the thirde was vnto GOD as rawe and vndigested meate which his hearte coulde not brooke His lukenesse and neutralitye of dealing in his service did so much offende him that although he had beene received into some inwarde favour as sustenaunce is taken into the stomacke yet hee is threatned to bee spued vp againe The phrase is some-what infrequent and rare in the scripture yet is it no where vsed but it deserveth wisely and waightily to bee considered In this place to conclude the meaning is that Ionas was not descended into the bellie of the fish to become a pray vnto him but to dwell in a desert and solitarie house for a time as Ieremie wisht him a cotage in the wildernesse and as it were to goe aside and hide himselfe from the anger of the Lord till the storme might be overpast The vvoordes of Micheas doe rightelye expresse my minde heerein I vvill beare the vvrath of the LORDE because I haue sinned against him vntill hee pleade my cause and execute iudgemente for mee Then vvill hee bringe mee foorth to the lighte and I shall see his righteousnesse VVhen thou that arte mine enemie shalt looke vpon it and shame shall cover thee vvhich sayest vnto mee vvhere is the LORD thy God Lastlye the place vvhich received Ionas was the drye lande VVhich noteth a qualitye of the earth commodious and fitte for habitation Hee felte the grounde before vvhen hee went downe to the bottome of the mounetaines and the earth vvas aboute him vvith her barres but he felte not the drie grounde He vvalked not then vpon the face of the earth vvhich is the manner of living soules but vvas vnder the rootes of the mounetaines vvhere hee had not libertye nor power to breath but by speciall providence In the beginning of the creation the vvaters were aboue the earth til the LORDE saide Let the vvaters vnder the heaven bee gathered into one place and let the drie lande appeare and it vvas so According to the vvordes of the Psalmes Hee hath founded it vpon the seas and established it vpon the flovvdes And againe Hee hath stretched out the earth vpon the vvaters for his mercie endureth for ever A straunge kinde of building when others lay the foundations vpon rockes the LORDE vpon the vvaters And yet hee hath so set the earth vpon those pillers that it shall never mooue VVhen thou callest to minde that thou treadest vpon the earth hanging like a ball in the aire and floting in the waters is it not evidente enough vnto thee even by this one argument that there is a God By the confession of all the naturall place of the waters is aboue the earth This at the first they enioyed and after repeated and recovered againe in the over-whelming of the worlde when the LORD for a time delivered them as it were from their bandes and gaue them their voluntarie and naturall passage And at this day there is no doubte but the sea which is the collection of waters lyeth higher than the lande as sea-faring men gather by sensible experimentes and therefore the Psalme saith Thou coveredst it with the deepe as with a garment For as a vesture in the proper vse of it is aboue the bodie that is clothed therewith so is the sea aboue the lande and such a garmente woulde it haue beene vnto the earth but for the providence of GOD towardes vs as the shirte that was made for the muthering of Agamemnon where the heade had no issue out Therefore the Psalme addeth immediately The vvaters woulde stande aboue the mounetaines but at thy rebuke they flee at the voyce of thy thunder they haste away And the mounetaines ascende and the vallies descende to the place which thou haste established for them But thou haste set them a bounde which they shall not passe neither shall they returne to cover the earth The like in the booke of Iob vvhere the phrases are that the LORDE hath established his commaundement vpon the sea though a wilde and vntamed creature and sette barres and doâ—es aboute it and saide Hitherto shalt thou come and no further heere vvill I staie thy prowde waues VVhat from the chambers that are aboue and from the fountaines and sluces that lie beneath howe easie a matter vvere it for the former of all thinges to set open his vvindowes and dammes and every howre of our life to over-runne vs with a newe deluge Nay he hath vvater enough to drowne vs vvithin our owne bodies Hee caâ—â—e there commaunde a full sea of distempered and redundant humors to take our breath from vs. VVee little bethinke our selues howe daylie and continually vvee stande beholding to the goodnesse of GOD for sparinge our liues VVho though hee with holde the forces of those outwarde elementes vvater and fire and the rest that they doe vs no harme yet vvee haue elementes vvithin whereof wee are framed and composed wee haue heate and colde moysture and drought which hee can vse at his pleasure to our owne destruction Let these brethren of one house but withall the fathers and founders as it vvere of our nature fall at variance within vs and they vvill rende our liues a sunder like vvilde boares Howe manye haue beene buryed aliue in the graues of their earthlye and melancholicke imaginations Howe many burned in the flames of pestilent and hote diseases Their bowelles set on fire like an oven their bloude dryed vp their inwardes withered and wasted vvith the violence thereof The vapours and fumes of their owne vicious stomacke as a contagious aire howe manye haue they poysoned and choked vp Finallye howe manye haue beene glutted and overcharged with waters betweene their owne skinne and bones And therefore we must conclude and crye with the Prophet It is the mercie of the LORDE that wee are not consumed both from without and from within because his compassions faile not Hitherto of the myracles the former parte of my promise and the seconde experimente of the ever-flowing mercye of GOD continued towardes Ionas his servaunt O livinge and large fountaine of grace alvvayes drawne yet never dryed vp because it runneth from the breast and is fed with the good pleasure of an infinite and immortall GOD. For what better reason canne bee given of his lovinge affection tovvardes vs than that which Micheas hath in the ende of his prophecie Because mercy pleaseth him VVhat other cause hath induced him not to remooue in haste from the sweete songue of that Prophete to take awaie iniquitie and passe by the transgressions of his heritage not to retaine his anger for ever though for ever deserved but to returne and haue compassion vpon vs to subdue our vnrighteousnesse and cast all our sinnes into the bottome of a sea deeper and farther from his sighte than were these seas of Ionas to perfourme his trueth to Iacob and kindnesse to Abraham accordinge to his othe in auncient time but because
vsuall speech as hee there confesseth that the commination of hell fire doeth no lesse commende the providence of God towardes man then the promise of his kingdome the terrour of the one and sweetenesse of the other working togither like oile and wine to make man vvise to his salvation Niniveh had not stood a longer time if Ionas had not said before Niniveh shal be overthrowne The message of their overthrow overthrew the message the prophecie fell and the citie fell not because her fall was prophecied O new and admirable thing saith he in a homily to the people of Antioch The denunciation of death hath brought forth life the sentence of destruction hath made a nullitie in the sentence c. It was a snare it became their fortresse it was their gulfe it became their tower of defence they heard that their houses should fall and they forsooke not their houses but themselues and their ancient wicked waies Secondly he sendeth him to Niniveh to make the cōversiō therof as it were of his first fruits a figure type of the cōversion of other the Gentiles and to shew to the people a far off far from the seat of Iudea farther frō the covenant that the daies drew on wherein they should be called by the names of sons daughters though they vvere now strangers And as ten men in Niniveh tooke holde of the skirt of one Ionas an Hebrew and said wee will goe with thee for we nowe heare that God is with you so tenne and tenne millions of men out of all languages should ioine themselues to the Iewes in the worshippe of that Lord whom they adored A glimpse of this overspreading light had now and then opened it selfe in some singular persons aliens from the common wealth of Israel as in Melchizedech king of Salē Naaman the Syrian Iob in the land of Vz in Thamar Rahab and Ruth inserted into the pedegree of Christ to shew amongst other reasons that as he came of the Gentiles so for the Gentiles to and that the waters of life as Zachary tearmeth them shoulde flowe from Ierusalem farther then to the river of Tigris vvhereon Niniveh stoode halfe of them towardes the East sea and halfe of them towards the vttermost sea that both endes of the earth might bee watered therewith Thirdly he sendeth him to Niniveh as he sent Ioseph into Egypt to provide a remedy against a mischiefe not farre of Ioseph to prepare bread for his fathers house in the famine Ionas to prepare a place for the Lords exiles in the captivity This carefulnes of their weldoing herein appeareth vnto vs in a charge giuen to Moab in the prophesie of Esay Hide them that are chased out bewray not him that is fled let my banished dwell with thee Moab be thou their covert from the face of the destroier The time vvas to come when the sonnes of Iacob should go captiues into Assyria righteous and vnrighteous cleane and vncleane those vvhom hee tendered as the apple of his owne eie vvith their vngratefull and vngracious brethren yet such was his provident fore-sight tovvardes his little remnante grovving as thinne among the rest as oliue berries vpon the tree after the vintage a berrie heere and there in the outmost boughes that though they bare their parte of thraldome in a straunge lande yet they shoulde meete with some of milde and tractable spirits whose hearts had beene mollified before by the preaching of Ionas Lastlie hee sendeth him to Niniveh vvhich I rather fasten vpon to provoke his people of the Ievves with those that were not a people to vpbraide their contempte defie their frovvardnesse and to shevve that his soule loatheth abhorreth abhominateth their incorrigible rebellions Whom he had girt to himselfe as a girdle to ones raines and married in everlasting kindnesse to vvhome hee had risen earlie and stretched out his hande all the daie long and cryed vpon them all Harken O Israell and I vvill protest vnto thee Thou shalt bee my people and I will bee thy God whome hee had chidden and not chidden vvith so fatherlie a spirite and such obtesting protestations that they seeme to bee angrie without anger As I liue I woulde not your deathes VVhy will yee die O house of Israell wilt thou not bee made cleane VVhen shall it once bee lastlie to whome hee had appealed though men of vnaequall iudgementes yet not so farre from aequalitie as to condemne his vvaies wherein haue I grieved thee testifie against mee these hee giveth to vnderstande that at the preaching of one prophet when they had precept vpon precept a stranger amongst strangers a man of an vnknovvne tongue the whole people of Niniveh though heathenish and idolatrous shoulde bee wonne to repentaunce Arise Ionas goe to Niniveh Sanctifie a people vnto mee vvhere I had no people fetch mee sonnes and daughters from farre let the barren beare children and let the married bee barren I haue beene served vvith the sinnes of Israell a longe time I am wearie of their back-sliding let them henceforth lie and rotte in their iniquity Goe thou to Niniveh Manie the like angrie and opprobrious comparisons hath the mouth of the LORD vttered with much indignitie in other places in the eighteenth of Ieremy Aske nowe amongst the heathen who hath hearde such thinges The Virgin of Israell hath done verie filthilie Strumpets and brothels had done but their kinde but in the virgin of Israell vvho woulde haue thought it In the first of Hosea Goe take thee a vvife of fornication the meaning of the type is this I vvill finde more faithfulnesse in a lande inured to whoredomes then one vvhich I tenderly loved as mine owne vvife Christ in the gospell iustifieth this collection against the evill and adulterous generation of that time The men of Niniveh shall rise in iudgement with this generation and condemne it For they repented at the preaching of Ionas and beholde a greater then Ionas is heere And in the same Evangelist hee rateth them in parables for despising the doctrine of Iohn Publicanes and harlottes shall goe before you into the kingdome of GOD For they beleeved him and yee thoughe yee sawe it vvere not mooved to repentance The argumente brieflie thus standeth The people of Niniveh shall condemne the people of Israell For they vvill repente at the preaching of one Ionas the others repent not at the preaching of manie hundreds of Prophets It is a curse of all curses the verie bottome of the viall and dregges of the vengeaunce of God vvhen prophetes are vvilled to relinquish their accustomed flockes and their message is translated to forrainers and straungers the dust of vvhose feete but shaken against a citie or towne or the lappe of their garment emptied the least remembrance I meane and vvatchvvorde in the vvorlde betvveene GOD and his servauntes that heere or there they haue beene delivered their errande in his name and vvere not accepted shall vvitnesse
fro and stagger like a drunken man and all their cunning is gone A liuely image of their vncertaine and variable liues and if you hearken to the comparison it is next to famine imprisonment a deadly disease to be a sea-man Sailers adventurors are neither amongst the living nor amongst the dead they hang betweene both readie to offer vp their soules to every flawe of winde and billow of water where with they are assaulted Yet these are the men and such the instrumentes and meanes whereby your wealth commeth in that liue by Marchandize you eate and drinke and vveare vpon your backes you traffique and spend the bloude of your sonnes and servantes So David called the water of the well of Bethlehem bloud because it vvas brought through the armie of the Philistines vvith the hazard of mens liues You owe much vnto God for the preservation of their liues your shippes and commodities are bounde to rehearse vnto your soules day and night that verse of thankesgiving which David repeateth in the Psalme before named as the burthen and amoebâ—um to those songes of deliverance Let vs therefore confesse before the Lord his loving kindnesse and his wonderfull workes before the sons of men let vs exalt him in the congregation of the people and praise him in the assembly of the elders And as you feare his maiesty your selues who turneth the flouds into a wildernes and a wildernes into springes of water who breaketh the shippes of the sea with an East-wind so see that your factors beyond the seas with all the officers and ministers belonging to your company bee men of the like affection It is not the tallenes of your shippes nor their swiftnesse manning and munition that can protect them against Gods vengeance You call them Lyons Leopards Beares and skorning the names of beasts you tearme theÌ„ Angelles Archangelles but remember when all is done that as Themistocles called the Navy of Athens wooddeÌ„ walles so yours are but woodden Beasts and woodden Angelles And woe be to him that saith to a stone thou art my father and to a peece of wood thou art my helper They haue good fortune written vpon their beakes saith Plutarke but many misfortunes in the successe of their labors Horace spake to as prowd a ship it should seeme as any those times knew Though Pontus pines thy frame A forrest faire thy dame Prowde be thy stocke And worthlesse name The windes will mocke To see thy shame Take heede The navy of Tyrus if the prophet describe it aright was the noblest navie that ever the seas vvere furrowed vvith the builders thereof made it of perfect beautie the boordes of the firre trers of Shenir the mastes of the cedars of Lebanon the oares of the Okes of Basan the bankes of the yvory of Chittim the sailes of the fine embrodered linnen of AEgypt the coveringes blew silke and purple of the Iles of Elisha They of Sidon and Arvad were her marriners the wisest in Tyre her pilottes the auncients of Gebal her calkers they of Persia and Lud and Phut her souldiours the Gammadins were in her towers and hung their shieldes vpon the walles round about and the King of Tyre saide in the hautines of his heart I am a God I sit in the seate of God in the midst of the sea yet see the ende in the same place her rowers brought her into greate waters and the east-winde brake her in the midst of the sea her riches together with marriners pilottes and calkers marchantes and men of warre all were overthrowen and came to a fearefull ruine The feare of the Lorde will be in steede of all these provisions feare him and both floudes and rockes shall feare you and all windes shall blow you happines and ship-wrackes shall avoide the place where your foote treadeth and as the apples of Gods owne eies so shall they reverence you and not dare to approch the channell where your way lieth hilles shall fall downe and mountaines shal be cast into the sea but those that feare the Lord shall never miscary the feare of the Lord shall both laÌ„d your ships in an happy haven and after your travels vpon the earth harbour your soules in his everlasting kingdome They were afraid I will not examine what kinde of feare it vvas vvhich surprised these marriners There is a feare that accompanieth the nature of man and the son of God himselfe was not free from it Marc. 14. It is written of him that he began to be afraid which feare of his and other the like vnpleasant affections he tooke vpon him our Divines say as he tooke our flesh vndertooke death rather in pitty then of necessity And Ierome vpon the place of the Evangelist before cited noteth that the feare of our blessed saviour was not a passion which overbare his mind but a propassion which he seemeth to collect from the word it selfe He began to be afraid 2 There is besides a fond and superstitious feare when men are afraid of their shadowes as Pisander was afraide of meeting his owne soule and Antenor would never go forth of the doores but either in a coach closed vpon al sides or with a target borne over his head fearing I gesse least the sky should fal down vpon it according to that in the Psalme They feare where no feare is The disciples were abasht at the sight of their maister after his resurrection supposing they had seene a spirite when neither had they seene a spirite at any time to moue that conceit neither is it possible that a spirituall substance caÌ„ sensibly be perceived We may easily acquite this coÌ„pany from such foolish feare it hath so apparant a reason to be grounded vpon 3 There is an other feare the obiect wherof is only God which by the praier and cry that followeth in the next wordes seemeth to be the feare meant though ignorantly misplaced and this in some is a servile feare ful of hatred malice contumely reproch if they durst bewray it tristis invtilis crudelis qui quia veniaÌ„ non quaerit noÌ„ consequitur saith Bernard it flieth abhorreth the Lord because he is Deus percutiens a God of vengance in other it is filiall such as the childe honoureth his father with perfitly good wherein there is nothing but loue reverence puritie ingenuitie borne of a free spirite the spirite of bondage slavery wholy abandoned so near in affinity to loue that you can hardly discerne them Pene illa est pene non est It is almost loue and almost not loue so little difference is it never beholdeth God but in the gracious light of his countenance There is mercy with thee O Lord therefore shalt thou be feared howsoever the cloudes of displeasure seeme sometimes to hide that grace away The feare of these men I cannot decide whether it were mixte with hope or altogether desperate and it skilleth not greately to
Vndoubtedly it was the purpose of Ionas to weigh his words to powder the whole speech delivered vvith as much honour towards the Lord as his heart could devise I feare 1. Iehovah a God in essence being yours in supposition 2. the God of heaven yours not the Gods of the poorest hālets in the earth 3. which hath made the sea the dry land as a litle monument of his surpassing art and strength yours not the garments of their owne backs The prophet keepeth the order of nature placing 1. the heavē then the sea afterwards the dry land as the principal parts whereof the whole consisteth for heaven is in nature positiō aboue the sea the sea aboue the dry land heaven as the roofe of that beautiful house wherein mā was placed the sea the dry land as the two floores or foundations vnto it But did not God make the heavens aswell as the sea the dry land doubtles yes It is plainly expressed Gen. 2. In the beginning God made heaven earth The beginning of the world is frō the beginning of al things whereto the name of the authour is first set as the seale God and vnder the names of the two extremities borders heaven earth all the rest is comprised quicquid mediū cum ipsis finibus exortum est whatsoeuer lieth midle betwixte the endes with the endes themselues Neither did the Lord only cause ordeine these creatures to bee formed but as the potter shapeth his vesselles so he fashioned and wrought them with his owne hands Totum coelum totamque tellurem ipsam inquam essentiam materiā simul cū forma non enim figurarū inventor est Deus sed ipsius naturae creator the whole heaven the whole earth I say the matter vvith the forme for God is not the deviser of shapes and features alone but the maker of nature it selfe And that God that hath made the heaven can fold it vp like a booke again role it togither like a skin of parchment he that hath made the sea at this time set the waues thereof in a rage caused it to boile like a pot of ointment can say to the flouds be yee dried vp hee that made the dry lande can cover it with waters as with a brest-plate or rocke it to fro vpō her foūdations as a drunkē man reeleth from place to place He can clothe the sun the moone in sackcloth and commaund the starres to fall downe to the earth and the mountaines of the land to remoue into the sea and it shal be fulfilled They all shall perish but the Lord their maker shall endure they all shall waxe olde as doth a garment as a vesture shall hee change them and they shal be changed but he is the same God for ever and ever and his yeares shall not faile The scope of the whole confession is briefly this the more to dilate his fall by how much the lesse he was able to plead ignorance as having the helpe of religion the knowledge of the true subsistent God able to giue a reckoning of every parcell of his creation Al excuse is taken away where the commandement is not vnknowne Peter lent the buckler of ignorance to the Iewes therewith in part to defende themselues against the weapons of Gods wrath even in the bloudiest fact that ever the sunne saw attempted I know that through ignoraunce you did it that is killed the Lord of life as did also your governours But least they should leane vpon the staffe of ignorance too much he biddeth them repent and reverte that their sinnes might bee done away This vvas the cloake that Paul cast over his blasphemies his tyrannies his vnmercifull persequutions of the Church I vvas received to mercy because I did it ignorantly through vnbeliefe So as ignorance in that place you see hath neede of mercie to forgiue it And if ignorance haue a tongue to pleade her owne innocencie why did the bloud of Christ cry to the father vpon the crosse father forgiue them they know not what they doe Is ignorance of the will of God sure to be beaten vvith rods shall not contempt of his will a carelesse vnprofitable knowledge of his hestes ordinances be scourged with scorpions Shal Tyre and Syd on burne like stubble in hell fire and the smoke of their tormente ascend for evermore wherein there was never vertue done that might haue reclaimed them shall Corazin Bethsaida go quit and not drinke down the dregs of destructiō it selfe whose streets haue beene sowen with the miracles of Christ and fatted vvith his doctrine Barbary shal wring her hands that she hath known so litle Christēdome rend her heart that she hath knowne so much to no better purpose It is no marvaile to see the wildernes lie wast deserte but if a ground wel husbāded manured yeeld not profit it deserveth cursing Lactantius saith that al the learning of philosophers vvas vvithout an heade because they knew not God therefore when they see they are blind when they heare they are deafe whē they speak they are speechles the sensens are in the head the eies eares tōgue We want not an heade for senses because when we see we perceaue when we heare we vnderstand and when we speake we can giue a reason wee want a heart onely for obedience And as our Saviour spake of the Scribes and Pharisees dicunt non faciunt they saie and doe not so it is true in vs wee see and heare and say and knowe but doe not as idle and idol Christians as those idol Gods in the Psalme to our greater both shame and condemnation So the Apostle enforceth it against the Galathians Nowe seeing you know God or rather are knowne of God howe turne you againe to impotente and beggerlie rudimentes To the like effect hee schooleth the Ephesians yee haue not so learned Christ. The nurture and discipline of this schoole is not like the institution of Gentility vvith whome it is vsuall to vvalke in the vanity of their mindes and in darke cogitations to bee strangers from the life of God through the ignoraunce that is in them and being past feeling to giue over themselues vnto vvantonnesse to worke all vncleanenesse even with greedinesse But if yee haue hearde Christ and if yee haue beene taught by him as the trueth is in Iesus not corrupting the text with cursed glosses nor perverting the scriptures to your owne overthrow then with your new learning you must leaue your olde conversation as the eagle casteth her bill and know that the kingdome of God commeth not by observation but by practise nor that practise is availeable vvith ease but vvith violence and that the hottest and most laborious spirite is fittest to catch it away It had beene better for vs never to haue knowne the vvay of righteousnesse then after wee
their garmeÌ„t at this time as David caught from Saul onely for a token and note them as I passe by the vvay who if they were kindely vsed should be pronounced by the priest and by the prince proclaimed the vncleanest lepers that ever sore ran vpon not onely to be excluded the host and to have their habitation alone but to be exiled the land and extermined nature it selfe which they so vnnaturally strive to adnihilate Their vsage of parricides in Rome were over favourable for theÌ„ whom they sowed into a male of lether threw into the sea that yet the water of the sea could not soke through nor other element of nature earth aire or fire approach vnto them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Atheisme is the maine disease of the soule not onely of that private man in whome it is harboured but of the whole land wherein permitted For which opprobrious contagious disease till other remedy were found I would they might be marked the meane time that are sicke of it as the leper was that the people might be wise to eschew theÌ„ As the one had his clothes rent his head bare his lippes covered was enioyned to cry where he past I am vncleane I am vncleane so I would the other had either a rent or a writing vpon their clothes a braÌ„d in their forheades that all that behelde them might say an Atheist an Atheist 2 The second collection in offering a sacrifice is that the sensible and ceremoniall handling thereof without the inward oblation of the heart which the other doth but signifie was never approoved I might repeate the proofes hereof from the elements and beginnings of the world the sacrifices of Abel and Caine the first that ever I finde to have beene made although I make no question of Adam himselfe who nurtured his sonnes in religious discipline from thence I might come downe through all the complaintes that even the soule of the Lord grieved with abuse and mockery hath plentifully sent foorth against his people of the Iewes shewing therin that not only he refused but hartily condemned lothed abhorred their offerings and denying with pertinacy that ever hee required them whereas in trueth they were the ordinaunces of his ovvne lippes But vvhen hee ordained them hee made male and female and ioyned two in one hee created a bodie and a soule an outwarde and an inwarde parte the aspectable signe and the invisible affection for want of which latter the better of the two hee renounceth the other as that which he never apointed In the first of Esay forgetting his people to be the children of Iacob because they forgat his sacrifices to bee the sacrifices of a God whome they rather vsed like a skar-crow in the garden of cucumbers than the Lord of knowledge hee calleth them princes of Sodome and people of Gomorah asking them in iealousie as hote as fire What haue I to doe with the multitude of your sacrifices I am full of burnt offeringes of rammes and the fattte of fedde beastes I desire not the bloude of bullockes nor of lambes nor of goates When you come to appeare before mee Who required it at his handes Bringe no more oblations in vaine incense is an abhomination vnto mee I cannot suffer your newe moones and Sabbaths my soule hateth your apointed feastes they are a burthen vnto mee and I am weary to beare them Of the outwarde countenance and lineaments of their sacrificing you heare more than enough Rammes and fed beastes bullockes lambes and goates incense sabbathes new moones festivall daies solemne assemblies togither with stretching out the handes and making of many praiers But I may say that as the minde of a man is the man so the minde and intention of the sacrifice is the sacrifice which the searcher of the hart reines looking for finding a carkeise of religioÌ„ without a quickening spirit protesteth that he hath nothing to doe with them that he is full and overfull that they are an hatred burthen abomination vnto him If they will redeeme his grace with a sweete smelling sacrifice they must cease to doe evill and learne to doe well seeke iudgement relieue the oppressed With such like The beginning ending of the prophecie is in one tune For afterwardes it is denounced in the name of the Lord hee that killeth a bullocke is as if hee slew a man hee that sacrificeth a sheepe as if he â—atte of a dogges necke hee that offereth an oblation as if hee offered swines bloud hee that remembreth incense as if hee blessed an idoll the reason of this misconstrued devotion of theirs is They haue chosen their owne waies and their soule which shoulde haue beene the principal agent delighteth in their abominations The correction of that errour and the erection both of the temple the sacrifices which the Lord chooseth are in the next wordes before To him will I looke even to him that is poore and of a contrite spirit and trembleth at my words If this wine be wanting to those bottles this substaÌ„ce to those shadowes we shall go with our bullockes and sheepe as it is in Osee to seeke the Lord but shall not finde him because we goe with these alone Nay these wee may leaue behinde vs as vnprofitable carriage in coÌ„parison of the others so we want not those I will not reprooue thee saith God for thy sacrifices and because of thy burnt offerings that they are not commonly before mee I will take no bullocke out of thine house nor goates out of thy foldes for all the cattell of the forrest are mine and the beastes vpon a thousande mountaines I knowe all the fowles vpon the hilles and all the wilde beastes of the field are mine If I be hungry I will not tell thee for the world is mine and all that therein is Thinkest thou that I will eate the flesh of bulles or drinke the bloude of goates Thus the externall parte and as it were the letter of the sacrifice is not much lesse than cancelled and abrogated that the spririt may take place offer vnto God praise and paie thy vowes to the most high and call vpon mee in the daie of trouble so will I deliver thee and thou shalt glorifie mee This was it that Samuel aunswered Saul when he pretended the saving of oxen and sheepe and the best of the spoile to offer to the Lorde in Gilgal hath the Lorde as greate pleasure in burnt offerings sacrifices as wheÌ„ his voice is obeied to obey iâ— better thaÌ„ sacrifice and to harken is better than the fatte of rammes This did our Saviour implie to the Scribes and Phaâ—ises who did so invvardlye sticke to the outwarde keeping of the Sabbath Go learn what this meaneth I will haue mercie and not sacrifice This did the learned Scribe vvhose praise is in the gospell that hee aunswered discreetely and was not farre from the kingdome of GOD
