a moment of time he hath them very readily attending wheresoeuer he pleaseth It is he who alone may say as he doth speake in Iob All vnder heauen is mine The people say of him truly Our God is in heauen he doth whatsoeuer he will There is not any creature in the heauen or earth or sea be it body or be it spirit which is not at his deuotion and waiteth not at his becke The greatest do him homage the smallest do him seruice For he is greater then the mightiest by whole millions of degrees and his ouer-seeing prouidence taketh knowledge of the meanest Not a sparow which lighteth on the ground not an haire which falleth from the head but he is interested in it 2 What is greater then the heauen yet if Iosuah pray vnto him for one whole day this euer-wheeling body shal cease his swift diurnall motion The Sunne shall stand still in Gibeon and the Moone in the vale of Aialon That which commeth forth as a Giant and reioyceth to runne his course yet to satisfie Ezechias and to confirme his faith shall flye backe as a coward for ten degrees at once as then it appeared by the diall of Ahaz What is ruder or more vnfit to be dealt with then the earth Yet at his pleasure he shaketh both earth and sea What is more excellent or of a more pure and single nature then the Angels Yet he hath bound vp foure of them in the riuer Euphrates and although they be prepared at an houre and at a day and at a moneth at a yere to slay the third part of men yet these Angels cannot stirre vntill that they be loosed by his precise commandement And such is his soueraigne power that when he findeth occasion they are freed all in a moment In like sort to effect his purposes he needeth not the posts of Persia whoÌ„ Haman sometimes vsed nor the dromedaries of Egypt nor the swift runners of other nations to go from place to place and giue notice of his will but in the very instant he either doth touch the mind of him who is to be the doer or he raiseth vp some thing else which shall declare his meaning God sendeth forth his commandement and his word runneth very swiftly The day is his and the night the open place and the secret fish and birdes and beastes and all the very wings of the wind to cary his precept on them Vnconceiuable is his Maiesty vnestimable is his power the highest things and the lowest the greatest and the weakest are euer at his commandement he hath the keyes of heauen nay of hell and of death This his power so vncontrollable most eminently appeareth in punishing the wicked and preseruing his owne children 3 Ammianus Marcellinus reporteth that in Mesopotamia among the reedes and bushes growing neare to the riuer Euphrates are euermore great store of Lions which vse to remaine there being much delighted with the great calmenesâ—e and pleasure of that climate The danger arising from these both vnto men and beasts would be perpetuall but that God hath prouided a remedy to slacke the fury of them and that is in admirable maner There are alwayes in that coast infinite swarmes of gnats which gather much about those Lions and to nothing in them so desirously as to their eyes whom we know to be bright and shining members But sitting fast on the eye-lids they do so pricke and sting them that the raging Lions are forced to scratch with their nailes as if they would remooue the gnats but indeede they claw out their owne eyes so that many of them by this meanes growing blind do drowne themselues in the great riuers or otherwise become lesse terrible This is an argument of Gods wisedome who delighteth in such variety of these inferiour bodies And yet withall it is an argument of his puissance who by so weake a matter can ouerthrow such a great one a Lion by a gnat and hath those little ones so attendant as that euery man may see that they are prepared by their maker to ouer-rule the other to chase them and pursue them and vexe them vnto destruction The tyrants of the earth are â—earefull vnto the poore as the Lion is to the lambe Their might giueth them abilitie and their minde doth yeeld them will to treade downe their inferiours Now for the punishment of these bitter ones God hath prepared as small things as the gnats to maister them in their fury Let Pharao be one man and Herod be another who shall demonstrate this The violence of the former and his cruell oppression toward the sonnes of God was insolent and outragious But how doth the graund ruler of the heauen trample vpon him and make him cry peccaui with the basest of those bodies which mankind euer seeth The hand of his seruant Aaron was but stretched out on the waters and frogs came in such store as made him loath himselfe and euery thing about him So the swarmes of flies did force him to be humbled for a time What hostes were there of grashoppers and of deuouring caterpillers which came forth at one call as if they had bene reserued before by the Lord to shew his mighty hand and his power which is not limited Nay to testifie Gods owne finger there was an army of lice then whom nothing is more vile yet prepared they were at an instant to plague where the Lord commanded The other that proud Herod who vpon a glosing flattering speech of the people assumed to himselfe that glory which of right appertained to his maker was stricken with Gods Angell and so died consumed with wormes In such manner hath the Almighty euery creature for his messenger and executing seruant close standing at his elbow to vexe and plague and torture the enemies of his Maiesty or the oppugners of his glory 4 And is he strong to hurt and is he not so to helpe To defend and to offend are they not alike vnto him protection and correction His sweete mercy triumpheth ouer his bitter iustice and his power attendeth his mercy and the world attendeth his power and so doth euery thing which is in it In the twelfth of the Reuelation this is well shadowed to vs. The woman which is the Church here militant vpon earth is followed hard by the Dragon there are found two Egles wings by the which she doth escape Behold there is one deliuerance and one not looked for remedy The Dragon yet doth not leaue her but since he cannot come he thinketh to send home after her he casteth out of his mouth a water like to a riuer thinking thereby to drowne her See another helpe in a moment The earth openeth herselfe and swalloweth vp that water which the Dragon had cast forth To the same effect with this parable or vision were the Israelites reskued by the red sea the waters flying a sunder and
bodie If the bodie stand vpright the shadow is vpright also But maruell not if the shadow do double if the body be first crooked Thy fals draw other on with them For thy callings sake and for his sake whose marke is stamped in thy forehead haue an eye vnto thy wayes But aboue all follow him in this He sitteth on high in the heauen there is no earthinesse with him let not thy celestiall spirit be fixed vpon the earth and lye groueling on the ground Thy outward man and thy inward man and all thy conuersation must be aboue in heauen not in scraping or in scratching as if thou hadst a perpetuall habitation in this world How shall other by thy example learne to contemne that world which thou with greedinesse doest embrace and shewest thy selfe as if thou hadst lost much time at thy studie in the Vniuersitie and wast now to recouer it with a preposterous emulation of the fiercest hungriest worldlings There is nothing farther from heauen then this there is nothing more vnlike to thy maker It is noted that those creatures which are nearest the earth take most care to get store those which are more remote are lesse busied but those who liue next the heauen haue their hearts least set vpon it What hoordeth like the Emet or pismire which is an earthy thing and dwelling thereupon But the birds of the ayre who flye next to the heauen as Christ himselfe doth teach do neither sow nor reape nor carie into the barne Let thy meditations cary thee much higher then their wings that although thou liue with men yet thy loue may be with God So thy celestiall contemplation thy pastourlike conuersation thy knowledge fit for a teacher may shew that thou art one of them by whom the Lord