an account and if it haue so deserued suffereth punishment and great torment yea he mentioneth such a iudgement as wherein the good are set on the right hand and the euill on the left as if he had perused the bookes of the sacred Bible The French Prophets those Druides as Pomponius Mela noteth did both beleeue and teach the immortalitie of the soule which was a good inducement to inferre the resurrection For when they held this vndoubtedly that the better part doth not die and by a consequent that the soules of them which had done well for their good life in this place should come vnto felicitie they might haue easily bene perswaded that by a good congruitie the instrument and copartner and sister of the soule I meane this flesh of ours being ioyned in all actions should in vprightnesse of iustice be ioyned in the reward whether it be good or euill 20 How much to blame are the Atheists and Epicures of our time who come not so farre as this but as they depriue our bodies of all future reuiuing so they teach that our soules in nothing are different from the beasts but that in the dissolution the spirit shall be dissolued as well as the exteriour man in which thoughts they shew thēselues to be worse then many Ethnicks They little conceiue the dignity and simplicity of that spirit the single in compoundnesse of that self-moouing soule for so I may well call it in comparison of the flesh For as Chrysostome maketh his argument If the soule can giue such life and beautie vnto the bodie with what a life and fairenesse doth it liue in it selfe And if it can hold together the bodie which is so stinking and so deformed a carcasse as appeareth euidently after death how much more shall it conserue and preserue it selfe in his owne being So pregnant is this reason that an infidell may conceiue it and very well apprehend it but we which are Christian men may remember a farther lesson That our Sauiour hath dyed for vs and payed a price very great his owne most precious bloud For whom or what was this for our body which liueth and dieth and rotteth and neuer returneth againe for our soule which is here this day and too morrow spilt and corrupted How vnworthy were this of him to endure so much for so little Shall we thinke him so vnwise or repute him so vnaduised No he knew that this soule of ours must stand before his throne and this rottennesse must come foorth by a fearefull resurrection And if this should not be so if there should be no accompt no recompence for ill deedes no retribution for the good to what end should men serue the Lord or what difference should there be betweene the iust and the vniust the holy and the profane nay betweene man the best creature that mooueth vpon the ground and the basest and vilest beast which hath little sence and no reason Because it were impiety to think this of our iust Lord that so slenderly he disposeth things let vs with an assured faith conceiue our immortality and the hope of a resurrection 21 As this hath bene deduced from the example of our Prophet by this or the like sort Ionas was in the fishes belly so was Christ in the graue Ionas came forth from thence so did Christ rise againe his rising doth bring our rising his resurrection ours because he was the first fruits of all those that do sleep So to cōclude this doctrine by making vse of it very briefly if this be determined ouer vs the houre shal one day come that all that is in the graue shall arise heare Gods voice neither the mountains nor the rocks can couer vs frō the presence of the Lambe what ones then how perfect shold we study to be how shold we prepare our selues against that day of reckning that our iudg may acknowledge vs to be his friends his brethren vnspotted vndefiled that so we might not trēble to see him heare his iudgement But alas how far are we from it indeed frō thinking of it For as Chrysostome speaketh some do say that they beleeue that there shal be a resurrectiō a recōpēce to come But I listen not to thy words but rather to that which is done euery day For if thou expect the resurrectiō a recōpence why art thou so giuē to the glory of this present life why doest thou daily vexe thy self gathering more mony then the sand I may go a little farther applying it to our time why do we bath our selues in folly as in the water why do we drinke in iniquitie bitternesse in such measure why hunt we after gifts and thirst after rewards why seeke we more to please men then labour to please the Lord Briefly why doth security in inward sort so possesse vs as if with Hyminaeus Philetus we did think the resurrection past Why do we as that man of whome Saint Bernard speaketh that is eate and drinke and sleepe carelesse as if we had now escaped the day of death and iudgement and the very torments of hell So play and laugh and delight as if we had passed the pikes and vvere now in Gods kingdome Who seeth not this to be so although he could wish it to be farre otherwise 22 The remembrance of this accompt should be as a snaffle to vs or as a bridle to keepe vs backward from profanenesse enormitie And in these euils let them take their portiō who are incredulous and vnbeleeuers of whome it is no maruell that they do hotely embrace them and egerly follow after them For take away an opinion of rising vnto iudgement and all obseruance of pietie falleth presently to the ground and men will striue to be filthie in impietie and in sinne But because we professe Christ Iesus and the hope of immortalitie let vs liue as men that expect it And since that it is appointed that all men shall die once and after it commeth the iudgement and since the day of death is as vncertaine to vs as it euer was to Isaac let vs furnish our selues before hand that with the oyle of faith and of good life in our lampes we may go to meete the bridegroome If Christ as our head be risen from the dead let vs arise from the vanities and follies of this earth which are not worth the comparing with eternitie in the heauens If he as the chiefe of his Church be ascended and gone before let vs who wish to be members wrestle to follow after him Let it be enough that hitherto with Ionas we haue fled from our dutie which we owe to our maker and that we haue lyen not dayes but yeares oft three times and three ouer not in the fishes belly but in the belly of sin And let vs beseech the Lord that since