in the world had sworne and conspired his immortall misery First he was driven to forgoe his natiue countrey the land of his fathers sepulchers and take the sea When he had shipt himselfe the vessell that bare him stackered like a drunken man to and fro never was at rest till she had cast forth her burthen Being cast forth the sea that did a kinde of favour to Pharaoh and his host in giving them a speedy death is but in manner of a iaylour to Ionas to deliver him vp to a further torture Thus from his mothers house and lap wherin he dwelt in safety to a shippe to seeke a forreine countrey from the ship into the sea and from the sea into a monsters belly incomposiâ—um navigium an incomposed mishapen ship therein shall I say to his death that had bene his happines he would haue wisht for death as others wisht for treasure There are the prisoners at rest and heare not the voice of the oppressour there are the small and the great and the servaunt is free from his maister So then there is a comfort in death to a comfortlesse soule if hee could atchieve it But Ionas cannot die the sea that swalloweth downe volumes of slime and sandes is not grave enough to bury him hee may rather perswade himselfe that he is reserved for a thousand deathes whome the waters of the Ocean refuse to drowne giving over their pray to an other creature My thoughtes are not your thoughtes saith the LORDE by his prophet Esaye neither are your waies my waies For as the heavens are higher than the earth so are my waies higher than your waies and my thoughtes above your thoughtes It is most true When wee thinke one thing GOD thinketh an other hee safety and deliverance vvhen in the reason of man there is inevitable destruction We must not therefore iudge the actions of the Lorde till wee see the last acte of them We must not say in our hast all men are liers the pen of the scribes is vaine the bookes false the promises vncertaine Moses and Samuell prophets and apostles are like rivers dried vp have deceived vs. We must tarry the end and know that the vision is for an apointed time but at the last it shall speake according to the wishes of our owne harts and shal not lie Though our soules faint for his salvation yet must we wait for his worde Though our eies faile for his promise saying O when wilt thou comfort vs and we are as bottels in the smoke the sap of our hope dryed vp yet we must not forget his statutes When we see the fortunate succeeding of things we shall sing with the righteous prophet Wee know O Lord that thy iudgements are right though deepe secret and that thou of very faithfulnes hast caused vâ— to be tried that howsoever our troubles seemed to be without either number or end yet thy faithfulnesse higher than the highest heavens failed vs not To set come order in the sentence propounded I commende these circumstances vnto you First the disposer and ruler of the action the Lorde Secondly the manner of doing it hee provided or prepared Thirdly the instrument a fish togither with the praise and exornation of the instrument a great fish Fourthly the end to swallow vp Ionas Lastly the state of Ionas and how it fared with him after he was swallowed vp And first that you may see the difference betwixte inspired spirites and the conceiptes of prophane men vvho as if the nature of thinges bare them to their ende without further disposition as when the clowde is full they saie it giveth her raine and going no higher than to seconde and subordinate causes never consider that high hande that wrought them it may please you to obserue that thorough the whole body of this prophecie vvhatsoever befell Ionas rare and infrequent is lifted aboue the spheares of inferiour thinges and ascribed to the Lord himselfe A great winde vvas sent into the sea to raise a tempest It is not disputed there what the winde is by nature a drie exhalation drawne vp from the earth and carryed betweene it and the middle region of the aire aslant fit to engender a tempest but the LORDE sent it Ionas vvas afterwardes cast into the sea It is not then considered so much vvho tooke him in their armes and vvere the ministers of that execution but thou LORDE hast done as it pleased thee Ionas is heere devoured by a fish It is not related that the greedinesse and appetite of the fish brought him to his praie but the LORDE prepared him Ionas againe is delivered from the belly of the fish It mighte bee alleadged in reason perhappes that the fish was not able to concoct him but it is saide the Lorde spake to the fish and it cast him vp Towardes the ende of the prophecie Ionas maketh him a booth abroade and sitteth vnder the shaddow of a gourde the Lorde provided it A worme came and consumed the gourde that it perished the Lorde provided it The sunne arose and a fervent east-winde bet vpon the heade of Ionas the Lorde also provided it Who is he then that saith and it commeth to passe if the Lorde commaunde it not Out of the mouth of the most high commeth there not evill and good Thus whensoever we finde in any of the creatures of God either man or beast from the greatest whale to the smallest worme or in the vnsensible things the sun the windes the waters the plantes of the earth either pleasure or hurt to vs the Lord is the worker and disposer of both these conditions The Lorde prepared That yee may know it came not by chaunce brought thither by the tide of the sea but by especiall providence For it is not saide that God created but that he ordeined and provided the fish for such a purpose There is nothing in the workes of God but admirable art and skilfulnesse O Lord saith David how manifolde are thy workes in wisedome hast thou made them all Salomon giveth a rule well beseeming the rashnes and vnadvisednesse of man who without deliberate forecast entereth vpon actions first to prepare the worke without and to make all things ready in the field and after to builde the house God keepeth the order himselfe having his spirite of counsaile and provision alwaies at hande to prepare as it were the vvaie before his face to make his pathes straight and to remooue all impedimentes to levell mountaines to exalt vallies to turne vvaters into drie grounde and drie grounde into water-pooles and to change the whole nature of things rather than any worke of his shal be interrupted He had a purpose in his heart not to destroy Ionas yet Ionas was thrown into the mouth of destructioÌ„ A maÌ„ would haue thought that the couÌ„saile of God if ever should now haue been frustrated that salvation it selfe could not
altered his nature to haue boyled him into nourishmente and to haue incorporated his flesh into an other substaunce Yet Ionas liveth But if the LORDE had not beene on my side might Ionas nowe say if the LORDE had not beene on my side vvhen the beast rose vp against mee hee had swallowed mee vp quicke vvhen his vvrath vvas so sore enflamed But praysed bee the LORDE vvhich hath not given mee over a pray to his teeth My saule is escaped even as a birde out of the snare of the fowler The snare is broken and I am delivered Let all those whome the LORDE hath redeemed from the hande of the oppressour from fire or water or from the perill of death take that songue of thankesgiving into their lippes and singe it to his blessed name in remembraunce of his holinesse O thou the hope of all the endes of the earth sayeth that other Psalme and of them that are farre of in the sea shevve vs but the lighte of thy countenaunce and vvee shall bee safe giue vs but the comforte of thy mercies and wee will not feare though the earth bee mooved and the mountaines fall dovvne into the middes of the sea and the sea and the vvaters thereof rage fearefully though Leviathan open his mouth wee will not quake at it yea though the Leviathan of the bottomelesse pit open the throate of hell never so vvide to devoure vs wee vvill not bee disquieted VVee knowe that there is mercy vvith the LORDE and that vvith him there is plentifull redemption I meane redemption a thousande waies by nature and against nature by hope and against hope by thinges that are and thinges that are not Hee that hath saved his people by gathering the vvaters in heapes like vvalles and making a path in the redde sea hee that hath kept his children in the middest of a fiery oven when if arte coulde adde any thinge to the nature of fire they shoulde have beene burnt seven times for one because it was seven times hote and delivered his prophet in a denne of lyons though dieted and prepared for their pray before hand yet shuttinge their mouthes so close and restrayninge their appetite that they forbeare their appointed foode and committed this servaunt of his to the belly of a fishe as if he had committed him to his mothers vvombe to be kept from harme he is the same GOD both in mighte and mercye to preserue vs no time vnseasonable no place vnmeete no daunger vncouth and vnaccustomed to his stronge designementes Our onely helpe therefore standeth in the name of the LORDE that hath made heaven and earth blessed and thrice blessed bee that name of the Lorde from this time forth for evermore Amen THE XXIII LECTVRE Chap. 2. vers 1. Then Ionas praied vnto the Lord his God out of the fishes belly and saide THIS second section or division of the prophecie wherein the mercy of God towardes Ionas is expressed I parted before into three branches 1. That he was devoured 2. praied 3. was delivered The tearmes that Lyra giveth are these the place the manner the successe of his prayer The marvailes that I haue already noted vnto you were 1. that so huge a creature was suddeinely provided by the providence of God 2. that a whole man passed thorough his throate 3. that he lived in his bowels three daies three nightes Now whither he fulfilled that time exactly yea or no three naturall dayes complete consisting of twenty foure howres neither can I affirme neither is it materiall over-busily to examine Our Saviour you know in the gospell applyeth this figure of Ionas to his buriall As Ionas was in the belly of the whale three daies and three nights so shall the sonne of man bee in the heart of the narth But if you conferre the shadowe and the body togither you shall finde in all the evangelistes that the Lorde of life was crucified the 6. howre of the preparation of the sabbath and the ninth gaue vp the ghost that late in the eveninge his bodie vvas taken downe from the crosse and buried that hee rested in the graue the night that belongeth to the sabbath togither vvith the daie and night nexte ensuinge after it and that in the morning of the first day of the weeke he rose againe So as indeede the body of Christ was not in the heart of the earth more than 36. hovvers to weete two nightes and a daie vvhich is but the halfe space of 72. howers Some to supply this defect of time accompte the lighte before the passion of Christ and the darkenesse till the 9. howre one day and a night because they say there vvas both lighte and darknes And then the light that followed from the 9. howre and the succeeding night a secōd day night likewise the third til the time he rose againe Others expoūd it by a mistery thus 36. hours they say to 72. which is the absolute measure of 3. daies 3. nights is but simplum ad duplū one to two or the halfe of the whole Now ours was a double death both in soule by sin in body by paine Christes was but single only in the body because concerning his soule he was free frō sin therfore they infer that the moity of time might suffice him Hugo Cardin. hath an other conceite that from the creation of the worlde till the resurrection of Christ the day was evermore numbred before the night both in the literall and in the mysticall vnderstanding first there was light then darknes but from the resurrection of Christ forwardes the night is first reckoned for which cause he thought the vigiles were apointed for sabbathes other festivall daies that vvee might be prepared with more devotiō to solemnize them herehēce he cōcludeth that the night which followed the sabbath of the Iews was the angular night must twice be repeated as the corner of a square serveth indifferently for either side which it lyeth betwixte for both it belonged saith he to the sabbath praeceding must be ascribed againe vnto the Christian sabbath or Lords day whereon the son of God rose from death And he thinketh there is great reason of his invention because Christ by one night of his tooke away two of ours So they are not content to be sober interpretours of the minde of God but they wil ghesse and divine at that which he never meant They thinke their cunning abased if they go not beyond the moone to fetch an exposition What needeth such curious learning to apoint every egge to the right hen that laid it as some did in Delos so these to think their labor vnprofitable in the church of God vnlesse they can make the devises of their own heads reach home to the letter of the booke in al respects Our soundest divines agree that the triduan rest of Christ in the graue must be vnderstood by the figure synecdoche
Tarsus in Cilicia which was harde at hande and the Cilician sea the first hee past by But Ionas is borne from the Cilician to the Aegean from thence to Propontis and so to the rode where his landing vvas A iust iudgement of God vpon him that because he would flie from the presence of the Lord he shoulde be made to flie indeed God threatneth Sobna the treasurer Esaie the 22. that hee woulde carry him into captivity and tosse him as a ball in a large country that he would driue him from his station and destroy him from out his dwelling place So is Ionas carried into captivity a prisoner to a whale and tost as a bal in a large country from sea to sea driven from his station vvhere hee mente to haue setled himselfe and destroyed from out his dwelling place from the land of the living as Cain was a runnagate vpon the land so is Ionas vpon the waters and till the Lord giue a charge for his discharge manumission no land dareth receiue him The floudes compassed mee aboute c. His thirde perill is from the accidentes of the sea For being in the bottome and in the middest of the bottome not of the sea but of the seas is he at rest there No. There is no agony nor passion of the sea but Ionas feeleth it The disquietmentes of that element are either the meetinge of the fresh and salte vvaters togither or the ebbing and flowing of it or the waues and surges that arise either by vvindes in the aire or by flawes and expirations from the cavernes of the earth vvith all these is Ionas acquainted There is no question but all rivers runne into the sea according to the proverbe Qui nescit viam ad mare quaerat sibi amnem comitem hee that knoweth not the vvay to the sea let him get some river to be his guide Now it must needes breede a vexation and tumulte vvhen these contrary waters meete there is a fight and contention helde betwixt them for the time It is an other disturbaunce vvhich the continuall agitation the fluxe and refluxe of the waters maketh For when the course of that mighty body of waters is turned backe againe whither by the moone as they holde in Philosophy or by other disposition which al the instrumentes and engines in the worlde cannot bring to passe wee cannot imagine that so reciprocall a motion is done in peace but that the whole heape of the sea is molested thereby There be the floudes vvhich encircle him and compasse him aboute vvhich either the confluence of the waters diversly qualified or the ebbing and flowing of the sea procured vnto him As who should say I laye not in a calme but looke where the waters were most vnpeaceable and vnquiet even there was I compassed about and had no waye to passe forth The sea is otherwise disquieted when either the windes in the aire or flawes from the vawtes and breaches of the ground raise vp the waues thereof For the earth hath aire oftentimes imprisoned in the hollownes of it which being inwardly choked and labouring to get out sometimes shaketh the ioyntes of the land with earth-quakes sometimes setteth the people of the sea in a rage and bringeth a furious commotion vpon the face of the waters Wherefore Ionas being carryed through the Mid-land sea having the land on both sides of it must needes bee troubled the more by reason the waters haue not so free a passage as in the patent Ocean therefore make a way with sorer impatience Giue them streame at will and there is lesse daunger of travaile but straighten their course and they breake a passage by force and shewe what indignation they can against the barres that hinder them By common experience at home in lockes and mill-dammes wee see what catarrhactes and downe-falles there are by the rage of the water what hast it maketh to passe how vnpatiently it roreth because her liberty is denied her But those that ever passed the Magellan straightes or entred the mouth of the Gaditan sea betwixt Europe and Africke where Spaine and Barbary is devided to make a voiage into Barbary or any other coast within the Mid-land sea know it to be most true not by easie experience alone but by the adventure both of their vesselles and their liues also So as you see the very nature of these seas where the propinquity enclosure of the continent did so much annoye them on every side partly by breathing vpon them out of manye holes and ruptures thereof partly by lessening their channell besides the ordinary windes which raised vp their billowes and the extraordinary providence of God which delt more strongly than al these did the more afflict Ionas The wordes are very significant All thy surges and all thy vvaves passed over mee 1. They are not simplie waues as all confesse but waues with irruption and violent assault Our English well interpreteth them surges which is the meeting and breaking of vvaters in such sorte that the one encountreth the other as if they were at war The Poet notably expresseth them in the shipwracke of Caeix that they plaide vpon the shippe as engines and brakes of warre play vpon castles and as a Lion runneth with all his mighte vpon the weapons of man or as in the siege and skaling of a wall though many haue assailed it before yet one of a thousand at length surpriseth it so when many volumes of waues had before beaten and tried themselues vpon the sides of the shippe yet the tenth vvaue commeth further and fiercer than all the rest They were not inferiour to those that shooke and battered the shippe of Ionas when the sides thereof groned and it thought to bee rent in peeces 2. They are not the surges of the dead and senlesse sea such as the winde and wether onely mighte excite but they are the waues of God chosen and appointed by him to bee his ministers to execute vvrath against disobedient Ionas Thy waves 3. Their number is so infinite and past comprehension that hee speaketh in the largest number All thy waues as if they had beene levied from the endes of the sea and had assembled their forces into one place 4. They lay not aboute him as the floudes before mentioned but they passe quite over him and are a burthen to his head to keepe him vnder still they are on his right hande and on his lefte vpwardes and downewardes forwardes and backewardes and leaue him no hope of evasion The severing of the particulars weakeneth the force of the words But take a summary view of all in one and make a single sentence of the vvhole togither and you shall finde them beyonde exception 1. Hee is in the bottome the lowest and basest part far from the top of the waters 2. in the heart and entralles far from the shore 3. not of one singular sea which had some
hee angrye with mee So these affirme in speech that sorrowe is nothing vseth no violence against a wiseman yet when it commeth vpon them they are no more able to endure the gripings of it than other fooles As Taurus spake of the Stoickes ague so may I of the misery of Ionas The force and nature of his miserye did her parte reason and the nature of saith on the other side vvere not idle in their offiâ—es Ionas behaved not himselfe as the deafe roâ—kes of the sea which the waves beating and breaking vpon yet they feele nothing dolere inter dolores nesciens not knowinge how to bee grieved amiddest his griefes but according to the measure and quality of his sorrowes so was his sense and so was the purpose of God by whome they were inflicted To descend now to partâ—culars The matter of his feare or the daunger intended against him arose from two mightye adversaries the sea and the lande His daunger from the sea is tripled in the fifth verse according to the number of the clauses therein First the vvaters compassed him about vnto the soule To have beene in the vvaters had not beene so much nor much to bee compassed and intrenched as those that are helde in siege But that they come vnto his soule the meaning is that his spirite whereof the quickeninge and life of his bodye consisted vvas at hande to departe from him and to yeelde it selfe prisoner to the waters that assaulted it there was the daunger Secondly The depth closed him rounde about The depthe or rather no depthe Some measure of water where the bottome might have beene reached woulde also have kept his feare within a measure But to bee closed about with a bottomelesse water maketh a bottomelesse griefe whereof there is no end 3. the weedes were wrapt about his heade the sedge the flagges the bul-rushes and other the like trashe the very skorne and contempt of the sea daungerous impedimentes to those that by swimming put themselves vpon the mercy of the mercilesse waters they were not now fluent and loose but tied and entangled not about the armes or the legges alone but about the head of Ionas the principall spire of his body the highest tower and as it were capitolle to the city the leader and captaine to all his other partes Now whether his head were bound about with weedes when he was first swallowed vp and so they remained about it still or whither the head of the whale be here the head of Ionas because he is now incorporate into the whale and liveth within him as a part of the whale I examine not but this was the mind of Ionas to omit no word not so much as of the excrementes and superfluities of the sea whereby his inextricable perill might be described His danger by land is likewise expressed in two members of the 6. verse First he was descended to the bottomes or endes or rootes or cuttinges of of the mountaines for where a thing is cut of there it endeth Man by nature and stature was made to ascende God gave him his head vpwardes But Ionas was descended which is the state of the dead according to the phrase of the scripture Descendam lugens c. I shall goe downe sorrowing to my grave Neither vvas hee descended into the sides or some shallowe cave and vawte of the mountaines but as if hee were numbred with those forlorne soules who call vpon whole mountaines fall on vs and vpon whole hils cover vs so vvas he descended ad radices praecisa montium to the rootes and cragges of them lodged in so lowe a cabbin that all those heapes and svvellinges of the earth lay vpon him 2. The earth with her barres was about him for ever What is the strength of a citye or house but the barres of it as we reade in the Psalme Praise the Lord O Ierusalem praise thy God O Sion for he hath made the barres of thy gates stronge and blessed thy children within thee So then the barres of the earth that is the strongest muniments and fenses it hath are the promontories and rockes which God hath placed in the frontiers to withstand the force of the waters These are the barres and gates in Iob which God hath apointed to the sea saying vnto it Hitherto shalt thou passe heere will I stay thy prowde waues and if you wil these also are the pillers of the earth which god hath fixed in such sort that it cannot bee mooved The meaning of the prophet was that hee was lockt and warded within the strengh of the earth never looking to bee set at liberty againe I tolde you before that the nature of the sea wherein Ionas travailed besides the over-naturall working of God did adde much more trouble vnto him than if he had past through the Ocean where he had gained more sea roume and the continent being farther of would haue yelded a liberall current and lesse haue endaungered him Now he hath land round about him by reason whereof the sea is more narrow rockie and hilly apter to stormes skanter of rodes for safety and subiect to a number of other incommodities The course of the seas through which hee past was this First hee tooke shipping at Iapho and was carried thorough the Syriack sea theÌ„ce through Archipelago or the Aegean thence thorough Hellespont betwixt Sestus and Abydus where Asia and Europe are divided not by more than seven furlonges others say but fiue afterwardes thorough Propontis where the sea is patent againe hath his forth from thence through Bosphorus Thracius betwixt Constantinople and Natolia where the passage is so narrow that an oxe may swimme over and lastlie to the Euxine sea where they hold hee was set to land Thus was hee often encumbred with straightes and never had cause to complaine of overmuch liberty where he was most favoured till he came to the dry grounde Thus far of the daungers both by sea and land The first extended his rage not to the chin or lippes of the prophet but to his soule and threatned him with a depthe bottomelesse and vnmeasurable and came not against his life with limpide and pure waters alone but with other impedimentes the vnprofitable pelfe and corruption of the waters The later gaue him not rest vpon a plaine floore of the earth but clasped him vnder the cragges of roâ—kes and held him close prisoner vnder the strongest barres and bounders it had But as in the former staffe of the song so also in this there is a touch of a distrustfull conscience but there it was openly expressed and here it is closely conveyed in The earth with her barres was about mee for ever For what meaneth in seculum for ever but that he was cast away from the saving health helpe of the Lord without all hope of redemption Did hee not know that although his life were taken from him for a time it shoulde bee restored
soule vvhen he is well-nigh spent and it is a question whether his faith be quicke or dead there commeth an other veruntamen like a showre of the later raine in the drought of summer to water his fainting spirite yet hast thou brought vp my life from the pitte O LORDE my GOD. The readings are diverse The Hebrewes sâ—y thou hast brought vp my life or caused it to ascende The septuâ—ginte my life hath ascended Ierome Thou shalt lifte vp Some say from the pitte some the graue some from death some from corruption There is no oddes For whither of the two times bee put the matter is not great Thou hast or thou shalt For the nature of hope is this futura facta dicit Thinges that are to come it pronounceth of as alâ—eadie accomplished In the eigth to the Romanes we are saved by hope though we are not yet saved And whome God hath iustified those hee hath also glorified though not yet glorified Ephesians the second wee are raised from the dead though our resurrection heereafter to be fulfilled But I stay not vpon this It is a rule in Seneca that by the benefite of nature it is not possible for any man to bee grieved much and long togither For in her loue shee beareth vnto vs shee hath so ordered our paines as that shee hath made them either sufferable or shorte that which Seneca imputed to nature I to hope grounded in the promises of God immutable things the safe and sure anchor of the soule of man The sorrow of Ionas was wonderfully vehement but soone alaied Whence had he that speedy mittigation from nature nothing lesse Here what the voice of nature is When the people of Israell crieth vpon Moses for flesh what is his crie to God I am not able to beare this people If I have founde favour in thine eies kill mee that I behold not this misery When Iezabell threatneth to make Elias like one of the dead prophets he hasteth into the wildernes and breaketh out into impatience and irkesomnes of life O Lord it is sufficient either he had lived or he had bene plagued long enough take away my soule from me The woman in the 2. of Esdras having lost her sonne be it a figure or otherwise it is true in both ariseth in the night season goeth into the field decreeth with her selfe neither to eate nor drinke but there to remaine fasting and weeping till shee were dead Esdras councelleth her foolish woman doe not so returne into the city goe to thine husband c. shee answereth I will not I will not goe into the citye but here will I die You heare how nature speaketh Was Ionas thus relieved no. The sense of his owne strength or rather his weakenesse woulde have sent him hedlong as the devils the heard of swine into the lake of desperation It is the Lord his God whose name is tempered according to the riddle of Sampson both of strong and sweete who is forâ—â—ter suavis suaviter fortis strong in sweetenes and sweete in strength fortis pro me suavis mihi strong for me and sweete to me that hath done this deede Behold my brethren there is hoâ—ie in the lion there is mercy in the fearefull God of heaven He is not only a Lord over Ionas to note his maiesty feare but the Lord his God to shew the kindnes of a father It is the Lord his God to whom he repaireth by particular applicatioÌ„ with the disciple of Christ leaneth as it were in his maisters bosome that delivered his life from the pit his soule from fainting Before he lay in the depthes was desceÌ„ded to the ends of the mouÌ„taines c. All that is aunswered in one worde eduxisti thou hast brought me vp from the pit wherein I was buried Before the waters were come even vnto his soule ready to drinke it in and to turne him to corruption but now God hath delivered that soule from the corruption it was falling into What shall we then say the sea hath no mercy the weedes no mercy the earth with her promontaries and bars no mercy the whale no mercy the Lord alone hath mercy It fared with Ionas as with a fore-ruÌ„ner of his when his spirit was coÌ„fused folden vp within him when hee looked vpon his right hand and behold there was none that would know him much lesse at his left wheÌ„ all refuge failed and none cared for his soule then cried he vnto the Lorde his God and saide Thou art my hope and my portion in the land of the living O harken vnto my cry for I am brought very low even as low as the earth is founded and bring my soule out of prison this pit wherin I lie that I may praise thy name O let not life nor death I name noe more for death is the last and worst enemy that shal be subdued bee able to take your hope from you When your heart in thinking or tongue in speaking hath gone too far correct your selues with this wholesome and timely veruntamen yet notwithstanding I will go to the Lorde my God and trust in his name The nailes that were driven into the handes and feete of our Saviour were neither so grievous nor so contumelious vnto him as that reproch that was offered in speech he trusted in the Lorde let him deliver him This was the roote that preserved Iob and Iob preserved it when his friends became foes and added affliction vnto him he willed them to hold their tongues that he might speake not caring what came of it Wherfor do I take my flesh in my teeth saith he and put my soule in my hand that is why should I fret and consume my self with impatience If he shoulde kill me would I not trust in him so far is it of that I despaire of the mercies of God that my life shall sooner leaue me than my assurance of his graces This was the deepe and inwarde matter he ment in the 19. of his booke from the abundance wherof he made that propheticall and heavenly protestation O that my words were written written in a booke and graven with an iron pen in lead or stone for ever I knowe that my redeemer liveth Wormes rottenes shall consume me to nothing but my redeemer is aliue behold he liveth for evermore hath the keies of hell and of death The graue shal be my house and I shall make my bed in darkenes but I shall rise againe to behold the brightnes of his countenance These eies of nature shal sinke into the holes of my head but I shall receiue them againe to behold that glorious obiect And though many ages of the worlde shall run on betwixt the day of my falling his long expected uisitation yet he shalâ— stand the last day vpon the earth himselfe α and ω the first and the last of all the creatures of God to recapitulate former