doth speake and that title shall be giuen thee And so much for the Minister 9 But the people are also taught from hence to yeeld an vnfained reuerence to their pastors and preachers yea although they be such as haue their infirmities For who had more then Ionas and yet his speech is called Gods speech the beleeuing of his words the beleeuing of the Lord. The profite which is brought by the true Pastours to their congregations their maister who doth send them and the message which they bring do deserue to be well regarded It is more then men do accompt it to seeke out what goeth astray to comfort the broken hearted to leade in the way of peace to feede that with spirituall foode which otherwise would perish To ouerturne the strong holds of Satan and of sinne is that which is worth the receiuing But as Origene once said as the wals of Hierico fell downe by nothing but by the trumpets of the Priests so be the strong holds of Satan ouerthrowne by nothing but by the doctrine of good teachers These come from the immortall Lord who is a iealous God and a terrible and doth hold the disgrace done to his Ministers as a disgrace offered to himselfe and punisheth it accordingly A Christian captaine could once say to Valens the Emperour that he lost a victorie for abusing of Gods ministers and they saith he who fight against the Lord do prosper in nothing Moreouer the message which they bring is the true peace of conscience and ioy in the holy Ghost A treasure beyond all treasures and although they be but earthen vessels and therefore brittle who bring it yet for the treasures sake they should be well intreated How do they keepe this lesson who accompt it part of their happinesse if with facilitie they may abuse and with promptnesse depraue those whom in truth they shold honour for so the Apostle speaketh and yet they will be Christians and men knowne for religion Thou who so doest art an vnhappie man thou wrongest thy self and knowest it not Heare what Saint Cyprian saith vnto thee Thou art angrie with him who laboureth to turne away the wrath of God from thee thou threatnest him who intreateth the mercie of God for thee who feeleth that wound of thine which thou thy selfe doest not feele who powreth out those teares for thee which thou thy selfe perhaps doest not powre out for thus the true Pastour doth I may adde Thou wicked heart why doest thou render him so ill thankes for his labour Commest thou not vnto his Church by that meanes thou debarrest thy selfe from the communion of Gods saints Doest thou come ioynest not with him in prayer and inuocation then thou secludest thy selfe from a multitude of men who call vpon the Lord and it is better that thou hadst beene absent for now thou condemnest thy selfe for coming and yet refusing But thou prayest ioyntly with thy Pastour then let Saint Chrysostome speake vnto thee when he saith peace be to you as we say in our Liturgie the Lord be with you thou answerest with thy spirit for in old time they replyed so also as we do now Thus thou sayest in the Church and as soone as thou art come out thou impugnest him thou despisest him thou reuilest him and priuily with a thousand reproches thou rentest him and tearest him what a peace is this to his spirit which thou doest wish vnto him Take heede and be aduised ô you sonnes of men lest despising those whom your God fauoureth you purchase his high displeasure Learne of the Gentiles of Niniue to thinke of God in his messengers and by the visible creature to remember the inuisible Lord and to respect them both the Eternall for himselfe the other with a reference because he commeth from him 10 Now to returne to my Prophet by him speaking from God and by God sending his word his louing moouing word faith is wrought in the Niniuites according to that of the Apostle Saint Paule that faith is by hearing and hearing by the word of God They by a terrour apprehend the conscience of their sinnes and imagine that without repentance destruction and vnauoidable desolation is at their doores See the straunge effect of one sermon and the doctrine of one day for so I do still take it among a forlorne people The stonie heart is made like waxe the flintie mind is made soft But how strange a worke is this where something was expected there nothing is to be found and where nothing was looked for there it commeth in great abundance There is more treasure in a wildernesse then in the treasure house He had long preached to the Israelites and Israel was not Israel but a disobedient nation Gods people were now become a Niniue or a Babylō in comparison of that which they should haue bene He commeth among the Niniuites and there he findeth more of Israel then he did in his own countrey The circumcision scorneth and the vncircumcised are made heires of the promises The children prooue to be rebels and the rebels are chaunged into children So in the time of our Sauiour the
magnifie themselues and make their wordes seeme glorious dare oppose their wits against heauen and earth against Iewes and Gentiles against God and men could remember the endlesse wisedome of the word of life they might plentifully admire their spirit who to giue God the glory do reioyce in their infirmities proclaime their owne follies And if they would compare the maner of these writers inspired with the holy Ghost with the workes of other men of what sort soeuer they must either shut their eyes or confesse a great difference 3 For the writers of this world howsoeuer against enemies they speake all and more then all as Zozimus did against the Christians or for their friendes and countrymen set all at the highest as Salust doth obserue that the Athenien and Greeke writers did long before his time yea howsoeuer sometimes they speake truth where it cometh to their notice or toucheth not themselues or their partiall friends yet in them we find few examples of laying open the errors of themselues or of their friēds especially when in any sort it may be concealed Let Tully be a witnesse of whose faults we do not reade in any thing of his owne but that Rome was saued by him from the furie of Catiline that when he was Consul he did more then good seruice to the common-wealth his tong and his pen haue neuer done What learned man hath not heard of his Cedant arma togae concedat laurea linguae In the Commentaries of Caesar a booke worthily penned may we find any thing which maketh against himselfe yea in his ciuill warres But in his friend Hirtius what is there to be read that doth not make for him The writings of Mahomet I meane such as are written of him do make him the onely Prophet in the last age of the world the great seruant of the Highest hauing messages from aboue and oracles from heauen yea such a one as was able bodily to rise againe from the dead but that must be after eight hundred yeares he taketh a pretie time for the trying of that conclusion whereas Christ tooke but three dayes yea as Viues obserueth that he was the Cōforter whom Christ promised to send into the world after his ascension and that it was written in the Gospell of Saint Iohn I will send you a Comforter and that shall be Mahomet but that those last words concerning Mahomet were razed out by the Christians 4 By these we may iudge of the rest But it is so farre off from men who are but naturall men to be detectors and discouerers of their owne falles to posterity that they cannot with patience endure that they should be opened by other For that is a common fault and not proper to one which Pliny reporteth of one in his time And that was that whereas according to the custome of that age a certaine writer had read and rehearsed in the presence of diuerse a peece of a booke which truly deciphered the faults of some men and sayd that he would reserue the rest vntil the next day to be heard the friends of one party who was touched in that booke and not without desert came in the meane while to the Author and most earnestly intreated him in their friends behalfe that he would forbeare to reade of that matter any further Which made Pliny to inferre this in one of his Epistles Such shame is there of hearing such things as are done by them