Christ then dyed at the ninth houre that is at three of the clock after noone on a friday as we call it and before that the euening was in on the day of the Preparation which was that selfe same Friday his body was layd in graue That little time before euening is by the figure Synecdoche which taketh a part for the whole reputed for a whole day and a night that is the day and night before going The night then which did follow the setting of the Sunne and the day which was their Easter but by vs is called Saterday is reckened for the second And indeed this was complete both for the day and the night Then followeth the next night wherein Iesus arose very earely in the morning at or before the dawning of the day and the opening of the light and this is to be numbred for the third both day and night the part taken for the whole by the figure as before This kind of computation as with ease it may be gathered from the narration of the Euangelistes so Saint Austen doth approoue it and the late Diuines so accept it And it should not seeme strange since in other things we do vse it The Phisitians call that feauer a Tertian or third Ague which skippeth but one day onely The Termes of our Vniuersitie are reckened in that manner The last day of a Terme is reputed for a Terme and the first day of another is taken for another Terme so that according to our vse in some cases one Terme and two daies are taken for three Termes Thus was Christ in his graue by the space of three daies and three nights either in part or in whole like to which it is very probable that the staying of the Prophet in the whale was abridged and abbreuiated for some part of the time that there might be a full resemblance betweene the one and the other the seruant and the maister But herein I will not be contentious Concerning the Resurrection 13 But to say no more thereof the maine note from this place requireth full vnderstanding because there is hence deduced a mysterie of our faith I meane the Resurrection which Christ Iesus himselfe expoundeth to be here very liuely signified Ionas was in the fishes belly for three daies there nights so shall the Sonne of man be for that time in the graue It must follow thereupon by a necessarie consequent But as Ionas was then deliuered so shall the Sonne of man then come forth with a sensible resurrection Christ foretold that he would do this Do you destroy this temple intending thereby his body and in three daies I will raise it and set it vp againe This was also foretold by Dauid although in the person of our Sauiour Thou wilt not leaue my soule in hell nor suffer thy holy one to see corruption which text Saint Peter citeth to aduouch Christs resurrection That he did rise againe the Euangelists all do cry the Apostles all do confirme it How plentifull is Saint Paule in discoursing this argument that he did appeare oftentimes one while but to a few another while to the Twelue but afterward to more then fiue hundred brethen at once By the vertue of his Godhead Christ had a soueraigne power to loose himselfe from death it was a thing vnpossible that he should be holden of it If his life had bene taken from him vnwillingly and by violence then very likely it is that the selfe same violence might haue still detained him prisoner But his dying was voluntarie he yeelded vp the Ghost and being contented to put himselfe amidst those anguishes and horrours he abode there at his pleasure on the crosse and in the graue and from death he returned with the selfe same pleasure as hauing conquered all and triumphing in great glorie And then he who came from heauen to disquiet himselfe on earth so to purchase mans redemption left death and graue and earth and with captiuitie captiue ascended againe to heauen where he â—ate him downe in his maiestie on the right hand of his Father 14 And by his resurrection our hope is to be saued herein doth rest the anchor of our happinesse and true blessednesse For in vaine had bene his debasing and in vaine his incarnation if he had not liued amongst vs. And in vaine had bene his life and in vaine had bene his preaching if his death had not followed after For his life was giuen for our raunsome his bloud it was which did wash vs his death it was which did quicken vs. But in vaine had bene his death also if he had not shaken off mortalitie from him and borne vp his graue before him and thereby winning his prizes had not maistered all which resisted So that we apprehend his resurrection as the stay and substance of our saluation as the vp-shot of our blessednesse from the which if we should fall we do plunge into vtter ruine Therefore in the Articles of our faith this is put for one that dying he rose againe the third day from the dead Not that onely he died for the Iewes beleeue so much and the Gentiles beleeue so farre but that he was quickened againe For as Saint Austen hath obserued the Paganes do admit this for a truth that Christ did dye but that he rose againe is the proper faith of the Christians and imparted to no other Now we hold Christ for the head and our selues to be the members what he hath done before we trust that we shall do afterward So that by his rising againe is inferred the resurrection of other and that of all as well the iust as the vniust and the vniust as the iust the one sort to raigne with their Sauiour on whome they haue beleeued the other to suffer torments because they haue contemned So that both great and small shall stand vpon their feete in the generall day of iudgement and appearing before the throne shall then receiue their last doome of miserie or of mercie And if we did not expect this the followers of Christ Iesus were most wretched men of all other who for this hope sealed vnto them do endure such strong vexations such grieuances and perplexities All the Martyrs were most foolish who loose their liues in this world for the maintenance of Christs glorie which were absurd stupiditie as Chrysostome hath well noted if they held not themselues assured that he were come from the dead neuer dye for him who liueth not and againe if they beleeued not that in recompence of their sufferings they should see a better life and receiue a firme inheritance in the day of last proceeding 15 Their warrant is sealed vnto them by him who cannot lye both that their holy seruice shall be rewarded by him who shall pronounce that comfort Come you blessed of my Father inherite eternall life and that there shall be a day
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
to this day did light vpon Origene besides the feare of a farther danger when the spirit of his conceit must be taken for the marrow of the Scripture and looke what with trickes he deuised other men must straight beleeue His conclusions grew as inconsequent as euer this did of Ionas Because we also are Prophets let vs feare in like sort to force the word of God to any thing but to what he meant it or to broch any new deuises by singularitie of opinion For as the Lord both blesseth and graceth things done with a good mind although they haue their imperfections so when our purpose is but vanity or rarenesse or a fancy to sing a note beyond all men in that where soundnesse seasoned with care and industry is best God a little to bridle vs leaueth vs vnto our selues and in steed of praise more then common our spot is more then ordinary Concerning the matter of Gods businesse the best ground is the common way to teach as the Lord doth teach and as the words are naturally and then if all other good helpes be vsed it is not amisse but let no humane passion make vs vary from the substance because we will haue it one way when God will haue it another lest the Almighty be not so much honoured as otherwise he should and we our selues be discomforted God graunt that we may make vse of the examples in the Scriptures that in need we may seeke to him who is able to helpe vs that we may pray to him as we should in humility and obedience accusing our owne infirmities that so we may tast of that mercy wherein he is so plenteous especially in his Sonne to both whom and the holy Spirit be praise for euermore THE XXVI LECTVRE The chiefe poynts 1. Out of euill groweth euill 3. God is Lord of life and death 5. Man is to regard himselfe as an excellent creature 6. No man should lay violent hands on himselfe 8. nor do things tending thereto 10. Christians are not excused who killed themselues to auoide their persecutours 11. How a man may desire to be dead 12. God in mercy doth not graunt all our wishes 13. The Lords mildnesse in reproouing Ionas 14. Which should be imitated by all but especially by the Minister Ionah 4.3.4 Therefore now ô Lord take I beseech thee my life from me for it is better for me to dye then to liue Then sayd the Lord Doest thou well to be angrie IT is a speech true as well in Diuinitie as in Philosophy that graunt one absurditie and a many will follow which is more commonly seene in practise of life then in holding opinions For when we haue once gone aside from Gods law and from the rule of vertue one sinne draweth on another as the linkes of a chaine mooue their fellowes where the first plucketh on the second And as a stone which is cast into a poole or standing water maketh one circle where it falleth and that circle breedeth another and so forward successiuely till it come to the banke so euill groweth of euill and the first begetteth one farther and there it will not rest but on in infinitum vnlesse grace sent from heauen as a bridle of restraint do make stay in the soule When Adam had once yeelded to hearken to the woman more indulgently then he should credulity commeth on him that hatcheth out ambition thence floweth disobedience after that commeth excusing and posting all ouer to God When Saule by a foolish pity had spared the king of Amalec and by a greedy couetousnesse had saued the cattell aliue he despaireth vpon those threatnings which were denounced against him by Samuel then he grieueth to lose his kingdom afterward hearing that Dauid was the man who should succeed him he seeketh euery way to slay him After his hatred toward him he hated euerie man who in least sort entertained him he murthered the Lords Priests and then to the end that he might procure that from hell which would not come from heauen he consulteth with a witch and at last for the vp-shot he slaughtereth himselfe Ionas is not so farre left to his owne disposition as to marre all in the end Gods grace is more vpon him yet to shew how farre weaknesse in his calling had surprized him he maketh an ill gradation Being in vp to the shooes he will on to the shoulders and it was more by grace then by nature that he had not diued ouer head and all For first he had vnaduisedly resolued on the destruction of the city without any sparing and in his longing for it he was growne bloudy in mind then seeing that God would pardon them he is displeased at it and he prooueth angrie with the Lord himselfe His wrathfull mind breaketh foorth and excusing himselfe for all he layeth the fault on the Lord. Yet here he sitteth not downe but furious as he is in all hast he will be dead to be rid of all the trouble And although the Lord do interrupt him there yet he will be dead the second time as afterward it doth follow 2 In this place I am to handle the conclusion of his prayer wherein after that he had tendered his owne iustification as it is in the former verse and had vexed himselfe that he could not see that which he intended he requesteth that he might dye accounting his peeuish anguish to be a thing so intollerable as that a liuing man might not beare it Wherein he still continueth an example of humane frailtie which being led by affâ—ction and fancy-full opinion of some present incombrance forgetteth the rules of piety and very grounds of reason and speaketh it knoweth not what For how vnfit was that motion because other men must liue Ionas himselfe will dye Because he might not haue reuenge on those who hurt him not for their faults were against the Highest he would be reuenged on himselfe Thus dealt he at that time when as a man whose heart had bene seasoned with vnderstanding should haue taken such contentation at the conuersion of so many sinners that his ioy should haue bene the greater and his life should haue bene the sweeter to see such a metamorphosis that vnrepentant sinners should be now crying out for pardon But my text leadeth me to speake not what a one he should be but what a one he was and therein these two verses offer to vs seuerall matters the one the desire of Ionas that his life should be taken from him the other the increpation or rebuke which the Lord bestoweth on him And these two are the maine drift But the former doth braunch it selfe into a second sort of instructions as first that the Lord is he who taketh away life from man secondly that therefore to depriue our selues of our breath is against his holy ordinance and thirdly in what cases we may wish our selues to be dead and in what it is vnlawfull These three things
fearefull desolation But what now may we imagine that those sinnes were which are sayd in this place to lye so grieuously vpon them 18 It is likely that such generall sinnes were in Niniue as are sayd by Ezechiel to haue bene in Sodome that is Pride and fulnesse of bread and abundance of idlenesse that she did not strēgthen the hand of the poore and needy but I thinke that in particular some falts may be picked out which were great in that place As first witchcraft and inchantment and sorcery necromancie and diuination by the starres which were exercised beyond measure in all the Easterne parts where Niniue stood When the true wisdome of Salomō is in the scripture compared with mens counterfeit wisdome it is said that his wisdome excelled all the wisdome of the children of the East that is their Philosphers and Diuiners and all of that sort There came to adore Christ wise men as they are called Magi Diuiners or Soothsayers and it is sayd in the text that they came out of the East In the second of Daniel what a rabble of such are reckened vp to be in Babylon a citie not far from Niniue Inchanters Astrologians Chaldeans and Sorcerers how doth God himself deride scoffe at thē by his Prophet Esay for entertaining of such for retaining of so many In one word the censure that is set on the Chaldaeans men not far frō Niniue by Tully in the second of his Diuination and by Cornelius Tacitus in the first of his History where that by his Mathematicians he meaneth Chaldaeans or the scholers of them may be wel gathered from that which elsewhere he hath of Tiberius who as he saith was skilled in their Arts together with the Narration of the Magi in Herodotus who would haue had the kingdom after the death of Cābyses do make this most plaine that in the East country these Arts were vsed much and therfore likely so in Niniue But how odious these sins are in the sight of God whosoeuer doth reade the Scriptures can not be ignorant In the tenth of Ieremy the least of these faults are called the way or customes of the heathen and therefore are they vnfit for Gods people Balaam could say there is no sorcery in Iacob nor soothsaying in Israel God himselfe doth giue charge that among his people should be none that vseth witchcraft or a regarder of time or a marker of the flying of foules or a sorcerer or a charmer or that counselleth with spirits or a soothsayer or that asketh counsell at the dead and the reason is there assigned because all that do such things are an abomination to the Lord. Nay God doth so hate these as that all such who seeke to them are odious to him as by Saule and Ahaziah may most plainly appeare who for seeking vnto such lost their kingdomes and their liues The audaciousnesse of men who are acquainted with these arts may be seene by those enchanters of whom we reade in Exodus who at Pharaos intreatie did dare not only to braue but to resist God and his seruant Moses Plinie himself although he were but a heathen man doth laugh at and deride the vanities of such S. Cyprian doth describe their vnfruitful superstitiō Regulus saith he obserued the flying of birds and yet he was taken by the Carthaginians Mancinus kept their religion yet was he sent vnder the gallowes sub iugum a token of disgrace to him selfe and his armie Paulus had the birds eating lustily which they held as a signe of good lucke yet was he slaine at the battell of Cannae But the execrable custome of some who be of this kind may partly be learned by that wherwith Athanasius sometimes although falsely was charged that he in his Magicke should vse the hand of a dead man which by experience in our time hath bene declared to be a practise of some who vse those trades And partly by the example of Iulian the Apostata who not long before his death going to warre in Persia did cause a woman to be hanged vp by the haire of the head to haue her hands stretched abroad her belly to be ripped open that as the author iesteth at it her liuer perhaps being cut vp he might thereby diuine what should be the end of that his voyage and whether that he should safely returne againe As it may seeme he him selfe was ashamed of that deede for he caused the church or chappell wherein this fact was done not onely to bee locked but to be sealed vp also and watchmen continually toward there that no man might come in Yet afterward it was discouered when report came of his death No maruell if such sinnes did come vp vnto the Lord or any other which draw in this line if they were to be found in Niniue Let Christians still take heed of these most filthy crimes yea and of all curious arts and among them of that too which whatsoeuer be sayd for it by many who are young and delight in experiments is truly sayd by Basil to be nothing else but a busie tickle vanitie 19 A second sin in Niniue was robbery and oppression That in some sort may be gathered from their large and mightie gouernement which could not be maintained but by somewhat indeed was vp-held and born out with the spoiles of other But the Prophet Nahum doth put the case beyond question when he calleth it a bloudy citie full of lyes and robbery from whence the pray departeth not They had then conquered a great part of the inhabited world The tributes and exactions which they had of them whom they conquered could not chuse but be great And for the beautifying of that their City which for a thousand yeares and more was mistresse of the world and chiefe seate of the Empire it may well be supposed that they tooke the selfe same course which afterward was taken vp by the Romanes who to garnish and adorne Rome did take away from all places whither their authority and soueraignty did stretch not onely gold and siluer but images and pictures and painted tables and hangings of tapistrie and plate and armour yea whatsoeuer else was precious in their eyes So did that great Marcellus at the sacking of Syracusa and other in other places who feared not to spoile many townes to make one trim glorious Now God who loueth iustice and in iustice hateth oppression and the robbing of other men can not like of this How sped Pharao with his people for dealing hard with the Israelites If he shall be cast into the fire saith Saint Austen being moued as it seemeth by that place of the 25. of Matthew who did not giue his bread to the hungry where thinke you shall he be put who hath taken away the bread of other men If he shall be throwne into the fire who clothed not the naked whither shall
