AN EXPOSITION UPON THE PROPHET JONAH. Contained in certain Sermons, preached in S. Mary's Church in Oxford. By GEORGE ABBOT Professor of Divinity, and Master of University College. JOHAN. 9.4. The night cometh when no man can work. ANCHORA SPEI. printer's or publisher's device LONDON, Imprinted by Richard Field, and are to be sold by Richard Garbrand. 1600. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE MY VERY Especial good Lord, Thomas Baron of Buckhurst, Lord high Treasurer of England, one of the LL. of her majesties most honourable Privy Counsel, Knight of the honourable Order of the Garter, and Chancellor of the University Of Oxford. IT is now more than a whole year, Right Honourable, since that according to the slenderness of that ability, which God hath given unto me, I brought to an end these few Lectures upon the Prophet jonas. In all which time being doubtful, whether I should publish this small Treatise to the view of the world, or no; & sometimes in mine own mind resolving for it, and sometimes against it, I have at the last adventured to let it see the Sun, by an open imparting thereof unto other. Wherein my assured hope and confidence is, that the same holy and gracious Spirit which first moved me to undertake this work, and by little and little hath enabled me to bring it to this pass, will also give that blessing thereunto, that it shall not be utterly unprofitable to the Church, but that such as are indifferent Readers, may some in one kind, and some in another, reap such fruit, as that thereby they may be strengthened to continue on their journey to everlasting happiness. For the better accomplishing whereof, according as the text hath yielded me occasion, I have laboured severally: sometimes to inform the ignorant, sometimes to comfort the weak, sometimes to settle the doubtful, some other times to encourage on to virtue, and oftentimes to beat down vice and iniquity, which in this later age every where aboundeth. To which purposes as God did diverse ways make me know in the first uttering thereof, that it returned not altogether fruitless, so I trust that it will please the same guide of heaven and earth farther to bless it, that in this course now intended by me, it may yet also be a means, to multiply and increase the Lords service in some persons more plentifully. But being now to commend it to the consideration and perusing of many other, I do first present it to the good and favourable acceptation of your Lordship, as having the principal and most special interest therein: for besides that it had his birth and growth in that University, whose stern under our most gracious Sovereign your Lordship doth with great wisdom rule, and therefore may challenge it for the places sake, as belonging in a general regard to your Lordship's protection: The Author thereof is in duty so specially and particularly bounden to your Lordship, that in right he must acknowledge the continuance and progress of his studies, for these many years to have rested and relied solely on your Honourable favour. In which respect he amongst many others, hath great cause to give praise and thanks to the Almighty for your Lordship's high advancement in this State; in as much as he apparently findeth, and by experience knoweth, that after a desire to do faithful service to her sacred Majesty, to administer justice to the Subject, and to be as a father in hearing the complaints of the poor, it is not the least care which your Lordship hath, to help and prefer in Church and Commonwealth, such as have or do depend upon your Honour. Amongst whom I should be very forgetful and unthankful, if I did not to my uttermost let all men understand, with how honourable regard your Lordship hath been pleased now for diverse years to look upon me, and of your Lordships own disposition, at every first occasion so to think on my preferment, as I had no reason in my conceit to look for, or any way expect. But in this as in many other matters, your Lordship doth let the world see, that there is nothing more proper to personages truly honourable, then to do honourable deeds: and thereupon it is, that with this extraordinary respect your Lordship hath both intended and affected not a little for my good. An example for the matter very rare, in this barren age wherein we now live: but to the manner of the happy accomplishing thereof both myself and diverse other are so privy, that we must confess it to be a singular consideration of your Lordship, so to begin and consummate the same, that all men might see the thanks, only to belong to your Lordship, and that no second person hath had any finger, in that which hitherto I have received. In grateful representation of my remembrance herein, I bring this little gift: and as thereby I conceal not from any, how deeply under God and my Sovereign I am obliged to your Honour, so otherwise I shall ever be ready with all my power to do your Lordship service, thinking myself happy, when I may perform any thing, which may testify my respective and dutiful affection. God Almighty long preserve her most gracious Majesty, the only fountain upon earth of all our felicity. God Almighty bless your Lordship, that the Commonwealth for many years may enjoy such a Counsellor, and this University so Honourable a Patron. From University College in Oxford this tenth day of October, In the year of our Lord 1600. Your Lordship's Chaplain in all duty bounden, GEORGE ABBOT. The chief points in the first Lecture. 2. jonas was not the son of the widow of Sareptha, 5 Neither had a Prophet to his father. 6 The taking away of the word is a grievous plague. 10 Gods word must be a direction to the Minister: who is not to gad up and down. 11 Divines of the University may preach in parishes adjoining. 13. Ninive a great City. 17. Why crying is used in Scripture. 18 The Eastern curious arts likely to be in Ninive. 19 But certainly robbery and oppression. JONAH 1.1.2. The word of the Lord came also unto jonah the son of Amittai saying, Arise, and go to Niniveh that great City, and cry against it, for their wickedness is come up before me. THat which Hierome said to Paulinus concerning the seven Catholic or General Epistles (for so they are called) of james, Hieron. ad Paulinum. Breves pariter & longas: breves in verbis, longas in sententijs. and Peter, and john and Jude, that they are long and they are short, short in words, long in substance; may I think be well spoken of this Prophecy of jonas, that it is long, & it is short: short if we respect the smallness of the volume, but long if we regard the copious variety of excellent observations, which are therein to be found. As, the horribleness of sin, which was able within forty days to pluck down an utter desolation, on so famous a city as Ninive was. God's love in forewarning them who dwelled in that place, that they might be spared: the Prophet's foul fall, and his strange punishment for it: his of-wardnesse from God, and Gods favourable inclination evermore to him: the regard which the King of Ninive and his people did bear to God's judgements when they were denounced: the free pardon of the Lord, and his remitting of their sin upon their earnest repentance. The subordinate circumstances do yield as good doctrine as the main story itself, and from them both, this thing of note is collected, that our Saviour Christ in two several matters, doth take occasion to draw his similitudes or comparisons from this Prophecy; which is not observed of far greater books. Luk. 11.32. The one of them is in the 11. of Luke, The men of Ninivy shall rise in judgement with this generation, & shall condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of jonas, and behold a greater than jonas is here. The other is in the twelfth of Matthew, As jonas was three days and three nights in the whales belly, Math. 12.40. so shall the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Here our Prophet was a figure of the Redeemer of the world, and in that did lively express him. And some think that another thing in him, did as lively paint out a second matter in our Saviour Christ, that as jonas preaching long to the people of Israel, and doing little good there, by reason of the stubbornness of that nation, was sent unto Ninive a city in Assyria, to men strangers from the covenant; so Christ by himself and by his Apostles, laying open to the jews the will of his father, and finding nothing but unthankfulness to be the fruit of his pains, should turn away his love and affection from them, and bestow it on the Gentiles. Now as this may agree with the analogy of faith, & may be deduced not unfitly out of the text, so to think that all the prophecy may allegorically be applied unto Christ, (wherein some of the old fathers were too too much credulous) were to strain the story too far, and indeed it may not be, as Hierome hath well noted on the third verse of this Chapter. Hieron. in jon. 1.3. jonas propheta non absque periculo interpretantis, totus referri ad Dominum poterit. And therefore in that proceeding which God shall send unto me in the opening of this Prophecy, my purpose is to follow the letter of the text, and to lay down the doctrine of it with convenient application, but without allegories origenical or wrest at all. 2 The time wherein our Prophet did live, should seem to be soon after the death of Elizeus, in as much as he did prophecy of jeroboam the later, the son of joas, that he should restore, or recover again the coasts of Israel which were lost. jeroboam restored the coast of Israel, 2. Reg. 14.25. from the entering of Hamath to the sea of the wilderness, according to the word of the Lord God of Israel which he spoke by his servant jonah the son of Amittai, the Prophet which was of Gath Hepher. From which words, a foolish tradition that is among the jews, may well be refuted: for the Rabbins of that people, who with their talmudical vanities, and Cabalistical subtleties have perverted much of the Scriptures, do teach, and have long so taught, that this jonas was the son of the widow of Sareptha, 1. Reg. 17.17. whom Elias did raise up from death to life. Which opinion hath gone so currant, that among our Christians also, some of the new writers have accepted it for a truth, Lyra in jon. 1. Isidor. in 7. Etimolog. Epiphan. de vitis Prophe. Hieron. in Praefat. in lib. jon. but among the old far more, as Lyra upon this place, and Isidore in the seventh of his Etimologies. Nay those who were very ancient, and very learned withal, have rehearsed it uncontrolled, as Epiphanius, and S. Hierome in his Preface to this Prophecy. Thus an opinion once begun, doth go from hand to hand, received without discussing, and from error in one man groweth error in another. 3 For if there were no more but that God himself hath concealed it, not naming any such matter in the Scripture, (where notwithstanding is oftentimes speech of jonas) it were a probable argument against that their assertion. For when the master is silent, why should the servant speak? When God saith no such matter, why should any man affirm it? especially since to utter it, had been for a solemn remembrance of God's glory, and it might have procured to jonas, far greater observance among the people, to whom he was to preach, that he should be known to be son to that woman, who was picked out by the Lord himself, to be a nurse to that reverend man Elias, in the time of bitter famine, and that this preacher should be the self same person, who was raised from death to life. But in my judgement the point is fully answered, when he is said to be of Gath Hepher, and not of Sareptha. For Gath Hepher, or as it is in the Hebrew, In vulgata editione. josuah. 19.13. Gittah Hepher, which to S. Hierome are both one, was a city in the land of Israel, in the tribe of Zabulon, as we may read in josuah. But Sareptha was not in Israel, as Christ himself very evidently doth signify in S. Luke, Luk. 4.25.27. Many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, but unto none of them was Elias sent, save into Sareptha a city of Sidon, unto a certain widow. Also many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elizeus the Prophet, yet none of them was made clean, saving Naaman the Syrian. As if he should say, that in those places strangers were preferred before the children. Nay he addeth more, to Sareptha of Sidon, 1. Reg. 17 9 joseph. Anti. lib. 8.9. or a city of Sidon. And josephus also telleth us, in the 8. of his Antiquities, that Sareptha is a city between tire and Sidon: where speaking of Elias, of the widow, and her son, he hath not a word of jonas. And left it may be thought that Gath Hepher did stand near to this city of Sareptha, and so that our Prophet for the dearness of the places, may be said to be of both, it was the tribe of Asser, and not the tribe of Zabulon which was nearest unto Sidon. josua. 19 28. Then our jonas being taken from the tribe of Zabulon, and therefore being an Israelite, he was fit to preach to the Israelites, as to his own countrymen. Which course the Lord did take commonly in sending of his own to those which were his own, as jews to the tribe of juda, and Israelites to the other ten tribes; which he had not here observed, if jonas had been son to the widow of Sareptha. 4 I have opened this error, as principally occasioned by the person of our Prophet, with whom I am here to deal; so secondly to show the boldness of the jews, who dare on naked conjectures grounded on weak foundations, (as is this, that because his mother who was raised up by Elias, 1. Reg. 17.24. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vide Hieron. in Proaemio commentarij in jonam. used a word in Hebrew like to the name of Amittai, therefore jonas the son of Amittai must of necessity be her son) give out assertions boldly; boldly I say, but falsely, and that in their own Prophets, and that in their own Scriptures. Very endless is their folly which they use in this behalf, & it is not to be wondered at by us, who know their malice in denying of Christ jesus to be the true Messias; in perverting of such scriptures as in their own books are written of him; Epiphanius Haeresi. 29. in cursing of the Christians daily in their assemblies, under the name of Nazarites; in vilefying the new Testament, but in magnifying their Talmud that irreligious book, with such celestial praises, Lodou. vives de Veritate fidei. lib. 3. that as vives writeth of it, they hold this for an opinion, that God himself bestoweth the first four hours of every day, in reading of that book, like a scholar at his task. Nay more, that when the Temple at jerusalem was destroyed by Titus the Roman, that then the Lord did sit reading upon that book within three or four cubits of the place; belike so busy at that, that he could not have any leisure to think on the overthrow of the Temple, which you know was but a trifle. Let all men take heed of their errors; and let us that be Preachers of the word, especially take heed, how we credulously reach any thing, that unadvisedly cometh from them. 5 The widow of Sareptha was not jonas his mother, but himself doth let us know that Amittai was his father; where also another fable may justly be reproved, Lyra in jon. 1. which Lyra writing upon this place, reporteth to be broached by the self same jews; to wit, that our Prophet was son unto another Prophet, because his father's name is here mentioned, for so (say they) are all the Prophets, whose fathers are named in the Scripture. Mark their worthy reason for it. Amos. 7.14. Amos saith of himself, that he was no Prophet, nor the son of a Prophet, and if you will look in his book, you shall see that his father is not mentioned. A reason most inconsequent, and not worthy to be refuted. Amos was not the son of a Prophet, & his father is not named, Ergò they whose fathers are named, Hosea. 1.1. joel. 1.1. had Prophets to their fathers. Hosea was the son of Beeri, and joel the son of Pethuel; but no signification is there in their writings, that their fathers were also Prophets. Zephaniah was the son of Chuzi, Zephan. 1.1. who was the son of Gedaliah, who was the son of Amariah, who was the son of Hizkiah. If this their reason were good, there should hear them be no less, than a whole generation of Prophets. But I rather approve of the reasons of Arias Montanus, Aria's Mont. in prolegom. in minores Prophetas. Luk. 2 36. who saith that they are named, either because their fathers were men famous, & well known in their times; or else for distinctions sake, to make them differ from some other of that name. The new Testament doth yield us examples of both in other persons; as when aged Anna is said to be the daughter of Phanuel of the tribe of Aser, it may probably be imagined that Phanuel when he lived, was a man of reputation, well known to very many. But in the Epistle of Jude, the title which is there given unto the Apostle, not from his father, but from his brother, judas the servant of Christ, jud. 1. and brother of james, was to make him differ from judas Iscariot, who did betray Christ. And having thus touched the person of our Prophet, and the time wherein he lived, let us come a little near unto the words of the text. Not forgetting notwithstanding, that this whole book by many is divided many ways, but I shall use no curious partition of it, and therefore do only note, that the four Chapters herein do contain several arguments. In the first is the fall of jonas, and his suffering for it. In the second, his repentance, which is uttered in a prayer. In the third, the fruit of his preaching, that is, the conversion of the Ninivites. In the fourth, his anger against the Lords proceeding, and Gods answer thereunto. Now to the first in the first place. The word of the Lord came also. Also. 6 Tremelius and junius do expound the Coniunctive Hebrew particle, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quum fuisset verbum jehovae. which is used in the beginning of this book, by the time when. The Septuagint and all other whom hitherto I can find, both Translators and Expositors, do read and or again or also, and thereby do intent, that when jonas before had preached in Israel, and done little good there, the word of the Lord came a second time to him, to send him elsewhere, to the City of Ninive. Wherein Gods purpose was, to take away his word together with his Prophet, from those who long had it, & brought forth no fruits accordingly, and to give it unto other who were aliens from the covenant, and strangers from the promise. And if that these Ninivites should have that grace, as by hearing a message, to fructify in great abundance, they might then exprobrate ingratitude and grievous rebellion, to the people of Israel, because these being but once preached unto, did apparently repent, but the other hearing often, did still increase their sin. This is a fearful judgement, when God removeth his word or ministers from a nation, & giveth them to other. For where there is no vision, Pro. 29.18. 2. Chro. 15.3. where prophecy ceaseth, the people decay. Azariah the man of God could tell the people of juda, that for a long season they had been without the true God, without priest to teach, and without the Law, as signifying that these curses do jointly go together, that where is neither Priest nor Law, there also is not God. It is threatened as a plague to the people of Jerusalem, Ezech. 3.26. that the Lord would make the tongue of the Prophet to clean to the roof of his mouth, that he should not exhort them, that he should not reprove them. Apoc. 2.5. Except thou amend saith Christ the son of man to the Angel of Ephesus, I will remove thy candlestick out of his place, I will take away thy ministery. It is a fearful sentence from the mouth of Christ himself, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, Matth. 21.43. and shall be given to a nation which shall bring forth the fruits thereof. 7 The miseries which follow this, are unspeakable discomforts to such as are able aright to conceive them. To be blind, and have no guide, and yet to walk there, where treading awry is the tumbling into hell: to be hungry and to famish: to suck, but on dry breasts: to be pined, & not perceive it, which is an evil of all evils. For there is no truer misery, than not to know a man's own want, or if he do know it, not to be of power to help it, Amos 8.12. but to wander from sea to sea, and from the North even to the East, to run to and fro, and not be able to amend it. But when jonas like a Dove (for so his name doth signify) must fly or must go from Samaria to Ninive, when what the jew must lose, that the Gentile must win, when the elder is disinherited and the younger made the heir, no marvel then if grief possess the very soul. Gen. 27.34. What marvel if Esau a natural man, did grudge and would not cease, did weep and could not hold, when he saw that what he lost his brother jacob should gain; that the falling of the one was the rising of the other, the service of the elder was the reigning of the younger? The children of Abraham did contemn the whole world, in respect of their prerogative in the sanctified seed: they could have been contented, that the very crumbs from the table, should not have fallen to the Gentiles. If the Prophet had been sent from the ten tribes to the two, or chose from the two unto the ten, from juda to Israel, or from Israel to juda, the matter had been less: but must jonas go to Ninive? We can conceive no otherwise, 1. Sam. 18.29. but that it was a great grief to Saul, that himself must lose the kingdom; but that David must have it, his subject who lived under him, his servant that attended him, was a mighty vexation, even a grief to the death. There God's anger was the greater, who preferred the servant before the master: here his displeasure was the hotter, that the Prophet must leave his country, 1. Sam. 4.18. & go to callhome other strangers. When old Eli did hear that the Ark of the Lord, the presence of his grace, was first gone from the Israelites, and then taken by the Philistines, his whole strength was gone; his heart did faint and die. 8 The kingdoms & nations who have tasted of the Gospel, may bethink themselves here. The benefit is inestimable which God hath afforded them, in giving them the bread of life, and his stewards to break it, his ministers to teach it. Now if in recompense thereof, Isa. 5.2. in steed of grapes they should bring forth wild grapes; if for figs they should yield thistles; if their justice should be but gall, & their judgement but wormwood; if his word should be neglected, and his ministers be despised, let them fear lest that befall them, which hath happened unto others. Rom. 11.24. Those which were but wild branches and are now graffed into the Olive, can they be dearer unto God, than those branches which by nature appertained to that tree? If he spared not his own, which by a peculiar calling were appropriated to him, for so the jews were in comparison, will he spare those which in a second place, and but only for default of the former, were adopted by him? Saint Paul doth let us know, 21. that without doubt he will not. The light was great which God's Churches once had in Asia the lesser, when john the Evangelist, and Polycarpus and other scholars to the Apostles, did live and die there. The same may be said of the Cities of Graecia, which did hear Saint Paul preaching, did read Saint Paul writing. For some hundreds of years after him, many excellent lamps did burn in those parts, which gave light to their neighbours. But for the sins of the inhabitants, is not their candlestick since removed into the West? are not their lamps extinguished? Yes, their jonasses are dead, or sent to other nations. Their temples are now made a cage of unclean birds: Apoc. 18.2. filthy spirits do possess them. The Turk with his Curaam, and Mahomet with his Alcoran are Lords of those places. The City Rome was once the eye of the West, the sanctuary of religion, the anchor of true piety. This continued many years after that Paul had said in his time, that their faith was published throughout the whole world. Rom. 1.8. But when Rome once proved Babylon, the holy City an harlot, when idolatry & security had once poisoned her heart, her light was removed into the Northern parts, & among them unto us: where God grant that it may continue, till his Son do come to judgement, Exod. 10.21. that the horrible and palpable darkness of Egypt, may neither come on us, nor our seed, nor our seeds seed after us. It were a fearful curse, if God's glorious Gospel should be taken from us, & given to the Tartarians, a wild people in the North, or unto the Moors, profane men in the South. Our fathers in their times had experience of the like; for after the free passage of God's word, in the days of king Edward of blessed memory (whose soul doth rest with the Lord) for the sins of our nation, & the careless abusing of so gracious a benefit, there came such a time as that jonas might not stay in Israelit he would: either jonas must fly, or jonas must die. Then Geneva, or Basile, or Frankford, or some other parts of Germany, were thought fitter places to receive the Lords Prophets, than our England was. 9 That short time of mercy which God had showed before, had but a short time of chastisement succeeding it. Since those days God hath showed longer love, and powered it on us more plentifully. If in steed of long lent graces, we will not pluck upon us long plagues, and grievous punishments, let us esteem his word as a jewel of price; let us esteem his messengers, as the ministers of God, Heb. 13.17. weak men, but in great trust, who do watch for their souls to whom they do preach, and would be glad to see men press unto Christ with cheerfulness. It were a thing to be lamented bitterly, if by wanting we should know, what it were to want that, Plutarch. in Demosth. which by enjoying we know not. Demosthenes' perceiving the true danger of that case, could remember the Athenians, that if the dogs were gone, by a composition with the wolves, the sheep would soon pay for it; the cruel wolves would rage at pleasure. If the Orators were once yielded, Athens would soon to wrack. Zachar. 13.7. If the shepherd be once stricken, ye know what followeth after, the sheep will be soon scattered. If the Preachers be removed, men's souls will run to ruin. The walls of Hiericho could not be overthrown (as Origen saith writing on the book of josua) but by the trumpets of the Priests. Origen in jos. Homil. 7. So the fortresses of Satan, of iniquity and sin, cannot be laid along, but by the teaching of the Priest, the preaching of the Minister. Therefore make much of your jonasses, whosoever you be, and keep them while you have them. 10 But in Israel at this time it might not be so. There cometh a message to the Prophet, a commanding injunction, & giveth him other instructions. The word of the Lord came unto jonah. This is it whereupon the Prophets should evermore depend, for their sitting or for their rising, for their moving or their resting. They are not to run upon a fantasy or humour of their own, and speak they know not what, neither care they to whom, but for their message which they utter, they are rather to take it then to make it. Exod 3.11. jer. 1.6.9. Moses would not go to Pharaoh, till he had learned his lesson perfectly. jeremy is but a child, and knoweth not how to speak, till God stretcheth forth his hand, & putteth his word in his mouth. Ezech. 3.17. The Lord doth tell Ezechiel, that he should hear the word at God's mouth, and give the people warning from him. Nay the true Prophets all in general remembered this well enough, when so often they end their sentences with these words, Thus saith the Lord. Saint Paul writing to the Corinthians doth take this course in the matter of the Sacrament, I received of the Lord that which I also delivered unto you. 1. Cor. 11.23. Otherwise, as he is a traitor to his Prince, who taketh on him to coin money out of base metal, yea although in the stamp he for a show doth put the image of the Prince; so he that shall broach any doctrine that cometh not from the Lord, whatsoever he say for it, or what gloss soever he set upon it he is a traitor unto God, yea in truth a cursed traitor, although he were an Angel from heaven, Galat. 1.8. as Saint Paul telleth the Galathians. Earthly kings are offended, if their subjects shall do from them, or in their names, such messages as they send not; or if their Ambassadors being limited by advertisements what they shall do and what not, should entreat of contrary causes. Then should the Minister be careful in a very high degree, that he speak not but according to his commission, lest he offend a Lord of more dreadful majesty, who is more jealous of his glory, and more able to punish. The visions are now ceased; revelations are all ended; such dreams are past and gone, as did inform in old time: Now it is Gods written word which must be to us, as the thread of Ariadne, to lead us through all labyrinths. The Law of the Lord is perfect, Psal. 19.7. converting the soul, the testimony of the Lord is sure, and giveth wisdom to the simple, saith David. Tertullian could say of the written word, I do adore the fullness of the Scripture. Tertul. cont. Hermogenen Adoro Scripturae plenitudinem. Vinc. Ly●in. contra haeres. cap. 27. Depositum custodi. Quod tibi creditum est, non quod à te inventum, quod accepisti non quod excogitasti, rem non ingenij sed doctrina. Ita doce, ut cum dicas nou è non dicas nova. This full Scripture, this perfect Law of God, is it which must be the guide, and as the loade-starre unto us. Vincentius Lyrinensis in his little book against heresies speaketh elegantly to this: O Timothy, do thou keep fast thy charge. What is it that is thy charge? That which thou hast received, not that which thou hast devised: that which is committed to thee, not what is invented by thee: a matter not of thy wit, but rather of thy learning, wherein thou art no author, but only a keeper, not a leader, but a follower. And a little after, Do thou so teach, that when thou speakest after a new manner, yet thou do not speak new matter. Thy order may be new, thy method may be new, but the substance of that which thou speakest must be old. This is an argument very copious to be handled: and thereunto may be joined the just reprehension of some fantastical Anabaptistes, who have taken on them in our time, to cross this written word, by illuminations and revelations of their own. But I leave the one and the other, till God send further grace to wade more into this Prophecy. That which I rather gather here is this; that if jonas would not go from one place to another, without the express commandment of God, who is Lord over heaven and earth, and ruleth all at his pleasure, and that also the other Prophets did evermore observe this rule, that then in the examples of Gods ancient servants, there is no protection or warrant for such men, who sometimes in our Church, do flit from place to place, without staying in any. It is one thing to be sent, and for a man then to go; another thing to run first, and not at all to be sent. Feed the flock saith Peter, 1. Pet. 5.2. but it followeth in the text, which doth depend upon you, Hier. gregem qui in vobis est. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. or which is committed to you, for so the best translate it, although to the letter it be, the flock which is among you. The Apostles indeed did go throughout all the world, Mat. 28.19. but they had their passport for it: Go ye and teach all nations. But besides that, the immediate presence of God's Spirit did still attend them, and told them what they should do, and again what they should not do; so that they were not at their own liberty. Acts. 13.4. chap. 16.7. When they were let go by the Spirit, they came unto Seleucia. And, they would have gone to Bythinia, but the Spirit would not suffer them. These men of whom I speak are not Apostles: that dispensation is ceased, as all God's Church doth know. It were rather to be wished, that they did not come much nearer to the name of Apostates, for revolting from the approved rule of the Christian faith, while they use that profession which is sacred in itself, but as pretenced piety, to cover unhappy shifting, yea sometimes an ungodly life. I do not speak of all: among bad may be some good: and circumstances oftentimes do make whole causes differ. But for many of them, I could wish that experience had not taught us, to the slander of the Gospel, that such fond admiration as they procure in the pulpit, among the ignorat multitude (who are easily deceived) is quitted with some infamy, which from town to town doth follow them, and from country unto country, or with some actual cozenage, or with lustful carnality, or one bad trick or other. 11 Their calling in the mean time is not warranted in the word, although jonas went to Ninive. Ours is a stable profession, it is no gadding ministery. And yet I doubt not, but that we who are children of the Prophets, and have a home in this place, and therefore are different from them, to exercise ourselves against such time as God shall send us charges, or especially to win men to Christ, may sometimes in this town, and sometimes in the villages which are here about adjoining, even with a freewill offering bestow our little talents. Scribendo disces scribere. By writing we learn to write: by singing men learn to sing: by skirmishing we shall learn to fight the Lords great battles. The people in the mean time are won to jesus Christ: the faithful are increased: ignorance is well expelled: idolatry is defaced; Satan and sin are conquered. The very crumbs of our tables, would keep many souls from starving: the lost hours of our idleness, would help many poor to heaven. God grant that the burying of those talents in the ground, which he in his great love hath given unto us, be not laid to our charge, in that dreadful and terrible day. If ignorance, or idolatry, or iniquity did not rage, if the enemies of the Gospel to hold up their Romish Antichrist were not busy to pervert, we might keep ourselves in our cloisters, but if all these do fret, and daily consume like a canker, let us sometimes look about us. Theodoret reporteth in his Ecclesiastical story, Theodoret. Hist. Eccles. lib. 4.24. that when Valens the Emperor with his Arrian opinions, had bee-postered much of the world, & by that means the flock of Christ stood in great danger, Aphraates a Monk, a holy man of that time, contrary to his order and usual profession, came forth out of his Monastery, to help to keep up the truth. And being asked by the Emperor who was offended at him, what he did out of his cell? I would (saith he) have kept it, and did keep it so long as Christ's sheep were in quiet; but now that tempests do come on, and storms bring them in danger, every stone is to be turned, every means is to be sought, to free them from this peril. He goeth on: If I were daughter to any man whatsoever, and according to my sex as decency would require, were kept up in a closet, or in some secret chamber, and inner part of the house, yet if my father's dwelling were on fire, should I not be very careless, if I would not then come forth to help to quench the fire, or give direction for it? So if now I should not help to teach true faith in Christ, by coming out of my Monastery, I should do much amiss. Let us remember the like, in these most perilous times: so we shall discharge our consciences, we shall disburden our souls, and God himself will reward it, by one means or another, although men do not requite it: for do not look for that: if you do, they will deceive you. And thus having showed the reason why jonas went from Israel, I come to the second verse. Arise. 12 It should seem that our Prophet having long preached to his countrymen, and little prevailed, had now discouraged himself, and even set him down, which case doth oft befall the Minister, through that weakness and frailty which is in human nature. For the preventing whereof in his servant Ezechiel, God himself doth foretell him, that he sendeth him to such as are a rebellious house, Ezech. 3.9. and will not hear his voice. Notwithstanding the Prophet is enforced to do his duty, and leave the success to God. That is it whereunto the Minister should look, perform all which the Lord requireth, and leave the event to him. For we are not in God's place, to alter & change, and mollify men's hearts; 1. Cor. 3 6. Paul planteth, and Apollo's watereth, but God giveth the increase. In the mean time, the labour of the faithful Minister, whether it speed or miss, is accepted of the lord August. contra Crescon. Grammaticum, lib. 1. For as he (saith Saint Austen) who persuadeth to evil, (as to heresy or treason) is punished accordingly, although he do not prevail, yet because he intended it, because he did labour it; so he that doth his best to win men to heaven, although he effecteth not what he desired, findeth his reward with God. And he addeth in the same book, that when Christ did lament over his own City Jerusalem, Matth 23.37 and said that he would have gathered the jews together, as the hen gathereth, or clucketh her young ones under her wings, and they would not; that perhaps he did encourage us by his own example, that if we should not obtain when we have spent our labour, yet we should not dismay ourselves, because no more befalleth us, Matth. 10.24 than did betide Christ. And the disciple as we know, is not greater than his master. If such a drowsiness or sleepiness were now upon jonas, after his small success in preaching to Israel, God biddeth it be shaken off, when he willeth him to Arise, that is, pluck up his spirits, and rouse up himself, and make speed in his message. And go to Niniveh that great City. 13 Although God in ordinary did tie himself to his people of Israel, yet at this time (for so was his good pleasure) he showeth that himself is Lord over all the earth, and taketh care of all and punisheth all who do sin against him; in as much as he did send his Prophet to Ninive, which was a City in Assyria, and the Metropolis of that country, and justly in this place said to be a great City. By that which is written of it, it may be judged, that Ninive was then the greatest City that was upon the earth. When Moses doth mention it, he giveth that testimony of it, Gen. 10.12. jon. 3.3. This is that great City. In the third chapter of this present prophesy it is said to be a great and excellent City of three days journey. That in those days this was no strange thing, in the Eastern countries, to have some places very huge, we may somewhat judge by Babylon, Aristoteles politicorum. lib. ●. which Aristotle setteth down to have been so big, as that when some part of it had been taken by the enemy, some other quarters of it, did not hear of any such news, till within three days after. But for Ninive thus much more: In the last chapter of this Prophecy it is put for the conclusion of the book, jon. 4.11. that there were in it six score thousand persons that could not discern between their right hand and their left hand: which importeth that they were children of small age and understanding. 14 This City by profane writers is called Ninus, Herod. lib. 1. Strabo. lib. 16 Plin. lib. 6.13. Tacit. Annal. lib. 12. as by Herodotus in his Clio, by Strabo in the sixteenth of his Geography, by Pliny in the sixth of his Natural history, by Tacitus in the twelfth of his Annals. And by some of them it was supposed to be builded by Ninus the great Monarch of Assyria, and husbànd to Semiramis, Aug. de Ciu. Dei. lib. 16.3. which is also the opinion of Saint Austen, in his books De civitate Dei. Some argument why we should believe it to be so, may be gathered from the name, being termed of Ninus the king, Ninus, & Niniveh in the Scripture. But see whether that in this case, Augustinus Epist. 19 Gal. 2.13. a man may not say as Austen said to Hierome (about that great controversy between Paul and Peter; whether Peter sinned or sinned not, and dissembled with the jews in deed, or but in show) that although Hierome had more witnesses in number to prove his assertion, them Austen could bring, yet that S. Paul who had God's Spirit, and thereby did write, was in steed of all the rest, nay in truth above all: So although both Heathen and Christians, and among them S. Austen do say, that this City was built by Ninus, yet see whether Moses who had the immediate Spirit of God, be not in steed of all, Gen. 10.11. or rather beyond all. And he doth tell us that this City was built by Assur. Neither doth the Hebrew name import aught to the contrary, if it be as some suppose, not Niniveh of Ninus, but Niniveh of Navah the Hebrew word, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & so signifying beautiful or goodly, or fair, or fit to be inhabited. But this controversy may be ended, Munsterus Cosmograp. lib 5. if that opinion be true which Munster doth deliver unto us, that some think that both Assur and Ninus are one man, called by diverse names in diverse languages. He doth not specify in that place, who they be that so reconcile this doubt; neither yet have I found any that be of that mind. Diodorus Siculus Antiq. lib. 3.1. Plin. Hist. natur. 6.3. Herod. lib. 1. 15 But to let that go, this City is described by Diodorus Siculus (in the second of his Antiquities as Stephanus will have it, as some other in the third) to stand upon Euphrates, I think he meaneth Tigris, for so all consent hath it, and Babylon on Euphrates: to be built with four sides, but not equal or square, for the two longer sides had each of them one hundred and fifty furlongs, the two shorter sides had each of them ninety, which arising in the whole number to four hundred and four score furlongs, the compass of the City did amount to thirty French leagues, or threescore Italian miles. The walls saith Diodorus were in height an hundred foot, the breadth of the walls, that three carts might go together: the towers which were about it, were one thousand and five hundred, the height of the towers was two hundred foot in each. This City being built, to show the magnificence and royalty of the founder, was without doubt populous for the proportion; the country yielding food to sustain so great a multitude, and they having water at will by the dearness of the river. The fertility of the soil was such in old time about this place, although not for other things in like measure, yet for corn, that Herodotus writing of it doth speak of his own knowledge, that the ordinary fields did return the seed sown in them two hundred fold, the better places three hundred: three hundred bushels for one, or at least three hundred grains of one corn. Seneca in consolation ad Narciam. cap. 16. Tiberium Gracchun & Caium qui bonos viros negaverit, magnos fatebitur. 16 Our jonas is to go by God's commandment to this City, which if any will deny to be good, yet he must confess to be great, as once it was said of the Gracchis in Rome. He needed not to find fault that he had nothing to do, who had Ninive for his charge, and whose business was to preach to such an auditory where were so many and so mighty. If he stood upon his credit, as it seemeth that he did too much, (which hereafter may be showed) here was a place of reputation for him, if any were upon earth. Tully was no great warrior, for aught that I can read, Tull● Epist. lib. 2. Ep. 10. ad Caelium. Vt mihi ad summam gloriam nihil de●it nisi nomen oppidi. and I think that himself thought so; yet in one of his Epistles, he telleth that he did besiege a little town, Pindinessus he calleth it, with such eagerness, that there was nothing wanting to him of the top and height of glory, for his good service there, but the name of the town. His town did want a name. He meaneth that it was but base, and not known to men in Rome. Our Prophet in his preaching need find no such fault: his charge hath a name: it is Ninive that great City, which ruled over the earth, the seat of the Empire, the Lady of the East, the Queen of nations, the riches of the world, where more people did inhabit, then are now in some one kingdom. Sene. in Suasoriar. 2. Ingenij confuse & turbulenti qui cupiebat grandia dicere. Credatis mihi velim non iocanti, eò pervenit insania eius, ut calceos quoque maiores sumerit, ficus non esset nisi mariscas. Concubinan ingentis staturae habebat. I do read in Seneca, that there was once a man of a turbulent wit, called Senecio, who would speak none but great words, would have none but great things. His servants were all great, his silver vessels & plate were great. Nay, believe me (saith Seneca) his folly grew so great, that his shoes were still too big for him, he would not eat figs, but Mariscas, a kind of gross great figs. He had a concubine of a huge and mighty stature. He had all things so big, that the surname, cognomen, or rather cognomentum as Messala did term it, was set upon him of Senecio Grandio. If this Grandio had been sent on such a message as jonas was, it may be supposed that he would have been a proud man. But our Prophet was not so, as in the next verse hereafter we shall find. 17 Well, God goeth forward with him, Arise and cry against it. The Lord telleth him all the circumstances, which must be done in this message, lest he should be to seek, and so do somewhat amiss: and again to make him more careful in performing of that, wherein God himself was so desirous to inform him in particular. He must cry against Ninive, not whisper in the ear as if it were to one; not speak softly as to a few: but cry as unto all: this is a general proclamation. This word Cry is used in Scripture when men are fast asleep and lulled in their sins, and awake not with a little, so that as Eliah said to the Baalites, that they were to cry aloud, 1. Reg. 18.22. because Baal might be sleeping, and must be awaked, so the Minister must cry aloud, that men may be raised from their drowsiness in sin. When the iniquities of Israel, & transgressions of jacob began to grow great, the Prophet Esay is called upon to cry aloud and not to spare, Isa. 58.1. yea to lift up his voice as if it were a trumpet. In like manner, when, as it should seem men being drowned in security did forget their own mortality, Chap. 40 6. A voice said Cry: The Prophet asketh what shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and the beauty thereof as the flower of the field. So the voice of john the Baptist who bad men repent, because the kingdom of heaven was near, is called the voice of a crier. Matth. 3.3. Again this word Cry is some other time used, when some thing else crieth first, and maketh such a noise in the ears of the Lord, that it calleth for vengeance of him; and in the ears of the committers, that they cannot hear any thing unless it be loud. In such cases men are not moved at all with low words, as the whistling of the wind is not perceived at all, in the blowing of trumpets or the ringing of bells. Those things which are violent, must be driven forth with such other things as are violent. It is said of blood that it cannot be satisfied but with blood. It is known of love, that it cannot be recompensed or requited but with love. Even so the cry of sin cannot be stopped, but by crying out against sin, and condemning it openly. But that sins do cry we read oft in the Scripture. Abel's blood did cry, Gen. 4.10. Chap. 18.20. Deut. 24.15. jac. 5.4. that is indeed, the murder of Cain did call to God for vengeance. The cry of Sodom and Gomorrha was great. The detaining of wages from the labourer & hired servant, doth yield forth a cry. And here in this place the wickedness of Ninive cometh up before God: & with what but with a cry? As if he should say, that it was now grown so great, that the earth was no longer able to hold it, but both the air and the heaven too, did ring of the same. Exceeding force of sin, which will thus call for vengeance. Gen. 19.13. This was it which once plucked down fire and brimstone from heaven upon Sodom and Gomorrha. This was it which caused that universal flood in the days of Noe. Chap. 6.12. Num. 16.1. This made Corah and his company to be swallowed up by the earth & go down quick into the grave. This brought an incredible destruction upon jerusalem, which sometimes was Gods own City. Nay this very place Ninive, although now it were spared upon their apparent repentance, yet when afterward they returned to their malice, as a dog to his vomit, it was destroyed, as Nahum the Prophet had foretold. Nahum. 3.1. Those other Monarchies of the old Babylonians, of the Medes & the Persians, of the Greeks and Romans did speed after like sort. Their sin ascending upward, rebounded again upon them, with a fearful desolation. But what now may we imagine that those sins were, which are said in this place to lie so grievously upon them. 18 It is likely that such general sins were in Ninive, as are said by Ezechiel to have been in Sodom, Ezech. 16.49 that is, Pride and fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness, & that she did not strengthen the hand of the poor and needy; but I think that in particular some faults may be picked out, which were great in that place. As first, witchcraft and enchantment, and sorcery & necromancy, and divination by the stars, which were exercised beyond measure, in all the Eastern parts where Ninive stood. When the true wisdom of Solomon, 1. Reg. 4.30. is in the scripture compared with men's counterfeit wisdom, it is said that his wisdom excelled all the wisdom of the children of the East, that is, their philosophers and Diviners, Matth. 2.1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. and all of that sort. There came to adore Christ, wise men as they are called, Magis, Diviners or Soothsayers, and it is said in the text, that they came out of the East. In the second of Daniel, what a rabble of such are reckoned up to be in Babylon, a city not far from Ninive, Dan. 2.2. Enchanters, Astrologians, Chaldeans and Sorcerers? & how doth God himself deride, & scoff at them by his Prophet Esay, Isa. 47.9. for entertaining of such, & for retaining of so many? In one word, the censure that is set on the Chaldaeans, men not far from Ninive, Tull. de Divinat. lib. 2. Tacitus Hist. lib. 1. Annalium li. 6. Tiberius' scientiâ Chaldaeorum artu. Herodot. li. 5. by Tully in the second of his Divination, and by Cornelius Tacitus in the first of his History, (where that by his Mathematicians he meaneth Chaldaeans, or the scholars of them, may be well gathered from that which elsewhere he hath of Tiberius, who as he saith was skilled in their Arts) together with the Narration of the Magis in Herodotus, who would have had the kingdom after the death of Cambyses, do make this most plain, that in the East country these Arts were used much, and therefore likely so in Ninive. But how odious these sins are in the sight of God, whosoever doth read the Scriptures, can not be ignorant. In the tenth of jeremy the least of these faults are called the way or customs of the heathen, jerem. 10.2. Num. 23.23. and therefore are they unfit for God's people. Balaam could say, there is no sorcery in jacob, nor soothsaying in Israel. God himself doth give charge that among his people should be none that useth witchcraft or a regarder of time, Deut. 18.10. or a marker of the flying of fowls, or a sorcerer, or a charmer, or that counseleth with spirits, or a soothsayer, or that asketh counsel at the dead, and the reason is there assigned, because all that do such things are an abomination to the Lord. Nay, God doth so hate these, as that all such who seek to them, are odious to him, 1. Sam. 28.7. 2. Reg. 1.1. 1. Chro. 10.13 as by Saul and Ahaziah may most plainly appear, who for seeking unto such, lost their kingdoms and their lives. The audaciousness of men who are acquainted with these arts, may be seen by those enchanters of whom we read in Exodus, Exod. 7.11. Plinius Hist. Nat. lib. 26.4. Regulus auspiciae curavit, & captus est. Mancinus religionem tenuit, & sub jugum missus est. Pullos edaces habuit Paulus Cyprian de Idolorum vanitate. Zozom. Hist. Eccles. 2.22. Theod Hist. eccles. li 3.21 Mulierculam capillo suspensam, m●mbus exte●sis, cuius ventre dissecto. who at pharao's entreaty, did dare not only to brave, but to resist God and his servant Moses. Pliny himself although he were but a heathen man, doth laugh at and deride the vanities of such. S. Cyprian doth describe their unfruitful superstition: Regulus saith he, observed the flying of birds, and yet he was taken by the Carthaginians. Mancinus kept their religion, yet was he sent under the gallows, sub jugum, a token of disgrace to himself and his army. Paulus had the birds eating lustily, which they held as a sign of good luck, yet was he slain at the battle of Cannae. But the execrable custom of some who be of this kind may partly be learned by that, wherewith Athanasius sometimes (although falsely) was charged, that he in his Magic should use the hand of a dead man, which by experience in our time hath been declared to be a practice, of some who use those trades. And partly by the example of julian the Apostata, who not long before his death, going to war in Persia, did cause a woman to be hanged up by the hair of the head, to have her hands stretched abroad, her belly to be ripped open, that, as the author jesteth at it, her liver perhaps being cut up, he might thereby divine what should be the end of that his voyage, and whether that he should safely return again. As it may seem he himself was ashamed of that deed, Non obserari solum sedetiam obsignari. for he caused the church or chapel wherein this fact was done, not only to be locked, but to be sealed up also, and watchmen continually toward there, that no man might come in. Yet afterward it was discovered, when report came of his death. No marvel if such sins did come up unto the Lord, or any other which draw in this line, Basil in Hexae mero. Homil. 1. Astrologia indiciaria negotiosissima vanitas. if they were to be found in Ninive. Let Christians still take heed of these most filthy crimes, yea and of all curious arts, and among them of that too, which, whatsoever be said for it by many who are young, and delight in experiments, is truly said by Basil, to be nothing else but a busy tickle vanity. 19 A second sin in Ninive was robbery and oppression. That in some sort may be gathered from their large and mighty government, which could not be maintained but by somewhat, & indeed was up-held and born out, with the spoils of other. But the Prophet Nahum doth put the case beyond question, when he calleth it a bloody city, Nahum. 3.1. full of lies and robbery, from whence the prey departeth not. They had then conquered a great part of the inhabited world. The tributes and exactions which they had of them whom they conquered, could not choose but be great. And for the beautifying of that their City, which for a thousand years and more, was mistress of the world, and chief seat of the Empire, it may well be supposed, that they took the self same course, which afterward was taken up by the Romans, who to garnish and adorn Rome, did take away from all places, whither their authority and sovereignty did stretch, not only gold and silver, but images and pictures, and painted tables, and hangings of tapistry, and plate, and armour, yea whatsoever else was precious in their eyes. Livius lib. 25 So did that great Marcellus at the sacking of Syracuse, and other in other places; who feared not to spoil many towns, to make one trim & glorious. Now God who loveth justice, and in justice hateth oppression, and the robbing of other men, can not like of this. How sped Pharaoh with his people, for dealing hard with the Israelites? If he shall be cast into the fire saith Saint Austen, Augustin. de Sanctis, Sermone 38. Putas ubi mittendus est qui tulit ali●num? being moved as it seemeth by that place of the 25. of Matthew, who did not give his bread to the hungry, where think you shall he be put, who hath taken away the bread of other men? If he shall be thrown into the fire who clothed not the naked, whither shall he be cast who hath unclothed the clothed? If he be condemned with the Devil who hath not afforded his house to strangers, where do you think is he to be put, which taketh away that house which in right is another man's? All which things oppressors do. Here let those men take heed, who grind the face of the poor, of the fatherless, and the widow, if this sin yield forth a cry, not only in this world but in another also. Theatre du monde. lib. 2. It was a spiteful trick and in no sort to be commended, but much less to be imitated; and it was a saying much abused out of Athanasius his Creed: but yet the meaning was very shrewd, when the people of Sicilia did write upon the tomb of a dead Viceroy of theirs, who was a great oppressor, and cruel over that country Qui propter nos homines Et nostram salutem Descendit ad inferos. Athanasius in Symbolo. Who for us men And for our better safety Is gone down into hell. They meant that this polling and exacting governor was lodged in hell. 20 If all things which are written, be written for our learning, then let the cry of Ninive be a warning unto us, and to all men in general, that we fly from their cruelty. And remembering that of the Prophet, Habac. 2.11. The stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it, Woe unto him that buildeth a town with blood, and erecteth a City by iniquity, let us be wary in our Colleges, that it be not truly said of us, that robbery and oppression, and bribery and extortion, go not out of their streets. The keeping back of the poor, for the speeding of the rich to gain friends to ourselves, or to be enriched with money, cometh near within this compass. Friendship which is so gotten, is not friendship with the Lord, nor friendship for the Lord, but friendship against the Lord. Money which is so had, as it is cursedly gotten, so it is often spent lewdly. It is put as the Prophet speaketh, Agg 1.6. into a broken bag; the Lord doth blow upon it; & yet we will not see so much. A reckoning must be made, as how we spend our money, so much more how we get it. If such sins should be among us, they may be accounted far greater, than they could be in Ninive, because we have had many jonasses, who have long cried out against them. That God who is slow to anger, will strike so much the heavier, when he is forced to strike. That wrath which is deferred will in the end prove most grievous. Thus you see what jonas was, and again what he was not, and who sent him from Israel, and who bid him go to Ninive, and that Ninive was a great City, but a City of great sin. It followeth in the next place how he did discharge this duty: but that must be deferred unto some other time. In the mean while God send us understanding in all things. To this God be praise for ever. THE II. LECTURE. The chief points. 1. The verity of the Scripture appeareth in that the writers thereof do declare many things against themselves. 6 Reasons which might move jonas to fly to Tarshish, and the insufficiency of them. 12 Where Tarshish was. 13 The vocation of the ministery is not to be relinquished. 16 Men are more free to spend money about evil things then about good. 17 What it is to fly from God's presence. 19 Comfort and instruction to the Minister. JONAH. 1.3. But jonah rose up to fly into Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and went down to japho: and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof and went down into it: that he might go with them into Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. jonas hath received his charge to go to Ninive, with a message of much importance; which he might do the better, because he came with authority, and not as a common person, to chide and brawl about injuries, or bad reckonings which fall out between man & man, but with a proclamation of weight from the eternal God. Here a natural man would look, that since jonas is to write this story of himself, (for no man I think maketh doubt thereof) he should speak for his own credit; with what diligence and audacity he performed this message; how he spared not the king of Ninive, but told him his own; or if he had failed to do that which was enjoined to him, or for want of wit or will, had miss in his designment, a worldling would judge, that for his reputation, he should have concealed it: let others if they would have spoken their pleasure of him, but not he of himself: or if needs he must have spoken, he would have told the better part, and left out the worst. But if jonas would be nought, and err as foully in penning, as he did before in practice, he hath here met with his master, who well can keep him from it, even the mighty Spirit of God, which dealeth with him in this place as it did with David in his one and fiftieth Psalm, that is, maketh him to confess that against God, Psal. 51.4. against him only he had sinned, & done evil in his sight, that the Lord might be justified when he did speak, and pure when he did judge, that God might have his true honour, and man bear his deserved blame. This here maketh our Prophet say so much against himself, and lay open his own infirmity, yea his grievous disobedience, that himself was a runagate, jonah. 1.5. and fugitive from his God, yea a very careless rebel: that he slept in the ship-bottome, when all other were praying, for fear lest they should be drowned: Chap. 4.5. that he crosseth the Lord always, wishing vengeance upon Ninive, when God would have mercy; Chap. 4.1.4.9. yea that as the testiest man who ever did live, he did fret and scold with God, and for anger would be dead; and lastly that chiding handsmooth with his maker, he did justify his wrath, that he did well to be angry. 2 This course (not only here but through other scriptures also) of inculcating & redoubling their faults, whom the books do most concern, job. 3.1. 2. Sam. 11.17 1. Reg. 11.3. Num. 11.11. Chap. 20.12. jerem. 20.14. as the impatiency of job, the murder of David, the idolatry of Solomon, the discontentedness of Moses, by Moses himself, and God's punishment on him for it, that he came not into Canaan; so by jeremy himself, the fretting of jeremy, because all things were not well, doth argue to the reader some thing very supernatural that is in these books; since contrary to the course of humorous ambition, which delighteth in her own glory, and either openly or secretly, by some insinuation doth aim still at her own praise, they which are the Spirits secretaries, should discover themselves, & display their own oversights. Among other that follow in the process of this Prophecy, this is an excellent argument, against those wicked ones of our age, who call the Scripture in question. If they, who in the way of carnality to magnify themselves, and make their words seem glorious, dare oppose their wits against heaven and earth, against jews and Gentiles, against God and men, could remember the endless wisdom of the word of life, they might plentifully admire their spirit, who to give God the glory, 2. Cor. 12.5. do rejoice in their infirmities, & proclaim their own follies. And if they would compare the manner of these writers inspired with the holy Ghost, with the works of other men of what sort soever, they must either shut their eyes or confess a great difference. 3 For the writers of this world, howsoever against enemies they speak all and more than all, as Zozimus did against the Christians; or for their friends and countrymen set all at the highest, Sallust. in prae fatione Coniurat. Catil. as Sallust doth observe that the Athenien and Greek writers did long before his time; yea howsoever sometimes they speak truth where it cometh to their notice, or toucheth not themselves, or their partial friends; yet in them we find few examples of laying open the errors of themselves, or of their friends, especially when in any sort it may be concealed. Let Tully be a witness, of whose faults we do not read in any thing of his own; Tull. Offic. 1. but that Rome was saved by him from the fury of Catiline; that when he was Consul he did more than good service to the commonwealth, his tongue and his pen have never done. What learned man hath not heard of his Cedant arma togae, concedat laurea linguae. In the Commentaries of Caesar a book worthily penned, may we find any thing which maketh against himself, yea in his civil wars? Hirtius de bello Hispa. But in his friend Hirtius, what is there to be read that doth not make for him? The writings of Mahomet, I mean such as are written of him, do make him the only Prophet in the last age of the world, the great servant of the Highest, having messages from above, and oracles from heaven, yea & such a one as was able bodily to rise again from the dead, but that must be after eight hundred years (he taketh a pretty time for the trying of that conclusion, john 2.19. Lod. vives de veritate fidei lib. 4. joh. 16.7. whereas Christ took but three days) yea as vives observeth, that he was the comforter whom Christ promised to send into the world after his ascension: and that it was written in the Gospel of Saint john, I will send you a Comforter, and that shall be Mahomet, but that those last words concerning Mahomet, were razed out by the Christians. 4 By these we may judge of the rest. But it is so far off from men, who are but natural men, to be detectors and discoverers of their own falls to posterity, that they cannot with patience endure, that they should be opened by other. For that is a common fault and not proper to one, which Pliny reporteth of one in his time. And that was, that whereas according to the custom of that age, a certain writer had read and rehearsed in the presence of diverse a piece of a book, which truly deciphered the faults of some men, and said that he would reserve the rest until the next day to be heard, Plin. junior Epist. lib. 9 ad paternum. Tantus a●diēdi quae fecerunt pudor quibus nullus faciendi quae audire erubescunt. the friends of one party who was touched in that book, and not without desert, came in the mean while to the Author, and most earnestly entreated him in their friend's behalf, that he would forbear to read of that matter any further. Which made Pliny to infer this, in one of his Epistles, Such shame is there of hearing such things as are done, by them who shame not to do that which they blush to hear. What his friends could not endure, himself would much less, & what to hear had been grievous, to write had been ashame. The Prophets and penmen of the Spirit of God, by a peculiar prerogative are singular in this kind, to show that their books are the books of their Master: and so by that one means among other, Aug. Epist. 7. Secundas parts habeat modedestiae qui primas non potuit habere sapientiae. to stop the mouths of blasphemers and miscreants, who measure God by themselves, and piety by their profaneness. jonas was better taught, not to give the glory to himself, but to God, having learned that lesson which Saint Austen afterward did mention, that he who hath failed in the first degree of wisdom, that is virtue and obedience, should betake him to the second, that is, modesty in confessing and acknowledging his fault. Hear now therefore what he did, and how he performed his message. He arose to fly into Tarshish. 5 jonas thus far was obedient, to arise when he was bidden, but he might as well have sat still, for any good which he did. He rouseth up himself, as if he intended to fall hardly to his matters; but after the first step, he trod not one foot right. He should have rose to cry, and he arose to fly: he should have gone East to Ninive, and he went Westward to japho. But even clean contrary. A lively example of the infirmity of man, that without God's grace we very soon plunge into all manner of sin, without measure or mean, when a Prophet so experienced in the mysteries of salvation, could play so foul a part. But there is no man that sinneth not, 1. Reg 8.46. as Solomon saith, And the just man doth fall seven times, Hieronym. Epist. 46. Si cadit quomodo justus, si justus quomodo cadit? jacob. 3.2. whereof although Hierome ask, If he be just how doth he fall, and if he fall how is he just? yet he answereth himself, that he looseth not the name of a righteous man, who ariseth by repentance, and we may say further, he falleth by nature, and ariseth by grace, he falleth by sin, and is righteous by faith. In many things we sin all, saith S. james: not you only who be the people, but we also the Apostles. And if that there should have come any other after the Apostles, that should not have sinned, it is very likely that our Saviour in the midst of his wisdom, wherewith he governeth his Church, would have appointed for them some other prayer, than the ordinary Lords prayer: Matth. 6.12. they should not have said, forgive us our trespasses, because they had none. This is a cooler both to the Pharisees and Novatians, who were wont to despise sinners. If jonas fall, and job, and No, and Lot, and David, whom the scripture calleth just and righteous persons, and after Gods own heart, let other men take heed of presumption, and trusting in themselves. Yet this is a comfort to sinners in the weakness of their souls. If God forgave jonas repenting and believing, he will forgive us also, if we believe and repent. Therefore let not despair devour our wounded consciences. Yet let not this be an encouragement to offend in any wilfulness. Many will fall with David, but they will not arise with David. Our Prophet at the length amendeth, but his fall was great the while. Let us first see the reasons that moved him to his flight, and then the manner of it. 6 We need not to doubt, but Satan who is ever at hand to promote bad causes, could yield reasons enough for the hindrance of this work. He had cause to fear, that by the means of jonas many souls in Ninive might escape his net. Perhaps therefore he would suggest and put this in his mind, that he was but a stranger there, acquainted with no man, & so should be but ill welcome. 1. Sam. 21.13 This was one part of David's fear, when being with Achis he feigned himself mad, because among strangers out of his own country, he had none on whom he might repose himself, as on his familiar and fast true friend. But a meaner man than a Prophet, might here have answered Satan, that the whole earth is the Lords, Psal. 24.1. Gen. 12.10. Ruth. 1.1. and all that therein is, the compass of the world and they that dwell therein. He who kept Abraham in Egypt, where he was but a mere stranger, and Naomi in Moab, could keep jonas here also. It may be that the tempter would insinuate unto him, that he was but one man. What? one man to a multitude? a single person to a whole kingdom? A ridiculous thing. Yea but jonas might have heard, that the day was, when those which were with Elizeus and his servant, 2. Reg. 6.16. were more in number then all the enemies which were against them. Where God is and his Angels, there man is not alone. He could not but know, 2 Pet. 2.5. Exod. 3.10. Exod. 32.20. that a time had been, when one Noah was to preach to all the world, one Moses to Pharaoh and all the land of Egypt. The same Moses had stood against all the tribes of Israel, when he came down from the Mount, and found the people dancing about the golden calf. Num. 14.6. It was but one pair, when josua and Caleb resisted all the people, who murmured upon the return of the spies out of Canaan. Therefore as no reason should stop the mouth of the Minister, or detain him from his charge, so this should least of all other. They who never knew God, have gone as far as this: as Photion among the Athenians, of whom it is written, Plut. in vita Phocionis. that when Apollo by his Oracle at Delphos, had given an answer, that one man did disagree, although all the rest of their City consented; Desinite sollicitè inquirere quisnam is sit vir▪ ego sum de quo quaeritur: soli enim mihi nil eorum quae aguntur probatur. and they were much troubled to know who that one was, Photion of his own accord stepped forth and said, give over to wonder or inquire too carefully, who that man is: I am he of whom the question is, for indeed I like of nothing that you go about. jonas might have been as bold as ever Photion was, for he had a far better theme to speak upon. 7 It might be that our Prophet might have a conceit, that for bringing such a message as the destruction of Ninive, he might be murdered, or at the least be much abused; and that therefore it was better to keep him away. Good sleeping in a whole skin. What wise man would adventure his life, among barbarous people, which knew neither God nor goodness? If among them who knew something, 1. Reg. 19.1. Chap. 13.1. Elias could hardly escape the fingers of jezabel, and another Prophet could scant get away from idolatrous jeroboam, what might not be well feared among Gentiles, and proud bloody people? If it were but to be imprisoned, or railed at, or spit on, who would ever come there, that might keep himself thence? yet this was a carnal reason, if the Prophet so thought. Plutarch. de Exilio. Ridemus eum qui dixit meliorem Athenis esse lunam quam Corinthi. It was noted for folly in him that could say, that there was a better Moon at Athens then any was at Corinth. It savoured of infidelity in him that should think, that God was not as strong at Ninive, as he had been in Israel. But jonas wouldst thou not adventure an abusing, to win unto the Lord so goodly a City as Ninive was? such a king, and such a people? enlarge heaven with so many? A Philosopher after thee, Diogenes Laer●ius in vita Aristippi. Aristippus by name, in a desire that he had to gain Dionysius but unto moral virtue, could endure that the tyrant whose good he did seek, should rail and spit on him. And he could say for himself, that if fishermen for the getting of a little fish, could be well contented to soil and fowl themselves in the mud and mire, why should he refuse to endure any disgrace, if he might catch such a great fish as Dionysius was. The king of Ninive and his people, had been as the taking of a whale, in comparison of Dionysius, although a king in Sicilia. But if it had been worse, jonas, that thou must have lost thy life, wouldst thou have stuck thereat? To bestow thy life on God, who bestowed it on thee? to yield it when he called for it, who might call for it when he would? Could not he have restored it in this world, if it had pleased him? or could he not make recompense in the kingdom of heaven? Thou couldst not but know, jonas, that his Son afterward, should for thy sake lose his life. Was the servant above the master? How many for their Princes? how many for their countries have willingly died? Shall men do that for men, which thou wilt not for thy God? It was many years after thee, Eccles. 1.10. (but the saying of Solomon in specie is true, that there is no new thing, and so the like might be before thee) that at the siege of Auaricum a city of France by julius Caesar, Caesar. Comment. lib. 7. one frenchman being slain, by the stroke of an engine in war called a Scorpion, a second cometh in his place, and when he was slain, a third, and when he was dead, a fourth, they so entering certain death for the safeguard of their country. Shall soldiers do more for the keeping of a City, than a Prophet will do for the kingdom of heaven? This yet therefore is no reason: let us hear a little further. 8 Perhaps he did remember, that he did no good by preaching in his own country, to men of rebellious hearts: & what good then should he do in preaching to infidels? If they would not hear who had the Law and the covenant, Rom. 3 2. & to whom were committed the oracles of God, and knew what belonged to all these, what should be expected of ignorant persons? of superstitious idolaters? He who had lost one labour in so large a sort spent, would hardly endure to lose another. As good sit still at home, or do something else, as go so far and do nothing. This objection yet was worldly, for how could he tell what the Lord would do? Rom. 11.33. Matth. 3.9. Had he dived into those counsels which are so unsearchable, and those ways which are past finding out? God was able of stones to raise up children to Abraham. He could make the rough ways plain, & set the crooked things strait. Who should be of power to soften and mollify the heart, of flinty to make it fleshy, but he who made the heart? Howsoever let the Minister do his duty, & leave the rest to him. Paul planteth, 1. Cor. 3.6. Apollo's watereth, but God giveth the increase. But if God be not pleased to give any increase, yet let Paul plant, and let Apollo's water. The resolution which joab sometimes did bear speaking to the Israelites, should be the resolution of the Minister, 2. Sam 10.12. Be strong, and let us be valiant for our people, and for the cities of our God, and then let the Lord do what seemeth good in his eyes. So should jonas have said. In an unknown country God might have sent him fruit, who found none in his own. joseph. Anti. lib. 16.6. It is noted of Herod the great, by josephus, that he who at home was a man most unhappy in his wives & his children, was abroad a man most happy, for his great friends and acquaintance and much other prosperity. So it might have been with the Prophet. Therefore this yet is no reason. 9 It may be that he stomached it, that the Gentiles should know God, which was a fault in his countrymen, while they accounted all other men dogs, but themselves the holy seed. We have Abraham to our father. Matth. 3.9. joh. 8.39. Act. 10.44. In respect whereof, when Peter had preached to the Gentiles, and the gifts of the holy Ghost had fallen on Cornelius, and those which were with him; they of the Circumcision did challenge the Apostle, Act. 11.2. that he had gone in to men uncircumcised. So the Prophet being sick of his countrymen's disease, might murmur that the Ninivites should be preferred before the ancient people of God, his word being taken from these, and given to the other, as if they had better deserved it. This might in time bring in the refusal of the jews, and the calling of the Gentiles so spoken of by Noah, Gen. 9.27. Chap. 49.10. Deut. 32 21. Psal. 68.31. so told of by jacob, so fore-prophecied by Moses, so fore-written by David, all which more then apparently did aim at such a matter. But is it come to this pass that the axe shall lead the workman? or shall man teach his God what people he shall choose? Hiram although a Gentile, 1. Reg. 5.8. yet had a finger in the Temple of Solomon; so Ninive of the Gentiles might be a part of God's spiritual temple. If Israel were to be rejected, they might thank none but themselves for that loss, who had the custody of so precious a treasure, as the Ark was and the Cherubins, which signified God's presence, and lost all the fruit of them and many blessings beside. But by many words of the old Testament, that time could not yet be come, nor the general calling of the Gentiles, till that Messias did appear, who was far enough from jonas. Therefore as the rest, so this was no pretence for the Prophet, to fly away from his charge. 10 Thus have I touched such causes, as sense and reason yield, and the expositions on this place. The text doth not contrary these, and it is not unlikely, that all or diverse of them, were tumbling at that time in the working head of jonas. But there is one which expressly is named in the body of the text, as appeareth in the fourth chapter. jon. 4.2. jonas stood on his reputation, that he was the Lord's messenger, & therefore was to speak nothing but truth. He imagined that it might be his gross discredit, to be taken in a lie; and he thought it might be a means, that God's name might be reproached, and the Lord be blasphemed. For I know saith he, that thou art a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil. Thus the man is so strait laced, that rather than himself would lose a word, he careth not if a million of men do lose their lives; if that goodly glorious city were ruinated to the ground; if the innocent sucking infants were devoured up by destruction. A preposterous zeal, and furious, and which wanteth no ignorance also. For he should ha●● learned to distinguish between God's absolute word, and his conditional threatenings. Some things are without any condition, ●e will have them to be so: some other things are with an If, as, if they do not repent. It was an absolute speech: The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head. Gen. 3.15. But it is a word with condition, The Lord will not forsake his people, that is, if they do not first forsake him, which manner of intended, or included condition if jonas had remembered, when he was to utter his speech, That Ninive should be destroyed, Verum est, if they repented not, and called for grace, God might have done his pleasure, and his servant have said true also. 11 This reason of the Prophet wherefore he should fly from God's service, is more grievous than the rest. For would he shorten the Lord of his mercy? Would man that was a sinner, and must be saved by a pardon, envy that other sinners should have their pardon also? Matth. 20.15. Was jonas his eye evil because God's eye was good? Then welfare Saint Paul writing to Titus, whom he would have to remember his charge, and the people whom he taught, Tit. 3.2.3. to show meekness to all men, and he layeth this down as one cause, for that we ourselves also were in times past unwise and disobedient. Tullius pro M. Marcello. Tully was of better nature, who would have Marcellus spared, because himself before had by Caesar been spared. But he reproacheth it unto Tubero, that he would offer to accuse Ligarius of that, Pro Q. Ligario. August. Homil. 6. Tomo 10. Quia Deus extendit pontem misericordiae suae ut tu transire posses, hoc vis ut iam subducat ne alius transeat? wherein himself and other had been guilty. S. Austen in the sixth of those, which are only called by the name of his Homilies, doth by a secret inclusion compare this mind of man, to one who is to pass over a ditch, or stream of water, (where if he pass not he dieth, and if he plunge in, he drowneth) and there doth find that favour to have a bridge or plank of timber laid cross to help him over: but when other do come after, who are in that state as he was, he would have it withdrawn from them. When God saith he hath stretched out his bridge of mercy that thou mayst go over, wilt thou that he shall withdraw it, lest some other do come that way? This is a cruel position, and should not be in the child of God. Grave Seneca doth account it a great fault in Lysimachus, Senec. de Ira. lib. 3. that whereas himself upon Alexander's displeasure, was cast unto a Lion to be devoured, and happily escaped by killing that Lion, yet he carried so furious and cruel a heart toward another man, as to cut off the ears and nose from Telesphorus Rhodius, whom in former time he had entertained as his friend, but then afterward kept him being so mangled, in a cage, as if he had been some strange beast. He should have learned by his own example to have pitied another man. That verse of Dido is good, Non ignara mali miseris succurrere disco. Virgil. Aeneid. 1. I who have tasted of sorrow, have learned thereby to pity those whom I see to be in misery. That party who hath found mercy, should not grudge mercy unto other. Our Prophet hath forgot this. Nothing else but thunder and lightning, and fire from heaven would serve the turn, if he must go to Ninive. A humour very ambitious, which to feed itself in his fancies, careth not if other perish. This is a grievous fault wheresoever it be found. The magnifying of one man, and the loftiness which he conceiveth, should not be the ruin of many. What is the cause saith Saint Bernard of such fury many times? Nothing else saith he but this, Bernardus Epistol. 126. Luc. 2.14. Displicet mortalibus Angelica illa partitio qua gloria D●o & pax hominibus nunciatur: & dum gloriam usurpant, turban pacem. Augustin. de verbis Dom. Serm. 15. that the division of the Angels doth not please mortal men. For they say, Glory to God on high, and peace to men: but while men do seek the glory they do disturb the peace. The Prophet in this place, is sick of this disease. Let Ninive and ten Ninives sink, burn, or do what it will: he had leifer have his mind satisfied, than all the world beside. Whereof because he feareth that he shall fail, he will take such a course, as in the end proveth little to his own ease. He ariseth as God bade him, and away he goeth with haste; but better that he had halted, so it had been in the right way, then to run with speed in a wrong way. And thus now having heard the reasons which are by any supposed to put him besides his duty, let us see the course which he taketh. He went down to japho, etc. Septuagint. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Hierony. in hunc locum. 12 The Septuagint translate it, he went up to japho; but Hierome doth dislike it, being moved thereto both by the Hebrew word, and by his own experience. For living long, as he did in the holy land as we commonly call it, he saw that japho did stand low, and therefore to be more fit for descending then ascending. It is a haven town in Palestina standing upon the Mediterrane sea, and it is the same which is called joppa in the tenth of the Acts, Acts. 10.15. whither Cornelius sent for Peter. This is one of those towns, which the Christians sometimes in their voyage to the holy land, Roger. Hoveden in Richardo primo. Guliel. Neubringens. Hist. 4.27. Aria's Mont. in hunc locum Hieron. in Ezec. 27.12. did recover from Saladine the great king of Egypt: and it had afterward been regained by him, but that Richard the first than king of this land, being returning on his journey for England, did bring back his army, and succour it at need, as Neubringensis writeth. From this japho our Prophet would go unto Tarshish, which some have thought to be the old city Carthage, and Hierome himself though not in this place yet in the seven and twentieth of Ezechiel doth read Carthaginiens, where as we read, men of Tarshish. Yet because we are not sure, that Carthage was then built, (for this Prophecy is ancient, and Salomon's time more ancient, when Tarshish was right famous, which I think Carthage was not) I therefore follow them who take it for Tarsus a town of Cilicia in Asia the lesser, Gualther. in hunc locum. which was nearer to the jews, and well known among them, as may be gathered by Paul's speech, saying that he was borne there, and calling it a famous city in Cilicia. I am the more induced hereunto, joseph. Antiquit. lib. 9.11. because josephus reciting this story saith expressly, that jonas meant to fly to Tarsus in Cilicia. And I suppose this to be the place, whither Solomon did send for things of pleasure, and of profit, when it is said that he sent unto Tarshish for gold and silver and ivory and Apes and peacocks. 1. Reg. 10.22. 13 This City then being a place of great traffic, whither merchants did frequent, to buy and sell wares, doth yield probable conjecture, although no necessary inference, that jonas not liking his message to Ninive, would now for worldly respects, leave his calling and become a merchant. It would well have becomed him, to renounce his vocation, and fallen to merchandising. His sanctified gifts would have well served to that purpose. That calling in itself is certainly not unlawful, but yet not lawful to every man. There are in it, as by men it is commonly used, great occasions of abuses, and those so great, that Syracides saith of it, Eccles. 26 30. Chap. 27.2. A merchant cannot lightly keep him from wrong. And, As a nail in the wall sticketh fast between the joints of the stones, Herodotus in Clio. Non extimui ●nquam homines illos, quibus locus est in media urbe vacuus ad quem collecti mutuis ipsi s●bi iuramentis imponerent. so doth sin stick between the selling and buying. Cyrus' the king of Persia did note great fraud and deceit to be in the Greeks, when he could say of them, that he feared not such men, as had a place empty in the midst of their city, to the which they gathering every day, beguiled one another with oaths and swearing. These words saith Herodotus did Cyrus cast forth against all the greeks, because they had large market places wherein they used their traffiking, as among us might be a Bource or Exchange. Let this rather be a fault of the persons then of the things, since God hath ordained that trade to his glory, to the use of navigation, to the discovery of countries, to the communicating of commodities in one nation to another, to the bringing in of such things as are comfortable to man; yea serviceable in religion, as wine to us Northern people, to be used in the Sacrament, as the best representation of the blood of Christ jesus. But howsoever for a Prophet, to leave his preaching in the name of the Lord, and fall to marchandising (if we will take it so) was a fault in the highest degree, to run from God to men: from heaven unto earth. 14 I find in the new Testament, that from towl-gatherers and fisher's men came to be Apostles; and I know that after their sanctifying, joh. 21.3. Act. 18.3. for a need they did use their occupations, as the Apostles went a fishing, and Saint Paul did make tents; but these things were but as hand-maidens to the study of Divinity, and to the Mistress the word; but that preaching was left for any of these, I think a man may turn the whole Bible over, and over again, 2. Tim. 4 10. and find no such example. Only this, it was small praise to Demas as here it is to jonas, that he left S. Paul, and embraced this present world. In our time let men take heed, whom God hath blessed with very good gifts, that it be not laid unto their charge, that they with jonas have chosen to do something else, as to be farmers, or graziers, or husbandmen in the country, rather than to preach the word, whereunto in former time they were in show selected. I speak not in bitterness, but rather do grieve at it. The Church hath had a wound by it. If when they did teach before, they preached and were not called, that were a grievous fault, to run & not be sent. If they formerly were called, than who hath now recalled them? Those things about which they faint and fall, are not of that moment, as is the preaching of the word. I do not yet find any thing, either expressly or by consequent, directly to be drawn throughout the whole book of God, for the leaving or refusing of this or of that garment, & so of other circumstances, which sometimes were in question, but I am sure that I find this plainly, 1. Cor. 9.16. woe is unto me if I preach not the Gospel. I do judge no man's conscience, but leave that to the Lord. Yet to speak mine opinion, I do fear that it can be but small comfort, to the heart of a true Christian, in so glorious a time of the Gospel, as we have (and the Lord make us thankful for it) to say that in England he is persecuted for preaching of the Gospel. Less comfort to be said truly, to be a cause to himself, of stopping his mouth from preaching of the Gospel. But least of all, with jonas to go from Ninive to Tarsus, from being a Prophet, to be a merchant, or follow some other calling. jonas by it sped but ill, let them look to themselves. I desire that all should be well. He found a ship going to Tarshish. 15 God doth many times suffer those things to be ready, by the which we may fall, that we may learn that in ourselves there is no measure of iniquity, if God once do give us over, or leave us for a time. Whereupon we have need to pray, not only as some pray, Matth. 6.13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. that he will not suffer us to be led into temptation, but that he will not lead us into temptation, by causing us to see enticements, and if he do, that then he will deliver us from evil. That is, if he try us, that he will not suffer us to fall: if he lay a burden on us, that he will give us grace to bear it. But that is another matter. He findeth a ship ready, and like a man that meant to travel, having money in his purse (so the Prophet is not threadbare, he hath money in his purse) he payeth the fare of her. He may be thought in this, to be a man of good conscience, that such as laboured for him, should have the price of their pains. A lesson worth the learning, for those which have to do with labourers, and poor workmen, that they do not detain their wages. Matth. 10.10. The labourer saith our Saviour, is worthy of his hire. God hath diverse sayings in his Law, that the wages of such persons as are hired, Leuit. 19.13. Deut. 24.14. should not be detained from them, lest in anguish of their soul the men cry unto the Lord, and he take it not well. The rich men that do this, are bidden by Saint james to weep and howl for the miseries that shall come upon them. jac. 5.1.3. And it is added, Your gold and silver is cankered, and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. The Prophet howsoever in other things he deal carelessly, yet in this he will not offend. He will rather break with God, then crack his credit with men. If they work they shall have money. 16 But may we not rather collect something here, which maketh against the Prophet, that so firily he is set, and so hotly inflamed to run from his duty, that rather than fail, his purse shall go for his passage? Here is earnestness with a witness; he careth not for his company, be they Gentiles, or infidels, or idolaters as they were, (for that will appear by it which followeth) he careth not so that he may be gone. So that he may do amiss, he will not spare his money. See the corruptness of our nature. They who are otherwise straight-handed enough, in promoting that which is good, will spare no cost at all to further that which is evil. I do not find that the Priests were very liberal to the poor, especially out of the common treasury: yet that Christ may be betrayed, Matth. 26.15. Chap. 27.57. judas shall have for his part thirty pieces of silver. Let joseph of Arimathea bestow cost if he will, on burying Christ crucified; the rulers will none: but so that it may be rumoured, that his Disciples came by night and stole him away, Chap. 28.12. the soldiers shall have large pay. Socrat. Hist. Eccles. 3.12. The Apostata julian was eager enough to get money from the Christians, by exactions and oppressions, but when he bade the jews build the Temple at jerusalem, in spite of jesus Christ, Chap. 17. Ammian. Marcel. li. 23. who had told before that it never should be re-edified, it is certain that his purse, as well as his tongue, did go in that bargain. Our age hath too many of such men as these be. Such as be of good place, if they be solicited by their honest neighbours, to help forward a Lecture, for the teaching of the people of God, their own children and servants, yea perhaps themselves too (who are most ignorant of all) or to maintain an able Minister; they have not a penny, their charge is so great, and so many ways they are burdened: but to disturb their Preacher, or call him in question, or make him stand in law for his tithes and due maintenance, they have money enough. For the using of God's gifts to the honour of his name, they have other business: but to use them against God or any of his good children, they have store and will enough. 17 He payeth that he may be gone, and he telleth the other circumstances, that he may confess his sin to be more grievous before God. But twice in this verse it is named that he would fly from the presence of the Lord. In the beginning & in the end. But might that be done jonas? Can any withdraw himself from the sight of the Lord? Is not he ruler as well of the sea, as of the land? Can a man see himself any where, where God can not see him? Psal. 94.9. He who framed the eye shall not he see? or he who made the ear, shall he not hear? Surely jonas could not be ignorant, that this was not the matter. We will not do such wrong to him, as to think that a Prophet had not read David's Psalms. And if he had done that, than he well might remember that excellent Psalm of David; Psal. 139.3. Thou compassest my paths and my lying down, and art accustomed to all my ways. There is not a word in my tongue, but lo thou knowest it wholly o Lord. Whither shall I go from thy Spirit, or whither shall I fly from thy presence? If I ascend into heaven thou art there: if I lie down in hell, thou art there. Let me take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, yet thither shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. Then the caves of the earth, the secrets of walls, the darkness of the night, the distance of the place either by land or sea, cannot detain from God's presence. Perhaps Adam and his wife, for want of experience (for they had never fallen before) might think that by running among the trees of Paradise, Gen. 3.8. they might hide themselves. But when God had once found them (which was not long to do) they might be out of that opinion. Their posterity which came after them, & had read the Scriptures, might be resolved for that matter. Acts. 17.28. For in God we move and live and have our being. And therefore wheresoever we do move, or wheresoever we do live, or wheresoever we have our being, there God is by his power, there God is by his presence. It shall be then but a bad shift for the miscreants of the earth, to cry in the day of vengeance, to the mountains and the rocks, Apoc. 6.15. fall on us and hide us from the presence of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb. They cannot escape his sight, they cannot avoid his judgement. Diodor. Sic. Bibliothecae lib. 12. When Pericles once was sad, about yielding an account of much money to the Athenians, which he possibly could not discharge, his nephew Alcibiades did help him with this good counsel, that he should not beat his brains, how he might give a reckoning, but he rather should devise how he might give no reckoning. He took this course indeed, and by plunging the Athenians into a grievous war, he did avoid the account. Before the Lord of heaven this will not serve the turn: he knoweth all things and seeth all things. jonas could not be so gross as to run so from his presence. 18 But if that thought were in him, or if any man will so take it, he went the worst way to work for himself, that ever man did. For he that would be so blockish, as to think he might fly from God, and would go to sea to do it, were worthy to be registered, for a man most unadvised. This is as much, as if to avoid some heat, that cometh by an ague, the patient should run into the fire, as it is said that Hercules did being troubled with a frenzy: Seneca in Herc. Octaeo. or if another to avoid a shower of rain, should leap into the river: for if God's hand any where do evidently appear, or if any where it be fearful, Iwenalis' Satyra 12. Digitis à morte remotus qua. tuor aut septem si sit latissima taeda. it is in being at sea, where, as the Poet speaketh, a man is still within four or at most seven inches of his death: where storms that be impetuous do cause them to pray, who scant ever prayed before; where rocks, and sands, and gulfs are ready still to devour. The remembrance of this made David speak so sufficiently, They that go down to the sea in ships, Psal. 107.23. and occupy by the great waters, they see the works of the Lord and his wonders in the deep. Paul found this by experience, Acts. 27.18. when he endured such a storm and wreck too, in the Mediterrane sea. He who would see more of this, let him read in Virgil, Virgilius Aeneid. 1. what a tempest is described to have befallen Aeneas in the Sicilian sea. So than if God be present any where to punish or preserve, it is in the huge Ocean. That if a man would have wished to be followed as with a fury, he should do as jonas did. Plin-Iunior lib. 6. Epistolarum. Erant qui metu mortu mortem precarentur. When Pliny the elder was choked, in going to see Veswius 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 Pliny among them some, who were so afraid of death, that they wished themselves 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 just as these other: for to fly away from God's presence, he runneth into God's presence. 19 Therefore we will not imagine that jonas was so ignorant, to think thus to get from the Lord: but his going from God's presence, doth signify in this place a departing from his duty, and from the execution of his office. For they are said in the Scripture, to be in the Lord's presence, or to stand before the Lord, who do execute their ministry or function as they should. So the Lord separated the tribe of Levi, Deut. 10.8. to bear the Ark of the covenant of the Lord, and to stand before the Lord, which is expounded there, to minister unto him and to bless in his name to this day. 1. Reg. 17.1. So as the Lord God of Israel liveth saith Elias before whom I do stand, that is, whom faithfully I do serve, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years but according to my word. The very self same phrase doth Elizeus use, in another place to Naaman the Syrian. 2. Reg. 5.16. The contrary of which speech is uttered by that wicked Cain, Gen. 4.14.16 who did never serve 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 service. Such was our Prophet's flight from the presence of the Lord. When he should have performed his calling, & upon occasions, continually have taken direction from the voice of God speaking to him, he did forsake his charge, and could have been well contented, if God would never more have spoken to him. But his master will not leave him so. This is an excellent comfort to the Ministers of the Gospel, that as long as they do their duties they stand before the Lord, who doth protect and preserve them from the rage of bloody tyrants, from the tempests of the world, from the mischief of cruel enemies. Neither can the rage of Satan lay any thing more upon them, than God giveth them grace to bear. And again in as much as in this life they are spectacles to men, in preaching and in living, they are spectacles to Angels, they are spectacles to God, they are warned that they discharge their function with sincerity, remembering this good lesson, 2. Cor. 2.17. that they be not as many, who make merchandise of the word of God, but as of sincerity, but as of God in the sight of God, speaking in Christ. 20 In these most perilous times, wherein Satan fretteth and rageth; wherein Papism is little weakened, but Atheism waxeth strong, and the sins of men do cry; but on the other side pity waxeth thin, and charity groweth cold, This should be a lively motion to stir up the Spirit of God in us, that with alacrity we may go forward, to the building up of God's house, and not to be wearied in well doing, or withdraw ourselves from the work. In the fifteenth of the Acts, Acts. 15.38. although Barnabas were more mild, and did not take the matter so heinously, yet Paul did so dislike it in john Mark at Pamphylia, that he would not go with them about the Lords service, that he refused his company afterward. Surely God looketh for much of them, whom he hath singled out to be the messengers of his glory. If with jonas we should leave him, and turn away from his presence when he hath use for us in the field, let us fear lest a greater judgement befall us, than did unto jonas. Which what it was, in the next by God's grace I shall show. In the mean time jesus send▪ us due consideration of our calling, that not following worldly reasons which often draw men to Tharsus when they should go to Ninive, but attending God's commandment, we may with joy run our course, and so possess that inestimable crown of justice, which the righteous Lord hath laid up for all those that love his coming. To this God be praise for ever. THE III. LECTURE. The chief points. 2. The punishment of the Prophet may well fright other from sin. 4. All tempests depend of God. 6. Yet Satan and his instruments, by God's permission have sometimes a finger in them. 10. How the sin of one bringeth punishment upon many. 13. Bad company is to be avoided. 14. The description of the tempest. 16. Life is dearer than goods. 18. Affliction driveth to devotion. JONAH. 1.4.5 But the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken. Then the mariners were afraid and cried every man unto his God, and cast the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. Our Prophet as a man who would very gladly be rid of his master, hath gotten him to the sea; the land cannot hold him: but his master not so willing to part with his servant, sendeth such a message after him, as will bring him back again, or make him do far worse. He would not have his messenger run so to his own ruin, and lie obdurate in his sin; he would not have his purpose of preaching at Ninive, be utterly relinquished; but rather because it hath so long been deferred, he by whom the stay hath been made, shall hear of it with a witness. Here followeth such a tempest, to bid him welcome to the sea, that if such should be common, it needed not be noted to be the speech of a wise man, Cato. that he wondered that any one would come twice at the sea: having seen the peril of it, would come at it again; for every wise man would so say. The wind doth now so blow, the waves do so beat, the sea doth so work, the ship is so endangered, the seamen are so afraid, jonas so by a lot is singled out to death, that drowning was the least that could befall unto him. We need make no doubt, but all this was done for jonas his sake. For the question is here true, Habac 3 8. which a Prophet elsewhere asketh: Was the Lord angry against the rivers? or was thine anger against the floods? or was thy wrath against the sea? No, it was against the sin of jonas, that all this came as vengeance, and that God so sent his messengers of wrath and of displeasure. 2 He desireth that his Prophet should be warned, for all the days that he was to live in the world, to play no more such parts: for what end should the next have, if he sped so ill with this? And he would have other men to take example by him, that they run not, no not with his own servants, to gross notorious crimes, lest they smart for it with his servants. For if the green wood so burn, Luc. 23.31. what shall become of the dry? if a leader do such penance, what shall a common man? if a Prophet do so pay for it, how shall a mean body escape? By this example the presumptuous heart of such is broken, as when they have sinned wilfully, in steed of ask pardon by confession and repentance, can soothe themselves in their follies, saying that the best men have offended; and why should it be strange for them to go astray, since God's Saints have done worse? Not only jonas here forsaketh his vocation, Gen. 9.21. Chap. 19.33. 2. Sam. 11 4. 1. Reg. 11.1. but Noah offendeth in drunkenness, and Lot in worse, even in incest, and David in adultery, and Solomon that wise king in marrying many infidels. The gross falls of all which men, are not proposed unto us in the holy book of God, to encourage us to transgression: (for that were a Spider's property to suck such poison from them) but rather, Augustin. de Doct. Christ. lib. 3. as S. Austen teacheth us, to put us in mind of that warning of the Apostle, that he who standeth should take heed lest he fall: to humble us to obedience, not to puff us up to pride. But withal if they could remember, that although the Lord did cover the infirmities of his children, with the skirts of his sons mercy, lest they should finally perish; yet to show how he hateth sin, even in the best of his people, he sendeth them in this world, whipping with temporal rods enough: they may very well find, that there is small reason why they should be in love with the bargain. Gen. 9.25. For was there not a Cham to deride his father, & so far to move the patience of that righteous preacher Noah, as in bitterness to curse him? Was there not an Absalon ready so with all kind of contumely to scourge offending David, 2. Sam. 16.22. as to abuse his father's concubines, and to seek his father's life? 1. Reg. 11.14.23.26. Chap. 12.20. Here was a Hadad, and there a Rezon, and a jeroboam in the third place, to vex wife-doting Solomon, that he could not rest in his old age: and afterward his son Roboam did lose ten tribes of twelve. 3 And as for the Prophet here, he bestoweth on himself a whole Chapter, to show the fruit of his fall, that other might forbear to offend, by the example of that grievous punishment which he sustained. If he had been as nimble to have excused his fault, as these be in our days, he might have made some Apology for himself, or at least have concealed his penance which befell him▪ that when no man had been frighted by his case, other might have walked in his steps; and the commonness of the fault might have excused the crime. Socrat. Hist. Eccles. l. 4.26. Caesar Baronius hoc falsò proditum à Socrate dicit. Annal. Eccles. Tomo 4. Anno Domini 370. For when multitudes do as we do, we think that they do ease our burden, as the Emperor Valentinian imagined, (if Socrates report truth of him) when having one wife of his own called Severa, whom he was unwilling to leave, he was in love also with another virgin called justina, and he married her too. And lest this fault should seem most gross, if he alone were noted for so scandalous behaviour, by a law of purpose made, he giveth leave to all that would to marry two wives a piece: thinking that when many transgressed he should be more free from blame. Our jonas is so charitable as to take another course, not to induce men to the like by himself, but to terrify them much rather, by recording how he sped. To fall, because the patriarchs and Prophets have oft fallen, Diogen. Laertius. lib. 2. Plato in Phaedone. is as much as willingly to taste of poison, because Socrates once drunk poison, which were but a foolish trial. His poison was his death: And so had sin been death, to the holiest, if God had not given repentance, to expel the force of iniquity. But what man is he who can promise to himself repentance, or rising when he is fallen? Many hope for it but few have it; Augustin. in Psalm. 51. Non cadendi exemplum propositum est, sed si cecideruresurgendi. Attend ne cadas. many speak of it, but few use it, which maketh that worthy saying of S. Austen to be true, Many will fall with David, but they will not arise with David. No example of falling is in him proposed to thee, but of rising if thou have fallen. Take heed thou go not down. Let not the slip of the greater, be the delight of the lesser; but let the fall of the greater, be the trembling of the lesser. Thus that holy father speaketh. If the greatest fall thou mayest fall, therefore do not presume: but if the greatest be punished, then fear Gods righteous judgement. You shall hear how jonas sped. The Lord sent out a wound. 4 It is well said by David, Psal. 11.6. that God raineth on the wicked fire and brimstone and stormy tempest. But more fitly to my purpose, that fire and hail, Psal. 148.8. and snow, and vapours, and stormy wound do execute his word. For these and other meteors, are his creatures made by him: his subjects that live under him: his messengers sent from him to punish or to help, to execute his will. The voice of the Lord is upon the waters, Psal. 29.3. the God of glory maketh it to thunder. If it do hail in Egypt, where it raineth very few times, Exod. 9.23. Deut. 11.10. Exod. 10.13.19. God sendeth that hail on Pharaoh. If an East wind bring in grasshoppers, and a West wind drive them out, Moses telleth us in Exodus, that both come from the Lord. The wind and the tempest depend not on chance, or any blind fortune, but on the sovereign power of the Almighty Creator. If nature be here used, or the ordinary course of Sun, and Moon, and stars, to attract aught or beat it back again, these are but God's hand-maidens, Flavius Vopiscus in vita Cari. to work his designments. If Carus the Emperor be blasted to death with lightning, it is the Lords doing. If Theodosius have the sky to war against his enemies, and the winds as his sworn servants to help forward his victory, some Claudian must sing, Claudian. de 3. consolatu Honorij. O nimium dilect Deo cui militat aether. Et coniurati vemunt ad classica venti. Anno. 1588. that he or his son Honorius who was then present with him, is much beloved of God, O ninimium dilect Deo. If our Spaniards when they are beyond Scotland, be brought back again by Ireland, and when men look not after them, winds and waves do pursue them in miraculous sort (in which I fear lest we offend, that we speak not of it oftener, & parents tell it not unto their children) if we would do as we should do, we must sing with S. Ambrose, Te Deum laudamus. We praise thee o God. Who so walketh by the land, or passeth by the sea, if winds promote his business, or hinder his purpose, and disquiet him in his enterprise, let him assign it to his providence who ruleth all with power, who sent that tempest here to jonas; for from him they do all come. 5 Those Ethnics who knew little or nothing of true piety, did yet aim at this even by the very light of nature; when by the glimpsing sight of reason, they laid it down that a divine substance did govern these creatures, (although they miss much of his majesty) when Neptune for the sea was Lord of the waves, and Aeolus for the air was master of the winds. People ruder than the greeks and more barbarous than the Romans, have guessed at such a thing, and had such a like conceit; I mean the Western Indians, Petrus Martyr Decade. 3.2. the dull people of America, who thought that thunder and lightning & tempest were sent by the Sun, whom they reputed for a God as Peter Martyr letteth us know. The more absurd the while, were the Thurij in my judgement, a people of Italy where both learning and civility did grow. Aelian. Hist. lib. 12.61. For as Aelian writeth of them, when Dionysius the tyrant of Sicilia came up against them with three hundredth sail of ships, intending to destroy them, they being almost oppressed with his violence, yet had this good hap befallen unto them, that a great Northern wind blew, & so wracked those ships, that they were spilt almost all. In remembrance whereof, they by a common consent made this Northwind a God, admitted him into their City, incorporated him among them, appointed him an house and goods of his own, and every year beside did sacrifice unto him. These men looked too low: they were too too much base minded, when they made the wind a God, whom nature and reason had taught other Gentiles to be but a God's servant. The wind obeyeth, and ruleth not: it is not at pleasure to do what it would, if there were a will in it: it hath a master; not Aeolus, but one that fitteth far higher. 6 Yet the question is here offered, De hac quaestione vide Nicolaú Remigium Daemonolatriae. lib. 1.25. whether that inferior creatures do not sometimes stir up tempests, as wind, or rain or thunder, for I put them in one degree, and consider them as being of like nature, concerning this point. Whether Satan by himself, or the ministers of Satan, enchanters or witches, or necromancers and conjurers, cannot stir up such things? and if they can, how they then are said to be wrought by God's finger? That learned man Seneca did think it so plain that nothing could be plainer, Sen●c. Nat. Quaest li. 4 7 Rudis adl●uc antiquitas credebat. Quorum nihil posse fieri tam palam est. Wierus de praestigi●s Daemonun, in Apologetico Conc. Brentij. Impiorun est opinio, diabolum maleficas & lamias grandinemciere. justin, Mart. quaest. 31. ad orthodoxos incredibile dicit, posse imbres per incantamenta provenire. that tempests could not be raised by any enchantments, when he speaketh on this sort, Antiquity being yet rude, did believe both that rain could be brought and driven away too by charms; of which things that neither can be done, it is so manifest, that for this matters sake no school of any Philosopher is ever to be entered. No doubt, there be many also of the Christians, and those very learned men who are altogether of that opinion. In that book which Wierus hath written De Praestigijs Demonum, is a sermon which Brentius made by occasion of a great hail, that fell in some parts of Germany and did much hurt to the corn and vineyards. And therein are these words, It is the opinion of wicked men, that the devil and witches and sorceresses do stir up hail, and therewith do hurt and destroy wine and corn. To these may be added more. And yet on the other side, that such graceless people do challenge to themselves a power in these cases; that they attempt to stir up thunders; that they try to raise up winds, to cross things at sea, or to effect things at land; and that they affirm that they can do thus, may be well known to any, who either in experience shall confer with such offenders, or else read such matters as are written of them. To say nothing of the one, that is, what they assume; but to speak to the other, I am satisfied that in Poetry that speech is too much, Virgil. Egloga 8. Carmina de caelo possunt deducere Lunam. Charms and enchantments can fetch the very Moon down out of heaven, and other like in that place: for that is a thing impossible, and only delivered from an old imagination or rather boasting of the Thessalian women, who were much addicted to that wickedness. But the saying of Medea in one of the Tragedies of the younger Seneca hath some more reason to confirm it. Seneca in Medea. Et evocavi nubibus siccis aquas. I have forced rain out of the clouds which before were dry. The soothsayers of Hetruria, Sozom. Eccl. Hist. lib. 9 6. as Sozomen doth write, would have made men believe, that they could raise up thunderbolts to drive away their enemies. The story is notable which Dion hath of Sidius Geta a Roman leader. Dion Histor. lib. 60. This Captain, saith he, pursuing the Moors in the hot country of Africa, had both himself and his army almost perished for want of water. One of the confederate Moors, cometh in this extremity unto Sidius, and wisheth him that by Art Magic he would procure down some rain, or at least suffer it so to be, professing that himself had oftentimes made trial thereof, and had never failed in his attempt. This was done, and immediately such store of rain did follow thereupon, as both relieved his men and frighted his enemies, as if heaven itself had now conspired against them. I might add more examples of grave and learned writers, who think that such meteors come oftentimes by such means. jovianus Pontanus lib. 5. Rerum suo tempore gestarum. 7 jovianus Pontanus in the fifth book of the Acts of his time, hath a Narration to this purpose, but a judgement to the contrary. In that mighty quarrel between the kings of Arragon, and the house of Anjou in France for the kingdom of Naples, Ferdinandus king of Arragon did besiege Mont-dragon a town and castle in old Campania, where because the town stood high on the top of a rock, and the season was exceeding dry, he hoped that ere long, for want of water he should win it to his pleasure. Now the inhabitants thereof being almost dead for thirst, being advised thereunto by certain Priests, most wicked and ungodly persons, did try this conclusion, than the which there have been few more irreligious or impious. Stealing down in the dark of the night, through the watch which was set by the enemy, they crept along the rocks even to the sea side, and all the way drew with them a Crucifix (the resemblance of Christ crucified, and hanging on the cross) which first they cursed and banned, with many enchanted speeches, but afterward with most execrable words they threw it into the sea, using imprecations against the heaven, and earth, and water, so to wring from them a tempest. In the mean time the Priests being as wicked men as lived, to satisfy the soldiers who set them on work, brought an Ass to the church door, and sung a Dirge to him as to a man now dying; then they put into his mouth, their Sacrament of the Altar, & so with funeral hymns, did bury the Ass alive before the church door. This ungodly solemnity was scant ended, but the air was full of clouds, the sea was stirred with the wind, the heaven did roar with thunder, the earth did flash with lightning, trees were plucked up by the roots, the stones did rend in pieces, & there fell such abundance of rain, that from the top of the rock whole streams did run of water. So the king miss of his purpose. The Author which writeth this, confessing the whole matter, and describing it as I have done, doth think that their Magic did not cause the rain, but that it came naturally, so much wet falling after so long a drought. His reason is, that for such villainy and blasphemy as was then used toward himself, God would not send a benefit unto men to help them at their need, but would rather suffer them to fall into destruction. 