consepta the lamentable pinfoldes of the deathes of men O pray that the flight departure of this spirit which must depart be not vpon the sabbath day in the rest and tranquility of your sinnes nor in the winter and frost of your hard hearts nor in the midnight of your security when you least looke for it VVoe worth the man whome the Lorde when hee commeth shall finde sleeping I say the vntimely fruite is better than that man it had bin good for that man if he had never bin borne the theeues shall break through his house the daungerous theeues of the soule SataÌ„ his Angels spirituall wickednesse shal rob not his coffers but his conscience of a treasure which he had but lost with carelesnes The bride-grome shal come by with a noise but behold his light is out his oile speÌ„t that is both his matter oportunity of wel-doing is gone he cannot supply either by borrowing or by by buying though he woulde giue his heart bloud for it What shall become of him but that he shall knocke at the gates of heaven while those gates are standing cry vpon the Lord while he hath his being to no purpose The instruction serveth vs all For the prophet was willed to crye that those which were farthest of from hearing the sound and beleeving the report of the voice might be made partakers of it All flesh is grasse and all the goodlines thereof as the flower of the field And to shevve how strange it seemed vnto him that any should bee ignorant of their mortall condition and strangers in Ierusalem as the disciple spake to Christ Luke 24. or rather in the world not knowing the things vvhich ordinarily come to passe from the first creation till time shall bee no more he continueth his crie Know yee nothing haue yee not heard it hath it not beene tolde you from the beginning Haue yee not learned it from the foundations of the earth That it is hee that sitteth vpon the circle of the earth and the inhabitantes in comparison of him are but grashoppers That hee maketh the Princes of the earth as nothinge and the iudges as vanitie as though they were never planted never sowen and their stocke had taken no roote vpon the earth For he doth but blow vpon them and they wither and the whirle-winde taketh them away like strawe Statutum est omnibus semel mori It is apointed vnto all men once to die nay twise to die Moriendo morter is God threatned Adam that he shoulde die the the death so the Apostle here saieth first death and aftervvardes iudgement If we looke into it But the statute touching the former branch shall never be repealed till destruction be throwne into the lake of fire and it be fulfilled which the Apostle hath revealed vnto him Mors non erit vltra death shall be no more Let vs take heed therefore least whilest we are carefull to doe al other things in time to set our trees â—ow our fieldes gather our fruites wee loose or lay vp in the napkin of security and bury in the earth of forgetfulnesse the most precious talent of time committed vnto vs in the ordering and framing of our liues to salvation as if nothing were viler vnto vs than our selues Let vs beware to offer the dregs of our life to him that inspired it least we drinke the dregs of his anger If wee wish with Balaam that our latter endes may be like the endes of the righteous let vs not be negligent to fashion our beginnings middles like theirs Let vs know that life is short and the art of salvation requireth a long time of learning and the way into heaven is long and cannot be troden in a short time Astronomers say that the space betweene heaven earth if one should climbe vnto it by ladders is nine hundreth thousand miles but the distance whereof I speake betweene corruption and incorruption mortality and immortality wretchednes and glory can by no measure be comprehended Let the prowde by name remember that they must turne to the earth which now they set their feete vpon Rather those tender and dainty vvomen that never adventure to set the soule of their foote vpon the grounde but as if the face of the earth vvere not provided for the daughters of men they must be alwaies carried like the fowles of the aire betweene heaven and earth Let them remember that the earth shall set her foote vpon their heades and their lippes shall kisse the dust of the grounde and the very gravell and slime of the grave shall dwell betweene their hawty eye-liddes Why doe they kill the prophets â—nd builde vp tombes kill their soules and garnish their bodies Doe they fore-thinke vvhat shall become of them wheÌ„ after al their labour cost bestowed in whiting painting the outward wals there remaineth nothing but putiduÌ„ putriduÌ„ cadaver â— stinking and rotten carkas when though now they say to their sisters in the flesh Touch me not I am of purer mould thaÌ„ thou art yet the bones of Agamemnon and Thersites shal be mingled togither of Vashti the most beautifull Queene and the blackest Egyptian bond-woman shall not be found asunder I haue not leasure to say much vnto our prowde dust and ashes But if purple and fine linnen vvere an opprobrious note for lacke of an inwarde cloathing to the rich man in the gospell if that parable were to be written in these daies purple fine linnen were nothing And what the burtheÌ„s cariages of pride in the age of Clemens Alexandrinus were I know not but if it were a wonder to him that they killed not themselues vnder those burthens I am sure if the measure were then full it is now heaped vpon the highest and shaken togither and pressed downe againe We are mad to forget nature Adam hath wisdome to call all the beasts of the fielde by their proper names but he forgetteth his owne name that he was called Adam that there is an affinity betweene the earth and him For hee shall returne to the earth his earth He was not made of that substance vvhereof the Angelles and starres no not of that matter vvhereof the aire and the vvater inferiour creatures The earth was the wombe that bredde him and the earth the wombe that must receiue him againe For let him play the Alchymist while he will and striue to turne earth into silver and golde and pearles by making shew to the world vnder his glorious adornations that he is of some better substance yet the time is not farre of that the earth shall challendge him for her naturall childe and say he is my bowelles Neither can his rich apparrell so disguise him in his life time nor fear-clothes spices and balmes so preserue him after his death nor immuring stone or lead hide him so close but that his originall mother will both know him againe and
vt pueri Iunonis avem and schollers wondering more at men that they doe so little for them learning never departeth ashamed and discontented from your face I adde with most zealous and thankefull commemoration in behalfe of my mother and all the children at her knees your loue to our Vniversitie Of whose age and nativity which others haue beene carefull to set downe I dispute not But whither shee bee the elder sister it seemeth by that neglect wherein shee now standeth that shee hath lost the honour and inheritance of her birth-right or vvhither the younger your Lordship hath not many companions to ioine with you in compassion and say in these daies soror est nobis parva we haue a little sister and shee hath no breastes or rather hath not succor to fill out her breastes what shall vvee doe for her How many commō respectes to let private alone a vvhile haue naturally borne me to the centre and pointe of your Honours onely patronage I deny not when at my comming from the North it first came into my head to divulgate these readings my purpose was to haue made the chiefe founders and procurers thereof my two deceased Lords the chiefe patrones also that as the rivers runne to the place from whence they come so these tokens of my gratefull minde might returne to the principall authours Wherein the worlde might iustly haue censured me with the words of the Prophet what from the living to the dead contrary to the vse and fashion of all other men But so I meane both to avoide the suspicion of a fault which the world laboureth of flattering of great personages who was and am content that all mine expectations in any respecte from them or theirs bee laid in the same dust vvherein their bones lye and to shew that loue is stronger then death and that the vnexorable barres of the graue cannot forbid a man to continue that affection to the memory of the dead vvhich he carried to the living For which cause as others provided spices and balmes and monuments of stone or brasse to preserue their bodies so I intended a monument of paper and such other preservatiues as I coulde to keepe their names in life which the violence of time cannot so quicklye iniurye as the fatall vngratefulnesse of these latter daies But your Lordshippes most vndeserved and vnlooked for bounty towards mee hath altered that meaninge In whose countenance speech evermore from the first houre that I came into your honorable presence there dwelt such plentifull comfortes and encouragements to make me hope for better times that I never went a way but with more fatnesse to my bones And now the world can witnesse vvith mee how largely you haue opened your hand and sealed vp that care in freely bestowing vpon mee not Leah but Rahel even the daughter of your strength the best that your Honour had to bestow I say not for my service of twice 7. yeares but being yet to begin my first houres attendance Which more then credible benignity my right hande were vvorthye to forgette her cunninge if shee tooke not the first occasion to write and report with the best skill shee hath Notwithstanding I haue bene bold thus farre after the trees shaken and the vintage gathered to your Honours vse to leaue as it were a berrye or two in the vtmost boughes to my former Lordes and by making some little mention of their happy memories both to testify mine auncient duety towards them and to deliver them what I might from the night of forgetfulnesse who were the shining lampes of the North in their life time Such a Moses and such an Aaron such a Josuah to lead the people and such a Priest to beare the Arke such a Zorobabel and such a Jehozadak such a Centurion in Capernaum to rule the country and such a Jairus to governe the Synagogue when the Lorde shall send togither againe I will then saie hee hath restored his blessing amongst them To this purpose I haue added two sermons more to these Lectures vppon Ionas the one preached at the funeralles of my former Lord the late Archbishop of Yorke the other no way pertinent to the latter the right noble Earle of Huntingdon except because hee commanded it and it was not many weekes before his death and the subiect was so agreeable to his most faithfull and vnsteined heart For if the sound of the tongue and applause of the handes may perswade for him he never behelde the light of heaven within this land that more honoured the light of England Long may it sparkle and flame amongst vs according to his harty wishes Let neither distempered humours within quench it nor all the waters of the sea betwixt Spaine and vs bring rage and hostility enough to put it out but let the light of Gods owne most blessed countenance for ever ever shine vpon it It nowe remaineth that in the humblest manner I can I wholy resigne my selfe and the course of my life to your honourable both protection and disposition askinge pardon for my boldnesse and defense for these my simple endeavours beseeching the God of heaven earth to multiply his richest blessings vpon your Honour your Lady and your Children whither within or without the land Your Lordshippes most bounden and dutifull Chaplaine JOHN KINGE THE FIRST LECTVRE Cap. 1. verse 1.2 The word of the Lord came also vnto Ionah the sonne of Amittai saying Arise and go to Niniveh c. COmparisons betwixt scripture and scripture are both odious and dangerous In other sortes of thinges whatsoeuer is commendable may either be matched or preferred according to the worth of them I will not make my selfe so skilful in the orders of heaven as to advance angel aboue angel but I am sure one star differeth from another in glorie And God hath giuen the rule of the day to the sunne of the night to the moone because they differ in beauty The captaines of the sonnes of Gad without offence might beare an vnaequall report One of the least could resist an hundred and the greatest a thousand because their prowesse and actes were not aequall There was no wrong done in the Antheme which the women song from all the citties of Israell Saul hath slaine his thousande and David his tenne thousande The vnlike desertes of these two princes mighte iustly admit an vnlike cōmēdation One Cato may be of more price then hundreth thousandes of vulgar men and Plato may stande for all Our Saviour in the gospell preferreth old wine before new Aristotle liketh better of the wine of Lesbos thē the wine of Rhodes he affirmeth both to be good but the Lesbian the more pleasant alluding vnder that parable to the successour of his schoole and noting his choise rather of Theophrastus borne at Lesbos then Menedemus at Rhodes But the whole scripture is giuen by inspiration of God neither in his greate house of vvritten counsels is
dissemble with thee they are a rebellious nation they and their fathers before them vnto this daie children harde of face and stiffe harted Thou shalt say vnto them thus saith the Lorde God but surely they will not heare neither will they cease for they are rebels and thornes and scorpions I haue now vnfoulded the conditions of thy charge If thou findest thy courage sufficient to endure the gain-saying of rebels the pricking and rending of thornes tearinge the eares with contumely and the name of thy maker with blasphemous speech the hissing and stinging of pestilent scorpions then go to the children of Israell if not thou art vnmeete for this busines As if a prophet of our daies should be sent to Constantinople and haue his instruction given him at his setting forth that it is a portlye and insolent city the seate of the greate Turke the hart of the Empire a cage of all vncleanenes an enemy to the name of Christians vvarring continually against the saints a scorner of our crucified Redeemer a worshipper of the false prophet Mahomet vvith other such like colde encouragements feeling his pulses as it were and examining his spirit whether it hath a power to fight with these daungers It was some comfort no doubt amongst the discomfortes to come that our saviour lessonned his Disciples before their goinge abroade Beholde I send you as lambes among Wolues They will deliver you vp to the Councelles and scourge you in their synagogues and you shall bee brought to the governours and Kings for my sake in witnes to them and to the Gentiles In the 16. of Iohn hee plainely professeth his meaning in these kinds of predictions these thinges haue I saide vnto you that yee should not bee offended They shall xcommunicate you yea the time shall come that whosoever killeth you shall thinke that hee doth God service But these thinges haue I told you that when the houre shall come you may remember that I told you of them The foreknowledge of dangers ensuing gaue invincible constancy and resolution to Paul as appeareth in his excellent oration made at Miletum behold I go bounde in the spirit to Ierusalem know not what things shall come vnto mee there saue that the holie Ghost witnesseth in everie citie saying that bandes and afflictions staie for mee Herevpon he composeth his heart to patience and calleth all his forces home to himselfe to resist those afflictions But I passe not at all neither is my life deare vnto me c. And when Agabus at Caesarea had taken the girdle of Paul and bounde his owne hands and feete saying from the mouth of the holy Ghost So shall the Iewes at Ierusalem bind the man that oweth this girdle when his friends would haue held him backe from going to Ierusalem he aunswered boldly and saide what doe ye weeping and breaking mine heart For I am ready not to be bounde onely but also to die at Ierusalem for the name of the Lorde Iesus Peter perswadeth the dispersed saints dwelling here and there to patience in troubles by an argument drawen from the knowledge and experience thereof before had Dearlie beloved saith he thinke it not strange concerning the fierie triall which is amongst you to proue you as though some new thing were come vnto you as if he had saide this fire is auncient and well knowen you haue long seene the smoke thereof and therefore the breaking forth of the flames should not so greatly astonish you His owne practise was not inferiour to his advise For vpon that praesage which his maister gaue in the last of Iohn when thou art olde thou shalt stretch forth thine handes and an other shall girde thee c. hee tooke his occasion to vse more diligence in his calling knowing as himselfe speaketh that the time was at hand whē he must lay downe his tabernacle even as the Lord Iesus Christ had shewed him Thus much on the behalfe of Ionas that if the greatnes of the citie were anie terrour vnto him hee might not complaine that he was taken at vnawares sodainely called and improvidently thrust forth but with alacritie of minde set his shoulder to the vvorke and settle his confidence in the greatnesse of that God from whom he was commaunded It is a direction to vs all whatsoever our service be wherein God shall employ vs whether in Church or in common vvealth vvhether vve sit vpon the thrones of David for execution of iudgment or in the chaire of Moses for exposition of the lavve vvhich are the combersomst charges vpon the earth the very heate and burthen of the day if I may so tearme them not to remit our labours and vvith the sonnes of Ephraim being armed and bearing bowes to turne our backes in the day of battell but though vvee be crossed vvith a thousande afflictions and haue iust cause to crie out as Moses in his government why hast thou vexed thy servant yet to persist and go forward in our paines addressing our soules to contentment and quietnes this was I called vnto I cannot pleade ignorāce neither had I reason to expect lesse travell vexation anguish of spirit were giuen me for my lot and my portion to drinke when I first entered into these affaires 2 Touching the place vvhen vvee heare it commended for a great citie shall vve inferre heerevpon Therefore priviledged to carelesnesse hautinesse oppression wickednesse vvhich are the wormes and mothes for the most part that breede of greatnesse therefore may Niniveh sin with impunity and say I am the Queene of the earth who shall controll me therefore must sinnes set vp a monarchie also in Niniveh must Prophets go to Bethel and prophecie in out-corners because Niniveh is the Kings Court and cannot beare the words of Prophets can the mightines of her state singularity of her government climing of her walles aspiring of her towres multitude of her people make her secure against the vvrath of the Lorde of hostes or can the barres of her gates keepe out his iudgementes Alas vvhat is the greatnes of Niniveh compared with the greatnes of the Lord The landes of Alcibiades in the mappe of the vvhole vvorlde vvere lesse then a center and small title they could not be espied all the islandes of the sea are as a little dust in the sight of the almighty and the nations as the droppe of a wel bucket vvhat is the number and the heigth of thy proude turrets though they hold the earth in awe they cannot threaten heaven and the closer they presse to the seate of God the nearer they lie to his lightning The challenge of God to the selfe same citie is notablie set dovvne in the prophecy of Nahum Art thou better then No which was full of people that lay in the rivers and had the waters rounde about it whose ditch was the sea and her wall was from the sea Aethiopia and Aegypt were her strength and there was no ende
they stand before their face attending their pleasure and ready to receiue and execute their imposed hests You haue the phrase in the first of Iob On a day when the children of God came and stoode before the Lorde Satan came also and stoode amongst them And Psal. 123. Beholde as the eyes of servantes looke vnto the handes of their maisters and as the eyes of a mayden vnto the handes of her mistresse So our eyes waite vpon the LORDE our GOD vntill hee haue mercy vpon vs. In the 18. of Mathew our Saviour adviseth his disciples not to despise one of those little ones the reason is this For I say vnto you that in heaven there Angelles alwaies beholde the face of my father which is in heaven The like manner of speech did Elizaeus vse to Naaman the Syriā when he offered him a reward As the Lord liveth before whome I stande a witnes to my actiōs the searcher of my hart whose honor service I tender more then my game I will not receiue it By these may we see what the phrase intendeth of fleeing from the presence of the Lord. It letteth vs vnderstand that Ionas as a fugitiue and refractary servant ranne from the Lord as Onesimus from his maister Philemō breaking his bonds of duty and making no conscience or care to do service vnto him Some haue presumed by coniecture vpon his goinge to Tharsis and fleeing from the face of the Lorde that not onely he reneged his obedience in this particular action but changed the vvhole trade of his life and leaving the office of a Prophet became a Marchante adventurer A worldly dangerous profession not only for the hazard of life and for vvracke of goods but for vvracke of conscience also which is the worst shipwracke which wrackes notwithstandinge are taken not onely in your ships abroad but in your shoppes and warehouses at home when you fall either vpon the Syrtes and quickesandes of lying which is a present and quicke kinde of sinne allwaies at the tongues end or vpon the rockes of periury which is a more obstinate and indurate transgression I wil not be so strict in this point as Chrysostome was who councelled Christiās to avoide marketting that neither they suffered nor offered guilefull dealing I know they are lawfull and profitable callinges in common vvealth if lawfully handled The state of the worlde cannot stand without buying selling traffique transportation Non omnis fert omnia tellus No country yeeldeth all kind of commodity There must be a path frō Aegypt to Assur and from Assur to Aegypt againe to make a mutuall supplye of their severall wants Mesech the king of Moab was a Lord of sheepe Hiram had store of timber and vvorkemen Ophir vvas famous for golde Chittim for yvorie Basan for oakes Lebanon for cedars Saba for frankincense c. But this I must tell you that liue vpon buying and selling you vvalke vpon coales and cary fire in your bosomes gaine is a busie tentation and there is neither stone nor Ephah measure nor ballaunce you vse but Satan is at hande to doe some office It is naught it is naught saith the buyer in the tvventith of the Proverbes and when hee is gone aparte hee boasteth Now on the other side It is good and very good saith that seller and when hee hath solde his wares hee boasteth indeede because hee hath given drosse for silver and water for wine Esay 1. I say no more but take heede that the treasures of wickednesse be not found in your houses neither a scante measure which is an abhomination vnto the Lord. Shall I iustify saith God the wicked balances and the bag of deceitfull weightes His meaning is that they shall never be iustified much lesse a wicked and deceitfull conscience I will not enforce this collection vpon you because is is not plainely expressed in the text and without such forraine and vnnecessary helps if I may so tearme them the bare letter of the words doth notoriously evict the disobedience of Ionas wherin he was so fixed and confirmed that neither respite of time neither danger of voiage nor expence of money coulde change his purpose Examine the particulars 1. He goeth downe to Iapho or Ioppe Iaffa at this day a city of Palestine an haven towne and rode for shipping it spent some travell and time no doubt before he came to Iapho 2. He findeth a ship going to Tharsis I am sure he was not presently acquainted with the keye neither did hee find that ship without some enquirie 3. He paieth the fare what incontinently it is not vnlikely but they staide one tide at the least 4. And it standeth with the order of the text that he paide the fare aforehand and in hast before he needed 5 Some of the Rabbines adde that he paide the fare of the whole ship for the rest of the passengers that were bound for Tharsis 6. Lastly when he had paid hee goeth downe into the ship not remembering the daunger hee entered into to put his life within 4. inches of death and what safety it is in comparison to see the raging of the waters form the sea banckes Is vvas one of the three thinges that Cato repented travel by sea vvhen by lande he might haue gone and a charge that antigonus gaue his sonnes when they were tossed with a tempest Remember my sonnes and warne your posteritye of it that they never hazard themselues vpon such adventures What needed the recitall of these particular and one vvoulde thinke trifling circumstances as that hee went to the haven founde a shippe paide the fare descended into it vvhich might haue beene spoken at once Hee went to Tharsis But to expresse thus much that though there were many occurrences that met and stopt him in the vvaie of disobedience as the Angell met Balaam manye messengers as it were sent from God to call him backe againe manie spaces of ground manie interruptions of time manie occasions of better advise and consultation yet as Agrippa came into the world with his heeles forward so Ionas holdeth on his vntoward course whether his feete woulde beare him having little reason and lesse grace to direct him The summe of all that hath beene spoken hitherto for I vvill leaue a remnant behinde at the least to make a connexion betweene this and the next sentence is stronge and incredible disobedience I say not conceived alone but brought forth perfited persisted in without remorse not against father mother magistrate any superiour but against God himselfe not in the taile of the people to vse the wordes of a Prophet but in the cheifest and honourablest part The complaint of God is now revived againe who so blinde as my servant or so deafe as hee whome I haue sent Ionas a servant in the highest roome a vessell of the greatest honour in the greate house a Prophet one of a principall spirit and as their vsuall name was for vnvsuall
