and adore this glorious Lord God his understanding is infinite his Power Presence Wisdom Mercy care of his people preservation of the creatures even the meanest Jonah was much bound to be thankful that when the Ninevites yielded him no entertainment and he provided a simple one for himself the Lord prepared this gourd for him Which is also our case not seldom Use 2 Learn also in the smallest turns of providence to look upward and ascribe all to the right causes Whether it be for mercy as this gourd or for affliction as the worm it is all of God he prepared the one and the other and so he doth still It is not luck or meer chance or second causes but God provides and orders all these supplies with all the events and all the crosses It is the Lord be patient 1 Sam 3.18 Job 1 21. or be thankful The Lord gave and the Lord took away blessed be the Name of the Lord. It is not our own how or sword but the right hand of out God If it be a little drug or potion that doth me good an obscure friend a small accident a little help to stand me in stead it comes of God and he shall have the glory of the thing Dan. 11.34 They shall be holpen with a little help This would be of singular use in our whole course to live as Christians to acknowledge a dependance on heaven to see by faith the Soveraign Lord of the world to breed contentment in that little which is allotted to us to make us thankful for small favours shewed or patient when a small matter falls out and crosseth us The Lord prepares the gourd and the worm not only the Whale but the Worm We are apt in great matters to think God hath an hand but in small matters we scarce look so high take heed and look upward even in small matters Observe again how powerful the providence of God is Note 2 in these small matters 1. In erecting a gourd it came up in a night in the common course of Nature it should have been growing up a quarter of a year together to a just tallness and bigness but God makes it shoot up in a night The Lord sometimes on a suddain shews light and comfort to his people when and where they least expect it at the Red sea out of a Rock in the midst of Jordan He stirred up the spirit of Cyrus to send his people home to their own land He delivered them from Haman in a way which they least thought on 2. In taking the gourd away he prepared a worm which smote it and it withered He could have blasted it without a worm but pleased to use such a vile creature for our instruction Small things can cross us when God bids them Grashoppers Amos 7.1 Flies and Lice pestered Pharaoh exceedingly A small cut in the flesh hath gangrened and killed Little David slew the mighty Goliah Learn to see a powerful God in a weak creature Use 1 Cor. 1 27 21. Weak things of the world to confound the mighty By the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe To uphold a weak Christian against Principalities and powers 2 Cor. 12.9 My strength is made perfect in weakness Water in Baptism to set forth Christs blood and cleansing from sin Bread and Wine in the Lords Supper to set forth the body and blood of Christ and to nourish the believing soul to life eternal So of old the sword of the Lord and of Gideon his Barly-cake overthrew the Tents of the Midâ—anites Lamps and Pitchers confounded their mighty host Trumpets of Rams-horns demolished the walls of Jericho Moses his Rod divided the Sea All pointing at the wonderful power of God working by such silly means Where glorious means are used we are apt to doat on the means but where the means are so simple we are forced to look up unto God Note 3 Observe yet more God provides for his ill deserving servants God provides well for ill deservers as here for cholerick Jonah he lives whereas he desired to dye and beside hath a gourd prepared which affords him much comfort Though we believe not yet he abideth faithful he cannot deny himself 2 Tim. 2.13 Gods Children sometimes deserve full ill at his hands and are ready to draw down wrath upon themselves but in mercy he forbears and continues a gracious providence toward them Use Mark these footsteps of his goings with you and strive to be thankful In our passions sometimes we make faults enough and forfeitures and open a sluce to let in judgements but the Lord stops the Damme and we are not drowned Admire his goodness and be enlarged unto thankfulness He doth good to them that deserve it not yea to them that deserve ill at his hands more to them that are drawing mischief upon themselves Note Small matters sometimes very comfortable Come we now to see how Jonah comforteth himself with his gourd he was exceeding glad of the gourd Small matters sometimes are very comfortable to us a Cup of cold water water out of a Rock Manna out of a congeled dew Naamans washing seven times in Jordan A few Figs and Raisins to the fainting Amalekite A bunch of Figs to Hezekiahs Bile Barly-loaves to thousands of people And to an hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet Whereby we see what poor and weak creatures we are Use 1 and what a silly life the life of Nature is sustained and cherished by those small matters And if so be humble meek thankful heavenly-minded affected earnestly toward a spiritual and eternal life It is time to get Christ to be our life who said I am the way the truth and the life John 14.6 to get the Spirit of life to enter into the way of life to nourish an hope of life everlasting Life of the soul is infinitely better then the life of the body and so are all the means that maintain it Outward things commonly are prized according to their worth and what they will yield and so should the means of grace be mightily prized The wise-men were very glad of the Star that led them to Christ Mat. 2.10 teaching us to prize gracious means which first lead us to Christ and afterward confirm us in him And we learn in small matters to take notice of a great Use 2 love which affordeth them and much comfort by them Mercies commonly are best seen in the want but it were better to esteem them by the use and benefit of them it would argue more ingenuity it may be the truth of grace It were base not to discern the benefit of our Limbs and parts but only by the Tooth-ach loss of a Joynt breaking of Bones or the like Nature can do this but grace looks higher to a great God in a small favour Oh it is no small love nor small purchase nor small pledge Sleep digestion of Meat Sun-shine Seasons of the Year are ordinary
