beasts if they prooued to be drunkards A sight so liuely in their eyes might be as a sharpe spurre in the consciences of the Niniuites to deplore their owne case with a most carefull contemplation of it vnlesse they were insensible so obdurate in heart as that no good thing could pierce them Diodorus Siculus writeth that in Ethiopia there is a people of that qualitie that they are not at all mooued with the speech of them who sayle by them or with the sight of straungers approching to them but onely looking vpon the earth they vse to stand vnmoueable as if their senses tooke knowledge of no man If any sayth he should strike them with a drawne sword they flye not but beare the stripes and iniuries neither is any of them mooued with the wound or hurt of another but oftentimes without any kind of passion they â—ehold their wiues and children slaine shewing no manner of token of anger or of pitie An insensible sort of people if there should be any such which in truth I beleeue not but these Niniuites should haue bene like to them if when they had beheld horrour and griefe and weeping and out-skreeking in euery thing attending them they would not be mooued to thinke that their part was in the bargaine And if it were so with that which wanted wit and reason and knowledge to do euill things how then should it stand with themselues who had all these and abused them Then the cattell serued in such manner might bee an instruction this way to their maisters 5 Secondly by the lawes of the graund Creatour there is such affinitie betweene man and the beastes which are subiected to his vse that the sorrowes of the better do easily touch the worser For God hath so coupled all creatures to mankind with a chayne of strong dependance that the being of them is much sutable to the flourishing or fading of the other It is a verie mysticall point which Saint Paule hath in the eight to the Romanes that the creature shall be deliuered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious libertie of the sonnes of God And that the creature groneth and trauelleth in payne vvith vs yet if we well weigh it that text shall argue thus much vnto vs that the heauen and earth and the other elements for I may not amisse name the heauens because Saint Peter telleth vs that they shall melt with heate by the fall of our first parents fell into grieuous bondage euen sinking in their excellencie when man did sinke to whose seruice next after God they were made And when in the day of iudgement there shall be a renewing and restoring of that image of God wherein man was first framed then shall they returne to that beautie wherein they at first were established so retaining still their substance howsoeuer they may melt in the fire like gold loosing their drosse and corruption If then these mightie masses the heauen and earth and the elements haue such a reference vnto man as being made to grace him the earth for him to walke on the ayre for him to breath on the water for him to feede on the heauen for him to looke on the Sunne to giue him light euerie thing to yeeld him comfort and when he standeth they stand and when he falleth they fall and when he is new moulded they also shall be recouered may we not much more imagine that sheepe and oxen and cattell yea and all the beasts of the field which as Hierome noteth were made for our vsing or for our eating are tyed and chayned vnto vs with a straighter bond of analogie or proportion that as we fare so in reason they should do either well or ill It is truth that man hath not that soueraignty in all degrees which he had that is one part of his punishment for as Chrysostome doth obserue God hath taken away from man a great portion of his power for he who at the beginning was made a fearefull Lord and maister ouer liuing bodies when like an vngratefull seruant he had offended a higher Lord was brought into contempt of those who were placed to be his seruants And thereupon as it is by one noted manie creatures are growne in their behauiour toward him as vndisciplinated things but most of all the greatest and the least Lyons Tygers and Panthers to say nothing of the whale fishes are very hardly brought to be tame but bees and gnats and flyes and such little ones not at all Thus mans dominion is scanted and drawne into a narrow roome 6 But these creatures are not so quitted but although they do lesse to man yet with man they suffer more For together with him who now is but as a young maister or a kind of quarter-maister to them they stand both generally and particularly in deepe disgrace They which otherwise would haue taken pleasure to do the will of their maister must now with blowes and stripes oftentimes be forced vnto it They which should onely haue bene vsed to good and to the glory of their maker by his fault who hath fallen are now applied to euill yea they be not in that esteeme with him who