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
a day but that he went to the Capitoll to performe his deuotions 5 But as I take it the wisedome of the Lord in declaring to the ignorant how far he hateth euill doth appeare more fully in nothing then by putting into men a conscience within which should accuse and condemne the most hard harted sinner which so often as by maliciousnesse great mischiefes are done should represent the sinne vnto the inward thought with terrible suggestions of vengeance to follow and should giue no rest to the disquieted sinner Among ignorant men there is no one token which enforceth like this token that vngodlinesse is loathsome and odious in it selfe and beareth a sting with it And this hath so farre bene knowne to haunt the offenders and torture them within that Tragedians on their stages haue oftentimes represented those passions by furies of hell fearefully tormenting some which thing Tully doth truelie interprete of the conscience of the transgressing sinner which doth vse to discruciate the person affected in vnspeakeable manner Now what is it that the conscience being in this case doth giue warning of Euen that at the least it is vnlikely but many times that it is impossible that they should be remitted And hereof in the Scriptures Cain and Iudas are eminent examples who had an opinion that they had faulted so farre that they could not be pardoned The biting remorse of haynous offences doth gnaw and gnaw through The persecutours of others haue tasted of this cup and smarted with this rod. Philo Iudaeus writing against Flaccus telleth that the same lewd man playd all the parts of cruelty which he could deuise against the Iewes for their religion sake but afterward when the doome of Caligula fell vpon him and he was banished into Andros an Iland neare Greece he was so tormented with the memorie of his bloudie iniquities and a feare of suffering for them that if he saw any man walking softly neare to him he would say to himselfe This man is deuising to worke my destruction If he saw any go hastily Sure it is not for nothing he maketh speed to kill me If any man spâ—ke him faire he suspected that he would cousin him and sought to intrap him If any talked roughlie to him then he thought that he contemned him If meate were giuen him in any plentifull sort this is but to fat me as a sheepe or an oxe is fed to be slaughtered Thus his sinne did lye vpon him and euer remember him that some vengeance was to follow from God or men or both In our time such measure hath bene measured to murtherers their thoughts haue bene so troublesome after their wickednesse done that they haue no more rested then if continuallie and vncessantlie they had bene pursued with legions of euill spirites The ages which are past haue had their examples in this kind When Theodorike sometimes King of the Gothes had vniustlie and tyrannouslie slaine Symmachus and Boëtius two Noble men of Rome the crueltie of that deede and guilt of that foule trespasse did so boyle in his heart that when once at his table among other meate a fishes head was set he conceiued it to be the verie head of Symmachus the eyes to be his eyes the teeth to grinne vppon him and falling into a fright and stiffe coldnesse withall he lyeth him downe as a â—an much distracted and dyeth So heauie a burthen is sinne in the heart which depresseth and crusheth downe without recouerie if it be not helped with some better perswasion sent immediatly from God There may in a naturall man be a strugling and wrastling against such motions but his heart and conscience are greater then himselfe and will put him in minde that terrible desolation remaineth for him who hath sinned presumptuously or wilfully and of purpose and that he is not very likely to be quitted from such crimes This knowing of monstrous iniquities in Niniue doth make the king thereof as one who was amated and distracted to hope but doubtfully and fearefully for reconcilement betweene God and his soule betweene the Lord and his people 6 And if he had reason for this because of the heauinesse of that sinne which euen by the light of nature and assent of his owne heart he might feare would be punished we may make this vse thereof that boldly and audaciously we diue not into wickednesse and plunging into the depth do not tumble in the suddes of it and wallow in the sinke lest when we would be glad to come foorth againe and turne another leafe distrust be our portion and doubting in a high degree whether God will receiue vs. It is good so to embrace the mercy of our Sauiour that we also remember the seuerity of our Iudge When for many yeares together we with greedinesse haue drunke in the puddle-water of wickednesse we cannot be assured that the Lord at our becke will bend himselfe to clemency Perhaps time may be wanting perhaps the counsell of Gods Ministers it may be the minde inured to a custome of filthinesse cannot extricate it selfe perhaps God will not giue the gift of repentance but as we haue despised to heare when he calleth vs so when we shall call to him vnfruitfully and vnfaithfully he will not attend It may be that the canker of desperate sinnes hath so eaten out all faith in vs that we cannot by any meanes appropriate Gods mercy to our selues and our soules It is a fearefull thing when the Lords goodnesse shall be ingeminated againe and againe to the fainting heart how readie he is to receiue the repentant how he calleth to sinners and openeth the bosome for them and stretcheth out his armes and how Christ of purpose came to dye for offenders and yet all this shall find no other aunswer but These things are for other they be not for me I doubt not but the Ministers of God who haue had tryall in like cases do sometimes quake in their flesh and tremble in their bones to remember such examples as their owne eyes haue seene It had bene good for such who at length be so touched and indeede for all men to haue made stay in time for if they go on and will not be reclaimed when mercy is offered who knoweth if afterward God will turne and repent and shew pity vpon them Then learne to flye from sinne as from a killing pestilence go from it soone and farre and neuer turne againe This is worse then the pestilence it is poyson sugred ouer which may be sweete in tast but is pernitious in effect The pleasure is soone gone but the guilt remaineth Saint Chrysostome therefore doth make a fit Antithesis betweene it and the trauell of a woman She sayth he hath her throbs and pangs at the first which in truth are very vehement but afterward there commeth ioy when she beholdeth a child borne of her selfe into the world But on the other side while it is in performance
Minister Be strong and let vs be valiant for our people and for the cities of our God and then let the Lord do what seemeth good in his eyes So should Ionas haue said In an vnknowne countrey God might haue sent him fruite who found none in his owne It is noted of Herod the great by Iosephus that he who at home was a man most vnhappie in his wiues his children was abroad a man most happie for his great friendes and acquaintance and much other prosperitie So it might haue bene with the Prophet Therefore this yet is no reason 9 It may be that he stomaked it that the Gentiles should know God which was a fault in his country-men while they accounted all other men dogges but themselues the holy seed We haue Abraham to our father In respect whereof when Peter had preached to the Gentils and the gifts of the holy Ghost had fallen on Cornelius and those which were with him they of the Circumcision did chalenge the Apostle that he had gone in to meÌ„ vncircumcised So the Prophet being sicke of his country-mens disease might murmure that the Niniuites should be preferred before the auncient people of God his word being taken from these and giuen to the other as if they had better deserued it This might in time bring in the refuâ—all of the Iewes and the calling of the Gentiles so spoken of by Noe so told of by Iacob so fore-prophecied by Moses so fore-written by Dauid all which more then apparantly did aime at such a matter But is it come to this passe that the axe shall leade the workeman or shall man teach his God what people he shall chuse Hiram although a Gentile yet had a finger in the Temple of Salomon so Niniue of the Gentiles might be a part of Gods spirituall temple If Israel were to be reiected they might thanke none but themselues for that losse who had the custodie of so precious a treasure as the Arke was and the Cherubins which signified Gods presence and lost all the fruit of them and many blessings besides But by many wordes of the old Testament that time could not yet be come nor the generall calling of the Gentiles till that Messias did appeare who was farre inough from Ionas Therefore as the rest so this was no pretence for the Prophet to flie away from his charge 10 Thus haue I touched such causes as sense and reason yeeld and the expositions on this place The text doth not contrarie these and it is not vnlikely that all or diuerse of them were tumbling at that time in the working head of Ionas But there is one which expresly is named in the bodie of the text as appeareth in the fourth chapter Ionas stood on his reputation that he was the Lords messenger therfore was to speake nothing but truth He imagined that it might be his grosse discredit to be taken in a lye and he thought it might be a meanes that Gods name might be reproched and the Lord be blasphemed For I know saith he that thou art a gracious God and mercifull slow to anger and of great kindnesse and repentest thee of the euill Thus the man is so straight laced that rather then him selfe would lose a word he careth not if a million of men do lose their liues if that goodly glorious citie were ruinated to the ground if the innocent sucking infants were deuoured vp by destruction A preposterous zeale and furious and which wanteth no ignorance also For he should haâ—â— learned to distinguish betweene Gods absolute word and his conditionall threatnings Some things are without anie condition â—e will haue them to be so some other things are with an If as if they do not repent It was an absolute speech The seed of the woman shall bruse the serpents head But it is a word with condition The Lord will not forsake his people that is if they do not first forsake him which maner of intended or included condition if Ionas had remembred when he was to vtter his speech That Niniue should be destroyed Verum est if they repented not and called for grace God might haue done his pleasure and his seruant haue said true also 11 This reason of the Prophet wherfore he should fly from Gods seruice is more grieuous then the rest For would he shorten the Lord of his mercie Would man that was a sinner and must be saued by a pardon enuie that other sinners should haue their pardoÌ„ also Was Ionas his eye euil because Gods eye was good Then wellfare Saint Paule writing to Titus whom he would haue to remember his charge and the people whom he taught to shew meekenesse to all men and he layeth this downe as one cause for that we our selues also were in times past vnwise and disobedient Tully was of better nature who would haue Marcellus spared because himselfe before had by Caesar bene spared But he reprocheth it vnto Tubero that he would offer to accuse Ligarius of that wherein himselfe and other had bene guiltie S. AusteÌ„ in the sixth of those which are only called by the name of his Homelies doth by a secret inclusion compare this mind of man to one who is to passe ouer a ditch or streame of water where if he passe not he dieth and if he plunge in he drowneth and there doth find that fauour to haue a bridge or planke of timber layed crosse to helpe him ouer but when other do come after who are in that state as he was he would haue it withdrawne from them When God saith he hath stretched out his bridge of mercy that thou mayst go ouer wilt thou that he shall withdraw it least some other do come that way This is a cruell position and should not be in the child of God Graue Seneca doth acount it a great fault in Lysimachus that whereas himselfe vpon Alexanders displeasure was cast vnto a Lion to be deuoured and happily escaped by killing that Lion yet he caried so furious and cruell a heart toward another man as to cut off the eares and nose from Telesphorus Rhodius whom in former time he had entertained as his friend but then afterward kept him being so mangled in a cage as if he had bene some strange beast He should haue learned by his owne example to haue pitied another man That verse of Dido is good Non ignara mali miseris succurrere disco I who haue tasted of sorow haue learned thereby to pitie those whom I see to be in misery That partie who hath found mercie should not grudge mercie vnto other Our Prophet hath forgot this Nothing else but thunder and lightening and fire from heauen would serue the turne if he must go to Niniue A humour verie ambitious which to feed it selfe in his fancies careth not if other perish This is a grieuous fault wheresoeuer it be found The magnifying of one
