thee Plato for thee Seneca then for many who liue not in Ethnicisme or Barbarisme but in a ciuill nation in the cleare light of the Gospell in a countrey of good learning yet do make dispute of the being of their Creator But I leaue these wicked Atheists and returne to our idolaters who did not stay at these prayers but went yet one step farther They fall to casting lots And they said euery man to his fellow come let vs cast lots 17 They see that there was some thing in it beyond the cōmon course of nature The sodainnesse of the tempest and the violence of the storme shewed some God to be angrie It may be that other ships which were at sea did go quietly or the wind did beate and strike most of all vpon this ship But without doubt they saw it to be extraordinarie and thereupon their hearts by and by did giue them that in all likelyhood it was for sin they knew not what nor in whom but for sinne they were well assured Which may be a memoriall to vs Christians that if anie crosse do come straungely or if anie noted thing do befall vs whereof our owne hearts may best of all be iudges that straightway with feare and trembling we examine our selues enter into our consciences and sift them in sinceritie as in the sight of God whether sinne do not plucke that on vs. It troubled the Israelites much when going in a good cause to take vengeaunce vpon the Beniamites for the abuse of the Leuites concubine there perished of them in two dayes no lesse then fortie thousand They went and wept before the Lord and fasted till the euening to know what the cause was But whē they who came before presuming vpon their multitude had learned to humble themselues they obtained that which they desired If any thing should happen straungely as while we be in this mortalitie we may verie well expect we can take no better course then with these ship-men presently to feare least iniquitie be the authour of it But we must not alwayes follow their meanes for they fell to casting lots 18 The vse of lots is anciēt wherin the custome was in causes of great importāce to take stickes or stones or shels or to write names in a paper or to draw strawes or cuts so to determine that which otherwise without strife could not be accorded or to put that vnto God which mē could not decide So S. Austen doth describe it A lot is such a thing as in the doubts of men doth shew the will of God So whē men knew not who it was that had taken the excommunicate thing the lot shewed it to be Achan for so the most do expound it So when no man could tell Saule that Ionathas was the man who so contrarie to the rash oath of Saule had tasted of the honie it was found by lot who it was Least strife should arise and parts be taken about Ioseph and Mathias which of them should be admitted into the roome of Iudas the Apostles made the triall by a lot So Homer doth report that Nestor gaue the counsell that it should be determined by a lot which of the nine worthiest of the Greekes should fight in combat with Hector Each man marked his lot and put it into the helmet of Agamemnon The first turne fell to Aiax But whereas according to the rules of diuinitie these lots should be vsed but in speciall causes and that with great iudgement and meditation because it is a trying of God in a kinde of sentence and we are not to tempt him rashly in some men superstition in some other a hope of gaine and a sort of deceiuing fraude haue wrought great abuses in them Proude Haman in the booke of Hester made lots to be drawne before him from the first moneth to the twefth to see what moneth or day should be fortunate to attempt the mouing of his great matter the murther of all the Iewes O Haman in that thy lot thou wast blind as well as bloudie Caesar telleth in his Commentaries that the women among the Germanes did vse to diuine by lots what dayes were good to fight on or to begin a battell This is heathenish superstition Some casting lots to get money haue made a profession of it as the counterfeit Aegyptians in telling of fortunes The lawes contra sortilegos were made by worthie Princes against such kinde of men and other of much like qualitie God sometimes doth suffer these in verie truth to hit that themselues and such as follow them attending to strong delusion may make vp their owne dānation These abuses haue made some to thinke all lots vnlawfull and not to be vsed at all Yea Hierome speaketh somewhat doubtfully of them who vpon this place saith that this deede of the mariners should not be drawne to an example of attributing any thing to lots neither should any in holy Scriptures because they were speciall motions and euents giuen by God to speciall men and not by other to be attempted or put in practise 19 But the Scripture is not so straight the lot is cast into the lap but the whole dispositiō therof is of the Lord. And elsewhere it is commended The lot causeth contentions to cease and maketh a partion among the mightie So S. Austen doth teach that there is no euill in the lot And in another place Those things vvhich are giuen by lot are giuen vnto vs by God And in his hundreth and eightith Epistle disputing that question of the flying of a Minister in the time of persecution and supposing that there be diuerse pastours in one congregation whereof some are to depart for a time and some to stay if it cannot be agreed saith he who shall do the one and who shall do the other let it be decided by a lot Indeede he doth not like that lots should be made of euerie thing as of the leaues of the Gospell which it seemed that some in his time vsed to do because he thought it not to be fit that diuine matters should by a superstitious custome be applied to profane vses There the abuse is in the manner of doing not in the thing But the question which ariseth from this difference of iudgement may easily be resolued by considering the seuerall sortes of lots which are found to be three For there are either lots appointed to diuide or intended to consult or vsed of purpose to diuine The first of these three is lawfull that is to diuide lands or goods or any like thing when otherwise contention would arise as Salomon doth import in the place which I named before In this kind did Iosuah part out the land of Canaan by lot to the people of Israell The second is not vnlawfull that is to consult what shal be done when matters stand in an equalitie of reason so that there be no offending in the
from his maister All the Prophets were so tyed this onely commeth from them Thus or thus saith the Lord. Yea Balaam that false Prophet had catched this by the end If Balac vvould giue me his house full of siluer and gold I cannot go beyond the vvord of the Lord my God to do lesse or more Saint Paule had learned this lesson as the first in all his booke He sheweth it in nothing more plainly then in the case of the Sacrament I receiued from the Lord that vvhich I also haue deliuered vnto you So in the first to the Galathians If an Angell from heauen preach vnto you otherwise then that vvhich vve haue preached vnto you he had called himselfe before an Apostle from Iesus Christ let him be accursed It is a rule inuariable that in cases of saluation we looke to God the oracle of wisedome and truth not to our owne inuentions or to confirme our doctrine from this or that of our owne brayne but if we haue our warrant from the old or the new Testament then we may safely speake it Origene proposeth Saint Paule for an example in this case Paule saith he as his custome is vvill affirme that vvhich he teacheth out of the holie Scriptures and he doth giue an example to the Doctours of the Church that they should produce those things vvhich they speake to the people not grounded vpon their owne opinions but strengthened with the testimonies of God For if he so great and such an Apostle did not thinke that the authoritie of his words might suffice vnlesse he did know that those things were written in the law and the Prophets which he said how much more should we little ones obserue this that when we teach we vtter not our owne but the meanings of the holy Ghost 19 If the teachers and preachers of the Antichristian faith had kept this for a lawe there had neuer so absurd and filthie points of doctrine bene taught to their people visions and reuelations and messages from the dead dreames customes and such follies as are besides the word Purgatorie and limbus Patrum pilgrimages vnto Reliques and Transubstantiation of the bread into Christs bodie being contrarie to the Scriptures and many other things of this qualitie the later euer adding to the inuention of the former such a Canon or such a ceremonie These men are bold beyond the authoritie which was committed to them for theirs was but as this of Ionas thou must preach to them that preaching which I shall shew vnto thee Their charge was but as Timothies was and Paules words to Timothie were O Timothie keepe thy charge Keepe and hold fast that which by the Scriptures is committed to thee from the Lord and from me by his direction And there is not the greatest Minister not the most learned or acute but must obserue this rule Not Iames not Iohn not Peter not all the troupe of the Apostles may once varie from this He who shall bring other doctrine let him be accursed by vs. He who speaketh of himselfe let him be refused by vs. Howsoeuer godly or holy he do pretend himselfe yet if he decline that word which should be his direction let him be declined by vs. Whosoeuer shall say otherwise then that which is appointed saith Ignatius he meaneth otherwise then God hath appointed although he be a man of credit although he fast and keepe virginitie although he do miracles although he prophecie let him be thought by thee to be a wolfe who vnder a sheepes skinne doth intend the marring of the sheepe Thus shold the hearers be carefull that they receiue no doctrine but that which is approoued and the Preachers be aduised that they neuer teach any thing but what God hath commaunded Our Barhoisticall separations and absentments from the Sacraments had not crept so farre in the land if this had bene well practised 20 I need not giue farther exhortation in this place to retaine this as a ground in as much as all of vs do lay it downe as a principle that the written word of God is the onely guide to saluation and that fancies and traditions are to be exiled from vs. I therefore will here end desiring the Almightie that such doctrine as is oftentimes taught vnto vs from this place may bring foorth such plenteous fruit that in this congregation the name of God may be honoured and glorified in great measure and our soules may be so strengthened that they may soundly perseuere to euerlasting life To the which God the Father bring vs for his owne Sonne Christs sake to both whom and the holy Spirit be glorie euermore THE XVII LECTVRE The chiefe poynts 2. Carnall reasons why Ionas might yet haue refused to go 3. But affliction hath schooled him 4. and that not onely while it was on him 5. Affliction worketh otherwise in the good 6. and in the bad 7. A reproofe of the present time 9. Obedience requireth euen circumstances to be regarded 10. God must be obeyed without debating 11. The greatnesse of Niniue 12. Ionas feareth not that he is alone 14. A great auditorie giueth more courage to a wise Preacher 15. Ionas speaketh not fearefully 16. The difference of opinions for the daies of repentance allowed to Niniue 17. Iudgement concerning Luther in the matter of the Sacrament 18. The Hebrew toung is not to be neglected by a Diuine Ionah 3.3.4 So Ionah arose and went vnto Niniue according to the word of the Lord Now Niniue was a great and excellent citie of three dayes iourney And Ionah began to enter into the citie a dayes iourney and he cried and sayd Yet fortie dayes and Niniue shall be ouerthrowne THe Prophet Ionas who should haue gone in the businesse of his maister but vpon some supposals had no mind vnto it and therefore starting aside like a broken bow was well beaten for his labour hath now a second time his commission drawne and his instructions giuen him to go as an Ambassadour from the Almightie king of heauen to a great Prince vpon earth The message which he bringeth is of more fearefull qualitie then if all the Princes adioyning had sent him their defiance by their Heralds that they would immediatly inuade him with fire and sword and irreconcilable hatred For he might haue made some shift against all their powers and standing vpon his gard in the defensiue part he might haue repelled them with such multitude of people as were vnder his gouernement and a citie so fortified as his was at that time Or if he and his people must needes end their dayes by the outrage of their enemie who would be much encouraged by prosperitie and desired successe yet that might be his comfort which is the last comfort in death to men in his case that hee went not awaye vnreuenged but hee had ridde some of those who came to ridde him and slayne some of the murtherers before that his last