first created them As in earthlie kingdomes when a Nobleman who hath receiued many fauours and materiall benefits from his Prince doth requite him who aduanced and honoured him before with treason and rebellion then not onely his owne person which lyeth subiect to the law doth vnder-go the displeasure of his offended Soueraigne but euery man about him feeleth the smart of that rod yea euery thing that was his his familie is frowned on his followers are held suspect those which were preferred by him are turned out of their liuelihood and maintenance and moreouer his houses which were glorious before are let runne to decay their statelinesse soone droopeth their beautie mouldreth away his gardens and his orchards are ouer-growne with vncouthnesse his fish-ponds and other pleasures lye disorderly and neglected yea if there were any tame thing wherein he did delight for lacke of being handled it groweth wild and vntamed So when Adam in Paradise being in the highest degree of honour prooued a traytour to his God to whom he was beholding euen for his very selfe the earthly house where he dwelt grew out of fashion to him his pleasurable profits were turned to bryars and thistles the armes of his nobilitie were vtterly defaced but those who were his seruants to attend and wayte vpon him especially all domesticall kinds of cattell partaking the reproch which lay vpon their maister are subiected to much miserie And as in ciuill affaires the restoring againe of bloud and calling backe into fauour putteth life into all the adiacents and dependants of whom I spake before and maketh them resume some courage yea the hope of such a matter doth a little cheere their spirit but the greater the hope is the greater is their alacritie and yet
seemeth that he slept with a witnesse and if his eyes were open yet it seemeth that he stil slept like the drunken man mentioned in the writings of a certaine Orator but S. Hierome doth not name him who could not sleepe because he was stirred and could not awake because he was drunken I meane his soule did sleepe so that when his eyes were open he stared he did not awake For what else doth this declare when he must be put in mind by a simple infidel who knew not the God of Israell that he must fal to his prayers Arise call vpō thy God Here the world is turned vpside downe Ionas should teach them their dutie they must teach him his the Prophet is now an auditor and the ship-maister is the Prophet Here the sheepe leadeth the sheepheard the patient cureth the Phisitiō the scholer doth teach the master Al maketh against thee Ionas that this heathē man shold be more deuout in his superstition then thou in thy true religiō that thou shouldst forget that which an Ethnick could remēber I pray God the old Gentils Aristides Plato Socrates condemne not vs in that great terrible day because they thought of many things whereof we make no reckening Despise the wordes of none although thou be a Prophet since a mariner may teach a Preacher If thou be not come so far as to be a Prophet then do thou lesse refuse the words of any for the prouerbe is most true Saepe etiam est olitor verba opportuna locutus The gardiner or herbe-seller oftentimes hath spoken a vvord in due season 11 This man doth giue good counsel although as one in the darke he seeth not what he doth Call vpon thy God if so be that God will thinke vpon vs that we perish not The Gentiles and idolaters did dreame of more Gods then one as these did in the fifth verse Many Gods for many matters Minerua she was for learning and Venus she was for loue and Aeolus for the wind and Bacchus for the wine either diuels reputed Gods by men or men esteemed as Gods for some benefits done to mankind And as these were Gods at large so many seueral countries had Protectors for themselues The fire was the God of the Persiās whom the Sunne did represent so Hercules was for the Tyrians and Dagon for the Philistines and Astaroth for the Sidonians Milcom for the Ammonites Chemosh for the Moabites Yea they had Gods for their cities demi-gods for them selues houshold Saints and tutelar powers to whom they cried in distresses Yea superstitiō was so endles as Austen doth obserue that they had a God for euery thing yea many oftentimes for one thing As for their corne Segetius and Proserpina Volutina and Tutelina and other one for it vnder the ground another when it was sprong vp this when it was in the blade that when it was in the eare another for the barne The place in Saint Austen is worth the reading The Iewes folowed this prety wel when they offered their incense vnder euery greene tree when the number of their Gods was to the number of their cities whē there was in euerie streete an altar to sacrifice to their idols The Church of Rome thinketh scorne for idolatrie to come short of either of them when for euerie day in the yeare they haue an he Saint or a she Saint as appeareth in the common Kalender for their swine a Saint and another for their horses for Spaine a Saint as Saint Iames for vs a Saint as Saint George yea speciall men speciall Patrones manie women Iohn the Euangelist M. Campian Iohn the Baptist. 