malefactor that being in feare lest he should be put to death or at least lose both his hands did at the first word willingly cut off his owne left hand that he might preserue the other Iudge now at length for this tempest whether it were not a sound one when it put such men as these vnto such shiftes as these men that aduentured their liues for money to part from wares which would yeeld them mony men bold to be stricken with such feare men carelesse to be driuen to such deuotion and praying vnto their Gods Ionas thou canst not say but thou art followed for thy sinne not as with a furie from hell but with iustice from aboue But of that may be more hereafter 18 But here I may not forget this in these idolatrous persons because it doth yeeld vnto vs the best of all these instructions that these Ethnicks who here are actors did neuer fall to their calling vpon their heathenish Gods till that daunger did grow vpon them Their mind did run at randon till affliction as a spurre did quicken their strong obliuion Sea-daungers haue that force aboue all other daungers to make men crie with earnestnesse when nothing is to be seene but heauen aboue and water below Coelum vndique vndique pontus Dauid did wel note this when after the description of a storme he addeth this for a conclusion Then they cry vnto the Lord in their trouble and he bringeth them out of their distresse There is trouble and distresse and crying to the Lord. Violent motions of the aire generally cause a feare In them the voice of the Lord maketh the wildernesse to tremble the renting of the clouds the cracking of the aire do much affright the wicked Caligula the Romane Emperour would needs be reputed for a God and there was no measure of follie with him yet if he had but heard a clap of thunder he wold winke or hide his head or run perhaps vnder a bed Now feare in all men who haue sence doth enforce vnto religion or at least to superstition As long as Gods hand is ouer vs we feare and so by a consequent are carefull If we were as dull as that Asse whereon Balaam vsed to ride yet if an Angell hold out a sword it will make vs stagger at it But as soone as the sword is sheathed so soone we will forget it It is the crosse of Christ which maketh a man a true Christian it keepeth vs in obedience howsoeuer the flesh repineth the spirit is bettered by it Sicknesse or plague or famine or war or any great iudgement maketh more prayers in a day more seeking to God and that feelingly hartily then otherwise are ordinary in a weeke 19 I do find in Agathias that when on a time the Citie of Constantinople was shaken with a verie terrible earthquake many houses were ouerthrowne and with the fall thereof great store of people perished Herewith the whole Citie was so frighted and euerie man so remembred to thinke on God that solemne supplicatiōs and publike prayers were had the Churches euerie day were full and all men for a while were much amended The poore folkes were releeued iustice was well administred there was no fraude thē in bargaining yea it was become a verie holie place But whē God once held his hād they also held their prayers when his rod ceased then ceased their pietie too That which he did obserue concerning Constantinople may be noted of other places Yea Historians do obserue it In the first late ciuill warre in Fraunce which arose now more then thirtie yeares agone after the putting foorth of that Edict which is commonly called the Edict of Ianuarie and in like sort in the second third of those warres such as were of the Religion then groning vnder the crosse of pouertie of oppression and warre were verie deuout toward God verie carefull toward to the world glad to heare any preach the word glad to receiue the Sacramēt but whē the third peace was concluded which seemed a verie sound peace and the rod was now thought to be remoued farre of such carelesnesse and securitie did ouergrow the harts of all and in the Protestants there was so cold a zeale nay rather such a tedious curiositie as a French man termeth it and that within lesse thē two yeres space that a Sermō soūdly made with good groūds of diuinitie was not thought to be worth the hearing vnlesse it were spiced with eloquēce or flourished with daintie phrases such as were fit for the Court But immediatly afterward this contempt of theirs was pursued with that great massacre that bloudie and horrible massacre like to which the Sunne scant euer did see any thing and then the mariners in the ship with Ionas did not cry more hotely on their Gods then the Frēch men our neighbors did cry vnto the true Lord of heauen 20 Might it please our God that we by their example could learne to be thankfull in prosperitie as well as to be crying when miserie hangeth on vs. In Queenes Mariesdayes when the fire deuoured the flesh of Gods saints what prayers were then made for the faithfull congregation by many within the land and without Coldnesse hath since benummed some hote ones of that time The Spaniard threatned warre not manie yeares agone the pietie of our land exceeded for that time yoūg and old then came together into the courts of the Lord the Sabaothes were then sanctified the weeke dayes were well spent we had prayers extraordinarie lectures twise a weeke as this place doth well know But with the cold of the winter our holinesse waxed cold and manie monethes had not passed but as in few things we were better so in some things we were worse Good God that thy great mercie should make thee to be loued the lesse One yeare is not passed ouer since besides manie other quarters the chiefe Citie of our kingdome being visited by Gods messenger the pestilence which destroyeth as well by night as by day did hang downe her head for sorrow I haue heard that since that time it is verie much forgotten in buying and in selling in bargaining and deceiuing God sent vs here a warning and then another warning in the verie hart of our Citie I thinke that we and other did in that time more thinke of deuotion toward the Lord of purging of our soules of true mortification of preparing our soules to Christ then we haue done manie times since It is not well if it be so It is a reproch to some no penie no Pater noster It is a reproch to vs no plague no Pater noster no punishment and no prayers Let it not be noted of vs that we are like to those Gentiles who only when the tempest raged did cry vnto their Gods Let vs feare the Lord for his loue and loue him for his mercie let vs not prouoke him
Hierusalem was vsed in another sort when the Prophet here called it holy otherwise he might iustly haue feared that God had not bene there to haue heard him when he cried out of the fishes belly 15 But hitherto the Temple was not relinquished by him as the later house was afterward when a voyce was heard in the night saying Migremus hinc let vs be gone from this place and therefore the Prophets prayer which was directed hither found the successe which it wished It came thither to the Lord. The distance of the place the great depth of the water the shutting vp in the whale yea the odiousnesse of his sinne could not detaine his crying and seeking to the Lord. He who in the fourteenth of Exodus did heare the crye of Moses although neuer a word were vttered and he who heard Hannas prayer when her lippes onely did mooue and no word was spoken out did attend Ionas when hee besought him with faith and implored his gracious goodnesse ouer him He hath bid vs call vpon him in the day that is in euery day of trouble and he hath said that he will heare It is he who neuer failed any of those who seeke to him As in all other matters so in this he hath a prerogatiue aboue all other he can heare and he will heare Heathenish Gods are but delusions and imaginarie toyes he who prayeth to them prayeth to nothing Baal may be iested at as sleeping or being busie Idols are but dead stockes they cannot mooue themselues and therefore not helpe themselues much lesse those that pray to them Yet a man exceedeth all these if they were in number ten thousand although oftentimes he debaseth himselfe as a seruant vnto these But how short of God doth this man come This will not if he could another could if he would a third both could and would but is absent and therefore ignorant what it is that is begged of him The power of all is so limited that the greatest cannot graunt the tenth thing which is asked and either themselues do confesse this or vse base shifts to couer it And how hardly do men part with that which is in their power As Seneca writeth on a time a Cynike Philosopher asked a talent of Antigonus who would gladly haue bene reputed a bountifull Prince His answer was that a talent was too much for a Cynike to receiue Then the other asked him a peny That saith he is too little for a king as I am to giue How oft soeuer such answers be giuen from men they do neuer come from God He giueth without reproching he heareth without delaying But we must aske that which is