8 But that reason is not sufficient: for God oftentimes doth suffer the reprobate to have worldly things at their pleasure, to harden them the more, and that the delusions of Satan, may be so much the stronger in them, to their final confusion. It is therefore most probable, that their wickedness did so extraordinarily stir up that rain. For when Satan hath liberty from the Lord to do things, either to blind the reprobate, or to chastise the elect being fallen into sin, or to try the faith of the best, he imparteth his power with his ministers, special instruments of his glory, these necromancers & conjurers, and other such like. The sorcerers who showed such sights to Pharaoh in Egypt, do prove both these grounds to be true, first that Satan oftentimes yieldeth his power unto his servants, and secondly that God suffereth the wicked to have their desire in many things, to their greater overthrow. To turn a rod into a serpent, and rivers into blood, Exod 7. & cap. 8. cap. 7.22. and to make the fish to die, (for that may be collected, because the text saith that the enchanters did likewise) so, to bring up frogs on the sudden, were these in truth or in show, do show the great power of Satan, which he to delude the wicked, communicateth with his followers. He who had leave for the one, may sometimes have leave for the other. In the 2. to the Ephesians, Satan by the Apostle is called the prince that now ruleth in the air, Ephes. 2.2. which name although it may note to us some other thing beside, yet it doth also intent (as all that write of this argument do use to expound that place) that in winds, & rain, and thunder he beareth sway in the air, when God will give him licence. But for the point of the question, this is put out of controversy, by that which we read in job, job. 1.16.19. where it is set down, that by the hand of Satan (whether by witch or no, I stand not to dispute, for the text doth not reveal it) Gods leave going before, a fire fell out of the air, and burnt up jobs sheep and servants, and such a wind came from the wilderness, Gregor. Moral. Lib. 2.9. Satan à Domino semel accepta potestate, ad usum suae nequitiae etiam elementa concutere praevalet. Gregor. Moral. lib. 32.19. Greges abstulit, ignem de coelo deposuit, perturbato aere ventos excitavit, domum concutiens s●bruit. as at one time striking all the corners of the house, destroyed jobs sons and daughters. He hath not read the chapter, or little hath considered it, who maketh doubt whether Satan there did such things or no. Gregory upon that place positively layeth it down, that the devil having once received power of the Lord, that is, leave being given him, to the bringing about of his naughtiness is able to stir the elements, by which word he meaneth the moving of the fire, or disturbing of the air. And elsewhere interpreting that Behemoth spoken of in job to be Satan, he hath these words, This Behemoth who is the beginning of the ways of God, when he had leave to tempt that holy man meaning job, stirred up people against him, took away his herds of cattle, fetched down fire from heaven, troubling the air stirred up winds, shaking the house overthrew it. And that is the judgement of Saint Austen writing on these words of the seventy and eight Psalm, Psal. 78.49. August. in eum Psalm. Brentius in concione apud Wierun. Suprà dictum est, Deum grandinis authorem administratorémque esse, & ut grandinem evocet, diabolo propter peccata nostra permitti Petrus Mart. Decad. 1.4. Benzo in nova novi orbis historia. Lib. 1.10. He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, indignation, and wrath, and vexation by the sending out of evil Angels. He there saith, that Satan was he who sent down the fire on jobs cattle, and more generally telleth us, that both good and evil Angels, by the permission of God, may use these visible elements to their purposes. Yea Brentius himself in the Sermon which I named before, yieldeth such things to be done by the Devil, saying that God is the author and governor of the hail, and yet that for our sins, it is permitted to the devil that he may raise hail. What he did in former times, and especially to job, he can do now also if he have commission for it. 9 When Columbus and the Christians with him, arrived first in the Western Indies, and began to plant themselves in Hispaniola and the islands, (as the authors do agree, Peter Martyr, Benzo and other) there arose such mighty and incredible tempests, as that the like were never seen or heard of in that country. There may be some other reason hereof, (for such things are secret to all, but only to God) yet it is no sin to suppose fitly to this present question (as some them did conceive) that foul spirits stirred them up, to show their detestation to the name of Christ, grieving that to those brutish creatures, who had long lived in ignorance, he should in some sort be preached (although not yet so well as he ought) that the Gospel of the kingdom might be taught through all the world. Matth. 24 14 If it were thus, yet neither doth this example, nor that forenamed in job, impeach our first concluded doctrine, that God doth send the thunder, that he is Lord of the winds, that he sendeth down the hail and rain; for he doth these things of his absolute power; by the singleness of his own will; by the sufficiency of his nature, without reference to any other: But Satan and his factors work their exploits by limitation and by leave, for they depend on the Lord, and as if they were tied in a chain, they cannot exceed one hairebredth of that which is granted unto them. And therefore we are not to think, that so oftentimes as men will report it, such tempests are caused by means of ill members in any common wealth, for than it should be very often, (our common sort herein err, and are very credulous, or light of belief) but sometimes this is done by them, both at sea & at land, not universally but in such special places, and causes too, as the Lord will permit. And some learned men say, Vide Daemonologiā per I. R. Scoticè editam. lib. 2. cap. 5. that these storms of their raising, may be easily distinguished from natural tempests arising from meteors, both because they begin most suddenly and violently, & because they endure but a very little time. Again we are not to imagine that these things fall out so often, as the devil and his agents do desire, for they are wondrous full of mischief; but then they are, when it pleaseth God, in some measure to grant the dispensation of them, either to cross the godly, as to vex them in their bodies, or disquiet them in their minds, or afflict them in their substance, but never to touch their souls, for that is not within their compass; or else to plague the reprobates, and the infidels in their bodies & their souls, to their everlasting perdition. He that would see more examples of the working of sorcerers in this kind, Olaus Magnus. lib. 1.1. & lib. 3.14. let him read some places of Olaus Magnus. And so I leave this question. 10 Not Satan in this place, but God sendeth the storm on jonas; & the circumstances afterward, do make proof to the full, that it was a very great one. It is termed a mighty tempest, the ship was almost broken: the mariners are afraid: they cry every man to his God, they throw the wares into the sea, which I shall touch more largely anon. In the mean time the note here is, that jonas is the sinner, but all the ship smarteth for it: the mariners & the master, who were not at all accessary to this foul deed of the Prophet, yet are pursued as well as he. What had these poor men sinned, who after the custom of their trade, did let him in for his money as a passenger, but meddled not with his message: they understood not of his prophesying; yea it may be that they had never so much as heard of Ninive. Shall many smart thus for one? the mariners for a stranger? Here is now another question. But learn here God's hate to sin: learn here his deep and endless wisdom. His wisdom shineth in this, that oftentimes with one man he striketh a many, for reasons which in themselves are very different, being evermore well known to his Majesty, but secret unto us. The party principal he doth punish; to the next he doth teach obedience; the patience of the third he will have to be tried, and so forward in the rest: in all he seeketh his glory; his honour in the wicked, his true fear in the good. If all these be whipped at once, he doth no wrong to any. He that hath not sinned with jonas, yet hath sinned in somewhat else. For what man is he that drinketh not in iniquity as the water, and is not found so to do, if he be once brought to his trial before God? All the difference than is this, that their faults have several places, but their punishment shall have one. thieves are brought out of diverse quarters, & at sundry times they have trespassed, and in causes ver●e contrary; yet they are imprisoned in one jail, and punished in one day, and suffer all on one tree. I doubt not for these seamen, but if all of them had been drowned, they had sufficiently deserved it, although they had never heard of jonas. God need not be unjust in his punishments toward man: he need not seek occasion, or pick a quarrel against him. 11 Piso one of the Roman Generals, Senec. de Ira lib. 1.16. (as Seneca De ira writeth) to show the bloody humour which was in him, commanded that a soldier should be put to death, for returning without his fellow, with whom he went from the camp, saying that he had killed him. The Captain who had the charge to execute this poor soldier, when he saw his fellow coming, which had been miss before, did spare the first man's life. Upon this Piso found matter to take away the lives of all three. Hear his worthy reason for it. You are a man condemned saith he unto the first, my sentence was passed on you, and therefore you shall die. Then turning him to the second, You were the cause quoth he, wherefore your fellow was condemned unto death, & therefore you must die. And to the third, You Centurion, because you have not learned to obey the voice of your General, for company shall die also. Excogitaverat quemadmodum tria crimina faceret, quiae nullum invenerat. He devised saith Seneca how he might make three faults, because he found not one. The just judge of the sky need not deal so with us, neither needed he with these seamen. No beating of his brains to invent an accusation: our thoughts, and words, and deeds, do yield him cause enough. His wisdom it is to strike many for many ends. In one place, and with some one who is notorious for a crime, to punish those whose faults have been in diverse places. His justice goeth with his wisdom; for he never doth wrong to any, although our dull eyes do not see it. For the saying is very true, that God's judgements, although many times they be secret, yet evermore they are just. 12 And here appeareth his hatred unto a grievous sin. Sometimes for one man's fault who is harboured by another, or carelessly entertained without just inquisition, without due examination, God calleth the sins of other to an apparent reckoning, to a sensible remembrance, which before he seemed to forget. Let Achan be the man who serveth here for an example. He alone was deprehended in the excommunicate thing: josua. 7.1.21. he alone did steal the gold: he alone had touched the silver and Babylonish garment. Yet for the wicked fact of Achan, there were six and thirty of the Israelites slain by the men of Ai. These did perish in their own sin, although they perished with his fault. His crime stirred up a vengeance, which they had deserved before, but received now in his company. Afterward his sons and daughters, his oxen and his asses, were burnt or stoned to death. This is no example for the Magistrate to follow, to punish one for another: this was Gods own immediate deed, who himself is perfect justice, and therefore cannot err. But observe withal his hatred to iniquity, which is so far off from sparing the man grossly offending, that he destroyeth all that are near him, because they will keep company with so stained a person. Num. 16.26. Many of the Israelites had felt this another time, if they had not fled from the tents of Dathan and Abiron. The companions of jonas were sure that they tasted of it. And it seemeth that either by the light of nature, or by some sea-obseruation, they thought that they had one or other, whose room might be far better than his company was unto them, when they fell to casting lots, jonah. 1.7. to see for whose sake it was, that all this came upon them. That such things are thought on at sea, and that by natural men, let Horace be my witness, who can say this for himself Horat. carm. Lib. 3. Od. 2. Vetabo qui Cereris sacrum Vulgarit arcanae, sub ●sdem Sit trabibus, fragilémque mecum Soluat Phaselum. I will forbid that man who hath revealed the mysteries of the Goddess Ceres which heathen men thought to be a very heinous sin, to come under the same beams, or sail in the same ship with me. The speech of juno in another Poet doth give some light hereunto. Pallásne exurere classem Virgil. Aeneid. 1. Argirûm, atque ipsos potuit submergere ponto, Vniu● ob noxam & furias Aiacis Oilei? Could Pallas bur●● a whole fleet of the greeks, and drown the men in the sea, and that for one man's fault, and the fury of ajax Oileus? The infidels and Ethnics have thought these things at sea, either noting them by experience, or borrowing them by tradition from the jews, as they did many other matters, which hereafter I may observe. He that would see more of this, let him read what Tully hath written of that Atheist Diagoras. Tull. de Nat. Deorum. lib. 3. 13 This matter is true at land, as well as it is at sea. Our God is Lord of both. Thereupon it is a good warning to all, that they look with whom they sort. For as the pestilent person doth send forth infected poison to such as do come near him, to the kill of their bodies, so doth a grievous sinner bring wrath on his companions, to the ruin of their souls. A good lesson for young gentlemen, that they fly a blasphemous swearer. A good lesson for all Christians, that they avoid an infamous heretic. When Cerinthus came into the bath, john the Evangelist got him out, Euseb. Hist. Eccles. 4.13. and called to his fellows, that they should come away with haste, from the company of the heretic, left the house should fall upon them. He thought that house might be guilty, which received a man that was guilty: and that the place was in danger, which received a man in peril. Here let them look about them, who not only without all care, do sort themselves with all comers, not fearing the faults of others, but when they do know their wickedness, they are glad that they have such companions, Psal. 50.18. and do assent to their evils, if they see a thief, they run with him, and are partakers with the adulterers. If any man teach a trick of fraud, they will learn that of him: if any use unclean speech, that filthiness is for them. If to be with the nought be nought, what is it then to be nought? If company do bring danger, as you see it did by jonas, how fearful is consent? It is better to fear too much, then to presume but a little. Our God is of fearful majesty. You shall discover that by the tempest, which he sendeth upon the Prophet, and those which be in the ship. There was a mighty tempest. Vide Caesaris reditum in Italiam. Lucan. lib. 5. 14 To such as use navigation it is a verity undoubted, that there be at sea many tokens and prognosticates of great tempests, gathered from the Sun and Moon, and waves and winds and clouds, and other things, the use whereof our Saviour Christ himself disliketh not, so that men go not too far, or be not too peremptory in them. Matth. 16.2. When it is evening, you say, fair weather: for the sky is red. And in the morning you say, To day shall be a tempest, for the sky is red and lowering. Such tokens of the weather are not hastily bred, neither do they break in a moment. The cloud which appeared to Elias his servant, 1. Reg. 18.44. was first but as a man's hand, yet afterward there followed much rain. My text telleth of no token, that appeared here to the mariners: it cometh upon the sudden, and therefore this storm is supernatural; besides it cometh with such violence, that it seemeth, that they had seen few like it. The Prophet spareth no words, to describe the rod which now did beat him. The Lord sent forth a wind, not a little one, Virgil. Aeneid. 1. but a great one. unà Eurúsque Notúsque ruunt. The East and South wind blow together, as it is in the Poet. A tempest followeth after, which he calleth a mighty tempest. As men that live in the middle of a great continent, scant know whether there be any Ocean, as learned men do observe, so we that live still at land, scant conceive their storms at sea. They mount up to the heaven and descend to the deep, Psal. 107.26. so that their soul melteth for trouble. They are tossed to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and all their cunning is gone. The ship was almost broken. The keel be it never so strong, the ribs be they never so stiff, the cleets and clamps of iron, be they never so fast set on, are like to fly in pieces. If a joint crack, all is hazarded: if a plank shoot up, all is gone. This maketh the mariners quake, who are not moved with a little: now they stand for their lives; now they are ready for that choice, either to sink or swim. But alas, what swinning was there in such a storm? The ship shaketh at every blast, as if it would into shivers; every wave doth so affright them, as if still they were dying. It maketh them fall to praying, who in likelihood prayed not often. It maketh them think of their Gods, for there was no help now from men: help heaven, for sea and winds, and waves, are all against us. Yea more, because their hands should go as fast as their tongues, they will not lie still and cry, but the carriage of the ship shall out into the water; the wares are cast into the sea, to lighten the ship withal. Her burden might make her sink, and therefore ease her of it. In what a case were these poor men for harbouring such a guest? As the host who hath lodged a traitor, and because he seemed a man of fair conditions, hath used him very kindly, doth not know what he hath done, till the Sheriff come & seize his guest, and himself to the Prince's mercy, so was it here with these mariners. These men had money of jonas, to let him come into their vessel, jonah. 1.3. but by this time I think they could have wished, that they had given him money to keep him farther of. jonas, thou mightest have gone to thy Ninive, and saved them from this pain, and thyself too from this hazard. 15 You see the words are not many; three or four lines at the most: but what more can be said of a tempest, then is here said in the text? The seamen are afraid, a stiffer kind of men than 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 eagerness of the wind: An hot storm and away: after a tempest cometh a calm. A man who were new come thither, and perhaps at first were seasick, might be aghast at a little, his heart might be in his mouth, to feel but a little rocking. But that this trembling fear should take these old beaten soldiers, it doth import a vehement danger. The passengers must needs quake, when the mariners did so dread. If Ovid had been there, he would once again have said that his Elege quite to the end, ovid. Trist. lib. 1.2. Dijmaris & coeli, quid enim nisi vota supersunt? Surely effeminate Ovid would have betaken him to his devotions, when these forgetful mariners, who think not oft of their maker, did fall so fast to their prayers. It were to be wished that our Christians in all their navigations, would more remember true godliness, pray oftener, & play less, use better rule at their going out, and fewer sins at their landing. Doubtless, they which fear God are careful; but an ill name goeth of many of them. 16 I should here touch that circumstance, that these idolatrous persons cried every man on his God, but in the next verse following the text yieldeth that again, and I do defer it thither. I will add the other argument of the greatness of the tempest, that is, the throwing out of the wares. This is never attempted, but when there is danger indeed. As it seemed unto man's reason, there was no way but one, when the mariners among whom Paul was, Act. 27 18.19 did first throw out their carriage, than the tackling of the ship. For how far are men driven, when with their own hands, they must rob themselves of their helps, of their comfort, & of their wealth? Many had as willingly die, as be put from that which they have. As good to lose life as living. A speech which is often used, but very few times performed. A man will give much for his life, which Satan knew well enough, when he could say in jobs case, job. 2.4. Skin for skin, and all that ever a man hath will he give for his life. For money may be recovered, by industry or God's blessing, or by some other means, but so can life be never: for now we look not for miracles. This maketh so many ransoms, to redeem from death with money, yea to give incredible sums, to the impoverishing of the parties, & of their friends, nay sometimes of a whole State, Gul. Neubringens. 4 35. Memoires du Bellay. lib. 3. Guicciardin. Hist. lib. 16. Q. Curtius. lib. 4. as Richard the first of England once knew well, in his return from the holy land, & so did Frances the Great that king of France, when after his captivity, he was ransomed from Charles the 5. then Emperor. Here the fellows of jonas being put to very hard shifts, do choose the less of two evils; their lives rather without wares, than to lose both wares & lives. When Alexander's soldiers were to pass the swift river Tigris, by the violence of the stream many of them lost their packs; & striving there for their fardels, to take them up again, they were almost drowned in the water. The king who saw their folly, bid them look to their lives, to hold their armour fast, & let the rest go, he himself would make them recompense. The wise captain thought it far better, to lose the Accident than the substance. That which nature teacheth all men, these mariners did here practise. 17 But that the text doth give 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 mood to make some kind of satisfaction, for that which they had gotten by fraud, or piracy, or deceit in bargaining, as being now most unwilling in this extremity, to have in their possession such things, as were by ill means obtained. For oftentimes when death doth draw nigh, the conscience of men is pricked, to go from that which before hath both unjustly been obtained, and most stoutly maintained. As Lewes the eleventh, Nebrissens. Decad. 2. lib. 3.1. king of France, did in his deathbed restore two Counties to the heirs of john the king of Arragon, to the which in all his life time before, he would never condescend. Yet then his conscience so wrought with him. Or else it may be supposed, that it might have been for some vow, whereof seamen are not sparing, Erasmus in Colloquijs. when they do fear a wrack, as Erasmus in his Naufragium doth wittily let us know. They vow much and pay nothing; but these idolaters here throw out much and vow nothing, unless 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 ransom for their lives to their idolatrous Gods; as men in our time use to throw in rings, or jewels, or chains, or other things of price, to buy their lives with their substance, that they may seem to God to be willing to part with somewhat, & that of moment also. So that life may be saved, not to go away but with loss. Now although the expositors do mention these things, & it is not amiss to observe them, yet the spirit of God doth say, that necessity made them drown their wares; even that hard dart of necessity, Ingens telum necessitas. which will pluck from men any thing that doth not immediately concern their being, rather than all shall run to ruin. Plutarch. in Dione. Idem in Pompeio. 1. Cor. 11.14. Caesar de bello. civili. li. 3. Apparel, & wealth, & bravery, & house, & land, & beauty shall away if need require. Dionysius leaveth his kingdom. Pompey forsaketh his country, being urged both by necessity. Although nature do teach the contrary, as Paul writeth to the Corinthians: yet rather than the citizens of Salonae will yield to Octavius, the hair of their women's heads shall be cut of, to help make engines for them, josephi vita per ipsum conscripta. and devices in the wars. josephus telleth of one Clitus an eminent malefactor, that being in fear lest he should be put to death, or at least lose both his hands, did at the first word willingly cut off his own left hand, that he might preserve the other. judge now at length for this tempest, whether it were not a sound one, when it put such men as these, unto such shifts as these: men that adventured their lives for money, to part from wares which would yield them money: men bold, to be stricken with such fear: men careless, to be driven to such devotion, and praying unto their Gods. jonas thou canst not say, but thou art followed for thy sin, not as with a fury from hell, but with justice from above. But of that may be more hereafter. 18 But here I may not forget this, in these idolatrous persons (because it doth yield unto us, the best of all these instructions) that these Ethnics who here are actors, did never fall to their calling upon their heathenish Gods, till that danger did grow upon them. Their mind did run at random, till affliction as a spur did quicken their strong oblivion. Sea-daungers have that force above all other dangers, to make men cry with earnestness, when nothing is to be seen, but heaven above and water below, Virgil Aeneid. 3. Psal. 107.28. Coelum undique & undique pontus. David did well note this, when after the description of a storm, he addeth this for a conclusion, Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distress. There is trouble, and distress, and crying to the Lord. Violent motions of the air generally cause a fear. Psal. 29.8. In them the voice of the Lord maketh the wilderness to tremble: the renting of the clouds, the cracking of the air, Philo judaeus de legatione ad Caium. Suetonius in Calig. cap. 51 Senec. de ita. lib. 1.16. do much affright the wicked. Caligula the Roman Emperor, would needs be reputed for a God, and there was no measure of folly with him; yet if he had but heard a clap of thunder, he would wink or hide his head, or run perhaps under a bed. Now fear in all men who have sense, doth enforce unto religion, or at least to superstition. As long as God's hand is over us, we fear, and so by a consequent are careful. If we were as dull as that Ass, Num. 22.22. whereon Balaam used to ride, yet if an Angel hold out a sword, it will make us stagger at it. But as soon as the sword is sheathed, so soon we will forget it. It is the cross of Christ, which maketh a man a true Christian, it keepeth us in obedience, & howsoever the flesh repineth, the spirit is bettered by it. Sickness, or plague, or famine, or war, or any great judgement, maketh more prayers in a day, more seeking to God, and that feelingly & heartily, then otherwise are ordinary in a week. 19 I do find in Agathias, Agathias Hist. lib. 5. that when on a time, the City of Constantinople was shaken with a very terrible earthquake, many houses were overthrown, and with the fall thereof great store of people perished. Herewith the whole City was so frighted, and every man so remembered to think on God, that solemn supplications and public prayers were had, the Churches every day were full, and all men for a while were much amended. The poor folks were relieved: justice was well administered: there was no fraud them in bargaining: yea it was become a very holy place. But when God once held his hand, they also held their prayers; when his rod ceased, then ceased their piety too. That which he did observe concerning Constantinople, may be noted of other places. Yea Historians do observe it. In the first late civil war in France, which arose now more than thirty years agone, Edictum januarij. Anno 1561. after the putting forth of that Edict, which is commonly called the Edict of januarie; and in like sort in the second & third of those wars, such as were of the Religion, then groaning under the cross of poverty, Commentarij Reli. & Reip. in Gal. lib. 10. Tanta erat Religiosorum taediosa curiosita● & tam t●pidus zelus, ut vix ordinariae doctrinae sermonem quasi minùs eloquentem, nec satis aulicum plurimi Religiosi iam minimè tolerarent. Anno. 1572. of oppression and war, were very devout toward God, very careful toward to the world, glad to hear any preach the word, glad to receive the Sacrament: but when the third peace was concluded, which seemed a very sound peace, and the rod was now thought to be removed far of, such carelessness and security did overgrow the hearts of all, and in the Protestants there was so cold a zeal, nay rather such a tedious curiosity (as a French man termeth it) and that within less than two years space, that a Sermon sound made, with good grounds of divinity, was not thought to be worth the hearing, unless it were spiced with eloquence, or flourished with dainty phrases, such as were fit for the Court. But immediately afterward, this contempt of theirs was pursued with that great massacre, that bloody and horrible massacre, like to which the Sun scant ever did see any thing; and then the mariners in the ship with jonas, did not cry more hotly on their Gods, than the French men our neighbours, did cry unto the true Lord of heaven. 20 Might it please our God, that we by their example could learn to be thankful in prosperity, as well as to be crying when misery hangeth on us. In Queen's Mariesdayes, when the fire devoured the flesh of God's saints, what prayers were then made, for the faithful congregation, by many within the land and without? Coldness hath since benumbed some hot ones of that time. The Spaniard threatened war not many years agone; Anno. 1588. the piety of our land exceeded for that time, young and old then came together into the courts of the Lord: the Sabaothes were then sanctified: the week days were well spent: we had prayers extraordinary, & lectures twice a week, as this place doth well know. But with the cold of the winter our holiness waxed cold, and many months had not passed, but as in few things we were better, so in some things we were worse. Good God, that thy great mercy, should make thee to be loved the less. One year is not passed over, since (besides many other quarters) the chief City of our kingdom, Anno. 1593. being visited by God's messenger the pestilence, which destroyeth as well by night as by day, Psal. 91.6. did hang down her head for sorrow. I have heard that since that time, it is very much forgotten in buying and in selling, in bargaining and deceiving. God sent us here a warning, Pestis in una aut altera domo, in ipso Oxonij vmbili●●. Anno. 1593. and then another warning in the very heart of our City. I think that we, and other, did in that time more think of devotion toward the Lord, of purging of our souls, of true mortification, of preparing our souls to Christ, than we have done many times since. It is not well, if it be so. It is a reproach to some, no penny, no Pater noster; It is a reproach to us, no plague, no Pater noster, no punishment, and no prayers. Let it not be noted of us that we are like to those Gentiles, who only when the tempest raged, did cry unto their Gods. Let us fear the Lord for his love, and love him for his mercy: let us not provoke him to strike us, because otherwise he cannot awake us: but let us watch to him, that his anger may sleep to us. 21 If our jonas have offended by wilful disobedience, let us dread to do the like: if he were punished for that, then let not us presume to sin by his example: if God sent a tempest against him, he can use his rods against us: if Satan be sometimes the instrument of God's justice, let us fear to come in his fingers: if the Lord so hateth iniquity, that the companions of the wicked are oft punished for their sakes, let us hate sin as a serpent, and fly from the profane: if heathen men prefer their lives before their wares, let not us adventure our souls, to get temporal trash on earth: if idolaters serve their Gods once, when they be in danger, let us serve our God ever, to keep us free from danger: if they pray when they have need, let us pray every day, because every day we need. Lord guide us still with thy grace, and bring us unto thy kingdom. To thy name be praise for ever. THE FOUR LECTURE. The chief points. 1. The drowsiness of jonas in his danger. 2 Sin breedeth sin. 4 Satan is desirous to make us secure. 6 A superuising diligence should be in all that have charge. 10 The shipmaister teacheth the Prophet. 11 Idolaters had many Gods, and their usage toward them. 14 One man is more acceptable to God than another. 15 Danger of praying to many Gods. 16 Heathen men know there is a God. 17 In crosses it is good to suspect that there is some sin. 18 The use of lots, and diverse circumstances in them. 23 Sin will be discovered. JONAH. 1.5.6.7. But jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship, & he lay down and was fast a sleep. So the shipmaister came unto him, and said unto him, what meanest thou o sleeper? Arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not. And they said every man to his fellow, Come & let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon jonah. WHen Alexander the Great, Seneca de Beneficijs. Lib. 7.3. with his happy temerity as a Philosopher doth call it, but by the providence of God, F●●ix tem●ritas. Daniel. 8 5. Q Curtius. lib 4. Plutarch in Alexandro, & Arrianus. lib 6. appellant Gaugamela. as Daniel doth describe it, had proceeded so far, as that after one great overthrow given to Darius in person, in the straits of Cilicia, he was now a second time in the fields near Arbela (or as the best writers have, in the fields near Gaugamela) to join battle against him: whereas many things should have enforced him to look about him, as the smallness of his army, the strength of his adversary, the wideness of the field, where he had none advantage, his distance from his own home, and no place to fly unto: yet when it was far day, that very morning when the battle was to be tried, and by that time his army should have been ordered and ranged into array, the enemy coming forward, the General Alexander who otherwise did stir with the foremost was fast asleep in his tent. Parmenio and his Nobles, who for no cause of their own, but for his sake and his honour, there adventured their lives, were troubled above measure; they were in a sea of cares, and scant knew which way to turn them: only he whom all concerned, and whose making or marring, depended on that days trial, and for whom and whose sole sake they endured all things which they were then to sustain, as a man that knew not of it, or one that took no care which end went forward, lay in his bed sound sleeping. The Prophet in this place, shall be no whit behind him, but rather much beyond him. He hath lists to enter with the very wrath of God: his life doth lie upon it, and his soul too, if his God should not deal kindly with him: the air is now disturbed, and yieldeth a mighty tempest; the waves they froth and roar; the winds they beat and blow; the sea is moved exceedingly; the ship is almost broken; the seamen are afraid; happy man that can pray fastest: the burden of the ship, be it costly or be it necessary, it must out into the water, and all for jonahs' sake; his cake it is that is baking; the event concerneth him only: and he alone as the man who of all other did know least, and was a stranger to the action, doth seek a secret corner, the inner sides of the ship, where he may lie & rest. Oh jonas, thou who shouldst be a man beyond a many, even the Prophet of the highest, thou art now short of a man, thou art now below thyself, sleeping & snorting then, when all the powers of thy spirits, were too few to look about thee. 2 If the man had not liked of Ninive, Supran in versu 3. for reasons which once I named, but yet would still have kept his calling, and would have held on his preaching, his sin had weighed the lighter: he might have bestowed his talon at Tarshish when he came there, and done some good on the merchants; & by the way going thither, he might have given exhortation to his fellow travelers, to serve the true God of Israel. If he had not had so many auditors as were in Ninive, Act. 2.41. or so many as S. Peter had, when at one sermon he won three thousand souls to Christ, yet he should have had some hearers: if it had been but one Plato to have attended Socrates, jacob. 5.20. he had not utterly lost his labour: he who hath converted one sinner from going astray out of his way, shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins, which either the converted, or converter hath committed. But it is not for this cause that our jonas goeth to the sea: his preaching is turned to sleeping. Let the world go how it will: he is got away from his master, & will think no more of the matter. See what the best man on earth is, if God withdraw his Spirit, & eclipse his grace but a moment. We are desperate to all wickedness, but beetles and blocks to goodness. Here is an obdurate sinner: a hard brawn is over his heart; a thick skin and insensible: let the sea roar, and the mariners cry, and tumble out their packs; our jonas taketh a nap in very supine security, and maketh no more of it. Oh the stubbornness of iniquity, and man's averseness from his maker. But when we have once passed the lines of duty & obedience, and gross sins have taken hold upon us; then we must justify our actions: we will run we care not whither: from the shoes up to the shoulders, yea sometimes over head and ears. 3 Sin stealeth on us by degrees, but commonly the last step is the deepest. 2. Sam. 11.2. David being idle had spied out Bethsabe: there, idleness was the beginning: then did his eye as the window of his mind, let in concupiscence into his heart. Of idleness cometh concupiscence. Thereof followeth adultery. Mark how these sins do multiply, and one engendereth another. Murder maketh up the measure. And when all this put together would have troubled the strongest heart in the world, yet without remorse of conscience, without jot of compunction, David swalloweth it and devoureth it, and for the better part of a year, never considereth of it. How far is the conscience of the reprobate and malignant seared, if God's children do thus fall? No marvel if a Pharaoh add drunkenness unto thirst, Matt. 2.3.16. that is, heap sin on sin; or Herod do join to his ambition, a cruel massacring mind; or Nero abound in wickedness, & link villainy unto mischief. When the bowels of Gods elect shallbe so filled and possessed with carelessness, what shall refrain the wicked, from proving to be some judas or some julian? Afflictions, threatenings, counsels, & the holiest exhortations, (as S. Austen in another case doth make comparison) are but as a blast of wind, Augustin. Epist. 22.5. which in a vehement fire doth keep down the flame for a puff, but it riseth again so much the stronger. Or as a draft of cold water, to a man in a burning fever, which easeth him for an instant, 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 Satan's policy, so far as lieth in him, to bewitch the hearts of God's children, that when they are filled with iniquity, they may be drowned in security, even as a man who hath fed in gluttony, is overtaken by some drowsy sleep. And then it fareth with the sinner, as it doth with the Crocodile, when his belly is stuffed with some prey. Plinius Hist. nat. lib. 8.25. For then as Pliny writeth, doth he yield himself over to sleep, and leaveth his mouth open, of purpose that a little bird called Trochylus, may pick his teeth and make them clean. But thereupon doth the Ichneumon a kind of serpent take occasion, to creep into the belly of the Crocodile, and being once in, he never ceaseth there to gnaw, till he hath eaten through his paunch. Thus doth Satan deal with us; for amidst our idleness, and forgetfulness of that horror of evil which hangeth upon us, he taketh possession of our souls, and if a stronger than himself do not drive him from the same, he will eat them out to damnation. As therefore by the counsel of the Wise man, Syrac. 25.27. we should give the water no passage, no not a little, so we should give as small entrance unto Satan, as possibly we may. But let us not so prostitute unto him, the whole sense of our soul, that like to a fantic person, when we be at worst, we imagine ourselves to be in a most happy estate. He who will not start in danger, is in case to suffer any thing; but he that will sleep in danger, when easily he may be awaked, forgetteth himself beyond measure. When our Saviour Christ was now ready to be taken, and judas was at hand, so that the shepherd was to be stricken, and the sheep thereupon to be scattered, Peter and james and john, were justly reproved for their sleeping, What? Matth. 26.40, 45. could ye not watch with me one hour? And afterward, sleep henceforth and take your rest, meaning that it would not belong, but they should thoroughly be awaked. 5 They slept when the peril was to their master, and themselves had less cause to fear; but our Prophet doth take his rest, when he alone was to smart, and the ruing of other men was only for his sake. Tullius Philippica. 13. O miser cum re tum hoc ipso quòd non sentis quam miser sis. O wretced man saith Tully against Anthony, as in deed, so in this also, that thou dost not understand how wretched a man thou art. Here is one far exceeding Anthony. God's immediate wrath doth follow him, & he doth not conceive it: he is in the midst of evil, & doth not understand it. Here is evidently seen the great heaviness of our nature, who neglect those mainest matters, Lod. vives de tradendis disciplinis. lib. 4. which nearest of all do press us. vives that worthy learned man, doth wonder at some Physicians, that they could possibly be covetous & greedy upon the world, in as much as both in their speculative study, and their practice, they behold every day how tickle a thing life is; how soon the breath is gone; how the strongest die in a moment, & the youngest fall on the sudden, and by a consequent that the use of riches is so uncertain, so transitory & so short. I would to God that our Physicians of the soul, were not sick of this disease. We who know that flesh is grass, Isay. 40.6. and the grace of it but a flower, that our breath is but a vapour, jacob. 4.14. and our life but as a bubble, who speak much of mortality, and preach other men's funeral Sermons, yet in the midst of our studies of contemning the world, we are in love with the world, and too much embrace this Mammon. Thus we are like to the fishes of the sea, who living in salt water, yet are most fresh. And as jonas in the midst of danger, we sleep in it & pass by it; we say it, and do not see it. The storms by right should have stirred up jonas, and his conscience should have quickened him: so our knowledge should rouse us up, and the fraud of the world should awake us. Thus far you have heard of a most careless man; now hearken to another person of a clean contrary disposition, who looketh well to his charge, & for his part amendeth that fault which is found in the former. So the shipmaister came to him. 6 As by occasion of the tempest, it lay upon the governor of the ship to bestir him, so it well seemeth that he was not idle. He is sometimes above the board, & sometimes underneath, he cometh down under the hatches. Caesar de bello civili. Lib. 2. & 3. Cesar did never more lay about him, in his great fights against Pompey, where sometimes he playeth the captain, & other sometimes the soldier, here he speaketh, there he striketh, & goeth from one rank to another; then the master doth in this place. He looketh whether any plank were rift or splint in two. And perhaps with his vigilancy and care, doing his best, & seeing all to be but in vain, he is glad to speak with any other, to see if there might be help in him, or any good word of comfort. Hieron. in jonae. 1. Naturale est unumquenque in suo periculo de alio plus sperare. For as Hierome noteth on this place, it is natural unto every man, in extremity of danger, to hope better of another, than he doth hope of himself, & therefore in such cases men do meet, and as the brutish cattle, run together. This master knew his fellows to be as bad as himself, yea perhaps a great deal worse, and therefore he goeth to this stranger. Saint Hierome doth intimate this to be the reason; but indeed because he so rebuketh jonas, and rattleth him for his drowsiness, I rather impute his going to the corners of the ship (for the Prophet lay in one of those places) to his diligence & carefulness, to see the charge which was committed to him, that like a circumspect governor, his eyes might see those things, his eyes might see those persons, which were now under him. 7 This heathen man giveth instruction better than jonas did, to those which are householders, (for a ship is like to a house, many cricks and corners in it) to tutors over scholars, to governors over Colleges, to Magistrates over others, that they look to those which are under them, & trust not the eyes of other: the blind swalloweth many a fly: he that knoweth his charge but only by relation, doth swallow many a gogeon. Sons dare to do what they should not; & she who lieth in the bosom, is encroaching & usurping on the authority of her husband: watching is when there should be sleeping: taking where should be none: open doors when they ought to be shut; ill deeds when it should be otherwise. A just and watchful guide, though he cannot hinder all, yet he crusheth many a sin. But where is a wilful winking in many things that are gross, as it is but too too oft, that can not excuse itself, that beareth a heavy burden with it. For when we will not see faults, it is all one, as if we did see & suffer them. Tullius pro S. Roscio Amerino. Tully could say in excuse of Silla, that it was a thing impossible, but that he who had a great family, should have some bad servants in it. He who had so much business on him, as that he could scant breathe freely, should have some retaining to him, who would so watch their time, that if their master looked but aside, they would dare to misuse one or other. Who knoweth not this to be true? But if Silla should understand, that his servant Chrysogonus did deal in filthy actions, and would not take notice of it, but pass by it, as if there were no such matter, than Silla must bear the burden. Or if Silla will not remit some of his ambitious humour, to look down under hatches, or to see to that which concerneth him, he shall bear the main fault of Chrysogonus; God and men will lay it on him. Here that hath place which Dion once said of the Emperor Galba, whose attendants did use many very badly, but the blame was laid on him: Although it be enough for a private man, Dion lib 64. Principen providere oportet ne caeteri faciant. Nihil interest eorum qui iniuriam patiuntur à quo ●am acceperint. that he do no wrong to any, yet a Prince ought to take order, that other men do no injury. For those who suffer the wrong do not stand much on that, from whom they do receive it. If from any, it is too much, but they look who it is that should hinder it. 8 Then as it is the eye of the master, which feedeth the horse, so it is that also which keepeth good order. The like may be said of the magistrate. If Miphiboseth cannot stir, because he is lame in his feet, and David have other business, then to examine things to the full, 2. Sam. 16.1. Ziba will play his part, he will abuse his Prince; he will defraud his master. It is a remembrance to noble men, and magistrates in great places, that they look on such as attend them, and suffer not their approaches to be ill spoken of, for the behaviour of other men. This shipmaister would see every one who was in the ship about him. David knew his household people, Psal. 101.4.5. when he said that none but the righteous should be with him as his servant; that no deceitful person should dwell with him in his family. This is a good lesson for all Princes, who sit as at the stern of kingdoms & commonwealths, that they do as David did; that they do as our Master here, that as their hands be long, so their eyes be quick of sight, to look on that which concerneth them. By occasion that Augustus a man severe enough, did not know the exceeding wantonness of julia his own daughter, & her open audacious boldness, it is noted in the story of his life, Dion. lib. 55. Principes omnia faciliùs qaom sua cognoscunt, neque clam suos qui●quam agunt. that Princes for the most part do best know those things which are farthest from them, and not that which nearest belongeth to them: that they do nothing but their family understandeth it well enough; but the deeds of their own household are concealed from them. It is a blessed case for Church and commonwealth, where these things are not so. Long may she live and reign happily, unto our farther comfort, who in this exceedeth herself, and goeth beyond her sex, which loveth to have a hand in matters of importance; have an eye who be her Bishops, have a care who be her judges: remember them of their duties before they go to their countries, provide evermore for peace, yet think sometimes of war, regard the ends of her kingdom, yea take a personal notice of such things as be fit. Plutarch. An seni sit gerenda Resp. 9 Plutarch writeth of one Attalus, who was a king in Asia the less, that his study was only to be idle, & to intend to nothing that appertained to his government. In the mean time, Philopaemen one of his pretended friends, did fat & cram him up, to make him dull & heavy, that himself might rule the roast. Some of the Romans who perceived it, Réxne apud Philopaemenem aliquid posset? took it up as a jest, to ask of such as came out of Asia, whether the king were in any grace with Philopaemen or no? whether he could obtain any thing of him? The Lord be praised for it, our neighbours jest not so at us; but another manner of care is had, God make us thankful for it. Then by the example of our betters, or of this Ethnic here, let every man look about him, and see over whom he hath charge, that he take not good for evil, and evil sometimes for good, & a slander for a truth, and a flatterer for a friend, and a person which is pernicious, to be a right sound member: that he may praise as it deserveth, and rebuke where needeth rebuke, as this ship-governor doth here. As followeth now in the next circumstance. What meanest thou o sleeper? Arise call upon thy God. 10 If the man had been full of choler (as danger soon stirreth up choler) here had been a good occasion, to warm himself over with chiding. To see a man lie so carelessly, when such fright was among them, & neither with the cries of one, nor the tumbling of packs by another, to raise himself from his rest. If jonas himself who fretted so testily & so eagerly, when God destroyed his gourd, jonah. 4.9. had been in place of this mariner, I think he would have come over him, with many an angry word. But it being before intended by his provident circumspection, that the man was wise in his kind, Eccles. 2.14. (& as Solomon doth tell us, it is the part of a wise man to have his eyes in his head, to see what is convenient to be spoken, and what is not fit to be uttered) he rouseth him with no more, then O sleeper what dost thou mean? thou sleepy drowsy fellow, what dost thou think upon? what, dost thou not regard that thyself & we all do perish? He doth very justly call him sleeper, for it seemeth that he slept with a witness: and if his eyes were open, yet it seemeth that he still slept, like the drunken man mentioned in the writings of a certain Orator (but S. Hierome doth not name him) who could not sleep because he was stirred, Hieron. in 5. ad Galatas. Pulchrè quidam non ignobilis Orator, cum ebrium de somno describeret excitatum, ait Nec dormire excitatus, nec vigilare ebrius poterat. and could not awake because he was drunken. I mean his soul did sleep, so that when his eyes were open, he stared, he did not awake. For what else doth this declare, when he must be put in mind by a simple infidel, who knew not the God of Israel, that he must fall to his prayers, Arise call upon thy God. Here the world is turned upside down. jonas should teach them their duty, & they must teach him his: the Prophet is now an auditor, and the shipmaister is the Prophet. Here the sheep leadeth the shepherd, the patient cureth the Physician, the scholar doth teach the master. All maketh against thee jonas, that this heathen man should be more devout in his superstition, than thou in thy true religion; that thou shouldst forget that which an Ethnic could remember. I pray God the old Gentiles, Aristides, Plato, Socrates condemn not us in that great & terrible day, because they thought of many things whereof we make no reckoning. Despise the words of none, although thou be a Prophet, since a mariner may teach a Preacher. If thou be not come so far as to be a Prophet, then do thou less refuse the words of any, for the proverb is most true, Saepe etiam est olitor verba opportuna locutus. The gardener or herbe-seller oftentimes hath spoken a word in due season. 11 This man doth give good counsel, although as one in the dark, he seeth not what he doth, Call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, jonah. 1.5. that we perish not. The Gentiles and idolaters did dream of more Gods then one, as these did in the fifth verse. Many Gods for many matters; Minerva she was for learning, and Venus she was for love, and Aeolus for the wind, and Bacchus for the wine, either devils reputed Gods by men, or men esteemed as Gods, for some benefits done to mankind. And as these were Gods at large, so many several countries had Protectors for themselves. The fire was the God of the Persians', whom the Sun did represent; so Hercules was for the Tyrians, and Dagon for the Philistines, 1. Reg. 11.5. and Astaroth for the Sidonians, & Milcom for the Ammonites, & Chemosh for the Moabites. Yea they had Gods for their cities, Semidei. Penates. Tutelaria numina. Augustin de Civitate Dei lib. 4.8. & demigods for themselves, household Saints and tutelar powers, to whom they cried in distresses. Yea superstition was so endless, as Austen doth observe, that they had a God for every thing, yea many oftentimes for one thing. As, for their corn Segetius, and Proserpina, & Volutina, and Tutelina and other; one for it under the ground, another when it was sprung up: this when it was in the blade, that when it was in the ear, another for the barn. The place in Saint Austen is worth the reading. The jews followed this pretty well, when they offered their incense under every green tree; jerem. 11.13. when the number of their Gods was to the number of their cities; when there was in every street, an altar to sacrifice to their idols. The Church of Rome thinketh scorn, Vide Zacharian Lippeloo de rebus gestis martyrum. for idolatry to come short of either of them, when for every day in the year, they have an he Saint or a she Saint, as appear in the common Calendar, for their swine a Saint, and another for their horses, for Spain a Saint as Saint james, for us a Saint as Saint George; yea special men, Campian. in quadam Epist. special patrons; many women john the Evangelist, M. Campian john the Baptist. 12 So wretchedly do men run without the word of God: such amazed blindness is in the eyes of idolaters, yea such tickle uncertain giddiness, is in the life of their understanding. The vilest of God's creatures, shall be to them for Gods. The Egyptians as origen writeth, Orig. contra Celsum. lib. 3. did adore their dogs, & goats, & apes, and Crocodiles. No doubt S. Paul did allude to them, when speaking of the unbelievers, Roman. 1.23. he said that they turned the glory of the uncorruptible God to the similitude of the image of a corruptible man, and of birds and four footed beasts, and of creeping things. Diodor. Siculus. lib. 2.4. Yea they made such account of cats, as I find in Diodorus Siculus, that when once a Roman had killed one of them against his will, the people could not be stayed, either with the fear of the Roman soldiers, or with reverence to their king, from running on him to kill him. This is the less to be wondered at in them, when we shall compare it with the testimony, which Olaus Magnus giveth, Olaus Magnus. lib. 3.2. of some Northern people at this day. Those are the Barbarians in Lapland and Scricfinnia, and the parts adjoining, whose manners he might the better know, for that he was a neighbour, not very far distant from them. But of these he reporteth, Pro numine fideliter adorare. that it is their custom to worship faithfully for a God, until the evening of the same day, whatsoever living-thing, in the air or earth or water doth in the breaking of each day appear unto them, be it bird or beast, or fish, yea very serpents and worms. Nay besides those base but yet living things, what should I say, that among idolaters the quick do bend unto the dead, and do adore the works of their own hands, as the Israelites once did, saying to the golden calf, These are thy Gods o Israel, Exod 32.8. which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt? What, that they make of their Gods, some helpers and some hurters, Gel. Noct. Attic. lib. 5. 12. Arnob. lib. 5. contra Gent. Plutarch. in Numa. Laeva Numina, hurting powers, as Gellius noteth out of Virgil? What, that some of their holiest and most religious men, did deride their greatest God? For as Arnobius writeth, and Plutarch hath the very same, Numa the first author of the Roman devotions, ask of jupiter, by what means some places might be purged, which were blasted not long before with lightning, Respondit jupiter capitel tum Numa caepitio. Ru●sus jupiter, humano● respondit rex, sed capillo. ●mo Deus contra, animâ: subiecit Pompilius, piscu. received this answer, that it must be with a head, meaning the head of a man; but Numa giveth him the head of an onion. That which I would have saith jupiter must belong unto a man. Yea saith Numa, but it shall then be the hair; nay quoth jupiter I do require a life; the other answered, than it must be of a fish. Thus durst he whom they accounted for the founder of all their ceremonies, deride their high God jupiter. But to leave these things thus in general. 13 Our mariners in this place with a conceit fit for idolaters, thought one God to be stronger, or better than another, or more willing, or more at leisure, and now they would try the best. Cry thou man to thy God, & I will cry to mine, & he shall cry to his: among many, one may regard us. If none should hearken to these suppliants, than it might fall out that he who made him, may mar him too for his Godhead. Perhaps grow to cursing of him for his neglect, Surius in commentar. Anno. 1535. as if Surius do say true, Barbarossa did, a General of the Turks being overcome in battle by Charles the fifth in Africa, where he often reviled his Mahomet, and in exceeding bitterness did curse him. Perhaps shuffle out that God, and choose some other in for him, Euseb. de vita Constant. lib. 2.15. Plutarch. in Silla. as Licinius did in his battles, when he was overcome by Constantine. When his old Gods in whom he put his trust had deceived him, he sought out new ones to worship. At least take it unkindly, as Silla did at the hands of his Apollo. For whereas his custom was, as often as he went into any battle, evermore to bear in his bosom, a little image of gold representing that God, being on a time in danger of an overthrow, he drew it out and kissed it, and used these words unto it, How now Apollo Pythius, wilt thou who hast prospered and advanced that happy man Cornelius Silla, in so many fought battles, now destroy him and his fellow citizens, even at the gates of Rome? Thus when men make Gods to themselves, or do single out each man one, they are the bolder with them. An action of unkindness may be easily entered against them; perhaps there shall be a reviling of them, it may be, a plain renouncing. 14 The company of our Prophet is not yet come so far. As you see they will fall to their prayers. Who knoweth whether this man's God be a greater God than ours is? whether that this sleepy fellow, be more accepted of him? for it was an opinion entertained even by heathen men, that one person was more loved by their Gods than another was: that the prayers of some were better accepted, as of their Priests, or their Prophets, a Helenus or a Calchas; and these knew not, whether jonas might in such sort be more gracious with his God, or no. The truth is, that he might have been, if he were not, if he had but kept his own. For we find in true divinity, that the prayers of a few holy and sanctified men, are at all times more acceptable to the everlasting Lord, than the requests of ten thousand sinners. In so much that he bestoweth upon such, their own lives, and the lives of others. It seemeth that God in former time did use to hear jeremy, jerem. 11.14. when once so precisely he forbade him, to entreat for the people. There were given unto Lot, Genes. 19, 12. his wife and his daughters: and his sons in law, if they would, might have had their portion in that favour. How much did the Lord love and tender Abraham, Chap. 18.32. when he yielded to his prayer, that for ten just men's sakes, he would spare the City Sodom? But unto my purpose this is most agreeable, that when there was great danger of a wreck, that time that S. Paul was sailing toward Rome, Act. 23.23.24. the Angel of God did stand by the Apostle in a vision, and told him that the Lord had bestowed upon him, all that were in the ship (who were to the number of two hundred and ●euentie and five) that not one of all these should perish, for Paul's sake his good servant. But alas the case is otherwise in this ship, than it was in the other where the Apostle sailed, for here he that should have helped all, hurted all: the Prophet now is become a runagate, not a preacher but a sleeper: he alone is pursued with vengeance, and the other poor folks are free. 15 Yet call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not. Look what ignorance on the one side, and necessity on the other, could enforce them to do. It might have been a harm unto them, to pray to so many Gods. For when such a number should be sought to, and yet some other should be left out (as it was impossible for them to think on all) some one master God who was of the better sort might be angry, and drown them all, in despite that he should be omitted, and not be had in account. I should think that our simple Romanists, the simpler sort I say, who have little in their own knowledge, should stumble much at this stove; lest while they are creeping and crooching to some one Saint, some other should take it in dudgeon, that any should be preferred, or sought to before themselves. But I think that to amend the matter, their Church hath taken the pains, Festum omnium▪ sanctorum. Festum omnium Animarum. to put All the Saints in one day together, to keep them quiet, and All the souls in another, lest the first should not be sufficient. God's grace is more upon us, since he hath let us know, that one Lord, and only he is to be worshipped; that Christ is our mediator, and diligent intercessor, and not any other creature; that prayer is a sacrifice peculiar unto him, and that the Saints in heaven are to be imitated of us, for their faith and good example, and not to be called upon. And yet God hath dealt better with those Romanists, and better with these seamen, then with some lewd ones in our time, who being in all their actions and conversation most profane, are so far from praying with the heathen to many Gods, that they rather say there is none. These idolaters under error of religion or devotion, know that something is to be adored; the light of nature hath taught them that; but these devils come not so far. I give that name unto them, because in this although not in all things, jacob. 2.19. they are worse than devils, for the devils believe that there is a God, albeit they quake and tremble at it. What other name should I give them? fools? nay these exceed the fool, Psal. 53.1. for the fool hath said in his heart, there is no God, as we may read in David. But these go one degree beyond David's fool, for they say it too with their mouths. Aug. Tract. 2. in johan. Sic est quasi videat quisquam de longinqu● patriam, & mare interiaceat: videat quò eat sed non videat quà eat 16 These poor souls never coming where piety or goodness grew, conceive by a general apprehension, that there was a power, or powers who ruled all things, though they knew not what it was. They were as men in darkness, like those of whom S. Austen speaketh, who know that they have a country, but the sea doth lie between: they willingly would go to it, but they do not know the means; whither they would go they guess, but which way they cannot tell. They know that there is something, but they know not how to conceive what it should be; they cannot tell how to yield it his right reverence; or whether it be one or many. But all coasts and all countries accord, that there is somewhat. The West Indians had certain spirits, whom they named their Zemes, & accounted them their Gods, evermore in extremities crying and calling to them. But what should I name any particulars, Tullius de legibus. lib. 1. when Tully can say for all, that there is no nation so barbarous, no people so rude, but knoweth that there is a God; although they cannot tell who. Tully, it shall be easier for thee in the day of judgement, and for thee Plato, & for thee Seneca, then for many who live not in Ehtnicism or Barbarism, but in a civil nation, in the clear light of the Gospel, in a country of good learning, & yet do make dispute of the being of their Creator. But I leave these wicked Atheists, and return to our idolaters, who did not stay at these prayers, but went yet one step farther. They fall to casting lots. And they said every man to his fellow, come & let us cast lots. 17 They see that there was some thing in it, beyond the common course of nature. The suddenness of the tempest, and the violence of the storm, showed some God to be angry. It may be that other ships which were at sea, did go quietly, or the wind did beat and strike most of all upon this ship. But without doubt they saw it to be extraordinary, and thereupon their hearts by and by did give them, that in all likelihood it was for sin, they knew not what nor in whom, but for sin they were well assured. Which may be a memorial to us Christians, that if any cross do come strangely, or if any noted thing do befall us (whereof our own hearts may best of all be judges) that straightway with fear and trembling we examine ourselves, & enter into our consciences, and sift them in sincerity, as in the sight of God, whether sin do not pluck that on us. It troubled the Israelites much, judic. 20.26. when going in a good cause, to take vengeance upon the Beniamites, for the abuse of the Levites concubine, there perished of them in two days no less than forty thousand. They went and wept before the Lord, and fasted till the evening, to know what the cause was. But when they who came before presuming upon their multitude, had learned to humble themselves, they obtained that which they desired. If any thing should happen strangely, as while we be in this mortality, we may very well expect, we can take no better course, then with these shipmen presently to fear, lest iniquity be the author of it. But we must not always follow their means; for they fell to casting lots. 18 The use of lots is ancient, wherein the custom was in causes of great importance, to take sticks, or stones, or shells, or to write names in a paper, or to draw straws or cuts, so to determine that, which otherwise without strife could not be accorded, or to put that unto God which men could not decide. Augustin. in Psalm. 30. So S. Austen doth describe it, A lot is such a thing as in the doubts of men doth show the will of God. So when men knew not who it was, that had taken the excommunicate thing, josuah. 7.18. the lot showed it to be Achan: for so the most do expound it. So when no man could tell Saul, that jonathas was the man, 1. Sam. 14.42 who so contrary to the rash oath of Saul, had tasted of the honey, it was found by lot who it was. Lest strife should arise, Act. 1.26. and parts be taken, about joseph and Mathias, which of them should be admitted into the room of judas, Homer. Iliad. 7. the Apostles made the trial by a lot. So Homer doth report that Nestor gave the counsel, that it should be determined by a lot, which of the nine worthiest of the greeks, should fight in combat with Hector. Each man marked his lot, and put it into the helmet of Agamemnon. The first turn fell to ajax. But whereas according to the rules of divinity, these lots should be used but in special causes, and that with great judgement and meditation, (because it is a trying of God in a kind of sentence, and we are not to tempt him rashly) in some men superstition, in some other a hope of gain, and a sort of deceiving fraud, have wrought great abuses in them. Proud Haman in the book of Hester, Ester. 3.7. made lots to be drawn before him, from the first month to the twefth, to see what month or day should be fortunate, to attempt the moving of his great matter, the murder of all the jews. O Haman, in that thy lot, thou wast blind as well as bloody. Caesar. Com●ient. lib. 1. Caesar telleth in his Commentaries, that the women among the Germans, did use to divine by lots, what days were good to fight on, or to begin a battle. This is heathenish superstition. Some casting lots to get money, have made a profession of it, as the counterfeit Egyptians in telling of fortunes. The laws contra sortilegos were made by worthy Princes, against such kind of men, and other of much like quality. God sometimes doth suffer these in very truth to hit, that themselves and such as follow them, attending to strong delusion, may make up their own damnation. These abuses have made some to think all lots unlawful, and not to be used at all. Hieron. in jon. 1. Nec statim debemus sub hoc exemplo sortibus credere. Privilegia singulo●um non possunt legenfacere communem. Prou. 16.33. Cap. 18.18. Augustin. in Psalm. 30. De Genesi ad literam. lib. 10. Epistol. 180. Yea Hierome speaketh somewhat doubtfully of them, who upon this place saith, that this deed of the mariners should not be drawn to an example, of attributing any thing to lots, neither should any in holy Scriptures, because they were special motions and events, given by God to special men, and not by other to be attempted or put in practice. 19 But the Scripture is not so strait; the lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposition thereof is of the Lord. And elsewhere it is commended. The lot causeth contentions to cease, and maketh a partion among the mighty. So S. Austen doth teach, that there is no evil in the lot. And in another place, Those things which are given by lot, are given unto us by God. And in his hundredth and eightith Epistle, disputing that question of the flying of a Minister in the time of persecution, and supposing that there be diverse pastors in one congregation, whereof some are to depart for a time, and some to stay; if it cannot be agreed, saith he, who shall do the one, and who shall do the other, Epistol. 119. let it be decided by a lot. Indeed he doth not like that lots should be made of every thing, as of the leaves of the Gospel, (which it seemed that some in his time used to do) because he thought it not to be fit, that divine matters should by a superstitious custom, be applied to profane uses. There the abuse is in the manner of doing, not in the thing. But the question which ariseth from this difference of judgement, may easily be resolved, by considering the several sorts of lots, which are found to be three. For there are either lots appointed to divide, Sorts divisionis, consultationis, divinationis. or intended to consult, or used of purpose to divine. The first of these three is, lawful; that is, to divide lands or goods, or any like thing, when otherwise contention would arise, Prou. 18.18. josuah. 16.1. as Solomon doth import in the place which I named before. In this kind did josuah part out the land of Canaan by lot, to the people of Israel. The second is not unlawful, that is, to consult what shallbe done, when matters stand in an equality of reason: so that there be no offending in the circumstances: And of this may be understood that other place of Solomon. Prou. 16.33. By this, choice may be made of persons to be sent, or of things to be accomplished, where otherwise by diversity of opinions there would be no agreement. But to divine is utterly unlawful, as if a man should take a white lot, and a black lot, and if I draw the white lot, than I may well go this day, if the black, I will not go: I shall have an unhappy journey. That of Haman before spoken of, doth come within this compass. We hold this for a great abuse. 20 Here the lot is consultatory. They took it a thing granted, that one or other among them had committed some wicked offence, and because they could not tell, who it was that had done the deed, they will put it to their Gods. This showeth the mighty fear which did possess their souls. Men can hardly like it in other of their acquaintance, that they should be culled out to be murdered; but that any should consent to throw the dice on himself, to endanger his own life by it, is a matter which is not common. This is like one of those cases among the Romans, which would make the hearts of all the beholders to quake; That was, when after some cowardly fearfulness, or mutinous sedition, or stubborn rebellion in the army, the General for punishment thereof, would tith his soldiers, every tenth man to the block, Livius. lib. 2. as Appius dealt with his legions. Or as if in some grievous famine, cuts should be drawn, who among a company should be slain to relieve his fellows. In what a state was josephus, joseph. de bello judaico. lib. 3.14. when his fellows in a desperate mood, enforced him to yield to the throwing of lots, so to know which of them should be first killed, and which of them last? but all of them must be slain. Necessity hath no law; it must be done in this place. The only comfort is, that every man hath this hope, that it will't rather fall to another than happen to himself. We can soothe ourselves of ourselves, either in foolish presumption that we are not the worst of all, some are more bad than we be; or in a weening fancy that we may escape in a multitude; we are but one of a many: but so between both, we will hope the best for our own parts, Corn. Tacit. in vita julij Agricolae. Imquissima haec bellorum conditio est: prospera omnes sibi vendicant: adversa uni imputantur. & let the lots go on other. As Tacitus saith of war, This is the misery of it: if any thing fall out well, every one challengeth that to himself: but if it fall out ill, every one slippeth his neck out of the collar, the blame shall be laid upon one, so in such cases as these, happy man he that is farthest off; but if the lot be to be drawn for any good thing, the better leg shall be set before. Why should not we hope to speed, as well as the best amongst us? 21 But the lot here is to take one, who must die for all his fellows. Why one for all, ye mariners? what man is there among you, that had not deserved to die? This is a branch of that root of hypocrisy, which possesseth the hearts of all the sons of Adam. Gen. 3.12. 1. Sam. 15.21. It was not Adam but the woman, who had touched the forbidden fruit. When the best of the cattle of the Amalekites was saved, it was the people, saith Saul, which spared them. So here I warrant you, the most part of those which were in the ship, were so clean from any such gross crime as now was in question, that there could be but one sinner. David was in another mind, Psal. 130.3. If thou o Lord straightly markest iniquities, o Lord who shall stand? All these had deserved death, and merited to be served as jonas was: but the Lord indeed upon a present occasion, had singled one out to this strange punishment; because as in part he would teach his companions, by his example, so especially he meant to make that one man know, how highly he had offended. God expected much more of him, than he did of ordinary persons. To whom the most is committed, of him most is required. jonas had been inspired with a Prophetical spirit: he had visions and revelations from his God: he should have been a light to other. But the simple seafaring men, never came to any such height of knowledge. He was singular in comparison of them: he was as a white garment; and therefore a little spot in him, would cause a great deformity. But when he did take this precious vesture, and with lying down in it, did soil it every whit, God in his justice cannot endure that in him. 22 The lots therefore are cast, and the danger falleth upon jonas. That Lord who ruleth over all his creatures, great and small, so disposed it, that the sinner should be deprehended, and the more innocent should go free. josuah. 7.18. His state was like to Achan: he cannot escape the judgement, which is coming toward him. The lot fell surely on him. It is not unlikely, but that they threw it diverse times, and still it proved that he was the man. For they who were so careful not to drown him, after that they had discovered him, jona. 1.13.14. would not hastily be induced, to single out a stranger, who never immediately had offended them, to make him die for all. Being drawn then once or often, it fell undoubtedly upon jonas. It was not possible for him to escape, where such a one had the handling of it, as is Lord both of heaven and earth. Tullius lib. 2. in Verrem. Tully doth tell of Verres, sometimes deputy for the Romans in Sicilia, that as otherwise he was excellent to bring about to his purpose, all things which might yield credit or commodity, so very earnestly desiring, to have his friend Theomnastus, to be chosen jupiters' priest, an office of some moment in that country, he wrought a pretty feat for him. For whereas by the order of the election, three men should be named to the place, and three several lots be appointed, with the names of the three competitors, written upon the lots, and he whose lot should be first drawn, should have the priesthood: Verres to make sure work, made three lots indeed to be appointed, but he wrote upon every one of them, the name of his friend Theomnastus, and so being sure to hit, he sped his man of the priesthood; for it could not be otherwise. This was a trick of fraud, and fit for such a deceiver, as Verres showed himself in Sicilia. He that would have jonas taken, needeth not to use any such legerdemain: his creatures be at commandment: they do as himself enjoineth. So jonas did find it here: so the wicked shall find it ever. 23 An instruction hence may be gathered for all persons, that they look unto their ways, and plunge not into ungodliness, under hope not to be disclosed. For nothing is so secret but it shall be opened. Eccles● 10.20 He that curseth the king, although it be in his most private chamber, shall be discovered by the fowls of heaven, and one dead thing or other shall declare it. Some letter perhaps or writing. The adulterer who doth think himself safely concealed, in the dark, or by the close and hidden walls, yet cannot escape his sight, whose eyes are said to be ten thousand times brighter than the Sun. He that wisheth ill to his brother, is well known to that majesty, which trieth the hearts and reins. In one word what can escape him, who hath such prerogative of power, Apoc. 20.11. as to sit so upon a throne, that heaven and earth fly before him, the graves give up their dead, and the sea doth yield up hers; that the books shall be laid open, and men's consciences be detected, and the mountains cannot cover them, nor the rocks cannot keep them from him. It is a good meditation, Heb. 10.31. to fear his angry judgement. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. If we serve him he will love us, if we fall from him, he will find us. Lord direct us so with thy Spirit, that if we should fall with jonas, we sleep not in sin with jonas, but as the careful shipmaister, looking in all sincerity through the corners of our hearts, we may raise up ourselves, and call to thee the true God, to help us in all extremities, to stand by us in all temptations, that the lot fall not on us, to be cast away from thy favour: but that we may reign with thee, in thy most blessed kingdom, to the which bring us o good father, for thine own son Christ his sake, to whom with thee and thy Spirit, be glory for evermore. THE V. LECTURE. The chief points. 2 Many questions import eagerness to know. 4.6. In doing justice due examination should go before. 5 men's hard hearts to strangers. 7 Some trades used are odious to God. 8 As usury. 10 It is not fit to come in all places. 11 Some people are not acceptable to God. 12 Confession of a fault. 14 What is meant by fearing. 15 Two sorts of fear. 16 The horror of sin. 17.22. The power and being of God showed against the Atheist. 19 Authorities of heathen men, and reasons proving the creation. 23 Four questions to the Atheist. JONAH. 1.8.9. Then said they unto him: Tell us for whose cause this evil is upon us? what is thine occupation? and whence comest thou? which is thy country? and of what people art thou? And he answered them, I am an Hebrew, and I fear the Lord God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land. BEcause our jonas hath a great deal more mind, to go to Tarshish by sea, then to Ninive by land, rather about his own pleasure, than the business of his master, he is so well preferred, as of a Prophet to become a prisoner, first arrested by a tempest, then discovered by a lot, to be a malefactor; in what place or cause, it doth not yet appear, but allow time only, and that shall be revealed. In this my text he is brought to his examination, not in a court of magistrates: but a company of mariners, must be his inquisitors. Being arraigned he is convicted, and by his own mouth condemned, but by them afterward he is brought to execution. I am here to look into the manner of inquiry which is made upon him; and that is laid down unto us in the former verse; and in the next place to handle his personal answer, which is in the latter verse; both of them yielding to us very good instruction, if I be not deceived, as may appear in order. 2 Saint Hierome doth observe the manner of the words, Hieron. in jon. 1.8. Notanda brevitas quam admirari in Virgilio solebamus that there should be within so small a compass, so many questions, and those so significant and effectual. And as he was a miracle of the world for learning, and that for humanity, as well as Divinity, so it putteth him to remember, the excellent conciseness of the Poet Virgil, who in a manner right compendious, is accustomed to enclose many questions in very few words. He citeth that one place, — Iwenes quae causa subegit Virgilius Aeneid. 8. Ignot as tentare vias? quo tendit is inquit? Qui genus? unde domo? pacémne huc fertis an arma? Young men, what cause hath brought you into these unknown ways? whither go you? of what kindred are you? where do you devil? bring you hither war or peace? But the matter of the words, is rather the ground whereon we are to stand, every question including some thing of importance, to this present purpose. These mariners being followed with so strange a tempest, as made them quake for danger of their lives, and cry with importunity to their heathen Gods, and disburden their ship of such wares as were in it, and cast lots for their lives, who should die for all his fellows; may justly be supposed to be in such a fright, that if any thing extraordinary should appear unto them, what might be the reason of their danger, or how they were to be eased, and put away from their ●eare, he by whom or in whom it might be conjectured to be, should be plucked, and tugged, and haled, by one and by another, as a Bear that were to be baited, to know what was the reason of this terrible danger, or what secret he could open. What art thou? whither wilt thou? whence comest thou? what dost thou? how cometh all this about? 3 For men in such extremities can not satisfy themselves, but either in strange news, or any mighty peril, will so run question upon question, that it is scant in man's wit to make a ready answer. When the Romans had sustained that deadly overthrow at Cannae, Livius lib. 22. Quae fortuna consulum atque exercituum sit, siquid Dij immortales, miseri imperij reliquum Romano nomini fecerint, ubicae copiae sint: quò se Hannibal post praelium contulerit, quid paret, quid agate, acturúsque sit. Luc. 16.27. by Hannibal the Carthaginian, and their City was grown into that perplexity, as it never was in almost before, that wise Fabius Maximus, causeth scouts to be sent forth, with demands upon demands, to such as they should meet; in what case the armies were; in what estate were the Consuls? what the Gods had left remaining to the Romans? where the remnant of their army did abide? whither Hannibal was now gone? what he intended? what he did? what he purposed to attempt? Thus danger affrighteth the wisest, and maketh the simpler sort oftentimes, to run tongue before the wit. In the sixteenth of Luke, the rich man is brought in, making request to Abraham, that he would send Lazarus to his father's house, to give warning to his five brethren, that they by the wickedness & retchlessness of their lives, came not into those torments, which he then with much pain endured. If that should have been in deed, which is there but in a parable described, and he who had come from the dead, should have had but some few hours allotted him to stay, imagine you (for this is but a supposal) among a multitude, what pressing there would have been about him; what plucking by one elbow, and holding by another, what doubled interrogations: how doth such a one, or such a one? my father or my friend? is he in heaven or hell? in lesser or greater joy? in more or milder torment? jonas coming from under the hatches, (where he slept but a little before) like Lazarus from his grave, is beset among these mariners, with a multitude of such questions. What is the cause that this storm is in this sort upon us? fellow, whence dost thou come? what countryman art thou sirrah? what is thine occupation? 4 Thus the place must be understood, if we respect the eagerness of men in such perplexity, or the haste which danger breedeth, or the manners of common mariners. But in very deed I see more in it. Here may be noted to us a proceeding much more sober, and judgement with discretion. That which goeth before will well bear it, that which followeth, will more enforce it. The fearfulness whereunto they were grown, by hazard of a shipwreck, was of force to allay their heat: it made them amated with it: their devotion to their Gods, did put them from their choler: the master is supposed to be a man wise and careful, as not long since you have heard: the casting of their lots doth intend a slaking stay: their mild entreating of jonas, when the crime appeared to them: their referring of all to him: the desire which they had to save him: the grief which they had to drown him, are presumptions of much sobriety. These circumstances import a just kind of inquiry, which was used upon the Prophet, so to wring out by conjectures, or by plain declaration, what was this grievous crime, which plucked such a tempest down from heaven, how God's wrath was to be satisfied, what punishment should be taken, if punishment must be taken. It were much to be suspected, that if this case which is here among these Gentiles, should come to trial among many Christians, the man should find hard justice. For now upon how light occasions, are many inflamed to wrath? what bitterness? what reviling? what blasphemy even to God, with swearing and with tearing, if for another's sake men's lives should be endangered? if they should be enforced, as these were here, to throw their wealth and substance, with their own hands into the sea? Call to mind, that if any negligence have raised a fire in a town, and harm be done to their building, how little it is remembed, that it is a cross from God, sent on them for their sins, or to teach them patience, or to make trial of their faith; but the next immediate cause, that presently is looked too, seeth villainy of this boy, see the cursedness of this wench; see the devilishness of this fellow, that should have taken care of this fire, if he had his desert, how oft should he die for it? 5 But if it were a stranger, an outlandish man as jonas was, who brought this scathe upon them, how many Crucifiges should he have tumbling on him? A French man as I take it, (although some other men be of another opinion) even grieving in his soul at the unkindness of our nation, I mean in the common sort, Anno. 1572. Euseb. Philadelphus Dialogo 2. hath by occasion of the handling of their last great Massacre, noted it to posterity, that by a most inhospitall kind of phrase, our Englishmen use to term them, no better than French dogs, that fled hither for Religion, and their conscience sake. Unto this join the many conspiracies, which by some of the meaner people, in one City of our land, have been oftentimes intended against outlandish folks: & the disposition of men in this point, will well appear. Those which are wise and godly, make use of those aliaunts as of brethren, considering their distresses, with a lively felow-feeling, holding it an unspeakable blessedness, that this little Island of ours should not only be a temple, to serve God in for ourselves, but an harbour for the weatherbeaten, a sanctuary to the stranger, wherein he may honour the true Lord: remembering the precise charge which God gave to the Israelites, to deal well with all strangers, Leuit. 19.33. because the time once was, when themselves were strangers in that cruel land of Egypt: not forgetting that other nations to their immortal praise, were a refuge to the English, in their last bloody persecution in Queen Mary's days: and in brief recounting, that by a mutual vicissitude of God's chastisements, their case may be our case: which day the Lord long keep from us. These mariners with that humanity which beseemeth all men of reason, reproach it not to the Prophet, that he an outlandish alliant, should bring such trouble on them, should put them to such loss, or thrust them into such danger, but in very good course of justice, they desire to be informed, and take notice of his cause. The presentness of the peril, or the haste which they had to be satisfied, could not stay them from doing justice: they will attend his answer. 6 Such persons as through whose hands the lives of others pass, be they judges or be they justicers, yea be they but common jurours, may hearken to these heathen, and the manner of their proceeding, and learn so much; as that they shall not dare, rashly to destroy, or take away the life of their Christian brother. Life is a most precious thing: it cannot be made by men, but it may be marred in a moment. And if it be once marred, there is no benefit on earth, whereby it may be requited; as Alexander once told his own mother Olympias, Ammi. Marcellin. lib. 14. when she desired him to execute an innocent harmless man; and that she might the more prevail with him, remembered him that herself for the space of nine months, had carried him in her womb, and for that reason he must not say her nay. Ask saith he my good mother, Aliam paren● optima posce merceden▪ hominis enim salus nulio beneficio pensatur. some other gift of me, for the life of a man can be recompensed, by no good turn that can be done. Before that death be inflicted, let truth appear if it may be. Stay the ask of many questions, and the scanning out of all doubts, ere the last sentence come. Certainly God knew the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrha, as he sat above in heaven; Gene. 18.21. yet meaning to destroy them, he saith, I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to that cry, which is come unto me, and if not, that I may know: thereby teaching all governors, that they pass not otherwise to the death of any, but with very mature advisement. It is a wise law in the mean time, Munster Cosmograph. lib. 4. which Munster reporteth to be put in practice, in a town called Clagea belonging to Carinthia; where if any be taken suspicious of theft, he is by and by hanged up, and some two or three days afterward, enquiry is made upon him, wherein if he be found guilty, he is let to hang till he rot away piece-meal, but if he be found innocent, than he is taken down, and buried with some solemnity. This is contrary to the common rules of humanity, but much more repugnant to divinity. In cases of less importance than life and death, all Magistrates ought to afford that measure to their people, which these mariners did to jonas, that is, to sift out the whole truth by demands, before that they give any judgement. Moses could say of himself to the Israelites, I charged your judges the same time saying, Deut. 1.16. Hear between your brethren, and judge righteously between every man and his brother, and the stranger that is with him. First hear and then judge. job. 29.16. job professeth thus of himself, I was a father unto the poor, and when I knew not the cause, I sought it out diligently. The speech of Nicodemus to the pharisees was good, Doth our law judge a man before it hear him, john. 7.51. and know what he hath done? Act. 24 23. So Felix could tell Saint Paul, that he would not judge his cause, Ammi. Marcell. lib. 18. Ecquis innocens esse poterit, si accusasse sufficiet? before that he had heard it perfectly. Otherwise, the accused person should have a hard bargain by it: for as julian the Apostata once answered very wittily, If it be sufficient to accuse, shall any man be an innocent? The Poet therefore said well, Seneca in Medea. Qui statuit aliquid part inaudita altera, Aequum licet statuerit, hand aquus fuit. He who determineth any thing not having heard both the parties speak, although he have decreed the right, yet himself hath not been just, that is, he hath done it wrongfully, because he should hear both. And this is the general doctrine, which may be derived here, from the examination of these mariners over jonas. Let us gather a little nearer to the particular words. Tell us for whose cause this evil is upon us? what is thine occupation? whence comest thou? Vers. 7. 7 I have in part before touched, that these men imagined, that some sin plucked this wrath upon them. But when the lot fell upon jonas, they guessed him to be the sinner. Now to know the particulars, they asked him of his trade, for, good men, they little dreamt of a Prophet: they demand of him for his country, and the place from whence he came. For both Rhetoric and experience, Natio, educatio, fortuna, studia, in personis sunt quaerenda. Omphalius in Nomologia. and divinity most of all, do show that good conjectures, and presumptions for any thing in question, may be drawn from the life which in former time hath been led, from the company and familiarity which hath been entertained, from the country and habitation where any hath abode. Then what is thine occupation? and the course of life which thou usest? wherein dost thou spend thy time? If thou be a robber or a rover, no marvel if some strange punishment do pursue thee at the heels. If a sorcerer or a necromancer, the same may be thy doom. Horat. Epist. 1.15. Scurra vagus non qui certum praesepe teneret. Impransus non qui civem dignosceret host. Quaelibet in quemuis opprobria fingere sae●us. If a stewes-maister or a broker for uncleanness of the body, it is very likely that wrath may follow thee. If a flattering hungry jester, who waytest upon a trencher, and makest no kind of conscience, to taunt any man that displeaseth thee, vengeance may drop upon thee. So these simple men did perceive, that there was some kind of life unlawful and ungodly, which because it was contrary and adverse, either unto piety, or human charity, it might well offend that power which ruleth all mortal creatures. 8 I marvel what the usurer could have answered in this case, who liveth on the sweat of others, and maketh a gain of their losses. Gen. 47.3. It was no shame for Jacob's sons, to tell the king of Egypt, that their father and his children were shepherds. Neither was it any disgrace to Amos, Amos. 7.14. to say that he was a herdman, and a gatherer of wild figs: but to say I am an usurer, one who live upon my money; is but a blushing speech. David asketh a question and answereth himself, Psal. 15.1.5. Lord who shall dwell in thy Tabernacle? who shall rest in thy holy mountain? He that giveth not his money unto usury. Ye in some places of this land, (for I must not imagine, that any interest is to be found in Oxford: we have scant money for our necessities) such as have their hands polluted, with extortion in this kind, will come into the tabernacle, and sit them down in the Temple, be at Church as soon as any, and be as intent and earnest upon the preacher, as if there were no such matter. If speech be of the inheritance which is on God's holy hill, they will urge as far as the farthest. How can this hang together? the breaking of God's commandments in a wilful professed sort, and the true fear of the Lord? But this were a greater woe, if it should be found in the Levites, and the Priests, even such as serve in the Tabernacle. Rom. 2.21. Thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal? saith Saint Paul, dost thou spoil? It was the speech of Apollonius in Eusebius, against the Montanist Prophets, Euseb. Eccl. Histor. lib. 5▪ 17. doth a Prophet colour his hair? or anoint his eyes with stibium? doth a Prophet put money to usury? If it be thy portion which was given thee by thy father, or some money which thou hast gotten, or a stock left in thy trust, for the widow or for the fatherless, which thou art loath should be idle, this or that, or whatsoever, doubtless it is not well, since no carnal pretence ●an serve to violate the everlasting law of God, and men should have tender consciences, fearing to exercise that, which by so many places of Scripture, the judgement of all the ancient fathers, the Canon and civil laws, the constitutions of most good commonwealths, the reasons of heathen Philosophers, the consent of the schoolmen, and opinion of the greatest part of our late Divines, is condemned as an uncharitable, and most unchristian practice. All those things which may be objected, that thy case is not common; that there be many sorts of interest, a biting and not biting usury: that learned men of great fame in some causes do permit it: that the laws of our land wink at it: that now it is much frequented, and many good men do use it, great gentlemen in the country, as well as Citizens and merchants: that thou mayst do good to another, and he shall gain by it as much as thou: nay a thousand excuses more, cannot answer that one place, Deut. 23.19. Thou shall not give to usury to thy brother, as usury of money, usury of meat, usury of any thing that is put to usury. And whereas thou wouldst shroud thy facts, under the skirts of some few reverend men's writings, if thou love them, and the Religion which they professed, then cover that their oversight, proceeding from human infirmity, Gen. 9.22. & do not as wicked Cham, discover the nakedness of those, who were fathers in the faith, to many in this last age. Do not wrestle against thy conscience. With Matthew leave to be a Publican; Matth. 9.9. Luc. 19.2. with Zacheus to gather tribute: it is not for a Christian to be of this occupation: relinquish it to the jews. 9 If I be not deceived, this question for the trade of life, insinuating that some arts are not pleasing to the Lord, should stumble a great many men. If in the lawfulness of a calling, God's immediate glory, and the benefit of his Church, or at least the good & service of the common wealth, in human society, be evermore to be respected, what comfort can such persons, who indeed are but a burden to a land, or the City where they dwell, take to go on forward to their graves in in that, which to speak of it most moderately, is but doubtful? I can hardly be persuaded, that the consciences of such men, do always content and satisfy themselu●●. I am sure, that according to the proportion of their calling with his, they are not able to say as the Apostle Paul said a little before his death, 2. Tim. 4.7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Certamen illud praeclarum certani. Beza. I have fought a good fight, or as Beza readeth it, I have fought that excellent fight, I have finished my course, and so take joy in their calling. Such men who make a life of playing upon a stage, may bethink themselves in this reckoning. If you will, put unto these our common dauncing-maisters, and others of like sort. Mistake me not in these words, as if I did condemn all honest recreation. I dare not to do so. I know the privilege and prerogative is great, which men above all the creatures of God have, if we do not abuse our liberty; but it is one thing for one man, after his honest labour in that trade wherein the Lord hath placed him, to use fit and moderate recreation; and other thing for another, to have no other kind of life, but to make of such exercises an occupation. Many kinds of business, are warranted both by the laws of God and men apparently, but these at least may come under question. 10 The next demand here made to our Prophet, is from what place he did come? presuming that a man may draw from some places such a stain, as cannot be washed off but with vengeance. He that toucheth pitch, Syrac. 13.1. Genes. 42.15 shall be defiled with it. Holy joseph being among the Egyptians, had learned new devised oaths: he could swear by the life of Pharaoh. Cap. 19.26. Lot's wife did so well like the company which she had in Sodom, that she longed to be there again, although for her labour, it cost her the turning into a pillar of salt. Apoc. 18 4. Some places are hateful to God: his people must out of Babylon. The companions of the wicked, are supposed to be wicked. It may well be feared, that the young man was a sinner, Prou. 7.6.9. of whom Solomon telleth, that he went to the house of the harlot, entering in thither at the twilight, and coming out perhaps at the midnight. Surius in commentar. Anno. 1566. Meretricis coactae sunt discedere: interim tamen nonnullae in vicis ignobilibus ob peiora vitanda relictae sunt. Meretricibus quas in unum urbis angulum reiecit severiter praecepit ne per urbem vagentur. It could be no great credit for Demosthenes, to be seen to come from the house of Lais. It is a case well known, that there be at Rome whole streets of Courtesans. Only Surius to extenuate the filthiness of the matter, saith they be but the base streets, and lanes of less account, where these honest folks do inhabit. And he holdeth it for a great praise to Pope Pius the fifth, that he brought it to that pass. This multitude must have money, to maintain them in their abuses, whereby it may be collected, that many and that frequently resort unto them. Now if Christ should ask of those who return from those places, whence come you? where have you been? they might right well quake with jonas & fear his heavy judgement. But if it be but his holiness, the Vicar or vicegerent of Christ upon earth, the successor of Saint Peter, as he merrily termeth himself, Si meretrices ab urbe excluderentur, magnum id Reip. annui quaestus dispendium allaturum. Apoc. 17.1. Henric. Stephanus, in Apologia pro Herodoto, Gallicè edita. cap. 12. there needeth no great dread for the matter. From a known place of your City: from that which yieldeth you money: which you permit for tribute. Rome, how rightly wast thou termed by the name of the whore of Babylon, which sufferest such abuses in open professed sort, and thereby givest encouragement to some, to embrace that sin? For whereas in the days of our old forefathers, the ignorant did account it a crime to keep a concubine, now when they see that even at Rome, in the very eye of his holiness, in the chief City of residence for Christ's Vicar, such matters be maintained, they may think that now to keep two or three, is a work meritorious, & the more, the more meritorious. But to leave them to their filthiness, if it do so much touch our Prophet, to be asked from whence he came, those of the younger sort, who come to this place for learning, for virtue and good instruction, may revolve this over and over. If any day in the evening, when they should be at home in their beds, or else quiet in their studies, or if upon the Sabaoth in service time, or while other are at the sermon, a tavern should be their rest, (which doth not well agree with a long gown) how far should they be forgetful, or blush to hear that question, whence come you? where have you been? Genes. 3 9 or as God spoke to our forefather in the bushes, where art thou Adam? If there should be any such (as God be praised, that custom is well left) how will they hereafter lament, that those good hours, which should and might by the Lords good blessing, be well employed, are ill and fruitlessly spent? that idleness and unthriftiness, yea peradventure drunkenness also, should be that whereunto they bend their study, when in the mean while, knowledge and precious learning might adorn them? Time foolishly wasted can never be recalled: and it is hard to call back ourselves, when we are once grown to a custom of any evil. 11 The shipmaister and his fellows, yet have not enough of jonas: some more questions for their money. They ask him of his country, and from what people he did come. God sometimes is angry with a whole land, for the wickedness of the inhabitants. The goodly fields of Sodom do find that unto this day. This also is witnessed unto us by the barrenness of Palestina, which was sometimes the holy land, sometimes the happy land flowing with milk and honey, which now answereth in no measure, to the fertility of ancient time. When sin hath overgrown a country, each inhabitant feeleth a woe; even the good in temporal punishments do smart as well as the wicked. For the iniquity of their nation, Dan. 1.3. both Daniel and the three children, together with the rest of their countrymen, were led into captivity. Some kind of people, even almost in general, are displeasing to the lord Deut. 23.3. Exod. 17.14. The Ammonites and the Moabites, were little accepted of him. But Ameleches name was so cursed, that the Lord would have the remembrance of them to be rooted out from under the heaven. Matth. 27.25. Above all the people who live upon the earth, the jews do demonstrate this doctrine to us, whose children and children's children, have for many ages been blinded, with the gross and grievous sin of their fathers, who put Christ cruelly to death. Other nations had their faults, and so might be hateful to men who bordered near upon them, and they might also provoke wrath from God. S. Paul did observe out of the Poet Epimenides, Tit. 1.12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. that the Cretians were great liars. Now lest some such general sin, of parentage or country, should hang upon the Prophet, his company asketh him, from what nation he did come? of what people he was borne? By these & the like interrogatories, they desired to know the truth, that the fault might lie on him who had deserved it, and that they might be freed from the danger of suffering shipwreck. And thus have you the first verse, the demands which were made to jonas. Now let us come to his answer. And he answered them, I am an Hebrew, and I fear jehovah the God of heaven. 12 When the whip of God, and the rod of his justice, had overtaken jonas so, that now he seeth heaven and earth to be against him, down cometh his proud heart: the sleeper now awaketh; the runaway crieth peccavi; contrition & confession come now tumbling upon him, yea to make up his full penance, there shallbe satisfaction, Psal. 32.6. if his life can make amends. Now with David he will confess his sins against himself, in ingenuous manner no concealing, no excusing, no pleading for himself. It is I, who by my folly, have wrought you all this danger. Wreak your anger upon me. Virgil. Aeneid. 9 Me, me, adsum qui feci, in me convertite ferrum O Rutuli, mea fraus omnis. It is I, it is I, here I am who did it, turn your sword against me: all the fault is mine, as Nisus saith in Virgil, to save his friend Euryalus. To display my transgression, and condemn myself the more, I will tell you the whole matter. I should be a man of some skill in God's service, I should be able to know good from evil, and practise it accordingly, for I am an Hebrew, (he speaketh that with an Emphasis) no idolater, no infidel, no ignorant person, but an Hebrew, trained up in understanding and piety: therefore my fall is most filthy; I am ashamed of myself. The name Hebrew was given to the people of God, Genes. 11.14 (which then was the only sanctified seed) of Heber who descended from Sem the son of Noah, from whom by succession those came, who were at that time the sole sons of adoption, called Hebrews of Heber, as the jews afterward took their name of judah, Genes. 32.28. one of the twelve patriarchs, and the Israelites of jacob, whom the Angel after his wrestling called Israel. This I think to be the true derivation of that name. 13 These Hebrews instructed their children in the service of the highest, even as Moses & David commanded unto them, that they should teach their sons Gods miracles, Deut. 6.20. Psal. 78.4. Deut. 11.10. & their children his precepts. The walls of their houses, and the posts of their doors, could remember them of his statutes. The most unlearned persons among them, even their children, could as well rehearse the laws given down by Moses, as they could recite their own names. joseph. contra Apionem. lib. 2 For josephus against Apion, doth give that testimony of them: wherein I suppose that he meaneth the ten commandments, and not the whole law. Then for a man & a Prophet, Nostrorun quenlibet si quis leges interroget, faciliùs quam nomen suum recitat. to forget that which a child or any unlearned one, could not choose but think of, to wit, his precise duty, doth argue a great fault, and he who acknowledgeth this, doth not spare himself at all. He addeth this more, in his words to them, that he feareth the Lord jehovah, the God of heaven: he belongeth to his service, and therefore should be expert in each thing that is good. jehovah, is that name, wherein the Lord appeared only to the Israelites; and not to all them neither, not to Abraham, nor to Isaac, Exod. 6.3. nor to jacob, and the old patriarchs, but first of all to Moses. This was that name, which the jews reputed to be his dreadful name, the ineffable name of God, the unspeakable name of the Lord, which they dared not so much as to utter: that appellation, by which he was distinguished from all other heathen Idols, Psal. 82.1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from Princes and from Magistrates, to whom the name of God in some sense is permitted. But jonas to make him known, john. 10.34. doth give him another title; jehovah the Lord of heaven, who alone doth rule the sky, who alone possesseth the firmament: not many as you do suppose (but he alone ruleth the heaven. No doubt but this God had some one time or other, been specified to these mariners; jonah. 1.3. they used to go to japho a haven town near Palestina: and very likely it is, that there about they had heard of the miracles, which this God had done before in Egypt, what work he made in Canaan. His name was a name of fame, over all the world. And perhaps the word jehovah was not wholly unknown to them. ●he Romans which were also heathen men, and lived much farther of, as I think did take some notice of that word, when they called their great God jupiter, in some cases, iovis, & iovem, which might roave at the name jehovah. But this is but a conjecture, and it was some years afterward. 14 But to let this go, he feareth the Lord God of heaven, that is, either he dreadeth his judgement, for the grievousness of his sin, or else, he belongeth unto him as a servant, he reverenceth him, Psal. 111.10. Prou. 1.7. and oweth duty to him. For oftentimes in the Scripture, the fear of the Lord importeth his honour or his service, and so Saint Hierome doth expound it, writing upon this place. August. de Civitate Dei lib. 1.19. Si adultera Lucretia, cur laudata, si pudita cur occisa? But as Saint Austen saith of Lucretia, if she were an adulteress, why is she commended by those that write the story of her, and by common report, if chaste, why was she slain, why did she kill herself? So might not I say to jonas, if thou serve the Lord jehovah, why then dost thou fly from him? or if thou run from him, how dost thou serve him? jonas thou shouldst have served him, but thou didst not, and that was thy heavy fault. Indeed it was his fault, as you have heard oft before, and himself doth now confess it. For he who giveth true honour to him that is his maker, should be obsequious to his will, and observant of his word, in all things great and small, much more in things important, as Ninive was to the Prophet. He that should withdraw from thee, joseph. de bello jud. lib. 7.4. that daily food which thou puttest into thy belly, should be reputed of thee for an enemy: and can the Lord, thinkest thou, take it well, that thou shouldst withdraw from him, that obedience which thou owest unto him? Cyprian. contra Demetrianum. Homo hominem obedire tibi & parere compellis: & cum sit nobis eadem. sors nascendi conditio una moriendi, corporum materia consimilis. That speech which Saint Cyprian hath, is very excellent to this purpose: Thou requirest a duty of thy servant, and whereas thou art but a man, thou forcest another man to be obedient to thee. Yea whereas there is between thee and him but one sort of being borne, one condition and quality of dying, one substance of your bodies, yet thou beatest him with the whip, thou correctest him with the rod. And when thou wilt thus exercise dominion over another, wilt thou not acknowledge one, to be a Lord over thee, and do thy best service to him? God doth expect this at thy hands: for saith he, if I be a father, where is mine honour? if I be a master where is my fear? If jonas were now his servant, it was but in name only: he did in truth little regard his master. At this time then, he hath much more occasion, to stand in awe of his punishment, and in that sense he might well say, jonah. 2.4. that he feared the God of heaven. He who looketh on the next Chapter, shall see this to be most likely. 15 The horror of sin is such, even in the hearts of the best of God's children, that if faith do sleep but a little, and the resolved assurance of mercy in the Saviour, be eclipsed but for a moment, it maketh their souls to tremble in such sort, as if diffidence and despair should swallow them up by and by. How was David dismayed, Psal. 51.11. when he cried out, Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thine holy Spirit from me? What did job imagine of his own desert, job. 42.6. when he thus professed, I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes? In what an horrible anguish was Peter, Matth. 26.75. when he went out and wept bitterly? But our Prophet of all other, fearing the dreadful burden of sin upon his shoulders, and guessing at the strange punishment, which should follow him immediately, with some measure of servile fear doth tremble at his Lord. His fear should have been before that he had not run wilfully into sin, for as it is noted in one of those Epistles, Ambros. lib. 10. Epistolar. Ep. 84. Aliud est timere quia peccaveris, aliud timere ne pecces. Timor filialis & seruilis. August. in Psal. 119 & Epistol. 120. Illa dicet Timeo virum ne veniet. Ista Timeo virum ne discedet. Illa, timeo virum ne damnet. Ista timeo virum, ne deserat. Pone haec in animo, & invenies timorem, quem foras mittit charitas, & alium timorem castum permanentem in secula seculi. which are in the works of Ambrose, although not thought to be his: It is one thing to fear, because thou hast offended; another thing to fear lest that thou shouldest offend. In the one is a dread of punishment, in the other is a carefulness that thou mayst obtain the reward. Saint Austen doth describe this slavish quaking fear in one, and child's fear in another (as the schoolmen do call it) by a comparison drawn from a good wife, and a harlot. The adulterous wife, and the chaste wife, saith he, do both fear, if the husband be away. The one feareth and the other, but ask the reason of both, and you shall see an apparent difference. The bad wife standeth in fear of her husband, lest he should come to her, The good wife is in fear, lest her husband should go from her. This feareth lest he should condemn her, because she hath deserved it, That feareth lest he should forsake her, because she loveth him dearly. Remember these things, saith Austen, and so thou shalt find a bad fear, whom charity driveth forth, and another chaste fear, which abideth for ever and ever. 16 jonas who was accustomed, in his cogitations of God, to join a love with his reverence, as toward a father, now thinketh on him no otherwise, then as of a Lord, ready to take strong vengeance, upon him as on a prisoner deputed to death. This is the best fruit of ungratefulness, and of negligence in our duties; to come as unto a judge, astonished and amazed, and trembling to see his face, or almost to remember his name; whereas we might come as to a father, or as to a brother; with confidence and boldness, as to the throne of grace. Fie filthy sin, that for thy sake we should thus disable ourselves, we should so disgrace our souls, that when we might live, even in this world, with a daily dew of sweet influence, distilling upon our hearts, from the holy Spirit of God, to revive us and refresh us; and whereas Paradise could not yield greater comfort to our eye, than the presence of the Trinity, Apoc. 3.20. dwelling & supping with us would do unto our minds; and whereas we might die in rest, as having that joy of conscience, that perfect peace of God, which passeth all understanding, resigning up with gladness, our spirits unto our maker; yea that whereas either living or dying, we may rest ourselves on that rock, that evermore we are the Lords, belonging to his election, and sealed up with his adoption; to that end, that we may enjoy sin for a season, and the wantonness of this flesh, the vanities of this earth, and the foolery of this world, which are scant worth the naming, to a man that hath heard of wisdom; which leave us and live not with us, we should plunge ourselves into that horror, which waiteth upon the reprobates, and be perplexed in our thoughts, in our understanding dazzled, discouraged in our life, discomforted in our end, thinking of hell and judgement, and wrath and fearful vengeance, which maketh men live in misery, with sobs and many a sigh, and die without hope of mercy. Let us raise up ourselves at length, and with sober meditation contemplate upon this matter. Let our soul be dearer to us, even that soul, which Christ hath bought with his blood, with his precious heart blood, than sin with his tail of a scorpion, who departeth not without stinging. Better to love God as jonas should, then to quake at God as jonas did. The God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land. 17 But here I must not forget the last words of my text, because they yield a special doctrine, most fit for these present times. In this speech, jonas doth entitle his master to all the world: he is first the God of the heaven; and then he did create the sea, and the dry land. Heaven oftentimes by a general name, containeth all things above us, be they elements, or be they other bodies: so than God did make this whole frame. The heaven is as his seat: the earth he made from which, the sea he made to which the Prophet did here fly. Be it wet, or be it dry, be it passable, be it navigable, be it above or below, this maker did create it. Nehem. 