12 So wretchedlie do men run without the word of God such amased blindnesse is in the eyes of idolaters yea such tickle vncertaine giddinesse is in the life of their vnderstanding The vilest of Gods creatures shall be to them for Gods The Aegyptians as Origene writeth did adore their dogs goates apes and Crocodiles No doubt S. Paule did allude to them when speaking of the vnbeleeuers he said that they turned the glorie of the vncorruptible God to the similitude of the image of a corruptible man and of birds and foure footed beasts and of creeping things Yea they made such account of cats as I find in Diodorus Siculus that when once a Romane had killed one of them against his will the people could not be stayed either with the feare of the Romane souldiers or with reuerence to their king from running on him to kill him This is the lesse to be wondred at in them when we shal compare it with the testimony which Olaus Magnus giueth of some Northren people at this day Those are the Barbarians in Lapland and Scricfinnia and the parts adioyning whose maners he might the better know for that he was a neighbour not verie farre distant from them But of these he reporteth that it is their custome to vvorship faithfullie for a God vntill the euening of the same day vvhatsoeuer liuing-thing in the ayre or earth or water doth in the breaking of each day appeare vnto them be it bird or beast or fish yea verie serpents and vvormes Nay besides those base but yet liuing things what should I say that among idolaters the quicke do bend vnto the dead and do adore the workes of their owne hands as the Israelites once did saying to the golden calfe These are thy Gods ô Israell which haue brought thee out of the land of Egypt What that they make of their Gods some helpers and some hurters Laeua Numina hurting powers as Gellius noteth out of Virgil What that some of their holyest and most religious men did deride their greatest God For as Arnobius writeth and Plutarch hath the verie same Numa the first authour of the Romane deuotions asking of Iupiter by what meanes some places might be purged which were blasted not long before with lightning receiued this answer that it must be with a head meaning the head of a mā but Numa giueth him the head of an onion That which I would haue saith Iupiter must belong vnto a mā Yea saith Numa but it shall then be the haire nay quoth Iupiter I do require a life the other answered then it must be of a fish Thus durst he whom they accounted for the founder of all their ceremonies deride their high God Iupiter But to leaue these things thus in generall 13 Our mariners in this place with a cōceipt fit for idolaters thought one God to be stronger or better thē another or more willing or more at leysure and now they would trie the best Crie thou man to thy God I will crie to mine he shall crie to his among many one may regard vs. If none should harken to these suppliants then it might fall out that he who made him may marre him too for his Godhead Perhaps grow to
all things into her owne lap and bodies do owe to themselues the end of themselues O Caesar if fire do not novv consume these slaine men yet it shall hereafter burne them vp together with the earth and the sea For there remaineth to come one bone-fire which shall be common to all the vvorld and shall mingle the starres in heauen with their bones on earth Ouer and aboue these men of learning Peru the South part of America doth yeeld to vs an ignorant people who by the light of nature and by a generall apprehension for God knoweth they had nothing else do beleeue that the world shall end and that there shall be then a reward for the good and for the euill according to their desert An end doth suppose a beginning as the learned do well know A marring intendeth a making He who drowned the earth by water can dissolue the heauen by fire But the deluge of Deucaliō so much song of by the Poets doth witnesse that there was such a floud in the dayes of Noe and that all things were spilled by the water which could not haue bene but by him who made both the earth and the water Thus the Poets do roaue at that in their fables which Moses teacheth vs in our most sacred Bible 20 Adde some reasons to authority If the world were not created man had not once a beginning how cōmeth it about that all things which make vs liue like men appeare to haue their originall in time and place we know where an when and that but as yesterday to eternity I must not here speake of Moses which telleth vs who first made tents who made the Harpe and the Organ who first did worke in brasse because he is now in question But I