yeelding them dry footing as if it had bene on the land when they were so pursued and made after by the chariots and horsemen of the Egyptians How fitly vnto my purpose was the daughter of king Pharao brought forth and put in mind to pity poore drowning Moses How was the iaw-bone of the asse made ready to be as a sword for Samson wherewith he slue so many Philistines and how was one of the teeth thereof prepared to yeeld him drinke when he fainted So admirable is the Lord in the assistance of his Saints that one thing or another shall be borne to do them good in their bitter extremitie as if it were made onely for that purpose There be few which haue liued many yeares and in Christian meditation contemplated in themselues on the kindnesse of their God who know not this ouer and ouer Such comforts and such stayes arising by such meanes as themselues could not conceiue of vntill they see things done Oh the loue of God inestimable oh his straunge wayes for our good The wicked on the one side may feare his hand who can raise such meanes to perplexe them and the faithfull on the other side may embrace his mercy who hath such helpes at need and both of them may stand amased and wonder at his power who hath his instruments euermore so ready 5 I know not whether in our Prophet is more to be respected Gods punishment or his protection If we thinke vpon his drowning he doth fauour him since he had at hand a great fish to receiue him so that he did not perish If we thinke of the time and place where he lay and how long that is in the dungeon of that fishes belly for three dayes and three nights it doth double and often multiply Gods angry wrath vpon him The euent doth giue this testimony that since Ionas howsoeuer at the first he fell was appointed and predestinated to good and not to euill his deliuerance was as readie as his chastisement was for him one hand to cast him downe another to helpe him vp when the ship might not any longer containe him the fishes bellie was in steede of a sea-vessell to bring him on toward Niniue But in the meane while his lying was such in so many dreades and horrours and anguishes for his life nay for doubte of the life eternall because wrath was vpon him which endangered his best part euen his inward man and his soule that many deaths had bene easier then a languishing in that prison where now he had his best repose So sowre a thing is sinne and disobedience to the Lord. It may be sweete in the mouth but it is bitter in the belly like a cup of deadly poyson Certainely it is a daughter of those Locustes which haue faces faire as men but killing stings in their tailes It is pleasure with too much paine sweete meate with too sharpe sauce And therefore it may well be likened to that herbe Sardonia in Sardinia of the which Solinus writeth that it maketh the eaters thereof to looke as if they laughed but in their laughing they dye Thus Ionas is preserued but to testifie Gods displeasure in the meanes of his preseruation he endureth full many sorowes Let vs now see if you please what that was whereby God so wrought for him The Lord prepared a great fish to swallow 6 In the Hebrew it is a great fish but it is not added of what kinde or species this fish was Our Sauiour Christ doth briefly touch this storie and there the Euangelist in the Greeke doth vse the word Ketos which although sometimes like to the Latine Cete it be applied to diuerse sorts of great fishes yet properly it noteth that one who is the king of fishes and ruler of the sea Balaena the great whale and it is euermore so Englished in that text A fish which in diuerse seas is of seuerall shapes and fashions as in the Indian Oceane in the red sea neare Arabia in the Northren waters toward Island and in our English Oceane but euery where verie huge and euery where very mighty And so this had neede to be who had so wide a mouth as to receiue the Prophet who had so large a throate as to swallow him and not hurt him who had so vaste a paunch as to lodge him there and not stifle him A matter to some men incredible that among all liuing creatures should be any so capacious but so vndoubtedly a knowne truth to men that liue neare the sea or that haue trauelled much by ship and a verity so confirmed so consented vpon by all who haue read the writers either olde or new vpon that argument that he were a man much absurde who would make question of it They all agree that at sea there are fishes farre exceeding the greatest beast on land And thereof particularly Olaus Magnus doth assigne these reasons the abundance of the moysture which is fit to dilate and increase any liuing creature and the very great depth vvhere is both store of foode and safe meanes to escape such other fishes as are ready to hurt them They farther adde that the Elephant is but little when he is compared with these water-monsters That the bellies and mouthes and throtes of some fishes are so spacious that a man may well be receiued in by them Gulielmus Rondeletius who hath taken great paines in displaying the proportions and qualities of fishes as appeareth in that excellent worke of Gesner De Aquatilibus for those two are oft ioyned together reporteth of a little small fish in comparison of a whale which he calleth by the name of Lamia that in the Mediterrane sea some of those haue oftentimes bene found hauing a whole man swallowed into each of their bellies Yea he telleth that neare vnto Marseilles an auncient city oâ— Fraunce there haue bene found of them which haue had within them virum loricatum a man in some kind of armour So huge-bellied is this fish which commeth not neare to the great ones 7 But for the whale it selfe if any list to reade of the bignesse of it and should esteeme that too much Pliny speaketh positiuely that in the Indian seas there are some of two hundred cubites in length and the same Pliny out of the bookes of Iuba that in the seas neare Arabia haue bene seene some of foure hundred cubites for so much is sixe hundred feete which also Munster deliuereth to vs in the fifth of his Cosmography then let him heare what Dion a good Historien doth lay downe of certainty in his fifty and fourth booke and that is that in the dayes of Augustus sometimes Emperour of Rome a whale leaped to the land out of the Germane Ocean full twenty foote in breadth and threescore foote in length This was so bigge a body as might well receiue the Prophet But adde to this what I find in Gesner taken
that Iosephus himselfe could say that their wickednesse was so monstrous that he thought in his conscience if the Romanes had not inuaded them that the very earth would haue opened and deuoured them vp as it did Corah Dathan and Abiron or a speciall flould haue drowned them as a generall one in Noahs time made a riddance of all the world or fire and brimstone from heauen haue consumed them as the Sodomites God will no longer endure it but will roote them vp and destroy them by misery which cannot be described And whereas I speake so much as this concerning Hierusalem what other sinfull place may not tremble For if those who are so neare him do so bitterly feele the smart what shall they suffer who are farther off If it be thus in the green tree what shall it be in the dry If those do not escape whom he hath once loued tenderly why should they hope for fauour extraordinary who were neuer otherwise vnto him then common men 13 If this do not sufficiently informe vs how haynous sin is in his sight let vs runne ouer all them who haue notoriously bin punished in the world and the examples of them are committed to solemne memory as Adam Cain and Saule or Antiochus or Ananias Saphyra or Iudas the traytor or Iulian the Apostata yea looke into the Babylonian Empire or the Persian or the Graecian yea particular cities Corinth Rome or Constantinople all these haue suffered ruine onely for their sinnes The future torments of hell are prepared onely for sinners All calamities which our neighbours endure or we sustaine here in our land do come to vs for sinne The speech which Cyprian vseth Contra Demetrianum is very fit in this place Thou maruellest or complainest in this stubburnnesse and contempt of yours if the raine do few times fall vpon the ground if the earth be vnsightly by the filthinesse of the dust if the barren turfe do yeeld hungry and pale grasse if the haile falling do spill the vine if the ouerturning whirle-wind do marre the oliue if drouth dry vp the springs if pestilent breathes do corrupt the ayre if diseases consume men when all these things come by sinnes prouoking and God is the more offended since such and so great things do no good at all Now by this we may remember to thinke that it is our sin which bringeth on vs that famine which is euery where so bitter Then if wickednesse be so forcible it is no maruell if on the one side Niniue were like therewith to perish in so short a time but on the other side let vs flye from all grosse sinnes and wilfull disobedience lest transgressing we so farre prouoke God as they did and so bring on our land that which perhaps we can be content with patience to heare of them but should rue to feele in our selues 14 The second thing here worth the noting in these words of our Prophet is that he letteth them know that they should be ouerthrowne but he doth not tell them how He himselfe did not know and therefore he could not speake it It was inough of their part and too much as they thought that the matter should be verified they needed not to enquire of the manner But this kept them in suspence and made them feare the more since they knew not what to preuent For if they had knowne the way their wits would haue bene busied to withstand the thing imagined That is the froward nature of man to turne away from the maine and to looke on some by-thing as in the like sort we see the man who is complained off to his superiour for his fault striueth not to amend his errour take heed of that by all meanes but laboureth to know who it was that complained that he may be quit with him If the Prophet here had sayd that some enemy should inuade them all their wits would haue bene employed if they had beleeued his message in mustering of their men in scowring of their armour in preparing of their munition in vniting of their forces Their citie must haue bene victualled their rampars haue bene repaired If mention had bene made of some inundation to follow here trenches and there ditches had bene cut to see whether art and labour might haue turned away the water And the like is to be sayd of any other set euill whatsoeuer they would haue bâ—ne busie in prouiding for it But now while they know nothing they stand in feare of euery thing They entertaine that opinion that it is God who doth threaten them and allowing him thereupon to be infinite and Almighty as amazed men they do feare what possibly may be dreaded He is of force to do what he pleaseth and they onely must be the sufferers Now as euery man will graunt that one skilfull at defence may rap a sillie child who hath neither strength nor knowledge and may strike him at his pleasure on this side and on that side and aboue and vnderneath because euery way he lyeth open so God if he see cause can lay a burthen of any kind of trouble on men or cities who must take what he offereth and in no sort can auoyde it 15 Then hath he wayes inough to ouerturne great Niniue He speaketh by his seruant Ezechiel of foure grieuous iudgements to chastise men withall that is the sword and famine and the noysome beast and the pestilence what hauocke would these make and cause cleane worke before them that what escapeth of the one might fall vpon the other and he whom the first doth not touch might be crushed with the last And if these foure would touch the people but do nothing to the Citie then remember the force of fire not onely rained from heauen as on Sodome and Gomorrha but being put to by men How came Corinth to destruction or Saguntuâ— to desolation but by fire which is one of those things which we truly say hath no mercy If all the world hereafter shall be destroyed with fire what maruell then if one city might perish with that element Remember the force of water which by inundation from sea within these hundred yeares hath deuoured great parts of Zeland and by the ouer-flowing of Tiber within these forty yeares hath cast downe very many houses in Rome and hath bene knowne in other places to haue ouerturned many mighty bridges Yea the generall deluge did drowne the whole world with water when they thought themselues as sure as Niniue now could be perhaps laughed at the newes which Noe brought to that purpose therefore a speciall deluge might quickly drowne one city if God should loose the water Remember the force of earth-quakes which destroy both men and buildings How did Lysimachia fall and Thessalonica sinke Constantinople in the time of Agathias was sore shaken and Antioch with a great part of Asia neare to Antioch was swallowed vp in Traianes time as Dion