9.6. So Nehemiah witnesseth: Thou art Lord alone: thou hast made heaven and the heaven of all heavens with all their host, the earth and all things that are therein, the seas and all that are in them, and thou preservest them all, and the host of the heaven worshippeth thee. job. 26.7. Psal. 33.6. In symbolo Apostolorun. So job speaketh, so David testifieth. So the Articles of our faith do teach us to believe on the maker of heaven and earth. Whereby it is plain, that he doth renounce the grounds of Christianity, who doth deny this doctrine. Yet the world hath hatched such monsters, even of the seed of Christians, as who make no bones thereof. But young ones abash not at it, nor abash not at it old ones, for it is no more than we look for. S. Peter long ago foretold it, 2. Pet. 3.1. that in the last days there should come such deriders, as should laugh at the speech of Christ's coming, and at the day of judgement, maintaining that there shall be an eternal continuance, of all things in such sort, as now they are. Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers died, all things continue alike from the beginning of the creation. These will not believe, that ever the heaven & earth were not, but they receive it, that they have stood from all eternity, and shall so continue. They see no reason for the contrary, and they will not believe the Scripture. 18 Lodovicus vives hath well observed, vives de veritate fidei. lib. 1. Ne attingatis vitrum, tenuissimum, falsum, inane, levissimo contacti● statim friatur. Nostra religio intus est quam extra formosior, solidior, firmior. Gen. 1.1. that judaism and Mahometisme●, and all other whatsoever superstitions or devotions, are, but like to the glass; but on the other side the Christian faith, by us may be compared to the gold. The glass is bright, but brittle: it cannot endure the hammer. The gold is another kind of metal; do you melt it, or do you rub it, or do you beat it, and it shineth still the more orient. So it is with our faith: so it is with this doctrine, of the creation of the world. It doth not fear the touchstone. We are taught in the very first words of Genesis, that in the beginning God made the heaven & the earth, that all before was as nothing, unfigured & unformed. This is affirmed by Moses, & it may be a Machiavelli doth deny this. Now whether of these two shall we believe? Either Machiavelli an Italian, and therefore by the abundance of his wit, most fit for evil, if God do withdraw his grace; a Secretary to the state of Florence, a professed politician, whose precepts closely couched, have filled the world with the devil; who made no kind of conscience of any thing which he taught, who lived in this present age, within one hundred years: or Moses, who is of the standing of three thousand, and in all that time hath been famous, among both jews and Gentiles: of whom justine giveth testimony, justin Hist. lib. 36. Iwenalis' Saryr. 14. although it be obscured with some heathen minglings, and Juvenal the Poet when he saith of the jews, Romanas autem soliti contemnere leges, judaicum ediscunt ●c servant ac metuunt ius, Tradidit arcano quodcunque volumine Moses. They being accustomed to neglect the Roman laws, do learn and keep the jewish, and stand in fear of that law which Moses hath delivered down in his secret books. justin. Martyr. in coho●●atione ad Graecos. And justinus Martyr nameth many Ethnic men's works, which being extant in his time, did mention both that Moses, and the bringing of the children of Israel out of Egypt by him, as was to be seen in the writings of Polemon, and of Apion the son of Possidonius, of Ptolomoeus Mendesius, of Hellanicus and Philochorus, who wrote the Athenien story, as also of Castor and Thallus, and Alexander Polyhistor, joseph. Antiquit. lib. 12.2. besides the two renowned jews, josephus and Philo. This Moses was he, whose books were so accounted of by Ptolomee, the great king of Egypt, a man of so much antiquity, a man of such love to learning, who to his mighty charges, did cause those volumes to be translated, by seventy and two of the Israelites, into the Greek, and laid up in his famous library. This was he whose sacrifices to the true Lord, were the sole and only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exemplar ex quo simili facimus. that is, first pattern to all the services of the heathen, toward their idol Gods, whose books have been preserved, through so many generations; whose writings are brought to us, not by our friends, but by our enemies, the jews who do detest us. To compare these two together, this Moses and that Machiavelli, will seem to men that be indifferent, Hominibus contra Deum credunt, qui contra ●omines Deo non credunt. Cypr. serm. de Lapsis. a very unequal match. But what equality or equity should we look for, of such men as these be, who are so far from all reason, that as Cyprian writeth of the like, they will believe men against God, who will not believe God against men, so they would have us to believe them speaking against the Lord, but we must not believe the Lord, though with such power and evidence of the spirit, he demonstrate against them. But let us come to the issue. 19 Set aside the Hebrew stories, and the writers of holy Scripture, and what reason can they assign (for these men do all by reason) saving that evermore, 2. Esd. 4.35. the truth shall, and must, and will prevail, that such as knew not God, were haters of the jews, and never heard of the Christians, yet by an uniform consent, and by a good conspiracy, should acknowledge the creation of the world? Hesiodus in Theogonia. ovid. Metamorph. 1. How is it that Hesiodus, so ancient a Poet doth lay it so plainly down? Look on the beginning of Ovid's Metamorphosis where he hath the very words, Primáque ab origine mundi, from the first beginning of the world, and see whether that his chaos, (which I think he borroweth from hesiod) be not like to that in Genesis: his forging unto Gods framing. They do agree in substance. Yet remember that those are Poets, and that the drift of their book, is but a frivolous fable. Plato was a Philosopher, and therefore of more judgement: and he in a tale describeth the making of mankind. Lucretius is accounted both a Philosopher and a Poet, yet a Philosopher of the Epicures, and therefore so much the worse, and yet he impugneth the perpetuity of the world, giving this reason of his opinion, Praetereá si nulla fuit generalis origo Plato in Protagora. Lucretius' lib 5. Terrarum & caeli, sempérque aeterna fuere, Cur supra bellum Thebanum & funera Troia Non alias alij quo queres cecinere Poetae? If there were no general beginning of the earth and heaven, but that they have been from everlasting, why then have not the Poets mentioned any thing more ancient, than the war of Thebes, and the sacking of Troy? The world did begin in time, because nothing is recorded in the writings of any authors, but for a little time. Macrob. in Somn. Scip. lib. 2.10. Quis non hinc existimet mundum quandoque caepisse, nec longam retrò eius aetatem. The same argument is used by Macrobius, a grave heathen man, who speaketh in this sort, who may not hereupon think, that the world once did begin, & that the antiquity of it is not very great, since there is no story in the Greek, of the admirable memory of things beyond two thousand years. For beyond Ninus, of whom some think that Semiramis was borne, there is no excellent thing set down in writing. And as these have aimed at the beginning of the world, so there have been other, who have spoken of the end. One of the Sibyls (for I take the words to be hers) doth foretell the dissolution of all things, and that they shall perish with the fire; both heaven and earth and all; which while ovid in the middle of his ignorance, did not truly understand, he applieth it to the fire of Phaeton. ovid. Metamorph. 1. Esse quoque in fat is reminiscitur affore tempus, Quo mare, quo tellus, convexáque regia caeli Ardeat, & mundi moles operosa laboret. He remembreth that by destiny it is appointed, that there shall come a time, wherein both sea and earth and heaven shall burn, and the whole frame of the world shall be endangered. The Poet Lucan did more than guess at this, Lucanus lib. 7. when speaking of those, whom Caesar left unburied, at the battle of Pharsalia, he bringeth in this, — Placido Natura receptat Cuncta sinu, finémque sui sibi corpora debent. Hos Caesar populos si nunc non usserit ignis, Vret cum terris, uret cum gurgite ponti. Communis mundo superest rogus, ossibus astra Nisturus. Nature receiveth all things into her own lap, and bodies do owe to themselves the end of themselves. O Caesar, if fire do not now consume these slain men, yet it shall hereafter burn them up, together with the earth and the sea. For there remaineth to come, one bonfire which shall be common to all the world, and shall mingle the stars in heaven, with their bones on earth. Over and above these men of learning, Peru the South part of America, doth yield to us an ignorant people, Surius in commentar. Anno. 1558. who by the light of nature, and by a general apprehension (for God knoweth they had nothing else) do believe that the world shall end, and that there shall be then a reward, for the good and for the evil, 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 dissolve the heaven by fire. But the deluge of Deucalion, ovid. Metamorphos. 1. so much song of by the Poets, doth witness that there was such a flood, in the days of Noah, and that all things were spilt by the water; which could not have been, but by him who made both the earth and the water. Thus the Poets do roave at that, in their fables, which Moses teacheth us, in our most sacred Bible. 20 Add some reasons to authority. If the world were not created, & man had not once a beginning, how cometh it about that all things, which make us live like men, appear to have their original, in time and place, we know where an when, and that but as yesterday to eternity? Genes. 4.20. I must not here speak of Moses, which telleth us who first made tents, who made the Harp and the Organ, who first did work in brass; because he is now in question. Polydor. Virgil. de Inuentoribus rerum. But I bid you rather look on Polidore Virgil, who hath written a large tract, of purpose to show by whom, the most matters which be of excellency were invented. There is no greater grace to a man, than knowledge and the arts of learning. But Mercury as some say, August. de Doctr. christiana. lib. 2. Vide Polyd. Virgil. de Inventor. lib. 1.6. Euseb. de Praepar. evangelica. 2.1. as some other, the Phaenicians are reported by the Gentiles to have invented the first letters, and others are said afterward to have added to them. But we know that the Hebrew letters were before their time, even in the days of Moses, who as Eusebius saith, in that admirable work of his, De praeparatione evangelica, was more ancient than the Gods of the greeks, for that they began but after the days 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 Grammar. Pol. Virg. lib. 1.16. How are we beholding to Zeno, and Socrates and Aristotle for the use of Logic? We know well when these lived. Aristotle was schoolmaster to Alexander, and Plato unto Aristotle, and Socrates unto Plato, some 400 years before Christ. Zeno was little beyond them. For Philosophy, Phythagoras is thought to be one of the most ancient. Yet he came into Italy, Livius lib. 1. Lib. 44. after that Rome was built. Astronomy should be supposed to be as old as any. Yet how lately were the Eclipses of the Moon, which are things so well known in nature, most fearful to the armies of the Grecians, and the Romans, as in the war against Perseus? Was not the year brought to the orderly course of the Sun, Plutarch. in vita Caesaris. by julius Caesar? How long have kings been on earth, Gen. 10.8. when Nimrod as Moses calleth him, or Ninus as other term him (for these two are thought to be one) was one of the first among all nations? What laws were among the greeks, before the days of Lycurgus? joseph. contra Apionem. lib. 2 josephus against Apion writeth, that in the time of Homer, the name of law was not so much as known, and that in all the works of Homer, there is not, the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, but that they were then ruled, by the speech & commandment of Princes. Nay what do I speak of these things, when the very food of men, in any civil sort, had his beginning but of late? for among the Ethnics is not Bacchus said, first to have found out the vine, Gen. 9 20. (we know that Noah was the man) & of the vine cometh the wine. How cometh it about, that Ceres is canonised among them for a Goddess, but for showing their forefathers the first use of corn? All these and a thousand more imply, that as things with us 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 assign, that the sea in diverse places, should be higher than the land, and yet not overflow the banks? Basil. in Hexaemero. Homil. 4. Saint Sasile in his Hexaemeron, doth excellently show it, and confirmeth it to be so. This may be found to be thus, by instruments Geometrical, or otherwise by the eye, Levius in navigatione in Bresilian. ca 2. as Levius hath observed, and that of his own knowledge, sensibly discerning it in the Atlantike sea, near the coast of Mauritania. Nature can yield no reason for this: their best is but a cavil. But divinity endeth this doubt. God hath tied it within his limits, as a Lion fastened in a chain. Thou saith David speaking of the waters in the sea, Psal. ●04. 9. hast set them a bound which they shall not pass: they shall not return to cover the earth. So God saith to job: job. 38.8. Who hath shut up the sea with doors, when it issued and came forth as out of the womb, when I made the clouds as a covering thereof, and darkness in the swaddling bands thereof. When I established my commandment upon it, and set bars and doors, and said hitherto shalt thou come, and no farther, and here shall it stay thy proud waves. My text speaketh of the land, and that hath so great alterations, as in time will bring a ruin. Hear the judgement of a Gentile upon this. Aelian. Hist. lib. 8.11. Aetnam aiunt ij qui mare navigant, multó minori part videri, quam antea conspici solita sit. Idem etiam in Parnassus & Olympo accidere. Itenque qui se totius universi naturam tenere profitentur, aiunt mundum etiam ipsum periturum. Aelian in the eighth book of his history telleth us, that not only the mountain in Sicilia Aetna, (for thereof may be given some reason, because of the wasting and consuming of it by fire) but Parnassus and Olympus, did appear to be less and less, to such as sailed at sea, the height thereof sinking as it seemed. Whereupon he doth give that note, that men most skilful in the secrets of nature did say, that the world itself should perish, and have an end. I know to whom I do speak, that is, to men of great understanding: As therefore I name but a few things, so you see, I dwell not on them. 22 To that position of those who oppugn this doctrine, of the creating and continuing of all by God, by saying that it is Nature, who produceth every thing, I might answer that there is no such matter as Nature, taking it in that sense which they foolishly do imagine: but only it is a course, proportioned out by the will of God, to run and hold on, in the creatures. And so much can a natural man inform unto them, Seneca de beneficijs. l. 4 Natura inquis haec mihi praestat. Non intelligis te cum haec dicis, mistare nomen Deo? quid enim aliud est natura quam Deus & divina ratio toti mundo & partibus eius inserta? john. 4.24. I mean Seneca, who with a better spirit speaketh on this manner. Thou sayest, Nature doth yield these things unto me. Understandest thou not, that when thou speakest this, thou dost but change the name of God? for what other thing is Nature then God, and an order from his Godhead, inserted into the world, and all the parts of the same? Now that there is such a Godhead, although they do not see it, I may answer them in this manner. His substance is invisible; his nature is insensible, because he is a spirit. And yet we see him and feel him, & know him by his effects. If we look on the heaven above us, or behold the earth below us, the standing fast of the one, the running round of the other, the concord of things in discord, their orderly interruption, & interrupted order, every creature doth cry & proclaim that there is a God. Athanas. oratione contra idola. That worthy man Athanasius doth very well urge this argument: As if thou shouldst see a city consisting of many & several men, great & small, & rich & poor, & old & young, & male and female, to be governed with good order & strait discipline, and those who live there, although they be different among themselves, yet to agree in mind, so that neither the richer do bend against the poor, nor the great against the small: nor the young against the old, but all of them do maintain peace with an equality of right: If we should see these things it cannot be but we must imagine that by the presence of the Prince there, this concord is cherished, although he do not come abroad to be seen, because disorderliness is a sign that the common wealth is without an head, but order on the other side doth show the care and government of the Prince. And as when we see in the body an agreement of the members among themselves, and that the eyes do not wrangle with the ears, nor the hands make a mutiny against the feet, but every one doth his own business without brawling, we do immediately thereupon conceive, that there is a soul in that body, which doth so direct and dispose all things, although that soul be not visible to the eye. So in this order and harmony of the whole world, it must needs be that we consider that there is a God, who is the Prince and governor of all, and that but one God and no more. Now if thou be such a one, as that this do not suffice thee, by reason of the stubborness of thy heart, but thou must be like Saint Thomas, john. 20.25. August. in Psal. 73. Animam tuam quis videt? cum ergo corpus tuum solum videaetur, quare non sepeliris? that is, see or else thou wilt not believe, then let me ask of thee as Austen doth of one. Hast thou a soul or no? and by a consequent art thou alive? Canst thou see thy soul, or feel it? If not, then by thine own reason thou hast no soul, & therefore thou art dead; & I pray thee why art thou not buried? If because thou wouldst not be buried, thou wilt say, that by signs & tokens thou conceivest, that there is a soul in thee, because thou seest & speakest, and movest up & down, which a dead corpse cannot do; then hast thou answered for me: for so it is with thy Creator: Psal. 19.1. the heavens declare his glory, the firmament showeth his work: thou seest him in his creatures. Many arguments might be drawn, from the bowels of very reason, to show this point in question: as that every thing which moveth must have something to move it, which is verus primus motor, but the heaven is ever in motion: as that lesser things have a governor, the bees and herds of cat-tail, and fishes in the sea, therefore there must much more be a governor, to this mighty frame of the world. But who so doubteth of these things, or of any such matter now in question, let him either read Saint Austen De civitate Dei, D. Georgius Morus, in Demonstratione Dei ex operibus eius. R. Personius in 2. editione Resolutionis. or Lodovicus vives de veritate fidei, or Philip Mornay that noble Frenchman discussing those points largely. And unto those may be added, the works of some of our own countrymen, who also are not to be defrauded of their due commendation. 23 If I should farther say any thing, it should be in this brief manner. If now any do rule all things, it intendeth that he is Almighty: if Almighty than a Creator. But many things are so done, as whereof no reason can be given, save only the providence of a God, Almighty, and our maker. For first I would demand, what reason can be assigned, that upon so weak a foundation, as it seemeth to flesh and blood, Christianity is so grown, that all the coasts of the earth, have heard the fame of that doctrine? If honour or wealth or pleasure, had by the Saviour been promised, to those which should be his followers, it might have alured men after him, yea if he had been but a deceiver, although perhaps this would have held but for a while. But the lesson that he teacheth is, Matth. 16.24. 2. Tim. 3.12. If any man will follow me, let him forsake himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. And, all that will live godly in Christ jesus, shall suffer persecution. In this case what reason can be given, why men of great understanding, not blocks and fools, vives de veritate fidei. lib. 1. like the Saracens and Turks, who have no learning, and may not so much as dispute of any point of their Religion, and so do believe on their Mahomet, most grossly and stupidiously, but Philosophers and rare scholars, men completed with all good knowledge, should put their trust in one who was crucified, yea should die for him, who was before dead, and put into a grave? Secondly what reason is there, that Luther no great man, helped only with the bare countenance of the Saxon, should in the time of deep ignorance, be able by preaching alone and writing, to revive again the Gospel, in despite of Priests and Princes, and so to set it on foot, as that all Christendom now ring of it. Thirdly I would demand, what natural reason there is, that our most gracious Queen, whom God evermore preserve, a woman, in a small country, at her first coming to the crown, should dare to reform Religion, and profess so far for the truth, things being as they then were, when she came first to her sceptre: very little sound at home: very much amiss abroad; in the known hate of the Pope, in the secret hate of the Spaniard: in the neutrality of the French, to speak most mildly of it: in the ticklenesse of the Scot, in the fickleness of the Irish. Yet that still she should go forward, and maintain her Church and estate, in great pomp and high majesty, very lovely to her friends, very dreadful to her foes. I might urge her perpetual happiness, and those many dangers, which by God's blessing she hath escaped. Fourthly what may be the reason, that whereas within the year, Anno. 1593. each seven-night cut off a thousand, yea sometimes a great many more, Anno. 1594. in one City of our land, by the infection of the plague; since that time the note hath returned not one, or so few that it is as if it were nothing? Remember that the spring was very unkind, by means of the abundance of rain which fell: our julie hath been like to a February, our june even as an April, so that the air must needs be corrupted: God amend it in his mercy, and stay this plague of waters. But yet the pestilence is now ceased. I hold it a thing impossible, out of the grounds of Machiavelli, to answer to these questions in simplicity and sincerity, as beseemeth reasonable men, and not with cavilling and quarreling, which is for boys and brabblers. But out of the grounds of true divinity, these and a thousand more are answered in one word, Psal. 118.23. This was the Lords doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. He who (as jonas saith) is God of heaven above, and made the sea and the dry land, he decreeth it, he continueth it. Then let us carry this mind toward him, what we know in him, to love: what we know not, to admire, as men amazed with his Majesty: rather to think ourselves most weak and bas● in understanding, than once to suspect his power in creating, or his providence in governing. To him be praise and honour, and majesty now and ever. THE VI LECTURE. The chief points. 3. Confession of a fact satisfieth men that are doubtful. 4. Idolaters scoff at their Idols. 5. We should inform, and reform ourselves by the suffering of others. 9 Sin is most grievous in them who have had most teaching. 10. Blind guides displayed. 11. It is a shame to be justly reproved by a multitude of inferiors. 13. The mariners are unwilling to shed blood. 15. Malefactors are to yield themselves to death with patience. 16. Good men would not have other punished with them. 17. The question is handled whether any man may lawfully kill himself. jonah. 1.10.11.12. Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him, why hast thou done this? (for the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them.) Then said they unto him, what shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm unto us? (for the sea wrought and was troublous.) And he said unto them, Take me and cast me into the sea: so shall the sea-be calm unto you: for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you. THe answer of the Prophet to those manifold questions, which were proposed by the mariners, doth include a confession of error, and wilful disobedience in himself, whereof if there should be made a doubt by any man, it is put out of controversy, by that which now followeth, that the men knew he fled from the presence of the Lord, because himself had told them. This telling was confessing: this affirming to them, was informing against himself. These words although they be not so placed, yet by order of the narration, are the first words of my text, that being set before by an Hysteron Proteron, which should follow after, and that coming after, Vers. 9 which should be before. He said that he was an Hebrew, and feared the God of heaven, as it is in the ninth verse, but yet notwithstanding that he was fled from his presence, as it is in this tenth verse, which when the men had known, because himself told them, they were exceedingly afraid, and asked him, why didst thou so? And this I propose, as the order of connexion in these words. To show that he did confess, were now a needless labour. The violence of the tempest, the discovery by a lot, the examination of the mariners, did wring it out from the Prophet. I have opened that already. And to tell what he did confess, may in as few words be ended, that he fled away from God's presence, that is, did neglect his service, of going to preach at Ninive. I have also handled that, in the third verse of this chapter. The mariners they give credit, to the tale which they had heard, and accordingly do proceed. And so also must I. 2 Some things, are very slightly attended by men: some things hardly believed: Esay. 28.10. therefore precept upon precept, and line after line, here a little and there a little, must be doubled and ingeminated, to an obstinate people, that as drop after drop doth pierce the hardest stone, so teaching after teaching may sound the hardest heart, even of the most flinty nature. To some men saith Seneca remedies are only to be showed, Seneca Epistol. 27. Quibusdam remedia monstranda, quibusdam inculcanda sunt. it is enough to point them out, to some other they are to be inculcated, and many times repeated. The ignorant do yield apparent proof of this, when they can very hardly, be reclaimed from their customs: no persuasions can remove them. So, although not ever, yet oftentimes the children of such who live in Popish darkness do confirm this doctrine to us, who hear and will not hear, who give no kind of credit, to oft repeated truths, out of the book of God. Besides, a supine carelessness is general in all men, so that many things wisely uttered, do breed but small effect▪ because they are little regarded. But here is such a seal set, upon the company of jonas, as which taketh such impression, that it needeth not to be oft doubled. The wind which blew above, the sea which wrought below, did put them past peradventure, that some thing was amiss: that some great sin waamsong them. The lot showed jonas to be the man, whom judgement did pursue, and vengeance did so follow. It needed not to be told them oft, that this party had offended. 3 But when the words of the Prophet, had passed against himself, and above all other signs which might afford conjecture, his confession was come forth, to accuse and condemn himself, than his hearers had great reason, to know what the matter was. For in such cases as are doubtful, if any one do speak for himself, and urge his own condemnation; wisdom and sound advise, biddeth the auditor make a pause, before that lightly he do believe it. For who is he, whom nature hath not taught that lesson, to say the best for himself? Again, in cases of complaint, if another man should accuse, justice and Christian charity biddeth the hearer make a stay, and not give credit hastily. For if every thing should be true, which every one reporteth, what man should not be a devil? shall not Christ himself be a Beelzebub? Matth. 10.25. But when presumptions great and many shall go before, and withal, the offending person shall open himself, than sense and reason do teach, that of likelihood he is guilty. judic. 17.1. When Micah brought the silver, which was stolen away from his mother, and said plainly that he had taken it, his mother had great reason to think that he was the man. When Rechab and Baanah, 2. Sam. 4.8. brought the head of Isboseth the son of Saul to David, and professed that they two had slain him, he took it for a truth, and rewarded them thereafter; that is, he destroyed them with the sword. The idle and careless servant, Luc. 19.22. of whom we read in the Gospel, that he folded up his talon in a napkin; and hid it in the ground, had this doom for his labour, Luc. 22.71. afterward that he had confessed it, Of thine own mouth I will judge thee, o evil servant. The jews did rove at this, although they failed in their ground (for Christ did not speak blasphemy) when they could reply upon him, what need we any farther witness? for we ourselves have heard it of his own mouth. The commonness of which argument, doth so enter the heart of all, that these mariners inquired no farther, when jonas had once made his declaration against himself. Upon a firm persuasion of the truth of all his tale, they fall into great fear, they grow to farther counsel. So that this believing of the Prophet, is the foundation of all that followeth after, which may it please you for order sake, to reduce to these two heads. First, the behaviour of the mariners, and secondly the answer of the Prophet. In the former are three circumstances: the great fear wherein they were: their rebuke which they used toward him; and their question proposed to him: all which by the Lord's permission, I do purpose to touch in order. Then were the men exceedingly afraid. 4 These idolatrous heathen, are here taught one lesson more, than they ever learned before, and that is, that there was a God, who in fearful manner could take vengeance on offenders, and did use to follow after them as well by sea as by land, in a wonderful sort: and therefore if their heart did now ache, if all their joints did quiver, if their limbs did shake for fear, and their knees beat together, it was not to be marveled at, since at this time, they were in trial of wrath above them, and wrath under them, and wrath every way about them. Before, they had been used to vain and idol Gods, whose threats did little move them. The knowledge was so light, and the certainty so uncertain, which the heathen generally had of their Gods, either for their power, or for their bounty, that they feared not to bestow jests upon them, as upon their fellows. Timaeus as Tully saith, Tullius de Natura Deorum. lib. 2. Adiunxit, mi nimè id esse mirandum, quod Diana cum in parta Olympiadis adesse voluisset, abfuisset domo. is to be commended for his wit, that whereas he had said in his history, that the self same night wherein Alexander was borne, the Temple of Diana at Ephesus was on fire, he added withal, that it was no marvel, for the mistress thereof was a great way from home, in Macedonia with Olympias, as a midwife attending her, who then was in travel: for that was said to be the charge of Diana. The adulteries which we read in the books of Homer, and Ovid, that jupiter and his fellows, are said to have committed, do show the high conceit, and the goodly reverence, which the Gentiles in old time, did bear to their Painim Gods. They did not only, saith Saint Austen, Augustin. Epistol. 5. write such matters in their fables, but represented them in their threaters, and played them on their stages, where many times were to be seen, plura crimina quam numina, more great faults then good Gods. Yet bewitching superstition had so possessed their souls, that they would after a sort adore somewhat, although they adored it but at their pleasure: no true fear, no due reverence. 5 The case is altered here: they see that the God of Israel doth carry another sway: no jesting with his Majesty, no playing with his power: if his servant do run from him, he can fetch him back again: if he sleep sound, he can waken him: if he will not return in time, he can send such a tempest after him, as will make his bones to shake, and his very marrow to tremble. The lightning and the thunder, the wind and hail and storm, are all at his commandment. Then it is a fearful matter to fall into his hands, to undergo his wrath. How then must the conscience of these poor sinners needs work? If a Prophet were so punished, how should a private man be lashed? Luc. 23.31. If it were thus in the green wood, how should it be in the dry? If one who had that place of honour with his God, as to be employed from him as a messenger, to so worthy a place as Ninive, yet should for one sin, be endangered with so great a weight of displeasure, what should become of them, who in all likelihood were polluted with many enormous crimes? If God should meat to them such measure, as he did to jonas, how doleful & lamentable would their state be? This is a true effect of the just consideration of God's punishments upon others. First to know them to be terrible, & with a kind of amazedness to take full notice of them. Behold saith the Lord to Samuel, 2. Sam. 3.11. I will do a thing in Israel, whereof whosoever shall hear, his two ears shall tingle. Next to apply it to ourselves, & make a benefit of it, by descending into our souls, & sifting of our hearts, acknowledging that if God should deal with us in judgement, verily t●●t should be our reward, Hieron. in Psal. 93. Solent aliqui dicere, ille qui occisus est, non occideretur nisi fornicator esset, aut aliquod pecca●um habuisset. which is now befallen unto others. 6 It is a perpetual fault, evermore annexed unto flesh & blood, that if any punishment in strange sort, do be fall to our brother, or neighbour, by and by with a precipitate headlong judgement, we condemn him, as a sinner, if not notorious, yet in some secret manner more grievous than other men. Hierome observeth this (if that work be S. Hieromes) on the 93. Psalm. Some use to say, he who is killed had not been slain, unless he had been a fornicator, or stained with some gross sin. He had not been quelled with the ruin or falling down of a house, unless he had been wicked: he had not suffered shipwreck, unless he had been profane or a mighty malefactor. But what saith the Scripture? Psal. 94.21. They shall condemn innocent blood. The innocent they shall suffer such deaths as well as other. The Saviour of the world doth reprove this rash conceit, when he biddeth, Luc. 13.1. that men should not think, that those Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their own sacrifices, were greater sinners than all other Galileans, or those eighteen, on whom the Tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, were sinners above all men that were in Jerusalem: but saith he unto them, I tell you, except ye amend your lives ye shall all likewise perish. Whereas they and we are ready to exorbitate, by looking on other men, he sendeth us back to ourselves, that by scanning of our own ways, and viewing our own paths, we may see that unto us belongeth shame and confusion. The hand of God upon other, should be a glass to us, to see our own deformity. 2. Sam. 24.17. When the Angel destroyed so many of the Israelites with the pestilence, David cried out, Behold I have sinned, yea I have done wickedly: but these sheep what have they done? let thine hand I pray thee be against me, and against my father's house. David took all to himself, because all the fault was his. We are not free from all, and therefore if we suffer any thing, let us bear it with patience. If nothing, let us acknowledge that it is the mercy of God, and not the merit of man, that we all are not consumed. 7 And by the smart of other, let us fear to offend the Lord. Every action which was in Christ, should be to us an instruction: every passion which is in other, should bring to us information. The jews once were the spouse and beloved of the Lord, the people whom he embraced, the nation whom he singled out from all the men on earth. Zion was his delight, and Jerusalem was unto him, as the apple of his eye. When they began to be wanton, and as the untamed heifer, to refuse the yoke of all piety and service toward God, his love was turned to hatred, and as before he had magnified them beyond all other nations, so afterward he made them vile, and abject below all other. Their Temple was ruinated, and not one stone left upon another; their City was ransacked, their old men died with famine, their young were slain with the sword, the remnant as accursed, do wander on all the face of the earth, without a king, Roman. 11.17. without Priest, without Prophet. Thus the natural Olive branches were broken and cropped off, and we wild ones were graffed in. When we read this, and feel the sweetness of it, are we to presume, and puff up ourselves by and by? Saint Paul hath taught us otherwise, Be not high minded, 20 but fear. And in another place, 1. Cor. 10.12. Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall. As these mariners were fearful, at our jonas his example, so ought we in these jews to be afraid, and dread God's justice. Apoc. 2.1. & 3.1. Those seven Churches to which john wrote his Epistles, mentioned in the beginning of the Revelation, and those Cities to which Paul preached, being sometimes great lights and lamps of the East, are now the residence of the Turk, and a sink of filthy Maumetry. Let us stand in awe, lest our sins pluck on us such a judgement. 8 We ask of news in France, and inquire of the alterations, which the Low countries yield. Curiosity for the most part is the cause why we demand such questions. Perhaps we think upon them, and their troubles sometimes, with a little pity. But there is a farther use, if our dim and dark eyes could see it. Ab anno. 1562. When for two and thirty years, France hath been the very cockpit, for all Christendom to fight in: when with so many civil furies, the inhabitants sheathe their sword one in the bowels of another: Anno. 1573. when for twenty years since and more (for so long it is since the States, and the Prince of Orange with them, did put forth their supplication, unto the king of Spain Philip the second, which is a declaration to other Christian Princes, of the reasons wherefore they took up arms) an army hath been continued by the Spaniard, against those Provinces which now term themselves United, so that there is little safety, but what standeth in the sword, or in their walled towns: we might remember ourselves, and that with much fear and trembling, that our sins have cried for vengeance, as loud as theirs did ever; that our fields are fit for the sickle, not so white unto the harvest, as ready dry to the fire, Bernard. de considerate. ad Eugenium. lib. 2. Vide regiones si non sint magis siccae ad ignem, quam albae ad messem. as Bernard speaketh to Eugenius: that it is but a little labour, for God to reach his hand over our narrow seas, and to give us a taste of that here in this small Island, which the Continent hath long felt, and sourly hath smarted for it. And if he have held his hand, it is his exceeding mercy, whereof we are able to make no recompense: only our thankfulness from the bottom of our hearts, is the best. Such a sober meditation upon the afflictions of our neighbours, or those with whom we live, would put us from that jollity, wherein we too much take delight, from the flaunting of this world, and our unbridled appetites. The losses of others should be our terror: what is theirs may be ours; if other smart let us quake: when jonas is to be punished, the shipmen are afraid. And they said unto him, wherefore hast thou done this? 9 This is the second circumstance, to be thought upon here, in the fellow-travellers of our Prophet, which (as some do understand it) showeth a kind of wondering, that a man who was an Hebrew, & brought up in God's service, so familiar with the mysteries, & secrets of such a master, put in trust with such a charge, as to go and preach at Ninive, should transgress in so high a degree. If the fault had been of ignorance, Luc. 12.48. it had been so much the lighter, and he deserved fewer stripes. But to whom much is committed, of him much is required: he might the more be wondered at. 1. Sam. 2.27. God reproacheth it to Eli, that whereas himself had appeared unto his father's house, and chose both them and him, to stand before his Altar, & offer up incense unto him, he had kicked against his sacrifice, and honoured his children, more than he did that God who made him. If any men, than the Ministers & Prophets of the Lord, Matth. 5.14. should respect their solemn duty. A City set on an hill, is in the sight of al. The Priest is the eye of the body, to guide the steps of other. If darkness be on the hill, what darkness is in the vale? if dimness be in the eye, how dark is all the body? In the Minister, each known fault is reputed for a crime, because he is so conspicuous, and visible to all; even as a small wound in the face is eminent, and therefore noted. In the countenance of a men, Si unum radatur supercilium quam propemodum nihil corpori, & quam multum detrabitur pulchritudini? Aug. de Ciu. Dei. li. 11.22. if one eyebrow should be shaven, how little is taken away from the body, but how much from the beauty? They are the words of Saint Austen. Then we should be very careful, to pass the days of our pilgrimage in sincerity and integrity, that we may not be wondered at, by mariners and mean men, why we should do this or that, when we do grossly offend. 10 Among the unlearned Pastors, & blind guides of the Papacy, transgression or iniquity needeth no such wondering at. Their ignorance answereth for them: for how should they do any thing but ill, Auent. de reb. Turcicis, part. 3. Si praelati isti plebeij essent homines, nem● facile ipsis haram committeret: in isto verò statu, & arae & animae hominum ipsorum fidei creduntur. Buch. Hist. Scotic. lib. 15. Novitatis nominae offensi contenderunt nowm Testamentum nuper à Martino Luthero fuisse scrip●um ac vetus Testamentum reposcerent. joh. Foxus in Histor. Scotic. inter annos. 1540 & 1543. Robert. Step. resp. ad censur. Theolog. Paris. in Prae fat. who never learned to do otherwise? If they decline from their duty, and be scandalous unto other, and any man should come upon them, as these his companions did upon jonas, Wherefore have you done this? Can you, whose life is spent in reading of the Scriptures, in expounding them to other, in informing the people's consciences, forget yourselves in such manner, as to be notorious sinners? They may put this wondering from them, and answer it in a word: you mistake yourself in us: we are not men so expert; the law & the testimony is unto us as a sealed book. You should rather marvel at us, if we should do any thing otherwise then ill. I should judge that this answer, would well fit those Priests & Prelates, of whom johannes aventinus speaketh, that they are so base and rude, that if they had been lay men, they should scant have been counted fit to keep swine, which notwithstanding in his time, both throughout Germany and all Christendom, had Churches and souls of men committed to their charge and custody. I am sure it had very well agreed to those Scottish Priests, who as Buchanan their own country man reporteth of them, in the late reformation of religion in that kingdom, were so blockish & so blind, that the very name of the New Testament was much offensive to them: they thought it to be new devised, and invented by Martin Luther, and asked for the old again. Which is the more likely in their ordinary Curates, when we read of a Bishop of theirs, called the Bishop of Dunkelden, who replied on a Minister, which said that he had read the Old and New Testament, I thank God I never knew what the Old and the New Testament was. The very self same doth Bobert Stephanus avouch of the Sorbonistes in Paris, who take upon them to be men of more admirable learning, and to be Divines of the deepest. He avoucheth, that when himself had many conflicts and disputations with them, they would tell him that they knew not, what the new Testament was. It is no sin to imagine, that the life of such was like their learning. And if in their often oversights, it should have been asked of them, And why do you this, being teachers & disputers, or at least Pastors over others, & therefore men of knowledge? of likelihood these good creatures, would have shaped some worthy answer. I hope that we have none in England, so buried in filthy ignorance: yet my heart oft times doth ache, and my very soul doth tremble, to think what guides be over souls yet in many places; I say over the souls of men, which are the most precious substances, that God hath made under the heaven, & for the ransoming of which, Christ jesus came down from his glory. Sin hath not yet worn out that unkind brood, which the Papacy did hatch up to our nation, and since those days jeroboams Priests, 1. Reg. 13.33. the basest of the people (so contrary to our good laws) have filled not their heads with knowledge, but their hands with money, & so have crept into God's temple. 11 But I will not pursue this argument. These words here of the seamen, which to some do seem a marvel, how a Prophet could fall so foully, seem to other to be an increpation or rebuke unto our jonas. Wherefore hast thou done this? an Hebrew, and a Prophet, and fly away from thy master? what marvel if vengeance follow thee? what wonder if wrath pursue thee? If it were no more but so, this were a gawling speech to an ingenuous mind, that men of so base behaviour, should come over him in this manner, with a true and just rebuke. Genes. 20.16. It was a shame to Sara (the text saith that she was reproved) and no great praise to Abraham, when Abimelech king of Gerar, a man that knew not the Lord, did justly blame the concealing of Sara to be his wife, by which means he had like ignorantly to have fallen into adultery. But when sin apparently is committed, how impudent is that person, which blusheth not to be reproached for it by a multitude? Those in whom the love of virtue, and the sound fear of the Lord is, will never cease to pray, that God will so guide, and direct their steps perpetually, that they may not give a just occasion, to the enemies of the Gospel, or to the haters of their persons, to insultover their falls: for the malice of spiteful hearts, would be glad to see the slips of them, whom God doth bless. Therefore the faithful do pray so much the more against it, as David doth many times. But the careless and disobedient, because they little fear it, do suddenly fall into it, and so by open wickedness, draw upon themselves open shame: not only to have as jonas had, his companions to check him, but passengers to deride them, and children to nod their heads at them; yea sometimes taunting Rhymes, and broken Ballads on them, peradventure the executioner, the vilest among ten thousands, with his Rhetoric for to scorn them. 12 God appointeth this, as a judgement for such as are overgrown, with a hard skin over their hearts, so that they fear not the prick of sin. Yea sometimes he suffereth this rod to fall on his own children, to whip them here with shame, so to save their souls by the bargain. Perhaps the judge, he shaketh them, and rattleth them up in austerity: it may be that penance is done, and the wicked triumph upon them. At least they with whom they live, (or else they are exceeding happy men) will have this one cast at them, which these shipmen had at jonas, Why have you done such a deed? what carelessness or forgetfulness, or unthankfulness brought you to it? But a greater woe than this, doth oftentimes fall on the wilful sort of sinners, which indeed fear not the Lord, as upon great persecutors, or rebellious bloody traitors. Their fame is turned into infamy, and they are registered to posterity, as a byword of the people. The judgement which doth follow them, even after they be in grave is, that songs of defamation be as Epitaphs on their deaths. Let Bonner and Story and Parrhy, be witnesses in this cause. A good conscience which doth walk with sincerity, in that calling wherein the Lord hath placed him, doth little fear these matters. Hieron. in Marc. 14. Ignis sine materia deficit. And if slanders should arise, yet to him this is the comfort of it, that as fire without wood doth die, so doth ill speech without just matter. I note this from the reproof used by these mariners. What shall we do unto thee that the sea may be calm? 13 The third thing which now followeth, is the question which they put to him, or the counsel which they ask of him. The raging of the sea, is not slaked all this time: while the Prophet both slept and waked, while the lot was thrown upon him, while that he was examined▪ and made all his confession, the sea wrought and was troublous. The sea wrought and was troublous. Those words because they be again in the thirteenth verse, I do defer them thither. But these persons which were in danger, and had their mind on the point, that is, to save their lives, would willingly know the way, how to escape the peril. What shall we do unto thee? Hieron. in hunc locum. Interficiemus te? sed cultor●m Domini. Seruabimus? sed Deum fugis. Exposuisti causam morbi, indica sanitatis. This is the doubt saith Hierome. Shall we kill thee? but thou art the servant of the Lord. Shall we save thee? but thou art a runaway from thy master. Thou hast showed us thy disease, show the remedy how to cure it. A little before he hath this also, That great was he who fled: but greater was he that followed. They dare not deliver him, they know not how to conceal him. So there is as it seemeth a great wrestling in the minds of these poor men, what they should do, or should not do. They now know that he was a Prophet; a man reverend in his calling, and therefore they were loath to lay any violent hands upon him. They would rather suppose, that he who was so contrite, and had made such an acknowledgement of the fault which he committed, would proceed to let them know the means, to escape from drowning. 14 Many graceless ones in our days, would have taken another course. A runaway so pursued: a fugitive so made after: we will soon ease ourselves of the fear; we will quickly free our ship from the danger: what should so vile a person be roosting in our vessel? Perhaps without many words, he might have gone over board; he might have dived under water: they would never have stood to ask, what they should do unto him. So much doth the incivility, and barbarous behaviour of our age, pass the manners of rude men in old time. But they had a good remembrancer, to keep them in moderation, even their reverence unto God, whose hand they did find upon them, as knocking at the door. On the one side how could they tell, least by sufferance and impunity toward jonas, they should incur the displeasure of the Almighty? And on the other side, how could they tell, least in punishing and taking away his life, the reward which belonged to murderers, might be laid upon them? jonas for his refusing to go to preach at Ninive, was chased with wrath from heaven. Then what vengeance might befall them, in a greater fault, as in cruelty, and in shedding of his blood, who never had offended them? Thus they fear to spill his life, although they see show of very fit occasion. They ask advise of him. The main note from this place, is the care which men should have, to destroy the life of none, that they should be averse from blood, which because it is the full subject of those verses, Vers. 13. & 14 which follow next after my text, I do defer it thither. And so I come to the answer of jonas, which is my second part. And he said unto them, Take me and cast me into the sea, etc. 15 It seemeth that the Prophet, is now as far in his penance, as possibly he can go. He knew that he had sinned, and God's wrath must be satisfied with some temporal punishment, and therefore he yieldeth himself with patience, to the very death. Better drown then die eternally, better lose his life here, then lose his life elsewhere. He is therefore content, to sustain the uttermost extremity. He knew that God was glorified, in the execution of justice, as well as in mercy. A lesson which josuah did once teach Achan, josuah. 7.19. when he willed him to confess, and give God the glory: and by a consequent, endure his death with patience. An instruction which we can never too much teach to prisoners, and such as are to suffer, by judgment of law, that they should bear with mildness, and quietness of behaviour, that which they wilfully have deserved. The conscience of their sin, the astonishment at their judgement, the fear of violent death, the shame of such a suffering, is enough to amaze their thoughts, and overwhelm resolution. Whereas on the other side, the putting of them in remembrance, that at one time or another, they must be content to die, and the urging that God doth lay such temporal punishments upon malefactors, for the saving of their souls, & the recounting of that benefit, which ariseth from Christ's passion, to wit, a pleading before his father, to get pardon for all that be repentant, doth settle the disquieted and affrighted mind right well. I would to God that our English were as backward to transgress, as in this case they are forward, to satisfy even with their lives, the extremity of the law, and that in a peaceable & resolved sort. I impute it to nothing, but to the ordinary passage of the word of God among us, which is every way able to quiet and settle the penitent sinner's heart. Other nations do admire it in our men, as the Italians most of all, and the French, as we may see it observed, Henricus Stephan. in Apologia pro Herodoto Gallicè edita Luc. 23.43. in the defence of Henry Stephanus for Herodotus. It showeth a right firm constancy, and sure hope in Christ jesus. And as those two brought the thief, which died with Christ into Paradise, so no doubt but that many with us, go by execution into heaven, who if they were not recalled by violence and by law, would prove firebrands of hell. 16 I remember the patience of our countrymen, by the quietness of jonas here, who alone desireth to die, because he alone had offended in the sin which now is in question. He would not that other innocent men, should perish by his means. This is the course of God's children, to have remorse upon other, and not to entangle them in their plagues. It is I saith David, 2. Sam. 24.17 that have offended, not these sheep, alas what have they done? But chose the reprobate, if destruction must befall them, would have all other to take part in that their judgement, that themselves might not be singular. They would have company to hell. If they needs must from hence, they care not if all the world come to ruin, together with their fall. They earnestly desire, that other men should be partakers of their smart. The name of Herode the great, is very odious in this respect, who laid a plot, joseph Antiquit. 17.8. that when he died, many other might die with him. And gave express commandment, that one of every noble family in his kingdom, should be slain, that by that means, his death might of necessity be lamented, if not for love of him, which the tyrant had no reason to expect, yet for the loss of others. Such are the unnatural passions, of cruel and bloody miscreants. But the blessed sons of God, be of another spirit: they would rather purchase peace to others, by their losses, then hurt others by their errors. jonas would die alone, because he alone had offended. 17 Here now is it worth the discoursing, why the Prophet in this manner should urge, and hasten himself to death. Was it, as Arias Montanus thinketh, Arias Montanus commentar. in hunc locum. because yet he is so obstinate, that in no case he will to Ninive, but rather die in a frowardness, then teach them, who afterward should work harm to his people? No: his confession before handled, doth keep me from that opinion. I hold him now very careful to commit no farther sin. He feeleth the weight of the former, enough & too much on him. Is it then for a fretting indignation, which he beareth unto himself, or for hatred of his life, because his conscience did now prick him, as the conscience of the wicked useth to do, when some villainy is committed, as judas was pricked in his heart, after his treason practised on our Saviour, when he went out malcontented, and hanged himself in despair? No: I hold the reason of it to be another matter, as anon I shall show unto you. This had been a sin, more fearful than any that went before. For murdering of himself, whereof he had been guilty (if for that intent he had spoken it) though other men's hands had done it, is a sin so grievous, that scant any is more heinous unto the Lord. This showeth a grand & solemn possession, which Satan hath in a man, a distrust of all God's love, when a man groweth to the summitie of such malice against himself, as that natural affection, and the account to be given, of all our deeds upon the earth, is quite exiled out of memory. A doctrine which I take to be nothing besides the purpose, if largely it be discoursed of, in the iniquity of these times, wherein wretchedness hath so fearfully prevailed in some persons, and almost daily doth prevail, that they dare to plunge themselves, into this pit of terrible destruction. 18 Our God in his ten commandments, hath set this down for one, Exod. 20.13. Genes. 9.5.6. thou shalt commit no murder. He is so precise upon blood, that he not only hath said, at the hand of a man, even at the hand of a man's brother, will I require the life of man. And who so sheddeth man's blood, Numer. 35.31. by man shall his blood be shed. And, ye shall take no recompense for the life of the murderer, which is worthy to die, but he shall be put to death: But the very Ox, Exod. 21.28. that goreth a man or woman that he die, this ox shall be stoned to death, and his flesh shall not be eaten. He that slew a man unwillingly at the wood, Deut. 19.5. with an axe flying out of his hand, should lose his life for his labour, if the pursuer did so follow him, as that he overtook him, before he came to the city of refuge. This was to make men the more vigilant, that they did no such mischances, as we commonly do term them. But if it were wilful murder, the offender was to be taken, from the very horns of the altar, 1. Reg. 2.29 and slain, as joab was served, a man of so noble birth, a man of such service before. These are the laws which were made, concerning the murdering of other men. And doth not the law of God, and the explication of it by jesus Christ his son, originally require of us, that all fit things which we owe to other men, should be done by ourselves to ourselves? Mat. 22.39. Thou oughtest to love thy neighbour, but as thou lovest thyself. The example of thy charity, is drawn from thyself at home. Thy soul, thy preservation, the good wished to thyself, should be the true direction of thy deeds unto thy neighbour. But thou must not lay any bloody and murdering hands upon another, therefore much less on thyself. 19 God hath placed thee in this world, as in a watch or a standing, from whence thou must not stir thy foot, till he bid thee to remove. He hath imprinted a most passionate love, between thy soul and thy body, that they grieve to leave one another. The mind will have many inventions, the body will bear many stripes, before that either from other of them, do willingly depart and be dissolved. Wise men have no greater reason of persuasion to induce, that the parting with any friend, or the losing of the nearest and dearest, must be borne with patience, then that a dearer couple, the nearest that this world hath, that is our souls and our bodies, must depart and fly a sunder. The affection is so entire, the conjunction is so inward, which the one of these hath to the other. God would have our nativity to be bitter to our mothers, Erasmus in funere in Colloquijs. that they might love us the dearer, but he would have our death to be sour unto ourselves, that we might the more fear to hasten it. And therefore although the spirit may be willing in any man, yet surely the flesh is weak, in the laying down of the life, for a good conscience, and the Gospel. What one is he, whom God's spirit hath not in great measure mortified, that feeleth not in himself oftentimes, an horror and a quaking, to think of this dissolution, that he who in some sort may yet be called the image of God, should become dust and clay; that the goodliest of those creatures, whom the Almighty hath framed under the heaven, should prove a rotten carcase: that he who hath seen the stars, and beheld the heaven in his beauty, yea hath meditated on the highest, and contemplated on the Trinity, should be put into a grave, and tumbled into the earth, to be amongst worms and vermin, in darkness and corruption: all which a natural man doth loath, he could wish that it might not be. Now, when our own hand shall hasten that, which nature doth so far hate, which our heart doth so dislike, which God doth so detest, how wicked is our wickedness? 20 Egesippus in his third book of the destruction of Jerusalem, Egesippus de excidio Hierosol. lib. 3. rehearseth a worthy Oration (although in some other words, than I find it in josephus himself) which josephus that great and learned jew, made to his soldiers in a cave, where they lay hid, after the loss of the city jotapata, which Vespasian the Roman General took. There his own men would take no nay, but that they must murder down one another, whereupon he useth a speech, joseph. de bello judaico. lib. 3. Thesaurum nobis optimum dedit, atque inclusum in hoc vase fictili, & consignatum commisit nobis custodiendum. Quis nos admittet ad illa sanctarum animarum consortia? which in my judgement is most pathetical. The Almighty God hath given unto us our life as a most precious treasure: he hath shut it and sealed it up, in this earthen vessel, and given it us to be kept, till that himself do ask for it again. And were it not a fault now, as on the one side to deny it when he shall require it again: so on the other side to spill and cast this treasure forth, which was thus committed to us, before he do demand it? And after a few other words he goeth thus forward: If we should kill ourselves, who is he that should admit us into the company of good souls? Shall it not be said to us, as once it was said to Adam, Where art thou? so where are ye, who contrary to my precept are come where you should not be, because I have not yet loosed you from the bonds of your bodies. This is a Christian speech out of the mouth of a jew, which carrieth such matter with it, as is worthy to be revolved. It was not well with Adam, when he who should have been in the plain, was crept into the bushes: his misery then began. And without God's exceeding mercy, whereof no man can presume, nay great and mighty prejudice is to the contrary, it will be most ill with them, who do adventure upon such deeds: they do rush themselves into torments. 21 Let heathen men be famous for such facts if they will. Let Calanus and his wise Indians, hate to die a natural death, but end their days by burning themselves in the fire. Curt. lib. 10. Let the scholars of that Philosopher Egesias Cyrenaicus, Tul. Tusc. quaest. lib. 1. so far believe their master, disputing of the immortality of the soul, that to the end that they might be deprived of life, and enjoy that spoken of immortality, Tit. Livius lib. 26. they go home and kill themselves. Let Vibius Virius in Capua, profess that he hath poison for himself, and all his friends, which is able to free them from the Romans, from punishment and from shame: and let him drink and die. Yea let the younger Cato a man held to be admirably wise, Plutarch. in Catone minore. Cornel. Tac. Annal. l. 15. Senec. epist. 24. & 71. & 82. be a butcher to himself, rather than endure to see Caesar, who was then become a Conqueror. Yea let Seneca himself, try the manner of Cato his death, although in another sort; after that himself, a Philosopher, a mirror of heathen wisdom, had so often and so highly commended that deed of Cato, that it was not blood, but honour which gushed out of his side. Yea let ten thousand more, Virgil. Aenei. 4. Liu. lib. 1. with Dido and Lucretia, be recorded in Gentile stories: yet all these are no warrants for Christians: we have a better master, who hath taught us a better lesson. That adversity and bitter affliction, must be born with patience: that we must expect God's end, in misery & calamity, and not hasten the issue in ourselves; that true fortitude is in bearing the sorrows, which are assigned & allotted out for our portion, & that to fly from them fearfully, is cowardice. Where is valour, but in sustaining the greatest crosses with constancy? and where is timidity, but in this, to kill thyself, that thou mayest be freed from that which doth not like thee? Augustin. de civitate Dei. 19.4. What daunting force, saith S. Austen, had those evils which constrained Cato, a wise man as they accounted of him, to take that away from himself, Sibimet auferre quod hom● est. Ita sibi esse amicus, ut esse se animal, & in hac coniunctione corporis & animae vivere velis. Cyprian de duplici martyrio. Aut infirmitas erat morte quaerens dolorum finem, aut ambitio aut dementia. that he was a man, whereas men say, & that truly, that it is after a sort, the first and greatest speech of nature, that a man should be reconciled to himself, and therefore naturally fly death: so be a friend to himself, as that earnestly he should desire to be a living creature, and to continue in this conjunction of the body and soul. He did not resist, and stand strong against his evils, but indeed fainted as a coward: he sunk under his burden. I may conclude of him, and of all that do tread his steps, with that learned man, who wrote the treatise De duplici Martyrio, which is commonly called Cyprians. If we read that any have killed themselves valiantly, it was either weakness which by death did seek an end of sorrows, or ambition or madness. So far, in truth, are they off from any just commendation in Christianity and Divinity. 22 Nay, what if it were held a thing unlawful among the very Gentiles? See the Poet Virgil's judgement of it. When Aeneas came down to hell, as the Poet there doth devise, he seeth in a several and disjunct place, such as had made away themselves. He maketh their estate to be so woeful, as that gladly they would do any thing, to be alive again. Virgil. Aeneid. 6. — quam vellent aethere in alto Nunc & pauperiem, & duros perferre labores? How gladly now would they be content to endure poverty, and take hard pains in the world? Tullius in Somnio Scipionis. See the judgement of Tully concerning this, in his Somnium Scipionis. When Scipio upon the tale of his father, being grown into admiration, of the glory of men which are dead, asked, What do I then upon earth, why hasten I not to die? his father maketh him answer, with a very divine speech, Nisi enim cum Deus is, cuius est templum hoc omne quod conspicis, istis te corporis custodys liberaverit, huc tibi aditus pater● non potest. although he were but a heathen man: No son, thou mayest not have any passage hither, but when that God whose temple all that thou seest, is, shall free thee out of this body. For men are borne to that purpose, and have souls given them to that end, (to rest themselves on this earth) which souls they must keep safely within the ward of their bodies. And they are not to flit from this life without his commandment, lest they should seem to fly that duty of a man, which is assigned them by God. I might add to these, the judgement of Aristotle in his Ethics, Aristotel. Ethic. lib. 3.7. where he saith, that to kill a man's self for the avoiding of infamy or poverty, is not the part of a valiant man, but of a coward. But I leave these foreign testimonies. Hieron▪ in hunc locum. 23 Some among the Christians, have thought that maidens, for saving and preserving their virginity inviolate, might kill themselves. An opinion void of any shadow of warrant, out of God's word. Rom. 3.8. Vide infra in jonae▪ 4.3. For aught we to do evil, that good may come thereby? Shall we adventure the greater sin, for the avoiding of a less evil? Nay is it a fault in a virgin at all, that she is deflowered by force? 2. Sam. 13.1. August de civitate Dei. lib. 1.19. Tarqvinius & Lucretia duo fuerunt & adulterium unus admisit. August. lib. 3. contra Cresconium Grammaticum. Theodorer. in compendio haereticarum fabularum. Was Tamar to be condemned, because Amnon did defile her? It is consent that maketh iniquity. Tarqvinius and Lucretia were two bodies, saith Saint Austen, but there was but one adulterer. I add no more of that matter. The Donatists and furious Circumcellions in old time, because they were restrained by the civil sword of the Magistrate, from the exercise of their heresies, and keeping of their Conventicles, would cast themselves from the rocks, and break their necks, by the fall, they would drown and kill themselves. Thereupon Theodoret hath a very pretty narration, concerning them. Many of them on a time, met a young man on the way, and giving him a sword, commanded him to wound them, and threatened him that if he would not, they would kill him for refusing. The young man being put unto his shifts, told them that he durst not do it, because he had just cause to fear, that when some of them should see their fellows slain, the rest would turn on him for doing it, and murder him. But if they would first suffer him, to bind them all fast and sure, he would tell them another tale. They liked well of this motion, & in their senseless stupidity, yielding to be bound, the young man got good store of rods, & shrewdly swinged them all, & so went his ways and left them. They imagined, that God did well accept of their murtherings, in this or the like kind, & carried an opinion, that now they were become martyrs of jesus Christ. Gaudentius their Bishop, writeth in defence of the deeds of these Donatists, 2. Mach. 14.41 & in behalf thereof, urgeth the example of Razias in the Maccabees, who when he should be slain, in maintenance of the religion of the jews, to save himself from the infidels, first ran upon his sword. And when that would not serve the turn, he threw himself from a wall, and when all this could not kill him, he ran to the top of a rock, and there plucked out his bowels, and threw them among the people. That holy man Saint Austen, August. contra secundam Gaudentij Epistol. Cyprian. de duplici Martyrio. Non supplicium sed causa facit Martyrem. the most judicious of all the father's coming to answer these things, first disclaimeth them from being Martyrs, They who live not the lives of Christians, cannot die the death of Martyrs. And he also useth that maxim of Cyprian, Not the punishment, but the cause doth make the Martyr. Secondly he showeth out of the Scripture, that a man in no case should kill himself. Thirdly he doth so handle the example of this Razias, that he maketh it to be no warrant, to attempt any such like deed. Hear his reasons. 24 First the jews do give no credit unto the books of the Maccabees: they expugn them out of their Canon. Thus Austen himself can say, who for want of the Hebrew tongue, is sometimes more than an ordinary friend to the Apocryphal Scripture. Secondly the author there giveth such testimony to that deed, as is not sufficient to allow it for currant. He was a lover of the City, and a man of good report, and therefore was commonly called a father of the jew. But heathen men, saith Saint Austen, have gone as far as this. He offered to spend his body for the Religion of the jew. So would other, saith Saint Austen, Rom. 10.1. who had a zeal as Saint Paul speaketh, but not according to knowledge. Such men as were earnest holder's of the traditions of the jew, but did not accept the Messias. He desired that his bowels might be restored in the resurrection. But that shall be common to the wicked as well as to the just. He died nobly, saith the author, but better, saith Saint Austen, if it had been reported that he died humbly. He died manfully saith the author, and I do not say, quoth Saint Austen, that he did die womanly. Thus he scanneth all the words of that narration. Thirdly he addeth, If he had done well, he should have done like the seven brethren, 2. Mach. 7.1. of whom we read in that book. He should not have thrust himself upon death, but whatsoever had been imposed by the persecuting tyrant, he should have endured that with patience and humility. Wherefore since he could not suffer his humbling amongst his enemies, he showed himself an example, not of wisdom but of folly, not to be imitated of Christ's martyrs, but of Donatist circumcellions. This is the round and apparent christian judgement, of that most learned Father. judic. 16.30. He doth answer the place of Samson, as anon I shall show unto you. For he also killed himself. In the mean time, I may with him lay down this general doctrine, that none should spill the blood, or destroy the life of himself, for any cause whatsoever, because that is a deed most unchristian, most damnable, and most wicked. 25 I cannot deny, but God's mercy wherein he is exceedingly rich, doth sometimes show itself, in the very pangs of death. Inter pontem & fontem. That between the bridge and the water, between the knife and the dying, between the rock and the ground, repentance may be suggested to the heart, in a moment or twinkling of an eye, but especially where poison being taken, doth not kill upon the sudden, or where death doth not follow presently, there may be some remembrance. Notwithstanding, who is he that dareth to presume upon such mercy? God is loving, but he is just: he is kind, but he is dreadful: he liketh not to be tempted. It were folly to break thy neck, to try the skill of a bonesetter, to try the will of a surgeon. It is monstrous in Divinity, to press upon such iniquity, with hope of that, wherein thou hast such threatenings to the contrary. God would have us to lay down our lives, if need be for his sake, if a tyrant will take them from us; but we must not leap out of them, for any thing of our own. Nay we should be so careful, that we should not rashly hazard them, or bring them into peril. In forbidding sin, God useth to forbid all the inducements, which lead unto that sin. I would that such could remember this, who think that they are not men, unless they make a brawl, or enter into a combat, Bernard. ad milites templi. Si in voluntate alterum occidendi te potius occidi contigerit, moreris homicida. for every fond word or speech. By that means they provoke the Lord, and if they happen to be slain, they are accessaries to their own deaths. That which S. Bernard speaketh of injust war, is not unfit to be rehearsed in this place, If in thy fight, thou have a mind to kill another man, and then art slain thyself, thou diest a murderer: if thou prevail and kill the other, than thou livest a murderer. But whether thou live or die, be a conqueror or conquered, it is not good to be a murderer. Theodoret doth commend the good mind of Honorius, Theodor Histor. Eccl. lib. 5.26. sometimes Emperor of Rome, because he took quite away out of that City, the fights of the Gladiatores, or sword-players in Rome, wherein to show sport to other men, and make trial of their manhood, oftentimes they killed one another. I pursue this matter no further, but only add this, that howsoever an opinion hath prevailed to the contrary, true manhood is not in quarreling, and brabbling for private injuries, but in maintenance of God's honour, in preserving thy allegiance to thy Prince, in safegarding of thy country, in defending thyself from thieves, and such other just occasions. 26 I forget not my jonas here, from whom as the original, this question of doing violence to ourselves did arise. Neither do I forget Samson, whom I reserved to this place, because there is some similitude between him and our Prophet. In that place which I named before, August. contra secundam Gaudentij Epistolam. Saint Austen briefly, but yet notably doth determine this deed of Samson. When he plucked down the house on himself, he slew himself and his enemies. But the reason of it was, that since he could not escape, because they meant to slay him, he would destroy them also with him, even the Princes of the Philistines. Neither did he this of himself, mark the words of the learned father, but by direction of God's spirit, which used him to do that which otherwise without the strength of that spirit, he could never have been able to do, that was pluck down the house. The commandment of that spirit, made this deed to be lawful, Gen 22.1. as the offering up of Isaac, was a lawful deed in Abraham. That which had been nothing else but madness, if God had not commanded it, when God did bid it, was obedience. So he holdeth this a particular deed, precisely commanded to him, which we may imitate by no means, because we have no such warrant. Hieron. in Ezech 46. But Hierome in his Commentary, on the six and fortieth of Ezechiel, doth go a little farther, saying that Samson in that deed, judic. 16.30. was a figure of jesus Christ. As Samson slew more at his death, than he did in all his life time, so Christ although while he lived, he gave many a wound to Satan, by his miracles and his doctrine, yet it was his death and his suffering, that broke the back of hell, and the very heart of Satan. These matters may in good sort be applied to our Prophet. He was assured by that knowledge which he yet retained, notwithstanding his fall, that this punishment was assigned to him by the Lord. This must be the satisfaction, for his great disobedience. Now again his faith reviveth, by which he had some foresight, of all God's purpose over him. This was peculiar to our jonas, by his Prophetical knowledge, and may not be followed by us. It is not any protection for us, to bid any other throw ourselves into the sea. 27 Besides this, I do not doubt, but as Samson was a figure of the Saviour of the world, so jonas also was, although not in every matter, (as once before I have noted) yet in this his drowning here. Super. jon. 1.1. Matth. 12.40. Christ himself did expound the lying of the Prophet for three days in the whales belly, to be a sign of his own burial, and lying in the earth. The death of the Saviour, was to him a means of his burial: so here the casting out of jonas, into the sea by the mariners, was the means whereby he lay three days and three nights, in the belly of the whale. john. 19.30. jonas is willingly drowned here: Christ also there dieth willingly: he yielded up his Ghost; no man could take it from him. jonas alone must suffer, to save the rest of the ship: Christ alone did tread the winepress, and Christ doth die alone, to stay his father's wrath; to save all his elect. You see that he is an excellent type of jesus Christ the righteous. But as it is impossible, that comparisons should hold in all things, and there is none who in every matter may be likened unto Christ, because he had no fellows; he cannot be tried by his peers; so there is this one difference, that jonas when he suffered, was alone in all the fault, and jesus in his suffering, was only without all fault, because he was that immaculate lamb, 1. Pet. 2.22. in whose mouth was found no guile. When I first looked into this text, which I have now opened unto you, I did think to have said something farther, in or concerning the person of Christ, whom our Prophet doth represent, I meant to have mentioned his readiness to die, that he might redeem us sinners, and so briefly out of the new Testament, to have given some comfort amidst all these threats of jonas. But in handling this last question, matter hath grown upon me, and I love not to be tedious. I will therefore defer that, till I come to the fifteenth verse, where the like occasion is again fitly offered unto me. In the mean time, let us meditate on the excellent love of Christ, who would die so willingly for us, the just for the unjust, to bring us unto his kingdom. To the attaining whereof he always further us, to whom in the perfection of the Trinity, be glory and praise for evermore. THE VII. LECTURE. The chief points. 1 The unwillingness of the mariners to put jonas to death. 4 Great slowness should be used in taking away life. 6. Against killing of men to offer to Idols, 7. and other cruel massacrings: 9 As that of the Anabaptistes. 14. The force of the sea. 16. It is some sin that maketh many not to prosper. 20. God revengeth innocent blood. 22. Enforcement doth not excuse evil. 23. We must yield to Gods will. jonah. 1.13.14. Nevertheless the men rowed to bring it to the land, but they could not, for the sea wrought and was troublous against them. Wherefore they cried unto the Lord, & said, We beseech thee, o Lord, we beseech thee, let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not upon us innocent blood, for thou o Lord hast done as it pleased thee. jonas being of a Prophet become a sinner, of a sinner a prisoner, as oft times you have heard, is examined by his company, but condemned by himself, as a grievous malefactor, worthy to be drowned in the sea. So much did his sin cry for vengeance; so vehemently did his God make after him. But the misery of his misery is, that since he must needs suffer, for otherwise the fault which his own mouth hath acknowledged, cannot be satisfied for, he wanteth some man that may do the deed. The place is ready, and the person, who thinketh every thought of time to be very long, before the matter be dispatched: but there wanteth an executioner. He might not do as Saul did, 1 Sam. 31.4. fall on his own sword point himself, when his harness-bearer would not deprive him of his life. This had argued too great despair. But he might wish with Nero, that in the course of justice, Aurelius' Victor in Nerone. he might have some friend or enemy, to help him unto his end. But among these blustering mariners, he could not find that favour. Although himself accuse himself, and lay his fault plain before them; although winds and waves did confirm it, although the lot thrown did assure it, although in words he did desire to be cast into the water, yet those who should have done it, do so ill like of the matter, that if sails or oars can serve, they will back again to the land, rather leave their intended journey, then use any violence toward him. They rowed to bring the ship back unto the land. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 The word which is used here, coming of Chathar in the Hebrew, doth signify they did dig, either because men do thrust into the water with oars, as in digging they do, with other instruments on the land, Seneca in Agamemn▪ Suicata vibrant aequora & lacera incropant. Virgil. Aeneid. 3. Nullum maris aequor arandum. like as in Latin Poetry the bottom of the ship is said to plow the water, sulcare, to make things like furrows in it: or because as men in digging, do turn this way, and that way, & stir & move the ground, so they stirred up their wits, & did beat their brains and thoughts, to free him from the danger. For his sake, they used all such helps as they had at sea. We know that they be not many: either sailing by the wind, or rowing by the oar: tall ships do know the one, the galleys go with the other. But as it may be judged out of the monuments of antiquity, and partly may be seen in some at this day, every ship in old time, had both the one & the other. When the wind wanted for their sailing, their arms did use to fall a rowing. In this place I doubt not, but that the storm had so overlaid them, that their tackling in general did serve them to little purpose. The shift which then remained, was to see if by clean strength, against both wind and water, they might win the land, by their rowing backward. Forward they could not get, & therefore they will retire, rather than drown the Prophet. Their business is forgotten: their haste shall stay a while, rather than destroy his life. 3 When advisedly I consider, how many things here should urge those mariners, to hasten him unto death, their disturbance in their journey, the casting forth of their wares, which goeth against the soul of a worldly minded creature, the endangering of their lives, the discovery by a lot, the confession of himself, & his willingness to die, besides such stubborn qualities, as of likelihood were fast rooted in mariners and idolaters, and yet how by no means they would take his life away from him, I cannot but observe their marvelous of-wardnesse, and unwillingness in very high sort, to the shedding of blood, which affection of theirs is amplified in all my text. Because he should not die, they would go back to land: and when they see that there must be no nay, but God would have them to throw him into the sea, they cry forth with great vehemency, that in as much as it was the Lords own doing, and not any desire of theirs, (they were but as his instruments, & ministers of his justice) the blood of this dying passenger, might not be imputed to them. Although I be not before judges and lurours, who have to do with men's deaths, nor before any Martial warriors, whose spear sometimes eateth flesh, and whose sword oftentimes drinketh blood: yet because I speak to men, whom this cannot but concern, (for life belongeth unto all) & because my text doth enforce it, give me leave, men & brethren, to discourse this argument unto you in the first place, that afterward I may go forward to some other doctrine. 4 Then I fear not to say, that the laws of God and men, of nature and of nations, of Gentiles and of jews, of civil men and Barbarians, have commanded that a great regard should be borne to the life of a man, the most excellent of all God's creatures that go upon the ground, the beauty of the world, the glory of the workman, the confluence of all honour which mortality can afford, the resemblance of the Saviour, while he lived upon the earth, the image of God himself, until that time that Adam lost it: to whose absolute frame nothing wanteth, but only a consideration, that God hath so graced him, as that nothing is wanting to him. I need not speak to all these, but urge that which is the greatest. The Lord hath said, I will require your blood wherein your lives are, Genes. 9.5.6. at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man, even at the hand of a man's brother, will I require the life of man. Who so sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God hath he made man. The often ingemination of requiring and requiring, doth enforce the greater charge. Exod. 21.12. Genes. 4.10. 2. Sam. 12.9. Habac. 2.17. He that smiteth a man & he die, shall die the death. Doth not the blood of Abel cry for vengeance unto the Lord? How doth God take the shedding of Vriah his blood at David's hand? How doth he threaten a punishment, and that in bitter sort unto the men of Babylon, for their murdering of many persons? The kill of a man, the murdering of thy neighbour, is such a matter, as for the which can be made no satisfaction. A kingdom can make no ransom for it, the whole world cannot make a recompense, if we will take things aright. It is in one to mar it, but it is not in all God's creatures, to make the life of a man. The Creator himself doth give it; he willeth us to preserve it, that none should dare to destroy it, either in ourselves or other. 5 How doth he seem to tender it, when he expressly commandeth the Israelies, Deuter. 22.8. to set battelments upon the roofs of their houses (whereupon they used oftentimes to walk, because they were flat) lest if any should fall down from thence, 2 Sam. 11.1. blood should lie upon the house? In like sort, when he giveth charge elsewhere, Exod. 21.32. that the beast which killeth any, should be stoned to death with stones? How doth he detest bloud-spilling in wilful sort, johan. 8.44. when Christ giveth to the devil, the title of a murderer, as being most fit for him? So that they who are killers and manquellers, do seem to fight under the devils banner; to have put off human nature, which should excel for mildness, and to be turned into beasts, nay to grow into the quality of foul and loathsome spirits. The impression of this thought, both that it is unseemly among men, and odious before God, as it hath possessed the heart of Scythians, and Barbarians, of Egyptians, greeks and Romans, so these shipmen doubt not of it, but with all their power they do fly from it, as from the gates of hell. They row, they cry, they pray: rather any thing then be guilty of the shedding of jonas his blood. Nay the more they see him yield, the more their heart doth melt, their affection giveth upon him. They know it to be natural, to spare the life of a suppliant, to save the life of a man. No custom against that ground: no prescription against that principle. Life should be dear if any thing: It never can be recovered. 6 They then are monsters in nature, and not only irreligious, and impious toward God, but verily inhuman, who do cut off the life of other, either in superstition, or in any bloodthirsty humour. Be they the Carthaginians, who did use to offer men in sacrifice to their Gods. Oros. Histor. lib. 4.6. 2 Reg. 3.27. Annotatio Geneuensis in cum jocum in Biblijs Anglicae. Tremelius habet de filio regis Edom. Or be it the king of Moab, who being distressed in battle, did take his eldest son, who should have reigned in his stead, and made a burnt offering of him, upon the top of the wall, before the face of the Israelites, by that means thinking to appease the wrath of his idols. For thus some understand it, although there be that take it, of the son of the king of Edom: which is also bad enough. Or be they among other, or above other if you will, the people of God himself, who as David doth say of them, if that be David's Psalm, were so besotted on their follies, Psal. 106.36. and so doted on their idolatry, that they offered up their sons and daughters unto devils. This was it, which the Scripture calleth the making of their children to go through the f●re, 2. Reg. 16.3. as did Ahaz the king of Israel. Unto this the story of josias alludeth, Cap. 23.10. where he speaketh of the valley of Hinnom, in which their little ones were enforced, as the Hebrews themselves do write, to walk between great fires, until that they sunk down dead with the heat: their parents, or the consecrators looking on, but not hearing the pitiful skreeches, and squealing of their children, by reason of the great noise of tabrets, and other instruments of music, which did dull their ears, that they might not hear the sound. Blind men, who supposed that they had done great service to the Lord, when in truth they did that, which was execrable and abominable in his eyes. So far off they were, from the rules of religion, that they also slipped from the very grounds of common reason. 7 The like may be said of such, who not for any superstitious devotion, or idolatrous opinion, but in a wolvish ravennousnesse, would see the blood of many shed. Be it Haman, who to ease his stomach upon Mardocheus, Est. 3.8. did cast plots and devices how to have the whole people of the jews murdered upon one day. Dion. lib. 59 Or be it Caligula that foul and foolish tyrant, who wished that all the people of Rome had but one neck, that whensoever it should stand with his good liking, he might cut it off at one blow. A man worthy to be branded, with a perpetual note of infamy, and to be registered for such a villain, as scant ever had any fellow. His heart was soaked through: his bowels were steeped in blood, when he carried so vile a mind to his own citizens and subjects. Good God, how far is sense, and all humanity extinguished in men, when thou withdrawest thy grace? How doth beastlike rage prevail? This maketh me to remember, the cruel and bloody speech of her, who being resolved upon that fearful slaughter, which France saw and felt at Bartlemewtide, Anno. 1572. Comment. Religi. & Reip. in Gallia. lib. 10. in the year seventy and two, did use to say of the Protestants, and Papists in that land, that there was no way, but one of the sides must die for it, else the other could not stand safe. The thousands which were on either side, the young innocents and the children, who by her account must die, did not move her flinty heart. She had her will afterward, and now although she be in her grave, yet the obloquy and contumelious reproach of that action, remaineth for ever on her. 8 Shall not those ancient Romans, who appointed by special laws, rewards of honour and glory, to such as did rescue the lives, of any of their citizens, stand up in the day of judgement, and condemn such bloody Christians? Shall not these silly mariners here convince them in that day, who wrought as many means to save the life of one, and of that one a stranger, and of that one an offender, as the other did to destroy the lives of many thousands, and those of their own countrymen, and many of them questionless innocents▪ poor harmless hurtless souls. Eternised be the infamy of Satan's and Antichrists practise in it, that bloody harlot of Babylon; for it savoured not of Christ the Saviour. It is for cruel wolves, and not for tender and simple lambs, to have their teeth in that manner defiled. No privilege or dispensation from any Pope, no warrant from the Council of Constance, that faith given or promise made to heretics, may be broken at pleasure, can excuse that horrible act. All humanity hath disclaimed it: Divinity doth condemn it. We give the like sentence also, although somewhat in a milder sort, against the murdering hand of them, who for their rebaptizing were justly called Anabaptists. 9 A little more than seventy years agone, Anno. 1522. these did arise in Germany, professing that by the Spirit, they had such illuminations, and revelations from above, that they freely might perform whatsoever came in their minds, as a matter suggested from heaven. Their opinions did quickly multiply, and so did their followers also: for it was a very pleasing doctrine, to a licentious Libertine-like mind, until it grew too far. Besides that all things were in common among them, and their wives were not very private, when some of them had three or four, beside also their rebaptizing of such, as had received the Sacrament of Baptism before, besides their plucking down of magistrates, and many other things which I overpass, they had the gift of killing as many as they would. Sleidan. commentar. lib. 10. lib. 6. Surius in commentar. Anno 1527. john of Leyden their usurping king at Munster, did fetch off the heads of diverse, with a very great facility. At Sangallum a town in Switzerland, one of this gentle crew, did cut off the head of his own natural brother, the father to them both standing by, and the mother looking on. And the reason which he had for the doing of it, was because it was so commanded to him from God above. This sect could say that it was the spirit, which moved them to such deeds, and they were advertised from him by secret inspiration; but indeed it was the Spirit which urged them, some infernal ugly fiend. For the holy Ghost, that sacred, immaculate and undefiled being, doth not stir men against the law of God, or to break the bonds of nature, so, as to defile men's selves with such crimes, Sleidan. lib. 10. as were odious to the very heathen. Luther living at that time, did set pen to paper, to discover & discountenance too, those proceedings. He imputed all that stir to Satan, and the immediate work of the devil. And as he was a man, every way of most invincible courage in God's business, so he feared not to say, Est haec rudis etiamnum cacodaemonis techna. Inuenustus Gemus. that it was but a blockish spirit, a gross devil and a rude, who did broach such untoward heresies, as the anabaptists held. Yet in the Popish spirit, was more close and fine conveyance. 10 The condemning of such deeds, by the sentence of God and man, and the general doctrine which hath been taught, concerning saving of life in all, by the example of these seamen, may be a good remembrance to Magistrates and judges, that they proceed to punishment of offenders, as men with leaden or woolly, that is slow feet, not rejoicing in that sentence, which themselves give, of purpose to send other men to death: not as persons without remorse, but in heart heavy to see, that reasonable men should be so reckless, as to bring themselves to their end. Although justice must be done, and clemency to some few may be cruelty unto many, yet it is but an inhuman part, to delight in spilling blood. Volesus who under the Emperor Augustus, Seneca de Ira. 2.5. was one Proconsul of Asia, is recorded for a famous tyrant, in that when he had beheaded three hundred in one day, with a proud and lofty countenance he walked amongst the dead carcases, as if he had done some deed worthy the looking on: O rem regiam. and then at last out he cried, Oh an act fit for a king. Another might well have answered him: No, this doth not beseem a king, who being the head of his people, should grieve that any of them should grow to that extremity, even as the head in the natural body should be sorry, that the least joint of the hand, or foot should so rot, that it must needs be cut off. And as in such a case, the surgeon is never admitted but with advise, so should hasty judgement never deprive men of their breath. The fault of Theodosius, otherwise a good Christian Emperor, Theodoret. Eccles. Histor. lib. 5.17. was the more grievous the while, when so rashly he gave leave to a garrison of his soldiers, to overrun the City of Thessalonica, where old and young were slain, to the number of seven thousands; and all this done, to take vengeance on that people, for abusing some of his officers: as Ambrose very plainly did tell him, when he stepped between the Emperor and the Church, being most unwilling that he should come in that sacred place, till he had made some satisfaction: A Christian Prince should never have spoken such a bloody word, to give so cruel and hard a sentence, against so many thousands of his own subjects, as well innocent as nocent. He afterward grieved for it unfeignedly, and in earnest, but his grief should have been before. Yet better late than never: but the best sorrow which men can have, is that they grieve to do evil. 11 There should be a fellow-feeling, and sympathy in men's minds, a compassion in a ruler, wishing that there were no cause of punishment to be suffered. And this not for a fashion, and because they are words of course, but in sincerity and simplicity; not with the tea●es of a Crocodile, or with the sighs of an hypocrite, johan. 18.38. but truly and in heart. Else it is but a Pontius pilate's trick; who pronounced that Christ was innocent, and that he was loath to give sentence, but yet he did condemn him. Although the jews were not judges, 28. yet they had learned that lesson, when they would not come into the judgement hall, lest they should be defiled with blood: and yet they never ceased to cry out, that Christ might be crucified. The Evangelists do all declare, that Annas and Cayphas who were the Priests, had a finger also in that work. As it seemeth they left a pattern, for Popish Bishops their successors, to follow when they were dead. For they are not behind their old masters, in hypocritical carrying of things, as they do most lively show in their Degradations of heretics, as they call them. For when the Ordinary or Deputy of the Bishop, Sleidan. commentar. lib. 4. doth take off such attire, as Priests or Bishops or men of degree in schools were clothed with, in their formality, and committeth them to the secular power as they term it, they seem to make an earnest request, that no violence may be offered to their bodies or lives, when their full purpose and intent is no otherwise, but that they should be burnt at a stake. This is filthy dissimulation, and not unfit for them, who being wolves and foxes, yet will shroud themselves in sheeps clothing. Blood thirstiness would gladly cover itself with mildness: but it is but a rotten cloak. If I should add any thing farther, by occasion of this desire to save jonahs' life, it might be to warriors, who should not be pressing into the field for every light cause. The old Heathen men had that care, that their wars should be just, as the laws and orders of the Feciales, Livius. lib. 1. those Roman Heralds show. Christian's should be more careful that they offer not to draw the sword in battle, unless it be for God, or for religion, or in their own defence, or for some important reason. And when the Lord shall send a victory in the justest cause, mercy beseemeth a man, and the sparing of all that may be spared. It carrieth some meaning with it, that God would not give David leave, to build a Temple unto him, 1 Chr. 28.3. although he fought not but the Lords battles, and earnestly did desire to accomplish that work himself. The reason thereof is assigned to be, because he was a warrior, and consequently had shed much blood. Which conceit, or the like as it should seem, was in the mind of Constantine that blessed Emperor, who being enforced to fight against infidels, Euseb. de vita Constantini. lib. 2.13. August. de civitate Dei 5.21. jeseph. de bello judaic. lib. 6.14. and idolaters, the enemies of his God, yet gave charge, that as few as might be should be slain in the wars; nay did propose rewards to those that took men alive. His predecessor Titus the Roman Emperor, was so gentle of disposition, that Saint Austen thinketh it not unfit, to call him a most sweet Prince, and josephus doth acknowledge, that he sorrowed most bitterly, when he saw the great store of dead carcases which perished at Jerusalem. It is therefore likely, that he would have carried a milder hand upon the jews his prisoners, after the sacking of that City, Lib. 7.20. then to cast so many thousands of them to the Lions, 2500. in die natali Domitiani. and other beasts to be devoured, as he did on the birthday of his brother Domitian, and some other times beside: but that the heavy curse of God, which boiled against the nation, did urge his gentle and calm nature, to bring them to destruction. But this is no example for other men: they have no such commission. It is not in our time▪ as it was in the days of jeremy, jerem. 48.10. Vt iugulent homines surgunt de nocte latrones. that Cursed is he that keepeth back his sword from blood, but blessed is he that spareth, and blessed is he that saveth. 13 If the curse now light on any, it is on the murdering hand, which I would that they in our days, would remember out of war, who either as wicked robbers destroy life for a pray, or else as braving minds (for so they esteem themselves) do make no kind of conscience, to destroy the lives of others, under pretence of revengement of indignities, & disgraces offered to them. Is hell prepared for murderers, and is it said that such shall be without, Apoc. 22.15. that is, secluded from heaven, and from the new Jerusalem, and wilt thou for showing of thy manhood, thrust thyself into this hell? The revenge which is taken, is more upon thy soul, then on the body of thine enemy. Let not piety be so dead, nor nature so extinguished, nor thy conscience be so seared, and burned every whit away, as to kill any wilfully. Rather learn of these mariners, to bear loss, and suffer danger, to spare where might be spilling, then to spill where should be sparing. jonas had done them wrong, by coming into their ship, & putting them to that trouble, and a verdict was gone out from God against him, that he must be drowned; & yet notwithstanding, if it were in their power to do it, they would return him good for evil: they even quake and tremble at it, that they were wished to drown him. And thus have you their averseness, and unwillingness to shed blood. Now let us go a little farther. They rowed to bring it to the land, but they could not. 14 Since they may not be at sea, they strive and they labour, to return to the land: but this may not be neither. Here is more against them, then if all the world were for them. Man will, but God will not: man roweth and God bloweth, the arms go for the one, but the winds go for the other. Whether of these is like to speed? God would not have the Prophet escape away so with the shot. Since his fault is so great, it shall not be unpunished, lest the creature should learn to insult over the Creator, and flesh and blood should counterpoise his will against the Almighty. Therefore to teach obedience, and that nothing on earth, must be balanced with his ordinance, for the execution of justice, he stirreth up the sea, to resist the rowing of these silly men. The sea wrought and was troublous. How much is here against how little? The Ocean with his fury, against one wooden vessel. Great waves against small strokes. This is it, whereof David can say, that they who make trial of it, do see the works of the Lord, Psal. 107.24. and his wonders in the deep. This is it which if it were not restrained, would return to cover the face of the earth, Psal. 104.9. whose waves do roar louder than all the Lions of the forest, whose gulfs do sup up some, whose sands do sink down other, whose rocks have split in pieces the hugest mightiest Carickes, that ever 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 fleets and navies, the one ship against the other: which sometimes by inundation hath overrun whole countries, as might be showed at large. This is one of those two unbridled elements, with whom there is no mercy: for so we say of fire and water. 15 This worketh against our Prophet, and what help can there be against the fury of it? If the multitudes of mankind were assembled upon the land, if the whole world were put together, yet these are not able to abate this violence. If Pharaoh and all the horsemen which belong unto him, although he be the great king of Egypt, Exod. 14.28. come but into a corner of it (for so the red sea may well be named) they are licked up, as if they had been no better than the grasshoppers, and thrown dead on the shore. Xerxes' the king of Persia, was a man of passing wit in the mean while, Herodot. in Polymnia. lib. 7. who, as Herodotus writeth of him, understanding that the bridge which he had made over the Hellespont, was broken by the great violence of the waves and water, caused three hundred stripes to be given to the Ocean sea, in revengement of the wrong done unto him, and to teach it a better lesson, against another time. There is no wrestling for sober men, with the sea, and for drunken men much less. If he with all his army, had been close at hand to help the poor Prophet, now in this storm, he must have been contented, to have left him in that case as he found him. God's charge was upon the waves, not to give over from pursuing, until they had drowned him. And he who could plague all Egypt, with flies and frogs and lice, the basest kind of vermin, Exod. 8.1.17.24. could easily give ability, to the sea to drench on jonas. 16 Then it is no marvel, if they could not bring him back unto the land, since they had both winds and waves and God himself 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 afforded. Men oftentimes do strive and vehemently labour, with oars and sails and every thing, even with all the powers of their mind, and with all the strength of their body, to attain to their desire, of riches and contentedness, and the more they do beat their brains, the farther they are still from it. Early rising, faring hard, much devising and contriving, counsel and help from others: and yet it will not be. Some other with half the labour, do attain to greater happiness. But as these mariners strive, and cannot come at the land, they can neither get forward nor backward, so it is with the desires of the other. Agg. 1.6. O●nus torquet. God bloweth upon their money, it is put into a broken bag, or as the Proverb is, Ocnus he wreatheth a rope, and an ass standeth by and croppeth it off. Their best means come to nothing: the good intent of their friends proveth, as if there were no such matter. Now what shall be said in this case? Surely we must not rashly censure this state of other men. For God many times doth cross the actions of such as be dear unto him, either to try their patience, or to confirm their faith, or to teach them obedience, or to make them loathe the world, or for some other reason best known unto himself. So that we may not proudly or peremptorily judge. Then the conscience of each man, who will not be wilfully blinded, is the best trial in this behalf. Descend thou then into thy soul, and sift thyself thoroughly, 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 jonas be not within thy house, some lewd or ungodly man, some drunkard or some Atheist, that draweth a curse upon thee. See whether that some jonas be not within thy heart, who lieth heavy upon thee as the lead, that thou canst not arise. The jonas of disobedience, the jonas of discontentedness, the jonas of want of faith, or perhaps some more noted sin. As long as he hath his abode with thee, do thou row and thy mariners, do thou strive and thy friends, but thou shalt not come to the land. But cast once this jonas out, the jonas of adultery, the jonas of fornication, upon whom beggary waiteth many a time, the sin of a wanton mind, the fault of a railing tongue, against God and his Ministers, the sin of an envious eye, against those whom the Lord blesseth, the roo●e of cruel bitterness in inventing lies and slanders. Let the jonas of these faults, be once thrown over shipboard, and thy ship shall go like other: the Lord will bless thy studies, he will prosper thy endeavours, and it shall appear unto thee, how much he doth respect thee. Otherwise the sea shall be troublesome, and sail thou till thy heart do ache, thou shalt not come to the shore. Aulus Gellius in the third book of his Noctes Atticae, doth tell of a goodly horse, Gellius. lib. 3.9. which belonged to one Seius, and thereof had his name to be called Equus Sejanus. This horse was never possessed by any one, but both himself and his family did come to utter ruin. So Seius his first master did speed, and then Dolabella who bought the horse for much money, drank of the self same cup. Then Cassius was his owner, and after that Antonius, and the end of both these was destruction. Understand that sin and wickedness, oftentimes doth carry this fortune with it, that it fretteth the goods of the owner, and maketh little or nothing to prove. Therefore 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 leave it, then to have it: he is best that is farthest from it. And so now I come to the second verse. Wherefore they cried unto the Lord and said. 18 When these men see by all means, that the Prophet must go out, & that there was no striving against so strong a stream, although it went against the hair, nay although heart, soul and all, did go against the deed, yet they resolve to do it: but it is with fear and trembling. It cannot be avoided: necessity hath no law: they must do it or do worse. Then since God ruled the roast, and all was at his pleasure, they run poor souls to him. It is said they cried unto him, which noteth their earnest vehemency in uttering of their prayers. They whisper not, but so loud as their best breath can reach, they cry unto the Lord. They had seen the immediate power of the Israelites God upon them: that maketh them pray unto him, and that with doubled cries, We beseech thee, we beseech thee. So important is affliction, and sight of present danger, to stir up even idolaters, Exod. 10.17. and wicked ones to devotion. If Pharaoh once feel the smart of the rod upon him, he can be well content, if not himself, yet that Moses should pray unto his God, to free him from the plague. 1. Reg. 21.27. If Ahab by the speech of Elias, do hear of desolation about to fall upon himself and his family, he will humble himself in sackcloth. This is an argument worth the handling, as be many other things in this verse: but because I have still desired, to go forward without confusion, and if I be not deceived, it is the distinctest teaching, to put every thing in his proper place, give me leave to touch that here, which is not handled elsewhere, and which hath most affinity with that, which already I have said: and to refer other matters unto their peculiar places. Suprà versu 2. Then what crying is, I handled, when I opened the second verse. And for that matter, that here they make choice of jehova, the true God of the world, as also to dispute, whether they were converted unto the truth or no, just occasion shall be offered, when I come to the sixteenth verse, Infrà ver. 16. where it is said that the men frared the Lord exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the Lord and made vows. Moreover what force affliction hath, to bring men unto piety and devotion, I declared in the fifth verse, where these mariners by the violence of the tempest, Suprà vers. 5. were urged unto their prayers. And again, I shall have reason to touch it farther, if God do send me ability to come to the second Chapter, where the Prophet lying in the belly of the whale, maketh his prayer to the Lord. 19 Then the matter which now remaineth for me, is the substance of their prayer: the scope at which they do aim: which is, that sith a necessity of drowning him lieth upon them, which they held as well to be unnatural, as inhuman and impious, they would gladly be excused for it, that his death and blood which was innocent unto them, might not be laid upon them. They do profess themselves, to be but instruments of Gods good will, they had no quarrel to him. And they in plain terms say, that his was innocent blood, howsoever otherwise, whereunto they were not privy, yet in respect of them. In their company he had not any way deserved to die: his blood therefore to them was innocent, and not gulity. See the abundant store of wisdom, which is in the word of God: how many notes do hence arise. First that the Lord doth take vengeance, on innocent blood which is shed, for this is that which they feared; and this may rightly be joined with that which goeth before, that is man's fearfulness in the one place, and Gods judgements in the other. Secondly, although they were enforced, yet they hold not that sufficient, to do a thing unlawful, without Gods will expressly. Thirdly that God's direction was their full resolution. The multitude of these things shall not make me forget myself. I will touch them all very briefly. 20 It is very likely, that these men were afraid, that they might justly perish, for spilling innocent blood, for God hath threatened vengeance to that sin, in some places that he will detect it and disclose it, and in some other, that he will severely recompense it. Esay. 26.21. By the Prophet Esay: Lo the Lord cometh out of his place, to visit the iniquity of the inhabitants of the earth upon them: and the earth shall disclose her blood, and shall no more hide her slain. Numer. 35.33. By Moses: Blood defileth the land, and the land cannot be cleansed, of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it. The sentence which fell upon joab was, 1. Reg 2.5. that his head should not go down into his grave in peace, because he had spilt the blood of two just men, of two innocents. It is a great comfort to all men, that their lives are so far within the Lords protection, that if any shall offer to take them away, God will require them of him. But there is a woe to the murderer. All the righteous blood which was shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel, Math 23.35. to the blood of Zacharias, the son of Barachias, who was slain between the Temple and the Altar, shall come upon the jews, who were killers of the Prophets. And if any one thing, it was blood that brought them to destruction. For as when blood touched blood, the whole land was polluted, so if we will believe josephus, who lived in that time, the temple was razed down, for the murders which were committed in it. The strangling of young infants, begotten by fornication in our Abbeys and Nunneries, which since that time their bones have discovered, in more places than one, may be very well supposed, among many other sins, to have overturned those great buildings. Let the houses of pivate men take heed by their example. 21 The descrying of this fault, which are both by fame, and by books remembered to us, may be a good token, that in this behalf vengeance doth not sleep. As that the very birds of the air, and the very beasts of the field, have helped to lay that open. Vide Andream Libavium. De cruentatione cadaverum. But among God's secret works, showed for the repressing of that sin, there is none more strange, than the bleeding of the person slain at the presence of the murderer. Which although it be not Scripture, yet that many times it falleth out, I fear not to believe, by reason of a good consent of nations, some later some more ancient, whom experience as it seemeth did teach that lesson. For besides a general opinion in our own land, long derived by descent from hand to hand, the low-countreymen do so hold it, as by Levinus Lemnius in the second of his Natural secrets, Levinus Lennius de occultis naturae miraculis 2.7. is made plain, and that by a collection from the trial of their magistrates: where accepting the thing, as undoubtedly true, and without all kind of controversy, he inquireth the reason of it. So doth Andrea's Libavius another learned man, who hath also made a treatise upon that argument. In buchanan's Scottish story, Buchanan. Hist. Scot lib. 6. we find an example of this. When by the procurement of one Donaldus, king Duffus had been slain, the worker of the mischief, caused those who had done it, in no case to come in sight, lest the doers should be disclosed by the blood of the corpse. That is a testification also, that this is an ancient conceit among the Scottish people. Howsoever that be, much experience hath taught, that this cruelty is very strangely detected, & many times revenged too, by courses extraordinary. Sometimes where man forbeareth, there God doth show his hand in a more immediate sort, as Procopius saith that he did on Theodoricke king of the Goths, who slew Boentius and Symmachus, Procopius de bello Gothico. 1. two both noble and innocent persons. But afterward, the guilt of that sin sticking fast in his conscience, he grew to an imagination, that the head of a certain fish that was set upon his table, was the head of Symmachus, which gaped & yawned upon him. Upon which conceit he trembling and quaking, fell into a sharp sickness, and quickly thereof died. Some other times it is deferred, but yet the punishment never resting, cometh tumbling on at last, as Euagrius in the fifth of his Ecclesiastical story, Euagrius Hist. Eccl. lib. 5.3. doth tell of one Addaeus, which in his time was reputed one of the special friends of the Emperor justinian. This man when he had escaped the law for one murder, yet was afterward put to death, for a fact wherewith he was charged, but in truth had never done it. So the Lord did change the matter, and the Lord did change the time, but the punishment was not changed. He escaped for that which he did, and died for that which he did not. Sometime God doth punish the father's sin upon the children, as he did David's murder upon Vriah, on his own sons Absalon and Ammon. These mariners might hear of such examples among the Gentiles. For God's finger is every where: he is Lord over all the earth; and therefore they might well fear, lest that themselves should perish, for the blood of this dying Prophet. 