Sathan is more desirous to swallow vs into hell then the whale was to deuour the Prophet that he will free vs from that enemie and bring vs into his kingdome there to raigne with his owne Sonne to both whome and the holy Spirite be laud and praise immortall Amen THE X. LECTVRE The chiefe poynts 2. The anguish of Ionas in the whale 3. The vse and force of prayer 6. Our negligence herein 8. Inuocation is to be vsed to God onely 10. Some things in the Fathers fauouring inuocation of Saints 11. Those places discussed 14. Some of the ancient are against praying to Saints 15. Afflictiō stirreth vs vp to piety 19. The great miserie of the Prophet 21. We are to repute God the authour of our afflictions 22. God heareth our prayers 23. There are circumstances to be obserued in prayer Ionah 2.1.2.3 Then Ionah prayed vnto the Lord his God out of the fishes belly And said I cried in my affliction to the Lord and he heard me out of the belly of hell cried I and thou heardest my voice For thou hadst cast me into the bottome in the midst of the sea and the flouds compassed me about all thy surges and all thy waues passed ouer me WHen Ionas was in the sea being cast out by the mariners and was now of all likelyhood ready to be drowned God had a fish prepared as before you haue heard to swallow vp the Prophet And in the belly thereof he lay three daies and three nights after such a manner as was neuer heard of before but no doubt much tormented between hope and distrust almost quite in dispaire yet by faith againe comforted This faith of his when at length it had preuailed he breaketh forth euen there in prison into good meditations and after his deliuerie when he wrote this prophecie he digested them into a prayer which is here set downe in a kind of Hebrew verse not much vnlike to the Lyrikes of the Greek or Latin Poets Those words which I haue read vnto you are some part of this prayer and that which followeth after is another part in both which if something sound as from him being in danger and some thing againe as from him being escaped impute the one vnto the time wherein he did write it and the other to those conflicts which he sustained while he lay in the belly of the whale where his bitter meditations and troubled thoughts did answere vnto that which is here proposed vnto vs. 2 For the space of those three dayes he did not lye asleepe as a man in a traunce or one vnsensible amated for right happie he had bene if that might haue be fallen him but boiling in the extremitie of anguish and great sorrow as he that had on him a burthen so vnsupportable by his shoulders that he knew not how to turne him or to manage himselfe He felt the wrath of God perpetuated on him without intermission which wrath was not contented to haue him ouer ship-boord and so once to drowne him but dying he must liue and liuing he must dy in a torturous execution so terribly and vncomfortably that the like had bene neuer heard of The horror of death still present yet prolōged stil in the middle of the sea in the belly of a whale a prison and monstrous dungeon did vrge him oft to tremble but the feeling of Gods displeasure vpon his soule for sinne and the very great expectatiō of eternall pains in hell what thoughts did these now raise in him Now the soure of his disobedience is fully tasted by him he may tumble it and reuolue it and chew it againe againe Now if Niniue had bene distant as farre as the Easterne Indies or the South part of Aethiopia there he had bene sure to be murthered and massacred by the tyrannie of the gouernour or ruler of that countrie he could haue bene wel cōtented to haue gone thither euen bare-footed thanked God on his knees who had brought him to such a bargaine For it is better to trace ouer all the world then once to go to hell better to suffer many sorrowes in body then in soule to die eternally With which thoughts being so perplexed as neuer was man before him not knowing what else to do with a faith tried in out ouer ouer again he falleth at length to prayer the effect wherof is in this second chapter by it selfe laid downe vnto vs. But because this prayer is so lōg as that at many seueral times it must be handled for distinction and orders sake I thinke good first to deuide it into a Preface and a Prayer The Preface is in the first verse the Prayer in that which followeth And there what subdiuisions are afterward to be made it shall in his place appeare The Preface noteth these two things what he did that is pray and to whome vnto the Lord his God Then Ionah prayed 3 Many are the temptations and spirituall inuasions which in this life do befall vs while the enemie of mankind doth often assaile vs by himselfe and by the world and by our owne flesh that domesticall foe and many are the afflictions which the great God in his wisedome and our good Father in his loue doth lay sharply vpon vs to punish vs for our sinnes to make triall of our patience to strengthen vs in the faith to make vs loath the world to teach vs true humilitie to inure vs to a suffering of greater things for his sake for so many are the ends wherfore he sendeth his crosse to those whom he best fauoreth In respect whereof our life is by Iob well called a warfare wherin we are to fight wrastle against great matters to the which Saint Paule alluding saith that he had fought a good fight being exercised all his time against powers and principalities against anguishes and great grieuances much within more without The onely stay of all which perplexities in the very best of Gods children is earnest and heartie prayer to him who sitteth aboue who plucketh downe and setteth vp who ouerturneth and raiseth who striketh and then maketh whole who correcteth and then comforteth who bringeth to the pit of euill and then doth not cast in who tempteth not aboue our strength but in the midst of temptation doth giue an issue that we may be able to beare it The sacrificing of our souls vnto this blessed Father the bēding of our knees the bedeawing of our cheeks the lifting vp of our hands the beating of our brest but withall and aboue all the compunction of our hearts and the earnestnesse of our spirites are the altar that we must flye to are the anchor that wee must trust to This is that chaine whereof one end is tyed to the eare of God and the other end to our toung if we plucke he will listen if we call he will hearken 4 Then it is for our good that so often in the