bid you rather looke on Polidore Virgil who hath written a large tract of purpose to shew by whom the most matters which be of excellencie were inuented There is no greater grace to a man then knowledge and the artes of learning But Mercurie as some say as some other the Phaenicians are reported by the Gentiles to haue inuented the first letters and others are sayd afterward to haue added to them But we know that the Hebrew letters were before their time euen in the dayes of Moses who as Eusebius saith in that admirable worke of his De praeparatione Euāgelica was more ancient thē the Gods of the Greekes for that they began but after the daies of Cadmus who came much short of Moses Notwithstanding allow it to the Gentiles that there men were the authors of letters it must follow thereupon that before the birth of those persons there was no kind of Grammer How are we beholding to Zeno and Socrates and Aristotle for the vse of Logicke We know well when these liued Aristotle was schoolemaister to Alexander and Plato vnto Aristotle and Socrates vnto Plato some 400 yeares before Christ. Zeno was litle beyond thē For Philosophy Phythagoras is thought to be one of the most ancient Yet he came into Italy after that Rome was built Astronomy should be supposed to be as old as any Yet how lately were the Eclipses of the Moone which are things so well knowne in nature most feareful to the armies of the Graecians and the Romanes as in the war against Perseus Was not the yeare brought to the orderly course of the Sun by Iulius Caesar How long haue kings bene on earth when Nimrod as Moses calleth him or Ninus as other terme him for these two are thought to be one was one of the first among all nations What lawes were among the Greekes before the dayes of Lycurgus Iosephus against Apion writeth that in the time of Homere the name of law was not so much as knowne and that in all the workes of Homere there is not the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but that they were thē ruled by the speech commaundement of Princes Nay what do I speake of these things when the very foode of men in any ciuill sort had his beginning but of late for among the Ethnicks is not Bacchus sayd first to haue found out the vine we know that Noe was the man of the vine cometh the wine How cometh it about that Ceres is canonized among them for a Goddesse but for shewing their forefathers the first vse of corne All these and a thousand more imply that as things with vs are in good perfection so not long since they were rude and not long before that they were nothing because all things were nothing For the world had his beginning and these in the world their beginning 21 My text speaketh of the sea I would know of this proud disputes what reason he can assigne that the sea in diuerse places should be higher then the land and yet not ouerflow the bankes Saint Sasile in his Hexaemeron doth excellently shew it and confirmeth it to be so This may be founde to be thus by instruments Geometricall or otherwise by the eye as Leuius hath obserued and that of his owne knowledge sensibly discerning it in the Atlantike sea neare the coast of Mauritania Nature can yeelde no reason for this their best is but a cauill But diuinitie endeth this doubt God hath tyed it within his limites as a Lyon fastened in a chayne Thou saith Dauid speaking of the waters in the sea hast set them a bound which they shall not passe they shall not returne to couer the earth So God saith to Iob Who hath shut vp the sea with dores whē it issued and came forth as out of the wombe when I made the clouds as a couering thereof and darknesse in the swadling bandes thereof When I stablished my commaundement vpon it and set barres and dores and said hitherto shalt thou come and no farther and here shall it stay thy proude waues My text speaketh of the land and that hath so great alterations as in time will bring a ruine Heare the iudgement of a Gentile vpon this Aelian in the eighth booke of his historie telleth vs that not onely the mountaine in Sicilia Aetna for thereof may be giuen some reason because of the wasting and consuming of it by fire but Parnassus and Olympus did appeare to be lesse and lesse to such as sayled at sea the height thereof sinking as it seemed Whereupon he doth giue that note that men most skilfull in the secrets of nature did say that the world it selfe should perish and haue an end I know to whom I do speake that is to men of great vnderstanding As therefore I name but a few things so you see I dwell not on them 22 To that position of those who oppugne this doctrine of the creating and continuing of all by God by saying that it is Nature who produceth euery thing I might answere that there is no such matter as Nature taking it in that sense which they foolishly