22 The second thing which I note is, that although they were enforced against their will to destroy him, yet because the deed itself was in his own quality unlawful, they cannot satisfy themselves, but still make scruple of it. Although there were a kind of commandment from God, that it should be done (for they had signs to that purpose) yet they doubt at it, & grieve to do it. Oh how far doth the conscience of these weak ones, exceed the minds of many now, who think that they may do unlawful things, if they be enforced to it, by any temporal reason, not having for their warrant a notice from God, as these men here had, but all piety clean against them. Such are they, who will not refuse to go to the service of an idol, if their Prince should command them. This was the great persuasion, which was used by Magnus a noble man, toward diverse Christians; Theodoret. Hist. Eccl. 4.20. that they should embrace the faith, & opinions of the Arrians, because Valens the Emperor, had made laws to that purpose. Suppose saith he to them, that your religion be very good, yet if you be enforced to turn unto another your God will forgive it to you. And much more of that matter. Such are they, who being urged by nothing, but the concupiscence of their own affections, will do things most ungodly. Steal to maintain their bravery: they cannot else live like men. Lie, for to match their enemy, they may reach him so in policy. In like sort, wrestle against their conscience, in oppugning of the righteous, in slandering of the innocent, because he is not for them, he standeth sometimes in their light, although they know that they do amiss, & that they shall answer for it. This is a small necessity, my idleness or my wantonness, my engrocing of filthy gain, to make me do that, which mine own heart knoweth, that God's book daily forbiddeth to me. Although they were deeply persuaded, that it was the Lord's determination▪ yet what doubting is in these seamen, to do a thing unlawful? for so it is in itself, but Gods will doth make it lawful. To this will they then yield 23 And this is the third point, which I observed in them, thou hast done as it pleaseth thee. They do not accuse God here, and lay the fault on him, as men commonly use to do. We all have learned that of Adam, The woman which thou gavest me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. Genes. 3.12. August. de Genesi contra Manicheos. lib. 2. Not the woman simply saith S. Austen, but the woman which thou didst give me. For nothing is so familiar as for sinners to lay upon God, that whereof they be accused. These do not so in this place, but assume that to be righteous, which God will have to be done, & because they see him will it, & that he will take no nay, therefore they know it is just, & accordingly yield unto it. This is a sound direction, for man to submit his will, to the will of his maker, that as we are taught to pray, O Lord thy will be done, Matth. 6.10. cap. 26.39. so we yield unto it in mildness. He is wiser than we be, and therefore let him lead. Not my will in my manhood, but thy will in thy godhead, be done saith Christ our Saviour. 1. Sam. 3.18. Let the Lord saith old Eli, do as seemeth good in his own eyes. Although therefore any thing be unlawful, & seem unto us to be unnatural, yet if God do command it, we ought not to resist. It was unlawful for Abraham to kill, but more unnatural to kill his only son, and that with his own hands, yet when the Lord commanded, he was ready to do them both. Let other learn this lesson thence, that if their friends or children, be as dear to them, as Isaac was unto his father Abraham, yet if God take them hence, they say in all obedience, the will of the Lord be done, or with these shipmen here, thou hast done as it pleaseth thee. The like we should say of sickness, banishment, loss of goods, or whatsoever else in this world. Although it go as much against us, as it did against these men, to drown the Prophet jonas, yet if God do require it, let us do as it pleaseth him. And so let us pray unto him, first that he will keep us always from blood-guiltiness, and from murder; and than that he will give us grace, to make conscience of such deeds, as are against his word; but that evermore we may learn, to submit ourselves to his pleasure, that walking here as dear children, we may be brought along to the inheritance of his glory. Unto the which o Father bring us, for thine own son Christ his sake, to whom with thee and the holy Spirit, be laud and praise for ever. THE VIII. LECTURE. The chief points. 2. Reverence to the Prophet even in his death. 4. Such reverence is not borne to our Preachers. 8. God's creatures are all at his beck. 9 The magistrate punishing sin turneth away God's plagues. 10. Christ's death appeaseth the Father's wrath. 11. comfort to us by Christ's death 13. The punishment of others should make us tremble 16. The vows of seamen. 17. The temporary faith of the mariners. 19 Hypocrites can make show of religion. 20. We must persevere in good things. jonah. 1.15.16. So they took up jonah, and cast him into the sea, and the sea ceased from her raging. Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice to the Lord, and made vows. YOu have oftentimes heard of our Prophet on the sea, now his turn is to be in the sea. jonas flying is past, and now cometh jonas dying, for in his drowning he could expect nothing else but death. He who would needs to the water, shall have enough of the water, if he know what is enough. His disobedient negligence may not be slipped over, 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 perform with faithfulness, what so ever the Lord shall command them. The poor mariners his ship-fellowes, will they, nill they, are the men that must do execution. Their humanity must yield to the purpose of the Deity, their good nature to necessity, Eleazar an old jew, who lived about the time of our Saviour Christ, doth say that these mariners, to show their advisedness in proceeding to his death, before they drowned him, dived the Prophet up to the chin oftentimes in the water, and still the sea was quiet: but when they lifted him up again to take him out, it fell to his raging again, so that being every way assured, that he must suffer, they resolve for his drowning. Howsoever this be true, or not, for I cannot avouch it, it is a case undoubted, that they had main presumptions, & inducements enough, to throw him over shipboard, and yet they most unwillingly laid violent hands upon him. Besides all that which is gone before, the first words of my text including the manner of their deed, will make that plain unto us. They took up jonas. Hieronim. in jon. 1. Non dixit arripuérunt non ait invaserunt, sed tulorunt quasi cum obsequio & honore portantes. 2 It is Hieromes observation in his Commentary on this text, that they did take up jonas, not hastily did snatch him, not rudely fall upon him, not offer outrage violently unto him, but they lifted him up with honour, which the word Nasa will well bear, being both to lift and to honour. They lifted him with an honour, they used reverence 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 anointed, and do my Prophets no harm. Which opinion in all ages hath obtained that force, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psal. 105.15. I say not with the jews only, nor I say not with the Christians, of whom a Levite and a Priest have been accounted fathers; but with infidels and idolaters, as not only Churchmen have been preserved from ill usage, but have also been entertained in an honourable manner. jezabel was an idolater, and a woman of much evil, yet she so plentifully extended her bounty to those, 1. Reg. 18.19. whom she reputed as Prophets to her God, although it were but that block Baal, that four hundred of them were maintained at her own table. Numer. 22.5. Balaam had but a name to belong to the Lord, and how honourable an Embassage did king Balac send unto him? Our mariners in this lesson are not at all to seek. How would they have esteemed jonas leading an innocent life, who so highly did respect him, when he was ready for his sin to endure a death? They touch him with a love, they handle him with a reverence▪ they lift him us with an honour, and all these things in earnest. 3 Caligula that infamous Emperor of Rome, as Philo judaeus writeth of him, Philo judaeus de legatione ad Cajun. had a nephew of Tiberius his prodecessour, appointed by the same Tiberius, to reign jointly with him. The incompatible nature of Caligula, could endure no such companion. Therefore as tyrants use to do, this young Prince must needs die. But mark the manner of it, how cleanly it was carried. He must do the murder upon himself, with his own hands. Although there were diverse Nobles, and great Captains, which stood by and looked on, yet they might not help to rid the poor creature out of his pain, because that was a most unlawful deed: yea a thing wicked and unseemly, that the posterity of great Emperors, should die by the hands of other. Nolebat juris videri oblitus, in patranda summa iniuria & sanctitatis in scelere meminerat. Whereupon Philo concludeth of him, that in committing a high injury, he would seem to remember an equity, and to profess a sanctity and solemnity in his villainy. Such untoward hypocrisy is not in these men here, but in truth and just dealing, they would not spill his blood: and since that he must by their hands receive a doom, they perform what they are enforced with honour unto him, but with honour in themselves. Solinus cap. 66. They rather may be compared to the men of Taprobana, of whom Solinus telleth, that they did use to choose their kings by election, and not to derive them down by an hereditary line, from the father to the son. When they had made choice of their king, they honoured and obeyed him in all good sort, while he remained just and careful over them. But if once he grew intolerable in his regiment by injustice and tyranny, they took away from him, both his kingdom and his life. Herein (as I must confess) they took no pleasure, but clean chose, they did it with a reverence, and regard to his person. Not any one laid hands upon his sacred body, but by a common consent, the use of all necessary things, was interdicted to him, yea very speech with his nearest friends, and in that sort he died. So the very heathens did bear respect to some sorts of men, for the dignity of their calling; but to none more than to their Priests, to none more than to their Prophets. 4 They had evermore 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 from above, & those to whom the supreme power was accustomed to impart his will, by inspiration or secret revelation. And in brief they thought these the Oracles of his voice, and remembrancers to other, of such things as were to be done or avoided. Then in tumults and seditions, although otherwise tempestuous fury did rage, yet the lewdest sort of tumultuous people did hold their hands from these, as may be showed in Antiquity, no less quaking to touch them, than did jether the son of Gedeon, in the eight of the book of judges, judic. 8.20. to slay Zeba and Zalmana, a boy two mighty warriors. Of this our jonas had good experience even to the full, who did find that special favour, among men inhuman and barbarous in comparison, that although the sea did descry him, and the wind made strongly after him; although the lo●cast had discovered him, nay his own mouth had condemned him; although his desire was to die, so to appease the fury conceived by the Lord, yet notwithstanding they refuse to destroy him, and when they cannot avoid it, with no despite to his person, but with reuerence● th●y perform it. 5 When I look into the world, and this age wherein we live, and compare with these heathen men, the usage of our Christians, toward those who in their places, do bear the 〈◊〉 of jonas, nay in very deed do bring a message, far better and far sweeter than ever jonas did, because his word was wrath, but theirs is reconcilement in the blood of Christ our Saviour, I find a very great difference. I speak it with some grief, even for the Gospel's sake, which by this means is reproached, I find a very great difference. For in the countries abroad, it is a matter not strange, that painful and careful pastors, who labour in the word and doctrine, and therefore by the testimony of Saint Paul, 1. Tim. 5.17. are worthy of double honour: who study to frame themselves to the rule of the Apostle, to show themselves examples of patience, Cap 6.11. Tit. 2.7. of long suffering, of mildness, of sound doctrine, of industry in God's business are vilefied and conteinned, are slandered and reproached▪ being made as the filth of the world, 1 Cor 4.13. the of scouring of all things. Whereof there needeth no farther witness, than the libel which in some places have been made against the Preachers, for rebuking of sin, the rhymes and metres which elsewhere have been song and resounded out: the manifold cavillations, and false exceptions taken to that which they teach, yea sometimes reports most constantly avouched, of this or that point of doctrine delivered openly, which is both absurd and monstrous. These things partly arise by ignorance, & want of judgement in discerning causes aright: but the truest and most ordinary cause, is the lack of zeal to God, and of charity toward man, and of dutiful regard to those who should not be wilfully grieved, but esteemed as such who wait for men's souls, Heb. 13.17. and must give an account, which they would be glad to do with joy. Hereunto may be joined, the pulling and renting away of the maintenance of the minister: that whereas Ethnic people, yea and our forefathers too in the days of superstition, did think that they could never be too prodigal, in heaping much of their substance, on those who were no better then blind guides, now clean contrary he is held the most wise and prudent man, who either by cunning devise, can steal something secretly from the portion of the Levite, or with strong hand will maintain, his open and gross oppression. 6 And if the injuried person taking knowledge of the wrong, which is smartingly done unto him, seem but to think how he may procure due satisfaction, although it be by entreaty, his actions are strait pried into, his fame is called in question, he is generally reproached for a hard man, and a covetous, for a peace-breaker and contentious. Now see whether this be the regardful carriage, which should for his masters sake be borne to him, who standeth between God and the people, whose hands do reach forth that sacrament, which is the representation, not only of the Communion of the Saints each with other, but of the union also of them with Christ their head. For the office which he beareth, for the message which he bringeth, let him have that immunity, that if thou wilt not honour him, and regard him as thou oughtest, yet do no ill unto him, nay say to him nothing evil. Cyprian. Epist. lib. 3.9. When Saint Cyprian once was informed, that a Deacon had given ill and railing speeches, against Rogatianus who was of eminent place in the Church, his spirit could not endure it, but he writeth back again, that the Deacon should be enforced to do some penance for that his foul abuse. And yet this man was by vocation a kind of spiritual person, who therefore had some more prerogative than a common body, to rebuke sharply if he saw any thing amiss. But in these days men go farther, then to use unseemly speeches, when they are ready in bitterness of heart, not to stay till occasion be offered, but to wait opportunity, and spy, nay seek means true or false, of turning the Prophets of the Lord out of their livings and houses. As jonas might not rest and be harboured in the ship, so they shall be removed: as he was thrown into the sea, where in the reason of man nothing was to be expected, but that he should drown & perish, so these shall be cast out into the wide world, as men without a place, wherein to rest their head, so that for aught which their adversaries intent, they may famish for want of food. But whereas all was done to jonas unwillingly and forced, and at the last cast, they honoured him; men of our age do take their victories over their Pastors, as things to be triumphed on: they hold those acts as their crown, their glory and commendation much to be boasted of. When in truth there is no one thing, more infamous in the eyes of all good men, or more to be shamed at, then for sheep to arise against the careful shepherd, the children and congregation, against their spiritual Father. 1. Sam. 22.17 7 We do find in the book of God, that an everlasting blot is laid on wicked Doeg, for one part which he played, although he were an Edomite and no Israelite, and therefore the more likely to commit any such outrage. When Saul in his malicious humour, picked a quarrel against Ahimelech and the Priests, for giving food to David in his necessity, and commanded such as attended upon him, to run on them and slay them, not one man of all the Israelites, dared to lay hands upon them, but Doeg the Edomite was he, who spilled their innocent blood. This as an everlasting spot, is registered of him to all posterities. It is for infidels and Edomites to do such deeds as these. But Christian men should submit themselves, with patience and mildness, to the moderate reproofs of their wise & careful Pastors, and not to be offended with them, who labour to do them good, by the word and by their prayers. It is a good memorandum, which Saint Cyprian hath in this case: Cyprian. Serm. de Lapsis. Irasceris ei qui abs te auertera iram Dei nititur, ei minaris qui pro te Dei misericordiam deprecatur. Thou art angry with that man who laboureth to turn away the wrath of God from thee, he speaketh of the Minister, thou threatenest him who desireth the mercy of God upon thee: who feeleth that wound of thine which thou thyself dost not feel, who sheddeth those tears for thee, which thou thyself dost not shed. And God knoweth that the good Pastor doth most diligently perform these duties, that is, grieve to see aught amiss, and pray that all may be well, & take pleasure in the true and spiritual welfare of his charge, as well as in his own▪ Let him therefore be esteemed as a friend, and reverenced as a father: I will press this note no farther. They cast him into the sea, and the sea ceased from her raging. 8 Saint chrysostom in that one Homily, Chrysost. Homil. in jonam. which he hath upon this Prophet, doth note that by the courtesy which these mariners showed to jonas, and their very great unwillingness, that he should come to destruction, God would teach the Prophet to have mercy upon the Ninivites, as these men had on him: that he should by his preaching, reclaim them from their sins, & so save them from ruin: which because God more at large layeth down in the fourth chapter, jonah. 4.6. in the parable of the gourd, I do defer it thither. But the mercy of these men here, is enforced to turn to justice. They are compelled to leave him whom they willingly would keep. jonas goeth over shipboard, where behold appeareth a miracle, the sea ceaseth from her fury. 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 ceaseth upon the sudden. The disturbance was not natural, nor the quieting is not natural, because it cometh in a moment. It was not by degrees, not one step after another, as in tempests which are ordinary, but in that very instant when he was thrown into the water. So miraculous is God's power, to have the mightiest creatures, to move and rest at his beck. If he command the world to be drowned with water, Genes 7.11. the Ocean shall break forth, the fresh springs shall gush out, the very flood-gates of heaven, shall be opened with a word, and so all the earth shall perish. If he bid his servant Moses but stretchfoorth his hand, Exod. 14.16. the red sea shall part in two, and stand up as a wall on the right side, and as a wall on the left. This is a great comfort to the faithful, that they serve such a master, who so commandeth all the frame of heavenly and earthly bodies, that he turneth them and windeth them, as with a hook in their nostrils, and leadeth them so up and down, that nothing shall assault them without God's special pleasure. It is he that made the sea here to cease from her raging, and boiling with such violence. 9 But the reason why it then stayed, was because it had effected the thing which it desired. The fugitive being taken, the pursuer is now quiet. It is punishment inflicted on the sinner, which in temporal causes allayeth the Lord's anger. When Achan had his hire, josua. 7.25. & 8.1. 2. Sam. 21.14 the Israelites did proceed in their conquest as before. Saules cruelty to the Gibeonites, did procure three years of dearth, to be sent upon the land, in the time of David: but when once the posterity of the offending sinner, was hanged up by the wronged parties, God's indignation toward the land was appeased. Princes and judges have here a pathway laid out ready to them, wherein they ought to walk. 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 enemy, after a view taken of the actions, and oversights of their people, let them purge their land from iniquity, by cutting off malefactors, and breaking the back of sin, and wilful transgression. There is no sacrifice more pleasing in the eyes of the Lord of hosts, then that those who dishonour him, should be suppressed by justice. 1593. He did whip us not long since with a rod of pestilent sickness: this year he threateneth otherwise, with some fear of a pinching famine. 1594 Very likely it is, that if gross faults were removed from amongst our nation, his wrath would cease with the cleansing, as the sea did with receiving our jonas. If the usury of the city, the oppression of the Landlord, the simony of the Clergy, the extortion of the Patron, the idleness in the Minister, the want of love in the Commonalty, and security in all sorts, did but so much decay, or so fast diminish, as it hath increased lately, God's wrath would turn to favour, and we should more feel his blessings. 10 But here in the ceasing of the tempest, by the drowning of the Prophet, we are notably put in mind of him, of whom our jonas is a figure in this case. It hath been mentioned before, Matth. 12.40 out of the twelfth of Matthew, that his lying in the whales belly, was a sign of the death of Christ, by the witness of Christ himself; as his casting up again, was a sign of his resurrection. The dying of jonas alone for all, doth signify the same thing, as was taught out of the twelfth verse, of this present chapter which I now handle. jonah. 1.12. But nothing in plainer sort doth express unto us, the force of the suffering of our Saviour, than the ceasing of the storm, at the drowning of the Prophet: even as God's wrath was appeased, by the death of the unspotted lamb. By the fall of our first parents, we all were fallen from grace. We had changed not a Ninive for a Tharsus, but a Paradise for a torment, and a heaven for a hell. The coldness of our disobedience, was followed with heat of justice; not winds and waves did make after us, to take vengeance on our bodies, but a weight of angry fury, of purpose to destroy our souls. Not one ship but a world was endangered in this hazard. The Gentile and the jew, the civil man and Barbarian, were every moment ready to be drowned in desperation. In this state of extremity, God pitieth forlorn man, and sendeth a better guest than jonas was, among those who are passengers through this vale of misery. And although this guest was clothed with humanity, like an ordinary passenger, yet in this he differed from jonas, that our Prophet alone had sinned, when all his fellows were free, but Christ alone was innocent, when all his fellows pleaded guilty. 11 We can never sufficiently admire the effectual force of him, johan. 11.50 who quieted this great rage. justice called for a death, take my death quoth the Saviour: let one die for the people, the head for all his members. Iust. lib. 2. An Oracle had once answered, that either the king of the Athenians, or else their army must perish. Codrus who was then king, never stood or staggered at it, but gave his life for his citizens, to save them from destruction. The king of men and Angels, had this choice put unto him, that either himself or his, the mystical head or body, should undergo a death. He took the turn on himself, & so wrought a reconcilement, from his Father toward his Church. So, by his stripes we are healed. Isa. 53.5. The chastisement of our peace was upon him. So he being the Lamb of God, hath taken away the sins of the world. johan. 1.29. He hath freed us and delivered us from the wrath to come. His blood speaketh better things, than that crying blood of Abel, that cried vengeance from the earth: this from the cross crieth redemption, reconcilement and atonement. So he hath by his blood bought a spouse unto himself, whom else he had not had. By the dying of Christ, the Church is made, as Eve was made by Adam's sleeping, August. in joh. Tract. 9 Dormit Adam ut fiat Eva: moritur Chrisiu● ut fiat Ecclsia. Leuit. 16.8. which is Saint Austin's comparison. The Adamant is so hard a stone, that it can be softened with nothing, but the blood of a goat. Man's heart was grown so hard, man's case was grown so hard, that it could be lenified by nothing, but by the blood of him, whom the skape-goate in Leviticus, so lively did represent. 12 But to procure our peace, he plucked wars on himself; and what we should have borne, his humanity did sustain with a lovely change of our parts. For the unrighteous sinneth, and the righteous man is punished: Augustin. in Meditationibus. Pe●cat iniquus & punitur justus: d●linquit reus, & vapulat innocens. the guilty man did offend, and the innocent one is beaten, the ungodly had transgressed, and the godly was condemned: what the wicked man had deserved, that did the good one suffer, what the servant had endamaged, that did the master pay: and what man had committed, that he a God took upon him. This bringeth a way to the wandering, this bringeth life to the dying, and safety to the perishing. For his loss was our gain, Ambros. in Psalm. 36. Christi mo●s vita est: ipsius vulnus vita est ipsius sanguis vita est: ipsius sepultura vita est. his impoverishing our enriching. The worst which was on Christ, was the best help unto us: for his death was our life, his wounding was our life, his bleeding was our life, his burying was our life, his rising again our life, as Saint Ambrose truly noteth. This is the assured comfort, which the wounded conscience hath: although he be fallen in Adam, yet he is risen in Christ: although the law do condemn him, yet the Gospel doth acquit him: although generation doth kill him, yet regeneration saveth him: although the tempest of God's wrath be ready to swallow him, yet notwithstanding the casting in of this jonas, procureth a calm unto him. And so having Satan mastered, and hell gates shut against him, he dareth to present himself before the throne of grace, with cheerfulness and boldness, in the confidence of his passion, who hath entered into the heaven, and made way to his father. This is it which holdeth us when we are living: this is it which helpeth us, when we are dying. A God become a man: the celestial made terrestrial: our judge become our jesus, to cease the rage of the sea, to stop the wrath of the Father. We find this accomplished in our jesus: but we may learn it in jonas, whose mariners found their best ease, by putting him to pain. For the casting forth of him, did put them from their peril: when the sea once had him for whom it looked, that immediately was quiet. And now let us see what effects all this wrought in the beholders. Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, etc. 13 No marvel if this miracle did make them quake: for what flesh can choose but tremble, to see and feel his hand, who shaketh the mighty ceders? Psal. 29.5. It is written of the Israelites, that when they saw God's power, which he showed in drowning the Egyptians, Exod. 14.31. and their king Pharaoh, in the midst of the sea, they began to fear the Lord, & believe his servant Moses. They saw that God could serve them, as he had served their pursuers, that all power is his own, that vengeance and protection, are in every place at his pleasure. So these mariners had experience, how grievous in God's sight iniquity was, even in them who did peculiarly belong unto him: how he could follow one to the sea: deprehend him with a tempest: discover him with a lot: and would not rest, till his life had made amends for his folly. How must their heart needs quake? how must their conscience tremble, to think on their own transgressions? their commissions and omissions, the number whereof was great, the hugeness whereof was horrible? Luc 23.31. If it were thus with the green wood, how should it be with the dry? If an Israelite had such measure measured unto him, how should a Gentile escape? If a Prophet were so punished, how should such a profane man as all they were, bear that burden? Signs and wonders and strange punishments, are of force and power, to make men look backward into their own souls, and make application to their own consciences. 14 In which respect, the dullness of our age is much to be deplored. We behold as in a glass, the almighty power of God's justice. We read it, and hear it read out of the book of the Lord, which to those who are faithful, is as present, as if their very eyes did behold it. For where faith maketh a doubt, there the sense is never satisfied; and those will not believe, no not if one should come from the dead, Luk. 16.31. who have Moses & the Prophets, and give no credit to them. The case was tried in the jews of Chorazin and Bethsaida, Matth. 11.21 who saw many of Christ's miracles, and yet remained unbelievers. Out of the holy Scriptures we have heard of strange examples, of God's punishment toward sin, Genes. 7.21. Cap. 19.24. Numer. 21.6 Leuit. 10.2. 2. Sam. 6.7. a whole world drowned for security: cities more than one, for their lust's sake, consumed with fire and brimstone from heaven: the Israelites stung with serpents, for their murmuring in the wilderness. Nadab and Abihu blasted to death, for offering with strange fire. Vzzah stricken that he died, for touching of the Ark, jonah. 1.15. which did not belong unto him. jonas drowned for refusing, to go and denounce God's judgements: a whole land cursed in the prophecy of Malachi, Malach. 3.8.9. for sacrilege, and detaining the portion of the Levite. These things are written for our example: for us I say, on whom the ends of the world are come. 15 These and the like things, are often sounded into our ears: but do we learn thereby to fear the Lord exceedingly? do we apply this plaster, by remembrance of our own ways, that in such or such a deed, I and I have sinned more than these; I transgressed in wilfulness, with such a provocation, and with such a one in infirmity. I were best to withdraw my foot, from doubling of such lewd crimes. I may press upon God too far, and overlay his patience, with mine encroaching boldness. Who is he that maketh such use, of the fearful and terrible works of God? Who taketh these things to heart? The deed declareth the mind, as the fruit maketh the tree known. Doth the wanton leave his wantonness, and the adulterer hate his lust? Doth the swearer of our age, remember that his blasphemies are written up in a book, and sealed until the day of vengeance? Doth jonas go to Ninive, and rebuke the great and small, with that spirit wherewith he should? No: but either we will say nothing, like men who cannot speak; and so leaving it to younger persons, we ourselves grow to a desuetude, which afterward we peradventure would be willing to leave and cannot: or if we speak at all, it is but a bare and cold narration, neither aiming to teach for faith, nor to inform for manners. We do not cut at the root of sin: we seek not to warm the conscience. Where is our fear of the Lord? our reverence to his sanctity? our submission to his majesty? Yet well fare these silly mariners: one example could work with them, to move them exceedingly for the time, and to cause them to sacrifice to the Lord. 16 In opening of which words, and by a consequent of this whole verse, I must profess unto you, that here I find among the interpreters, more difference in opinions, then in any thing yet in this Prophecy of jonas. The text saith, that they offered sacrifice, Gualther. in hunc locum. but what or where, it speaketh not. Some think not at Jerusalem, the place then only appointed for sacrifice to the true God: but wheresoever they first landed. Arias Montanus thinketh that they offered it at Jerusalem, Ar. Montanus in hunc locum. Act. 8.27. which thing was sometimes done by the Gentiles, as by the Chamberlain to Candace the Queen of Aethiopia. The Chaldee Paraphrase hath, that they said they would offer sacrifice. Hierome thinketh that what they did, Hieron in hunc locum. was at sea and not at land. They made such spiritual sacrifice, as the inner man could afford: thanks giving, and supplication, and repentance and such like. Osee. 14.3. Psal. 51.17. The Prophet Osee doth call these the calves of our lips. And David he speaketh of them saying, the sacrifice of God is a troubled spirit. Howsoever it is not much to the history, whether it were the one or the other. The holy Ghost doth let us know, that the motive which they saw in this action, was so mighty, that it wrong from them a remorse, and so possessed them for the time, that compunction and devotion was within them, and without them, & as men thoroughly mortified, they refused to do nothing, which was any way religious. They either fell to their prayers, which is a spiritual sacrifice, or offered something else, when they came to the land, or at least they professed that they would do it. But it is a case without controversy, that they made vows to the Lord. A thing common among mariners, and passengers at the sea, when they fear any shipwreck. If they can over-stand that journey, and escape well from that danger, they will fast, or give alms, or dedicate some great thing to the Lord. They spare not to speak in the fit, although they never mean it. Yea and it may be, that in the extremity they resolve to perform their vow, but the danger being once past and gone, if they should be urged to accomplish it, they would think themselves as ill used, as those two were by Caligula; Dion. Hist. lib. 59 of whom Dion reporteth, that when the said Caligula was sick, they thinking to get much money, as a reward for their great love to the Emperor, vowed that on condition he might live, they themselves would die to excuse him. When indeed he was recovered afterward, he took them at their word, and put them to death, lest they should break their vow, and prove perjured persons. Of likelihood, these thought themselves to be used but unkindly, and so would these vowing shipmen, if they should be forced to performance. But he that will see more of this, let him read Erasmus his Dialogue, which he calleth by the title of Naufragium. Erasmus in Colloquio. What the Scripture thinketh of vows, and what our Church maintaineth, which is a better argument, to be handled against our Popish Votaries, I may touch hereafter, when I come to the ninth verse of the second Chapter. For at this time my meaning is to discourse another matter. 17 It is a great controversy, whether this exceeding fear, do intent a true conversion from Gentilism to the Lord, from idolatry to true piety; and in this also, the best Expositors do very much dissent. Some think them to be become earnest Proselytes, Ar. Montan. and men turned to the jewish faith: that their fear was sincere from the heart, and perseverant in them unto the end, and that their sacrifices were accepted, and all this so much the rather, because the text doth say, that they feared the Lord jehovah: calvinus. not an idol, but the true God. Some other put a condition, that if the heart were justified with a purifying faith, than their vows and sacrifices, were acceptable and pleasing to the Lord. If otherwise, than it was but a vizard, put on for a little time, Danaeus. and so thrown off afterward. A third sort are of opinion, that their repentance was only temporary, like the seed which is mentioned in the parable of Christ, Matth. 13.5. to be sown on the stony ground, which took root for a little time, and afterward did wither away. I do approve this last sentence, thinking that although they feared, and took upon them some religion, yet this was not sufficient to apprehend true grace: for they had not heard by the Prophet, of the Messias Christ, in whom is all remission and washing away of sin. Act. 4.12. Only the wrath of God in punishing, is made known unto them, which is enough to put the unbeliever, into a trembling fear, as we know that Felix did quake, Cap. 24.26. to hear Saint Paul speak of righteousness, of temperance, and of the judgement to come: and yet Felix was an hypocrite. Neither is this opinion crossed by that, where it is said that they feared jehovah, for the reprobates do quake at the true God, with a kind of servility, as the devils of hell do likewise. The awe wherein Pharaoh stood, jacob. 2.19. 1. Reg. 21.27. when he let the people go, was to the God of Moses. Ahab hearing the threatening of Elias, did humble himself to the Lord, but it was not with due continuance. Dan. 3.32. The fear of the God of Sidrach, of Misach and Abednego, was fallen on Nabuchodonosor, when beholding the deliverance of those three children, out of the fiery furnace, he gave forth a proclamation for the service of their Lord. And yet it is not to be doubted, but these men were reprobates. 18 These sea-people in like sort, might well think of the Lord, and yet not leave their idolatry. The people placed in Samaria, 2. Reg. 17. 3●. were by the Lions which destroyed them, enforced to serve the Lord: yea the text doth say that they did fear him: but they worshipped their idols also, and so it had been as good not at all, Tertullian. in Apologet. as to be never the nearer to him. The Romans would have had Christ, to be in the number of their Gods, placed in their Pantheon: but they cannot away to leave their old Gods, whom they had before. Such halfe-seruice could not profit these mariners in this place. This was an insufficient comprehension of the Lord, without sound application in particular, by a true faith, which teacheth, that God alone is to be adored by his creatures, and that with a single heart, and an understanding knowledge, and perseverance unto the end. Which because the wicked do want, howsoever upon occasions of afflictions, and strange wonders, they seem humbled for the time, yet afterward with the dog they return to their vomit, 2. Pet. 2.22. and with the sow which was washed, to their wallowing in the mire. And this recidivation is more dangerous than the sickness: this relapse than the first fall. For those to whom this happeneth, are they whom Jude calleth trees twice dead and rotten, jud. 12. and good for nothing else, but to be plucked up by the roots. The knowledge which such men have, doth make against themselves: their thoughts against themselves: the motions of their own mind, when they have thought upon goodness, shall witness hardly against them. 19 We do here-out learn two lessons. First that hypocrites and dissemblers (besides their internal motions, which they have oft times to goodness) in outward and external points of religion, can go as far as the faithful, or the best child of God: as these here can offer sacrifice, and make vows to the lord Act. 8.13. Matth. 26.25. Cap. 22.15. Luc. 18.12. So Simon Magus will be baptized, and judas come to the supper, and heretics can preach Christ, and Herodians hear his word, and Pharisees pay their tith, and Jesuits fast and pray, so that ceremonies and the show which is outward, do not ever import verity of religion. 2. Cor. 11 14. Matth. 7.15.21.23. Satan transformeth himself into an Angel of light. Wolves come forth in sheeps clothing: There be that cry Lord, Lord, and yet Christ doth not know them. Whereupon that speech is true, that we may more easily know who is an ungodly man, than who is truly godly. For hypocrisy may with a shadow, make a disguised show of the one, but foul and wicked deeds will necessarily discover the other. Where an irreligious life is lead, and gross sins are committed, it is an evident proof, that the true fear of God, is not yet resident in that person. Therefore it concerneth us to be wary, that we lean not on any one, but as he leaneth on Christ: for as we must take heed, that we judge not other men, in particular without charity, so we must hold this in general, that all is not gold that glistereth. 20 A second lesson is, that we all look to ourselves, that we satisfy not our souls, with any external action, neither that we apprehend grace, by fits or feags, as we are urged by any present thing, that hangeth on us: but that we labour evermore, to retain the good which is offered to us; that we quench not the Spirit of God, but stir it up in ourselves. It is a thing violent to our nature, to have a mind unto holiness, we sail as if it were against the stream. As then in a violent water, if the boate-men slack a few strokes, in a moment he is carried more downward, then in a good time before he hath gained by his labour; so we must know, that in losing the hold which we have of God's Spirit, we may lose more in one year, nay perhaps more in one hour, than we have gained in many. It is not enough to weep, when we feel the rod upon us, to pray when we are in sickness: to cry when we are in danger: but in welfare and prosperity, God must be thought upon, Bernard. de 2. discipulis euntibus ad Emaus. Cuius oculi sunt sicut piscinae Hesbon prae multitudine lachrymarum. Hora compunctionis transacta ita superbus est sicut ante. as well as in adversity. We must not hold our duty to be then discharged to the full, when in a moment of some great matter, we fear the Lord exceedingly, and sacrifice and vow, and do all that we can devise, and strait way prove like a fever, have a cold bout for a heat and so fall away from grace, but we must follow that vein, and pursue it to the end. 21 Saint Bernard in his time, found men rebukeable for this error. For writing of the two Disciples, which went unto Emaus, he speaketh fitly to this purpose: You shall sometimes see a man very devout in his prayers, whose eyes will seem to stand like the pools of Hesbon, for the multitude of his tears, and yet this man refuseth to bear the yoke of obedience. He bewaileth his pride, while he is at his prayers, but the hour of compunction being once past and gone, he is as proud as before. I would that ourage were free from this unstaid repentance. But I fear that it is otherwise. When we sit and hear a Sermon, a word or two well set on, doth bruise us much for a moment. Upon solemn days, as at our anniversary thanksgiving, for the love of God, so far extended to us, in the enjoying of her Majesty, or upon other the like occasions, our hearts and eyes and all, shall testify our great feeling. So when we come to the Sacrament, we are very repentant persons; but is it not true of us, that like unto the bull rush we hang down our heads for a day: that drinking with the serpent, Isay. 58.5. we resume again our poison of malice and perverseness. When we are in the Church, we intent to leave our bribe-taking: but with the Church we forget it: when our night-thoughts have well troubled us, we vow to leave our uncharitableness, and to pluck up the root of bitterness; but rising we return unto our ancient evil. In the fields we can protest, against our own oppression, our slandering and reviling, but when we come home, we yield ourselves unto the tempting Angel. This is to dally with God, and to heap wrath on ourselves. The most wicked men and idolaters, as jonas his fellows here, can think on goodness for a little, and fear the Lord exceedingly, and yet not be the better for it. Sincerity and simplicity, and perseverance and performance, beseem the child of God. I have troubled you over long. Lord every us so with thy spirit, that as we have begun, so we may end in thee, that thy true fear still possessing us, we may be brought to thy kingdom, there to reign by the merit of thy Son, to whom with thee and thy Spirit be laud and praise for ever. THE IX. LECTURE. The chief points. 1. All creatures are at God's beck: 3. either to punish the wicked, 4. or to preserve the good. 6. Of the greatness of fishes. 8. That jonas might live in the belly of the whale. 12. How the three days and three nights are to be taken in the lying of Christ in the grave. 13. Christ rose again. 14. And so shall all other men. 16. Some deny the Resurrection. 17. Reasons and examples proving it. 21. That we should prepare ourselves against the time of Resurrection. jonah. 1.17. Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up jonah: and jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. BY this time you may see a very great difference of the several estates, This Sermon was preached at Easter. wherein our Prophet hath been: for first he was at land, and there he could not keep him: afterward he was on shipboard, and there he might not keep him: but now he is in the sea, in the belly of a fish, and there he shall not choose but keep him, until that himself be most weary of it. God hath a certain fish in a readiness for to receive him, which for the space of one three days must lodge him. In discoursing whereof, I think it not necessary to dispute that question, Ribera in hunc locum. which hath been moved in this argument by very learned men, that is, whether that the preparing of this fish for the Prophet, were the new creating of that which was not before; which must intend, that at the same instant of time, a creature of purpose should be made, to swallow him and devour him. There needed no such matter: for there were in the sea fishes enough to serve the turn, and the Lord had one of those at hand, to fulfil his designment. Much rather the power of the Creator is here to be noted, whose authority over his creatures is such and so absolute, that in a moment of time he hath them very readily attending, wheresoever he pleaseth. It is he who alone may say, job. 41.2. Psal. 115.3. as he doth speak in job, All under heaven is mine. The people say of him truly, Our God is in heaven: he doth whatsoever he will. There is not any creature in the heaven, or earth, or sea, be it body, or be it spirit, which is not at his devotion and waiteth not at his beck. The greatest do him homage, the smallest do him service. For he is greater than the mightiest, by whole millions of degrees: and his over-seeing providence taketh knowledge of the meanest. Matth. 10.29. Not a sparrow which lighteth on the ground; not an hair which falleth from the head, but he is interested in it. 2 What is greater than the heaven? yet if josuah pray unto him, josuah. 10.12. for one whole day this ever-wheeling body shall cease his swift diurnal motion. The Sun shall stand still in Gibeon, and the Moon in the vale of Aialon. That which cometh forth as a Giant, Psal. 19.5. and rejoiceth to run his course, yet to satisfy Ezechias, and to confirm his faith, shall fly back as a coward for ten degrees at once, 2. Reg. 20.11. as than it appeared by the dial of Ahaz. What is ruder, or more unfit to be dealt with, than the earth? Yet at his pleasure he shaketh both earth and sea. Agg. 2.7. What is more excellent, or of a more pure and single nature than the Angels? Yet he hath bound up four of them in the river Euphrates: Apoc. 9 14. and although they be prepared at an hour, and at a day, and at a month, & at a year, to slay the third part of men, yet these Angels cannot stir, until that they be loosed by his precise commandment. And such is his sovereign 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, Ester. 3.15. whom Haman sometimes used, nor the dromedaries of Egypt, nor the swift runners of other nations, to go from place to place, and give 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 up some thing else which shall declare his meaning. God sendeth forth his commandment: and his word runneth very swiftly. Psal 147.15. The day is his and the night, the open place and the secret: fish and birds, and beasts and all: the very wings of the wind to carry his precept on them. unconceivable is his Majesty, unestimable is his power: the highest things and the lowest, the greatest and the weakest, are ever at his commandment: Apoc. 1.18. he hath the keys of heaven; nay of hell and of death. This his power so uncontrollable, most eminently appeareth in punishing the wicked, and preserving his own children. 3 Ammianus Marcellinus reporteth, Ammianus Marcellinus lib. 18. that in Mesopotamia among the reeds and bushes growing near to the river Euphrates, are evermore great store of Lions, which use to remain there, being much delighted with the great calmness and pleasure of that climate. The danger arising from these, both unto men and beasts, would be perpetual, but that God hath provided a remedy to slack the fury of them; and that is in admirable manner. There are always in that coast infinite swarms 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 eyelids, they do so prick and sting them, that the raging Lions are forced to scratch with their nails, as if they would remove the gnats; but indeed they claw out their own eyes, so that many of them by this means growing blind, do drown themselves in the great rivers, or otherwise become less terrible. This is an argument of God's wisdom, who delighteth in such variety of these inferior bodies. And yet withal, it is an argument of his puissance, who by so weak a matter can overthrow such a great one: a Lion by a gnat: and hath those little ones so attendant, as that every man may see that they are prepared by their maker, to overrule the other; to chase them and pursue them, and vex them unto destruction. The tyrants of the earth are ●earefull unto the poor, as the Lion is to the lamb. Their might giveth them ability, and their mind doth yield them will to tread down their inferiors. Now for the punishment of these bitter ones, God hath prepared as small things as the gnats, to master them in their fury. Let Pharaoh be one man, and Herod be another who shall demonstrate this. The violence of the former and his cruel oppression toward the sons of God, was insolent and outrageous. But how doth the grand ruler of the heaven trample upon him, and make him cry peccavi, with the basest of those bodies which mankind ever seeth? Exod. 8.6. The hand of his servant Aaron was but stretched out on the waters, and frogs came in such store, as made him loathe himself, and every thing about him. 24. So the swarms of flies did force him to be humbled for a time. Exod. 10.13. What hosts were there of grasshoppers, and of devouring caterpillars, which came forth at one call, as if they had been reserved before by the Lord, to show his mighty hand, and his power which is not limited? Nay to testify Gods own finger, Cap. 8.17. there was an army of louse, than whom nothing is more vile; yet prepared they were at an instant, to plague where the Lord commanded. Act. 12.23. The other, that proud Herod who upon a glozing flattering speech of the people, assumed to himself that glory, which of right appertained to his maker, was stricken with God's Angel, and so died consumed with worms. In such manner hath the Almighty every creature for his messenger, and executing servant, close standing at his elbow, to vex and plague, and torture the enemies of his Majesty, or the oppugners of his glory. 4 And is he strong to hurt, and is he not so to help? To defend and to offend, are they not alike unto him? protection and correction? His sweet mercy triumpheth over his bitter justice: and his power attendeth his mercy, and the world attendeth his power, and so doth every thing which is in it. In the twelfth of the Revelation this is well shadowed to us. Apoc. 12 13. The woman which is the Church here militant upon earth, is followed hard by the Dragon: there are found two eagles wings, by the which she doth escape. Behold, there is one deliverance, and one not looked for remedy. The Dragon yet doth not leave her, but since he cannot come, he thinketh to send home after her: he casteth out of his mouth a water like to a river, thinking thereby to drown her. See another help in a moment. The earth openeth herself, and swalloweth up that water which the Dragon had cast forth. To the same effect with this parable or vision, were the Israelites rescued by the red sea, Exod. 14.22. the waters flying a sunder, and yielding them dry footing, as if it had been on the land, when they were so pursued and made after, by the chariots and horsemen of the Egyptians. How fitly unto my purpose, was the daughter of king Pharaoh brought forth, Exod. 2.5. and put in mind to pity poor drowning Moses? How was the jaw-bone of the ass made ready, judic. 15.15.19. to be as a sword for Samson, wherewith he slew so many Philistines? and how was one of the teeth thereof prepared, to yield him drink 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 extremity, as if it were made only for that purpose. There be few, which have lived many years, and in Christian meditation contemplated in themselves on the kindness of their God, who know not this over and over. Such comforts and such stays arising by such means, as themselves could not conceive of, until they see things done. Oh the love of God inestimable, oh his strange ways for our good. The wicked on the one side may fear his hand, who can raise such means to perplex them: and the faithful on the other side may embrace his mercy, who hath such helps at need: and both of them may stand amazed, and wonder at his power, who hath his instruments evermore so ready. 5 I know not whether in our Prophet, is more to be respected, God's punishment or his protection. If we think upon his drowning, he doth favour him, since he had at hand a great fish to receive him, so that he did not perish. If we think of the time and place, where he lay, and how long, that is, in the dungeon of that fishes belly, for three days and three nights, it doth double and often multiply Gods angry wrath upon him. The event doth give this testimony, that since jonas (howsoever at the first he fell) was appointed, and predestinated to good and not to evil, his deliverance was as ready, as his chastisement was for him: one hand to cast him down, another to help him up: when the ship might not any longer contain him, the fishes belly was in steed of a sea-vessell, to bring him on toward Ninive. But in the mean while his lying was such, in so many dreads and horrors, and anguishs for his life, nay for doubt of the life eternal, (because wrath was upon him, which endangered his best part, even his inward man and his soul) that many deaths had been easier than a languishing in that prison, where now he had his best repose. So sour a thing is sin, and disobedience to the Lord. It may be sweet in the mouth, but it is bitter in the belly, like a cup of deadly poison. Certainly it is a daughter of those Locusts, Apoc. 9.7.10. which have faces fair as men, but killing stings in their tails. It is pleasure with too much pain: sweet meat with too sharp sauce. And therefore it may well be likened to that herb Sardonia in Sardinia, Solinus cap. 10. of the which Solinus writeth, that it maketh the eaters thereof, to look as if they laughed, but in their laughing they die. Thus jonas is preserved; but to testify God's displeasure, in the means of his preservation he endureth full many sorrows. Let us 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 kind, or species this fish was. Our Saviour Christ doth briefly touch this story, Matth 12.40. and there the Evangelist in the Greek, doth use the word Ketoes, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. which although sometimes (like to the Latin Cete) it be applied to diverse 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 evermore so Englished in that text. A fish which in diverse seas, is of several shapes and fashions, as in the Indian ocean, in the red sea near Arabia, in the Northern waters toward Island, and in our English ocean: but every where very huge, and every where very mighty. And so this had need to be, who had so wide a mouth, as to receive the Prophet: who had so large a throat, as to swallow him and not hurt him: who had so vast a paunch, as to lodge him there and not stifle him. A matter to some men incredible, that among all living creatures should be any so capacious; but so undoubtedly a known truth, to men that live near the sea, or that have traveled much by ship; and a verity so confirmed, so consented upon by all, who have read the writers either old or new upon that argument, that he were a man much absurd, who would make question of it. They all agree that at sea there are fishes, far exceeding the greatest beast on land. And thereof particularly Olaus Magnus' doth assign these reasons, Olaus Magnus. lib. 21.8. the abundance of the moisture which is fit to dilate and increase any living creature, and the very great depth, where is both store of food, and safe means to escape such other fishes, as are ready to hurt them. They farther add, that the Elephant is but little, when he is compared with these watermonsters. That the bellies and mouths, and throats of some fishes are so spacious, that a man may well be received in by them. Gulielmus Rondeletius who hath taken great pains, in displaying the proportions and qualities of fishes, as appeareth in that excellent work of Gesner De Aquatilibus (for those two are oft joined together) reporteth of a little small fish (in comparison of a whale) which he calleth by the name of Lamia, Gesnerus lib. 4. de Aquatilibus. that in the Mediterrane sea, some of those have oftentimes been found, having a whole man swallowed into each of their bellies. Yea he telleth that near unto Marseilles, an ancient city o● France, there have been found of them, which have had within them virum loricatum, a man in some kind of armour. So huge-bellied is this fish, which cometh not near to the great ones. 7 But for the whale itself, if any list to read of the bigness of it, Plinius. lib 9.3. Natural. Histor. lib. 32.1. and should esteem that too much, Pliny speaketh positively, that in the Indian seas there are some of two hundred cubits in length: and the same Pliny out of the books of juba, that in the seas near Arabia, have been seen some of four hundred cubits (for so much is six hundred feet) which also Munster delivereth to us, Munster. Cosmograp. lib. 5. Dion. lib. 54. in the fifth of his Cosmography; then let him hear what Dion a good Historien, doth lay down of certainty in his fifty and fourth book, and that is, that in the days of Augustus sometimes Emperor of Rome, a whale leapt to the land, out of the German Ocean, full twenty foot in breadth, and threescore foot in length. This was so big a body, as might well receive the Prophet. Gesner. lib. 4. But add to this what I find in Gesner, taken out of an Epistle, which was written to Polydore Virgil, and is avouched there as most true, that in the year of our Lord 1532, in the Northern coasts of our own land, not far from Tinmouth haven, was a mighty whale cast on land, who was ninety foot in length, which ariseth to thirty English yards. The very breadth of his mouth, was six yards and a half, and the belly so vast in compass, that one standing on the fish, of purpose to cut a rib off from him, and slipping into his belly, was very likely there to be drowned, with the moisture then remaining. The hollowness of this paunch, might contain much more than jonas; such a mouth might well receive him, and such a throat might well swallow him. The stories and the Chronicles of our own land let us know, that quantities like to these, among fishes are not to be held for miracles. This question concerning our Prophet lying in the belly of the whale, Augustin Epistola. 49. was once proposed to Saint Austen. In answer whereunto, he maketh no doubt, but that a whale is great enough, to receive a far bigger matter into his belly. He appealeth unto certain ribs, which at Carthage were hanged up, for every man to behold: and from the compass of their hugeness, which were taken from a whale, he biddeth them imagine, how mighty that mouth was, which was but as a door or gate, to that cave or vile dungeon, intending the fishes belly. But he concludeth it to be neither impossible, nor yet unlikely, that a whale might swallow jonas. If any should be desirous, to hear or see more concerning this matter, let him read in job, job. 40. &. 41. God's own testimony of Leviathan, which intendeth the great whale. 8 But there is another and that a greater difficulty, in that place proposed to Austen, by the means of a pagan person: how the Prophet could be able, for the space of three days and three nights, to endure the concocting vapour, & strong heat of that belly, which digesteth and resolveth some substances of strong quality. The infidels of that time, did hold this to be very ridiculous, and as fabulous a thing as might be: and he that wrote to Saint Austen, seemeth to make doubt of this matter, although otherwise he were a Christian. Epistol. 49. The learned father making answer, doth not labour to satisfy the scoffs and scorns of any Pagans, because they do contemn the Scriptures, and all grounds of Christianity, and do call into question not only this, but many other matters. Yet he saith, that they would have believed this, which they judge so strange in our Prophet jonas, Vide Apuleium de Asino aureo. Et Philostrat. de vita Apollon. if it had been reported by their own fond Apuleius, or Apollonius Tyaneus, two notable Magicians. But he speaketh home, unto those who profess the name of Christ jesus. Why should they, who do believe other miracles of God's book, make scruple of this matter? It is not so that one part of the Scripture is true, and another otherwise; but all is of undoubted verity. Could the belly of the whale be hotter to the Prophet, than the fiery furnace was to the three children in Daniel? Daniel. 3.25. God saved them in the one, and he saved him in the other. Is it more to bring a living man, after three days from a fish, than it was to raise a dead man, after four days from his grave? Yet we believe that this was done to Lazarus. johan. 11.44. In like sort Christ jesus being dead for so long time, as jonas lay in this fish, did come alive from his sepulchre, which miracle saith Saint Austen, we should not believe, if the faith of the Christians, did fear the scorns and taunts of the Pagans. For we know that they do deride that. Thus Saint Austen doth resolve it, acknowledging it to be a miracle, wrought by the hand of the Almighty. Saint Hierome in his Commentary, which he wrote on the Prophet jonas, Hieronym. in jonae. 1. doth jump in the self same judgement. Those who make question here, saith he, are either faithful, or infidels, Christians or unbelievers. If Christians, than the truth of that word which is inspired by God, must prevail here, as well as elsewhere, and this by faith must be embraced, as much as other things which are written. If infidels, than no marvel, for they deny both the Old and New Testament. Yet they would believe any fable in Ovid's Metamorphosis, Ovid Metamorphos. lib. 1. as that Daphne was turned into a bay-tree, or some other thing of that forging. So he resteth himself, on the power of God all-disposing. 9 These answers may suffice, for all those who fear God in our time; that he who out of nothing, did make the heaven and the earth, and the armies of them both, and spread the one in circumference, Genes. 1.1. and laid fast the other as the centre, which hangeth upon nothing: Cap. 7.17. Daniel. 6.22. 2. Reg. 13.21. who drowned the whole world with water: who in the midst of the Lions, preserved his servant Daniel: who by the bones of Elizaeus, restored a dead man to life: Act. 5.15. who granted to the Apostles, that their shadows healed many, Cap. 19.12. and so did clothes brought from their bodies; could as easily, and with as ready a facility, maintain one longer, or less while, within a fishes belly. For grant him to be Almighty; lay that once down for a ground, and every thing will follow, which he shall be pleased to will. This is the faith of the Christians: this belongeth to all God's children. But the Atheists of our age, who are risen out of the ashes of Libanius the great Sophister, or of that scorning Porphiry, or of that derider Lucian, or of julian the Apostata, do insult over this position, of the omnipotency of God, with impiety more than monstrous. They jest at the name of faith, as a toy made to delude men: and Reason only must carry it. This may lively be notified, by that one of their Axioms, which I once did find written, in the beginning of a new Testament, Ratio suadet, O vox impia. fides fallit: Credere quam fidere prudens mallet. Almightiness they approve not, and miracles they allow not, and holy writ they regard not. But bring reason or experience, from the bowels of very nature, and then we go with you while you will. And who is he that by these shall be ever able to justify, first that a fish could live for three days and three nights, with such a one in his belly, with his clothes and apparel on (for that must be imagined) and this fish should neither be choked with his carriage, nor killed with the moving, and tumbling of him within; and secondly that for so long a time, a man living and not hurt, should be lodged in such a prison. For how could he endure the vapour of a stomach so hote-boyling? Where should he have breath to feed him, and air to live upon? Thus with an audacious forehead, they call him to a reason, who doth things beyond reason, and will not tie himself to that sifting and that scanning, which the thinness, and the baseness of man's wit can afford him. He showeth this very plainly, Isay. 7.14. when he will have a virgin to become a mother, a son without man's seed, mortal and yet immortal, a creator and yet a creature, most infinite and yet finite, ever living and yet once dying. 10 Notwithstanding even for this purpose, in his wisdom he doth not leave himself without a witness: for as impossible things as these, are done every day amongst us. This perhaps may seem a paradox, and not to be believed: but I say it again, as impossible things as this is, are done every day amongst us: but that our custom is to contemn, and pass by the strangest matter, if it once grow common among us; yea when it is so strange, that our understanding is able to yield no reason of it. Such actions do move us most, which are most rare, and fewest times do fall out. It is no marvel to see the Sun, and the stars in their daily order, because daily we may do it, but to see a new star appearing, as not long since there was one in the sign Cassiopaea, Anno. 1572. is a matter to move amazedness: whereas any other star might raise as much admiration, if we would but call to mind, that it had been new in the creation, although in these days it be old. Hear Seneca speaking to this: Seneca Naturalium question. lib. 7.1. Sol spectatorem nisi cum deficit non habet. Nemo observat Lunam nisil aborantem. Adeò naturale est magis nova quam magna mirari. Athen. Dipnosophist. lib. 8.7. The whole company of those stars wherewith the beauty of the huge heaven is distinguished, never calleth people together to gaze upon them. But when any thing is changed from ordinary, than every man's eyes be on heaven. The Sun hath not any to look at him, unless he be in the Eclipse. No man marketh the Moon, but when she hath lost her light. He concludeth: So natural it is to us rather to wonder at new things, then at great things. To speak then to these disputers: I will not say of them, as I find in Athenaeus, that Stratonicus a mad fellow said of Satyrus a bad Sophister, that he reputed it for a miracle, how his mother should ever be able to bear him in her womb, for ten whole months together, whom no City could bear, that is, endure but ten whole days together: so bad was he and untoward. I will take that pro concesso, that they were borne of their mothers, yea perhaps of virtuous mothers; who love God with their soul, and tremble at his judgements; and withal, do much grieve to see their children to degenerate, in such sort from their mothers, or rather from their maker. Yet this I may add concerning them, that so far they are like that Sophister, that if they had their demerits, no reformed place, or City, no Christian commonwealth, should bear them and retain them, who are monsters and not men, being of impudent hearts and faces. 11 Let that then be agreed between us (because it cannot be denied) that they were borne of their mothers, and after the course of common children. Then they cannot utterly be ignorant what belongeth to a little infant. It abideth for some whole months together, in the womb of the mother, unformed and unperfect, Luc. 1.41. but yet a living creature. When Mary came to Elizabeth, that child which was afterward john the Baptist, is said to spring in her womb. This example and common experience which cannot be denied, doth argue life to be in the little ones. Now then tell me thou wicked Atheist, how can this be maintained? If there be no breath, how a life? If breath, whence doth he draw it? Thou art taken in thine own net: the scruples of this question, cannot be resolved by thee. Thou art proud in thine own conceit, and presumest much of thy wit; but yet in the knowledge of natural effects, thou art much inferior unto David, as thou must needs confess, if thou wilt read his Psalms advisedly. But he can say for himself, in discoursing of his own generation, Psal. 139.14. that fearfully and wonderfully he was created by God, and that there were miracles in his making. Nay having before protested, 5.6. that God's knowledge was too wonderful, and excellent for him, and that he could not attain unto it, 13. he exemplifieth that skill of the Lord, in the curious frame of himself in his mother's womb. Pardon me thou proud disputer, if I think that thy wit doth come much short of the Prophet. If then thou wilt not be wilful, thou must answer for the infant, that it is done which hath been spoken off, but the manner how thou knowest not. Confess God's finger there, and confess God's finger here; who can do that to a man, which he doth so oft to children, who can do that by sea, which he doth so oft at land; who can do that in a fish, which he doth in every mother; who can do that in one age, which he doth every day. This is his power but for once only, the other is his power always. Then reason no farther reasons, but set open the door of faith give assent to the word of life, and strive not against thy maker. Act. 9.5. Thou dost kick against the prick: thou impugnest him, against whom thou never shalt prevail. Not the least jot of God's book, can ever be tainted by thee: the Author is unstainable, untouchable, uncontrollable. That is indeed peculiar unto him, and proper to his word, which one falsely fathereth upon Virgil, Macrob. Saturnal. 124. Haec est Maronis gloria, ut nullius laudibus crescat, nullius vituperatione minuatur. that the praise of no man doth add unto him; nor the dispraise of any man doth take from him. Since than we have the warrant of this writer, let us rest ourselves on this, that our Prophet was three days and three nights alive, shut up in a fishes belly. 12 The precise account of which time, (being nothing else but a figure, of the lying of Christ jesus, in the bowels of the earth, and being appointed for that cause, (as Gods own Son doth witness) doth move me to suppose, that those days & nights, wherein our Prophet was shut up in the whale, were not entirely completed thrice four and twenty hours. Matth. 12.40 For if it were otherwise in Christ who was the body, than very likely that it was otherwise in him who was but the shadow: that the sign and the thing signified, the figure and the truth, might have a due proportion. But the lying of Christ in the grave, concerning the circumstance of three days, was in some measure Tropical, and not to be taken literally: for by the figure Synecdoche, part of the day is reckoned for the whole: and because the light and the darkness, for four and twenty hours, make but one natural day, part of the day shall enclose the night which was gone before, so that a piece of the artificial day, shall be accounted for a day natural. To make this the more evident: the jews did account their day to begin at the Sun setting, which is to be understood, of one of their natural days; but their day artificial, was commonly reputed to begin at six of the clock in the morning, especially about the time of the Aequinoctium, when it is apparent that our Saviour did suffer. Christ then died at the ninth hour, Matth. 27.46. that is at three of the clock after noon, on a friday as we call it; and before that the evening was in, on the day of the Preparation, which was that self same Friday his body was laid in grave. That little time before evening, Synecdoches una species est, cum pars pro toto capitur. is by the figure Synecdoche, (which taketh a part for the whole) reputed for a whole day and a night, that is, the day and night before going. The night then which did follow the setting of the Sun, and the day which was their Easter, (but by us is called Saturday) is reckoned for the second. And indeed this was complete, both for the day and the night. Then followeth the next night, Matth. 28.1. Marc. 16.1. wherein jesus arose very early in the morning, at or before the dawning of the day, and the opening of the light, and this is to be numbered for the third both day and night, the part taken for the whole by the figure as before. This kind of computation, as with ease it may be gathered from the narration of the Evangelists, Augustin. Epist. 49. Beza in joh. 18. so Saint Austen doth approve it, and the late Divines so accept it. And it should not seem strange, since in other things we do use it. The Physicians call that fever, a Tertian or third Ague, which skippeth but one day only. The Terms of our University are reckoned in that manner. The last day of a Term is reputed for a Term, and the first day of another is taken for another Term; so that according to our use in some cases, one Term and two days are taken for three Terms. Thus was Christ in his grave, by the space of three days and three nights, either in part or in whole; like to which it is very probable, that the staying of the Prophet in the whale, was abridged and abbreviated, for some part of the time, that there might be a full resemblance between the one and the other, the servant and the master. But herein I will not be contentious. Concerning the Resurrection. 13 But to say no more thereof, the main note from this place requireth full understanding, because there is hence deduced a mystery of our faith, I mean the Resurrection, which Christ jesus himself expoundeth, to be here very lively signified. Matth. 12.40 jonas was in the fishes belly, for three days & there nights: so shall the Son of man be for that time in the grave. It must follow thereupon by a necessary consequent: But as jonas was then delivered, so shall the Son of man than come forth, with a sensible resurrection. Christ foretold that he would do this, Do you destroy this temple, joh. 2.19. intending thereby his body, and in three days I will raise it, and set it up again. This was also foretold by David, Psal. 16.11. Act. 2.31. although in the person of our Saviour: Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, nor suffer thy holy one to see corruption, which text Saint Peter citeth, to avouch Christ's resurrection. That he did rise again, the Evangelists all do cry: the Apostles all do confirm it. How plentiful is Saint Paul in discoursing this argument, 1. Cor. 15.5. that he did appear oftentimes, one while but to a few, another while to the Twelve, but afterward to more than five hundred brethrens at once? By the virtue of his Godhead, Christ had a sovereign power to lose himself from death: it was a thing unpossible that he should be holden of it. Act. 2.24. If his life had been taken from him unwillingly, and by violence, then very likely it is, that the self same violence might have still detained him prisoner. joh. 19.30. But his dying was voluntary: he yielded up the Ghost, and being contented to put himself amidst those anguishes and horrors, he abode there at his pleasure, on the cross and in the grave; and from death he returned with the self same pleasure, as having conquered all, and triumphing in great glory. And then he who came from heaven, to disquiet himself on earth, so to purchase man's redemption, left death and grave and earth, Ephes. 4.8. and with captivity captive, ascended again to heaven, where he ●ate him down in his majesty on the right hand of his Father. 14 And by his resurrection our hope is to be saved: herein doth rest the anchor of our happiness and true blessedness. For in vain had been his debasing, and in vain his incarnation, if he had not lived amongst us. And in vain had been his life, and in vain had been his preaching, if his death had not followed after. For his life was given for our ransom: his blood it was which did wash us: his death it was which did quicken us. But in vain had been his death also, if he had not shaken off mortality from him, and borne up his grave before him, and thereby winning his prizes, had not mastered all which resisted. So that we apprehend his resurrection, as the stay and substance of our salvation; as the upshot of our blessedness; from the which if we should fall, we do plunge into utter ruin. Therefore in the Articles of our faith, In Symbolo Apostolorun. this is put for one, that dying, he rose again the third day from the dead. Not that only he died, for the jews believe so much, and the Gentiles believe so far; but that he was quickened again. Augustin. contra Faustum Manichaeum. l. 16. For, as Saint Austen hath observed, the Pagans do admit this for a truth, that Christ did die: but that he rose again, is the proper faith of the Christians, and imparted to no other. Now we hold Christ for the head, and ourselves to be the members: what he hath done before, we trust that we shall do afterward. So that by his rising again, is inferred the resurrection of other, and that of all, as well the just as the unjust, and the unjust as the just: the one sort to reign with their Saviour, on whom they have believed, the other to suffer torments, because they have contemned. 2. Cor. 5.10. So that both great and small, shall stand upon their feet, in the general day of judgement; and appearing before the throne, shall then receive their last doom of misery or of mercy. And if we did not expect this, the followers of Christ jesus were most wretched men of all other, 1. Cor. 15.19 who for this hope sealed unto them, do endure such strong vexations, such grievances and perplexities. All the Martyrs were most foolish, who lose their lives in this world, for the maintenance of Christ's glory, Chrysost. in Matth. Homil. 5. which were absurd stupidity (as chrysostom hath well noted) if they held not themselves assured, that he were come from the dead: never die for him who liveth not: and again if they believed not, that in recompense of their sufferings they should see a better life, and receive a firm inheritance in the day of last proceeding. 15 Their warrant is sealed unto them, by him who cannot lie, both that their holy service shall be rewarded by him, who shall pronounce that comfort, Come you blessed of my Father, inherit eternal life; Matth. 25.34 and that there shall be a day, wherein they shall hear that sentence, and that is in the resurrection. There were in former times many figures of that matter, even before the light of the Gospel, as when Enoch and Elias were assumed up into heaven, Genes. 5.24. 2. Reg. 2.11. and translated to immortality, to show that other after them, should have the same uncorruptness, although by another change: and to make proof of a life, Ezech. 37.1.5 which is elsewhere for our bodies, but shall not be revealed, until that general rising. In like sort, when there were showed unto the Prophet Ezechiel great heaps of scattered bones: which the Lord yet put together, and laid sinews upon them, and made flesh grow thereon, and then covered both with skin, and afterward breathed life into them. In job is an evident testimony, job. 19.25. I am sure that my Redeemer liveth, and he shall stand the last on the earth. And although after my skin the worms destroy this body, yet shall I see God in my flesh. So in the end of Daniel, Dan. 12.2. Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and perpetual contempt. Matth. 25 31 But how evident is this in the new Testament? When the Son of man cometh in his glory, and all the holy Angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory. And before him shall be gathered all nations, and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd separateth the sheep from the goats. And in the second to the Corinthians, that we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ, that every man may receive the things done in his body according as he hath done, whether it be good or evil. But most manifest of all other is that of john in his Revelation: Apoc. 20.11. I saw a great white throne, and one that sat on it, from whose face fled away both the earth and heaven, and their place was no more found. And I saw the dead both great and small stand before God, and the books were opened. Then forthwith, And the sea gave up her dead which were in her, and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them. So oftentimes and so plainly, doth God foretell unto us this general resurrection. In so much that it is as certain, as that the Lord sitteth in heaven, that this shall one day be. 16 As there is in all the faithful an assenting to this doctrine, & the like might be in very Ethnics, saving that their eyes are closed, & therefore they cannot see, as a sound to a deaf ear is nothing, which yet is discerned by another man, so the miscreants of all ages, belly-gods, and beastlike men can in no sort endure it. Indeed they have little reason, for that the portion is very small, which shall then be allowed unto them. Such were those swinish Epicures, falsely termed Philosophers, who luxuriating in voluptuousness, and thinking that to be felicity, to bathe themselves in delight, did enjoy the present with the Ass, but utterly denied the immortality of the soul, and by a consequent, that the body shall ever be repaired. Like to them was Sardanapalus, who had this Epitaph on his grave, Athenaeus Dipnosoph. lib. 8.4. Bibe, lude, mortalis est vita. Drink and play, our life is mortal, and our time is short upon earth, but our death is everlasting 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 unbeseeming those good parts which were otherwise in Pliny. Plin. Natu. Hist. l. 7.55. Omnibus à s●prema die eadem quae ante primam: nec magis à morte sensus ullus aut corpori aut animae quam ante natalem. Matth 22.23 1. Cor. 15.32 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 body or the soul, then was before the birthday. Certainly the Saduces were in this belief, of whom the Evangelist witnesseth, that they denied the resurrection. And you may put them in this number, who in Saint Paul's time did use this byword, Let us eat and drink, for to morrow we shall die, as intending that in death should be a final end, and we should be no more heard of. The persecuting Gentiles were plainly of this opinion, of some of whom in France Eusebius witnesseth, that they in scorn of the resurrection, which the Christians do believe, did burn many of the Martyrs, and afterward threw their ashes into the river Rhodanus, with this foolish exprobration, Let us see now if their God be able to revive 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 known) do oppugn this truth beyond measure. At whose lives I do not marvel, if they be like their profession, that is, such (some few civil respects excepted) as are fit for those men, who fear neither God nor Devil. I could wish, that since it must needs be, that God's wrath is oftentimes by these plucked down upon our land, the sword of the civil magistrate, would with severity provide some remedy 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 Athenians, that in the respect which they carried to their false and feigned Gods, Diodor. Sic. Bibl. lib. 13. they so detested Diagoras, for talking against their heathenish religion, that he standing in fear of his life, was glad to fly the country. But herewith the other not contented, did put forth a proclamation, that whosoever it were that would kill that Diagoras, should have an honourable reward, that was, a talon of silver for his labour. 17 But to leave these laws unto the Christian magistrate, and to proceed as a Minister, the arguments of all these, and a thousand more of that suit, are but vanity of all vanities, when they come once to be weighed in the balance of the Sanctuary, and are counterpoised only with the high God's omnipotency. For why should we tie his power unto our foolish wit? Suppose that there be dying upon dying, and devouring upon devouring; that a man be slain, and his members consumed, some by birds, some by beasts, some by fishes; and imagine that those creatures be taken, and eaten again by men, and those men be then burnt, and their ashes thrown into the water, and if we can go farther, let there be as many mutations more, what is all this to plunge his ability, who can do every thing, whatsoever himself shall please? He can do every thing, and therefore raise this man. If nature cannot conceive it, learn to look a little higher, to grace and faith beyond nature. Plato an heathen man did much reprove Anaxagoras, Plutarch. de defectu oraculorum. because tying himself too far, to natural causes and reasons, he omitted to think on the efficient cause of all things, which is surely God the first mover. This is a monstrous error of us also. But will we allow that to God, the like whereof we do allow unto men? If an image should be made of lead, Lombard. Sentent. lib. 4. Dist. 44. to the proportion of a man, and the workman which did make it remaining still alive, should retain the mould, or remember the fashion of it with his best observation; although this image were now broken into pieces, and some of the lead thereof did perchance in a wall, join some stones unto other, or iron to stones in windows, or if some were framed into bullets, or put to other uses, be they never so different, yet afterward the artificer having these fragments brought together, can refound them, and renew the image in that resemblance, wherein they were before. That which man can do in his trade, can man's maker do much more, in new framing man himself. 18 I have borrowed this reason from the master of the Sentences: whereunto if any reply, that the comparison is much different, because here the substance remaineth, in the self same nature as before, whereas it is oftentimes altered in the corruption of the flesh and bones in man, I might answer, that it is recompensed by the greatness and the power, and the skilfulness of this framer, which so far doth exceed the ability of all workers. Tertullian. in Apolog. cap. 45. Recogita quid fueris antequam esse●▪ utique nihil. meminisses enim si quid fuisses. Gregor. Moral. lib 6.7. Cum proculdubio omnibus constet, quià plus sit creari quod non erat, quam reparari quod erat. But I rather will strengthen it, with that argument of Tertullian who speaketh to this purpose. We were already once made of nothing, when our matter went not before: and is it not as easy, that we should be again made, when we have been before? If after our corruption our substance should be little, yea very nothing at all, yet can we think it less, than it was before our breeding? The author of the first, can as well do the latter. This reason seemed strong unto Gregory the great, where he speaketh in this sort, If a man who hath been dead should be raised up, all men break forth into admiration, and yet daily is man borne who never was before, and no man wondereth at that: whereas without doubt it may appear unto all men, that it is a greater work when that is made which never was, then when that shall be but repaired and new made which was before. To follow this a little farther, which of us doth remember what we were, before that we were borne: where was our form or our matter? Yet we are grown to this quantity, and come up to this fashion. If we will speak as Philosophers, the son is said to be in potentia of the father: so of the grandfather and great grandfather, although much more removed. If we will speak as the Spirit of God doth speak, Hebr. 7.20. Levi the son of jacob, who was the son of Isaac, who was the heir of Abraham, is said to be in the loins of Abraham his great grandfather. The line by this proportion, may be reached a great deal higher. Now how many alterations, corruptions, dissolutions, in nutriment and in food, within men and without, of necessity must there be, within ten generations, before that he be produced who is the tenth successor? Where shall we say was the seed, or what shall we think was the matter, from whence he was derived? Yet God hath so disposed, that by order of propagation, it should be so and no otherwise: and a thousand alterations cannot hinder the course thereof; and a million of corruptions shall not cross his purpose afterward, but that from earth and sea, and stones, and rocks, and ashes, changed over and over again, he can rouse us and revive us. The perpetuated order of his actions here among us, doth show that he can do things, which are as far unlikely. To add somewhat more of man, of how small a thing doth he make him, justin. Martyr. Apol. 2. even that which hath no proportion? how doth he bring out the limbs, and members of the infant? where were his bones and his sinews, his arteries and his veins? where was his head and his feet, his countenance and his visage? how were these things distinguished in his first generation? August. Epistola. 49. We may have the same consideration, of the kernel of any fruit, which being small in quantity, and in resemblance very different, from that whereunto it spreadeth, is put into the ground. From this there groweth a root with many things sprouting from it; Gregor. Moralium. 6.8. from thence a stem ariseth; a bark percase without, a pith perhaps within, here a branch and there a bough, here a blossom and there a fruit. August. de Consolat. mortuorum 2. 1. Cor. 15.36 A grain of wheat is put by the husbandman into the ground; and than it is but a small thing, and in respect as nothing. Yet from thence cometh root, and blade, and stalk, and ear, and corn, yea when the original of all was dead and even dissolved. From these things God each day doth raise such sensible matters, and maketh the earth and rain, whereof much cometh from the sea, to depart with their own nature, and to be turned into them. Why then should it be impossible, or why should it be strange, that he should bring this to pass in man, the best of his creatures, that is, to fetch him out of the dust, or from the midst of the water? Why not one day that in general, when this in special every day? why not all, which to each? Revolve these things advisedly, and join faith with thy sense, and thy external feeling, and we shall have a resurrection. Gregor. Moral. li. 14 28. 19 Remember how that every winter, the glory of the trees, and all woods is decayed: their leaves lie in the dust, their cheerful green is but blackness: the sap and life is hid in the root within the ground: all the tree doth seem as dead. But when the Sun cometh forward, with his warming aspect, they resume their former beauty. So it is with the meadows, so it is with the flowers, and most delightful gardens. Their winter is as our death, their spring like our resurrection. The putting of our clothes off, Lodo▪ vives in Genethliaco jesu Christi. should remember us of mortality, that we must put our flesh off, and yield it to corruption. When we put them on in the morning, and go forth as before, we represent to ourselves, the receiving of our flesh again in the day of judgement. What is our bed but a grave? Epiphanius Haeresi. 64. Athenagoras de resurrectione mortuorum. what is our sleep but a death, wherein we are to ourselves as if we had never been, without sense and in darkness? what is our hasty awaking, at the sound of bell or other noise, but as our starting up, at the sound of the last trumpet, to appear before Christ's throne? Herein indeed is the difference, that the grave doth hold us longer, the bed a lesser while. Thus hath the Lord every way, put remembrancers in our actions, & daily observations, that certainly we shall die, & certainly rise again, & certainly be then judged. The verity of which matter, even by the light of nature hath appeared unto some, who never did know the Lord. The heathen man Zoroastres did fore-prophecie of a time wherein there should be a rising of all that ever had lived. Aeneas Gazaeus in Theophrasto. They were not far from this, who believed an immortality of our souls after death. So did Plato above all other of the ancient Philosophers, who both saith that the soul liveth separated from the body, Plato Epist. 7 Idem de Legibus 12. and that it cometh to an account, and if it have so deserved, suffereth punishment and great torment: yea he mentioneth such a judgement, Dialog. 10. de republs. as wherein the good are set on the right hand, and the evil on the left, as if he had perused the books of the sacred Bible. The French Prophets those Druids, as Pomponius Mela noteth, Pomponius. Mela lib. 3. did both believe, and teach the immortality of the soul, which was a good inducement to infer the resurrection. For when they held this undoubtedly, that the better part doth not die, and by a consequent, that the souls of them which had done well, for their good life in this place, should come unto felicity, they might have easily been persuaded, that by a good congruity, the instrument and copartner and sister of the soul, I mean this flesh of ours, being joined in all actions, should in uprightness of justice, be joined in the reward, whether it be good or evil. 20 How much to blame are the Atheists and Epicures of our time, who come not so far as this; but as they deprive our bodies of all future reviving, so they teach that our souls, in nothing are different from the beasts: but that in the dissolution, the spirit shall be dissolved, as well as the exterior man: in which thoughts they show themselves, to be worse than many Ethnics. They little conceive the dignity, and simplicity of that spirit, the single in compoundnesse of that self-mooving soul, for so I may well call it, Chrysost. in Matth. Homil. 35. in comparison of the flesh. For as chrysostom maketh his argument, If the soul can give such life and beauty unto the body, with what a life and fairness doth it live in itself? And if it can hold together the body, which is so stinking and so deformed a carcase, as appeareth evidently after death, how much more shall it conserve, and preserve itself in his own being? So pregnant is this reason, that an infidel may conceive it, and very well apprehend it: but we which are Christian men may remember a farther lesson. That our Saviour hath died for us, and paid a price very great, his own most precious blood. For whom or what was this? for our body which liveth and dieth, and rotteth and never returneth again? for our soul which is here this day, and too morrow spilled and corrupted? How unworthy were this of him, to endure so much for so little? Shall we think him so unwise, or repute him so unadvised? No, he knew that this soul of ours must stand before his throne; and this rottenness must come forth, by a fearful resurrection. And if this should not be so, if there should be no account, no recompense for ill deeds, no retribution for the good, to what end should men serve the Lord, or what difference should there be between the just and the unjust, the holy and the profane? nay between man the best creature that moveth upon the ground, and the basest and vilest beast, which hath little sense and no reason? Because it were impiety to think this of our just Lord, that so slenderly he disposeth things, let us with an assured faith, conceive our immortality, and the hope of a resurrection. 21 As this hath been deduced from the example of our Prophet, by this or the like sort, jonas was in the fishes belly, so was Christ in the grave: jonas came forth from thence, so did Christ rise again, his rising doth bring our rising, his resurrection, ours, because he was the first fruits of all those that do sleep. 1. Cor. 15.20 So to conclude this doctrine, by making use of it very briefly: if this be determined over us, & the hour shall one day come, that all that is in the grave, shall arise & hear God's voice, & neither the mountains nor the rocks, Apoc. 6.16. can cover us from the presence of the Lamb, what ones then & how perfect should we study to be? how should we prepare ourselves against that day of reckoning, that our iudg may acknowledge us to be his friends & his brethren unspotted & undefiled, that so we might not tremble to see him, & hear his judgement? But alas how far are we from it, & indeed from thinking of it? For as chrysostom speaketh, some do say that they believe, Chrysost. in Genes. Homil. 22. that there shall be a resurrection, & a recompense to come. But I listen not to thy words, but rather to that which is done every day. For if thou expect the resurrection, & a recompense, why art thou so given to the glory of this present life? why dost thou daily vex thyself, gathering more money than the sand? I may go a little farther applying it to our time: why do we bathe ourselves in folly as in the water? why do we drink in iniquity, & bitterness in such measure? why hunt we after gifts, and thirst after rewards? why seek we more to please men, then labour to please the Lord? Briefly, why doth security in inward sort so possess us, as if with Hyminaeus & Philetus, 2. Tim. 2.17. Bernard. de interiori domo. we did think the resurrection past? Why do we as that man, of whom Saint Bernard speaketh, that is, eat and drink and sleep careless, as if we had now escaped the day of death and judgement, and the very torments of hell. So play and laugh and delight, as if we had passed the pikes and were now in God's kingdom? Who seeth not this to be so, although he could wish it to be far otherwise? 22 The remembrance of this account, should be as a snaffle to us, or as a bridle to keep us backward from profaneness & enormity. And in these evils let them take their portion, who are incredulous and unbelievers, of whom it is no marvel, that they do hotly embrace them, and eagerly follow after them. For take away an opinion of rising unto judgement, and all observance of piety falleth presently to the ground, and men will strive to be filthy, Hebr. 9.27. in impiety and in sin. But because we profess Christ jesus, and the hope of immortality, let us live as men that expect it. Genes. 27.2. And since that it is appointed, that all men shall die once, and after it cometh the judgement; and since the day of death is as uncertain to us, Matth. 25.1. as it ever was to Isaac, let us furnish ourselves before hand, that with the oil of faith, and of good life, in our lamps, we may go to meet the bridegroom. If Christ as our head be risen from the dead, let us arise from the vanities and follies of this earth, which are not worth the comparing with eternity in the heavens. If he as the chief of his Church, be ascended and gone before, let us who wish to be members, wrestle to follow after him. Let it be enough, that hitherto with jonas we have fled from our duty, which we owe to our maker, and that we have lain not days but years, oft three times and three over, not in the fishes belly, but in the belly of sin. And let us beseech the Lord, that since Satan is more desirous to swallow us into hell, than the whale was to devour the Prophet, that he will free us from that enemy, and bring us into his kingdom, there to reign with his own Son, to both whom and the holy Spirit, be laud and praise immortal. Amen THE X. LECTURE. The chief points. 2. The anguish of jonas in the whale. 3. The use and force of prayer. 6. Our negligence herein. 8. Invocation is to be used to God only. 10. Some things in the Father's favouring invocation of Saints. 11. Those places discussed. 14. Some of the ancient are against praying to Saints. 15. Affliction stirreth us up to piety. 19 The great misery of the Prophet. 21. We are to repute God the author of our afflictions. 22. God heareth our prayers. 23. There are circumstances to be observed in prayer. jonah. 2.1.2.3. Then jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fishes belly, And said, I cried in my affliction to the Lord, and he heard me: out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice. For thou hadst cast me into the bottom, in the midst of the sea, and the floods compassed me about: all thy surges, and all thy waves passed over me. WHen jonas was in the sea, being cast out by the mariners, and was now of all likelihood ready to be drowned, God had a fish prepared, (as before you have heard) to swallow up the Prophet. And in the belly thereof, he lay three days and three nights, after such a manner, as was never heard of before, but no doubt much tormented between hope and distrust; almost quite in despair, yet by faith again comforted. This faith of his, when at length it had prevailed, he breaketh forth (even there in prison) into good meditations, and after his delivery, when he wrote this prophecy, he digested them into a prayer, which is here set down in a kind of Hebrew verse, not much unlike to the Lyrikes of the Greek or Latin Poets. Those words which I have read unto you, are some part of this prayer, and that which followeth after, is another part, in both which if something sound, as from him being in danger, and some thing again as from him being escaped, impute the one unto the time wherein he did write it, and the other to those conflicts which he sustained while he lay in the belly of the whale, where his bitter meditations, and troubled thoughts, did answer unto that which is here proposed unto us. 2 For the space of those three days, he did not lie asleep, as a man in a trance, or one unsensible amated, (for right happy he had been, if that might have be fallen him) but boiling in the extremity of anguish, and great sorrow, as he that had on him a burden so unsupportable by his shoulders, that he knew not how to turn him, or to manage himself. He felt the wrath of God, perpetuated on him without intermission, which wrath was not contented to have him over shipboard, and so once to drown him, but dying he must live, and living he must die in a torturous execution, so terribly and uncomfortably, that the like had been never heard of. The horror of death still present, & yet prolonged still, in the middle of the sea, in the belly of a whale, a prison and monstrous dungeon did urge him oft to tremble: but the feeling of God's displeasure upon his soul for sin, and the very great expectation of eternal pains in hell, what thoughts did these now raise in him? Now the sour of his disobedience is fully tasted by him: he may tumble it and revolve it, and chew it again & again. Now if Ninive had been distant, as far as the Eastern Indies, or the South part of Aethiopia, & there he had been sure to be murdered and massacred, by the tyranny of the governor, or ruler of that country, he could have been well contented, to have gone thither even barefooted, & thanked God on his knees, who had brought him to such a bargain. For it is better to trace over all the world, than once to go to hell: better to suffer many sorrows in body, then in soul to die eternally. With which thoughts being so perplexed, as never was man before him, & not knowing what else to do, with a faith tried in & out, & over & over again, he falleth at length to prayer, the effect whereof is in this second chapter, by itself laid down unto us. But because this prayer is so long, as that at many several times it must be handled, for distinction and order's sake, I think good first to divide it into a Preface and a Prayer. The Preface is in the first verse; the Prayer in that which followeth. And there, what subdivisions are afterward to be made, it shall in his place appear. The Preface noteth these two things, what he did, that is, pray, and to whom, unto the Lord his God. Then jonah prayed. 3 Many are the temptations and spiritual invasions, which in this life do befall us, while the enemy of mankind doth often assail us; by himself and by the world, and by our own flesh, that domestical foe: and many are the afflictions, which the great God in his wisdom, Reason's why God sendeth affliction to his servants. and our good Father in his love, doth lay sharply upon us, to punish us for our sins, to make trial of our patience, to strengthen us in the faith, to make us loathe the world, to teach us true humility, to enure us to a suffering of greater things for his sake, (for so many are the ends, wherefore he sendeth his cross, to those whom he best favoureth.) In respect whereof, job. 7.1. our life is by job well called a warfare, wherein we are to fight, & wrestle against great matters: to the which Saint Paul alluding, 2. Tim. 4.7. Ephes. 6.12. saith that he had fought a good fight, being exercised all his time, against powers and principalities, against anguishes and great grievances, much within & more without. The only stay of all which perplexities, in the very best of God's children, is earnest and hearty prayer, to him who sitteth above, who plucketh down and setteth up, who overturneth and raiseth, who striketh and then maketh whole, Dan. 2.21. who correcteth and then comforteth, who bringeth to the pit of evil, and then doth not cast in, who tempteth not above our strength, but in the midst of temptation, doth give an issue, that we may be able to bear it. The sacrificing of our souls unto this blessed Father, the bending of our knees▪ the bedewing of our cheeks, the lifting up of our hands, the beating of our breast, but withal and above all, the compunction of our hearts, and the earnestness of our spirits, are the altar that we must fly to, are the anchor that we must trust to. This is that chain, whereof one end is tied to the ear of God, and the other end to our tongue: if we pluck he will listen: if we call he will hearken. 4 Then it is for our good, that so often in the book of God, prayer is both commended, and commanded to us, and not any way for his profit, who is to be sought too, but for ours who are to cry. Matth. 7.7. Cap. 26.41. Colos 4.2. jacob. 5.16. Ask and it shall be given you, knock and it shall be opened to you. Watch and pray saith our Saviour Christ. Continue saith Paul in prayer. Is any of you afflicted? let him pray, saith Saint james, for the prayer of a righteous man prevaileth much, if it be fervent. The faithful evermore have had recourse to this in their necessity, Genes. 32.9. as when jacob feared Esau, he called on the name of the Lord, that he would send him safety. When the Israelites were driven to that extremity, that nothing in man's reason, but present death did remain for them, behind them being Pharaoh and their enemies to slay them, before them the red sea, Exod. 14.15. a fit place to drown them; then Moses being troubled in his spirit, although he said never a word, having his heart as bleeding within him, Exod. 17.11. cried unto the Lord. When it went hard with that people fight against the Amalekites, what did Moses but pray for them, when he held up his hands; from which when by weariness he did cease, they sped ill, but while he continued it, they did conquer? What are the Psalms of David, but recourses in his passions, unto the highest God? Did not jeremy in the pit and bottom of the dungeon, Lament. 3.55 fall to calling upon the Lord? And our Prophet in worse case than ever was any of these, had nothing else to comfort him, but to address himself to his prayers. When all other helps do fail, yet this is near at hand: we need not run far to seek it. And blessed is the reward which oftentimes doth follow these requests, either the having of that which we desire, or a contententednesse to leave it. 5 The Church of God and the faithful, have evermore retained the use hereof: Euseb. Eccle. Histor. 5.5. & sometimes men which have been infidels, have been glad to seek to them for it. When the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, had almost lost his army in Germany, for want of water, a legion of the Christians which were then in his service, had recourse unto this remedy, and by vehement invocation did beg rain at God's hands, which he sent them in great abundance, to the amazing of the Emperor, but the safety of all his army. De vita constantini 2.4. That noble and mighty Constantine, knowing that one in heaven is the true Lord of hosts, and all victory cometh of him; that the joining of a battle, is the losing of a kingdom, unless he do assist, would never enter fight, but that first himself and his forces, with knees bended upon the ground, would desire the Lord to bless them. When his enemies on the other side, Ibidem. and Licinius above other, would begin with incantation and seeking to the Devil. But the good Emperor, having many things of great weight still upon him, which he knew not how to wield without the help of the Highest (and that was to be had for ask) did so delight in prayer, Luc. 18.11. that in memory thereof, not as the dissembling Pharisee, but in true fear to his God, and the better to instruct his people in it, by his own example, he ordained that his image (which we know that Princes do use to coin upon their money) should be stamped, Euseb de vita Constant. 4.15. Socrat. 5.24. Theodor. 5.24. Sozom. 7.24. with the resemblance of him praying. The example of Theodosius, is in this case not unfit. Being in a battle which was hardly fought on both parts, but at length his men being put to the worse, and now apparently ready to fly, he throweth himself on the ground, and with all the powers of his soul, he desireth the Lord to pity him, and to prosper him in that danger. God heard the voice of his servant, and in miraculous manner did grant to him the victory. To this comfort he found that of origen to be true, Origen. in Numer. Homil. 25. One holy man prevaileth more in praying, then innumerable sinners do with their fight. For the prayer of a holy man doth pierce up to the heaven. I need not urge other examples of other in latter ages, who have evermore made this their refuge, in dangers and extremities, to fly with speed unto the Lord. For Divinity buildeth upon it: Christianity doth enforce it: no faithful man maketh doubt of it: very Ethnics in their services to their Gods, continually did frequent it, and openly did practise it. 6 In the mean while, the supine security of our age, shall I say, Gentillettus in examine Concil. Tridentini▪ lib. 5. cannot be enough rebuked, nay cannot be enough lamented, of which it may be said as one speaketh of the Monks, that their fasts are very fat, but their prayers exceeding lean; for if we will compare matters that be in secret, with such things as are open, and judge the one by the other, how cold are all our prayers? If we look into our Churches, we shall find many of our Pastors, to go through their common prayers, with very small devotion, little moved and little moving. The people, that is not only young ones, who are of-ward enough from God, and whose feeling is not so passionate, as the Lord in time may make it; but the elder sort very slowly do repair unto the tabernacle: every light occasion doth keep them away: halfe-seruice doth serve the turn: and for that which is, it were as good to be never a whit, as not to be the better: they sit there as in a giddiness, neither minding God nor the Minister, but rather observing any thing, then that for which they come thither. If it be thus in public, what may be thought of those prayers, which in secret are powered forth, between God and ourselves, in our closerts or our studies, when we rise up or lie down? It is to be feared that they are few, and those which be, are very sleepy, rather perfunctory and customary, then warmed with zeal of affection. And how shall God know what we say, when we ourselves do not know? how shall he hear that prayer, which we ourselves do not hear? Let us, brethren, stir up ourselves, and be fervent in this, if in any thing, and the tutor for his scholars, the parents for his children, the master for his family, the Magistrate for his people, the Minister for his flock, pray every day that the Lord will bless them, in their inward man and their outward, in their businesses and their studies, in their piety and their safety. job. 1.5. Remember how holy job did sacrifice for his children, lest in vanity of their youth, they should forget the Lord. 7 And let every man for himself give no rest to his God, but beg of him oftentimes, to double and multiply his gracious spirit on him. For how dangerous are these ways, wherein we here do walk? What perils and great hazards are every day about us? What drawings on are there to sin? what enticements to iniquity? How is the Devil more ready, to swallow us into hell, than the fish was to swallow jonas? What Atheism doth increase? what worldly lusts & affections? Yea we may see many more things, to prick us on to solicit the Lord of all importunely. Anno. 1595. The dearth which doth now reign in many parts of this land, which doth little good to the rich, but maketh the poor to pinch for hunger, and the children to cry in the streets, not knowing where to have bread. And if the Lord do not stay his hand, the dearth may be yet much more. In like sort, the safety of God's Church, which in England and in Ireland, yea in many parts else of Christendom, as Scotland, France, and Flaunders, much dependeth under God, on the good estate of her Majesty, the hand maid of Christ jesus: whose life we see to be aimed at, by the cursed brood of Satan, unnatural homebred English. And were it not that his eye who doth never slumber nor sleep, Psal. 121.4. did watch over her for our good, it had oft been beyond man's reason, that their plots should have been prevented. The spoils of the Turk in Hungary, and his threats to the rest of Christendom, should wring from us this consideration, that he is to be called on, who can put a hook in his nostrils, 2. Reg. 19.28. and turn him another way, as he once did by Sennacherib. There should be in us a sympathy, and fellow-feeling with our brethren. These things in general to all, and in particular to each, should remember us to break forthinto invocation with the Prophet. It is that which God loveth in us: it is that which Christ with his precept and example, hath taught unto us. He prayed oft to his father, Cyprian. de Oratione Dominica. and continued whole nights in prayer, and as Saint Cyprian doth well gather, if he did so who sinned not, what should we do who sin so deeply? He prayed to the Lord his God. 8 The next circumstance in this preface is, to whom the Prophet prayed. He prayed to the Lord his God, where this note may specially be given, that this offending soul doth yet dare by his faith, to make so near application, as that the Lord is his God. Which point because it is plainer in the sixth verse of this Chapter, jonah. 2.6. where he saith o Lord my God, I will defer it thither. My general observation here is that he prayed to the Lord. And as his case required this, because none else could help him; and he was to be sought unto by submission and humility, who before was by sin offended: so doth the Lord appropriate this honour to himself, and will not have any other to be served with this sacrifice. Exod. 20.5. He is a jealous God, and will not impart his honour to any of his creatures. But he accounteth that the greatest argument of duty which is in man, to be sought to, and solicited by the sighs of the heart, and by the groans of the mind. Call on me in the day of trouble, Psal. 50.15. saith himself by David, and I will hear thee, and thou shalt praise me. And Christ citeth this, as a matter appertaining unto all. Matth 4.10. Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. But in this invocation, is the Majesty of his service. And if we did want other, to be called on or prayed to, it should argue that our God either could not, or would not hear us. The one denieth his Omnipotency, the other doth clip his mercy. Psal. 145.18. But we acknowledge both. The Lord is near unto all that call upon him: yea all such as call on him in truth. Then we need no intercessors, but him who is the mediator of the New Testament, jesus Christ. We embrace the faith of the martyrs: we love the love of the Apostles: so far forth as we may, we imitate the obedience of the good Angels in heaven: and we thank God for proposing such holy examples to us: but we dare not call on these, lest we should be accounted guilty of robbery to their master. Whose meaning if it had been, to bestow any of his honour, or a portion of his glory on any of his creatures, he surely would have let us known it. But through all the Old and New Testament, is no commandment, no example, no reason why we should do it. 9 Nay we have much to the contrary. As first that it may be said, that God alone is there called on, which in the whole Bible is sounded out unto us. And secondly we may know, that howsoever in general, the Saints which reign triumphing in heaven, do pray for the consummation of God's grace on their brethren, who are militant upon earth, which may not amiss be gathered, from the souls under the altar, Apoc. 6.10. Cap. 8.3.4. & from the 8. of the Revelation, & the reformed Churches in no sort do deny this: yet we are not to believe, that in particular manner they know the deeds of one man, or hear the vows of another, but specially understand the secret thoughts of the heart, which in prayers do most prevail. We find otherwise in job, job. 14.21. that a dead man doth not know if his sons shall be honourable, neither doth he understand concerning them, whether they shall be of low degree. The speech is of all dead generally. He knoweth not of his own children, much less of other men: whether that they be in honour, which is an outward occurrent, and sensible to the eye, much less what they think in heart, which is proper to the Almighty. 1. Reg. 8 39 Th. Aquin. p. 1. q. 89. a. 8. That place in job, made Aquinas to acknowledge, that the souls of those which are departed hence, do ex se, of themselves, know nothing done upon earth, but saith he, those which are in blessedness, do take knowledge of our deeds, by revelation from God. But neither he nor any of the Papists, do prove out of the Scripture, that God revealeth such things, to the blessed which are in heaven. That remaineth to be confirmed. We may join to that of job, the confession of the people, Isay. 63.16. Doubtless thou art our father: though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel know us not, yet thou o Lord art our father, and our redeemer: and thy name is for ever. Then the patriarchs did not know, and wherefore should they now? For that then they were in Limbus, is an untrue faithless fable, without any ground of God's word. Yet it is marvel to see, how stiffly the Church of Rome, doth maintain in Saints, and the Virgin Mary, the hearing of those which pray, and their intercession for us. Breviarium Romanum in Suffagijs communibus in initio. In Orat in die S. Andreae Sabbato ad vesperas. Ad completorium. In Antiphona à Dominica prima. Aduentus ad plurificationem Mariae. He that shall look into their reformed Breviary (for in the old many things were worse) shall see that they are much called on, nay that God himself is requested, that by the merits of them, and by their mediation, we may attain salvation. There the Virgin Mary is called porta coeli pervia, the gate to pass through to heaven: and she is prayed unto, that she herself will take pity upon offending men. And as they say, if these things be not in the Scripture, yet our duty, and the compliments which we owe unto Christ himself, do require it at our hands, and all Antiquity doth make for it. 10 I will not sister this Non sequitu● of decency and congruity, that because Mary was Christ's mother, and the Saints were his faithful servants, therefore in devotion to him who was son to the one, and master unto both, we should use very high duty to them: for God himself best knoweth what fitteth, and he hath laid all that down, and no word of this invocation. But briefly for Antiquity, I confess that in the writings of some of the ancient fathers, they may find something, which serveth for this purpose. Augustin. confess. 9 3. De vera Religione cap. 55. Epistol. 120. As that Saint Austen in his Confessions doth suppose, that his friend Nebridius doth think on him in heaven. Elsewhere he seemeth to say as much, as that the Angels do hear our prayers, and he proveth it out of the book of Tobias. So, in his Epistle ad Honoratum, he mentioneth, that the Angels do tell unto us, Gods benefits sent unto us, and deliver back again our prayers unto him. In his treatises upon john, We do not pray for the martyrs, Tract. 