amiable Name and may win sinners to seek to him The Lord the Lord merciful and gracious The Kings of Israel were accounted merciful Kings and much more is this King of Israel If so be that God will think upon us Note 6. Thoughts of love to the godly The Lord hath thoughts of Love and Peace toward his people Jer. 29.11 I know the thoughts of peace that I think toward you saith the Lord thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you an expected end Namely out of the counsel of peace which he had within himself before the foundation of the world Zech. 6.13 The counsel of peace shall be between them both that is Christs Kingly and Priestly Office Or it may be a phrase referring to the sense of man We are apt in great distress to think that God hath forgotten us and will he be no more gracious Psal 77.8 9. hath he shut up his loving kindness in everlasting displeasure and if he did but think upon us in what a sad case we are he would certainly arise and do for us So these here Oh that the God of Heaven would think of us for good and elsewhere Ar se O Lord O Lord stir up thy strength hide not thy face leave us not come and save us Otherwise in absolute consideration the Lord thinks on all men and Affairs in the world His providence reacheth to all and to every particular He sent this Tempest upon the Mariners and saw in what distress they were But their Prayer is they would have mercy that they might well get out of their distress He saw the affliction of Israel in Egypt and meant to bring them out of it Use A means to settle faith Now this is good and comfortable for each doubting Christian who conceits sometimes in his weakness to be rejected and forsaken of God but indeed is not the Lord at worst thinking of a deliverance or supply and what is the best way and time to effect it A Nurse sees her Châ—ld to be too venturous and seems to leave it to it self but her eye is full upon it even so doth our God And though Nurses and Mothers should be unnatural yet will not the Lord Esa 49.14 15 16. Good words to settle the peace of a troubled spirit but may also serve our turn in great distresses of the world Tempests at Sea Commotions at Land troubles in the private Estate all threatning our Ruine and then we begin to question the Love and Providence of God Judg 6.13 If the Lord be with us why is it thus But check this unbelief we need not put it upon this supposition if so be that God will think upon us he will most certainly think and do and delever in due time and in the mean time support our hearts with comforts of his Spirit he is a God of â—udgment Esa 30.18 and knows our frame and when a deliverance will be most seasonable Note 7. God able to save in great distress Thank upon us that we perish not God is able in great distress to keep us from perishing and will if he see it good for us These heathen Mariners saw that if they could get God on their side they should not perish though it were a terrible boisterons threatning tempest And we see in the end that they did not perish So in these dayes amidst all our civil Tempests our Land hath not yet perished and so long as God thinks thoughts of peace towards us it shall not perish though winds and storms beat upon our Bark never so violently Use Hear and believe and say as Psal 46 1 2 3. God is our refuge and strength a very present help in trouble Therefore will we not fear though the Earth be removed and though the Mountains be carried into the midst of the Sea Though the waves thereof roar and be troubled though the Mountains shake with the swelling thereof Say as those that were going into the fiery furnace Dan. 3.17 Psal 42.11 Our God is able to deliver us Rate away all unbelief as David did Why art thou cast down O my soul and why art thou so disquieted within me still trust in God who is thy help and the light of of thy countenance Mark what our Saviour saith Let not your hearts be troubled ye believe in God believe also in me John 14.1 Note 8. Carnal ones are all for temporals That we perish not All the care of carnal people is to be delivered from temporal evils from Ship-wrack from Pestilence from Losses and Crosses of the world so Pharaoh Deliver me from this death only ye may apply it to every particular Plague which comes and threatens us Let people escape and presently they are as bad as ever All the care is to get out of Gods hand for the present Israel in want would fain have Bread or Water and be delivered from the fiery flying Serpents or get through the red Sea but when their turn was served presently they were as bad as ever Oh no may some say we mind our Souls too Object we would get them saved we were undone else Answ Answ 1. No doubt but ye have good wishes to that purpose wicked Balaam would fain die the death of the Righteous when people are so far enlightned with Principles of Religion as our people are no wonder if they desire to be saved Heaven is better then Hell better be happy when they die then go to Hell to be tormented in those flames 2. That they are but wishes appears by their negligence For temporal deliverance they will take any pains be at any cost use all the Friends they can make and never be quiet till they be delivered We see what these Mariners did not to perish they prayed they cast their Goods into the Sea they rowed hard to bring the ship to Land and so do our people now-a-days for Temporals But what diligence do they give to make their Calling and Election sure where is the man that works out his Salvation with fear and trembling how few are they that set themselves into a serious course of Religiousness There needs the most pains to be taken but very few are willing take those pains Christians take most pains not to perish everlastingly Use Mind spirituals God hath done much to that purpose and Christ hath suffered much Ye see it in John 3.16 God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlrsting life And ye have the means to believe namely the Preaching of the word Rom. 10.17 Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God And ye have had rousing summons in these times to awaken security winds and storms of State arose very high and some Earthquake continue to this very day A marvel we are not perished already and by our sins and security we deserved to perish eternally Only there