that he referreth all his punishment to the hand of the Lord. He speaketh not of the mariners by whose meanes it was done much lesse doth he reuile them as in our time wicked offending persons oft do to the magistrates or Iudges or other officers who do but see that to be done which iust law layeth vpon thē and they wilfully haue deserued But Ionas passing by the instrument and meanes whereby God wrought seeketh vnto the fountaine and originall of the deede He acknowledgeth that his maker was he who was offended that his hand had corrected him that his wrath must be satisfied but by all other he passeth That euill Ioram did not so when his citie of Samaria was oppressed with a famine so grieuous that the mother did eate her owne child which extremity it is likely that the Prophet Elizaeus did foretell should fall vpon them for the greatnesse of their sin But then he in stead of looking vpward to God whom he should haue sought vnto by fasting and by prayer turneth his anger on the Prophet the minister of the Almightie and voweth himselfe to much euill if innocent Elizaeus were not put to death that day Blind man who could not looke higher and see whose messenger the Prophet was How much better was Iobs behauiour for when newes was brought vnto him that the Sabees and Chaldeans by violence and strong hand had taken away his Oxen and robbed him of his Camels he did not straight way curse those sinners and wish much euill on them but not so much as naming them did fasten his thoughts on God and imputed all vnto him saying most patiently The Lord hath giuen and the Lord hath taken it blessed be the name of the Lord. I would that men in our time could carry his resolution When ought amisse doth befall them to haue recourse to the Highest and to suppose that either he doth trie them or doth punish thē for their sinnes or hath some other good purpose But we rather run to any thing then that which most doth vrge vs oft surmising that which is not and suspecting those that be innocents And if we can find the meanes whereby all is brought about we double our force on that this witch hath killed my beasts this wicked man hath vndone me this mightie man hath crossed me I would he were in his graue or some mischiefe else were on him Indeed I do not deny but that the euill are oftentimes the rods of God to chasten good men withall but yet thinke thou euermore that his hand is it which effecteth all that his stroke is in the action Fasten thy eyes on him and with sighing and true repentance seeke to appease his wrath and thē the meanes shall not touch thee no wicked thing shall haue power ouer thee But let this be thy song to vtter foorth with the Prophet thou hadst cast me into the water thou hast layed this crosse vpon me 22 The third circumstance now remaining is that God did heare his prayer I cryed in mine affliction and thou heardest me and againe O Lord thou heardst my voice You see that his woe was exceeding and after the common course of sorrow it droue him vnto his maker it enforced him to pray Where behold the comfort is that he did not loose his labour the Lord did heare his voice This euermore is his propertie to attend to those who sollicite him to respect those who call on him I called on the Lord in trouble saith Dauid and the Lord heard me at large So by Ieremie his seruant God promiseth to the Iewes and in them to all his Saints you shall cry to me and shall go and pray to me and I will heare you And you shall seeke and find me So respectiue is the Lord to those who fly to him which sheweth his great prerogatiue aboue all heathen idols who may be derided with Baal that either they are busie in following of their enemies or asleepe and must be awaked but surely they cannot heare But especially to vs it is comfort in extremity that if sicknesse or pinching pouertie or malice of any man nay if pangs of death do hurt vs or if in the soule which is our better part temptation ouercharge vs and Satans darts hardly driue at vs if we call vnto that Lord who can bind and loose and hath the keyes of hell and of death he can rid vs and deliuer vs. Yea he so yeeldeth to our prayers that they shall not returne in vaine but comfort at the least and patience in our miseries shall be bestowed vpon vs. It is a good speech in Cyprian if that tract be his De caena Domini In the presence of Christ our teares which are neuer superfluous do beg a pardon for vs neither euer doth the sacrifice of a contrite heart take repulse As often as in Gods sight I see thee to be sighing I doubt not but the holy Ghost doth breath vpō thee when I see thee weeping then I perceiue him pardoning This should be a great instigation that when any thing doth oppresse vs be it inward or be it outward we should runne vnto the Lord. So may also be that of Austen The prayer of the righteous is the key of heauen Prayer ascendeth vp and Gods mercie descendeth down Although the earth be low and the heauen high the Lord doth heare the tong of man if he haue a cleane conscience It speaketh with feeling if it be but onely our sigh A showre of the eyes is sufficient for his eares he doth sooner here our weeping then our speaking 23 I doubt not but all the faithfull do find this easily in thēselues that when they do lay open their soules before the Lord as Ezechias did the letters of Sennacherib when they do earnestly pray a deaw of consolation of most blessed consolation is distilled downe vpon them whereby they are assured that they haue to deale with a father who seeth their fraile infirmities and hath compassion on them Yea as a father doth pitie his children so hath the Lord compassion on all that do feare him for he knoweth wherof we be made he remembreth that we are but dust He knoweth vs to be most ignorant most foolish and vnfit for all goodnesse very impotent and vnable to keepe off wrong from our selues He knoweth this considereth it as euermore he supporteth vs keepeth vs to himself as the apple of his eye giuing when we demand not more then we thinke on so if we lift vp our voyces powre out our complaints before him he will neuer faile vs seeking him Onely this he claimeth of vs that we aske that which is fit not vanities or impieties or to bestow vpon our lustes for he denyeth these things to vs and our faith hath no warrant to aske such requests of the Lord. And againe that in those things which are lawfull we