84. in Ioh●nnem. Sed magis ut orent ipsi pronobis. In Meditationibus Tomo 9 De Sanctis Serm 19 Hyeron. Epostola. 25. Chrys. in Psalm. 118. Sozomen. Eccles. Hist. 7.24. but we rather pray to them that they may pray for us, that we may walk in their steps. But in that which some do think to be his Meditations, the Author doth pray to Saints, and in his Sermons De sanctis, unto the Virgin Mary. So Saint Herome in his first Tome, and five and twentieth Epistle, saith that Blesilla the dead daughter, did pray for her mother Paula. So chrysostom on the Psalms, doth mention the intercession of Mary the mother of God, and of the other Saints. To these may be joined, the testimony of Sozomen in his seventh book, where Satan is reported to have railed on john the Baptist, as if by his meditation his purpose were sometimes hindered. I know that much more of this nature may be brought to uphold this doctrine, and yet God knoweth, how sandy is all this weak foundation? how rotten are these supporters, which bend under such a burden? I beseech you to judge indifferently, when you hear what shall be answered. 11 To speak first to that in Sozomen, which is drawn from Satan's testimony, suppose the story true, which is there but a bare report, And is not this a proof right substantial, Satan railed on john the Baptist, because that by his intercession, his purpose sometimes was crossed, Ergo Saints are our mediators? What if the Devil there forged? johan. 8 44. Is he not the author of lies? What if this were his policy, to make men turn their service, from God unto his creatures? I doubt not but so it was. He saw that the ancient Oracles were fallen down long before (as it appeareth by Plutarkes' testimony, Plutarch. de defectu Oraculorum. who wrote a tract to that purpose) with the which in former times, he had possessed men's souls, for a great space together. He saw that Christ's faith did spread, and that by the force of no tyrant it could possibly be extinguished: he saw that the ten persecutions were ceased, by the reigning of Christian Emperors, and there was now no good to do that way: therefore now he will turn over a new leaf, and will take another course, to breed flaws in the faith, and by opinion of religion, to supplant Gods true religion, by superstition to overturn good devotion. Then beginneth he for to broach some of Antichrists mingled wine (for the Apostle said, 1. johan. 2.18 that in his time Antichrist had set in footing) and nothing fell out more fitly to his humour, then to spoil God of his honour, by turning to Saints in prayer. Thus is the roaring Lion now become a subtle fox, and seeketh by error in the show of truth, to undermine holy piety. Such another devise was that, when Satan being asked in the time of julian the Apostata, Theodoret. Hist. Eccles. 3.9. why the Oracle which was sometimes in Daphne, near to Antioch, had ceased, and gave no answer, he signified that he might not appear any more in that Chapel, because the Relics, and the body of the holy martyr Babylas, were entered in that place. Wherein his meaning was, by a secret insinuation, to inveigle men to the honouring of the relics and the bones of martyrs and holy men, to the which indeed they afterward fell, with doting superstition. So crafty is this Serpent, to destroy men's souls by fraud. And that example of john the Baptist, I hold to be of this nature. 12 Concerning the authority of the fathers, which are cited to prove this doctrine, I say first, that many books are foisted into their works, which savour not of their spirit. The censures that be upon them, by Papists as well as other, together with the difference of the style, and many other circumstances, do make that plain enough. In the most of them this hath been brought about, either by the ignorance of such as did transcribe, and copy them out, before that printing was invented; or else by the falsehood of base authors, who would assume noble names, Passio Cypri. per Pontium diaconum ejus. to things which were most unworthy. In Cyprian there is nothing, which maketh mention of Charles the Emperor, which if we will interpret, of the first Charles called the Great, yet there is so great a difference, of the times wherein these lived, that the one was after the other more than five hundred years. Yet that is said to be written, by Pontius who was deacon to Cyprian himself. I ascribe this to the gross ignorance of the writer, or counterfeit author. In Austin's works there are many things, which are fathered on his name, and that by wilful falsehood. I will name to you one for all, and that shall be his Sermons, Augustin. ad fratres in eremo. as they are entitled, Ad fratres in eremo. There in the name of Saint Austen, one maketh the whole tract, willing to do great credit, to the order of Austen Friars, as if the great Saint Austen had been the founder of them. But as the ears of the ass did show what beast he was, although he had gotten on him the skin of a noble Lion, so albeit that honest man do use words for his purpose, I Augustin Bishop of Hippon did this, and this, and many things, yet the barbarisms and the Solecisms which are in that work, do make it plain, that some worthy wight did hatch that Treatise up to the world. In his five & twentieth Sermon, Serm. 25. he doth let us know the reason, why some holidays have no fasting days, as Philip and Jacob's day, and Saint Bartholomew and Saint Thomas. A fit argument for Saint Austen, especially as he handleth it. But because he will pass himself, and show of what house he cometh, in his thirty and seventh Sermon, Serm. 37. he saith that himself did go into the South part of Africa, as far as Aethiopia to preach the Gospel of Christ, and that he saw there men and women without heads, having their eyes standing in their breasts. This tale had had little credit, Act. 8.27. but that himself did see it. The Chamberlain of Candaces, who was met with by Philip, did come out of this Aethiopia, & shall we be so wise as to think that his shape was of such a strange kind of making? Yet we must go a little farther: he doth add that in that country, he saw men which had but one eye, & that in the midst of their foreheads. Herodot. li 4. Plinius Hist. Natural. 5.8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. The fool had heard or read in Herodotus, or in Pliny, or some one of the ancient, that some such things were talked of, Acephali men without heads, Cynocephali, men with heads like to dogs, Arimaspi, men with one eye in the middle of their forehead, and other of monstrous shape, all which were imagined to be in the hot countries, within the Zona Torrida, or in the cold coasts of Scythia, whither very few in old time did offer at all to travel, either by land or sea, for the great heat of the Southern parts, and the great cold of the Northern. ovid. Metamorphos. lib. 1. Quarum quae media est non est habitabilis aestu. Yea many in ancient time, did think those quarters of the earth, to be utterly inhabitable, by men of common proportion; neither in the most civil countries, of Asia and of Europe, where learning and knowledge abounded, was the contrary received, until that the late discoveries of the Portugese's & the Spaniards toward the hotter climates, & of the English toward the colder by sea, and some other few by land, have let men know the contrary. And indeed until very late times, the opinion so prevailed, of people of such strange figures, that Authors of good reckoning, Munster. cosmogra. 5. received it for a truth, and left it so in their writings. For that conceit was continued from hand to hand, which at the first did arise from this imagination, that in countries so strange from the ordinary temperature must be people as far differing from ordinary men; which ground being once laid down, it was no hard thing for fancy, to frame very many shapes; which believed once by the simple, and being sometimes talked of, Hedodot. lib. 3. non credit esse Arimaspos. De Acephalis & Cynocephalis ut de bestijs loquitur. lib. 4. for the commonness of the fame were reported by some learned, which were in ancient times (yet doubtfully and otherwise then their successors entertained them) but such as did come after them, took them up for a truth well ratified, & so did set them down. Now this honest man, who gladly would shroud so vain a tale under Saint Austin's name, in kindness & good nature to the Friars in his Covent, very soberly & advisedly professeth, that he had seen them. And you know that one eye-witness, is better than ten other, who speak only by report. Very many such bastard brood's, vives de causis corruptarum artium. Aug. de spiritu & anima. Meditat. T. 9 Sermons de Sanctis. T. 10 are fastened upon the Fathers, beside here & there whole pages, & sentences shuffled in, & notes that were in the margin, put afterward in the text, by this Friar & that Monk, when their Novices were appointed to transcribe their ancient copies. He that would see more of this, let him look Lodovicus vives, in his books De causis corruptarum Artium. Now in these forged writings, are many of those plain places for prayers to any creature, and especially in Saint Austen, as in the book De spiritu & anima; in his Meditations, and in his Sermons De sanctis, Vide Censuras Erasmi in hos libros. all which are expunged by the learned, and shut out from his true works, as may be seen in the censures on them. 13 Yea but in their undoubted works, there are many things to that purpose. Indeed I do not deny this: but yet take this withal, that if we look through their writings, Homil 3. in Cantica. apud Hyeron. T. 8. Omnes sancti qui de hac vita decesserunt, si dicantur curam gerere salutis eorum, & jware eos precibus suis atque interuentu apud Deum, non erit inconueniens. Gregor. Nazianz. Orat. 29. & 31. Orat. 30. Iliicque ut opinor sacrificia pro nibis offered. Orat. 25. Quòd si quid nostros etiam honores curas, atque hoc praemij sanctis animabus à Deo confertur ut ista persentiscant. Aug. de cura pro mortuis gerenda ca 13. Vt volet accipiat quisque quod dicam. we shall find that they set it down, so waveringly and doubtfully, that a sober man would be fearful, to build his faith upon it. In the eight Tome of Saint Hierome, are four Homilies on the Canticles, supposed to be origen's, and translated by Saint Hierome. In the third of them I find this, All the Saints which are departed out of this life, having yet a love toward those which are in this world: if they should be said to take care of their safety or salvation, and to help them with their prayers and intercession to God, it shall not be inconvenient. How cold a speech is this, It shall not be inconvenient. That great clerk Gregory Nazianzen, doth make a kind of prayer, both to the Virgin Mary, and unto Athanasius: yet see whether in some other places, it be not as a scruple unsatisfied in his mind, whether that the Saints did know, and take care of the affairs of their friends remaining on earth: when speaking of Basile lately dead, he useth these words, But now is Basile in heaven, & there as I do think offereth sacrifices for us, & poureth prayers out for the people. He did not know it, but thought it. But speaking of Gorgonia, his own sister departed, he expresseth his doubt more plainly. And if thou do take care of the honouring of us, and if this reward be given by God unto holy souls, that they shall perceive these things, then receive my prayer. If besides other men's opinions, he had been resolved in it, what needed this If, and this doubting? But Saint Austen whom I honour above all the old, for his judgement, when he canuasseth this question, disputing it of purpose, and not slightly, or by the way, whether the souls departed hence, do know what is done here, how uncertain is he in it, and rather propendeth to the Negative? Let every man, saith he, take as himself will, that which I shall say, so seeming to cross the stream, of that which was then received. Then he inferreth three reasons; The first was, that if the dead did know our deeds, he certainly was persuaded, that his mother Monica, who loved him so well while she lived, would sometimes have appeared to him, and taught him something for his good. For God forbid, saith he, that she being now in a life of more felicity, should be grown cruel toward me▪ But he found that neither by dream, nor vision, nor any apparition, she had ever been present with him, and therefore he much suspected, that she had no knowledge of him. Secondly he citeth the place out of the Prophet Esay, Isay. 63.16. that Abraham is ignorant of us, and Israel doth not know us. And therefore not other men. 2. Reg. 22.20. Thirdly, that josias was taken away, that he might not see the evil, which was to come upon the land, which if afterward he did see in soul in the heavens, his removing had been in vain. De cura pro mortuis gerenda. cap. 15 Thus doth he dispute against it, and doth not answer his own reasons otherwise, then that it may be said, that the departed may be informed, what is done here on earth by men, by the souls of other, which die from hence, or by the Angels. So far off is this holy father, when he thinketh of the thing advisedly, from pronouncing of any certainty, which unfallibly and undoubtedly will maintain this suspected doctrine. 14 Next, to suppose that many of the Ancient, directly and conclusively did jump in the consent hereof (which cannot be found, as I have showed) yet were this a sure rule of truth? What, when the word of God doth give no warrant for it? nay doth teach us the contrary, as before hath been mentioned? Have we not learned that lesson, to distinguish men from God? the inspired works of the one, from the doubtful words of the other? We hold nothing for Canonical but the writ of the holy Bible. Tit. 1.2. Rom. 3.4. August. contra Cresconium Gram. lib. 2. It is God which cannot lie: but every man is a liar. Hear Saint Austen himself here: I hold not the Epistles of Cyprian for Canonical, but I try them and examine them from the Canonical Scripture. So to Fortunatianus, We are not to esteem the dispute of any, yea although Catholic & commendable men, Epistola. 111. Ad fortunate. Talis ego sum in scriptis alioru●, tales volo esse intellectores meor●m. to be as the Canonical Scriptures, so that, saving the honour which is due to those men, we may not dislike and reject any thing in their writings, if we find that they have thought otherwise then the truth hath, as it shall by God's help be understood, either by other or ourselves. Thus do I in the writings of others, and such understanders of mine would I have other men to be. Whatsoever then they shall teach, which hath not his foundation upon the rock of God's truth, we leave it and pass by it, and among other things, invocation of Saints, or of any other creature. But yet this may be said farther, that from diverse of the writings of the Ancient, it may be showed, that this was by some of them held unlawful. Among the works of Saint Ambrose, is found a certain Commentary on Paul's Epistle to the Romans, Ambros. in Epist. ad Romanos. 1. and therein there is setdowne for an objection, the reason of the Romish Church, that none dare to approach the person of an earthly Prince for any suit, but by the intercession of some courtier, or other about him: therefore it should be so of our part toward God, unto whose mighty Majesty, we must use the mediation, of some which are in his favour. The absurdness of this comparison, is answered there in a word, Quia homo utíque est Rex & nescit quibus debet Remp. credere. that the reason is most unlike, because Princes are men, & know not of themselves, to whom to commit the commonwealth. He meaneth that they have their power, and presence, and understanding limited, & they must be helped by the information of such as are known unto them: but to God nothing is secret; himself doth take notice of it. His conclusion at the last is, Ad Deum promerendum suffragatore non opus est, sed mente devota. Orig. contra Celium lib. 1. & lib. 5. Omnia vota, omnes interpellationes, deprecationes & gratiarum actiones destinandae sunt ad Deum rerum omnium Dominum. Hoc ipsum cohibebit nequis audeat preces offerre nisi soli Domino Deo. that to win God unto us (from whom nothing lieth hid, but he knoweth the deserts of all men) we need not any to speak for us, or to help us in our prayer, but only a devout mind. join hereto the witness of origen. When Celsus had objected, that first the jews and then the Christians, did worship and pray to Angels, origen in his first book against him doth disclaim it, but much more in the fifth book, telling plainly, that God alone was to be prayed to, and not Angels. We are not bid to adore the Angels, or worship them with divine honour, although they bring the gifts of God unto us. For all vows, all requests, prayers, and thanksgivings, are to be directed to God, who is the Lord of all things, by the chief Priest who is greater than all Angels, that is the living word and God. And having adjoined something of the unknown nature of the Angels, that we cannot comprehend it, he addeth, that this should restrain us, that none should dare to offer prayers, but only unto the Lord God, who alone is abundantly sufficient for all, through our Saviour the Son of God. He that listeth to read the place, shall find yet farther matter, Lactant. divin. Instit. 2.17. Nullum sibi honorem tribui volunt, quorum honour in Deo est. Aug. de vera Religione cap. 55. Nec eis templa construimus. Idem de civitate Dei. lib. 8.27. 1. Cor. 6.19. Chrysost. de poenitentia. Homilia 5. In Deo nihil est tale. Sine mediatore exorabilis est, sine pecunia, sine impensa precibus annuit. making for my present purpose. Lactantius saith that those Angels whose honour is in God, will have no honour given to them. Yea Austen himself denieth that to Angels, to Martyrs and to Saints, which might as well be done, as to seek to them in prayer. We build no Churches to Angels. And elsewhere saith he, Who ever heard the Priest to say at the altar, I offer to thee a sacrifice, Peter or Paul or Cyprian? And is it more to build a material Church to them, then to offer to their service our bodies, which are the spiritual temple of the holy Ghost? Or to offer corporal sacrifice, then to offer spiritual sacrifice of prayer and invocation? I will end this whole matter with a saying of chrysostom. Let us still fly unto God, who is both willing and able to ease our miseries. If we were to entreat men, we must first meet with the door keepers, and persuade parasites and players, and oftentimes go a great way. But in God there is no such thing. Without a mediator he is to be entreated: without money, without cost he yieldeth to our prayers. Since then that men are so doubtful, but God himself is so peremptory, that nothing but the Trinity, is to be sought unto by sacred invocation, let the Church of Rome in this be distinguished from the Church of God, and let us learn here of jonas, when misery overwhelmeth us, to pray only unto the Lord. And thus far of the Preface. Affliction maketh men godly. 15 The prayer itself is long, and offereth much doctrine to us, but in these two former verses three things may be observed. First that affliction is the means, to beat men unto piety, I cried in mine affliction. Secondly, that the misery of the Prophet was very great, from the belly of hell I cried, and all thy waves did go over me. And thirdly that when he cried, the Lord did hear his voice, Thou heardest my voice. To touch them briefly as they lie. He that was contented before, quite to renounce his master: he that was so far forgetful, as that when he should have gone, for his Lord to preach at Ninive, would take a course unto Tarshus, about business of his own: he that before was so hardened, that he could sleep most sound, when he had more need to awake: he that could give leave to the mariners, to pray to a God whom they knew not, but he himself was not so holy; being now in the fishes belly, so lashed & whipped with justice, thinketh it not enough to pray, but he crieth out with great vehemency: in earnest & hearty manner, not coldly or at all adventures, as the hypocrites, who sometimes do slubber up a few prayers; but with the soul and the mind, and with all the powers of his spirit. Oh the true force of the cross, of calamity, and of misery, which maketh us remember that, whereof else we should never think. God saith by his prophet Osee, Ose. 5 15. Isay. 17.7. that his people in their affliction would seek him diligently. So when by his servant Esay, he had threatened the cross before, At that day saith he, shall a man look to his maker, and his eyes shall look to the holy one of Israel. So in the time of the judges: judic. 6.6. Thus was Israel exceedingly impoverished by the Madianites, therefore the children of Israel cry unto the Lord. The Scripture is very copious in examples of this kind, but yet hath none fitter than this of our Prophet. For he whom favour could not move, to stand when he was upright, the rod did force him to labour, to get up again when he was fallen. The prison could make him humble, whom liberty had enraged. The darkness in the whales belly, doth more bring him unto light, even the true and heavenly light, than the sight of Sun or firmament. Thus restaint doth make him holy, to the great benefit of his soul, clean contrary to that Proverb, Non usquam belli carceres, Prisons are good in no place. 16 That, adversity and the cross, should be a door to devotion, is without question a Paradox to repining flesh & blood, which doth ever love to be in jollity; but yet unto a Christian man, it is a principle of a sound truth. For when we do luxuriate, and grow riotous in the gallantness of this world, and have all things at our pleasure, we forget that God who made us, who doth cause his Sun to shine on us, and with the untamed heifer which is full fed, & grown perfectly wanton, we kick against the sole author of our happiness & beatitude; with the Magnificoes of the world, and great-mouthed Gloriosoes we do both contemn our brethren, and speak against the Highest. But affliction doth humble us, 2. Chron. 33.12. & make us know ourselves, as it did Manasses the king of juda, who being in chains, did thrive more for his soul, than he did in his royal palaces. It maketh to us say with David, O Lord, it is good for us, that we have been in trouble. And with jeremy lamenting, Psal. 119.71. Lament. 3.27. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. When the sovereign dispenser of all things, by his wisdom doth consider, that this is our case, by his sober and sage providence he sometimes sendeth prosperity, lest we should be discouraged, & broken by calamity, but he often sendeth adversity to exercise us here, lest we should be puffed up by the abundance of his mercy. And while his hand is upon us, we which else are stiff and stubborn, Livius lib. 1. will in pliable manner bend. When Numa had broached in Rome, a set order of service unto their heathen Gods, and had possessed the people with it, his successor Tullus Hostilius not only did neglect it, but contemned it, as accounting that no one thing did less beseem a king, then to yield himself to ceremonies, and sacrifices of religion. But when he dad proceeded long, and gone forward in this vein, a great pestilence grew in Rome, and himself lay afterward long languishing of a sickness. This did so abate the spirits, & pluck down the heart of the king, that he who before despised all, did now yield himself, to all both great and small superstitions, and filled the people's heads with a multitude of religions. Look what effect these things had with him in his heathenish errors, the same in Christian obedience, doth tribulation bring to many of Gods elect; this only thing excepted, that these fly superstition. Those who in their younger days, and in the strength of their time, have scorned the word and the ministry, and have made no kind of conscience of theft or fornication, but have sucked them in as water, being afterward pinched with poverty, or banishment, or imprisonment, or especially with sickness (which giveth a man right good leisure, if it be long and sharp on him, to bethink himself of his follies) with contrition of the heart, and compunction in great measure do fly unto the Lord, and with many tears wash away the blackness of their iniquity. 17 Then they desire to be with God, and to leave this vale of misery, which lately they embraced as their greatest treasure, and preferred it before their own salvation; and the delight whereof they would yet have followed after, but that misery and calamity did enforce them otherwise. Wherein we may well observe, that nothing so much as affliction doth make us love our end, by loathing the bitter potions which we daily do taste of. When Elias was chased by jezabel, and was comfortless in the wilderness, 1. Reg. 19.4. he crieth: Now it is enough, Lord take away my soul, for I am no better than my fathers. But if this gall and wormwood were turned into sugared honey, we should not hasten from this place; but yet we be not ready; stay a little, and a little. Plutarch. in Pelopida. Plutarch in his Pelopidas, telleth that Antigonus had a soldier, who being vexed with an ill disease, and so loathing to live, was always foremost in his services, were it skirmish or other fight, and was so resolute, as no man in the army. The General much liking this, cast such an affection to the valour of the man, that to his great expense, he caused him to be cured, who held himself lately incurable. But then looking that his soldier should be forward as before, he found him to do far otherwise, and now never offer to come in danger. Ask the reason of this, his soldier maketh him answer, that now he had somewhat to lose, that was a healthful and sound body, with which he should grieve to part; but before when he was in misery, he had thought his case should have been very happy, if he might have been dead and buried. The wisdom of the Almighty did foresee that in us, which Antigonus found but afterward, that we who in anguish and persecution, do desire the company of the elect, Philip. 1.23. who are triumphant in heaven, and with Saint Paul do long to be dissolved, would lie groveling in prosperity, as tied and glued to the ground; and therefore in his love he doth whip us oftentimes, that we may seek unto him, that we may sue to be with him. 18 This is one great occasion, wherefore the Lord doth send his chastisement upon us; & yet in the mean while also he doth aim at this, that we tasting of that bitterness, which other things yield unto us, may evermore fly to him by prayer & meditation; may be reposed on him, when other things do annoy us, when other things do affright us. Chlrysost in Psa. 114. It is a good comparison, which Chrysost. hath in this case, that mothers do use with vizards & bugbeares, to fright their unruly children, to make them fly to their lap, not willing to hurt the infants, but to make them sit close by them. So God desiring to join us fast to himself, being a true lover of us, doth permit that oftentimes we are brought to such necessity, that perpetually we may intend to prayer and calling upon him, and leaving all other things, be only careful of him. Such an attractive violence, and violent attraction is in the cross, to draw us as well as jonas unto the Lord. Happy men if we could see it, and make that benefit of it, which if we will not learn at first, he will come again unto us, and double his rods upon us, if we belong to his election. In the mean time we must learn, with patience to suffer whatsoever cometh from the Lord: since besides all other uses, it bringeth that good unto us, as to drive us to our duties, and obedience to our God. Our land hath long felt the sweetness of the Lords distilling grace, prosperity, peace, and plenty, which maketh men forget the author of their felicity. They with the Ox, have tasted the fodder that lieth before them, but they have not thought of the giver. Oh the blockishness of our nature, who return to God little love, for his great love unto us. Our neighbours of France and Flaunders, have drunk of another cup, and have taken another course. Some years now past, religion and true faith hath been oppugned in France. Edicts have been made, that the Protestants or Huguenots, as they call them, should get them out of that country, within such a time or such a space, under peril of their lives. Thousands of them have fled, and left their native country, but not the care of their country; for although they were elsewhere, wishing still good to Zion, they have hearkened after the adventures of that Church and commonwealth, and have found both to be in hazard. Many invasions and great slaughters, and civil wars in that land, wherein those that have been the pillars of religion in that country, have been oftentimes shrewdly shaken. This hath caused them, as London doth well know, to assemble themselves together in their Churches, with solemn fasts and prayers, which of likelihood they had not done, but that they saw themselves to be fallen into most perilous times. These assemblies and these fasts, being many more than we have had, did argue that more affliction was on them then on us, which made them so to cry. I would that we might learn by their example to be wise, before that we be stricken. But if peace do lull us asleep, the rod it is which can awake us. That we find by our Prophet's case, in whom the next thing which I observed is the greatness of his calamity. The greatness of his misery. 19 In the last place I have noted, that misery mindeth God unto us. Then the greater our misery is, the more is our mind on our maker. If this be true, our jonas might well cry to the Lord, for great and exceeding troubles were at this time showed unto him. He saith that he was in hell, yea in the belly and midst of hell, and in the third verse plainer, that he was thrown into the bottom, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the very heart of the sea, for so it is in the Hebrew, that all the floods had passed over him, all the surges and all the waves. What can be expressed more horrible, than this was unto jonas? 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The word which is used here is Sheol, which sometimes doth note the grave unto us, and other some times hell, and that double signification, together with the like in some few other words, doth cause that question so oft handled, of the manner of Christ's descending into hell. But partly because I love not to extravagate from my text, (although occasion be here well offered by the nature of the word bearing so plain a difference) but especially in a desire of unity in our Church, lest some by contradiction should gainsay, whatsoever is uttered in this argument, (so apt are we to be jarring, which I wish were otherwise) I pass over that point in silence; only observing unto the weak, that we all do hold the Article of Christ's descense into hell, but the disagreement is in the manner of his descending, and how that should be expounded. The Prophet's words here import, that he was in the fishes belly, as a man might be in his grave, without light, without sight, in darkness and discomfort, never hoping more to live, than a man who was dead and buried. Or else that he felt in himself such anguish of his conscience, because God's wrath did follow him, and because he knew that himself had deserved everlasting torment, that now he was so tortured, (with an Hyperbole speaking of it) as if he had been in hell. The Chaldee Paraphrase here hath a word, signifying a bottomless pit, which intendeth to us, that the sea was very deep, wherein he was, as if he had been drowned. And this may be an argument, that the sea was very deep there, that the whale which devoured him was there, whose greatness was such and so huge, that it would require much water. The whale swimmeth not in the shallows, neither can remain in the fords. 20 The greatness of this danger, so amplified by the Prophet in many parts of his song, first could not choose but much dismay him, and fright him home for the present; for what could he think of himself? that drowned he was, and not drowned; eaten up and not devoured; and yet for every moment, in case to come to his end, besides the pangs of his soulefearing eternal death. Secondly, when afterward he had by the mercy of God escaped from destruction, it might be a great remembrance and testimony to him, of the favour of the Lord. For the greater was his danger, the greater was his deliverance. Neither doth that man ever know, what it is to be freed from misery, who was never like to feel it. To be brought to the pits brink, and then and there to be stayed; nay to be in the midst of death, and there to be kept from dying, must needs urge in the patient, a meditation of thankfulness. That consideration of Ammianus Marcellinus in his story, Ammianus Marcellinus lib. 15. Illa qualitas vitae non tantum habet sensum. is very good, that although it be a matter exceedingly to be wished for, that fortune would continue in flourishing state unto us, yet that quality of life hath not that feeling with it, as when from a desperate & very hard estate, we are recalled to a better fortune. We better know what health is, when sickness hath much broken us. We know what it is, to have store of clothing and competent food, if hunger and thirst and nakedness, do for a time assail us. It is a pretty reason (although the practice thereof were bad) which Herodotus saith, Herodotus lib. 3. that the Samian tyrant Polycrates did use to make. He very much exercised piracy and robbery, as well by land as sea, and his custom was to spoil his friends as much as his enemies; whereof he assigned that cause, that when he should understand afterward, that his friend was robbed of any thing, he might gratify that friend more, in restoring what he had lost, then if he had taken nothing from him. I do not commend his thieving; but his reason had wit & meaning. God knoweth that when himself taketh from us such things as are not ours, (we are but his disposers, or as tenants at will unto him) he maketh us so much the more embrace his mercy, who hath sent grace in wretchedness, and present comfort in extremity. Our Prophet in his suffering, had good experience of these things, which maketh him the rather break forth into a song of thanksgiving. 21 Thou hadst cast me into the bottom, in the very midst of the sea, as if he should have said, now it is otherwise, and the more am I beholding to thee. Where also observe his speech, that he referreth all his punishment to the hand of the Lord. He speaketh not of the mariners, by whose means it was done, much less doth he revile them, as in our time wicked offending persons oft do to the magistrates, or judges, or other officers, who do but see that to be done, which just law layeth upon them, and they wilfully have deserved. But jonas passing by the instrument and means whereby God wrought, seeketh unto the fountain and original of the deed. He acknowledgeth that his maker was he who was offended; that his hand had corrected him; that his wrath must be satisfied; but by all other he passeth. That evil joram did not so, 2. Reg. 6.31. when his city of Samaria was oppressed with a famine so grievous, that the mother did eat her own child, which extremity it is likely, that the Prophet Elizaeus did foretell should fall upon them, for the greatness of their sin. But then he, in stead of looking upward to God, whom he should have sought unto by fasting and by prayer, turneth his anger on the Prophet, the minister of the Almighty, and voweth himself to much evil, if innocent Elizaeus were not put to death that day. Blind man who could not look higher, and see whose messenger the Prophet was. How much better was jobs behaviour? for when news was brought unto him, that the Sabees and Chaldeans, by violence and strong hand, had taken away his Oxen, and robbed him of his Camels, he did not strait way curse those sinners, and wish much evil on them, but not so much as naming them, did fasten his thoughts on God, and imputed all unto him, job. 1.21. saying most patiently, The Lord hath given, and the Lord hath taken it; blessed be the name of the Lord. I would that men in our time, could carry his resolution. When ought amiss doth befall them, to have recourse to the Highest, and to suppose that either he doth try them, or doth punish them for their sins, or hath some other good purpose. But we rather run to any thing, then that which most doth urge us; oft surmising that which is not, and suspecting those that be innocents. And if we can find the means, whereby all is brought about, we double our force on that; this witch hath killed my beasts; this wicked man hath undone me; this mighty man hath crossed me: I would he were in his grave, or some mischief else were on him. Indeed I do not deny, but that the evil are oftentimes the rods of God, to chasten good men withal, but yet think thou evermore, that his hand is it which effecteth all, & that his stroke is in the action, Fasten thy eyes on him, and with sighing and true repentance, seek to appease his wrath; and then the means shall not touch thee, no wicked thing shall have power over thee. But let this be thy song, to utter forth with the Prophet, thou hadst cast me into the water, thou hast laid this cross upon me. 22 The third circumstance now remaining, is that God did hear his prayer. I cried in mine affliction, and thou heardest me, and again, O Lord thou heardst my voice. You see that his woe was exceeding, and after the common course of sorrow it drove him unto his maker; it enforced him to pray. Where behold, the comfort is, that he did not lose his labour: the Lord did hear his voice. This evermore is his property, to attend to those who solicit him: to respect those who call on him. I called on the Lord in trouble, Psalm. 118.5. saith David, and the Lord heard me at large. So by jeremy his servant, God promiseth to the jews, and in them to all his Saints, you shall cry to me, and shall go and pray to me, jer. 29.12.13 and I will hear you. And you shall seek and find me. So respective is the Lord to those who fly to him, which showeth his great prerogative above all heathen idols, who may be derided with Baal, 1. Reg. 18.27 that either they are busy in following of their enemies, or asleep and must be awaked, but surely they cannot hear. But especially to us it is comfort in extremity, that if sickness, or pinching poverty, or malice of any man, nay if pangs of death do hurt us, or if in the soul which is our better part, temptation overcharge us, and Satan's darts hardly drive at us, if we call unto that Lord, Apoc. 1.18. who can bind and lose, and hath the keys of hell and of death, he can rid us and deliver us. Yea he so yieldeth to our prayers, Cyprian. de caena Dom. Quoties te in conspectu Domini video suspirantem, Spiritum sanctum non dubito aspirantem. August. de tempore. Sermon. 226. Oratio justi clavis est coeli. Ascendit precatio & descendit Dei miseratio. Cum sensibus loquitur si si● solus noster gemitus. that they shall not return in vain, but comfort at the least, and patience in our miseries, shall be bestowed upon us. It is a good speech in Cyprian, if that tract be his De caena Domini. In the presence of Christ, our tears which are never superfluous, do beg a pardon for us: neither ever doth the sacrifice of a contrite heart take repulse. As often as in God's sight I see thee to be sighing, I doubt not but the holy Ghost doth breath upon thee; when I see thee weeping, than I perceive him pardoning. This should be a great instigation, that when any thing doth oppress us, be it inward or be it outward, we should run unto the Lord. So may also be that of Austen: The prayer of the righteous is the key of heaven. Prayer ascendeth up, and God's mercy descendeth down. Although the earth be low, and the heaven high, the Lord doth hear the tongue of man, if he have a clean conscience. It speaketh with feeling, if it be but only our sigh. A shower of the eyes is sufficient for his ears: he doth sooner hear our weeping then our speaking. 23 I doubt not but all the faithful do find this easily in themselves, that when they do lay open their souls before the Lord, as Ezechias did the letters of Sennacherib, 2. Reg. 19.14 & when they do earnestly pray, a dew of consolation, of most blessed consolation, is distilled down upon them, whereby they are assured, that they have to deal with a father, who seeth their frail infirmities, and hath compassion on them. Psal. 103.13. Yea as a father doth pity his children, so hath the Lord compassion on all that do fear him, for he knoweth whereof we be made, he remembreth that we are but dust. He knoweth us to be most ignorant, & most foolish, and unfit for all goodness, very impotent and unable, to keep off wrong from ourselves. He knoweth this & considereth it, & as evermore he supporteth us, & keepeth us to himself as the apple of his eye, giving when we demand not, & more than we think on; so if we lift up our voices, & power out our complaints before him, he will never fail us seeking him. Only this he claimeth of us, that we ask that which is fit, jacob. 4.3. not vanities or impieties, or to bestow upon our lusts; for he denieth these things to us, and our faith hath no warrant, to ask such requests of the Lord. And again, that in those things which are lawful, we appoint no time unto him, Chrysost. in Psalm. 129. but in humility wait his leisure. For as chrysostom doth teach us, If to give be in God's power, it is also in his power to give when he thinketh good, and the time he best knoweth himself. If we do well keep these things, and earnestly and uncessantly do make our complaints before him, he will deal with us as he did with jonas, he will certainly hear our voice. Lord send us a mind to serve thee, that by wilful disobedience, we pluck not thy punishments on us: and if we do turn from thee, draw us back to thyself, rather by thy temporal rods, being laid on us in great measure, then by heaping earthly pleasures, thou shouldst suffer us so to be choked with them, that we should fall from thee utterly. Do thou chastise us and correct us in judgment, not in fury, and there grant us a mind to see, who it is that doth strike us, that so we may pray to thee, to be eased in our affliction. And of thy mercy add this, evermore to hear our prayer, that so passing this troublesome life, with fast hold laid on thy promises, we may come at length to thy kingdom, to the which o Father bring us, for thine own Son Christ his sake, to whom with thee, and thy Spirit, be glory and praise for ever. To the Reader. GOOD Reader, the words of the text in the former Lecture, ministered me occasion to show, who it is to whom our prayers are to be directed, that is God alone; and consequently, that we should not use any invocation of Saints. But in the handling of that question so largely, out of the Fathers of the primitive Church, my purpose was not only to settle the ignorant for their belief concerning that point, but withal by example thereof to let the simpler sort see, what is to be conceived in other questions disputed between us and the Church of Rome. For the same may be said concerning the Primacy of Peter, the merit of works, free will, prayer for the dead, Purgatory, & the most part of those controversies which now a days are handled. They take on them to maintain many of their positions if not directly out of the Scriptures, yet from probable shows out of some of the old Fathers, who were great lights after the time of the Apostles. But first, many books pretended to belong to that reverend age, are counterfeits, and start up since the lives of those grave and godly writers; and from these are many of the allegations taken. Secondly the very ancient Fathers received some things as true without discussing, whereinto when themselves upon special occasions did judiciously look, they were either of a contrary opinion to their former, or spoke faintly and doubtfully. Thirdly, that which some of them taught was contradicted by other, and so one part must needs err. Fourthly, they were not so led by the immediate Spirit of God, as those Secretaries of the holy Ghost, who delivered the canonical Scriptures to the world: & therefore they are no farther to be allowed, then where they consent with the most sacred written word; and that is their own judgement of themselves. Lastly, there are many places cited by Bellarmine, Stapleton, and other the adversaries of the Gospel, which when they are diligently looked into, and weighed by all circumstances, do not purport that for the which they are produced. Of all which observations it is easy to give diverse examples. This I thought good to note, lest weak brethren or credulous prejudicate persons should be too much abused, with the misapplied name of the old and most renowned Church. And whereas I have showed my opinion concerning the supposed strange shapes of men in many quarters of the world, if any should urge any author of former or later age against that my assertion, in one word I account them all in that point to be fabulous, and only to have received such rumours and uniustifiable traditions from hand to hand: although some of them, thinking thereby to procure to themselves the fame of men far traveled, do avouch that they have seen such. In our days God hath given light, & therefore let us not still delight to be in blindness. Only this one scruple is to be removed away, that whereas constant report hath averred this to be so, in some one part of Peru, is the South portion of the West and lately found Indies; & some men of good judgement, whose adventures for navigation that way, have nobilitated the discoveries performed or attempted by our English nation, have with firm credence entertained that for a very truth; yet as I esteem, they may easily satisfy themselves in that behalf, by the full and sufficient report of Pedro de Cieca in his first part of the Chronicles of Peru, chapter 26. who being a Spaniard borne, and now more than fifty years agone having spent seventeen years in his personal peregrination over that country, showeth that not far from the Line, yea in more places of Peru then one, there are people who being borne in natural shape as other men, yet do take their infants when they are but a few days old, and by certain devices which they have, as with frames of wood and binding or swathing do make the head of such fashion as they would, as some to be very long, and some to be so crushed together that they have no necks, but their heads seem to be immediate parts of the trunk of their bodies. And this contenteth me for the verity of that matter, and I doubt not but so it will to all other, who desire in their minds to be persuaded of things as indeed they be, and not as sometimes they seem. THE XI. LECTURE. The chief points. 1. Comfort here offered to the languishing soul. 3. What it is to be cast from God's sight. 4. The fear of jonas. 5. The elect cannot perish. 7. How jonas is recovered by faith 8. and repentance. 9 His desire to see the Temple. 11. How the Church should be frequented. 12. Against those that abstain from it. 13. The conflict in the Prophet's conscience. 14. Grievous temptation is common to the godly. 16. Why temptation is necessary. 17. God doth protect us in it. 18. The benefit which redoundeth to us by it. 19 Helps against temptation. jonah. 2.4. Then I said, I am cast away out of thy sight: yet I will look again toward thy holy Temple. MAny are the instructions which this Prophecy hath yielded in the hearing of most of you: advertisements and warnings against sin; disputations against Atheism; observations against Papism; in the person of the mariners, comparisons of Gentiles with us that be Christians; and doctrines of diverse sorts, as God's spirit from time to time hath assisted me. But for informing of the conscience of a languishing sinner, who groaneth under the burden of heaviness and casting down; and is almost swallowed up in the gulf of desperation, by reason of the fear of God's displeasure for sin that hangeth upon him, (which things oftentimes befall some of the little ones of Christ jesus) no one matter in this Prophecy is more apparently fruitful, or more worthy consideration, then that which I have now read. For what can be more wholesome than Physic to the sick, or remedy to him that is ready to perish? And who is more like to perish, than he who feeleth no rest either inwardly or outwardly, in body or in mind, but as it were gasping for breath, doth daily long for comfort in the midst of great distresses; his case being this, that sin eagerly insulteth, Satan fiercely impugneth, and his conscience beareth witness against his own soul, that in right justice should destroy it. To the relief of which tender ones, as I could wish that our speech were oftener directed, (for it is a needful argument to be handled, and blessed is that speech which bindeth up the broken, and giveth life to the dying) so the example of my jonas doth fitly remember me to speak to this purpose, because he is as a glass for all such to look in, and thereby to see themselves, and in his case to help themselves, with the good assistance of that Spirit who herein is all in all. 2 For in this man may be seen, a most vehement and forcible conflict between faith and fear; between hope and despair, between sin and grace: on this hand the flesh sinking with distrustfulness into the bottom of hell, being like to acknowledge itself a forlorn creature, a castaway from God, a reprobate from the promises, Genes. 4.13. Matth. 27.4. as if it were some Cain or some judas: but on the other hand, the spirit forthwith mounting into the bosom of the Saviour, and there apprehending mercy by remission of all iniquities, and forgiveness of all transgressions. In the mean while, amidst the one raising up, and the other hanging down, is a combat of such bitterness, as maketh the endurer of it, in the heat of the fishes stomach oft times to quake for cold, and in the cold of the sea, oft times to sweat for heat. Many fevers and agues cannot shake him, as his own heart doth now shake him: his boiling is like the fire: his torture is like the hell. How many crowns and kingdoms? what thousands of gold and silver? what heaps of precious stones? how many lands and seas, and whole worlds would he give, if they were now in his power, to be freed from such a torment, as forced him with extremity to say as here he said, I am cast away from thy sight, I am but a damned reprobate. A very fearful thought, & yet recovered again by confidence in God's mercy, which faileth not his at need; so that thereby he is encouraged, to hope that he shall see Jerusalem, the sanctuary of the Lord, and his temple once again. Which recovery of his should make us much admire God's mercy; and yet withal teach us, to work out our salvation in great fear and great trembling. But because this text doth note unto us some doctrine besides this, and the illustration of that doth make a way for my purpose, I will first touch the other, observing in the general words, these three things to be handled. First the dejection of our Prophet, I am cast out of thine eyes. Secondly his arising up from that motion, and new assuredness of God's favour. Yet I will look again toward thy holy temple. And thirdly by a comparing of the one of these with the other, the great conflict in his conscience. I am cast away out of thy sight. 3 The Antithesis put between the casting away from the sight of his God, and the beholding of his temple, is not to be taken coldly, as if it intended barely, that now he did not see the temple indeed, but he should see it again: that now he had lost his country, but after his deliverance the time should come, that he should return thither, as if he had made this account and no more, that for a while he was deprived of some temporal favours, or terrestrial benedictions, but should be restored: for this had been little, and in comparison as nothing. But it signifieth a suspicion, and mistrust of the loss of all God's love, a putting out of his protection, a rejecting or casting off to wrath and eternal damnation. For the eyes of God, being taken in good part in the Scripture, do still import his favour, and in his favour is life, and happiness, and felicity spiritual and celestial. Deut. 11.10.12. Moses saith of the land of Canaan, that it was not as the land of Egypt from whence they came, that is a place hateful to him, inhabited with idolaters, but the eyes of the Lord God are always upon this, that is to say, his gracious love, from the beginning of the year, even unto the end of the year. 1. Reg. 9.3. So God promiseth to Solomon, in behalf of the Temple at jerusalem, I have hallowed this house (which thou hast built) to put my name there for ever, and mine eyes and my heart shall be there perpetually, that is my most kind blessing, & the presence of my grace. Psal. 31.22. So David, I said in my haste I am cast out of thy sight, that is, I am deprived of thy sweet assistance. And in another place, Psal. 34.15. The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous. As much as he doth tender them, and cherish them with his providence. It is the fear of our Prophet, lest the kindness of his maker, wherewith he had embraced him, should be utterly taken from him, and now nothing but hell fire and brimstone should remain for him, to plague him in another world. 4 The heaviness of the hand of God, which had followed after him with that rigour: the multiplicity of his punishment, by a tempest while he was in the ship, by drowning in the sea, and by imprisonment in the whale, the horror of his transgression, and disobedience toward his God, the remembrance of that grace before, from which he was now fallen, of a Prophet to become a runagate, do so amate his heart, that when he thinketh of himself, he resolveth as a despairing abject, that he hath no fellowship in the inheritance of God's Saints, but that as an outlaw, he was quite to be secluded from the covenant. So that now either he supposeth, that he belongeth not to God's election, and that he had never been booked, in the register of those Saints, which were appointed unto life, or that the Lord as a man doth vary and repent, and had altered his purpose concerning him. The first was against himself, to think himself to be a reprobate, appointed and predestinated before hand unto evil. And how woeful a thought was that, to persuade his soul, that nothing belonged unto him but damnation? The second was against the Highest, that his counsels should depend upon our mutability, as if his eternal purpose and decree, which is from everlasting, were tied to our well doing, and did not much rather dispose us, and enable us to do well, Whomsoever he ordaineth to the kingdom, he doth teach the way to that kingdom. Christ jesus who is the life, joh. 14.6. is also the way: he that giveth the one, granteth the other. Where he intendeth to bestow the end, there he doth first bestow the means, Ephes. 1.4. which shall lead to that end. We are chosen not being holy, but that we should be holy. God then contemplating in himself, his counsel which is immutable, retaineth still his secret purpose, and whom he hath once cho●en, that man he chooseth ever. johan. 13.1. Whom he loveth, he loveth to the end, neither doth he for evermore cast one of his little ones out of his sight. 5 Then it is a wrong opinion, either of the Papist teaching, or the Prophet here mistrusting, that any of God's faithful ones, 1. Sam. 19.24 can be finally cast away. Saul may have a spirit of Prophecy, and judas another spirit of doing miracles, and both of these may come to nought: but where the spirit of adoption, that spirit of sanctification, hath once made his residence, it doth ever inhabit there. The child of God shall be brought to repentance, and acknowledgement of his fault, to confession and contrition, and faith and hope and glory, through many seas of temptation, and donwfalls of despair, through Urias his death with David, 2. Sam. 11.17 Matth. 26.70 through denying of Christ with Peter. Either youth or age, life or death, in him that is elected, shall apprehend the promises. Mat. 20.5.6. Be it the ninth hour, or the eleventh hour, yet there shall be a time. The Eternals beneplacitum, shall have his effect undoubtedly. And although that holy man Moses, Exod. 32 32. Rom. 9.3. can desire to be razed out of God's book, rather than his people should perish, and Saint Paul wisheth that he might be accursed, to save those which were his countrymen in the flesh: yet this shall but show their great zeal, and love unto their brethren, as also their earnestness for God's glory, which they thought might more appear by saving of a multitude, then by their private safety: but this tainteth not God's decree, who will certainly make up his work, wheresoever he beginneth it. And if the Spirit of the Almighty, do in some places of the Scripture, Psal. 69.28. speak of blotting out of that book, which is the book of life, this is not by and by to be taken literally, but that God therein doth frame himself to our capacity, as sometimes in like sort he attributeth a foot or hand, or ear or eye, to his own divine Majesty. In all which, & other places of the same quality, Origen. contra Celsum. lib. 7. the speech of origen is most true, that as the most civil man if he were to go among Barbarians, (as suppose the Moors or Tartarians) had need to learn the language of that people, if he mean to speak unto them, or do any good among them, so when the Lord would teach us in the Scriptures, he contempereth his phrases to our capacity, and speaketh to us in our own tongue. And this he doth in the case in question, resolving by the speech of wiping out of God's book, an assuredness that they shall never have any portion in the fellowship of eternity. But if it seemed unto any, that they were likely to be of the number of the elect, yet that seeming should be frustrate. Notwithstanding, the purpose of his good pleasure, in truth is never varied. 6 Then whosoever is once grown unto that measure of faith, that upon a settled knowledge, he can meditate in himself of God's true love toward him, and can satisfy his own soul, not with a foolish lightning, or hasty fond persuasion, (which may befall an hypocrite, or temporary believer) but with a resolved confidence, that his God is his father also, and dareth to cry Abba, Rom. 8.15. father; that he is sealed up by his maker, against the day of redemption; that he is one of that number, whom Christ hath bought with his blood; that whether he live or die, yet evermore he is the Lords; that neither death nor life, 38 nor Angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, no that neither hell nor devil shall be able to separate him, from the love of God, which is in Christ jesus our Lord, this man need not stand in fear of casting out of God's sight, or perishing from his favour. And if that his sin, or Satan sometimes suggest the contrary, or his own heart do discourage him, this is but a temptation, which notwithstanding must be strongly resisted, with hearty and earnest prayer. For the infallible word of God hath taught us to say with Saint Paul, if God be on our side, 31 what matter who be against us? And God justifieth: 33 who shall condemn? And with Saint john in his first Epistle: 1. joh. 5.13. ●5. 19. Heb. 6.11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. I write those things that ye may know that ye have eternal life, And we know that he heareth us, And we know that we are of God. We do not rest upon ourselves this full certain persuasion, this assuredness of hope, for that were to build on the sand, that were to lean on a reed, which breaketh and the splints thereof do run into the hand: but we stay it upon the power of God, and on the love of our Christ, from the hands of whom, none are able to pluck that away, which they have chosen. In confidence of this, a man may be bold to say, although I be sick yet God is mighty: although I be weak yet Christ is strong: look what is too light in my flesh, that his Spirit doth make up. His grace is sufficient for me. 2. Cor. 12.9. Bernard. de 7. misericordijs. Serm. 3. Charitatem adoptionis, veritatem promissionis, potestatem redditionis. I dare to say with Saint Bernard (and it is an excellent saying,) Three things I consider wherein my hope doth consist, the love of his adoption, the truth of his promise, the power of his performance. Now let my foolish cogitation murmur as long as it will, saying, Who art thou, or knowest thou how great that glory is, or by what merits thou hopest to obtain it? And I will answer boldly, I know whom I have trusted, and I am assured that in very great love he adopted me, and that he is true in his promises and able in his performance: for he can do what he will. This is that strong foundation whereon we may build safely: this is the stay of a Christian, unto the measure whereof, if any shall find that yet he hath not attained, let him pray to God to enlarge his knowledge and understanding. But let us most firmly hold this, that whom he hath once chosen, to a true feeling of his grace, he doth never utterly cast them away, from his sight and good favour. This than was the fault of our jonas, and argued in him great infirmity, when he broke forth into this passion which savoured so of desperation. And so much of this matter. Yet will I look again toward thy holy Temple. 7 You have now seen him at the worst: for worse he could not well be; a prisoner in a strange dungeon, without light, without company, without comfort in a whales belly, so disquieted in his anguish, that he accounteth himself a reprobate, and inheritor of hell fire. He had been a woeful man if he had stayed here, disgraced and left by his Saviour: but as his soul was departing, he fetcheth it back again with a sigh and gasp of faith. He plucketh in the rain of his own heart; he giveth the check to himself; he recovereth in the instant, when he was in the pits mouth, ready to sink eternally. This showeth that in former time he had been used to temptation: being practised in God's service, he knew well what belonged to faith, when he did so soon apprehend it. He was not ignorant that he had offended, and offended a fearful God; yet such a one as would have compassion upon a repenting sinner. This grief of his, was sustained by a trust in Gods free promises, who hath said, that if the wicked will return from all his sins that he hath committed, Ezech. 18.21.22. and keep all his statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, and shall not die. All his transgressions that he hath committed, shall not be mentioned unto him. The two wings of faith and repentance, do mount him up into heaven, even from the gates of hell. His faith kept him from blasphemy, that in the heat of his extremity, he had still a mind to God: which maketh him speak unto him, not as the despairing miscreant, whose manner is to speak of God in the third person, not to God; he hateth me, he plagueth me, he detesteth me, he doth not love me, which words argue no hope remaining; but in his bitterness he turneth his speech unto the Lord, I am cast away from thy sight, I will look again to thy Temple, so in want of hope showing a hope, a confidence in a diffidence. This is the fruit of believing the sweet mercy of our Saviour, that in the day of sorest trial, it is able to keep us upright, who else should fall down groveling. As a ship without his ballast, is tilted & tossed at sea, and cannot endure the wave, so is that soul right unstable, and every hour 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, Solinus cap. 15. to fly over 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 cross this troublesome world of sin and great temptation, it is faith which must be our ballast, it is faith which must preserve us equably upright, or recover us when we are going. Now it stood the Prophet in steed, in the bottom and depth of misery; to have feeling what belonged to believing upon the Lord. 8 This belief inferred repentance, which is acceptable in great measure to our most gracious father. As he scorneth not the weak man falling, so he embraceth him that riseth; which point Novatus and his fellows, with their hard hearts did deny. If the prodigal son can say, Luc. 15.21. good father I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son, he runneth to him, and falleth on him, and kisseth him as his beloved. He liketh in us a sorrow for that wherein we have faulted. Hieronimus Epistol. 65. Secunda post naufragium tabula est culpam simpliciter confiteri. It was a good speech of Saint Hierome, to call repentance after sin, by the name of a second board, or plank after a shipwreck. In a wrack at sea, a board oftentimes doth save a man from drowning, by his lying fast thereupon. But if he be beaten by the violence of the wave, from this first plank, and be now floating in the water; if a second by some accident be afforded him, and he can keep him fast thereto, it setteth him free from all danger. It is more than apparent that we have suffered a wrack, and are diving in the sea of sin and desperation, even ready still to be drenched. The first table which relieveth us, is the Sacrament of Baptism, which by the blood of Christ washing us, and for the covenants sake, doth acquit us from the guilt of original sin: from the which if we be beat off, by the force of actual crimes, the second plank is repentance to be caught at, which if we hold fast and do not leave, it will bring us into the haven of blessed and quiet rest. Then let us evermore call upon God, to bestow upon us this compunction of heart, that since every day we fall, we may daily rise again, and not sink under our burden. 9 The weak Prophet now leaning on these two such assured staves, first sorrowing, then believing, doth raise himself up with a correction: that although he had said before, that he was cast away from God's sight, yet he will not leave it so: he will not give over there, but once again he will look unto God's holy Temple. Hieron. in jonae. 2. Once again I will see Jerusalem, 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 used in this place, is very frequent for wishing. Both show a will to the Temple: by which some understand the whole service of God, circumcision, and the sacrifices, and the expounding of the Law, or whatsoever 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 object of his confidence and faith. He certainly had a mind, not to die there where he was, as unprofitable, 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 every where, Enter praesenter, Deus hic & ubique po●enter. by his being and presence and power, yet he was more apparently conversant there, by his special grace. This did make that house and city, to be counted an holy mansion, the very joy of the earth, the beauty of the world, the glory of all nations, the palace of the great king, the delight and paradise, and garden of the Highest. There was the Ark of the Covenant, the Tables of the Testimony, the Cherubins and the Mercy-seat, all being strange things of much excellency: but the summity of all happiness, was the residence of God's favour there. 10 All which how much the faithful esteemed and accounted of, David's example may teach us, who when there was but a Tabernacle, whose beauty was much inferior to the magnificent Temple of Solomon, so grieved that himself in his flights and persecutions, was hindered from assembling within those courts of the Lord, that he witnesseth for his own part, that never heart did so bray, Psal. 42.1. to find the brook of water, as his heart and conscience did thirst for that place; yea his tears did trickle down, to think that he might not come there. And elsewhere he complaineth, Psal. 84.3. that the sparrow and the swallow were happy, being compared to him, for they might come to the Altar, to make their nest near about it; but leave to do that was denied unto him. But afterward, when Solomon had erected his famous house to the Lord; that had many extraordinary blessings granted to it, at the time of the dedication: when God witnessed by his presence, that he heard the requests of Solomon, among which these were some, 1. Reg. 8 37. that if famine, or plague, or any other affliction, did vex the hearts of the Israelites, and they then came into that Temple, and there prayed to be delivered from that cross, 44.46. the Lord would remove it from them. Yea if they were out of their own land, either going against their enemies, or captives in other countries, if they turning their faces about to the coastward of this house, should either pray for victory, or for release from their captivity, their God would grant it unto them. The jews afterward observed this, evermore in the earnestness of their prayer in what land soever they were, turning them toward the Temple: not tying superstitiously the power of God to that place, but knowing that the same house was not erected in vain. And witnessing withal, their obedience unto the Lord, and to men the constancy of their profession, who held that place as the seal of the Lords assured protection over them. Dan. 6.10. So when Daniel in Chaldaea would pray, he set his windows open toward Jerusalem, to the hazard of his life. And truly the majesty, and great fame of the place was such, Agg. 2.4. that when the second Temple, which was a far meaner matter, was raised up, the Princes of the earth which were of the very Gentiles, did repute it and esteem it a thing most holy. The regard which was borne to that sanctuary, joseph. Antiquit. 11.8. & 12.2. & 14.8. by Alexander the great, sometimes king of the Macedonians, by Ptolomeus Philadelphus, by Pompey the great Roman, some whereof did there offer sacrifice, as it is testified by josephus, and the coming up of the Eunuch of Candace the Queen of Aethiopia, Act. 8.27. who resorted thither of purpose for to worship, do make this very plain unto us. Then our man (who sometimes had been a Prophet, and of likely hood had gone up to Jerusalem to do his devotions, 1. Reg. 12.27 contrary to the custom of the Israelites in his time) had great reason to bethink himself of this place. 11 The doctrine to be derived unto us from hence, is this, that since in substance we are inheritors of that faith, which the Israelites and jews did hold, and in stead of their Temple, have the Churches of the Christians, which are places severed to God's service, & for the assembly of his Saints, and the gathering together of his people, that we therefore should bear the like affection to these, as they did to that house, and this so much the rather, because the substance is here, when there was but the shadow; there the figure, but here the truth, there sacrifices made of beasts, here the true Lamb jesus Christ. We should therefore resort to these Sanctuaries with greediness, even as to the type of heaven: we should joy to be there, and see all other there whom we love: and a Christian man loveth every man. joh. 2.14. Matth. 21.13. Luc. 2.36. Act. 3.1. Christ did frequent the Temple: he called it an house of prayer: Anna that widow so much commended, lived in the Temple: the Apostles came to this: and after that Christ was ascended, the holy men who were in the time of the Primitive Church, did rejoice to see the Oratories, and places of devotion, which were built in honour of Christ. They knew that if the private prayers, or lifting up of the hands of one man, were acceptable to the Lord, then the voice of a multitude, making their requests jointly together, would more sound in the ears of God. If the Saviour hath made a promise to be in the middle of them, Matth. 18.20. where two or three are gathered together, with what an eye of compassion, is he present to look upon hundreds, or thousands of his, assembled into one place? Then let us account it our happiness, that we may join our prayers unto a great congregation, which God denieth to his best children, in the time of persecution, and of banishment, & great sickness: and let us press to this place, as to that where bread is broken, which is the very food of life. For herein God giveth a most approved argument of his love, that we are not forced to run from this sea to another, Amos. 8.12. from this land unto that, so to enjoy this blessing: but we need no more but even step out of doors, it is so brought home unto us. And let us each man exhort that brother of his, who yet wanteth understanding, to hasten unto this banquet: for it is a good token of more grace which is afterward to follow, when men come to this place, although it be for other purposes. God catcheth them upon the sudden; August. Confess. 5.13.14. the hook is fastened in them, before themselves be aware. Austen came with another mind to hear Saint Ambrose preach; it was to observe his words, and his eloquence, and the manner of his gracious delivery (for Ambrose was an eloquent and sweet man) but at length the matter of his Sermons took him, and made him a good Christian. So mighty God's word is; and hearing is the means to bring men unto faith, Rom. 10.17. Chrys. in johan. Homilia. 52. by which faith, they are saved; and this is the place of hearing. If any man, saith chrysostom upon john, do sit near to a perfumer, or a perfumer's shop, even against his will he shall receive some savour from it: much more shall he who frequenteth the Church, receive some goodness from it. 12 Then they are much to be blamed, who do willingly and of purpose, absent themselves from this place, be they either the stiff and stubborn recusants, whose fancy and refractory will, is called by the name of conscience: who being invited to the Supper of the Lamb, yet keep themselves away, and therefore according to Christ's parable, Luc. 14.23. are well compelled by the Magistrate to come in. It is a most blessed compulsion, for a man to be driven to truth, for a woman to be forced to heaven. Or be it the idle person, who preferreth his rest and sleep, before his own soul's salvation. Isay. 29.13. Ambros. in Psal. 219. Serm. 19 In which case he is worse than the jew, of whom (as Ambrose well observeth) the Prophet saith, that he honoureth God with his lips, although his heart be far from him. The jew did yield his speech, and the jew did yield his presence, & seemed to give some countenance to the word, but this slothful man cometh not so far. Or be it the ancient Donatist, or Rogatian, in times passed so peevishly bend, who abstained from the assemblies of all other men whatsoever, which were not of his opinion, and tied to a small corner in Africa, that Catholic Church, which is so far diffused over all the face of the earth. Vincentius one of their company, is justly reproved by Saint Austen, Psal. 72.19. because when the Lord had said that all the earth should be filled with his majesty, Amen, Amen, so be it, so be it, August. Epist. 48. for so it is in the Psalm, he would sit at Cartenae, some mean place belike in Africa, and with ten perhaps of his Rogatians, which yet remained with him, would say Non fiat, non fiat, that it should not be so. Or be they our new Barrhoists, sprung from the seed of the Donatists, who because they conceive, that some spots & spotted men, do yet remain within the Church of England, they single themselves from us, by a schismatical rent. Cantic. 1.4. They forget that the spouse is black, while she remaineth on earth, that in the field where the best seed is said by Christ to be sown, Matth. 13.24. tars spring up as well as wheat; and both must grow together until the day of harvest. That in the womb of Rebecca, which was a good figure of the Church, is Esau as well as jacob, Genes. 25.23. which cannot be discerned, until the time of their birth. And this birth is the judgement. What a holy and wise saying is that, which Austen hath in this behalf, We suffer many in the Church, August. Epist. 48. In Ecclesia nonnullos toleramus quos corrigere vel punire non possumus. whom we can neither correct nor punish. But yet for the chaffes sake, we do not forsake the threshing floor of the Lord; nor for the bad fishes sake, do we break the nets of the Lord, nor for the goats which are to be severed in the end, do we leave the flock of the Lord, nor for the vessels made to dishonour, do we flit out of the house of the Lord. Let the spirit of singularity, carry these men in our time, headlong while it will, but let us love the public meetings of the faithful, the sacraments duly administered, the word sincerely taught, the devotions uttered here. Let us hold it our joy and crown, that we may so come together; that we may not only with our Prophet here, look toward the temple, but that if we will, our feet may stand in the gates of jerusalem. Psal. 122.2. We do sin against our souls, when by a fancy we debar ourselves, from the fellowship of the faithful, and communion of God's Saints. And so now leaving this, let us come unto the third thing, which was at the first proposed by me, and that is the grievous conflict which jonas here sustained. The combat of the Prophet. 13 And what can be stranger to a man at first sight, then that he, who late before was the Prophet of the Highest, and therefore much in his grace, acquainted with his counsels, and purpose concerning Israel, where he had long preached, one near about his God, should now with such a horror, as a despairing person, be up, and then down; be at the first so distrustful, although afterward resolved. But the remembrance of that favour which he before enjoyed, doth deject him the more; that after so large measure of God's bountifulness toward him, he should be unthankful. For now his conscience crieth out against him, that he was most unworthy to have any part in the Redeemer, who had turned from him so wilfully. Now he breatheth out displeasure and indignation against himself. So fearful a thing is sin: it doth so wound the soul. Hence great fights do oftentimes arise unto the faithful, where the flesh armed with desperation, layeth on load even to destruction; but faith holdeth out a buckler, wherewith she wardeth the blows. Notwithstanding between the one and the other, there is a combat hardly fought out, much ebbing and much flowing, much rising and much falling, that the waves are not so various, as the thoughts of this sufferer are; disputing pro and con, acquitting and condemning. Whereunto at the last a victory cometh, but it is with great difficulty in the mean while, the inward man and the outward, the spirit and the flesh most vehemently wrestling. Now as Saint james hath told us: jacob 1.12. Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: he that striveth, and standeth, and in the end conquereth, shall not lose his reward. But in the mean time it maketh the weak one, the tender and sickly conscience to droop and be discouraged, so that being heated violently, he thirsteth after comfort. In which case, since God himself is so far from despising the broken and contrite heart, Psal. 51.17 that in very truth, he doth love it; and Christ for his part came for that purpose, not to break the bruised reed, Matth. 12.20 nor to quench the smoking flax, we are in example of them both (the father & the word) to bind up the broken, & to seek out that which is perishing. 14 Then to speak to this argument, whosoever thou art, that gronest under this heavy burden, strengthen thy feeble knees, & resume thy decaying spirits. If the motions of thy mind be fearful beyond measure, yea unfit to be spoken, and uttered by thee, so that thou art ashamed even to name them, as, that Gods being is not certain; that the Scriptures may be doubted of, that Christ was not the Messias & Saviour of the world that thy sins shall not be forgiven thee; that thou belongest not to God's election; that the promises of his mercy appertain to other men, but are not true in thee; that thy best way were to dispatch thyself of thy life, by some fall, or a knife, or by drowning, or otherwise, since thou art but a forlorn person, and a castaway in God's sight, (which is a most fearful and uncomfortable thought,) yet understand that these suggestions and a thousand more of that kind, are but attempts of thine enemy, who would willingly rush upon thee: but know that thou herein art not alone, such conflicts are very common. The Prophets and the Apostles, the best Saints of God have endured them. job. 3.1. How great was jobs extremity, when he cursed the day of his birth, and being unpatient and unruly, he satisfieth not himself again and again to curse it? In what a case was David, when he seemed to fear utter perdition? Psal. 51.11. Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy holy Spirit from me. He speaketh as if he doubted of his election. It was not well with him, when he disinherited God in his promises, daring to say unadvisedly in the midst of his distresses, that all men were liars, that was, every one of them who did tell him, Psal. 116.10. and that from the mouth of Samuel, the true Prophet of the Lord, that he should be the king over Israel. How was jeremy on his knees, jerem. 20.14 when he cursed and fretted bitterly, and wished that he had never been, or would that he had been slain at his first entering into the world? How was Elias troubled, when he cried, 1. Reg. 19.4. It is enough, Lord take away my soul? How did Peter strive in himself, Mat. 26.75. whether he should deny Christ or no? and imagine what he thought of it when he had done it, and wept bitterly. What disquietness did the prick in the flesh bring to Saint Paul, 2. Cor. 12.7.8 when it made him pray thrice, that is, very many times, that he might be delivered from it? But how hot is his conflict between the flesh and the spirit, Rom. 7.24. when he termeth himself a wretched man, and knoweth not how to be freed from the bondage of sin, that body of death. Yet at the last, to his inward consolation he remembreth himself, that it should be done by Christ jesus. Now, who were dearer to God than these, who higher in his favour, than job a mirror of patience, and David a man after his own heart, and jeremy who specially was preserved in the desolation of jerusalem, and Elias who was taken up into heaven with a whirlwind, and Peter a great Apostle, & Paul the Doctor of the Gentiles? join jonas here to the number of these, a Prophet once, and appointed to everlasting life, jonah. 4.8. yet in one place he would needs be dead, and in this place he thinketh that he should be damned. And as it was with these, so it is in our days. The Ministers of the Gospel who are employed in their calling, and know any thing in the world, have manifold experience of such cases of conscience, although they speak it not to every man. 15 Some for one thing, and some for another are troubled every day: for fancies and temptations do arise a thousand ways: especially in those who are weak in mind or body, by reading or by hearing, by being too much alone, by children and by friends, by prosperity or adversity, by a word spoken at adventure, by any thing which the mind of the troubled party doth apprehend. Where faith is not extinguished, or plucked up by the root, but weakened for a time, as the Sun under a cloud, is shadowed for a moment, or as fire under the ashes, is raked up and not seen. And when it hath been amated and discouraged for a time, than it breaketh forth again, and peradventure it is then a second while dismayed, Psal. 107.26. as the ship upon the sea, sometimes is carried up to the heaven, and then down again to the deep: or as the winter water which freezeth in the night, and melteth in the day, and hath his intermissions, and therein many alterations. In this appeareth God's providence, and his endless love in protecting, that he so balanceth discomfort, with an equal weight of comfort, that evil and distrust doth not prevail, but if the scale do tip down, it raiseth up again upon the sudden. If the challenger be on the left hand ready to defy us, the defendant is on the right hand as ready to maintain us. If the invader be behind us, the protector is before us: yea if a strong armed man have set-footing in our house, Luc. 11.21. a stronger than himself cometh, and driveth him from the possession. But he will keep us thus exercised; and he doth it in great wisdom. 16 If we had not this to quicken us, we should yield ourselves to security, & be overgrown with the weeds, & moss of careless negligence. For as flesh saith Origen if it be not sprinkled with salt, Origen. Homil. 27. in Numeros. doth putrify & corrupt, although there be great store of it, and that of the best, so the soul will presently grow loose and licentious, if it be not as it were salted with continual temptations. The best would grow to be high minded, & proud in his own conceit: but by this we are much humbled. So we are made the fitter to receive the crown in heaven, which is for the lowly minded, & is never given to any, but to those who do get a victory. And how can there be a conquest, unless there be a fight? how a fight without an enemy? Then this life is our striving; the other is the reward which we receive for our striving. Here we wrestle saith Saint Ambrose, but we are crowned elsewhere: here is the striving, Ambros. in exhortat. ad virgins. Hic quidem luctamur, sed alibi coronamur. there the reward, here the warfare, there the wages. Therefore while I am in this world, I do yet wrestle, I do yet strive, I am yet driven at that I may fall. But the comfort is that which followeth, which Ambrose addeth in that place. But the Lord is mighty, who supporteth me when I am thrust at, who setteth me up when I am slipping, who raiseth me tilting aside. This is physic for thy sickness, & remedy for thy evil, whosoever thou art that gronest in thy soul: thou hast much ready to hurt thee, but thou hast more to help thee: thou hast a strong one against thee, but thou hast a stronger for thee, one who loveth thee & respecteth thee, & pitieth thee at thy need. Rom. 8.31. And if he do stand for thee, what matter who is against thee? He bringeth thee unto this battle, & his hand is upon thine enemy, to limit how far he shall urge thee, & farther he cannot go: 1. Cor. 10.13. no tempting above thy strength. He looketh on thee, & relieveth thee, & doth as much saith S. Austen, as cry to thee out of heaven, August. in Psal. 39 Specto vos luctamini, adiwabo. I look upon you: do you wrestle, I will help you: do you conquer, I will crown you. Nay, he maketh us conquer; he breatheth into us a strength, which shall never be overborne. Well thou mayest have blows, and bruises, and shrewd brushes in the heat of thy fight, but the victory shall be thine: floating thou shalt not sink, encountering thou shalt not perish. 17 If he were ignorant of that case wherein thou art, than thou mightest justly fear, and suspect his ignorance: but he conceiveth of thy infirmity, & therefore as a father he taketh compassion on thee. He knoweth whereof thou art made, he remembreth that thou art but dust. Psal. 103.14. Yea to the end that he might the better understand, what thy miseries be, amidst such strong throbs of temptation, he let his own son take flesh upon him, who became a man clothed with mortality, that therein by human practice, and not only by divine contemplation, he might be tempted and feel assaults, and so, as the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews speaketh, Heb. 2.18. he might the better be able to succour those that are tempted. Now what needest thou at all to shake or quiver, when his shield and his safeguard do perpetually attend thee? The experience of things past, should encourage thee for hereafter. Remember how he hath kept thee, and cherished thee in his bosom in former times, when thou wast in danger. That did abode good unto thee. He who loved thee then, 1. Sam. 17 34 will love thee still. When David had to do against Goliath, no impression wrought so forcibly with him, as recounting what he had done before. When I was a boy and kept my father's sheep, a Bear came and took a sheep out of my flock, and I killed that Bear: then a Lion came and did as much, and I killed that Lion also. Surely that Lord, which saved his servant from the paw of the Lion, and of the Bear, will deliver me also from this Philistine. Bethink thyself in the like. Thy God hath ever favoured thee even from thy mother's womb: when thou wast not, than he made thee, when thou wast lost he redeemed thee, when thou goest astray, he reclaimed thee: when thou wast naked, he clothed thee, when thou wast hungry he fed thee: he hath nourished thee and maintained thee: when thou wast ignorant he did teach thee, and hath given thee some good measure of knowledge, and will to serve him: he hath admitted thee by baptism, into the fellowship of his Saints, he hath sealed his affection toward thee, by the Sacrament of his body and his blood; in great griefs he hath stood by thee; in anguishs he hath blessed thee; the pit hath been open for thee, but yet thou never didst fall in; Satan hath gaped and roared, but yet his fangs have not touched thee; in conflicts thou hast been safe, thou hast been preserved in combats. How fully should these sound experiments confirm thee in thy faith? how should this lively feeling, for the delightfulness of the joy conceived thereby, as it were melt thee in kindness toward thy God? Why shouldest thou not say with David, Psal. 116.12. Psal 18.1. what shall I render unto the Lord, for all his benefits toward me? Or I will love thee dearly o Lord my strength. I will honour thee, I will embrace thee, (I want words to express it) I will joy in thee, I will devote myself wholly unto thy service. With thy favour and loving countenance with thy hand and thy heart, thou hast helped me, kept me, saved me; thou hast strengthened me, raised me, blessed me, and I know that thou wilt never leave me. For thou art the same God for ever, and continuest thy goodness daily over me. 18 He who hath learned these lessons, maketh true use of the battles between hope and despair, between the flesh and the spirit: and the farther he goeth forward, the more always he doth conquer. He recounteth thus with his own heart: God might have suffered me to have frozen in my dregs, to run on to all filthiness & uncleanness with the worldlings, to have died before that I had understood what belonged unto his service, and so to have dropped down to hell, before that I knew what I did; but he hath dealt better by me, he hath afforded me more grace. Now he bringeth this fire of temptation, to warm me, and resolve me, but it is to good, and not to evil. I doubt not but I am his, I shall not perish finally. He slubbereth me to scour me, he rubbeth me to make me brighter; he whetteth me to make me sharper. If I were not pressed and urged, I should not know what he doth for me: but to relieve me when I need, to help me when I am ready to drown, to save me when I am sinking, to quicken me when I am at death's door, is an argument of such favour as he can better give, than I can well conceive. And since I have these testimonies of his assured favour, let the world allure and slily entice, let the flesh insult while it will, let Satan tempt and not spare, let doubts and thoughts & distrusts, be eager and eager again; in life and death, either day or night; I know who it is that bought me, and paid for me with his blood, and I know that he will not leave me. As Saint Austen saith, August. in 17. Sermon. 8. Tom. 10. A mighty man will not lose that which he hath bought for his money, and will Christ lose that which he hath bought with his blood? I doubt not but my jonas in his troubled meditations, did grow to these resolutions, and by thinking thereon, did shake off that his heavy passion, that he should be cast away from God's sight. It was a lively feeling of former mercies which made him to break forth into so religious an insinuation, as if he did bleed with tenderness and softness, jonah. 2.6. calling upon God, o Lord my God. Wherein he showed so sound an hope, that although he should kill him (as job saith of himself) yet he would not leave him, job. 13.15. but would evermore trust in him: although his sin did more than abound, Rom. 5.20. yet God's grace did superabound. 19 These words well understood, and applied unto the conscience, may serve for every soul which languisheth with grief taken for evil motions. But because every tender spirit, is not grown so far in God's school, and where so hard a siege is laid by Satan, there cannot be too many helps, therefore some other remedies may be added unto this before named: for the describing whereof, I could wish more leisure to meditate upon them, and more time to utter them, but it shall now suffice to point at them. Then first, when any Christian shall feel himself hardly laid at, let him have recourse to God's word, and the comfortable writings of other wise and learned men. There is better balm in the Scriptures, than ever was in Gilead; there is a refreshing river; the very well of life, which will give strength to the fainting. And therein no book more profitable than be the Psalms of David. Secondly, let him resort unto the temple, where the word of God is taught. jonas did think of this, before all other matters. Here, that is, in the house of God, David did find wholesome instruction, Psal. 73.1.17 when he was so affretted with the prosperity of the wicked, that he had almost renounced the service of the Lord. How was he troubled with that conceit and could not be resolved, until he went into the Sanctuary? God directeth the mouth of the preacher, that when himself scant thinketh of that particular fruit, he speaketh to the heart of some one man in this point, of some other in another. Thirdly, let him pray to God, both in public and in private. The Lord loveth to be sought to by us, and it pleaseth him to be called upon: and in the midst of our prayer, if it be with vehement intention of our spirits, he will distil down a dew, of the sweet influence of his grace, that we shall arise up more settled. hearty and earnest prayer, what clouds doth it not pierce, what heavens doth it not enter? Fourthly let him not fear, to impart his grief to his friend, but especially to the minister, who is learned and feareth God. They are made for such purposes, and such things are not strange unto them. Man is ordained for man, to help him and to comfort him, and more eyes do see better than fewer, and what a joy to the mind, is a word spoken in season? But the faithful minister, of all other things doth hold this for his charge, to hearken to such complaining, to raise up such men lamenting. jacob. 5.20. He that converteth a sinner, doth save a soul from death, and covereth a multitude of sins. If that precept of Jude do belong unto any man, jud. 22.23. it is unto him, have compassion of some in putting difference, and other save with fear pulling them out of the fire. Matth. 12.20 This is to imitate Christ, who will not break a bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax. This is to seek out the lost, and to bind up that which is broken. Unto these this may be added, that it shall not a little help to have conference with such, who in former times have been exercised with the like temptations, that out of their experience being plentifully powered out; the distressed mind may be relieved. None can speak more sufficiently, and unto better purpose, than he that hath felt the same fire, wherein this grieved soul is now burned. And they who are in this case, are not a little revived, to know that any other hath been troubled like themselves, which they will hardly believe, thinking that none did ever bear such a burden, as is upon their shoulders. Lastly, as they ought rather to remember their former deliverances, than the grief which presently is upon them: so they are rather to believe the speeches of other men, I mean God's children, who come to yield comfort to them, than their own troubled thoughts, which being perplexed and disquieted with frightful imaginations, can give no settled judgement. This matter were worthy a longer speech, but I am forced here to end. Lord comfort those which are comfortless, and strengthen thy weak children, that they may not be so cast down, and plunged into perdition, but that in their greatest temptation, they may retain thee still for their Saviour, that living in thy fear, and dying in thy faith, they may come to eternal glory. To the which o Father bring us, for thine own son Christ his sake, to whom with thee and thy holy Spirit be glory for evermore. THE XII. LECTURE. The chief points. 2 The circumstances aggravating his danger, 6. which do the more show God's mercy toward him, and other sinners. 8. Why God suffereth his to be in misery. 9 Particular consideration doth most stir up our affection. 14. By fearing small cross in doing our duties, we incur other very great dangers. 16. All help is to be ascribed to God. 17. How a godly man may desire that his life may be prolonged. 20. The faithful aught particularly to apply God's love to themselves, 22. which the Church of Rome doth not. jonah. 2.5.6. The waters compassed me about unto the soul, the depth closed me round about, and the weeds were wrapped about mine head. I went down to the bottom of the mountains, the earth with her bars was about me for ever, yet hast thou brought up my life from the pit, o Lord my God. THe fearful conflict which the Prophet sustained, in the verse next before going hath been made plain unto you. A passion of little less than distrustful despair, did vex him and disquiet him for the time. From the terror and danger whereof, being recovered by the effectual apprehension of grace, by a lively faith, he returneth to contemplate the peril of his body; which as it was great, in the middle of the sea, in the belly of the whale, which was irrecoverable in man's judgement, so he seeketh to express it by multitude of words, repeating it, and revolving it with variety of phrase, but all tending to one end; yet with such copiousness, especially being in so short a prayer, that a man would wonder at first, how the Spirit of God which useth to speak pressely and briefly, so that no one word may fitly be spared, should so run upon one thing, with difference of speech, but in substance all agreeing. Yet the use of it is such, as of words fully replenished with sanctity and holiness, as shall appear in his due place. In the mean time that which he saith is this. 2 First, the waters did compass me about unto the soul; to the death, saith the Chaldee Paraphrase, as intending that he was now likely to be drowned, his life to depart from him, his soul to be severed from her carnal habitation. David also doth use such vehemency of words, Save me o God, for the waters are entered even to my soul. Psal. 69.1. Neither is there any speech which more lively discovereth the earnestness of that which is presently in hand, be it prayer or peril, or desire or detestation, than the name of soul doth. As the heart brayeth for the rivers of water, so panteth my soul after thee o God. My soul thirsteth for God. Psal. 42.1. This noteth an entire affection, and earnest desire, wherewith David was moved. As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee, saith Elizaeus to Elias. A very passionate affirmation. 2. Reg. 2.2. jacob in Genesis giveth this censure of Simeon and Levi. The instruments of cruelty are in their habitations. Gen 49.5.6. Into their secret let not my soul come. This argueth a perfect detestation. So the depth of danger is purported here, when he speaketh thus, the waters compassed me unto the soul; the enemy of my life, the water which hath no mercy, was above 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 unto me but drowning, as far as man's 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 down may be stifled, but standing may be safe; but I was in the main Ocean, which is called for the hugeness of it, the gathering of waters, and elsewhere Tehom, a gulf or bottomless pit, I was in that vastness, Genes. 1.10. job. 41.22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which sometimes cannot be sounded by very long lines; I was in waters by multitudes, and there not diving or floating up and down, but as closed and shut up, as included in a sepulchre, or made fast in a prison: this deep pit, this dark pit, this uncomfortable dungeon, had closed her mouth upon me. 3 Thirdly, the weeds were wrapped about mine head. The sea doth bear weeds, as well as shallow water; yea somewhere very strangely, strangely I say, that in such places as where the depth seemeth to be of incredible greatness, weeds should be seen in abundance, in the upper superficies, the very top of the water, and that so plentifully, that in navigation the course of ships is stayed sometimes by them. Experience hath confirmed this in the huge Atlantike sea, Levius in navigat. ad Bresiliam. cap. 21. as men sail to America, whereout doth grow a very strange Dilemma or Division, because either they be there without any roots at all, and that is very marvelous, or because the roots do go down exceeding deep in the water, which is not otherwise afforded by nature in thin spindie bodies. But that weeds do grow in the sea, & those of some price, Solin. cap. 8. Solinus letteth us know, saying that shrubs and weeds in the Ligustike sea, are those from whence our Coral cometh. Such then being in the bottom, are about the head of our Prophet: Tremel. in jonae 2. he is wreathed and tangled in them▪ or as some do suppose, he was so fast in the water, as if he had been tied there; with as little hope of rising or coming up again. But the words here being positive, that his head was wrapped in them, I imagine that when he sunk, & went down to the bottom, he there struggled for life, as men do that are dying, and by that means he was entangled in the weeds, as if some net had bespread him. And in my judgement this cleareth that doubt, which ariseth unto some, in the third verse of this chapter, Ribera in jonae. 1. where because it is reported, that he was in the very bottom in the midst of the sea, and all the waves and surges did go over and over him, they suppose the meaning of it to be, that as soon as he was cast forth over shipboard by the mariners, the whale forthwith devoured him, on which because the waves passed, and he was in the whale, he saith they went over him: and because the fish went down to the bottom of the sea, the Prophet in the fish is said to do the like. Whereas this place doth rather enforce, that between the time of his casting forth, and the swallowing of the whale, there was some pretty little space, which in this text is insinuated. 4 Fourthly he dilateth his sorrow, by adding that he went down, to the bottom of the mountains. It is very likely that it was some Cape or Promontory, which did shoot forth from the continent or firme-land, whereof there are very many in all the sea shore near to japho; both Syria and judea being described, to be hemmed in with mountains. And this argueth all to be done, not very far from the shore, because a tempest deprehended the mariners at the first, soon after that they put from land. Or else he may mean the rocks, which being in the midst of the water, have the hugeness of pretty mountains; and this desolate man is now fallen into the cliffs, or concavities, of one or other of these. He is then every way a prisoner, fast fettered in the sedge, and closed up in the hollowness of the mountain which was over him. Thus water, and weeds, and earth, have all conspired to drown him. If otherwise he might have risen, yet now the hill is upon him, Virgil. Aenei. 3. not feignedly as Aetna was said to be on Enceladus, but verily and indeed, not to crush him with the weight, but only to keep him there, and detain him till he were drowned. 5 And this he maketh more plain unto us, in the fifth circumstance, when he saith the earth with her bars was about him, and that for ever. Bars are to make things strong, as in doors or otherwise. Then the strength of the earth had him within her keeping; even that which David doth call the pillars of the earth, I will establish the pillars of it. He was now as in a pit, Psal 75.3. fast bolted and surely kept, and as it seemed unto him, for ever and for ever, never hoping to escape, and to be freed from that danger. He held that the doom of fearful death, was pronounced over him, the sentence of dissolution and destruction, & now he is in the midst of his dolorous execution. Thus he doth paint out unto us, the abundance of his misery, proposing himself as a wretched spectacle for the time, environed with such woes, as he knoweth not how to describe them. The water, that did compass him, even to the very soul; the depth did round beset him; the sedge was about his head; he was at the roots of the mountains; the great bars of the earth were closed, and made fast upon him. What more could a carnal man wish upon his enemy, if he would wish to be never afterward troubled with him on earth? This is the full recounting in particular, of those fears which were upon this sinner. Now let us see the use of these words. 6 If I should be asked here, why I have used this Paraphrastical exposition, so much speech in a case so evident and apparent, whereas doctrine and store of matter, is more fit and acceptable to this auditory, I must forthwith shroud myself under the Prophet's shield. He thought good to write it, and I think not amiss to touch it: if any man shall say, unfruitfully; he doth wrong to God's Spirit, who throughout all the whole book of the Scripture, hath put no one thing in vain, although the dim eyes of our weakness cannot hastily comprehend the mystery of his meaning. The speaker then and the reader, are in this case to pray God, that he will descend and come down unto them, that he will touch the heart of the one with the key of knowledge, and that he will sear the lips of the other, Isay. 6.7. with the coal of the Seraphim. And then this shall be gathered out of it. The vehement inculcation of so many degrees of misery, doth the more magnify God's great mercy unto our jonas. The harder his necessity was, the more welcome was God's aid. The more grievous that his wound was, the greater was the cure. The more dangerous the sickness was, the more gracious was the healing. Beyond hope to save, beyond thought to preserve, in a deplored state, and at a desperate pinch to succour, is an eminent grace and favour, never enough recorded, never enough reported. My danger was unspeakable, my peril was undescribable: all hope was past and exiled; yet now in this wretched tenure, o Lord my blessed God and everlasting Father, thou hast brought up my life from the pit. Now his obstinate hard affection beginneth to yield: this doth even melt the heart of the Prophet in kindness, to see that from the bottom of millions of extremities, he was delivered by the free grace of his maker. 7 The remembrance of this benefit, doth so stir up his mind, in his holiest meditations, and giveth such life to his motions, that he doth not satisfy himself, but the more express his misery, the more to extol God's mercy. He thinketh himself the more deeply devoted to such a Saviour. The lower he was dejected, the greater was his deliverance; and the more sound his deliverance, the more sufficient should his thankfulness be to the Lord. Now he seeth his God to be a God of power and majesty, able to free from any thing. Where his creatures do depress, there he alone can lift up. Although the wind rage, and the sea roar, and all the earth be disquieted, yet he doth bear sway over them. Then we need not despair in the waves of woe and extremity: if our faith be not extinguished. It is God's greatest glory to rid from greatest evils. Where all man's help is wanting, there his finger is most conspicuous. It was a good speech of Philo the jew, Philo judaeus de legatione ad Caium. which he uttered on this occasion: when that beast Caligula could be persuaded by no reason, nor by any man's intercession, but that his image must be set up at Jerusalem, which would quickly have inferred the adoration of it, and he was so earnest on it, that there was no way, but do it or die, Philo turned him unto his fellows, and bade them not be discouraged, for where man's help doth cease, there God's help doth begin. Then it proved so with them; and so it doth with other oftentimes: but nothing could be more evident than this, to him who wrote my text. He joyeth that in such a downfall, he did taste of God's kindness: but the particular contemplation of his heaviness, by recounting special circumstances, doth wring from him more gratefulness, more thanks giving. Luc. 7.36. 8 When Christ being invited came to the Pharisees house, he had some entertainment of him, but no way to be compared with that of the woman reputed the great sinner. She washed his feet with her tears, and wiped them with her hair, and afterward kissed them, and anointed them with ointment. She could not content herself with many demonstrations of her affection toward him. The Saviour Christ, who knew all things, did yield the reason of it, and that was she loved much because much was forgiven her. Then where much is received, there should be much returned. That man is very blessed, whose eyes are opened so, as to see and judiciously behold, what it is that is done for him. The Lord oft times doth leave us very far to ourselves, that we may take knowledge of our infirmity, and then give him entire and complete praise, as unto him belongeth. Adam was quickly fallen, Genes. 36.15. but he was not so hastily raised up again, by the actual and present performance of the promised seed. Man might wrestle and struggle to get up again, and cast his devices, and beat his brains long, but all would not serve. Lodovic. vives de veritate fidei. l 2. God suffered him to languish almost four thousand years, and the longer he did lie, the deeper still he did sink. This time of long staying, was first to make man without all excuse, who if he had been restored immediately, peradventure would have boasted in the pride of his heart, that it had been a needless labour, for God to repair him; for as in time he had fallen, so in time he would have risen, without help of any. Now God took away this exception. Secondly it was to remember man of his lamentable state, who had lain undelivered so many years and ages, and thousands of times, and now at a desperate pinch, was set on foot again by the free favour of God. The opinion of which mystery shall take deeper root in us, if therein we use ourselves as jonas did here, that is, specially recount the evil then sustained, and severally remember the good things now received. If we will say as Zacharie the father of john Baptist said, Luc. 1.79. that when we sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, a light was given unto us; and add withal, that Adam had condemned us, and Eve had undone us: our hands were polluted, our hearts were defiled, our deeds were depraved, our tongues were profaned, our thoughts were corrupted, our knowledge was decayed, our understanding darkened, all the powers of our mind even to the death were wounded: the world triumphing without, the flesh insulting within, and Satan gaping for us, as for a pray surely accounted of, yea hell & damnation being in us and on us: yet the riches of the mercy of him, who redeemed us by his own precious blood, did frustrate our enemies, did supply all our infirmities, did amend our defects, and set us at liberty, that nothing should be laid to the charge of us. 9 This sweet recapitulation, moveth a tender conceit in soul, & is pleasing unto God, who delighteth in that conscience, which is bruised with such often and ingeminated motions. It argueth a lively feeling, & true touch in that, which is for the present thought upon. How doth the spouse of Christ in the Canticles, fetch backward and forward the description of her love? how particularly doth she speak? It is not enough to say that her well-beloved is white and ruddy, Cantic. 5.10 the chiefest of ten thousand, but, his head is as fine gold, his locks curled and black as a raven: his eyes are like doves upon the rivers of waters, which are washed with milk, and remain by the full vessels, his cheeks are as a bed of spices, and as sweet flowers, and his lips like lilies dropping down pure myrrh. Yea she goeth forward to his hands and legs and mouth. When jeremy in the heat of his Lamentations, was desirous to move commiseration at God's hands, if it might be, he holdeth it not sufficient to say, the city is solitary which was lately full of people, Lament 1.1. she is now as a widow, but in special he doth amplify the desolation of it. The fire had destroyed her buildings, the sword had slain her mighty ones, the famine had pinched her tender ones, the walls & streets and temple were ruinated and defaced; the Princes and the people, the Elders and Priests and Nazarites had lost their ancient glory. What should I say of David, when once he doth complain then every thing is too little, and where he doth give thanks there nothing is too much. In the two and twentieth Psalm: Psal. 22.14. I am like water powered out, and all my bones are out of joint: mine heart is like wax, it is molten in the midst of my bowels, my strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws, and thou hast brought me out into the dust of death. There he speaketh of bulls & oxen, & Lions, and dogs, and Unicorns, for by such names he calleth his enemies that oppressed him. So when he cometh in another mood to give thanks, he feareth not to speak: in the abundance of his gratefulness he spareth no cost to utter it. I will name one place for all: Psal. 18.1. I will love thee dearly o Lord my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress, and he that delivereth me, my God and my strength, in him will I trust, my shield, the horn also of my salvation and my refuge. What words almost could he devise, which he hath not here put in? 10 I would that this age of ours, which is so apt to learn all evil, could learn this one good lesson, either of jonas here, or of the other parties whom I have named, to lay unto the heart such things as do befall us, or the works of God which we see; and then to abide and dwell upon them, not slightly but in serious contemplation, between God and our souls. But the truth is, it is far otherwise. We are alive and quick in God's business only, while the sharp spur doth prick us. It is the rod which doth quicken us, but not so much as it should. Commonly and for the greatest part, let there come upon us weal or woe, good or evil, great blessing or small blessing, we are dull and insensible. We observe not as we should, by amplified circumstances, what it is that is upon us. We feel the rod, but it is as men sleeping, or in a trance: we see God's goodness over us, but it is like men standing a far off: great things do seem but small things to us. When we come to give thanks, we put all in one gross sum, and if we begin to pray, we huddle our needs together. In a word, our best laying open of our hearts before the Lord, which should be with an exquisiteness and curiousness if it might be, not of words so much and of form, but of matter and sighs and groans, and compunction and contrition, is but shuffled and scambled over. Lord lay not this idleness, and great negligence to our charge. If we come to a Physician, we lay open our grief by parts; this ache is in the head, this distemperature in the stomach, this griping is at the heart. In our merchandise or business committed to our servants, we examine all from point to point. Let us do so in God's benefits: it shall procure in us a more ingenuous acknowledgement, than we ever did imagine. One example or two to teach this. 11 This present day doth remember us of the birth of her, This was preached on the seventh of September, the birth day of our Queen Elizabeth. by whom under God we do receive a multitude of great blessings, as the free course of the Gospel, an admirable peace, prosperity and abundance. He is little less than a brutish creature, or at least he is a very ill minded subject, who having age and experience, doth not give the Lord thanks for her. Yet in this so apparent a chain of God's benefits, let us examine it from link to link, and it shall wring out better motions, from him who is best minded. That the everlasting Father should bring her to the crown and sceptre of this kingdom, through so many difficulties. joh. Foxus in vita Cranmeri Edit. 4. Her brother (as he supposed to prevent a greater mischief) denying her that prerogative: her sister coming between: and matching with that Prince, who was then held the chief flower of Christendom; a certain expectation of issue being between them; the Spaniards thereat joyous, as hoping thereupon to tyrannize and domineer at their pleasure. Nay yet much more than this. The Clergy giving counsel to take away her life: Idem de periculis D. Elisabethae. Gardiner thirsting for her blood, as a wearied man would long for water: Story daring to say, when some each day were burnt in question of religion, that these were but the branches, they should strike at the root: a suspicion of strong treason against her sister, being sought to be fastened on her: imprisonment of her being procured in rigorous and hard manner: yea the very sentence of death as it is thought once being gone out against her. Yet that the Lord should deliver her from all this, and advance her to the guiding of this land and people: That he should so preserve her being a woman (and therefore by nature weak, and exceeding fearful) in so many plots laid against her: Pope Pius with his Anathema deposing her from the Crown, Pius 5. in Bulla sua 1569. Gregor. 13. and absolving (if he could get us to believe him) her subjects from their obedience: Pope Gregory by the setting up of his Seminaries, inveigling some of her own to play some treacherous part against her; in oft-intended invasions; in a rebellion once plainly attempted; in conspiracies of sons of Belial more than twenty; To bring her yet notwithstanding, to such an age of her life, to such a year of her reign; and if this be too little, if we will serve God and honour him, to give us hope that more shall be added unto her days, and by a consequent to our happiness: To carry her who in herself is a mortal dying creature, apt to be broken like a glass, yet as if she had been borne in the bosom or hand of Angels, so that nothing hath annoyed her. This particular Analyzing or scanning of the graces of God upon her, will wrest from us a true joy, with feeling and understanding. And what we do in her, we may all do in ourselves. 12 Let us run from step to step, through God's favours showed unto us. Bernard. de diligendo Deo. Tantillos & tales. Either as Barnard doth, God deserveth to be loved by us, because he loved us first, that is something; so great a God as he is, that is more; so fervently as he doth, that is yet more; and freely, whereas we were such little ones, when as we were such bad ones. Or otherwise if you please. To create us when we were not; to make us men, not beasts; to redeem us when we were lost, and that with so inestimable a price: among men to grant us to be Christians, and not infidels, Turks or jews, who are bitter enemies to his son: to give us so long a life, as that we may comprehend what pertaineth unto his service: to bring us in place, where we may see his Sacraments to be administered, and hear his word taught: to touch our hearts with faith, and an earnest desire of perseverance, to fill our consciences with spiritual joy, and comfort in his promises; in sickness to stand by us; in adversity to uphold us; in temptation to strengthen us. All this should make our hearts pant, Psal. 116.12. Genes. 32.10. and say with David, What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits toward me? or with the Patriarch jacob, I am not worthy of the least of all thy mercies, and all the truth, which thou hast showed unto thy servant. So to think, when other beg, that we might beg likewise: when we see other deprived of their senses or common understanding, to remember that the same might be our portion; or banishment, or imprisonment, or bondage and captivity. But there is a Lord in heaven, who hath dealt otherwise with us, and given unto us a maintenance from our cradle, clothing unto our back, and bread unto our belly, yea peradventure to come from state of necessity, to such a condition, as rather to be able to give, then to take, to help, then to be helped. We may go on in these meditations. When evil hath been conspired, when mischief hath been contrived, than he hath afforded us that favour, as to go on the thorns unpricked, to walk in the fire unburnt. When slanders and defamations have been devised, and such complaints made and suggested against us, yet all hath vanished as the smoke, and in the uprightness of a good conscience, we have gone quite untouched, as if no such thing had befallen us. What sweet thoughts should this work? what passions of admiration? what embracings of God's mercies? He who knoweth this and performeth it, doth make true use of that which befalleth him, in crossing over the troublesome sea of this world, and in passing through this wretched vale of misery. 