in the middest of the city But by the testimony of our Sauiour Christ these two ioyned together are arguments and tokens of the most humble repentance Woe be to thee Chorazin woe be to thee Bethsaida for if the great workes which were done in you had bene done in Tyrus and Sidon they had repented long agone in sackcloth and ashes that is in the most lowly maner which may possibly be deuised Saint Gregory in his Morals doth shew the reason why these should be vsed in the time of griefe In sackcloth sayth he is shewed a roughnesse and a pricking euen the compunction of our sinnes In ashes is signified the dust of men who are dead And therefore both of these are vsed in repentance that in pricking of sackcloth we may know by our fault what it is which we haue done and in ashes vve may vveigh vvhat we haue deserued in iudgement that is to be made dust and ashes Consider then sayth he in the sackcloth pricking vices consider in the ashes the paine of vices vvhich followeth by the sentence of death This is the spirituall meaning of this mourning attire and it cannot chuse but strike a kind of horrour outwardly into euery one who beholdeth it For doth not sackcloth or haircloth cast downe the mind of the wearer or the high conceipt of the stander by to see him who was most glorious with or beyond manie other now to be arayed in that which noteth manifest lamentation And do not ashes more remember vs of mortification that he who liueth and mooueth should like a carcasse turned into dust be as alreadie in his graue that if he be not yet fallen into the dust of the earth yet the dust is arisen vp to him and hath met him halfe the waie So liuing hee is as dead and moouing as if hee were alreadie buried 13 I cannot chuse but admire the care of this worthy Niniuite to satisfie in euery kind so farre as lay in him Looke in what he had offended in that he would make a recompence In former time he had displeased God as well within as without and now he would shew the fruites of this his griefe as well within as without Within by debarring his belly and stomacke of their sustenance without by making that flesh which had taken delight before in beautie and in brauerie to be basely and vgly clothed He saw the faults of himselfe and therefore as a carefull planter or ouerseer of trees he bent that stocke which grew awrie to the contrary side And he tooke the rightest course to redresse his faults not doing as necessitie many times vrgeth men in their chastisements to lay vpon one member or part of the bodie for the ouersight of the other as for the slippes of the hands to lay stripes vpon the backe or shoulders but he correcteth the offenders in the most iust and equitable order that might be For had he not transgressed both in the backe and the belly His bellie had bene a receptacle of much luxurie and excesse the sumptuous birdes of the ayre the dainty fish of the water had bene deuoured by him It may be that he had offended as Vitellius did afterward who caused all seas and lands to be sought for rare creatures to feede on and when they had bene brought vnto him at an inestimable price or rate then they should not be touched in grosse but an eye onely of this bird or a tongue onely of that fish must be tasted that so the spoyles of a many might be taken at one meale It may be that like his countreyman Sardanapalus that Epicure he thought that alone to be his which he had consumed in eating and so had made his belly no lesse then his God To make amends for this by proclaiming a solemne fast he abateth the â—uperfluity of his vnruly paunch and pincheth it with famine that because in former times it had had a great deale more then it should now it might want that which is necessarie So his backe and loynes had bene supporters of much excesse so that the most curious of workmanship the most sumptuous of stuffe the most conspicuous of mettals the most precious of stones and pearles had bene bestowed vpon them There was in likelihood no pompe to be desired which they knew not Therefore to satisfie for those follies and to bring his body to better compasse sackcloth bumbasted with ashes or vnderlayd with dust must now be worne and sate on I Inow not whether the wisedome of this king or his equity or humility be more to be commended 14 But the mind within being added to it maketh all the rest more acceptable For we need not doubt but that was ioyned He who had done all those things that is came downe from his throne of honour layd his kingly robe from him put on sackcloth and ashes by the aduise of his counsell set foorth such a Proclamation for a fast to be kept by all his people both young and old men and cattell bid cry to God so mightily yea who appeased the fury of the Lord and quenched his wrath toward them neede not be suspected now but to haue ioyned his mind within to his externall actions And that being put to as a kind of celestiall salt maketh all the rest to be sauoury For aboue all things the sacrifice of God is a troubled spirit and a broken and contrite heart the Lord doth not despise It were to be wished that our Iesuites and Seminary men would learne this of this Barbarian to adorne their externall penance and voluntary worships which they enioyne to themselues with this contrite mind within For if sackcloth and haircloth and fasting and whipping too be vsed and oft-times doubled they which do them are not the nearer to heauen vnlesse the inward conscience be established in the faith and taught that nothing meriteth but the bloud of Christ our Redeemer It is but like a whited sepulchre whited but full of rottennesse like old Iezabel who albeit she was painted yet was she full of aged wrinkles the deeds but of Baals Priests who could cut and launce themselues the very workes of hypocrites They may gaine prayse with men and make their Proclamations to the world as they do that their lodging is very hard and their shirts made of course haircloth yea as Posseuinus sayth and seemeth to cite it from our Campian that flying to wildernesses as Heremits and to monasteries as Fryers all their life time in the schooles of perfect vertue cilicijs paludati pasti ieiunijs that is being robed in hearcloth and fed with fastings they do meditate both day and night in the Law of the Lord Yet although they go farther also and cast out Diuels too they may heare in the day of iudgement from the mouth of the last iudge Depart from me I know you not you workers of iniquity vnlesse the inward meaning be rectified and
and hide vs from the presence of him that sitteth on the throne and from the wrath of the Lambe They cannot escape his sight they cannot auoyd his iudgement When Pericles once was sad about yeelding an account of much money to the Atheniens which he possibly could not discharge his nephew Alcibiades did helpe him with this good counsel that he should not beat his braines how he might giue a reckening but he rather should deuise how he might giue no reckening He tooke this course indeed and by plunging the Atheniens into a grieuous warre he did auoyd the account Before the Lord of heauen this will not serue the turne he knoweth all things and seeth all things Ionas could not be so grosse as to run so from his presence 18 But if that thought were in him or if any man wil so take it he went the worst way to worke for himselfe that euer man did For he that would be so blockish as to thinke he might flie from God and would go to sea to do it were worthie to be registred for a man most vnaduised This is as much as if to auoid some heate that commeth by an ague the patient should run into the fire as it is said that Hercules did being troubled with a frenzie or if another to auoide a showre of raine should leape into the riuer for if Gods hand any where do euidently appeare or if any where it be fearefull it is in being at sea where as the Poet speaketh a man is stil within foure or at most seuen inches of his death where stormes that be impetuous do cause them to pray who scant euer prayed before where rockes and sands and gulfes are readie still to deuoure The remembrance of this made Dauid speake so sufficiently They that go dovvne to the sea in ships and occupy by the great vvaters they see the vvorkes of the Lord and his vvonders in the deepe Paule found this by experience when he endured such a storme and wrecke too in the Mediterrane sea He who would see more of this let him reade in Virgil what a tempest is described to haue befallen Aeneas in the Sicilian sea So then if God be present any where to punish or preserue it is in the huge Ocean That if a man would haue wished to be followed as with a furie he should do as Ionas did When Plinie the elder was choked in going to see Vesuuius a hill which burned in Campania as Aetna oftentimes doth in Sicilia the sight thereof was so terrible that the beholders were all amazed at it But there were saith the younger Plinie among them some who were so afrayd of death that they vvished themselues to be dead They so feared that which they feared that they wished for that which they feared If our Prophet did desire to escape away from the Lord he did iust as these other for to flie away from Gods presence he runneth into Gods presence 19 Therefore we will not imagine that Ionas was so ignorant to thinke thus to get from the Lord but his going from Gods presence doth signifie in this place a departing from his dutie and from the execution of his office For they are said in the Scripture to be in the Lords presence or to stand before the Lord who do execute their ministery or functiō as they should So the Lord separated the tribe of Leui to beare the Arke of the couenant of the Lord and to stand before the Lord which is expounded there to minister vnto him and to blesse in his name to this day So as the Lord God of Israel liueth saith Elias before whom I do stand that is whom faithfully I do serue there shall be neither deaw nor raine these yeares but according to my word The verie selfe same phrase doth Elizeus vse in another place to Naaman the Syrian The contrarie of which speech is vttered by that wicked Cain who did neuer serue God From thy face I shall be hid And afterward Cain went out from the presence of the Lord. He was not in his grace he would not be in his seruice Such was our Prophets flight from the presence of the Lord. When he should haue performed his calling vpon occasions continually haue taken direction from the voyce of God speaking to him he did forsake his charge and could haue bene wel contented if God would neuer more haue spoken to him But his maister will not leaue him so This is an excellent comfort to the Ministers of the Gospell that as long as they do their duties they stand before the Lord who doth protect and preserue them from the rage of bloudie tyrants from the tempests of the world from the mischiefe of cruell enemies Neither can the rage of Sathan lay anie thing more vpon them then God giueth them grace to beare And againe in as much as in this life they are spectacles to men in preaching and in liuing they are spectacles to Angels they are spectacles to God they are warned that they discharge their function with sinceritie remembring this good lesson that they be not as many who make marchandise of the word of God but as of sinceritie but as of God in the sight of God speaking in Christ. 20 In these most perillous times wherein Satan fretteth and rageth wherein Papisme is litle weakned but Atheisme waxeth strong and the sinnes of men do crie but on the other side pitie waxeth thin and charitie groweth cold This should be a liuely motion to stirre vp the Spirit of God in vs that with alacritie we may go forward to the building vp of Gods house and not to be wearied in well doing or withdraw our selues frō the work In the fifteenth of the Actes although Barnabas were more mild and did not take the matter so hainously yet Paule did so dislike it in Iohn Marke at Pamphylia that he would not go with them about the Lords seruice that he refused his companie afterward Surely God looketh for much of them whom he hath singled out to be the messengers of his glorie If with Ionas we should leaue him and turne away from his presence when he hath vse for vs in the field let vs feare least a greater iudgement befall vs then did vnto Ionas Which what it was in the next by Gods grace I shall shew In the meane time Iesus send vs due consideration of our calling that not following wordly reasons which often draw men to Tharsus when they should go to Niniue but attending Gods commaundement we may with ioy run our course and so possesse that inestimable crowne of iustice which the righteous Lord hath layed vp for all those that loue his comming To this God be praise for euer THE III. LECTVRE The chiefe points 2. The punishment of the Prophet may well fright other from sinne 4. All tempests depend of God 6. Yet Satan and his instruments by