giuen ouer to heare any thing of my prayers Among the old Romane historians which haue written who was wiser then Cornelius Tacitus men do now study him for policy Yet in the first of his history recounting those great grieuances which befell Rome by the ciuill warres vnder Galba and Vitellius he vseth this desperate speech Neuer by greater slaughters on the Romane people or by more iust iudgements vvas it approoued vnto vs that the Gods do not at all respect our safety and security but to take vengeance on vs they are ready inough Here policy hath forgotten the very first grounds of piety which are patience and humility Liuie a graue writer although otherwise superstitious inough as appeareth by his Prodigia and yearely monsters yet tasteth of these dregs when in his fourth booke he writeth thus Here followeth a yeare which for slaughters and ciuill vprores and famine was very famous Onely forreine warre was vvanting wherewithall if our state had bene laded things could hardly haue bene stayed by the helpe of all the Gods but that they had run to ruine 9. Thus the wisedome of this world is nothing else but foolishnesse nothing but doting folly when it commeth indeed to the crosse or to the fiery triall The knowledge of God is wanting or at least the laying hold aright by faith is wanting And where faith is not to be found there is neither hope nor patience which are two infallible notes of a iust and Christian man There is nothing sayth Saint Cyprian which putteth more difference betweene the iust and the vniust then this that the euill man in his aduersity doth complaine and impatiently blaspheme but the good doth suffer quietly The iust hath trust in his Sauior but the other hath no part in him What maruell then is it if the wicked do fret and rage without comfort since he hath no share in him who is the God of comfort What maruell is it if he perish Plutarch telleth that this is the quality of Tigres that if drums or tabours sound about them they will grow madde and then they teare their owne flesh and rent themselues in peeces If the vnbeleeuing reprobate do heare the noyse of affliction he is ready to rent himselfe but by cursing and by swearing he will teare the body of Christ from top to toe in peeces As Ionas did remember God so the reprobate will not forget him but it is not to pray vnto him not to beleeue vpon him for he harh not so much grace but to ban him and blaspheme him I could wish that such prophanenesse as this might neuer be heard off in earnest or in play in the life or death of any man We should thinke of him with a reuerence we should mind him with a feare in prosperity with a trembling in aduersity with a hope There should be no fretting against his prouidence no grudging against his punishment When my soule did faint within me I remembred the Lord sayth Ionas I remembred him to beseech him I remembred him to intreate him I remembred him to embrace him to trust in him as a deliuerer to beleeue in him as a father I called to him and doubted not and he afterward heard my voyce 10 Saint Hierome doth giue this note vpon this place taking it out of the Septuagint That because he thought vpon the Lord when his soule did faint and he was ready to dye we by his example should aboue all things mind our maker when we are in the fits and pangs of death A very needefull doctrine if any thing may be needefull that when we must dislodge and be remooued hence when our glasse is so farre runne that immediatly a change must follow and that not to a trifle or toye which is to bee contemned but either to heauen or hell either to perpetuall ioy or to euerlasting torment we haue him in our meditations who is to see our iudge who is to scanne our actions and to peruse our conscience and giue the last sentence on vs that then with our best remembrance we thinke vpon his mercy and contemplate on his great loue in the redemption of his sonne and desire him for his blouds sake to take vs into his fauour That this lesson might the better be taught vnto vs Iesus the sonne of God and fore-runner of our faith when he was ready to yeeld vp his spirit did commend his vnspotted soule to his most righteous father Father into thy hands I commend my spirit Good Steuen the eldest martyr did tread these steps right after him when at the time of his death he cried Lord Iesus receiue my spirit And euery Christian man should struggle and striue to do so to shake off as much as may be the heauinesse of his sicknesse and as hauing that one prize that last great prize to play should stirre vp his spirit in him and should then pray to God to comfort him to conduct him vnto heauen to leade him along to glorie It is a good thing to liue well but because death is the vp-shot which maketh or marreth the rest it is the best thing to dye well He who hath begun aright hath halfe that whereat he aimeth but to begin is our hurt it shall bee a witnesse against our conscience vnlesse we do perseuere The man who shall bee blessed must continue to the ende 11 Then may the dangerous state of such be iustly deplored who in their life time haue so fondly doated vpon the world that when death which is Gods baylife doth summon them to appeare before the iudgement seate they do least of all other things know wherewith he should be furnished who commeth there but as before in the time of their health so in their despaired sicknesse do thinke only vpon their Mammon admiring it and embracing it and kissing it in their thought as if they were wedded to it But neither of themselues nor by the instigation of the Minister who is a remembrancer for the Lord can they be any way vrged to speake of celestiall things to call on God for mercy or to professe their faith and confidence in their Sauiour And this wordly imagination first ministreth hope of life they not dreaming that death will take them till on the sudden both body and soule do eternally dye together Next if they do conceiue that it must be so and there is no way with them but the graue then is their heart oppressed with sorrow and a huge waight of griefe that there must be a separation from their beloued treasure And lastly if their memory do serue there must be an vnsetled and vnresolued disposing with disquietnesse and much vexing of that which hath bene ill gotten to this child or to that friend and much stirre there must be about the pompe of a funerall by which meanes all good motions are so stifled and choaked that there is scant one word of him who made all