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
the Lord had not at all sent them The reason was for that the one foretold that he should be led to Babylon and the other had foresaid that he neuer should see Babylon Whereas both these things were true for his eyes were first put out and then he was caried prisoner thither The hereticall vnderstanding of Scripture is of this kind being nothing else but a lying vanitie and so is the faining of that to be Scripture which is not written by Gods Spirit and the grounding thereupon of such positions as touch pietie and saluation But because the consideration of this doctrine is very ample and good fruit is herein to be found let vs see some few examples of such as haue or do so fall away from their mercie 19 First our old parents in Paradise did obserue lying vanity God had expresly forbidden vnto them the touching of the tree of good and euill All other but none of that Satan commeth with his temptation and suggesteth another matter and that was this as Chrysostome writeth vpon Genesis What profit is it to be in Paradise and not to enioy such things as are in it Nay therefore your griefe is the greater that see these things you may but vse them you may not Or as Austen turning it another way supposeth thus God saith do not touch it what This tree And what I pray you is this tree if it be good why may not I touch it if it be bad what doth it in Paradise There is no hurt in the tree but God in his spitefull moode is loath that you should be graced so far foorth as himselfe You shall be Gods if you do it and able to discerne good and euill Thus was a lye inculcated in stead of a simple truth and Adam was induced to hearken to the vanitie of the deceiuing serpent whereby he lost that mercie which the Lord had appointed ouer him and plucked on himselfe and his posteritie after him that miserie that body and soule for euer had ioyntly perished by it if our Sauiour in compassion had not made restitution Other by his example may take heed and warning also what that thing shall be whereunto they presume to trust 20 Secondly idolatrous persons do come within this cōpasse who declining once from him who is the onely Lord do multiply to themselues filthie abominations and therein are so obsequious and scrupulous euery way that true pietie doth not come neare them in accomplishing that dutie which appertaineth to it When Balaam would curse the Israelites he goeth from place to place imagining as dicers do that one standing roome was more fortunate for his purpose or luckie then another But in euery place he must haue seuen altars to be erected and seuen bullocks and seuen rammes to be offered on them He held this number of seuen to besome holy number therfore would not breake it How did they tye themselues to idolatrous obseruations who had their idols standing vnder euery greene tree Or those of whom Saint Austen speaketh who had for euery thing a peculiar God or Goddesse When the corne was in the barne they had a Goddesse for that and when it was in the earth they had another for that when it began to blade and when it began to eare Tutelina and Segetia and Patulina and Volutina and how many I cannot tell How carefull think you were they to watch when the times did come to offer sacrifice vnto euery one of them in his kind How laborious is their folly who liue in Scandinauia in Biarmia or Scricfinnia which are Northren parts of Europe beyond Sweden who as Olaus Magnus reporteth do marke euery morning what liuing thing they do first see in the aire or earth or water and all that day vntill the euening they adore that creature for a God be it bird or beast or fish yea or creeping thing as a worme Iehoiakim who is mentioned in the booke of the Chronicles did much dote on his idols when he had found on him being dead marks and prints in his flesh which were made for their sakes for so the storie is expounded So Licinius was fond vpon his Gods whom he did serue many waies yea and vpon occasions vsed to change them also as he did when he fought against blessed Constantine But no man more then Iulian who did honour vnto his Idols with such and so many sacrifices as were against humane nature and decorum in a man as we find in the Ecclesiasticall stories Now see what can be more vaine then stocks and stones imaginarie supposed powers as these were what could be more lying and more fraudulent then such fond Gods as these And they who wholly intend such toyes haue renounced the true seruice of the Lord who is iealous of his honour and will not haue any creature robbe him of his glorie but such vain toyes least of all From this text they may feare iudgement who waite on he Saints and she Saints and serue God and the Virgin Marie with so many Pater Nosters and so many Aue Marias and Credoes vpon their beades All these are without the warrant of Gods booke and therefore lying vanities yet how carefull are superstitious persons to number them and accompt them and keepe true reckening of them as if therein lay all the vertue 21 Thirdly they are noted here who make an occupation of trying tricks and conclusions some wanton and some worse I speake not against good learning nor any honest experiment in it but rather against such lies as Albertus and Bartholomaeus Anglicus De proprietatibus rerum and other of that stampe do suggest to idle heads and young men which are too credulous Take the liuer or some other part of this bird or that beast such a stone or such an herbe at such a time of the Moone and you shall do this or that imagine go inuisibly or vnderstand birds languages or obtaine some euill purpose If any thing be a vanitie this is a lying vanitie and a mis-spending of that time which God hath giuen vnto vs not to abuse but to serue him and he will require a reckening of it at our hands when we do least thinke vpon it There fall within this number the auncient Aruspicia and Auguria of the Romanes that is the marking of the flights of birds or of the entrails of beastes or other things of that qualitie all which are foolish vanitie and yet much time was spent in them and some made profession to be very skilfull about them The wisest among the heathens although they did not know God yet held these things for cousinage It is a renowmed speech which is fathered vpon Cato that he would say that he wondred very much how one of their Aruspices could forbeare to laugh when he met with any of his fellowes to see how they deceiued men and made a great number of simple ones in the citie
kindly esteeming it aboue all other presents and returned him loue accordingly The gracious disposition of our eternall father taketh in farre better part then any man can take it the laying downe of our soules and prostrating of our selues to the fulfilling of his will He accounteth that the best sacrifice because it is spirituall Externall things do well but inward gifts do better I haue noted this vnto you from out of the word of sacrificing where the Prophet doth not stay but particularizeth specially what it is that he will offer I will sacrifice vnto thee with the voyce of thankesgiuing 8 This voyce doth imply an open and manifest declaration of the mercies of the Lord that he meant not to conceale his wilfull disobedience nor his punishment for the same but euery man should know how he had bene in the sea fast closed vp in the whale in pangs of death and extremity and yet the Lord had brought his soule out of the pit He thought it not inough to ruminate in his owne mind and chew vpon this mercy but others shall be aduertised of it that so by his example they may learne to know their Creator they may learne to dread their maker This was a custome of Dauid who vppon great things obtained doth vse to make solemne professiō that he will praise his God in the great congregation It is but a small thing to thinke it but he will speake of Gods glory And thus euery one should do yeelding vnto the world a testimony of his faith and honour vnto him whom he chiefly doth honor that such as yet are not called by that meanes may be prouoked to harken to true religion pricked forward by that comfort which they see in Gods children The speech of Miltiades which was in the mouth of euery man and his victorious acts set Themistocles on fire to attempt to do the like The fame that was of Alexander gaue heart to Iulius Caesar to become the more noble warriour And shall not our speaking of God the reporting of his acts his iustice in correcting his mercy in defending his prouidence in disposing his willingnesse in redeeming his readinesse in forgiuing vttered by Christian mē incite others to be Christiās God did know that to be a great meanes of bringing mē vnto him whē he gaue charge that the Israelites should recount vnto their children his glorious facts and the workes which he had shewed in Egypt It is a fault in our dayes that parents are not carefull to instill into their children the remembrance of such things as they haue read or knowne to come obseruably from the Almighty It is a fault in others that if they come in place where religion is not respected as among Papists or Atheists they thinke best to conceale the profession of true piety lest they should be scorned or derided or pointed at with the finger and so by a pollicy stopping the course of their zeale in time they quench their zeale and make themselues as key-cold as those with whom they do liue They should discharge a good conscience by acknowledging of their hope peraduenture they might by the blessing of the Lord draw on other which were backward before for the hart of him who heareth is not in the power of himselfe but God doth rule guide it the meanes whereby he worketh is the hearing of good things Let the voyce then go to serue the Lord and let him blesse and prosper it as seemeth good to himselfe But thou hast discharged thy duty he hath giuen thee a tongue to praise him and with it thou doest honour him 9 The voyce of Ionas goeth and it is in giuing thankes vnto which the name of sacrifice is oft giuen in the Psalmes as namely in the fiftieth Offer to God praise or thankesgiuing where the word offer doth plainly import a sacrifice And in the hundred and seuenth Psalme Let them offer sacrifices of praise and declare his workes with reioycing This gratefulnesse is maruellously acceptable to the Lord when he bestoweth not his benefits as vpon the oxe or asse who haue them and forget them but on those which are mindfull who is the authour of them And that is the sole reward and onely retribution which we can render to him and if he haue not that then he reapeth nothing for all his blessings but if he may haue that many good things of necessity will be ioyned therewithall Therefore he straightly requireth it of all that belong vnto him In the eighth Chapter of Deuteronomy he speaketh thus to the Israelites When being come into the land of Canaan thou hast eaten and filled thy selfe thou shalt blesse the Lord thy God for the good land which he hath giuen vnto thee In the thirtieth of Ieremy he sayth in this manner Thus sayth the Lord Behold I vvill bring againe the captiuity of Iacobs tents and haue compassion on his dwelling places and the city shall be builded vpon her owne heape and the pallace shall remaine after the maner thereof But immediatly he addeth And out of them shall proceede thankesgiuing and the voyce of them that are ioyous The precepts are diuerse which be in the New Testament to this purpose Let there be in you no filthinesse neither foolish talking nor iesting but rather giuing of thankes And againe What soeuer you shall do in vvord or deed do all in the name of the Lord Iesus giuing thanks to God euen the father by him The Patriarkes and the Prophets and the faithfull of all times had euer this in their memory How did Moses and the people with timbrels and with daunces sing and reioyce to God when Pharao and his chariots were drowned in the red sea How did Barack and Deborah sing vpon the fall of Sisara There is no end of examples what hath bene done in this case but the rule may generally be giuen so many as haue bene faithfull so many haue bene thankfull 10 It causeth a continuance of the loue of God vnto men and an adding of further graces when he seeth them to be mindfull of that which is bestowed But on the other side vnthankfulnesse is the meane to stay his hand from bounty for as Bernard hath well obserued he is vnworthy of things to be receiued vvho shall be vnthankefull for such as he hath receiued Here euery one of vs may examine his owne heart whether he do rightly discharge his duty We do all long for perpetuating and augmenting the fauours of God vpon vs but see whether we requite those which are already come vnto vs. As Ionas was in daunger to be drowned by the sea and deuoured quite by the whale so was mankind in generall by reason of Adams transgression euen as in the pit of hell and very iawes of Satan apparant heires of damnation fewell for eternall fire forlorne men and past hope Yet by the death of our Sauiour we