water the wares are cast into the sea to lighten the ship withall Her burthen might make her sinke and therefore ease her of it In what a case were these poore men for harbouring such a guest As the host who hath lodged a traitor and because he seemed a man of faire conditions hath vsed him very kindly doth not know what he hath done til the Sheriffe come seaze his guest and himselfe to the Princes mercie so was it here with these mariners These men had money of Ionas to let him come into their vessel but by this time I think they could haue wished that they had giuen him money to keepe him farther of Ionas thou mightest haue gone to thy Niniue and saued them from this paine and thy selfe too from this hazard 15 You see the words are not manie three or foure lines at the most but what more can be said of a tempest then is here said in the text The sea-men are afraid a stiffer kind of men then other people are and who do not regard a small thing they had borne many brunts before and of likelihood escaped many dangers they were acquainted with the working of the sea and the egernesse of the wind An hote storme and away after a tempest cometh a calme A man who were new come thither and perhaps at first were sea-sicke might be agast at a litle his heart might be in his mouth to feele but a litle rocking But that this trembling feare should take these old beaten souldiers it doth import a vehement daunger The passengers must needs quake when the mariners did so dread If Ouid had bene there he wold once againe haue said that his Elege quite to the end Dijmaris coeli quid enim nisi vota supersunt Surely effeminate Ouid would haue betaken him to his deuotions when these forgetfull mariners who thinke not oft of their maker did fall so fast to their prayers It were to be wished that our Christians in all their nauigations would more remember true godlinesse pray oftener play lesse vse better rule at their going out and fewer sinnes at their landing Doubtlesse they which feare God are carefull but an ill name goeth of manie of them 16 I should here touch that circumstaunce that these idolatrous persons cried euerie man on his God but in the next verse folowing the text yeeldeth that againe and I do deferre it thither I will ad the other argument of the greatnesse of the tempest that is the throwing out of the wares This is neuer attēpted but when there is daunger indeed As it seemed vnto mans reason there was no way but one whē the mariners amōg whō Paule was did first throw out their cariage then the tackling of the ship For how farre are men driuen when with their owne hands they must robbe themselues of their helpes of their comfort of their wealth Many had as willingly dye as be put frō that which they haue As good to lose life as liuing A speech which is often vsed but verie few times performed A man will giue much for his life which Satan knew well inough when he could say in Iobs case Skin for skin and all that euer a man hath wil he giue for his life For money may be recouered by industry or Gods blessing or by some other meanes but so can life be neuer for now we looke not for miracles This maketh so manie ransomes to redeeme frō death with money yea to giue incredible sūmes to the impouerishing of the parties of their frēds nay sometimes of a whole State as Richard the first of England once knew wel in his returne frō the holy land so did Frāces the Great that king of Frāce whē after his captiuitie he was rāsomed frō Charles the 5. then Emperor Here the felowes of Ionas being put to very hard shifts do chuse the lesse of two euils their liues rather without wares thē to lose both wares liues Whē Alexāders soldiers were to passe the swift riuer Tigris by the violence of the streame many of thē lost their packes striuing there for their fardels to take them vp again they were almost drowned in the water The king who saw their follie bid thē looke to their liues to hold their armor fast let the rest go he himself wold make thē recōpence The wise captaine thought it far better to lose the Accidēt then the substance That which nature teacheth all men these mariners did here practise 17 But that the text doth giue a reason that it was to lighten the ship it might be thought that their casting of the wares into the sea was in this desperate moode to make some kind of satisfaction for that which they had gotten by fraude or piracie or deceit in bargaining as being now most vnwilling in this extremitie to haue in their possession such things as were by ill meanes obtained For oftentimes when death doth draw nigh the conscience of men is pricked to go from that which before hath both vniustly bene obtained and most stoutly maintained As Lewes the eleuenth king of France did in his death-bed restore two Counties to the heires of Iohn the king of Arragon to the which in all his life time before he would neuer condescend Yet thē his consciēce so wrought with him Or else it may be supposed that it might haue bin for some vow whereof sea-men are not sparing when they do feare a wrack as Erasmus in his Naufragium doth wittily let vs know They vow much and pay nothing but these idolaters here throw out much and vow nothing vnlesse it be afterward as it is in the end of the chapter Or else it might be imagined that they threw in their most precious substance as a raunsome for their liues to their idolatrous Gods as men in our time vse to throw in rings or iewels or chains or other things of price to buy their liues with their substance that they may seeme to God to be willing to part with somwhat that of moment also So that life may be saued not to go away but with losse Now although the expositours do mētiō these things it is not amisse to obserue thē yet the spirit of God doth say that necessitie made them drown their wares euen that hard dart of necessitie which will plucke frō men any thing that doth not immediatly cōcerne their being rather then all shal run to ruine Apparell wealth brauerie house land bewty shall away if need require Dionysius leaueth his kingdome Pōpey forsaketh his coūtry being vrged both by necessitie Although nature do teach the cōtrary as Paule writeth to the Corinthiās yet rather thē the citisens of Salonae will yeeld to Octauius the haire of their womens heads shall be cut of to helpe make engins for them and deuises in the warres Iosephus telleth of one Clitus an eminent
adultery Marke how these sins do multiply and one ingendreth another Murther maketh vp the measure And when all this put together wold haue troubled the strongest hart in the world yet without remorse of conscience without iote of cōpunction Dauid swaloweth it and deuoureth it and for the better part of a yeare neuer considereth of it How farre is the conscience of the reprobate and malignant seared if Gods children do thus fal No maruel if a Pharao adde drunkēnesse vnto thirst that is heape sin on sin or Herod do ioyne to his ambitiō a cruel massacring mind or Nero aboūd in wickednes linke villany vnto mischiefe When the bowels of Gods elect shal be so filled and possessed with carelesnes what shal refraine the wicked frō prouing to be some Iudas or some Iulian Afflictions threatnings counsels the holiest exhortations as S. Austen in another case doth make comparison are but as a blast of winde which in a vehement fire doth keepe downe the flame for a puffe but it riseth againe so much the stronger Or as a draught of cold water to a mā in a burning feuer which easeth him for an instāt but he is the worse for it afterward There is no measure with the wicked when the best sin in so great measure 4 It is old Satans pollicie so farre as lyeth in him to bewitch the hearts of Gods children that when they are filled with iniquity they may be drowned in security euen as a man who hath fed in gluttonie is ouertaken by some drowsie sleepe And then it fareth with the sinner as it doth with the Crocodile when his belly is stuffed with some pray For then as Plinie writeth doth he yeeld himselfe ouer to sleepe and leaueth his mouth open of purpose that a litle bird called Trochylus may picke his teeth and make them cleane But thereupon doth the Ichneumon a kinde of serpent take occasion to creepe into the belly of the Crocodile and being once in he neuer ceasseth there to gnaw till he hath eaten through his panch Thus doth Satan deale with vs for amidst our idlenesse and forgetfulnesse of that horror of euill which hangeth vpon vs he taketh possession of our soules and if a stronger then himselfe do not driue him from the same he will eate them out to damnation As therfore by the counsell of the Wise man we should giue the water no passage no not a litle so we should giue as smal entrance vnto Satan as possibly we may But let vs not so prostitute vnto him the whole sense of our soule that like to a frentike person when we be at worst we imagine our selues to be in a most happie estate He who wil not start in daunger is in case to suffer any thing but he that will sleepe in daunger when easily he may be awaked forgetteth himselfe beyond measure When our Sauiour Christ was now ready to be taken and Iudas was at hand so that the shepheard was to be stricken and the sheepe thereupon to be scattered Peter and Iames and Iohn were iustly reproued for their sleeping What could ye not vvatch vvith me one houre And afterward sleepe henceforth and take your rest meaning that it would not belong but they should throughly be awaked 5 They slept when the perill was to their maister and them selues had lesse cause to feare but our Prophet doth take his rest when he alone was to smart and the ruing of other men was only for his sake O wretced man saith Tullie against Anthonie as in deed so in this also that thou doest not vnderstand how wretched a man thou art Here is one far exceeding Anthonie Gods immediate wrath doth follow him he doth not conceiue it he is in the midst of euill doth not vnderstand it Here is euidently seene the great heauinesse of our nature who neglect those maynest matters which nearest of all do presse vs. Viues that worthy learned man doth wonder at some Phisitians that they could possibly be couetous greedy vpō the world in as much as both in their speculatiue study and their practise they behold euerie day how tickle a thing life is how soone the breath is gone how the strōgest dye in a moment the yongest fall on the sodaine and by a consequent that the vse of riches is so vncertaine so transitorie so short I would to God that our Phisitians of the soule were not sick of this disease We who know that flesh is grasse and the grace of it but a flowre that our breath is but a vapour and our life but as a bubble who speake much of mortality and preach other mens funerall Sermons yet in the midst of our studies of contemning the world we are in loue with the world and too much embrace this Mammon Thus we are like to the fishes of the sea who liuing in salt water yet are most fresh And as Ionas in the midst of daunger we sleepe in it passe by it we say it and do not see it The stormes by right should haue stirred vp Ionas and his conscience should haue quickened him so our knowledge should rowze vs vp and the fraude of the world should awake vs. Thus far you haue heard of a most carelesse man now harkē to another person of a cleane contrarie disposition who looketh well to his charge for his part amendeth that fault which is found in the former So the ship-maister came to him 6 As by occasion of the tēpest it lay vpon the gouernour of the ship to bestir him so it well seemeth that he was not idle He is somtimes aboue the boord somtimes vnderneath he cometh down vnder the hatches Cesar did neuer more lay about him in his great fights against Pompey where somtimes he playeth the captaine other sometimes the souldier here he speaketh there he striketh goeth from one ranke to another then the maister doth in this place He looketh whether any planke were rift or splint in two And perhaps with his vigilancie and care doing his best seeing all to be but in vaine he is glad to speake with any other to see if there might be helpe in him or any good word of comfort For as Hierome noteth on this place it is naturall vnto euery man in extremitie of danger to hope better of another thē he doth hope of himself therfore in such cases men do meete and as the brutish cattell runne together This maister knew his fellowes to be as bad as himselfe yea perhaps a great deale worse and therefore he goeth to this straunger Saint Hierome doth intimate this to be the reason but indeede because he so rebuketh Ionas and ratleth him for his drowsinesse I rather impute his going to the corners of the ship for the Prophet lay in one of those places to his diligence carefulnesse to see the charge which was committed to him that