water the wares are cast into the sea to lighten the ship withall Her burthen might make her sinke and therefore ease her of it In what a case were these poore men for harbouring such a guest As the host who hath lodged a traitor and because he seemed a man of faire conditions hath vsed him very kindly doth not know what he hath done til the Sheriffe come seaze his guest and himselfe to the Princes mercie so was it here with these mariners These men had money of Ionas to let him come into their vessel but by this time I think they could haue wished that they had giuen him money to keepe him farther of Ionas thou mightest haue gone to thy Niniue and saued them from this paine and thy selfe too from this hazard 15 You see the words are not manie three or foure lines at the most but what more can be said of a tempest then is here said in the text The sea-men are afraid a stiffer kind of men then other people are and who do not regard a small thing they had borne many brunts before and of likelihood escaped many dangers they were acquainted with the working of the sea and the egernesse of the wind An hote storme and away after a tempest cometh a calme A man who were new come thither and perhaps at first were sea-sicke might be agast at a litle his heart might be in his mouth to feele but a litle rocking But that this trembling feare should take these old beaten souldiers it doth import a vehement daunger The passengers must needs quake when the mariners did so dread If Ouid had bene there he wold once againe haue said that his Elege quite to the end Dijmaris coeli quid enim nisi vota supersunt Surely effeminate Ouid would haue betaken him to his deuotions when these forgetfull mariners who thinke not oft of their maker did fall so fast to their prayers It were to be wished that our Christians in all their nauigations would more remember true godlinesse pray oftener play lesse vse better rule at their going out and fewer sinnes at their landing Doubtlesse they which feare God are carefull but an ill name goeth of manie of them 16 I should here touch that circumstaunce that these idolatrous persons cried euerie man on his God but in the next verse folowing the text yeeldeth that againe and I do deferre it thither I will ad the other argument of the greatnesse of the tempest that is the throwing out of the wares This is neuer attēpted but when there is daunger indeed As it seemed vnto mans reason there was no way but one whē the mariners amōg whō Paule was did first throw out their cariage then the tackling of the ship For how farre are men driuen when with their owne hands they must robbe themselues of their helpes of their comfort of their wealth Many had as willingly dye as be put frō that which they haue As good to lose life as liuing A speech which is often vsed but verie few times performed A man will giue much for his life which Satan knew well inough when he could say in Iobs case Skin for skin and all that euer a man hath wil he giue for his life For money may be recouered by industry or Gods blessing or by some other meanes but so can life be neuer for now we looke not for miracles This maketh so manie ransomes to redeeme frō death with money yea to giue incredible sūmes to the impouerishing of the parties of their frēds nay sometimes of a whole State as Richard the first of England once knew wel in his returne frō the holy land so did Frāces the Great that king of Frāce whē after his captiuitie he was rāsomed frō Charles the 5. then Emperor Here the felowes of Ionas being put to very hard shifts do chuse the lesse of two euils their liues rather without wares thē to lose both wares liues Whē Alexāders soldiers were to passe the swift riuer Tigris by the violence of the streame many of thē lost their packes striuing there for their fardels to take them vp again they were almost drowned in the water The king who saw their follie bid thē looke to their liues to hold their armor fast let the rest go he himself wold make thē recōpence The wise captaine thought it far better to lose the Accidēt then the substance That which nature teacheth all men these mariners did here practise 17 But that the text doth giue a reason that it was to lighten the ship it might be thought that their casting of the wares into the sea was in this desperate moode to make some kind of satisfaction for that which they had gotten by fraude or piracie or deceit in bargaining as being now most vnwilling in this extremitie to haue in their possession such things as were by ill meanes obtained For oftentimes when death doth draw nigh the conscience of men is pricked to go from that which before hath both vniustly bene obtained and most stoutly maintained As Lewes the eleuenth king of France did in his death-bed restore two Counties to the heires of Iohn the king of Arragon to the which in all his life time before he would neuer condescend Yet thē his consciēce so wrought with him Or else it may be supposed that it might haue bin for some vow whereof sea-men are not sparing when they do feare a wrack as Erasmus in his Naufragium doth wittily let vs know They vow much and pay nothing but these idolaters here throw out much and vow nothing vnlesse it be afterward as it is in the end of the chapter Or else it might be imagined that they threw in their most precious substance as a raunsome for their liues to their idolatrous Gods as men in our time vse to throw in rings or iewels or chains or other things of price to buy their liues with their substance that they may seeme to God to be willing to part with somwhat that of moment also So that life may be saued not to go away but with losse Now although the expositours do mētiō these things it is not amisse to obserue thē yet the spirit of God doth say that necessitie made them drown their wares euen that hard dart of necessitie which will plucke frō men any thing that doth not immediatly cōcerne their being rather then all shal run to ruine Apparell wealth brauerie house land bewty shall away if need require Dionysius leaueth his kingdome Pōpey forsaketh his coūtry being vrged both by necessitie Although nature do teach the cōtrary as Paule writeth to the Corinthiās yet rather thē the citisens of Salonae will yeeld to Octauius the haire of their womens heads shall be cut of to helpe make engins for them and deuises in the warres Iosephus telleth of one Clitus an eminent
the head of Isboseth the sonne of Saule to Dauid and professed that they two had slaine him he tooke it for a truth and rewarded them thereafter that is he destroyed them with the sword The idle and carelesse seruant of whom we reade in the Gospell that he folded vp his talent in a napkin and hid it in the ground had this doome for his labour afterward that he had confessed it Of thine owne mouth I will iudge thee ô euill seruant The Iewes did roauâ— at this although they failed in their ground for Christ did not speake blasphemy when they could reply vpon him vvhat need we any farther vvitnesse for we our selues haue heard it of his owne mouth The commonnesse of which argument doth so enter the heart of all that these mariners enquired no farther when Ionas had once made his declaration against himselfe Vpon a firme perswasion of the truth of all his tale they fall into great feare they grow to farther counsell So that this beleeuing of the Prophet is the foundation of all that followeth after which may it please you for order sake to reduce to these two heads First the behauiour of the mariners and secondly the aunswere of the Prophet In the former are three circumstances the great feare wherein they were their rebuke which they vsed toward him and their question proposed to him all which by the Lords permission I do purpose to touch in order Then were the men exceedingly afrayd 4 These idolatrous heathen are here taught one lesson more then they euer learned before and that is that there was a God who in fearefull maner could take vengeance on offenders and did vse to follow after them as well by sea as by land in a wonderfull sort and therefore if their heart did now ake if all their ioynts did quiuer if their limmes did shake for feare and their knees beate together it was not to be maruelled at since at this time they were in triall of wrath aboue them and wrath vnder them and wrath euery way about them Before they had bene vsed to vaine and idoll Gods whose threates did little mooue them The knowledge was so light and the certainty so vncertaine which the heathen generally had of their Gods either for their power or for their bounty that they feared not to bestow iestes vpon them as vpon their fellowes Timaeus as Tully sayth is to be commended for his wit that whereas he had sayd in his history that the selfe same night wherein Alexander was borne the Temple of Diana at Ephesus was on fire he added withall that it was no maruell for the mistresse thereof was a great way from home in Macedonia with Olympias as a mid-wife attending her who then was in trauell for that was sayd to be the charge of Diana The adulteries which we reade in the bookes of Homer and Ouid that Iupiter and his fellowes are sayd to haue committed do shew the high conceipt and the goodly reuerence which the Gentiles in old time did beare to their Painim Gods They did not onely saith Saint Austen write such matters in their fables but represented them in their threaters and played them on their stages vvhere many times vvere to be seene plura crimina quam numina more great faults then good Gods Yet bewitching superstition had so possessed their soules that they would after a sort adore somewhat although they adored it but at their pleasure no true feare no due reuerence 5 The case is altered here they see that the God of Israel doth cary another sway no iesting with his Maiesty no playing with his power if his seruant do run from him he can fetch him backe again if he sleep soundly he can waken him if he will not returne in time he can send such a tempest after him as will make his bones to shake and his very marrow to tremble The lightning and the thunder the wind and haile and storme are all at his commandement Then it is a fearefull matter to fall into his hands to vndergo his wrath How then must the conscience of these poore sinners needs worke If a Prophet were so punished how should a priuate man be lashed If it were thus in the greene wood how should it be in the dry If one who had that place of honor with his God as to be employed froÌ„ him as a messenger to so worthy a place as Niniue yet should for one sin be endangered with so great a waight of displeasure what should become of them who in all likelyhood were polluted with many enormous crimes If God should meate to them such measure as he did to Ionas how doleful lamentable wold their state be This is a true effect of the iust consideration of Gods punishments vpon others First to know them to be terrible with a kind of amasednesse to take full notice of them Behold saith the Lord to Samuel I will do a thing in Israel whereof whosoeuer shall heare his two eares shall tingle Next to apply it to our selues make a benefit of it by descending into our soules sifting of our harts acknowledging that if God shold deale with vs in iudgemeÌ„t verily tâ—â—t should be our reward which is now befalleÌ„ vnto others 6 It is a perpetual fault euermore annexed vnto flesh bloud that if any punishment in strange sort do be fall to our brother or neighbor by and by with a precipitate headlong iudgement we condeÌ„ne him as a sinner if not notorious yet in some secret maner more grieuous then other meÌ„ Hierome obserueth this if that worke be S. Hieromes on the 93. Psalme Some vse to say he who is killed had not bene slaine vnlesse he had bene a fornicatour or stayned with some grosse sin He had not bene quelled with the ruine or falling downe of a house vnlesse he had bene wicked he had not suffered ship-wracke vnlesse he had bene profane or a mighty malefactor But what sayth the Scripture They shall condemne innocent bloud The innocent they shall suffer such deaths as well as other The Sauior of the world doth reprooue this rash conceipt when he biddeth that men should not thinke that those Galileans whose bloud Pilate had mingled with their owne sacrifices were greater sinners then all other Galileans or those eighteene on whom the Tower in Siloam fell and slue them were sinners aboue all men that were in Hierusalem but sayth he vnto them I tell you except ye amend your liues ye shall all likewise perish Whereas they and we are ready to exorbitate by looking on other men he sendeth vs backe to our selues that by scanning of our owne wayes and viewing our owne pathes we may see that vnto vs belongeth shame and confusion The hand of God vpon other should be a glasse to vs to see our owne deformity When the Angell destroyed so many of the Israelites with the pestilence Dauid
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