may be the reason that whereas within the yeare each seuennight cut off a thousand yea sometimes a great many more in one Citie of our land by the infection of the plague since that time the note hath returned not one or so few that it is as if it were nothing Remember that the spring was verie vnkinde by meanes of the abundance of rayne which fell our Iulie hath bene like to a Februarie our Iune euen as an Aprill so that the ayre must needes be corrupted God amend it in his mercie and stay this plague of waters But yet the pestilence is now ceased I hold it a thing impossible out of the groundes of Machiauell to aunswere to these questions in simplicitie and synceritie as beseemeth reasonable men and not with cauilling and quarrelling which is for boyes and brabblers But out of the groundes of true diuinitie these and a thousand more are aunswered in one word This was the Lordes doing and it is maruellous in our eyes He who as Ionas saith is God of heauen aboue and made the sea and the dry land he decreeth it he continueth it Then let vs carie this minde toward him what we know in him to loue what we know not to admire as men amased with his Maiestie rather to thinke our selues most weake and basâ— in vnderstanding then once to suspect his power in creating or his prouidence in gouerning To him be praise and honour and maiestie now and euer THE VI. LECTVRE The chiefe points 3. Confession of a fact satisfieth men that are doubtfull 4. Idolaters scoffe at their Idols 5. We should informe and reforme our selues by the suffering of others 9 Sinne is most greeuous in them who haue had most teaching 10. Blind guides displayed 11. It is a shame to be iustly reproued by a multitude of inferiours 13. The mariners are vnwilling to shead bloud 15. Malefactours are to yeeld themselues to death with patience 16. Good men would not haue other punished with them 17. The question is handled whether any man may lawfully kill himselfe Ionah 1.10.11.12 Then were the men exceedingly afrayd and sayd vnto him vvhy hast thou done this for the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord because he had told them Then said they vnto him vvhat shall vve do vnto thee that the sea may be calme vnto vs for the sea wrought and was troublous And he sayd vnto them Take me and cast me into the sea so shall the sea-be calme vnto you for I know that for my sake this great tempest is vpon you THe aunswere of the Prophet to those manifold questions which were proposed by the mariners doth include a confession of errour and wilfull disobedience in himselfe whereof if there should be made a doubt by any man it is put out of controuersie by that which now followeth that the men knew he fled from the presence of the Lord because himselfe had told them This telling was confessing this affirming to them was informing against himselfe These wordes although they be not so placed yet by order of the narration are the first wordes of my text that being set before by an Hysteron Proteron which should follow after and that comming after which should be before He said that he was an Hebrew and feared the God of heauen as it is in the ninth verse but yet notwithstanding that he was fled from his presence as it is in this tenth verse which when the men had knowne because himselfe told them they were exceedingly afrayd and asked him why didst thou so And this I propose as the order of connexion in these wordes To shew that he did confesse were now a needlesse labour The violence of the tempest the discouerie by a lot the examination of the mariners did wring it out from the Prophet I haue opened that already And to tell what he did confesse may in as few wordes be ended that he fled away from Gods presence that is did neglect his seruice of going to preach at Niniue I haue also handled that in the third verse of this chapter The mariners they giue credit to the tale which they had heard and accordingly do proceed And so also must I. 2 Some things are verie slightly attended by men some things hardly beleeued therefore precept vpon precept and line after line here a little and there a little must be doubled and ingeminated to an obstinate people that as drop after drop doth pierce the hardest stone so teaching after teaching may sound the hardest heart euen of the most flintie nature To some men saith Seneca remedies are onely to be shewed it is inough to point them out to some other they are to be inculcated and many times repeated The ignorant do yeeld apparant proofe of this when they can verie hardly be reclaimed from their customes no perswasions can remoue them So although not euer yet oftentimes the children of such who liue in Popish darkenesse do confirme this doctrine to vs who heare and will not heare who giue no kinde of credit to oft repeated truthes out of the booke of God Besides a supine carelesnesse is generall in all men so that many things wisely vttered do breed but small effect because they are little regarded