13 I beat this point the more, as partly to demonstrate that these words of my text, which seem to us so barren, are not altogether without their fruit; yea if nothing else should be gathered from them, but that which I have already taught (although I doubt not, but another man might find some other doctrine in them, as God doth give diverse conceits to diverse of his servants.) So again to draw each of us to a special consideration, of that good or that evil, which hath or doth fall upon us. It is a very dull age, even the dotage and last time of the world, wherein we do now live: our memory is decayed, by reason of the heaviness of our spirits, and the earthiness of that corruptible carcase, which hangeth so fast upon us. Then we had need be wakened with often and loud remembrances, that as drop after drop doth pierce the hardest stone, so thought after thought may make our dead heart to be pliable. This is the course of our Prophet, by manifold repetitions of the dangers wherein he was, to acknowledge the Lords aid, to be so much the more over him; and himself the more beholding, the more bound and devoted to such full mercies on him. Great love requireth a great measure of returning retribution, if that possibly may be; if not that, yet of consideration, and earnest contemplation, and acknowledgement to the uttermost. Take jonas here for an example of behaviour in like danger. This was my case, this my state, this my forlorn hope of rising, yet thou hast brought my life from the pit, o Lord my God. This word yet cometh with an Emphasis, which confesseth that his help came more welcome. But before that I speak of his restoring, one little note more from hence. 14 The danger whereinto jonas was fallen, being thus expressed by himself, and that with so sensible a feeling, might recall into his mind, the vanity and folly of his former fear, which was, that when by the Lord he was appointed to go to Niniveh, jon. 1.3. he would needs unto Tarshish. I showed in the third verse of the first chapter, that among some other reasons, the fear of danger might make him change his course. It might have been, that in Ninive he should have been much disgraced, it might have been quite despised, perhaps by the king imprisoned, peradventure put to death. Terentius. Ego in portu navigo. It was best for him to escape all this; good sailing in the haven; good sleeping in a whole skin. The safest way were to make sure work, and not to come there at all. But what a change did he make? He feared a little hurt, and now he hath a great deal. He suspected, that only one thing might annoy him, and now he hath found another. Nay in truth for every ten, he doth receive a thousand. Before, he did distrust that his body might have smarted; now body and soul pay for it. Before he might have had some man perhaps his enemy, but God his friend assured: now not so much as any man is his friend, and God like to a furious enemy doth chase him, and make after him. In this sort, such who in the Lords causes will not depend upon him, but in their imagination cast great perils to themselves, thinking to avoid those by declining from their duty, in that their turning away, do plunge themselves into greater dangers. They think that they fly from a dog, and they turn them upon a cockatrice. They hope to escape a blow, and receive a deadly wound. They imagine to save a finger, and are pierced to the heart. 1. Sam. 15.9. Saul would not displease the people, by killing the king of Amelek, but he displeased the Lord, which was a higher matter. He was unwilling to lose so much cattle, joh. 19.12.13 but he lost his crown and his life. Pilate would not offend the Emperor: what? spare him who was said to be the king of the jews? but he plucked on himself the anger of the great king, and Emperor of the heavens. This is a fault too common among the sons of men, to dread that which is little, and to pass by that which is more; Matth. 23.24 to make a straining at a gnat, and to swallow up a whole Camel. It is an excellent saying, which chrysostom hath to this purpose: Chrysost. in Psal. 48. Personas timent hominésque saccis indutos. It is a point of extreme madness, to stand in fear of those things which are not to be feared, but to laugh at such matters as in truth are dreadful. In this saith he, men do differ from children, that these (as not having their understanding perfect) do fear vizards, and men clothed with sacks, but think that it is nothing to revile their father or their mother, and they leap into the fire or touch candles which are burning, but they quake at some noises which are not to be feared. But men do care for none of all these things. If we look upon ourselves, and sift our hearts as we ought, we shall find ourselves in the number of these babies and silly infants, when we make much scruple of some trifles, but respect not an higher duty, and so to escape the rain, we run ourselves into the river. 15 What is more common amongst us, then when we are in hope of preferment, to fear this or that cross? the anger of this mighty man, or of that noble woman? If their names be but used, or their letters be procured, although upon wrong information, yet if they be induced to move something inconvenient, or scandalous, or amiss, (be it never so much against the will of the writer, for that he wanteth true notice) do we not more fear to fail their unjustly extorted motion, than we dread the Lords displeasure, or the great account which one day we must yield for ourselves, when no Prince of the earth shall be able to protect us? Thus for men's sakes we leave God, (for so it may be termed, when we decline from justice, and that which should be done) and when we think that we have dealt most subtly and most wisely, God's finger is up against us, and overturneth all our policies. Yea peradventure he whom we have served, or she whom we have feared, by the motion of the Spirit of the Lord, is made a rod to whip us, considering that we have dishonoured them, in making them the authors of unfit actions; or else that person for some worldy respect, is drawn away from our purpose, and so the hope of our labour is frustrated and made nothing. And then this wound remaineth upon our conscience, that we have done this and this, which our heart did tell us was untoward and indirect, or at the least to be doubted. And what a grief is it to us, to have such a worm within us, fretting and gnawing on us? The way to prevent all this, is evermore to look on God's fear, and his precise commandment, and not to serve from that, and then he whom we sincerely serve, will either send us the fruit of our desires, or patience in the contrary. The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, Prou. 21.1. as the rivers of waters: he turneth it whither so ever it pleaseth him: Then how much more the hearts of other inferior persons? If he think that it be fit for us, where-about we go, he will send it us; but when he pleaseth: if not, his will be done. Only this is our comfort, whether that come or not, the bird is safe in the bosom: sorrow shall not upbraid us, that we have feared men more than the eternal God: that we have for the pleasure of any, made shippewracke of a good conscience, or very far adventured toward it. Take heed then by the Prophet, that in seeking to fly such harm as is but imaginary, or little in comparison, we do not run ourselves by offending of the Lord, into danger which is inevitable. Now go we a little forward. Yet thou hast brought my life from the pit. 16 The common translation hath in the future tense, Vulg. edit. Sublevabis de corruptione vitam meam. Tremelius & Anglica editio Genevensis. Act. 17.28. Psal. 40.1. thou wilt lift up my life. The Septuagint, let my life ascend from corruption. The Chaldee Paraphrase, it is ready, or but a small thing unto thee, to bring me from corruption. The best do translate it by the time that is past, thou hast brought my life from the pit, or corruption. He ascribeth all to God as moving in him, and living in him, and in him having his being. So the faithful do evermore. I waited saith David patiently for the Lord, and he inclined unto me and heard my cry. He brought me also out of the horrible pit, out of the mire and clay, and set my feet upon the rock, and ordered my goings. A gracious God, who can strike us and can heal us; can foil us & can raise us. He whippeth us by number, & scourgeth us by measure, and when we turn unto him, he will quicken us and revive us, from death and the gates of hell. jonas sinning is punished: jonas crying is helped. While stubbornness is on him, down must his proud heart: but when fear and faith possess him, he is hoyss up again. Let us then change our heart, and God will change his hand, in the midst of his roughness toward us. Augustinus in 8. questionib. Dulcitij. Mutavit vocabulum quià mutatum vidit affectum. Saint Austen in those eight questions which were proposed to him by Dulcitius, speaketh fitly to this matter. When the woman came to Christ from Syro Phoenicia, he said unto her, the children's bread is not to be thrown to dogs: but afterward, not O dog great is thy faith, but O woman great is thy faith. He changeth his word because he saw her affection changed, and he understood that the same reproof of his was grown up to good fruit. So it is with this patient: when his faith once breaketh forth, he shall come from corruption. 17 But what may be the matter, that he so much rejoiceth, that he should live again. The words which go before from the beginning of the chapter, do show a fast hold to be laid on God's favour by faith, (howsoever for some little time it was dismayed) a remission of sins, and a hope of life eternal, although he had very much transgressed. Then since his life was sealed up against another world, why should he desire to be here again? Why should he so rejoice that he should be delivered? Very shame might have enforced him to hate the light. The report of the mariners, who would freely speak wheresoever they came, might spread the name of him, as of a most infamous person. He might be pointed at with the finger, by children and vile folks, as he went in the street. Howsoever, Gods children should thirst to be above, should long to be dissolved, and be at home with their father. So did Saint Paul in the new Testament, Philip. 1.23. 1. Reg. 19.4. when he desired to be loosed: so did Elias in the old when he cried, It is now enough, o Lord take my soul, for I am no better than my fathers. And who would be in his pilgrimage, when he might be in his country? who would be in the sea, when he might be in the haven? who would be warring, when a crown might then be given him for his victory? who would be in the way, when he might be at home in rest? It seemeth then at the first sight, that the Prophet doth take joy in his loss, and desireth that for a benefit, which was a harm unto him. But when all these things are scanned as they should be, it will appear far otherwise. 18 Now it was no time to fear the shame of the world: he was rather to seek to please one, and that was his old master; yea if he displeased all other by it. It was a good resolution of him, who did write the eight of those Epistles, which be in the end of Saint Hieromes works: Hieron. Epistola 8. in fine operum. Let every one say what himself will. In the mean time according to my small understanding, I have judged it better for myself to blush before sinners upon earth, then before the holy Angels in heaven, or wheresoever the Lord will show his judgement. And to wish as Elias wished, were but to be impatient; wherein jonas is not behind, as appear in the fourth chapter. jon. 4.3. And his case was not like Saint Paul's, who might yield up his soul in quietness of conscience, as having in his heart a testimony of the Lords good accepatnce of his labours in this world. Now he who is settled in such an opinion, need not fear to depart from this transitory habitation: nay he may well long to die. But with jonas it is otherwise: he standeth yet in a mammering, and knoweth not which way to turn him. Yet he is not quite exempted from that conflict of his, between hope and despair: yet, (although his faith be not extinguished) he is not assured, how the Lord will take his sin at his hands. This maketh him wish for more time to testify his obedience; to make a recompense if it might be, for his sinful rebellion; or at the least to wash away his iniquity with many tears. And having this purpose in him, to ask pardon with sighs and sobs, he joyeth with all his heart, that time is permitted him, to perform the vows of his soul, and to remove away from the Church of God, that scandal which he had offered. 19 Moreover if he had died in the sea, and the belly of the fish, his departure had been violent, and laid upon him for his sin, as a grievous punishment for ungodliness: and such a kind of death, the faithful servants of the Lord have no desire to die. It may well be gathered out of the thirtieth Psalm, that the sickness of David there insinuated (for that Psalm may best be understood of sickness) was laid upon him for one fault or other: Psal. 30.6. perhaps for presumption, he thought that he was too strong. But when for that cause, he felt the hand of the Lord sharply chastising him; he beggeth that he might not in such a sort go down to the grave. What profit is there in my blood when I go down to the pit? shall the dust give thanks unto thee? or shall it declare thy truth? For some one reason or other, which the Spirit of God hath concealed, 2 Reg. 20.3. Hezechias was not ready, when the Prophet Esay came unto him, and told him that he must die. This did make him turn himself to the wall, and weep, and pray to the Lord, that if it might stand with his good pleasure, that sentence might be reversed. Then it is not our best safety, at every time, and in every case, to be removed hence, but upon some occasion we may joy with jonas, that longer time is afforded us to bethink ourselves. This is his exceeding comfort, that though the pangs of death were upon him, yet that God once again brought his life from corruption. O Lord my God. 20 The only thing now remaining, is the confident appellation, which he useth to the Lord, jehovah o my God. This showeth a faith beyond faith, and a hope beyond hope: when he knew that the Lord was angry, and extremely wrathful at him, yet to cling in so to his mercy, as to appropriate to himself a portion in his maker. For what greater insinuation of confidence can there be, then by particular application to apprehend God's mercy: to lay hold upon him as on a father; and that not as we say, with a reference to the Communion of Saints, Matth. 6.9. Our father which art in heaven, but my father and my God. This hath been the perfect trust of the faithful in all ages, which hath encouraged them to approach with boldness, unto the throne of grace. Psal. 22.1.51.14. job. 19.25. Luc. 1.47. joh. 20.28. Galat. 2.20. My God, my God saith David. And, thou that art the God of my salvation. And job, I am sure that my Redeemer liveth. My spirit saith the Virgin Marie, doth rejoice in God my Saviour. My Lord and my God, saith Thomas. Paul saith of himself, I live by faith in the Son of God, who hath loved me and given himself for me. This true faith doth close with God, and incorporateth itself into the body of the Redeemer. 21 And this is it, which bringeth comfort unto the wounded soul, and afflicted conscience, not that Christ is a Saviour, for what am I the better for that? but a Saviour unto me. That I am one of the adoption, reconciled and brought into favour, sealed up against that day, when the quick and dead shall be judged: my portion is with the Highest, mine inheritance with the Saints. How could flesh and blood ever bear the heat of strong temptation, without this firm persuasion? What is it to my belly, that bread is prepared for other, unless I be assured that my part is therein? What is it to my soul, that Christ hath died for other, unless I know that my sins are washed away in his blood? It may be good for Moses, it may be good for Paul, or Peter, or james, or Stephen, but what is it unto me? It is Meus then and Tuus, as Luther did well teach, it is my God and thy Saviour which doth satisfy thirsty consciences. Luther. in Epist. ad Galatas. There is the joy of the Spirit, when men come to that measure. Then it is a blessed doctrine which instilleth that faith into us; and in that if in any thing, doth appear the fruit of the Gospel, which is preached in our days, that people sick and dying, being taught before in their health, can give most divine words, and right admirable speeches, in this behalf whereof I speak, sayings full of holy trust and assurance; which as it is a thing most comfortable to themselves, beyond all gold and treasure, which are but as dung and dross, to a man yielding up the ghost, so it bringeth good meditations unto the standers by, in causing them to acknowledge very evident an plain arguments of election in the other, whom they see to be so possessed with joy in the holy Ghost, and so rapt up, as if they had already one foot within the heaven. 22 But it is otherwise with the ignorant; they lie groveling upon the ground, and cannot mount up with the Eagle. So is it in that doctrine which the Church of Rome doth maintain, when their people are taught, that they must believe in general, that some shall go to heaven, that some belong to God: but to say or think, that themselves shall be certainly of that number, or constantly to hope it, that is boldness overmuch, that is overweening presumption. They are to wish and pray, that it may be so with them, but yet it appertaineth to them evermore to doubt because they know not the worthiness of their merits: a most uncomfortable opinion, which cannot choose but distract the heart of a dying man, that he must not dare to believe with confidence, that he shall go to God: that jesus is his Saviour, & the pardoner of his faults. No marvel if the life and death of such who harken unto them, be full of sighs and sobs, & groans, and fears, and doubts, since quietness and settled rest cannot be in their hearts. They have a way to walk, but what is the end they know not. They are sure of their departure, but whither they cannot tell. A lamentable taking, and wherein of necessity must be small joy. How contrary hereunto doth Saint Paul speak, Roman. 5.1. being justified by faith we have peace toward God, through our Lord jesus Christ. How contrary to this doth Saint john speak in the name of the faithful, 1. joh. 5.19. we know that we are of God. How doth dejected jonas yet keep him fast to this tackling, when he crieth o Lord my God? 23 And this is the surest anchor, whereunto a Christian man may possibly know how to trust. This is it which in the blasts of adversity, will keep him fast at the root; which in the waves of temptation, will hold him fast by the chin, which in the greatest discomforts, and very pangs of death, will bring him to life again: To ground himself upon this, as on a rock assured, that his God is his father, that jesus is his redeemer, that the holy Ghost doth sanctify him, that although he sin oft-times, yet evermore he is forgiven; and albeit he do transgress daily, yet it is still forgotten; that whether he live or die, yet ever he is the Lords. Good father lead us so by thy most blessed Spirit, that we never do fall from this. But although sin hang upon us, as it did upon the Prophet, yet raise us so by thy love, that laying hold on thy promises, and the sweetness of thy favour, we may reap eternal life, to the which o blessed Lord bring us for thine own Son Christ his sake, to whom with thee and thy Spirit, be laud for evermore. THE XIII. LECTURE. The chief points. 3. God's election is sure. 4. One argument thereof is to remember the Lord after affliction. 6. That cogitation is very comfortable. 7. The good and bad do differently remember God. 8. The wicked do it with a murmuring. 10. Especially in death, God is to be thought on. 11. Therefore it is good to think on him in health. 12. Else we shall not be willing to die. 14. Churches are to be used reverently. 15. God heareth the prayers of his servants. 17. By vanity is signified evil. 19 as Adam's fall may therein be comprehended, 20. or idolatry, 21. or curious crafts and studies, 22. or adultery and carnal sin, 23. and ill gotten goods, 24. and ambition. jonah. 2.7.8. When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord: and my prayer came unto thee in thy holy Temple. They that wait upon lying vanity, forsake their own mercy. IT is evident unto us, by the whole process of the Chapter before going, that the transgression of jonas, did seem unto the Lord a grievous transgression: And his fall may seem to us, a very strange fault, that a Prophet exercised before in God's service, among the Israelites, acquainted with secrets and revelations from above, should so vary from the tenure of piety and obedience. But great sins require great punishments, strange faults require strange chastisements. Our jonas as I think, may make his profession, that it hath been so with him. A tempest did follow him, which would not give him over: a lot did discover him to be a malefactor: and when he could answer to the evidence, no one word but guilty, which imported his confession, the mariners will they, nill they, must cast him over shipboard: where after sinking down to the bottom of the water, after wrapping and entangling of his head within the weeds, he is caught up by a fish, in whose belly he is lodged, for three days and three nights. Here how perplexed his state was, who cannot imagine? Without food, without light, without company and comfort: a man drowned, and not drowned; devoured but not digested, alive but yet as dead, in perpetual expectation of the fearful dissolution, of his soul from his body. Nay the torment was greater, which he sustained in his heart, that horror in his conscience, that conflict in his soul, as if God had forsaken him, and given sentence upon him, as on a reprobate castaway, a firebrand of hell, an inheritor of damnation. Woeful sinner, who for his fancy's sake, and upon the suggestion of flesh and blood, would draw such a judgement to himself, as which a man well advised would not have sustained, but the space of one day, for any treasure on earth. For it is a fearful thing, to grapple with the Highest, or to wrestle with our maker. 2 As this anguish hath been largely before touched, so to make it up complete, he addeth as the conclusion of his misery, although not of his prayer, that his soul fainted in him, it doubled itself together (as some men do translate it) as the knees of a man dying do double; it was as overwhelmed, fainting as in a swound, his life was at last cast, even ready now to go out, as a consumed lamp: the gaps and groans and pangs, of very death were upon him. Yea throbs of desperation did oppugn him with such violence, that the hope of eternal life seemed for some moments, to be exiled from him; his forlorn soul was sinking in diffidence and distrust. So the best are dejected when God doth eclipse his presence and comfortable aspect. But that absence and forbearing, maketh a more tender feeling of succour when it returneth, a more abundant thankfulness: for it deserveth gratefulness in great measure, to be brought from the depth of sorrow, to the height of joy; to be saved from extremity. jonas yet striketh this string, amplifying Gods mercy over him, from the circumstance of the time: when my ghost was giving up, when all hope was past and gone. Which argument because I fully handled in my last Lecture, I would now leave it, and teach some other doctrine. These two verses note two persons; the former of them the Prophet, the latter some other men, who wait on lying vanities. The actions of the one of them, and the other, are here specified, and the fruit which both of them do reap. Then these two persons yield two parts, to be handled by God's assistance. In the former which concerneth the Prophet, these circumstances are: what he did, and how he sped: what he did, in that he saith he remembered the Lord, how he sped, in that he addeth, that his prayer came unto God in his holy Temple. I remembered the Lord, 3 The purpose of God's election, in fore-appointing some unto life eternal, is a matter so immutable, and unchangeable in itself, that nothing can impeach it. The flesh with her frailty, the world with his subtlety, the multitudes and millions of infernal spirits, cannot alter that decree. There may be some shadows, and seem to the contrary, but the substance is kept inviolable. The very gates of hell, Matth. 16.18. prevail not against him whose the determination is; neither prevail they against his. No creature can cross the intent of the Creator. He can bring us, he can force us, from sin, unto sorrow and heaviness for sin, from filthiness unto innocency, from transgression to repentance, from forsaking of goodness to embracing of grace. He it is who can regenerate us, renew us, and reform us, remould us, and reframe us, that natural corruptions, and actual depravations, even idolatry with Naaman, 2. Reg. 5.1. Luc. 19.2. Act. 9.1. Matth. 26.70. Luc. 8.2. or extortion with Zacheus, or persecution with Paul, or denying Christ with Peter, or entertaining of seven devils with sinful Mary Magdalene, shall be to us no prejudice, no detaining of his favour. Where he appointeth salvation, there every thing in his time shall work unto salvation; but it must be in his time. He draweth the unwilling to him, the broken he bindeth up, the lost he seeketh out, he toucheth that with remorse, which was before as the Adamant, the hardest heart he doth mollify. He that ordaineth glory to any, will give him grace to attain it. He who is the life is the way leading to that life: joh. 14.6. he who giveth the one, granteth the other. Where he determineth the end, there also he offereth the means to apprehend that end. As before more at large. 4 But there is no mean more direct, to bring any to God, then to teach him to know God, who never knew him before: and such a man as did know him, and now is as if he were fallen away, to bring him to remember him; that he may once again assume that confidence, and resolution to himself, that he who loved him before, will return his affection toward his soul, if it do seek unto him. Which favour, look to whom God in his mercy granteth, it is an assured argument that he is not such a lost child, as who finally shall perish. For with his sweet remembrance (for so I may well term it, when it cometh after bitter temptation, and a grievous fall) doth go a faith of that nature, that if it be once admitted to presence, it will never out again; no justice can dismay it, no judgement can affright it; but although it creep on his knees, it will to the mercy seat; from which albeit rigour should offer to repel it & remove it, yet it clingeth & clutcheth so fast, that it will not out any more. Then, the best men who have fallen by the infirmity of their flesh, think their case very happy, if that may be granted to them, to have God in their mind, and to have recourse to him: and they make much of that motion, retaining it and pursuing it, as the best way to their blessedness: they account this in greatest difficulties, as the first step to a conquest, as the first link of a chain, which being plucked will bring on much more with it. Psal. 42.6. 5 In the two and fortieth Psalm David complaineth thus: My God, my soul is vexed within me, but yet he addeth for his comfort, Psal. 77.2.1. therefore I will remember thee. In the seventy and seventh Psalm, In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord, my sore ran and ceased not in the night: my soul refused comfort, But I did think upon God. What a joy was it to job, when after loss of all, after his biles and botches, and scraping them with a potsheard, after his wives temptation, after his friends reproaching him that he was a sinful hypocrite (else God would not have so plagued him) he found that grace with his maker, as to grow to this resolution to say, job. 13.15. Lo, though he slay me, yet will I trust in him. For it is the only rock of contentment, the best and sole assurance, which languishing souls can have, to run unto the Lord, all-sufficient for his power, and merciful in his love. jonas was past the pikes, and now entering upon a victory, when after his dejection, and discouragement in his suffering, he beginneth to remember God, whose amiable countenance he had seen so oft before, and whose favour he had enjoyed. And that is a great matter, unto a wounded soul (whereby he may close again with the Highest, and gather in with the judge) to have had former experience of his love, as of a father. This experience bringeth hope, and hope will never cease to beg, Psal. 74.12. and urge for a pardon. God is my king of old, saith the Church of God in affliction, & it resteth itself on that. When Habacuc had complained of those, who in his time did grievously persecute the faithful, his refuge is, the remembrance of the Lords foregoing favour, which evermore had sustained him. Habac. 1.12. Art not thou of old saith he my Lord my God, my holy one? Therefore we shall not die. 6 The siliest soul among us, may hence derive some comfort to himself: that is, when any fearful waves of temptation do grow on us to drown us, then to think on the mighty jehova who alone can rid us out. If ●● can speak against us, what matter is it if God be for us? If our sins within us be great, yet is the Lords mercy greater. What blackness can be so filthy, as that Christ's blood cannot wash it? I cannot owe so much, but my God can forgive it. I cannot want so much, but my Saviour can supply it. If I look upon myself, behold woe and damnation; but if I look up to heaven, there I have a strong redeemer. Now as for earthly matters, and these corruptible trifles, with which we have to do, they are to the regenerate man, far lighter than the other. If penury or poverty come, God hath enough for all, he can relieve in abundance. If sorrow oppress the mind, Psal. 30.5. it may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. If sickness do vex the body, what Physician is like to the Lord? 2. Sam. 15.31. 1. Sam. 21.7. If Achitophel should take counsel, God can turn it into foolishness; if Doeg should lay snares he can destroy and break them. And all this may be sound warranted to me, by those former experiments which I have had. I have lived so many years, and have ever been preserved: I have slipped oft but never fallen; or fallen but risen again. I have been much bruised, but never broken: in adversity he hath helped me, in temptation he hath succoured me: he is the same God ever, most gracious and most kind; him will I serve in weal, him will I seek too in wo. 7 Well fare this good remembrance, and flying to the Lord; unto whom, the holy men of all ages have had recourse, the patriarchs & the Prophets, & every grieved soul. And whither could they better go, then to the spring of grace, then to the well of power? No fishing unto the sea: no service to a king: where most is, most may be gotten. No seeking like to that which is to the king of kings, who is more than a sea of bounty. But in remembering him, remember this withal, that it be with a lively faith, with a confident apprehension of the sweetness of his love. For in this, the elect do differ from the wicked: both of them are in distress, and both remember God: but the one of them with a hope, the other with a horror: the elect firmly believing, that his God doth think upon him: that although the beams of his countenance, for a time be shadowed from him, yet they will break forth again: that he smiteth but not to death, he striketh, but not to kill. Whereas on the other side, the unbelieving sinner, be he hypocrite or idolater, doth think that his God or Gods, have utterly forgotten him; or if they do remember him, it is but for to plague him, to vex him or torment him: by which meditation, he breaketh into wrath & most impatient fury, sometimes raging with heat, sometimes despairing for fear, evermore quaking with horror. So the one of these liveth, & recovereth, & daily approacheth more near to the Lord; the other sinketh & fainteth, as the melting ice doth in the sunshine; or else fretting he blasphemeth, not unlike to a stroke of thunder, which rattleth and maketh a great noise, but presently dissolveth, and goeth away unto nothing. 8 We find such in the Scripture. In the eighth Chapter of the Prophecy of Esay, Isay. 8.21. God threateneth thus unto juda, than he that is afflicted and famished, shall go too and fro in it, and when he shall be hungry he shall even fret himself, and curse his King and his Gods, and shall look upward. Here is a thinking upon those, which were but supposed Gods, but it is with indignation. When Samaria was besieged, 2. Reg. 6.33. and famine did shrewdly pinch it, joram that wicked king thereof, had God in his memory, but to murmur and fret at him. His message unto the Prophet showed that, when he durst to say, Behold this evil cometh of the Lord: shall I attend on him any longer? As if he should say, that he would no longer wait the Lords pleasure. His words before show as much, 31. when in steed of making his prayer to the Almighty God, he doth curse and ban himself, if he did not that very day, take off the head of Elizeus the Prophet of the lord Apoc. 16.21. In the sixteenth of the Revelation of Saint john, is is reported that a great hail did fall, every stone as big as a talon; but it is added withal, that men blasphemed God, because of the plague of the hail: for the plague thereof was exceeding great. Among heathen men, the wisest have herein foully fallen, being dejected to desperation, upon every great occurrent. Tul. lib. 1. Epistol. ad Quint. Fratrem. I would pray to the Gods for these things, saith Tully, ad Quintum Fratrem, but that the Gods have given over to hear any thing of my prayers. Among the old Roman historians which have written, who was wiser than Cornelius Tacitus? men do now study him for policy. Yet in the first of his history, Tacitus Histor. lib. 1. recounting those great grievances, which befell Rome by the civil wars, under Galba and Vitellius, he useth this desperate speech: Never by greater slaughters on the Roman people, or by more just judgements was it approved unto us, that the Gods do not at all respect our safety and security, but to take vengeance on us they are ready enough. Here policy hath forgotten the very first grounds of piety, which are patience and humility. Livy a grave writer although otherwise superstitious enough, as appeareth by his Prodigia, and yearly monsters, yet tasteth of these dregs, when in his fourth book he writeth thus: Livius lib. 4. Vixope Deorum omnium res sisti potuisset. Here followeth a year, which for slaughters and civil uproars, and famine was very famous. Only foreign war was wanting, wherewithal if our state had been laded, things could hardly have been stayed by the help of all the Gods, but that they had run to ruin. 9 Thus the wisdom of this world, is nothing else but foolishness, nothing but doting folly, when it cometh indeed to the cross, or to the fiery trial. The knowledge of God is wanting, or at least the laying hold aright by faith is wanting. And where faith is not to be found, there is neither hope nor patience, which are two infallible notes of a just and Christian man. There is nothing saith Saint Cyprian, Cyprian. Serm. de bono patientiae. which putteth more difference between the just and the unjust, than this, that the evil man in his adversity, doth complain and impatiently blaspheme, but the good doth suffer quietly. The just hath trust in his Saviour, but the other hath no part in him. What marvel then is it, if the wicked do fret and rage without comfort, since he hath no share in him, who is the God of comfort? What marvel is it, if he perish? Plutarch telleth that this is the quality of Tigers, Plutarch. de superstitione. that if drums or tabours sound about them, they will grow mad, and then they tear their own flesh, and rend themselves in pieces. If the unbelieving reprobate do hear the noise of affliction, he is ready to rend himself: but by cursing and by swearing, he will tear the body of Christ from top to toe in pieces. As jonas did remember God; so the reprobate will not forget him; but it is not to pray unto him; not to believe upon him, for he hath not so much grace, but to ban him and blaspheme him I could wish that such profaneness as this, might never be heard off, in earnest or in play, in the life or death of any man. We should think of him with a reverence, we should mind him with a fear; in prosperity with a trembling, in adversity with a hope. There should be no fretting against his providence, no grudging against his punishment. When my soul did faint within me, I remembered the Lord saith jonas, I remembered him to beseech him, I remembered him to entreat him, I remembered him to embrace him, to trust in him as a deliverer, to believe in him as a father. I called to him and doubted not: and he afterward heard my voice. 10 Saint Hierome doth give this note upon this place, Hieron. in jon. 2. taking it out of the Septuagint. That because he thought upon the Lord, when his soul did faint, and he was ready to die, we by his example, should above all things mind our maker, when we are in the fits and pangs of death. A very needful doctrine, if any thing may be needful; that when we must dislodge, and be removed hence, when our glass is so far run, that immediately a change must follow, and that not to a trifle, or toy, which is to be contemned, but either to heaven or hell, either to perpetual joy, or to everlasting torment; we have him in our meditations, who is to see our judge, who is to scan our actions, and to peruse our conscience, and give the last sentence on us: that then with our best remembrance we think upon his mercy, and contemplate on his great love, in the redemption of his son, and desire him for his bloods sake, to take us into his favour. That this lesson might the better be taught unto us, jesus the son of God, and forerunner of our faith, when he was ready to yield up his spirit, did commend his unspotted soul, Luc. 23.46, to his most righteous father. Father into thy hands I commend my spirit. Good Steven the eldest martyr, did tread these steps right after him, when at the time of his death he cried, Act. 7.59. Lord jesus receive my spirit. And every Christian man should struggle and strive to do so; to shake off as much as may be, the heaviness of his sickness, and as having that one prize, that last great prize to play, should stir up his spirit in him, and should then pray to God to comfort him, to conduct him unto heaven, to lead him along to glory. It is a good thing to live well; but because death is the upshot, which maketh or marreth the rest, it is the best thing to die well. He who hath begun aright, hath half that whereat he aimeth; but to begin is our hurt (it shall be a witness against our conscience) unless we do persevere. The man who shall be blessed, Matth. 24 13. must continue to the end. 11 Then may the dangerous state of such, be justly deplored, who in their life time have so fond doted upon the world, that when death which is God's bailiff, doth summon them to appear before the judgement seat, they do least of all other things know, wherewith he should be furnished, who cometh there: but as before in the time of their health, so in their despaired sickness, do think only upon their Mammon, admiring it and embracing it, and kissing it in their thought, as if they were wedded to it. But neither of themselves, nor by the instigation of the Minister (who is a remembrancer for the Lord) can they be any way urged, to speak of celestial things, to call on God for mercy, or to profess their faith, and confidence in their Saviour. And this worldly imagination, first ministereth hope of life, they not dreaming that death will take them, till on the sudden both body and soul, do eternally die together. Next if they do conceive, that it must be so, and there is no way with them but the grave, then is their heart oppressed with sorrow, and a huge weight of grief, that there must be a separation, from their beloved treasure. And lastly if their memory do serve, there must be an unsettled and unresolved disposing, with disquietness and much vexing, of that which hath been ill gotten, to this child or to that friend, and much stir there must be about the pomp of a funeral: by which means all good motions are so stifled and choked, that there is scant one word of him, who made all and must judge all. See what it is, in our life time to thirst after this trash, to repose our full contentment and blessedness in this dross. When the heart should be lifted up to celestial contemplation, this hangeth so about it, that it cannot but lie groveling, upon the the rotten ground. 12 Vain glory, or any sinister passion which doth possess the mind, hath the same effect; and so hath ignorance of the true God; which ignorance and vain glory, as I suppose were the reasons, Sueton. in Tito. cap. 10. wherefore Titus the Roman Emperor (who was among the heathen a mirror of men) was so loath to depart from this earth; when knowing that he must die, being carried as he was in his horselitter, he looketh up toward heaven, & most bitterly maketh complaint, that his life should so be taken away, from him, not deserving so ill. How vain are all the shows of virtue, without the knowledge of Christ jesus? Yet the end of Saint Ambrose, In vita Ambrosij. Non inter vos vixi ut vixisse me pudeat. was in a more holy manner, when he being spoke unto by his friends, to pray that yet he might not die, made his answer as he lay, at the very door of death, I have not lived so ill among you, that I am ashamed to live any longer: neither am I afraid to die because we have a good Lord, upon whom he then did trust. There can be no better meditation, to any man at that time of departure, then to think on that good Lord. It causeth a willing and safe leaving of this world; a perfecting and completing of all, that hath been here begun; which is more to be desired, than all the land or treasure, which ever the Sun did see. When the time of receiving the reward cometh, it is good to be ready. It is best to be advised of our standing, but most of all of our falling. He that for a long time runneth nimbly, but stumbleth immediately before the mark, hath lost his former labour, and is deprived of the price. If at any time, then at that time, when our soul doth faint within us, and is leaving her habitation, together with our Prophet, let us think upon our God. Now let us come to the next circumstance, and that is how he did speed. And my prayer came unto thee into thy holy Temple. 13 jonas in great misery, and expectation of his end, hath his mind upon his master, & with faith he remembered him, and he remembered him to pray to him. Now his prayer was not unfruitful, as that which is made to idols, or unto hard hearted men, but by the favour of the judge, it hath audience to the full. It came to God in his Temple, which is not to be intended, as taken of the heaven, the chief seat of his majesty, and residence of his power (although in general all the prayers of his elect and chosen, do ascend and go up thither) but in more special manner it is meant of the Temple, which Solomon did erect: where together with the Ark of the covenant, and the Cherubims and the mercy-seat, the presence of God's grace was in most peculiar sort. And this house was to the jews, a visible sign and Sacrament thereof, 1. Reg. 8.31.33. Isay. 37.14. so that according to the request which Solomon made to God, they repaired thither when any thing did oppress them, as appear by Hezechias, who laid open the letter of Senacherib, in the Temple before the Lord. Yea when soever the Israelites were in a strange land, in bondage or captivity, and called upon the Lord earnestly, they did turn themselves to that coast, which way this house did stand, Daniel. 6.10. as I then made plain unto you by the example of Daniel, when I handled the fourth verse of this present Chapter. Then to say no more of that point, his prayer was directed to him who sat in this Temple. 14 But observe withal, with what reverence he speaketh here of God's house, the Temple of thy holiness, for so it is in the Hebrew, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or into thy holy Temple, as we commonly do translate it. If we refer the appellation of holiness to the Lord, who is so holy as he, whose sacred goodness and sanctity, doth exceed the thought of all creatures? In Leviticus he speaketh thus, Leuit. 19.2. be you holy, for I the Lord your God am holy. So in Exodus it was written in that plate, which was in Aaron's forehead, Exod. 28.36. Holiness to the Lord. If we take it of the Temple, this also was a holy place, consecrated unto piety, and dedicated to religion; whose inner part by an excellency, was called Sanctum Sanctorum, the holy of holies, as implying that the rest was also of good quality. From hence all profaned persons and polluted things, were precisely bid to be kept. joseph Antiquit. lib. 20.6. The violating of this house did much offend the Lord, as may be seen many times in the Prophets; and josephus is of opinion, that nothing sooner brought destruction to jerusalem, than the execrable deeds committed in the Temple. The place was made for all kind of goodness, and devotion to the Lord; but it was so far abused, as any thing which is most filthy. These are warnings to us, that since in our age Churches are as much to the Christians, as that Temple was to the Israelites, or at least they are sequestered houses, to serve God truly in, that we use them with all reverence, for his sake to whom they belong: that as we repute them, to be consecrated matters, so in truth we do use them, as Gods most holy Temple. Which whether men do or no, let the chopping and the changing in simoniacal sort, the buying and the selling of these Churches as of most profane things, witness unto the world. If we should be silent, yet let the pressing in of the vilest, 1. Reg. 12.31 right jeroboams Priests, proclaim the truth herein. Let the carelessness of those Pastors, whom God hath blessed with skill, make open declaration, who do mind that field or barn, whence corn or wool cometh to them, oftener in one month, than the pulpit in a year. They can inquire for a Curate, where one may be had best cheap, (not respecting whether he be able to teach,) or what payments be to the Prince, or impositions to the state, but how the people shall be instructed, they do not regard at all. And on the other side, let the general behaviour of men throughout the land▪ speak whether those that be of the congregation, do use these houses as sanctified things or no. Look into their cold coming on the week days, in such places where Lectures are continued, their talking and gazing about, when their soul should be instructed; their revolving of their worldly business; their observing rather of eloquence in the minister or preacher, or in some, what may be carped at, then how their own life may be bettered, or their conscience informed; their perfunctory praying, and formal invocation of him who requireth the heart. These matters show that it is made unholy by us, which in itself is ordained to be holy. Of likelihood the temple at Jerusalem was used in another sort, when the Prophet here called it holy: otherwise he might justly have feared, that God had not been there to have heard him, when he cried out of the fishes belly. 15 But hitherto the Temple was not relinquished by him, as the later house was afterward, when a voice was heard in the night saying, joseph. de bello judaico. lib. 7.12. Migremus hinc, let us be gone from this place; and therefore the Prophet's prayer which was directed hither, found the success which it wished. It came thither to the Lord. The distance of the place, the great depth of the water, the shutting up in the whale, yea the odiousness of his sin, could not detain his crying, and seeking to the Lord. He who in the fourteenth of Exodus, Exod. 14.15. 1. Sam. 1.11. did hear the cry of Moses, although never a word were uttered, and he who heard Hannas' prayer, when her lips only did move, and no word was spoken out, did attend jonas when he besought him with faith, and implored his gracious goodness over him. He hath bid us call upon him in the day, Psal. 50.25. that is, in every day of trouble, and he hath said that he will hear. It is he who never failed any of those who seek to him. As in all other matters, so in this he hath a prerogative above all other: he can hear, and he will hear. Heathenish Gods are but delusions, and imaginary toys; he who prayeth to them prayeth to nothing. 1. Reg. 18.27 Baal may be jested at, as sleeping or being busy. Idols are but dead stocks; they cannot move themselves, and therefore not help themselves, much less those that pray to them. Yet a man exceedeth all these, if they were in number ten thousand: although oftentimes he debaseth himself, as a servant unto these. But how short of God doth this man come? This will not if he could: another could if he would: a third both could and would, but is absent, and therefore ignorant what it is that is begged of him. The power of all is so limited, that the greatest cannot grant the tenth thing which is asked, and either themselves do confess this, or use base shifts to cover it. And how hardly do men part with that which is in their power? Seneca de Beneficijs. lib. 2.17. As Seneca writeth, on a time a Cynic Philosopher asked a talon of Antigonus, who would gladly have been reputed a bountiful Prince. His answer was, that a talon was too much for a Cynic to receive. Then the other asked him a penny. That saith he is too little for a king as I am to give. How oft soever such answers be given from men, they do never come from God. He giveth without reproaching; he heareth without delaying. But we must ask that which is lawful, and we must ask in faith, and we shall not have a denial. 16 It pleaseth him to yield so much unto our prayer, appointing that as the instrument whereby we do approach him. And indeed it is a good means to come into his presence. For prayer is so piercing, that it will get to the seat of God, through the very heavens and clouds. It is winged and ascendeth upward, being made light by the heat of fiery pure devotion. The wind is not so quick: the lightning is not so nimble, which goeth from East to West, as this is in his passage. In a moment it ascendeth from our tongs to God's ears. His eyes see our eyes weeping: he well conceiveth our groans; he well understandeth our sighs. If heaviness do oppress us, and sorrow weigh us down, yet if our knees be bend unto him, or our hands held up on high, or our breasts be beaten before him, or our cheeks bedewed with tears, we shall be eased from all. Then this is the only remedy, in agonies and in anguishes, for the afflicted soul to seek to. It hasteneth to and fro, and never returneth empty. Our sinning and suffering Prophet, this drowning and dying jonas, did cry f●om the middle of the whale, from the bottom of the sea, from the very belly of hell, and as he said before, so here again he professeth it, the Lord did hear his voice: his prayer came to God's temple. Now you have heard what he did, and how likewise he sped. Let us here come to the second part, which noteth some other persons, whose words and deeds are otherwise. They that wait upon lying vanities, forsake their own mercy. 17 These words do imply a kind of Antithesis, or contrary success, between him before mentioned, and those who do now follow: as if he should say, I scant looked for mercy, and yet I did find it; I prayed and was heard: but these might receive mercy, and themselves do forsake it. These are such which observe, or keep, or wait upon lying vanity in stead of truth, not ignorantly falling into it, but wilfully pursuing it. Such as set their whole labour on that which is but error, and make a study of it. Now those who with such eagerness do follow wrong paths, the farther they go on, the more they go astray. They bend indeed all their diligence to somewhat, but it is to lying vanity: under which name, the Scripture doth comprehend all things, which are besides piety, and the true service of God. Psal. 31.6. Psal. 62.10. I have hated them saith David, who give themselves to deceitful vanities. And in another place: Trust not in oppression and robbery, be not vain. God's Spirit doth account every thing to be but vain, and lying, and deceitful, which cannot endure the trial, which faileth us and falleth from us, and when we most trust to it, is least able to do us good. Such are all earthly things, without the grace of God being joined to them; as riches which are so much desired, and honour which is so hotly sought, or beauty, or strength, or friends, which help not in that day, when judgement or vengeance cometh. 18 Such are all the inventions, and devised figments of men, superstitions and false religions, Pharisaical observations, papistical dreams and fancies, for whose sake, whosoever will leave the true prescript of God's word, he may be said to forsake the fountain of living water, jer. 2.13. and dig unto himself broken pits. He may be said to have turned from the Lord who is only truth, and to have embraced falsehood; to have refused grace, and forsaken his own mercy. For where as God hath promised to be merciful to all such, who serve him as he hath taught, by their neglecting of true devotion, they also neglect that mercy, which was offered to them before. So they make themselves unworthy of remission and pardoning of their sins. And in this case, the end doth prove heavy, like to that rule of Aristotle, where he saith that it must needs be in progress of time, Aristotel. Politic. l. 4.12 that of counterfeited good things, should grow that which is truly evil. That wherein Zedechias trusted was but a lying vanity, and had a doleful issue, joseph. Antiquit. lib. 10 4 when (as josephus did well gather) he thought that the two Prophets Ezechiel and jeremy, had spoken contrary things, & therefore that the Lord had not at all sent them. The reason was, for that the one foretold that he should be led to Babylon, and the other had foresaid, that he never should see Babylon. 2. Reg. 25.7. jer. 52.11. Whereas both these things were true; for his eyes were first put out, and then he was carried prisoner thither. The heretical understanding of Scripture is of this kind, being nothing else but a lying vanity: and so is the feigning of that to be Scripture, which is not written by God's Spirit, and the grounding thereupon of such positions, as touch piety and salvation. But because the consideration of this doctrine is very ample, and good fruit is herein to be found, let us see some few examples of such, as have or do so fall away from their mercy. 19 First our old parents in Paradise, did observe lying vanity. God had expressly forbidden unto them, the touching of the tree of good and evil. All other but none of that. Satan cometh with his temptation, and suggesteth another matter, and that was this, as chrysostom writeth upon Genesis: What profit is it to be in Paradise, Chrysost. in Genes. Homil. 16. Sp●tare vobis licet, frui non licet. and not to enjoy such things as are in it? Nay therefore your grief is the greater, that see these things you may, but use them you may not. Or as Austen turning it another way, supposeth thus. God saith, do not touch it: what? This tree. And what I pray you is this tree? if it be good, why may not I touch it? if it be bad what doth it in Paradise? There is no hurt in the tree; but God in his spiteful mood, is loath that you should be graced so far forth as himself. You shall be Gods if you do it, and able to discern good and evil. Thus was a lie inculcated in stead of a simple truth, and Adam was induced to hearken to the vanity of the deceiving serpent, whereby he lost that mercy, which the Lord had appointed over him, and plucked on himself and his posterity after him, that misery, that body and soul for ever had jointly perished by it, if our Saviour in compassion had not made restitution. Other by his example may take heed and warning also, what that thing shall be, whereunto they presume to trust. 20 Secondly, idolatrous persons do come within this compass, who declining once from him, who is the only Lord, do multiply to themselves filthy abominations, and therein are so obsequious, and scrupulous every way, that true piety doth not come near them, Num. 23.1.14 in accomplishing that duty which appertaineth to it. When Balaam would curse the Israelites, he goeth from place to place, imagining as dicers do, that one standing room was more fortunate for his purpose, or lucky than another. But in every place he must have seven altars to be erected, and seven bullocks, and seven rams to be offered on them. He held this number of seven to bosom holy number, & therefore would not break it. How did they tie themselves to idolatrous observations, Isay. 57.5. August. de civitat. Dei. 4.8. who had their idols standing under every green tree? Or those of whom Saint Austen speaketh, who had for every thing a peculiar God or Goddess. When the corn was in the barn, they had a Goddess for that, and when it was in the earth, they had another for that, & when it began to blade, and when it began to ear, Tutelina, and Segetia, and Patulina, and Volutina, and how many I cannot tell. How careful think you were they, to watch when the times did come, to offer sacrifice unto every one of them in his kind? How laborious is their folly who live in Scandinavia, in Biarmia or Scricfinnia, which are Northern parts of Europe beyond Sweden, Olaus Magnus. lib. 3.2. who as Olaus Magnus reporteth, do mark every morning what living thing they do first see, in the air or earth or water, and all that day until the evening, they adore that creature for a God, be it bird or beast or fish, 2. Chron. 36.8. yea or creeping thing, as a worm. jehoiakim who is mentioned in the book of the Chronicles, did much dote on his idols, when he had found on him being dead, marks and prints in his flesh, which were made for their sakes, (for so the story is expounded. Euseb. de vita Constant. 2.5.15. ) So Licinius was fond upon his Gods, whom he did serve many ways; yea and upon occasions used to change them also, as he did when he fought against blessed Constantine. Theodoret. Hist. Eccl. 3.21.22. But no man more than julian, who did honour unto his Idols, with such and so many sacrifices, as were against human nature, and decorum in a man, as we find in the Ecclesiastical stories. Now see what can be more vain, than stocks and stones, & imaginary supposed powers as these were: what could be more lying, and more fraudulent, than such fond Gods as these? And they who wholly intent such toys, have renounced the true service of the Lord, who is jealous of his honour, and will not have any creature rob him of his glory; but such vain toys lest of all. From this text, they may fear judgement, who wait on he Saints and she Saints, and serve God and the Virgin Marie, with so many Pater Nosters, and so many ave Maria's, and Credoes, upon their beads. All these are without the warrant of God's book, and therefore lying vanities: yet how careful are superstitious persons to number them, and account them, and keep true reckoning of them, as if therein lay all the virtue. 21 Thirdly they are noted here, who make an occupation of trying tricks and conclusions, some wanton and some worse. I speak not against good learning, nor any honest experiment in it, but rather against such lies as Albertus and Bartholomaeus Anglicus De proprietatibus rerum, and other of that stamp, do suggest to idle heads, and young men which are too credulous. Take the liver or some other part of this bird or that beast, such a stone, or such an herb, at such a time of the Moon, and you shall do this or that; imagine, go invisibly, or understand birds languages, or obtain some evil purpose. If any thing be a vanity, this is a lying vanity, and a misspending of that time, which God hath given unto us, not to abuse, but to serve him; and he will require a reckoning of it at our hands, when we do least think upon it. There fall within this number, the ancient Aruspicia and Auguria of the Romans, that is, the marking of the flights of birds, or of the entrails of beasts, or other things of that quality, all which are foolish vanity; and yet much time was spent in them, and some made profession to be very skilful about them. The wisest among the heathens, although they did not know God, yet held these things for cozenage. It is a renowned speech which is fathered upon Cato, Cicero de Divinat. l. 2. that he would say, that he wondered very much, how one of their Aruspices could forbear to laugh, when he met with any of his fellows, to see how they deceived men, and made a great number of simple ones in the city. Saint Austen thought another matter, fit to be recorded of that Cato, August. de doctrina Christ. 2.21. and that was this, that when one asked counsel of him in sober earnest, what harm he supposed was aboded him, because rats had eat his hose; he answered that party with a jest, that it was no very strange thing to see that, but it had been much more marvelous, if his hose had eat up the rats. Tul. lib. 2. Divinat. In Tully's disputation concerning such arguments, when one to enforce the verity of Divination, had said that a victory which fell to the Thebans, was foreshowed by some extraordinary crowing of Cocks, Tully could answer that with a smooth flout, but very significant, that it was no miracle that Cocks should crow, but if fishes had done it, that had been strange indeed. Those Ethniks could see that these things were falsehood, and exceeding lying vanities, worthy to be but laughed at; yet how did some of their greatest men attend and wait upon them? Act. 19.19. I may call these foolish Arts, for I think that they come not so far, as curious crafts extend, which are named in the Acts of the Apostles. But to speak mine opinion, I imagine that figure-casting for such things as are lost, or to judge of Nativities, is fully within that kind, and is a lying vanity, as that which is most lying. Yet although by the Prophets it be sharply rebuked, Isay. 47.13. jerem. 10.2. although condemned by Philosophers, although ill spoken of by Historians, although by good laws forbidden, in well governed common wealths, although no Principle therein have approved verity, neither may there be any good argument or conclusion made for it, yet how do some wait upon it, and in no sort will go from it? Of whom I may also say, as Cato said of the Aruspices, that I marvel when they meet one another, how they can forbear to laugh to see how they get money. From the number of these, I may not seclude superstitious observations of ominous or unfortunate things, upon which some men do so dote, that they believe such vanities, as a man should believe the Gospel. All fearful judgements sent from God, are to be regarded by us, but frivolous superstitions, and traditions from old tales, are rather to be contemned. He that observeth the wind shall not sow, Eccl. 11.4. and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap. Take heed of such lying vanities. 22 Fourthly, ordinary transgressions may very well be taxed hence, and adultery among other: wherein although Satan the more to inflame it, do buzz a tale into want on flesh, that great men have sinned so; that God will not call such natural faults as those be to reckoning; that there is time enough to repent in old age; and it is best in the mean while to satisfy concupiscence: yet when these things come to be weighed in the balance of God's justice, they prove both light and lying. For the wrath of the Lord is oftentimes kindled against such wilful crimes; and he hath threatened, that whore mongers shall be shut out from the new Jerusalem. Apoc. 22.15 They then do forsake their own mercy, who pollute themselves in such sort, and withal are a cause for other to be filthy. Yet how some wait upon this, it is lamentable to think, seeking to hurt themselves by every kind of wantonness. Good job in his confession, held this for a gross sin, job 31.9. and disclaimed it from himself, If my heart have been deceived saith he by a woman, or if I have laid wait at the door of my neighbour, observe that adulterers do wait upon their sin, let my wife grind unto another man, and let other men bow down upon her, that is, let my wife also be false to me: for this is a wickedness and iniquity to be condemned. But many do not fear this, and so pluck God's judgement on them. 23 Fiftly, they who in desire to enrich themselves or theirs, do set their heart upon money, and care not how they gain it, by robbery or oppression by bribery or extortion, so that it come in unto them, do wait upon lying vanity. Which may easily be gathered from the very words of David, Psal. 62.10. whom I cited before, trust not in oppression nor in robbery: be not vain, or give not yourselves unto vanity, if riches increase, set not your heart upon them. If any, than this is a vain conceit to think that a man's purse is the best friend which he hath, that riches can preserve in the day of greatest trouble, that God accepteth money, that ill gotten goods can long prosper. Oftentimes money is kept to the hurt and death of the owner: and children are so far off from being blessed with goods which are ill gotten, that fretting and consuming, and a curse is joined with them. Then what folly is it to force and strain our consciences, and so to adventure on God's displeasure, and the loss of his best mercy, for the gaining of that which is but a fugitive servant, and cannot help at need? And yet it is strange to see, how the world lieth open to unlawful and filthy gain, what wring there is from all sorts, what gripping of the poor, what thirsting after gifts and hunting after rewards. Are there not which wait upon this, and make a study of it, as a man would study heaven, devising and contriving by what fine sleight and skill, this money may be soaked out, and this cheat may be gotten, and that gift may be had? and then like to the hypocrite, whereof Zacharie speaketh in his time, Zach. 11.5. they can cry blessed be God for I am rich and live well, seeming to give the Lord thanks for that, which they have spoiled, and robbed from their brethren, whom as there the Prophet speaketh, they slay and sell for money. It is great thanks which we return to God, for the wit and reason which he hath bestowed upon us, to employ it in that sort; as to offend his divine Majesty, to abuse those with whom we live, to help ourselves, (so farrefoorth as is in our own power) to infamy in this life, with all such as be virtuous, & to destruction in another. Better it is to have clean hands here with a little, than much profit by false vanity. 24 The same application may be made, concerning ambition and other sins, in all which we may take this for a warning; that our sight is so dim, and our understanding so dark, and such are the false shows of many things in this life, that we may quickly pursue a lie, in steed of truth, and vanity for sound verity, and so purchase God's wrath, unless with a single eye we look on things aright, and ever take the judgement of Scripture for our trial; and withal pray that our heart and intellectual powers, may be lightened in that behalf, that so having will and strength, by the mercy of the Lord, we may walk as we ought, and as it beseemeth our calling. And here I end. Holy Father we beseech thee to direct our steps in thy paths, that renouncing all lying vanities, we may acknowledge thee in our life time, to be the only Lord; and when our soul fainteth within us, and is departing hence, we may only think on thee, that both our present prayers, and spirits afterward may ascend into thy celestial temple, where thou reignest with thy most blessed Son, to whom with thee and thy holy Spirit be laud and praise for ever. THE XIIII. LECTURE. The chief points. 1. jonas proveth thankful for God's mercy. 3. The reason and order of sacrifices. 5. They should be spiritually meant. 7. How we should do in God's service. 8. God's praise is publicly to be sounded out. 9 Thankfulness is a sacrifice to be offered of all. 11. We are forgetful in it. 12. The manner of vows. 14. What rules are to be observed in them. 17. Popish vows examined. 19 All help cometh from God. jonah. 2.9. But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving, and will pay that that I have vowed: Salvation is of the Lord. IN the words before going, the Prophet doth comfort himself exceedingly, that he serveth such a master, as is best able to help him when he most needeth, and in his Temple attended to his hearty prayer, when as his soul fainted within him; whereas all other things, be they idols or heathen Gods, or any devised refuges, be nothing but lying vanity, and therefore those who wait and depend upon them, do forsake their own mercy. Where, when he had found God so eminent, and incomparably great, in comparing him with those weak ones, he esteemeth it a special point of duty, to yield to one so excellent, a high measure of praise; and most deserved thanks to him, who in extremity had so raised him from the pit. And this is the drift of this present verse, to acknowledge himself so bound and devoted to God, that all the powers of his mind, and faculties of his soul, should be employed in his service. A conclusion well beseeming him who had received such favour, that he would not as beasts, or as unthankful persons do, only take that which doth come, and make no more ado; but with a respect unto the giver, who beyond all expectation had raised him and relieved him, would record it, and repeat it, and in his best meditation, again and again revolve it, as not knowing how to return enough, for God's great mercy. 2 But in the mean while, the words which he useth are various and significant. He doth mention thanksgiving, which declareth his grateful mind: and the better to express it, he nameth the voice of thanksgiving, as intending, that he would advance the honour of him who saved him, not in secret only, but with manifest declaration to others: and to both these he doth add the act of offering sacrifice, applying that to his thanks, which was the most solemn service, used in old time to God. Neither doth he make his stand here, but whereas he had vowed some things unto the Lord, which he promised to perform, if ever he did escape, he saith he will pay those vows: and at the last for a conclusion, he shutteth up all with these words, salvation is of the Lord. Where because (as you see) the circumstances in the text are manifold, and all of them have their use, for better order of instruction, I think good to observe two things. First the duty returned by jonas, and that consisted in a double deed, one, the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and the other, the paying of his vows. Secondly, that good which cometh from God, not only to the Prophet, but to all those who do serve him. Salvation is of the Lord. Among all which the word of sacrificing is first proposed unto us. I will sacrifice unto thee. 3 The only thing which God doth look for at man's hands for creating him in so goodly a shape, for enriching him with gifts, so glorious in show, so gracious in deed, for preserving him and protecting him in such infinite variety of dangerous occurrents, for heaping daily upon him such multiplied benefits, is to be served and feared by him. Matth. 4.10. Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. In this, because he hath made all, he doth require all, ourselves and all ours, the body and the soul, the inward and the outward, the sensible and invisible; although especially the heart and immaterial soul, yet jointly the hand, and action from without, yea and the wealth also, that every part may recommend a duty to the author. And for these external matters, he hath given unto man not only members, as in prayer his hands to be lifted up, his breast to be beaten on, his knees to be bowed, his eyes to be bedewed, that so compunction in the mind may the more be stirred up; but also his other creatures, either dumb or dead things, the fruits of the earth, the birds of the air, the beasts of the field, the metals of the ground, to be used to his glory. And this in old time was done, in nothing more than in sacrifices, which was in some to consecrate and dedicate them unto him, in some other to offer them in whole or in part consumed with fire, to testify their obedience and seeking unto him. Which manner of sacrificing was known unto men from the first time of nature; Genes. 4.3. as good Abel and bad Cain, the first heirs of the world, presented an oblation of such things as they had, to him who had sent them. Cap. 8.21. No after the flood offered a sweet smelling savour, and Abraham by commandment, intended to sacrifice his only son Isaac. Cap. 22.1. By all which it is evident, that sacrificing was common, before that any order for God's service was settled. 4 But when the people once were returned out of Egypt, and God by the hand of Moses had ordained a civil policy, for the government of the laity, and a Hierarchy Ecclesiastical (for so I may well call it) for guiding of his Clergy, to the end that every thing afterward might be practised with conformity, he appointed first for the Tabernacle, and after that for the Temple, a tribe of Priests & Levites, whose office was to attend to the offerings of the people. And himself did name the matter and manner of every sacrifice, what bird, or beast, daily, or on other occasion should be offered, as the whole body of the levitical law doth make known to us. Thence grew the daily sacrifice, which never was omitted; the sinne-offerings, and free-will-offerings, and many sorts beside: and when extraordinary cause was given, great store of beasts were slain; as when Solomon to consecrate the Temple at Jerusalem, did offer in his magnificence, two and twenty thousand Oxen, 1. Reg. 8.63. and one hundred and twenty thousand sheep, such a sacrifice as I think the like was never seen. And that time only excepted, when the jews were captives in Babylon, or when Antiochus did tyrannize at his pleasure, the altars were still going, till the very time of Christ, and diverse years afterward, until that the city and the Temple were brought to desolation by the Romans under Titus: the Priests and people so precisely observing that, (when other sins, and dishonours to God did abound) that in the time of war and close siege, joseph. Antiquit. 143. & 8. when they might not issue forth to have cattle for their offerings, they would bargain with the enemies, at high price and great rates, to serve the turn for their money, as we may read in josephus. In such manner was the succession of sacrificing, for so many years together; God both approving it and commanding it. 5 Now these external sacrifices, as when they were rightly brought with true faith and obedience, and understanding knowledge, they had their use very good, as to thank God for his blessings, to acknowledge that all benefits were derived from his goodness, to testify their obedience in performing his commandments; but above all to figure jesus Christ, the true Lamb, who was one day to be offered on the altar of the cross to redeem the sins of the faithful, whereof in the mean time, their offerings were a sign and seal unto them; so if they were brought by any, as perfunctory things, formally and for a fashion, as hypocrites and worldlings did come with them, the Lord was so far off from accepting them as his service, that he hated them and detested them. In the first chapter of Esay, God speaketh to them by his Prophet: Isay. 1.11. What have I to do with the multitude of your sacrifices, saith the Lord? I am full of the burnt offerings of Rams, and of the fat of fed beasts, and I desire not the blood of bullocks, 13 nor of lambs nor of goats. Bring no more oblations in vain, incense is an abomination unto me, I cannot suffer your new moons. Which agreed with that of Solomon: The sacrifice of the wicked, Prou 15.8. is abomination to the Lord. God then required in them, that besides the material gift, there should be a true mind to serve him; humility and lively faith, which should express and show itself, with charity and good life; and a kill of the evil affections which were in them. Micah. 6.6 To which purpose the Prophet Micah most excellently doth speak, Wherewithal should I come before the Lord, or bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt-offerings, and with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of Rams, 7 or with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give my first borne for my transgression, even the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? 8 No: he hath showed thee o man what is good, and what the Lord requireth of thee; surely to do justly and to love mercy, and to humble thyself to walk with thy God. 6 Then it was the spiritual sacrifice, at which God chiefly did aim; the laying down of their souls on the altar of his will, the kill of evil thoughts, the mortifying of the members, the consecrating of themselves wholly unto his honour; which doctrine Paul unto the Romans doth plainly teach, where he beseecheth them by the mercies of God, Rom. 12.1. to offer up their bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, that is their reasonable service of God. And this not only under the Gospel, was seen by the faithful, but was foreseen also under the Law. David can say in his fourth Psalm, Offer the sacrifices of righteousness: Psal. 4.5. Psal. 51.17. Ose. 6.6. and in the one and fiftieth Psalm, The sacrifice of God is a troubled spirit. So Osee in his sixth Chapter, I desired mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God rather than any burnt-offerings. It seemeth also by my text, that our Prophet understood this, when he promiseth to sacrifice, but with the voice of thanksgiving, as knowing that to be it, which God indeed preferred before all things. And reason might well teach him, that it was that which the Lord meant, by the external sign; for what delight could he take in the blood of brutish creatures, a spirit in their bodies, the impassable in such savours as did arise from their altars? What need had he of an Ox, or ten Rams of a man, who is the owner and chief Lord of all the beasts of the field, of all the birds of the air? If he but speak, they be, if he but call, they come: he made them, and he knoweth them, and hath no want at all of them. Then he respecteth the mind, and the life, and not the offering. The verity of which doctrine, is of so assured a truth, that Gentiles by the light of nature, believed it and acknowledged it, as above other, Menander the Poet in one of his Comedies, as Clemens Alexandrinus noteth in the fifth of his Stromata, Clemens Alexandrinus, Stromat. l. 5. where he citeth his words to this purpose: If any man offering sacrifice, a multitude of goats or bulls, or any thing wrought by art, although of ivory, gold, or pearl, do think that God will therefore be merciful unto him, he is deceived exceedingly: for the man whom God regardeth, must be good and honest, no deflowrer of women, no adulterer, thief, or murderer. And afrerward again: The just man doth every day offer sacrifice to his God, but it is not with clean clothes, but with a shining heart. 7 These are good lessons for us, who profess a service to the highest God, that first we make no spare of external things, to honour the Lord withal, when cause shall be offered. Our cattle and our clothes, our houses and our money, yea our best and dearest friends, should be employed in good services, to the countenancing of the Minister, to the spreading of the Gospel, to the establishing of religion, to the succouring of the innocent, to the relieving of the poor. These things should be to us, as their substance was to the jews, to bring it in sacrifice to the Highest, but especially we should consecrate our bodies to his name, our feet to approach his Courts, our ears to hear his word, our tongue to sound out his praises, our hands to fight his battles, if Antichrist should oppugn. And secondly together with our bodies, and those things which we have, our spirit within should join, a true and entire affection, a sound and grounded love to him who is most lovely, the husband of our souls; that hypocrisy and feigned dissimulation be not in us, but truth, although in much infirmity and weakness of the flesh. And when our soul shall be devoted to him in that sort, he receiveth it, & embraceth it most kindly as his own, more respecting the mind, Mark. 12.41. than any apparent thing. The two mites of the poor widow, came welcome into God's treasury, because her heart was rich, though her purse were very empty. It is recorded of Aeschines, that when he saw his fellow scholars, give great gifts to his master Socrates, Se nec de Beneficijs. lib. 1. he being poor, and having nothing else to bestow, did give himself to Socrates, as professing to be his in heart and good will, and wholly at his devotion. And the Philosopher took this most kindly, esteeming it above all other presents, and returned him love accordingly. The gracious disposition of our eternal father, taketh in far better part, than any man can take it, the laying down of our souls, and prostrating of ourselves to the fulfilling of his will. He accounteth that the best sacrifice, because it is spiritual. external things do well, but inward gifts do better. I have noted this unto you, from out of the word of sacrificing, where the Prophet doth not stay, but particularizeth specially, what it is that he will offer. I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving. 8 This voice doth imply an open and manifest declaration of the mercies of the Lord, that he meant not to conceal his wilful disobedience, nor his punishment for the same, but every man should know, how he had been in the sea, fast closed up in the whale, in pangs of death and extremity, and yet the Lord had brought his soul out of the pit. He thought it not enough to ruminate in his own mind, and chew upon this mercy, but others shall be advertised of it, that so by his example, they may learn to know their Creator, they may learn to dread their maker. This was a custom of David, who upon great things obtained, doth use to make solemn profession, that he will praise his God in the great congregation. Psal. 26.12. It is but a small thing to think it, but he will speak of God's glory. And thus every one should do, yielding unto the world a testimony of his faith, and honour unto him, whom he chiefly doth honour, that such as yet are not called, by that means may be provoked, to hearken to true religion, pricked forward by that comfort, which they see in God's children. Plutarch. in Themistocle. Sueton. in julio. 7. The speech of Miltiades which was in the mouth of every man, and his victorious acts, set Themistocles on fire to attempt to do the like. The fame that was of Alexander, gave heart to julius Caesar, to become the more noble warrior. And shall not our speaking of God, & the reporting of his acts, his justice in correcting, his mercy in defending, his providence in disposing, his willingness in redeeming, his readiness in forgiving, uttered by Christian men, incite others to be Christians? God did know that, to be a great means of bringing men unto him, when he gave charge, that the Israelites should recount unto their children, Psal. 78.4. his glorious facts, and the works which he had showed in Egypt. It is a fault in our days, that parents are not careful to instill into their children, the remembrance of such things as they have read, or known to come obseruably from the Almighty. It is a fault in others, that if they come in place where religion is not respected, as among Papists or Atheists, they think best to conceal the profession of true piety, lest they should be scorned, or derided, or pointed at with the finger: and so by a policy stopping the course of their zeal, in time they quench their zeal, and make themselves as key-cold as those with whom they do live. They should discharge a good conscience, by acknowledging of their hope, & peradventure they might by the blessing of the Lord, draw on other which were backward before: for the heart of him who heareth, is not in the power of himself, but God doth rule & guide it, & the means whereby he worketh is the hearing of good things. Let the voice then go to serve the Lord, and let him bless and prosper it, as seemeth good to himself. But thou hast discharged thy duty: he hath given thee a tongue to praise him, and with it thou dost honour him. 9 The voice of jonas goeth, and it is in giving thanks, unto which the name of sacrifice is oft given in the Psalms, as namely in the fiftieth, Psal. 50.14. Offer to God praise or thanksgiving; where the word offer, doth plainly import a sacrifice. And in the hundred and seventh Psalm, Psal. 107.22. Let them offer sacrifices of praise, and declare his works with rejoicing. This gratefulness is marvelously acceptable to the Lord, when he bestoweth not his benefits as upon the ox or ass, who have them and forget them, but on those, which are mindful who is the author of them. And that is the sole reward, and only retribution which we can render to him, and if he have not that, than he reapeth nothing for all his blessings: but if he may have that, many good things of necessity will be joined therewithal. Therefore he straightly requireth it, of all that belong unto him. In the eighth Chapter of Deuteronomy, he speaketh thus to the Israelites, When being come into the land of Canaan, Deut. 8.10. thou hast eaten and filled thyself, thou shalt bless the Lord thy God, for the good land which he hath given unto thee. In the thirtieth of jeremy, he saith in this manner, jerem. 30.18. Thus saith the Lord, Behold I will bring again the captivity of Jacob's tents, and have compassion on his dwelling places, and the city shall be builded upon her own heap, and the palace shall remain after the manner thereof. But immediately he addeth: 19 And out of them shall proceed thanksgiving, and the voice of them that are joyous. The precepts are diverse, which be in the New Testament to this purpose. Let there be in you no filthiness, Ephes. 5.4. Colos. 3.17. neither foolish talking, nor jesting, but rather giving of thanks, And again, What soever you shall do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord jesus, giving thanks to God even the father by him. The patriarchs and the Prophets, and the faithful of all times, had ever this in their memory. How did Moses and the people, Exod 15.1.20. with timbrels and with dances, sing and rejoice to God, when Pharaoh and his chariots were drowned in the red sea? judic. 5.1. How did Barack and Deborah sing, upon the fall of Sisara? There is no end of examples, what hath been done in this case: but the rule may generally be given, so many as have been faithful, so many have been thankful. 10 It causeth a continuance of the love of God unto men, and an adding of further graces, when he seeth them to be mindful of that which is bestowed. But on the other side, unthankfulness is the mean to stay his hand from bounty: for as Bernard hath well observed, Bernard. Serm. 4. in Psal. 90. Accipiendis indignus est qui fuerit de acceptis ingratus. he is unworthy of things to be received, who shall be unthankful for such as he hath received. Here every one of us may examine his own heart, whether he do rightly discharge his duty. We do all long for perpetuating and augmenting the favours of God upon us, but see whether we requite those, which are already come unto us. As jonas was in danger to be drowned by the sea, and devoured quite by the whale, so was mankind in general (by reason of Adam's transgression) even as in the pit of hell, and very jaws of Satan, apparent heirs of damnation, fuel for eternal fire, forlorn men and past hope. Yet by the death of our Saviour, we were set free from all, redeemed by his body, and ransomed by his blood, admitted into the covenant, and incorporated into himself, so that now we are made free denizens of the city which is above. What can be a greater blessing? When ignorance and barbarism were grown over the world, and the darkness of superstition, as thick as that of Egypt, had possessed the show of all Christendom, that main Antichrist domineering and triumphing at his pleasure, so that few were to be found, without the mark of the beast, God did dispel that darkness, by sending us light from heaven; and causing the Sun of righteousness to shine out by his word, he cleared that filthy mist, that the nations of the earth, may now fully behold the purity of the Gospel. That which was denied to great ones, Exod, 20.21. hath been revealed to us. As Moses had more liberty to see the Lord, than the people had, so we see more than our ancestors. But what thanks do we yield for that celestial comfort? Do we magnify his mighty name, and sing and speak out the honour of him, who hath done such things for men? Where is that Glory to God on high, ●uc. 2.14. and blessed be our strong Redeemer? 11 We who live in this land, have sat as at the well head, for many years together. We have had a most gracious Princess, a mother to our country, and a nurse unto God's Church; under the shadow of whose wings, next after the eternal Lord, we have enjoyed much peace, prosperity and abundance. Our neighbours who groan under the burden of heaviness and oppression, of persecution and civil wars, do very much admire it. Learning hath flourished with us, and manual arts increased; navigation hath been advanced, and traffic entered with many, to the enriching of our people, and the honour of our nation. I doubt that we are not so thankful, as all this hath deserved. Yea it hath come so fast on us, and continued without interruption, that our hearts are fatted with it, and we as full and glutted have fallen a sleep in security, so that we understand not the sweet things which are on us; much less do we with heart and soul, and all the powers which are in us, extol the author, who hath done such things for us. Conspiracies have been made, to deprive our land of her governess, and to bring it into the thraldom of a proud and bloody nation; yet by the Lords strong providence, they all have been prevented. The great fleet which meant to have made such havoc, 1588. hath been confounded: when men did not much to help us, the winds and waves did fight for us. Livius lib. 30. Truth it is, that as the Romans did give thanks to their Gods, when Hannibal was removed, who had oppressed and troubled Italy, for sixteen years together, so by the highest authority, in the most famous place of our land, and by the noblest persons, and in most solemn manner, God's praise was sounded forth, which was a most holy action, and worthy of a Christian kingdom: but see whether since that time, the common sort of men do study to remember it. Our thoughts within are so curious, and our ears without are so itching, that we loathe to hear the Preacher to name this in the pulpit: we imagine that this never cometh, but for want of other matter, being a cram, oftentimes sodde. It seemeth that we are little moved, when we think so lightly of that, which to the natural inhabitants of this land, was so great a deliverance as our eyes never saw. Albertus' Cardinalis Austriacus Caletum capiens. Anno. 1596. Deut. 6.7.22. We have reason to fear, that God lately hath brought the same enemy so near our land, to quicken us and to stir us, to a remembrance of the former mercy, by shaking his rod over the sea unto us. The acts which God did in Egypt (of the which I spoke before) and his victories by the conduct of josuah, were commanded to be proclaimed to all succeeding ages, and were bidden to be spoken off. I do marvel why no man in that time objected; What shall we never have done of hearing these old matters? No, their thankful mind did use it otherwise, and recorded that matter, and recounted it as the fairest flower in their garland, and their honour with all the earth. We should make such reckoning of all God's mercies towards us, but most of all of the greatest. The enjoying of apparent good things, or the escaping of fearful and dreadful evils, doth deserve thanksgiving with us. jonas had felt the bitterness, being in hazard of destruction of body and soul together: but by compassion of his master, he is like to pass through this danger; and therefore he maketh a promise, that he will sacrifice to the Highest in spiritual manner, by giving him praise and glory. And thus you have the first point of that which he undertook: now let us come to the second. I will pay that which I have vowed. 12 The making of vows, was a solemn custom among the children of Israel, that when any good thing was granted unto them, but especially if they earnestly desired to have any thing, they would bind themselves by promise, or peradventure by an oath to be kept without violating, that this they would perform, or that they would abstain from, as it might be, Num. 6.2. drink no wine, or not cut their hair, as the use of the Nazarites was, or dedicate their children to an attendance in God's tabernacle, or offer such and such offerings. Wherein the care of those who were faithful, was first that they vowed nothing but that which was lawful, and secondly that they performed the thing which they vowed. Numer. 21.2. So the Israelites did vow, that if the Lord would give them victory, they would raze down and destroy the cities of Canaan. A matter which was lawful, nay which God required of them. 1. Sam. 1.11. Barren Hanna did vow, that if the Lord would so respect her, as to send her a son, she would give him to God all the days of his life. She spoke it, and she performed it in Samuel her child. job. 22.27. Psal. 22.25. Thou shalt render thy vows, saith Eliphaz to job. My vows will I perform before all that do fear him, saith David of himself. They knew that God did expect it, & precisely had enjoined it by a special law. It is a peremptory place, in the three and twentieth of Deuteronomy, Deuter. 23.21 When thou shalt vow a vow unto the Lord thy God, thou shalt not be slack to pay it; for the Lord thy God will surely require it of thee, and it should be sin unto thee, he meaneth if thou perform it not, but when thou abstainest from vowing, it shall be no sin unto thee. He would not have men bear themselves so carelessly toward him, as foolishly to promise, and falsely to break promise. 13 This made men under the law, to be very well advised, what it was whereunto they tied themselves by vow, that what they undertook should still be to God's glory: and withal their promise was for such things, as should be in their power to perform, if the Lord did continue his ordinary blessings over them: And these were rather praises & thanksgivings to the Almighty, (indeed perhaps in the open Temple, or great public congregation) than any material gifts, although those also were not wanting. Psal. 56.12. & 57.7.8. David's Psalms do make that plain; for wheresoever he speaketh of vows, there commonly he joineth praises to them: and in my text, thanksgiving and vows, are coupled together by jonas, as noting that the one hath a reference to the other. And I doubt not but we may make such vows in sobriety, in knowledge and in faith, to bind ourselves to God, and seal it as with a covenant, that we will serve his Majesty, while we live here in this world; that we will give among profane persons, a good testification of his honour; that we will sing Psalms unto him; that we will teach our children religion and true faith: yea further in particular, that if God would give us leave, we which be of the ministry, will look carefully to our charge, and will be diligent in the word: if the Lord send no great let, will preach at least every Sabaoth; or if we have not that strength, once or twice in a month: which task if we do enjoin ourselves, and use the ordinary means of reading and of study, and pray to God to assist us, his Spirit will aid us more, than we ever did imagine. Then we do not utterly deny vows; but we willingly allow whatsoever is justifiable by the prescript of the Law and the Gospel. But because many kinds of men make question in this matter, the Papists for their votaries, other men for other causes, I think it not amiss to limit this whole doctrine, by some Aphorisms or Positions, which shall clear the whole controversy. 14 Then the first rule maybe this: We in no case may vow evil things, that is, such as are contrary to piety toward God, or charity toward men. For these are sinful vows, and ought not to be made; in as much as it beseemeth us not, to bind two sins together: but an evil deed is the one, and swearing to perform it, Act. 23.12. is no less than another. Hence we condemn the act of them, who being angry with Paul, did bind themselves with an oath, that they would neither eat nor drink, till they had murdered Paul. A most malicious, and ungodly, and uncharitable promise: and yet there were more than forty of them, who had combined themselves together in that wickedness. And as it is a sin to make entrance into such an action, by speaking it or swearing it, so it is a greater sin to perform it being sworn. Saint Bernard hath a good saying to this purpose: Bernard. Epistol. 219. Quamuis nemo sapiens dubitet illicita iuramenta non esse tenenda. Matth. 14.7. Among the French men it is accounted a reproach to break an oath, although it be sworn evidently amiss: although no wise man doth doubt that unlawful oaths are not to be kept. Within this compass such rash vows do come, which infer some evident evil, although when they were made, no such thing was intended. Of which nature that oath was, which Herode did take, when being delighted with the dancing of the daughter of Herodias, he swore that he would give her whatsoever she should ask, to the one half of his kingdom. A hasty & fond promise, as appeared by the demand made thereupon, for the head of john the Baptist; which he would never have granted, if he had not purposed to go on in his iniquity and tie two faults together. For as origen saith disputing upon that deed, Origen. in Matth. 14. Quod peierandum erat potius quam seruandum. judic. 11.30. The head of john the Baptist was cut off for an oaths sake, which was rather to be broken by forswearing then to be kept. For it was not so great a fault to have made an oath hastily, as it was for a hasty oath to be the death of a Prophet. The vow which jephthe made, to sacrifice whatsoever living thing he first met, at his return from his victory, is by this position found to be made without judgement: but his fault was the more grievous, that he observed it so precisely, as to destroy his daughter. Take heed of vowing evil things directly or by a consequent. 15 The second rule is this: that there be many good things, which all of us aught to vow, and earnestly keep, because they touch the glory of God immediately, by a duty unavoidable; as that we will serve him truly, and evermore account him that mighty one which is to be honoured. Such was that vow of jacob, Gens. 28.20. of which Moses reporteth thus: Then jacob vowed a vow saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this journey which I go, and will give me bread to eat, and clothes to put on: so that I come again unto my father's house in safety, then shall the Lord be my God. The covenant of the Israelites is also of this kind, josuah. 24.25. where by the motion of good josuah, they do promise solemnly to put away their idols, and to serve the true God only. So is that promise also, 2. Chron. 15.14. of the people of juda under king Asa, where both great and small, do enter an oath to serve jehovah alone, the true God of all the world. Among us who are Christians, the celebration of Baptism doth include as much in itself, to which whosoever cometh (as all of us should come) doth bind himself by a vow, to renounce the pomps and vanities of this spotted filthy world, and manfully to fight against the flesh and the devil. How much do they forget this, whose whole delight is vanity, and idleness, and security, aiming at nothing more, then at voluptuous pleasure? Now when any goeth about to break such a vow as this, he maketh a separation between God and his soul, and as far as is in him, doth divorce himself from the spouse and husband of all the faithful. Do thou make these vows advisedly, and pray earnestly to God, that being made thou mayest keep them. 16 The third rule may be this: some things there be indifferent, neither in themselves good nor evil, which if a man do use, they make him not the better, and if he do refuse them, yet is he not the worse. If occasion should be offered, in devotion toward God, or in charity towards men, to promise to do such, or to abstain from the custom of them, I doubt not but we may vow. But in these we must put some limiting circumstances, as first that it be apparently for good and not for evil: Secondly that we undertake that action with great judgement, not rashly nor unadvisedly, but upon just occasion: Thirdly that we put no kind of superstition therein, as imagining that our deed should be meritorious with God: Fourthly that we be assured that it is in our power to do it: in which respect that condition is also to be put, if God will, or if the Lord do not hinder us. Within this kind I find the usage of the Rechabites, jerem. 35.6. who were bound by their father's charge (and as it seemeth they assented thereunto) that they would neither drink wine, nor sow seed, nor plant vineyard, nor dwell in any house, but only remain in tents; that so they might the better remember themselves to be strangers in the land where they inhabited; and of likelihood moreover, that they were but pilgrims upon the earth. And he who maketh such vows, under these forenamed conditions, is now bound to observe them, For although at the first, and in themselves they were things indifferent, yet now they are become otherwise, because an oath is passed upon them. He who was free is made bound by a voluntary offering, and therefore hath lost his liberty. Then these three positions may be gathered thus in brief. Evil things ought not to vowed at all: and if they be rashly spoken, yet they should not be kept. Some good things we must vow, as especially those in Baptism, and when we have vowed, we must perform them. Other matters which are indifferent, may be vowed or not be vowed, as I have showed above by circumstances, but being once undertaken, they are not to be broken. 17 Here the pretences of Popish votaries, may be in a word examined. Their common vows are of such things, as be not absolutely evil; neither are they of such matters as being simply good, do lie upon us by a duty of necessity, but they may much rather be accounted indifferent, although by their usage of them they make them to be otherwise; they make them to be wicked. A great part of their vows, is the going to places far distant, in pilgrimage as they call it, to Rome, or to Jerusalem, or Saint james of Compostella, or to the three kings of Coleyn: their keeping of the great jubilees; their abstaining from all flesh, and feeding rather on fish, as their Carthusian Monks do: their wearing of a haircloth or sackcloth next their body, and other things of like stamp. All which as they do use them, may well be accounted in the number of those will-worships, Colos. 2.23. that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, against which Saint Paul doth inveigh, and concerning which the Lord may ask, Isay. 1.12. who required this at your hands? They do fail in diverse circumstances, which should make their vows to be lawful, as first they cannot be warranted to them as assuredly holy, by faith which is grounded upon the word of God. Secondly they put a great deal of superstition in them, while they account them meritorious. Thirdly they tie themselves rather to the external thing, then to a sound reformation and bettering of the mind. It were better therefore, that such vows were omitted then made by them. Their vow of wilful poverty, is a thing of their own devising. Rich Abraham, and king David, and job with his multitude of cattle, knew how ●o serve the Lord in the abundance of their riches, and did not think, that religion only was in them who begged. And although our Saviour Christ and other of his Apostles, had little of their own, yet they left us no such precept, nay they rather did teach the contrary, saying that it is more blessed to give then to receive. Act. 20.35. And it is said that a Bishop (of whom it is presumed that he should be a man of religion) should be hospital, Tit. 1.8. that is an entertainer of strangers, which implieth a set kind of maintenance. When the Gospel was first preached, miraculous means were used to bring men to the faith; and this was one, that God could mightily provide for those, who were the messengers of his will, and relieve them from day to day, although they had nothing of their own. His purpose also was to show his power, that by means most contemptible in the eye of the world, he could settle his kingdom: and withal he would leave their wants as an example, to encourage his children in succeeding ages, that they should not be dismayed, if sometimes they were driven to penury and necessity, since his dear servants and his son were in that case before them. But these times now are past, and miracles are ceased, and such extraordinary feeding as the Apostles had, is not wilfully to be sought, lest we tempt God, and live without a lawful calling. The Church now hath an established government, and therein the Ministers which are needful, are to be provided for. And the word hath enjoined this, 1. Cor. 9.11. that where spiritual things are sowed, there temporal should be reaped: as knowing that in the end of the world men's charity would wax cold, and they who lived of alms, oftentimes should have hungry bellies. The living then of their Friars in a voluntary beggary, is a worship of their own, and he who voweth thereunto, doth vow to that, wherein his conscience can never have good warrant. 18 They stand as much upon chastity, that their religions men should vow a single life; wherein although I might show by good proof from the Scripture, and from the ancient Church, that Bishops and Priests did marry, yet omitting that, I will rather speak of the quality of their vow. Virginity without controversy is an excellent gift, in him to whom the Lord doth give it. Christ himself was borne of a virgin, and did lead a virgin's life, Matth. 19.12. 1. Cor. 7.32. and both he and Saint Paul, have commended it unto us, that we ought to strive for it. But who is he that so far hath power of his own flesh, as that before hand he can swear, to quench the lust of concupiscence, so that it shall not burn? I suppose that no man on earth, who is in his strong age, and in good health of his body can promise that to himself: then how much less their young ones, their Novices or Nuns of lesser age, who before the time that themselves come to experience, are put into the monasteries, by their parents or their friends, or are inveigled by others to take their rules upon them: which hath been a great occasion of much vile fornication, and the kill of many infants, besides the enduring of such untamed affections, as have boiled in their bodies. It is a good lesson of Solomon, that we should not suffer our mouth to make our flesh to sin, Eccles. 55.3. he meaneth in vowing that which is not in our power. He had commanded before, that we should pay our vows, intending it in those things which we have promised to the Lord: but lest thereby we should take occasion, to promise any thing whatsoever, he giveth a restraint down with it, that we should be advised, that we vow not that, which our flesh afterward cannot make good. For want of this wholesome caveat, they were put to much extremity, who were votaries first in monasteries, but afterward by the true light of the Gospel, did shake off the heavy yoke of Antichrist, and became great setters out of God's truth in this last age. They had entered a rash vow, in their minority and young years, which afterward they found themselves not able to perform, and therefore they did marry. Campian. in Ratione. 3.2. Against which although our Campian and his fellows, do with open mouth most bitterly inveigh, yet they never can be able by sound truth to condemn them. Their choice was hard, that either their vow must be broken by them, or else they must bear about a daily sin in their bodies. They adventured on the lesser fault, I doubt not but ask pardon, for the rash and unadvised oath which they had taken. And God doth forgive us such things, when we call to him by repentance, as may very well be gathered from the fifth Chapter of Leviticus, Leuit. 5.4.6. where was appointed an offering, as a kind of satisfaction, for him who had vowed any thing, which he afterward doth find out not to be in his power to accomplish. Charity doth bid me think, that those fathers in the Gospel, and excellent men in the faith, did enter into wedlock, with all labour to satisfy a good conscience towards God. And therein their own hearts, might be the best witness and direction to themselves. Yet the person who hath so vowed, and in so doing hath not done well, let him fear to break that vow causeless, by a licentious liberty: and if God do give the gift of chastity, let him live in continency if he can, as otherwise for the honour given to virginity in the Scripture, so for his vows sake also. And so much I thought good to teach concerning vows, by occasion of the words of the Prophet jonas; wherein if I have been overlong, let this excuse the matter, that this doctrine is few times handled, and now the text did minister opportunity. That second part which now followeth, I will overrun most briefly. Salvation is of the Lord. 19 Many of the old interpreters, and Hierome among other, not observing such a distinction, or point which ought to be in the sentence, have joined these words with the former, and so caused the sense of all to be troubled. The Hebrew hath it thus: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Salvation is to the Lord, which the most careful expositors do plainly express, by Salvation is from the Lord. Tremelius doth interpret it, All manner of salvation or safety is to jehovah. So that here the Prophet gathering by a constant faith, that after his great fears in the sea, and in the whale, he should be freed from all peril, and enjoy his life once again, ascribeth all to God, and with this Epiphonema maketh conclusion of his prayer, acknowledging that whatsoever came unto him well, was from the Almighty. For to whom should he impute it, but only unto him, whose inconceivable power he had felt before, to the full: who to punish and chastise him, had the air and water at his commandment, and had for three days kept him alive in the fishes belly? Now if he should bring him to liberty, out of bondage and desolation, and should pardon his sin and transgression, he had great reason to magnify his mercy and goodness over him. Mine aid cometh not from me: I cannot help myself: it cometh not from fortune or blind chance; there is no such thing in nature; not from any lying vanity of idol or heathen God, but from the all-sufficient Lord, who can help when he pleaseth, and raise up when he lifteth: he putteth down and setteth up, he doth what himself will. If I have hope of any thing, it is derived from him. 20 Yea under this general speech, he remembreth unto all, that every of their escapes from danger, are only from the lord Exod. 12.37. 1. Sam. 23.28. 1. Reg. 19.3. If the Israelites be delivered from the bondage of the Egyptians, if David get from Saul, if Elias be freed from jezabel, this good doth come from that father, who sitteth above in heaven. Or if any one of us, being laid for by the malice of cruel and wicked men, be not made a prey to their power, or deceiving policy, it is not of our wit, neither is any flesh our arm, but this safety is of the Lord. And if we will look higher, the delivery of our souls from the chains and bands of Satan, the saving of us from the violence of all our ghostly enemies, the redeeming of us from sin, the incorporating of us into his own sons body, the bringing of us to that glorious liberty of the sons of God, is the work of the Almighty. Psal 115.1. Not unto us o Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give the glory. We may say as the Elders say, in the Revelation of john, Apoc. 5.9. to Christ the Lamb of God: Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof, because thou waste killed and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation: and hast made us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth, nay we shall reign in the heaven. But the whole work of our ransom, only belongeth to the Trinity. As jonas concludeth that prayer of his, which hath been so full of passion, so do I end at this time, salvation is to the Lord. Let us pray to him to bless us still, that by grace given unto us, we may be sons of adoption, and at last be brought to salvation, which himself grant unto us for his blessed Christ's sake, to both whom, with the holy Spirit, be majesty power and glory, both now and evermore. Amen. THE XV. LECTURE. The chief points. 1. God's fatherly affection toward sinners. 4. He commandeth his creatures at his pleasure. 6. jonas is cast on land. 7. A figure of Christ's resurrection. 9 We also shall rise again. 10. Comfort to the heavy heart. 11. A comparison between jonas and Arion. 13. The whole narration of Arion is a fable. 15. Some wonders are wrought by the Devil, 16. who doth much imitate God, 17. and seeketh to discredit God's word by his fables. 19 How the Scriptures might be obscurely known, by the old Poets and Philosophers. 20. But they corrupt the divine stories. 21. human learning is fit for a Minister. jonah. 2.10. And the Lord spoke unto the fish, and it cast up jonas unto the dry land. IT is not without cause, that so oftentimes in the Scriptures, God is compared to a father, and called by that name, as Our father which art in heaven; Matth. 6.9. Cap. 5.48. and, Ye shall therefore be perfect as your father which is in heaven, is perfect: And, Psal. 103.13. as a father hath compassion on his children, so hath the Lord compassion on them that fear him: for he beareth a very fatherlike and natural affection, to all those who are chosen to be his. If they be led by weakness into diverse temptations, or by infirmity of their flesh be stained with great transgressions, he looketh angrily for a time, and with a terrible countenance severely frowneth on them; but yet in the middle of his justice, he remembreth mercy, and doth not utterly reject them, nor cast them away. It may be that he doth chastise them, with parentlike correction, according to the measure and quality of their crime; yea he layeth smart blows on them, not sparing to strike them, till he hath brought them, and depressed them to the pit of death, and entrance of the grave; but there he maketh a stay, in his kindness being satisfied with judgement, jerem. 10.24. not with fury, rather topping them and shredding them with some short adversity, then plucking them up by the root. And that is the manner of severe, but yet natural parents, in restraining their children from gross & foul enormities, to bend then not to break them: to seem more angry than indeed they be: or if they justly be displeased, to be so but for a time, giving pardon to such faults as be past, and expecting with much patience, that it may at length be better. 2 The righteous Lord of all, doth so look here upon our Prophet with a favourable eye. He had deprehended him long since, as a runne-agate from his charge: he made his own mouth give sentence, that he had deserved to be drowned: he had thrown him into the water, where as if it had been, with a death upon a death, he had made a fish to devour him, and for three days space to keep him close prisoner in his belly, in all the anguish and torment that his heart could imagine. He was as though he lived not, and yet he could not die; having time enough to meditate in what misery he was, but not knowing with all the wit which was in his understanding, how to rid himself from that sorrow. But at the last, lifting up his thoughts to his Almighty maker, he flieth by faith and repentance, to the throne of grace, desiring God to pity him, and show compassion on him, that once more returning to land, he might by open obedience, make some little recompense for his former fault. And the Lord graciously respecting his earnest and hearty prayer, doth content himself with the punishment past, and with a most free favour restoreth him to liberty. As a dead man from the grave, as one buried from the sepulchre, so is this man brought forth: his prison-doores shall be opened: his fetters shall be shaken off; he shall be rid from the whale, and set on foot on the land: yea as he was a messenger before, so he shall be a messenger still, a Prophet for the Highest, to go and preach at Ninive. My charge at this time is, to show the means of his deliverance, which is set down so briefly, and plainly in my text, that the words do neither need division, nor much interpretation, but that which shall be convenient to be touched, you shall hear of in the doctrine. Then the Lord spoke to the fish, & it cast up jonas to the dry land. 3 If otherwise we did doubt, what power and authority God hath over his creatures, yet it is assured to us in the end of the first chapter, jonah. 1.17. as in that place I gathered: when the Lord had a whale as at a beck for his purpose prepared, and in a readiness to swallow up the Prophet, being thrown into the sea. And as he there used that fish for his instrument, so he might have had obsequious to him any other thing in heaven, or in the earth, or in the sea: and as he might at that time, so might he at all times. That unrestrained prerogative in God, is once more expressed to us in the self same fish, whom after that he had caused to keep his burden in him, for so many days & hours and moments of time, as himself had appointed, now he will have him in a trice disburden his belly, and be eased of his carriage. But note with what facility he fulfilleth his designment, The Lord spoke to the fish. Not the struggling of jonas, nor his pricking of the fish within; no other receipt which should urge him to disgorge, and cast up his stomach; no violence which was offered from man or fish, or ship, or any other thing without him, did extort or force him out of his belly: but one word spoken from God, or less than that if it might be, did bring about that which was done. Which is not to be taken after the understanding of the gross Anthropomorphites, called otherwise Audaeani, Theodoret. Hist. Eccles. 4.9. (who did attribute to God the members and body of a man) as if the Lord had used some language, or talked to the fish, as men commonly do talk each to other, for that agreeth not with his spiritual nature, his impassable and pure and divine being. joh. 4.24. God is a Spirit saith our Saviour Christ. And although he assumed a voice unto him, when he was pleased to proclaim the law of the ten Commandments before the Israelites; Exod. 20.1. and may do the like again when it seemeth good to himself, joh. 12.28. as when he was disposed with words uttered from heaven, to glorify his Son Christ, yet that was not of his nature, but an action of his will, wherein extraordinarily he did take to himself some means, which are beside his essence, and which are not frequent with him. But here the word of speaking, is used to notify unto us, who are of dull capacity, and love our own phrases best, that he signified and gave inkling, in some sort or other (which was easy for him to do, but not for us to conceive) to the whale, that it must perform that service. And that the Lord in such manner doth frame himself in the Scripture, unto our understanding, as a rude one to the rude, as barbarous to Barbarians, as men to little infants do stammer and talk like children, is a verity so apparent and so common an observation to those who read the Bible, that it were but lost time to handle it: Lect. 11. and once before I have said somewhat of that matter. 