such factes if they will Let Calanus and his wise Indians hate to dye a naturall death but end their dayes by burning themselues in the fire Let the scholers of that Philosopher Egesias Cyrenaicus so far beleeue their maister disputing of the immortality of the soule that to the end that they might be depriued of life and enioy that spoken of immortality they go home and kill themselues Let Vibius Virius in Capua professe that he hath poyson for himselfe and all his friends which is able to free thē from the Romanes from punishment and from shame and let him drinke and dye Yea let the younger Cato a man held to be admirably wise be a butcher to himselfe rather then endure to see Caesar who was then become a Conquerer Yea let Seneca himselfe try the maner of Cato his death although in another sort after that himself a Philosopher a mirrour of heathen wisedome had so often and so highly commended that deed of Cato that it was not bloud but honour which gushed out of his side Yea let ten thousand more with Dido and Lucretia be recorded in Gentile stories yet all these are no warrāts for Christians we haue a better maister who hath taught vs a better lesson That aduersity and bitter afflictiō must be born with patience that we must expect Gods end in misery calamity and not hasten the issue in our selues that true fortitude is in bearing the sorrowes which are assigned allotted out for our portion that to fly from thē fearefully is cowardise Where is valure but in sustaining the greatest crosses with constancie and where is timiditie but in this to kill thy selfe that thou mayest be freed from that which doth not like thee What daunting force saith S. Austen had those euils which cōstrained Cato a wise man as they accounted of him to take that away from himselfe that he was a man whereas men say that truly that it is after a sort the first and greatest speech of nature that a man should be reconciled to himselfe and therefore naturally flye death so be a friend to himselfe as that earnestly he should desire to be a liuing creature and to continue in this coniunction of the body and soule He did not resist and stand strong against his euils but indeede fainted as a coward he sunke vnder his burthen I may conclude of him and of all that do treade his steps with that learned man who wrote the treatise De duplici Martyrio which is commōly called Cyprians If we reade that any haue killed themselues valiantly it was either weaknesse which by death did seeke an end of sorrowes or ambition or madnesse So farre in truth are they off from any iust commendation in Christianitie and Diuinitie 22 Nay what if it were held a thing vnlawfull among the very Gentiles See the Poet Virgils iudgement of it When Aeneas came downe to hell as the Poet there doth deuise he seeth in a seuerall and disiunct place such as had made away themselues He maketh their estate to bee so wofull as that gladly they would do any thing to be aliue againe quà m vellent aethere in alto Nunc pauperiem duros perferre labores How gladly now would they be content to endure pouertie and take hard paines in the world See the iudgement of Tully concerning this in his Somnium Scipionis When Scipio vpon the tale of his father being growne into admiration of the glorie of men which are dead asked What do I then vpon earth why hasten I not to dye his father maketh him answere with a very diuine speech although he were but a heathen man No son thou mayest not haue any passage hither but when that God whose temple all that thou seest is shall free thee out of this body For men are borne to that purpose and haue soules giuen them to that end to rest themselues on this earth which soules they must keepe safely within the ward of their bodies And they are not to flit from this life without his commaundement least they should seeme to flye that dutye of a man which is assigned them by God I might adde to these the iudgement of Aristotle in his Ethicks where he saith that to kill a mans selfe for the auoyding of infamie or pouertie is not the part of a valiant man but of a coward But I leue these forraine testimonies 23 Some among the Christians haue thought that maydens for sauing and preseruing their virginitie inuiolate might kill themselues An opinion voyde of any shadow of warrant out of Gods word For ought we to do euill that good may come therby Shall we aduenture the greater sinne for the auoyding of a lesse euill Nay is it a fault in a virgin at all that she is defloured by force Was Tamar to be condemned because Amnon did defile her It is consent that maketh iniquitie Tarquinius and Lucretia were two bodies saith Saint Austen but there vvas but one adulterer I adde no more of that matter The Donatistes and furious Circumcellions in old time because they were restrained by the ciuill sword of the Magistrate from the exercise of their heresies and keeping of their Conuenticles would cast themselues from the rockes and breake their neckes by the fall they would drowne and kill themselues Thereupon Theodoret hath a very pretie narration concerning them Many of them on a time met a young man on the way and giuing him a sword commaunded him to wound them and threatned him that if he would not they would kill him for refusing The young man being put vnto his shifts told them that he durst not do it because he had iust cause to feare that whē some of thē should see their fellowes slaine the rest would turne on him for doing it and murther him But if they would first suffer him to bind thē all fast and sure he would tell thē another tale They liked well of this motion in their sencelesse stupiditie yeelding to be bound the yong man got good store of rods shrewdly swinged them all so went his wayes and left them They imagined that God did well accept of their murtherings in this or the like kind caried an opinion that now they were become martyrs of Iesus Christ. Gaudentius their Bishop writeth in defence of the deedes of these Donatistes in behalf therof vrgeth the exāple of Razias in the Machabees who when he should be slaine in maintenance of the religiō of the Iewes to saue himself frō the infidels first ran vpō his sword And whē that would not serue the turne he threw himselfe from a wall and when all this could not kill him he ranne to the top of a rocke and there plucked out his bowels and threw them among the people That holy man Saint Austen the most iudicious of all the fathers comming to
his willingnes to dy besides such stubburne qualities as of likelyhood were fast rooted in mariners and idolaters and yet how by no meanes they would take his life away from him I cannot but obserue their maruellous of-wardnesse and vnwillingnesse in very high sort to the shedding of bloud which affection of theirs is amplifyed in all my text Because he should not dy they wold go back to land and when they see that there must be no nay but God would haue them to throw him into the sea they cry forth with great vehemency that in as much as it was the Lords owne doing and not any desire of theirs they were but as his instruments ministers of his iustice the bloud of this dying passenger might not be imputed to theÌ„ Although I be not before Iudges and lurours who haue to do with mens deaths nor before any Martiall warriours whose speare sometimes eateth flesh and whose sword oftentimes drinketh bloud yet because I speake to men whome this cannot but concerne for life belongeth vnto all because my text doth inforce it giue me leaue men brethren to discourse this argument vnto you in the first place that afterward I may go forward to some other doctrine 4 Then I feare not to say that the lawes of God and men of nature and of nations of Gentiles and of Iewes of ciuill men and Barbarians haue commaunded that a great regard should be borne to the life of a man the most excellent of all Gods creatures that go vpon the ground the beauty of the world the glory of the workman the coÌ„fluence of all honor which mortality can afford the resemblaÌ„ce of the Sauiour while he liued vpoÌ„ the earth the image of God himselfe vntill that time that Adam lost it to whose absolute frame nothing wanteth but onely a consideration that God hath so graced him as that nothing is wanting to him I neede not speake to all these but vrge that which is the greatest The Lord hath said I wil require your bloud wherein your liues are at the hand of euery beast will I require it and at the hand of man euen at the hand of a mans brother will I require the life of man Who so sheadeth mans bloud by man shall his bloud be shed for in the image of God hath he made man The often ingemination of requiring and requiring doth inforce the greater charge He that smiteth a maÌ„ he dye shal dye the death Doth not the bloud of Abell cry for vengeance vnto the Lord How doth God take the shedding of Vriah his bloud at Dauids hand How doth he threaten a punishment and that in bitter sort vnto the men of Babylon for their murthering of many persons The killing of a maÌ„ the murthering of thy neighbor is such a matter as for the which can be made no satisfaction A kingdome can make no ransome for it the whole world cannot make a recompence if we will take things aright It is in one to marre it but it is not in all Gods creatures to make the life of a man The Creatour himselfe doth giue it he willeth vs to preserue it that none should dare to destroy it either in our selues or other 5 How doth he seeme to tender it when he expressely commandeth the Israelies to set battelmeÌ„ts vpon the roofes of their houses whereupon they vsed oftentimes to walke because they were flat least if any should fall downe from thence bloud should lye vpon the house In like sort when he giueth charge else-where that the beast which killeth any should be stoned to death with stones How doth he detest bloud-spilling in wilfull sort when Christ giueth to the diuell the title of a murtherer as being most fit for him So that they who are killers and manquellers do seeme to fight vnder the diuels banner to haue put off humane nature which should excell for mildnesse and to be turned into beasts nay to grow into the quality of foule and loathsome spirites The impression of this thought both that it is vnseemely among men and odious before God as it hath possessed the heart of Scythians and Barbarians of Egyptians Greekes and Romanes so these ship-men doubt not of it but with all their power they do flye from it as froÌ„ the gates of hell They row they cry they pray rather any thing then be guilty of the sheading of Ionas his bloud Nay the more they see him yeeld the more their heart doth melt their affection giueth vpon him They know it to be naturall to spare the life of a suppliant to saue the life of a man No custome against that ground no prescription against that principle Life should be deare if any thing It neuer can be recouered 6 They then are monsters in nature and not only irreligious and impious toward God but verily inhumane who do cut off the life of other either in superstition or in any bloud-thirsty humour Be they the Carthaginians who did vse to offer men in sacrifice to their Gods Or be it the king of Moab who being distressed in battell did take his eldest son who should haue raigned in his stead and made a burnt offering of him vpon the top of the wal before the face of the Israelites by that meanes thinking to appease the wrath of his idols For thus some vnderstand it although there be that take it of the son of the king of Edom which is also bad inough Or be they among other or aboue other if you will the people of God himselfe who as Dauid doth say of them if that be Dauids Psalme were so besotted on their follies and so doated on their idolatry that they offered vp their sonnes and daughters vnto diuels This was it which the Scripture calleth the making of their children to go through the fâ—re as did Ahaz the king of Israel Vnto this the story of Iosias alludeth where he speaketh of the valley of Hinnom in which their little ones were enforced as the Hebrewes themselues do write to walke betweene great fires vntil that they sunke down dead with the heate their parents or the consecrators looking on but not hearing the pitifull skreeches and squealings of their children by reason of the great noyse of tabrets and other instruments of musicke which did dull their eares that they might not heare the sound Blind men who supposed that they had done great seruice to the Lord when in truth they did that which was execrable and abhominable in his eyes So farre off they were from the rules of religion that they also slipped from the very grounds of common reason 7 The like may be said of such who not for any superstitious deuotion or idolatrous opinion but in a wooluish rauennousnesse would see the bloud of many shed Be it Haman who to ease his stomacke vpon Mardocheus did cast plots and deuises how to haue the whole people of the
separated from the bodie and that it commeth to an account and if it haue so deserued suffereth punishment and great torment yea he mentioneth such a iudgement as wherein the good are set on the right hand and the euill on the left as if he had perused the bookes of the sacred Bible The French Prophets those Druides as Pomponius Mela noteth did both beleeue and teach the immortalitie of the soule which was a good inducement to inferre the resurrection For when they held this vndoubtedly that the better part doth not die and by a consequent that the soules of them which had done well for their good life in this place should come vnto felicitie they might haue easily bene perswaded that by a good congruitie the instrument and copartner and sister of the soule I meane this flesh of ours being ioyned in all actions should in vprightnesse of iustice be ioyned in the reward whether it be good or euill 20 How much to blame are the Atheists and Epicures of our time who come not so farre as this but as they depriue our bodies of all future reuiuing so they teach that our soules in nothing are different from the beasts but that in the dissolution the spirit shall be dissolued as well as the exteriour man in which thoughts they shew thēselues to be worse then many Ethnicks They little conceiue the dignity and simplicity of that spirit the single in compoundnesse of that self-moouing soule for so I may well call it in comparison of the flesh For as Chrysostome maketh his argument If the soule can giue such life and beautie vnto the bodie with what a life and fairenesse doth it liue in it selfe And if it can hold together the bodie which is so stinking and so deformed a carcasse as appeareth euidently after death how much more shall it conserue and preserue it selfe in his owne being So pregnant is this reason that an infidell may conceiue it and very well apprehend it but we which are Christian men may remember a farther lesson That our Sauiour hath dyed for vs and payed a price very great his owne most precious bloud For whom or what was this for our body which liueth and dieth and rotteth and neuer returneth againe for our soule which is here this day and too morrow spilt and corrupted How vnworthy were this of him to endure so much for so little Shall we thinke him so vnwise or repute him so vnaduised No he knew that this soule of ours must stand before his throne and this rottennesse must come foorth by a fearefull resurrection And if this should not be so if there should be no accompt no recompence for ill deedes no retribution for the good to what end should men serue the Lord or what difference should there be betweene the iust and the vniust the holy and the profane nay betweene man the best creature that mooueth vpon the ground and the basest and vilest beast which hath little sence and no reason Because it were impiety to think this of our iust Lord that so slenderly he disposeth things let vs with an assured faith conceiue our immortality and the hope of a resurrection 21 As this hath bene deduced from the example of our Prophet by this or the like sort Ionas was in the fishes belly so was Christ in the graue Ionas came forth from thence so did Christ rise againe his rising doth bring our rising his resurrection ours because he was the first fruits of all those that do sleep So to cōclude this doctrine by making vse of it very briefly if this be determined ouer vs the houre shal one day come that all that is in the graue shall arise heare Gods voice neither the mountains nor the rocks can couer vs frō the presence of the Lambe what ones then how perfect shold we study to be how shold we prepare our selues against that day of reckning that our iudg may acknowledge vs to be his friends his brethren vnspotted vndefiled that so we might not trēble to see him heare his iudgement But alas how far are we from it indeed frō thinking of it For as Chrysostome speaketh some do say that they beleeue that there shal be a resurrectiō a recōpēce to come But I listen not to thy words but rather to that which is done euery day For if thou expect the resurrectiō a recōpence why art thou so giuē to the glory of this present life why doest thou daily vexe thy self gathering more mony then the sand I may go a little farther applying it to our time why do we bath our selues in folly as in the water why do we drinke in iniquitie bitternesse in such measure why hunt we after gifts and thirst after rewards why seeke we more to please men then labour to please the Lord Briefly why doth security in inward sort so possesse vs as if with Hyminaeus Philetus we did think the resurrection past Why do we as that man of whome Saint Bernard speaketh that is eate and drinke and sleepe carelesse as if we had now escaped the day of death and iudgement and the very torments of hell So play and laugh and delight as if we had passed the pikes and vvere now in Gods kingdome Who seeth not this to be so although he could wish it to be farre otherwise 22 The remembrance of this accompt should be as a snaffle to vs or as a bridle to keepe vs backward from profanenesse enormitie And in these euils let them take their portiō who are incredulous and vnbeleeuers of whome it is no maruell that they do hotely embrace them and egerly follow after them For take away an opinion of rising vnto iudgement and all obseruance of pietie falleth presently to the ground and men will striue to be filthie in impietie and in sinne But because we professe Christ Iesus and the hope of immortalitie let vs liue as men that expect it And since that it is appointed that all men shall die once and after it commeth the iudgement and since the day of death is as vncertaine to vs as it euer was to Isaac let vs furnish our selues before hand that with the oyle of faith and of good life in our lampes we may go to meete the bridegroome If Christ as our head be risen from the dead let vs arise from the vanities and follies of this earth which are not worth the comparing with eternitie in the heauens If he as the chiefe of his Church be ascended and gone before let vs who wish to be members wrestle to follow after him Let it be enough that hitherto with Ionas we haue fled from our dutie which we owe to our maker and that we haue lyen not dayes but yeares oft three times and three ouer not in the fishes belly but in the belly of sin And let vs beseech the Lord that since