it his of-wardnesse from God and Gods fauourable inclination euermore to him the regard which the King of Niniue and his people did beare to Gods iudgements when they were denounced the free pardon of the Lord and his remitting of their sinne vpon their earnest repentance The subordinate circūstances do yeeld as good doctrine as the maine storie it selfe and from them both this thing of note is collected that our Sauiour Christ in two seueral matters doth take occasion to draw his similitudes or comparisons from this Prophecie which is not obserued of farre greater bookes The one of them is in the 11. of Luke The men of Niniuy shall rise in iudgement with this generation shall condemne it for they repented at the preaching of Ionas and behold a greater then Ionas is here The other is in the twelfth of Mathew As Ionas was three dayes and three nights in the whales belly so shall the sonne of man be three dayes and three nights in the heart of the earth Here our Prophet was a figure of the Redeemer of the world and in that did liuely expresse him And some thinke that another thing in him did as liuely paint out a second matter in our Sauiour Christ that as Ionas preaching long to the people of Israel and doing litle good there by reason of the stubburnnesse of that nation was sent vnto Niniue a citie in Assyria to men strangers from the couenant so Christ by himselfe and by his Apostles laying open to the Iewes the will of his father and finding nothing but vnthankfulnesse to be the frute of his paines should turne away his loue and affection from them and bestow it on the Gentiles Now as this may agree with the analogie of faith may be deduced not vnfitly out of the text so to thinke that all the prophecie may allegorically be applied vnto Christ wherein some of the old fathers were too too much credulous were to straine the storie too farre and indeed it may not be as Hierome hath well noted on the third verse of this Chapter And therefore in that proceeding which God shall send vnto me in the opening of this Prophecie my purpose is to follow the letter of the text and to lay downe the doctrine of it with conuenient application but without allegories Origenicall or wrestings at all 2 The time wherein our Prophet did liue should seeme to be soone after the death of Elizeus in as much as he did prophecie of Ieroboam the later the sonne of Ioas that he should restore or recouer againe the coasts of Israel which were lost Ieroboam restored the coast of Israel from the entring of Hamath to the sea of the wildernesse according to the word of the Lord God of Israel which he spake by his seruant Ionah the sonne of Amittai the Prophet which was of Gath Hepher From which words a foolish tradition that is among the Iewes may wel be refuted for the Rabbins of that people who with their Talmudicall vanities and Cabalisticall subtilties haue peruerted much of the Scriptures do teach and haue long so taught that this Ionas was the sonne of the widow of Sareptha whom Elias did raise vp from death to life Which opinion hath gone so currant that among our Christians also some of the new writers haue accepted it for a truth but among the old farre more as Lyra vpon this place and Isidore in the seuenth of his Etimologies Nay those who were verie auncient and verie learned withall haue rehearsed it vncontrolled as Epiphanius and S. Hierome in his Preface to this Prophecie Thus an opinion once begun doth go from hand to hand receiued without discussing and from error in one man groweth error in another 3 For if there were no more but that God himself hath cōcealed it not naming any such matter in the Scripture where notwithstanding is oftentimes speech of Ionas it were a probable argument against that their assertion For when the maister is silent why should the seruant speake When God saith no such matter why should any man affirme it especially since to vtter it had bene for a solemne remembrance of Gods glorie and it might haue procured to Ionas farre greater obseruance among the people to whom he was to preach that he should be knowne to be sonne to that woman who was picked out by the Lord himselfe to be a nurce to that reuerend man Elias in the time of bitter famine and that this preacher should be the selfe same person who was raised from death to life But in my iudgement the point is fully answered when he is said to be of Gath Hepher and not of Sareptha For Gath Hepher or as it is in the Hebrew Gittah Hepher which to S. Hierome are both one was a citie in the land of Israel in the tribe of Zabulon as we may read in Iosuah But Sareptha was not in Israel as Christ himselfe verie euidently doth signifie in S. Luke Many widowes were in Israel in the dayes of Elias but vnto none of them was Elias sent saue into Sareptha a citie of Sidon vnto a certaine widow Also many leapers were in Israel in the time of Elizeus the Prophet yet none of them was made cleane sauing Naaman the Syrian As if he should say that in those places strangers were preferred before the children Nay he addeth more to Sareptha of Sidon or a citie of Sidon And Iosephus also telleth vs in the 8. of his Antiquities that Sareptha is a citie betweene Tyre and Sidon where speaking of Elias of the widow and her son he hath not a word of Ionas And left it may be thought that Gath Hepher did stand neare to this city of Sareptha and so that our Prophet for the nearenesse of the places may be sayd to be of both it was the tribe of Asser and not the tribe of Zabulon which was nearest vnto Sidon Then our Ionas being takē from the tribe of Zabulon and therefore being an Israelite he was fit to preach to the Israelites as to his owne countrimen Which course the Lord did take commonly in sending of his owne to those which were his owne as Iewes to the tribe of Iuda and Israelites to the other ten tribes which he had not here obserued if Ionas had bene sonne to the widow of Sareptha 4 I haue opened this error as principally occasioned by the person of our Prophet with whom I am here to deale so secondly to shew the boldnesse of the Iewes who dare on naked coniectures grounded on weake foundations as is this that because his mother who was raised vp by Elias vsed a word in Hebrew like to the name of Amittai therefore Ionas the sonne of Amittai must of necessitie be her sonne giue out assertions boldly boldly I say but falsly and that in their owne Prophets and that in their owne Scriptures Verie endlesse is their follie which they vse in
mariners did to Ionas that is to sift out the whole truth by demaunds before that they giue any iudgement Moses could say of himselfe to the Israelites I charged your Iudges the same time saying Heare betweene your brethren and iudge righteously betweene euerie man and his brother and the straunger that is with him First heare and then iudge Iob professeth thus of himselfe I vvas a father vnto the poore and vvhen I knew not the cause I sought it out diligently The speech of Nicodemus to the Pharisies was good Doth our law iudge a man before it heare him and know what he hath done So Felix could tell Saint Paule that he would not iudge his cause before that he had heard it perfectly Otherwise the accused person should haue a hard bargaine by it for as Iulian the Apostata once aunswered verie wittily If it be sufficient to accuse shall any man be an innocent The Poet therefore said well Qui statuit aliquid parte inaudita altera Aequum licet statuerit hand aquus fuit He who determineth any thing not hauing heard both the parties speake although he haue decreed the right yet himselfe hath not bene iust that is he hath done it wrongfully because he should heare both And this is the generall doctrine which may be deriued here from the examination of these mariners ouer Ionas Let vs gather a little nearer to the particular wordes Tell vs for whose cause this euill is vpon vs what is thine occupation whence commest thou 7 I haue in part before touched that these men imagined that some sinne plucked this wrath vpon them But when the lot fell vpon Ionas they gessed him to be the sinner Now to know the particulars they asked him of his trade for good men they little dreamed of a Prophet they demaunde of him for his countrey and the place from whence he came For both Rhetorike and experience and diuinitie most of all do shew that good coniectures and presumptions for any thing in question may be drawne from the life which in former time hath bene led from the companie and familiaritie which hath bene entertained from the countrey and habitation where any hath abode Then what is thine occupation and the course of life which thou vsest wherein doest thou spend thy time If thou be a robber or a rouer no maruell if some straunge punishment do pursue thee at the heeles If a sorcerer or a necromancer the same may be thy doome If a stewes-maister or a broaker for vncleannesse of the bodie it is verie likely that wrath may follow thee If a flattering hungrie iester who waytest vpon a trencher and makest no kinde of conscience to taunte any man that displeaseth thee vengeance may droppe vpon thee So these simple men did perceiue that there was some kinde of life vnlawfull and vngodly which because it was contrarie and aduerse either vnto pietie or humane charitie it might well offende that power which ruleth all mortall creatures 8 I maruell what the vsurer could haue aunswered in this case who liueth on the sweat of others and maketh a gayne of their losses It was no shame for Iacobs sonnes to tell the king of Egypt that their father and his children were shepheardes Neither was it any disgrace to Amos to say that he was a heardman and a gatherer of wild figges but to say I am an vsurer one who liue vpon my money is but a blushing speech Dauid asketh a question and aunswereth himselfe Lord vvho shall dwell in thy Tabernacle who shall rest in thy holie mountaine