all things into her owne lap and bodies do owe to themselues the end of themselues O Caesar if fire do not novv consume these slaine men yet it shall hereafter burne them vp together with the earth and the sea For there remaineth to come one bone-fire which shall be common to all the vvorld and shall mingle the starres in heauen with their bones on earth Ouer and aboue these men of learning Peru the South part of America doth yeeld to vs an ignorant people who by the light of nature and by a generall apprehension for God knoweth they had nothing else do beleeue that the world shall end and that there shall be then a reward for the good and for the euill according to their desert An end doth suppose a beginning as the learned do well know A marring intendeth a making He who drowned the earth by water can dissolue the heauen by fire But the deluge of Deucaliō so much song of by the Poets doth witnesse that there was such a floud in the dayes of Noe and that all things were spilled by the water which could not haue bene but by him who made both the earth and the water Thus the Poets do roaue at that in their fables which Moses teacheth vs in our most sacred Bible 20 Adde some reasons to authority If the world were not created man had not once a beginning how cōmeth it about that all things which make vs liue like men appeare to haue their originall in time and place we know where an when and that but as yesterday to eternity I must not here speake of Moses which telleth vs who first made tents who made the Harpe and the Organ who first did worke in brasse because he is now in question But I bid you rather looke on Polidore Virgil who hath written a large tract of purpose to shew by whom the most matters which be of excellencie were inuented There is no greater grace to a man then knowledge and the artes of learning But Mercurie as some say as some other the Phaenicians are reported by the Gentiles to haue inuented the first letters and others are sayd afterward to haue added to them But we know that the Hebrew letters were before their time euen in the dayes of Moses who as Eusebius saith in that admirable worke of his De praeparatione Euāgelica was more ancient thē the Gods of the Greekes for that they began but after the daies of Cadmus who came much short of Moses Notwithstanding allow it to the Gentiles that there men were the authors of letters it must follow thereupon that before the birth of those persons there was no kind of Grammer How are we beholding to Zeno and Socrates and Aristotle for the vse of Logicke We know well when these liued Aristotle was schoolemaister to Alexander and Plato vnto Aristotle and Socrates vnto Plato some 400 yeares before Christ. Zeno was litle beyond thē For Philosophy Phythagoras is thought to be one of the most ancient Yet he came into Italy after that Rome was built Astronomy should be supposed to be as old as any Yet how lately were the Eclipses of the Moone which are things so well knowne in nature most feareful to the armies of the Graecians and the Romanes as in the war against Perseus Was not the yeare brought to the orderly course of the Sun by Iulius Caesar How long haue kings bene on earth when Nimrod as Moses calleth him or Ninus as other terme him for these two are thought to be one was one of the first among all nations What lawes were among the Greekes before the dayes of Lycurgus Iosephus against Apion writeth that in the time of Homere the name of law was not so much as knowne and that in all the workes of Homere there is not the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but that they were thē ruled by the speech commaundement of Princes Nay what do I speake of these things when the very foode of men in any ciuill sort had his beginning but of late for among the Ethnicks is not Bacchus sayd first to haue found out the vine we know that Noe was the man of the vine cometh the wine How cometh it about that Ceres is canonized among them for a Goddesse but for shewing their forefathers the first vse of corne All these and a thousand more imply that as things with vs are in good perfection so not long since they were rude and not long before that they were nothing because all things were nothing For the world had his beginning and these in the world their beginning 21 My text speaketh of the sea I would know of this proud disputes what reason he can assigne that the sea in diuerse places should be higher then the land and yet not ouerflow the bankes Saint Sasile in his Hexaemeron doth excellently shew it and confirmeth it to be so This may be founde to be thus by instruments Geometricall or otherwise by the eye as Leuius hath obserued and that of his owne knowledge sensibly discerning it in the Atlantike sea neare the coast of Mauritania Nature can yeelde no reason for this their best is but a cauill But diuinitie endeth this doubt God hath tyed it within his limites as a Lyon fastened in a chayne Thou saith Dauid speaking of the waters in the sea hast set them a bound which they shall not passe they shall not returne to couer the earth So God saith to Iob Who hath shut vp the sea with dores whē it issued and came forth as out of the wombe when I made the clouds as a couering thereof and darknesse in the swadling bandes thereof When I stablished my commaundement vpon it and set barres and dores and said hitherto shalt thou come and no farther and here shall it stay thy proude waues My text speaketh of the land and that hath so great alterations as in time will bring a ruine Heare the iudgement of a Gentile vpon this Aelian in the eighth booke of his historie telleth vs that not onely the mountaine in Sicilia Aetna for thereof may be giuen some reason because of the wasting and consuming of it by fire but Parnassus and Olympus did appeare to be lesse and lesse to such as sayled at sea the height thereof sinking as it seemed Whereupon he doth giue that note that men most skilfull in the secrets of nature did say that the world it selfe should perish and haue an end I know to whom I do speake that is to men of great vnderstanding As therefore I name but a few things so you see I dwell not on them 22 To that position of those who oppugne this doctrine of the creating and continuing of all by God by saying that it is Nature who produceth euery thing I might answere that there is no such matter as Nature taking it in that sense which they foolishly
of the earth whose waues do roare lowder then all the Lions of the forrest whose gulfes do sup vp some whose sandes do sinke downe other whose rockes haue splitted in peeces the hugest mightiest Carickes that euer came on the water Here is Scylla and Charybdis and those Symplegades which are so much feared This is it in which one short tempest hath dashed whole fleetes and nauies the one ship against the other which sometimes by inundation hath ouer-runne whole countreyes as might be shewed at large This is one of those two vnbridled elements with whom there is no mercy for so we say of fire and water 15 This worketh against our Prophet and what helpe can there be against the fury of it If the multitudes of mankind were assembled vpon the land if the whole world were put together yet these are not able to abate this violence If Pharao and all the horsemen which belong vnto him although he be the great king of Egypt come but into a corner of it for so the red sea may well be named they are licked vp as if they had beene no better then the grashoppers and throwne dead on the shore Xerxes the king of Persia was a man of passing wit in the meane while who as Herodotus writeth of him vnderstanding that the bridge which he had made ouer the Hellespont was broken by the great violence of the waues and water caused three hundred stripes to be giuen to the Ocean sea in reuengement of the wrong done vnto him and to teach it a better lesson against another time There is no wrastling for sober men with the sea and for drunken men much lesse If he with all his army had bene close at hand to helpe the poore Prophet now in this storme he must haue bene contented to haue left him in that case as he found him Gods charge was vpon the waues not to giue ouer from pursuing vntill they had drowned him And he who could plague all Egypt with flies and frogges and lice the basest kinde of vermine could easily giue ability to the sea to drench on Ionas 16 Then it is no maruell if they could not bring him backe vnto the land since they had both windes and waues and God himselfe against them And against them he will be so long as that party who is the offending sinner shall rest with them In mine opinion a most excellent point of doctrine is here affoorded Men oftentimes do striue and vehemently labour with oares and sailes and euery thing euen with all the powers of their mind and with all the strength of their bodie to attaine to their desire of riches and contentednesse and the more they do beate their braines the farther they are still from it Early rising faring hard much deuising and contriuing counsell and helpe from others and yet it will not be Some other with halfe the labour do attaine to greater happinesse But as these mariners striue and cannot come at the land they can neither get forward nor backward so it is with the desires of the other God bloweth vpon their money it is put into a broken bagge or as the Prouerbe is Ocnus he wreatheth a rope and an asse standeth by and croppeth it off Their best meanes come to nothing the good intent of their friends proueth as if there were no such matter Now what shall be sayd in this case Surely we must not rashly censure this state of other men For God many times doth crosse the actions of such as be deere vnto him either to trye their patience or to confirme their faith or to teach them obedience or to make them loath the world or for some other reason best knowne vnto himselfe So that we may not proudly or peremptorily iudge Then the conscience of each man who will not be wilfully blinded is the best triall in this behalfe Descend thou then into thy soule and sift thy selfe throughly what may be the reason of it 17 If thou be not as other men and very little do prosper with thee yea although diligence be not wanting see whether that some Ionas be not within thy house some leud or vngodly man some drunkard or some Atheist that draweth a curse vpon thee See whether that some Ionas be not within thy heart who lyeth heauy vpon thee as the lead that thou canst not arise The Ionas of disobedience the Ionas of discontentednesse the Ionas of want of faith or perhaps some more noted sinne As long as he hath his abode with thee do thou rowe and thy mariners do thou striue and thy friends but thou shalt not come to the land But cast once this Ionas out the Ionas of adultery the Ionas of fornication vpon whom beggery waiteth many a time the sinne of a wanton mind the fault of a railing tongue against God and his Ministers the sinne of an enuious eye against those whom the Lord blesseth the rooâ—e of cruell bitternesse in inuenting lies and slaunders Let the Ionas of these faults be once throwne ouer ship-boord and thy ship shall go like other the Lord will blesse thy studies he will prosper thy endeuors and it shall appeare vnto thee how much he doth respect thee Otherwise the sea shall be troublesome and saile thou till thy heart do ake thou shalt not come to the shore Aulus Gellius in the third booke of his Noctes Atticae doth tell of a goodly horse which belonged to one Seius and thereof had his name to be called Equus Seianus This horse was neuer possessed by any one but both himselfe and his family did come to vtter ruine So Seius his first maister did speede and then Dolabella who bought the horse for much money dranke of the selfe same cup. Then Cassius was his owner and after that Antonius and the end of both these was destruction Vnderstand that sin and wickednesse oftentimes doth carry this fortune with it that it fretteth the goods of the owner and maketh little or nothing to prooue Therfore if it be as pleasant to the flesh and to thy fancy as the horse of Seius was comely to the eye better it is to leaue it then to haue it he is best that is farthest from it And so now I come to the second verse Wherefore they cried vnto the Lord and sayd 18 When these men see by al meanes that the Prophet must go out that there was no striuing against so strong a streame although it went against the haire nay although heart soule and all did go against the deede yet they resolue to do it but it is with feare and trembling It cannot be auoided necessity hath no law they must do it or do worse Then since God ruled the rost and all was at his pleasure they runne poore soules to him It is sayd they cried vnto him which noteth their earnest vehemency in vttering of their prayers They whisper not but so loud as their best breath can