request thereof made thou mayest then vse thy discretion for thy selfe and thy familie but especially for thy selfe like a good Cornelius and without any murmuring concerning other men or seditious complayning do thou double thy deuotion Fast twise if God do so mooue thee in steed of euery single time before intended once to turne away the wrath gone out against the land and secondly that the Lord will mooue them that be in authoritie to do that which is truly pleasing in his eyes So thou hast saued thy owne soule and the burthen shall lye on the conscience of other But take heede of seditious singularitie and ouer-weening contempt and condemning of other lest thou more offend with that then thou profite with thy abstinence Diuinitie will not iustifie it that if a Christian state shall giue solemne entertainement for dismissing of Embassadours who may be suspected to come about no religious practise the Ministers on the other side at the same time and in the same place should of purpose to crosse the first proclaime a solemne fast or if the chiefe Church-gouernour should bid stay a while for reasons not irreligious inferiour men should therefore make a great deale more hast Neither may the examples of others make good this We liue by lawes not by examples Euery man must not carie the sword or be a commaunder Good things may be done amisse and so the goodnesse of them may be impeached It is good to deface idolatry but whē multitudes in places wheras now reformed Churches be haue run into the tēples with violence haue plucked downe the images and taken away the Crucifixes and made hauocke of the vessels and superstitious things to speake most mildly of it it was not well but it had bin much better if publike authoritie had beene therein expected Men who are priuate persons must wait for Gods leisure and not runne before their maker Saint Paule was wise and commaunded that all things should be done in order Take heede then of disorders and such gaps as these may be to enormitie I speake vnto the wise and therefore shut vp this point with that saying of Saint Bernard If euery man shall be caried according to his owne motion after that spirit which he hath receiued and do flye vpon euery thing indifferently euen as he is affected and do not hasten to it by the iudgement of reason while no man is contented with the office assigned vnto him but all will attempt all things alike by an indistinct administration it will not be an vnitie but rather a confusion 13 Let not any man mistake me as if I did dislike the Christian solemntitie of the most publike abstinence for farre be that from me My Ionas too well knoweth the fruite of that in his Niniuites among whom it wrought not least with the eternall Father when so openly and generally they did that which they did for all of them did fast and all of them put on sackcloth from the highest to the lowest The King and his Princes began the people followed after but the greatest beginne and the least follow The eldest are not excluded the youngest are not excused for the child but of one day old is of spotted seede and corrupted But all of them ioyne together that if one want deuotion another may be right if one of them preuaile not yet the multitude may obtaine What a sight was this to behold that young and old male and female the Ladies and their handmaides the Nobles and their seruants should be rufully lamenting on their faces with voyce lift vp vnto the highest heauens How would this pierce to the throne of the vnapprochable Godhead what heighth could keepe this backe what cloude would not this seuer what heauen would not this enter When so many thousands crye al Niniue with one eccho without fraude or hypocrisie how could God chuse but heare for the great mercie which is in him The ioynt prayers of mortall men haue much force with the Lord. For to speake after the manner of men suppose that he were hardly bent to take vengeance vpon a nation at first when they should call for mercie would seeme to be on sleepe yet would not this awaken him when he should haue no rest when on the right hand and left hand before him and behind him at the doores and at the windowes and at the floore which is vnder him there should be knocking and bouncing which will not be answered with silence nor take any deniall The diuersitie of the noyses as the shrill voyce of the infants the wailing of the women the howling of the men would mooue him who is most setled Their various importunitie will wring foorth pitie from him Then it is a fault in vs that when Gods heauie hand doth lye sometimes vpon vs we come not with our forces vnited to sollicite him We do in a sort strain curtesie who it is that shal go to Church but the most will be away And those who come do it so coldly that it is as good that they were absent It is the great congregation of spirits throughly mooued kindled in deuotion which doth winne God ouer to vs. When citizens who haue transgressed shall open their gates to their Prince whom they haue offended and the men and women and children shall lye prostrate at his feete and acknowledge themselues wholly at his mercie and discretion his heart melteth on them and spareth them being thus cast downe So would God deale with vs. But our proude mind commeth not to this although much miserie be vpon vs we cannot tell how to stoupe Saint Basile complaineth that when a most grieuous famine pinched his citie of Caesarea yet very few of the inhabitants sought for remedie I come saith he to Church to preach or to pray but scant any is ioyned with me The men are about their marchandise the women about their profites But very few are with me and those who be are so gaping and wearie and so itching vp and downe as if they looked still when he who readeth the Psalme would make an end that they might withdraw themselues from the Church as from some prison The most here are the scholers who come from the schoole which take this comfort by it that they are from their bookes the while and make no more vse of it but the stronger sort the while are carelesly gadding through the streetes See if he paint not out as with a most perfect pensill the time wherein we liue God hath sent vs such a famine that if vnder his blessing the seas had not serued vs more happily then the land to the eternall praise of merchandise many thousands of men besides those few which are lost had perished and the Lord knoweth what had beene done And yet the prices of all things continue exceeding deere Now in this case do we from the greatest to the least assemble before the Almightie Nay as
a maister where is my feare If Ionas were now his seruant it was but in name onely he did in truth litle regard his maister At this time then he hath much more occasion to stand in awe of his punishment and in that sence he might well say that he feared the God of heauen He who looketh on the next Chapter shall see this to be most likely 15 The horrour of sinne is such euen in the hearts of the best of Gods children that if faith do sleepe but a little and the resolued assurance of mercy in the Sauiour be eclipsed but for a moment it maketh their soules to tremble in such sort as if diffidence and despaire should swallow them vp by and by How was Dauid dismaied when he cried out Cast me not away from thy presence and take not thine holy Spirit from me What did Iob imagine of his owne desert when he thus professed I abhorre my selfe and repent in dust and ashes In what an horrible anguish was Peter when he went out and wept bitterly But our Prophet of all other fearing the dreadfull burthen of sinne vpon his shoulders and gessing at the strange punishment which should follow him immediatly with some measure of seruile feare doth tremble at his Lord. His feare should haue bene before that he had not runne wilfully into sinne for as it is noted in one of those Epistles which are in the workes of Ambrose although not thought to be his It is one thing to feare because thou hast offended another thing to feare least that thou shouldest offend In the one is a dread of punishment in the other is a carefulnesse that thou mayst obtaine the reward Saint Austen doth describe this slauish quaking feare in one and childes feare in another as the schoolemen do call it by a comparison drawne from a good wife and a harlot The adulterous wife and the chast wife sayth he do both feare if the husband be away The one feareth and the other but aske the reason of both and you shall see an apparant difference The bad vvife standeth in feare of her husband least he should come to her The good vvife is in feare least her husband should go from her This feareth least he should condemne her because she hath deserued it That feareth least he should forsake her because she loueth him dearely Remember these things sayth Austen and so thou shalt find a bad feare whom charity driueth foorth and another chast feare vvhich abideth for euer and euer 16 Ionas who was accustomed in his cogitations of God to ioyne a loue with his reuerence as toward a father now thinketh on him no otherwise then as of a Lord ready to take strong vengeance vpon him as on a prisoner deputed to death This is the best fruite of vngratefulnesse and of negligence in our duties to come as vnto a iudge astonished and amased and trembling to see his face or almost to remember his name whereas we might come as to a father or as to a brother with confidence and boldnesse as to the throne of grace Fye filthy sinne that for thy sake we should thus disable our selues we should so disgrace our soules that when we might liue euen in this world with a dayly deaw of sweete influence distilling vpon our hearts from the holy Spirit of God to reuiue vs and refresh vs and whereas Paradise could not yeeld greater comfort to our eye then the presence of the Trinitie dwelling supping with vs would do vnto our minds and wheras we might dye in rest as hauing that ioy of consciēce that perfect peace of God which passeth all vnderstanding resigning vp with gladnesse our spirites vnto our maker yea that whereas either liuing or dying we may rest our selues on that rocke that euermore we are the Lordes belonging to his election and sealed vp with his adoption to that end that we may enioy sinne for a season and the wantonnesse of this flesh the vanities of this earth and the foolerie of this world which are scant worth the naming to a man that hath heard of wisedome which leaue vs and liue not with vs we should