He that giueth not his money vnto vsurie Ye in some places of this land for I must not imagine that any interest is to be found in Oxford we haue scant money for our necessities such as haue their hands polluted with extortion in this kinde will come into the tabernacle and sit them downe in the Temple be at Church as soone as any and be as intent and earnest vpon the preacher as if there were no such matter If speech be of the inheritaunce which is on Gods holie hill they will vrge as farre as the farthest How can this hang together the breaking of Gods commaundements in a wilfull professed sort and the true feare of the Lord But this were a greater wo if it should be found in the Leuites and the Priests euen such as serue in the Tabernacle Thou that preachest a man should not steale doest thou steale saith Saint Paule doest thou spoyle It was the speech of Apollonius in Eusebius against the Montanist Prophets doth a Prophet colour his haire or annoynt his eyes vvith stibium doth a Prophet put money to vsurie If it be thy portion which was giuen thee by thy father or some money which thou hast gotten or a stocke left in thy trust for the widow or for the fatherlesse which thou art loth should be idle this or that or whatsoeuer doubtlesse it is not well since no carnall pretence â—an serue to violate the euerlasting law of God and men should haue tender consciences fearing to exercise that which by so many places of Scripture the iudgement of all the auncient fathers the Canon and ciuill lawes the constitutions of most good common-wealthes the reasons of heathen Philosophers the consent of the schoolemen and opinion of the greatest part of our late Diuines is condemned as an vncharitable and most vnchristian practise All those things which may be obiected that thy case is not common that there be many sortes of interest a biting and not biting vsurie that learned men of great fame in some causes do permit it that the lawes of our land winke at it that now it is much frequented and many good men do vse it great gentlemen in the countrey as well as Citizens and marchants that thou mayst do good to another and he shall gaine by it as much as thou nay a thousand excuses more cannot aunswere that one place Thou shall not giue to vsurie to thy brother as vsurie of money vsury of meate vsury of any thing that is put to vsurie And whereas thou wouldst shrowd thy factes vnder the skirts of some few reuerend mens writings if thou loue them and the Religion which they professed then couer that their ouersight proceeding from humane infirmity do not as wicked Cham discouer the nakednesse of those who were fathers in the faith to many in this last age Do not wrastle against thy conscience With Mathew leaue to be a Publican with Zacheus to gather tribute it is not for a Christian to be of this occupation relinquish it to the Iewes 9 If I be not deceiued this question for the trade of life insinuating that some artes are not pleasing to the Lord should stumble a great many men If in the lawfulnesse of a calling Gods immediate glorie and the benefite of his Church or at least the good
seruice of the coÌ„mon wealth in humane societie be euermore to be respected what comfort can such persons who indeede are but a burthen to a land or the Citie where they dwell take to go on forward to their graues in in that which to speake of it most moderately is but doubtfull I can hardly be perswaded that the consciences of such men do alwayes conteÌ„t and satisfie themseluâ—â— I am sure that according to the proportion of their calling with his they are not able to say as the Apostle Paule sayd a little before his death I haue fought a good fight or as Beza readeth it I haue fought that excellent fight I haue finished my course and so take ioy in their calling Such men who make a life of playing vpon a stage may bethinke themselues in this reckening If you will put vnto these our common dauncing-maisters and others of like sort Mistake me not in these wordes as if I did condemne all honest recreation I dare not to do so I know the priuilege and prerogatiue is great which men aboue all the creatures of God haue if we do not abuse our libertie but it is one thing for one man after his honest labour in that trade wherein the Lord hath placed him to vse fit and moderate recreation and other thing for another to haue no other kinde of life but to make of such exercises an occupation Many kindes of businesse are warranted both by the lawes of God and men apparantly but these at least may come vnder question 10 The next demaunde here made to our Prophet is from what place he did come presuming that a maÌ„ may draw froÌ„ some places such a staine as caÌ„not be washed off but with veÌ„geance He that toucheth pitch shall be defiled vvith it Holy Ioseph being among the Aegyptians had learned new deuised oathes he could sweare by the life of Pharao Lots wife did so well like the companie which she had in Sodome that she longed to be there againe although for her labour it cost her the turning into a pillar of salt Some places are hatefull to God his people must out of Babylon The companions of the wicked are supposed to be wicked It may well be feared that the young man was a sinner of whom Salomon telleth that he went to the house of the harlot entring in thither at the twilight and comming out perhaps at the midnight It could be no great credit for Demosthenes to be seene to come from the house of Lais. It is a case well knowne that there be at Rome whole streetes of Curtisans Onely Surius to extenuate the filthinesse of the matter saith they be but the baser streets and lanes of lesse account where these honest folkes do inhabite And he holdeth it for a great praise to Pope Pius the fifth that hee brought it to that passe This multitude must haue money to maintaine theÌ„ in their abuses whereby it may be collected that many and that frequently resort vnto them Now if Christ should aske of those who returne from those places whence come you where haue you beene they might right well quake with Ionas feare his heauie iudgemeÌ„t But if it be but his holinesse the Vicar or vicegerent of Christ vpon earth the successour of Saint Peter as he merily termeth himselfe there needeth no great dread for the matter From a knowne place of your Citie from that which yeeldeth you money which you permit for tribute Rome how rightly wast thou termed by the name of the vvhore of Babylon which sufferest such abuses in open professed sort and therby giuest incouragement to some to embrace that sinne For whereas in the dayes of our old forefathers the ignorant did account it a crime to keepe a concubine now when they see that euen at Rome in the verie eye of his holinesse in the chiefe Citie of residence for Christes Vicar such matters be maintained they may thinke that now to keepe two or three is a worke meritorious the more the more meritorious But to leaue them to their filthinesse if it do so much touch our Prophet to be asked from whence he came those of the yonger sort who come to this place for learning for vertue and good instruction may reuolue this ouer and ouer If any day in the euening when they should be at home in their beddes or else quiet in their studies or if vpon the Sabaoth in seruice time or while other are at the sermon a tauerne should be their rest which doth not well agree with a long gowne how farre should they be forgetfull or blush to heare that question whence come you where haue you bin or as God spake to our forefather in the bushes where art thou Adam If there should be any such as God be praised that custome is well left how will they hereafter lament that those good houres which should and might by the Lordes good blessing be well imployed are ill and fruitlessely spent that idlenesse and vnthriftinesse yea peraduenture drunkennesse also should be that whereunto they bend their studie when in the meane while knowledge and precious learning might adorne them Time foolishly wasted can neuer be recalled and it is hard to call backe our selues when we are once growne to a custome of any euill 11 The ship-maister and his fellowes yet haue not inough of Ionas some more questions for their money They aske him of his countrey and from what people he did come God sometimes is angry with a whole laÌ„d for the wickednesse of the inhabitants The goodly fields of Sodome do find that vnto this day This also is witnessed vnto vs by the barrennesse of Palestina which was sometimes the holie land somtimes the happie land flowing with milke and hony which now answereth in no measure to the fertilitie of auncient time When sinne hath ouergrown a countrey each inhabitant feeleth a wo euen the good in temporall punishments do smart as well as the wicked For the iniquitie of their nation both Daniel and the three children together with the rest of their countrimen were led into captiuitie Some kind of people euen almost in generall are displeasing to the Lord. The Ammonites and the Moabites were litle accepted of him But Amelechs name was so cursed that the Lord would haue the remembrance of them to be rooted out from vnder the heauen Aboue all the people who liue vpon the earth the Iewes do demonstrate this doctrine to vs whose children and childrens children haue for many ages bene blinded with the grosse and grieuous sinne of their fathers who put Christ cruelly to death Other nations had their faults and so might be hatefull to men who bordered neare vpon them and they might also prouoke wrath from God S. Paule did obserue out of the Poet Epimenides that the Cretians were great lyers Now least some such generall sinne of parentage or countrey should hang
disease shew the remedie how to cure it A little before he hath this also That great was he who fled but greater was he that followed They dare not deliuer him they know not how to conceale him So there is as it seemeth a great wrastling in the minds of these poore men what they should do or should not do They now know that he was a Prophet a man reuerend in his calling and therefore they were loath to lay any violent hands vpon him They would rather suppose that he who was so contrite and had made such an acknowledgement of the fault which he committed would proceede to let them know the meanes to escape from drowning 14 Many gracelesse ones in our dayes would haue taken another course A runne-away so pursued a fugitiue so made after we will soone ease our selues of the feare we will quickely free our shippe from the daunger what should so vile a person be roosting in our vessell Perhaps without many wordes he might haue gone ouer boord he might haue diued vnder water they would neuer haue stood to aske what they should do vnto him So much doth the inciuilitie and barbarous behauiour of our age passe the manners of rude men in old time But they had a good remembrancer to keepe them in moderation euen their reuerence vnto God whose hand they did find vpon them as knocking at the doore On the one side how could they tell least by sufferance and impunitie toward Ionas they should incurre the displeasure of the Almightie And on the other side how could they tell least in punishing and taking away his life the reward which belonged to murtherers might be layd vpon them Ionas for his refusing to go to preach at Niniue was chased with wrath from heauen Then what vengeance might befall them in a greater fault as in crueltie and in