who shame not to do that which they blush to heare What his friends could not endure himselfe would much lesse what to heare had bene grieuous to write had bene ashame The Prophets and pen-men of the Spirit of God by a peculiar prerogatiue are singular in this kind to shew that their bookes are the bookes of their Maister and so by that one meanes among other to stop the mouths of blasphemers and miscreants who measure God by themselues and pietie by their profanenesse Ionas was better taught not to giue the glory to himself but to God hauing learned that lesson which Saint Austen afterward did mention that he who hath failed in the first degree of wisedome that is vertue and obedience should betake him to the second that is modestie in confessing and acknowledging his fault Heare now therefore what he did and how he performed his message He arose to flie into Tarshish 5 Ionas thus farre was obedient to arise when he was bidden but he might as well haue sate still for anie good which he did He rouzeth vp himselfe as if he intended to fall hardly to his matters but after the first step he trode not one foot right He should haue rose to crie and he arose to flie he should haue gone East to Niniue and he went Westward to Iapho But euen cleane contrary A liuely example of the infirmitie of man that without Gods grace we very soone plunge into all maner of sin without measure or meane when a Prophet so experienced in the mysteries of saluation could play so foule a part But there is no man that sinneth not as Salomon saith And the iust man doth fall seuen times whereof although Hierome aske If he be iust how doth he fall and if he fall how is he iust yet he answereth himselfe that he looseth not the name of a righteous man who ariseth by repentance and we may say further he falleth by nature and ariseth by grace he falleth by sinne and is righteous by faith In many things we sinne all saith S. Iames not you only who be the people but we also the Apostles And if that there should haue come any other after the Apostles that should not haue sinned it is very likely that our Sauiour in the midst of his wisedome wherewith he gouerneth his Church would haue appointed for them some other prayer then the ordinary Lords prayer they should not haue sayd forgiue vs our trespasses because they had none This is a cooler both to the Pharisees and Nouatians who were wont to despise sinners If Ionas fall and Iob and Noe and Lot and Dauid whom the scripture calleth iust and righteous persons and after Gods owne heart let other men take heed of presumption and trusting in themselues Yet this is a comfort to sinners in the weakenesse of their soules If God forgaue Ionas repenting and beleeuing he will forgiue vs also if we beleeue and repent Therfore let not despaire deuour our wounded consciences Yet let not this be an incouragement to offend in any wilfulnesse Many will fall with Dauid but they will not arise with Dauid Our Prophet at the length amendeth but his fall was great the while Let vs first see the reasons that moued him to his flight and then the maner of it 6 We need not to doubt but Satan who is euer at hand to promote bad causes could yeeld reasons enough for the hinderance of this worke He had cause to
a maister where is my feare If Ionas were now his seruant it was but in name onely he did in truth litle regard his maister At this time then he hath much more occasion to stand in awe of his punishment and in that sence he might well say that he feared the God of heauen He who looketh on the next Chapter shall see this to be most likely 15 The horrour of sinne is such euen in the hearts of the best of Gods children that if faith do sleepe but a little and the resolued assurance of mercy in the Sauiour be eclipsed but for a moment it maketh their soules to tremble in such sort as if diffidence and despaire should swallow them vp by and by How was Dauid dismaied when he cried out Cast me not away from thy presence and take not thine holy Spirit from me What did Iob imagine of his owne desert when he thus professed I abhorre my selfe and repent in dust and ashes In what an horrible anguish was Peter when he went out and wept bitterly But our Prophet of all other fearing the dreadfull burthen of sinne vpon his shoulders and gessing at the strange punishment which should follow him immediatly with some measure of seruile feare doth tremble at his Lord. His feare should haue bene before that he had not runne wilfully into sinne for as it is noted in one of those Epistles which are in the workes of Ambrose although not thought to be his It is one thing to feare because thou hast offended another thing to feare least that thou shouldest offend In the one is a dread of punishment in the other is a carefulnesse that thou mayst obtaine the reward Saint Austen doth describe this slauish quaking feare in one and childes feare in another as the schoolemen do call it by a comparison drawne from a good wife and a harlot The adulterous wife and the chast wife sayth he do both feare if the husband be away The one feareth and the other but aske the reason of both and you shall see an apparant difference The bad vvife standeth in feare of her husband least he should come to her The good vvife is in feare least her husband should go from her This feareth least he should condemne her because she hath deserued it That feareth least he should forsake her because she loueth him dearely Remember these things sayth Austen and so thou shalt find a bad feare whom charity driueth foorth and another chast feare vvhich abideth for euer and euer 16 Ionas who was accustomed in his cogitations of God to ioyne a loue with his reuerence as toward a father now thinketh on him no otherwise then as of a Lord ready to take strong vengeance vpon him as on a prisoner deputed to death This is the best fruite of vngratefulnesse and of negligence in our duties to come as vnto a iudge astonished and amased and trembling to see his face or almost to remember his name whereas we might come as to a father or as to a brother with confidence and boldnesse as to the throne of grace Fye filthy sinne that for thy sake we should thus disable our selues we should so disgrace our soules that when we might liue euen in this world with a dayly deaw of sweete influence distilling vpon our hearts from the holy Spirit of God to reuiue vs and refresh vs and whereas Paradise could not yeeld greater comfort to our eye then the presence of the Trinitie dwelling supping with vs would do vnto our minds and wheras we might dye in rest as hauing that ioy of consciēce that perfect peace of God which passeth all vnderstanding resigning vp with gladnesse our spirites vnto our maker yea that whereas either liuing or dying we may rest our selues on that rocke that euermore we are the Lordes belonging to his election and sealed vp with his adoption to that end that we may enioy sinne for a season and the wantonnesse of this flesh the vanities of this earth and the foolerie of this world which are scant worth the naming to a man that hath heard of wisedome which leaue vs and liue not with vs we should plunge our selues into that horrour which wayteth vpon the reprobates and be perplexed in our thoughtes in our vnderstanding dazeled discouraged in our life discomforted in our end thinking of hell and iudgement and wrath and fearefull vengeance which maketh men liue in miserie with sobs and many a sigh and dye without hope of mercie Let vs raise vp our selues at length and with sober meditation contemplate vpon this matter Let our soule be dearer to vs euen that soule which Christ hath bought with his bloud with his precious heart bloud then sinne with his tayle of a scorpion who departeth not without stinging Better to loue God as Ionas should then to quake at God as Ionas did The God of heauen who made the sea and the drie land 17 But here I must not forget the last wordes of my text because they yeeld a speciall doctrine most fit for these present times In this speech Ionas doth entitle his maister to all the world he is first the God of the heauen and then he did create the sea and the drie land