4 It is a thing more worth the knowing of us, to observe his forcible power, that his saying is a doing, and his speech a commanding. In the very beginning of Genesis, Genes. 1.3. God said, let there be light, that is, he did command it. The words of the tempter unto Christ were, Matth. 4.3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Do thou say, or do thou speak, that these stones should be made bread, that is, as it is commonly translated do thou command. The Lord said to the fish, he laid his commandment on him; and who or what is that which can resist his will? If he bid come, all cometh: if he bid go, all goeth: the greatest is within his compass, the least is not exempted. If he will plague the Egyptians, Exod 8.6.24.17. Cap. 16.14. armies of frogs, and flies, and swarms of louse shall attend him: and if on the other side he do but put up his finger, they shall all away in a moment. If he will feed the Israelites, & 17.6. jos. 10.12. 2. Re. 20.11. jos. 3.16. 2. Reg. 2.8. 1. Reg. 17 6. Daniel. 6.22.24. the heaven shall give them bread, and the rock shall bring them water. For josuah, the Sun shall stand still, and it shall fly back for Ezechiahs' sake. For the passage of the children of Israel, jordan shall part in two: and so it shall do for Eliah. And for the same Prophet, the ravens shall bring food in the morning and evening. The lions mouths shall be muzzled, when Daniel is among them, but they shall devour most greedily, when the wicked accusers are cast in unto them. He who hath the key of heaven, and hell, and death, to open when he pleaseth, and shut when he listeth, can so order his servants and ministers which are under him, that sometimes they shall take, and sometimes they shall lose, here punish and there save, this day sound out his justice, and the next day teach his mercy. 5 Neither was it only in the time of the Prophets and Apostles, that God had all his creatures, miraculously if need be to execute his appointment; but also since their time they give the self same assistance, although miracles be not common, as they were in former ages. Tertullian. Apolog. ca 5 Euseb. Hist. Eccles. 5.5. Tertullian in his apology, and Eusebius do witness that at the prayer of a legion of the Christians, the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, in his wars against the Germans, had his army relieved with rain, which was before in danger to perish for want of water: and they add, that at that time, certain thunderbolts did strike and beat down the enemy. In fine Apologiarum. In some Editions of the works of justine Martyr, may be seen the copy of the Epistle of the Emperor himself who giveth witness thereunto. Chrysost. in Matth. Homil. 4. Socrat. Hist. Eccles. 3.17. Vide Grego. Nazianz. Orat. 48. When julian the Apostata, upon an intendment to cross the faith of jesus Christ, had set the jews on work, to build again the Temple at Jerusalem, as both Saint chrysostom and Socrates write, at first an earthquake marred their work, and afterward fire from heaven did burn and spoil their instruments and tools wherewith they wrought, so that they could not proceed. Yea something more than this is to be found in the story, of the sign of the cross appearing upon their garments. Ammianus Marcellinus. lib. 23. Ammianus Marcellinus who was no friend to the Christians, yet giveth testimony to some part thereof, saving that he rather supposeth that the fire issued out of the earth; which cometh all to one end. When the barbarous Northern nations did break into the bounds of the Roman Empire, in the days of Basile the Great, Basil. in Psal. 18. who lived in the time of Valens the Emperor, as Basile himself writeth, God destroyed them with fire and hail without the hand of man. And as we read in the same place of that Father, the Lord did so by the Persians attempting to do the like. But in my judgement there is no example more memorable or true, then that which fell out in our own time, after that great Massacre in France, but especially at Paris, Anno. 1572. Comment. Relig. & Reip. in Gallia lib. 11. in the year seventy and two. For at that time the whole power almost of that kingdom, being gathered together against the city Rochel, and besieging them with extremity who defended the town, God in the time of famine and want of bread, did for some whole months together, daily cast up a kind of fish unto them, out of the sea, wherewith so many hundreds were relieved, without any labour of their own, even as the Israelites were fed with Manna, every morning while they were in the wilderness. And as all the while that the enemy was before them, this endured to their marvelous comfort, so to proclaim to the world God's providence the more, when the enemies tents were once removed, and the city was open again, this provision immediately did cease. It was a good testification, that the Lord of hosts would leave a remnant, even a seed of his faithful in that land: and although he had sealed his truth, with the blood of his other servants, yet he would not deal so with them. To the end that all might not sink in despair, he ordained that when men failed, yet the sea should be a maintainer to them. 6 There God to show his power, did fill a many with fish, and here to show his power, he did empty a fish of one, both declaring his love and greatness; which he purposing to complete, & make perfect in our Prophet, to whom I now return, not only causeth the fish to free him from his stomach, and that not in the midst of the Ocean sea, that there once again he might be shifting for his life, that is, if he could not swim, sink, and drown: but he so directeth this carrier, as that he came to the shore. Of all likelihood this was a chosen shore, where the water was so deep, as that it could bear the whale, who swimmeth not in the shallow; and yet the bank withal so low, as that with putting up his head, he might cast the prisoner to the land. When the Lord doth decree the substance of a matter, the circumstance shall not be wanting. He who made all the rest, will find a place for accomplishing of the deed. It is not much material, where or in what coast of the world the Prophet was cast on land, joseph. Antiquit. l. 9.11. but josephus saith that the report was, that this happened in Pontus Euxinus, as it is commonly called, and that it was that part of the Ocean, where he was put to shore. If it were so, than the whale did carry him a great way, from the sea towards Cilicia on the south side of Anatolia, or Asia the lesser, through the Hellespont, and Propontis, & all the straits near to Thracia, and so into that Pontus Euxinus, which was a long space of way, in so short a time to be passed. But if this were so done, than the fish was as a ship, as the fleetest and swiftest ship, to convey him forward on the way; that whereas toward Ninive the place whither he should go, the coast was East, he was brought back again to the East, on the northside of Anatolia, so much being recovered by the fish, as he was carried by the ship before toward the West. But this is only conjectural, and therefore I do not follow it. 7 Thus far the Spirit of God hath plainly said, that jonas is gotten to the land: he is freed from the terror and imprisonment of the whale, and now he is so set at liberty, as if there had never been any such matter. Which whether we will in the figure apply to Christ, or by example to ourselves, it is worthy consideration. Our Saviour who is the best interpreter, and expositor of the Prophets, in the twelfth of Saint Matthew, doth compare this lying of jonas for three days in the whale, Math. 12.40 to the burying of himself for three days in the grave. Then by the same Analogy or proportion, the restoring of jonas from the belly of the fish, must represent Christ's resurrection. As this sinner was designed, not for ever but for a time, to be kept within that ward, and when his hour was expired, his keeper might not hold him; so our Saviour was shut up in the tomb, not for ever, nor until the day of judgement, but a set space was appointed, wherein he was to rest, and when that was consummated, the grave could no longer hold him. It had received a burden, which it had no power to bear. It detained him for a little while, because it was his good pleasure, to be so detained there; but when he began to stir, it felt itself overcharged, and could last out no longer. And in my judgement, the Metaphor which is used here in the type, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vomere. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth express this in Christ jesus, for the Original hath it Vajake eth-Ionah, which Vajake coming of Ko with Aleph in the end, signifying Vomere, is as much as if it were said, the fish did vomit up jonas: the quality of which word Vomit, doth imply that which I have spoken. For when the stomach of any living thing, hath received that, which either for the weakness of itself, or by reason of the strength of the meat, it hath no power to digest, it doth cast it up and vomit. The hardness for digestion, of that which is the ingredient, or the weakness of the part, receiving more than it ought, doth cause that evacuation. The case was so with death and the grave, when they received Christ. 8 It was no common meat which it had taken into it, but that which it was impossible should be concocted by it: not an ordinary man, Ruffinus de Symbolo A. postolorum. but one who had no fellows. His body was but a bait, to entice the grave to swallow him, but underneath was the hook of eternity, and that Godhead which caught both grave and death, and made them glad to put up such a one out of their bowels. feign they were to be rid of him, because he did overbear them: Act. 2.24. The Godhead raised him up, & loosed the sorrows of death, because it was impossible that he should be holden by them. judic. 16.9. When Samson was disposed, he broke the cords and ropes wherewith he was tied: they fittered and dissolved, even as the flax which is burnt with the fire: 3. he rend off the gates of Azzah, and posts and bars and all; and putting them on his shoulders, he carried them whither he pleased. So when Christ was disposed, be shook off the graue-clothes from him, and bore up all before him, the rock which was about him, and the stone which was upon him, resigned their strength unto him, and he cometh forth victorious, as a Champion who had slept, or a Giant refreshed with wine. As a tamed Lion, he had suffered death, and Satan, and the infernal spirits, for a time to play with him, and disgrace him, and have some hand upon him: but when it seemed good unto him, he roused up his body, and roaring in his might, this he renteth and that he teareth, he knappeth their chains in sunder, and maketh them glad to fly; happy he who could get farthest. The whale was not so glad to part here with our jonas, as the earth was with our jesus. Here the drowned man is restored; there the dead man is revived, being the first fruit of the resurrection. 9 As he died so we shall die: and as he rose again, so we also need not doubt but we shall rise again. Only he did it by his own power, but we not by our own force, but by the power of him. The head is gone before: the members shall follow after. Daniel. 12.2. Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and perpetual contempt. God's children shall be translated into a better state, recovering the same purity, which was given to Adam in Paradise, where he was after the image of God, in innocency and integrity. But first by death they must be beat in sunder, and knocked in pieces, that so they may be remoulded, and new cast by the workman, not only to their old figure, but to a better form in the day of the resurrection. But as their captain was, so must they first by death be dissolved and separated, that their bodies may be refined, and made a great deal better. Chrysost. in 2. ad Cor. Homil. 1. When we pluck down a house (this is Saint Chrysostom's comparison) meaning to build it new, or repair the ruins of it, we withdraw such from the house, as inhabited it before, lest they should be soiled with the dust, or offended with the noise, and bid them for a time to rest in some other place: but when we have new trimmed and dressed it, we bring them back again to a better habitation. So God when he overturneth the rotten room of our flesh, calleth out the soul for a little, and lodgeth it with himself, in some corner of his kingdom, but repaireth the bracks of our body, against the resurrection: and then having made it decent, yea glorions and incorruptible, he doth put the soul back again, into her acquainted mansion. He hath determined this concerning us; that dust shall recover breath, and rottenness shall have life: against all Atheists and Epicures, there shall be a resurrection. But I pursue this no farther, because in the end of the first Chapter, jonah. 1.17. I handled it at large. 10 If in another sense we will turn the present example, to the benefit of ourselves, this giveth great consolation to the dejected conscience, which groaneth under the weight of her sins. Such things as are written, are written for our learning. This wretched suffering man had displeased the Lord most grievously. For the heinousness of his fault, wrath was gone out against him. The Lord would not be satisfied, but with drowning and devouring, in the belly of such a monster, where the fear of death, and almost the pains of hell were upon him. The passions of his heart had been desperate and distrustful, if faith had not come to the rescue. Yet we see that he did not perish, but when his woe was passed over him, he came to good again. God did but give signification, as small a thing as might be, as if a man should nod, or wink upon another, and his sorrows are shaked off from him: he is set alive on the land. If grief do assault our minds, that we think our hearts will break, if temptation have so rend us, that we suppose we are all to shivers; if pangs of desperation, with remembrance of sins past, have beat faith so out of countenance, that we see no way, but our souls must be a pray to Satan, yet there is hope with God, and mercy with the Highest. He bringeth men to the door of death, but he doth not turn them in. Or he putteth them into the pit, that they are half way down to the bottom; but his hand goeth along with them, and suddenly in a trice he draweth them back again. If we be within the jaws of Satan, he putteth a gag in his mouth, that it shall not close upon us. It is never too late for him to help, while life and soul hang together. He who bid the dust become Adam, Genes. 2.7. johan. 11.43. and Adam was made of dust: he who spoke to the grave, and bad Lazarus come forth from it, and Lazarus came out of the grave: he who commanded the fish to lose jonas, and jonas was loosed in a moment. This Lord, if he speak to hell or devil, or all the fiends of darkness, they shall not dare once to touch thee, but thou shalt escape from their clutches, as a bird from the snare. How much less shall mortal man oppress thee, or triumph over thee, if it be he that doth vex thee? God doth but cast an eye upon thee, and the mist before the Sun, can not be dispersed so suddenly, as thy sorrow and heaviness. In steed of sadness, joy and mirth shall compass thee & embrace thee. If once his refreshing spirit cast but an aspect upon thee, thou art as safe, as thyself wouldst ever desire to be. Only to win God hereunto, be thou sorry for thy transgression, and grieve at thine own iniquity. If thou have fallen with David, spare not to sing with David a Psalm of Miserere: Psal. 51.1. if thou have offended with Peter, Math 26.75 with Peter go thou forth, and cease not to weep bitterly. With jonas pray and call, and thou shalt be delivered. A comparison between the Prophet and Arion. 11 Look what hath been spoken hitherto, may manifestly be gathered by the plain words of my text, and therefore as you have seen, I have passed it very briefly. But pondering farther on this Scripture, and looking nearer into it, yea withal, comparing it with some things of the Gentiles, it seemeth unto me to offer a farther doctrine. For thinking with myself, how strangely those mariners, who in the Chapter before threw him into the sea, and made account they had drowned him, would look upon him, if they met him any where afterward, (as that was no impossible matter) marveling how he should live whom they left in the sea, and how he should be at land whom they cast into the water, and there relinquished him remediless and past hope; I called to mind the narration of Arion in Herodotus, Herodot. l. 1. who being said to be thrown into the Ocean by mariners, and supposed by them to be drowned, was afterward seen 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 book, August. de civit. Dei. lib. 1.14. De civitate Dei, doth compare this story of jonas, unto that of Arion, reproaching the Gentiles, that whereas they would not believe this, which was written of our Prophet, yet they would give credit to that, which their Poets and other writers reported of Arion. Whereupon conferring yet farther the likeness of these two matters, although not in every circumstance, yet in the mainest points, I could not but suspect, that the Greek tale of the one, meant the Hebrew truth of the other. And therein I imagined, that the physician of the Gentiles, was the Israelite mentioned here, although the story were peeced up with another narration, after the custom of the Heathens, in dealing with the Scriptures. And moreover, Danaeus in jonam. the note of a learned interpreter writing upon this place, did further this opinion, who nameth our jonas here Arion Christianus, the Arion of the Christians. I find also, that this report is very ancient among the greeks, and therefore might well sort with the antiquity of the Prophet. Now, as if we will allow this to be true, it doth yield us fruitful doctrine, fit to be handled in this place, before so learned and judicious an auditory; so being otherwise, that is, untrue and false, it is also worthy of our consideration: and therefore give me leave to speak a little unto it. You shall see anon to what end. 12 Herodotus in his Clio, Herodot. li. ● hath a narration to this purpose: that Arion a skilful harper, going from Greece his own country into Italy, there and in Sicilia, by the excellency of his music, had gained a great deal of money. Being now desirous with his wealth to return again to Corinth, to his old Prince Periander, he found a vessel at Tarentum, which belonged to certain shipmen 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 drown him. He now in this peril, maketh request for his life: but when nothing would serve those hard-hearted persons, but that such must be his doom, he begged this favour of them, that yet before he died, he might clothe himself with his best clothes: which being done, he taketh his harp, and singing and playing to it a most melodious song, than threw himself into the sea. There a Dolphin a kind of fish, delighted as it seemeth with the music, doth undertake him, and ceased not to bear him on her back, till it landed him safe at Taenarus; whence he going to Periander the tyrant, then reigning at Corinth, so appareled as he was when he came out of the water, informeth him of all the matter, who believed it not, till at length sending for the self same mariners, who were arrived in his country, and showing them Arion (who upon 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 brass, which is a man sitting on a Dolphin: and that image was set up there by Arion. Plin. Histor. Natur. 9.8. Plut. in convivio 7. sap. ovid. fast. 2. Gell. 16.19. This tale with all his circumstances, is so common among the ancient, that Pliny, and Plutarch and Ovid, and Gellius both do report it at large, and Pliny giveth other examples, that Dolphines couching down their pinnace, their sins, which as he seemeth to say go all along their backs, have carried diverse other over the water, and so saved them. 13 If I shall give my judgement concerning this, I do not at all doubt, but that it is a fable. The diversity of the report which is among the ancient, doth argue the uncertainty. For although the most record it to be one Dolphines doing, Plutarch. ubi suprà. one that carried him all the while, yet Plutarch hath it otherwise, that they were diverse Dolphines which carried him in the sea, meaning belike by turns, 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 strange a thing unto them, when they met him on the land? If he went above the water, they of likelihood might have spied him, and so made some shift to unhorsed him: if it were under the water, how came it about that he was not drowned in all that time? The ancient full well saw, that this was but a feigned thing. That made Suidas in Arion, Suidas in Arione. to say nothing of the fish, nor his escape from drowning: although he have other things of him. Strabo in his thirteenth book, saith plainly it is a fable. The late writers think no otherwise, Strabo Geograph. 13. Natal. Com. Mytholog. lib. 8.14. and hold these tales of Pliny to be but feigned matters: and they give 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 days, which it was in ages long agone: but since those ancient times, we hear not of any Dolphin, which delighted in Music, or saved any man in the sea, or carried any over the water. Besides that, Rondeletius whose work is many times joined with Gesners, denieth that a Dolphin hath any such sins, Rondelet. in Gesner. de Aquatil. cap. de Delphino Plin. 9.8. as they in old time did describe him to have, for that, saith he, there is only one in his back, and it is not all along him, which may be thought unfit to bear a man. But imagine that it were true which Pliny hath concerning them, yet his speech is, that they were brought to that custom by much practice, and feeding them with bread, Petr. Mart. Decad. 3. lib. 8. which agreeth with the qualities of that strange fish Matum, which the Historian Peter Martyr reporteth to have been 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 confirm this tale. For who knoweth not that every country, hath strange reports of itself, which by the common sort are reputed for great truths? If we look on our own land, how many things have been said of King Arthure, and of the Prophet Merlin, who although they may have in them some ground of truth (which I will not stand to dispute) yet questionless much vanity is mixed there withal. We need no better example, than the self same Herodotus, who although in his positive declarations, he be held a good Historian, Tull. de Legib. lib. 1. and therefore is named by Tully Historiae pater, the father of story, yet in his by-digressions by heare-saies and reports, he hath so many untruths, that by other men he is termed with a censure too too galling, mendaciorum pater, the father of lies. That such fames have gone for currant even among Christians, 1. Tim. 1.4. Cap. 4.7. Tit. 1.14. the words of Paul to Timothy, and Titus may show, where he speaketh of fables and jewish fables, and of old wives fables also. Now for the picture or image of the Dolphin, and the man sitting upon it, that doth make a great deal less: for inventions and wrong devices, are wrought as well as truths, by painters and image-makers. Saint Austen telleth how the Gentiles reported, August. de consensu Euangelistarun lib. 1.10. that Christ was a sorcerer, and that he did his works by Magic; and because they had seen jesus in windows, painted with Peter and Paul standing by him, they gave out that he wrote unto them, some things concerning Magic, not knowing saith Saint Austen, Sic omninò errare meruerunt. Non in sanctis codicibus sed in pictis parietibus. that Paul was converted to the faith, somewhat after Christ's death. But he maketh this conclusion upon them: Thus have they deserved to err, who have sought Christ and his Apostles, not in holy books but in painted walls, and windows. That which he judged in a matter of far greater importance, that I may say of this. A picture or image is not an argument of an approved truth, although Master Campian do call such in church windows, Campian Ration. 10. Testes fenestrae Rondeletius in Delphino for witnesses of the verity of his cause. So the song which is now extant, and said to be Arion's, is as weak a proof as any; for why might not another man, believing the tale to be true, put it out in his name? Yea peradventure if he did not believe it, as in Poets we have many speeches feigned on other men's persons. Then we may gather, that either the narration is altogether fabulous, or if he were so thrown by any into the water, that another ship intercepted him, the badge whereof was a Dolphin (as in the Acts of the Apostles, Act. 28.11. the badge of that ship wherein Paul sailed, was Castor and Pollux. Natal. Com. Mytholog. 8.14. ) And thereupon together with the invention of Antiquity, grew the fable, as some other have imagined. 15 To apply this somewhat nearer to my bresent purpose, and to a true use in Divinity, if there were any such matter of the Dolphin and Arion, (as I in no sort do believe it) we must hold it for a miracle wrought by the Devil, who by the Lord's permission hath false wonders of his, as God hath true of his. Christ saith that false Christ's, and false Prophets, shall show great signs and wonders, Matth. 24.24 so that if it were possible, they should deceive the very elect. Apoc. 13.13 Exod. 7.11. The beast in the Revelation, doth bring fire down from heaven. When Moses was in Egypt, the sorcerers had their sleights, wrought by the finger of Satan. Euseb. Hist. Eccles. 9.2. August. de civit. Dei. 10.16. Eusebius speaketh of strange deeds, done by the Devil and by Magic. Saint Austen in his tenth book De civitate Dei, doth attribute such credit to the stories of the Romans, that he thinketh that the Trojan Penates (which were a kind of images) did go from place to place: and that Tarquin with a razor, Livius. lib. 1. (Livy saith it was Actius Navius) did cut a whetstone in pieces, and other such like things named there, August. de unitate Eccles. Tom. 7. Figmenta mendacium hominum, vel portenta fallacium spirituum. but he addeth that these were done, by the power of infernal spirits. So in his book De unitate Ecclesiae, speaking of miraculous matters, he maketh this division of them: Let these things be set aside, being either feigned inventions of lying men, or monstrous acts of cousining spirits, supposing that some strange reports, were feigned and invented by men, and some other things were indeed brought about and effected by the Devil. If we would hold this, of the physician in Herodotus for a truth, than it teacheth us this doctrine, that as an Ape is the imitator of man, in his acts and gestures, so is Satan the Ape of God, to follow him in his powerful works. But how far doth he come short of the original which he looketh at? He followeth him indeed, Virgil. Aenci. 2. but it is non passibus aequis, with very unequal steps. He seeth that God is mightily glorified, in doing such strange and rare deeds, as he pleaseth; and he will study to do the like, that himself also may be glorified among the sons of darkness. As the Lord shall have his jonas to be spoken of every where, so he will have his Arion, both of them thrown down into the sea, and both saved by a fish. 16 Hence it is, that we have so many arguments of his subtle imitation. God hath appeared like an Angel: and Satan transformeth himself into an Angel of light. judic. 6.11. 2. Cor. 11.14 Io●uah. 10.11 Livius. lib. 25. & 30. God rained stones on the enemies of josuah, when they fled before him from the battle; and Livy writeth of credit, that in the time of the Roman wars with Hannibal, it reigned stones for two days together on the hill called Mons Albanus. Hirtius de bello Africo. So Hirtius that great well-willer of julius Caesar, doth write that when Caesar was personally present in his wars in Africa, very stones fell on the army, as it useth to hail. Exod. 16.14. Genes. 19.24 Livius. lib. 40. & lib. 3. Orosius. 7.32 Liu. lib. 27. Bozius' lib. 2. contra Machiavellum. God rained Manna from heaven, and fire and brimstone upon Sodom, the one to help, the other to hurt. So the stories of the Romans do mention, that it rained blood, and rained flesh, and wool too saith Orosius, in the days of the Emperor Valentinian, and milk & other such stuff: which (as the learned do gather) were of purpose caused by Satan, that supplications might be made, and sacrifices to him, as the heathen people did commonly use, in such fearful & frightful times, thinking that they had performed some devotion to some Gods, when all was to the Devil. Abraham was commanded to sacrifice his son to please the Lord; Genes. 22.1. ovid. Metamorph. 12. judic. 11.39. Agamemnon was bid to sacrifice his daughter, to please the prince of darkness. A ram was slain for Isaac: for Iphigenia an hind. As jephthe offered up his daughter, which was supposed by some to be a point of religion, so the Carthaginians and many other Gentiles, Plutarch. de Superstitione. did offer men to their idols, upon their altars. There came from God answers, in obscure and dark causes: 1. Sam. 28.6. the Oracles of the heathen, as at Delphos and elsewhere did resemble that, when foul spirits did there give answer. The true Temple at Jerusalem, had in imitation of it, Act. 19.27. a false temple at Ephesus to Diana, and in diverse other places the like to other, as the Capitol at Rome. Aulus Gellius in reckoning up the apparel, and ceremonies of the Roman Flamen Dialis, Gel. l. 10.15. hath many things merely taken from the high Priest of the jews, as he may see who compareth them. Ambrose in his Commentary on the eighth Chapter to the Romans, Ambros. in Roman. 8. showeth that as Christ was taken up to his Father in a cloud, so Simon Magus also to procure himself credit, did fly above in the air, which no doubt was done by the special means of the Prince of the air, Ephes. 2.2. who advanced such a business. This is the fraud of him, who is the fountain and wellspring, and chief Lord of all deceit. And as on the one side, by his undertaking of such actions, or semblances rather, his great vainglory doth appear, and that the means whereby he seeketh it, is the imitation of God: so, on the other side, it is a great argument for the truth, against all Epicures, and Atheists, convincing that in the books of the Bible, there is a divine and most undoubted verity. For as counterfeits do evermore presuppose, that there be some such indeed, as whom they take on them to resemble, (as he who made show to be the son of Herod the Great, joseph. Antiquit. 17.14. did argue that there had been such a one, who was in truth called Alexander: and in England in the days of King Henry the seventh, Perkin Warbeck, who pretended to be the Prince Edward the fifth, Holinshed in Henrico septimo. did manifestly declare that there had been one of that name.) And as the coiners of false money, do imply by their attempt, that some of that stamp, is good and currant in one place or other. And as Alchimistes who do labour to make gold by projection, do intent that there is natural gold. Yea as painters howsoever they may sometimes make pictures of feigned devices, yet account their art to be a resemblance of that, which verily is, or hath been: So the manifold and laborious affected imitation, of the sacred stories, and such things as were done in them, doth give the wise and holy soul fully to understand, that the pattern which is so followed, and curiously shadowed by so many inventions, is a matter of truth, of justifiable verity, and absolutely without exception. But I urge not this any farther. 17 In the second place, if we will take the whole tale of Arion for an untruth, which it much rather doth deserve, it doth remember us of as fruitful instruction another way. And that is the wonderful subtlety of Satan, to discredit the writings of the Scriptures, as far as lieth in him. For when it should be spoken over any part of the world, that such or such a thing was done, which was true in our Prophet, if he might be able to bring another matter, like to it in resemblance, which yet in truth should be but fabulous, the first might be disgraced with the common sort of men, Quintil. Orat. Instit. lib. 4.6. in comparing it with the second. Quintilian in his sixth book of the Principles of Rhetoric, going about to teach how one false thing, may be displayed and discovered with another, bringeth this for an example: When one Victoriatus had said, that in Sicily he had bought a Lamprey, which was five foot long, another called Galba did make him answer, that it was no marvel, for in that country saith he, the breed of them is commonly so large, that fishermen do use them for the lines of their angles. Here if any man had inferred, that the latter tale was certainly a lie, Galba by and by would have replied, so also is the other. The old and crafty serpent, saw this to be a good way, to bring the Scripture in doubt, by fables like to the Scripture. And this doth justinus Martyr assign to be the reason, why so many things in the old tales, are like to the truths of the word of God. He principally insisteth in the person of Christ jesus himself. justin. Mar. Apolog. 2. The devils saith he being taught by the Oracles of the Prophets, many things concerning Christ who was to come, caused like things to be spread touching diverse sons of jupiter, hoping that those who heard those monstrous trifles, would believe no more of Christ, than they did of the other. For an example he citeth that of Aesculapius, who by the Heathen was reported, to be able to cure any defect, and was held to be the son of God: which was drawn from hence, because it was fore-prophecied of jesus, Isay. 42.7. that his power should be such, as to give sight to the blind, to restore limbs to the lame, to raise up those which were dead. He reputeth this to be the work of Satan, that men might no more believe the true reports of our Saviour, than the feigned things of the other. 18 If we will look on their old Poets, as well Latin as greeks, we shall see how this purpose was pursued, in very many matters. Genes. 1.1. The confusion of all things which was before the world was made, and the manner of the creation, is shadowed and pointed at, Hesiod. in Theogonia. ovid. Metamorph. 1. Genes. 3.22. Homer. Odis. E. Genes. 7.11. ovid. Metamorphos. 1. Munster. lib. 5. Cosmogr. cap. de Babil. Genes. 11.3. ovid. Metamorph. 1. Iust. Martyr. in cohortatione ad Graecos. Genes. 19.26. ovid. Metamorph. 6. judic. 13.24. Diodor. Sic. lib 4.2. Virgil. 6. Aeneid. by the Chaos of Hesiodus, but most elegantly by Ovid, in the beginning of his Metamorphosis. If God have a tree of life in Paradise, whereof who so ever eateth shall not die, but by the restaurative force thereof, shall be kept and evermore maintained in cheerfulness and fresh youth, the Poets will have Nectar and Ambrosia, which shall work with their Gods the like effect. The deluge in Noah's time, is quitted among the greeks with the deluge of Deucalion. If Noah did see things before and after the flood, they will have janus for him, who shall be double-faced, and look forward and backward, for the learned do suppose that Noah was meant by their janus. If the people do go about, to build the tower of Babel up to the heaven, so to get themselves a name, the Giants shall be said to lay Pelion upon Ossa, and Olympus on the top of both, so to pluck jupiter out of heaven. justine Martyr who is ancient, saith expressly that all the tale of the Giants piling up those hills, was in imitation of the story of the tower of Babel. If Lot's wife for her fault be turned into a saltstone, their Niobe for her fault, shall be turned to a stone likewise. If there be a Samson of the Israelites exceeding for his strength, there is a Hercules among the Gentiles, who shall do as much as he. If there be hell for the damned, and heaven for those that be blessed, Virgil will have his Paradise, those Elysian fields, and tortures also for wicked ones, among the ghosts below. But if all of them should be served, as Virgil was for his labour, they would gain little by the bargain; for as he had hell from us, so the Papists to be quit with him, have Purgatory from him. And if in our Prophet here, there be any thing worth the looking on, both Satan and his Poets will not be behind hand with him. If he be in the whale for three days and three nights, Natales Comes Mythologiae. 8.3. their Hercules shall be also for three days in a whale. And if one will not serve them turn, they will make it up in two. If jonas drenched in one place, be seen alive in another, Arion cast into the sea, shall appear again at Corinth. 19 This is the deadly fraud of the enemy of our soul, Tertul. in Apolog. 22. who in suggesting lies for truth, by himself and his instruments, would defame the word of God. For he himself being a subtle spirit, and every where at hand, knew the Scriptures well enough: where they lay he did read them: where they were read, he could hear them: he knew them well enough, when he cited the text to Christ: Matth. 4.6. and he brought many of his agents and ministers in place, where they might hear what the jews received, Exod. 1.1. for the grounds of their religion. The Israelites were once in bondage under Pharaoh in Egypt, and afterward they lived not far from that country, Palestina being a near borderer, so that the Egyptians by a neighbourly conversation with them, did well know the manners of the Israelites: and afterward by the intercession of king Ptolomee, joseph. Antiquit. 1.1. the books of their laws, were by the Septuagint translated into Greek, and by that means were well known in Egypt. And whither but into Egypt, did the great scholars of old time, travel to increase their learning? Diodor. Sic. Antiquit. 1. I find in Diodorus Siculus, that the priests of the Egyptians had it in record, that Orpheus and Musaeus, and Homer, and Lycurgus, and Plato, and Democritus were there, Augustin. de doctr. Christ. lib. 2.28. to increase their knowledge. Saint Austen citeth it out of Ambrose, that Plato being in Egypt met with jeremy the Prophet, and learned many things of him, concerning the faith of the Israelites; De civit. Dei lib. 8.11. but afterward that learned father, better looking into the Chronology or computation of years, reformeth that opinion. For indeed Plato was after jeremy. As it was with the Egyptians, jerem. 52.7. so it was with the Chaldeans. The jews in their Babylonish captivity were in Chaldea, whereby they also of that nation, did hear of much in the Scripture. But the Chaldees as men studious of learning, did travel often into other countries, Tullius de Divinat. lib. 2. yea it seemeth as far as Rome, by Tully's second book de Divinatione, where he nameth their figure-casters, by no name so much as Chaldees. Thus diverse ways, an ignorant kind of knowledge was spread among the Gentiles, which in their study of Poetry and Philosophy, gave them occasion of many things for their books. Clemens alexander. Stromat. 5. Iust. Mar. Apolog. 2. Clemens Alexandrinus maketh it evident, that the old Philosophers did take all their diviner matters, from the books and reports of Moses. justinus Martyr whom so oft before I have named, saith that whatsoever their Poets, and Philosophers did record, of the immortality of the soul, of the pains of hell, of things in heaven or any other matter of that kind, they took occasion from the Israelitish Prophets, both to think them and to speak them. By which it is plain, that those old Ethnics did hear some sound of the Scriptures, and whatsoever truth is in their books, they derived it from this fountain. 20 But when it was once come into the hands of heathen and polluted men, it must needs taste somewhat of their handling: some dross must be mixed with the gold; some water powered in with the wine: it must taste of the cask. Sometimes the tale shall be told otherwise, Herodot. lib. 2. Isay 37.36. as that of Sennacherib is, in the second book of Herodotus, whose loss of so many men, by the Angel of God striking them, at his siege against Jerusalem, is said to be in Egypt, and that by an army of mice, who did no other harm but this: in the night time they did eat up the leathers of their armours, and targets, and horse-bridles, and thereupon he was glad to fly away, with great loss of his soldiers. Sometimes that shall be reported, to be derived from the Gentilels to the jews, which clean contrariwise came from the jews to the Gentiles. Plutarch. Symposiac. lib. 4. So Plutarch writeth, that some of the principal feasts among the jews, yea their very Sabaoth day, & the word Sabbos as he calleth it, were derived from the feasts of Bacchus; whereas in truth the solemnities of Bacchus rather came from the other, being is no comparison so ancient, as those which were under Moses. Some other times, like must go for like; but a lie for a true story, shall be broached to the world, as this which I have handled, Arion for our jonas. Satan thought that the story reported of him, was a very great miracle, and wrought the Lord much honour, and therefore he envied it. And besides that, it had a reference to Christ who was afterward to come, and was to give him a crush, and therefore he thought it a point which was very well worth his labour, to disgrace it if he could. If there had been any foregoing prophecy of this matter, we should have had a trick before hand for our jonas, as he made jupiter many sons and daughters too for failing, Isay. 9.6. upon the words of Esay, that the Lord would send a child who should be the mighty God. But it was not spoke of before, until the deed were done; therefore he thought not of it; and therefore it must come after. And in the days of the Prophet, while himself lived, it had been too gross to speak it, therefore he will stay one age, or two ages at the most, before that he publish his fable. For jonas lived a good time before the captivity of Babylon, either in, or sooner than the days of the latter jeroboam: 2. Reg. 14.25. and Arion as it seemeth, lived in the time of the captivity: for as we read in Herodotus, Herodot. lib. 1. he lived with Periander, who lived with Halyattes, who was father unto Croesus, who was conquered by Cyrus, who gave out the first proclamation, Ezra. 1.1. for restoring the jews from Babylon. 21 Thus not a miss as I suppose (especially in an auditory of such learning and judgement as this is) by comparing our Prophet here, with that fable of the Gentiles, I have showed the apish quality of Satan, in his imitation of the mightiest works of God, and his craftiness otherwise, in seeking by his tales, and invented reports, to withdraw credit from the Scriptures. Whereunto I might first add, that since we have to do with an enemy of that quality, we had need be very circumspect in regard of ourselves, that we yield not assent, to any of the lewd motions of himself, or other his Atheistical agents, in going about to extenuate the credit of the word, but pray to God still to guide us in his undoubted truth, both that we may believe, and practise that which he hath taught us. Secondly I might show the conveniency, or rather the necessity, that a Minister who should expound the Scriptures, should be furnished with liberal Arts and sciences, with histories and other human learning, that when occasion directly serveth, such knots as this is, may be opened to the honour of the true God. In which respect, I do profess my judgement to be clean contrary to the opinions of such men, who think that the understanding and use of these matters is frivolous, and vain for a Minister, and only for ostentation; and that it skilled not if there were no Universities, or schools where these things are studied. I repute them the great blessings of the Lord of heaven, afforded to us, for the apparent furtherance of his ministry, and the profession of Divinity. How can the Revelation and the prophecy of Daniel be understood without these? The like may be said of some other parts of Scripture. When with so many helps of history, from the Greek and from the Latin, the best and most laborious wits, cannot attain to the depth of many matters in them, how unperfect and uncertain, nay how amazed plainly should he be, that would look into them, & knoweth nothing of antiquity? The position is most true, that art and knowledge hath none so great an enemy, as that person which is ignorant. Take away these, and bring in barbarism. But I have no time to handle this, and therefore I do leave it, desiring God to perpetuate these arts & skills among us; that the means of our studies here, in this ungodly age be not taken away from us, for our abusing of them; but that they may continue as handmaids to Divinity, and servants unto the Scriptures, till Christ jesus come to judgement. To him with his blessed father and his most holy Spirit be praise for evermore. THE XVI. LECTURE. The chief points. 3. God in sending twice showeth his love to be the greater: 4. which is hindered by no cross from man. 6. As appeareth in England. 7. God employeth jonas after his former fall. 8. The cruel doctrine of the Novatians. 10. The word is the great instrument whereby God calleth. 11. To the old Prophets the word of God came. 12. But preachers now must go to it. 13. jonas is not forward to his second message. 14. God purposely sendeth variety of business to us, and why. 15. The finger of the Lord appeareth, in that one teacheth a multitude. 16. But especially the word is forcible. 17. Knowing of danger beforehand maketh the Minister more resolute. 18. Prophet's must preach that only which God commandeth. 19 Which the Papists do not. jonah. 3: 1.2. And the word of the Lord came unto jonah the second time saying, Arise, go unto Niniveh that great city, and preach unto it the preaching which I bid thee. AS it pleased God, The Lecture on Thursday discontinued. that upon the first reviving of this weekly exercise of preaching among us (I mean in these late years, after some discontinuance of these holy labours) he put in my mouth the first charge laid on jonas to go to Ninive, the event whereof from time to time I have discoursed unto you, as the Lord hath enabled me: So it falleth out fitly, by the providence of the self same God, that upon the second reviving of the self same exercise, the second sending of the self same Prophet, unto the same city, should be offered to your hearing. Anno. 1596. Wherein as the mercy of the Almighty was manifested to Ninive, when after the first stay & hindrance of that, which was intended toward it, he did not give over, but redoubled his message by sending again. So it is an argument of God's kindness to us, that he suffereth not the practice of his servants in holy things, to cease; but although upon occasion it hath been interrupted, yet to break forth again. A copious blessing, when God plentifully sendeth the food of our souls, and that not only by imposed sacrifices, but by freewill offerings also; so removing far from us the famine of the word, Amos. 8.11. which is the greatest famine, and against which we are to pray more earnestly, then against all hunger of the body. It were to be wished, that this may be continued with an everlasting performance, that so the building of this house like that of Salomon's Temple, 1. Reg. 6.37.38. might not cease, till all were ended by Christ's coming to judgement; or if like the second Temple it must be at a stay, Ezra. 4.21. yet that it might never quite stand, lest the memory should be razed out, that there was any such building. Although some space be between, Cap. 6.1. yet let the days of Darius add to the days of Cyrus; & the Lord stir up the spirit as of Zerubbabel before, 14. so of Zachariah afterward, to second and forward and encourage the work. 2 Now there is proposed to me a larger field to walk in, then hitherto hath been: for the sin of one man alone, was offered before unto me to be discoursed of, but now the sin of a multitude. So heretofore I had occasion, to look into the private repentance of one offending person, but now into the public penance of a whole transgressing city; and that of the city Ninive the greatest in the East, which by her enormity, did minister God great matter of vengeance and wrath, but by her deploration and sorrow for iniquity, did move him unto mercy. jonah. 1.2. Genes. 18.20. Before, the cry of their joined transgressions did ascend into the ears of the Lord, as the cry of Sodom did; but now in a like manner, the outcry of their joined prayers, of their fasting and contrition doth pierce through the very clouds, and cometh before God's seat, and obtaineth forgiveness of him. Which as it is afterward illustrated in this present Chapter, and therefore in his fit place will yield most fruitful doctrine, so because the means also of moving them to repentance, are here opened unto us, that is to say by the word of God, delivered unto them by the preaching of the Prophet, my purpose is to pursue it, with that natural order which the text prescribeth unto me, beginning with the Lords sending, and so proceeding to the Prophets going, and afterward to his preaching, and then to their demeanour in hearing and receiving, and so forward to the rest. But this day in these two verses, especially I shall touch these two things: The employment of jonas again, which the first verse yieldeth in general, And the word of the Lord came unto jonah the second time saying: Then secondly in what special words, this charge was delivered unto him, Arise and go to Ninive. Such subdivided notes as do arise out of these, shall be touched in their order. And the word of the Lord the second time, came unto jonah saying: 3 The manner of men is, that if they intent any thing of the greatest importance, they are at first earnest and peremptory for it, but afterward, time perhaps doth slaken their heat, and cool their resolution. But if there come an hindrance or stop in the way, they sink under their burden, and desist from their enterprise, attempting little farther. Hence, common observation hath taken that up for a speech, that in fights the first conflict is ever most dangerous, and if that be resisted, the rest will be but easy. Hence, such as by their guiltiness have provoked the wrath of him, Primi congressus sunt acorrimi. who is like to deal with them in severity, do take what course they can to prolong, and put off their conventing and arraignment, both conceiving that the judge being assuaged with time, will abate of his rigour, and the pursuer sleeping on it, will remit of his fury. Great wars and great journeys, receiving great crosses in the entrance unto them, end before that they begin, and so the greatest preparations, oftentimes turn unto nothing. Neither ever was there purpose having main impediment, which was seconded by any and followed afresh, but by him whose hate was strong, or his love exceeding great to that which he did aim at, Rom. 1.10. which would not be rebuked or choked with a little. Cap. 15.22.32. Of this kind was Paul's love, as he specifieth of himself, who intending many times to visit the Saints at Rome, and being often stayed by unavoidable occasions, yet still burneth in desire of the personal seeing of them, and holdeth not himself satisfied, till it were done indeed. He speaketh of it, and he writeth of it, and he wisheth it and prayeth for it; he is so settled in it. 4 The greater was the love of the maker of mankind, to this reckless city Ninive; to the which, meaning to send a message full of threatenings (but such a one as should in the end bring peace and quietness to them) although he were stayed for a while, and as a man may say put from his first ground to work on, his servant running from him, and causing him to follow him, and chastise him, when in the mean while much good might have been done, by preaching to that people: yet he is not quite stopped with it, or put from his first meaning, but secondly he will send, that they may have some warning, to fly the rod hanging over them. If he had not intended their good and safety, with a purpose which he meant should not be controlled, he might right well have suffered that doom to fall on them, which he threateneth by the Prophet Ezechiel, Ezech. 3.17.18. both to the jews and to him, that if he being set for a watchman, would not tell them of such plagues, as were to come upon them, they should die in their sins, but their blood would he require at the hands of Ezechiel. So the Ninivites being not acquainted with that vengeance which was near them, might have perished in their ignorance, and been damned for their iniquity, but their blood might have been required at the hands of our poor jonas. But to make it manifest, that his purpose was invariable in itself, and full of good to them, he doth but defer his sending: some few days may be slipped, but it assuredly cometh at last. His intendments depend not on the ability, or want of any of his creatures: the stubbornness of the reprobate, or falling away of him who seemeth to be somewhat, or the apostasy of a great one, or the depraved error of any of his own servants, do not hinder his designment. If this man will not serve, than there shall come another: or if yesterday will not do, yet it shall be too morrow. The Philistines shall be conquered: 1. Sam. 18.27. 1. Chron. 22.8. if Saules sins will not suffer that he shall have a victory, David shall be the man. The Temple must be erected: if the father may not do it, because he hath shed much blood, the son Solomon shall be peaceable, and he shall begin and end it. 5 But when he hath once purposed good upon a nation, that it shall be called home, and rectified in his ways, be there never so many difficulties, as they seem in man's judgement, he cleareth them every one. For to God nothing is difficult, but himself hath a finger in that which seemeth to hinder, as divines commonly do show in determining that question, that God is not the author of sin, and yet doth work in all things. He resolved to make the Gentiles like the jews, to call those for a people who were no people before. There was in the time of Christ, a decree and bar against it, Matth. 10.5.6. Act. 10.15.34. Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into the cities of the Samaritans enter ye not. But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Yet afterward Peter shall see the unclean made clean, and God will be no longer a respecter of any persons. He by his Apostle hath foretold, that the jews shall again be called home to the adoption, Roman. 11.26. before the day of judgement. Then God's election being over them, and his words being truth and verity, they shall come to the sheepfold, that all Israel may be saved: Although the blood of Christ be on their heads, Matth. 27.25. and on the heads of their children, although they yet to this day hate, and revile the Saviour of the world, Hieron. in Isay. 5. and under the name of Nazarites, do curse us in their Synagogues. In this last age of the world, when the fullness of time was come, that by the breath of his mouth (the preaching of the Gospel) God would weaken and consume that wicked one, 2. Thes. 23.4.8. that adversary, the very son of perdition, and the light of the word should clearly shine again, in a great part of the world; not all the clouds of ignorance; nor the thick mists of darkness, could stay from us his decreed mercy. When the Pastors had conspired, either not to preach at all to their charges (as jonas would not at Ninive) or if they did bring any thing, it was poison for meat, and venom in steed of water: when Antichrist with his pomp, and his followers with the brightness of earthly and carnal glory, had dazzled the people's eyes, that they could not see truth from error: when the knowledge of the tongues, and almost all other literature, was raked up under the ashes: when the decrees of Popes, and the Canons of Counsels, and customs and traditions, were in place of the written word: when the schoolmen had conspurcated and abused true Divinity with their filthiness: when a lively faith and understanding knowledge were not heard of: God did a second time send his servants, to bring light to the world, and furnishing one with this talon, and another with that good thing, he brought life again to the dead, and sunshine in the midst of darkness. A great token of his gracious and bountiful inclination, to the age wherein we live. It must be imputed to his love: it must be ascribed to his mercy. 6 So must that, which we enjoy so abundantly at this time. God hath sent twice to our nation, in a special manner, as he did to Ninive. In the time of good King Edward, and in the days of our Queen. The difference is in this, that those which were sent to us, did come indeed, and did not like jonas: and besides it was not one, but many servants of the Lord which showed themselves. But herein is the likeness, that as when the first served not, he sent the next time to Ninive, so having here appointed, that so many should be sealed and marked in the forehead, as belonged to his election, so many thousands or millions, which number in those six years of king Edward was in no sort completed (and God forbid, for our sake and our posterity, that it should have been) he stayed not at that stop, which was made in Queen Mary's days, but went on with his purpose. The conspiring against the Gospel, the striking of the shepherds, the burning of the professors, the yielding of all to the Pope, the confederacy with the Spaniard, which were things of far greater moment, than the turning back of one Prophet, did not so restrain his affection, but that a second time we should hear from him more at large, to the building up of his Church, and dilating of his kingdom, but to the eternal blessedness of us both in soul and body. If any thing may deserve it, this deserveth at our hands a thankfulness, and grateful consideration. I would that our lives, and our contempt of the world, could testify, that so we do think of it. But we must impute this to his love, as also the other, that he would send again to Niviue. 7 Which City as I do now leave, so I may not leave that argument, of the kindness of the Lord; for the messenger yet giveth farther occasion, to magnify that. For he who had but lately run away from his master, and cast his word behind him; he who for some carnal reason, had despised his commandment; he who had so transgressed, that a punishment never heard off before, was inflicted for his labour, is once again put in trust, as the Prophet of the Highest, to go to a King, and a City, with threats which are so terrible. Why would not he who is Lord of all things, rather make choice of some other, to be used in this service, who was untainted and untouched, unstained and unreprovable? This may seem at the first blush, to be more for the senders honour: and again, he that should be sent, might reprove the sins of other, with a freer conscience, when he knew himself to be innocent. The Lawyers would have said, Sexto Decretalium. lib 5. Tit. 12. De Regulis iutis regul. 8. Bonifac. 8. Semel malus, semper malus: Once evil, and ever evil, he may not be admitted. Perhaps the Elders of the Church, or the graver sort of men, might have received him again into the congregation, upon his testification of sorrow for his fault; but to honour him as a Prophet, or to esteem him as in former time, that doth not stand with discipline, that were no safe example. The Gibeonites were suffered by josuah, josuah. 9.21. to come into the Tabernacle: but they came without preferment; nay it was with great disgrace; they served but for wood-cutters, and drawers of water. Such as in the Primitive Church, being Clergy men before, had notoriously fallen, were permitted upon repentance to come to the Eucharist, but it was to the laymens Communion, not as Bishops or Priests, who might consecrate and minister to other, but as men of the congregation, who were to receive at the hand of another. And thus Cornelius Bishop of Rome, Euseb. Hist. Eccles. 6.35. Gellius. lib. 10.3. served a Prelate, who laid hands foolishly upon Novatus, at his consecration. The Brutij were the first of all Italy, who revolted from the Romans to Hannibal. But for that trick, the Romans would never trust them afterward, although upon their humble submission, they took them into their protection: yet they reckoned them not as fellows, neither mustered they any soldiers out of their country, but appointed them to attend on such Deputies and Lieutenants, as they sent into their Provinces. Thus would worldly and carnal wisdom have dealt with this man: he may be held for an Israelite, but in no sort for a Prophet: no gracing, no advancing, no honouring yet a while. Let him bite upon the bridle, that knowing how he hath fallen, he may be wiser afterward. But the Lord who knew his heart, and saw it now quite broken, waiteth not for more experience, or for years of probation, but as fully satisfied with his sorrow, and putting the greatness of his error out of memory, he setteth him once again in his old place, and old honour, without disgrace, or diminution. He doth not so much as upbraid, or cast him in the teeth, as an ungracious servant, that thus or thus he had served him, but shutting up all together, he employeth him as before. This is a lesson to the Ministers and pastors of the flock, that by Gods own example, they should not be too rigorous upon such as have gone astray, even in the greatest crimes: but when conspicuous tokens of repentance shall be given, to open the lap and bosom of the Church to receive them. Not every slight acknowledgement, but yet pregnant signs may be taken; and better it is that he be an hypocrite, than thou an hard hearted father. Ezech. 33.11. Luc. 15.10. Luc. 15.20. God will not the death of sinners, but that they should turn and live. The very Angels rejoice for one repenting sinner. When the prodigal child came toward, his father did run and meet him, and kissed him and embraced him. Let not the servant be hard unto his fellow servant, when the master is so easy. 8 The more cruel in the mean while, Euseb. Hist. Eccles. 6.35. was the doctrine of Novatus: who barred not for a time, but for ever from the Communion, and access into the Church, such as in the bloody persecution of Decius the Emperor, had by infirmity offered unto idols; teaching that God if he would, might take them to mercy, but man might not deal with it, no not although they did implore it with sobs and continued tears. He had forgotten that Peter denying Christ three times, yet continued an Apostle, Matth. 26.69. and was afterward martyred for Christ. That the spirit may be willing, 41. and yet the flesh may be weak. That to endure the fiery trial, is only the gift of God, who granteth it when he listeth, and giveth it where he pleaseth. That he that standeth, 1. Cor. 10.12. or at the left thinketh that he standeth, may take heed left he fall. That the soldier who now flieth, may afterward fight again, as Demosthenes once could say. And as Eusebius showeth, Euseb. Hist. Eccles. 5.1. many Christians which renounced Christ, for the fear of cruel torment, returned to him again, and made a good confession. Cypr. de singularitate clericorum. Oftentimes saith Cyp●ian, both adulterers, and murderers, and drunkards, and those who are guilty of all wickedness, finding occasion of a fight, and being converted, have deserved to come to a palm of martyrdom. How much more than may a weak brother? The example of Bishop Cranmer is very well known unto us, johan. Foxus in vita Cranmeri. who was a great pillar of God's Church, a great light of the Gospel, but yet first denied, but afterward repent, and purged it with tears. But as the scholars, do oftentimes say more than their masters, so the Cathari, and Novatians who were the Disciples of Novatus, Socrat Hist. Eccles. 7.25. did give a more bloody sentence, than ever their teacher did. For they held, that not only to deny Christ, was so heinous, but whosoever after Baptism had done any mortal sin (such as we find in the Scripture, that death is threatened to) was cut off from the Church, and he might have no portion in the Eucharist or Communion, howsoever afterward he did behave himself. He must stand a man sequestered, and excommunicate to the death. 9 A hard saying to all men; for who is he that sinneth not in that sort, since every ●●nne is deadly, unless the Lord do pardon it? Circumcision was to the Israelites, as Baptism is to the Christians, an admission into the flock, and a testification to the conscience of every believer, that he was in God's favour: 2. Sam. 11.4.17. Psal 51.1. Prou. 24.16. Hier. Epist. 46. Si cadit quo modo justus, si justus quo modo cadit? Socrat. His. Eccles. 1.7. but David circumcised, was an adulterer and a murderer; yet upon his true repentance, both the Lord and the congregation, received him to mercy. The righteous man saith Saloman falleth seven times, and riseth again; Whereof although Hierome doth ask, if he be just, then how falleth he, if he fall, how is he righteous? yet he answereth himself, that he looseth not the name of a righteous man, because he riseth by repentance. And this is the hope of the best; for who otherwise should not perish? When Acesius a Bishop of the Novatians, at the Nicene Council, did show Constantine that holy and blessed Emperor, the strictness of their opinions, and how precisely a man must live without sin after Baptism, if he would attain salvation, the Emperor maketh him answer, Erigito tibi scalam, & ad caelum solus ascendito. If this be so Acesius, then get thyself a ladder, and climb alone into heaven, giving his censure of it so, that scant any man should be saved, if that ground were maintained. No marvel if for the comfort of wounded consciences, at the first Saint Cyprian, and Cornelius Bishop of Rome, and Dionysius of Alexandria, so hotly did impugn this heresy: and after them chrysostom, who so far did dislike this hard lacing of Novatus, that he spoke thus against it, Socrat 6.19. Si millies lapsus paenitentiamegeris i●ecelesiam ingredere. Psal. 19.13. If thou have fallen a thousand times, and dost repent thee of it, enter into the Church, that is, if thy repentance be true, I will not seclude thee from the fellowship of God's children. We do teach the self same doctrine, not to stir men up to sin (for that were to fall of presumption, unto which many times God denieth the benefit of repentance) but that we may seek out that which is lost, and bind up that which is broken, and raise up that which is fallen, jud. 23. and save some out of the fire. God's Church is made of sinners. Christ jesus did die for sinners. Our very Creed doth teach us, Symbolum Apostolorun. that the Communion of Saints, and the forgiveness of sins, must be joined and go together. He who will have part in the one, must have his fellowship in the other. He cannot come to the first, but he must taste of the latter. We cry to the man lamenting his iniquities, Ambros in Lucam. lib. 2. cap. 2. as Ambrose writing upon Luke, crieth: Let no man distrust, let no man being privy to his old faults, despair of a reward from God. God knoweth how to change his sentence, if thou know how to change thy fault. Bernard. de interiori domo cap. 37. Tardius videtur Deo venta p●ccateri dedisse quam illi acce●isse. Absque dubio & absque mora. We testify with Saint Bernard, It seemeth unto God, that he doth more slowly give pardon to the sinner, than it doth unto the other that he doth receive it. For the merciful God doth so hasten to acquit the guilty man, from the torment of his conscience, as if the suffering of the wretch, did more grieve the pitiful God, than his own suffering did the man which is in misery. For he who truly repenteth and earnestly sorroweth, without doubt & without delay shall receive a pardon. Let the weak then raise up his heart, and strengthen his feeble knees. Sinners which call for grace, Genes. 9.21. cap. 19.32. 2. Petr. 2.8. Matth. 26.70 do belong to the adoption. No swerved, and yet he was a Patriarch, Lot fell, yet he is said by Saint Peter, to have had a righteous soul. Peter himself had a guilty conscience, and yet was a great Apostle. jonas became a mighty trespasser, and yet still remained the Lords Prophet. It was Gods gracious bounty, whose favour originally ever cometh for nothing, but being once settled, it is not lost for a little. And thus have you his love both to Ninive, and to jonas. 10 There is yet another matter, which in this former verse is worthy of consideration, that the word of the Lord is said here to come to jonas. The Creator of all things, might have used many other ways, to reclaim that offending city. In old time he did call and warn men, by visions and by dreams, as it is in job: job. 33 15. or his benefits might have alured; or if those had but choked, and pampered them up with fatness, his rods might have beat them to it; famine might breed remorse, or the sword of the enemy, or some devouring pestilence. Or if he would save all their lives, such judgements might have frighted them, as were showed at Jerusalem, joseph. de bello judaico. 7.12. at the last destruction of it. For as we find in josephus, a Comet like to a sword did long hang over the city, and troops of armed men, were seen to fight in the air. What terror would this have wrought? what heart would not this have rent, and driven it into mourning, and calling to God for pardon? But the great Lord who in his wisdom hath ordained another way, as the ordinary course to win men to himself, that is, by his most precious word, and his ministery, doth here commend this his ordinance, for the instrument of their good. He hath made this word more sharp, then is any two edged sword. Hebr. 4.12. This is it which doth pierce the marrow, and break the bones in sunder, which entereth into the division of the soul and of the spirit, of the heart and of the reins, which wresteth sighs from the mind, and wringeth tears from the eyes, and maketh a whole man, as it were to melt, and dissolve into water. This is it, to which especially he hath promised to give a blessing, Isay. 55.10. that it shall not return in vain, but as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it to bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sour, and bread to him that eateth, so shall the word be that goeth out of God's mouth, it shall not return void, but accomplish that which God will, and it shall prosper in the thing whereunto he sendeth it. It is the very power of salvation to all those that do believe, a lantern to our feet, Psal. 119.105 and a light unto our paths; and therefore as at other times he useth this to save men, so he doth in this place, teaching the Ninivites by that word, which cometh from the mouth of the Prophets, by his preaching and crying; and to that purpose also sending his word to jonas, as a warrant in what sort he should cry. The word must be the means, and he the man that must bring it. 11 This is a sure seal unto him, of his calling and vocation. The mind of God in particular concerning this or that, is revealed and made known to him; not after a common manner, as every one in the Scripture is informed of his duty, and what the Lords will is, but in a special sort, as to one singled out, as the Prophets were to choice places. And to signify that no man can of himself be a Prophet, but by Gods disposing of him unto it, the word of the Lord cometh to him, he doth not go unto it, but it is imposed on him. So that he who would be a Prophet, or a foreteller, as all those holy ones were, who were called by that name, before the coming of Christ, must peculiarly be raised up by his God unto that office, and have divine and supernatural revelations from him. Amos 7.14. I was saith Amos no Prophet, neither was I a Prophet's son, but I was a herdman, and a gatherer of wild figs, and the Lord took me as I followed the flock, and the Lord said unto me, go prophecy unto my people Israel. Now he who lacketh this commission, is a liar and deceiver. Such a one was that filthy Mahomet, Petrus Messias in Heraclio. Cael. August. Curio Sarac. Hist. lib. 1. the author of the Alcoran, and of the Turkish religion, who would needs be a Prophet, but had no word for the same. Yet to blind the eyes of the people, (as our Christians do write of him) when the falling sickness came on him, wherewith he was much troubled, he would say when he came again to himself, that he was rapt into some revelation, and in his soul had some conference with the Almighty maker. Let such false Prophets as these be, perish with that in the Revelation, Apoc. 19.20. for whom as well as for the beast, that fire and brimstone is prepared, which is the second death. 12 The true foretelling Prophets are ceased now long agone. The Prophets of the new Testament, 1. Cor. 14.5. are the Preachers and expounders of the word unto the people, as Saint Paul to the Corinthians, doth take Prophets for Preachers. But although a motion even from the Spirit of God, and an inward calling be needful for us, whereby we may be assured, that we are sequestered out, and ordained unto this vocation, yet the word of God may not properly be said to come to us, but it is rather our part to go to the word of God, and to have recourse to the Scripture, and therein to see what the Lord doth teach unto us. And when we are furnished, Matth. 13.52 and well stored with things both old and new, we ought as the good Scribe to bring them out of our treasury. Which if all those did respect, who do enter into this function, we should not have such base ones stand before the altar. If we had not men so good, as those holy inspired ones were, yet we should not have them so bad, as every where abound; men who never imagined, what an inward calling meaneth; they know not of any such matter; such as neither the word cometh to them, nor they come to the word; the meanest of the flock, yet be guides to the flock, neither learned, nor apt to learn, the refuse of the people; a dishonour unto God, and a great disgrace to our Church after so long a peace. It were the less, if they only made themselves to be guilty, but they slay the souls of other. Their case is unnatural; against the rules of nature, that any should be teachers who never learned, or preachers who cannot speak, or men to divide the word, who know not how to divide it. But I leave them and this verse, and come to my second part. Arise and go to Ninive that great city. 13 As hitherto you have heard in a kind of generality, that the Prophet once again, by God's word so directing him, was to go and preach at Ninive, so now the charge which the Lord gave unto him, jon. 1.2. is in precise terms plainly set down unto us. Arise. In the beginning of this Prophecy, the very same word is used, and in both places intendeth, that jonas was not ready, but as it were sitting or lying down; so that he did need a spur to quicken him, and revive him. In the second of Ezechiel, God speaketh thus unto his servant, Son of man stand up upon thy feet, Ezech. 2.1. and I will speak unto thee. It showeth that he was not ready, and therefore he biddeth him stand up. Our man when preaching at first to the people of Israel, he thought that he had done no good, but utterly lost his labour; of likelihood being discontented, did set him down and vex. Then did the Lord put life into him, and bid him arise and be stirring, he would send him elsewhere. But now it is rather to be supposed, that being dejected in his spirit, for his grievous disobedience, and troubled in his soul for his so great offence, he sat musing and pondering, as not having yet digested the sorrow, through which he did run. And to say the truth, he had been insensible, and without all kind of feeling, if he had so soon shaken off the remembrance of his sin, and his punishment for the same. He that hath sustained bitterness, and felt it to the full, shall after his deliverance, in a melancholic pang, starkle and be affrighted, as if he were yet troubled, yea be perplexed in his dreams; as if there were yet a continuance of misery upon him. How much more might jonas be yet quivering and trembling, whose body was in the mouth, yea the belly of the grave, and whose soul did feel that anguish, which the fear of God's displeasure, and his casting away from his presence, could possibly lay upon him? Now to the end that he might not waste himself with sorrowing beyond measure, and so be swallowed up with grief, he is roused out of his passions, and busied otherwise yet more to his own hearts ease, and his masters better service. 14 It is a thing worthy observance, in very many men, although in some more, in some less, that in the greatest pensiveness of mind which befalleth them, God by some new occasion doth set them up and revive them. The Pastor hath his vexations, and grievances at his heart. The untowardness of his people doth make him fret like Moses: Num. 11▪ 11. so the wiliness of the serpent, in devising new kinds of evil, or the stubbornness of Recusants, or the circumuenting of heretics, or the deriding of enemies, may disquiet him and afflict him. The father and the householder, may be grieved and disturbed, by the unruliness of his children, and the infamy which is upon them, as was upon the sons of Eli or Samuel; 1. Sam. 2.22. Cap. 8.3. or by the falseness of his servants, and treachery of his people, by whom he sustaineth harms or losses, or by malicious neighbours. The faithful man who is in any vocation, 2. Sam. 16.1. Exod. 1.10. Genes. 21.9. Ester. 3.6. 2. Sam. 16.5. 1. Sam. 22.9. may be tormented in his spirit, by an undermining Ziba, or by an oppressing Pharaoh, or by a deriding Ishmael, or by a contemning Haman, or by a reviling Shimei, or by a slandering Doeg. The tender and troubled conscience may be frighted and molested, by recounting his iniquities against so high a majesty, and so severe a justice. There is no one of these, but being followed & pursued as with wave after wave, must needs sink & grow faint, unless there be some remedy. He that should only feed upon this in his thought, and as one who made much of the humour, should increase it and maintain it, might fret himself to pieces; and if his bones were iron, or if his sides were brass, might consume them and dissolve them. Therefore our respective father, knowing whereof we are made, remembering that we are but dust, Psal 103.14. doth take this order for us, that as sometimes he intermingleth joy with sorrow, like the night with the day, and fair weather with cloudy, and peace with war, health with sickness; so otherwise in our troubles, he sendeth such variety, and vicissitude of disturbances, that this business is driven away and removed with that, as a nail is forced with a nail, Clawm clavo pellere. or one wooden pin with another, that the mind may not have time to g●aw, or leisure to waste itself with sorrow. This duty or that necessity, or the coming in of a friend, or fear of evil to come, or hope and expectation, or watchfulness to prevent, or labouring to escape, or one thing or another, is set by God as a stay, that we shall not with job only sit down and mourn, job. 2.8. Lament. 1.1. or with jeremy yield ourselves wholly to lamentation. We shall have some thing or other say to us as to jonas, arise. I am assuredly persuaded, that this was the estate of Saint Paul above all other men, 2. Cor. 6.4. who ran through so many difficulties in watching and in fasting, in imprisonment and in beating, in preaching and in writing, in comforting the weak, in combating with the enemy, in taking care of all Churches. God did not afford him time to grieve at his perplexities, but choked one with another, and gave him grace for all. Every man may apply this to himself as he pleaseth. But to the end that our Prophet might not be steeped and quite dissolved with sorrow, the word of the Lord cometh to him, No more (jonas) of this heaviness, Arise and go to Ninive that great city. 15 No marvel if this did awake him, to send him in such an errand. Now he is not to go, as upon any private business, from one man to another, but he must go from God, and he must go to a city, and that as I think the greatest which then was on the earth, which might very well urge him to look about him, with all his wit and understanding. I shall have more occasion in the third verse, to speak of the hugeness of this place, because there it is said, that Ninive was a great and excellent city, of no less than three days journey. jon. 3.3. It shall suffice for that purpose which I now intent to follow, out of these words of my text, that Ninive was a great city, to contemplate with reverend admiration, the sound force and effectual operation of the word of God and the ministery: that one man and a stranger, without pomp, without train, without any one to grace him, should be sent to such a multitude, and being sent should prevail. See whether some secret virtue, & power which cannot be expressed, be not in this lively word, when it is taught. See whether the mighty finger of the Lord himself be not with it, that he should depute one mouth, to speak unto a million, and to move them and persuade them, and sometimes to erect them, and sometimes to depress them, with promises and with threatenings: to make so many hearts as would not fear an army of the old greeks or Egyptians, to quake, and with a quavering to tremble in all the bones. That he should appoint one Moses, Exod. 12.37 to advise and give precepts, to six hundred thousand men, which were able to fight in battle, besides women and children. Act. 2.41. That Peter at one Sermon, should not only speak to so many, but should win three thousand souls. That in a great congregation, where hundreds or thousands be, a man of the self same quality, as those to whom he doth preach, clothed with many weaknesses, and bringing this most precious treasure but in an earthen vessel, should stand between the Lord and the consciences of the people, and with memory & constancy, should speak boldly to the best, and rebuke them & reprove them, and thunder out God's judgements. And that the tongue of this man, a little piece of flesh, and nothing in comparison, should talk of God and Angels, of the mysteries of the Trinity, of the benefits of the Redeemer, of the power of the holy Ghost, of everlasting joy, and of the pains of hell, of salvation and damnation; and with this speech so uttered, should conquer & prevail, & incite men unto fasting & weeping & lamenting, yea to suffering of affliction, yea to martyrdom itself. 16 It showeth that this word, Mat. 13.31. is truly likened to the mustard seed, which being small in the sowing, groweth to great branches afterward. 33. And to leaven, which being put in meal far greater than itself, yet doth season and savour it all. So it is fitly compared unto a little spark, or coal of fire, which lighting upon apt matter, proveth soon a burning flame, and hath in it such power, as that cities or forests, or whole realms may be wasted with it. This word hath endless increase, when God giveth a blessing to it. By how few in respect of a multitude, was the Gospel propagated in all the coasts of the earth? Their sound went out into all lands. Psal 19.4. They were but a few Apostles, and a small number of their scholars, neither rich, nor learned, nor eloquent, yet India and Armenia, and Greece, and Rome, and Spain, were filled with their devotions: the base were heard by the noble, and fishermen and their followers, catched Caesar's and mighty Emperors. Act. 8.26. The Eunuch of Candaces had but a little parley with Philip the Evangelist, yet he so planted Christ's doctrine in the country of Ethiopia, that it remaineth to this present age, in the whole kingdom of the Abyssines, Euseb. Hist. Eccl. 2.1. although with some noted blemishes. For Eusebius doth acknowledge, that he was the first who wan them to be Christians; besides the likelihood of the matter, in the Acts of the Apostles, that when he came home he would not be silent, Damian. a Goes de Aethiopus moribus. and the testification of late writers in that behalf. These be demonstrative proofs, that there is more in this word, than man's wit can imagine, that not by sword or compulsion, but only by speaking and hearing, perhaps this day it creepeth, to morrow it flieth aloft, and showeth his head with the mightiest. That the Sun in the heaven, cannot do more with the creatures, than this with the receivers. For as the Sun being one, doth give light to many, and doth harden the clay, and yet soften the wax, and maketh the flowers to smell better, and dead carrions to savour worse, and cheereth the springing plants, and cherisheth other growing things, with an influence which cannot be described; so the word of God uttered by one man, doth serve multitudes and great numbers, and fitteth every one according to his need, as to beat down him that is proud, and raise up him that is humble, to threaten where threats are needful, and to comfort where comfort is expedient, and with a force which cannot be expressed, to frame every one to that, whereunto he is ordained, the elect to his salvation, the reprobate to damnation. 17 Then it was no oversight, but amply to God's glory, that the Lord did send only one man, to a city of that quantity. He had armed him before, and metalled him for the nonce. He came with matter in his mouth, to satisfy all the sort. He who sent him was that Lord, who made all, and could break the hearts of all; then what is it to be respected how many they were? By calling he is a Prophet, and therefore need not fear a world full of gainsayers. jerem. 1.18. He is as a wall of brass, and a bulwark of iron, against all the troops of them. It is God's word which he bringeth, which is operative and quick, and very apt for diffusion, and spreading abroad. As the voice in the air, so this in the hearts of men doth quickly extend itself. He hath a sound commission from him, who will bear him out, to go to Ninive that great city. I send thee not to a hand-full, but to a spacious charge, and I do furnish thee for them all. I tell thee that they are many, expect and reckon of it, but thou shalt do well with them. And this was a happy help, that he was told before hand, that the city was so great, that he might foresee the difficulty, and so be amazed the less. For if suddenly without former meditation, he had been pushed among so huge and vast a multitude, he might right well have trembled at it, as a few soldiers would, when they expecting no such matter, nor think of their enemies, were fallen into an ambush, or gotten into the midst of an army. Such dangers as come unlooked for, do not only bereave men of counsel, and of sound understanding, but of sense too many times. To prevent which, our Prophet is advertised beforehand, that the monster of the multitude, that beast with many heads, is to be dealt with by him: I could wish that such of my brethren, as live here in this Seminary and storehouse of the ministery, would before the time that the Lord imposed any charge elsewhere upon them, consider and ponder deeply, what a difficult part of service they are to be used in: and that there is no kind of conflict, wherein they may not be exercised. This is the very same counsel, which Christ giveth to his disciples, Luc. 14.28. Which of you minding to build a tower sitteth not down before and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to perform it, 31. Or what king going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first and taketh counsel, whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand? There is less odds by much, between twenty and ten, then between the flock and the Pastor. They are many unto one; the variety and diversity of wits and dispositions, requireth a careful mind, and also a man resolved. Perverseness and overthrwartnesse, must be looked for before hand. Whereupon if with foresight men did meditate and contemplate, we should not here such complaints, as are rise in the country. Oh what a blessed life do you lead in the University? we live here as in a hell: such crossing and such vexations we taste, as you do never dream of. And these seeming to many of them, to be no less than insuperable, cause them to sink, and faint in their hearts, and to be as dead and discouraged, in going through with their calling. They should have imagined before, that for their strength and ability, every place might be to them, as Ninive was to jonas, a huge and mighty charge: that the contumely of Atheists, and bitter hatrest of Papists, the invasions of upstart heretics, the wranglings of newfound schismatics, should exercise their patience. That the civil sort with their niceness, and overmuch curiosity, the ignorant with their rudeness and indisciplinable barbarism, the old with their superstitions, the young with their sports and follies, would minister matter to them. That some with troubled spirits, would seek to them for comfort, whom they cannot choose but pity: that others of troublesome natures, would draw them into quarrels, and partaking of factions, so that all their wits and knowledge, should scant keep them from brawls. That the greater their talon is, the more shall be their burden; the greater their graces be, the greater shall be their crosses. In which matters and many other, the worst being cast beforehand, noting shall come strange unto them, no not if the heaven should fall on them, Horat. lib. 3. Carmin. ode. 3. as the Poet Horace speaketh. I do not recite these troubles, to fright men from accepting of any pastoral charge, Matth. 9.38. (I do rather make my prayer to the Lord of the harvest, to thrust out labourers into his harvest) but to remember myself, and others, to prepare themselves by precedent speculation, to burdens of this weight, and to call to God to enrich them, with graces fit for this calling. But ceasing in this matter, I come to the last note which my text doth offer to me. Preach thou that preaching which I command thee. 18 Or do thou proclaim against it, that proclamation which I speak unto thee. He is sent as an Ambassador; but such are his advertisements, and instructions from his Lord, that he may not vary from them. His commission is not general, to take counsel è re nata, or arbitrarily, as when the Roman Consuls had power without limitation, Tullius pro Milone. ut videant ne Respublica quid detrimenti capiat. He must be but as a channel, or conduit pipe, to convey that along to Ninive, which he received from his master. All the Prophets were so tied, this only cometh from them, Thus or thus saith the Lord. Yea Balaam that false Prophet, Num. 22. 1●. had catched this by the end, If Balac would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord my God, to do less or more. Saint Paul had learned this lesson, as the first in all his book. He showeth it in nothing more plainly, then in the case of the Sacrament. 1. Cor. 11.23 I received from the Lord, that which I also have delivered unto you. Gal. 1.8. So in the first to the Galathians, If an Angel from heaven preach unto you otherwise, then that which we have preached unto you (he had called himself before an Apostle from jesus Christ) let him be accursed. 1. It is a rule invariable, that in cases of salvation, we look to God the oracle of wisdom and truth; not to our own inventions, or to confirm our doctrine, from this or that of our own brain: but if we have our warrant from the old or the new Testament, Orig lib. 3. in Epistol. ad Roman. than we may safely speak it. origen proposeth Saint Paul for an example in this case. Paul (saith he) as his custom is, will affirm that which he teacheth, out of the holy Scriptures, and he doth give an example to the Doctors of the Church, that they should produce those things which they speak to the people, Non proprijs praesumpta sententijs sed divinis munita testimonijs. not grounded upon their own opinions, but strengthened with the testimonies of God. For if he so great and such an Apostle, did not think that the authority of his words might suffice, unless he did know that those things were written in the law and the Prophets which he said, how much more should we little ones observe this, that when we teach, we utter not our own but the meanings of the holy Ghost? 19 If the teachers and preachers of the Antichristian faith, had kept this for a law, there had never so absurd and filthy points of doctrine been taught to their people, visions, and revelations, and messages from the dead, dreams, customs, and such follies as are beside the word, Purgatory, and limbus Patrum, pilgrimages unto Relics, and Transubstantiation of the bread into Christ's body, being contrary to the Scriptures, and many other things of this quality, the later ever adding to the invention of the former, such a Canon or such a ceremony. These men are bold, beyond the authority which was committed to them, for theirs was but as this of jonas, thou must preach to them that preaching which I shall show unto thee. Their charge was but as Timothy's was, and Paul's words to Timothy were, O Timothy keep thy charge. 1. Tim. 6.20. Keep and hold fast that, which by the Scriptures is committed to thee from the Lord, and from me by his direction. And there is not the greatest Minister, not the most learned or acute, but must observe this rule. Not james, not john, not Peter, not all the troop of the Apostles, may once vary from this. He who shall bring other doctrine, let him be accursed by us. He who speaketh of himself, let him be refused by us. Howsoever godly or holy he do pretend himself, yet if he decline that word which should be his direction, let him be declined by us. Whosoever shall say otherwise then that which is appointed, Ignat. Epist. 10. ad Heronem. saith Ignatius, (he meaneth otherwise then God hath appointed) although he be a man of credit, although he fast and keep virginity, although he do miracles, although he prophecy, let him be thought by thee to be a wolf, who under a sheeps skin, doth intend the marring of the sheep. Thus should the hearers be careful, that they receive no doctrine, but that which is approved, and the Preachers be advised, that they never teach any thing, but what God hath commanded. Our Barhoisticall separations, and absentments from the Sacraments, had not crept so far in the land, if this had been well practised. 20 I need not give farther exhortation in this place, to retain this as a ground, in as much as all of us do lay it down as a principle, that the written word of God, is the only guide to salvation, and that fancies and traditions, are to be exiled from us. I therefore will here end, desiring the Almighty that such doctrine as is oftentimes taught unto us from this place, may bring forth such plenteous fruit, that in this congregation the name of God may be honoured and glorified in great measure, and our souls may be so strengthened, that they may sound persevere to everlasting life. To the which God the Father bring us for his own Son Christ's sake, to both whom and the holy Spirit be glory evermore. THE XVII. LECTURE. The chief points. 2. Carnal reasons why jonas might yet have refused to go. 3. But affliction hath schooled him: 4. and that not only while it was on him. 5. Affliction worketh otherwise in the good, 6. and in the bad. 7. A reproof of the present time. 9 Obedience requireth even circumstances to be regarded. 10. God must be obeyed without debating. 11. The greatness of Ninive. 12. jonas feareth not that he is alone. 14. A great auditory giveth more courage to a wise Preacher. 15. jonas speaketh not fearfully. 16. The difference of opinions for the days of repentance allowed to Ninive. 17. judgement concerning Luther in the matter of the Sacrament. 18. The Hebrew tongue is not to be neglected by a Divine. jonah. 3.3.4. So jonah arose and went unto Ninive, according to the word of the Lord: Now Ninive was a great and excellent city of three days journey. And jonah began to enter into the city a days journey, and he cried and said, Yet forty days and Ninive shall be overthrown. THe Prophet jonas, who should have gone in the business of his master, but upon some supposals had no mind unto it, Psal. 78.58. and therefore starting aside like a broken bow, was well beaten for his labour, hath now a second time his commission drawn, and his instructions given him, to go as an Ambassador from the Almighty king of heaven, to a great Prince upon earth. The message which he bringeth, is of more fearful quality, then if all the Princes adjoining, had sent him their defiance by their Heralds, that they would immediately invade him, with fire and sword, and irreconcilable hatred. For he might have made some shift against all their powers; and standing upon his guard in the defensive part, he might have repelled them, with such multitude of people, as were under his government, and a city so fortified as his was at that time. Or if he and his people, must needs end their days, by the outrage of their enemy, who would be much encouraged by prosperity and desired success; yet that might be his comfort, which is the last comfort in death, to men in his case, that he went not away unrevenged, but he had rid some of those who came to rid him, and slain some of the murderers, before that his last breath, was yielded up to nature. But there can be no such revengement taken upon him who sendeth this: the King of Ninive must suffer all and do nothing. 2 Now here it may be expected, that the man sent on this errand, might yet pick some occasion, and slip his neck out of collar, that he might not perform this business. It might have frighted this weak man, to go to a king, and to a barbarous king, proud, and haughty by nature, apt enough to revile the poor preacher, that should be sent; yea ready enough to blaspheme his Lord and master himself, saying who is this God, or what have I to do with him? Who knew whether he should ever return alive, for Ambassadors have been slain, by perfidious and fedifragous', and barbarous Princes, clean contrary to the law of nature and of nations. Or what if his body should be served of that sort, as the beards and garments of the messengers, 2. Sam. 10.4. which David sent to Hanun king of Ammon, were, by mangling in the face, or cutting off some arm or leg, that as a maimed cripple he might bear it to his grave? Or it might be imagined, that he who once before had failed so grossly, might now since the ice was broken, still hold on in his course, and come to have a facility in running away. For it is a great matter, to have once over-slipped the bonds of our duty, and to have cracked the conscience, which cannot so easily be soudered again. But the event is otherwise; and without peradventures, our Prophet performeth this charge. He thinketh it enough that he hath broken once, and now he will not be hired to do so again. He goeth without delay, and speaketh very liberally, that which is enjoined him. So that now in the stead of a stubburne-minded man, you are to expect an obedient servant. He ariseth as he is bid, he crieth as he is bid, what will you have more? And this is it, which my text at this time imposeth on me, and for the more ready opening, may not amiss be divided into these three observations. First, the obedience of the Prophet after his great chastisement, And jonas arose and went unto Ninive, according to the word of the Lord: Secondly the greatness of the city, Now Ninive was a great and excellent city of three days journey, and he went a days journey into it, for that intendeth so much. And thirdly, the preaching which he uttered, or Sermon which he made, Yet forty days and Ninive shall be destroyed. While I speak of these three, the Spirit of God give me his holy assistance, and you your gentle patience. To say therefore to the first. The obedience of jonah. 3 It is a matter of great force, to make us proficients in the school of God, to have the rod going as well as the tongue, some discipline and some doctrine. For whereas we should be wantoness, and hearkening to toys, yea first neglect that, which should be taught unto us, and after contemn the teacher himself, (for that is the fruit of security and impunity) we by no kill severity, but by a gentle remembrance, are brought to like that, which we should learn of all things, that is to say, patience and faith, and to love him who teacheth. It is good for me saith David, that I have been afflicted, for now I may learn thy statutes. Psal. 119.71. And, before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I keep thy word. 67. Isa. 26.9 So by the Prophet Esay, seeing thy judgements are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world shall learn righteousness. When the men of Ai, had slain but six and thirty of the Israelites, josua. 7.5.6. it made josuah and the Elders to look the more about them, so that josuah rend his clothes, & fell upon the ground, and cried earnestly unto God, and with a more settled will, took punishment upon Achan, & made away the Anathema. The Israelites came together, to take order for the injury offered to the Levite, judic. 20.1. who had his wife so abused beyond common humanity. The cause of the meeting of the twelve tribes against one, was good; but the manner of their handling of it, was not pleasing unto the Lord; for fury and indignation that any man should stand against them, did move them as much as justice; and they bore themselves the braver, on the multitude which was with them; which made the Lord yield them over for two days to the enemy, so that first two and twenty thousand, & afterward eighteen thousand of their strong men were slain. But when they came weeping with one consent to the Lord, & fasted & offered offerings, the humbling of themselves was rewarded with a victory, a great victory over their enemies. So their soul was the better, and they had what they desired. Our Prophet hath his share, in this good arising from affliction, who of a rebellious person, and one of-ward from his duty, is rectified and made orderly, so that now in steed of going, he is ready to run, he thinketh the better of himself, that he may be used in such business. And carrying in his memory, what shrewd stripes he had borne, although he were now freed from them, 2. Pet. 2.22. he turneth not to his vomit, but indeed he will amend, and not continue as before. 4 The manner of the world is, that while the smart is upon men, they are passing observant, and obsequious to the full; but when the storm is blown over, they will to their old play again. It is a note of Xenophons', that when mariners at sea, stand in fear of a tempest, or know that they must fight, with some enemy who is to invade them, they not only do such things, as are commanded them, but stand silent and carefully expect, what shall be imposed on them, like dancers who wait when their time shall be to strike in. But otherwise saith Xenophon, Xenophon Memorabil. lib. 3. when they are afraid of nothing, they do nothing right, but are most ungoverned men. In the greatest part of the world, we see this humour hold in matters of importance. Plin. lib. 7. Epistol. The younger Pliny could say, that when we are in extremity of sickness, we are devout, and far from the affections of avarice and ambition (if he had been a Christian, he would have said, that we had been mortified, and very much sequestered from the world and worldly things) but when we grow to health again, we forget those meditations. He concludeth in that place, that when we are well, we should persevere to be such, as we profess that we would be, so long as we are sick. It were to be wished, that our age would look better to this, that what we vow in our weakness, might be performed in our strength, and what we have in our speech, when we are most dejected, may in deed be in us, when we are erected again. But it is otherwise, and we bear ourselves in such sort, as if the recovering of our bodies, were the putting off of our minds, and our gaining in the one, were a mere loss in the other. Upon such is God's care and labour ill bestowed, that they be not bettered by it. Yet our jonas in this place, doth make a sounder benefit, of that which he hath suffered. He who in the whales belly, being compassed with the pangs and anguishes of death, had groaned for his sins, and acknowledged his errors, and vowed many good things, if he ever might get out, doth not strait upon his parting with his keeper, and his prison, forget what he had said, but imagining that his God would require an accomplishment, doth fit himself to that which should be required of him. In his suffering and enduring of such smarting tribulation, ut in palaestrâ crucis, as in a place of practising to play feats of activity, he hath profited and grown better. A happy time, that so he suffered: a happy man who was so righted. 5 This is the good which ariseth from affliction, when it is put on him, who hath grace to bear it: he looketh up to God, and yieldeth himself with patience: he knoweth that it is his burden, and he must sustain it: he acknowledgeth that all is deserved, and thinketh that he is well dealt with, in that he hath felt no more: but for that which is to come, he is the most vigilant man alive, to amend what is amiss; with diligent assiduity to recompense his negligence, and to make good whatsoever was omitted. So that those things which seemed to another, exceedingly to hurt him, have helped him exceedingly, by teaching him and reforming him. Plutarch. de animi tranquillitate. As the Bee, according to Plutarkes' speech, doth suck out honey from the Thyme, a most hard and dry herb, so the faithful minded man, sucketh knowledge and obedience, from the bitter potion of adversity, and the cross, and turneth all to the best. That slurrying which was used toward him, to scour him and rub him, hath made him shine the brighter. The weight which was on him, being like as if it had been on a good Palm tree, hath made him grow the faster. The hammer which hath beaten him, hath made him the broader, Sarisburiens. de nugis Curialium. lib. 8.23. and much enlarged him. In incude & in malleo dilatasti me: Thou hast made me broader on the anvil and with the hammer. Although it be with the hammer, yet dilatasti me, thou hast made me grow the wider: And then when once he showeth himself in his kind (as he who in former times, was kept from the right course, by affection, or idleness, or forgetfulness) he presseth on to the mark, and shaking off all that hindereth, with violence and great vehemency, he urgeth as for his soul. The fire which hath been suppressed, flieth forth with the greater force. If a watercourse hath been stopped, when it shall find a passage, it cometh with a more mighty stream. Homer. Iliad. 20. Act. 9.1. Achilles as a man of metal, fought not the worse, but with a great deal more eagerness, when he had lain so long idle in the Grecian army. It was long ere Paul was called, but as if he would redeem the time, which he had lost, he bestirreth him, 2. Cor. 6.4. and layeth about him, as a champion indefatigable. Now there is nothing, which doth more quicken this spirit of regaining, and recovering that which is lost, and omitted, than the spur of affliction. The remembrance of whose pricking, doth keep the soul from drowsiness, and from sleeping forgetfulness, and maketh it busy, to procure the good will of God, lest a worse thing fall upon it. 6 But as this rule holdeth in him, of whom it may be said truly, that he is sound at the bottom, and there is in him no evil or froward heart to fall away from the living God, Hebr. 3.12. Chrys. in johan. Homilia. 59 that nothing so prepareth his heart to wisdom as calamity and temptation and affliction, as Saint chrysostom supposeth; so in him which is putrefied, and rotten at the root, vexation and the cross hath contrary effect: for he falleth to desperation, and hatred of the Lord, unto hardness of heart, and farther disobedience. Either wilfully with Pharaoh, Exod. 7.14. he will try what God can do (yea and when he beholdeth it, yet he will scant believe it) or wounded with indignation, he languisheth away, dissolving as the ice which melteth in the sunshine, or vanishing like a vapour. The wicked are the worse, when they are under the ferular, and either do rage with fury, or else do sink with fainting. Hence they are likened to the chaff, Psal. 1.4. which is whiffed away with the wind, but the righteous are compared to good corn, which remaineth and abideth. So the wicked are but as dross, which is burned and consumed, but the faithful are as the gold, which is made the brighter for melting. It is no ill comparison, to compare them both to iron, but such as is of different sorts and qualities. Suppose one kind to be heated in the forge, but the other to be in the substance and body of the anvil: the hammer doth strike them both, but the anvil is made the harder, and moveth not to any form, whereas the other for the time is made the softer, and is framed and fashioned to that which the workman will. The faithful like a twig, will rather bend then break: the ungodly breaketh and bendeth not. Hereupon without any kind of stowping or seeking to the Lord, the wicked doth seek devices, how he may shake off the evil, which he feeleth hanging on him; and if he could tell how to do it, in despite of God, he would with strong hand ouerbeare him. All the friends which may be made: all the money that can be gotten: no spare to ride or run: the Physician for his advise: the Lawyer for his counsel (which are good helps, if they be used well) & if this serve not the turn, no sorceress shall scape free, nor witch shall be unsought; if it will not come from heaven, it shall be fetched from hell; if it will not be had in God's name, it shall be had in a worse. Thus evil is tied to evil, and sin is heaped upon sin: the rod which should have bettered, hath made a great deal badder: and by this the wrath of the Lord is more & more provoked, and the reporbate at the last, is swallowed up with everlasting destruction. When he seeth that all his evil means do fail him, either dying he rageth hotly, or pensively droopeth till he die. unumquodque recipitu● modum secundum recipientis. This rule than is very true, that every thing is received, according to the quality, of that which doth receive; the evil man afflicted is not amended by it; but with our Prophet it is otherwise; God doth but put up his finger, and he is ready to run: no sticking nor no standing: he hath paid well for his learning, he will no more of those bargains. 7 In handling this argument, of the diverse effects of the cross, in diverse sorts of men, when I think upon ourselves, I cannot choose but marvel, of what metal we are made. For to judge that this assembly, are not lovers of God, and again beloved by God, were as I suppose a presumptuous and uncharitable, and unchristian sin; and far be it from me, to have the least thought of it. I am rather induced to think, that every one here belongeth to God's election; for it standeth much with reason, that grace should have deep root in that people, who so early before daylight, come together with devotion, to hear what the Lord doth say concerning all of them. And God increase this affection in us all unto the end. Yet when I look farther, I see that all is not well. He is blind who now beholdeth not, that God is angry with us. The continuance of his punishment, doth testify that his wrath is in no sort appeased. I pass by other matters, of a pestilence lately gone, and the sword yet threatened to us. But behold what a famine he hath brought upon our land, and making it to persevere, yet hitherto doth increase it. One year there hath been hunger; the second there was a dearth, and a third which is this year, there is great cleanness of teeth. The poorer sort do most feel it: the Lord have mercy on them. So that as in David's days, 2. Sam. 21.1. there were three dear years together, so we have had already, accounting that for one wherein we now do live. And see whether that the Lord doth not threaten us much more, by sending such unseasonable weather, and store of rain among us. Which if we will observe, and compare it with that which is past, we may say that the course of nature is very much inverted; our years are turned up-side down; our summers are no summers, our harvests are no harvests; our seed-times are no seed-times. Ammian. Marcellinus lib. 22. Ammianus Marcellinus doth write, concerning the City Alexandria in Egypt, that for many ages together, scant any one day hath been seen, that the Sun hath not shined upon it. We may say to the contrary, that for a great space of time, scant any day hath been seen, that it hath not rained on us. Or if there have been some few, that have been otherwise, Decembr. Anno. 1596. their glory and our hope is forthwith overturned. And the nights are like the days: we know not which are the better. It was said in the time of the Emperor Augustus, Nocte pluit tota, redeunt spectacula mane, It raineth all night, Virgil. in Epigram. but in the morning men return to their sports again, the weather was so fair in the day time, that all returned to their spectacles, or plays, or went about their business: but with us it is otherwise. Athen Dipnosphist. lib. 8.7. Athenaeus telleth that Stratonicus a ●esting fellow, did use to say concerning the mountain Haemus, as oft as he was asked of the temperature of the air there, that for eight months in the year, it was exceeding cold, and for the other four it was winter. We may speak in such sort of this weather, that in the daytime it raineth, & in the night it showreth, or poureth down, and that is all the difference. 2. Sam. 21.1. 8 Now, as in the days of David, when the matter was looked into, it was found that the famine fell upon them, for one sin, and that was for the deed of Saul and his bloody house, in murdering the Gibeonites, neither could the land be purged, till blood were paid for with blood; so no man need doubt, but this hurt is on us for one sin or another, or for a multitude of wickednesses bound together, for we make no spare of them. Since we know not the particular, let every man suspect himself, and privately cry to the Lord, it is I who have offended, and it is my father's house, 2. Sam. 24.17. and let us not thrust it, as men do use, from ourselves unto other. But who is he that hath altered or changed his ways, although the wrath of God be yet on us, and his hand be stretched out still? I grieve to speak that which is truth: who goeth not on as he did before, and keepeth not his old tenure? Who yet hangeth down his dead: or whose countenance is abated? May we not say with Saint Bernard, How many do we see humbled, Bernard. Serm. in Omnis qui fe exaltat. Quantos videmus humiliatos, sed non humil●t. and yet they be not humble, stricken but not grieving at it, dressed indeed by the Lord, but yet they be not cured. Who leaveth that sin which he frequented? his avarice, or his malice, or his swearing or his pride? what here I say of ourselves, may be spoken of all our land. The sore is far extended, and the sin is grown as far. Then in general we may ask, whether bribery in the temporalty, be diminished at all, and detaining of that, which should serve for a Minister, to feed the people's souls? or simony in the Clergy, or usury in the citizen, or oppression in the mighty? Do the pastors any whit more diligently inform the charge depending on them, or do they shine before their people in honest conversation, and propose themselves examples of contemning the world? Do the people with more devotion, or more increased numbers, come together to solicit, and call on the God of heaven, to be yet merciful unto them? The manner in all times hath been, to do something which is not common, while the smart hath been upon men; although afterward the badder sort, do turn again to their wickedness. Chrysost. in Act. Apostol. Homil 41. chrysostom upon the Acts of the Apostles, maketh mention of his time, The year before, saith he, did not God strike our whole city? what then? did not all run to their devotions? Did not whoremongers and wantoness, and effeminate persons forsaking their possessions, and the places where they conversed, turn and become religious? But when three days were passed, they returned again to their malice. There the end was amiss, but the beginning was good. I would that we might begin so: I would hope for a better end. Some extraordinary thing would well beseem this time; if we would not fast with the Ninivites (whereof I may have occasion, if God will, to speak hereafter) yet public prayers are much worth, which coming jointly from whole congregations, will echo up to the heaven, and pierce the clouds and sky, and as a man may say, will offer a kind of violence, Matth. 11.12. to that God who did make us. It will wring mercy, and wrest loving kindness from him, for so is his own pleasure. If we do thus, then together with jonas, we make use of our afflictions, learning by those things which we suffer, religion and true holiness, and patience, and obedience, which the Lord loveth more than sacrifice. 1. Sam. 15.22. 9 Thus hitherto having spoken in general of the readiness of our Prophet to obey, after his grievous punishment, it is not amiss to look on that in special, which my text doth import unto us farther. And that doth not only say that jonas did arise, and go to Ninive, but addeth according to the word of the Lord. As much as if it were said, that he both took the journey, and observed all the circumstances, which God proposed to him. This was faithful performance of his part, to look to every tittle which should be required of him. These circumstances are they, which make or mar a matter, & the Lord standeth much upon them. To go, and when, and whither: and to speak, and what, and to whom, and with what manner of spirit. When Moses went to Pharaoh, Exod. 5.1. he failed not in any one of these. In the building of the Tabernacle, the matter, and figure, and number of every thing was prescribed and kept. Moses was the most careful man that ever lived on earth; therefore he had that Elogium, or testimony given concerning him, that he was faithful in all God's house. Hebr 3.2. ●. Sam. 15 1. What was it which cost Saul his kingdom, but the failing in these particulars? He went and fought with Ameleck, and conquered and destroyed; but not the king, and the cattle; therefore the Lord was offended, with anger which never was appeased. Saul thought himself to have reason for those things which he did: but God will be obeyed, and not taught by his potsherds, nor rectified by his creatures. The Romans in their discipline, would not have an inferior serve from the words of his commander, much less to chop speech for speech with him, or give him reason out of the conceit of his fancy. Sari●b. de i●ugis Cutia●●um. li. 6.12 When Crassus being on a time General, had written to Magnus Gaius, that he should send him the bigger of two ship-masts which were in his custody, that thereof he might make a Ram, which was an Engine used to batter, Gaius knowing that the lesser was fitter for that purpose, sent him that lesser: but because he obeyed him no otherwise, Crassus caused him to be beaten with rods most severely. How much more should our God stand upon his glory, that what he biddeth should be done, and his will should be fulfilled according to his word? 10 In which respect, I doubt not but our jonas now is so wise, as to look to that word only, and to be obsequious to it, in every the least thing. When he was bid forthwith to repair to that place, Thucydides Histor. lib. 1. he doth it without delay. When Themistocles being banished from his country, would needs into Persia, to the great king Artaxerxes, in one year he would not come into his presence, but spent that time in learning the Persian tongue, that he might be able personally to speak to that Prince, & tell his tale himself. Here now is no such doubt made by jonas, but either he could already the speech of the Ninivites, or was sufficiently instructed, that he who once at Babel, made so many tongues of one, Genes. 