obeyed in all our course of life Both Creation and gubernation are ascribed to him therefore he is God He made us Use 2 and he feeds us therefore he is God Ps 135.6 Again it is comfort to the good Subjects of his dominion that he hath to do and doth what he will both in Heaven and Earth and in all deep places When we travel in waters or occupy businesses in that Element there he sits and overrules all In the great and threatning waves of affliction he orders the Event for good to the faithful Psal 32.6 Surely in the flouds of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him Mat. 8.26 14 31. Rev. 20.13 Esa 43.2 When thou passest through the waters I will be with thee For the Disciples he rebuked the wind and sea and there was a great calm And he took up sinking Peter into the ship and one day the sea shall give up her dead There is comfort also in the preparations and provisions that the Lord makes for us both by sea and landâ— He that prepared a great fish for Jonah prepares for us a multitude of fishes both small and great precious for their usefulness and pleasant by their variety Food Physick Oil Bone abundance of uses for the enriching of a Nation whereunto adde that God first taught the art of making ships for Navigation so Noah by his instruction Heb. 11.7 prepared an Ark for saving himself and his Use 3 Family And if it be so believe in God for supply of all your wants In all straights say as Abraham God will provide He that appointed Jonah to be cast into the sea prepared a fish to save him from drowning He that sent a Famine upon Canaan sent Joseph before into Egypt for a Caterer for us also he will provide what is wanting and shall be expedient Believe it and beware of the chiding Why did ye fear because ye brought no bread Jonah was in the belly of the fist three days and three nights Miraculous preservation of Jonah Here is miracle upon miracle A storm raised a calm restored a fish prepared for safety a man kept alive in his belly so long and no longer and then set on dry land again wonders that the fish was so ready for him that he escaped crushing between his teeth which stood in great rows as Sawes to knap him asunder that the digestive force of the fishes stomack was so long restrained that he was not choaked wiâ—h waters and weeds that came about him that he was tost from one side of the fish to another that all this while he had no way of free breathing yet there he was and there he prayed and thence he was delivered Admirable preservation Note the wonderful power of God Note And of others who in the midst of dangers can preserve his people even where no hope of safety appears Jonah in the Whales belly Israel amidst the red sea and in Jordane with bread from heaven water out of a rock one sute of Apparel to serve a man for forty years together The three Jews to breathe and live in an hot fiery furnace and come forth again Daniel to escape well enough in the den of Lions Noah in a world of waters and among all sorts of beasts all came to him and the wildest were made tame so to live with the rest Fables will an Atheist say who can believe Against Atheists or how can these things be Answ 1. Ask sense and experienâ—e how lives the Child in the womb for some moneths together where he neither breathes nor takes nourishment by the mouth yet a continual business as appears in the Birth of Children John 20.29 2. He must needs be a gross Atheist who will believe no more then he sees Blessed is he that hath not seen and yet hath believed Spiritual matters are as much above sense for perceiving as they are for worth The soul is far better then the body yet not seen as the body is and God who is infinitely better then both 3. Jesus Christ who is the true and faithful witness hath given testimony to this History of Jonah and his Whale that he was three days and three nights in the belly of the fish And whosoever shall infringe the truth of Christ in his assertions shall never find him a Saviour A Revenger he shall find him but not a Saviour The wrath of God abideth on him 4. Poets and Heathens have a fable of Ariou Methimnaeus carryed by Dolphins along the sea into his own Countrey no doubt but some glimmering of this History of Jonah Gualter or rather a fable invented by the Devil to obscure this History that it should not be credited as to render the Apostles suspicious he cryed out Act. 16.17 These are the servants of the most High God who shew unto us the way of salvation Use Expect deliverance when least likely Now remember this against times and cases of very great danger God is the same and his power is the same and his love and his care and his truth and all his Attributes and if thou be the same with Jonah in faith and holinesse thou shalt find the same protection and deliverance so far as shall be good for thee I am the Lord I change not Object There is the scruple may some say I am no whit like Jonah that God should so take care of me Sol. Answ 1. The least degree of true faith and holiness is accepted with God and shall keep the head above water Peter was a man of little faith and yet by his little faith he was able to walk upon the sea and if he had held fast his confidence as he began he should not have sunk in the least nor cryed out for help as he did 2. Though Jonah was a very good man yet at this time he was very faulty and in wrath cast forth into the sea Hab 3.2 Only the Lord in wrath remembers mercy toward him and so he will toward thee The gifts and calling of God are without repentance no unbelief of ours can make the faith of God of none effect nor break off the tie between him and a believing soul Oh but my case is very grievous Object A devouring evil lies upon me Answ Thy case is not worse then Jonahs case was Sol. he was devoured by a Whale and this devourer was the means of his preservation Judg. 14.14 Out of the eater came meat and out of the strong came sweetness Thou sayest I see no likely means of my deliverance no more did Jonah and yet he is delivered even in a way quite contrary God saves by means without means above means or against means Oh but mine is a tedious affliction Ob. Sol. it hath lain long upon me and now what hope remains Answ 1. Jonah was in the Whales belly three days and three nights no doubt but that he had sad thoughts