affections Yea we may see many more things to pricke vs on to sollicite the Lord of all importunely The dearth which doth now raigne in many parts of this land which doth little good to the rich but maketh the poore to pinch for hunger and the children to cry in the streetes not knowing where to haue bread And if the Lord do not stay his hand the dearth may be yet much more In like sort the safety of Gods Church which in England and in Ireland yea in many parts else of Christendome as Scotland Fraunce and Flaunders much dependeth vnder God on the good estate of her Maiesty the hand maide of Christ Iesus whose life we see to be aimed at by the cursed brood of Sathan vnnaturall home-bred English And were it not that his eye who doth neuer slumber nor sleep did watch ouer her for our good it had oft bin beyond mans reason that their plots shold haue bene preuented The spoiles of the Turke in Hungary and his threats to the rest of Christendome should wring from vs this consideration that he is to be called on who can put a hooke in his nostrels and turne him another way as he once did by Sennacherib There should be in vs a sympathy and fellow-feeling with our brethren These things in generall to all and in particular to each should remember vs to breake forthinto inuocation with the Prophet It is that which God loueth in vs it is that which Christ with his precept and example hath taught vnto vs. He prayed oft to his father and continued whole nights in praier and as Saint Cyprian doth well gather if he did so who sinned not what should we do who sinne so deepely He prayed to the Lord his God 8 The next circumstance in this preface is to whom the Prophet prayed He prayed to the Lord his God where this note may specially be giuen that this offending soule doth yet dare by his faith to make so neare application as that the Lord is his God Which point because it is plainer in the sixth verse of this Chapter where he saith ô Lord my God I will deferre it thither My generall obseruation here is that he prayed to the Lord. And as his case required this because none else could helpe him and he was to be sought vnto by submission and humility who before was by sinne offended so doth the Lord appropriate this honor to himselfe and will not haue any other to be serued with this sacrifice He is a ielous God and will not impart his honor to any of his creatures But he accounteth that the greatest argument of duty which is in man to be sought to and solicited by the sighes of the heart and by the grones of the mind Call on me in the day of trouble saith himself by Dauid and I wil heare thee and thou shalt praise me And Christ citeth this as a matter appertaining vnto all Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him onely shalt thou serue But in this inuocation is the Maiesty of his seruice And if we did want other to be called on or prayed to it should argue that our God either could not or would not heare vs. The one denieth his Omnipotency the other doth clip his mercy But we acknowledge both The Lord is neare vnto all that call vpon him yea all such as call on him in truth Then we neede no intercessours but him who is the mediator of the New Testament Iesus Christ. We embrace the faith of the martyrs we loue the loue of the Apostles so farre foorth as we may we imitate the obedience of the good Angels in heauen and we thanke God for proposing such holy examples to vs but we dare not call on these least we should be accounted guilty of robbery to their maister Whose meaning if it had bene to bestow any of his honour or a portion of his glory on any of his creatures he surely would haue let vs knowne it But through all the Old and New Testament is no commandement no example no reason why we should do it 9 Nay we haue much to the contrary As first that it may be sayd that God alone is there called on which in the whole Bible is sounded out vnto vs. And secōdly we may know that howsoeuer in general the Saints which raigne triūphing in heauē do pray for the cōsūmatiō of Gods grace on their brethrē who are militant vpon earth which may not amisse be gathered frō the soules vnder the altar from the 8. of the Reuelation the reformed Churches in no sort do deny this yet we are not to beleeue that in particular maner they know the deeds of one man or heare the vowes of another but specially vnderstand the secret thoughts of the hart which in praiers do most preuaile We find otherwise in Iob that a dead man doth not know if his sons shall be honorable neither doth he vnderstand concerning them vvhether they shall be of low degree The speech is of all dead generally He knoweth not of his owne children much lesse of other men whether that they be in honour which is an outward occurrent and sensible to the eye much lesse what they thinke in heart which is proper to the Almighty That place in Iob made Aquinas to acknowledge that the soules of those which are departed hence do ex se of themselues know nothing done vpon earth but sayth he those which are in blessednesse do take knowledge of our deedes by reuelation from God But neither he nor any of the Papists do prooue out of the Scripture that God reuealeth such things to the blessed which are in heauen That remaineth to be confirmed We may ioyne to that of Iob the confession of the people Doubtlesse thou art our father though Abraham be ignorant of vs and Israel know vs not yet thou ô Lord art our father and our redeemer and thy name is for euer Then the Patriarkes did not know and wherefore should they now For that then they were in Limbus is an vntrue faithlesse fable without any ground of Gods word Yet it is maruell to see how stifly the Church of Rome doth maintaine in Saints and the Virgin Mary the hearing of those which pray and their intercession for vs. He that shall looke into their reformed Breuiary for in the old many things were worse shall see that they are much called on nay that God himselfe is requested that by the merits of them and by their mediation we may attaine saluation There the Virgin Mary is called porta coeli peruia the gate to passe through to heauen and she is prayed vnto that she herselfe will take pity vpon offending men And as they say if these things be not in the Scripture yet our duty and the complements which we owe vnto Christ himselfe do require it at our hands and all Antiquity
him which things oftentimes befall some of the little ones of Christ Iesus no one matter in this Prophecie is more apparantly fruitfull or more worthie consideration then that which I haue now read For what can be more wholesome then Phisicke to the sicke or remedie to him that is readie to perish And who is more like to perish then he who feeleth no rest either inwardly or outwardly in bodie or in mind but as it were gasping for breath doth daily long for comfort in the middest of great distresses his case being this that sinne egerly insulteth Satan fiercely impugneth and his conscience beareth witnesse against his owne soule that in right iustice should destroy it To the reliefe of which tender ones as I could wish that our speech were oftner directed for it is a needfull argument to be handled and blessed is that speech which bindeth vp the broken and giueth life to the dying so the example of my Ionas doth fitly remember me to speake to this purpose because he is as a glasse for all such to looke in and thereby to see themselues and in his case to helpe themselues with the good assistance of that Spirit who herein is all in all 2 For in this man may be seene a most vehement and forcible conflict betweene faith and feare betweene hope and despaire betweene sinne and grace on this hand the flesh sinking with distrustfulnesse into the bottome of hell being like to acknowledge it selfe a forlorne creature a cast-away from God a reprobate from the promises as if it were some Cain or some Iudas but on the other hand the spirit foorthwith mounting into the bosome of the Sauiour and there apprehending mercie by remission of all iniquities and forgiuenesse of all transgressions In the meane while amidst the one raising vp and the other hanging downe is a combat of such bitternesse as maketh the endurer of it in the heate of the fishes stomacke oft times to quake for cold and in the cold of the sea oft times to sweate for heate Manie feuers and agues cannot shake him as his owne heart doth now shake him his boiling is like the fire his torture is like the hell How many crownes and kingdomes what thousands of gold and siluer what heapes of precious stones how many lands and seas and whole worlds would he giue if they were now in his power to be freed from such a torment as forced him with extremitie to say as here he said I am cast away from thy sight I am but a damned reprobate A very fearefull thought yet recouered again by confidence in Gods mercie which faileth not his at need so that thereby he is encouraged to hope that he shall see Hierusalem the sanctuarie of the Lord and his temple once againe Which recouerie of his shold make vs much admire Gods mercie and yet withal teach vs to worke out our saluation in great feare and great trembling But because this text doth note vnto vs some doctrine besides this and the illustration of that doth make a way for my purpose I will first touch the other obseruing in the generall words these three things to be handled First the deiection of our Prophet I am cast out of thine eyes Secondly his arising vp from that motion and new assurednesse of Gods fauour Yet I will looke againe toward thy holy temple And thirdly by a comparing of the one of these with the other the great conflict in his conscience I am cast away out of thy sight 3 The Antithesis put betweene the casting away from the sight of his God and the beholding of his temple is not to be taken coldly as if it intended barely that now he did not see the temple indeede but he should see it againe that now he had lost his countrey but after his deliuerance the time should come that he should returne thither as if he had made this accompt and no more that for a while he was depriued of some temporall fauours or terrestriall benedictions but should be restored for this had bene little and in comparison as nothing But it signifieth a suspition and mistrust of the losse of all Gods loue a putting out of his protection a reiecting or casting off to wrath and eternall damnation For the eyes of God being taken in good part in the Scripture do still import his fauour and in his fauour is life and happinesse and felicitie spirituall and celestiall Moses saith of the land of Canaan that it was not as the land of Egypt from vvhence they came that is a place hatefull to him inhabited with idolaters but the eyes of the Lord God are alwaies vpon this that is to say his gracious loue from the beginning of the yeare euen vnto the end of the yeare So God promiseth to Salomon in behalfe of the Temple at Ierusalē I haue hallowed this house which thou hast built to put my name there for euer and mine eyes and my hart shal be there perpetually that is my most kind blessing the presence of my grace So Dauid I said in my hast I am cast out of thy sight that is I am depriued of thy sweete assistance And in another place The eyes of the Lord are vpon the righteous As much as he doth tender them and cherish them with his prouidence It is the feare of our Prophet lest the kindnesse of his maker wherewith he had embraced him should be vtterly taken from him and now nothing but hell fire and brimstone should remaine for him to plague him in another world 4 The heauinesse of the hand of God which had followed after him with that rigour the multiplicitie of his punishment by a tempest while he was in the ship by drowning in the sea and by imprisonment in the whale the horrour of his transgression and disobedience toward his God the remembraunce of that grace before from which he was now fallen of a Prophet to become a runnagate do so amate his heart that when he thinketh of himselfe he resolueth as a despairing abiect that he hath no fellowship in the inheritance of Gods Saints but that as an outlaw he was quite to be secluded from the couenant So that now either he supposeth that he belongeth not to Gods election and that he had neuer bene booked in the register of those Saints which were appointed vnto life or that the Lord as a man doth varie and repent and had altered his purpose concerning him The first was against himselfe to thinke himselfe to be a reprobate appointed and predestinated before hand vnto euill And how wofull a thought was that to perswade his soule that nothing belonged vnto him but damnation The second was against the Highest that his counsels should depend vpon our mutabilitie as if his eternall purpose and decree which is from euerlasting were tyed to our well doing and did not much rather dispose vs and inable vs to do well Whomsoeuer he
or as some do suppose he was so fast in the water as if he had beene tyed there with as little hope of rising or comming vp againe But the words here being positiue that his head was wrapped in them I imagine that when he sunke went down to the bottome he there strugled for life as men do that are dying and by that meanes he was entangled in the weedes as if some net had bespread him And in my iudgement this cleareth that doubt which ariseth vnto some in the third verse of this chapter where because it is reported that he was in the very bottome in the midst of the sea and all the waues and surges did go ouer and ouer him they suppose the meaning of it to be that as soone as he was cast foorth ouer shipboord by the mariners the whale forthwith deuoured him on which because the waues passed and he was in the whale he saith they went ouer him and because the fish went downe to the bottome of the sea the Prophet in the fish is said to do the like Whereas this place doth rather enforce that betweene the time of his casting foorth and the swallowing of the whale there was some prety little space which in this text is insinuated 4 Fourthly he dilateth his sorrow by adding that he went downe to the bottome of the mountaines It is very likely that it was some Cape or Promontorie which did shoote foorth from the continent or firme-land whereof there are very many in all the sea shore neare to Iapho both Syria and Iudea being described to be hemmed in with mountaines And this argueth all to be done not very farre from the shore because a tempest deprehended the mariners at the first soone after that they put frō land Or else he may meane the rockes which being in the midst of the water haue the hugenesse of prety mountaines and this desolate man is now fallen into the clifts or concauities of one or other of these He is then euery way a prisoner fast fettered in the sedge and closed vp in the hollownesse of the mountaine which was ouer him Thus water and weedes and earth haue all conspired to drowne him If otherwise he might haue risen yet now the hill is vpon him not fainedly as Aetna was said to be on Enceladus but verily and indeed not to crush him with the weight but onely to keepe him there and detaine him till he were drowned 5 And this he maketh more plaine vnto vs in the fifth circumstance when he saith the earth with her barres was about him and that for euer Barres are to make things strong as in dores or otherwise Then the strength of the earth had him within her keeping euen that which Dauid doth call the pillars of the earth I will establish the pillars of it He was now as in a pit fast bolted and surely kept and as it seemed vnto him for euer and for euer neuer hoping to escape and to be freed from that daunger He held that the doome of fearefull death was pronounced ouer him the sentence of dissolution and destruction now he is in the midst of his dolorous execution Thus he doth paint out vnto vs the abundance of his miserie proposing himself as a wretched spectacle for the time enuironed with such woes as he knoweth not how to describe them The water that did compasse him euen to the very soule the depth did round beset him the sedge was about his head he was at the rootes of the mountaines the great barres of the earth were closed and made fast vpon him What more could a carnall man wish vpon his enemie if he would wish to be neuer afterward troubled with him on earth This is the full recounting in