at his discretion Horace commended Virgil his friend going towards Athens to the mighty goddesse of Cyprus the two brethreÌ„ of Helen the father of the winds that is to Venus the two twins Castor Pollux Aeolus wishing for his better speed that all the windes might be bounde vp besides Iapyx a quiet westerne winde with many the like fables not vnknowne to grammer schooles The blowing of the windes more or lesse wee impute not to Aeolus nor any the like devised God of the gentiles we honour the Lord of hosts alone in the power of this creature who sitteth vpon the circle of heaven and causeth both the sunne to shine and the raines to fall and the winds to blow in their seasons and at this time appointed this winde to a singular service It is he that flieth vpon the winges of the wind The channels of the waters haue beene seene and the foundations of the earth discovered at his rebuking and at the blasting of the breath of his nostrels You see it is called the breath of the Lord as also in the booke of Iob not that substantiall breath of his wherof we read in the 1. of Gen. the spirit of God moved vpon the waters but a created breath extracted and engendred out of other creatures The winde that came from the wildernes and overthrew the corners of the house wherin the children of Iob were feasting that saint acknowledgeth to haue come from heavenly disposition The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away Wind fire bands of robbers he assigneth not to any idol of the heatheÌ„ nor to the malice of men nor to the hazard of fortune which others made a goddes but to the almightines soverainty of him who ruleth al things And as his dominion is vndoubted in the aire so doth the sea submit it selfe likewise to his governance who sitteth vpon the water-flouds and is a king for evermore as the Psalme speaketh For who but he hath shut vp the sea with doores when it issued and came forth as out of the wombe who established his commandement vpon it when he set bars gates said hitherto shalt thou coÌ„e and no further here will I stay the proud waues Who els devided the red sea into two parts that the children of Israell passed through on dry foote But as for Pharaoh and his host the horse and the rider they were overthrown therin Who els turned the streame of Iordan the contrary way whereof the Prophet demandeth with admiratioÌ„ what aileth thee O IordaÌ„ that thou wentest backe who els turned the waters into bloud and drieth vp the rivers that the fishes rotte for wante of moisture Tell mee his name to vse the words of Iob if thou knowest it and what is his sonnes name It is he and his son who in the gospell of Marke rebuked the windes and saide vnto the sea peace and bee still and the winde ceased and there was a great calme and they could not be satisfied about it but asked who it was that both the winds the sea should thus obey him All kindes of vveather by lande or sea thunders and lightning even the coales of fire that were never blowne haile-stones stormy tempestes they come by his assignement who cleaveth the rockes asunder with his voice and shooteth forth his thunderbolts as arrowes at a marke who biddeth his lightnings walke and they say loe here we are and devideth the spouts in the aire to yeeld their moysture to the ground more or lesse at the will of their maker And we vtterly renounce herein not onely the palpable idolatrie of the Gentiles vvho gaue the glory of the most highe to â—heir base and inglorious abominations but the foolish ignorance of others nearer home vvho in the vvorking of these creatures never looke vp to the seate of maiesty that ordereth all thinges but whatsoever befalleth them by fall of fire blast of wind inundation of waters or the like they tearme it chance Alas chance is nothing for nothing is done in the whole world without an order from aboue and it vvas wisely noted by a learned man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nature bringeth forth that which we wroÌ„gfully cal chaÌ„ce because it commeth vnexpected I read of a certaine people in Africke who being troubled with the North-wind driving heapes of sandes vpon their fieldes dwelling places they gathered an army of men to fight against it but with so evill successe that themselues were also buried vnder hilles of sandes Xerxes the Persian Monarke having received a losse by the rage of Hellespontus himselfe more mad then the sea caused fetters and manacles to be cast into the waters thereof as if he would make it his prisoner binde it with linkes of iron at his pleasure Darius did the like vpon the river Gynde who because it had drowned him a white horse threatned the river to devide it into so many streames so to weaken the strength of it that a woman great with child should goe over it dry-shod It is not vnlike the madnes of our daies who must not be crossed either with wet or dry winds or raines faire or fowle but we fall to repining murmuring banning blaspheming al kind of cursed either speaking or wishing at least But as God asketh Senacherib whome hast thou railed vpon or whome hast thou blasphemed so I aske these meÌ„ whome are you angry with who hath displeased you are you angry with the saw or with him that lifteth it do the winds and seas mooue your impatience they are but servantes vnto that Lord who saith vnto them smite and they do it favor they are obedient Rabsakeh speaketh to the nobles of Ierusalem Esay 36. Am I come hither without the Lord The Lord said vnto me Go vp against this land to destroy it So it is in the force of these creatures wheÌ„ either they drowne or blast or parch to much it is not done without the Lorde the Lord saith vnto them doe thus or otherwise Besides the impieties aboue named it is an error of our times heathenish enough to giue the honor of God in these and the like accidents to witches coÌ„iurers For if ever tempest arise more theÌ„ coÌ„mon experience hath inured vs vnto especially with the havock and losse either of life or limme in our selus or of our cattel or howsings forthwith the iudgmeÌ„t is given as if the God of heaveÌ„ earth were fallen a sleepe minded nothing there is some coniuring Be it so What is coniuring a pestilent commistion conveÌ„tioÌ„ stipulation betwixt men divels MeÌ„ divels what are they looke vpoÌ„ the sorcerers of Aegypt for the one Magorum potestas saith Augustine defecit in muscis they cried in the smallest plague that was sent and past their cunning to remoue this is the figure of the Lord their power is limited therfore Looke vpon
giue to it Thou art my confidence Do you not plant build purchase adde house to house ioine fielde to field put to vse grinde eate teare racke extort to the outtermost what meaneth such costlines in your houses delicacy at your tables stately habiliments vpon your wiues and daughters insolent neighbourhood against your brethren like the malignant aspect of vnluckie planets vpon them discountenancinges disturbings dispossessings of them but that you trust in riches Where is your trust in the living God meane time richnes in good workes readines to distribute and communicate which the Apostle preached to Timothy and willed him to giue in charge because such hard doctrine must bee driven in with hard hammers to those that are rich in this present worlde least they be deprived of those incorruptible riches which God hath stored vp where are your morsels of bread to feede the hungry your fleeces of woll to warme the loynes of the naked hospitality in your halles bounty at your gates liberality in your hands I thinke you keepe the rule of the gospell that the right hand knoweth not vvhat the left doth because neither right nor left doth any thing I like the advise of an heathen well Vse thy wealth as thou wouldest vse thy coate let it bee rather fit then too long A little may bee a burthen but in too much there is no question In the land of Havilah there is good gold In the land of the living in the land of promise in the land of heavenly Ierusalem there is good golde indeede golde tried in the fire in the third of the revelation where neither moth nor rust can corrupt nor theefe purloine it gold of more worth than all the mines of the earth can send vp O thirst after this gold if you must needes thirst be covetous after durable riches Lay vp treasures for your selues in heauen and of your vnrighteous Mammon neither well gained perhaps and ill kept and worse laide out make friends in time that they may receiue you into the heavenly tabernacles saue your shippes if it may be and saue your liues but saue your soules though you lose your wares your shippes and your lives to THE SIXT LECTVRE Chap. 1. ver 5. But Ionas was gonne downe into the sides of the shippe and he lay downe and was fast a sleepe THE marriners had throwen out their wares but the greatest burthen was behinde the sinne of Ionas for wickednes is as a talent of lead Zach. 5. the weight whereof cannot be expressed Salt and sande and a lumpe of iron is easier to beare then an vnwise foolish vngodly man We see by the proofe of this example that the sinne of one private person is likely to sinke a shippe in the middest of the sea and Peter thought it of force to overturne more then one Luke 5. For when the two shippes were so fraught with fish that they were ready to sinke he fell downe at the knees of Iesus and said goe from me Lorde for I am a sinfull man thinking that his sinne had so endaungered them They say no element is ponderous in the proper place of the element wee feele not the weight of the aire though we liue in the circle of it the water of the sea as much as the whole chaÌ„nel holdeth if we lay in the nethermost bottome therof would not offend vs with burthen though annoy vs otherwise so is it in the estimatioÌ„ of sin it seemeth not a burtheÌ„ in the wil of man wherein the region and elemente of sinne is because of that lust and appetite the will hath to commit sinne but bring it from the house and home where it dwelleth convent it before reason examine it with iudgment and vnderstanding consider what an infinit maiesty it offendeth and what infinit plagues it bringeth forth then shall wee know the weight of sinne No sooner had Ionas entered the ship but the sea which was at rest before feeling a burthen more then common came forth like a bride-groome out of his chamber and channell to ease it selfe and to shake his bones with an ague that troubled the quiet therof that we may learne saith Chrysost. vbi peccatum ibi procella where sinne is there will also bee a storme and if wee will saue our selues wee must drowne sinne as they drowned Ionas The sleepe of Ionas is as strange prodigious and brutisâ— kind of sleepe as ever I hearde of The windes rage the sea roareth the ship tottereth and groaneth the marriners feare and pray and cry euery soule in the ship so many persons vpon so many Gods it was as the howling of Baals Priestes or as the yelling of wolues they runne to and fro they ransacke all the corners of the ship vnbowell her in most celles throwe out commodities rende and rape downe tackles sailes all implementes Ionas in the meane time as a man possest with the deafe Divell Marke 7. or as one that had lost his soule as they write of Hermotimus that his soule would depart from the body at times and come home againe sleepeth If a theefe should come to robbe woulde hee not steale till hee had enough If grape-gatherers should come to a vine would they not leaue some grapes Obadiah 5. Beholde the customer of the life of man who taxeth halfe our daies to his owne vse commeth vpon Ionas and is not content with ordinary moderate fees but bereaveth him of all sense And no oratour in the world could better haue described this drowsines to the disgrace of Ionas than Ionas himseâ—fe 1 He descended Hee staid not vpon the hatches to visite the light of heaven to behold the waues of the sea his persecutours but removed as far from God and his anger as his heart could devise shewing that his workes were evill because he buried himselfe in darkenesse A sinner ever descendeth till hee commeth to the lowest that may bee his affections are down-wardes and I am sure his inheritance and hope is not aboue but as wee bury dead flesh vnder the ground so it is not vnlikely of deade soules and as the heaviest bodies draw to the center of the earth so the saddest and heaviest spirites which the mercy of God hath forsaken 2 He descended not into the bosome through fare of the ship where the passage of the marriners vp and downe might haue disturbed him but into the sides or thighes of it 3 He descended into the sides of the keele the veriest bottome that the vessell had I thinke if there had beene a vault in the shippe as deepe as hell and destruction it selfe hee woulde haue entered thereinto 4 Hee descended into the shippe not to bestow time in any serviceable imployment for the furtherance of the voiage but to lye downe 5 Not for the ease of his body alone to giue it some short repose but to sleepe 6 Nay he slept and slept Endimions sleepe Somno
one would reason with his neighbour in the behalfe of Sodom with six sundry replies from fifty to ten righteous persons vvhich number if it had beene founde Sodom had escaped How deare was the soule of Lot in that fearefull destruction on vvhome the Lorde bestowed his life and the life of his wife and children the safety of Zoar a litle city not far of because he had entreated for it the Angell pluckt him into the house from the fury of the Sodomites and not lesse theÌ„ pluckt him out of the city who made but slowe hast bidding him flee to Zoar to saue his life for hee coulde doe nothing till hee was come thither Noah and his little familye the remnant of the earth as the sonne of Syrach tearmeth them the onelye buddes of the worlde that were to seede seede for a new generation of men at the time of the floud were more precious vnto the Lorde then all the people vnder heaven besides vvhich had the breath of lâ—fe vvithin them Howe often did hee gratifie Moses the beloved of God and men with the liues of the children of Israell vvhen his anger vvas so hote that he entreated his servant to let him alone that hee might consume them yet contented in the ende to be entreated by him and to pleasure him with their pardon I haue forgiven it accordinge to thy requeste O vvhat a let is a righteous man to the iustice of GOD and even as manacles vpon his handes that hee cannot smite vvhen hee is driven to crye vnto one Let mee alone and to another till thou art gone I can doe nothing And did he not grace the person of Iob more then his three friendes vvhen hee bad Eliphaz with the other two to goe and offer a burnt offering for themselues and his servant Iob shoulde praie for them and hee woulde accept him And is it not an argument past gaine-saying that Moses and Samuell were according to his owne hart when he reviveth their names as from their ashes and blesseth their memorye to Ieremy his prophet with so favourable accounte Though Moses and Samuell stoode before mee yet coulde not my affection bee toward this people The like whereof we finde in Ezechiel Though these three men Noah Daniell and Iob were amongst them they should saue neither sons nor daughters but deliver their owne soules by their righteousnesse Eden was chosen to be the garden of the Lord when all the ground of the earth besides was paled out Noahs arke floted vpon the vvaters when all other shippes and boates of the sea were overwhelmed Aarons rod budded and brought forth almondes when all the rods for the other tribes remained dry and withered One sheafe hath stoode vpright and one starre hath sparkled when eleuen others haue lien vpon the ground and beene obscured The apple of the eye is dearer vnto a man then the vvhole frame and circle of the eye about it the signet vpon the right hand in more regard either for the matter or for the forme or for the vse wherto it serveth then all his other ornaments a writing in the palmes of his handes more carefully preserved then all his other papers and records Doubtlesse there are some amongst the rest of their brethen whome God doth tender as the apple of his eye weare as a signet vpon his finger engraue as a vvriting in the palmes of his handes and with whome is the secret of the Lorde and his hidden treasures though his open and ordinary blessinges bee vpon all fleshe Moses hath asked meate in a famine and water in a drought for the children of Israell when their bowelles might haue piped vvithin them like shalmes and their tongues cloven to the roofe of their mouthes if hee had not spoken Elias hath called for raine vvhen the earth might haue gasped for thirst and discovered her lovvest foundations if he had beene silent Phinees hath stayed a plague which would not haue ceased till it had devoured man and beaste if such a man had not stoode vp Paul in the 27. of the Actes obteined by the mercy of God the liues of all his companions that sailed vvith him tovvardes Rome in that desperate voyage As a morning starre in the midst of the cloude and as the moone vvhen it is full as the flower of the roses in the spring of the yeare and as lillies by the springes of waters and as the branches of the franckincense in the time of sommer as a vessell of massie gold set vvith all manner of precious stones and as the fatte that is taken from the peace offerings so is one Henoch that walketh with God vvhen others walke from him one Rahab in Iericho one Elias that boweth not his knees to Baal one David in Mesek one Hester in Shushan one Iudith in Bethulia one Ioseph in the councell of the Iews one Gamaliell in the councell of the Pharisies one innocent and righteous man in the midst of a frowarde and crooked generation The praier of the righteous availeth much if it bee fervent the prayer of faith shall saue the sicke for the Lorde shall raise him vp and if hee hath committed sin it shal be forgiuen him It may minister occasion to the vvicked to reuerence and embrace the righteous euen for policies sake For the innocent shall deliver the islande and it shall be preserued by the purenes of his handes Many a time there may bee vvhen as stoute a king and as obstinate a sinner as ever Pharaoh was shall call for Moses and Aaron and beseech them pray to the Lorde for me In pestilences dearthes and droughtes warres sicknesses and ship-wrackes or any other calamities it lieth in the holines of some few the friends and favourites of God to stande in the gappe betwixt him and their brethren to entreate his maiesty for the rest and to turne a curse into a blessing as Ioseph brought a blessing to al that Putiphar had Genesis 39. This then may be a reason of the speech here vsed Call vpon thy God a likelihoode presumed by the gouernour that they mighte speede the better for Ionas his sake Another reason I take it was that hee distrusted his owne God and the Gods of his whole society and might be induced to hope better of that God which Ionas serued For what taste is there in the white of an egge or what pleasure to a man that commeth to a river of water to quench his thirst and findeth the channell dried vp What stay is there in a staffe of reede or in a broken staffe the splinters vvhereof to recompence his hope runne into the handes of a man and wounde him What trust in broken cesternes vvhich can holde no water This comparison God himselfe maketh vvith greate indignity in the second of Ieremie My people hath committed two evilles they haue forsaken me the fountaine of liuing waters and haue digged them pittes even broken pittes
but riotously wasted and consumed their whole ability In vvhich profusion of substance when the matter engaged ieopardeth the stocke and state of a man his passions must needes be stirred and a troupe of wretched sinnes commonly ensueth swearinge forswearinge banninge defying hart-burning fighting spilling of bloud vnsupportable sorrovves of hart cursed desperation weedes able to disgrace the lawfullest recreation wheresoever they are found as the Harpyes defiled the cleanest meates The third sort of lottes serving to diuination the law of God in a thousand expresse prohibitions comminatioÌ„s the lawes of men both civill canon mainly impugne as by their edicts penances anathemas hath bene puplished to the world They had many sorts of predictions presensions foreseeings none of theÌ„ all but either with the manifest invocatioÌ„ of devils or with their secret insinuation at the least In coÌ„iuring witchery it is too open but in their necromaÌ„cy such like prophecyings by signes characters in the fire are vvater ground entrales of beasts flying crying feeding of birds lineaments of the hand proper names numbers verses lead waxe ashes sage-leaues and the rest it is somewhat more secret but no lesse certaine The artificers and maisters of which faculty are most to be excused that vsed least earnest at whome a wise man marveiled that they laughed not one vpon the other when they met as being privie to themselues of enriching the eares of the worlde with fables to enrich their owne houses with treasure But how scrupulous and fearefull others were how deepely enthralled to the collusions of Sathan is most ridiculous to consider as that Pub. Claudius should be condeÌ„ned by full parliament because in the first Carthaginian warre being in sight by sea and asking how the birdes fared to take his good speede there hence vpon knowledge given him that they would not come out of their coope to feede hee answered so irreligiouslye as it was taken Beholde they will noâ— eate let them drinke and go with a mischiefe and so cast them all into the sea VVho woulde ever haue thought that C. Marius being condemned by the Senate of Rome seeing an asse to forsake his provendour and go to the water to drinke should take occasion thereby to forgoe the land and betake himselfe to sea for safety of his life Yet was the accident imputed both to the providence of his Gods that directed him and to the skill that himselfe had in interpreting religion Augustin writeth that one came to Cato and told him in great sooth that a ratte had gnawen his hose Cato answered him it was no marveâ—le but much more if his hose had gnawen the rat Fabius Maximus refused his dictatorship because he heard a ratte but squeake If a man should forsake but his meate or bed for the squeaking of many rattes or a scholler his bookes because a ratte had eaten the leaues thereof in our times who would not laugh at their folly This was their misery and seruility who went from the living to the dead from the mouth of the Lorde to the mouthes of enchanters birdes beasts devilles from the lawe and the testimony to those lawles curious idolatrous pernicious magicall devises The manner of our charmers is not much behinde these in impurity prophanenes Wherein what reason can be given of applying holy writte to vnholy actions of vttering vnsignificant words which carry no sense of drawing vnproportionate figures of tying to folish and vnnecessary conditions but a very secret operation wherby the devill doth infuse himselfe into such workings For curinge the tooth-ach or the like disease a writinge must bee red or kept but greate regard to be had vvhether it be written in paper or parchment in sheepe or in goate skin with the right or the lefte hande vvhether by a Virgin or common person Sometimes Christ himselfe is abused and his sacred word with apocryphall imaginarye false allegations as that Iesus spake to his wife when he was never married and such like blasphemies You vvill say they vse good prayers in their chambers I aunswere with Augustine they are either magicall or lawfull If magicall God vvil none of such praiers if lawfull yet not by such oratours I denye not but a good event hath sometimes ensued thy losse recovered thy teeth cured what then doest thou not know the power of Sathan that he transformeth himselfe into an Angell of lighte worketh by strong delusions lyinge wonders that if it were possible the very elect should be seduced Augustin wrote to Faustus the Manichee you worke no miracles vvhich if you did yet in you wee would beware your very miracles It is the deserved iudgement of God vpon those that haue recourse to these vnlawfull helpes vvherein though they vnderstand not themselues sometimes what they write or speake the Devill vnderstandeth well enough to leaue them to the God of this worlde the prince of darkenesse who ruleth in the children of disobedience because they flie from the revealed will of God to prestigiatorie and fraudulent impieties The Lord demaundeth in the 1. of Kinges who shall entice that is perswade deceaue Ahab that hee maie goe and fal at Ramoth in Gilead one saide thus an other thus Then there came forth a spirit and said I will entice him wherewith I will go be a false spirite in the mouth of all his Prophets Then the L. said thou shalt entice him shalt prevaile go forth and doe so Such is the counsell that the Lorde holdeth in heaven to bring to confusion al those whome the load-star of his written word cannot leade but they will take to themselues croked and perverse vvaies vvhich go downe to the chambers of death I now conclude all these with that memorable saying of Augustin He that desireth neither to liue happily hereafter nor godly in this present vvorld let him purchase eternall death by such rites Thus much of the course resolued vpon Come let vs cast lottes The reason why they resolved vpon lottery was that they mighte know for whose sake the evill was vpoÌ„ theÌ„ Who are they that enquire this vir ad amicuÌ„ suuÌ„ every one in the ship no doubte Ionas amongst the rest as quicke to dissemble his faulte as hee that was most innocent Looke froÌ„ the crowne of the head to the soule of the foote from the maister of the ship to the ship-boy they had all deserved this tempest full of idolatry impurity of life fitter for their vvickednesse whome the iawes of hell then the waues of the sea should swallowe vp Yet as if they were free from staine they will try by lottes for whose cause the evill is vpon them So is the nature of man wedded to it selfe leauing her eies at home in a boxe in discerning her own infirmities but in the faultes of others as quicke sighted as eagles Then every eie hath a double ball to see with and they stand without the
dissolute I feare and beare a reverent estimation 3. I am not carried away to dumbe idols I feare the Lorde God 4. who is not a God in heaven alone as your Iupiter nor in the sea alone as your Neptune nor alone in the earth as your Pluto but alone is the God of heaven and doth not hold by tenure but 5. himselfe hath made the sea and the dry land not only the land of Israel wherin he principally dwelleth and which I relinquished but the land of Tharsis also the continent dry ground belonging to the whole world not the land alone but all the waters of the maine sea which I tooke for my refuge and sanctuary I am an Hebrew From the beginning of the worlde to the time of Christ are numbred fowre propagations or generations the first from Adam to Noe the second from Noe to Abraham the third from Abraham to David the fourth from David to Christ. In the second generation was the name of the Hebrewes received in the third of the Israelites from Iacob sirnamed Israel whose grandfather Abraham was in the fourth of the Iewes after that Iuda and Beniamin which for the vnity of mindes were as it were one tribe following Rehoboam the son of Salomon of the tribe of Iuda made the kingdome of Iuda the other ten betaking them to Ieroboam of the tribe of Ephraim set vp the kingdome of the Ephraimites or of Israel One and the same people thrice changed their names Touching the first of these names there are sundry opinioÌ„s brought wheÌ„ce it arose 1. Some thinke they were called Hebrews of AbrahaÌ„ with the alteration of a fewe letters Hebraei quasi Abrahaei 2. some deriue them from Heber who was the fourth froÌ„ Noah 3. the graÌ„marians fetch theÌ„ froÌ„ an Hebrew word which signifieth over or beyonde because the posterity of SeÌ„ went over the river Tigris abode in Caldaea This sirname you shall first finde given to AbrahaÌ„ Gen. 14. where it is said that he which brought news that Lot was carried out of Sodome with the rest of the booty tolde it to Abraham the Hebrew because forsaking Vr of the Chaldees and passing over Euphrates he came into the land of Canaan therefore was he named of that couÌ„try people Ibreus that is one that past over So there is no doubt made but of Abraham they are called Hebrews because he harkned to the word of the Lorde and went beyond Euphrates Some haue gathered here-hence that in calling himselfe an Hebrew he maketh coÌ„fession of his fault that as the children of Sem Abraham past over rivers so by a borrowed speech he had past over the commandement of the Lord. For what is sinne but transgression transitio linearum the going beyond those lines limits that are prefined vs Other obserue that he implieth the condition of mans life heerein as having no abiding citie but a travaile vpon the face of the earth to passe from place to place as it is written of Israell in the Psalme they went from nation to nation from one kingdome to an other people and David confesseth no lesse I am a stranger and soiourner vpon the earth as all my fathers were Hierome vvoulde haue vs note that he tearmeth not himselfe a Iew which name came from the reÌ„ding of the kingdome but an Hebrew that is a passenger I take the letter of the text without deeper constructions that his purpose simply was to answere their last question which was yet fresh in his eares touching the people from whence he came and by naming his nation to make an argument against himselfe of higher amplification that lying in that corner of the worlde which was the diamond of the ring and as it were the apple of the eie heart of the body being sprung of that roote whereof it was saide Onely this people is wise and of vnderstanding and a greate nation for vvhat nation is so great to vvhome the Gods come so neere as the Lorde is neere vnto vs in all that wee call vnto him for or what nation so greate that hath ordinaunces and lawes so righteous as wee haue it might bee his greater offence to bee sovven good and come vp evill to bee richly planted in the goodlyest vine and baselie degenerated into a sower grape As it were a greater shame not to bee knit indissolublie to the worshippe of God in Englande than any other countrey almost it lying in Europe as Gedeons fleece in the flore exempted from the plagues of her neighbours and speciallye signed vvith the favour of GOD Hungary and Boheme busied with the Turkes Italy poisoned vvith the local seat of Antichrist Spaine held in awe with a bloudy Inquisition nether Germany disquieted with a forraine foe France molested with an intestine enemy Ireland troubled with the incivility of the place Scotland with her fatal infelicity England amongst all the rest having peaceable daies and nightes and not knowing any other bane but too much quietnes which shee hath taken from God with the left hand and vsed as the fountaine of all her licentiousnes After his country he placeth his religion I feare the Lord God of heaven which is here put for the generall worship and service that belongeth to God For that which God saith Esay 29. their feare is taughte by the precepts of men Christ interpreteth Math 15. by the name of vvorship In vaine doe they worship me teaching for doctrines the precepts of men Feare and worshippe in these scriptures are both one Come children saith the Psalmist hearken vnto mee I will teach you the feare of the Lord. And it is a notable phrase that the Hebrewes vse to this purpose as in the speech of Iacob to Laban Gen. 31. Except the God of my father the God of Abrâ—ham and the â—eare of Isaac had beene with mee surelie thou hadst sent mee avvay emptie where it is further to be marked that when Laban sware by the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor Iacob sware by the feare of his father Isaac that is by that God which his father feared that is worshipped and served It implieth thus much that the strength of Israell is a dreadfull God clothed with vnspeakeable maiesty as with a garment the glory of his face shining brighter than al the lights of heaven in their beauty yea the beholding of his countenance to a mortall man present death the Angels tremble the heavens melt the mountaines smoake the sea slieth backe the rivers are dried vp the fish rot the earth fainteth at the sight thereof therfore we ought not approach his grouÌ„d with our shooes on our feet with sensual base cogitations nor sit at his feast when the breade of his fearful word is broken without our wedding garment nor enter his house of praier with the sacrifice of fooles nor come to his holy mysteries with vnwasht handes or harts not