shedding of his bloud who neuer had offended them Thus they feare to spill his life although they see shew of very fit occasion They aske aduise of him The maine note from this place is the care which men should haue to destroy the life of none that they should be auerse from bloud which because it is the full subiect of those verses which follow next after my text I do deferre it thither And so I come to the aunswere of Ionas which is my second part And he sayd vnto them Take me and cast me into the sea c. 15 It seemeth that the Prophet is now as farre in his penaunce as possibly he can go He knew that he had sinned and Gods wrath must be satisfied with some temporall punishment and therefore he yeeldeth himselfe with patience to the very death Better drowne then dye eternally better loose his life here then loose his life elsewhere He is therefore content to sustaine the vttermost extremitie He knew that God was glorifyed in the execution of iustice as well as in mercie A lesson which Iosuah did once teach Achan when he willed him to confesse and giue God the glorie and by a consequent endure his death with patience An instruction which we can neuer too much teach to prisoners and such as are to suffer by iugdement of law that they should beare with mildnesse and quietnesse of behauiour that which they wilfully haue deserued The conscience of their sinne the astonishment at their iudgement the feare of violent death the shame of such a suffering is inough to amaze their thoughtes and ouerwhelme resolution Whereas on the other side the putting of them in remembrance that at one time or another they must be content to dy and the vrging that God doth lay such temporall punishments vpon malefactors for the sauing of their soules the recounting of that benefite which ariseth from Christs passion to wit a pleading before his father to get pardon for all that be repentaunt doth settle the disquieted and affrighted mind right well I would to God that our English were as backeward to transgresse as in this case they are forward to satisfie euen with their liues the extremitie of the lawe and that in a peaceable resolued sort I impute it to nothing but to the ordinarie passage of the word of God among vs which is euerie way able to quiet and settle the penitent sinners heart Other nations do admire it in our men as the Italians most of all and the French as we may see it obserued in the defence of Henry Stephanus for Herodotus It sheweth a right firme constancie and sure hope in Christ Iesus And as those two brought the theefe which dyed with Christ into Paradise so no doubt but that many with vs go by execution into heauen who if they were not recalled by violence and by lawe would prooue firebrands of hell 16 I remember the patience of our countrey-men by the quietnesse of Ionas here who alone desireth to dye because he alone had offended in the sinne which now is in question He would not that other innocent men should perish by his means This is the course of Gods children to haue remorse vpon other and not to intangle them in their plagues It is I saith Dauid that haue offended not these sheepe alas what haue they done But contrariwise the reprobate if destruction must befall them would haue all other to take part in that their iudgement that themselues might not be singular They would haue company to hell If they needes must from hence they care not if all the world come to ruine together with their fall They earnestly desire that other men should be partakers of their smart The name of Herode the great is very odious in this respect who layd a plot that when he dyed many other might dye with him And gaue expresse commaundement that one of euery noble family in his kingdome should be slaine that by that meanes his death might of necessitie be lamented if not for loue of him which the tyrant had no reason to expect yet for the losse of others Such are the vnnaturall passions of cruell and bloudie miscreants But the blessed sons of God be of another spirit they would rather purchase peace to others by their losses then hurt others by their errours Ionas would dye alone because he alone had offended 17 Here now is it worth the discoursing why the Prophet in this manner should vrge and hasten himselfe to death Was it as Arias Montanus thinketh because yet he is so obstinate that in no case he will to Niniue but rather dye in a frowardnesse then teach them who afterward should worke harme to his people No his confession before handled doth keepe me from that opinion I hold him now very carefull to commit no farther sinne He feeleth the weight of the former inough too much on him Is it then for a fretting indignation which he beareth vnto himself or for hatred of his life because his consciēce did now pricke him as the conscience of
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
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
sorrow shall not vpbraide vs that wee haue feared men more then the eternall God that we haue for the pleasure of any made shippe-wracke of a good conscience or very farre aduentured toward it Take heede then by the Prophet that in seeking to flye such harme as is but imaginarie or little in comparison we do not runne our selues by offending of the Lord into daunger which is ineuitable Now goe we a little forward Yet thou hast brought my life from the pit 16 The common translation hath in the future tense thou wilt lift vp my life The Septuagint let my life ascend from corruption The Chaldee Paraphrase it is readie or but a small thing vnto thee to bring me from corruption The best do translate it by the time that is past thou hast brought my life from the pit or corruption He ascribeth all to God as moouing in him and liuing in him and in him hauing his being So the faithfull do euermore I wayted saith Dauid patiently for the Lord and he enclined vnto me and heard my crye He brought me also out of the horrible pitte out of the mire and clay and set my feete vpon the rocke and ordered my goings A gracious God who can strike vs and can heale vs can foile vs can raise vs. He whippeth vs by number scourgeth vs by measure and when we turne vnto him he will quicken vs and reuiue vs from death and the gates of hell Ionas sinning is punished Ionas crying is helped While stubburnnesse is on him downe must his proud heart but when feare and faith possesse him he is hoyssed vp againe Let vs then chaunge our heart and God will change his hand in the middest of his roughnesse toward vs. Saint Austen in those eight questions which were proposed to him by Dulcitius speaketh fitly to this matter When the woman came to Christ from Syro Phaenicia he said vnto her the childrens bread is not to be throwne to dogges but afterward not O dogge great is thy faith but O woman great is thy faith He chaungeth his word because he saw her affection chaunged and he vnderstood that the same reproofe of his was growne vp to good fruite So it is with this patient when his faith once breaketh foorth he shall come from corruption 17 But what may be the matter that he so much reioyceth that he should liue againe The words which go before from the beginning of the chapter do shew a fast hold to be layed on Gods fauour by faith howsoeuer for some little time it was dismayed a remission of sinnes and a hope of life eternal although he had very much transgressed Then since his life was sealed vp against another world why should he desire to be here againe Why should he so reioyce that he should be deliuered Very shame might haue enforced him to hate the light The report of the mariners who would freely speake wheresoeuer they came might spread the name of him as of a most infamous person He might be poynted at with the finger by children and vile folkes as he went in the streete Howsoeuer Gods children should thirst to be aboue should long to be dissolued and be at home with their father So did Saint Paule in the new Testament when he desired to be loosed so did Elias in the old when he cryed It is now enough ô Lord take my soule for I am no better then my fathers And who would be in his pilgrimage when he might be in his countrey who would be in the sea when he might be in the hauen who would be warring when a crowne might then be giuen him for his victorie who would be in the way when he might be at home in rest It seemeth then at the first sight that the Prophet doth take ioy in his losse and desireth that for a benefite which was a harme vnto him But when all these things are scanned as they should bee it will appeare farre otherwise 18 Now it was no time to feare the shame of the world he was rather to seeke to please one and that was his old maister yea if he displeased all other by it It was a good resolution of him who did write the eigth of those Epistles which be in the end of Saint Hieromes workes Let euerie one say what himselfe will In the meane time according to my small vnderstanding I haue iudged it better for my selfe to blush before sinners vpon earth then before the holy Angels in heauen or wheresoeuer the Lord will shew his iudgement And to wish as Elias wished were but to be impatient wherein Ionas is not behind as appeareth in the fourth chapter And his case was not like Saint Paules who might yeeld vp his soule in quietnesse of conscience as hauing in his heart a testimonie of the Lords good accepatnce of his labours in this world Now he who is setled in such an opinion neede not feare to depart from this transitorie habitation nay he may well long to dye But with Ionas it is otherwise he standeth yet in a mammering and knoweth not which way to turne him Yet he is not quite exempted from that conflict of his betweene hope and despaire yet although his faith be not extinguished he is not assured how the Lord will take his sinne at his hands This maketh him wish for more time to testifie his obedience to make a recompence if it might be for his sinfull rebellion or at the least to wash away his iniquitie with many teares And hauing this purpose in him to aske pardon with sighes and sobbes he ioyeth with all his heart that time is permitted him to performe the vowes of his soule and to remooue away from the Church of God that scandale which he had offered 19 Moreouer if he had dyed in the sea and the belly of the fish his departure had bene violent and layed vpon him for his sinne as a grieuous punishment for vngodlinesse and such a kind of death the faithfull seruants of the Lord haue no desire to dye It may well be gathered out of the thirtieth Psalme that the sicknesse of Dauid there insinuated for that Psalme may best be vnderstoode of sickenesse was layed vpon him for one fault or other perhaps for presumption he thought that he was too strong But when for that cause he felt the hand of the Lord sharpely chastising him he beggeth that he might not in such a sort go downe to the graue What profite is there in my bloud vvhen I goe downe to the pit shall the dust giue thankes vnto thee or shall it declare thy truth For some one reason or other which the Spirit of God hath concealed Hezechias was not readie when the Prophet Esay came vnto him and told him that he must dye This did make him turne himselfe to the wall and weepe and pray to the Lord that if it might stand with his good pleasure that sentence might