particular of those feares which were vpon this sinner Now let vs see the vse of these words 6 If I should be asked here why I haue vsed this Paraphrasticall exposition so much speech in a case so euident and apparant whereas doctrine and store of matter is more fit and acceptable to this auditorie I must foorthwith shrowd my selfe vnder the Prophets shield He thought good to write it and I thinke not amisse to touch it if any man shall say vnfruitfully he doth wrong to Gods Spirit who throughout all the whole booke of the Scripture hath put no one thing in vaine although the dimme eyes of our weaknesse cannot hastily comprehend the mysterie of his meaning The speaker then and the reader are in this case to pray God that he will descend and come downe vnto them that he will touch the heart of the one with the key of knowledge and that he will seare the lippes of the other with the coale of the Seraphim And then this shall be gathered out of it The vehement inculcation of so many degrees of miserie doth the more magnifie Gods great mercie vnto our Ionas The harder his necessitie was the more welcome was Gods ayde The more grieuous that his wound was the greater was the cure The more daungerous the sicknesse was the more gracious was the healing Beyond hope to saue beyond thought to preserue in a deplored state and at a desperate pinch to succour is an eminent grace and fauour neuer enough recorded neuer enough reported My daunger was vnspeakeable my perill was vndescribable all hope was past and exiled yet now in this wretched tenure ô Lord my blessed God and euerlasting Father thou hast brought vp my life from the pit Now his obstinate hard affection beginneth to yeeld this doth euen melt the heart of the Prophet in kindnesse to see that from the bottome of millions of extremities he was deliuered by the free grace of his maker 7 The remembrance of this benefit doth so stir vp his mind in his holyest meditations and giueth such life to his motions that he doth not satisfie himselfe but the more expresse his miserie the more to extoll Gods mercie He thinketh himselfe the more deepely deuoted to such a Sauiour The lower he was deiected the greater was his deliuerance and the more sound his deliuerance the more sufficient should his thankfulnesse be to the Lord. Now he seeth his God to be a God of power and maiestie able to free from any thing Where his creatures do depresse there he alone can lift vp Although the wind rage and the sea roare and all the earth be disquieted yet he doth beare sway ouer them Then we neede not despaire in the waues of wo and extremitie if our faith be not extinguished It is Gods greatest glorie to rid from greatest euils Where all mans helpe is wanting there his finger is most conspicuous It was a good speech of Philo the Iew which he vttered on this occasion whē that beast Caligula could be perswaded by no reason nor by any mans intercession but that his image must be set vp at Hierusalem which would quickly haue inferred the adoration of it and he
a traunce we see Gods goodnesse ouer vs but it is like men standing a farre off great things do seeme but smal things to vs. When we come to giue thankes we put all in one grosse summe and if we begin to pray we huddle our needs together In a word our best laying open of our hearts before the Lord which should be with an exquisitenesse and curiousnesse if it might be not of words so much and of forme but of matter and sighes and grones and compunction and contrition is but shuffled and scambled ouer Lord lay not this idlenesse and great negligence to our charge If we come to a Phisitian we lay open our griefe by parts this ach is in the head this distemperature in the stomacke this griping is at the heart In our marchandise or businesse committed to our seruants we examine all from point to point Let vs do so in Gods benefits it shall procure in vs a more ingenuous acknowledgement then we euer did imagine One example or two to teach this 11 This present day doth remember vs of the birth of her by whom vnder God we do receiue a multitude of great blessings as the free course of the Gospell an admirable peace prosperity and abundance He is litle lesse then a brutish creature or at least he is a very ill minded subiect who hauing age and experience doth not giue the Lord thankes for her Yet in this so apparant a chaine of Gods benefits let vs examine it from linke to linke and it shall wring out better motions from him who is best minded That the euerlasting Father should bring her to the crowne and scepter of this kingdome through so many difficulties Her brother as he supposed to preuent a greater mischiefe denying her that prerogatiue her sister comming betweene and matching with that Prince who was then held the chiefe flower of Christendome a certaine expectation of issue being betweene them the Spaniards thereat ioyous as hoping thereupon to tyrannize and dominere at their pleasure Nay yet much more then this The Clergie giuing counsell to take away her life Gardiner thirsting for her bloud as a wearied man would long for water Storie daring to say when some each day were burnt in question of religion that these were but the braunches they should strike at the roote a suspicion of strong treason against her sister being sought to be fastened on her imprisonment of her being procured in rigorous and hard manner yea the very sentence of death as it is thought once being gone out against her Yet that the Lord should deliuer her from all this and aduaunce her to the guiding of this land and people That he should so preserue her being a woman and therefore by nature weake and exceeding fearefull in so many plots layed against her Pope Pius with his Anathema deposing her from the Crowne and absoluing if he could get vs to beleeue him her subiects from their obedience Pope Gregory by the setting vp of his Seminaries inueigling some of her owne to play some trecherous part against her in oft-intended inuasions in a rebellion once plainely attempted in conspiracies of sonnes of Belial more then twenty To bring her yet notwithstanding to such an age of her life to such a yeare of her raigne and if this be too little if we will serue God and honour him to giue vs hope that more shall be added vnto her dayes and by a consequent to our happinesse To carry her who in her selfe is a mortall dying creature apt to be broken like a glasse yet as if she had bene borne in the bosome or hand of Angels so that nothing hath annoyed her This particular Analyzing or scanning of the graces of God vpon her will wrest from vs a true ioy with feeling and vnderstanding And what wee do in her wee may all do in our selues 12 Let vs runne from step to step through Gods fauours shewed vnto vs. Either as Barnard doth God deserueth to be loued by vs because he loued vs first that is something so great a God as he is that is more so feruently as he doth that is yet more and freely vvhereas vve vvere such little ones vvhen as vve vvere such bad ones Or otherwise if you please To create vs when we were not to make vs men not beasts to redeeme vs when we were lost and that with so inestimable a price among men to graunt vs to be Christians and not infidels Turkes or Iewes who are bitter enemies to his sonne to giue vs so long a life as that we may comprehend what pertaineth vnto his seruice to bring vs in place where we may see his Sacraments to be administred and heare his word taught to touch our hearts with faith and an earnest desire of perseuerance to fill our consciences with spirituall ioy and comfort in his promises in sickenesse to stand by vs in aduersitie to vphold vs in temptation to strengthen vs. All this should make our hearts pant and say with Dauid What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefites toward me or with the Patriarke Iacob I am not vvorthie of the least of all thy mercies and all the truth vvhich thou hast shewed vnto thy seruant So to thinke when other begge that we might begge likewise when we see other depriued of their sences or common vnderstanding to remember that the same might bee our portion or banishment or imprisonment or bondage and captiuitie But there is a Lord in heauen who hath dealt otherwise with vs and giuen vnto vs a maintenance from our cradle clothing vnto our backe and bread vnto our belly yea peraduenture to come from state of necessity to such a condition as rather to be able to giue then to take to helpe then to be helped We may go on in these meditations When euill hath beene conspired when mischiefe hath bene contriued then he hath affoorded vs that fauour as to go on the thornes vnpricked to walke in the fire vnburnt When slaunders and defamations haue bene deuised and such complaints made and suggested against vs yet all hath vanished as the smoke and in the vprightnesse of a good conscience we haue gone quite vntouched as if no such thing had befallen vs. What sweete thoughts should this worke what passions of admiration what embracings of Gods mercies He who knoweth this and performeth it doth make true vse of that which befalleth him in crossing ouer the troublesome sea of this world and in passing through this wretched vale of misery 13 I beate this point the more as partly to demonstrate that these words of my text which seeme to vs so barren are not altogether without their fruite yea if nothing else should be gathered from them but that which I haue already taught although I doubt not but another man might find some other doctrine in them as God doth giue diuerse conceipts to diuerse of his seruants So againe to
be reuersed Then it is not our best safetie at euery time and in euerie case to be remooued hence but vpon some occasion we may ioye with Ionas that longer time is affoorded vs to bethinke our selues This is his exceeding comfort that though the pangs of death were vpon him yet that God once againe brought his life from corruption O Lord my God 20 The onely thing now remaining is the confident appellation which he vseth to the Lord Iehouah ô my God This sheweth a faith beyond faith and a hope beyond hope when he knew that the Lord was angrie and extremely wrathfull at him yet to cling in so to his mercie as to appropriate to himselfe a portion in his maker For what greater insinuation of confidence can there be then by particular application to apprehend Gods mercie to lay hold vpon him as on a father and that not as we say with a reference to the Communion of Saints Our father vvhich art in heauen but my father and my God This hath bene the perfect trust of the faithfull in all ages which hath encouraged them to approch with boldnesse vnto the throne of grace My God my God saith Dauid And thou that art the God of my saluation And Iob I am sure that my Redeemer liueth My spirit saith the Virgin Marie doth reioyce in God my Sauiour My Lord and my God saith Thomas Paule saith of himselfe I liue by faith in the Sonne of God who hath loued me and giuen himselfe for me This true faith doth close with God and incorporateth it selfe into the bodie of the Redeemer 21 And this is it which bringeth comfort vnto the wounded soule and afflicted conscience not that Christ is a Sauiour for what am I the better for that but a Sauiour vnto me That I am one of the adoption reconciled and brought into fauour sealed vp against that day when the quicke and dead shall be iudged my portion is with the Highest mine inheritance with the Saints How could flesh and bloud euer beare the heate of strong temptation without this firme perswasion What is it to my belly that bread is prepared for other vnlesse I be assured that my part is therein What is it to my soule that Christ hath dyed for other vnlesse I know that my sins are washed away in his bloud It may be good for Moses it may be good for Paule or Peter or Iames or Stephen but what is it vnto me It is Meus then and Tuus as Luther did well teach it is my God and thy Sauiour which doth satisfie thirstie consciences There is the ioy of the Spirit when men come to that measure Then it is a blessed doctrine which instilleth that faith into vs and in that if in any thing doth appeare the fruit of the Gospell which is preached in our dayes that people sicke and dying being taught before in their health can giue most diuine words and right admirable speeches in this behalfe whereof I speake sayings full of holy trust and assurance which as it is a thing most comfortable to themselues beyond all gold and treasure which are but as dung and drosse to a man yeelding vp the ghost so it bringeth good meditations vnto the standers by in causing them to acknowledge very euident an plaine arguments of election in the other whom they see to be so possessed with ioy in the holy Ghost and so rapt vp as if they had alreadie one foote within the heauen 22 But it is otherwise with the ignorant they lye groueling vpon the ground and cannot mount vp with the Eagle So is it in that doctrine which the Church of Rome doth maintaine when their people are taught that they must beleeue in generall that some shall go to heauen that some belong to God but to say or thinke that themselues shall be certainely of that number or constantly to hope it that is boldnesse ouermuch that is ouer-weening presumption They are to wish and pray that it may be so with them but yet it appertaineth to thē euermore to doubt because they know not the worthinesse of their merits a most vncomfortable opinion which cannot chuse but distract the heart of a dying man that he must not dare to beleeue with confidence that he shall go to God that Iesus is his Sauiour the pardoner of his faults No maruell if the life and death of such who hearken vnto them be full of sighs and sobs grones and feares and doubts since quietnesse and setled rest cannot be in their hearts They haue a way to walke but what is the end they know not They are sure of their departure but whither they cannot tell A lamentable taking and wherein of necessitie must be small ioy How contrarie hereunto doth Saint Paule speak being iustified by faith we haue peace toward God through our Lord Iesus Christ. How contrarie to this doth Saint Iohn speake in the name of the faithfull we know that we are of God How doth deiected Ionas yet keepe him fast to this tackling when he crieth ô Lord my God 23 And this is the surest anker whereunto a Christian man may possibly know how to trust This is it which in the blastes of aduersity will keepe him fast at the roote which in the waues of temptation will hold him fast by the chinne which in the greatest discomforts and very pangs of death will bring him to life againe To ground himselfe vpon this as on a rocke assured that his God is his father that Iesus is his redeemer that the holy Ghost doth sanctifie him that although he sinne oft-times yet euermore he is forgiuen and albeit he do transgresse dayly yet it is still forgotten that whether he liue or dye yet euer he is the Lords Good father leade vs so by thy most blessed Spirite that we neuer do fall from this But although sinne hange vpon vs as it did vpon the Prophet yet raise vs so by thy loue that laying hold on thy promises and the sweetenesse of thy fauour we may reape eternall life to the which ô blessed Lord bring vs for thine owne Sonne Christ his sake to whom with thee and thy Spirit be laude for euermore THE XIII LECTVRE The chiefe poynts 3. Gods election is sure 4. One argument thereof is to remember the Lord after affliction 6. That cogitation is very comfortable 7. The good and bad do differently remember God 8. The wicked do it with a murmuring 10. Especially in death God is to be thought on 11. Therefore it is good to thinke on him in health 12. Else we shall not be willing to dye 14. Churches are to be vsed reuerently 15. God heareth the prayers of his seruants 17. By vanity is signified euill 19 as Adams fall may therein be comprehended 20. or idolatry 21. or curious crafts and studies 22. or adultery and carnall sinne 23. and ill gotten goods 24. and ambition Ionah 2.7.8 When my soule fainted within