lesse I would not that iustice shoulde thrust mercy out of place but mercy and pitty differ as much as religion and superstition the one honoureth the other dishonoureth God the one is an ornament to man the other reprocheth him Be compassionate to the life of man and spare it as discretion shall require but rather be compassionate to the life of the common wealth for bee yee assured that the punishment of bloud-shedde is not to shed but to saue more bloude Melius est vt pereat vnus quam vnitas It is better that one should die by lawe then numbers without law The dogge that liveth in the shambles hath commonly a bloudy mouth and he that hath beene flesht vpon the bloud of man will not easily leaue it I leaue the answere of Ionas to the next place â—et vâ— beseech our mercifull God the preserver of mâ—n as Iob calleth him that hee would vouchsafe to preserue vnto vs this vertue of humanity without which we are not men putting softnes and tendernes in them that are cruell iustice into those that must bridle the rage of cruelty kindnesse and compassion into vs all that whatsoever wee are to deale in with any sorte of men wee may carefully cast before â—ande as these marriners did what we should doe vnto them setting their rule of friendship and brotherhood before our eies not to doe wrong or violence in oppressing the state or life either of brethren or strangers but to measure vnto them all such duties of nature and charity as wee wish should be measured againe to our owne soules THE XIIII LECTVRE Chap. 1. verse 12. And he saide vnto them Take mee and cast mee into the sea so shall the sea bee calme vnto you For I knowe that for my sake c. THE order I kept in the verse going before was this Three persons were proposed vnto you 1. the person of Ionas standing vpon his delivery 2. the person of the marriners being in ieopardy 3. the person of the sea continuing troublesome and vnquiet vnto them The two latter whereof the furiousnes of the vvaters and their owne perill were mighty arguments to incense them against Ionas In this verse he answereth their whole demaunde 1. touching my selfe you aske what you shall doe vnto me Take me cast me into the sea By this meanes 2. the sea shall be quieted 3. towardes you against whome it is now enraged This for the order and coherence Now for the matter it selfe it is devided into three branches 1. the resolution decree and sentence of Ionas vpon himselfe Take me cast me into the sea 2. the end and it may be the motiue to harten them So shall the sea be quiet vnto you 3. the reason warrant or iustification of their fact For I knowe that for my sake c. The verse riseth by degrees You aske what you shall doe with me Cast me into the sea What is that for our safety Yes the sea shall be quiet vnto you But howe may we purchase our peace with so vniustifieable an action Right well For I know that for my sake the tempest is vpon you Rabbi â—zra and some of our later expositors following his opinion thinke that he maketh this offer vnto them vpon an obstinate obfirmed minde against the commaundement of God that rather than he would be helde in life to goe to Niniveh to gaine a forreine vncircuÌ„cised nation he would die the death And they ghesse moreover that he would never haue given that liberty vnto them against his life but that he heard them say vnlesse he went to Niniveh they would cast him forth There is not a syllable in the text to iustifie this iudgement For Ionas had made a reverent confession of God a singular testimony of a minde recalling it selfe And as for the marriners what kindnes they shewed him both before and after the letter of the scripture plainly demonstrateth I rather take it to be a doome of most propheticall and resolute magnanimity wrestling with the terrors of death as Israell with God and prevailing against them As if he had saide you shall not lose an haire of your heades for mine offence I will not adde murther to rebellion and the wracke of so many soules to my former disobedience Take mee Not as if you feared to touch me â—ollite me take me on high take me with force and validitie of armes take me with violence lift and hoise me vp when you haue so done vse no gentlenes towardes me let me not downe with ropes neither suffer mee to â—ake my choise howe or where I may pitch Cast me at adventures as you threw forth your wares And though the sea hath no mercy at all threatning both heaven and hell with the billowes thereof at this tiâ—e and bearing a countenance of nothing but destruction and it had beene a blessing vnto me to haue died one the land in some better sort or to haue gained the favour of a more mercifull death yet cast me into the sea and let the barbarous creature glut it selfe Ionas might haue stood longer vpon tearmes I haue committed a fault I am descried by the lots I confesse my misdeed the sea is in wrath your liues in hazard what then will it worke your peace to destroy me Say I were gone and perished is your deliverance nearer than before it was But without cunctation and stay possessing his soule in patience and as quiet in the midst of the sea as if he beheld it on firme grounde making no difference betweene life and death animated with a valiant and invincible spirite triumphing over dread and daunger charitable towardes his companions faithfull and bold as a Lion within himselfe and yeelding to nothing in the world saue God alone he giveth not only leaue and permission vnto them doe what you will I can not resist a multitude you may trie a conclusion by the losse of a man but with a confident intention as willing to leaue his life as ever hee was to keepe it and as ready to goe from the presence of men as before hee went from the presence of GOD First hee putteth them in right and possession of his person Take mee Secondly hee prescribeth them the maner and forme of handling him Cast mee into the sea Thirdly driveth them by agreements therevnto not of coniecture and probability It may bee thus and thus but of certaine event the sea shall bee calme vnto you and of vndoubted perswasion I knowne that for my sake c. It is a question not vnmeete to be considered in this place which many haue handled from the first age of the world not onely with their tongues but with their handes and insteede of sharpenesse of wit haue vsed the sharpnes of kniues and other bloudy instrumentes to decide it whether a man may vse violence in anye case against himselfe I finde it noted vpon these wordes God vvoulde not let Ionas caste foorth himselfe
of Christ though they fill all the corners of heaven from the rising of the sun to the going downe thereof yet they are driven from the face of God as far as the East West are sundred lastly though they are libelled and entred into his court by the accusation of the devill and by his most righteous iustice registred yet the bookes are defaced and all those writinges against vs naâ—eâ— to the crosse of Christ by whome we are redeemed THE XVIII LECTVRE Chap. 1. ver 14. Lay not vnto our charge innocent bloud for thou Lorde hast done as it pleased thee THe praier of the Marriners vvithout longer repetition vvas common fervent discreet vocall humble importunate pertinent to the time occasion wel grounded â—n the 7th of these wherein I obserued hovve rightly they applyed theÌ„selues to the deprecation of their present daungers I examined besides their general inteÌ„t in asking pardoÌ„ for bloudshed 2. particulars arising naturally froÌ„ the words 1. the proceeding of God in case of murther life for life 2. in vvhat respect the bloud of Ionas might be tearmed innocent not that the life of Ionas could no way be toucht with sinne but that it was freed in his present and particular behaviour towards this coÌ„pany with whome he sailed I would further haue demauÌ„ded but that the time intercepted me how Ionas could be held innocent towards the Marriners whom hee had actually wronged in the losse of their temporall commodities for he onely was the cause of that generall detriment and the hazard was as great that hee might haue eased them of their better treasure I meane their lives if God had not staied it these though having sense of the one feare of the other yet call his bloud innoceÌ„t bloud The answere briefly is They wrote that in the waters which others vvrite in marble Iniuries Though their voiage vvere lost by this meanes their busines disapointed the season of their marte diverted their marchandize wrackt their provision wasted it may be to some their wiues and children vndone their estate sunke by it yet they forgiue and forget the damages and with a mantel of charity cover al his wrongs The perswasioÌ„ holdeth by coÌ„parison that if nature so newly reformed having tasted but the milke of the knowledge of God haue so quicke a digestioÌ„ of forepassed wrongs much more is required of vs who have bene dieted with the strongest meat to whom the precepts of charity have in most ample manner beene revealed The commendatioÌ„ shall ever live which Ambrose giveth to Theodosius the Emperor being dead Theodosius of happy memory thought he received a benefite as often as hee was intreated to forgive that was wished in him which in others was feared that hee would bee angry Tully reporteth the like of a far vnlike Emperour that Caesar forgat nothing but iniuries There is a learned skilfull vertuous kinde of forgetfulnes It is good to forget some things All Manasses went not over â—ordeÌ„ part staied behind Now Manasses had his name of forgetfulnes and Bernard illuding thereunto saith It is good to forget Babylon to remember Ierusalem to forget the flesh-pots and 〈◊〉 of Aegypt to remember the milke and honie of Canaan to forget our owne 〈◊〉 and our fathers house and to remember heaven heavenly thinges So Paul forgat that which was behinde his former defects delinquishments and it shall be happy for vs all to doe the like not in the mercies either of God or man but in the crosses and grievances which wee have sustained Peter asked his maister in the gospel how of the should forgive his brother offending against him whether to 7. times It is added Luke 17. how often in a day our Saviour telleth him vnto 70. times 7. times that is as Ierome accounteth it 490. times so often in a day as is not possible for thy brother oftner to trespasse against thee Augustine in effect hath the same note Why doth our Saviour saye seventie times seven times and not an hundreth times eight times hee aunsvvereth from Adam to Christ vvere seuenty generations therefore as Christe forgaue all the transgressions of vvhole mankinde parted and diffused into so manye generations so also vvee shoulde reâ—itte as manye offences as in the tearme and compasse of our life are committed against vs. Examine shall I say one day nay all the dayes of our life if all might goe for one haue wee forgiuen haue wee forborne that were one degree lesse haue we not persecuted Turkes Infidelles vessels of dishonour nay our owne brethren 7. yea and 70. times 7. times vvithout number or measure the sunne rising and the sunne going downe vpon our wrath our waies being the waies of destruction our beddes the beddes of mischiefe as the Psalme calleth them daies nights openly privately meditating talking practising howe to avenge our selues of the least discontentmentes It were as â—are a matter in our age as to see the sun go backe to heare of any amongst vs patient of iniuries as that patriarke sometimes of Ierusalem was of whome the proverbe of those times vvente Nihil vtilius quà m Alexandro malefacere Nothinge can more profite a man than to hurte Alexander Yet hee kepte but that rule which they that kepte not are no parte of the Israell of God Not to resist euill To giue cheeke after cheeke cloake after coate to take all that was offered whether vpon or without the body as that precept implyeth nay rather to returne good for euill Rom. 12 loue for enmity blessing for cursing good deedes for hatred praiers for persecutions Math. 5. VVe rather imbrace the instigations of gentilitye and such as the nature of man easilye propendeth vnto beare one iniurye and beare more hee that wrongeth one threatneth all and such like proâ—ocations I will end with the exhortation of our Lorde Luke 6. so giue aâ—d you shalbeâ— forgiuen Or rather with that which Mat. 6. is more peremptory If you forgiue him not you shall not bee forgiuen He indenteth for that by mercye vvhich hee mighte exacte of duetye and equâ—tie and hee that shall bee our iudge almost against the nature and righte of his office sheweth vs the vvay to escape his iudgementes The conditions betwixte God and man in this exchange are very vnequall 1. thine enemy was created by God as thy selfe wert God hath an enemy of thee whom he hath created 2. thou pardonest thy fellow servant God merely his servant 3 thou pardonest standest in neede of pardon againe God hath no neede to be pardoned 4. thou forgiuest a definite summe God an infinit debt requiring the proscription of thy selfe wife and children and al that thou hast body soule if thou shouldest defray it Incredibili me sericordia nos ad certam veniam vocat By vncredible compassion he draweth vs to a limited bounded pitty the extention wherof maketh vs the children of our father which is in heauen but the streightning of our
LECTVRE Chap. 1. ver 15. So they tooke vp Ionas and cast him into the sea and the sea ceased form her raging ver 16. Then the men feared the Lord c. IN the former verse was the dedication of the sacrifice wherein they sanctified themselves by praier cōmended their action to Gods good favor in this is the offering of the sacrifice before the attēpting whereof being their finall doome animadversiō vpō the life of Ionas a iudgement without redemptiō they observe the charitablest wariest principle in exercising discipline that may be helde that is not to trie an extremity till they haue tried all meanes and then if the wounde bee vncurable and past hope to apply the fire or the sword to it They dealte with Ionas in this course as a skilfull surgian with his patient a parte of whose body being putrified and eating on by degrees threatneth the losse of the whole if it be not staied as the transgression of Ionas being but a member in the ship went forwarde like a canker and was at hande to haue invaded the whole company The professour wil first enquire the cause of the maladie how commeth it what hath thy diet thine exercise beene as these aske Ionas vvhat haste thou done what is thine occupation c. and when hee is answered by his patient I haue eaten and dranke intemperately exceeded the strength of my bodie incontinentlie lived as Ionas reported how farre hee had disobeyed perhappes hee may chide him as these chide Ionas Why haste thou done this a man of thy yeares education discretion as these implie to Ionas a man of thy knowledge calling and commission yet he wil do more than expostulate for that were to afflict the afflicted and to heape griefe vpon griefe hee will advise with the patient himselfe as these with Ionas vvho best knoweth the state of his body as Ionas the counselles of God What shall wee doe vnto thee And though he bee aunswered there is no helpe but one mine arme must be cut or my legge sawed of and then the rest of my body may be saved as Ionas answered Cast me into the sea and the sea shall bee calme vnto you yet hee will prooue his skill otherwise as they their endevours by rowing to saue the ioint if possibly it may be done But when there is no other helpe the sore retayning his anger as the sea her impatience both fretting on still and crying for a desperate remedie then will the one vse his corrosiues and sharpest instrumentes commending the successe of the cure vnto God as these after praier tooke vp Ionas and cast him foorth In the two next verses ensuing vvee may obserue 1. their proceeding as it were by steppes to the action They tooke vp Ionas 2. the accomplishment thereof They cast him into sea 3. the event The sea ceased from her raging 4. the demeanour of the mariners after their release both in their inwarde affection Then they feared the Lord exceedingly in the open testification thereof 1. by sacrifices witnesses of their present thankfulnes and 2. vowes pledges and earnests of their duty to come Eleazar an ancient interpreter of the Bible thinketh that the sentence is heere perfited They tooke vp Ionas and by a period or full pointe severed from that vvhich followeth They cast him into the sea Therevpon he collecteth that the Mariners assaied fiue experimēts to acquit themselues from danger 1. The private invocation of everie man vpon his owne God 2. the throwing forth of their wares 3. their casting of lottes 4. their common supplication 5. their letting downe of Ionas into the sea vp to the necke and pulling him backe againe that it might appeare vnto them that Ionas was the Man whome the sea desired because whilst his body was in the waters the sea stood when taken backe it boiled againe There is no warrant in my text for this opinion therefore I charge you not with it For as there is no reason to loose one worde of the writings of God not the least fragment of the broken meate so on the other side to adde vnto them is an iniurie and a plague will follow it Onely this I obserue as the complement of all their former humanity specified in many particulars before that though they coulde not cast him foorth but they must first take him vp amongst them yet seeing the history might haue concluded both in one the latter implying the former and rather doth it by noting the order and distinction of two sundry actions and by making a space betweene thē First they tooke him vp c. then they cast him forth it argueth a treatable deliberate gentle proceeding in thē that that which they did they did by leasure and without violent or turbulent invasiō Hierome with others cōment vpō the wordes Tulerunt non arripuerunt nō invaserūt They tooke him they haled him not they caught him not vp in a rage they set not hastily vpon him but bare him in their armes as it were with honour due estimatiō Because it was the funerals and exequies of a prophet of the Lorde their last service vnto him they did it with reverence And in trueth there needed no invasion or force to be vsed against him Hee was brought to his end tanquā ovis which was the Embleme of the sonne of God as a lambe that is dumbe before the shearer so opened hee not his mouth Tulerunt non repugnantem They tooke him without resistance For what should resistance haue done Ducunt volentem fata nolentem traehunt I will not say The destinies as the Poet doth but the will and power of God for these are the right destinies and he that so vnderstandeth them with Saint Augustine Teneat sententiam corriga◠linguam Let him keepe the opinion onely amending his tongue But the will and power of God leade him that is willing to goe and pull him that is vnwilling I never red that Moses opposed himselfe by the least thought of his heart to the ordinance of God when hee saide vnto him Beholde the daies are come that thou must die though Moses might haue lived many yeares For in the last of Deuteronomy his eies were not dimme nor his naturall force abated Rather he spake vnto the people with cheerefulnesse alacrity of hart embracing the tydings of his death I am an hundred and twenty yeares olde this day I can no more goe out and in also the Lord hath said vnto me Thou shalt not goe over this Iordan Young men amongst vs thinke they are priviledged because they are in their full strength old men though they haue a foote in the graue thinke they may be long old There is none so striken in yeares but thinketh hee may liue a year more Be we young or old if ever the message of God be sent vnto vs as to Ezechias Put thy house in order dispatch thy worldly affaires
two singular and almost despaired deliverances first of their bodies from a raging and roaring sea a benefite not to be contemned for even the Apostles of Christâ— cried in the like kind of distresse vpon the waters helpe Lorde wee perish secondlye of their soules from that idolatrous blindnes wherein they were drowned and stifled a destruction equall to the former and indeed far exceeding The horrour of this destruction was never more faithfully laid out in colours than in the eighth of Amos. Where after repetition of sorrowes enough if they were not burnt with hote irons past sense as that the songes of the teÌ„ple shoulde be turned into howlinges feastes into mourning laughter into lamentation that there should be many dead bodies in every place even the nuÌ„ber so great that they should cast them forth in silence without obsequies the sunne going downe at noone and the earth darkened in the cleare day that is their greatest woe in the greatest prosperity yet he threatneth a scourge beyoÌ„d al these Behold saith the Lord I have not yet made your eies dazell nor your eares tingle with my iudgements though your eies have beheld sufficient misery to make them faile yet behold more The daies come I give you warning of vnhappier times the plagues you have endured already are but the beginnings of sorrow the daies come that I will send a famine in the land if the mouth of the Lord had here stayed famem immittam I will send a famine had it not sufficed Can a greater crosse thinke you be imagined than wheÌ„ a wofull mother of her wofull children shall be driven to say As the Lorde liveth I have but a little meale left in a barrell and a little oile in a cruise and beholde I am gathering two stickes to go in and dresse it for me and my sonne that wee may eate and die and much rather if it come to that extremity that an other mother felt when shee cried vnto the king Helpe my Lord O King This woman saide vnto mee give thy sonne that wee may eate him to day and wee will eate my sonne to morrowe so we sodde my sonne and did eate him c. yet hee addeth to the former by a correction not a famine of bread nor a thirst of water but of hearing the word of God and they shall wonder not as the sonnes of Iacob who went but out of Israell into Egypt but from sea to sea and from the North to the East shall they runne to and fro to seeke the worde of the Lorde and shall not finde it This was the case of these men before a prophet spake vnto them and the wonders of the lawe were shewed amoÌ„gst them And this was the case of our countrey when either it fared with vs as with the church of Ierusalem signa non videmus non est ampliùs propheta wee see no tokens there is no prophet lefte or if we had prophets they were such as Ezechiell nameth they saw vanities and divined lies and the booke of the law of the Lorde though it were not hid in a corner as in the raigne of Iosias nor cut with a penknife and cast into the fire as in the daies of Iehoiakim yet the comfortable vse of it was interdicted the people of God vvhen either they could not reade because it was sealed vp in an vnknowne tongue or vnder the paine of a curse they might not and such as hungred and thirsted after the righteousnes of Iesus Christ were driven into Germany and other countries of Europe to enquire after it But blessed be the Lord God of Israell for hee hath long since visited and redeemed vs his people If our many deliverances besides either by sea from the invasion of the grande pirate of Christendome or from other rebellions and conspiracies by land had beene in nuÌ„mber as the dust of our grounde this one deliverance of our soules froÌ„ the kingdome and power of darkenesse the very shadowe and borders of death wherein we sate before the sending of prophets amongst vs to prophecie right things to preach the acceptable yeare of the Lord and the tidings of salvation had far surpassed them Let vs therfore with these mariners sing a song of thanksgiving not onely with our spirites My soule blesse thou the Lorde and all that is within mee praise his holy name but with sacrifices and vowes also as audible sermons and proclamations to the world let vs make it knowne that great is the mercy of Iehovah to our little nation THE XXII LECTVRE The last verse of the 1. Chap. Or after some the first of the second Now the Lorde had prepared a great fish to swallow vp Ionas and Ionas was in the bellye of the fishe three daies and three nightes WEE are now come to the second section of the prophesie wherin the mercy of God towardes Ionas is illustrated It beginneth at my text and parteth it selfe into three members 1. The absorption or buriall 2. the song 3. the delivery of the Prophet Isiodore in three wordes summeth the contentes of it Cetus obiectum voratum orantem revomuit The whale cast vp Ionas first cast forth then devoured afterwards making his moue to God Ionas is swallowed in this present sentence The iustice and mercy of God runne togither in this history as those that runne for the maisterie in a race And it is harde a long time for Ionas to discerne whither his iustice will overcome his mercie or his mercy triumph over iustice They labour in contention as the twinnes in Rebecca's wombe And although Esau bee first borne red and hairy all over like a rough garment yet Iacob holdeth him by the heele and is not farre behinde him I meane though the iudgment of God against Ionas bearing a rigorous and bloudy countenance and satiate with nothing in likelyhode but his death that most straÌ„ge vnaccustomed seemeth to have the first place yet mercy speedeth her selfe to the rescue and in the end is fulfilled that which God prophecied of the other paire The elder shall serue the yonger For when iustice had her course and borne the preeminence a greate space mercy at lengh putteth in and getteth the vpper hande To vs that haue seene and perused the historie who haue as it were the table of it before our eies and know both the first and the last of it it is apparant that I say that although he were tossed in the ship cast forth into the sea deuoured yet God had a purpose prevised herein to worke the glorie of his name the others miraculous preservation But Ionas himselfe who all the while was the patient and set as a marke for the arrowes of heavenlye displeasure to be spent at and knew no more what the end would be than a child his right hand from the left what could he thâ—â—ke but that heaven and earth land and sea life and death all 〈◊〉
haue saved Ionas Put from the succor of the ship froÌ„ the frieÌ„dship of his associats having no rocke to cleaue vnto far from the shore and neither able perhaps nor desirous to escape by swimming yeelding himselfe to death and to a living graue with as mortified an affection as if lumps of lead had been cast down yet God had prepared a meanes to preserue the life of Ionas EveÌ„ the bowels of a cruel fish are as a chariot vnto him to beare him in safety through those vnsearchable depthes O how many wonders in howâ— few wordes how many riddles and darke speeches to the reason of man he will scarselie beleeue when they shall be tolde vnto him 1. That so huge a fish shoulde bee so ready to answere at the call of the Lorde to saue his prophet 2. So able to devour a man at a morsel without comminutioÌ„ or bruise offered to any one bone of his 3. That a man could liue the space of 3. daies and nights in a fishes belly But so it was The Lorde doeth but vse a preamble to finish his worke intended He suffereth not the ship to carry him forth-right to the city but so ordereth the matter that the Mariners deliver him to the sea the sea to the whale the whale to the Lorde and the Lorde to Niniveh That we may learne thereby when our sinnes hange fast vpon vs the harbour of a warme shippe cannot bee beneficiall but when wee haue shaken them of the sea shall make a truce and the vngentlest beastes bee in league with vs. The demaunde of the earthlie man in these vnprobable workes hath ever beene 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how can this bee Though an angell from heaven shall tell Sarah of a sonne after hath ceased to bee with her after the manner of women shee will 〈◊〉 within her selfe and saie What after I am waxen olde and my Lord 〈◊〉 But what saith the Angell vnto her Shall any thing bee harde to the â—orde VVhen the children of Israell wanted flesh to eate and cryed in the eares of the Lorde quis dabit VVho shall giue vs flesh to eate God promised it for a moneth togither vntil it should come out of their nostrels And Moses saide sixe hundreth thousande footemen are there among the people of whom I am and thou saiest I will giue them flesh to eate a moneth long Shall the sheepe and the beeves be slaine for them to finde them either shall all the fish of the sea bee gathered togither for them to suffice them But the Lorde aunswered him is the Lords hand shortened Thou shalt see now whether my word shall come to passe vnto thee or no. Elizeus prophecied in that wofull famine of Samaria when they bought an Asses head and Doues dunge at an vnreasonable rate To morrowe by this time a measure of fine flowre shall bee solde for a shekell c. Then a prince on whose hande the king leaned aunswered the man of GOD Though the Lorde woulde make windowes in heaven can this thinge come to passe the prophet aunswered him Beholde thou shalt see it with thine eies but shalt not eate thereof Saint Augustine in his thirde epistle to Volvsian and elsewhere giveth the rules to satisfie these distrustfull reasonings Wee must graunte that GOD is able to doe some thinge vvhich wee are not able to finde out in such works the whole reason of the doing is the power of the doer It is GOD that hath done them Consider the authour and all doubts will cease Therefore if Marie receiving a message of vnexpected vnwonted conception shal say at the first how shall this thing be yet when the angell shal say vnto her that it is the worke of the holy ghost and the might of the most high that her coâ—zen Elizabeth hath also conceived in her olde age though shee had purchased the name of barren by her barrennesse because with God saith the angell nothing is vnpossible then let Marie lay her hande vpon her heart and saie Beholde the hand-maide of the Lorde that is without further disceptation I submit my selfe to the power of God But if that former reason of his all-sufficient might bee not of strength enough to resolue either pagans abroade or atheistes at home touching the likelihoode and probability of such vnlikely actes but the innocencie of the sacred Scriptures wherein they are written must be arraigned and condemned by their carnall reason and our whole religion derided because wee iustifie them I will say no more vnto them but as Augustine doth in his bookes of the city of God Quicquid mirabile fit in hoc mundo profectò minus est quà m totus hic mundus The very creation of the worlde which being the booke of nature they runne and read and can deny no part of it though they deny depraue the booke of scripture sheweth them a greater miracle in the world it selfe than whatsoever in these or the like singularities seemeth most incredible A great fish Some of the rabbines thinke that the fish was created at that moment when Ionas was to be swallowed Others that he had lasted from the sixt day of the world A thirde sorte that it was a whale that first devoured Ionas that afterwardes the Lord beckened vnto him then hee cast him into the mouth of a female which was full of yong where being streightned of his wonted roume he fel to praier Fabulous inveÌ„tions fruit according to the trees that bare it Whither tâ—e fish were created at that instaÌ„t or before sooner or later I list not enquire Neither will I further engage my self herein thaÌ„ the spirit of God giveth me direction Only that which the prophet setteth downe in 2. words by a circumlocution a great fish it shall not be amisse to note that the evaÌ„gelists abridge name more distinctly in one shewing the kinde of the fish therefore Matthew calleth it the belly of a whale So do the 70. interpretours from whom it is not vnlikely the expositour of Matthew tooke his warrant I never found any mentioÌ„ of this goodly creâ—ture but the wisdoÌ„e of God the creator was willing to commeÌ„d it in some sort In the first of Genes God saide Let the waters bring forth in abundance every creeping thing that hath the soule of life howbeit in all that abundaunce there is nothing specified but the whale as being the prince of the rest and to vse the speach of Iob the king of all the children of pride vvherein the workemanshippe of the maker is most admired for so it is saide Then God created the whales and not singlie vvhales but vvith the same additament that this prophet vseth the greate vvhales So doth the Poet tearme them also immania caete the huge vvhales as being the stateliest creature that mooveth in the waters Likewise in the Psalme The earth is full of thy riches so is the