Ionas flying is past and now commeth Ionas dying for in his drowning he could expect nothing else but death He who would needes to the water shall haue inough of the water if he know what is inough His disobedient negligence may not be slipped ouer but God who was fled from will find him God offended will strike him he must be made an example to all that come after him to performe with faithfulnesse what so euer the Lord shall commaund them The poore mariners his ship-fellowes will they nill they are the men that must do execution Their humanity must yeeld to the purpose of the Deity their good nature to necessitie Eleazar an old Iewe who liued about the time of our Sauiour Christ doth say that these mariners to shew their aduisednesse in proceeding to his death before they drowned him diued the Prophet vp to the chinne oftentimes in the water and still the sea was quiet but when they lifted him vp againe to take him out it fell to his raging againe so that being euery way assured that he must suffer they resolue for his drowning Howsoeuer this be true or not for I cannot aduouch it it is a case vndoubted that they had maine presumptions inducements inough to throw him ouer shipboarde and yet they most vnwillingly layd violent hands vpon him Besides all that which is gone before the first words of my text including the manner of their deed will make that plaine vnto vs. They tooke vp Ionas 2 It is Hieromes obseruation in his Commentary on this text that they did take vp Ionas not hastily did snatch him not rudely fal vpon him not offer outrage violeÌ„tly vnto him but they lifted him vp with honor which the word Nasa will well beare being both to lift and to honour They lifted him with an honor they vsed reuerence to his person in the midst of that extremity which was to befall him Such was the strong impression of his calling in their minds as if they had read that verse of the Psalmist Touch not mine annointed and do my Prophets no harme Which opinion in all ages hath obtained that force I say not with the Iewes onely nor I say not with the Christians of whom a Leuite and a Priest haue bene accounted fathers but with infidels and idolaters as not only Church-men haue bene preserued from ill vsage but haue also bene entertained in an honourable maner Iezabel was an idolater and a woman of much euil yet she so plentifully extended her bounty to those whom she reputed as Prophets to her God although it were but that blocke Baal that foure hundred of them were maintained at her owne table Balaam had but a name to belong to the Lord and how honorable an Embassage did king Balac send vnto him Our mariners in this lesson are not at all to seeke How wold they haue esteemed Ionas leading an innocent life who so highly did respect him when he was ready for his sinne to endure a death They touch him with a loue they handle him with a reuerence they lift him vs with an honor and all these things in earnest 3 Caligula that infamous Emperour of Rome as Philo Iudaeus writeth of him had a nephew of Tiberius his prodecessour appointed by the same Tiberius to raigne ioyntly with him The incompatible nature of Caligula could endure no such companion Therefore as tyrants vse to do this young Prince must needes dye But marke the manner of it how cleanly it was caried He must do the murther vpon himselfe with his owne hands Although there were diuerse Nobles and great Captaines which stood by and looked on yet they might not helpe to rid the poore creature out of his paine because that was a most vnlawfull deed yea a thing wicked and vnseemely that the posterity of great Emperours should dye by the hands of other Whereupon Philo concludeth of him that in committing a high iniury he would seeme to remember an equity and to professe a sanctity and solemnity in his villany Such vntoward hypocrisie is not in these men here but in truth and iust dealing they would not spill his bloud and since that he must by their hands receiue a doome they performe what they are enforced with honour vnto him but with honour in themselues They rather may be compared to the men of Taprobana of whom Solinus telleth that they did vse to choose their kings by election and not to deriue them downe by an hereditary line from the father to the sonne When they had made choise of their king they honoured and obeyed him in all good sort while he remained iust and carefull ouer them But if once he grew intollerable in his regiment by iniustice and tyrannie they tooke away from him both his kingdome and his life Herein as I must confesse they tooke no pleasure but cleane contrariwise they did it with a reuerence and regard to his person Not any one layd hands vpon his sacred body but by a common consent the vse of all necessary things was interdicted to him yea verie speech with his nearest friends and in that sort he died So the verie heathens did beare respect to some sorts of men for the dignity of their calling but to none more then to their Priests to none more then to their Prophets 4 They had euermore an opinion that the persons of such men were acceptable to God that they were such as were singled out from the common condition of other that they were richly adorned with good gifts froÌ„ aboue those to whom the supreme power was accustomed to impart his will by inspiration or secret reuelation And in briefe they thought these the Oracles of his voyce and remembrancers to other of such things as were to be done or auoided Then in tumults and seditions although otherwise tempestuous furie did rage yet the lewdest sort of tumultuous people did hold their hands from these as may be shewed in Antiquitie no lesse quaking to touch them then did Iether the sonne of Gedeon in the eight of the booke of Iudges to slay Zeba and Zalmana a boy two mightie warriours Of this our Ionas had good experience euen to the full who did find that speciall fauour among men inhumane and barbarous in comparison that although the sea did descry him and the wind made strongly after him although the loâ—cast had discouered him nay his owne mouth had condemned him although his desire was to dye so to appease the fury conceiued by the Lord yet notwithstanding they refuse to destroy him and when they cannot auoid it with no despite to his person but with reuerenceâ— thâ—y performe it 5 When I looke into the world and this age wherein wee liue and compare with these heathen men the vsage of our Christians toward those who in their places do beare the 〈◊〉 of Ionas nay in very deede do bring a message farre better and farre sweeter
in the parable of the gourd I do deferre it thither But the mercie of these men here is enforced to turne to iustice They are compelled to leaue him whome they willingly would keepe Ionas goeth ouer shipboord where behold appeareth a miracle the sea ceasseth from her furie That which roared so before was so disquieted with winds which wrought and was so troublous which so becalmed them with a storm that forward they might not get backward they could not go that ceasseth vpon the sudden The disturbance was not naturall nor the quieting is not naturall because it commeth in a moment It was not by degrees not one step after another as in tempests which are ordinarie but in that very instant when he was throwne into the water So miraculous is Gods power to haue the mightiest creatures to mooue and rest at his becke If he commaund the world to be drowned with water the Ocean shall breake foorth the fresh springs shall gush out the very floud-gates of heauen shall be opened with a word and so all the earth shall perish If he bid his seruant Moses but stretchfoorth his hand the red sea shall part in two and stand vp as a wall on the right side and as a wall on the left This is a great comfort to the faithfull that they serue such a maister who so commaundeth all the frame of heauenly and earthly bodies that he turneth them and windeth them as with a hooke in their nostrels and leadeth them so vp and downe that nothing shall assault them without Gods speciall pleasure It is he that made the sea here to cease from her raging and boyling with such violence 9 But the reason why it then stayed was because it had effected the thing which it desired The fugitiue being taken the pursuer is now quiet It is punishment inflicted on the sinner which in temporall causes allayeth the Lords anger When Achan had his hire the Israelites did proceede in their conquest as before Saules crueltie to the Gibeonites did procure three yeares of dearth to be sent vpon the land in the time of Dauid but when once the posteritie of the offending sinner was hanged vp by the wronged parties Gods indignation toward the land was appeased Princes and Iudges haue here a pathway laid out readie to them wherein they ought to walke If God do awaken a land with a rod of his displeasure be it famine or be it pestilence or be it the sword of the enemie after a view taken of the actions and ouersights of their people let theÌ„ purge their land from iniquitie by cutting off malefactors and breaking the backe of sinne and wilfull transgression There is no sacrifice more pleasing in the eyes of the Lord of hostes then that those who dishonour him should be suppressed by iustice He did whippe vs not long since with a rod of pestilent sickenesse this yeare he threateneth otherwise with some feare of a pinching famine Very likely it is that if grosse faultes were remooued from amongst our nation his wrath would cease with the cleansing as the sea did with receiuing our Ionas If the vserie of the citie the oppression of the Landlord the symonie of the Cleargie the extortion of the Patrone the idlenesse in the Minister the want of loue in the Communaltie and securitie in all sortes did but so much decay or so fast diminish as it hath increased lately Gods wrath would turne to fauour and we shold more feele his blessings 10 But here in the ceassing of the tempest by the drowning of the Prophet we are notably put in mind of him of whome our Ionas is a figure in this case It hath bene mentioned before out of the twelfth of Mathew that his lying in the whales belly was a signe of the death of Christ by the witnesse of Christ himselfe as his casting vp againe was a signe of his resurrection The dying of Ionas alone for all doth signifie the same thing as was taught out of the twelfth verse of this present chapter which I now handle But nothing in plainer sorte doth expresse vnto vs the force of the suffering of our Sauiour then rhe ceassing of the storme at the drowning of the Prophet euen as Gods wrath was appeased by the death of the vnspotted lambe By the fall of our first parents wee all were fallen from grace Wee had chaunged not a Niniue for a Tharsus but a Paradise for a torment and a heauen for a hell The coldnesse of our disobedience was followed with heate of iustice not windes and waues did make after vs to take vengeance on our bodies but a waight of angry furie of purpose to destroy our soules Not one shippe but a world was endaungered in this hazard The Gentile and the Iewe the ciuill man and Barbarian were euerie moment readie to be drowned in desperation In this state of extremitie God pitieth forlorne man and sendeth a better ghest then Ionas was among those who are passengers thorough this vale of miserie And although this ghest was clothed with humanity like an ordinarie passenger yet in this he differed from Ionas that our Prophet alone had sinned when all his fellowes were free but Christ alone was innocent when all his fellowes pleaded guiltie 11 We can neuer sufficiently admire the effectuall force of him who quieted this great rage Iustice called for a death take my death quoth the Sauiour let one dye for the peopâ—e the head for all his members An Oracle had once answered that either the king of the Atheniens or else their army must perish Codrus who was then king neuer stoode or staggered at it but gaue his life for his citizens to saue them from destruction The king of men and Angels had this choise put vnto him that either himselfe or his the mysticall head or bodie should vndergo a death He tooke the turne on himselfe so wrought a reconcilement from his Father toward his Church So by his stripes we are healed The chastisement of our peace was vpon him So he being the Lambe of God hath taken away the sinnes of the world He hath freed vs and deliuered vs from the wrath to come His bloud speaketh better things then that crying bloud of Abell that cryed vengeance from the earth this from the crosse cryeth redemption reconcilement and atonement So he hath by his bloud bought a spouse vnto himselfe whome else he had not had By the dying of Christ the Church is made as Eue was made by Adams sleeping which is Saint Austens comparison The Adamant is so hard a stone that it can be softened with nothing but the bloud of a goate Mans heart was grown so hard mans case was growne so hard that it could be lenified by nothing but by the bloud of him whome the skape-goate in Leuiticus so liuely did represent 12 But to procure our peace he plucked warres on himselfe