plunge our selues into that horrour which wayteth vpon the reprobates and be perplexed in our thoughtes in our vnderstanding dazeled discouraged in our life discomforted in our end thinking of hell and iudgement and wrath and fearefull vengeance which maketh men liue in miserie with sobs and many a sigh and dye without hope of mercie Let vs raise vp our selues at length and with sober meditation contemplate vpon this matter Let our soule be dearer to vs euen that soule which Christ hath bought with his bloud with his precious heart bloud then sinne with his tayle of a scorpion who departeth not without stinging Better to loue God as Ionas should then to quake at God as Ionas did The God of heauen who made the sea and the drie land 17 But here I must not forget the last wordes of my text because they yeeld a speciall doctrine most fit for these present times In this speech Ionas doth entitle his maister to all the world he is first the God of the heauen and then he did create the sea and the drie land Heauen oftentimes by a generall name containeth all things aboue vs be they elements or be they other bodies so then God did make this whole frame The heauen is as his seate the earth he made from which the sea he made to which the Prophet did here flie Be it wet or be it dry be it passable be it nauigable be it aboue or below this maker did create it So Nehemiah witnesseth Thou art Lord alone thou hast made heauē and the heauen of all heauens with all their host the earth and all things that are therein the seas and all that are in them and thou preseruest them all and the host of the heauen vvorshippeth thee So Iob speaketh so Dauid testifieth So the Articles of our faith do teach vs to beleeue on the maker of heauen and earth Whereby it is plaine that he doth renounce the groundes of Christianitie who doth deny this doctrine Yet the world hath hatched such monsters euen of the seed of Christiās as who make no bones therof But young ones abash not at it nor abash not at it old ones for it is no more thē we looke for S. Peter long ago foretold it that in the last dayes there should come such deriders as should laugh at the speech of Christes coming and at the day of iudgement maintaining that there shall be an eternall continuance of all things in such sort as now they are Where is the promise of his coming for since the fathers dyed all things continue alike from the beginning of the creation These will not beleeue that euer the heauen earth were not but they receiue it that they haue stood from all eternitie and shall so continue They see
anguish that he accounteth himselfe a reprobate and inheritour of hell fire He had bene a wofull man if he had stayed here disgraced and left by his Sauiour but as his soule was departing he fetcheth it backe againe with a sigh and gaspe of faith He plucketh in the reine of his owne heart he giueth the checke to himselfe he recouereth in the instant when he was in the pits mouth ready to sinke eternally This sheweth that in former time he had bene vsed to temptation being practised in Gods seruice he knew well what belonged to faith when he did so soone apprehend it He was not ignorant that he had offended and offended a fearefull God yet such a one as would haue compassion vpon a repenting sinner This griefe of his was sustained by a trust in Gods free promises who hath sayd that if the wicked will returne from all his sinnes that he hath committed and keepe all his statutes and do that which is lawfull and right he shall surely liue and shall not dye All his transgressions that he hath committed shall not be mentioned vnto him The two wings of faith and repentance do mount him vp into heauen euen from the gates of hell His faith kept him from blasphemy that in the heate of his extremity he had still a mind to God which maketh him speake vnto him not as the despairing miscreant whose maner is to speake of God in the third person not to God he hateth me he plagueth me he detesteth me he doth not loue me which words argue no hope remaining but in his bitternesse he turneth his speech vnto the Lord I am cast away from thy sight I will looke againe to thy Temple so in want of hope shewing a hope a confidence in a diffidence This is the fruite of beleeuing the sweete mercy of our Sauiour that in the day of sorest triall it is able to keepe vs vpright who else should fall downe groueling As a ship without his ballace is tilted tossed at sea and cannot endure the waue so is that soule right vnstable and euery houre apt to perish which hath not faith in temptation It is written of the Cranes that when they do intend in stormy and troublesome times to flye ouer the seas fearing lest by the blasts of the wind their bodies which be but light should be beaten into the sea or kept from the place whither they be desirous to go they swallow some sand and little stones into their bellies whereby they are so moderately peized that they are able to resist the wind While we do crosse this troublesome world of sinne and great temptation it is faith which must be our ballace it is faith which must preserue vs equably vpright or recouer vs when we are going Now it stood the Prophet in steede in the bottome and depth of misery to haue feeling what belonged to beleeuing vpon the Lord. 8 This beleefe inferred repentance which is acceptable in great measure to our most gracious father As he scorneth not the weake man falling so he embraceth him that riseth which point Nouatus and his fellowes with their hard harts did deny If the prodigall sonne can say good father I haue sinned against heauen and before thee and am no more worthy to be called thy sonne he runneth to him and falleth on him and kisseth him as his beloued He liketh in vs a sorrow for that wherein we haue faulted It was a good speech of Saint Hierome to call repentance after sinne by the name of a second boord or planke after a shipwracke In a wracke at sea a boord oftentimes doth saue a man from drowning by his lying fast thereupon But if he be beaten by the violence of the waue from this first planke and be now floating in the water if a second by some accident be affoorded him and he can keepe him fast thereto it setteth him free from all daunger It is more then apparant that we haue suffered a wracke and are diuing in the sea of sinne and desperation euen ready still to be drenched The first table which releeueth vs is the Sacrament of Baptisme which by the bloud of Christ washing vs and for the couenants sake doth acquite vs from the guilt of originall sinne from the which if we be beate off by the force of actuall crimes the second planke is repentance to be caught at which if we hold fast and do not leaue it will bring vs into the hauen of blessed and quiet rest Then let vs euermore call vpon God to bestow vpon vs this compunction of hart that since euery day we fall we may dayly rise againe and not sinke vnder our burthen 9 The weake Prophet now leaning on these two such assured staues first sorowing then beleeuing doth raise himselfe vp with a correction that although he had sayd before that he was cast away from Gods sight yet he will not leaue it so he will not giue ouer there but once againe he will looke vnto Gods holy Temple Once againe I will see Hierusalem and the place of thy true worship Which words as Hierome noteth do either import a confidence and hope that it should be so or a wish that so it might be And in the Hebrew the future tense which is vsed in this place is very frequent for wishing Both shew a will to the Temple by which some vnderstand the whole seruice of God circumcision and the sacrifices and the expounding of the Law or whatsoeuer else was of speciality in the tabernacle of the Lord so taking one for the other the place for the duties in it making that which was so eminent as the matter and the obiect of his confidence and faith He certainely had a mind not to dye there where he was as vnprofitable and in a place so obscure but openly to honour God whom he had so dishonoured before and therefore now he was desirous in conspicuous manner to draw other to his obedience But of all places he chooseth the Temple to do the deed because that was the house where God had put his name who although he be euery where by his being and presence and power yet he was more apparantly conuersant there by his speciall grace This did make that house and city to be counted an holy mansion the very ioy of the earth the beauty of the world the glory of all nations the pallace of the great king the delight and paradise and garden of the Highest There was the Arke of the Couenant the Tables of the Testimony the Cherubins and the Mercy-seate all being straunge things of much excellency but the summity of all happinesse was the residence of Gods fauour there 10 All which how much the faithfull esteemed and accompted of Dauids example may teach vs who when there was but a Tabernacle whose beauty was much inferiour to the magnificent Temple of Salomon so grieued that himselfe in his flights and persecutions
was so earnest on it that there was no way but do it or dy Philo turned him vnto his fellowes and bad them not be discouraged for where mans helpe doth cease there Gods helpe doth begin Then it prooued so with them and so it doth with other oftentimes but nothing could be more euident then this to him who wrote my text He ioyeth that in such a downefall he did tast of Gods kindnesse but the particular contemplation of his heauinesse by recounting speciall circumstances doth wring from him more gratefulnesse more thanks giuing 8 When Christ being inuited came to the Pharisees house he had some entertainment of him but no way to be compared with that of the woman reputed the great sinner Shee washed his feete with her teares and wiped them with her haire and afterward kissed them and annointed them with ointment She could not content herselfe with many demonstrations of her affection toward him The Sauiour Christ who knew all things did yeeld the reason of it and that was shee loued much because much was forgiuen her Then where much is receiued there should be much returned That man is very blessed whose eyes are opened so as to see and iudiciously behold what it is that is done for him The Lord oft times doth leaue vs very farre to our selues that we may take knowledge of our infirmitie and then giue him entire and complete praise as vnto him belongeth Adam was quickly fallen but he was not so hastily raised vp againe by the actuall and present performance of the promised seede Man might wrastle and struggle to get vp againe and cast his deuises and beate his braines long but all would not serue God suffered him to languish almost foure thousand yeares and the longer he did lye the deeper still he did sinke This time of long staying was first to make man without all excuse who if he had bene restored immediatly peraduenture would haue boasted in the pride of his heart that it had bene a needlesse labour for God to repaire him for as in time he had fallen so in time he would haue risen without helpe of any Now God tooke away this exception Secondly it was to remember man of his lamentable state who had lyen vndeliuered so many yeares and ages and thousands of times and now at a desperate pinch was set on foote againe by the free fauour of God The opinion of which mysterie shall take deeper roote in vs if therein we vse our selues as Ionas did here that is specially recount the euill then sustained and seuerally remember the good things now receiued If we will say as Zacharie the father of Iohn Baptist said that when we sate in darknesse and in the shadow of death a light was giuen vnto vs and adde withall that Adam had condemned vs and Eue had vndone vs our hands were polluted our hearts were defiled our deedes were depraued our toungs were profaned our thoughts were corrupted our knowledge was decayed our vnderstanding darkened all the powers of our mind euen to the death were wounded the world triumphing without the flesh insulting within and Satan gaping for vs as for a pray surely accompted of yea hell damnation being in vs and on vs yet the riches of the mercie of him who redeemed vs by his owne precious bloud did