Heauen oftentimes by a generall name containeth all things aboue vs be they elements or be they other bodies so then God did make this whole frame The heauen is as his seate the earth he made from which the sea he made to which the Prophet did here flie Be it wet or be it dry be it passable be it nauigable be it aboue or below this maker did create it So Nehemiah witnesseth Thou art Lord alone thou hast made heauē and the heauen of all heauens with all their host the earth and all things that are therein the seas and all that are in them and thou preseruest them all and the host of the heauen vvorshippeth thee So Iob speaketh so Dauid testifieth So the Articles of our faith do teach vs to beleeue on the maker of heauen and earth Whereby it is plaine that he doth renounce the groundes of Christianitie who doth deny this doctrine Yet the world hath hatched such monsters euen of the seed of Christiās as who make no bones therof But young ones abash not at it nor abash not at it old ones for it is no more thē we looke for S. Peter long ago foretold it that in the last dayes there should come such deriders as should laugh at the speech of Christes coming and at the day of iudgement maintaining that there shall be an eternall continuance of all things in such sort as now they are Where is the promise of his coming for since the fathers dyed all things continue alike from the beginning of the creation These will not beleeue that euer the heauen earth were not but they receiue it that they haue stood from all eternitie and shall so continue They see
all things into her owne lap and bodies do owe to themselues the end of themselues O Caesar if fire do not novv consume these slaine men yet it shall hereafter burne them vp together with the earth and the sea For there remaineth to come one bone-fire which shall be common to all the vvorld and shall mingle the starres in heauen with their bones on earth Ouer and aboue these men of learning Peru the South part of America doth yeeld to vs an ignorant people who by the light of nature and by a generall apprehension for God knoweth they had nothing else do beleeue that the world shall end and that there shall be then a reward for the good and for the euill according to their desert An end doth suppose a beginning as the learned do well know A marring intendeth a making He who drowned the earth by water can dissolue the heauen by fire But the deluge of Deucaliō so much song of by the Poets doth witnesse that there was such a floud in the dayes of Noe and that all things were spilled by the water which could not haue bene but by him who made both the earth and the water Thus the Poets do roaue at that in their fables which Moses teacheth vs in our most sacred Bible 20 Adde some reasons to authority If the world were not created man had not once a beginning how cōmeth it about that all things which make vs liue like men appeare to haue their originall in time and place we know where an when and that but as yesterday to eternity I must not here speake of Moses which telleth vs who first made tents who made the Harpe and the Organ who first did worke in brasse because he is now in question But I bid you rather looke on Polidore Virgil who hath written a large tract of purpose to shew by whom the most matters which be of excellencie were inuented There is no greater grace to a man then knowledge and the artes of learning But Mercurie as some say as some other the Phaenicians are reported by the Gentiles to haue inuented the first letters and others are sayd afterward to haue added to them But we know that the Hebrew letters were before their time euen in the dayes of Moses who as Eusebius saith in that admirable worke of his De praeparatione Euāgelica was more ancient thē the Gods of the Greekes for that they began but after the daies of Cadmus who came much short of Moses Notwithstanding allow it to the Gentiles that there men were the authors of letters it must follow thereupon that before the birth of those persons there was no kind of Grammer How are we beholding to Zeno and Socrates and Aristotle for the vse of Logicke We know well when these liued Aristotle was schoolemaister to Alexander and Plato vnto Aristotle and Socrates vnto Plato some 400 yeares before Christ. Zeno was litle beyond thē For Philosophy Phythagoras is thought to be one of the most ancient Yet he came into Italy after that Rome was built Astronomy should be supposed to be as old as any Yet how lately were the Eclipses of the Moone which are things so well knowne in nature most feareful to the armies of the Graecians and the Romanes as in the war against Perseus Was not the yeare brought to the orderly course of the Sun by Iulius Caesar How long haue kings bene on earth when Nimrod as Moses calleth him or Ninus as other terme him for these two are thought to be one was one of the first among all nations What lawes were among the Greekes before the dayes of Lycurgus Iosephus against Apion writeth that in the time of Homere the name of law was not so much as knowne and that in all the workes of Homere there is not the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but that they were thē ruled by the speech commaundement of Princes Nay what do I speake of these things when the very foode of men in any ciuill sort had his beginning but of late for among the Ethnicks is not Bacchus sayd first to haue found out the vine we know that Noe was the man of the vine cometh the wine How cometh it about that Ceres is canonized among them for a Goddesse but for shewing their forefathers the first vse of corne All these and a thousand more imply that as things with vs are in good perfection so not long since they were rude and not long before that they were nothing because all things were nothing For the world had his beginning and these in the world their beginning 21 My text speaketh of the sea I would know of this proud disputes what reason he can assigne that the sea in diuerse places should be higher then the land and yet not ouerflow the bankes Saint Sasile in his Hexaemeron doth excellently shew it and confirmeth it to be so This may be founde to be thus by instruments Geometricall or otherwise by the eye as Leuius hath obserued and that of his owne knowledge sensibly discerning it in the Atlantike sea neare the coast of Mauritania Nature can yeelde no reason for this their best is but a cauill But diuinitie endeth this doubt God hath tyed it within his limites as a Lyon fastened in a chayne Thou saith Dauid speaking of the waters in the sea hast set them a bound which they shall not passe they shall not returne to couer the earth So God saith to Iob Who hath shut vp the sea with dores whē it issued and came forth as out of the wombe when I made the clouds as a couering thereof and darknesse in the swadling bandes thereof When I stablished my commaundement vpon it and set barres and dores and said hitherto shalt thou come and no farther and here shall it stay thy proude waues My text speaketh of the land and that hath so great alterations as in time will bring a ruine Heare the iudgement of a Gentile vpon this Aelian in the eighth booke of his historie telleth vs that not onely the mountaine in Sicilia Aetna for thereof may be giuen some reason because of the wasting and consuming of it by fire but Parnassus and Olympus did appeare to be lesse and lesse to such as sayled at sea the height thereof sinking as it seemed Whereupon he doth giue that note that men most skilfull in the secrets of nature did say that the world it selfe should perish and haue an end I know to whom I do speake that is to men of great vnderstanding As therefore I name but a few things so you see I dwell not on them 22 To that position of those who oppugne this doctrine of the creating and continuing of all by God by saying that it is Nature who produceth euery thing I might answere that there is no such matter as Nature taking it in that sense which they foolishly
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