them but they shall deuoure most greedily when the wicked accusers are cast in vnto them He who hath the key of heauen and hell and death to open when he pleaseth and shut when he listeth can so order his seruants and ministers which are vnder him that sometimes they shall take and sometimes they shall loose here punish and there saue this day sound out his iustice and the next day teach his mercie 5 Neither was it onely in the time of the Prophets and Apostles that God had all his creatures miraculously if need be to execute his appointment but also since their time they giue the selfe same assistance although miracles be not common as they were in former ages Tertullian in his Apollogie and Eusebius do witnesse that at the prayer of a legion of the Christians the Emperour Marcus Aurelius in his warres against the Germanes had his armie relieued with raine which was before in daunger to perish for want of water and they adde that at that time certaine thunderbolts did strike and beate downe the enemie In some Editions of the workes of Iustine Martyr may be seene the copie of the Epistle of the Emperour himselfe who giueth witnesse thereunto When Iulian the Apostata vpon an intendment to crosse the faith of Iesus Christ had set the Iewes on worke to build againe the Temple at Hierusalem as both Saint Chrysostome and Socrates write at first an earth-quake marred their worke and afterward fire from heauen did burne and spoile their instrumēts and tooles wherwith they wrought so that they could not proceede Yea something more then this is to be found in the storie of the signe of the crosse appearing vpon their garments Ammianus Marcellinus who was no friend to the Christians yet giueth testimony to some part thereof sauing that he rather supposeth that the fire issued out of the earth which commeth all to one end When the barbarous Northren nations did breake into the bounds of the Romane Empire in the dayes of Basile the Great who liued in the time of Valens the Emperour as Basile himselfe writeth God destroyed them with fire and haile without the hand of man And as we reade in the same place of that Father the Lord did so by the Persians attempting to do the like But in my iudgement there is no example more memorable or true then that which fell out in our owne time after that great Massacre in Fraunce but especially at Paris in the yeare seuenty and two For at that time the whole power almost of that kingdome being gathered together against the citie Rochel and besieging them with extremitie who defended the towne God in the time of famine and want of bread did for some whole moneths together daily cast vp a kind of fish vnto them out of the sea wherewith so many hundreds were relieued without any labour of their owne euen as the Israelites were fed with Manna euery morning while they were in the wildernesse And as all the while that the enemie was before them this endured to their maruellous comfort so to proclaime to the world Gods prouidence the more when the enemies tents were once remooued and the citie was open againe this prouision immediatly did cease It was a good testification that the Lord of hostes would leaue a remnant euen a seed of his faithfull in that land and although he had sealed his truth with the bloud of his other seruants yet he would not deale so with them To the end that all might not sinke in despaire he ordained that when men failed yet the sea should be a maintainer to them 6 There God to shew his power did fill a many with fish and here to shew his power he did emptie a fish of one both declaring his loue and greatnesse which he purposing to complete make perfect in our Prophet to whom I now returne not only causeth the fish to free him from his stomake and that not in the middest of the Ocean sea that there once againe he might be shifting for his life that is if he could not swim sinke and drowne but he so directeth this carier as that he came to the shore Of all liklyhood this was a chosen shore where the water was so deepe as that it could beare the whale who swimmeth not in the shallow and yet the banke withall so low as that with putting vp his head he might cast the prisoner to the land When the Lord doth decree the substance of a matter the circumstance shall not be wanting He who made all the rest will find a place for accomplishing of the deede It is not much materiall where or in what coast of the world the Prophet was cast on land but Iosephus saith that the report was that this happened in Pontus Euxinus as it is commonly called and that it was that part of the Ocean where he was put to shore If it were so then the whale did carie him a great way from the sea towards Cilicia on the south side of Natolia or Asia the lesser through the Hellespont and Propontis all the straights neare to Thrasia and so into that Pontus Euxinus which was a long space of way in so short a time to be passed But if this were so done then the fish was as a shippe as the fleetest and swiftest shippe to conuey him forward on the way that whereas toward Niniue the place whither he should go the coast was East he was brought backe againe to the East on the North-side of Natolia so much being recouered by the fish as he was caried by the ship before toward the West But this is onely coniecturall and therefore I do not follow it 7 Thus farre the Spirit of God hath plainly said that Ionas is gotten to the land he is freed from the terrour and imprisonment of the whale and now he is so set at libertie as if there had neuer bene any such matter Which whether we will in the figure apply to Christ or by example to our selues it is worthie consideration Our Sauiour who is the best interpreter and expositor of the Prophets in the twelfth of Saint Mathew doth compare this lying of Ionas for three dayes in the whale to the burying of himselfe for three dayes in the graue Then by the same Analogie or proportion the restoring of Ionas from the belly of the fish must represent Christs resurrection As this sinner was designed not for euer but for a time to be kept within that ward and when his houre was expired his keeper might not hold him so our Sauiour was shut vp in the tombe not for euer nor vntill the day of iudgement but a set space was appointed wherein he was to rest and when that was consummated the graue could no longer hold him It had receiued a burthen which it had no power to beare It detained him for a little while because it was his good
haue shewed the apish quality of Satan in his imitation of the mightiest workes of God and his craftinesse otherwise in seeking by his tales and inuented reports to withdraw credit from the Scriptures Whereunto I might first adde that since we haue to do with an enemy of that quality we had neede be very circumspect in regard of our selues that we yeeld not assent to any of the leud motions of himselfe or other his Atheisticall agents in going about to extenuate the credit of the word but pray to God still to guide vs in his vndoubted truth both that we may beleeue and practise that which he hath taught vs. Secondly I might shew the conueniency or rather the necessity that a Minister who should expound the Scriptures should be furnished with liberall Arts and sciences with histories and other humane learning that when occasion directly serueth such knots as this is may be opened to the honour of the true God In which respect I do professe my iudgement to be cleane contrary to the opinions of such men who thinke that the vnderstanding and vse of these matters is friuolous and vaine for a Minister and only for ostentation and that it skilled not if there were no Vniuersities or schooles where these things are studied I repute them the great blessings of the Lord of heauen affoorded to vs for the apparant furtherance of his ministery and the profession of Diuinity How can the Reuelation and the prophecy of Daniel be vnderstood without these The like may be sayd of some other parts of Scripture When with so many helpes of history from the Greeke and from the Latine the best and most laborious wits cannot attaine to the depth of many matters in them how vnperfect and vncertaine nay how amazed plainely should he be that would looke into them knoweth nothing of antiquitie The positiō is most true that arte and knowledge hath none so great an enemy as that person which is ignorant Take away these and bring in barbarisme But I haue no time to handle this and therefore I do leaue it desiring God to perpetuate these arts skils among vs that the meanes of our studies here in this vngodly age be not taken away from vs for our abusing of them but that they may continue as handmaides to Diuinity and seruants vnto the Scriptures till Christ Iesus come to iudgement To him with his blessed father and his most holy Spirit be praise for euermore THE XVI LECTVRE The chiefe poynts 3. God in sending twise sheweth his loue to be the greater 4. which is hindered by no crosse from man 6. As appeareth in England 7. God imployeth Ionas after his former fall 8. The cruell doctrine of the Nouatians 10. The word is the great instrument whereby God calleth 11. To the old Prophets the word of God came 12. But preachers now must go to it 13. Ionas is not forward to his second message 14. God purposely sendeth variety of businesse to vs and why 15. The finger of the Lord appeareth in that one teacheth a multitude 16. But especially the word is forcible 17. Knowing of daunger before-hand maketh the Minister more resolute 18. Prophets must preach that onely which God commandeth 19. Which the Papists do not Ionah 3 1.2 And the word of the Lord came vnto Ionah the second time saying Arise go vnto Niniueh that great city and preach vnto it the preaching vvhich I bid thee AS it pleased God that vpon the first reuiuing of this weekely exercise of preaching among vs I meane in these late yeres after some discontinuance of these holy labours he put in my mouth the first charge layd on Ionas to go to Niniue the euent whereof from time to time I haue discoursed vnto you as the Lord hath enabled me So it falleth out fitly by the prouidence of the selfe same God that vpon the second reuiuing of the selfe same exercise the second sending of the selfe same Prophet vnto the same city should be offered to your hearing Wherein as the mercy of the Almighty was manifested to Niniue when after the first stay hinderance of that which was intended toward it he did not giue ouer but redoubled his message by sending againe So it is an argument of Gods kindnesse to vs that he suffereth not the practise of his seruants in holy things to cease but although vpon occasion it hath bene interrupted yet to breake foorth againe A copious blessing when God plentifully sendeth the foode of our soules and that not onely by imposed sacrifices but by free-will offerings also so remoouing farre from vs the famine of the word which is the greatest famine and against which we are to pray more earnestly then against all hunger of the body It were to be wished that this may be continued with an euerlasting performance that so the building of this house like that of Salomons Temple might not cease till all were ended by Christs comming to iudgement or if like the second Temple it must be at a stay yet that it might neuer quite stand lest the memory should be razed out that there was any such building Although some space be betweene yet let the dayes of Darius adde to the daies of Cyrus the Lord stirre vp the spirit as of Zerubbabel before so of Zachariah afterward to second and forward and incourage the worke 2 Now there is proposed to me a larger field to walke in then hitherto hath bene for the sinne of one man alone was offered before vnto me to be discoursed of but now the sinne of a multitude So heretofore I had occasion to looke into the priuate repentance of one offending person but now into the publike penance of a whole transgressing city and that of the city Niniue the greatest in the East which by her enormity did minister God great matter of vengeance and wrath but by her deploration and sorrow for iniquity did mooue him vnto mercy Before the cry of their ioyned transgressions did ascend into the eares of the Lord as the cry of Sodome did but now in a like manner the out-cry of their ioyned praiers of their fasting and contrition doth pierce through the very cloudes and commeth before Gods seate and obtaineth forgiuenesse of him Which as it is afterward illustrated in this present Chapter and therefore in his fit place will yeeld most fruitfull doctrine so because the meanes also of moouing them to repentance are here opened vnto vs that is to say by the word of God deliuered vnto thē by the preaching of the Prophet my purpose is to pursue it with that naturall order which the text prescribeth vnto me beginning with the Lords sending and so proceeding to the Prophets going and afterward to his preaching and then to their demeanour in hearing and receiuing and so forward to the rest But this day in these two verses especially I shall touch these two things The imployment