lawfull and we must aske in faith and we shall not haue a denyall 16 It pleaseth him to yeeld so much vnto our prayer appointing that as the instrument whereby we do approch him And indeed it is a good meanes to come into his presence For prayer is so piercing that it will get to the seat of God through the very heauens and cloudes It is winged and ascendeth vpward being made light by the heat of fierie pure deuotion The wind is not so quicke the lightning is not so nimble which goeth from East to West as this is in his passage In a moment it ascendeth from our tongs to Gods eares His eyes see our eyes weeping he well conceiueth our grones he well vnderstandeth our sighs If heauinesse do oppresse vs and sorrow weigh vs downe yet if our knees be bent vnto him or our hands held vp on high or our breasts be beaten before him or our cheeks bedewed with teares we shall be eased from all Then this is the onely remedie in agonies and in anguishes for the afflicted soule to seeke to It hasteneth to and fro and neuer returneth emptie Our sinning and suffering Prophet this drowning and dying Ionas did crye fâ—om the middle of the whale from the bottome of the sea from the very belly of hell and as he said before so here againe he professeth it the Lord did heare his voyce his prayer came to Gods temple Now you haue heard what he did and how likewise he sped Let vs here come to the second part which noteth some other persons whose words and deedes are otherwise They that wayt vpon lying vanities forsake their owne mercie 17 These words do imply a kind of Antithesis or contrarie successe betweene him before mentioned and those who do now follow as if he should say I scant looked for mercie and yet I did find it I prayed and was heard but these might receiue mercie and themselues do forsake it These are such which obserue or keepe or wayte vpon lying vanitie in stead of truth not ignorantly falling into it but wilfully pursuing it Such as set their whole labour on that which is but errour and make a studie of it Now those who with such egernesse do follow wrong paths the farther they go on the more they go astray They bend indeede all their diligence to somewhat but it is to lying vanitie vnder which name the Scripture doth comprehend all things which are besides pietie and the true seruice of God I haue hated them saith Dauid who giue themselues to deceitfull vanities And in another place Trust not in oppression and robberie be not vaine Gods Spirit doth account euery thing to be but vaine and lying and deceitfull which cannot endure the tryall which faileth vs and falleth from vs and when we most trust to it is least able to do vs good Such are all earthly things without the grace of God being ioyned to them as riches which are so much desired and honour which is so hotely sought or beautie or strength or friends which helpe not in that day when iudgement or vengeance commeth 18 Such are all the inuentions and deuised figments of men superstitions and false religions Pharisaicall obseruations papisticall dreames and fancies for whose sake whosoeuer will leaue the true prescript of Gods word he may be said to forsake the fountaine of liuing water and digge vnto himselfe broken pits He may be said to haue turned from the Lord who is only truth and to haue embraced falshood to haue refused grace and forsaken his owne mercie For where as God hath promised to be mercifull to all such who serue him as he hath taught by their neglecting of true deuotion they also neglect that mercie which was offered to them before So they make themselues vnworthie of remission and pardoning of their sinnes And in this case the end doth prooue heauie like to that rule of Aristotle where he saith that it must needes be in progresse of time that of counterfeited good things should grow that which is truly euill That wherein Zedechias trusted was but a lying vanitie and had a dolefull issue when as Iosephus did well gather he thought that the two Prophets Ezechiel and Ieremie had spoken contrarie things therefore that
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
filled with such wandring thoughts and stragling cogitations of Mammon and of ambition of enuy or of lust that rather we do any thing then that which we are doing Whereas all the heart and all the soule and all the strength should be the Lords the vigour of our wit the intentnesse of our braine the most fixed meditation of the spirit that if it were a thing possible we should be wrapped from the earth and sequestred from that body while we be in that holy exercise Some other times the manner is not the onely thing wherein we trip but the matter it selfe is naught For gold and precious stones we bring stubble and straw we aske such things of him who is an immaculate vnspotted and vndefiled spirit as we would be ashamed that men should know We tender that to our maker which we would not aske of our neighbour I do not here speake of such vanity as wherein the Pharisee abounded I thanke God I am not as other but rather of carnall deuotions We intreate for our sports and for our wantonnesse as for euerlasting matters I had leyfer that you should heare from the words of Saint Gregory rather then from mine what things we do aske In the house of Iesus you seeke not Iesus if in the Temple of eternity you importunely aske for temporall things Behold one in his prayer asketh for a vvife another beggeth for a farme a third maketh request for a garment another would haue meate giuen vnto him Nay may not we go farther euen as sometimes Erasmus noted how in the dayes of superstition the Virgin Mary was sollicited for the souldier prayeth for his booty the theefe for his rich cheate the dicer for his good fortune Do not these things very sutably agree with so sacred a Maiesty Do they not become vs very well I doubt not but that we may aske for such things as are needfull to this life if we place them in their fit place and sue for them with condition If it shall seeme good to the Lord but those other things are toyes and trifles and do fauour of carnall motions And it is no maruell if in such cases we speed not for as once it was sayd to the mother of Iames and Iohn Ye aske you know not what so it is with vs in our prayers God seeth that such things do hurt vs and therefore in his kind loue he denieth them vnto vs. Here that of Saint Iames hath place Yee aske and receiue not because yee aske amisse to consume vpon your lusts And that also of Saint Bernard When his little child asketh bread the father reacheth it vnto him but when he asketh for a knife he denieth it So God doth graunt fit things to those who aske them but vnto him who intreateth for voluptuous or bad matters he doth deny them And surely if he should giue them they were rather tokens of his displeasure then of his fauour to vs. But how mercifull doth God appeare to be when he beareth these things at our hands and doth not consume vs as he did those who brought strange fire vnto his Altar Let vs study to amend this fault neither begging in bad manner with other nor bad matters with Ionas but let vs be earnest in that which we know to be good as that intreaty of Fulgentius is where he prayeth for himselfe I beseech him who is the truth that by his mercy preuenting me and following after me he will teach me vvhatsoeuer things are healthfully to be knowne and I know them not that he vvill keepe me in those true things which I do know that wherein as a man I am deceiued he will correct me in what true things I do stumble he will confirme me and that from false and hurtfull things he will deliuer me And thus much of the preface Now come we to the words themselues which do mention his excuse Was not this my saying when yet I was 7 It were well for the Prophet if his choyse had bene as good as his resolution was Those things which he apprehended had need be iust and holy for were it well or otherwise if he once had entertained a matter he would strongly haue maintained it He imagined that God in the end would not destroy the Niniuites but that his mercy would ouer-way and ouer-ballance his iustice therefore fearing lest himselfe denouncing their destruction should be taken but for a lyer and so Gods name should be blasphemed he thought to end all at once and runne away from his calling as it is in the first Chapter In steed of land he getteth him to sea for Eastward he goeth Westward for Niniue to Tharsus What God thought of this he had prety well felt already The tempest which belaboured him the lot which deprehended him the whale which deuoured him might acquaint him what the Lord conceiued of him But to the end that no doubt may remaine God a second time biddeth him go and preach to the Niniuites Here duty would haue supposed that the Lord knew well inough what he did and the issue of the matter would be his glorie But Ionas thinketh otherwise that God might spare his honor and himselfe might saue his labour and stay at home at the