frustrate our enemies did supply all our infirmities did amend our defects and set vs at libertie that nothing should be layed to the charge of vs. 9 This sweet recapitulation mooueth a tender conceipt in soule is pleasing vnto God who delighteth in that cōscience which is brused with such often and ingeminated motions It argueth a liuely feeling true touch in that which is for the present thought vpon How doth the spouse of Christ in the Canticles fetch backward and forward the description of her loue how particularly doth she speake It is not enough to say that her welbeloued is white and ruddy the chiefest of ten thousand but his head is as fine gold his lockes curled and blacke as a rauen his eyes are like doues vpon the riuers of waters which are washed vvith milke and remaine by the full vessels his cheekes are as a bed of spices and as svveet flovvers and his lips like lillies dropping dovvne pure myrrhe Yea she goeth forward to his hands and legs and mouth When Ieremie in the heate of his Lamentations was desirous to mooue commiseration at Gods hands if it might be he holdeth it not sufficient to say the citie is solitarie vvhich vvas lately full of people she is novv as a vvidovv but in speciall he doth amplifie the desolatiō of it The fire had destroied her buildings the sword had slaine her mightie ones the famine had pinched her tender ones the wals streets and temple were ruinated and defaced the Princes and the people the Elders and Priests and Nazarites had lost their ancient glorie What should I say of Dauid when once he doth complaine then euery thing is too little and where he doth giue thanks there nothing is too much In the two and twentieth Psalme I am like vvater povvred out and all my bones are out of ioynt mine heart is like vvaxe it is molten in the middest of my bovvels my strength is dried vp like a potsheard and my toung cleaueth to my iavves and thou hast brought me out into the dust of death There he speaketh of buls oxen Lyons and dogs and Vnicornes for by such names he calleth his enemies that oppressed him So when he cometh in another moode to giue thanks he feareth not to speake in the abundance of his gratefulnesse he spareth no cost to vtter it I will name one place for all I vvill loue thee dearely ô Lord my strength The Lord is my rocke and my fortresse and he that deliuereth me my God and my strength in him vvill I trust my shield the horne also of my saluation and my refuge What words almost could he deuise which he hath not here put in 10 I would that this age of ours which is so apt to learne all euill could learne this one good lesson either of Ionas here or of the other parties whom I haue named to lay vnto the heart such things as do befall vs or the workes of God which we see and then to abide and dwell vpon them not slightly but in serious contemplation betweene God and our soules But the truth is it is farre otherwise We are aliue and quicke in Gods businesse onely while the sharpe spurre doth pricke vs. It is the rod which doth quicken vs but not so much as it should Commonly and for the greatest part let there come vpon vs weale or woe good or euill great blessing or small blessing we are dull and insensible We obserue not as we should by amplified circumstances what it is that is vpon vs. We feele the rod but it is as men sleeping or in
Saint Austen thought another matter fit to be recorded of that Cato and that was this that when one asked counsell of him in sober earnest what harme he supposed was aboded him because rats had eate his hose he aunswered that partie with a iest that it was no very straunge thing to see that but it had bene much more maruellous if his hose had eat vp the rats In Tullies disputation concerning such arguments when one to enforce the veritie of Diuination had said that a victorie which fell to the Thebanes was foreshewed by some extraordinarie crowing of Cockes Tully could aunswere that with a smooth flowte but very significant that it was no miracle that Cockes should crow but if fishes had done it that had bene straunge indeed Those Ethniks could see that these things were falshood and exceeding lying vanities worthy to be but laughed at yet how did some of their greatest men attend and wait vpon them I may call these foolish Arts for I thinke that they come not so farre as curious crafts extend which are named in the Acts of the Apostles But to speake mine opinion I imagine that figure-casting for such things as are lost or to iudge of Natiuities is fully within that kind and is a lying vanity as that which is most lying Yet although by the Prophets it be sharpely rebuked although condemned by Philosophers although ill spoken of by Historians although by good lawes forbidden in well gouerned common wealths although no Principle therein haue approoued veritie neither may there be any good argument or conclusion made for it yet how do some waite vpon it and in no sort will go from it Of whom I may also say as Cato said of the Aruspices that I maruell when they meete one another how they can forbeare to laugh to see how they get monie From the number of these I may not seclude superstitious obseruations of ominous or vnfortunate things vpon which some men do so dote that they beleeue such vanities as a man should beleeue the Gospell All fearefull iudgements sent from God are to be regarded by vs but friuolous superstitions and traditions from old tales are rather to be contemned He that obserueth the wind shall not sow and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reape Take heed of such lying vanities 22 Fourthly ordinarie transgressions may very well be taxed hence and adulterie among other wherein although Satan the more to inflame it do buzze a tale into want on flesh that great men haue sinned so that God will not call such natural faults as those be to reckening that there is time inough to repent in old age and it is best in the meane while to satisfie concupiscence yet when these things come to be weighed in the ballance of Gods iustice they prooue both light and lying For the wrath of the Lord is oftentimes kindled against such wilfull crimes and he hath threatned that whore mongers shall be shut out from the new Hierusalem They then do forsake their owne mercie who pollute themselues in such sort and withall are a cause for other to be filthie Yet how some wait vpon this it is lamentable to thinke seeking to hurt themselues by euery kind of wantonnesse Good Iob in his confession held this for a grosse sinne and disclaimed it from himselfe If my heart haue bene deceiued saith he by a woman or if I haue layed waite at the dore of my neighbour obserue that adulterers do wayt vpō their sinne let my wife grind vnto another man and let other men bow downe vpon her that is let my wife also be false to me for this is a wickednesse and iniquitie to be condemned But many do not feare this and so plucke Gods iudgement on them 23 Fiftly they who in desire to enrich themselues or theirs do set their heart vpon mony and care not how they gaine it by robberie or oppression by briberie or extortion so that it come in vnto them do wayt vpon lying vanitie Which may easily be gathered from the very words of Dauid whom I cited before trust not in oppression nor in robberie be not vaine or giue not your selues vnto vanitie if riches encrease set not your heart vpon them If any then this is a vaine conceit to thinke that a mans purse is the best friend which he hath that riches can preserue in the day of greatest trouble that God accepteth mony that ill gotten goods can long prosper Oftentimes mony is kept to the hurt and death of the owner and children are so farre off from being blessed with goods which are ill gotten that fretting and consuming and a curse is ioyned with them Then what folly is it to force and straine our consciences and so to aduenture on Gods displeasure and the losse of his best mercie for the gaining of that which is but a fugitiue seruant and cannot helpe at neede And yet it is straunge to see how the world lyeth open to vnlawfull and filthie gaine what wringing there is from all sortes what griping of the poore what thirsting after gifts and hunting after rewards Are there not which wayt vpon this and make a studie of it as a man would studie heauen deuising and contriuing by what fine sleight and skill this money may be soked out and this cheate may be gotten and that gift may be had and then like to the hypocrite whereof Zacharie speaketh in his time they can crye blessed be God for I am rich and liue well seeming to giue the Lord thankes for that which they haue spoyled and robbed from their brethren whom as there the Prophet speaketh they slay and sell for money It is great thankes which we returne to God for the wit and reason which he hath bestowed vpon vs to employ it in that sort as to offend his diuine Maiestie to abuse those with whom we liue to helpe our selues so farrefoorth as is in our owne power to infamie in this life with all such as be vertuous to destruction in another Better it is to haue cleane hands here with a little then much profite by false vanitie 24 The same application may be made concerning ambition and other sinnes in all which we may take this for a warning that our sight is so dimme and our vnderstanding so darke and such are the false shewes of many things in this life that we may quickly pursue a lye in steede of truth and vanitie for sound veritie and so purchase Gods wrath vnlesse with a single eye we looke on things aright and euer take the iudgement of Scripture for our triall and withall pray that our heart and intellectuall powers may be lightned in that behalfe that so hauing will and strength by the mercie of the Lord we may walke as we ought and as it beseemeth our calling And here I end Holy Father we beseech thee to direct our steps in thy paths that renouncing all
lying vanities we may acknowledge thee in our life time to be the onely Lord and when our soule fainteth within vs and is departing hence we may onely thinke on thee that both our present prayers and spirits afterward may ascend into thy celestiall temple where thou raignest with thy most blessed Sonne to whom with thee and thy holy Spirit be laud and praise for euer THE XIIII LECTVRE The chiefe poynts 1. Ionas prooueth thankfull for Gods mercie 3. The reason and order of sacrifices 5. They should be spiritually meant 7. How we should do in Gods seruice 8. Gods praise is publikely to be sounded out 9. Thankfulnesse is a sacrifice to be offered of all 11. We are forgetfull in it 12. The manner of vowes 14. What rules are to be obserued in them 17. Popish vowes examined 19. All helpe commeth from God Ionah 2.9 But I will sacrifice vnto thee with the voyce of thankesgiuing and will pay that that I haue vowed Saluation is of the Lord. IN the words before going the Prophet doth comfort himselfe exceedingly that he serueth such a maister as is best able to helpe him whē he most needeth and in his Temple attended to his heartie prayer when as his soule fainted within him whereas all other things be they idols or heathen Gods or any deuised refuges be nothing but lying vanitie and therefore those who wait and depend vpon them do forsake their owne mercie Where when he had found God so eminent and incomparably great in comparing him with those weake ones he esteemeth it a speciall point of dutie to yeeld to one so excellent a high measure of praise and most deserued thankes to him who in extremitie had so raised him from the pit And this is the drift of this present verse to acknowledge himselfe so bound and deuoted to God that all the powers of his mind and faculties of his soule should be employed in his seruice A conclusion well beseeming him who had receiued such fauour that he would not as beastes or as vnthankefull persons do onely take that which doth come and make no more adoo but with a respect vnto the giuer who beyond all expectation had raised him and relieued him would record it and repeate it and in his best meditation againe and againe reuolue it as not knowing how to returne enough for Gods great mercie 2 But in the meane while the words which he vseth are various and significant He doth mention