request thereof made thou mayest then vse thy discretion for thy selfe and thy familie but especially for thy selfe like a good Cornelius and without any murmuring concerning other men or seditious complayning do thou double thy deuotion Fast twise if God do so mooue thee in steed of euery single time before intended once to turne away the wrath gone out against the land and secondly that the Lord will mooue them that be in authoritie to do that which is truly pleasing in his eyes So thou hast saued thy owne soule and the burthen shall lye on the conscience of other But take heede of seditious singularitie and ouer-weening contempt and condemning of other lest thou more offend with that then thou profite with thy abstinence Diuinitie will not iustifie it that if a Christian state shall giue solemne entertainement for dismissing of Embassadours who may be suspected to come about no religious practise the Ministers on the other side at the same time and in the same place should of purpose to crosse the first proclaime a solemne fast or if the chiefe Church-gouernour should bid stay a while for reasons not irreligious inferiour men should therefore make a great deale more hast Neither may the examples of others make good this We liue by lawes not by examples Euery man must not carie the sword or be a commaunder Good things may be done amisse and so the goodnesse of them may be impeached It is good to deface idolatry but whē multitudes in places wheras now reformed Churches be haue run into the tēples with violence haue plucked downe the images and taken away the Crucifixes and made hauocke of the vessels and superstitious things to speake most mildly of it it was not well but it had bin much better if publike authoritie had beene therein expected Men who are priuate persons must wait for Gods leisure and not runne before their maker Saint Paule was wise and commaunded that all things should be done in order Take heede then of disorders and such gaps as these may be to enormitie I speake vnto the wise and therefore shut vp this point with that saying of Saint Bernard If euery man shall be caried according to his owne motion after that spirit which he hath receiued and do flye vpon euery thing indifferently euen as he is affected and do not hasten to it by the iudgement of reason while no man is contented with the office assigned vnto him but all will attempt all things alike by an indistinct administration it will not be an vnitie but rather a confusion 13 Let not any man mistake me as if I did dislike the Christian solemntitie of the most publike abstinence for farre be that from me My Ionas too well knoweth the fruite of that in his Niniuites among whom it wrought not least with the eternall Father when so openly and generally they did that which they did for all of them did fast and all of them put on sackcloth from the highest to the lowest The King and his Princes began the people followed after but the greatest beginne and the least follow The eldest are not excluded the youngest are not excused for the child but of one day old is of spotted seede and corrupted But all of them ioyne together that if one want deuotion another may be right if one of them preuaile not yet the multitude may obtaine What a sight was this to behold that young and old male and female the Ladies and their handmaides the Nobles and their seruants should be rufully lamenting on their faces with voyce lift vp vnto the highest heauens How would this pierce to the throne of the vnapprochable Godhead what heighth could keepe this backe what cloude would not this seuer what heauen would not this enter When so many thousands crye al Niniue with one eccho without fraude or hypocrisie how could God chuse but heare for the great mercie which is in him The ioynt prayers of mortall men haue much force with the Lord. For to speake after the manner of men suppose that he were hardly bent to take vengeance vpon a nation at first when they should call for mercie would seeme to be on sleepe yet would not this awaken him when he should haue no rest when on the right hand and left hand before him and behind him at the doores and at the windowes and at the floore which is vnder him there should be knocking and bouncing which will not be answered with silence nor take any deniall The diuersitie of the noyses as the shrill voyce of the infants the wailing of the women the howling of the men would mooue him who is most setled Their various importunitie will wring foorth pitie from him Then it is a fault in vs that when Gods heauie hand doth lye sometimes vpon vs we come not with our forces vnited to sollicite him We do in a sort strain curtesie who it is that shal go to Church but the most will be away And those who come do it so coldly that it is as good that they were absent It is the great congregation of spirits throughly mooued kindled in deuotion which doth winne God ouer to vs. When citizens who haue transgressed shall open their gates to their Prince whom they haue offended and the men and women and children shall lye prostrate at his feete and acknowledge themselues wholly at his mercie and discretion his heart melteth on them and spareth them being thus cast downe So would God deale with vs. But our proude mind commeth not to this although much miserie be vpon vs we cannot tell how to stoupe Saint Basile complaineth that when a most grieuous famine pinched his citie of Caesarea yet very few of the inhabitants sought for remedie I come saith he to Church to preach or to pray but scant any is ioyned with me The men are about their marchandise the women about their profites But very few are with me and those who be are so gaping and wearie and so itching vp and downe as if they looked still when he who readeth the Psalme would make an end that they might withdraw themselues from the Church as from some prison The most here are the scholers who come from the schoole which take this comfort by it that they are from their bookes the while and make no more vse of it but the stronger sort the while are carelesly gadding through the streetes See if he paint not out as with a most perfect pensill the time wherein we liue God hath sent vs such a famine that if vnder his blessing the seas had not serued vs more happily then the land to the eternall praise of merchandise many thousands of men besides those few which are lost had perished and the Lord knoweth what had beene done And yet the prices of all things continue exceeding deere Now in this case do we from the greatest to the least assemble before the Almightie Nay as
the great point which naturally ariseth from my text I haue therein sayd lesse because I debated this question at large vpon the twelfth verse of the first Chapter of this Prophecy and in the opening of this booke I haue euer aymed at that not to repeate the same things oft in manner or in matter Yet one word more before I leaue this and that is that in the Primitiue Church it was somewhat a strange kind of opinion that men confessing Christ might make away themselues to withdraw their bodies from torments which their persecutours would offer to them and they knew not certainely whether their strength were able to sustaine Eusebius in his historie telleth that in the bloudie time of cruell Diocletian there were diuerse who for the reason named did procure death to thēselues by throwing their bodies from floores and lofts high places And he addeth farther there that a certaine Chistian mother her two daughters being taken and fearing lest she or they should be defloured which of all things she detested stepped aside from their keepers threw themselues into the riuer and so perished in the water Afterward the same Eusebius speaketh of another matrone who going into her chamber as it were to attire her selfe while the officers of the Emperor expected her returne thrust her selfe through with a sword And these matters Eusebius doth not onely historically relate but by an insinuation doth little lesse then commend them but of certainty he euidently approoueth them Now true diuinitie doth maintaine that this praise is not good but such deeds are very vnlawfull God who simply forbiddeth all murther on our selues doth also forbid this because he giueth no exception in this point or case either directly or indirectly The Prophets and the Apostles and our Sauiour Christ himselfe did with humilitie expect that the will of God should be wrought vpon them by others they did not make themselues guiltie by laying violent hands on their owne flesh That were not patience but impatiencie and breaking away from the crosse imposed on them By occasion of the example of Razias mentioned in the second booke of the Machabees and there sayd to destroy himselfe Saint Austen very excellentlie disputeth this against the Donatistes whose treatise who so listeth to reade shall see that he plainely and substantially prooueth that this is not to be liked in any Christian. Hierome vpō the first of Ionas desirous as it seemeth to make excuse for such facts giueth thus his iudgement on this matter It is not our part to hasten death to our selues but vvillingly to receiue it being layd vpon vs by other Whereupon euen in persecutions it is not lawfull for vs to perish with our owne hands vnlesse it be vvhere chastity is indangered but to submit our selues vnto the striker In generall he condemneth it and that particular exception where our chastity is indangered may verie well be left out for violence which is offered to the bodie of man or woman and cannot be resisted doth not make the partie sinfull It is consent which staineth vs with transgression and not that force which we cannot auoide and which we approoue in no sort He who liued in a deeper time of darknesse and superstition that is Sarisburiensis in the fifth of his Policraticus could see definitely and positiuely to determine all this doubt His words