first and not come with a great shew and all but in a sleeuelesse errand And whereas he ranne to Tharsus he supposeth that he had reason for it he tooke the best course that might be and if the Lord might be pleased so to thinke of it he did well he did as he should that did he Oh the incredible folly of man that to iustifie it selfe in a most vndecent action careth not how it layeth about it and rappeth it esteemeth not whom The Highest was ouerseene not the best but sometimes sleepeth and the seruant was in the right Yet welfare king Dauid Against thee haue I sinned and done euill in thy sight that thou mightest be iust when thou speakest and pure when thou doest iudge And when the Angell with the pestilence destroyed seuenty thousand he standeth not to defend his folly but confesseth that he had sinned Old Eli wanted no faults yet he had learned that lesson not to stand on his iustification when threats were denounced against him but replieth It is the Lord and let him do what seemeth good vnto him But our man where he taketh an opinion will not be remooued from it be it right or be it otherwise Although here he would withdraw from himselfe the blame of his former flight which while he goeth about to maintaine he maketh himselfe twise guilty yet still he will be innocent Wherein appeareth how blind man naturally is when it commeth to him or his there will be a selfe-weening a selfe-liking a selfe-conceipt in the grossest errours that may be This sinne of thinking well of our selues sitteth close and long euen when other sinnes are shaken off which
I would not haue any man distrustfully to doubt yet flie from sinne and do morall vertues and that at least shall ease some part of the extremity of those torments which thou shalt haue in hell fire Although thou gaine no ioy by it yet thou shalt escape much euill Thy paine shall be the lesse not because thou hast done well but because thou hast lesse declined from vertue as Austen speaketh making difference betweene Catiline and Fabricius Fabricius shall be lesse punished then Catiline not because he was good but because the other was more bad and Fabricius was lesse vvicked then Catiline was not in that he had true vertues but because he did not as farre as might be stray from true vertues But be it the one or the other take all thy sinnes vpon thy selfe and seeke not to excuse the nocent by accusing the innocent who is free from the smallest blemish In a lesser matter then eternall life or death is it was a fault in our Prophet that he would assume the better and God must haue the worse he will be cleare and the Lord shall be culpable And let this be sayd of his excuse The mercy of God 10 The third note is the reason whereon he groundeth his defence that is the Lords procliuity and propensenesse vnto mercy And here howsoeuer the former matters may trouble vs by a remēbrāce that they may be our own case yet this maketh amends for al that we haue to do with a Lord whose goodnesse is so great whose graciousnesse so plētiful that we need words to vtter it Ionas therein walking right howsoeuer else he tread ill goeth as farre as may be A gracious God and mercifull slow to anger and of great kindnesse and repentest thee of the euill such a one is ready euery way to take pity but commeth to vengeance and fury with heauy and leaden feete Our man doth so well at this that we need not doubt but he had a good schoolemaister to direct him and that is the Lord himselfe who appearing vnto Moses doth cry thus of his maiesty The Lord the Lord strong and mercifull gracious and slow to anger aboundant in goodnesse and truth reseruing mercy for thousands forgiuing iniquity transgression and sinne in which place of Exodus although afterward there follow a little of his iustice which he may not forget yet we see the maine streame runneth concerning mildnesse and kindnesse and compassion That is it wherein the Lord may be sayd to delight ioying to be a Sauiour a deliuerer a preseruer a redeemer a pardoner rather thē to be a Iudge He hath one skale of iustice but the other doth prooue the heauier mercy doth ouerway He who is euer iust is mercifull more then euer if possibly that may be And it seemeth that euery day as his Gospell was growing on so his pity came also forward He who for one transgression thrust the Angels out of heauen and for his first slipping awry turned Adam out of Paradise his fury breaking foorth against both them now in the dayes of grace beareth with vs yeares and yeares from our cradle to our graue after a thousand and a thousand fals of weaknesse and wilfulnesse by word by thought by deed Yea he came to this soone not long after the creation giuing in the dayes of Noe a hundred and twenty yeares of repentance before the floud Our Niniue from the mouth of this present Prophet had forty dayes before it should be destroyed But Hierusalem being growne to the height of all iniquity so that both the seruants and Sonne of God were slaine by them the Sabaoth polluted the Sanctuary profaned yea a horrible sinke of filth being now among them yet was spared fortie yeares before that God sent vp Vespasian and Titus See whether this be not tollerancie which we with amazednesse may admire Indeede when nothing would serue but the member being quite vncurable must needs be cut off by him when their sinne extorted and wrung downe vēgeance he payd them for all together that they who would none of his loue might haue full heapes of his hatred His arme being lift vp the higher did fall so much the heauier the water-course stopped the longer did breake out the more fiercely according to the custome of God who as Bernard sometimes spake By how much the longer he expecteth that we should amend so much the more strictly he will iudge vs if we neglect The Iewes felt this to the full but how slow was he to his anger 11 Christ Iesus who is the image and engrauen forme of his father was not behind hand in this propertie while he liued here vpon earth He taught it by the figge-tree which bearing no fruite was not by and by cut downe but first for one or two yeares it should be dunged and trimmed to see what good would come of it He sustained many ignorances vntowardnesses in the Apostles and yet did not reiect them yea his patience was so great that it shewed it selfe to Iudas No maruell sayth Saint Cyprian that he shewed himselfe patient toward his obedient disciples who could with long suffering endure very Iudas to the last could take his meate in company of his enemie knew a foe to be in his house and did not openly descry him yea refused not the kisse of a traytour He might rightly be called a lambe yea that innocent Lambe of God by an excellency aboue all other who could see such a one and suffer him so often and so neare him and scant say a word against him This did no good on Iudas but as the same Cyprian obserueth the like tollerance was effectuall to saluation in other men If those who did shed the bloud of Christ had bene taken presently after they had perished euerlastingly but God so graciously disposed for their good that they were pricked in their hearts and so brought home to the sheepfold of enemies being now made friends Which made that father say He who shed the bloud of Christ vvas quickened by the bloud of Christ such and so great vvas Christs patience vvhich if it had not bene such and so great the Church should not haue had Saint Paule for an Apostle Thus the holy and blessed Trinity dealeth with men in this present age in great mercy after yeares and twenty yeares before they come to the graue respecting such as haue bene men audacious and impudent in vngodlinesse such as haue bene superstitious and Popish euen vnto idolatry such as in a conceited fancie were so fastened to Antichrist that to lose their liues for the beast they thought to be to do God good seruice Those persons who had lyen fried in hell as fire-brands to be burnt remedilesse and euerlastingly if they had departed in that mind to the graue the place where is no redemption by compassion from the mightie one whose bowels are made of mercy are