giuen ouer to heare any thing of my prayers Among the old Romane historians which haue written who was wiser then Cornelius Tacitus men do now study him for policy Yet in the first of his history recounting those great grieuances which befell Rome by the ciuill warres vnder Galba and Vitellius he vseth this desperate speech Neuer by greater slaughters on the Romane people or by more iust iudgements vvas it approoued vnto vs that the Gods do not at all respect our safety and security but to take vengeance on vs they are ready inough Here policy hath forgotten the very first grounds of piety which are patience and humility Liuie a graue writer although otherwise superstitious inough as appeareth by his Prodigia and yearely monsters yet tasteth of these dregs when in his fourth booke he writeth thus Here followeth a yeare which for slaughters and ciuill vprores and famine was very famous Onely forreine warre was vvanting wherewithall if our state had bene laded things could hardly haue bene stayed by the helpe of all the Gods but that they had run to ruine 9. Thus the wisedome of this world is nothing else but foolishnesse nothing but doting folly when it commeth indeed to the crosse or to the fiery triall The knowledge of God is wanting or at least the laying hold aright by faith is wanting And where faith is not to be found there is neither hope nor patience which are two infallible notes of a iust and Christian man There is nothing sayth Saint Cyprian which putteth more difference betweene the iust and the vniust then this that the euill man in his aduersity doth complaine and impatiently blaspheme but the good doth suffer quietly The iust hath trust in his Sauior but the other hath no part in him What maruell then is it if the wicked do fret and rage without comfort since he hath no share in him who is the God of comfort What maruell is it if he perish Plutarch telleth that this is the quality of Tigres that if drums or tabours sound about them they will grow madde and then they teare their owne flesh and rent themselues in peeces If the vnbeleeuing reprobate do heare the noyse of affliction he is ready to rent himselfe but by cursing and by swearing he will teare the body of Christ from top to toe in peeces As Ionas did remember God so the reprobate will not forget him but it is not to pray vnto him not to beleeue vpon him for he harh not so much grace but to ban him and blaspheme him I could wish that such prophanenesse as this might neuer be heard off in earnest or in play in the life or death of any man We should thinke of him with a reuerence we should mind him with a feare in prosperity with a trembling in aduersity with a hope There should be no fretting against his prouidence no grudging against his punishment When my soule did faint within me I remembred the Lord sayth Ionas I remembred him to beseech him I remembred him to intreate him I remembred him to embrace him to trust in him as a deliuerer to beleeue in him as a father I called to him and doubted not and he afterward heard my voyce 10 Saint Hierome doth giue this note vpon this place taking it out of the Septuagint That because he thought vpon the Lord when his soule did faint and he was ready to dye we by his example should aboue all things mind our maker when we are in the fits and pangs of death A very needefull doctrine if any thing may be needefull that when we must dislodge and be remooued hence when our glasse is so farre runne that immediatly a change must follow and that not to a trifle or toye which is to bee contemned but either to heauen or hell either to perpetuall ioy or to euerlasting torment we haue him in our meditations who is to see our iudge who is to scanne our actions and to peruse our conscience and giue the last sentence on vs that then with our best remembrance we thinke vpon his mercy and contemplate on his great loue in the redemption of his sonne and desire him for his blouds sake to take vs into his fauour That this lesson might the better be taught vnto vs Iesus the sonne of God and fore-runner of our faith when he was ready to yeeld vp his spirit did commend his vnspotted soule to his most righteous father Father into thy hands I commend my spirit Good Steuen the eldest martyr did tread these steps right after him when at the time of his death he cried Lord Iesus receiue my spirit And euery Christian man should struggle and striue to do so to shake off as much as may be the heauinesse of his sicknesse and as hauing that one prize that last great prize to play should stirre vp his spirit in him and should then pray to God to comfort him to conduct him vnto heauen to leade him along to glorie It is a good thing to liue well but because death is the vp-shot which maketh or marreth the rest it is the best thing to dye well He who hath begun aright hath halfe that whereat he aimeth but to begin is our hurt it shall bee a witnesse against our conscience vnlesse we do perseuere The man who shall bee blessed must continue to the ende 11 Then may the dangerous state of such be iustly deplored who in their life time haue so fondly doated vpon the world that when death which is Gods baylife doth summon them to appeare before the iudgement seate they do least of all other things know wherewith he should be furnished who commeth there but as before in the time of their health so in their despaired sicknesse do thinke only vpon their Mammon admiring it and embracing it and kissing it in their thought as if they were wedded to it But neither of themselues nor by the instigation of the Minister who is a remembrancer for the Lord can they be any way vrged to speake of celestiall things to call on God for mercy or to professe their faith and confidence in their Sauiour And this wordly imagination first ministreth hope of life they not dreaming that death will take them till on the sudden both body and soule do eternally dye together Next if they do conceiue that it must be so and there is no way with them but the graue then is their heart oppressed with sorrow and a huge waight of griefe that there must be a separation from their beloued treasure And lastly if their memory do serue there must be an vnsetled and vnresolued disposing with disquietnesse and much vexing of that which hath bene ill gotten to this child or to that friend and much stirre there must be about the pompe of a funerall by which meanes all good motions are so stifled and choaked that there is scant one word of him who made all
may afterward fight againe as Demosthenes once could say And as Eusebius sheweth many Christians which renounced Christ for the feare of cruell torment returned to him againe and made a good confession Oftentimes saith Cypâ—ian both adulterers and murtherers and drunkards and those vvho are guiltie of all vvickednesse finding occasion of a fight and being conuerted haue deserued to come to a palme of martyrdome How much more then may a weake brother The example of Bishop Cranmer is very well knowne vnto vs who was a great pillar of Gods Church a great light of the Gospell but yet first denied but afterward repented and purged it with teares But as the scholers do oftentimes say more then their maisters so the Cathari and Nouatians who were the Disciples of Nouatus did giue a more bloudy sentence then euer their teacher did For they held that not onely to deny Christ was so haynous but whosoeuer after Baptisme had done any mortall sinne such as we find in the Scripture that death is threatned to was cut off from the Church and hee might haue no portion in the Eucharist or Communion howsoeuer afterward he did behaue himselfe He must stand a man sequestred and excommunicate to the death 9 A hard saying to all men for who is he that sinneth not in that sort since euerie â—â—nne is deadly vnlesse the Lord do pardon it Circumcision was to the Israelites as Baptisme is to the Christians an admission into the flocke and a testification to the conscience of euery beleeuer that he was in Gods fauour but Dauid circumcised was an adulterer and a murtherer yet vpon his true repentance both the Lord and the congregation receiued him to mercy The righteous man sayth Saloman falleth seuen times and riseth againe Whereof although Hierome doth aske if he be iust then hovv falleth he if he fall hovv is he righteous yet he aunswereth himselfe that he looseth not the name of a righteous man because he riseth by repentance And this is the hope of the best for who otherwise should not perish When Acesius a Bishop of the Nouatians at the Nicene Councell did shew Constantine that holy and blessed Emperour the strictnesse of their opinions and how precisely a man must liue without sinne after Baptisme if he would attaine saluation the Emperour maketh him aunswer If this be so Acesius then get thy selfe a ladder and clime alone into heauen giuing his censure of it so that scant any man should be saued if that ground were maintained No maruell if for the comfort of wounded consciences at the first Saint Cyprian and Cornelius Bishop of Rome and Dionysius of Alexandria so hotely did impugne this heresie and after them Chrysostome who so farre did dislike this hard lacing of Nouatus that he spake thus against it If thou haue fallen a thousand times and dost repent thee of it enter into the Church that is if thy repentance bee true I will not seclude thee from the fellowship of Gods children We do teach the selfe same doctrine not to stirre men vp to sinne for that were to fall of presumption vnto which many times God denieth the benefite of repentance but that we may seeke out that which is lost and bind vp that which is broken and raise vp that which is fallen and saue some out of the fire Gods Church is made of sinners Christ Iesus did dye for sinners Our verie Creede doth teach vs that the Communion of Saints and the forgiuenesse of sinnes must be ioyned and go together He who will haue part in the one must haue his fellowship in the other He cannot come to the first but he must tast of the latter We cry to the man lamenting his iniquities as Ambrose writing vpon Luke crieth Let no man distrust let no man being priuie to his old faults despaire of a reward from God God knoweth how to chaunge his sentence if thou know how to change thy fault We testifie with Saint Bernard It seemeth vnto God that he doth more slowly giue pardon to the sinner then it doth vnto the other that he doth receiue it For the mercifull God doth so hasten to acquite the guiltie man from the torment of his conscience as if the suffering of the wretch did more grieue the pitifull God then his owne suffering did the man which is in miserie For he who truly repenteth and earnestly sorroweth without doubt without delay shall receiue a pardon Let the weake then raise vp his heart and strengthen his feeble knees Sinners which call for grace do belong to the adoption Noe swarued and yet he was a Patriarke Lot fell yet he is said by Saint Peter to haue had a righteous soule Peter himselfe had a guiltie conscience and yet was a great Apostle Ionas became a mightie trespasser and yet still remained the Lords Prophet It was Gods gracious bountie whose fauour originally euer commeth for nothing but being once setled it is not lost for a little And thus haue you his loue both to Niniue and to Ionas 10 There is yet another matter which in this former verse is worthie of consideration that the word of the Lord is said here to come to Ionas The Creatour of all things might haue vsed many other wayes to reclaime that offending citie In old time he did call and warne men by visions and by dreames as it is in Iob or his benefits might haue allured or if those had but choked and pampered them vp with fatnesse his rods might haue beat them to it famine might breede remorse or the sword of the enemie or some deuouring pestilence Or if he would saue all their liues such iudgements might haue frighted them as were shewed at Hierusalem at the last destruction of it For as we find in Iosephus a Comete like to a sword did long hang ouer the citie and troupes of armed men were seene to fight in the aire What terrour would this haue wrought what heart would not this haue rented and driuen it into mourning and calling to God for pardon But the great Lord who in his wisedome hath ordained another way as the ordinarie course to winne men to himselfe that is by his most precious word and his ministerie doth here commend this his ordinance for the instrument of their good He hath made this word more sharpe then is any two edged sword This is it which doth pierce the marrow and breake the bones in sunder which entreth into the diuision of the soule and of the spirit of the heart and of the reines which wresteth sighs from the mind and wringeth teares from the eyes and maketh a whole man as it were to melt and dissolue into water This is it to which especially he hath promised to giue a blessing that it shall not returne in vaine but as the rayne commeth downe and the snow from heauen and returneth not thither but
appeare in their staâ—elinesse of pompous apparell of rich and noble traine of gard and other matters which procure a kind of amazednesse in those who are not accustomed to it This as Herode Agrippa did vse do did Salomon and religious gouernours which exciteth from other toward them a fearefull reuerence yet withall a louely admiration But among all shewes there is nothing comparable to the throne that magnificent seate of iustice where much honour is accumulated and heaped vp together In a pallace large and spacious a rich seate to be set very eminent for the height conspicuous for the furniture of gold and cloth of estate compassed about with Nobles and great Peeres of a kingdome in Parliament-like attire attended with many trumpeters and heralds and other officers with a gard of strong and armed men enuironed with much people in a peaceable plentifull place What on earth representeth a maiesty if it be not in such an assembly The sight of this or the like in Iustinian the Emperour at CoÌ„stantinople made Athanaricus the king of the Gothes to breake foorth into these words The Emperour without doubt is a God vpon earth whosoeuer shall stirre his hand against him shal be guilty of his owne bloud But this phrase of sitting in the throne is vsed by the Spirit of God to point out vnto vs the highest honour among men Salomon was sayd to be set in the throne of his father Dauid The people pray that his throne that is to say his honour and magnificence may be aboue his fathers What a stately throne did the same Salomon make as one of his most glorious workes In Saint Iohns Reuelation where the Lord himselfe is described in inconceiuable glory the first thing named is a throne How the Gentiles respected this may appeare by that of Alexander who when a poore souldier of his owne who was as stupefied and amazed with cold and hunger was by himselfe set downe in his throne neare the fire told him that if he had so done to the royall seate of the Persians it wold haue cost him his life but this saith he shall saue thy life meaning that there he should be warmed and freed from his cold And it may be iudged also by that speech of Demaratus the Corinthian who seeing Alexander in his pompe at Susis did for ioy breake foorth into teares and sayd that those Greekes who were dead before that day had lost a great occasion of reioycing because they liued not to see Alexander sitting in the throne of Darius Then for the king of Niniue being set in open shew to arise from his pompous place is a signe of much humility to top himselfe to come downe with such a depressed diminishment so grieuous to flesh and bloud is a matter which is not common He who neuer tasted the sweet of soueraignty or ambition cannot iudge aright of this deed When the nedle touched with the load-stone shall beare it selfe toward the North in passing a great part of the earth or sea it is a great alteration when it comming vnder the Equinoctiall line must giue ouer that property wherein before it was excellent and might iustly haue caused no little admiration A proud mind cannot stoupe a lofty heart would not downe And yet the great king of Niniue being touched with repentance vnseateth himselfe vnthroneth himselfe and commeth as low as the meanest 11 As he did put himselfe from his place so he strippeth himselfe of his rayment It should seeme that it was some solemne time that he was sitting in his throne and adorned with his robe When Herode would shew himselfe in his magnificence he put on his royall apparell Otherwise the Easterne Princes went glorious in their attire and so at this day do all men who are of worth among them as trauellers do report They vse a stately kind of clothing By the witnesse of Christ himselfe they that weare soft or delicate rayment are in the Courts of Kings how then go the Kings themselues They thinke that common clothing maketh them seeme but as common men and they would that nothing should be wanting to them which might increase an opinion of estate We see that some inferour persons do pin their greatest felicity on the gaynesse of their backes There is more care to adorne the body with vanities and new-fangles then to beautifie the soule with sanctity and deuotion The worke of wormes shall not be refused to cloath a worme-eaten body Colours shall be brought from the sea and pearles taken out of fishes gold digged out of the earth Ethyopia and both the Indies shall be ransacked for new deuises and these things shall be put on with more greedinesse more carefulnesse and more orderlinesse then if it were to do that which most nearely appertaineth to the gaining of heauen Fashions shall be inuented so wide and spacious in hoopes and ruffes and supporters that there is great danger that the little gate which leadeth to eternall life and blisse is not wide inongh to receiue them And if it be a griefe and euen a death in comparison for such as are not the most honourable to part with these vanities for who would liue to lacke things handsome how might it straine the heart of a King to be vncased in such sort as to put off that which distinguished him from a common man I feare that there be many in our age who hardly would yeeld to this Yet the great ruler of Niniue doth make no stay thereat but at this time putteth away from him his robe of greatest dignitie as a hinderance to true piety Where is a liuely feeling indeed that we should be arayed with pure and fine linnen which is the righteousnesse of Saints there the most sumptuous clothing is vpon some speciall occasion but accounted as the doung and that which is most delectable is detested as a Scorpion Where a man is best clad within there the least care is for the outward 12 Well you see what this Prince hath left now heare what he taketh to him He putteth not off one braue gowne that he might put on another so to iet it in varietie whereupon the world standeth much but that he might betake himselfe to mourning weedes euen sordide sackcloth and earthie ashes Sackcloth was vsed to expresse sorrow as may be seene in Iacob the Patriarke who vpon the newes of the death of his sonne Ioseph rent his clothes and put sackcloth about his loynes and sorrowed a great season Ashes were vsed by men deiected to the lowest degree of misery as may be gathered by Iob who after all his grieuances so doubled vpon him went and sate him downe in ashes Mordecai in the booke of Esther giueth example of both for when the King had yeelded to the bloudy request of Haman for murthering all the Iewes he put on sackcloth and ashes and cried a great cry and a bitter