three nor fortie and yet both three and fortie yet fortie three dayes saith he 17 This worthie man as it seemeth would haue a way by himselfe but by moderating two sides he hath drawne them both vpon him In which his case may not vnfitly be compared to that of Martin Luther which is so famous For he knowing that the Papists in the matter of the Sacrament held a Transubstantiation as the Septuagint hold three in Ionas both of these opinions both concerning three and the transubstantiating hauing continued a long time but not from the beginning and that Zuinglius held that the bread remained after Consecration but yet representing the body of Christ which agreeth with the Scripture as fortie here doth with the Hebrew would needes like to Iustinus Martyr bring both these sides after a sort together that there should be bread with Zuinglius and the body too with the Romanists not by turning the bread into Christs bodie but by a Consubstantiation or ioyning each with other And in holding this opinion being driuen to those extremities as to maintaine that the flesh of Christ is in the bread and with the bread and vnder the bread yea euery where in the earth and ayre and heauen he drew both sides vpon him and is oppugned by both with bitternesse and great egernesse Whereout I do make this vse that Gods acts are miraculous and his ordinances wonderfull when he suffereth the best to fall that none in this world may be perfect but only the Godhead which is immaculate and vndefiled and so by this meanes all glorie may be his Moses shall haue his spots although in another kind and Peter shall deserue to be reprooued by Paule So many Martyrs and Fathers in the old and Primitiue Church had their spots and noted spots and yet were Gods noble seruants In like sort that renowmed man the great instrument of the Lords glorie who so cleared that point of iustification the very ground of saluation against all the Rabbines and schoolemen and so purged out other superstitions that all Europe at this day doth shine the brighter for him and therefore as his memorie shall be blessed to the end in despite of all that gaine-say it so his soule doth rest with the Highest had his lapsum humanum his errour incident to a man that we might euermore remember that he was a man although an excellent man and not more dote vpon him then we should vpon a creature Yet there wanteth not good testimonie that himself before he died did dislike that opinion and thought that he had gone too farre I haue named this by occasion of that in Iustinus Martyr in whom that about three and fortie dayes was an errour although I put a great difference betweene the mistaking of a number and this higher point of religion 18 But to preuent in our selues the like slips which befell to them writing concerning Ionas the best and readiest way is to haue recourse to the wel-springs wherin the word was written which Saint Austen himselfe doth confesse although he were nothing seene in the Hebrew and but little in the Greeke In which toungs the greater knowledge is the greater gift of God which although he do not graunt in abundant sort to all as to one he giueth this thing to another that to the end that all may stand in need one of another yet it is good for a Diuine to know something in them that when great doubts arise he be not quite to seeke albeit he be not so well furnished as to reade a Lecture of a toung in an Vniuersitie In that little wherof I haue taken notice which I confesse is not much I do find in some of the Auncient ouersights which are greater then ordinarie for want of vnderstanding in the originall of the Hebrew and this hath fallen out in the greatest controuersies I will name one for all but such a one as then the which nothing is more euident nothing is more materiall He who hath read the old Councels or the Ecclesiasticall storie or the writings of such Fathers as succeeded the time of Constantine within one or two hundred yeares may sufficiently see and surfet how Arius and his companie oppugned the Godhead of Christ and his equalitie with his Father What more maine question was there euer concerning the grounds of Christianitie or what could possibly strike deeper In the reading of those forenamed writers we find that at the first Athanasius was the onely man for writing and disputing to oppugne them as was euident in the Nicene Councell and otherwise afterward And he suffered so much for his labour that he well deserued to be called a ring-leader and bel-wether of the flocke a pillar of the faith that inuincible Athanasius a champion for Christ Iesus and whatsoeuer else is honorable Yet it is maruell to see how in all his disputations he is troubled with that place in the eighth chapter of the Prouerbs where wisedome saith of her selfe which he cannot chuse but interpret to be the Sonne of God the Lord made me or created me the beginning of his wayes whereout the Arrians vrged that Iesus Christ in the Godhead was made or created and consequently was a creature and so of another substance And this they had from the Septuagint who translated it in that manner The Lord made me or the Lord created me It is strange to see how in answere of that place the good Father is driuen as elsewhere so in Decretis Nicenae synodi to expound and distinguish this creature and to shew how Gods Sonne in the Deity may be so called Truth it is that he holdeth the ground as an Orthodoxe Catholike man but he is put to hard shifts Now if his skill had bene such as to haue repaired to the Hebrew text the matter had bene soone answered and he had found that which Hierome quickly afterward did discouer that it is there in the place Dominus possedit me or Dominus acquisiuit me as Arias Montanus hath it the Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way which maketh not for the Arrian Iehouah Canani which doth not come of Canan nidificare for then the former Nun should haue Daghes in the middle but of Canah acquirere possidere with the Affixe in the end And so it had bene better translated by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some of whose tenses do signifie possideo then by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 creo And this being so answered to the enemie had razed the greatest fort wherein he trusted most Let this place out of the Prouerbes in so renowmed a man as Athanasius was and the other out of Ionas which was mistaken by so many shew what a helpe it is to be able vpon occasion to looke to the originall where finding as we do Yet fortie dayes and Niniue shall be destroyed I will not farther dispute it But hauing now made this way to the doctrine of
which containeth thrise fiftie Psalmes the second our Ladies Psalter and containeth thrise fiftie Aues and the third is Iesus Psalter containing fifteene petitions which being ten times repeated do make in all thrise fiftie And indeede sutable hereunto there are fifteene Petitions where Iesu Iesu Iesu mercie is ten times word for word to be repeated in the beginnings of them And if you faile in the compt the deuotion is not perfect What is it to put superstition in numbers if this be not And where are the people kept in bondage and blindnesse of darkenesse and grosse errour if it be not in these toyes Iesus Christ open the heart of many of our nation but especially of that sex◠which is the weaker vessell that at the last they may shake off this yoke of vanitie and superstition 6 Of the third kind who offend rather in curiositie and do not deserue to be reprooued so sharply as those two other sorts are some that fault in Diuinitie and some other in other matters In Diuinitie such as if they can catch any nūber in a peece of Scripture which is to be intreated of their people aboue all things shall haue that for a note either in their preaching or writings as if there were more in that then in the best text of the Bible yea such mysteries and such secrets as that he is scant a Christian man who doth not vnderstand them or at the least he is but a simple fellow and fit to be despised As for example sake there is much in the number of seuen The seuenth day in the creation was the day wherein the Lord did rest the seuenth day was the Sabboth of the Iewes at Hiericho seuen Priests did take seuen trumpets of Rammes hornes and they