cryed out Behold I haue sinned yea I haue done wickedly but these sheepe what haue they done let thine hand I pray thee be against me and against my fathers house Dauid tooke all to himselfe because all the fault was his We are not free from all and therefore if we suffer any thing let vs beare it with patience If nothing let vs acknowledge that it is the mercy of God and not the merite of man that we all are not consumed 7 And by the smart of other let vs feare to offend the Lord. Euery action which was in Christ should be to vs an instruction euery passion which is in other should bring to vs information The Iewes once were the spouse and beloâ—ed of the Lord the people whom he embraced the nation whom he singled out from all the men on earth Sion was his delight and Hierusalem was vnto him as the apple of his eye When they began to be wanton and as the vntamed heyfer to refuse the yoake of all piety and seruice toward God his loue was turned to hatred and as before he had magnified them beyond all other nations so afterward he made them vile and abiect below all other Their Temple was ruinated and not one stone left vpon another their City was ransacked their old men died with famine their young were slaine with the sword the remnant as accursed do wander on all the face of the earth without a king without Priest without Prophet Thus the naturall Oliue branches were broken and cropped off and we wild ones were graffed in When we reade this and feele the sweetnesse of it are we to presume and puffe vp our selues by and by Saint Paule hath taught vs otherwise Be not high minded but feare And in another place Let him that thinketh he standeth take heede least he fall As these mariners were fearefull at our Ionas his example so ought we in these Iewes to be afraide and dread Gods iustice Those seauen Churches to which Iohn wrote his Epistles mentioned in the beginning of the Reuelation and those Cities to which Paule preached being sometimes great lights and lampes of the East are now the residence of the Turke and a sincke of filthy Maumetry Let vs stand in awe least our sinnes plucke on vs such a iudgement 8 We aske of newes in France and enquire of the alterations which the Low countreyes yeeld Curiosity for the most part is the cause why we demand such questions Perhaps we thinke vpon them and their troubles sometimes with a little pity But there is a farther vse if our dimme and darke eyes could see it When for two and thirty yeares Fraunce hath bene the very cock-pit for all Christendome to fight in when with so many ciuill furies the inhabitants sheath their swordes one in the bowels of another when for twenty yeares since and more for so long it is since the States and the Prince of Orenge with them did put foorth their supplication vnto the king of Spaine Philip the second which is a declaration to other Christian Princes of the reasons wherefore they tooke vp armes an army hath bene continued by the Spaniard against those Prouinces which now tearme themselues Vnited so that there is little safety but what standeth in the sword or in their walled townes we might remember our selues and that with much feare and trembling that our sinnes haue cried for vengeance as loud as theirs did euer that our fields are fit for the sickle not so white vnto the haruest as ready dry to the fire as Bernard speaketh to Eugenius that it is but a little labor for God to reach his hand ouer our narrow seas and to giue vs a tast of that here in this small Iland which the Continent hath long felt and sowerly hath smarted for it And if he haue held his hand it is his exceeding mercy whereof we are able to make no recompence onely our thankfulnesse from the bottome of our hearts is the best Such a sober meditation vpon the afflictions of our neighbours or those with whom we liue would put vs from that iolity wherein we too much take delight from the flaunting of this world and our vnbridled appetites The losses of others should be our terrour what is theirs may be ours if other smart let vs quake when Ionas is to be punished the ship-men are afraid And they sayd vnto him wherefore hast thou done this 9 This is the second circumstance to be thought vpon here in the fellow-trauellers of our Prophet which as some do vnderstand it sheweth a kind of wondring that a man who was an Hebrew brought vp in Gods seruice so familiar with the mysteries secrets of such a maister put in trust with such a charge as to go and preach at Niniue should transgresse in so high a degree If the fault had bene of ignorance it had bene so much the lighter and he deserued fewer stripes But to whom much is coÌ„mitted of him much is required he might the more be wondred at God reprocheth it to Eli that whereas himselfe had appeared vnto his fathers house and chose both them and him to stand before his Altar offer vp incense vnto him he had kicked against his sacrifice and honoured his children more then he did that God who made him If any men then the Ministers Prophets of the Lord shold respect their solemne dutie A City set on an hil is in the sight of al. The Priest is the eye of the body to guide the steps of other If darknesse be on the hill what darknesse is in the vale if dimnesse be in the eye how darke is all the body In the Minister each knowne fault is reputed for a crime because he is so conspicuous and visible to all euen as a small wound in the face is eminent and therefore noted In the countenance of a men if one eyebrow should be shauen how little is taken away from the body but how much from the beauty They are the words of Saint Austen Then we should be very carefull to passe the dayes of our pilgrimage in sincerity and integrity that we may not be wondered at by mariners and meane men why we should do this or that when we do grossely offend 10 Among the vnlearned Pastors blind guides of the Papacy transgressioÌ„ or iniquity needeth no such woÌ„dring at Their ignorance answereth for them for how shold they do any thing but ill who neuer learned to do otherwise If they decline from their duty and be scandalous vnto other and any man should come vpon theÌ„ as these his companions did vpon Ionas Wherfore haue you done this Can you whose life is spent in reading of the Scriptures in expounding them to other in informing the peoples consciences forget your selues in such manner as to be notorious sinners They may put this wondring froÌ„ theÌ„ and answer it in a word you
belong vnto any man it is vnto him haue compassion of some in putting difference and other saue with feare pulling them out of the fire This is to imitate Christ who will not breake a brused reede nor quench the smoking flaxe This is to seeke out the lost and to bind vp that which is broken Vnto these this may be added that it shall not a little helpe to haue conference with such who in former times haue bene exercised with the like temptations that out of their experience being plentifully powred out the distressed mind may be relieued None can speake more sufficiently and vnto better purpose then he that hath felt the same fire wherein this grieued soule is now burned And they who are in this cafe are not a little reuiued to know that any other hath bene troubled like themselues which they will hardly beleeue thinking that none did euer beare such a burthen as is vpon their shoulders Lastly as they ought rather to remember their former deliuerances then the griefe which presently is vpon them so they are rather to beleeue the speeches of other men I meane Gods children who come to yeeld comfort to thē then their own troubled thoughts which being perplexed and disquieted with frightfull imaginations can giue no setled iudgement This matter were worthie a longer speech but I am forced here to end Lord comfort those which are comfortlesse and strengthen thy weake children that they may not be so cast downe and plunged into perdition but that in their greatest temptation they may retaine thee still for their Sauiour that liuing in thy feare and dying in thy faith they may come to eternall glorie To the which ô Father bring vs for thine owne sonne Christ his sake to whom with thee and thy holy Spirit be glorie for euermore THE XII LECTVRE The chiefe poynts 2 The circumstances aggrauating his daunger 6. which do the more shew Gods mercie toward him and other sinners 8. Why God suffereth his to be in miserie 9. Particular consideration doth most stirre vp our affection 14. By fearing small crossings in doing our duties we incurre other very great daungers 16. All helpe is to be ascribed to God 17. How a godly man may desire that his life may be prolonged 20. The faithfull ought particularly to apply Gods loue to themselues 22. which the Church of Rome doth not Ionah 2.5.6 The waters compassed me about vnto the soule the depth closed me round about and the weedes were wrapped about mine head I went downe to the bottome of the mountaines the earth with her barres was about me for euer yet hast thou brought vp my life from the pit ô Lord my God THe fearefull conflict which the Prophet sustained in the verse next before going hath bene made plaine vnto you A passion of little lesse then distrustfull despaire did vexe him and disquiet him for the time From the terrour and danger wherof being recouered by the effectuall apprehension of grace by a liuely faith he returneth to contemplate the perill of his body which as it was great in the middle of the sea in the belly of the whale which was irrecouerable in mans iudgement so he seeketh to expresse it by multitude of words repeating it and reuoluing it with varietie of phrase but all tending to one end yet with such copiousnesse especially being in so short a prayer that a man would wonder at first how the Spirit of God which vseth to speake pressely and briefly so that no one word may fitly