greate and vvide sea vvherein are thinges creeping innumerable both small and greate beastes There goe the shippes the artificiallest wonder that ever vvas framed and there goeth that Leviathan the wonder of that nature vvhom thou hast made to play therein In the booke of Iob two argumeÌ„ts are produced to amplifie the incomparable power of God Behemoth by land Leviathan by sea and for the power and perswasion of wordes I do not thinke that ever more was vsed than where the power of those 2. creatures is expressed Of the latter of these it is professed in open tearms I wil not keepe silence coÌ„cerning his parts nor his power nor his comely proportion Indeed they are all worthily described by the tongue of the learned eveÌ„ the learnedst tongue that the holy ghost had Never were there rivers flouds of eloqueÌ„ce neither in the orators of AtheÌ„s Rome nor in the Seraphins of heaveÌ„ equal to those that are powred forth in that narratioÌ„ Augustine some-where noteth that al men marvailed at Tullies tongue but not his inveÌ„tion At Aristotles inveÌ„tioÌ„ all men but not his tongue At Platoes invention tongue both But for a tongue wisdome to not to be vttered by the tongue nor to be coÌ„prehended by the wisdoÌ„e of mortal man I remit you to those chapters Ierome writeth of the whole booke Singulain eo verba plena sunt sensibus Every word of it is very sententious But no where through the whole more sense more substance grace and maiestie spent than where the meaning and intent was that the maiesty of the most high God should fully be illustrated To cast mine eies backe againe from wheÌ„ce I am digressed it is writteÌ„ of the whale that wheÌ„ he swimmeth sheweth himselfe vpoÌ„ the flouds you would think that ilaÌ„ds swam towards you and that very high hils did aspire to heaven it selfe with their tops Pliny giveth the reasoÌ„ why many beasts in the sea are bigger theÌ„ those vpoÌ„ land Causa evidens humoris luxuria The evideÌ„t cause saith he is superfluity of moisture Howbeit it holdeth not in birds whose ofspring is froÌ„ the waters to quibus vita pendentibus because they liue haÌ„ging as it were hovering or waâ—ting in the aire But in the open champian sea being of a soft fruitfull encrease semperque pariente naturâ of a nature that is ever breeding and bringing forth monsters are often engendred He writeth of Balaeâ—a the whirle-poole or we may english iâ— also a whale so doth Tremelius interpret the name of Leviathan in Iob the Psalme that in the Indian sea there are some founde to the largenes of fowre acres of grounde that they are laden surcharged with their owne waight Likewise he reporteth of other beasts in the sea that the dores of houses were made of their iawes and the rafters of their bones some of which bones were 40. cubites in length and that the skins of some were broad enough to cover habitable houses So true is the opinion of the people coÌ„monly received that whatsoeuer is bred in any part of nature is in the sea many creatures besides which are no where els And therfore the lesse marvaile may it seeme eveÌ„ to a natural man by the course of nature it selfe his lady mistresse that God should prepare a fish great enough to swallow vp Ionas For the attribute is not adioyned for naught A great fish Seneca the philosopher writeth of one Senetio sirnamed Grandio others haue beene called Magni for the greatnes of their vertues Alexander in Greece Pompey in Rome Arsaces in Parthia Charles amongst the Emperors the great and Gregory the great amongst the Popes but Senetio had to name the graÌ„d or the great for his great vanity He liked of nothing that was not great He would not speake but what was great He kept no servants but great Vsed no plate but great The shoes he ware were over great The figs he ate were great outlaÌ„dish figs And he had a wife besids of a great stature But whosoever is greatest vpoÌ„ the face of the earth though his stile be as great as that emperours of whoÌ„ Eusebius writeth whose titles were suÌ„med togither in a long catalogue The greatest bishop greatest in Thebes greatest in Sarmatia in Persia fiue times the greatest greatest in Germany greatest in Egypt yet I will say vnto him as the Psalme to the princes of that time Give vnto the Lord yee sons of the mightie giue vnto the Lord glorie and strength giue vnto the Lord the honour due vnto his name That greatnesse belongeth vnto the Lord alone wee are taught by an excellent phrase of speech proper to the Hebrews The striving of Raâ—ell with her sister Leah about the bearing of childreÌ„ because it was very great is called the wrastling of God The mountaines of the earth wherwith the righteousnesse of God is coÌ„pared because they were very great are called the mountaines of God The city of Niniveh because very great of 3. daies iourney is called the citie of God In all which singular idiotismes the letter it selfe directeth vs rightly where to bestowe all greatnes Vndoubtedly it was the great God of heaven and earth that prepared great lightes in the firmament great fishes in the sea great men great beasts vpon the drie land magnitudinis eius non est finis and there is no ende no limits of his greatnesse To swallowe vp Ionas They have an history in prophane reading that Arion the Lesbian a famous musitian beeing embarked with some who for the gaine of his money woulde haue cast him into the sea he craved a litle respite of them before his casting forth taking his harpe in hand playing a while theron at length himselfe leapt into the waters was caried vpon the backe of a dolphin to the landing place intended before the Mariners could possibly ariue there In Herodotus the father of history saith Tully there are innumerable fables happily this amongst the rest But I alleadge it to this end that if God had prepared a whale to have borne Ionas vpon his back to have held him aboue the waters where he might have beheld the light of heaven drawn the comfort of the aire as other living souls there had been no fear of miscariage It is quite contrarie for the Lorde prepared a fish to swallow vp Ionas Whereof one spake a thing not hearde of before the belly of a fish is the habitation of a man If of a man dismeÌ„bred dissolved piece-meale I would never haue doubted The crocodiles of Nilus in Egypt Gangs in India other rivers of Mexico Peru will devour not onely men but whole heards of cattell And a physitian of our latter times hath written Calvin not sparing to testifie the seme that in the bowels of a Lamia hath beene found a whole armed man But Ionas is taken in
with God on high mourning and lamenting his wretchednes not in a caue of Horeb as Elias did not in a caue of Adullam as David but in the ougliest vncomfortablest vaulte setting hell aparte that ever vvas entred O Lord where shall thy spirite forsake thy chosen ones if wee climbe into heaven there it is as apparant to the worlde as the sunne in his brightnesse If we bee driven into the wildernesse there it will attend on vs. If we lie downe in the bottome of the sea if in the bowels of a whale within that bottome of the sea there will it also embrace vs. To conclude all in one for this time there was never contemplation or study in the world so holy and heavenly in the sight of God so faithfull and sociable to him that vseth it as praier is It travaileth by day it awaketh by night with vs it forsaketh vs not by lande by water in weale in woe living nor dying It is our last friend an◠indissolublest companion therefore wee must praie There was never name so worthy to bee called vpon in heaven or earth so mighty for deliverance so sure for protection so gainefull for successe so compendious to cut of vnnecessarie labours as the name of Iehovah our mercifull father and the image of his countenaunce Iesus Christ. Therefore to the Lord. There was never citty of refuge so free for transgressours never holes in the rockes so open for doues never lappe of the mother so open to her babes as the bowels of Gods compassions are open to beleevers Therefore we must pray in that stile of propriety which Thomas vsed when he looked vpon Christ my Lord and my God Lastly there was never affliction so great but the hande of the Lorde hath beene able to maister it therefore if we walke in the shadow of death as where was the shadow of death if these bowels of the whale were not we must not take discomforte at it The Lord sitteth aboue the water flouds the Lord commandeth the sea and all that therein is He that hath hidden Ionas in the belly of a fish as a chosen shafte in the quiver of his mercifull providence and made destruction it selfe a tabernacle and hiding place to preserue him from destruction blessed be his holy name and let the mighte of his maiestie receiue honour for evermore he will never forsake his sonnes and daughters neither in health nor sicknesse light nor darknesse in the lande of the living nor in the lande of forgetfulnesse And therefore as David cursed the mountaines of Gilboah that neither dew nor raine might fall vpon them because the shielde of the mighty was there cast downe so cursed be all faithlesse and faint harted passions that throwe away the shielde of faith and open the way for the fierie dartes of the devill to worke their purpose But blessed be the mountaines of Armenia for there the 〈◊〉 found rest Blessed be the power and mercy of our God for these are the mountaines vvherevpon the arke resteth these are the holy hils whereon the Sion and church of the Lord hath her everlasting foundations The Lorde liveth and blessed be our strength even the God of our salvation for ever and ever be exalted Amen THE XXIIII LECTVRE Chap. 2. ver 2. And said I eryed in mine affliction to the Lord and he hearde me out of the belly of hell cried I and thou heardst my voice IN the wordes of the history before we come to Ionas speaking frō his own person I noted 1. his action during the time of his imprisonmēt praier 2. the obiect of his praier the Lorde 3. the applicatiō his God 4. his house of praier the belly of the fish 5. the specification of it he said which particle only remaineth to bee adioyned to the former before wee proceede to to praier it selfe It beareth one sense thus I will not onely acquaint you that Ionas prayed but I will also expresse vnto you what that prayer was this was the summe and substaunce of it the matter hee framed and compiled to his God was to this effect Hee praied and saide that is these were the very wordes this was the tenour and text of his songe indited But if the worde bee better lookt into it may yeeld a further construction For in the three principall tongues Hebrew Greeke Latine there hath ever bene held a difference betweene speaking saying the former being more generall vnperfite belonging to as many as vse the instruments of speech Thersites spake though hee spake like a Iay they speake of whome the proverbe is verified little wisedome much prating Eupolis noted them in the greeke verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are excellent to talke but very vnable to say The later is more speciall noteth a wise deliberated speech graue sententious weighed in the ballance as it is in the words of Syrach vttered to good purpose Tully in his rhetorickes giveth the difference in that he ascribeth saying to oratours alone speaking to the cōmon people that the one cōmeth from nature the other from art Such was the handling of that argument in the 45. Psalme whereof the authour witnesseth before hand My heart is inditing a good matter his tongue was but the pen of a ready writer It was sermo natus in pectore a matter bred in the breast not at the tongues end And such was the song of Ionas in this place It was drawne as deepe as the water from the well of Iacob the sentences wherof were advisedly penned the words themselues set vpon feete and placed in equall proportions A skilfull and artificiall song as if it should haue fitted an instrument cōposed in number measure to the honour of his name who giveth the argument of a song in the night season who in the heaviest and solitariest times when nature calleth for rest quickeneth vp the spirit of a man and giveth him wisdōe grace to meditate within himselfe his vnspeakable mercies I doe not thinke that the praier of Ionas was thus metrically digested within the belly of the fish as now it standeth But such were the thoughts and cogitations wherein his soule was occupied vvhich after his landing againe perhappes he repolished brought into order fashion as a memoriall monument of the goodnes of God that had enlarged him It ministreth this instruction vnto vs al that when vvee sing or say any thing vnto the Lord we keepe the rule of the Psalme Sing yee praises vvith vnderstanding that as Iohn Baptist went before Christ to prepare his vvaies so our heartes may ever goe before our tongues to prepare their speeches that first vvee speake within our selues as the woman with the bloudy issue did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for shee saide within her selfe if I may but touch the hemme of his garment afterwardes to others first in our harts with David in
ages were heapes of ashes and cloudes of pitch but fire and brimstone from a bottomlesse mine which burneth in the lake of death and shall never cease from burning Lastly this is that greate wine-presse of the wrath of God where the smoke of torment ascendeth for evermore and there is no rest day nor night those endlesse and vnmercifull plagues which the angels powre out of their vialles when men have given them bloude to drinke and boile in heate and gnaw their tongues for sorrowe And yet are these but shadowes and semblances which the scripture hath vsed therein to exemplifie in some sorte the calamities to come fearefull enough if there were no more to make the heart of the strongest melte and fall asunder within him as the yce against the summers sunne but that as the ioyes of heaven are vnmeasurable for their parte so concerning the paines of hell the eye hath never seene the eare not hearde the tongue not vttered the heart not conceived them sufficiently in their nature and perfection That accursed glutton in the gospell who coulde speak by experience of his vnestimable discruciatioÌ„s as Aeneas did of the troubles of Troy Et quorum pars vna fut what I haue felt and borne a parte of he giveth a warning to al his brethren in the flesh not to accounte so lightly as they doe of the tormentes of that place The flames fervour wherof were so importunate to exact their due of him that hee craved with more streams of teares thaÌ„ ever Esau sought his blessing but one drop of water to coole his tongue with could not obtaine it And what if all the rivers in the South if all the waters in the Ocean sea had bene graÌ„ted him his tongue notwithstanding would haue smarted and withered with heat stil he would haue cried in the laÌ„guage of hel It is not enough Or what if his toÌ„gue had bene eased his hart his liver his lunges his bowels his armes his legs would haue fried stil. O bitter day when not the least finger I say not of God whose hand is wholy medicinal but not of the poorest saint in heaven nor the skantest drop I say not from the waters of life but not of the waters of the brooke shal be spared to a soule to giue it comfort Which if the latest day of al the running generations of men if the great yeare which Plato dreamed of might ever end the ease were somewhat for hopes sake But it is apointed for a time times no time even when time shall be no more then shal it continue The gates are kept from egresse as the gates of paradise were warded from entrance not by the Cherubines with the blade of a sworde but by the angels of Sathan with all the instrumentes of death and the seale of Gods eternal decree set thereunto as the seale of the high priestes and rulers were set vpon the tombe-stone of Christ. The covenant of day and night shall one day bee changed The starres shall finish their race the elements melt with heat heaven and earth be renued sommer and winter have an end but the plagues of the prisoners in hell shall never be released If you aske the cause why I enter so large and vngratefull a discourse of hel vpon so smal an offer in my text as some may conceive I will not dissemble it Some may be deceived by the translation impropriety and abuse of words For because they heare the name of hell alleadged and applied to the present tribulations of this life they are induced thereby to thinke that there is no other hell nor sorer vexations elswhere to be sustained as some on the other side hearing the rest of God to be called by name of Ierusalem that is aboue the wals foundations wherof are saphires carbuncles c. take it to be no more thaÌ„ IerusaleÌ„ in Palestina or Venice in Italy or any the like glorious and sumptuous cittie vpon the face of the earth and therefore dispose themselues with so much the colder affection to the attainment of it Some haue taught and commaunded their tongues to speake a lye to say that there is no hel for I caÌ„not thinke that ever they shal commaÌ„d their harts to deny it as Tully spake of Metrodorus an atheist of his time I never sawe any man that more feared those â—hings which he said were not to be feared I meane death the gods so I wil never perswade my selfe but the atheists of our times hartilie feare that which they are content to say they feare not Now lest these sleepy adders should passe their time in a dreame or rather in a lethargy no man awaking theÌ„ vp from their carelesse supine opinions wherwith they enchant their soules infect others Let not the watchman hold his peace least they die in their sins for waÌ„t of warning let the truÌ„pet of iudgmeÌ„t ofteÌ„ be blowne vnto theÌ„ let it be published in their eares 7· times as the rams-horns 7 times souÌ„ded about the wals of Iericho that their ruine downfal is at hand that hel gapeth for theÌ„ that God hath ordained long since their impious blasphemous spirites to immortal malediction Of others that is true which God complaineth in Esay Let mercy be shewed to the wicked yet he wil not learne righteousnes Preach honor glory peace a garlaÌ„d of rightousnes an vncorruptible crowne fruit of the tree of life sight of the face of God following the laÌ„be fellowship with angels saintes the congregatioÌ„ of first-borne new names and white garments pleasures at the right hand of God and fulnes of ioy in his presence for evermore they are as obstinately bent vnmovably setled against these blessings of God as Daniel against the hire of Balthazar keepe thy rewardes to thy selfe and giue thy giftes to an other They are not wonne nor enarmoured with the expectation of good thinges and the revelation of the sons of God which the whole creature longeth groneth for savoureth no more vnto them than a boxe of putrified ointment What is there no way to quicken put life into them yes If the blessings of sixe Levites vpon mount Garizzim will not mooue them let them heare the cursing of sixe others vpon mount Ebal if they take no pleasure in the beautie of Sion let the thundering lightning of Sinai fire to the midst of heaven mistes cloudes smoke ascending like the smoke of a fornace the exceeding lowde sounde of a trumpet put them in feare make them beleeue that there is a God of iudgment if the spirit of gentlenes take no place shake the rod over them as the Apostle speaketh Giue theÌ„ mourning for ioy ashes for beauty the spirit of heavines for the oile of gladnes a rent insteed of a girdle teare I say not their garments but their hearts a sunder pull their bodies
his spirit cried cried alowd if wheÌ„ he lay in the belly of hel even then he climbed above the stars of the firmameÌ„t though he saw nothing with his bodily eies he saw heaven opened vnto him with the eies of his vnderstaÌ„ding theÌ„ let vs not be dismaied my brethreÌ„ if tribulatioÌ„ come let vs not thinke it any strange thing yea rather if tribulation come let vs not thinke it an vnprofitable vnwelcome thing let vs receive it with thanks keepe it with patience digest it in hope apply it with wisdome bury it in meditation it shal end vnto vs no doubt in glory and peace more than can be spoken THE XXV LECTVRE Chap. 2. ver 2. I cried in mine affliction vnto the Lord and he heard me out of the belly of hell cried I c. IN the two members of this second verse signifying almost the same thing I observed first the measure of his afflictions explicated by two metaphors togither with the effect they brought forth secoÌ„dly the force zealousnes of his praiers declared likewise by two words and thirdly the audience which ensued vpon his praying The force of his praier wherin I am to proceed is interpreted by 2. phrases though not distinguished in our English traÌ„slatioÌ„s yet in the Hebrew Greek Latine of Tremelius somwhat variâ—d as if he had said I called cried or I cried outcried Which Ierome expouÌ„deth vel aquis cedentibus either the waters yeelding him away making passage vel toto cordis affectu or with the whole inteÌ„tioÌ„ of his hart The former is not likely I rather take it to have bene the vehemency of spirit such as is vsually meÌ„t in the scriptures vnder these or the like words as in the 119. Psalme expresly I have cried vvith my vvhole hearte Galath 4. God hath sent the spirite of his son into our heartes crying Abba that is father though it be in the hart alone yet it is called crying It ever notâ—th whither in propriety or by translation an earnest lowd importunate desire loath to loose audience for wante of speaking out and impatient of repulse when it hath spoken Therefore Elias bade the priestes of Baal cry with a lowd voice and he in the comoedy mervailing at overmuch patience sheweth what shoulde bee done Eho non clamas non irasceris What doest thou not cry art thou not angrie Annah in a part of her song telleth vs what the maÌ„ner of the wicked sometimes is Impij in tenebris tacent when they are afflicted they lay their handes vpon their mouthes and heartes too they frette with indignation repine to themselves letting neither voice nor grone come forth nor any other token of submission to him that hath cast them down Of whome I may say with Gregory To suffer so despâ—ghtfully and maliciouslye is not the true vertue of patience but a covered or concealed madnesse Now Ionas is many degrees beyond these 1. He is not silent which as you heard is sometimes a marke of impiety 2. He doth not mutter to himselfe as the philosophers in the Poet humming within themselves and vttering a kinde of vnsensible and vnarticulate silence 3. He doth more than speake for that might argue the heart of a man but indifferently disposed to obtaine 4. He speaketh with most endevored contention he crieth vnto the Lord when he hath once cried crieth againe with an other kinde of crying For as if the former word were not enough a latter is added to signifie either a different kinde or if the same in a more intensive and forcible affection This ingemination either of one and the same word again repeated or of sundry bearing the same sense giveth as it were a double strength to the declaration of that which is delivered As Phavorinus gave his iudgement of the verse in Homer wherin Idaeus laboureth by perswasion to pacifie the contention betwixt Aâ—ax and Hector 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Warre not any longer beloved youngmen neither fight togither that the addition of the second word though adding nothing in significatioÌ„ to the former is not to make vp the verse but as they continued in their strife so duplex eadem compellatio admonitionem facit intentiorem his twise speaking vnto them in the same maÌ„ner of speech maketh his advise the more earnest And if they were the same words yet one might very wel think them to be others quia aures animum saepiùs feriunt because they beate the eares and the minde of a man often These often and fierce inclamations within the spirit of Ionas speaking to the Lord as it were with a doubled and cloven tongue and sending vp his Praiers into heaven as incense casteth vp smoke without intermission condemne the dissolute and perfunctorie prayings of our daies both in churches chambers who vtter a forme of wordes as the manner of hypocrites or the Gentiles was or as the parret of Ascanius recited the creede rather of custome than zeale flattering God with our mouths and dissembling with him with our tongues leaving our spirites as it were in a slumber the meane time or if we cal theÌ„ vp to praier leaving them again as Christ his disciples before we haue thoroughly awaked them as if the offering of the halt and the lame body without soule or soule without devotion voice without spirit or spirit without clamor and vociferation could please him The praiers of David I am sure had an other edge vpon them In the 55 Psalme I mourne in my praier make a noise Evening and morning and at noone will I pray and make a noise and he will heare my voice In the 38. before I roare for the very griefe of mine heart Lord mine whole desire is before thee and my sighing is not hâ—d from thee Cor meum palpitat my hearte panteth or runneth too and fro I haue no rest no quietnes within me Such was the pange and palpitation of Iâ—bs hart My groning commeth before I eate effunduntur velut aquae rugitus mei and my roarings are powred forth and waue like waters not gronings nor cryings but plaine roarings with a continuall inundation velut vnda impellitur vndâ as one water driveth on an other â—hese are wonderfull passions The Lion in the forest never roared so much for his pray nor the hart after the water-brookes as the soules of the faithfull after Gods goodnes Yea the Lion indeed hath roared who will not feare the Lord God hath spoken who can but prophecie The mightie Lion of the tribe of Iudah hath roared in his supplications and his righteous spirit beene vexed and disquieted within him and shal not we be moved of him it is witnessed in the 11. of Iohn that at the raysing of Lazarus he not only wept but groned or yearned in his spirite and troubled himselfe about it It was trouble indeede Tartarus hath his name from such troubles
the friende knocked in the parable of Luke at midnight the deadest houre of the nighte who was nearest the gate first awoke if yet hee slept at all and first aunswered O quam dare vult c. O howe willing is hee to graunte that is so wiling to bee disquieted Howe glad to heare thy knocke that hath placed his bed so neare the gate O quam non adâ—anuam tantum sed ipsa ianua dominus fuit c. And how truly maie wee saie that hee was not onelie neare the gate but the Lorde himselfe the very gate who when his children were a sleepe the eares of Angelles and saintes shutte vp first and at the first call nay onelie amongst the rest made aunswere vnto it The Lord is alwaies nearer to vs than wee to him hee heareth the desires of the poore in the tenth Psalme hee first prepareth the hearte and setteth it on worke to pray and when he hath so done bendeth his eare vnto them If now they can otherwise demonstrate that as Pallas the Emperours libertine would never speake to any servant about him forgetting his owne late servile estate but either by pointing and signifying with the fingers as the wiseman calleth it or becking or if the busines vere long by writing because forsooth he was loth to bestow the honour of speaking vpon them and as the rulers of the earth in a kinde of maiesty not vnfitting to their place aunswere by mediation of others so the Lorde above heareth not suiters but by the preferment and procurement of Angels and other glorified spirits then it cannot be hindered but other advocates and spokes-men must be allowed of But this is likewise cleared in the 102. Psal. where it is saide that hee hath looked downe from the height of his sanctuary out of the heaven did the LORDE beholde the earth to what other ende but that hee might heare the mourning of the prisoner and deliver the children apointed vnto death And this moreover I am sure of that the LORDE hath often and expressely enioyned vs Call vpon mee and if the booke were searched throughout with cresset-light never would it bee prooved that hee gave any charge to call vpon others Neither was ever the shadowe of any thing so faithfull to the bodye to followe and waite vpon it as the successe of good speede hath beene consequent to a prayer faithfullye made For as if their soules were knit togither like the soules of Dauid and Ionathan you shall ever see them ioyned So in the fourth Psalme I called vpon the LORDE and hee hearde mee at large and an hundreth the like might bee alleadged for confirmation And therefore if vvee erre in this point of doctrine vvee may say truelye with Ieremy Thou hast deceived vs LORDE vvhen vvee vvere deceaved that is when wee were vvilled to call vpon thee alone thine vvas the blame if wee doe amisse and wee may comfort our selves that wee erre by warrant and authority from him that must pardon errours Therefore I conclude from the two and twentieth Psalme Praise the Lorde yee that feare him magnifie him all the seede of Iacob and feare him all yee the seede of Israell For hee hath not despised the lowe estate of the poore nor hidde himselfe from him but when he called hee harkened vnto him Let the house of Esau vse the liberty of the wide worlde and the feede of Babylon call vpon other helps as they have done and those that feare not the Lorde vse their discretion Our example leadeth vs otherwise Ionas was this poore man and his lowe estate the belly of the fish hee called vpon his God and hee harkened vnto him The varying of the person in that before hee spake of God now to God giveth vs variety of instruction and helpeth to confirme the doctrine before delivered For since wee have immediate accesse to the Lorde to speake to his maiesty as it were face to face and mouth to mouth it were to shamefast and senselesse a parte in vs to make other meanes And it is besides a singular testification of his thankefull minde who receaveth not the favour of God as the nine lepers in the gospell receaved their clensing not returning againe to give thankes to him that cured them but first reporteth to himselfe and as many as shall reade or heare this songe what God hath done for him I called vpon the Lorde and hee hearde mee which is somewhat further of and then with a nearer approche ioyning his soule as closely to the eares of God as Philip ioyned himselfe to the chariot of the Eunuch relateth the blessing of his prayer to the authour himselfe of all blessings And thou Lorde hardest my voice thus rendring vnto him grace for grace a kinde and dutifull rememoration for the mercies bestowed vpoÌ„ him Some take the comforts of God as the beastes in the field take their meate not looking vp to heaven from whence they come Nay the Oxe will knowe his owner and cast an eye to his hande and the asse his maisters cribbe but my people knowe not mee saith the Lorde Some acknowledge the Authour and forget him presently even whilst the meate is betweene their teeth as Israell did Some remember sufficiently but accept them as due debt as if they had God in bandes to performe them They serve not God for naught which was the obiection of Sathan Some are ready to kisse their owne handes for every blessing that commeth vpon them and to ascribe them to their strength or wit whereof Bernard spake Vti datis tanquam innatis maxima sâ—perbia It is the greatest pride to vse Gods giftes as if they were bred in vs. Others there are that give thanks ex usu magis quà m sensu rather of custome then devotion as cymballes sounde from their emptinesse for even Saul will bee a prophet amongst prophets and an hypocrite take good words into his mouth amongst harty professours Ionas I nothing doubt from the ground of his heart telleth forth the deliverance of the Lord which in the spirit of a prophet hee foreseeth and presumeth before it commeth not onely to himselfe and vs but as the rivers of the Lande sende back their waters to the sea in a thankfull remembrance and remuneration that they tooke them thence so Ionas returneth this mercy to the Lorde himselfe that was the giver of the mercy And thou Lorde heardest my voice as if hee had concluded and agreed to himselfe that neither God nor man nor his owne conscience shoulde ever bee able to accuse him of vnthankefulnesse I will both preach it to my selfe privately and publikely to the world that the Lord hath heard mee And thou Lord shalt also vnderstand from mine owne lips that I make acknowledgement and profession to haue receaved my safety from thine onely goodnesse Thou Lord hast heard my voice I will so meditate vpon thy benignities within mine owne heart and leaue a chronicle of them to