went seuen dayes about and the seuenth day seuen times and the Deacons were seuen whom the Apostles chose and Iohn wrote to the seuen Churches where seuen starres and seuen candlesticks are mentioned in like manner And this is vrged without any reason which may imply fruit of doctrine or sound edification or without any necessitie of the place and yet is pursued and followed more then if it were an Article of the faith as if the whole lawe and the Prophets and the greatest meanes of comming to saluation consisted in such points as these and in the ripping vp of Genealogies It is good to be wise but yet be wise to sobrietie Not so much trickes of our owne wit and the glorifying of our selues is to be respected of vs as an vpright zeale to magnifie our eternall and fearefull maker But for the matter it selfe how many numbers be there which might be amplified in such sort As for two to say the two tables wrought by the finger of God the two Testaments old and new the two persons in Christ the Diuinitie and the manhood the two parts of a man the bodie and the soule For three the blessed Trinitie and the three who came to Abraham For foure the foure beastes in Daniel the foure wheeles in Ezechiel the foure Euangelistes in the new Testament For fiue the fiue bookes of Moses the fiue sences the fiue wise virgins This may be said for ten and twelue and thirtie and fiftie and many more whom I follow not lest I my selfe may iustly be reprooued in this my reproofe of other Yet I giue a tast by the way of the Non sequitur of the matter In cases of other nature those come within this compasse who do tye the euent of things to Pythagorean numbers as the chaunges of states and kingdomes to the ends of seuen yeares and of nine yeares being multiplied vp and downe Herein Bodine in his Methode of Historie is too free howsoeuer for other matters of inuention and good wit scant thought of before his time his industrie is praise-worthie Now if any should make a booke containing nothing else but examples of some one number and seruing in truth to no purpose that should neede no other censure but to be termed the fruite of an idle wit From which I would that our countreymen at last would keepe their hands cleane leauing iudgement and iudicious workes to our nation for which some Critickes will say that we are fit by the stayednesse of our constitution and robustiousnesse of nature but trickes to the Italians who suppose that their wits more abound Thus let numbers of curiositie of superstition and of sanctitie be quite remooued and separated from vs. 7 Yet being kept in measure they haue their good and profitable vse As first where the word of God doth apply them directly and apparantly to any purpose we may also do the like and amplifie them so farre as they serue naturally to expresse the text in question In the last of the Reuelation there is speech of the tree of life which is said to beare twelue fruites and to giue fruite euery moneth and that the leaues thereof do heale all kinds of diseases Here to speake of the twelue moneths of the yeare and of twelue fruites is fitly to the matter Yea to note that euery moneth in the yeare hath seuerall pleasures and that some things are more seasonable in one moneth then in another as some fishes are for speciall times and fruites in hotter countreys where the daintie orchards are are more kindly at set seasons And moreouer that many diseases do follow termes of the yeare but yet that by the tree of life there is prouision made for all these matters in the diuersitie of whose good things the various ioyes of heauen are painted out vnto vs and that nothing is conuenient for heauen but there it is to be had all this is consonant to the place and both for the matter and number it may be soberly discoursed Where there is an vse which is not forced and wrested there the Spirit of God is so farre off from forbidding vs to apply numbers and make ou◠benefite by them that it giueth vs the example In the beginning of Saint Matthewes Gospell in shewing the discent from Abraham to Christ are named fourteene generations and then fourteene generations and so againe the third time but that is partly to helpe memorie but most of all to note the times which were of fame as that of Dauid and the other of the captiuitie In such cases as are manifestly offered by the text which is in hand we may very well stand on numbers Secondly I do not thinke but we may also apply them when we vse some allusion which is consonant and agreeable to the analogie of faith or in which there is reason to thinke in the true feare of God that the Lord himselfe had a reference to such matters Iosephus doth expound the seuen candles which did burne in the Candlesticke in the Tabernacle to signifie the seuen planets and the twelue loaues of shew-bread to note the twelue signes of the Zodiacke Here if we beleeue the assertion
Niniuites all points succeeded well although they sowed in teares yet they reaped in ioy so shall it be with thee But let word of causes important be still brought to thy selfe 6 The next matter which in generall I note in this great person is that God would haue him to be touched aboue other that his humiliation might be accepted beyond others For the Lord is much affected toward them in the persons of whom he hath imprinted a maiestie and by speciall ordinance hath made them his Vicegerents As he hath seated them in a propriety of dignitie aboue all their fellowes so the account which he hath of them is of speciall property Looke through the Heathen men as well as vpon such as knew him and feared him Where do we find a man furnished with such parts as Alexander was of celerity of resolute magnanimity of felicity in all his attempts Where see we a man comparable with that worthy Iulius Caesar How admirable were the workes of Herode the Great and how maiesticall yea terrible was the presence of his person when enemies of his came into the place where he was washing and yet feared to make toward him although he were naked and they armed Name him who may be like to Constantine that blessed Emperour And if it be suggested that the faculties and abilities which they had to do great things because they were mighty Princes might make them to do such matters as which others in their places might as well haue effected yet this serueth not the turne since a spirite of rarer quality then other men haue enioyed might apparantly be seene in them Now where the Lord soweth most he looketh to reape most largely Where he powreth foorth most benefits he expecteth most gratefulnesse And if his seruice be neglected but especially contemned by these royall Potentates he taketh it more vnkindly of them then of a common man When Saul being brought to a kingdome from following his fathers asses had faulted in that case of Amelek what furies did follow him euer after with irreconcilable desolation It was not a little punishment which followed after the murther and adultery of Dauid The childs death the reuiling of Shimei the rebellion of Absolon the deflouring of his concubines were euident corrections When Salomon who was fraught with wisedome fell foolishly to idolatrie at once ten tribes were rent off from from the kingdome of Iuda The like may be sayd of many the persecuting Emperours when they being aduanced by Christ turned their swords and scepters against Christ and his Gospell he did not long endure their tyrannie but with violence cast them downe 7 But on the other side God so embraceth the true piety of those in highest authority that themselues are not onely blessed for their entire deuotion but their people for their sake The blessings powred on the heads of them runne downe vnto the skirts and lower parts of their garments When such as by Gods hand are lifted vp aboue others do come nearer then their people to the heauen not so much in place as in spirit and the inward man the Lord doth accept them with greater fauour and acquaintance The Israelites knew this when they thus make request for their king The Lord heare thee in the day of trouble the name of the God of Iacob defend thee Send thee helpe from the Sanctuarie and