be spared should so runne vpon one thing with difference of speech but in substance all agreeing Yet the vse of it is such as of words fully replenished with sanctitie and holinesse as shall appeare in his due place In the meane time that which he saith is this 2 First the waters did compasse me about vnto the soule to the death saith the Chaldee Paraphrase as intending that he was now likely to be drowned his life to depart from him his soule to be seuered from her carnall habitation Dauid also doth vse such vehemencie of words Saue me ô God for the waters are entred euen to my soule Neither is there any speech which more liuely discouereth the earnestnesse of that which is presently in hand be it prayer or perill or desire or detestation then the name of soule doth As the Hart brayeth for the riuers of water so panteth my soule after thee ô God My soule thirsteth for God This noteth an entire affection and earnest desire wherewith Dauid was mooued As the Lord liueth and as thy soule liueth I will not leaue thee saith Elizaeus to Elias A very passionate affirmation Iacob in Genesis giueth this censure of Simeon and Leui. The instruments of crueltie are in their habitations Into their secret let not my soule come This argueth a perfect detestation So the depth of danger is purported here when he speaketh thus the waters compassed me vnto the soule the enemie of my life the water which hath no mercie was aboue me and below me and round about me without me and within me that my being was death my hope was but destruction nothing possible vnto me but drowning as farre as mans wit might imagine Secondly the depth did close me round about I was not in the shallow as a man in a lake who lying downe may be stifled but standing may be safe but I was in the maine Ocean which is called for the hugenesse of it the gathering of waters and elsewhere Tehom a gulfe or bottomelesse pit I was in that vastnesse which sometimes cannot be sounded by very long lines I was in waters by multitudes and there not diuing or floating vp and downe but as closed and shut vp as included in a sepulcher or made fast in a prison this deepe pit this darke pit this vncōfortable dungeon had closed her mouth vpon me 3 Thirdly the weedes were wrapped about mine head The sea doth beare weedes as well as shallow water yea somewhere very straungely strangely I say that in such places as where the depth seemeth to be of incredible greatnesse weedes should be seene in abundance in the vpper superficies the very toppe of the water and that so plentifully that in nauigation the course of ships is stayed sometimes by them Experience hath confirmed this in the huge Atlantike sea as men saile to America whereout doth grow a very strange Dilemma or Diuision because either they be there without any rootes at all and that is very maruellous or because the rootes do go downe exceeding deepe in the water which is not otherwise affoorded by nature in thinne spindie bodies But that weedes do grow in the sea those of some price Solinus letteth vs know saying that shrubs and weedes in the Ligustike sea are those from whence our Corall commeth Such then being in the bottome are about the head of our Prophet he is wreathed and tangled in them
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
may afterward fight againe as Demosthenes once could say And as Eusebius sheweth many Christians which renounced Christ for the feare of cruell torment returned to him againe and made a good confession Oftentimes saith Cypâ—ian both adulterers and murtherers and drunkards and those vvho are guiltie of all vvickednesse finding occasion of a fight and being conuerted haue deserued to come to a palme of martyrdome How much more then may a weake brother The example of Bishop Cranmer is very well knowne vnto vs who was a great pillar of Gods Church a great light of the Gospell but yet first denied but afterward repented and purged it with teares But as the scholers do oftentimes say more then their maisters so the Cathari and Nouatians who were the Disciples of Nouatus did giue a more bloudy sentence then euer their teacher did For they held that not onely to deny Christ was so haynous but whosoeuer after Baptisme had done any mortall sinne such as we find in the Scripture that death is threatned to was cut off from the Church and hee might haue no portion in the Eucharist or Communion howsoeuer afterward he did behaue himselfe He must stand a man sequestred and excommunicate to the death 9 A hard saying to all men for who is he that sinneth not in that sort since euerie â—â—nne is deadly vnlesse the Lord do pardon it Circumcision was to the Israelites as Baptisme is to the Christians an admission into the flocke and a testification to the conscience of euery beleeuer that he was in Gods fauour but Dauid circumcised was an adulterer and a murtherer yet vpon his true repentance both the Lord and the congregation receiued him to mercy The righteous man sayth Saloman falleth seuen times and riseth againe Whereof although Hierome doth aske if he be iust then hovv falleth he if he fall hovv is he righteous yet he aunswereth himselfe that he looseth not the name of a righteous man because he riseth by repentance And this is the hope of the best for who otherwise should not perish When Acesius a Bishop of the Nouatians at the Nicene Councell did shew Constantine that holy and blessed Emperour the strictnesse of their opinions and how precisely a man must liue without sinne after Baptisme if he would attaine saluation the Emperour maketh him aunswer If this be so Acesius then get thy selfe a ladder and clime alone into heauen giuing his censure of it so that scant any man should be saued if that ground were maintained No maruell if for the comfort of wounded consciences at the first Saint Cyprian and Cornelius Bishop of Rome and Dionysius of Alexandria so hotely did impugne this heresie and after them Chrysostome who so farre did dislike this hard lacing of Nouatus that he spake thus against it If thou haue fallen a thousand times and dost repent thee of it enter into the Church that is if thy repentance bee true I will not seclude thee from the fellowship of Gods children We do teach the selfe same doctrine not to stirre men vp to sinne for that were to fall of presumption vnto which many times God denieth the benefite of repentance but that we may seeke out that which is lost and bind vp that which is broken and raise vp that which is fallen and saue some out of the fire Gods Church is made of sinners Christ Iesus did dye for sinners Our verie Creede doth teach vs that the Communion of Saints and the forgiuenesse of sinnes must be ioyned and go together He who will haue part in the one must haue his fellowship in the other He cannot come to the first but he must tast of the latter We cry to the man lamenting his iniquities as Ambrose writing vpon Luke crieth Let no man distrust let no man being priuie to his old faults despaire of a reward from God God knoweth how to chaunge his sentence if thou know how to change thy fault We testifie with Saint Bernard It seemeth vnto God that he doth more slowly giue pardon to the sinner then it doth vnto the other that he doth receiue it For the mercifull God doth so hasten to acquite the guiltie man from the torment of his conscience as if the suffering of the wretch did more grieue the pitifull God then his owne suffering did the man which is in miserie For he who truly repenteth and earnestly sorroweth without doubt without delay shall receiue a pardon Let the weake then raise vp his heart and strengthen his feeble knees Sinners which call for grace do belong to the adoption Noe swarued and yet he was a Patriarke Lot fell yet he is said by Saint Peter to haue had a righteous soule Peter himselfe had a guiltie conscience and yet was a great Apostle Ionas became a mightie trespasser and yet still remained the Lords Prophet It was Gods gracious bountie whose fauour originally euer commeth for nothing but being once setled it is not lost for a little And thus haue you his loue both to Niniue and to Ionas 10 There is yet another matter which in this former verse is worthie of consideration that the word of the Lord is said here to come to Ionas The Creatour of all things might haue vsed many other wayes to reclaime that offending citie In old time he did call and warne men by visions and by dreames as it is in Iob or his benefits might haue allured or if those had but choked and pampered them vp with fatnesse his rods might haue beat them to it famine might breede remorse or the sword of the enemie or some deuouring pestilence Or if he would saue all their liues such iudgements might haue frighted them as were shewed at Hierusalem at the last destruction of it For as we find in Iosephus a Comete like to a sword did long hang ouer the citie and troupes of armed men were seene to fight in the aire What terrour would this haue wrought what heart would not this haue rented and driuen it into mourning and calling to God for pardon But the great Lord who in his wisedome hath ordained another way as the ordinarie course to winne men to himselfe that is by his most precious word and his ministerie doth here commend this his ordinance for the instrument of their good He hath made this word more sharpe then is any two edged sword This is it which doth pierce the marrow and breake the bones in sunder which entreth into the diuision of the soule and of the spirit of the heart and of the reines which wresteth sighs from the mind and wringeth teares from the eyes and maketh a whole man as it were to melt and dissolue into water This is it to which especially he hath promised to giue a blessing that it shall not returne in vaine but as the rayne commeth downe and the snow from heauen and returneth not thither but