thankesgiuing which declareth his gratefull mind and the better to expresse it he nameth the voyce of thankesgiuing as intending that he would aduaunce the honour of him who saued him not in secret onely but with manifest declaration to others and to both these he doth ad the act of offering sacrifice applying that to his thankes which was the most solemne seruice vsed in old time to God Neither doth he make his stand heere but whereas he had vowed some things vnto the Lord which he promised to performe if euer he did escape he saith he vvill pay those vowes and at the last for a conclusion he shutteth vp all with these words saluation is of the Lord. Where because as you see the circumstances in the text are manifold and all of them haue their vse for better order of instruction I thinke good to obserue two things First the dutie returned by Ionas and that consisted in a double deede one the sacrifice of thankesgiuing and the other the paying of his vowes Secondly that good which commeth from God not onely to the Prophet but to all those who do serue him Saluation is of the Lord. Among all which the word of sacrificing is first proposed vnto vs. I will sacrifice vnto thee 3 The only thing which God doth looke for at mans hands for creating him in so goodly a shape for enriching him with gifts so glorious in shew so gracious in deed for preseruing him and protecting him in such infinite varietie of dangerous occurrents for heaping daily vpon him such multiplied benefites is to be serued and feared by him Thou shalt vvorship the Lord thy God and him onely shalt thou serue In this because he hath made all he doth require all our selues and all ours the bodie and the soule the inward and the outward the sensible and inuisible although especially the heart and immateriall soule yet ioyntly the hand and action from without yea and the wealth also that euery part may recommend a dutie to the authour And for these externall matters he hath giuen vnto man not onely members as in prayer his hands to be lifted vp his breast to be beaten on his knees to be bowed his eyes to be bedewed that so compunction in the mind may the more be stirred vp but also his other creatures either dum or dead things the fruites of the earth the birds of the aire the beasts of the field the mettals of the ground to be vsed to his glorie And this in old time was done in nothing more then in sacrifices which was in some to consecrate and dedicate them vnto him in some other to offer them in whole or in part consumed with fire to testifie their obedience and seeking vnto him Which manner of sacrificing was knowne vnto men from the first time of nature as good Abel and bad Cain the first heires of the world presented an oblation of such things as they had to him who had sent them Noe after the floud offered a sweet smelling sauour and Abraham by commaundement intended to sacrifice his onely sonne Isaac By all which it is euident that sacrificing was common before that any order for Gods seruice was settled 4 But when the people once were returned out of Egypt and God by the hand of Moses had ordained a ciuill pollicie for the gouernment of the laitie and a Hierarchie Ecclesiasticall for so I may well call it for guiding of his Clergie to the end that euery thing afterward might be practised with conformity he appointed first for the Tabernacle and after that for the Temple a tribe of Priests Leuites whose office was to attend to the offerings of the people And himselfe did name the matter and manner of euery sacrifice what bird or beast daily or on other occasion should be offered as the whole body of the Leuiticall law doth make knowne to vs. Thence grew the daily sacrifice which neuer was omitted the sinne-offerings and free-will-offerings and many sorts besides and when extra-ordinarie cause was giuen great store of beastes were slaine as when Salomon to consecrate the Temple at Hierusalem did offer in his magnificence two and twentie thousand Oxen and one hundred and twentie thousand sheepe such a sacrifice as I thinke the like was neuer seene And that time onely excepted when the Iewes were captiues in Babylon or when Antiochus did tyrannize at his pleasure the altars were still going till the very time of Christ and diuerse yeares afterward vntill that
the citie and the Temple were brought to desolation by the Romanes vnder Titus the Priests and people so precisely obseruing that when other sinnes and dishonours to God did abound that in the time of warre and close siege when they might not issue foorth to haue cattell for their offerings they would bargaine with the enemies at high price and great rates to serue the turne for their mony as we may reade in Iosephus In such manner was the succession of sacrificing for so many yeares together God both approouing it and commaunding it 5 Now these externall sacrifices as when they were rightly brought with true faith and obedience and vnderstanding knowledge they had their vse very good as to thanke God for his blessings to acknowledge that all benefits were deriued frō his goodnesse to testifie their obedience in perfourming his commaundements but aboue all to figure Iesus Christ the true Lambe who was one day to be offered on the altar of the crosse to redeeme the sinnes of the faithfull whereof in the meane time their offerings were a signe and seale vnto them so if they were brought by any as perfunctorie things formally and for a fashion as hypocrites and worldlings did come with them the Lord was so farre off from accepting them as his seruice that he hated them and detested them In the first chapter of Esay God speaketh to them by his Prophet What haue I to do with the multitude of your sacrifices sayth the Lord I am full of the burnt offerings of Rammes and of the fat of fed beastes and I desire not the bloud of bullockes nor of lambes nor of goates Bring no more oblations in vain incense is an abominatiō vnto me I cannot suffer your new moones Which agreed with that of Salomon The sacrifice of the vvicked is abomination to the Lord. God then required in them that besides the materiall gift there should be a true mind to serue him humilitie and liuely faith which should expresse and shew it selfe with charitie and good life and a killing of the euill affections which were in them To which purpose the Prophet Micah most excellently doth speake Wherewithall should I come before the Lord or bow my selfe before the high God shall I come before him with burnt-offerings and vvith calues of a yeare old Will the Lord be pleased vvith thousands of Rammes or vvith ten thousand riuers of oyle Shall I giue my first borne for my transgression euen the fruite of my bodie for the sinne of my soule No hee hath shevved thee ô man vvhat is good and vvhat the Lord requireth of thee surely to doe iustly and to loue mercie and to humble thy selfe to vvalke with thy God 6 Then it was the spirituall sacrifice at which God chiefly did aime the laying downe of their soules on the altar of his will the killing of euill thoughts the mortifying of the members the consecrating of themselues wholly vnto his honour which doctrine Paule vnto the Romanes doth plainely teach where he beseecheth them by the mercies of God to offer vp their bodies a liuing sacrifice holy and acceptable to God that is their reasonable seruice of God And this not onely vnder the Gospell was seene by the faithfull but was foreseene also vnder the Law Dauid can say in his fourth Psalme Offer the sacrifices of righteousnesse and in the one and fiftieth Psalme The sacrifice of God is a troubled spirit So Osee in his sixt Chapter I desired mercie and not sacrifice and the knovvledge of God rather then any burnt-offerings It seemeth also by my text that our Prophet vnderstood this when he promiseth to sacrifice but with the voyce of thankesgiuing as knowing that to be it which God indeed preferred before all things And reason might well teach him that it was that which the Lord meant by the externall signe for what delight could he take in the bloud of brutish creatures a spirit in their bodies the impassible in such sauours as did arise from their altars What neede had he of an Oxe or ten Rammes of a man who is the owner and chiefe Lord of all the beastes of the field of all the birdes of the ayre If hee but speake they be if he but call they come he made them and he knoweth them and hath no want at all of them Then he respecteth the mind and the life and not the offering The veritie of which doctrine is of so assured a truth that Gentiles by the light of nature beleeued it and acknowledged it as aboue other Menander the Poet in one of his Comedies as Clemens Alexandrinus noteth in the fifth of his Stromata where he citeth his wordes to this purpose If any man offering sacrifice a multitude of goates or bulles or any thing wrought by art although of yuorie gold or pearle do thinke that God vvill therfore be mercifull vnto him he is deceiued exceedingly for the man vvhom God regardeth must be good and honest no deflowrer of vvomen no adulterer thiefe or murtherer And afrerward againe The iust man doth euery day offer sacrifice to his God but it is not with cleane clothes but vvith a shining heart 7 These are good lessons for vs who professe a seruice to the highest God that first we make no spare of externall things to honour the Lord withall when cause shall be offered Our cattell and our clothes our houses and our money yea our best and dearest friends should be employed in good seruices to the countenancing of the Minister to the spredding of the Gospell to the establishing of religion to the succouring of the innocent to the releeuing of the poore These things should be to vs as their substance was to the Iewes to bring it in sacrifice to the Highest but especially we should consecrate our bodies to his name our feete to approch his Courts our eares to heare his word our toung to sound out his praises our hands to fight his battels if Antichrist should oppugne And secondly together with our bodies and those things which we haue our spirit within should ioyne a true and entire affection a sound and grounded loue to him who is most louely the husband of our soules that hypocrisie and fayned dissimulation be not in vs but truth although in much infirmitie and weaknesse of the flesh And when our soule shall be deuoted to him in that sort he receiueth it embraceth it most kindly as his own more respecting the mind then any apparant thing The two mites of the poore widow came welcom into Gods treasurie because her heart was rich though her purse were very empty It is recorded of Aeschines that when he saw his fellow scholers giue great gifts to his maister Socrates he being poore and hauing nothing else to bestow did giue himselfe to Socrates as professing to be his in heart and good will and wholly at his deuotion And the Philosopher tooke this most