strengthen thee out of Sion Let him remember all thine offerings and turne thy burnt offerings into ashes Graunt thee according to thy heart and fulfill all thy purpose That we may reioyce in thy saluation and set vp our banner in the name of our God the Lord shall performe all thy petitions And so they go forward Now know I that the Lord will helpe his annointed and will heare him from his sanctuary They knew that from him being blessed good things would flow to them and God would blesse his deuotion How louely and how precious in the eyes of the Almighty was the melting heart of Iosias when he heard the threates of the Law read vnto him What priuate man alone euer turned backe so much wrath Yea God doth attribute so much to this his ordinance that if it be but Ahab yet if he put on sackcloth and will fast and go barefoote the Lord will deâ—erre that vengeance which was to come on him and his land Those countries then are right happy where such sit in the throne of honor and most eminent place of glory who do loue and feare the Lord in integrity and sincerity full of faith For mercy and louing kindnesse is by such conduit-pipes diffused through all the coasts and quarters of a land If the pestilence shall deuoure yet the prayer of such Dauids will stay the destroying Angell If Sennacherib shall reuile yet if such Hezekiahs shall enter into the Temple and with weeping shall lay open the letters before the Lord a hooke shall be put in his nostrels and he shall be turned another way If a victory shall be gotten and such Deborahs shall acknowledge it by a publike gratulation this victory shall be doubled When our Deborah and Hester as it is voyced and receiued with bended knees did begge of the Omnipotent maker and guide of all our worlds masse that he would prosper the worke and vvith best forewinds guide the iourney speede the victory and make the returne the aduancement of his glory the triumph of the fame of those which were sent and the surety of our Realme with least losse of English bloud we all know what effect this holy prayer had to foile the proudest enemy in a strange land we all know it and it were great pity but succeeding ages should remember it And that may serue for an example of the point whereof I now intreate which is that the actions of great Monarkes haue a straighter kind of reference vnto God then those of common men Their voluntary debasing doth lift them high with the Lord their repentance is very gracious their sorrow is much acceptable Then it was well with the Niniuites that such a king did raigne ouer them as had an humble mind God dealt with them most bountifully to send them such a ruler as whose heart he himselfe did soften and put some graces into it and then did crowne those graces to the comfort of all his subiects For I ascribe all this to God The words of the Prophet were something but the heart was touched from the Lord. Paule may plant and Apollos water but God must giue the encrease And as Saint Austen speaketh Teachings without and admonitions are helpes to set things forward but he hath a chaire in heauen who teacheth the hearts of men I speake sayth he of the Lord. God then did them much fauour when he sent such a king among them as whose heart he made to be flexible that so the Lord might embrace him and with him
to bend our knees to cast vp our eyes to lift our hands to heauen to beate our breasts or the like yea also with contention of spirit and extention of voyce if time and place serue to releeue our own infirmitie But this in synceritie as before God and without fained hypocrisie which is a double wickednesse 11 There may also be a second vse of this praying aloude Seneca a heathen man and yet as if seemeth religious in his Ethnicke superstition doth complaine in this manner What a madnesse is this in men They do whisper vnto their Gods most fi lt hie requests and if a man do hearken vnto them they will bold their peace and what they would not haue a man know that they tell to God This custome hath preuailed among Christians that leude men will not feare to aske leude things in their prayers the wanton to speed in his wantonnesse the deceiuer in his bargaines the oppressour in his oppressions Loud crying doth meete with this for although we dread not God yet we stand in feare of men The Pythagoreans in old time did obserue this well enough of whom Clemens Alexandrinus doth write thus What do the Pythagoreans meane when they bid men crye aloud Not as I thinke that they imagined that God would not heare such as speake secretly but because they would haue the prayers of men iust which they should not feare to vtter yea although men did know it It is certainely a preposterous course more to respect men who stand by then the Lord before whom they stand but since the folly of men is such it is to be met with in his kind He alluded well to this who although he spake not of loud crying yet gaue counsell that we should so speake to men as if God did alwaies heare vs that is our talke should be with sobrietie and wisedome and so speake to God as if men did euer heare vs that is reuerently and religiously Now as this doth teach vs something so I am rather of that mind for the king of Niniue that he commaunded his by Proclamation to crye stongly vpon God that by their importunitie and vehement exclamation the Lord might be more mooued to take mercie vpon them When the heare of the heart within shall breake foorth into the toung it is so much the more forcible Let them turne from their euill way 12 There is yet a third thing to be found in this Proclamation that besides fasting and prayer there should be a reformation in manners and life Let euery man turne from his euill way and from the wickednesse that is in their hands That which our English readeth wickednesse is by other most fitly translated violence or robberie or rapine but Hierome and the Septuagint haue iniquitie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where one kind of sin is put in the place of all the rest that one sinne for all his fellowes either because that fault did much abound in Niniue I meane rapine and oppression toward those who were their subiects or toward the poore among them or because in generall all men who know not the Lord are soone taken in that crime as from some words of Saint Paule may not vnfitly be gathered where after that he hath exhorted them to possesse their vessels in holinesse not in the lust of concupiscence as the Gentils who know not God he doth name this as a speciall fruit of their not knowing God dehorting them from it that no man oppresse or deceiue his brother in any thing But to leaue this particular the doctrine is that euery man who wil turne to the Lord must hate euill and flye wickednesse because the Lord requireth that as a certaine signe of repentance When Salomon consecrating the Temple made his prayer he speaketh to God on this manner When the heauen shall be shut vp and there shall be no raine because they haue sinned against thee and they shall pray in this place and shall confesse thy name and turne from their sinne when thou doest afflict them then heare thou in heauen The condition is put in that they must turne from their sinne So in the Prophet Ieremy O Israel if thou returne returne to me saith the Lord and if thou put away thine abominations out of my sight then shalt thou not remooue It was the preaching of Iohn the Baptist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 repent be wiser chaunge your minds or amend and alter you liues for the kingdome of heauen is at hand So the Apostle Peter Amend your liues and returne that your sinnes may be put away And this putting off of sinne this laying away of the old man is that which maketh vs apt to walk the wayes of the Lord. For doing so we are expedite and nimble to tread his paths to do as he doth commaund vs to go whither he biddeth vs. But the packe of sinne is so heauie that we cannot choose but double vnder it and sinke and fall Then why do we not make hast to be freed from this burthen If men as Saint Austen speaketh should beare any heauy load of wood or stone or the like yea if it were something