But here is such a seale set vpon the companie of Ionas as which taketh such impression that it needeth not to be oft doubled The wind which blew aboue the sea which wrought below did put them past peraduenture that some thing was amisse that some great sinne waamsong them The lot shewed Ionas to be the man whom iudgement did pursue and vengeance did so follow It needed not to be told them oft that this party had offended 3 But when the words of the Prophet had passed against himselfe and aboue all other signes which might affoord coniecture his confession was come foorth to accuse and condemne himselfe then his hearers had great reason to know what the matter was For in such cases as are doubtfull if any one do speake for himselfe and vrge his owne condemnation wisedome and sound aduise biddeth the auditour make a pause before that lightly he do beleeue it For who is he whom nature hath not taught that lesson to say the best for himselfe Againe in cases of complaint if another man should accuse iustice and Christian charity biddeth the hearer make a stay and not giue credit hastily For if euery thing should be true which euery one reporteth what man should not be a diuell shall not Christ himselfe be a Beelzebub But when presumptions great and many shall go before and withall the offending person shall open himselfe then sence and reason do teach that of likelyhood he is guilty When Micah brought the siluer which was stolen away from his mother and sayd plainly that he had taken it his mother had great reason to thinke that he was the man When Rechab and Baanah brought
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
fellowes do with open mouth most bitterly inueigh yet they neuer can be able by sound truth to condemne them Their choyse was hard that either their vow must be broken by them or else they must beare about a dayly sinne in their bodies They aduentured on the lesser fault I doubt not but asking pardon for the rash and vnaduised oath which they had taken And God doth forgiue vs such things when we call to him by repentance as may very well be gathered from the fifth Chapter of Leuiticus where was appointed an offering as a kind of satisfaction for him who had vowed any thing which he afterward doth find out not to be in his powor to accomplish Charitie doth bid me thinke that those fathers in the Gospell and excellent men in the faith did enter into wedlocke with all labour to satisfie a good conscience towards God And therein their owne hearts might be the best witnesse and direction to themselues Yet the person who hath so vowed and in so doing hath not done well let him feare to breake that vow causelesse by a licentious libertie and if God do giue the gift of chastitie let him liue in continency if he can as otherwise for the honour giuen to virginitie in the Scripture so for his vowes sake also And so much I thought good to teach concerning vowes by occasion of the words of the Prophet Ionas wherein if I haue bene ouer-long let this excuse the matter that this doctrine is few times handled and now the text did minister opportunitie That second part which now followeth I will ouerrunne most briefly Saluation is of the Lord. 19 Many of the old interpreters and Hierome among other not obseruing such a distinction or point which ought to be in the sentence haue ioyned these words with the former and so caused the sence of all to be troubled The Hebrew hath it thus Saluation is to the Lord which the most carefull expositours do plainely expresse by Saluation is from the Lord. Tremelius doth interprete it All manner of saluation or sauetie is to Iehouah So that here the Prophet gathering by a constant faith that after his great feares in the sea and in the whale he should be freed from all perill and enioy his life once againe ascribeth all to God and with this Epiphonema maketh conclusion of his prayer acknowledging that whatsoeuer came vnto him well was from the Almightie For to whom should he impute it but onely vnto him whose inconceiuable power he had felt before to the full who to punish and chastise him had the ayre and water at his commaundement and had for three dayes kept him aliue in the fishes bellie Now if he should bring him to libertie out of bondage and desolation and should pardon his sinne and transgression he had great reason to magnifie his mercie and goodnesse ouer him Mine ayde commeth not from me I cannot helpe my selfe it cometh not from fortune or blind chaunce there is no such thing in nature not from any lying vanitie of idoll or heathen God but from the all-sufficient Lord who can helpe when he pleaseth and raise vp when he lifteth he putteth downe and setteth vp he doth what himselfe will If I haue hope of any thing it is deriued from him 20 Yea vnder this generall speech he remembreth vnto all that euery of their escapes from daunger are onely from the Lord. If