a moment of time he hath them very readily attending wheresoeuer he pleaseth It is he who alone may say as he doth speake in Iob All vnder heauen is mine The people say of him truly Our God is in heauen he doth whatsoeuer he will There is not any creature in the heauen or earth or sea be it body or be it spirit which is not at his deuotion and waiteth not at his becke The greatest do him homage the smallest do him seruice For he is greater then the mightiest by whole millions of degrees and his ouer-seeing prouidence taketh knowledge of the meanest Not a sparow which lighteth on the ground not an haire which falleth from the head but he is interested in it 2 What is greater then the heauen yet if Iosuah pray vnto him for one whole day this euer-wheeling body shal cease his swift diurnall motion The Sunne shall stand still in Gibeon and the Moone in the vale of Aialon That which commeth forth as a Giant and reioyceth to runne his course yet to satisfie Ezechias and to confirme his faith shall flye backe as a coward for ten degrees at once as then it appeared by the diall of Ahaz What is ruder or more vnfit to be dealt with then the earth Yet at his pleasure he shaketh both earth and sea What is more excellent or of a more pure and single nature then the Angels Yet he hath bound vp foure of them in the riuer Euphrates and although they be prepared at an houre and at a day and at a moneth at a yere to slay the third part of men yet these Angels cannot stirre vntill that they be loosed by his precise commandement And such is his soueraigne power that when he findeth occasion they are freed all in a moment In like sort to effect his purposes he needeth not the posts of Persia whoÌ„ Haman sometimes vsed nor the dromedaries of Egypt nor the swift runners of other nations to go from place to place and giue notice of his will but in the very instant he either doth touch the mind of him who is to be the doer or he raiseth vp some thing else which shall declare his meaning God sendeth forth his commandement and his word runneth very swiftly The day is his and the night the open place and the secret fish and birdes and beastes and all the very wings of the wind to cary his precept on them Vnconceiuable is his Maiesty vnestimable is his power the highest things and the lowest the greatest and the weakest are euer at his commandement he hath the keyes of heauen nay of hell and of death This his power so vncontrollable most eminently appeareth in punishing the wicked and preseruing his owne children 3 Ammianus Marcellinus reporteth that in Mesopotamia among the reedes and bushes growing neare to the riuer Euphrates are euermore great store of Lions which vse to remaine there being much delighted with the great calmenesâ—e and pleasure of that climate The danger arising from these both vnto men and beasts would be perpetuall but that God hath prouided a remedy to slacke the fury of them and that is in admirable maner There are alwayes in that coast infinite swarmes of gnats which gather much about those Lions and to nothing in them so desirously as to their eyes whom we know to be bright and shining members But sitting fast on the eye-lids they do so pricke and sting them that the raging Lions are forced to scratch with their nailes as if they would remooue the gnats but indeede they claw out their owne eyes so that many of them by this meanes growing blind do drowne themselues in the great riuers or otherwise become lesse terrible This is an argument of Gods wisedome who delighteth in such variety of these inferiour bodies And yet withall it is an argument of his puissance who by so weake a matter can ouerthrow such a great one a Lion by a gnat and hath those little ones so attendant as that euery man may see that they are prepared by their maker to ouer-rule the other to chase them and pursue them and vexe them vnto destruction The tyrants of the earth are â—earefull vnto the poore as the Lion is to the lambe Their might giueth them abilitie and their minde doth yeeld them will to treade downe their inferiours Now for the punishment of these bitter ones God hath prepared as small things as the gnats to maister them in their fury Let Pharao be one man and Herod be another who shall demonstrate this The violence of the former and his cruell oppression toward the sonnes of God was insolent and outragious But how doth the graund ruler of the heauen trample vpon him and make him cry peccaui with the basest of those bodies which mankind euer seeth The hand of his seruant Aaron was but stretched out on the waters and frogs came in such store as made him loath himselfe and euery thing about him So the swarmes of flies did force him to be humbled for a time What hostes were there of grashoppers and of deuouring caterpillers which came forth at one call as if they had bene reserued before by the Lord to shew his mighty hand and his power which is not limited Nay to testifie Gods owne finger there was an army of lice then whom nothing is more vile yet prepared they were at an instant to plague where the Lord commanded The other that proud Herod who vpon a glosing flattering speech of the people assumed to himselfe that glory which of right appertained to his maker was stricken with Gods Angell and so died consumed with wormes In such manner hath the Almighty euery creature for his messenger and executing seruant close standing at his elbow to vexe and plague and torture the enemies of his Maiesty or the oppugners of his glory 4 And is he strong to hurt and is he not so to helpe To defend and to offend are they not alike vnto him protection and correction His sweete mercy triumpheth ouer his bitter iustice and his power attendeth his mercy and the world attendeth his power and so doth euery thing which is in it In the twelfth of the Reuelation this is well shadowed to vs. The woman which is the Church here militant vpon earth is followed hard by the Dragon there are found two Egles wings by the which she doth escape Behold there is one deliuerance and one not looked for remedy The Dragon yet doth not leaue her but since he cannot come he thinketh to send home after her he casteth out of his mouth a water like to a riuer thinking thereby to drowne her See another helpe in a moment The earth openeth herselfe and swalloweth vp that water which the Dragon had cast forth To the same effect with this parable or vision were the Israelites reskued by the red sea the waters flying a sunder and
wherein they shall heare that sentence and that is in the resurrection There were in former times many figures of that matter euen before the light of the Gospell as when Enoch and Elias were assumed vp into heauen and translated to immortalitie to shew that other after them should haue the same vncorruptnesse although by another change and to make proofe of a life which is elsewhere for our bodies but shall not be reuealed vntill that generall rising In like sort when there were shewed vnto the Prophet Ezechiel great heapes of scattered bones which the Lord yet put together and laid sinewes vpon them and made flesh grow thereon and then couered both with skinne and afterward breathed life into them In Iob is an euident testimonie I am sure that my Redeemer liueth and he shall stand the last on the earth And although after my skinne the wormes destroy this bodie yet shall I see God in my flesh So in the end of Daniel Many of them that sleepe in the dust of the earth shall avvake some to euerlasting life and some to shame and perpetuall contempt But how euident is this in the new Testament When the Sonne of man commeth in his glorie and all the holy Angels with him then shall he sit vpon the throne of his glorie And before him shall be gathered all nations and he shall separate them one from another as a shepheard separateth the sheepe from the goates And in the second to the Corinthians that vve must all appeare before the iudgement seate of Christ that euerie man may receiue the things done in his bodie according as he hath done vvhether it be good or euill But most manifest of all other is that of Iohn in his Reuelation I saw a great white throne and one that sate on it from whose face fled away both the earth and heauen and their place vvas no more found And I saw the dead both great and small stand before God and the bookes vvere opened Then foorthwith And the sea gaue vp her dead which vvere in her and death and hell deliuered vp the dead which vvere in them So oftentimes and so plainely doth God foretell vnto vs this generall resurrection In so much that it is as certaine as that the Lord sitteth in heauen that this shall one day bee 16 As there is in all the faithful an assenting to this doctrine the like might be in very Ethnicks sauing that their eies are closed therfore they cānot see as a sound to a deaf eare is nothing which yet is discerned by another man so the miscreants of all ages belly-gods and beast-like men can in no sort endure it Indeede they haue little reason for that the portion is very small which shall then be allowed vnto them Such were those swinish Epicures falsely termed Philosophers who luxuriating in voluptuousnesse and thinking that to be felicitie to bath themselues in delight did enioy the present with the Asse but vtterly denied the immortalitie of the soule and by a consequent that the bodie shall euer be repaired Like to them was Sardanapalus who had this Epitaph on his graue Drinke and play our life is mortall and our time is short vpon earth but our death is euerlasting if a man once be come to it Pliny the elder was a man most worthy praise for his labours which were inestimable yet that speech of his was impious and vnbeseeming those good partes which were otherwise in Plinie To all men from their last day is the same state as was before their first day neither is there after death any more feeling in the bodie or the soule then was before the birthday Certainely the Saduces were in this beleefe of whom the Euangelist witnesseth that they denied the resurrection And you may put them in this number who in Saint Paules time did vse this by-word Let vs eate and drinke for to morrow we shall dye as intending that in death should be a finall end and we should be no more heard of The persecuting Gentiles were plainely of this opinion of some of whom in Fraunce Eusebius witnesseth that they in scorne of the resurrection which the Christians do beleeue did burne many of the Martyrs and afterward threw their ashes into the riuer Rhodanus with this foolish exprobration Let vs see now if their God be able to reuiue them In a word most of the Pagans in all ages of the world and all Atheists among Christians a thing in our time too well knowne do oppugne this truth beyond measure At whose liues I do not maruell if they be like their profession that is such some few ciuill respects excepted as are fit for those men who feare neither God nor Diuell I could wish that since it must needes be that Gods wrath is oftentimes by these plucked downe vpon our land the sword of the ciuill magistrate would with seueritie prouide some remedie for them that there might not be in Israel a man who should once dare to blaspheme the name of the Lord. I remember it is recorded of the Atheniens that in the respect which they caried to their false and fained Gods they so detested Diagoras for talking against their heathenish religion that he standing in feare of his life was glad to flye the countrie But herewith the other not contented did put foorth a proclamation that whosoeuer it were that would kill that Diagoras should haue an honourable reward that was a talent of siluer for his labour 17 But to leaue these lawes vnto the Christian magistrate and to proceed as a Minister the arguments of all these and a thousand more of that sute are but vanitie of all vanities when they come once to be weighed in the ballāce of the Sanctuary and are counterpoised onely with the high Gods omnipotencie For why should we tye his power vnto our foolish wit Suppose that there be dying vpon dying and deuouring vpon deuouring that a man be slaine and his members consumed some by birdes some by beastes some by fishes and imagine that those creatures be taken and eaten againe by men and those men be then burnt and their ashes throwne into the water and if we can go farther let there be as many mutations more what is all this to plunge his abilitie who can do euerie thing whatsoeuer himselfe shall please He can do euery thing and therefore raise this man If nature cannot conceiue it learne to looke a little higher to grace and faith beyond nature Plato an heathen man did much reprooue Anaxagoras because tying himselfe too farre to naturall causes and reasons he omitted to thinke on the efficient cause of all things which is surely God the first moouer This is a monstrous errour of vs also But will we allow that to God the like wherof we do allow vnto men If an image should be made of lead to the proportion of a man and the workman