gainefull of wine or corne or money they would hasten to put that off But they beare a greater loade of sinne and make no speede to be freed from it But the retaining of this so long doth in the end so tire out the conscience that it fainteth vnder the burthen as appeareth too often when in sicknesse otherwise the minds of some are so distracted that they tremble dread much lest it be too late to cry for mercy They haue giuen way to malice and haue heaped euill vpon euill and are so incorporated into it that they cannot in theÌ„selues see any way of separation Yet let not such men despaire for Gods mercy is infinite and if a sentence were gone out against such yet as Saint Ambrose writeth in his Commentarie on Saint Luke God knoweth how to change his sentence if thou knovv hovv to amemd thy fault But the fault at last must be amended and the former offences vnlearned and forgotten else it is no good repentance For he alone doth shew himselfe worthily penitent who so deploreth euils past that he doth â—not againe commit the same afterward for he who bewaileth sinne and afterward committeth that sinne is as if he were washed a raw or vndried bricke where the more he rubbeth it in washing the more dirt he doth make Whosoeuer then commeth to God who is a God of pure eyes must know that it is his will that first he depart from euill 13 And if this be not done then all externall workes are but hypocriticall shewes thy prayer is but hypocrisie for thou faiest to God thy will be done and yet thou doest thine owne Thy sackcloth is but a couer of a counterfeit and deceiuer Without a whited sepulchre within full of
at the last according to that power which God shall giue vnto me I may on to the end 2 Now then hitherto we are come that he who at first refused and could not be induced to it hath preached to the Niniuites as sharpe as sharpe may be yet fortie dayes and Niniue is like to be destroyed and his sermon hath so wrought that their beautie and pleasure and musicke and all mirth is turned out of doore and sackcloth and ashes and weeping and lamenting great signes of repentance are come in steede of them their heart is dismayed and their whole bodie shaken no helpe now nor comfort vnlesse it be from heauen But where mans means do faile there Gods mercie doth breake foorth he is mooued to pitie and in commiseration all past shall be pardoned Here a man would haue thought that in the meane while the messenger as sent from God and therefore full of all mild and louely behauiour would haue opened his heart with the largest ioy because the seede which he had sowed had fallen in so good ground that it had now brought foorth not thirtie not sixtie but many thousand fold That his toung had so farre beene the instrument of Gods glorie that his threates as the thunder shold so be trembled at that his mouth had in so high a degree beene the meanes of the Lords mercie that both Prince and people old and young should be quit of their transgressions and excused of their iniquitie But it falleth out cleane contrarie and he as the man who had onely learned that lesson to do nothing aright is growne into great anger and is so filled with choler that he fretteth and chafeth hand-smooth with the Lord that he had not razed downe the whole citie Niniue euen to the foundation That which should haue beene to him for his glory and his crown to haue helped so many prisoners from the dungeon of darknesse and the shadow of death is the greatest vexation and corrosiue that might be to him in his distemper which yeeldeth to vs a singular example of the infirmitie of man that such a one as he was on so light an occasion should be so farre offended and that with God himselfe The true cause whereof howsoeuer it seeme different and diuerse to diuerse yet by all is agreed on to be most blame worthie I cannot so fitly expound the manner of it as this historie requireth but that by degrees I must descend vnto it and so out of one thing winne the matter of another I thinke therefore best first to referre all things to these two heades a generall doctrine which may be gathered in grosse and a particular instruction which the words literally offer both fitly in my iudgement taken out of the text And both these do containe their seuerall considerations as by Gods assistance I shall make plaine vnto you But I begin with the generall The generall doctrine 3 When I looke into the narration which doth follow frō hencefoorth to the end of this Prophecie see how all runneth against Ionas himselfe and describeth him to be froward and testie and peeuish rebellious and ouerthwart euen brawling with the Lord and chopping word for word with him as if he were the wiser and better of the two Doest thou well to be angrie Yea to be angrie to the death such an answer as scant any man was euer knowne to make not a Iudas not a Cain I therin do admire the excellencie of the Scripture and rare wisedome of him whose glorie it most concerneth that he so ouerruleth the pens of the writers that they must depresse themselues to infamie and disgrace and for their follies and infirmities be offered as wonderments to all succeeding ages It declareth a singularitie in those bookes and writings that the glorie of God is the onely thing which is aimed at and that men who naturally are ambitious desirous to blaze their owne praises or if they haue fallen to extenuate their faults by Apologies and excuses are not left to their owne libertie in setting downe of that which he appointeth for the Canon to direct our liues by But that as Saint Peter speaketh no prophecie in the Scripture is of any priuate motion for the prophecie came not in old time by the will of man but holy men of God spake as they were mooued by the holy Ghost They therefore who did well are commended for their well doing but if they did amisse their friends or their own writings paint them out to the full The fals of Noe and Lot are not concealed by him who honoured the memorie of Noe and of Lot Whether it were Baruch or Ieremie who wrote the Prophecie of Ieremie it is not much materiall but therein he himselfe is not forgotten for his vexing impatiencie Luke as all men may suppose loued Paule and Barnabas well yet recording their behauiour he sheweth that there was betweene them so hote a contention as becōmed not two such men But most do conceiue that Ionas in his owne person deliuered this Prophecie to the Church and there is no reason to the contrarie but yet from the beginning to the end thereof he telleth such a tale that if all his enemies should haue studied to lash him they could not haue matched that which his owne hand hath published not one word to his commendation but all to his dispraise That he fled from his charge and would haue gone to Tharshish that he slept in securitie and a heathen man did awake him and teach him his dutie that the lot fell vpon him as a noted malefactour that for his due desert after that a tempest had pursued him he was tumbled into the sea that there for three dayes he was iayled vp in a whales belly that all that while he was little better then in distrustfull despaire Nay moreouer that when he was out againe he preached indeeed but as a shrewd cow after that she hath giuen milke doth cast it downe with her heele so he marred all with his murmuring and furious displeasure And this was the case of Moses who without doubt wrote those fiue bookes which are called by his name there as he spared not his brother nor his sister that is Aaron and Miriam nor Tsippora his wife if she came in his way so he least fauoureth himselfe but relateth that the Lord had almost killed him for his negligence in not circumcising his child that in those prouocations wherewith the people prouoked God himselfe did fall to murmuring that the Lord was so displeased with him that therefore he debarred him from comming into Canaan Thus the inditing spirit doth rule the writers pen and as ouer-maistering the hand of a young learner maketh him to set downe what it will and not what the other fancieth This is one great argument of the finger of God and a supernaturall power that is in these bookes of holy writ that