kindly esteeming it aboue all other presents and returned him loue accordingly The gracious disposition of our eternall father taketh in farre better part then any man can take it the laying downe of our soules and prostrating of our selues to the fulfilling of his will He accounteth that the best sacrifice because it is spirituall Externall things do well but inward gifts do better I haue noted this vnto you from out of the word of sacrificing where the Prophet doth not stay but particularizeth specially what it is that he will offer I will sacrifice vnto thee with the voyce of thankesgiuing 8 This voyce doth imply an open and manifest declaration of the mercies of the Lord that he meant not to conceale his wilfull disobedience nor his punishment for the same but euery man should know how he had bene in the sea fast closed vp in the whale in pangs of death and extremity and yet the Lord had brought his soule out of the pit He thought it not inough to ruminate in his owne mind and chew vpon this mercy but others shall be aduertised of it that so by his example they may learne to know their Creator they may learne to dread their maker This was a custome of Dauid who vppon great things obtained doth vse to make solemne professiō that he will praise his God in the great congregation It is but a small thing to thinke it but he will speake of Gods glory And thus euery one should do yeelding vnto the world a testimony of his faith and honour vnto him whom he chiefly doth honor that such as yet are not called by that meanes may be prouoked to harken to true religion pricked forward by that comfort which they see in Gods children The speech of Miltiades which was in the mouth of euery man and his victorious acts set Themistocles on fire to attempt to do the like The fame that was of Alexander gaue heart to Iulius Caesar to become the more noble warriour And shall not our speaking of God the reporting of his acts his iustice in correcting his mercy in defending his prouidence in disposing his willingnesse in redeeming his readinesse in forgiuing vttered by Christian mē incite others to be Christiās God did know that to be a great meanes of bringing mē vnto him whē he gaue charge that the Israelites should recount vnto their children his glorious facts and the workes which he had shewed in Egypt It is a fault in our dayes that parents are not carefull to instill into their children the remembrance of such things as they haue read or knowne to come obseruably from the Almighty It is a fault in others that if they come in place where religion is not respected as among Papists or Atheists they thinke best to conceale the profession of true piety lest they should be scorned or derided or pointed at with the finger and so by a pollicy stopping the course of their zeale in time they quench their zeale and make themselues as key-cold as those with whom they do liue They should discharge a good conscience by acknowledging of their hope peraduenture they might by the blessing of the Lord draw on other which were backward before for the hart of him who heareth is not in the power of himselfe but God doth rule guide it the meanes whereby he worketh is the hearing of good things Let the voyce then go to serue the Lord and let him blesse and prosper it as seemeth good to himselfe But thou hast discharged thy duty he hath giuen thee a tongue to praise him and with it thou doest honour him 9 The voyce of Ionas goeth and it is in giuing thankes vnto which the name of sacrifice is oft giuen in the Psalmes as namely in the fiftieth Offer to God praise or thankesgiuing where the word offer doth plainly import a sacrifice And in the hundred and seuenth Psalme Let them offer sacrifices of praise and declare his workes with reioycing This gratefulnesse is maruellously acceptable to the Lord when he bestoweth not his benefits as vpon the oxe or asse who haue them and forget them but on those which are mindfull who is the authour of them And that is the sole reward and onely retribution which we can render to him and if he haue not that then he reapeth nothing for all his blessings but if he may haue that many good things of necessity will be ioyned therewithall Therefore he straightly requireth it of all that belong vnto him In the eighth Chapter of Deuteronomy he speaketh thus to the Israelites When being come into the land of Canaan thou hast eaten and filled thy selfe thou shalt blesse the Lord thy God for the good land which he hath giuen vnto thee In the thirtieth of Ieremy he sayth in this manner Thus sayth the Lord Behold I vvill bring againe the captiuity of Iacobs tents and haue compassion on his dwelling places and the city shall be builded vpon her owne heape and the pallace shall remaine after the maner thereof But immediatly he addeth And out of them shall proceede thankesgiuing and the voyce of them that are ioyous The precepts are diuerse which be in the New Testament to this purpose Let there be in you no filthinesse neither foolish talking nor iesting but rather giuing of thankes And againe What soeuer you shall do in vvord or deed do all in the name of the Lord Iesus giuing thanks to God euen the father by him The Patriarkes and the Prophets and the faithfull of all times had euer this in their memory How did Moses and the people with timbrels and with daunces sing and reioyce to God when Pharao and his chariots were drowned in the red sea How did Barack and Deborah sing vpon the fall of Sisara There is no end of examples what hath bene done in this case but the rule may generally be giuen so many as haue bene faithfull so many haue bene thankfull 10 It causeth a continuance of the loue of God vnto men and an adding of further graces when he seeth them to be mindfull of that which is bestowed But on the other side vnthankfulnesse is the meane to stay his hand from bounty for as Bernard hath well obserued he is vnworthy of things to be receiued vvho shall be vnthankefull for such as he hath receiued Here euery one of vs may examine his owne heart whether he do rightly discharge his duty We do all long for perpetuating and augmenting the fauours of God vpon vs but see whether we requite those which are already come vnto vs. As Ionas was in daunger to be drowned by the sea and deuoured quite by the whale so was mankind in generall by reason of Adams transgression euen as in the pit of hell and very iawes of Satan apparant heires of damnation fewell for eternall fire forlorne men and past hope Yet by the death of our Sauiour we