the Israelites be deliuered from the bondage of the Egyptians if Dauid get from Saul if Elias be freed from Iezabel this good doth come from that father who sitteth aboue in heauen Or if any one of vs being layd for by the malice of cruell and wicked men be not made a pray to their power or deceiuing pollicy it is not of our wit neither is any flesh our arme but this safety is of the Lord. And if we will looke higher the deliuery of our soules from the chaynes and bands of Satan the sauing of vs from the violence of all our ghostlie enemies the redeeming of vs from sinne the incorporating of vs into his owne Sonnes body the bringing of vs to that glorious liberty of the sonnes of God is the worke of the Almighty Not vnto vs ô Lord not vnto vs but vnto thy name giue the glorie We may say as the Elders say in the Reuelation of Iohn to Christ the Lambe of God Thou art vvorthy to take the booke and to open the seales thereof because thou vvast killed and hast redeemed vs to God by thy bloud out of euery kinred and tongue and poeple and nation and hast made vs vnto our God kings and priests and vve shall raigne on the earth nay we shall raigne in the heauen But the whole worke of our ransome onely belongeth to the Trinitie As Ionas concludeth that prayer of his which hath bene so full of passion so do I end at this time saluation is to the Lord. Let vs pray to him to blesse vs still that by grace giuen vnto vs we may be sonnes of adoption and at last be brought to saluation which himselfe graunt vnto vs for his blessed Christs sake to both whom with the holy Spirite be maiesty power and glory both now and euermore Amen THE XV. LECTVRE The chiefe poynts 1. Gods fatherly affection toward sinners 4. He commandeth his creatures at his pleasure 6. Ionas is cast on land 7. A figure of Christs resurrection 9. We also shall rise againe 10. Comfort to the heauy heart 11. A comparison betweene Ionas and Arion 13. The whole narration of Arion is a fable 15. Some wonders are wrought by the Diuell 16. who doth much imitate God 17. and seeketh to discredit Gods word by his fables 19. How the Scriptures might be obscurely knowne by the old Poets and Philosophers 20. But they corrupt the diuine stories 21. Humane learning is fit for a Minister Ionah 2.10 And the Lord spake vnto the fish and it cast vp Ionas vnto the drye land IT is not without cause that so oftentimes in the Scriptures God is compared to a father and called by that name as Our father vvhich art in heauen and Ye shall therefore be perfect as your father vvhich is in heauen is perfect And as a father hath compassion on his children so hath the Lord compassion on them that feare him for he beareth a verie father-like and naturall affection to all those who are chosen to be his If they be led by weakenesse into diuerse temptations or by infirmity of their flesh be stained with great transgressions he looketh angrily for a time and with a terrible countenance seuerely frowneth on them but yet in the middle of his iustice he remembreth mercy and doth not vtterly reiect them nor cast them away It may be that he doth chastise them with parent-like correction according to the measure and qualitie of their crime yea he layeth smart blowes on them not sparing to strike them till he
in the middest of the city But by the testimony of our Sauiour Christ these two ioyned together are arguments and tokens of the most humble repentance Woe be to thee Chorazin woe be to thee Bethsaida for if the great workes which were done in you had bene done in Tyrus and Sidon they had repented long agone in sackcloth and ashes that is in the most lowly maner which may possibly be deuised Saint Gregory in his Morals doth shew the reason why these should be vsed in the time of griefe In sackcloth sayth he is shewed a roughnesse and a pricking euen the compunction of our sinnes In ashes is signified the dust of men who are dead And therefore both of these are vsed in repentance that in pricking of sackcloth we may know by our fault what it is which we haue done and in ashes vve may vveigh vvhat we haue deserued in iudgement that is to be made dust and ashes Consider then sayth he in the sackcloth pricking vices consider in the ashes the paine of vices vvhich followeth by the sentence of death This is the spirituall meaning of this mourning attire and it cannot chuse but strike a kind of horrour outwardly into euery one who beholdeth it For doth not sackcloth or haircloth cast downe the mind of the wearer or the high conceipt of the stander by to see him who was most glorious with or beyond manie other now to be arayed in that which noteth manifest lamentation And do not ashes more remember vs of mortification that he who liueth and mooueth should like a carcasse turned into dust be as alreadie in his graue that if he be not yet fallen into the dust of the earth yet the dust is arisen vp