soule no whit endangered But the worker of this woe is the most mighty LORDE whose face is burning and his lips full of indignation whose wrath he liveth not vpon the earth that can abide vvhen the foundations of the mountaines mooue and sbake because hee is angrie vvhose anger hath a further extente not vpon the body alone but vpon the soule too not onely to kill but to cast them both away for ever into hell fire Beholde he breaketh downe and it cannot be built hee shutteth vp a man and hee cannot be loosed Woe woe be vnto vs cried the vncircumcised Philistines though they stood in battaile aray who shall deliver vs out of the hands of these mightie Gods erring in the number but not in the power of the glorious deity The men of Bethshemesh being afterwards smitten because they had pried into the arke of Covenant accounted themselues but dead men before him VVho is able to stande before this holie Lord God The very pillers of heaven saith Iob tremble and quake at his reproofe At his rebuke hee dryeth up the sea and maketh the flouds deserte their fish rotte for vvant of water and die for thirst Hee clotheth the heavens with darkenesse maketh a sacke their covering in the prophecy of Esay How fearefull a thing shall it then be to a sinfull man vvhose foundation is but dust and not like those of the mountaines and the pillers of his body but flesh and bloud farre inferiour to the pillers of heaven all the moisture of whose substance shall sooner be exacted than that of the flouds rivers to fall into the handes of the living God who liveth for al eternity beyond the daies of heaven and therefore is more able to aveÌ„ge any iniury done vnto him The anger of a prince though it seemeth as dreadful as the messengers of death vnto vs may bee pacified if not his anger is mortal like himselfe his breath is in his nostrels and promiseth to those that feare an ende of his life and wrath togither The hostility of a deadly foe may beeresisted by hostilitie againe though his quiver bee an open sepulchre and they all very strong if not hee can but eate vp our harvest and bread eat vp our sonnes and daughters our sheepe and our bullockes our vines and fig-trees and destroy our cities But if the anger of the Lord of hosts be kindled who can put it out if he be an enemy let heaven and earth ioine hand in hand to worke our safety it should not helpe If he begin he vvil make an end in the first of Samuell or rather not an ende in the fourth of Ieremie Consider the vision I haue looked vpon the earth saieth the Prophet and loe it was vvithout for me and voide and to the heavens and they had no light I behelde the mountaines and loe they trembled and all the hils shooke I behelde and loe there vvas no man and all the birdes of the ayre vvere departed I behelde and loe the frâ—â—tfull place was a vvildernesse and all the cittyes thereof vvere broken dovvne at the presence of the LORDE and by his fierce wrath For thus hath the Lorde saide the vvhole lande shall be desolate yet vvill I not make a full ende Beholde now an ende and no end Nowe if the Lorde had so cast Ionas as he cast the Angels out of heaven vvithout repentance and revocation of his fact Ionas must haue lien belovv as the gravell and slime of the sea never to haue risen vp But he cast him in mercy not in fury as he cast Adam out of Paradise to till the ground Nabuchodonosor from his kingdome to eate with the beasts of the fielde Iob from hâ—s house and home to lie vpon the dunghill to doe them greater honor and favour in time to come The place hath three amplifications 1. Hee vvas cast into the bottome of the sea vvhere-hence in likelyhoode there was no recovery Else what ment Micheas by the phrase in the seventh of his booke that God vvill cast our sinnes into the bottome of the sea but that hee vvill lay them so lowe and heape such a burthen and weight vp on them that they shall never rise vp againe And our Saviour by the same in the gospell that he who should offend one of his little ones it were better for him that a mil-stone were hanged aboute his necke and hee throwne into the bottome of the sea Implying therein so desperate a danger to the body as would never be restored So they singe of Pharaoh and his host in the fifteenth of Exodus Abyssi operuerunt eâ—s descenderunt in profundum velut lapis and afterwardes profunda peâ—ierunt vt plumbum The bottomlesse depthes covered them and they sunke to the bottome as a stone and as lead they were swallowed in the waters Some vvrite that the sea at the deepest is forty furlonges I cannot censure their estimation But this I am sure of it is very deepe and our Saviour ment to signifie no lesse when he called it not mare the sea by it selfe but Pelagus maris the bottome of the sea So Iob speaketh of Leviathan hee maketh the deepe to boile like a potte of ointemente Yea thou wouldest thinke that the bottomelesse depth had an hoary heade VVhere it is compared for depth vvith that which the legion of Devils in the eighth of Luke desired they mighte not be throwne into Nowe one furlong or faddome of waters had beene deepe enough to haue taken away the life of Ionas much more was he in ieopardy when he was cast into the bottome of the sea 2. he was not onely in the sea but in the midst the heart the inwardst secretes and celles of it as the heart of a living thing is mid-most and inwardst vnto it Wherevpon Christ is saide to haue lien in Corde terrae in the heart of the earth Math. 12 and the depthes to haue stoode vp togither in Corde maris in the heart of the sea Exodus the fifteenth This was the next augmentation of the daunger that the whale bare him farthest from the shore and kept his way in the deepest channell or trade so that all hope of ever comming to lande againe seemed to haue forsaken him 3. he was not onely in the heart of the sea but of the seas There is but one vniversall and maine sea which is the girdle to the dry land but many particulars which take their severall names from the places they lie next vnto Nowe the voyage of Ionas vvas not limited and bounded vvithin the compasse of the Syriacke sea vvhereinto hee vvas first received But if it be true which Iosephus hath that hee vvas cast vp to lande vpon the shore of the Euxine sea then must hee needes bee carryed through diverse seas before his arrival to that place Hee had a purpose at first perhappes to goe no further then to
limites but of a continuall tract and course of seas 4. Not where the waters were placide and still but vvhere the floudes were ever fighting togither 5. Those floudes lie as a circle about him and keepe him in like armed men 6. Not onely the flouds annoy him the tides of the sea and the decourse of lande rivers but hee is also troubled with vvaues 7. They are not simply waues but surges vvaues of the vehementest collision and insultation 8. And not simply surges but such as are strengthned by the arme and animation of God his waues 9. As if there were no more in the world but they had all forsaken their proper places as they came to the siege of Tâ—oy to turmoile this one sea hee tearmeth them in genelity all thy waues Lastly they were not aboute him as before but laie like a pressure vpon his body to keepe it downe There is yet a stinge in the taile of the Scorpion a danger behinde worse then the former which as it is reserved to the last place so hath it more venime in it then all the rest Then I saide I am cast out of thy sighte which containeth the weaknesse and distrust of his fearefull conscience See what a daungerous conclusion hee maketh against his soule not rashly apprehended but with leasure and deliberation conceived I saide that because the Lord had cast him into the bottome of the sea from the sight of men and the floudes and surges were over and about him therefore hee should thinke hee is cast from the sight of God that is that the lighte of his face brightnes of his countenance aspect of his mercy compassion had everlastingly forsaken him Ionas thou art deceived Thou speakest more to thy selfe theÌ„ ever the Lord said Hee that cast thee into the sea or caused the mariners to doe it never said that he cast thee out of his sight if thou hadst askt the seas and the flouds wherein thou wert overwhelmed they would never haue said it They know that the Lorde can say vnto the earth giue and to the sea restore keepe not those my sonnes daughters back whom I call for It is the voice of the serpent that speaketh this damnable senteÌ„ce vvithin thee Beware of his sophistry admit it not his reasoning is not good that because thou art persecuted driven to the bottome of the sea therefore thou art wholy cast out It is the pestilentest bait that ever Sathan laide to infect soules with Who being himselfe the sonne of perdition compasseth sea and lande to make others his proselytes the childreÌ„ of hel as deeply as himselfe is the cords wherwith he draweth theÌ„ into his own inheritance of destruction are to make the grievousnes of their sins the sense of their preseÌ„t but momeÌ„tany afflictions markes of their finall dereliction and that the favour of God is vtterlie departed from them This vvas the snare that he set for the soule of Iob in the mouthes of his three friendes pronouncinge him a reprobate and hypocrite because hee was afflicted by God The like for the soule of David in the lippes of his insolent enimies vvhen they vpbraided him where is now thy God he trusted in God let God deliver him if hee will haue him Behold I shew you a sea indeede of a bottomelesse depth the ground whereof can no more be founded than the lowest hel He that is throwne into this sea is alwaies falling and descending and never findeth an end It hath no midst in it as the sea hath because it is vnmeasurable and infinite I meane a desperate conscience distrusting the mercies of God relinquished of it selfe the floudes and surges whereof restlesse turbulent vnplacable cogitations can never be quieted and the fightings therein as betwixt waters and waters in the sea betweene affirmations negations it is and it is not cannot be reconciled Let all the rivers and streames of fresh vvater which glad the citty of God and comforte the soules of the faithfull runne into it they are resisted and driven back There is no entrance I meane for any perswasion of the graciousnes kindnes of the Lord though it be preached a thousand times The salt vnsavory bitter quality in the soule wherewith it is baned before hath no communion with so sweete a nature Which sin of desperation as the nature of man hath iust cause to detest because it breaketh that league of kindnes which we owe to our owne flesh many a bloudy instrument hath it put into the hands of man to destroy himselfe which execution beeing done against the laws of nature a worse ever ensueth from the iudgmeÌ„t fear of God so for that iniury indignity which it ostreth to the Lord of heaven sooner shal he forgiue the apostasie of his reprobate angels than this daÌ„ned sin Ierome observeth vpon the Psalmes that Iudas offended more in despairing of pardon and hanging himselfe than in betraying his innocent maister to death Isiodore giveth a kinde of reason for it Because to commit an offence is the death of the soule but to cast of hope of forgiuenesse is to descende into hell What can ever be done more derogatorie and iniurious to that righteous nature of his than to change his trueth into a lye and the lyes of Sathan into trueth and to iustifie Sathan more than God that when as the Lord shall speake on the one side binde by promise confirme by oth and seale with the bloud of his onely begotten son touching his goodnes towardes al true penitent sinners that although he haue made a wound he wil heale it though broken hee will binde vp though killed he will giue life yet he is not beleeved But when the Devill contrariwise shal suggest for his parte that the iustice of GOD will never bee satisfied the heynousnesse of our sinnes never pardoned as if he had left his name of beeing the father of lyes any longer hee is harkened vnto VVhat else is this but to turne falshoode into trueth darcknesse into light and GOD for ever to be magnified into the Devill himselfe Ionas went not so farre as I nowe speake of For though it were a daungerous pang which hee was fallen into and there vvanted but age and strength to make it vp yet he persisted not therein his feete had vvell nigh slipte but he recovered them and he spake vnadvisedlye vvith his lippes but he recalled it againe Yet vvill I looke tovvardes thine holie temple I vvill not so much explicate the wordes at large as vrge their consequence This was the difference betweene Iudas and Ionas Iudas vvente out and never looked backe more The LORDE cast him foorth and the devil bare him awaye to a tree vvhence hee returned not till hee had hunge himselfe Ionas is cast out vvith an hope and minde to returne Hee forgetteth not the temple of the LORDE and the place vvhere his honour dwelt though hee vvere farre remooved
vnto him at the resurrection of iust men vvhat then if the waters were come vp evâ—n vnto his soule Or coulde hee perswade himselfe that any depth of vvaters coulde over-reach the iudgementes and counsailes of the Lorde in preserving his Saintes Are not they also abyssus magna as greate and a greater deepe than ever sea had what then if the depth closed him about did hee not know that weedes shoulde rotte and fall away from his head and in steede of weedes the head shoulde bee crowned with mercy and compassion and clothed vvith glory as with the sunne-beames vvhat then though the weedes were bound about his head vvas hee to learne that the Lorde shoulde one day say to all the prisoners of hope though Ossa and Pindus the graves of those Gyants had buried their bodies stande vp and shew your selves and that the gates of hell much lesse the barres of the earth are not of force to resist his ordinances what theÌ„ though hee were descended to the bottomes of the mountaines c. What if his heade and heart also body and soule the vvhole composition and frame of Ionas had susteined a dissolution temporall vvhich the lawe of mortalitye and the common condition of all fleshe had made him subiect vnto is there not a time of refreshing when both the substance and beauty of all these shal be renewed againe Then againe I say what needeth in seculum so deepe a suspition of the goodnesse of the Lord as if it had for ever relinquished him it is an effect which for the most part a vehement griefe worketh in all sortes of men except some of a Stoicall disposition and others of a worse that have seared their heartes with hot irons and can feele nothing So vvee reade in the Lamentations My strength and my hope is perished from the Lorde And for a space of time there is little difference either in speech or thought betwixt precious and reprobate spirites But whereas the nature of desperation is this obligatur consuetudine obseratur ingratitudine impenitudine obfirmatur custome bindeth ingratitude locketh impenitency barreth it vp there is not that custome ingratitude impenitency in Gods chosen ones but though they lay downe their hope they take it vp againe and though they giue over the field to the enimy and seeme to fly away yet they flye to returne and to fight with more courage and vpon better advantage The hope of a Christian man is very nicely and fearefully placed betwixt two extremities as Susanna in the midst of two adulterers Ista duo occidunt animaâ— aut desperatio aut perversa spes Desperation and presumption are two infamous gulfes and here as ill as ever Scylla Charybdis did for the wracke overthrow of in my poore soules For as it is not good on the one side to haue too bold head strong an hope that howsoever we liue whither swearing or fearing an oth we shal be saved eáspe freti sperando pereunt they that so hope perish by so hoping it is the hope of the hypocrite shall come to naught it is as the house of a spider that shal soone be overturned so on the other it is not safe to haue our iealous god alwaies in iealousie stil to diffide whither he be our merciful father yea or not For hope is ever accoÌ„panied with 2. sisters which never depart froÌ„ her sides society faith loue faith the guide to keepe vs froÌ„ desperation loue the rule to keepe vs from presumption For he that hath faith can never distrust of the mercies of God because he beleeveth the promises in Iesus Christ he that hath charity wil never presume of a sinfull and licentious life because he is taught by loue to keepe the coÌ„maÌ„dementes of the most High Ionas made some triall of both these extremities For when he went fiirst froÌ„ the face of the Lord and refused a plaine iniunction what was it els but presumption in him Now to distrust of the mercies of God and stifly to affirme that his miseries shall never be released is a spice of desperation But his wisedome was that at their first invasioÌ„ he treadeth vpoÌ„n the heades of both these serpents assoone as he feeleth them sting he presently armeth himselfe with the grace of God to escape from them Otherwise if as the speech of Ionas was in seculum so the thoughtes of his heart had continued in seculum without revocation then had he also takeÌ„ vp his place amongst those whom God had set on his left hand and made the mirrours to the world of his irrevocable damnation For this were insanabilis plaga as Ieremy speaketh a wound that never can be cured to despaire of the aide of God as if a surgion should promise helpe to a sore and the patient should thrust his nailes into it and answere him nay but it shall not be healed It is the iust state of the damned for when all the people vpon the earth besides liue by hope for he that soweth soweth in hope and he that reapeth reapeth in hope he that liveth liveth in hope and he that dieth dieth in hope yea the whole creature groneth vnder hope and waiteth for that time with a fervent desire vvhen the sonnes of God shall be revealed and it selfe restored these onely are past hope One compareth desperation to the beaste in Daniell that hath no name given to it The first of the fowre was a lion the second a beare the third a leopard but this without distinguishing the kinde was very fearefull and terrible and stronge and had greate iron teeth destroied and brake in peeces and stampt vnder his feete and had hornes enough to push at God with blasphemy at his brethren with iniury and at the soule within his owne bosome with distrust of mercy Other our sinnes are fearfull enough and haue as it were the rage of lions and leopardes and beares to spoile make desolate the soule of man but the finall decay indeede which can never be recovered whilst there standeth a seate of iustice in heaven is desperatioÌ„ The greatest sinnes they say are these which are opposed to the theologicall vertues faith hope charity infidelity to faith desperation to hope hatred to charity amoÌ„gst the which infidelity hatred the one not beleeving the other hating God are in themselues worse but in regard of him that sinneth desperation far excedeth theÌ„ both in the daunger annexed to it For what can bee more miserable than a wretch not pittying himselfe But to acquite the prophet of the Lord from so damned a sin as in the former verses after his deadly downe-fall one would haue thought when his iudgmeÌ„t came from his owne mouth I said I am cast out c. he arose againe set vp a staÌ„dart of coÌ„fort to al the distressed of the world yet will I looke againe towardes thy holy temple so in this 2. fight and fit of his
is no question but hee speaketh vvithout a tongue and such instrumentes of speech as are ordinarie vvith the sonnes of men For vvhat eares had the light the firmament and other his vvorkes to heare and obserue his wordes if hee had pronounced them or vvhat capacitie and intelligence had the fish in this place But as the office of speech in man is to bee the messenger and interpreter of his hearte and to signifie his conceiptes invvardely and secretly purposed so somevvhat the LORDE doeth vvhereby he imparteth a knowledge even vnto insensible creatures what his minde and pleasure is Therefore it is saide that the LORDE spake to the fish when he commaunded that service of him and compelled him to execute his will when hee mooved him to more mercie than nature had shaped him vnto and brought him to the shore whome the hugenesse of his bodie naturally enforced to keepe the depthes of the sea It sheweth what divinity there is if I may so tearme it in the word of God how imperious to command how easie to obtaine when it hath commaunded One fiat is of power to make that which was never made before and had lyen in everlasting informitie if GOD had spared to speake to establish nature when it is not and to change nature when it is to create angels men birdes beastes fishes to store heaven earth and the deepe with innumerable armies of creatures and to make them bowe their knees to their maker and render vnlimited obedience to all his decrees VVhen God was manifested in the flesh and wente aboute doing good as the Evangelist writeth a beleeving Centurion in a suite that dearely affected him desired not the travaile of his feete nor any receite of physicke to heale his servaunte no not so much as the laying on his hande vvhich some had requested nor comminge within the roofe of his house but onely a woorde from his lippes Speake but the woorde LORDE and my servaunte shall bee healed Man liveth not by breade neither recovereth by physicke onelie but by everie worde that proceedeth out of the mouth of God A leper had tolde him in the nexte wordes before Lorde if thou wilte thou canst make mee cleane Voluntas tua opus est Thy will is thy worke And hee saide I will bee thou made cleane As if with the breath of his mouth hee had spoken to his leprosie bee gone as hee afterwardes spake to the Devilles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bee packing into the hearde of swine and they went the next way over the rockes and cleâ—ues as if a whirle-winde had borne them He rebuketh the windes and the sea in the same place with more authority than ever Peter rebuked Ananias and Saphira and with the like successe for he smote the breath from the windes and motion from the sea and a greate concussion of waters became a greate calme Who is this that the windes and the sea obey him For they not onelie heare him but heare him vvith effecte they goe and runne and stande still like servauntes of their master and as it were liue and die at his commaundement The prophet in the twenty nine Psalme speaketh of one voyce that the Lorde hath a mightie and glorious voice a voice that hath a sensible sounde indeede and smiteth the eares both of man and beast sometimes with tingling and astonishment that it breaketh the cedars even the cedars of Libanus and shaketh the wildernesse even the wildernesse of Cadesh that it divideth the flames of fire maketh the Hindes to cast their calues and discovereth the forrestes But this voice whereof I speake maketh the cedars even the cedars of Libanus and createth the vvildernesse even the wildernesse of Cadesh formeth the flames of fire fashioneth the Hindes and their younge ones and planteth the forrestes And this was the worde that spake to the fish to cast vp Ionas Beholde at the voice of the Lorde Leviathan casteth his young and aborteth a prophet before hee is willing So true it is by absolute experience which the spirit of God testifieth Heb. 4. That the worde of God is liuely and mighty in operation and sharper then any two-edged sworde and entreth through even vnto the dividing of the soule and the spirite and of the iointes and the marrowe and is a discerner of the thoughtes and the intentes of the hearte Neither is there any creature which is not manifest in his sight but all thinges are naked and open vnto his eies vvith whome wee haue to doe You heare how farre it entered in the wordes of my text It went into the bowels of a Whale lying in the bowels of the seas and as narrowly searched all his entralles as Laban Iacobs stuffe it divided betweene his teeth and their strength that they coulde not chew and went betweene his stomacke the appetite therof that it durst not concoct it drew him as an angle and hooke to the land ransackte his mawe and opened the straights of his throate that the prophet of the Lord might come forth Hee cast vp Ionas The manner of his comming foorth seemeth to haue beene without ease and pleasure to the Whale For as a stomake over-charged or offended with meate that it hath received is not at rest till it hath vnloaden it selfe so the VVhale feeling a morsell vvithin him vvhich hee cannot turne into nutriment what shoulde hee doe for his owne quiet but by the riftings and reachings of his stomacke sende it foorth Thus it is saide of the hypocrite Iob the twentith VVho hath vndone manie and spoiled houses which hee never builded vvhose wickednesse vvas sweete in his mouth as perhappes Ionas in the mouth of the fish and hee hidde it vnder his tongue c. That his meate in his bowels was turned and that the gall of aspes was in the middest of him that hee had devoured substance and shoulde vomit it vp for GOD woulde draw it out of his bellie that hee shoulde restore the labour and devour no more that â—ee shoulde feele no quietnesse in his bodie neither reserue any thing of that vvhich hee desired There you heare at large what the nature of a surfitte is And doubtlesse ill gotten goods vvhen a man snatcheth at the right hande and catcheth at the lefte vvithout beeing satisfied and eateth vp the people of the lande as breade is a spirituall surfitte and not a kindelye or hole-some mainetenance to him that hath coveted it So is pleasure and sweetnesse in sinning vvhen one favoureth it as Zophar there speaketh and vvill not forsake it but keepeth it close in his mouth though it dwell in darkenesse as darke as night and saie to the soule and reines hide mee safe yet it is a surfitte too and vvhen the bellie hath beene filled vvith aboundaunce thereof it shall bee in paine to continue the phrase of that booke and GOD shall sende vpon it his fierce vvrath The angell of the Laodicaean Church Revelation