watereth the earth and maketh it to bring foorth and bud that it may giue seede to the sower and bread to him that eateth so shall the word be that goeth out of Gods mouth it shall not returne voyd but accomplish that which God will and it shall prosper in the thing whereunto he sendeth it It is the very power of saluation to all those that do beleeue a lanthorne to our feete and a light vnto our pathes and therefore as at other times he vseth this to saue men so he doth in this place teaching the Niniuites by that word which commeth from the mouth of the Prophets by his preaching and crying and to that purpose also sending his word to Ionas as a warrant in what sort he should crie The word must be the meanes and he the man that must bring it 11 This is a sure seale vnto him of his calling and vocation The mind of God in particular concerning this or that is reuealed and made knowne to him not after a common maner as euery one in the Scripture is informed of his dutie and what the Lords will is but in a speciall sort as to one singled out as the Prophets were to choyse places And to signifie that no man can of himselfe be a Prophet but by Gods disposing of him vnto it the word of the Lord commeth to him he doth not go vnto it but it is imposed on him So that he who would be a Prophet or a foreteller as all those holy ones were who were called by that name before the comming of Christ must peculiarly be raised vp by his God vnto that office and haue diuine and supernaturall reuelations from him I was saith Amos no Prophet neither was I a Prophets sonne but I was a heardman and a gatherer of wild figs and the Lord tooke me as I followed the flocke and the Lord sayd vnto me go prophecie vnto my people Israel Now he who lacketh this commission is a lyer and deceiuer Such a one was that filthie Mahomet the authour of the Alcoran and of the Turkish religion who would needes be a Prophet but had no word for the same Yet to blind the eyes of the people as our Christians do write of him when the falling sicknesse came on him wherewith he was much troubled he would say when he came againe to himselfe that he was rapt into some reuelation and in his soule had some conference with the Almightie maker Let such false Prophets as these be perish with that in the Reuelation for whom as well as for the beast that fire and brimstone is prepared which is the second death 12 The true foretelling Prophets are ceassed now long agone The Prophets of the new Testament are the Preachers and expounders of the word vnto the people as Saint Paule to the Corinthians doth take Prophets for Preachers But although a motion euen from the Spirit of God and an inward calling be needfull for vs whereby we may be assured that we are sequestred out and ordained vnto this vocation yet the word of God may not properly be said to come to vs but it is rather our part to go to the word of God and to haue recourse to the Scripture and therein to see what the Lord doth teach vnto vs. And when we are furnished and well stored with things both old and new we ought as the good Scribe to bring them out of our treasurie Which if all those did respect who do enter into this function we should not haue such base ones stand before the altar If we had not men so good as those holy inspired ones were yet we should not haue them so bad as euery where abound men who neuer imagined what an inward calling meaneth they know not of any such matter such as neither the word commeth to them nor they come to the word the meanest of the flocke yet be guides to the flocke neither learned nor apt to learne the refuse of the people a dishonour vnto God and a great disgrace to our Church after so long a peace It were the lesse if they only made themselues to be guiltie but they slay the souls of other Their case is vnnaturall against the rules of nature that any should be teachers who neuer learned or preachers who cannot speake or men to diuide the word who know not how to diuide it But I leaue them and this verse and come to my second part Arise and go to Niniue that great citie 13 As hitherto you haue heard in a kind of generalitie that the Prophet once againe by Gods word so directing him was to go and preach at Niniue so now the charge which the Lord gaue vnto him is in precise termes plainly set downe vnto vs. Arise In the beginning of this Prophecie the very same word is vsed and in both places intendeth that Ionas was not readie but as it were sitting or lying downe so that he did need a spurre to quicken him and reuiue him In the second of Ezechiel God speaketh thus vnto his seruant Sonne of man stand vp vpon thy feete and I will speake vnto thee It sheweth that he was not readie and therefore he biddeth him stand vp Our man when preaching at first to the people of Israel he thought that he had done no good but vtterly lost his labour of likelyhood being discontented did set him downe and vexe Then did the Lord put life into him and bid him arise and be stirring he would send him elsewhere But now it is rather to be supposed that being deiected in his spirit for his greeuous disobedience and troubled in his soule for his so great offence he sate musing and pondering as not hauing yet digested the sorrow through which he did runne And to say the truth he had bene insensible and without all kind of feeling if he had so soone shaken off the remembrance of his sinne and his punishment for the same He that hath sustained bitternesse and felt it to the full shall after his deliuerance in a melancholike pang starkle and be affrighted as if he were yet troubled yea be perplexed in his dreames as if there were yet a continuance of misery vpon him How much more might Ionas be yet quiuering and trembling whose body was in the mouth yea the belly of the graue and whose soule did feele that anguish which the feare of Gods displeasure and his casting away from his presence could possibly lay vpon him Now to the end that he might not wast himselfe with sorrowing beyond measure and so be swallowed vp with griefe he is rowzed out of his passions and busied otherwise yet more to his owne hearts ease and his maisters better seruice 14 It is a thing worthie obseruance in very many men although in some more in some lesse that in the greatest pensiuenesse of mind which befalleth them God by some new occasion doth set them vp and reuiue them The