writeth reporting very maruellous things thereof Remember the force of enemies assembled in great number and with discipline of warre what strange things they haue done I spake before of Hierulalem and who thought themselues more safe then the inhabitants of that city and yet the Romanes tooke them The Gothes surprised Rome when Honorious who was then Emperour lying quietly at Rauenna thought the matter so vnlikely that when newes was brought vnto him that Rome was lost he supposed that they had meant a fighting cocke which he called by that name So it might be with other places euen with this mighty Niniue 16 Truth it is that they had people and souldiers in great store a city strongly defenced mony and much munition yet these things are not euermore of power to keepe and saue from an enemy You haue heard of that speech of Philip who neuer feared but he might take that city whose gates were so wide that an Asse laden with gold might enter Iugurtha could say that Rome it selfe might haue bene bought for money if there had bene any to buy it But it is the note of an historian in our age that it is a foolish speech which commonly men do vse to say that any city or fortresse is inuincible For sayth he when an enemy hath once layd siege against it either force of gunnes by violence or craft of mining in secret or priuy scaling by night or tiring out the besieged by long continued labours or treason or some stratageme may bring it to the inuader Yea victuall may want within or things fit for defence or the garrison may be worne And by such meanes warriours may win any place Let Tyrus be the example which was gained by Alexander the Great And if a hold he once taken why is it not in the mercy of the conquerour both for the place and the people to be vsed at his pleasure to be saued if he will saue or spilled if he will spill And is a mortall creature of power to breake the greatest and shall we not thinke that God who mooueth and the heauen doth stir who speaketh and the earth doth tremble can plucke Niniue on her knees within forty dayes or whensoeuer it shall seeme good vnto him There is no doubt at all of this matter Then since they had no suspect of the ability of â—â—s power and what his will was they had heard no maruell if all their hearts were filled with such a sorrow as requireth time to describe it Thus you now know the cutting Sermon and galling speech of our Prophet which is short not sweet few words but full of waight so heauy that they make the proudest there to quake Which I shall let you know as God shall giue occasion In the meane while let vs pray that the Lord will send vs that grace to leade our liues in his feare that he in wrath be not enforced by the multitude of our sinnes to intend such destruction to vs as is here proclaimed against Niniue but that we may do those deeds which belong to Christ Iesus his seruants to which Christ with his blessed Father and his eternall Spirite be praise for euermore THE XIX LECTVRE The chiefe poynts 1. The Niniuites are not obstinate but yeeld 3. The force of the word of God 5. Conscience and present feare maketh sooner to repent 6. The Pastour must not be discouraged if at the first he preuaile not 7. The Pastour is neare to God 8. Therefore he should be very wary 9. The people should vse their Ministers reuerently 10. Godlinesse is most imbraced where it may be least expected 11. Fasts are to be proclaimed by the Magistrate 13. The force of fasting and praying 14. But we are negligent herein Ionah 3.5 So the people of Niniueh beleeued God and proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest of them euen to the least of them IT hath bene shewed before how fearefull a message the Prophet Ionas brought to mighty Niniue That yet forty dayes and Niniue shall be ouerthrowne Yet forty dayes and then as Ioel sometimes spake a day of darknesse and blacknesse of cloudes and obscurity of lamentable horrour and vnspeakeable desolation The great city the rich city the Imperiall commaunder of all the East parts he knoweth not how nor he speaketh not how but be it howsoeuer shall be surely destroyed I am now to lay downe according to the order of the story the good intertainement which this messenger found Who would not imagine that men in that height of prosperity in the top of the wheele now bearing rule ouer a great part of the world would haue vsed this stranger in some strange manner sutably to that pride and disdainefull contempt which commonly waiteth vpon abundance That an vnknowne fellow simple out of countenance hauing neither statelinesse of apparell nor any attendants to commend him should come facing and threatning with a tale of that nature neither respecting himselfe nor his superiours If it be want of maners in him he must be taught good maners if it be lacke of wit he must be taught wit not to disturbe or interrupt the peace of such a city Ahab although he knew well inough who Elias was yet in like case would haue sayd vnto him Art thou he that troublest Israel The Iewes would haue serued him as they serued Saint Steuen shoute at him stop their eares runne vpon him at once draw him out of their city and stone him Or as they serued Paule crye Away with such a fellovv from off the earth it is not fit that he should liue and then againe shoute and cast off their clothes and throw dust into the aire Verie few of the qualitie of the citizens of Niniue would haue forborne to imprison him or dâ—â—e him from among them 2 But the Auditors here being made of other more gentle and soft mettall do beare themselues better The sound of his voyce being entred into their eares hath descended to their hearts and there hauing wrought an effectuall conuersion reflecteth it selfe so againe that their vttermost members are affected therewith The soule hauing once giuen credit to this so imminent an euill the whole man is possessed with a fearefull contemplation the body quiuereth at it and all the ioynts do tremble the voyce is lifted vp to proclaime mortification the belly shall be pinched with a macerating fast the backe shall be disguised with sordidity of sackcloth the head shall be couered with ashes and dust the tongue shall crye mightily vnto God for mercie Yea great and small of them without any exception shall thus be brought downe Such a change in such a moment of time was neuer seene That the voyce of musicke should be turned into mourning the sound of the viole and harpe into howling and schreeching that the Princes and beggers should be equalled together that the daughters of Niniue the daintiest of ten thousand depriued of their
to bend our knees to cast vp our eyes to lift our hands to heauen to beate our breasts or the like yea also with contention of spirit and extention of voyce if time and place serue to releeue our own infirmitie But this in synceritie as before God and without fained hypocrisie which is a double wickednesse 11 There may also be a second vse of this praying aloude Seneca a heathen man and yet as if seemeth religious in his Ethnicke superstition doth complaine in this manner What a madnesse is this in men They do whisper vnto their Gods most fi lt hie requests and if a man do hearken vnto them they will bold their peace and what they would not haue a man know that they tell to God This custome hath preuailed among Christians that leude men will not feare to aske leude things in their prayers the wanton to speed in his wantonnesse the deceiuer in his bargaines the oppressour in his oppressions Loud crying doth meete with this for although we dread not God yet we stand in feare of men The Pythagoreans in old time did obserue this well enough of whom Clemens Alexandrinus doth write thus What do the Pythagoreans meane when they bid men crye aloud Not as I thinke that they imagined that God would not heare such as speake secretly but because they would haue the prayers of men iust which they should not feare to vtter yea although men did know it It is certainely a preposterous course more to respect men who stand by then the Lord before whom they stand but since the folly of men