anguish that he accounteth himselfe a reprobate and inheritour of hell fire He had bene a wofull man if he had stayed here disgraced and left by his Sauiour but as his soule was departing he fetcheth it backe againe with a sigh and gaspe of faith He plucketh in the reine of his owne heart he giueth the checke to himselfe he recouereth in the instant when he was in the pits mouth ready to sinke eternally This sheweth that in former time he had bene vsed to temptation being practised in Gods seruice he knew well what belonged to faith when he did so soone apprehend it He was not ignorant that he had offended and offended a fearefull God yet such a one as would haue compassion vpon a repenting sinner This griefe of his was sustained by a trust in Gods free promises who hath sayd that if the wicked will returne from all his sinnes that he hath committed and keepe all his statutes and do that which is lawfull and right he shall surely liue and shall not dye All his transgressions that he hath committed shall not be mentioned vnto him The two wings of faith and repentance do mount him vp into heauen euen from the gates of hell His faith kept him from blasphemy that in the heate of his extremity he had still a mind to God which maketh him speake vnto him not as the despairing miscreant whose maner is to speake of God in the third person not to God he hateth me he plagueth me he detesteth me he doth not loue me which words argue no hope remaining but in his bitternesse he turneth his speech vnto the Lord I am cast away from thy sight I will looke againe to thy Temple so in want of hope shewing a hope a confidence in a diffidence This is the fruite of beleeuing the sweete mercy of our Sauiour that in the day of sorest triall it is able to keepe vs vpright who else should fall downe groueling As a ship without his ballace is tilted tossed at sea and cannot endure the waue so is that soule right vnstable and euery houre apt to perish which hath not faith in temptation It is written of the Cranes that when they do intend in stormy and troublesome times to flye ouer the seas fearing lest by the blasts of the wind their bodies which be but light should be beaten into the sea or kept from the place whither they be desirous to go they swallow some sand and little stones into their bellies whereby they are so moderately peized that they are able to resist the wind While we do crosse this troublesome world of sinne and great temptation it is faith which must be our ballace it is faith which must preserue vs equably vpright or recouer vs when we are going Now it stood the Prophet in steede in the bottome and depth of misery to haue feeling what belonged to beleeuing vpon the Lord. 8 This beleefe inferred repentance which is acceptable in great measure to our most gracious father As he scorneth not the weake man falling so he embraceth him that riseth which point Nouatus and his fellowes with their hard harts did deny If the prodigall sonne can say good father I haue sinned against heauen and before thee and am no more worthy to be called thy sonne he runneth to him and falleth on him and kisseth him as his beloued He liketh in vs a sorrow for that wherein we haue faulted It was a good speech of Saint Hierome to call repentance after sinne by the name of a second boord or planke after a shipwracke In a wracke at sea a boord oftentimes doth saue a man from drowning by his lying fast thereupon But if he be beaten by the violence of the waue from this first planke and be now floating in the water if a second by some accident be affoorded him and he can keepe him fast thereto it setteth him free from all daunger It is more then apparant that we haue suffered a wracke and are diuing in the sea of sinne and desperation euen ready still to be drenched The first table which releeueth vs is the Sacrament of Baptisme which by the bloud of Christ washing vs and for the couenants sake doth acquite vs from the guilt of originall sinne from the which if we be beate off by the force of actuall crimes the second planke is repentance to be caught at which if we hold fast and do not leaue it will bring vs into the hauen of blessed and quiet rest Then let vs euermore call vpon God to bestow vpon vs this compunction of hart that since euery day we fall we may dayly rise againe and not sinke vnder our burthen 9 The weake Prophet now leaning on these two such assured staues first sorowing then beleeuing doth raise himselfe vp with a correction that although he had sayd before that he was cast away from Gods sight yet he will not leaue it so he will not giue ouer there but once againe he will looke vnto Gods holy Temple Once againe I will see Hierusalem and the place of thy true worship Which words as Hierome noteth do either import a confidence and hope that it should be so or a wish that so it might be And in the Hebrew the future tense which is vsed in this place is very frequent for wishing Both shew a will to the Temple by which some vnderstand the whole seruice of God circumcision and the sacrifices and the expounding of the Law or whatsoeuer else was of speciality in the tabernacle of the Lord so taking one for the other the place for the duties in it making that which was so eminent as the matter and the obiect of his confidence and faith He certainely had a mind not to dye there where he was as vnprofitable and in a place so obscure but openly to honour God whom he had so dishonoured before and therefore now he was desirous in conspicuous manner to draw other to his obedience But of all places he chooseth the Temple to do the deed because that was the house where God had put his name who although he be euery where by his being and presence and power yet he was more apparantly conuersant there by his speciall grace This did make that house and city to be counted an holy mansion the very ioy of the earth the beauty of the world the glory of all nations the pallace of the great king the delight and paradise and garden of the Highest There was the Arke of the Couenant the Tables of the Testimony the Cherubins and the Mercy-seate all being straunge things of much excellency but the summity of all happinesse was the residence of Gods fauour there 10 All which how much the faithfull esteemed and accompted of Dauids example may teach vs who when there was but a Tabernacle whose beauty was much inferiour to the magnificent Temple of Salomon so grieued that himselfe in his flights and persecutions
belong vnto any man it is vnto him haue compassion of some in putting difference and other saue with feare pulling them out of the fire This is to imitate Christ who will not breake a brused reede nor quench the smoking flaxe This is to seeke out the lost and to bind vp that which is broken Vnto these this may be added that it shall not a little helpe to haue conference with such who in former times haue bene exercised with the like temptations that out of their experience being plentifully powred out the distressed mind may be relieued None can speake more sufficiently and vnto better purpose then he that hath felt the same fire wherein this grieued soule is now burned And they who are in this cafe are not a little reuiued to know that any other hath bene troubled like themselues which they will hardly beleeue thinking that none did euer beare such a burthen as is vpon their shoulders Lastly as they ought rather to remember their former deliuerances then the griefe which presently is vpon them so they are rather to beleeue the speeches of other men I meane Gods children who come to yeeld comfort to thē then their own troubled thoughts which being perplexed and disquieted with frightfull imaginations can giue no setled iudgement This matter were worthie a longer speech but I am forced here to end Lord comfort those which are comfortlesse and strengthen thy weake children that they may not be so cast downe and plunged into perdition but that in their greatest temptation they may retaine thee still for their Sauiour that liuing in thy feare and dying in thy faith they may come to eternall glorie To the which ô Father bring vs for thine owne sonne Christ his sake to whom with thee and thy holy Spirit be glorie for euermore THE XII LECTVRE The chiefe poynts 2 The circumstances aggrauating his daunger 6. which do the more shew Gods mercie toward him and other sinners 8. Why God suffereth his to be in miserie 9. Particular consideration doth most stirre vp our affection 14. By fearing small crossings in doing our duties we incurre other very great daungers 16. All helpe is to be ascribed to God 17. How a godly man may desire that his life may be prolonged 20. The faithfull ought particularly to apply Gods loue to themselues 22. which the Church of Rome doth not Ionah 2.5.6 The waters compassed me about vnto the soule the depth closed me round about and the weedes were wrapped about mine head I went downe to the bottome of the mountaines the earth with her barres was about me for euer yet hast thou brought vp my life from the pit ô Lord my God THe fearefull conflict which the Prophet sustained in the verse next before going hath bene made plaine vnto you A passion of little lesse then distrustfull despaire did vexe him and disquiet him for the time From the terrour and danger wherof being recouered by the effectuall apprehension of grace by a liuely faith he returneth to contemplate the perill of his body which as it was great in the middle of the sea in the belly of the whale which was irrecouerable in mans iudgement so he seeketh to expresse it by multitude of words repeating it and reuoluing it with varietie of phrase but all tending to one end yet with such copiousnesse especially being in so short a prayer that a man would wonder at first how the Spirit of God which vseth to speake pressely and briefly so that no one word may fitly be spared should so runne vpon one thing with difference of speech but in substance all agreeing Yet the vse of it is such as of words fully replenished with sanctitie and holinesse as shall appeare in his due place In the meane time that which he saith is this 2 First the waters did compasse me about vnto the soule to the death saith the Chaldee Paraphrase as intending that he was now likely to be drowned his life to depart from him his soule to be seuered from her carnall habitation Dauid also doth vse such vehemencie of words Saue me ô God for the waters are entred euen to my soule Neither is there any speech which more liuely discouereth the earnestnesse of that which is presently in hand be it prayer or perill or desire or detestation then the name of soule doth As the Hart brayeth for the riuers of water so panteth my soule after thee ô God My soule thirsteth for God This noteth an entire affection and earnest desire wherewith Dauid was mooued As the Lord liueth and as thy soule liueth I will not leaue thee saith Elizaeus to Elias A very passionate affirmation Iacob in Genesis giueth this censure of Simeon and Leui. The instruments of crueltie are in their habitations Into their secret let not my soule come This argueth a perfect detestation So the depth of danger is purported here when he speaketh thus the waters compassed me vnto the soule the enemie of my life the water which hath no mercie was aboue me and below me and round about me without me and within me that my being was death my hope was but destruction nothing possible vnto me but drowning as farre as mans wit might imagine Secondly the depth did close me round about I was not in the shallow as a man in a lake who lying downe may be stifled but standing may be safe but I was in the maine Ocean which is called for the hugenesse of it the gathering of waters and elsewhere Tehom a gulfe or bottomelesse pit I was in that vastnesse which sometimes cannot be sounded by very long lines I was in waters by multitudes and there not diuing or floating vp and downe but as closed and shut vp as included in a sepulcher or made fast in a prison this deepe pit this darke pit this vncōfortable dungeon had closed her mouth vpon me 3 Thirdly the weedes were wrapped about mine head The sea doth beare weedes as well as shallow water yea somewhere very straungely strangely I say that in such places as where the depth seemeth to be of incredible greatnesse weedes should be seene in abundance in the vpper superficies the very toppe of the water and that so plentifully that in nauigation the course of ships is stayed sometimes by them Experience hath confirmed this in the huge Atlantike sea as men saile to America whereout doth grow a very strange Dilemma or Diuision because either they be there without any rootes at all and that is very maruellous or because the rootes do go downe exceeding deepe in the water which is not otherwise affoorded by nature in thinne spindie bodies But that weedes do grow in the sea those of some price Solinus letteth vs know saying that shrubs and weedes in the Ligustike sea are those from whence our Corall commeth Such then being in the bottome are about the head of our Prophet he is wreathed and tangled in them