He is not as Baal was whose seruants might crye and launce themselues with kniues and all for his honour yet himselfe be neuer the wiser The Niniuites fasted and put on sackcloth and prayed vpon the newes of the Prophets preaching and with lamentable behauiour did labour to shew their sorrow that they should be reputed iustly so vile in Gods eyes They acknowledge themselues to be ashes and dust they stand as the stubble now ready for the flame How the heauen might helpe they know not but from the earth is like to come no consolation The Lord whose drift it was to bring them to that passe and had no other end of the sending of Ionas so farre from his owne countrey but to worke them hereunto sitteth aboue in the heauen and beholding it is much pleased A fauourable Iudge who will turne his eyes of iealousie into a gracious aspect and will endure as much to saue men as he will to spill them As the crying sinnes of Niniue and of Sodome and like places had accesse vnto his cares and so did call for vengeance so the repentance of the Niniuites had accesse vnto his seate and did pleade hard for a pardon Yea to shew that he delighteth to helpe rather then to hurt to spare rather then to punish he who would not receiue the cryes of the great sinnes of the Sodomites vntill he came downe to prooue whether it were so or no taketh the sorrowes of the city euen at the first rebound and not standing to examine them in the strictnesse of his seuerity is by and by appeased He who is slow to anger is quickeâ— sighted at repentance and when his sonne is comming home he beholdeth him a great way off and meeteth with him and falleth on him and kisseth him and with much loue embraceth him 10 He saw that which they did But marke God saw their vvorkes That which they ouâ—wardly did was a token of their mind and a fruite of their faith which faith had entred into their heart and in some measure purified that which of it selfe was corrupt But he beheld their workes not their speech but their deedes not their tongue but their hands not that afterward they would do better but that alreadie they had left their filthinesse And this fruite is it which God requireth to testifie whether the roote be good If words would haue serued the turne the Prophet needed not haue gone to the Gentiles in Assyria the Israelites and Iewes could haue furnished him well inough who made no spare to say that they would serue the Lord the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord was euer in their mouthes and afterward We haue Abraham to our father but they did nothing which was sutable but cleane contrarie to their speaking The Pharisees who succeeded long after our Prophets time had by this reckening bene very holy for they could pray in the streetes and disguise their faces with fasting yet Christ brandeth them for hypocrites and speaketh to all in generall Not euery one that saith vnto me Lord Lord shall enter into the kingdome of heauen but he that doth the will of my father which is in heauen Saint Basile vpoÌ„ these words of the Prophet Esay And if they multiply their prayers I will not heare them doth declare what the mind of God is toward such as thinke religion to be in words They who in this life do no worke which is worthy the name of vertue but only for the lengths sake of their prayers do hold themselues to be righteous let them heare these vvords vvith attentiue eares For prayers are not a helpe vvhen they are powred out in any sort vvhatsoeuer but if they be vttered vvith earnest and feruent affection For the Pharisee did multiplie prayers in shew but vvhat sayth the Scripture The Pharisee standing did pray thus vvith himselfe But it vvas not with the Lord. For all of it returned to the good opinion of himselfe for he still remained in the sinne of pride That man who would not be taken for such a Pharisee and so consequently be refused of the Lord must thinke that there is something else in the seruice of the Highest then to say or seeme to be holy For that is a matter common to reprobates to idolaters to dissemblers and deceiptfull men which yet escape not his eyes who trieth the hearts and reynes and rewardeth men accordingly Saint Bernard obserueth that the two Kings Saule and Dauid when they were reprooued by the two Prophets Samuel and Nathan cried peccaui both alike and yet Saule heard that sentence the Lord hath taken thy kingdome from thee and will giue it to thy seruant and Dauid heard that comfort The Lord hath remooued away thy sinne and thou shalt not dye for it What was this sayth Saint Bernard but that Saule had not that in his heart which he had in his mouth but with Dauid it was otherwise 11 Then he who hath gone astray and by that meanes hath offended God and desireth to returne at last after a thousand prouocations into the Iudges fauour let him first depart from euill and purge himselfe of all poyson as the serpent doth going to drinke and let him neuer againe resume it but secondly therewithall let him do that which good His light must shine before men that they may see his good workes his life must shine before God in purity and integrity Of which how little all sorts of men do thinke now a dayes experience too much witnesseth For who is he almost that intendeth to that which he should I speake not of the Atheist who is an enemy to God the father I speake not of the Papist who is no friend to Christ the sonne many points of their doctrine crossing the life of his redemption but of those who seeme to be somewhat The Pastours which are learned are almost like the vnlearned The one cannot the other will not but neither of them do preach They thinke it is inough to be able to de somewhat when they shall see occasion that to censure the workes of other this was well or this was ill is a great part of learning but worke they will not themselues neither God nor men see their labours The gentlemen in the countrey I meane very manie of them thinke it is inough if they like not any thing which commeth from Rome but if they can declaime in the greatest assemblies against the errours of the Clergie or spie a fault in their gouernement they are more then common men yea but if they come so farre as to haue prayers in their houses which is a very holy sacrifice if other things accordingly be ioyned they thinke that there is no more needfull to heauen But as for any works of mercie or charitable pitie they are not oftentimes to be found They yeeld small comfort to the poore who perish before their faces Little helpe vnto the Minister who may
conflict with pouertie with barenesse and with hunger nay he shall speede very well if some portion of his maintenance be not detained and kept from him with violenceâ— or with cunning For his necessarie reliefe who must teach them the way to heauen it would be death to part with the price of the meanest gowne which their wiues or daughters weare In very many places the citizens and townsmen desire to haue much preaching but scant any taketh care of following they are more scrupulous lest some old word which was vsed in time of Poperie should be named in common talke then to deceiue their brother in selling or in bargaining It is good that the smallest things in their kind should be cared for and that words and externall iesture should be composed vnto sanctitie but yet let the greatest matters be embraced with greatest zeale They are workes which God expecteth and not naked words onely Yet there was neuer age wherein that complaint of seeming and not being might not truely be made but the complaint is there most grieuous where religion is most professed when that may be taken vp which Saint Bernard sometimes wrote There are many who haue the commandements of the Lord but yet they keepe them not many haue them in their booke but haue them not in their mind many haue them in their speech but haue them not in their worke many haue them in their memory but haue them not in their life many haue them in their word but not in their example 12 But the Niniuites left their euill wayes and betooke themselues to better Now see what followed of it God repented of the euill which he sayd that he would bring vpon them This phrase may seeme a strange phrase that there should be repentance in God which implieth a change of purpose and also a taking of notice that something which was before was not so well disposed or determined or decreed which is much to be once suspected in the Lord whose counsels are immutable and all his wayes appointed before hand to be without variation This may argue weakenesse in him who is the Lord of strength and an vnresolued mind in him who is most constant A thing which he would not haue his creatures in any sort to thinke of him and therefore proclaimeth that indeed the strength of Israel will not lye nor repent for he is not a man that he should change or repent How then commeth it about that the King should say this of him Or if we will imagine that a heathenish and ignorant man might mistake a word toward God yet how is it that the Prophet who was so well instructed in celestiall things should record that word to all ages Yea that Ioel also should second it in the place which I named before Who knoweth â—f he vvill returne and repent and leaue a blessing For remoouing of which doubt we are to hold that fast that the Lord doth not vpon any occurrents alter his decrees which he proposeth in his counsels but what he once resolueth either in circumstance or in substance he accomplisheth in due time He grieueth not as men do that this or that falleth out which maketh him change his mind Yet speaking as men speake and so framing his greatnesse to the capacity of vs weake ones he altereth that which did seeme to men to be his purpose and this he meaneth by repentance Gregorie thus layeth downe the matter Because he vvho is immutability in the highest degree doth speake vvith those which are mutable after the manner of them with whom he speaketh being sayd to repent that he made Saul King he noteth that the rashnesse of proud men doth desplâ—ase him He then reputeth it for a phrase which is onely vsed for our vnderstanding 13 Iustinus Martyr in his Questions and Aunswers Ad Orthodoxos moouing this doubt That if no change do fall vpon the Godhead why the Lord did say concerning the annointing of Saule that he repented and of the ouerturning of Niniue that another thing was determined giueth this aunswer to it God both in that which he is and in this that he doth such actions as best beseeme himselfe is immutable but taking care of those who are subiect to change he prouideth for the commodity of them ouer vvhom he doth take care and oftentimes he changeth things Therefore vvhen he doth pardon and vvhen he doth not pardon he retaineth his immutability for those vvho amend their faults he pardoneth and changeth not and those vvho remaine in their faults he pardoneth not and yet changeth not He applieth this to Saules case and that other of the Niniuites The words are somewhat obscure but in substance he decideth it thus that the Lord doth hold fast his counsels but yet changeth things of appearance which it was thought that he minded Gregory whom I haue named before hath a saying much to this purpose Because God himselfe vvho is immutable doth change that vvhich he vvould he is sayd to repent although he change the things but doth not change his counsell If this yet be not so plaine that the ignorant may conceiue it then take it thus that God from the beginning meant to spare them but yet on that condition that they should first repent And to bring them to that repentance he sent his threatnings by Ionas of purpose wishing their good yet because absolutely in word he denounced that vnto them the more to feare and fright them which he purposed but conditionally if they turned not vnto him therefore he speaketh of God as they thought not as he did Hierome doth fully giue downe his mind according to some part of this doctrine God is sayd to change his minde Nay rather God perseuered in his purpose meaning from the beginning to pity them for no man desiring to punish vvill threaten that vvhich he meaneth to do Then by his threatnings he sheweth that he meant not to destroy them 14 For conceiuing of the rest whereof Hierome doth make no mention we are farther to take knowledge that generally God when he threatneth intendeth that if men repent not then this or that shall fal out but if they turne vnto him that it shall not be done And God layeth this downe vniuersally as a certaine Axiome of himselfe to be so vnderstood in all the course of the Scripture where any threats are mentioned But yet more significantly in no place then by the Prophet Ieremy where he speaketh in this manner I will speake suddenly against a nation or a kingdome to plucke vp and to roote out and to destroy But if this nation against vvhich I haue pronounced do turne away from his vvickednesse I vvill repent of the plague vvhich I thought to bring vpon them Now this being allowed for a maxime all denouncings of iudgement from him do containe in them a condition secretly and inclusiuely where if the threates be not executed no