are plaine and direct and therefore I thinke good to cite them None of them who haue layd hands on themselues are sufficiently excused by me although the Ecclesiasticall storie vvith great commendation doth extoll some who hastened their owne death because they had leyfer that their temporall life should be indangered then their chastitie His iudgement therein is sound although the faults of those who were surprized and deceiued with such an opinion should be couered with silence and left to Gods secret iudgement Now to come to my third circumstance 11 Ionas being full of errours yet knoweth that it is the Lords part to giue life and take it away and he is not ignorant that to vse violence on himselfe were a very grieuous sinne but yet he goeth so farre as to wish himselfe dead he prayeth God to end his life and concludeth it to be better for him to dye then to liue Here is a double fault in the Prophet one that the cause which did mooue him to such vehemency of thoughts was a matter much vnbeseeming for all his anger was that the Lord would spare the Niniuites which he thought was against his credit and the esteeme of a Prophet and Ionas by a consequent is in this case growne bloudy But of this before in this Chapter The second fault is that in this his mad and raging anger he doth wish himselfe dead For this in him proceeded from a vexed vnquiet heart possessed with impatiency and not from a sanctified resolution We deny not but in some cases a man who is here on earth warfaring and in a combat with his spirituall enemies may wish himselfe out of life As when there is a meere and feruent desire to be ioyned with his head to be with the blessed Trinitie and the Angels about the throne as accoūting that glory to be the garland for which we must sigh and grone And this doth Saint Paule teach vs by his euident example where he professeth of himselfe that he longed to be dissolued and to be with Christ. And this loue hath filled the minds of many of the martyrs who thought all to be dung in comparison of that heauenly celestiall beatitude which is aloft with God And therefore they feared not to presse on to that marke by fire and sword and racking And is these dayes of the Gospell that is one of the consolations wherein we do abound that we see many of our Christian brethren and sisters when in the extremitie of their sicknesse they lye vpon their death-beds to embrace our Sauiour Christ and thirst for their dissolution to thinke each houre a yeare before they be in heauen Againe when there is truly in vs a setled hate against sinne which ariseth from a seruent loue to the Lord whom we grieue to displease not for feare but for kindnesse toward so gracious a father then it it is a good desire soberly and with ripe iudgement to wish our selues out of this body where dayly we prouoke him whom we loue so entirely And in this also we haue the steps of holy Paule to treade and to walke in who considering the great burthen of sinne which was vpon him and how it did euermore disturbe him doth cry out passionatly O wretched man that I am who shall deliuer me from this body of death Where certainely he intendeth so much as that in this consideration he could wish himselfe from this earth But on the other side if they be but froward thoughts and werying perturbations which distemper vs too much or if it be for some
out Kings make Samgar with an Oxe-goade destroy sixe hundred Philistines and Samson a thousand of them with the iaw-bone of an Asse What could more sound out his honour then the ouerturning of Hierico with trumpets made of rammes hornes and the victorie of Gedeon vpon the Madianites or the slaying of Goliah with a sling and a stone It had bene lesse fame to haue brought great things about with great and mightie meanes In like sort it demonstrateth his powerfull abilitie that he can so dispose of his creatures as that a Cocke should fright a Lion a mouse trouble an Elephant an Ichneumon a little serpent destroy a huge and bigge Crocodile Euen so in the course of the Gospell it declared Gods owne finger when fishers conuerted Oratours and poore men perswaded Kings And so it singeth out his saluation that sinners should bring home sinners and faultie persons men blame-worthie As it was answered to Paule complaining of his weaknesse My grace is sufficient for thee for my power is made perfect by weaknesse so where the grace and strength of God do accompanie the toungs of sinners in proclaiming forth his word they shall preuaile and prosper albeit not for the commers cause yet for the senders sake Though it be but an earthen vessell which containeth that which is brought yet because there is treasure in it some there be which shall receiue it This is no protection for sinne for all faults are worthie blame but especially in the Minister in whome all things are conspicuous like spots in the fairest garment If the eye be darke what shall see if the guide be blind who shall leade if he who should shine for puritie be impure beyond other men who shall profite by good example You are a citie set on an hill Yet this is a iust defence against our runagates Seminarie priests of Rome who take occasion by reason of some slippes in our Cleargie defects in our ministerie which yet may easily be demonstrated to be greater at this time in their Papacie and in the highest of their Hierarchie their owne stories resound them to haue bene exceeding filthie to vnder-mine any good opinion of our religion in the simple But this is practised most of all to the ignorant and to silly women into whose houses they creepe and leade them captiue being laden with sinnes and led with diuerse lustes In like sort it is an answere to Atheists and hypocrites liuing among vs who to couer their oppression their auarice and extortion pretend it to be no fault to detaine and hold away any thing from men so culpable by that meanes requiring that their brethren the Preachers of the word should be no lesse theÌ„ Saints when they themselues who require it are most farre off from all sanctified and good things God hath made his Pastours and Ministers of like mould with other men he expecteth it not neither can it be that they should liue here like Angels for this is the way and not the countrie yet by his Spirit he keepeth his seruants from delighting and persisting in grosse sinnes and he couereth their errours and imputeth them not vnto them But he pinneth not the veritie of his doctrine vpon men As Moses chaire was Moses chaire when the Pharisees did sit in as Christs faith was the assured faith although the traitour Iudas might preach it and the Prophecie was Gods message when weake Ionas did carie it so the Gospell is the Gospell when ignorant men and young men and sinfull men do deliuer it Blessed be the God of our hope who will not haue vs depend on flesh or bloud or man but on his assured truth and his ouer-ruling Spirit God guide vs so by his grace that by the good we may learne good and by the euill to flye from euill that so we may be fit members of that body whereof his Sonne is the true and liuing head to both whom and to the holy Ghost the Trinitie in Vnitie be honour for euermore THE XXX LECTVRE The chiefe poynts 3. Parables may be vsed 4. and all good eloquence by the Minister 6. Ionahs words returned vpon himselfe 7. The comparison betweene God and Ionah 8. The multitude of inhabitants in Niniue 9. with whom the gourd was not to be ballanced 10. God prouideth blessings for man without his labour 11. Gods care ouer infants and all beasts 12. Therefore parents should not be too carefull 13. Ionas at length yeeldeth 14. The conclusion of the Prophecie ioyned with exhortation Ionah 4.10.11 Then said the Lord thou hast had pittie on the gourd for the which thou hast not laboured neither madest it grow which came vp in a night and perished in a night And should not I spare Niniue that great city wherein are sixe score thousand persons that cannot discerne betweene their right hand and their left hand and also much cattâ—ll IN that which goeth before the intemperate furie and vnaduised rashnesse of the Prophet hath bene such that he is readie to take an occasion of chiding with the Lord vpon a most trifling cause euen the withering of a gourd And being reprooued for it not by his fellow seruant but by his maisters owne mouth he standeth on his owne iustification that he did well to be angry yea if it were to the death In which moode if he had departed his iudgement now was so peruerted that he would haue thought that he had had a great hand vpon God that he himselfe had bene in the right and the Lord had bene to blame because he had not fitted his fancie But the inconceiuable wisedome of the euerlasting Father doth so farre ouermatch him that where he expected victorie although it were but in words and thoughts he is taken at that aduantage that he is for euer put to silence in this matter For his owne speech is so fitly returned vpon himselfe and he is so caught and entangled in the words of his owne mouth that he is enforced to yeeld a greater thing then that whereof the present question was and that is concerning Niniue that since iustice was pleased to turne it selfe into mercie and seueritie into clemencie nothing was done vniustly or vnbeseeming him who is the rule of truth For that was it which the Prophets maister in this place especially did ayme at that his seruant shold be satisfied and thereby all the world be aduertised to the full that the holy one of Israel is delighted to shew pittie vpon the sonnes of men that where repentance ascendeth from the earth to the heauen there a pardon will come downe from the Highest vpon his creatures that Niniue it selfe whose sinnes did crye for vengeance vpon submission and conuersion should be spared from destruction So that mankind in generall taking notice of such grace and propensenesse vnto clemencie might confesse that the Lord is gracious and that his mercie endureth for euer 2 But to make this the more