be angrie to the death How do we fall without measure if Gods grace preuenting and following vs be not ouer vs and leade vs all the way when such a choise man as Ionas who was singled out for a Prophet shall be thus ouertaken We had need pray for assistance and diligently take heed that in all our deeds we yeeld not Sathan the least footing for if once we let him land and giue a consent vnto him to abide with vs although it be but in a corner he will certainly haue more When Dauid by the doore or window of his eye had let it into his heart that Bethsabe must be fancied it worketh him on to adulterie then to cousening of Vrias after that to make him drunke and lasâ— of all to slay him Ionas is first content to desire the death of the Niniuites then he is angrie to thinke that it should be otherwise afterward he who had no loue to a citie of that quantitie yet is in loue with a tree and more setteth his heart vpon it then a maÌ„ should on any creature then he grieueth because he had lost it and being rebuked for it he chideth hand-smooth with God So one sinne breedeth another whereas obedience at the first had marred all that rancke Let vs all take heede of too much delighting in any earthly thing in husband or wife or children oâ— any matter of like nature because sinne which groweth froâ— the losse of these will spreade it selfe farre as first to grieue 〈◊〉 Gentiles and heathens who haue no hope then impatiently 〈◊〉 murmure against the diuine dispensation and that is suted with like effects Perhaps chaunging of religion as if when the God of the mountaines being coldly serued would not helpe and saue from such perplexities they would to the God of the valleis peraduenture refusing to come to church as if they had bin holy too long yea perhaps fasting or soliâ—aâ—inesse till that the vnderstanding and memorie being â—razed almost past recouery giue such an entrance to Sathan that there is little power of nature or faith or grace left to resist fearefull temptations or to take comfort or counsell The enemie of our soules so windeth in by degrees that he is hardly expelled if at first wee yeeld vnto him to giue him place but a little I do well to be angrie vnto the death 13 What would he haue done to men who dealeth thus with God or how brauely wold he haue spoken if he had done some good deed who in so foule a matter his iudgement is so depraued by selfe-loue and selfe-opinion both excuseth and commendeth that which was in truth so outragious Dauid was very far gone but being once touched by NathaÌ„ he staÌ„deth not on his owne iustification but out he cryeth Peccaui I haue sinned against the Lord. Yea Cain when he was conuicted of murthering his brother tooke knowledge that he deserued much ill And concerning Iudas himselfe indeede I find that the Cainites who were a kind of heretikes as Epiphanius writeth did commend him that since he saw that Sathans force was to be diminished by the death of Christ he made all the meanes which he could to hasten him to his death but I do not find that Iudas for his owne part did so thinke of it but confessed that he had sinned in betraying innocent bloud But our man for want of good neighbours standeth in his owne commendations for it is more then an Apologie I do well to be angrie yea if I should do more it were so much the better euen to be angrie to the death How farre is he out of temper he who should haue bene a light to other is in darknesse and desperatnesse he who should haue bene mild to men is now cocking with God he who should be renoumed for patience is impatient in the highest degree he whom much should not mooue is vp-side downe with a little the Preacher worse then the people the Prophet more to seeke then any priuate man Paule writing to the Ephesians saith that they were built vpon the foundation of the Prophets and the Apostles Iesus Christ being the chiefe corner stone If our Prophet had bene taken now he had bene full vnfit to haue bene in this foundation yea in any part of Gods building for those who are therein must be wrought and squared stones But God knoweth he was not neare that for as Gregorie doth remember vs Whosoeuer in prosperitie is not puffed vp too high whosoeuer in aduersitie is not cast downe too low whosoeuer by perswasion is not drawne to euill whosoeuer by dispraise is not kept backe from good he is a squared stone Then was Ionas out of square who being proud of his gourd a matter farre from prosperitie and vexed with the losing of it and the heate beating vpon his head loued what he had too dearely and lost what he left too grudgingly 14 But we doubt not but he recouered this and grew to grace againe for the Spirit of the Lord was not extâ—nguished in him although now the fire thereof seemed to be raked vp vnder the ashes now the sappe of his election seemed to lye hid within the roote and not to flourish aboue the ground but although his heart did seeme frozen yet afterward it thaweth againe For as Saint Austen speaketh as when the water congealeth with too much cold and when the Sunne commeth on it it resolueth againe and the same Sunne againe departing it beginneth againe to be hard so with the frost of sinne the loue of many doth waxe cold he might haue said so of their obedience and they are hardened like the ice but when the heate of the Lords mercie commeth againe on them they are resolued and relent So doubtlesse it was with Ionas else he had neuer bene reckened among the Lords holy Prophets from the which as we see his grieuous fall did not seclude him But in the meane while here is a maruell neuer sufficiently wondered at that God who hath the choise of all things in the world will vse such brittle meanes to the ministerie of his word and building of his kingdome shall I say heardmen with Amos or fishermen with Andrew or shepheards as was Dauid or customers as was Mathew some vnlearned all of base calling nay men nore-able for their weaknesse and reprochable for their folly not onely Paule before his calling but Moses and Aaron who in their calling were oftentimes much to blame Ieremie who raged bitterly and Ionas who was made of fretting and impatiencie This sheweth how great God himselfe is omnipotent and Almightie who by weake confoundeth the strong by foolish confuteth the wise by base conuinceth the noble by men vnder exception doth things beyond exception and all because his name therein may be the more glorified 15 It was his greater praise that by grashoppers and flies he could make Pharao crouch by hornets driue