were set free from all redeemed by his body and ransomed by his bloud admitted into the couenant and incorporated into himselfe so that now we are made free denizons of the city which is aboue What can be a greater blessing When ignorance and barbarisme were growne ouer the world and the darknesse of superstition as thicke as that of Egypt had possessed the shew of all Christendome that maine Antichrist dominering and triumphing at his pleasure so that few were to be found without the marke of the beast God did dispell that darknesse by sending vs light from heauen and causing the Sunne of righteousnesse to shine out by his word he cleered that filthy mist that the nations of the earth may now fully behold the purity of the Gospell That which was denied to great ones hath bene reuealed to vs. As Moses had more liberty to see the Lord then the people had so we see more then our ancestours But what thankes do we yeeld for that celestiall comfort Do we magnifie his mighty name and sing and speake out the honour of him who hath done such things for men Where is that Glory to God on high and blessed be our strong Redeemer 11 We who liue in this land haue sate as at the well head for many yeares together We haue had a most gracious Princesse a mother to our countrey and a nource vnto Gods Church vnder the shadow of whose wings next after the eternall Lord we haue enioyed much peace prosperity and abundance Our neighbours who grone vnder the burthen of heauinesse and oppression of persecution and ciuill warres do very much admire it Learning hath flourished with vs and manuall artes encreased nauigation hath bene aduanced and trafficke entred with many to the enriching of our people and the honour of our nation I doubt that we are not so thankfull as all this hath deserued Yea it hath come so fast on vs and continued without interruption that our hearts are fatted with it and we as full and glutted haue fallen a sleepe in security so that we vnderstand not the sweete things which are on vs much lesse do we with heart and soule and all the powers which are in vs extoll the author who hath done such things for vs. Conspiracies haue bene made to depriue our land of her gouernesse and to bring it into the thraldom of a proud and bloudy nation yet by the Lords strong prouidence they all haue bene preuented The great fleete which meant to haue made such hauocke hath bene confounded when men did not much to helpe vs the winds and waues did fight for vs. Truth it is that as the Romanes did giue thankes to their Gods when Hannibal was remooued who had oppressed and troubled Italy for sixteene yeares together so by the highest authority in the most famous place of our land and by the noblest persons and in most solemne manner Gods prayse was sounded foorth which was a most holy action and worthy of a Christan kingdome but see whether since that time the common sort of men do study to remember it Our thoughts within are so curious and our eares without are so itching that we loath to heare the Preacher to name this in the pulpit we imagine that this neuer commeth but for want of other matter being a crambe oftentimes sodde It seemeth that we are litle mooued whē we thinke so lightly of that which to the naturall inhabitants of this land was so great a deliuerance as our eyes neuer saw We haue reason to feare that God lately hath brought the same enemy so neare our land to quicken vs and to stirre vs to a remembrance of the former mercy by shaking his rod ouer the sea vnto vs. The acts which God did in Egypt of the which I spake before and his victories by the conduct of Iosuah were commaunded to be proclaimed to all succeeding ages and were bidden to be spoken off I do maruell why no man in that time obiected What shall we neuer haue done of hearing these old matters No their thankfull mind did vse it otherwise and recorded that matter and recounted it as the fairest floure in their garland and their honour with all the earth We should make such reckening of all Gods mercies towards vs but most of all of the greatest The enioying of apparant good things or the escaping of fearefull and dreadfull euils doth deserue thanksgiuing with vs. Ionas had felt the bitternesse being in hazard of destruction of body and soule together but by compassion of his maister he is like to passe through this daunger and therefore he maketh a promise that he will sacrifice to the Highest in spirituall manner by giuing him praise and glory And thus you haue the first point of that which he vndertooke now let vs come to the second I vvill pay that which I haue vowed 12 The making of vowes was a solemne custome among the children of Israel that when any good thing was graunted vnto them but especially if they earnestly desired to haue any thing they would bind themselues by promise or peraduenture by an oath to be kept without violating that this they would performe or that they would abstaine from as it might be drinke no wine or not cut their haire as the vse of the Nazarites was or dedicate their children to an attendance in Gods tabernacle or offer such and such offerings Wherein the care of those who were faithfull was first that they vowed nothing but that which was lawfull and secondly that they performed the thing which they vowed So the Israelites did vow that if the Lord would giue them victory they would raze downe and destroy the cities of Canaan A matter which was lawfull nay which God required of them Barren Hanna did vow that if the Lord would so respect her as to send her a sonne she would giue him to God all the dayes of his life She spake it and she performed it in Samuel her child Thou shalt render thy vowes saith Eliphaz to Iob. My vowes will I performe before all that do feare him saith Dauid of himselfe They knew that God did expect it precisely had enioyned it by a speciall law It is a peremptory place in the three and twentieth of Deuteronomy When thou shalt vow a vow vnto the Lord thy God thou shalt not be slacke to pay it for the Lord thy God vvill surely require it of thee and it should be sinne vnto thee he meaneth if thou performe it not but when thou abstainest from vowing it shall be no sinne vnto thee He would not haue men beare themselues so carelesly toward him as foolishly to promise and falsely to breake promise 13 This made men vnder the law to be very well aduised what it was whereunto they tied themselues by vow that what they vndertooke should still be to Gods glory and withall their promise was for such things as should be
of that learned man I hold it to be very lawfull to obserue those seuen and twelue for the one and for the other So he saith that the veile in the Tabernacle of blew silke and purple and scarlet and fine linnen did intend the foure elements and he giueth good reason for that And the same is also the opinion of Saint Hierome Here to compare foure and foure hath a naturall vse in discoursing of the elements the good creatures of God Nay it will not do amisse if by a farther allusion we shall make application thus that as we reade in Exodus that the veyle made of those foure things did hang betweene the holy place whither the Priests did come to offer and the Sanctum Sanctorum the Holy of Holyes where the presence of God was so that they who stoode in the one could not behold the other vntill the veyle which was betweene them were rent or remooued So the holyest man that is euen the very Priest at the altar cannot see God as he should in the high abode of his holinesse vntill that his flesh and bodie which are made of those foure elements be torne off and remooued away by death and by the graue This or the like about numbers may be thought to be naturall and not strayned so that I dare not determine against it as also against nothing else which apparantly hath true and proper vse of doctrine or due application But I leaue to your consideration whether the authour of the booke De Spiritu sancto who sometimes but not rightly is supposed to be Saint Cyprian or other like to him do keepe close within these bounds when he especially magnifieth the number of seuen aboue other because it consisteth of three and foure where saith he three shew the three persons of the Trinitie and foure noteth the foure elements which intendeth that God who is signified in the mysterie of the Trinitie is caried with a loue ouer his creatures who are figured in the compasse of the foure elements A man may go too farre And this I haue obserued by reason of Saint Hieromes note vpon this place concerning fortie which I hold to be not vnfit for this auditorie because it is few times touched But now for the benefite of the vnlearned I come to doctrine which is more morall 8 When God giueth the Niniuites fortie dayes to bethinke themselues it implyeth his exceeding mercie who as he was very louing to them when he sent them warning of their destruction so is his loue more abundant when he giueth them space of repentance that they might turne away his wrath which was to breake out against them The prayer of the Leuites is true Thou art a God of mercies gracious and full of compassion of long suffering and of great mercie And so is that of Dauid The Lord is full of compassion and mercie slow to anger and of great kindnesse We can neuer sufficiently admire his bearing patience That citie which for the manifold euill of it had deserued to haue perished in one day shall haue a day and a day and fortie dayes of grace to purge it selfe if it will The tree which bore no fruit shall haue this yeare of probation and the next yeare of expectation and shall be pruned and dounged before it be cut downe So that Lord who is iealous in his anger is yet a mild God in his suffering It is obserued in men that they are long in making any thing but very quicke in marring of it A house built in a yeare may be plucked downe in a moneth A castle which hath bene long in setting vp by mining and powder may be blowne vp in a moment A citie whom many ages haue but brought to her beautie is consumed in a little time by fire put to it of the enemie Onely God is quicke in making but pawseth vpon destroying he commeth not but by steppe after steppe and when he should strike he stayeth and turneth and looketh away and will not roote vp till iustice can no longer endure He made the heauen in a day and might haue done in a moment but Niniue that one citie shall haue fortie dayes to breath in before her ruine come The Sunne and Moone and starres had but one day for their creation but man had warning for a hundred and twentie yeares before the comming of the floud in the time of Noe and Hierusalem shall haue admonishment by the Scriptures before the appearaunce of Christ by Iohn the Baptist afterward by our Sauiour personally and when they haue killed that iust one yet fortie yeares shall passe ouer before that it be quite destroyed Sixe dayes made the whole world but almost sixe thousand yeares haue beene affoorded to it before that the end ouertake it Thus iustice in many cases is if not swallowed and deuouted vp yet much shadowed by mercie which sometimes ouer-weigheth it and other times ouer-layeth it when it is readie to rise preuenting it and holding it downe And there be few of vs who may not feele this proposition true in our selues 9 If we looke vpon our own land how may we breake out and say that pitie and compassion haue abounded on vs from him See whether he hath not lent vs as many yeares to repent as he did dayes to Niniue when the infinit prouocations wherwith we haue prouoked him in hypocrisie in luke-warmnesse in gluttony and in wantonnesse in securitie and vnthankfulnes haue called on him for a shorter time Seueritie might haue said Fortie yeares I haue bene grieued or contended with this generation yet clemeÌ„cie stayeth that speech He lent not so much time to our fathers next before vs his mercie did straine it selfe to affoord sixe yeares to them of free passage of his word vâ—der his gracious instrument King Edward whose memorie liâ—e for euer and yet that was encombred with seditions of the subiect and tumults of the Commons as also with much hurrying and banding of the Nobilitie But concerning our time the question may be whether is more to be admired the greatnesse or the goodnesse the length which is very memorable or the varietie of those blessings which we do little conceiue because we most enioy them euen as no man noteth the benefit of the ayre whereon we breath because we haue store of it and yet nothing is more precious then it or nearer to life it selfe So in a common generalitie God doth beare with vs all But farther if each man will take the paines to looke on himselfe in priuate he may say that he hath had his fortie dayes oft-times told together with Niniue our citie here Saint Bernard in one of his Sermons shall speake that which I do meane The mercie and expectation of the Lord is great toward thee for when the Angell had offended he stayed not at all for him but threw him downe to hell and when Adam transgressed