to him and hath met him halfe the waie So liuing hee is as dead and moouing as if hee were alreadie buried 13 I cannot chuse but admire the care of this worthy Niniuite to satisfie in euery kind so farre as lay in him Looke in what he had offended in that he would make a recompence In former time he had displeased God as well within as without and now he would shew the fruites of this his griefe as well within as without Within by debarring his belly and stomacke of their sustenance without by making that flesh which had taken delight before in beautie and in brauerie to be basely and vgly clothed He saw the faults of himselfe and therefore as a carefull planter or ouerseer of trees he bent that stocke which grew awrie to the contrary side And he tooke the rightest course to redresse his faults not doing as necessitie many times vrgeth men in their chastisements to lay vpon one member or part of the bodie for the ouersight of the other as for the slippes of the hands to lay stripes vpon the backe or shoulders but he correcteth the offenders in the most iust and equitable order that might be For had he not transgressed both in the backe and the belly His bellie had bene a receptacle of much luxurie and excesse the sumptuous birdes of the ayre the dainty fish of the water had bene deuoured by him It may be that he had offended as Vitellius did afterward who caused all seas and lands to be sought for rare creatures to feede on and when they had bene brought vnto him at an inestimable price or rate then they should not be touched in grosse but an eye onely of this bird or a tongue onely of that fish must be tasted that so the spoyles of a many might be taken at one meale It may be that like his countreyman Sardanapalus that Epicure he thought that alone to be his which he had consumed in eating and so had made his belly no lesse then his God To make amends for this by proclaiming a solemne fast he abateth the â—uperfluity of his vnruly paunch and pincheth it with famine that because in former times it had had a great deale more then it should now it might want that which is necessarie So his backe and loynes had bene supporters of much excesse so that the most curious of workmanship the most sumptuous of stuffe the most conspicuous of mettals the most precious of stones and pearles had bene bestowed vpon them There was in likelihood no pompe to be desired which they knew not Therefore to satisfie for those follies and to bring his body to better compasse sackcloth bumbasted with ashes or vnderlayd with dust must now be worne and sate on I Inow not whether the wisedome of this king or his equity or humility be more to be commended 14 But the mind within being added to it maketh all the rest more acceptable For we need not doubt but that was ioyned He who had done all those things that is came downe from his throne of honour layd his kingly robe from him put on sackcloth and ashes by the aduise of his counsell set foorth such a Proclamation for a fast to be kept by all his people both young and old men and cattell bid cry to God so mightily yea who appeased the fury of the Lord and quenched his wrath toward them neede not be suspected now but to haue ioyned his mind within to his externall actions And that being put to as a kind of celestiall salt maketh all the rest to be sauoury For aboue all things the sacrifice of God is a troubled spirit and a broken and contrite heart the Lord doth not despise It were to be wished that our Iesuites and Seminary men would learne this of this Barbarian to adorne their externall penance and voluntary worships which they enioyne to themselues with this contrite mind within For if sackcloth and haircloth and fasting and whipping too be vsed and oft-times doubled they which do them are not the nearer to heauen vnlesse the inward conscience be established in the faith and taught that nothing meriteth but the bloud of Christ our Redeemer It is but like a whited sepulchre whited but full of rottennesse like old Iezabel who albeit she was painted yet was she full of aged wrinkles the deeds but of Baals Priests who could cut and launce themselues the very workes of hypocrites They may gaine prayse with men and make their Proclamations to the world as they do that their lodging is very hard and their shirts made of course haircloth yea as Posseuinus sayth and seemeth to cite it from our Campian that flying to wildernesses as Heremits and to monasteries as Fryers all their life time in the schooles of perfect vertue cilicijs paludati pasti ieiunijs that is being robed in hearcloth and fed with fastings they do meditate both day and night in the Law of the Lord Yet although they go farther also and cast out Diuels too they may heare in the day of iudgement from the mouth of the last iudge Depart from me I know you not you workers of iniquity vnlesse the inward meaning be rectified and