touch thee but thou shalt escape from their clutches as a bird from the snare How much lesse shall mortall man oppresse thee or triumph ouer thee if it be he that doth vexe thee God doth but cast an eye vpon thee and the mist before the Sunne can not be dispersed so suddenly as thy sorrow and heauinesse In steed of sadnesse ioy and mirth shall compasse thee embrace thee If once his refreshing spirit cast but an aspect vpon thee thou art as safe as thy selfe wouldest euer desire to be Onely to win God hereunto be thou sorie for thy transgression and grieue at thine owne iniquitie If thou haue fallen with Dauid spare not to sing with Dauid a Psalme of Miserere if thou haue offended with Peter with Peter go thou foorth and cease not to weepe bitterly With Ionas pray and call and thou shalt be deliuered A comparison betweene the Prophet and Arion 11 Looke what hath bene spoken hitherto may manifestly be gathered by the plaine words of my text and therefore as you haue seene I haue passed it very briefly But pondering farther on this Scripture and looking nearer into it yea withall comparing it with some things of the Gentiles it seemeth vnto me to offer a farther doctrine For thinking with my selfe how strangely those mariners who in the Chapter before threw him into the sea and made account they had drowned him would looke vpon him if they met him any where afterward as that was no impossible matter maruelling how he should liue whom they left in the sea and how he should be at land whom they cast into the water and there relinquished him remedilesse and past hope I called to mind the narration of Arion in Herodotus who being said to be throwne into the Ocean by mariners and supposed by them to be drowned was afterward seene at Corinth in the court of Periander to the great amazement of them who before had consented to his death And I thought of this the rather because Saint Austen in his first booke De ciuitate Dei doth compare this storie of Ionas vnto that of Arion reproching the Gentiles that whereas they would not beleeue this which was written of our Prophet yet they would giue credite to that which their Poets and other writers reported of Arion Whereupon conferring yet farther the likenesse of these two matters although not in euery circumstance yet in the mainest points I could not but suspect that the Greeke tale of the one meant the Hebrew truth of the other And therein I imagined that the Musitian of the Gentiles was the Israelite mentioned here although the storie were peeced vp with another narration after the custome of the Heathens in dealing with the Scriptures And moreouer the note of a learned interpreter writing vpon this place did further this opinion who nameth our Ionas here Arion Christianus the Arion of the Christians I find also that this report is very auncient among the Greekes and therefore might well sort with the antiquitie of the Prophet Now as if we will allow this to be true it doth yeeld vs fruitfull doctrine fit to be handled in this place before so learned and iudicious an auditorie so being otherwise that is vntrue and false it is also worthie of our consideration and therefore giue me leaue to speake a little vnto it You shall see anon to what end 12 Herodotus in his Clio hath a narration to this purpose that Arion a skilfull harper going from Greece his owne countrey into Italy there and in Sicilia by the excellencie of his musicke had gained a great deale of money Being now desirous with his wealth to returne againe to Corinth to his old Prince Periander he found a vessell at Tarentum which belonged to certaine ship-men of Corinth who were returning home and with them he agreeth for his fare When they had him at sea being men of ill conditions and desirous of his money they intended to drowne him He now in this perill maketh request for his life but when nothing would serue those hard-hearted persons but that such must be his doome he begged this fauour of them that yet before he died he might cloth himselfe with his best clothes which being done he taketh his harpe and singing and playing to it a most melodious song then threw himselfe into the sea There a Dolphin a kind of fish delighted as it seemeth with the musicke doth vndertake him and ceassed not to beare him on her backe till it landed him safe at Taenarus whence he going to Periander the tyrant then raigning at Corinth so apparelled as he was when he came out of the water informeth him of all the matter who beleeued it not till at length sending for the selfe same mariners who were arriued in his countrey and shewing them Arion who vpon the sight of him were exceedingly amazed as indeed they had great cause he learned that all was so This saith Herodotus is reported at Lesbos and at Corinth and at Taenarus there is a very great image made of brasse which is a man sitting on a Dolphin and that image was set vp there by Arion This tale with all his circumstaunces is so common among the auncient that Plinie and Plutarke and Ouid and Gellius both do report it at large and Plinie giueth other examples that Dolphines couching downe their pinnas their sinnes which as he seemeth to say go all along their backes haue caried diuerse other ouer the water and so saued them 13 If I shall giue my iudgement concerning this I do not at all doubt but that it is a fable The diuersitie of the report which is among the auncient doth argue the vncertaintie For although the most record it to be one Dolphines doing one that caried him all the while yet Plutarke hath it otherwise that they were diuerse Dolphines which caried him in the sea meaning belike by turnes or many at once supporting him So they agree not in the manner But whether it were one or many why did not the mariners see it that it was so straunge a thing vnto them when they met him on the land If he went aboue the water they of likelyhood might haue spied him and so made some shift to vnhorse him if it were vnder the water how came it about that he was not drowned in all that time The auncient full well saw that this was but a fained thing That made Suidas in Arion to say nothing of the fish nor his escape from drowning although he haue other things of him Strabo in his thirteenth booke saith plainely it is a fable The late writers thinke no otherwise and hold these tales of Plinie to be but fained matters and they giue this reason for it because the nature of Dolphines and of all other fishes as also of all other creatures is the same in our dayes which it was in ages long agone but since those auncient
times we heare not of any Dolphine which delighted in Musicke or saued any man in the sea or caried any ouer the water Besides that Rondeletius whose worke is many times ioyned with Gesners denieth that a Dolphine hath any such sinnes as they in old time did describe him to haue for that saith he there is onely one in his backe and it is not all along him which may be thought vnfit to beare a man But imagine that it were true which Plinie hath concerning them yet his speech is that they were brought to that custome by much practise and feeding them with bread which agreeth with the qualities of that straunge fish Matum which the Historian Peter Martyr reporteth to haue bene in the West Indies But how could this acquaintance with men and feeding by hand happen to this fish of Arion who was found at al-aduenture in the midst of the Mediterrane sea 14 Neither doth the report at Lesbos any whit confirme this tale For who knoweth not that euery countrie hath straunge reports of it selfe which by the common sort are reputed for great truths If we looke on our owne land how many things haue bene said of King Arthure and of the Prophet Merlin who although they may haue in them some ground of truth which I will not stand to dispute yet questionlesse much vanitie is mixed there withall We need no better example then the selfe same Herodotus who although in his positiue declarations he be held a good Historian and therefore is named by Tully Historiae pater the father of storie yet in his by-digressions by heare-saies and reports he hath so many vntruths that by other men he is termed with a censure too too gauling mendaciorum pater the father of lyes That such fames haue gone for currant euen among Christians the words of Paule to Timothie and Titus may shew where he speaketh of fables and Iewish fables and of old wiues fables also Now for the picture or image of the Dolphin and the man sitting vpon it that doth make a great deale lesse for inuentions and wrong deuises are wrought as well as truthes by painters and image-makers Saint Austen telleth how the Gentiles reported that Christ was a sorcerer and that he did his workes by Magicke and because they had seene Iesus in windowes painted with Peter and Paule standing by him they gaue out that hee wrote vnto them some things concerning Magicke not knowing saith Saint Austen that Paule was conuerted to the faith somewhat after Christs death But he maketh this conclusion vpon them Thus haue they deserued to erre who haue sought Christ and his Apostles not in holy bookes but in painted wals and windowes That which he iudged in a matter of farre greater importance that I may say of this A picture or image is not an argument of an approoued truth although Maister Campian do call such in church windowes for witnesses of the veritie of his cause So the song which is now extant and said to be Arions is as weake a proofe as any for why might not another man beleeuing the tale to be true put it out in his name Yea peraduenture if hee did not beleeue it as in Poets we haue many speeches fayned on other mens persons Then we may gather that either the narration is altogether fabulous or if he were so throwne by any into the water that another shippe intercepted him the badge whereof was a Dolphin as in the Actes of the Apostles the badge of that shippe wherein Paule sayled was Castor and Pollux And thereupon together with the inuention of Antiquitie grew the fable as some other haue imagined 15 To apply this somewhat nearer to my bresent purpose and to a true vse in Diuinitie if there were any such matter of the Dolphin and Arion as I in no sort do beleeue it we must hold it for a miracle wrought by the Diuell who by the Lords permission hath false wonders of his as God hath true of his Christ saith that false Christes and false Prophets shall shew great signes and wonders so that if it were possible they should deceiue the very elect The beast in the Reuelation doth bring fire downe from heauen When Moses was in Egypt the sorcerers had their sleights wrought by the finger of Sathan Eusebius speaketh of straunge deedes done by the Diuell and by Magicke Saint Austen in his tenth booke De ciuitate Dei doth attribute such credite to the stories of the Romanes that he thinketh that the Troiane Penates which were a kind of images did go from place to place and that Tarquine with a razor Liuie saith it was Actius Nauius did cut a whetstone in peeces and other such like things named there but he addeth that these were done by the power of infernall spirits So in his booke De Vnitate Ecclesiae speaking of miraculous matters he maketh this diuision of them Let these things be set aside being either fained inuentions of lying men or monstrous actes of cousining spirits supposing that some strange reports were fained and inuented by men and some other things were indeed brought about and effected by the Diuell If we would hold this of the Musitian in Herodotus for a truth then it teacheth vs this doctrine that as an Ape is the imitatour of man in his acts and gestures so is Sathan the Ape of God to follow him in his powerfull workes But how farre doth he come short of the originall which he looketh at He followeth him indeed but it is non passibus aequis with very vnequall steppes He seeth that God is mightily glorified in doing such straunge and rare deedes as he pleaseth and he will study to do the like that himselfe also may be glorified among the sonnes of darkenesse As the Lord shall haue his Ionas to be spoken of euery where so he will haue his Arion both of them throwne downe into the sea and both saued by a fish 16 Hence it is that we haue so many arguments of his suttle imitation God hath appeared like an Angell and Satan transformeth himselfe into an Angell of light God rayned stones on the enemies of Iosuah when they fled before him from the battell and Liuie writeth of credit that in the time of the Romane wars with Hannibal it rained stones for two dayes together on the hill called Mons Albanus So Hirtius that great welwiller of Iulius Caesar doth write that when Caesar was personally present in his wars in Africa very stones fell on the armie as it vseth to haile God rayned Manna from heauen and fire and brimstone vpon Sodome the one to helpe the other to hurt So the stories of the Romanes do mention that it rayned bloud and rayned flesh and wooll too saith Orosius in the dayes of the Emperour Valentinian and milke other such stuffe which as the learned do gather were