he did not deferre his punishment but droue him straight out of Paradise But now he wayteth for thee he will not see thy faults he forbeareth thee ten yeares yea twentie yea to old age euen to dotage And who is he among vs that hath not his part of this if not to come to old age yet at least to a great deale more age then euer he could deserue He who hath liued so long as to know that he should turne to God hath had much time yeelded him and the least here hath seene that But the greatest sort of vs hauing had space to do good haue turned that another way and haue rather found time to do a great deale of euill and whereas therefore shame and confusion do belong vnto vs God hath borne with vs and yet beareth many dayes and moneths and yeares So we haue had time with Niniue We tast of this louing kindnesse We go forward to prouoke him and he goeth on to spare vs. 10 This is the more to be magnified since he offereth not so full a measure of grace to all Many of farre better parts in the eyes of flesh and bloud more noble and more honourable more rich and wise and glorious haue perished in a moment Those which haue lead the daunces haue bene straight way in the pit He whom the morning hath seene brauing it the euening hath beheld dying How many haue bene hastily catched away by the sword by ruine and fall of houses by the pestilence or by poyson by dead palseyes apoplexies by diseases which men know not by falling from their horses by sinking downe as they stood by dying in their bed suddenly yea by thunder and by lightning which doth make the eares of as many as heare of it to tingle Which although it be all one to a man prepared as all of vs euer should be as if it were at more leysure yet how fearefull and dreadfull is it when we looke on common men of whom we haue little hope that they haue called for mercie Imprint this in your hearts and reuolue it deare brethren and tell me whether my speech be vntrue and false that we haue tasted of clemency more then this city of Ionas did But other men must not by our example be incouraged to deferre and prolong their repentance and to hope that they shall still speed so neither must we our selues presume to take hartie grace to run on in iniquity and vngodlinesse for he may beare a while which yet will not beare euer He who is crushed with our sinnes as a cart is loaden with sheaues if we will not disburden him will ease himselfe of his loade and cast that loade on the ground of confusion and desolation We may be too bold with our friend and we may take too much of him who is most free God beareth with man a long time but as Dauid sayth Except he turne he hath whet his sword he hath bent his bowe and made it ready and we know what followeth afterward euen the blacke arrowes of destruction And this is seene no where better then in the words of my text for Niniue shall haue forty dayes but if then it repent not for these threatnings are conditionall as if God giue leaue I may shew in the end of this Chapter it shall be ouerthrowne And this is it which at the first I layd downe for my second part And Niniueh shall be destroyed 11 The saying is most true that patience being too farre prouoked is turned into furie The hand lift vp the higher doth fall so much the more heauie If a water-course be stopped when it breaketh foorth againe it commeth with the greater violence If thou stand in daunger of it let it not runne vpon thee but turne it another way If fortie dayes will not serue there remaineth nothing for Niniue but wo and lamentation and vnspeakable desolation Here in the first place the forcible guilt of sinne doth offer it selfe to be thought on that it should haue in it a power to draw downe so great a vengeance God himselfe is a God of mercy and taketh delight to be mild and his loue is such a quality as stayeth not in himselfe but diffuseth it selfe to other and that to all his creatures For his mercy as Dauid sayth is ouer all his workes But especially vnto man the most excellent of all things either terrestriall or visible the glory of his workmanship the resemblance of his sonne the beauty of all the world If to man then to many men to hundreds and thousands yet more to Niniue that great city the greatest of all the earth where were so many aged persons so many vnable women so many sucking infants whose innocent age did keepe them from very many actuall sinnes Notwithstanding all this that sinne should be so strong that Niniue which was externally blessed made the Lady of all the East by the Lords owne preferment should by the force of it be so quickly ouerthrowne That there should be so many things to helpe in God in man in number in greatnesse and continuance yet naughty sinne and vngodlinesse should counterpoize all these and ouer-way them farre This is a stinger indeed heauy more then a mil-stone This is it whose cry will go vp as it was sayd of Sodome Sicknesse cannot be hid and fire cannot be kept in but sin exceedeth them both When it groweth once to be horrible God cannot forget himselfe for it standeth with his essence to be iust but he must pay and pay home His strictnesse in iudgement may be couered with a cloud or eclipsed a while with forbearing but it may not be extinguished He is a God of pure eyes of innocency and integrity and will not be vrged too farre Too much he sayth is too much 12 If a place be neare vnto him as the signet on his finger or if you will haue more as deare as the apple of his eye yet if there be no remedy he will plucke off the one and he will pull out the other throw it a great way from him Be Hierusalem his owne city and Sion the pleasing spouse of the great king of mankind yet if she play the harlot and do persist therein and grow to be so hard-hearted that she will not be reclaimed she shall be made a spectacle of iudgement and vengeance to all the coasts of the earth The more that she was honoured before the deeper shall her plague go God will double misery vpon her as he spake by Ezechiel I will ouerturne ouerturne ouerturne meaning that head and taile roote and branches shall tast of his displeasure And if after one diuorce which may be sayd to be in the time of the captiuity in Babylon he be pleased to take her to him againe yet if she againe turne backward and grow worse then before her end shall be worse also If she once come to that passe
that both the men and the beasts cryed mightily vpon God But if there should be any man more scrupulous then neede is he may take this to be spoken by the figure Synecdoche which applieth vnto both that which is meant of one onely and the whole by that meanes hath that adiunct which is proper but to a part And then it may be vnderstood that the dumme creatures had their portion in the sackcloth and the fast but the men onely did pray But be it either the one way or the other it yeeldeth this lesson to vs for the instruction of our duty that when daunger is threatned and there is feare or feeling of any direfull thing vppon vs among other our preparations or aboue other if you will we should breake into open prayer and ioyntly deplore our sinnes and so call to God for mercie For if any thing in such cases will serue the turne it is faithfull inuocation which is better then all burnt sacrifice Surely the King of Niniueh tooke the rightest course that may be and whether it were that he were taught and informed by the light of nature or the teaching of any other or by secret reuelation from the spirite of the Eternall certainely he was in the right path-way to purchase grace with God when both himselfe and all his people as humble suppliants did lift vp their voyce in prayer 9 For very great is the reckening which God doth make of prayer he commaundeth it and expecteth it and rewardeth it in his Saints Call on me in the day of trouble and I vvill heare thee And in another Psalme The Lord is nigh to all that call vpon him yea all such as call vpon him faithfully So our Sauiour Christ biddeth Aske and you shall receiue knocke and it shall be opened to you Those manie good things which were graunted to Moses to Iosuah to Samuel to Dauid and Salomon confirme this plainely to vs. Elias bound vp heauen by a request to the Lord and had rayne againe for asking How but by prayer did Ezechias turne the euill thought of Sennacherib away for his land and people How was Peter brought out of prison but by the cryes of the Congregation By this the good Constantius was sayd to strengthen his familie but Constantine the Great his sonne did hereby fortifie all his Empire This is the sword and the shield to which we all should flye when the enemie doth inuade vs and to this we should retire our selues when famine doth pinch our bellies when we are in sicknesse or sorrow in bondage or in banishment This is it which flyeth to the heauens and is not kept backe by the clouds nor terrified with the height nor frighted with the frownes of iusâ—ice But especially in our combats with our spirituall foes we are to runne to this as to a most safe sanctuary and to desire him who is the conquering Lyon of the tribe of Iuda to assist vs and vphold vs. Let not Sathan on the one side be so fierce vpon vs as we on the other side be earnest vpon the Lord if he vrge vs with sinne let vs cry out for grace if he talke to vs of iustice let vs begge the more for mercy And when the trembling conscience shall thus by request haue recourse vnto him who can helpe it doth not returne dismayd but as being spoken to by God commeth backe with assured comfort In the presence of Christ sayth Saint Syprian teares which are neuer held superfluous do begge a pardon for vs neither euer doth the sacrifice of a contrite heart take repulse As often as I see thee groning in the sight of the Lord so often I do not doubt but the holy Ghost breatheth on thee When I see thee weeping I imagine him to be pardoning So gracious and so pitifull is our good father to vs. We may then account it as one of our sinnes that when inward and outward sorrowes oftentimes do lay hold vpon vs we do not vse this remedie We go on like vnsensible men as frantike ones being most sicke and yet we vnderstand it not And if we find that we neede helpe we least of all require it by prayer and he who should first be thought of that is God the iudge of all doth come last in the reckening The Niniuites must all crye and they must cry to the Lord and nothing else not to idols not to Angels not to Saints or any creatures but I handled that argument once alreadie vpon some words of the second Chapter that Ionas prayed to the Lord and therefore I do now leaue it 10 And yet I must not here omit one circumstance of prayer that they are bid cry mightâ—lie strongly aloud or earnestly not that God doth rather heare when the most noyse is made for he is not like Baal who must be awaked with lowd crying but he knoweth the heart and reynes and searcheth the very thoughts That is truely found to be so in the Lord which Tertullian reporteth of the Diuell or spirite of the Oracle of Apollo that he assumeth thus much to himselfe I both vnderst and â—he dumme and heare him who speaketh not God could say to Moses why criest thou vnto me and yet he spake neuer a word but within he sighed and groned and was troubled in his spirit Then it is not for any weaknesse in the Lord that man should crye aloude but to signifie that when we desire to obtaine our prayers should be vehement and with motion not onely formall or perfunctorie or cold or drowsie and sleepie But the vsuall prayers of the most men in our time are such without touch what themselues do aske and therefore it is no maruell that they are heard so few times It is a right good precept and also a iust reprehension to the people of his time which Saint Cyprian doth vse and it may well be applyed to our age wherein the minds of many in the time of their deuotions are vpon pleasure or profite or some other such earthly thing Thus he speaketh Let all earthly and secular and carnall thoughts depart neither let the mind then thinke on any thing but onely that for which it prayeth What sluggishnesse is it to be estranged and taken with vnfit thoughts and profane ones when thou prayest to the Lord as if there were anything else whereupon thou shouldest rather thinke then that thou art speaking with God How doest thou require that thou maiest be heard of God when thou doest not heare thy selfe This is to be awake with the eyes and to be asleepe with the heart whereas a Christian man should then be awake with his hart when he sleepeth with his eyes Here that we may testifie our zeale and withall preuent this drowsinesse it is not amisse when we find our selues to be heauie that we do such things as may be in place of whetstones to sharpen vs as