is such it is to be met with in his kind He alluded well to this who although he spake not of loud crying yet gaue counsell that we should so speake to men as if God did alwaies heare vs that is our talke should be with sobrietie and wisedome and so speake to God as if men did euer heare vs that is reuerently and religiously Now as this doth teach vs something so I am rather of that mind for the king of Niniue that he commaunded his by Proclamation to crye stongly vpon God that by their importunitie and vehement exclamation the Lord might be more mooued to take mercie vpon them When the heare of the heart within shall breake foorth into the toung it is so much the more forcible Let them turne from their euill way 12 There is yet a third thing to be found in this Proclamation that besides fasting and prayer there should be a reformation in manners and life Let euery man turne from his euill way and from the wickednesse that is in their hands That which our English readeth wickednesse is by other most fitly translated violence or robberie or rapine but Hierome and the Septuagint haue iniquitie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where one kind of sin is put in the place of all the rest that one sinne for all his fellowes either because that fault did much abound in Niniue I meane rapine and oppression toward those who were their subiects or toward the poore among them or because in generall all men who know not the Lord are soone taken in that crime as from some words of Saint Paule may not vnfitly be gathered where after that he hath exhorted them to possesse their vessels in holinesse not in the lust of concupiscence as the Gentils who know not God he doth name this as a speciall fruit of their not knowing God dehorting them from it that no man oppresse or deceiue his brother in any thing But to leaue this particular the doctrine is that euery man who wil turne to the Lord must hate euill and flye wickednesse because the Lord requireth that as a certaine signe of repentance When Salomon consecrating the Temple made his prayer he speaketh to God on this manner When the heauen shall be shut vp and there shall be no raine because they haue sinned against thee and they shall pray in this place and shall confesse thy name and turne from their sinne when thou doest afflict them then heare thou in heauen The condition is put in that they must turne from their sinne So in the Prophet Ieremy O Israel if thou returne returne to me saith the Lord and if thou put away thine abominations out of my sight then shalt thou not remooue It was the preaching of Iohn the Baptist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 repent be wiser chaunge your minds or amend and alter you liues for the kingdome of heauen is at hand So the Apostle Peter Amend your liues and returne that your sinnes may be put away And this putting off of sinne this laying away of the old man is that which maketh vs apt to walk the wayes of the Lord. For doing so we are expedite and nimble to tread his paths to do as he doth commaund vs to go whither he biddeth vs. But the packe of sinne is so heauie that we cannot choose but double vnder it and sinke and fall Then why do we not make hast to be freed from this burthen If men as Saint Austen speaketh should beare any heauy load of wood or stone or the like yea if it were something gainefull of wine or corne or money they would hasten to put that off But they beare a greater loade of sinne and make no speede to be freed from it But the retaining of this so long doth in the end so tire out the conscience that it fainteth vnder the burthen as appeareth too often when in sicknesse otherwise the minds of some are so distracted that they tremble dread much lest it be too late to cry for mercy They haue giuen way to malice and haue heaped euill vpon euill and are so incorporated into it that they cannot in theÌ„selues see any way of separation Yet let not such men despaire for Gods mercy is infinite and if a sentence were gone out against such yet as Saint Ambrose writeth in his Commentarie on Saint Luke God knoweth how to change his sentence if thou knovv hovv to amemd thy fault But the fault at last must be amended and the former offences vnlearned and forgotten else it is no good repentance For he alone doth shew himselfe worthily penitent who so deploreth euils past that he doth â—not againe commit the same afterward for he who bewaileth sinne and afterward committeth that sinne is as if he were washed a raw or vndried bricke where the more he rubbeth it in washing the more dirt he doth make Whosoeuer then commeth to God who is a God of pure eyes must know that it is his will that first he depart from euill 13 And if this be not done then all externall workes are but hypocriticall shewes thy prayer is but hypocrisie for thou faiest to God thy will be done and yet thou doest thine owne Thy sackcloth is but a couer of a counterfeit and deceiuer Without a whited sepulchre within full of
murmuring or grudging if we speede not For our friends or children the Lord better knoweth what is good then we our selues can deuise but in the meane while we must pray and begge the best of him and yet with this condition Thy vvill be done That which we thinke is most dangerous turneth oftentimes to our good and thence whence we expect our vndoing God raiseth our greatest comfort The case of Monica mother to Saint Austen is famous she grieued that her sonne was spotted with the heresie of the Manichees and she prayed that the Lord would bring him to the Orthodoxe Catholike faith She remembred this day by day and yet as himselfe doth witnesse for nine yeares together he continued so infected It fell out afterward that he would needes go and trauell out of Africa into Italy His mother being loath to part with him who was as the staffe of her old age vnto her earnestly prayed that God would hinder him of that purpose Yet Austen went and by hearing the Sermons of Saint Ambrose at Millaine he was conuerted to that which in former times he could neuer like He reporting all this matter doth vse this good speech of it Thou ô God being deepe in counsell and hearing the substance of my mothers desire didst not care for that which she did then aske that in me thou mightest do that which she euer asked Thus the Almighty dealeth with other of his seruants working all things to the best but it is at such times as he himselfe doth thinke good If it be in him to blesse it is in him to do it when it seemeth good to himselfe Therefore let vs neuer be angry and repine at that which he altereth from the intent of our mind 16 But among all let the Minister be most patient this way He peraduenture beateth downe pride or cryeth out against extortion he is derided for it then he powreth out many threats against scoffers and deriders If repentance follow in them afterward and so their prosperity continue let not him be offended at it but let him rather reioyce that God hath so prospered the word which came out of his mouth Againe it may be that he requesteth at the hands of his heauenly father that he would spare some whom he seeth to be tempted and in Christian commiseration wisheth that they were refreshed with the sweete deaw of Gods comfort Or else he seeth some tainted with superstition and doating on the See of Rome whom yet he loueth in humane affection as being of neighborhood or kinred or because they be of his charge or for their louely behauiour and other amiable morall vertues Let him vse the best meanes that he can to bring them vnto the sheepfold by preaching by exhortation by conference and by prayer but especially by honest and holy conuersation but if God still shut their eyes let him not be angry at it and fret against the Almighty but leaue all to his dispensing Perhaps that houre which afterward shall appeare is not yet come Perhaps God meaneth that it shall neuer come but according to his vnsearchable purpose he will leaue them in darknesse Here do thou admire Gods iustice toward them but his fauour to thy selfe stand amazed at the one and kindly embrace the other but be patient in both And as it may be sayd of Socrates Aristides or Curius or Fabricius that for the desire of honesty which was more in them then in other people of their time we could in humane commiseration wish that they were in heauen among the Lords elect but that when we in Christian vnderstanding do thinke vpon the matter we find that it is not for vs to be more mercifull then God the father of mercy and fountaine of louing kindnesse so in this case of our owne experience we may not take vpon vs when we haue wisely considered of our duty to be more pitifull to our friends then God who is perfect pity Let vs in humility sigh and grone for them and be thankfull for our selues but no anger no displeasure God is King ouer all the earth and on whom he will haue mercy on him he will haue mercy and whom he will he will harden Now he who is this