sort of things which be they or be they not it maketh not any matter A conceipt which is very earthie and dull as is the clay and in no sort beseeming a reasonable soule who should carry his face vpright to God and to the heauens and thinke himselfe to be made for somewhat to glorifie the Almightie to be a part of the Church to helpe to adorne the world to be doing honest actions while he is here in this life and not to go poring forward as a beast which looketh onely downeward Is it nothing that he hath giuen thee speech and reason which he denieth to euery thing but man Is it nothing that his sonne redeemed thee with his bloud and payd such a raunsome for thee Or to note what my text doth note is it nothing that thy life is dayed and houred and inched out by a fearefull God and a terrible who among so many motions and directions and disposings and altering transmutations of heauen and earth and water yet hath thee so in his reckening and beareth such an eye vpon thee on thy in-going and thy out-going of thy lying owne thy rising of thy sicknesse and thy health of thy liuing and thy dying as if onely he did intend vnto thy selfe in speciall Do not thou esteeme that to be vile which he reckeneth of so much worth let that soule be precious to thee which he accounteth of so great price do not hang downe thy head but with industrie adorne thy soule and with diligence in his seruice thinking it a shame to see that actiue nimble and stirring substance to be ouergrowne with mossinesse and rust of such neglect as hitherto hath possessed it 6 Now as it is not vnproper to obserue this in glauncing sort because the Prophet giueth that attribute to the Lord that it is his prerogatiue to take away life so from this there euidently ariseth as a doctrine to be thought of in the next place that it is a great fault and a transgression not excusable to thrust our selues into that which belongeth vnto our maker and so by an vsurpation to depriue God of that singular priuiledge which is proper to himselfe of taking away life from man I do not here speake of the Magistrates who carry the sword as from God and are bound not to acquit or excuse the guiltie To them the charge is giuen against murtherers and manquellers that he vvho sheddeth mans bloud by man shall his bloud be shed Moses stoned the blasphemer Iosuah did so by Achan and Salomon in his vprightnesse tooke away the life of Ioab But I speake here of that case which might touch our Prophet nearer that is that although he did pretend that he willingly would be dead yet he doth not take a course violently to lay hands on himselfe and his owne bodie but prayeth the Lord to dissolue him Wherein it appeareth that although he were peruerse and discontent yet he was not come to that height of iniquity and impietie as to destroy himselfe A sinne of the most straunge nature that any is in the world that whereas all other sinnes are to preserue the body indeed or in a fancie in circumstance or in substance this is to ouerthrow it Yea to ouerthrow it with God and ouerthrow it with man in this world and the next without hope and all recouerie vnlesse the Lords mercie which cannot be limited do that whereof is no warrant His commandement is in generall Thou shalt commit no murther If no murther vpon other then much lesse on thy selfe For thou must loue thy neighbour but as thou louest thy selfe and the patterne of all dutie to be extended in him is taken from thine owne person Then when the Lord hath created thee and put thee into the world and bid thee there to keepe as in a standing place as in a watch or ward from whence thou mayest not mooue till he come to discharge thee wilt thou dare to leaue thy ground and forsake that which he hath enioyned thee When thy soule shall come before his iust and fearefulll countenance how must it needes be dismayed when that speech shall come from his mouth what doest thou in this place who sent for thee who dismissed thee As thou with violence hast cut thy selfe from thy bodie so with violence I do cut thee from all hope of participation in my glorie 7 What a trembling may this sentence procure vpon this soule what mountaines may it not cry to or what hils to fall vpon it to be freed from such a doome It is good therefore that euerie Christian who desireth to haue his part in the holie resurrection should flie from this as the way to euerlasting damnation This is a pranke for such as despairing Saule was to fall vpon his owne sword or of cursed craftie Ahitophell to go home and hang himselfe or of Iudas to go foorth and worke himselfe to his end How many are the miseries and vexations which a Christian should suffer all his life time here before that he should once thinke of this With what earnestnesse of prayer should he resist this tentation Should I say that Iosephus a Iew with full reasons refuted that which was vrged for this vngodly fact at such time as he was pressed vnto it by his bloudy minded fellowes Yea heathen men haue taught this as Plato in Phaedone from whom we find that Macrobius hath collected seauen reasons why we should not dare to attempt this But the speech of Tully is excellent in that Somnium Scipionis whereupon Macrobius there commenteth For when Scipio had said If true life be onely in heauen vvhy stay I then vpon earth vvhy hast I not to come to you No it is not so sayth his father for vnlesse that God vvhose Temple all this is that thou seest free thee from the fetters of thy body thou canst not haue an entrance thither For men are begotten and bred vpon that condition that they should maintaine that round thing vvhich thou seest in the middest of that Temple and vvhich is called the earth And there is giuen vnto them a soule of those euerlasting fires vvhich you call starres and planets Wherefore ô Publius both thy soule and the soules of all good men is to be kept by them in the safe custodie of thy body neither vvithout his commandement by vvhom it is giuen vnto you are you to leaue this life lest you should seeme to flye this duty assigned by God If a heathen man by the light of nature could go so farre it were a thing very admirable that bare reason should be able to teach so much But we may very well imagine that this came from the Diuinitie of the lewes For Tully in that place deriueth his position from Plato which Macrobius plainely noteth and Platoes diuine Philosophy was by hearing or reading sucked from the bookes of Moses which thing Eusebius in his booke De
head at last and hang it downe no longer for the sufferings of thy sorowes the troubles of thy heart the endurings of thy vexations the conflicts of thy conscience are knowne daily seene God crieth to thee from heauen It is I who looke vpon you do you wrastle and I will helpe you do you conquer and I will crowne you He who taketh such care as God doth of winds and trees and wormes certainly reckeneth all thy flights putteth thy teares in a bottle noteth all things in a booke Thy hands are not lifted to him thy brest is not beat before him thy cheeks are not deawed vnto him but he noteth it and remembreth it There is not a cup of cold water giuen which shall lose his reward Then we serue a blessed seruice who liue vnder such a Lord. But to say no more of him either for his power or his prouidence who prouided this for Ionas in a word let vs see the vse of that which is prepared 8 The end why God sent this pretie tree was to couer the head of Ionas that it might be a shadow for him to comfort him in his griefe That the man was out of tune I haue shewed before so often that I need not againe repeate it The euerlasting Father most of all to teach him to beare a good mind to Niniue but in present to sustaine him that he vtterly sinke not downe by his peeuish and froward griefe doth send him here a small thing to serue his turne the while The nature of fretting persons is that when they haue apprehended any great cause of discontentment as they perswade themselues they are sorely troubled with it but if a second cause be heaped vpon the first and another vpon that no measure doth containe them but they rage and storme as if all things had conspired to worke their bane and they were men accursed And indeede by this meanes the wicked oftentimes do come to their finall destruction But God being better minded to all those whom he loueth doth moderate their vexations and measure out their grieuaunces that they many times shall haue their backe burdens but they shall not haue too much Either one thing or another shall stand vp in the gappe although it be so small a matter that taken by it selfe it seemeth rather contemptible but for that present time by the fancie of the partie may be thought worthie the hauing When the mother hath beaten her child whom she would haue to be chastised but not his heart broken shee reacheth out an apple to him or some trifle to appease him In comparison of God we are as babies especially when furie passionate vexation hath surprized all our affections and therefore as a child is pleased with a little but that endureth but a small time so a little thing doth stay vs although I dare not say doth content vs. When we are readie to drowne a little twigge being suddenly catched on doth relieue vs. When we are ready to famish a little food doth preserue vs and hold our life for the time And it is maruell to see so humerous is our nature how small things bring breathing to vs euen as little ones as this shadow which was here ouer the Prophets head When Ieremie was oppressed with miserie vpon miserie nothing was more heauie to him then his thrusting into the dungeon Yet when by the blacke-Moores meanes he was gotten out of that hole although he were still restrained in the vtter court of the prison and had euils enough vpon him yet this appeased him well as may easily be gathered in that the blacke-Moore had his life for a recompence of his kindnesse When Samson was most in need some water out of the iaw-bone of the Asse did quiet him Whē Ionathan in the battell had ouer-fasted himselfe a little hony taken vp vpon the end of a sticke recouered his dimmed eye-sight Doubtlesse the conflicts of Paule were many while he liued at Rome with Gentiles and Iewes with the learned and vnlearned with the persecuting tyrant yet I verily suppose because Gods spirit doth mention the matter that it was a good ease to him that he might hire a house by himselfe and at home be free from their baiting In this point let euery one of Gods children looke to himselfe and remember if oftentimes when his fretting hath bene greatest he hath not had some allay by the comming in of a friend by receiuing of some letter by hearing somewhat else which better doth content him by some thing before not thought of which pleaseth for the time and if by nothing else yet by falling on sleepe These be mercies from the Lord who will not haue his to sinke and there is not the least of these seeme it neuer so base a thing to the standers by but it is sent in vnto thee euen from heauen and the Highest to refresh thee as his child as this shadow was here to Ionas And thus much be now spoken of these three circumstances arising from my first generall note what it was that was prepared by whom and to what end And Ionas was exceeding glad because 9 We are now in the second place to looke in what sort he embraced this fauor He was exceedingly glad The oportunitie of the thing which so serued him for his purpose to refresh him withall and peraduenture the rarenesse of it for rare things in euery kind do most of all delight put the Prophet into such gladnesse as if he had found some precious treasure If it were not that we all are such it were strange to see of what mettall this messenger here was made that a litle maketh him grieue and a lesser thing maketh him glad and as a child or a boy moderately he taketh nothing What a matter was this that Ionas who had bene trained vp in Israel and had done the Lord seruice there who was sent in a message to such a Citie as Niniue where his words might concerne a Monarke and Princes great Peeres should be so sillie a creature as to ioy in a thing so brittle In dehorting men frō too much embracing the delights of the world we figuratiuely vse to call all pleasures here but verie fumos vmbras no better then smokes and shadowes not that we really imagine that men set their hearts vpon such things But here is one who in earnest is much in loue with a shadow and that not the shadow of himselfe as the Poet fained of Narcissus but of a little tree Here if he had had some company it is likely that he would haue led them round about this his ioy and shewed them all his pleasures which with some admiration he had receiued frō it If this man had bene some Salomon that he might haue had in all magnificence whatsoeuer his heart desired he would haue bene much in loue with it but if he had bene in Paradise he would haue bene
But I haue handled that question twise before in this Prophecie and therefore I leaue this whole matter and come to the second verse Doest thou well to be angrie for the gourd 10 Here the maner of Gods reproofe might yeeld good matter to vs to note in what mild sort he doth it that whereas it had bene fitter that Ionas should haue bene meeke and the Lord should haue bene mooued Ionas is the stirring partie and God himselfe doth speake calmely But I haue touched this before in this present Chapter and what we should learne from it Againe it might be noted that he speaketh not here simply thou doest ill to be angrie but by an interrogation which as in Rhetorike we are taught doth vrge and pierce the deeper And therefore euen in the Scripture for more vehemēcie sake things are propounded by questions But to leaue all this concerning the manner the matter is it which I do point at wherein God doth as much as demaund thus Sonne of man art thou wise or art thou obedient to rage thus for the gourd See what thy wisedome is thou ragest at the death of this greene thing and why doest thou aske for thine owne death Thou canst not endure the spilling of that which is as nothing and yet thou wilt preasse earnestly to the killing of thy selfe a creature farre more excellent And is there not great reason why thou shouldst be thus offended to chafe and brawle with thy maker It is on the one side for a gourd and on the other for a sweate procured by the wind and Sunne Are not these great spurrings and prouocations to anger a blast of wind and a shadow because thou hast too much of the one and too little of the other I did looke that thou shouldest suffer farre greater things for my sake not the shadow onely of thy head to be taken from thee but thy head it selfe by the sword not the heate of the Sunne alone but of the fire to burne thee as a martyr if I would I see that thou wouldest shrinke at great things as at torture or cruell torment when thou sinkest so at a little But where is thy obedience that as yet thou hast not learned to subscribe to all my pleasure Thus might God iustly reprooue him by his words illustrate the malignitie of his humour if we onely will vnderstand it that now he meant the gourd But if we will conceiue it that he blameth him for all his anger and not alone for the gourd but because Niniue should be spared then Ionas lyeth more open to him for that he who had bene fauoured should not grieue that other men should find the selfe same mercie He sinning had bene deliuered from drowning and the whale therefore he did ill to vexe that others also sinning should liue When one seruant hath found fauour peraduenture for a hundred talents he should not grudge if another his fellow seruant do find the selfe same measure But I will not extend this doctrine so farre as to this point because the text euidently deliuereth it that the reproofe of him was for his anger about the gourd 11 We may make this vse thereof that if it were such a fault fit to be blamed by Gods owne mouth to be so much disquieted for a matter of so small consequence I will not say farre from Gods kingdome but from the life and being of a man see whether we may not iustly be taxed by the selfe same Lord for fretting and such distemper in things of like importance If an office or small preferment which is a thing of more burthen then recompence any way be desired or intended by vs and we faile in our hope how do we grow male-contented with our Colleges and studies with our calling and vocation who would liue to be thus disgraced This ariseth from some root of preposterous emulation or auarice or ambition or such a plant as by right should not haue place in the heart But because we haue not more shall we loath that which we haue How worthily may the Lord take from vs that which we do enioy when we will so prescribe vnto him But because we haue too much learned to embrace these worldy things although they be but shrubs and shadowes therefore we so take the losse of them and vse worse meanes to gaine them euen dissembling and deceiuing and lying and forswearing such parts as become not Christians May not God now say to vs as here he saith to Ionas Do you well thus to be mooued for the gaining or the loosing of matters of so small moment May it not be much suspected that in the day of great triall when temptations shall grow strong you will slippe your necke from the yoke or sinke vnder your burthens when such petty points ouerthrow you Would you with the Apostles leaue all or be offered vp with Saint Paule How would you breake faith or honestie if it were for a kingdome since you do thus for a moale-hill how would hundreds or thousands leade you when thus you do transgresse for a few peeces of siluer I wish that this were laid to the heart of all of vs in this place that with consciences content and resting vpon Gods prouidence we might chearefully go forward with that which is assigned to vs for our share or lot to the honour of the Lord the Church and Vniuersitie In a wife religious man nature is content with a little and if we could defalke and pluck that away from our mind which otherwise may not be had there be few but haue enough vntill God do send more And by reason of the want of this mind in vs it falleth out oftentimes that they haue least contentment who seeme to enioy the most But beware of comming to that passe of murmuring and of fretting when we haue not what we would If we needs will follow the Prophet let vs follow him otherwise then in that for the which so iustly he is in this place rebuked 12 But himselfe still like himselfe meaneth not thus to giue ouer but he commeth on with an answere Doest thou well to be angrie Yea that I do saith he to be angrie to the death Was there euer man vnder heauen so testie and so peeuish to chop thus with his maker And still the further he goeth the more to be out of square Yet his moderation was farre greater in the fourth verse where being asked the same question he tooke it for a checke and answered all with silence not replying a word againe But here as if he had meant to vie who should speake last he will breake if he hold his toung and therefore answere he must though with such extreme peruersenesse as neuer man did the like If we may gesse by his words all the gesture of his bodie was sutable thereunto his teeth set his eyes glowing his countenance very red but his words are plaine that he did well to