committed vnto it but all kindes of deathes shal be swallowed vp into a general victory and in his name that hath wonne the field for vs we shall ioifully sing thankes be vnto God that hath given vs victory through our Lord Iesus Christ. And as Ionas was cast vp vpon the drie ground the land of the living where he might walke and breath and repose himselfe without danger of miscarying and Christ restored to life and immortality and exalted to a glorious estate at his fathers right hand so the Lord shall also shew vs the pathes of life fill vs with the ioy of his countenaunce for evermore Our corruptible shall put on incorruption our mortall immortality we shal liue with the lambe that was slaine in eternal glory Other shal rise to shame perpetual coÌ„tempt Dan. 12. And to the resurrectioÌ„ of coÌ„demnatioÌ„ Ioh. 5. Sadduâ—es Saturnians Basilidians Epicures Atheists which haue trodden this precious pearle of doctrine vnder their swinish feet haue not beleeved that they might be saved but we to the leÌ„gth of daies in the hands of God to the sight of his holy face which is most blessed blessednes Other particulars of stature age the like we cease to enquire of because God hath forborn to deliver them We will not loose that by our curiosity which Christ hath bought with his bloud and is gone to possesse in the body of his flesh that we may also possesse it I am sure there shal be al wel for else it shoulde not bee There shall bee a drie grounde for this valley of teares and sea of miseries A lande of the living for this desert of the dead A commodious and setled habitation for this tossing to and fro There shall be no monsters of land or sea to make vs afraid any more no sorrow to disquiet no sicknesse to distemper no death to dissolve vs no sin to obiect vs to the wrath of God and to bring vs in danger of loosing his grace THE XXXI LECTVRE Chap. 3. ver 2. And the worde of the Lorde came vnto Ionas the seconde time saying Arise goe vnto Niniveh that great citie c. THe summe of the whole prophecie and of every part therein I have often told you is in variety of examples the mercy of God towards his poore creatures The boundes whereof if any desire to learne how large they are let him coÌ„sider that in this present history it is exhibited both to Iewes GeÌ„tiles an example of the former was Ionas of the later the Mariners the Ninivites both to prophets and others of meaner and mechanicall callings both to Prince and people aged and infantes men and beastes that no man may thinke either himselfe or his seed or any the silliest worme that moveth vpon the earth excluded therehence Paul in his first to Timothy glorieth in the mercie of Iesus Christ which he had shewed vpon him to the ensample of such as shoulde beleeve in time to come But heere are fowre examples at once and as it were fowre gospels preaching to every countrey and language age and condition and sexe the hope of better thinges Blessed be the Lord God which hath written a whole booke of remembrances and filled it with argumentes to so good a purpose This third chapter which by the wil of God we are entred vpon treateth in generall of the mercy of God towards Niniveh and sheadeth it selfe orderly into foure parts 1. The calling or commission of Ionas renued 2. The perfourmance of his message 3. The repentance of Niniveh 4. Their delivery Ionas is called and put in charge againe in the two former verses Wherein besides the authour and other particulars heretofore extracted from the same words we will rest our selues especially vpon these three points 1. The repitition of his warraÌ„t The word of the Lord came the second time 2. Whither he is vvilled to goe To Niniveh 3. What he is to doe there 1. touching the matter he must preach the preaching that God shall bid them 2. touching the manner he must doe it by proclamation And the word of the Lord came vnto Ionas the second time saying Arise go vnto Niniveh that great cittie Ionas being become a new man after his baptisme regeneration in the water of the sea receiveth a new commission his former being forfeited by disobedience First it is not lawfull we know for any man to take that honour vnto him without calling nor to set himselfe vpon a candlesticke who hath no power to burne vnlesse God kindle him I haue not thrust in my selfe for a pastour after thee neither haue I desired the day of miserie Then because Ionas had disanulled his first commission it stood as voide vnto him and of none effect till it was repeated the second time Peter denying his maister three times and not lesse then loosing thereby his legatine Apostolicke authority repaireth his broken credit by three confessions and is newly invested into his former office If I fall now and then into the same points which I haue already handled in the first chapter you may easily pardoÌ„ me For first the words are the same or not much altered happily as the first commission of Ionas took shipwracke in the Syriacke sea so the first notes I gaue are perished in your memories and therefore there may be neede or repetition of such doctrines no lesse than of his charge There is no materiall difference betvveene the tvvo verses vvherein the mandate is given vnto him but in the addition of one particle The second time Which carrieth a double force first of propension in the nature of a man to fall away from God vnlesse it be daily and continually renued The Apostle was faine to travaile in birth and to doe it againe with his little children the Galathians till Christ were formed in them for as the ripening and perfiting of a childe in his mothers wombe asketh the time of nine moneths at least so the breeding of Christ in the consciences of men and begetting or preserving of children to God cannot be done without often and carefull endevour bestowed therein Secondly of the mercifull clememcie of God towardes Ionas in restoring him to his former dignity For he not onely gaue him his life vvhich vvas despaired but the honour and place of a prophet He might haue lived still and seene long life and many daies a straunger to his owne home an alien to his mothers sonnes an exile from the Israelites a by-worde of reproach for leesing his wonted preheminence and as they wondered when they heard that Saul prophecied What is Saul become one of the prophets so it might have given as iust a cause of admiration that Ionas was become none of the prophetes But Ionas abideth a prophet still and is as highly credited as if hee had not broken his former faith I knovve the patience of GOD is verie abundante Hee is mercifull and
vse of it I have heard of a nation of men I will not say that their neighbour-hoode hath a little infected England who when their king hath intended a feast for the honour of his country and entertainement of forraine Embassadours they on the other side have proclaimed a fast as if God had sent them an Embassage of the last iudgement I cannot deny them time but surely they tooke not a season for so doing I will proove the matter in hand in the next circumstance and ioine them both togither wherein I observed Secondly that it was an orderly fast because the king and his counsaile had first decreed it I toucht it a litle by occasioÌ„ of the former senteÌ„ce the words directly leading 〈◊〉 therevnto If any remaine as yet vnsatisfied first for mine owne purgation know ye that I speake not as the Lord of your faith but as one that had obtained mercy to be faithfull in my calling I shewed you mine opinion and iudgement 2. for the thing it selfe search the scriptures for they beare witnesse of the trueth whither these publique religious extraordinary fasts had not alwaies their authority emanation from publike persons In the 20. of the booke of Iudges the chosen souldiers of Israell which vvere taken by lot out of all their tribes to fight against Beniamin in the quarrell of the levite whose wife was shamefully abused and murdered they held a publique fast from morning vntill evening the cause was a slaughter which they had receved of forty thousand men and a conscience they made of fighting against Beniamin their brethren The authors of the fast are the rulers of the people who in the Original are called the corners and heades of the people In the 1. of Sam. 7. they fast publiquely they drew water saith the text even rivers of teares powred them out before the Lorde the appointment is from Samuell who iudged Israel in Mispah and the cause their idolatry committed to strange Gods the absence of the arke from them full twenty yeares In the 2. Chronic. 20. there is a fast proclaimed throughout all Iudah Iehosophat the king proclaimed it the cause was the sodaine comming of a great multitude from Ammon and Moab aad Aram to invade his kingdome Esdr. 8. there is likewise a publique fast summoned in their returne towards Ierusalem Esdras the high priest ordaineth it the reason is that God woulde directe them in their way and preserue themselues their children and goodes in safety Another Esther 4. which Esther gaue Mordecay in charge for now Mordecay was the man on whome the heartes of all the Iewes in Shusan depended at that time The cause that God would assist Esther who with the hazard of her head when her people vvere neare their vtter extirpation adventured her selfe to speake to the king in his inner court being not called before him Another Ieremy 36. In the daies of wicked Iehoikim who cut the booke of the Lord with a penknife and caused it to be burnt It was certainely proclaimed by order from some that might commaund For who else could assemble together all the people in Ierusalem and all the rest that came from the citties of Iudah without speciall authority yea Iezâ—bell her selfe though the daughter of Belial was not ignorant what the manner of those times was Shee proclaimed a fast in Iezrael where Nâ—both dwelt to rob him of his vineyard and to betraie his life but first shee sent letters in the kinges name and secondlye sealed them with the kinges seale and lastly directed them to the elders and nobles of Iezraell that they might put them in execution But the Phrases vsed in Ioel doe sufficiently determine the nature of this action Blow a trumpet in Sion sanctifie a fast call a solemne assemblie gather the people sanctifie the congregation gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the lande assemble the children and those that sucke the breastes let the bridegroome and the bride goe forth of their chamber Now what is a sanctified fast but that which is publikely called and established either by God himselfe Levit. 23. or by the magistrate Bishop or prophet or who hath authority to draw the people from their worke to gather the aged and sucklings and al the inhabitants of the country togither to apoint an holy day vnto the Lord to be spent in praiers sacrifices but only these governours As in a receipt of Physicke the ingredients may al be good yet is it not so warrantable vnto vs neither are we willing to meddle therwith vnlesse a professour of Physicke by his art and authority prescribe it so in a publike fast privately convented I said before that all the exercises were christian religious their praier preaching singing and distributing to the poore but as our saviour told the rich yong man in the gospell there is one thing wanting vnto thee if thou wilâ— bee perfect sell all that thou hast c. So there is one thing wanting vnto these and to give them their full perfection we must suffer the rulers of the common wealth to apoint them Chrisostome calleth fastinge a kinde of Physicke but Physicke may be profitable a thousand times yet be hurtfull at a time for want of skill to vse it therefore he would never have it done but congrua cum lâ—ge with all the lawes that agree vnto it and every circumstance of time quantity state of the body with the like precisely observed He applieth the Apostles similitude No man striving for a maistery is crowned vnlesse he strive lawfully so it may fall out that amiddest the paines and afflictions of fasting vvee may leese the crowne of it Zonaras hath a rule to the same purpose treating likewise of fastes Good is never good except it bee done in good sort And Cyprian in like manner It prooveth not well which is done of headinesse and without order The Thirde thinge in the fast of Niniveh is the vniversalitye of it for it vvas not onelye publique and open but included almost vvhatsoever breathed amongst them It concerned first men which is heere indefinitelye put signifying the whole kinde from the man of grayest haires to the tenderest infant and as you hearde before from the greatest to the smalest secondly Beastes yea all sortes of beastes great and small oxen horses sheepe goates and whatsoever cattell they had of any service Fourthly it was very strict for they are forbidden to feede I say not to glut themselues but they might not so much as tast perhappes not delicate meates no nor anye thinge it had beene enough to haue kept them from eating but neither might they drinke I say not wines and curious electuaries but not so much as water which their rivers and welles afforded them Fiftelye it was serious and vnfained not false and sophisticall as the manner of hypocrites is It appeareth by that that followeth in returning from
invincible courage in defending the Church Nazianzen writeth of Basile that betweene him his followers there is no more cōparison than betweene pillers their shadowes I omitte the rest But such are our vnequall iudgementes of those whose equalles wee shall hardelye bee that if vvee were willed to speake what we thought of Basile we would reckon him but a shadow and counterfeit to our selues and great Athanasius as one of the least amongst vs and thrust out the eyes of Ambrose and tearme him a crow and a chough as the Pie of Mirandula did Cyprian should haue a letter of his name changed as sometimes it was and bee but Caprian vnto vs one that wrote of trifles and vanities I omitte the rest the classicall and principall Doctours of the church next the Apostles of Christ and their next succeeders the starres and ornamentes of learning the pillers of religion and Christianity in their time who put their bodyes and soules betwixt Christ and his adversaries who spake and vvrote and lived and died in defence of his truth whose labours were then renowned and GOD in his providence hath reserved their bookes to this day monumentes to vs of their infatigable paines and helpes to our studies if wee bee not enemies to our selues I could be content to say much for them because I vse them much For I never could bee bold to offer mine owne inventions and conceiptes to the world when I haue found them such in S. Augustine and others as might not bee amended I would not wish the learned of any sort that hath but borne a booke to dispraise learning She hath enemies enough abroade though she be iustified by her children It is fitter that wisedome be beaten by fooles than by wisemen and that Barbary disgrace artes rather than Athens the mother and nurse of them But aboue all other places a blow given in the pulpit leaveth a skarre in the face of learning which cannot easily be removed It preiudiceth the teaching of others as if they fed the people with akornes huskes in steede of bred because they gather the mēbers of truth togither dispersed through oratours philosophers poets fathers scriptures make one body of them all which God is the author of they are thought in a manner to preach falshod Or at least it is vanity in those that preach itching in those that heare in neither of both to be allowed I also condēne it whē it is so Vaine vaine glorious invention let it wither at the braine that sent it forth And let itching eares fret consume away with the malignity of their humours Where we find them itching afte◠pleāsure it is good to make them smart with the acrimony of severe reprehension But where it is otherwise let not a rash conclusion without proofe be admitted against good learning If Asclepiodorus will draw with a cole or chawke alone I iudge him not if others will paint with colours neither let them bee iudged If some will barely teach and others proue if some affect to speake with simplicity and others with variety illustrate If some conferre with men of yester day others with antiquitye some binde themselues precisely to the words of God others not refraine the words of men vsing thē as the words of God If some stande narrowlye vpon the tearmes and sentences of faith others not depart from the proportion of faith nor bring in anye thinge dissonant and disagreeing to the vniformity thereof both may doe well but the latter in mine opinion doe farre the better That which concerneth you in this little dissent of iudgementes the sheepe of his pasture by whome wee are set in his house to giue you your portion in due time is this that you be not dismaied heereat For wee preach not our selues in such kinde of preachinges but Christ Iesus the Lorde not to commend our giftes but to edifie your consciences And to this ende I may saye vvith some alteration of vvordes as the Apostle to the Corinthians All thinges are yours whither it bee Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the vvorlde or life or death or thinges present or thinges to come so all thinges are yours in our preachinge whither it be scripture or nature or art all is yours Yours are Philosophers Orators Historigraphers Poets Iewes Gentiles Grecians Barbarians Fathers new-writers men angelles that you may be saved this only is the end where vnto our knowledge learning of what kind soever is directed To returne to Ionas discontented and withall to conclude you see the fall nay you see the relapse of a chosen prophet a sicknes recovered and a recidivation into the same or a worse sickenes Before hee had sinned and recanted his sinne and washed his disobedience away with the water of the sea but now is returned to the mire againe mire indeed wherein his heart as a troubled muddy spring is so disordered that he discerneth nothing a right neither in faith to God nor charity to man nor loue to himselfe accusing the most righteous Lord envying his innocent brethren and carried away headlong with a kind of detestation towardes his owne person once angry and angry againe and not onely conceaving but defending anger angry with the worme in the earth angry with the sunne in the skie angry with the winde in the aire angry with the former and governour of all these who could haue ended his passion with the least breath of his angry lippes A daungerous and grievous wound in a Sainte If I woulde thrust my fingers into it and thoroughly handle it But I leaue it to the order of my text vvorthy of another sea and of another whale and once more of the belly of hell even of hell indeede if God would exactly stand to repay it Improbe Neptunum accusat qui iterum naufragium facit Hee hath no reason to accuse Neptune that so presentlye after a late daunger will hazard himself to take shipwracke againe God is admirable in his Saintes not onely in their risinges but in their fallings also The best amongst them haue fallen And I loue to report their falles not that I take any pleasure with vngracious Chain to vncover the nakednes of my fathers but because that mantell and cloke of charity which God casteth over their sinnes to cover their weaknesses with is the comfortablest reading and learninge that the world hath S. Augustine spake wisely of the errour of Cyprian Propterea non vidit aliquid ut aliquid per eum supereminentius videretur There was something which he saw not that hee might gaine the knowlege of some more excellent thing That vvhich hee lost in faith hee gott in charity So there is somewhat that Ionas doth not to make way to the doing of some bettter worke For if hee gained nothing else the mercy of God might by this meanes bee the more commended in the forgiuenesse of his trespasse and that which hee
more matter is ministred for pitty to worke vpon Ierusalem vvas more laboured and applied by Christ in the daies of his flesh than either Bethania a country towne or any other cittye of Iudah or Samaria lesse than Ierusalem Agesilaus a renowned Lacedaemonian was grieved in his heart when he had slaine tenne thousand of his enemies and when many of the rest that were left aliue had withdrawne themselues within the citty of Corinth his friends advising him to lay siedge vnto it he answered that it was not fit for him so to do for he was a man which would compell offendours to do their duety but not pull downe citties The ruinating and overthrowing of citties are miserable either spectacles or histories to those that vvith any humanity shall consider them Nero may sing and triumph when Rome is on fire a bloudy horse-leach feedinge vpoÌ„ the spoiles of men and townes but Abraham will pray for Sodome though the sinke of the earth and not onely Ieremy will lament write lamentations but Christ will mourne for the downe-fall of Ierusalem And Titus whilste he lieth in siedge when hee shall see such slaughter of the Iewes will throw vp his hands to heaven and lay the massacre vpon God to cleare himselfe That Sodome wherof I â—pake consider but the raine that fell vpon it brimstone and fire from the Lord in heaven it selfe overthrowne with her sisters and all the plaine and all the inhabitants of the cittie and all that grevv vpon the earth turned into ashes and whatsoever came vp afterwards from that ground vnholsome and vnprofitable fruite pestelent vines bitter clusters the whole lande mingled with cloudes of pitch and heapes of ashes the people suffering the vengeance of eternall fire and notwithstanding all this it selfe made a by-word to all ages that came after it as we read in Esay 1. and Rom. 9. vnlesse the Lorde had left vs a seede wee shoulde haue bene as Sodome I say consider but these thinges and pitty her ruine and desolation though she be Sodome because she was a citty Though Iericho were Iericho a citty of the vncircumcised idolatrous in the worshippe of God and hostile towards his people can it sincke into your eares without pittying and bemoaning the gate therof to heare that her walles fell flat and all that was therein was vtterly destroyed both man and woman young and olde oxe and sheepe and asse with the edge of the sworde and the citty burnt with fire all that was in the citty except some silver and gold that was reserved Though Iericho be suncke so low that it shall never rise againe to stand long for it is sealed with a curse to his person that should adventure to reedifie Iericho with the bloud of his eldest and yongest sonnne yet say to your selues when you reade that lamentable narration alas for Iericho because it was a citty sometimes girded with walles fortified with bulwarkes stored with treasure and wealth peopled with men and furnished with other such habilities as the very name of a citty presently implieth But that Ierusalem wherof I also spake Ierusalem the sanctified citty and the cittye of the everlasting God Ierusalem builte in vnitye Ierusalem the Queene and Empresse of the provinces so defaced and levelled with the ground that not a stone was left standing vpon a stone neither in their houses walles bulwarkes turrets no nor in the altars sanctuary temple of Ierusalem the old and young matrones virgins mothers infants princes priests prophets Nazarites all slaine famished fettered skattered abroade vtterlye consumed If it come into the minde of any man either by reading or hearing vvithout commiseration I say that his heart is more barbarous and rude than the very fragments and rubbell wherein Ierusalem is lodged Who can expresse those havockes by speech or finde teares enough to equall their miseries For this cause I vveepe faith the Prophet mine eye even mine eye casteth out water which it draweth vp from the fountaine of my over-flowing heart and he calleth to the daughter of Sion to let teares run downe like a river daie night to take no rest neither to suffer the apple of her eie to cease to arise cry in the night in the beginning of the watches to power out her heart like water before the Lord. Aeneas Silvius in his oration of the spoile of CoÌ„staÌ„tinople against the Turke with great compassion relateth the murdering of their children before the faces of their parents the noble meÌ„ slaughtered like beasts the Priests torne in pieces the religious flead the holy virgins incestuously defiled the mothers their daughters despightfully vsed at leÌ„gth he crieth out O miseraÌ„ vrbis faciem O the miserable face of that citty O vnhappy people O wicked Mahomet Who is able to report such things without tears there was nothing to be seene but ful of mourning murder bloud-shed dead carkasses At last converting himselfe to Greece his mind eveÌ„ quaking starting backe with sorrow he thus bewaileth it O famous renowmed Greece behold now thy end now thou art dead alas how many mighty wealthy citties haue heretofore bin extinguished what is become of Thebes of Athens of Micene of Larissa of Lacedemon of Corinth of other memorable townes whose wals if thou seekest for thou canst not find so much as their ruines no maÌ„ caÌ„ shew the grouÌ„d werein they are are laid along our meÌ„ do oftentimes look for Greece in Greece it selfe only CoÌ„staÌ„tinople is no remaining of the carkasses of so many citties Such so lamentabl hath ever been the devastation of citties to meÌ„ of any affection such it seemed to God in this place shall not I spare Niniveh that great city Ionas could haue found in his hearte to haue seene it in the dust corne fieldes ploughed vp where the walles buildinge stood or rather an heape of nettles and salt-pits in the place thereof the smoake of the fire waving in the aire hiding away the light of the sun the flames spiring vp into heaveÌ„ the king his senatours marchants people those that walked with staues for age those that were nourished at the breasts for weaknes their flocks of sheepe heards of cattle all wasted and consumed in the saÌ„e pile if God would haue yelded to the madnes of his cruel appetite But he aunswereth with more clemency shall not I spare Niniveh that great citty Hitherto were but titles names the proofe followeth Wherein are sixe thousand persons that cannot discerne c. It may easily be ghessed quantus sit numerus alteriuâ— aetatis cúm tantus sit parvulâ—ruÌ„ how great the number of other ages when there were so many infants The prophecie was here fulfilled vvhich vvas given to Israel Iudah Ier. 31. Behold the daies come that I vvill sowe the house of Israell the house of Iudah with the seede of man and the seede of
are duo in carne vnà as it were two in one flesh Some are vnskilfull in their profession such as Plinie speaketh of experimenta per mortes agunt they kill men to gaine experience And Seneca noteth the like officiosissimè multos occîdunt they are very busie to cast many men away Others are vnfaithfull these in my iudgment are moe to be eschewed than the former evil couÌ„sailors healing the hurts of the people with sweet words crying peace peace al is wel wheÌ„ behold Annibal is at the gates death is entered in at the windowes and at the dores and hath taken the fort of the body into her handes Such are very vnlikely to make found bodies because they come with vnsound hearts and of these is the proverbe verified tituli pharmaca habent pyxides venena al their titles pretences and promises are health health but their drugges and receiptes are poyson I meane not so much to the bodies as the soules of men Trust not in man therefore neither in his strength nor in his skil fidelity for there is no helpe in him Why no help His spirit departeth not only his strength his health his agilitie his liuelihood but his breath I wil ioine the residue of my thxt all in one nor only his breath but his flesh bloud bones marrow sinewes arteries al must goe There is a resolution of his whole substance his last garment which is his skin shal be pulled of he hath here no abiding place nor any state of perpetuity but returneth not immediatly to heaven but to the earth nor to the earth as a straÌ„ger vnto him or an vnknown place but to his earth as his familiar friend of old acquaintaÌ„ce Neither is there only an end of these materiall partes but part of his inward man also perisheth so farre as his carnall and wordly designements went which he fansied to himselfe in his life time Here is the end of al flesh they soiourne vpon the face of the earth their spirit also soiourneth within their bodies It coÌ„meth returneth as a ttavailer by the way staieth perhaps for an houre a daie a yeare a decade of yeares more or lesse theÌ„ exit spiritus our breath departeth from vs. And God called Abraham â—xi de terra tua goe out of thy countrey vvherein thou wert borne bred so he calleth to our spirites come out of your houses wherein you haue long dwelt There is but one manner of entering into the world but many waies of going out we are full of holes wee take water at a thousand breaches one dyeth younge another in a good age some in their full strength vvhen their breasts are full of milke some by the hande of God some by sicknes infirmity some by violence The infants of Bethelem are slaine in their cradles Eglon in his parlour Saule in the field Isboseth vpon his bed Zenacharib in the teÌ„ple Ioab at the very altar some die by famine as the cildren of Ierusalem some by saturitie and surfetting as the children of Sodome some by beares as the boies that mocked Elizeus some by lioÌ„s as the disobedient prophet some by wormes as Herod some by dogges as Euripides but Lucian better deserved that death and he also sustained it The sonnes and daughters of Iob in the middest of their leasting with the fall of an house Chore his complices with the opening of the arth the captaines and their fifties with fire from heaven the coles whereof were never blowne Zimri with fire from earth which himselfe kindled eosdem penates hahuit regiam rogum sepulchrum as Val. Maximus writeth of Tullus Hostilius who was smitten with lightning the same house was both his pallace pile graue to be buried in I adde that which is more admirable Homer died of griefe because he coulde not aunswere a riddle which fisher-men proposed vnto him Sophocles with ioy because in a prize of learning after long expectation he got the victory of his adversary but by one voice Behold ye despisers ' woÌ„der at the haÌ„d of God you that are in league with death make a truce with the graue you that say to your soules take thine ease bee at rest for many yeares to morrow shal be as this day much better with whoÌ„ there is nothing but as in the daies of Noah eate drinke marry vntill the floud coÌ„meth Seeing that both sorrow ioy are able to kil you and your life hangeth vpon so small a thread that the least gnat in the aire can choke you as it choked a Pope of Rome a little haire in your milke strangle you as it did a counsailour in Rome a stone of a raisin stop your breath as it did the breath of Anacreon put not the evill daie far froÌ„ you which the ordinaÌ„ce of God hath put so neare remeÌ„ber your Creator in time before the day come wherin you shal say we haue no pleasure in them walke not alwaies with your faces to the East somtimes haue an eie to the West where the sun goeth downe sit not ever in the prow of the ship sometimes goe to the sterne stand in your watch-towres as the creature doth Rom. 8. and waite for the houre of your deliverance provide your armies before that dreadful king coÌ„meth to fight against you with his greater forces order your houses before you die that is dispose of your bodies and soules and all the implements of them both let not your eies be gadding after pleasure nor your eare itching after rumors nor your mindes wandering in the fields when death is in your houses your bodies are not brasse noâ— your strength the strength of stones your life none inheritance your breath no more than as the vapour and smoake of the chimny within your nostrels or as a stranger within your gates comming going againe not to returne any more til the day of finall redemption It is a wonder that there should be need of any such exhortation after so long experience If we were as Adam was who never saw the example of any precedent death we might the more iustly be excused for as Christ spake in the gospell of the vertues done in Chorazin Bethsaida if the vertues wrought amongst you had beene wrought elsewhere c. So if those innumerable deathes which haue bin shewed amongst vs had beene shewed in the daies of Adam before his fall he would never haue runne into that contempt We know that we must die and as Calvus spake againg Vatinius you know that he hath practised ambition and there is no man but knoweth that you know so much so we know the certainety of our death as we knovv our names and the iointes of our fingers and yet we regard it not What are all the citties and townes of the earth so farre as the line thereof is stretched but humanarum cladium miseranda