fellowes do with open mouth most bitterly inueigh yet they neuer can be able by sound truth to condemne them Their choyse was hard that either their vow must be broken by them or else they must beare about a dayly sinne in their bodies They aduentured on the lesser fault I doubt not but asking pardon for the rash and vnaduised oath which they had taken And God doth forgiue vs such things when we call to him by repentance as may very well be gathered from the fifth Chapter of Leuiticus where was appointed an offering as a kind of satisfaction for him who had vowed any thing which he afterward doth find out not to be in his powor to accomplish Charitie doth bid me thinke that those fathers in the Gospell and excellent men in the faith did enter into wedlocke with all labour to satisfie a good conscience towards God And therein their owne hearts might be the best witnesse and direction to themselues Yet the person who hath so vowed and in so doing hath not done well let him feare to breake that vow causelesse by a licentious libertie and if God do giue the gift of chastitie let him liue in continency if he can as otherwise for the honour giuen to virginitie in the Scripture so for his vowes sake also And so much I thought good to teach concerning vowes by occasion of the words of the Prophet Ionas wherein if I haue bene ouer-long let this excuse the matter that this doctrine is few times handled and now the text did minister opportunitie That second part which now followeth I will ouerrunne most briefly Saluation is of the Lord. 19 Many of the old interpreters and Hierome among other not obseruing such a distinction or point which ought to be in the sentence haue ioyned these words with the former and so caused the sence of all to be troubled The Hebrew hath it thus Saluation is to the Lord which the most carefull expositours do plainely expresse by Saluation is from the Lord. Tremelius doth interprete it All manner of saluation or sauetie is to Iehouah So that here the Prophet gathering by a constant faith that after his great feares in the sea and in the whale he should be freed from all perill and enioy his life once againe ascribeth all to God and with this Epiphonema maketh conclusion of his prayer acknowledging that whatsoeuer came vnto him well was from the Almightie For to whom should he impute it but onely vnto him whose inconceiuable power he had felt before to the full who to punish and chastise him had the ayre and water at his commaundement and had for three dayes kept him aliue in the fishes bellie Now if he should bring him to libertie out of bondage and desolation and should pardon his sinne and transgression he had great reason to magnifie his mercie and goodnesse ouer him Mine ayde commeth not from me I cannot helpe my selfe it cometh not from fortune or blind chaunce there is no such thing in nature not from any lying vanitie of idoll or heathen God but from the all-sufficient Lord who can helpe when he pleaseth and raise vp when he lifteth he putteth downe and setteth vp he doth what himselfe will If I haue hope of any thing it is deriued from him 20 Yea vnder this generall speech he remembreth vnto all that euery of their escapes from daunger are onely from the Lord. If the Israelites be deliuered from the bondage of the Egyptians if Dauid get from Saul if Elias be freed from Iezabel this good doth come from that father who sitteth aboue in heauen Or if any one of vs being layd for by the malice of cruell and wicked men be not made a pray to their power or deceiuing pollicy it is not of our wit neither is any flesh our arme but this safety is of the Lord. And if we will looke higher the deliuery of our soules from the chaynes and bands of Satan the sauing of vs from the violence of all our ghostlie enemies the redeeming of vs from sinne the incorporating of vs into his owne Sonnes body the bringing of vs to that glorious liberty of the sonnes of God is the worke of the Almighty Not vnto vs ô Lord not vnto vs but vnto thy name giue the glorie We may say as the Elders say in the Reuelation of Iohn to Christ the Lambe of God Thou art vvorthy to take the booke and to open the seales thereof because thou vvast killed and hast redeemed vs to God by thy bloud out of euery kinred and tongue and poeple and nation and hast made vs vnto our God kings and priests and vve shall raigne on the earth nay we shall raigne in the heauen But the whole worke of our ransome onely belongeth to the Trinitie As Ionas concludeth that prayer of his which hath bene so full of passion so do I end at this time saluation is to the Lord. Let vs pray to him to blesse vs still that by grace giuen vnto vs we may be sonnes of adoption and at last be brought to saluation which himselfe graunt vnto vs for his blessed Christs sake to both whom with the holy Spirite be maiesty power and glory both now and euermore Amen THE XV. LECTVRE The chiefe poynts 1. Gods fatherly affection toward sinners 4. He commandeth his creatures at his pleasure 6. Ionas is cast on land 7. A figure of Christs resurrection 9. We also shall rise againe 10. Comfort to the heauy heart 11. A comparison betweene Ionas and Arion 13. The whole narration of Arion is a fable 15. Some wonders are wrought by the Diuell 16. who doth much imitate God 17. and seeketh to discredit Gods word by his fables 19. How the Scriptures might be obscurely knowne by the old Poets and Philosophers 20. But they corrupt the diuine stories 21. Humane learning is fit for a Minister Ionah 2.10 And the Lord spake vnto the fish and it cast vp Ionas vnto the drye land IT is not without cause that so oftentimes in the Scriptures God is compared to a father and called by that name as Our father vvhich art in heauen and Ye shall therefore be perfect as your father vvhich is in heauen is perfect And as a father hath compassion on his children so hath the Lord compassion on them that feare him for he beareth a verie father-like and naturall affection to all those who are chosen to be his If they be led by weakenesse into diuerse temptations or by infirmity of their flesh be stained with great transgressions he looketh angrily for a time and with a terrible countenance seuerely frowneth on them but yet in the middle of his iustice he remembreth mercy and doth not vtterly reiect them nor cast them away It may be that he doth chastise them with parent-like correction according to the measure and qualitie of their crime yea he layeth smart blowes on them not sparing to strike them till he
hath brought them and depressed them to the pit of death and entrance of the graue but there he maketh a stay in his kindnesse being satisfied with iudgement not with furie rather topping them and shredding them with some short aduersitie then plucking them vp by the root And that is the maner of seuere but yet naturall parents in restraining their children from grosse foule enormities to bend thē not to breake them to seeme more angry then indeed they be or if they iustly be displeased to be so but for a time giuing pardon to such faults as be past and expecting with much patience that it may at length be better 2 The righteous Lord of all doth so looke here vpon our Prophet with a fauourable eye He had deprehended him long since as a runne-agate from his charge he made his owne mouth giue sentence that he had deserued to be drowned he had throwne him into the water where as if it had bene with a death vpon a death he had made a fish to deuoure him and for three dayes space to keepe him close prisoner in his belly in all the anguish and torment that his heart could imagine He was as though he liued not and yet he could not dye hauing time enough to meditate in what miserie he was but not knowing with all the wit which was in his vnderstanding how to ridde himselfe from that sorrow But at the last lifting vp his thoughts to his Almightie maker he flyeth by faith and repentance to the throne of grace desiring God to pitie him and shew compassion on him that once more returning to land he might by open obedience make some little recompence for his former fault And the Lord graciously respecting his earnest and heartie prayer doth content himselfe with the punishment past and with a most free fauour restoreth him to libertie As a dead man from the graue as one buried from the sepulcher so is this man brought foorth his prison-doores shall be opened his fetters shall be shaken off he shall be ridde from the whale and set on foote on the land yea as he was a messenger before so hee shall be a messenger still a Prophet for the Highest to goe and preach at Niniue My charge at this time is to shew the meanes of his deliuerance which is set downe so briefly and plainely in my text that the words do neither need diuision nor much interpretation but that which shall be conuenient to be touched you shall heare of in the doctrine Thē the Lord spake to the fish it cast vp Ionas to the dry land 3 If otherwise we did doubt what power and authoritie God hath ouer his creatures yet it is assured to vs in the end of the first chapter as in that place I gathered when the Lord had a whale as at a becke for his purpose prepared and in a readinesse to swallow vp the Prophet being throwne into the sea And as he there vsed that fish for his instrument so he might haue had obsequious to him any other thing in heauen or in the earth or in the sea and as he might at that time so might he at all times That vnrestrained prerogatiue in God is once more expressed to vs in the selfe same fish whom after that he had caused to keepe his burthen in him for so many dayes houres and moments of time as himselfe had appointed now he will haue him in a trice disburden his belly and be eased of his cariage But note with what facilitie he fulfilleth his designement The Lord spake to the fish Not the struggling of Ionas nor his pricking of the fish within no other receipt which should vrge him to disgorge and cast vp his stomacke no violence which was offered from man or fish or ship or any other thing without him did extort or force him out of his belly but one word spoken frō God or lesse then that if it might be did bring about that which was done Which is not to be taken after the vnderstanding of the grosse Anthropomorphites called otherwise Audaeani who did attribute to God the members and bodie of a man as if the Lord had vsed some language or talked to the fish as men commonly do talke each to other for that agreeth not with his spirituall nature his impassible and pure and diuine being God is a Spirit saith our Sauiour Christ. And although he assumed a voyce vnto him when he was pleased to proclaime the law of the ten Commaundements before the Israelites and may do the like againe when it seemeth good to himselfe as when he was disposed with words vttered from heauen to glorifie his Sonne Christ yet that was not of his nature but an action of his will wherein extraordinarily he did take to himselfe some meanes which are besides his essence and which are not frequent with him But here the word of speaking is vsed to notifie vnto vs who are of dull capacitie and loue our owne phrases best that he signified and gaue inkling in some sort or other which was easie for him to do but not for vs to conceiue to the whale that it must performe that seruice And that the Lord in such manner doth frame himselfe in the Scripture vnto our vnderstanding as a rude one to the rude as barbarous to Barbarians as men to little infants do stammer and talke like children is a veritie so apparant and so common an obseruation to those who reade the Bible that it were but lost time to handle it and once before I haue said somewhat of that matter 4 It is a thing more worth the knowing of vs to obserue his forcible power that his saying is a doing and his speech a commaunding In the very beginning of Genesis God said let there be light that is he did command it The words of the tempter vnto Christ were Do thou say or do thou speake that these stones should be made bread that is as it is commonly translated do thou commaund The Lord said to the fish he layed his cōmaundement on him and who or what is that which can resist his will If he bid come all commeth if he bid go all goeth the greatest is within his compasse the least is not exempted If he will plague the Egyptians armies of frogges and flyes and swarmes of lice shall attend him and if on the other side he do but put vp his finger they shall all away in a moment If he will feede the Israelites the heauen shall giue them bread and the rocke shall bring them water For Iosuah the Sunne shall stand still and it shall fly backe for Ezechiahs sake For the passage of the children of Israel Iordan shall part in two and so it shall do for Eliah And for the same Prophet the rauens shall bring food in the morning and euening The lyons mouthes shall be musled when Daniel is among