gracious father to vs continue this fauour on vs for his owne Sonne Christ his sake that in the ioy or the sorrow the welfare or the ill fare of our selues or other men we may yeeld our selues to his will who is the rule of iustice of integrity and of clemencie that so we may be obedient vnto him to whom be praise and glorie for euermore THE XXV LECTVRE The chiefe poynts I. Ionas doth not quite turne from God 3. The force and vertue of orayer 5. Our prayers are ofentimes faulty 7. Ionas to excuse himselfe will lay the blame on God 10. The forbearance and patience of the Lord. 13. The words of Ionas condemne himselfe 14. They are blinded who frame not themselues to Gods will Ionah 4.2 And he prayed vnto the Lord and sayd I pray thee ô Lord vvas not this my saying vvhen I vvas yet in my countrey Therefore I preuented it to flye vnto Tarshish For I knevv that thou art a gracious God and mercifull slow to anger and of great kindnesse and repentest thee of the euill THat the Prophet was to blame for being angry with any thing which the Lord wold haue done I hope from the former verse hath bene made plaine vnto you Yet furious as he is he is not so forgetfull as to turn◠quite away from God and to leaue him in the plaine field he doth not throw downe his liuerie neither doth he openly answer him that he will no more belong vnto him but follow him he will although it be as Peter followed Christ a farre off with infirmities and weaknesses heaped vp with ouer-measure When the women in Samaria by reason of the violent strong famine which was caused by the siege fel to eating their childrē Iehoram rageth at it and there is neither God nor good man that commeth in his way but at him he doth strike God do thus and thus to me if the head of Elizeus stand on him this day And this euill is of the Lord shall I vvaite any longer on him That was the rage of a reprobate who could haue bene content there had bene no Lord in the heauen or that he had had his will on him Like to which or something worse is the fury which is described by Saint Iohn in his Reuelation where when haile like talents is mentioned to fall men on earth are sayd to grieue at it yea to blaspheme the Almighty for the plague of the haile Ionas is not so farre gone but although he fret that his will is not euery way completed yet he shaketh not quite off the yoake of obedience and humility neither yet taking the bit peruersely in his teeth runneth on to his destruction He is
indifferent but if question were concerning an holy-day they would striue for that as for their life Our Sauiour saith that the Pharisees stood to tith mint and anise but let go iudgement and mercie An absurditie of absurdities but yet short of this in our Prophet For if euer man strained a gnat and swallowed vp a camell it may be said to be he Indeede Adam went beyond him when in the height of his wisedome he preferred the tast of an apple or some such other fruite of a tree before the perpetuated ioyes which should haue bene in Paradise And so consequently they do who embrace the fraude of this world and contemne the blisse of eternitie But betweene eternall and tēporall there should be no comparison And as little almost is there betweene a gourd and Niniue Yet so that in his melancholie he might sit vnder the one he careth not what becommeth of the other An vnsociable part and exceedingly inhumane What man of kind affection would not leaue pleasure profite to do well to a many Camillus and Aristides and Cato would haue done it But they are wretched creatures who care not what sinke or swimme rather then themselues be disquieted the wagging of a finger It is recorded by Gellius as an euerlasting blot against the daughter of Appius Caecus that when comming once out of a play she was thronged by a multitude she wished that a brother of hers were aliue againe who lately before had lost many thousands of the Romanes in Sicily that he might make a hand with more of them The Aediles of the people set a great fine on her head for that her cruell conceit because rather then her selfe who might haue stayed at home would be thrust at a play she would wish the death of so many Ionas deserued higher punishment in as much as whē his case was no more serious yet he wished a greater matter But God willing to include his messenger in his mercie as well as the straungers of Niniue will not deale with him so seuerely but onely talking with him doth let him see his folly and so secretly reprooueth him By an argument which is drawne à minori ad maius he doth open his vnderstanding Thou a man doest loue a plant I a God do loue a people thou likest that which hath no sense I stand for that which hath reason thou carest for that which is but of thy new acquaintance I respect mine auncient charge Thou desirest that which did grow without any of thy labour I preserue that which I planted and watered with great diligence thou regardest that which is most momentanie I that which may stand thousands of yeares thou one indiuidual bodie I millions of more worth thou only carest for thine ease but I do this for mine honour that all the earth may know it In al which we may consider that is put with an Emphasis still designing the highest Maiestie And this may be said of the comparison 10 If I should proceede at large to obserue vnto you euery point which may fitly be deduced hence I might iustly offend your patience I will therefore but briefly touch that which may be enlarged farther In speaking of the gourd it is said that the Prophet did neuer labour for it he had it when he thought not of it This commendeth the most large bountie of him who ruleth all things who not onely sendeth somewhat to Ionas without his labour but to euery man besides In that sort he began with him from whome we all are deriued he put him into the world as into a house prepared and furnished to his hand Although not in that high degree yet many men of the world do tast of this in great measure Inheritours vnto kingdomes other earthly possessions left to them by their parents and for which they did neuer sweate but found them readie prouided are partakers of this blessing Their thankfulnesse should be the greater because their labour was the lesse Many of vs here assembled haue experience of Gods kindnesse powred on vs in that behalfe when we inhabite houses which we our selues neuer built and feed of that and are clothed with it which we did neuer buy Gods selected and choise instruments our honorable founders haue prouided these things for vs wherein we had no more finger then Ionas had in his gourd and the enioying whereof we could no more promise vnto our selues then they which least partake them It behooueth vs to remember that these consecrated things are not disposed by God nor dispensed by his seruants for idlenesse or luxurie or pampering of our selues but there is another end which will exactly be required of vs the glorifying of Christ an attendance at the altar a seruice in the Tabernacle or at least a doing of good in a ciuill and sociable life that it be not ill spent vpon vs which might better be spared Now as some do plentifully tast of wels which they neuer digged so there is not the poorest man nor most discontented creature but herein he hath a share For doth he liue and mooue what paines did he take for that It was giuen vnto him whē he thought not of it Hath he the earth to beare him the water to refresh him the aire to returne him breath what doth he for all these matters We are very dull if we see not that all the treasure vpon earth is not like to these gifts the worth whereof we conceiue not because we haue them but let vs want them but a little and we shall easily see at how high a rate they are to be esteemed But who is he that will earnestly enter into himselfe and call his wits to remembrance who may not see that from his cradle vnto this day many things according to his proportion haue bene bestowed vpon him which came wholly by Gods prouidence and quite without his trauell The conscience of each priuate man may best of all testifie this but euery one hath had more or lesse the most needie many an almes and other men other matters He who sent the gourd to the Prophet when he did not labour for it sent these good gifts to them and it was none but himselfe his name be praised for it 11 As this may teach true patience to him who wanteth many things so to returne to the infants somewhat more then is in them which may offer comfort vnto him What the number of little ones was in Niniue was well knowne to the Lord. By meanes of his infinit prouidence he hath the reckening of them He who calleth the starres by their names knew their kindreds and their houses and the accompt of the children And did he then precisely know how many and whose they were and doth he not so now Was there knowledge vnder the law and is there not in the time of grace was there fauour to the Gentiles and is there not to the Christians Yes he is the