the wicked vseth to do when some villanie is cōmitted as Iudas was pricked in his heart after his treason practised on our Sauiour whē he went out male-cōtented and hanged himselfe in despaire No I hold the reason of it to be another matter as anon I shall shew vnto you This had bene a sinne more fearefull then any that went before For murthering of himselfe whereof he had bene guiltie if for that intent he had spoken it though other mens hands had done it is a sin so grieuous that scāt any is more hainous vnto the Lord. This sheweth a graund solemne possession which Satan hath in a man a distrust of all Gods loue when a man groweth to the summitie of such malice against himselfe as that naturall affection and the account to be giuē of all our deedes vpon the earth is quite exiled out of memory A doctrine which I take to be nothing besides the purpose if largely it be discoursed of in the iniquitie of these times wherin wretchednesse hath so fearefully preuailed in some persons and almost daily doth preuaile that they dare to plunge themselues into this pit of terrible destruction 18 Our God in his ten commandements hath set this down for one thou shalt commit no murther He is so precise vpon bloud that he not onely hath sayd at the hand of a man euen at the hand of a mans brother will I require the life of man And who so sheddeth mans bloud by man shall his bloud be shed And yee shall take no recompence for the life of the murtherer which is worthy to dye but he shall be put to death But the verie Oxe that goreth a man or woman that he dye this oxe shall be stoned to death and his flesh shall not be eaten He that slue a man vnwillingly at the wood with an axe flying out of his hand should loose his life for his labour if the pursuer did so follow him as that he ouertooke him before he came to the city of refuge This was to make men the more vigilant that they did no such mischaunces as we commonly do terme them But if it were wilfull murther the offender was to be taken from the very hornes of the altar and slaine as Ioab was serued a man of so noble birth a man of such seruice before These are the lawes which were made concerning the murthering of other men And doth not the law of God and the explication of it by Iesus Christ his sonne originally require of vs that all fit things which we owe to other men should be done by our selues to our selues Thou oughtest to loue thy neighbour but as thou louest thy selfe The example of thy charitie is drawne from thy selfe at home Thy soule thy preseruation the good wished to thy selfe should be the true direction of thy deedes vnto thy neighbour But thou must not lay any bloudy and murthering hands vpon another therefore much lesse on thy selfe 19 God hath placed thee in this world as in a watch or a standing from whence thou must not stirre thy foote till he bid thee to remooue He hath imprinted a most passionate loue betweene thy soule and thy body that they grieue to leaue one another The mind will haue many inuentions the body will beare many stripes before that either from other of them do willingly depart and be dissolued Wise men haue no greater reason of perswasion to induce that the parting with any friend or the loosing of the nearest and dearest must be borne with patience then that a dearer couple the nearest that this world hath that is our soules and our bodies must depart and flye a sunder The affection is so entire the coniunction is so inward which the one of these hath to the other God would haue our natiuitie to be bitter to our mothers that they might loue vs the dearer but he would haue our death to be soure vnto our selues that we might the more feare to hasten it And therfore although the spirite may be willing in any man yet surely the flesh is weake in the laying downe of the life for a good conscience and the Gospell What one is he whome Gods spirite hath not in great measure mortified that feeleth not in himselfe oftentimes an horrour and a quaking to thinke of this dissolution that he who in some sort may yet be called the image of God should become dust and clay that the goodliest of those creatures whome the Almightie hath framed vnder the heauen should prooue a rotten carcasse that he who hath seene the starres and beheld the heauen in his beauty yea hath meditated on the highest and contemplated on the Trinitie should be put into a graue and tumbled into the earth to be amongst worms and vermin in darkenesse and corruption all which a naturall man doth loath he could wish that it might not be Now when our owne hand shall hasten that which nature doth so far hate which our heart doth so dislike which God doth so detest how wicked is our wickednesse 20 Egesippus in his third booke of the destruction of Hierusalem rehearseth a worthy Oration although in some other words then I find it in Iosephus himselfe which Iosephus that great and learned Iewe made to his souldiers in a caue where they lay hid after the losse of the citie Iotapata which Vespasian the Romane Generall tooke There his owne men would take no naye but that they must murther downe one another whereupon he vseth a speech which in my iudgement is most patheticall The Almighty God hath giuen vnto vs our life as a most precious treasure he hath shut it and sealed it vp in this earthen vessell and giuen it vs to be kept till that himself do aske for it againe And were it not a fault now as on the one side to deny it when he shall require it againe so on the other side to spill and cast this treasure forth which was thus committed to vs before he do demaund it And after a few other words he goeth thus forward If we should kill our selues who is he that should admit vs into the company of good soules Shall it not be sayd to vs as once it was sayd to Adam Where art thou so where are yee who contrary to my precept are come where you should not be because I haue not yet loosed you from the bonds of your bodies This is a Christian speech out of the mouth of a Iewe which caryeth such matter with it as is worthy to be reuolued It was not well with Adam when he who should haue bene in the plaine was crept into the bushes his misery then began And without Gods exceeding mercie whereof no man can presume nay great and mightie preiudice is to the contrary it wil be most ill with them who do aduenture vpon such deedes they do rush themselues into torments 21 Let heathen men be famous for