11.8. could give his servant so many of those tongues as were fit for his business. That evidently was showed, some hundreds of years afterwards, Act. 2.1. in the gift powered upon the Apostles. Therefore he stood not upon this, but presently went his way. Neither doth he make scruple of another matter, that himself was but a stranger, and therefore he should not be believed: that he was to speak to a king, for the which he was unsufficient: that such things as were necessary, might be denied to him, as his diet and his lodging; but looking on nothing else, saving God's commandment, and nakedly upon that, he betaketh himself to his journey. True faith and true obedience, do not busy themselves with that, which resteth upon the commanders direction. It was a most commendable rule, of that worthy Paulus Aemilius, Livius lib. 44. that his soldiers should take care of three things, and no more. First that their bodies should be nimble, and such order taken for them, as should be needful. Secondly that their armour were fit. And thirdly that their mind should be ready for every thing, which their General should give them in charge, although it came upon the sudden: but for other matters, they should not trouble themselves about them, but know that those were cared for, by God and by their leader. There can be no better precept, even in our Christian warfare against powers and principalities and every thing that withstandeth, Ephes. 6.12. then to have all things in readiness, which belong to our vocation, and to respect the voice of jesus, Hebr. 12.2. who is the Captain, and finisher of our faith: but not to meddle at all with his secret counsels, or with casting too many perils. He requireth a duty of us, and that is it which he himself enjoineth; and he will have us in many cases, to depend upon his providence. This is not always remembered, when we forbear to speak a necessary truth, fearing to utter it, lest this or that should come of it. I do not incite men to presumption, or to speak they know not what, but I urge them to perform that, which is commanded them, with all singleness of heart, and to discharge a good conscience, by the example of the Prophet. And so I come to my second part. The greatness of the City Niniveh. 11 The charge unto which this messenger of God, is at this time sent, is a marvelous great charge, described in more places than one in this Prophecy, and in different terms, to be mighty and huge. jonah. 1.2. Cap. 3.2. In the first Chapter, it is called that great City, and so in this third Chapter; and in this verse great to God, for so it is in the Hebrew, which is expounded to signify as much as excellent; even as in the thirtieth of Genesis, Rahel saith of herself, Genes. 30.8. I have wrestled with my sister, with wrestlings of God, which yet commonly is translated, with excellent wrestlings. Some other more literally say great to God, because for a very long time, he placed there the seat of the Assyrian monarchy, and therefore much advanced it in all kind of temporal blessing. Or else great to God, that is before God in sins, which for the odiousness of them were ascended up before him. jonah. 4.11. In the fourth Chapter it is said, that there were a hundred and twenty thousand such infants and young ones, that they knew not their right hand from their left. But here, which is most of all, that it was a City of three days journey. Which is not to be taken, as if a man riding apace, could but cross it in three days, from the wall of the one side, to the wall of the other, as from an East-gate, to a West-gate, but that the circuit was such, as by the compass of the wall in the outward circumference, a man traveling on foot, might by reasonable journeys, be well three days in compassing it. (And that it was the greatest custom of those Eastern countries, Genes. 18.4. Matth. 4.23. Cap. 28.19. to journey on foot, may be very well collected, by washing of their feet so commonly after journeys, and by the travels on foot, of Christ and his Apostles.) Now by such testimonies, as we do manifestly gather from profane writers, this is found to be so. There be that do cite some thing to this purpose, Tremel. & junius in jonae. 3. Diodorus lib. 2. junius ut suprà. out of Herodotus, but that is not so plain. But Diodorus Siculus in his second book (as Stephanus doth reckon them) speaketh fully to this point. And in the times of Herodotus, and Diodorus, the rudera, the ruins and desolations of Ninive stood, so that if they had written falsely, common men might have controlled them. Diodorus then saith, that this city had walls of marvelous breadth, so that carts might not only go, but very well meet upon them: that it had fifteen hundred towers, which argueth a great bigness: & that the walls being four ways set, although not equally square, had no less in the compass of the outside, than four hundred and fourscore furlongs. Where if we account after eight furlongs to the mile, all amounteth to threescore miles, and not only to eight and forty, as the Geneva note in the English Bible hath upon the first Chapter. So then threescore miles in circuit, may be reckoned for three days journey, twenty miles to a day, which is more than soldiers march; and for ordinary footmen, in the winter it is harder, in the summer it is easier. And this I take to be the true meaning of the Prophet, and not only as some would have it (which may be true also) that it was full three days labour, to go through every lane, or broad street in the City. 12 When I opened the first verses of this prophecy, speaking out of this place, I more fully handled this argument, and showed that in old time, the Eastern Cities were very huge, as for example sake, Aristot. Politicorum. li. 3. Babylon, which Aristotle reporteth to be so great, as that when one part thereof, was taken by an enemy, the the other part heard not not of it, in three whole days together. Moreover that the city stood on a river, and therefore had store of water; Herodot. li. 1. & that the fertility of the soil was such, that Herodotus on his knowledge, speaketh it in his first book, that the seed thereabout sowed, did return two or three hundred fold, so many bushels for one. The water then being plentifully there, & the soil answering to it, to yield food for such a multitude, & the place being the royal city of the Assyrian Monarchy, and therefore built with all magnificence, for the honour of the kingdom; yea the profane writers confirming it; but that which is most of all, the Spirit of God affirming it, we may very well take Ninive, for an excellent and great city, such a one as I suppose, that neither the old world, nor the new world had any like unto it. Not Babylon, not Jerusalem, not Rome with her seven hills, not Quinzay in the East, nor Mexico in the West, not Milan as it is, nor Antwerp as it was, not Paris in her late glory, nor Venice in her now beauty. Which since the holy Scripture hath described so plainly, we must needs labour to find some thing in it, which may be applied to our learning. It is worth the thinking on, that the Prophet is not discouraged to go to such a place: a single one to so many, a sole man to such a city. Who would not have thought, that himself should there have been contemptible? and derided for the paucity of his attendants? not a fellow to bear him company? not a boy to do him service? Appian in his book of the wars of the Romans with Mithridates, Appian. de bellis Mithridaticis. telleth how Tigranes jested, when he saw the small number of soldiers, which the Romans sent against him: he must needs bestow one scoff on them: Sil●gaeti sunt ●i, multi sunt: quòd si hostes perpauci. What are these men saith he, I think they come as Ambassadors: but then they be too many: or if they come as soldiers, alas they be too few. It is likely that if he had seen this Ambassador, and his train to be none, and peradventure his apparel, to be base and disgraceful, he would not have left at one speech, but doubled his wit upon him. 13 Our man standeth not at this: neither feareth he his life among them, although their number were so great that with ease they might have devoured him, and every one of them taken so little, that it needed not offend them. His faith and his resolute mind now put him through thick & thin: his confidence in his master, maketh him contemn the greatness of a world. He knoweth that if God be on his side, Roman. 8.31. 1. joh. 5▪ 4. what matter is it who be against him? All that is borne of God, saith S. john in his first Epistle, overcometh the world, & so doth that also which is borne out by God. Psal. 3.6. I will not be afraid saith David, for ten thousand of the people, that should be set me round about. Then what the Ninivites should think of him, or how the king would frown upon him, he reckoneth not to dispute; they were all in the hands of his master, & so himself was also, therefore he only strove, how to please him, and not any other man. And this is a good resolution, more to think on one God, and retaining of his favour, then of all the world beside. His love is incomparably greater, than the love of Ninive, & ten Ninives, yea of all the frame of creatures. For instruction herein, Chrysost. Homil. 3. super Elatum est cor Oziae. chrysostom directeth us to chariot drivers, of whom he speaketh in this manner: Dost thou not see the drivers of chariots, who passing swiftly by all the part of the race, where the whole city sitteth, to behold the coursing of the horses, do there strive to overturn the chariots of them which whom they contend, where they behold the Emperor sitting, & do say that the eye of him alone, is more worthy to trust unto, than the faces of so many men? But when thou seest the very king of Angels, to sit as the judge and rewarder of thy striving, passing by him thou fliest to the eyes of thy fellow-servants, seeking to please them. We should imitate these chariot-riders, preferring God's liking, and love, before a many of Ninivites. For put them in the balance, and he over-weigheth them all. 14 His settled mind at this time, remembreth this well enough, & therefore feareth not this mighty city: Nay on the contrary side, if his heart were upright, as it should be (and I think that at this time so it was) the greatness of the company to which he was to be sent, should give him larger hope, and yield him greater spirits: for if God did bless his labour, here was good indeed to be done: to angle where was such store, to speak where was such an auditory. For by this means, how many thousands might he win to the Lord, and what joy might he conceive, that his mouth should be the instrument, to win their souls from destruction. If God be glorified in gaining one, how is he honoured in gaining many? If men labour, and spend themselves to obtain a little, what should they do for much? Then the Prophet need not fear, but take it as a mercy of his God shed upon him, that he must go to great Ninive. For I doubt not but he was furnished with the powerful grace of the Spirit, that he needed not fear himself, or distrust his own ability. And indeed I am of that mind, that when a man is provided with sufficient meditation, and earnest prayer to God, to speak to a congregation, his heart is more with child, & his vigour is more kindled, and his spirits are more quickened, when he seeth a great assembly, attentive and intelligent, so that nothing may fall to the ground. Act. 2 41. I doubt not but this was the very case of S. Peter; his heart did yearn in his belly, and his bowels were more dilated, when he saw so many hearing with reverence & respect, as that three thousand of them, might be catched at one time. And it is mine opinion (although perhaps it be but mine) that the Saviour of the world, according to those different inclinations, which his manhood brought unto him, did rouse himself the more, and did pierce the hearts of his hearers, with more pathetical speech, when he saw such troops come about him, that he was forced to go to a mountain, Matth. 5.1. Matth. 9.36. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Quint. lib. 1.2. or betake him to a ship, to teach so many of them. He who was moved in his bowels, with compassion, to see so many as sheep without a shepherd, may be more moved, in and with his tongue, to satisfy such a multitude. Quintilian saith of a schoolmaster (imagine that he meaneth a good one, such a one as is well prepared to teach) that since a good Lecture is not like a supper, which being provided for a set number will serve no more, but as the sunshine, which may satisfy all without scanting, come as many as will; that he is very much encouraged, when he readeth to many, and doth use such voice and gesture, as if he should use to one, a man would think that he were mad. Surely this is the case of the faithful steward of Christ, who aimeth only at the honouring and glorifying of his master, and doth not mean to set himself at sale, with vain glory (for there God oftentimes, doth send a curse, in matter, or voice, or memory, or one thing or another, besides those common infirmities, which are incident to God's servants) he is cheered, that the Lord is pleased to make his tongue, the conduit to convey grace to so many. It is likely that our jonas at this time was so well persuaded, and therefore it is said here so precisely, that the city was so great and huge a city, strait after mention made of his willingness and obedience. 15 Well, Hieron. in jon. 3. be it as it is, he entereth this great city a days journey, it is said: This is, as Hierome citeth the opinion of some men, he passed so among them, that he warned and instructed the third part of the city, so much as a man might compass, in the journey of a day. And there he began to cry: he crept not in as heretics do, nor whispered like to our Jesuits, who by secret reconciling, draw men from God and their Prince, and all true love to their country: not as a fearful coward, who dare not show his head, for fear lest he should be taken, but as one of the Lords Prophets, he delivereth his message in open streets and the market. God's servants have not feared, to speak even to the faces of kings and cruel tyrants. Christ jesus taught in the Temple, and in the midst of Jerusalem, and so did his Apostles. Neither may that be said to be, by a secret or private conference, but as our jonas here, so Christ in the seventh Chapter of Saint john, joh. 7.28. did stand and cry in the Temple. They were on sleep in Ninive, through prosperity and security, and therefore that they might be awaked, they had need of one to cry. The more they were lulled in evil, the more noise must be made to rouse them out of evil. He who should have spoken mildly, and but softly and quietly there, might have been passed by of all men: which was the estate of Christendom, when Luther came into the world, and therefore he spoke with a stirring spirit, of fortitude and courage, God sending a sharp surgeon, to sores which were so ulcerated. Our Prophet is in this predicament of vehemency and earnestness, which appeareth by all particulars, as first that he began so soon to tell his message; he goeth not about the city, nor gazeth to see the buildings, or with curiosity to observe the streets, or houses, or palaces, or Temples, but he strait way falleth to his work: secondly he thundereth with voice lift up, and speaketh out that every one may take notice; but thirdly, which is most of all, he uttereth that which biteth. The matter is a great deal more piercing, than the manner. Yet forty days and Niniveh shall be destroyed. But because this is the third main note, which I culled out of my text, give me leave now to come to it. The Sermon of jonah. 16 The substance of his Sermon, and the doctrine contained in it, is that which reason teacheth, should be handled in these words; for there is the life of the Scripture: but lest I should be wearisome to you, I must be enforced to leave that to the next, when it may with fit opportunity infer their repentance. Yet in the mean while, I will prepare your ears to that, by touching some thing from the letter, and one collection from the words. In decrees of men, our Lawyers still have recourse principally, to the very letter and plain words of the Statute; which if we here shall do, we shall find that there is great disagreement concerning it, even among great ones. The Hebrew verity hath forty days, as we read it▪ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Orig Hom. 6. in Ezech. Athanas in Synops. nomine jonas. Et libro de passione & cruse Domini. Hier. in jonae. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet forty days and Niniveh shall be destroyed. The Septuagint translate it, yet three days and no more; which caused the expositors of the greeks, who only followed the Septuagint, to use no other number. So Origen upon Ezechiel, hath three days. So Athanasius in his Synopsis, and in his book, De passione & de cruse Domini. Hierome upon this place, wondereth how the Septuagint could so much oversee themselves, since there is no similitude of syllables, words, or accents in the Hebrew, between Shalosh and Arbagnim, whereof the one doth signify three, and the other forty. Saint Austen although in most things he be a follower of the Septuagint, yet as I suppose being put in mind by the translation of Hierome (which about that time began to be published) that in the original it was forty, and thereby being put to a push whether to choose, Aug de civitate Dei. lib. 18.44. in his books De civitate Dei, doth modestly like of that which is in the Hebrew fountain; but being desirous withal, to retain that which was received from the Septuagint, (under a mystical figure, applied to Christ jesus, who was three days in the grave) hath that excellent wit of his, vives in August. de ciu. Dei. 18.44. as Lodovicus vives writing upon that place speaketh, so troubled and so entangled, that he knoweth not how to clear it. Thus the greatest are but men, and every man hath his errors. But as it falleth out that judges who are too facile to qualify two opinions, justin. Martyr. Dialogo contra Tryphonem. would gladly say as both have said, and yet do say like neither, so I find that justinus Martyr, will neither have three nor forty, and yet both three and forty, yet forty three days saith he. 17 This worthy man as it seemeth, would have a way by himself; but by moderating two sides, he hath drawn them both upon him. In which his case may not unfitly be compared to that of Martin Luther which is so famous. For he knowing that the Papists in the matter of the Sacrament, held a Transubstantiation, as the Septuagint hold three in jonas, (both of these opinions, both concerning three and the transubstantiating) having continued a long time, but not from the beginning) and that Zuinglius held that the bread remained after Consecration, but yet representing the body of Christ (which agreeth with the Scripture, as forty here doth with the Hebrew,) would needs like to justinus Martyr, bring both these sides after a sort together, that there should be bread with Zuinglius, and the body too with the Romanists, not by turning the bread into Christ's body, but by a Consubstantiation, or joining each with other. And in holding this opinion, being driven to those extremities, In pane, Cum pane, Sub pane. as to maintain that the flesh of Christ is in the bread, and with the bread, and under the bread, yea every where in the earth, and air, and heaven, he drew both sides upon him, and is oppugned by both, with bitterness and great eagerness. Whereout I do make this use, that God's acts are miraculous, and his ordinances wonderful, when he suffereth the best to fall, that none in this world may be perfect, but only the Godhead which is immaculate and undefiled, and so by this means all glory may be his. Moses shall have his spots, although in another kind; Num. 11.11. Galat. 2.11. and Peter shall deserve to be reproved by Paul. So many Martyrs and Fathers in the old and Primitive Church, had their spots and noted spots, and yet were Gods noble servants. In like sort that renowned man, the great instrument of the Lords glory, who so cleared that point of justification, the very ground of salvation, against all the Rabbins and schoolmen, and so purged out other superstitions, that all Europe at this day, doth shine the brighter for him, (and therefore as his memory shall be blessed to the end, in despite of all that gainsay it, so his soul doth rest with the Highest) had his lapsum humanum, his error incident to a man, that we might evermore remember that he was a man, although an excellent man, and not more dote upon him, than we should upon a creature. Ministri Heidelbergenses in Acts colloquij Mulbrunens'. Genebrard. Chronolog. lib. 4. Yet there wanteth not good testimony, that himself before he died, did dislike that opinion, and thought that he had gone too far. I have named this, by occasion of that in justinus Martyr, in whom that about three and forty days, was an error, although I put a great difference between the mistaking of a number, and this higher point of religion. 18 But to prevent in ourselves the like slips, which befell to them writing concerning jonas, the best and readiest way is to have recourse to the wellsprings, wherein the word was written, which Saint Austen himself doth confess, August. de doctr. Chr. lib. 2.11. Idem Epist. 131. although he were nothing seen in the Hebrew, and but little in the Greek. In which tongues, the greater knowledge is the greater gift of God, which although he do not grant in abundant sort to all, (as to one he giveth this thing, to another that, to the end that all may stand in need one of another) yet it is good for a Divine, to know something in them, that when great doubts arise, he be not quite to seek, albeit he be not so well furnished, as to read a Lecture of a tongue in an University. In that little whereof I have taken notice, which I confess is not much, I do find in some of the Ancient, oversights which are greater than ordinary, for want of understanding in the original of the Hebrew; and this hath fallen out in the greatest controversies. I will name one for all, but such a one, as then the which nothing is more evident, nothing is more material. He who hath read the old Counsels, or the Ecclesiastical story, or the writings of such Fathers, as succeeded the time of Constantine, within one or two hundred years, may sufficiently see and surfeit, how Arius and his company oppugned the Godhead of Christ, and his equality with his Father. What more main question was there ever concerning the grounds of Christianity, or what could possibly strike deeper? In the reading of those forenamed writers, we find that at the first Athanasius was the only man, for writing and disputing, to oppugn them; as was evident in the Nicene Council, and otherwise afterward. And he suffered so much for his labour, that he well deserved to be called a ringleader, and bel-wether of the flock, a pillar of the faith, that invincible Athanasius, a champion for Christ jesus, and whatsoever else is honourable. Yet it is marvel to see, how in all his disputations he is troubled with that place, in the eighth chapter of the Proverbs, Prou. 8.22. where wisdom saith of herself, (which he cannot choose but interpret to be the Son of God) the Lord made me, or created me the beginning of his ways, whereout the Arrians urged, that jesus Christ in the Godhead was made or created, and consequently was a creature, and so of another substance. And this they had from the Septuagint, who translated it in that manner. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Athanas. in Decretis Nicenae synodi. The Lord made me, or the Lord created me. It is strange to see, how in answer of that place, the good Father is driven, as elsewhere, so in Decretis Nicenae synodi, to expound and distinguish this creature, and to show how God's Son in the Deity may be so called. Truth it is that he holdeth the ground, as an Orthodox Catholic man, but he is put to hard shifts. Now if his skill had been such, as to have repaired to the Hebrew text, the matter had been soon answered, and he had found that, which Hierome quickly afterward did discover, that it is there in the place, Dominus possedit me, or Dominus acquisivit me, as Arias Montanus hath it, the Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vide Schindler. Hebr. Instit. lib. 2. in Sexto ordine verborum. which maketh not for the Arrian. jehovah Canani, which doth not come of Canan, nidificare, for then the former Nun, should have Daghes in the middle; but of Canah, acquirere, possidere, with the Affix in the end. And so it had been better translated by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, some of whose tenses do signify possideo, then by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 creo. And this being so answered to the enemy, had razed the greatest fort, wherein he trusted most. Let this place out of the proverbs, in so renowned a man as Athanasius was, and the other out of jonas, which was mistaken by so many, show what a help it is, to be able upon occasion, to look to the original: where finding as we do; Yet forty days and Ninive shall be destroyed, I will not farther dispute it. But having now made this way to the doctrine of the place, I do leave that to be touched, as God shall give grace hereafter. In the mean time let us pray to him so to open our hearts, that we may make true use of the rods of our afflictions, and with patience bear his cross, with trembling respect his judgements, and with obedience work his will, that his justice be not enforced to send forth against us, a sentence of destruction, as it did against Ninive. From the which the Father save us, for his own Son Christ his sake, to both whom and his holy Spirit, be honour for evermore. THE XVIII. LECTURE. The chief points. 1. How the Sermon of jonas might be short and yet effectual. 4. Numbers are observed in Divinity, 5. and may be abused. 7. How they may be rightly used. 8. God's mercy in forbearing sinners. 11 Sin is forcible to draw down vengeance. 14. It is the more fearful, that they are not told how they are like to perish. 15. God hath many ways to destroy. 16. No place is invincible. jonah. 3▪ 4. Yet forty days and Niniveh shall be overthrown. HE little conceiveth the purpose of this Prophecy, who seeth not that God's drift from the beginning of it was, to have jonas go and preach to the Ninivites. You have seen what work he hath had, to bring this business about. The sea & air have been troubled; the mariners much disquieted; jonas himself so vexed, that he hath spent half this book, to tell what did befall him, because he did not preach. But at last, after all this, he is come to it; and therefore we may now very well expect a long Sermon and a large. Elephanti partu●. For like to the young of an Elephant, it hath been long in breeding: therefore it may be great. Else it may be said, that we stay long for a little: & he came far for a small message: and a great head to a child's body: and a Preface very tedious, to a tale which is quickly ended. But God tieth not himself to the rules of Rhetoric, so to fit the fancies of men, but as in matter he is evermore the same, to speak nothing but truth, so in manner he is oft-times different, now longer and then shorter, now sharper and then sweeter. But the quality of his shortest speech, doth recompense want of quantity, for much is in a little, and in few things there are many things. Yet if that which is short be repeated many times, the frequent repetition doth also make that large; as that Psalm is no small one which hath reiterated in each verse, Psal. 136.1. for his mercy endureth for ever. Then if our Prophet being in Ninive, and going from one street to another, had used in the ends and middle of them, but these words, Yet forty days and Ninive shall be overthrown, he might first have spent his day & found himself work enough, and secondly have left much more amazedness in the people, that he would denounce one thing so frequently and so confidently, and say no more nor less, and thirdly he might also fulfil the end of his coming. 2 My text saith that he cried, and I read of another crier, who took the self same course in a city of no less note, although somewhat meaner in quantity. When the time was come that Jerusalem soon after was to be destroyed by the Romans, a countryman while yet there was great peace and prosperity, joseph. de bello judaic. 7.12. cried day and night in the street, and sometimes in the Temple: A voice from the East, a voice from the West, a voice from the four winds, a voice against Jerusalem and the Temple, a voice against new married men, and against new married women, a voice against all this people. This was continued by him in the self same words, saving that sometimes he added, Woe, woe unto Jerusalem. The man who did this was named jesus. I doubt not but in this case of Ninive, our Prophet was a Preacher: and I read of another Preacher, who took the same course also. Hieron. in 6. ad Galatas Hierome writeth concerning john the Evangelist, that he abode at Ephesus till he was so old, and f●eble by reason of age, that he could hardly be borne to Church by his scholars. But being there, and his memory or voice not framing to his mind, he would say again and again over, and multiply it oftentimes, Little children love one another, little children love one another. And when his scholars and auditors were weary, with the continual hearing of these words, and no other, they asked him the reason of it; who gave them this answer, It is the commandment of our Lord, and this alone is sufficient, if it be done as it should. If our jonas as a Preacher, should like that Preacher john, or our jonas as a crier, should like that crier jesus, have sung the self same song, and redoubled the self same note, I fear not, but as these men offended not in the manner, but caused much admiration, so he might have done likewise. 3 But I rather think that this case, was the case of john the Baptist, Matth. 3.3. who had both persons in him, a crier in the wilderness, and a Preacher among the people. Yet when his Sermon is described by Matthew the Evangelist, it is in as short terms, as this was here at Ninive, 2. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Where although the words be few, yet those were but the knitting up, and brief of a great deal more: for john sung not one note, but rose, and fell, and varied, as occasion was offered unto him, as in the midst of the chapter is manifest to the reader. For the Pharisees had their errand, and the Saduces had their item; Lu. 3.7.12.14 and Luke goeth farther yet, the Publicans had one lesson, and the soldiers had another, and the people went not free. Yet because the solid substance of all which john did say, was reduced to that head of repentance, and to inform them, that the kingdom of grace, and appearance of Messias, was now to be seen of them, all his doctrine and preaching is laid down in that brief sum. So it may be rightly supposed, that this messenger did tell a longer tale in Ninive, even the narration of himself, to procure more credit to his words: and the recounting of his punishment, and escaping from the same; but especially, did inveigh against those noted sins, which were in that great city, their oppression and their ravening, their tyranny and bloodshedding, which they exercised upon those who were under them; their arrogancy and pride, whereunto prosperity did puff them; their avarice and their wantonness, but most of all their security growing by their abundance: and that for these and the like, destruction and a speedy ruin should be their portion. Yet because the burden of all, was forty days and destroying, all is closed up in those words. So that it which being folded up, doth fill but a little room, if it be opened and spread, doth make a greater show. Caesar's veni, vidi, vici, contained much matter in it. Luc. 18.13. The Publican had but few words, o God be merciful to me a sinner, but they were more effectual, than the long prayer of the Pharisee. The Paternoster is but short, August. de haeresibus ad quod vult Deum. but those heretics called Euchitae, who prayed all their life time, never said so much in substance, as those few lines have in them. It is the wisdom of God, & it is the grace of the Scripture, to say much in a littl●; to be in show compendious, yet indeed to be large. johan. 6.10. In five loves there was food to feed five thousand men, in five words here is matter to teach many thousands more. The Lord who guided the tongue of jonas, to speak them at first, direct my tongue now, to open them at this present. Then to avoid curiosity, or far fetched speculation, conceive all in these two points. First the time which here is limited, yet forty days. And secondly, the sequel which should follow, and Niniveh shall be destroyed. To speak then to the former of them. Yet forty days. 4 In opening the Scripture, it is a custom among the ancient, that if they find any thing, wherein some special number is noted and laid down, they will out of that number collect somewhat, which is observable, as if there were in numbers, some matter of mystery, which by subtle conceit, or some quaint allusion, did intend a thing more than common. Few of the grave Fathers, but harp upon this string, which the elder sort among us who have read them, do know so sufficiently, that they can know nothing better. But for the younger sort, to give one example most natural for this place, ●ieron. in jonae. 3. Hierome upon this text saith, that this number of forty, which is here allotted to the Ninivites, is very fit for sinners, for fasting and praying, for sackcloth and tears, all which followed afterward in them. So Moses did fast full forty days in the mount. Exod. 24 18. 1. Reg. 19▪ 8. Matth. 4.2. So Elias flying from jezabel, was forty days without meat. Christ jesus the true jonas, fasted forty days saith Hierome, and left us the inheritance of fasting in like manner, before that we eat his body. He meaneth the time of Lent before Easter, at which the Sacrament is by Christians received. He might also have added, that this number of forty might be well applied to the overthrow and destruction of a city, since (as Eusebius hath it) Jerusalem was quite razed, Eu●eb. Eccl. Hist. 3.8. forty years after Christ's death. And to speak a truth in this question, we find in the Scriptures that sometimes numbers are pointed out for special things indeed, as the seven fat kine, Genes. 41.26 and the seven lean kine, and the seven ears of corn, to signify seven plentiful years at the first, & then seven years of famine afterward. Exod. 28.17 ●1. Twelve precious-stones were set in the breastplate of the Priest, but it is there expressed, that they were to represent the twelve tribes of Israel, for whom he was to pray, and to whom he was to give judgement. So in the time of josuah, jos. 4.3. the twelve stones set up in the river jordan, and the other twelve which were taken thence by them, and pitched in Gilgal, are expressly said in the text, to note the twelve tribes of Israel. 5 So that in Divinity, wilfully to reject all observation of numbers, is to deprive ourselves of a good measure of knowledge, and to seek to have that concealed, which God to good fruit and purpose would have to be known. But there may be an abusing of that which in itself is not evil; when sanctity shall be attributed, or superstition put in this or that number, or overmuch curiosity shall be bestowed therein, to make the world believe that to be a point which is very much material for the sound knowledge of Christianity, which indeed is nothing else, but an idle speculation of our fantastic brain, although with show of ground in some thing. Did not those heathenish people put sanctity in odd numbers, the manners of whom the Poet Virgil describeth in his eighth Eglogue, Virgil. Eglog. 8. where when they were to use charms for some purposes, he telleth that they made three streaks, and three pictures of a man, and giveth that reason for it, Numero Deus impare gaudet. God delighteth in an odd number. Did not old Balaam carry this opinion when going to curse the Israelites, Numer. 23. ● 13.14▪ 29. he not only changed his standing, supposing one place to be more lucky, and another more unlucky, as gamesters and dicers oftentimes do, thinking that that may fadge here which elsewhere doth not prove, but he must have seven altars, and then seven other altars, and seven bullocks, and seven rams, as if that seven were much to the purpose. In case of superstition we need no example more familiar, then that of our gross Papists, who in their blind devotion, stand much upon account, Vide Polyd. Virgil. de invent. rer. lib. 5 9 and have their beads for that purpose: three Credoes for such a matter, five Pater-nosters for this, ten Ave-maries for that. See whether Christ aimed not at them, when he speaketh of vain repititions, and counter-chaungings of prayers, Matth. 6.7. and addeth that they think to be heard for their much babbling. Genebrard. Chronolog. lib. 4. Well fare thee Gilbert Genebrard, who dost tell us that one Peter an Hermit of Amboyse, was the first who did invent those beads for Pater-nosters, that we may know the author, and he may have the praise of that hypocrisy for his own. But Genebrard thou hadst this (as thou professest) out of Polydore Virgil, Polyd. Virg. ut suprà. where thou mightst have added that, which thy author there addeth, that these beads made now a days not only of wood and amber and coral, but of gold and silver, Sintque mulieribus instar ornamenti, & hypocritis praecip●i fucos●● honitatis instrumenti. are both unto women in steed of an ornament, and to hypocrites in steed of a special instrument of counterfeit goodness. Thine author did suspect that there was some hypocrisy in the using of these toys, for the saying over of that, which you call The ladies Psalter.▪ But because it is fit and expedient that every man should be praised and commended according to the proportion of his own invention, and no farther, it may much be doubted, lest this Peter borrowed the ground of that, which is now fathered on himself, Sozom. Hist. Eccl. lib. 6. 2● from one Paul who was some hundreds of years before him. For Sozomen doth tell of one such, who seemed to dedicate his whole time to prayer, so that every day he did say three hundred prayers which he offered as a kind of tribute to God; and because he would not fail in his reckoning, he put three hundred little stones into his lap, and at the end of every prayer he cast out one, by which means he knew when his tale was up. Thus did superstition long agone begin to show itself. In our days let a man of mean consideration look into the jesus Psalter, and see if there be not there a vain and fond numbering of that which is to be said. In the Preface of that book, In Praesat. Psalt. jesu Anglicè impresso. Anno. 1583. we are given to understand that there be three kinds of Psalters. The first is David's Psalter, which containeth thrice fifty Psalms: the second our Lady's Psalter, and containeth thrice fifty Aves, and the third is jesus Psalter, containing fifteen petitions, which being ten times repeated do make in all thrice fifty. And indeed suitable hereunto there are fifteen Petitions, where jesus, jesus, jesus mercy is ten times word for word to be repeated in the beginnings of them. And if you fail in the count, the devotion is not perfect. What is it to put superstition in numbers, if this be not? And where are the people kept in bondage, and blindness of darkness and gross error, if it be not in these toys? jesus Christ open the heart of many of our nation, but especially of that sex● which is the weaker vessel, ●. Pet. 3.7. that at the last they may shake off this yoke of vanity and superstition. 6 Of the third kind who offend rather in curiosity, and do not deserve to be reproved so sharply as those two other sorts, are some that fault in Divinity, and some other in other matters. In Divinity such, as if they can catch any number, in a piece of Scripture which is to be entreated of, their people above all things shall have that for a note, either in their preaching or writings, as if there were more in that, then in the best text of the Bible, yea such mysteries and such secrets, as that he is scant a Christian man who doth not understand them; or at the least he is but a simple fellow, and fit to be despised. As for example sake: Genes. 2.2. Exod. 20. 1●. there is much in the number of seven. The seventh day in the creation, was the day wherein the Lord did rest: the seventh day was the Sabbath of the jews: josuah. 6.4. at Hiericho seven Priests did take seven trumpets of Rams horns, and they went seven days about, Act. 6.5. and the seventh day seven times: and the Deacons were seven whom the Apostles chose: and john wrote to the seven Churches, Act. 1.11.20 where seven stars, and seven candlesticks are mentioned in like manner. And this is urged, without any reason which may imply fruit of doctrine, or sound edification, or without any necessity of the place, and yet is pursued and followed more, then if it were an Article of the faith; as if the whole law and the Prophets, and the greatest means of coming to salvation consisted in such points as these, and in the ripping up of Genealogies. It is good to be wise: but yet be wise to sobriety. Not so much tricks of our own wit, and the glorifying of ourselves, is to be respected of us, as an upright zeal to magnify our eternal and fearful maker. But for the matter itself, how many numbers be there, which might be amplified in such sort? As for two, to say the two tables wrought by the finger of God; the two Testaments old and new, the two persons in Christ, the Divinity and the manhood: the two parts of a man, the body and the soul. For three, the blessed Trinity, and the three who came to Abraham. Genes. ●8. 2. Daniel. 7.3. Ezech. 1.16. For four, the four beasts in Daniel, the four wheels in Ezechiel, the four Evangelists in the new Testament. For five, the five books of Moses, the five senses, Matth. 25.1. the five wise virgins. This may be said for ten, and twelve, and thirty, and fifty, and many more, whom I follow not, lest I myself may justly be reproved, in this my reproof of other. Yet I give a taste by the way, of the Non sequitur of the matter. In cases of other nature, those come within this compass, who do tie the event of things to Pythagorean numbers, as the changes of states and kingdoms to the ends of seven years, and of nine years, being multiplied up and down. Bodin. Method. Hist. cap. 6. Herein Bodine in his Method of History is too free, howsoever for other matters of invention and good wit, scant thought of before his time, his industry is praiseworthy. Now if any should make a book, containing nothing else but examples of some one number, and serving in truth to no purpose, that should need no other censure but to be termed, the fruit of an idle wit. From which I would that our countrymen at last would keep their hands clean, leaving judgement and judicious works to our nation (for which some Critics will say that we are fit, by the staidness of our constitution, and robustiousnesse of nature) but tricks to the Italians, who suppose that their wits more abound. Thus let numbers of curiosity, of superstition, and of sanctity be quite removed and separated from us. 7 Yet being kept in measure, they have their good and profitable use. As first where the word of God doth apply them, directly and apparently to any purpose, we may also do the like, and amplify them so far, as they serve naturally to express the text in question. Apoc. 22.2. In the last of the Revelation there is speech of the tree of life, which is said to bear twelve fruits, and to give fruit every month, and that the leaves thereof do heal all kinds of diseases. Here to speak of the twelve months of the year, and of twelve fruits, is fitly to the matter. Yea to note that every month in the year hath several pleasures, and that some things are more seasonable in one month then in another, as some fishes are for special times, and fruits in hotter countries (where the dainty orchards are) are more kindly at set seasons. And moreover that many diseases do follow terms of the year; but yet that by the tree of life, there is provision made for all these matters; in the diversity of whose good things, the various joys of heaven are painted out unto us; and that nothing is convenient for heaven, but there it is to be had: all this is consonant to the place, and both for the matter and number, it may be soberly discoursed. Where there is an use which is not forced and wrested, there the Spirit of God is so far off from forbidding us to apply numbers, and make ou● benefit by them, that it giveth us the example. In the beginning of Saint Matthewes Gospel, Matth. 1.17. in showing the descent from Abraham to Christ, are named fourteen generations, and then fourteen generations, and so again the third time: but that is partly to help memory, but most of all to note the times which were of fame, as that of David, and the other of the captivity. In such cases as are manifestly offered by the text which is in hand, we may very well stand on numbers. Secondly I do not think, but we may also apply them, when we use some allusion, which is consonant and agreeable to the analogy of faith, or in which there is reason to think in the true fear of God, that the Lord himself had a reference to such matters. joseph. de bello judaico. lib. 6.6. Exod. 25.31. Leuit. 24.5. josephus doth expound the seven candles, which did burn in the Candlestick in the Tabernacle, to signify the seven planets, and the twelve loaves of showbread, to note the twelve signs of the Zodiac. Here if we believe the assertion of that learned man, I hold it to be very lawful, to observe those seven and twelve, for the one and for the other. So he saith that the veil in the Tabernacle, Exod. 26.31. of blue silk and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, did intend the four elements; and he giveth good reason for that. And the same is also the opinion of Saint Hierome. Hieron. Epistola. 128. Here to compare four and four, hath a natural use in discoursing of the elements, the good creatures of God. Nay it will not do amiss, if by a farther allusion we shall make application thus: that as we read in Exodus, that the veil made of those four things, Exod. 2●. 33. did hang between the holy place whither the Priests did come to offer, and the Sanctum Sanctorum, the Holy of holies, where the presence of God was, so that they who stood in the one, could not behold the other, until the veil which was between them were rend or removed: So the holiest man that is, even the very Priest at the altar, cannot see God as he should in the high abode of his holiness, until that his flesh and body which are made of those four elements, be torn off and removed away, by death and by the grave. This or the like about numbers, may be thought to be natural and not strained, so that I dare not determine against it; as also against nothing else, which apparently hath true and proper use of doctrine, or due application. But I leave to your consideration, whether the author of the book De Spiritu sancto, (who sometimes but not rightly, is supposed to be Saint Cyprian) or other like to him, Cyprian. de Spiritu sancto. do keep close within these bounds, when he especially magnifieth the number of seven above other, because it consisteth of three and four, where, saith he, three show the three persons of the Trinity, and four noteth the four elements, which intendeth that God who is signified in the mystery of the Trinity, is carried with a love over his creatures, who are figured in the compass of the four elements. A man may go too far. And this I have observed, by reason of Saint Hieromes note upon this place concerning forty, which I hold to be not unfit for this auditory, because it is few times touched. But now for the benefit of the unlearned, I come to doctrine which is more moral. 8 When God giveth the Ninivites forty days to bethink themselves, it implieth his exceeding mercy, who as he was very loving to them, when he sent them warning of their destruction, so is his love more abundant, when he giveth them space of repentance, that they might turn away his wrath which was to break out against them. The prayer of the Levites is true, Thou art a God of mercies, Nehem. 9.17. Psal. 103.8. gracious and full of compassion, of long suffering and of great mercy. And so is that of David, The Lord is full of compassion and mercy, slow to anger and of great kindness. We can never sufficiently admire his bearing patience. That city which for the manifold evil of it, had deserved to have perished in one day, shall have a day and a day, and forty days of grace, to purge itself if it will. The tree which bore no fruit, L●●. 13.7. shall have this year of probation, and the next year of expectation, and shall be pruned and dounged, before it be cut down. So that Lord who is jealous in his anger, is yet a mild God in his suffering. It is observed in men, that they are long in making any thing, but very quick in marring of it. A house built in a year, may be plucked down in a month. A castle which hath been long in setting up, by mining and powder may be blown up in a moment. A city whom many ages have but brought to her beauty, is consumed in a little time, by fire put to it of the enemy. Only God is quick in making, but pawseth upon destroying, he cometh not but by step after step; and when he should strike he stayeth, and turneth and looketh away, and will not root up, till justice can no longer endure. Genes. 1.6. He made the heaven in a day, and might have done in a moment, but Ninive that one city shall have forty days to breath in, before her ruin come. The Sun, and Moon, and stars, had but one day for their creation, Cap. 6.3. but man had warning for a hundred and twenty years, before the coming of the flood in the time of No; and Jerusalem shall have admonishment by the Scriptures, before the appearance of Christ, by john the Baptist afterward, by our Saviour personally: and when they have killed that just one, Euseb. Hi●●. Eccl. 3.8. Genes. 2.1. yet forty years shall pass over, before that it be quite destroyed. Six days made the whole world, but almost six thousand years have been afforded to it, before that the end overtake it. Thus justice in many cases is, if not swallowed and devoured up, yet much shadowed by mercy, which sometimes over-weigheth it, and other times overlayeth it; when it is ready to rise, preventing it and holding it down. And there be few of us, who may not feel this proposition true in ourselves. 9 If we look upon our own land, how may we break out and say, that pity and compassion have abounded on us from him. See whether he hath not lent us as many years to repent, as he did days to Ninive, when the infinite provocations wherewith we have provoked him, in hypocrisy, in lukewarmness, in gluttony, and in wantonness, in security and unthankfulness, have called on him for a shorter time. Severity might have said, Forty years I have been grieved or contended with this generation; Psal. 95.10. & yet clemency stayeth that speech. He lent not so much time to our father's next before us: his mercy did strain itself to afford six years to them, of free passage of his word, v●der his gracious instrument King Edward, whose memory li●e for ever; and yet that was encumbered with seditions of the subject, and tumults of the Commons, as also with much hurrying and banding of the Nobility. But concerning our time the question may be, whether is more to be admired the greatness or the goodness, the length which is very memorable, or the variety of those blessings which we do little conceive, because we most enjoy them; even as no man noteth the benefit of the air whereon we breathe, because we have store of it, and yet nothing is more precious than it, or nearer to life itself. So in a common generality, God doth bear with us all. But farther, if each man will take the pains to look on himself in private, he may say that he hath had his forty days oft-times told, together with Ninive our city here. Saint Bernard in one of his Sermons shall speak that which I do mean. Bern. Ser. de triplici misericordia. The mercy and expectation of the Lord is great toward thee, for when the Angel had offended, he stayed not at all for him, but threw him down to hell, and when Adam transgressed, he did not defer his punishment, but drove him strait out of Paradise. But now he waiteth for thee, he will not see thy faults, he forbeareth thee ten years, yea twenty, yea to old age, even to dotage. And who is he among us that hath not his part of this, if not to come to old age, yet at least to a great deal more age, than ever he could deserve? He who hath lived so long, as to know that he should turn to God, hath had much time yielded him: and the least here hath seen that. But the greatest sort of us having had space to do good, have turned that another way, and have rather found time to do a great deal of evil; and whereas therefore shame and confusion do belong unto us, God hath borne with us, and yet beareth many days and months and years. So we have had time with Ninive. We taste of this loving kindness. We go forward to provoke him, and he goeth on to spare us. 10 This is the more to be magnified, since he offereth not so full a measure of grace to all. Many of far better parts in the eyes of flesh and blood, more noble, and more honourable, more rich, and wise, and glorious, have perished in a moment. Those which have lead the dances, have been strait way in the pit. job. 21.11.13. Seneca in Thyeste. He whom the morning hath seen braving it, the evening hath beheld dying. How many have been hastily catched away by the sword, by ruin and fall of houses, by the pestilence or by poison, by dead palseyes & apoplexies, by diseases which men know not, by falling from their horses, by sinking down as they stood, by dying in their bed suddenly, yea by thunder and by lightning, which doth make the ears of as many as hear of it to tingle? Which although it be all one, to a man prepared (as all of us ever should be) as if it were at more leisure, yet how fearful and dreadful is it, when we look on common men, of whom we have little hope, that they have called for mercy? Imprint this in your hearts and revolve it, dear brethren, and tell me whether my speech be untrue and false, that we have tasted of clemency, more than this city of jonas did. But other men must not by our example, be encouraged to defer, and prolong their repentance, and to hope that they shall still speed so; neither must we ourselves presume to take hearty grace, to run on in iniquity and ungodliness: for he may bear a while, which yet will not bear ever. He who is crushed with our sins, as a cart is loaden with sheaves, if we will not disburden him, will ease himself of his load, and cast that load on the ground of confusion and desolation. We may be too bold with our friend, and we may take too much of him who is most free. God beareth with man a long time, but as David saith, Except he turn, he hath whet his sword, Psal. 7.12. he hath bend his bow and made it ready, and we know what followeth afterward, even the black arrows of destruction. And this is seen no where better, then in the words of my text: for Ninive shall have forty days, but if than it repent not (for these threatenings are conditional, as if God give leave, I may show in the end of this Chapter) it shall be overthrown. And this is it which at the first, I laid down for my second part. And Niniveh shall be destroyed. 11 The saying is most true, that patience being too far provoked, Patientia lasa vertitur in furorem. is turned into fury. The hand lift up the higher, doth fall so much the more heavy. If a watercourse be stopped, when it breaketh forth again, it cometh with the greater violence. If thou stand in danger of it, let it not run upon thee, but turn it another way. If forty days will not serve, there remaineth nothing for Ninive, but woe and lamentation, and unspeakable desolation. Here in the first place, the forcible guilt of sin doth offer itself to be thought on, that it should have in it a power to draw down so great a vengeance. God himself is a God of mercy, and taketh delight to be mild: and his love is such a quality, as stayeth not in himself, but diffuseth itself to other, and that to all his creatures. Psal 145.9. For his mercy, as David saith, is over all his works. But especially unto man, the most excellent of all things, either terrestrial or visible, the glory of his workmanship, the resemblance of his son, the beauty of all the world. If to man then to many men, to hundreds and thousands yet more, to Ninive that great city, the greatest of all the earth, where were so many aged persons, so many unable women, so many sucking infants, whose innocent age did keep them from very many actual sins. Notwithstanding all this, that sin should be so strong, that Ninive which was externally blessed, & made the Lady of all the East, by the Lords own preferment, should by the force of it be so quickly overthrown. That there should be so many things to help, in God, in man, in number, in greatness and continuance, yet naughty sin and ungodliness should counterpoise all these, and over-way them far. This is a stinger indeed: heavy more than a millstone. This is it whose cry will go up, Genes. ●8. ●1. as it was said of Sodom. Sickness cannot be hid, and fire cannot be kept in, but sin exceedeth them both. When it groweth once to be horrible, God cannot forget himself (for it standeth with his essence to be just) but he must pay and pay home. His strictness in judgement may be covered with a cloud, or eclipsed a while with forbearing, but it may not be extinguished. Habac. 1.13. He is a God of pure eyes, of innocency and integrity, and will not be urged too far. Too much he saith is too much. jerem. 22.24. 12 If a place be near unto him, as the signet on his finger, or if you will have more, as dear as the apple of his eye, yet if there be no remedy, he will pluck off the one, and he will pull out the other, & throw it a great way from him. Be Jerusalem his own city, and Zion the pleasing spouse of the great king of mankind, yet if she play the harlot, and do persist therein, and grow to be so hard-hearted, that she will not be reclaimed, she shall be made a spectacle of judgement and vengeance, to all the coasts of the earth. The more that she was honoured before, the deeper shall▪ her plague go. God will double misery upon her, Ezech. ●1. 27. as he spoke by Ezechiel, I will overturn, overturn, overturn, meaning that head and tail, root and branches shall taste of his displeasure. And if after one divorce, which may be said to be in the time of the captivity in Babylon, he be pleased to take her to him again, yet if she again turn backward, and grow worse than before, her end shall be worse also. If she once come to that pass, joseph de bello judaico. 6.16. that josephus himself could say, that their wickedness was so monstrous, that he thought in his conscience, if the Romans had not invaded them, that the very earth would have opened and devoured them up, as it did Corah Dathan and Abiron; Numer. 16.32. Genes. 7.11. or a special flould have drowned them, as a general one in Noah's time, made a riddance of all the world; or fire and brimstone from heaven, have consumed them as the Sodomites; Cap. 19.24. God will no longer endure it, but will root them up, and destroy them by misery which cannot be described. And whereas I speak so much as this concerning Jerusalem, what other sinful place may not tremble? For if those who are so near him, do so bitterly feel the smart, what shall they suffer who are farther off? Luc. ●3. 31. If it be thus in the green tree, what shall it be in the dry? If those do not escape whom he hath once loved tenderly, why should they hope for favour extraordinary, who were never otherwise unto him then common men? 13 If this do not sufficiently inform us, how heinous sin is in his sight, let us run over all them, who have notoriously been punished in the world, and the examples of them are committed to solemn memory, as Adam & Cain and Saul, or Antiochus, or Ananias & Saphyra, or judas the traitor, or julian the Apostata; yea look into the Babylonian Empire, or the Persian, or the Grecian, yea particular cities, Corinth, Rome or Constantinople: all these have suffered ruin, only for their sins. The future torments of hell, are prepared only for sinners. All calamities which our neighbours endure, or we sustain here in our land, do come to us for sin. The speech which Cyprian useth Contra Demetrianum, Cyprian. contra Demetrianum. is very fit in this place, Thou marvelest or complainest in this stubbornness and contempt of yours, if the rain do few times fall upon the ground, if the earth be unsightly by the filthiness of the dust, if the barren turf do yield hungry and pale grass, if the hail falling do spill the vine, if the overturning whirlwind do mar the olive, if drought dry up the springs, if pestilent breaths do corrupt the air, if diseases consume men, when all these things come by sins provoking, and God is the more offended, since such and so great things do no good at all. Now by this we may remember to think, that it is our sin which bringeth on us that famine, which is every where so bitter. Then if wickedness be so forcible, it is no marvel if on the one side Ninive were like therewith to perish, in so short a time: but on the other side, let us fly from all gross sins, and wilful disobedience, lest transgressing, we so far provoke God as they did, and so bring on our land that, which perhaps we can be content, with patience to hear of them, but should rue to feel in ourselves. 14 The second thing here worth the noting, in these words of our Prophet, is that he letteth them know, that they should be overthrown, but he doth not tell them how. He himself did not know, and therefore he could not speak it. It was enough of their part, and too much as they thought, that the matter should be verified: they needed not to inquire of the manner. But this kept them in suspense, and made them fear the more, since they knew not what to prevent. For if they had known the way, their wits would have been busied to withstand the thing imagined. That is the froward nature of man, to turn away from the main, and to look on some bything: as in the like sort, we see the man who is complained off, to his superior for his fault, striveth not to amend his error (take heed of that by all means) but laboureth to know who it was that complained, that he may be quit with him. If the Prophet here had said, that some enemy should invade them, all their wits would have been employed (if they had believed his message) in mustering of their men, in scouring of their armour, in preparing of their munition, in uniting of their forces. Their city must have been victualled, their ramparts have been repaired. If mention had been made of some inundation to follow, here trenches and there ditches had been cut, to see whether art and labour, might have turned away the water. And the like is to be said of any other set evil whatsoever: they would have b●ne busy in providing for it. But now while they know nothing, they stand in fear of every thing. They entertain that opinion, that it is God who doth threaten them, and allowing him thereupon, to be infinite and Almighty, as amazed men they do fear, what possibly may be dreaded. He is of force to do what he pleaseth, and they only must be the sufferers. Now as every man will grant, that one skilful at defence, may rap a silly child, who hath neither strength nor knowledge, and may strike him at his pleasure, on this side and on that side, and above and underneath, because every way he lieth open, so God if he see cause, can lay a burden of any kind of trouble on men or cities, who must take what he offereth, and in no sort can avoid it. 15 Then hath he ways enough to overturn great Ninive. He speaketh by his servant Ezechiel, Ezech. 14.21. of four grievous judgements to chastise men withal, that is the sword and famine, and the noisome beast and the pestilence: what havoc would these make, and cause clean work before them; that what escapeth of the one, might fall upon the other, and he whom the first doth not touch, might be crushed with the last? And if these four would touch the people, but do nothing to the City, then remember the force of fire, not only reigned from heaven, Genes. 19.24. as on Sodom and Gomorrha, but being put to by men. How came Corinth to destruction, or Saguntu● to desolation, but by fire which is one of those things, which we truly say hath no mercy? 2. Pet. 37. Levin. Lemnius de Occultis naturae miraculis. 4.2. If all the world hereafter shall be destroyed with fire, what marvel then, if one city might perish with that element? Remember the force of water, which by inundation from sea, within these hundred years, hath devoured great parts of Zealand, and by the overflowing of Tiber, within these forty years hath cast down very many houses in Rome, Anno. 1557. Natales Comes Histor. lib. 10. and hath been known in other places, to have overturned many mighty bridges. Yea the general deluge did drown the whole world with water, when they thought themselves as sure, as Ninive now could be, & perhaps laughed at the news which Noah brought to that purpose: therefore a special deluge might quickly drown one city, if God should lose the water. Remember the force of earthquakes, which destroy both men and buildings. How did Lysimachia fall, and Thessalonica sink? Agath. Hist. lib. 5. Constantinople in the time of Agathias was sore shaken, and Antioch with a great part of Asia, near to Antioch, was swallowed up in Traianes' time, Dion. Hist. lib. 68 as Dion writeth, reporting very marvelous things thereof. Remember the force of enemies, assembled in great number and with discipline of war, what strange things they have done. I spoke before of Hierulalem: and who thought themselves more safe, than the inhabitants of that city? Lodo. vives in praefat. ad libros Augustini de Civitate Dei. and yet the Romans took them. The Goths surprised Rome, when Honorious who was then Emperor, lying quietly at Ravenna, thought the matter so unlikely, that when news was brought unto him, that Rome was lost, he supposed that they had meant a fight cock, which he called by that name. So it might be with other places, even with this mighty Ninive. 16 Truth it is that they had people, and soldiers in great store, a city strongly defenced, money and much munition▪ yet these things are not evermore of power, to keep and save from an enemy. Plutarch. in Apophthegmatibus. Salus. de bello jugurth. Natales Comes Histor. lib. 7. You have heard of that speech of Philip, who never feared but he might take that city, whose gates were so wide, that an Ass laden with gold might enter. jugurtha could say, that Rome itself might have been bought for money, if there had been any to buy it. But it is the note of an historian in our age, that it is a foolish speech which commonly men do use, to say that any city or fortress is invincible. For saith he, when an enemy hath once laid siege against it, either force of guns by violence, or craft of mining in secret, or privy scaling by night, or tiring out the besieged by long continued labours, or treason, or some stratagem may bring it to the invader. Yea victual may want within, or things fit for defence, or the garrison may be worn. And by such means, warriors may win any place. Q. Curtains. lib. 4. Let Tyrus be the example, which was gained by Alexander the Great. And if a hold he once taken, why is it not in the mercy of the conqueror, both for the place and the people, to be used at his pleasure, to be saved if he will save, or spilt if he will spill? And is a mortal creature, of power to break the greatest, and shall we not think that God, who moveth and the heaven doth stir, who speaketh and the earth doth tremble, can pluck Ninive on her knees within forty days, or whensoever it shall seem good unto him? There is no doubt at all of this matter. Then since they had no suspect of the ability of ●●s power, and what his will was they had heard, no marvel if all their hearts were filled with such a sorrow, as requireth time to describe it. Thus you now know the cutting Sermon, and galling speech of our Prophet, which is short & not sweet: few words, but full of weight; so heavy that they make the proudest there to quake. Which I shall let you know, as God shall give occasion. In the mean while let us pray, that the Lord will send us that grace, to lead our lives in his fear, that he in wrath be not enforced by the multitude of our sins, to intend such destruction to us, as is here proclaimed against Ninive, but that we may do those deeds, which belong to Christ jesus his servants; to which Christ with his blessed Father and his eternal Spirit be praise for evermore. THE XIX. LECTURE. The chief points. 1. The Ninivites are not obstinate, but yield. 3. The force of the word of God. 5. Conscience and present fear maketh sooner to repent. 6. The Pastor must not be discouraged if at the first he prevail not. 7. The Pastor is near to God. 8. Therefore he should be very wary. 9 The people should use their Ministers reverently. 10. Godliness is most embraced where it may be least expected. 11. Fasts are to be proclaimed by the Magistrate. 13. The force of fasting and praying. 14. But we are negligent herein. jonah. 3.5. So the people of Niniveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. IT hath been showed before, how fearful a message the Prophet jonas brought to mighty Ninive. That yet forty days and Ninive shall be overthrown. Yet forty days, and then as joel sometimes spoke, joel. 2.2. a day of darkness and blackness, of clouds and obscurity, of lamentable horror, and unspeakable desolation. The great city, the rich city, the Imperial commander of all the East parts, he knoweth not how, nor he speaketh not how, but be it howsoever, shall be surely destroyed. I am now to lay down, according to the order of the story, the good entertainment which this messenger found. Who would not imagine, that men in that height of prosperity, in the top of the wheel, now bearing rule over a great part of the world, would have used this stranger in some strange manner, suitably to that pride and disdainful contempt, which commonly waiteth upon abundance. That an unknown fellow, simple, out of countenance, having neither stateliness of apparel, nor any attendants to commend him, should come facing and threatening, with a tale of that nature, neither respecting himself, nor his superiors. If it be want of manners in him, he must be taught good manners: if it be lack of wit, he must be taught wit, not to disturb or interrupt the peace of such a city. Ahab although he knew well enough who Elias was, yet in like case would have said unto him, Art thou he that troublest Israel? 1. Reg. 18.17. Act. 7.57. The jews would have served him, as they served Saint Steven, shout at him, stop their ears, run upon him at once, draw him out of their city, and stone him. Cap. 22.22. Or as they served Paul, cry Away with such a fellow from off the earth, it is not fit that he should live, and then again shout and cast off their clothes, and throw dust into the air. Very few of the quality of the citizens of Ninive, would have forborn to imprison him, or d●●e him from among them. 2 But the Auditors here, being made of other more gentle and soft metal, do bear themselves better. The sound of his voice being entered into their ears, hath descended to their hearts, and there having wrought an effectual conversion, reflecteth itself so again, that their uttermost members are affected therewith. The soul having once given credit to this so imminent an evil, the whole man is possessed with a fearful contemplation; the body quivereth at it, and all the joints do tremble: the voice is lifted up to proclaim mortification: the belly shall be pinched with a macerating fast: the back shall be disguised with sordidity of sackcloth: the head shall be covered with ashes and dust; the tongue shall cry mightily unto God for mercy. Yea great and small of them, without any exception, shall thus be brought down. Such a change, in such a moment of time, was never seen. That the voice of music should be turned into mourning; the sound of the viol and harp, into howling and schreeching; that the Princes and beggars should be equalled together, that the daughters of Ninive, the daintiest of ten thousand, deprived of their delicacy, and luxurious attire, the joy of their hearts formerly, and pleasure of their eyes, should lie grovelling on the ground in sobbing & bitterness, as vilefied creatures and as dejected worms. So mightily did God's word, and the horror of their sin prevail among them. But this was a happy fall, to shrink once and stand long for it; to sink a while, and rise again. Here because the things are diverse, which my text saith they did in sign of repentance; to the end that you may particularly understand, so much of them as I think fit at this time to deliver, I suppose it best, for plainness sake, to branch all into these two heads: First the force of the word, whereby they were brought to believe the Lord, So, that is upon his preaching, they believed God. And secondly, the effect which followed of their believing, they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth. For avoiding of confusion, I do not now name such subdivided circumstances, as do arise from these, but they shall be touched as they lie. The people believed God. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3 I stand not to dispute whether Belohim in this place, with the prepositive letter B, being put to Elohim, be better translated by they believed Deo, or in Deo, or in Deum, they believed God, or they believed in God, or they believed on God, as diverse diversly have it; for howsoever otherwise these may have their difference, yet in this place as I take it, they come all to one end: they believed that the Prophet had reported from God, whatsoever he reported. But I rather observe the excellent virtue of the word of truth, and such a force in it as cannot be uttered; that in so short a time, as the preaching of one day (for so the text best beareth it) by a man so unacquainted with that place, jonah. 3.4. in a City so averse from sanctity and devotion, it should work so strong an effect, that flesh and blood may marvel, and the natural man may stand amazed at it. But is not this it, ●say. 55.10. which Esay hath compared to the snow and rain, who come down from above, but return not thither again, but water the earth, and procure a fruit out of it? Is not this it which the Apostle doth affirm to be lively and mighty in operation, Heb. 4.12. and sharper than any two edged sword, and entereth through even to the dividing a sunder of the soul and the spirit, and of the joints and the marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts, and the intents of the heart? Is not this it which by Christ is called a net, Matth. 13.47. which doth take the greatest fishes, even against their will? Which as it made josias a religious Prince, 2. Chron. 34.27. Act. 24.26. to melt at the heart, upon the reading of it, so it forced Felix also an irreligious Deputy, to tremble at the hearing of Saint Paul, when he disputed of justice, and temperance, and the judgement to come. Then surely this also might do good among the Ninivites. 4 The Law of the Lord, as David hath taught us, giveth wisdom to the simple. Plal. 19.7. I may add that it maketh the rough ways plain, and crooked things strait; it removeth away that which is scandalous, it doth rectify the untoward. Give me a man saith Lactantius who is angry, Lactant. Divinar. Institut. lib 3. an evil speaker and unbridled, and by a few words of God, I will make him as mild as a lamb. Give me a man that is greedy, covetous and hard, and I will return him to thee liberal, and such a one as with his own and full hands will bestow his money. Give me one that is afraid of smart and death, and forthwith he shall contemn the gallows and fire, and the very bull of Phalaris. Chrys. in Proaem. in Isaiam. Let sin (saith Saint chrysostom) be like an Oak which hath taken deep root in thee; yet God's word is like an axe, which will hew down that Oak, and if it do it not at one stroke, yet it will be brought about, with doubled and multiplied blows. August. de Sanctis Sermon 33. Matth. 13▪ 31. Saint Austen, or whosoever he is, who is the author of that Treatise De sanctis, alluding to the parable of Christ, saith that the word is like to mustard seed, which being first ground and then tasted, by the biting thereof maketh the countenance sour, the forehead contracted, or drawn into a narrow room, the tears to break forth; but it is wholesome, and purgeth the head. So the word of the Lord being received, maketh the mind heavy, the body disquieted, the tears to drop down, but yet all this in such sort, as that salvation is gained with this weeping and bitterness. Then if it be so powerful, and the baseness of the messenger detract nothing from it, but rather add honour to it (for by weak things and foolish things, 1. Cor. 1.27. God will confound the wise, and his power is made perfect by weakness, 2. Cor. 12.9. and the words of fishermen are read, but the necks of Orators are subdued by them, August. de verb. Domini. Serm. 59 as the afore named Saint Austen hath) than no marvel if so many were pricked in their hearts, at the speech of this poor Prophet; and as being wounded to the bone, could not be at any quiet, till the sore were both searched and healed. No marvel if this Sermon did work as much with them, as once a letter of Paul's did with the people of Corinth, whereof himself doth witness thus, What great care it hath wrought in you: 2. Cor. 7.11. yea what clearing of yourselves: yea indignation: yea fear: yea great desire: yea zeal: yea punishment. So this here procured, that all the faculties of their mind, were frighted and moved, and busied to the full, to turn away that wrath, which now did hang over them. 5 And although they had many things, yea all the things that might be, to detain them from these good motions, prosperity, security, satiety of bread, a wall of sin about them, a sea of sin within them, superstition and ignorance and contemning pride, which so loveth itself that it loveth not to be controlled, yet the breath of one mortal man (although inspired indeed from an immortal God) doth overtumble all. For first albeit the words of his Sermon, be most briefly set down here, yet without question he inveighed against their sins, the enormity of their lives, the crookedness of their ways, their outrageous impiety, their insolent intemperancy. And upon this they were stricken with a biting remorse, and fear, that some divine essence, or supreme justicer, would take vengeance upon them. For the mind of all evil men, Genes. 3. ●. agreeth with Adam in this, that after that a sin is done, there is a horror for the same, and blushing and concealing; and there is an impression by the very light of nature, that transgression is punishable, and the integrity of justice is lovely and acceptable. The Athenians and greeks who never knew God did admire virtue, as may be evident by the deeds of Socrates and Aristides, and the writings of Plato and Xenophon; and they severely chastised some iniquity; yet they knew not the Scripture. But where the Lord himself speaketh (if men be not impudent, even their faces of brass, and their bowels of the adamant) they must needs show a conformity, in acknowledging the equity of his exclamations against sin, howsoever in some mysteries they yield not their consent. Petr. Maffeus' lib. 1●. Hist. Petrus Maffeus' a jesuit reporteth in his history, that when his fellows came first to preach in the East indies, the Gentiles and Infidels there, hearing the ten Commandments, did exceedingly commend, and magnify the equity and uprightness of them. For what could be (thought they) more reasonable, or more holy or just, than that men should not steal, or murder one another, or live in adultery, or dishonour those that bore them, or abuse the name of him, whom they accounted for their God, and so of the rest? Thus ignorant men do assent, that there is a good and an evil, a lawfulness and unlawfulness, that virtue is to be praised, and sin deserveth punishment; and this opinion well rooted in the men of Ninive, doth make much for the Prophet. Secondly it is manifest, that his threats were of such dangers, as were soon after to follow, so that wrath was at their gates, and vengeance at their doors, and would quickly break in upon them. But only forty days space, and all must to destruction. If it had been years or ages, they might have contemned: but they are put to their days, and forty days God knoweth will soon be expired. The long suffering of the Lord, maketh Atheists to scorn and deride, Where is the promise of his coming? 2. Pet. 3.4. and the opinion of impunity, or scaping scotfree, until the day of judgement, maketh the wantoness of the world persist in disobedience. But here is no such removing, nor putting off of time, no repriuing till next Assizes, or binding to expect judgement a hundred years after, as once the judges at Athens served a woman, A●l. Gella●▪ 12.7. whose cause they knew not how to sentence. It is a danger which is to follow immediately, that will make men look about them. Tell a scorner in his jollity, that he must die one day, he answereth what remedy, and maketh no more of it; but let him hear that which Ezechias did, 2. Reg. 20.1. Set thine house in order, for now thou must die, or as Nero sent word to diverse, that they by their own hands must forthwith make away themselves, Cornel. Tacit. Annal. lib. 15. or else they should die with torture; and this ruffler is by and by abated in his courage, groweth pale in his countenance, and is dejected like a miserable caitiff. Cato had oftentimes cried out, that Carthage must be destroyed by the Romans; Plutarch. in Catone Maiore. that it was too near a neighbour to their city. For a long space together, he made no speech in the Senate house about whatsoever business, but that was brought in, as his conclusion in every Oration. But this earnestness of his prevailed not. And that so much the rather, because Scipio Nasica with a contrary opinion, did in every speech maintain, that it was for the good of the Roman commonwealth, that Carthage should continue. Yet as Pliny writeth, Plin. Natural. Histor. lib. 15.18. when Cato on a day, brought a green fig into the Senate house among them, and avowed unto them that but three days before that fig was growing in Carthage, he made plain demonstration to them, that if the wind did serve, and all other things were ready, within the space of three days, an enemy might come from Carthage to Rome, with a fleet of ships, and an army, and besiege them in their City. And the dearness of this danger, did so much move, and earnestly affect the beholders, that whereas they could never before be brought to it, they gave not over till Carthage were laid on the ground. Beware of evil at hand: it is that which stingeth in earnest. The word of God coupled with these two attendants, first that sin deserveth punishment, and then that this plaguing was immediately to follow, hath prevailed so far, from the mouth of jonas. 6 A thousand things beside these do wait upon the word of God, as allurements, reasons, promises of infinite variety, and that doth fasten one way, which doth not catch another, and that is done one day, which is not done another. Then let the faithful Pastor, who standeth between the Lord, and the consciences of the people, still hope the best of his labours, that his harvest may be great, although yet he reap little, of an of-ward, and untoward, and stiffnecked congregation. Let him plant with diligence, and let him wait with patience; 1. Cor. 3.6. let him teach and let him pray, and God will give an increase. But let not him appoint the time, and be wiser than his maker. It is the Lords own word, a softening, seasoning, piercing, a working, winning word, and by the force thereof, he who hath fished a whole night, and caught nothing, may make a draft to be wondered at, Luc. 5.5. in a Sermon of one hour. That sinful man jonas, who lately by his notorious disobedience, and sleeping upon his fault, had provoked the Lords high displeasure, and was accordingly chastised for it, hath his labours so countenanced, and graced every way by his master, that he stirred the greatest city that all the world had, to fasting and repentance. And shall thy single heart devote itself to the Lord, and consecrate all his ability, sincerely and entirely to the honour of his name, and to the enlarging of his kingdom, and shall not a blessing follow thee, yea an inestimable blessing? Only see that thou do serve him in integrity of thy soul, and go in and out as thou shouldest, without halting or paultring: and if thou gain not much, yet thy joy is with the highest, and thy comfort is with that blessed one, that thy heart doth bear thee true witness, that the fault is not in thee. He who laboureth to draw other unto evil, although he prevail not, yet he is punished as a naughty man for his wills sake, August. lib. 1▪ Contra Cresconium Grammatic. when he speedeth not (this most plainly appeareth in cases of treason.) And God forbid, that the pastor who endeavoureth to bring the stray sheep home to Christ's fold, should lose his reward with the Lord, for his willing travels sake; although he should be refused or rejected by men. This is the comparison of Saint Austen. And he addeth farther afterward, that Christ wept over Jerusalem, and professed that he would have gathered them together, Matth. 23.37. as a hen gathereth her young ones under her wings, and yet they would not. By this saith he; he intended to teach us, that if we strive to convert men to grace, and do not obtain our purpose, we should not thereupon sink and be discouraged in our hearts, because Christ sped so before us. So if we do our duty, we are sure on every side. To win nothing, is the worst that in reason can befall us: yet we ourselves do far well. But if our faith be steadfast, and we apply the means without fainting, we may build so far upon God, in the confidence of his promises, that for his own names sake, and for his Church's sake, our work shall grow and prosper. If the heart within be perfect, and the external powers be vowed to God as a sacrifice, our lips, and tongue, and mouth, shall be instruments of his praise, to the great love of the godly, and wonderment of the wicked. It is more than an ordinary trust, to be put in trust with such Oracles, and that eye which never slumbereth, Psal. 121.4. doth follow and observe those, who have this in their charge: and if this trust be discharged, he crowneth his servants here in this life with much comfort. For there is no joy like to this joy, when a man doth tread the steps of the Saviour and Redeemer of the world, and is a means under God, to save the souls of them, for whom Christ came from heaven. There is no comfort like to that comfort, to stand in a congregation, and turning this way and that way, in humility to say unto the Lord, Behold here am I, Hebr. 2.13. and the children which God hath given me. 7 Having other things to discourse, I fear that I stand too long on the force of the word of truth; and therefore I step a little farther. It hath extorted and wrung out from these Ninivites (although they formerly had been stubborn) a faith and believing on it. The people of Nin●ueh believed God. But why is it not said that they believed the Prophet, but that they believed God? The author is here named, and the instrument is understood. jonas did speak in God's name, and they received it as from God. They respected not this man's weakness, but thought upon the majesty of the sender. And they are said to believe God, who believe a man speaking by God's word. Exod. 14.31. In Exodus the text hath, the people feared the Lord, and believed the Lord and his servant Moses. In that place both are named. But commonly the messenger, as being a person necessarily understood, is included within the mention of his master the sender. So the Prophets in old time did evermore use, Thus saith 〈◊〉 Lord: and yet it is intended that they also did speak. By this we may conceive the regard which God doth bear to his servants, the ministers and preachers of the word, that as he doth impart his name unto Magistrates, I have said that you are Gods, Psal. 82.6. so he communicateth his spiritual actions with his pastors, and doth give to them as to a kind of fellow-workemen, the credit of that which is his own, and so back again assumeth to himself their actions and their sufferings. 1. Sam. 8.7. They have not cast thee away, but they have cast me away that I should not reign over them saith God unto Samuel. Num. 16.11. Thou and all thy company are gathered together against the Lord, saith Moses to Corah, and what is Aaron that you murmur against him? God doth attribute to jeremy that which belongeth to himself. Behold this day have I set thee over nations, jerem. 1.10. and over the kingdoms to pluck up, and root out, and to destroy and throw down, to build and to plant. It is a great warning to us who stand before the altar, that in regard of his holiness and righteousness whose person we represent, our carriage and behaviour should be framed to a resemblance of the immaculate Deity: that we live if not like God (for who can match that sanctity which resideth in that pure essence) yet like to men of God. The titles which we bear, the office which we sustain, the person which we present, the nearness of our vocation to that absolute integrity, which is only in one great majesty, are remembrancers unto us of this. Then we had need be advised, how we take this office on us, and how we use it afterward. 8 God is a God of knowledge, and of inconceivable purity. The Priest should tread those steps. The urim and the Thummim, Exod. 28.30. the light of knowledge and perfection, should rest upon his breast. He should know how to put a difference, between a sheep and a sheep, to speak a word in due season, to bind up that which is broken, to beat down that which is froward. There is committed to him as Gregory calleth it, Gregor. Pastoral. curae. part. 1. cap. 1 the art of all arts, and science of sciences, the regiment of men's souls. Then he had need know how to handle them. If one should have in a vial or glass, the precious blood which distilled from Christ on the cross, and were forced to remove it, and transport it from place to place, how wise should this party be, that he did handle it warily, lest if the glass should break, all should perish? This were no charge for an ignorant or silly body. Bernard. de adventu Domini Serm. 3 But the Minister as Saint Bernard hath well observed, hath the keeping of those souls in his congregation, whom Christ loved more than his blood, for he who was no unwise merchant, gave that to redeem them; and therefore he who should have to do with these, should be no baby for knowledge and understanding. How fearful should an ignorant and unskilful person be, to run when he is not called, and to thrust himself into this business? He will be in place of God, who hath scant the sense of a man: for I wish that in diverse places, there were not such, as want those common compliments, which men of reason have. He to whom you would scant commit the meanest thing to be governed, must rule that which is most precious. Every man should put to his hand to amend this error, which crept in while Popery reigned, and can hardly yet by so many good laws, be utterly rooted out. Let Patrons think on this, who for gaining a little trash, which is cursed by God and all goodness, as being a sacrilegious thing, set such to guide their own souls, and the souls of their sons and daughters, their servants and their tenants, to heaven and eternal blessedness, as a man of understanding would scant set to guide his husbandry, yea his cattle to the water. A blind god among Christians, is ridiculous and contemptible, but a blockish god much more. But he who is to thee in God's place, is apparently blind and blockish. How filthy a thing is it saith Gregory, Gregor. pastoral. curae. part. 2.11. that a man should be to learn, when he is in place to teach? As in knowledge, so in life we should approach to God's image, a●d therefore we should carefully estrange ourselves from all notorious crimes. It is far from that Highest to be spotted or disorderly: so it should be far from us, as much as man's frailty may suffer. A little stain in a white garment, doth make a sensible blemish. Such things as are conspicuous, have their faults seen most easily. Cut off the hair but from one eyebrow, and how disguisedly will the face look? there is little taken from the body, but a great deal from the beauty. August de civitate Dei. 1●. 22. It is Saint Austin's comparison. Thou art in place to purge other, therefore first purify thyself. Thy people are to thee, as the shadow is to the body. If the body stand upright, the shadow is upright also. But marvel not if the shadow do double, if the body be first crooked. Thy falls draw other on with them. For thy callings sake, and for his sake whose mark is stamped in thy forehead, have an eye unto thy ways. But above all follow him in this. He sitteth on high in the heaven, & there is no earthiness with him: let not thy celestial spirit be fixed upon the earth, and lie groveling on the ground. Thy outward man, Philip. 3.20. and thy inward man, and all thy conversation must be above in heaven, not in scraping or in scratching, as if thou hadst a perpetual habitation in this world. How shall other by thy example learn to contemn that world, which thou with greediness dost embrace, and showest thyself, as if thou hadst lost much time at thy study in the University, and waste now to recover it, with a preposterous emulation, of the fiercest hungriest worldlings? There is nothing farther from heaven then this; Sarisbur. de nugis curialium. lib. 7.16 there is nothing more unlike to thy maker. It is noted that those creatures which are nearest the earth, take most care to get store: those which are more remote, are less busied, but those who live next the heaven, have their hearts least set upon it. Prou. 6.6.8. What hoardeth like the Emet or pismire, which is an earthy thing, and dwelling thereupon? But the birds of the air, who fly next to the heaven, as Christ himself doth teach, do neither sow, Matth. 6.26. nor reap, nor carry into the barn. Let thy meditations carry thee much higher than their wings, that although thou live with men, yet thy love may be with God. So thy celestial contemplation, thy pastourlike conversation, thy knowledge fit for a teacher, may show that thou art one of them, by whom the Lord doth speak, and that title shall be given thee. And so much for the Minister. 9 But the people are also taught from hence, to yield an unfeigned reverence, to their pastors and preachers, yea although they be such as have their infirmities. For who had more than jonas? and yet his speech is called God's speech, & the believing of his words, the believing of the Lord. The profit which is brought by the true Pastors to their congregations, their master who doth send them, and the message which they bring do deserve to be well regarded. It is more than men do account it to seek out what goeth astray, to comfort the broken hearted, to lead in the way of peace, to feed that with spiritual food, which otherwise would perish. To overturn the strong holds of Satan and of sin, is that which is worth the receiving. But as origen once said, as the walls of Hierico fell down by nothing, but by the trumpets of the Priests, Origen. in josuam. Homil. 7. so be the strong holds of Satan overthrown by nothing, but by the doctrine of good teachers. These come from the immortal Lord, who is a jealous God and a terrible, and doth hold the disgrace done to his Ministers, as a disgrace offered to himself, and punisheth it accordingly. A Christian captain could once say to Valens the Emperor, Theodoret. Hist. Eccles. l●●. 4 19 that he lost a victory for abusing of God's ministers, and they (saith he) who fight against the Lord do prosper in nothing. Moreover, the message which they bring, is the true peace of conscience, and joy in the holy Ghost. A treasure beyond all treasures: and although they be but earthen vessels, (and therefore brittle) who bring it, yet for the treasures sake, they should be well entreated. How do they keep this lesson▪ who account it part of their happiness, if with facility they may abuse and with promptness deprave those, whom in truth they should honour, 1. Tim. 5.17 for so the Apostle speaketh, and yet they will be Christians, and men known for religion. Thou who so dost, art an unhappy man: thou wrongest thyself and knowest it not. Hear what Saint Cyprian saith unto thee: Cyprian. de Lapsis. Thou art angry with him who laboureth to turn away the wrath of God from thee, thou threatenest him who entreateth the mercy of God for thee, who feeleth that wound of thine, which thou thyself dost not feel, who poureth out those tears for thee, which thou thyself perhaps dost not power out: for thus the true Pastor doth I may add; Thou wicked heart, why dost thou render him so ill thanks for his labour? Comest thou not unto his Church? by that means thou debarrest thyself, from the communion of God's saints. Dost thou come, & joinest not with him in prayer and invocation? then thou secludest thyself from a multitude of men, who call upon the Lord: and it is better that thou hadst been absent; for now thou condemnest thyself, for coming and yet refusing. But thou prayest jointly with thy Pastor: then let Saint chrysostom speak unto thee, Chrysost. Homil. 33. in Matthaeum. when he saith, peace be to you, (as we say in our Liturgy, the Lord be with you) thou answerest, & with thy spirit, (for in old time, they replied so also, as we do now.) Thus thou sayest in the Church, and as soon as thou art come out, thou impugnest him, thou despisest him, thou revilest him, and privily with a thousand reproaches thou rentest him and tearest him: what a peace is this to his spirit, which thou dost wish unto him? Take heed and be advised o you sons of men, lest despising those whom your God favoureth, you purchase his high displeasure. Learn of the Gentiles of Ninive, to think of God in his messengers, and by the visible creature, to remember the invisible Lord, and to respect them both, the Eternal for himself, the other with a reference, because he cometh from him. 10 Now to return to my Prophet: by him speaking from God, and by God sending his word, his loving, moving word, faith is wrought in the Ninivites, Rom. 10.17. according to that of the Apostle Saint Paul, that faith is by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. They by a terror apprehend the conscience of their sins, and imagine that without repentance, destruction and unavoidable desolation is at their doors. See the strange effect of one sermon, and the doctrine of one day (for so I do still take it) among a forlorn people. The stony heart is made like wax, the flinty mind is made soft. But how strange a work is this? where something was expected there nothing is to be found, and where nothing was looked for, there it cometh in great abundance. There is more treasure in a wilderness, then in the treasure house. He had long preached to the Israelites, and Israel was not Israel, but a disobedient nation: God's people were now become a Ninive, or a Babylon, in comparison of that which they should have been. He cometh among the Ninivites, and there he findeth more of Israel, than he did in his own country. The circumcision scorneth, and the uncircumcised are made heirs of the promises. The children prove to be rebels, and the rebels are changed into children. So in the time of our Saviour, the jews who dwelled near, contemned and neglected Christ, but the wise men who dwelled a great way off, came from far unto him, Matth. 2.1. Chrysost. in Matth. Hom. 7. & 8. and adored him. A new thing saith Saint chrysostom, and marvelous to behold: Palestina lieth in wait to destroy Christ in his cradle, and Egypt receiveth & harboureth him. So those who are nearest to the Sanctuary, are sometimes farthest from sanctity. The Moon hath least light, when it is nearest the Sun, but when it is most removed from him, than it is full of beams and brightness. They who hear the word but few times, make more profit, by opening all the hatches of their hearts, and by swallowing it and devouring it, even as the chapped earth doth the rain, than those who by a wantonness, and evil disposition, do loath even the food of Angels. He goeth little abroad who seeth not this experimented: poor people of the country, who hear not of God many times, do more attentively regard, and more fruitfully receive one sober and grave instruction, coming from a godly Preacher, never catching nor censuring at it, than those places which we take to be most solemn auditories. This is no fault in the word, neither is it to be blamed in the poor people, but it is a shame for the other, who yield not their best devotion. Israel scant dareth an ear; but Ninive ears and heart, and doth not stay there, but will give trial outwardly of their intendment: a fast shall be proclaimed, and sackcloth shall be put on, that if any thing may mitigate the fury of the Lord being offended, that may not be forgotten. And this is it which my second part in this place doth offer to me. And they proclaimed a fast. This Sermon was preached on the Act Sunday. 11 It may seem an unfit time, to speak of fasting and sackcloth, when feasting and gay clothing are in their height among us. But blessed be the God of our Sovereign, and of our land who sendeth us such peace, as that we may in some measure, have fruition of these things. It is a mighty blessing, if we compare it with the estate of our neighbours. I will therefore not unadvisedly, but of purpose defer this, which is here mentioned concerning sackcloth to the next verse, where it shall have ashes with it: and I will put over almost all the circumstances concerning fasts, to that which afterward followeth; only noting now, and that as I take it, not unfitly for this auditory, by whom solemn fasts and abstinence, whensoever they are called, should be designed and appointed. If any man will suppose, that here the people of Ninive did help to set this forward, I will not be against his opinion; for in as much as they are first named, I will not be difficult to think, that they hearing the voice of the Prophet, might by themselves or by means, have recourse to the nobles, and the nobles to the King, and so make known their terror, yea in humbleness be solicitors & beseechers, that there might be a humiliation. For in this sort the feet may be a monitor to the head, 2. Reg. 5.13 the servants of Naaman to Naaman their Lord, the subjects to their Prince, the gardener to the greatest. But the letter and plain words of the Prophet, is contrary to that surmise, that the people did decree it. It was the King and his nobles, who made the Proclamation. And albeit at the first it be briefly said, that the people proclaimed the fast, yet observe what followeth, and the matter will be evident. The manner of Scripture is sometimes to propose an action, at the first in gross, and then afterward to particularise the circumstances of it. So here it is, and the next verse as an Exegesis to the former, doth explain the difficulty. Moreover the name of people may signify all the inhabitants, and in them the King and the nobles, as populus Romanus did include the Consuls, and Senators, and Equites as well as the commons. Then the commandment for the fast did come from the king: and that among God's people hath ever obtained, and been observed, that the Magistrates and Elders should determine of it, and not inferior men. 12 In the time of jehosaphat, 2. Chr. 20.3. when the enemies came in great multitudes against juda, the king thereof jehosaphat proclaimed a fast. At the coming up of the people from the captivity of Babylon, Ezra. 8. 2●. the governor Ezra proclaimed a fast, to entreat that God would be pleased, to defend them by the way. When Esther was to adventure her life for her people, Esther. 4.16. she gave order being Queen, that such an abstinence should be held for three days. joel. 2.15. The like may be gathered from the prophecy of joel, where they are bid to sanctify a fast, but it is added also, blow the trumpet; Numer. 10.8. which in the levitical law, was only to be blown by the sons of Aaron. The high Priest had a finger, both in the trumpet and the fast. Even jezabel knew this, 1. Reg. 21.8. who wrote to the Elders and Princes of Samaria, or some other city where Naboth dwelled, that they should command a fast. It must be the public crier, and public authority, which must set ambroach such things. So it was in England in the fifth year of her majesties reign, when by the most sacred power under God, and by advise of the chief governors, it was established, that over all the land, there should be set abstinence and prayer, that the Lord would be entreated to stay the hand of his destroying Angel, who then overthrew many thousands in this kingdom, with the plague of pestilence. The people in their parishes, and Ministers in their charges, may be remembrancers, in modest and godly manner, to the Church-governors, to exercise this duty of Christian obedience, when the wrath of the Lord doth hang over by grievous famine, or the sword or pestilence, or other the like danger: but neither of them may assume that prerogative to themselves, to enjoin or to publish a solemnity of that nature. It is no true fast in a Christian commonwealth, which is begun and ended, with manifest disobedience to that superior power, which doth serve the same God with them. Do thou expect direction from them, whom the Lord will have to rule, and be not so censorious or Critical toward them, whom thou (when thou dost wisely and reverently consider of it) dost know to be no enemies to God and true religion, as to think that they conceive not the conveniency, and necessity of extraordinary humbling of men's souls to the Almighty, especially when they are warned of it, and religiously requested. Much less do thou suspect them to be hard hearted and insensible. Solomon telleth us, Prou. 25.3. that the King's heart no man can search out, & Magistrates in great place under him, are not at all times to acquaint all men, with their counsels and intents. But to suppose the worst, if the time do require it, and God doth expect it of us, and yet those whom it most concerneth, shall withhold and detain such an exercise, yea after solicitation and request thereof made; thou mayest then use thy discretion for thyself and thy family, Act. 10.30. but especially for thyself, like a good Cornelius, and without any murmuring concerning other men, or seditious complaining, do thou double thy devotion. Fast twice if God do so move thee, in steed of every single time before intended; once to turn away the wrath gone out against the land, and secondly, that the Lord will move them that be in authority, to do that which is truly pleasing in his eyes. So thou hast saved thy own soul, and the burden shall lie on the conscience of other. But take heed of seditious singularity, and overweening contempt, and condemning of other, lest thou more offend with that, than thou profit with thy abstinence. Divinity will not justify it, that if a Christian state shall give solemn entertainment, for dismissing of Ambassadors, who may be suspected to come about no religious practice, the Ministers on the other side at the same time, and in the same place, should of purpose to cross the first, proclaim a solemn fast: or if the chief Church-governour should bid stay a while, for reasons not irreligious, inferior men should therefore make a great deal more haste. Neither may the examples of others make good this. We live by laws, not by examples. Every man must not carry the sword, or be a commander. Good things may be done amiss, and so the goodness of them may be impeached. It is good to deface idolatry, but when multitudes in places whereas now reformed Churches be, have run into the temples, & with violence have plucked down the images, and taken away the Crucifixes, and made havoc of the vessels and superstitious things, to speak most mildly of it, it was not well; but it had been much better, if public authority had been therein expected. Men who are private persons, must wait for God's leisure, and not run before their maker. Saint Paul was wise, and commanded that all things should be done in order. 1. Cor. 14.40 Take heed then of disorders, and such gaps as these may be to enormity. I speak unto the wise, and therefore shut up this point, with that saying of Saint Bernard: Bernard. in Cantic. Sermon. 49. Si suo quisque feratur impetu. Non plane unitas erit, sed magis confusio. If every man shall be carried according to his own motion, after that spirit which he hath received, and do fly upon every thing indifferently, even as he is affected, and do not hasten to it by the judgement of reason; while no man is contented with the office assigned unto him, but all will attempt all things alike, by an indistinct administration, it will not be an unity, but rather a confusion. 13 Let not any man mistake me, as if I did dislike the Christian solemntitie of the most public abstinence: for far be that from me. My jonas too well knoweth the fruit of that in his Ninivites, among whom it wrought not least with the eternal Father, when so openly and generally they did that which they did: for all of them did fast, and all of them put on sackcloth, from the highest to the lowest, The King and his Princes began, the people followed after: but the greatest begin, and the least follow. The eldest are not excluded: the youngest are not excused: Psalm. 51.5. for the child but of one day old, is of spotted seed and corrupted. But all of them join together, that if one want devotion, another may be right; if one of them prevail not, yet the multitude may obtain. What a sight was this to behold, that young and old, male and female, the Ladies and their handmaids, the Nobles and their servants, should be ruefully lamenting on their faces, with voice lift up unto the highest heavens? How would this pierce to the throne of the unapprochable Godhead, what height could keep this back, what cloud would not this sever, what heaven would not this enter? When so many thousands cry, all Ninive with one echo, without fraud or hypocrisy, how could God choose but hear, for the great mercy which is in him? The joint prayers of mortal men, have much force with the Lord. For, to speak after the manner of men, suppose that he were hardly bend to take vengeance upon a nation, & at first when they should call for mercy, would seem to be on sleep; yet would not this awaken him, when he should have no rest? when on the right hand and left hand, before him and behind him, at the doors and at the windows, and at the floor which is under him, there should be knocking and bouncing, which will not be answered with silence, nor take any denial. The diversity of the noises, as the shrill voice of the infants, the wailing of the women, the howling of the men would move him who is most settled. Their various importunity will wring forth pity from him. Then it is a fault in us, that when Gods heavy hand, doth lie sometimes upon us, we come not with our forces united to solicit him. We do in a sort strain courtesy, who it is that shall go to Church, but the most will be away. And those who come do it so coldly, that it is as good that they were absent. It is the great congregation of spirits thoroughly moved & kindled in devotion, which doth win God over to us. When citizens who have transgressed, shall open their gates to their Prince whom they have offended, and the men and women and children, shall lie prostrate at his feet, and acknowledge themselves wholly at his mercy and discretion, his heart melteth on them, and spareth them being thus cast down. So would God deal with us. But our proud mind cometh not to this: although much misery be upon us, Basil. Serm. contra divites avaros. we cannot tell how to stoop. Saint Basile complaineth, that when a most grievous famine pinched his city of Caesarea, yet very few of the inhabitants sought for remedy. I come saith he to Church to preach or to pray, but scant any is joined with me. The men are about their merchandise, the women about their profits. But very few are with me; and those who be, are so gaping and weary, and so itching up and down, as if they looked still when he who readeth the Psalm, would make an end, that they might withdraw themselves from the Church as from some prison. The most here are the scholars who come from the school, which take this comfort by it, that they are from their books the while, and make no more use of it: but the stronger sort the while are carelessly gadding through the streets. See if he paint not out as with a most perfect pencil, the time wherein we live. God hath sent us such a famine, that if under his blessing the seas had not served us more happily than the land, to the eternal praise of merchandise, many thousands of men besides those few which are lost, had perished, and the Lord knoweth what had been done. And yet the prices of all things continue exceeding dear. Now in this case do we from the greatest to the least, assemble before the Almighty? Nay as Basile saith, few come, and those who come, come so carelessly and sleepily, as if they were not present at all: but in many great towns and cities, upon a day of ordinary Lecture, men and women are so scant to be seen, that indeed the boys of the school are more, than all the Church beside: and yet they be not many. This is a fault which cannot be excused; & the greatest herein do as commonly offend as the meanest. How would the Pastor delight, to see a great flock about him? how would every true heart joy, to hear the sound of Psalms sung, like the shout of a mighty army? How would the Lord be pleased to be moved & called upon, by the prayers of such a multitude? We cannot excuse this. 14 Yet I commend the men of Ninive, for what they did, they did wholly. I pray God that it never fall out, that they stand up in the judgement, Matth. 12.41 and condemn many of our nation, for their forwardness and our beckwardnesse. For what do we in comparison of those infidel heathen men? We have received gifts far before them, but bring forth fruit far behind them. There came one man to them, but we have had many hundreds: a stranger was their solicitor, but we have had of our own: Act. 2.17. God hath powered the spirit of Prophecy on our sons and on our daughters, our young men have seen visions, our old men have dreamt dreams. They were only taught by threatenings, but we have had sweet promises, and persuasions, and allurements: and when these have not served, we have felt the smart of the rod, by a hunger and by a sickness. They had the word but one day, or a very little time, but we even forty years, a goodly space and a large: and therein line after line, and precept upon precept, now a little and then a little: yet in so many diminishments and extenuations of theirs in comparison of us, they repented, and all of them repent in sackcloth and ashes, in fasting and lamentation, but we without repenting, go on to provoke his wrath. Then what should stay God's fury, that it doth not break out against us? Nothing certainly, but some few such righteous, as were not to be found in Sodom: Gen. 18.26. but especially his own mercy, which followeth us unthankful persons, for his own sake, and his Son's sake, and for his Church's sake. Let us pray that this favour of his may yet lengthen, that it be not cropped off with violence, that we feel not that indeed, which the Ninivites did but hear of, yet a very little while, and much sorrow and affliction. God the Father turn this from us: Christ jesus ever favour us; the holy Ghost still preserve us, and to them be eternal glory now and for evermore. THE XX. LECTURE. The chief points. 1. The word in diverse worketh diversly. 3. The causes of meaner men concern Kings. 4. Things are concealed from many Kings. 5. But they should take notice of them. 6. Good things in Princes are much respected by God. 8. Examples of great personages draw on the meaner to goodness. 10. The King's humility in coming from his throne, 11. and putting off his attire. 12. The use of sackcloth. 13. Correction must be of those things, where the error is. 14. The inward mind maketh true repentance. jonah. 3.6. For word came unto the King of Niniveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his rob from him, and covered him with sackcloth and sat in ashes. THat saying of Saint Paul is a most true speech, that the Ministers of God, & the ministery of the word, 2. Cor. 2.16. are to some the savour of death unto death, and to other the savour of life unto life. And so is that also, Gregor Moral. lib. 29. which we find in Saint Gregory, that this word is like the Planet, or wandering star Venus, which unto some is Lucifer, a bright morning star arising in their hearts, whereby they are roused up, and stirred from iniquity and sin, but to other is Hesperus, an evening setting star, whereby they are brought to bed, and laid asleep in impiety. To this purpose we need no example more significant, than the preaching of our Prophet, whose words by their contemptuous receiving of them, were a means of condemnation to the Israelites, adding hardness of heart to their rebellion and unthankfulness; but were such an occasion of peace to the men of Ninive, that no where in the world, hath the word by teaching wrought greater effect, in so short a space of time. In the describing whereof, I lately gave but a glance, dealing no otherwise therein, then if the gardener topping a tree, should cut off here a bough, and there a shred, that he might afterward come to the main stock itself. So I have prepared the way, to show the means of the fast and repentance in that city, by touching the precedent circumstances: but whereas exegetically or expositorie-wise, it is now more largely amplified, I am at this present to discover particularly the substance of all that is here done. 2 When the Prophet then having entered the city, had in terrible and fearful sort cried out, that yet for some few days it might be spared, but after that glass run out, Ninive must be overthrown, the auditors are affected with that horror of conscience, and miserable molestation, that by their disturbance, their King doth take notice of the imminent danger, which was denounced from God; and being provident for himself, and his people which were under him, he taketh a course, I cannot tell whether more holy, or more happy, to turn away the wrath, which was coming out against him. For by a Proclamation which was made with good advise, he enjoineth a fast for the taming of the flesh, a general fast both of men and cattle. But to the end that he might seem to be most lively touched himself, and that he might the more stir up the people to devotion, he performeth all ceremonies of debasing and dejection. He who sat in his majesty before, now ariseth up as forsaking it: he who was distinguished from all inferiors, by sitting in a throne, as if it had been in a solemn Parliament, now standeth among the common sort, as a person of no reputation. He who before was covered with a royal and princelike rob, layeth the same aside as loathing it, and putteth sackcloth upon him, and to his tender flesh he joineth dust and ashes. An example which very few times hath been heard of in an Ethnic, and therefore it is the more worthy our best consideration. For the expressing whereof, after some studying what way might be most commodious, I resolved to tread these steps: first to note some things in general, concerning him and other Kings, which notes are insinuated by the text: then in special to examine the manner of his proceeding, which is varied by diverse branches. But first here it is said, that word of the Prophets preaching, was brought to the King. General things of the King. 3 I suppose it to be no strange matter, that speech of the great abashment of his people, should be brought to this King: for the cry of common miseries, and open desolations, will press into the Court, and to the hearing of the Prince, who although he seem to be above ordinary, yet in care he is possessed by small things, and such as be but contemptible in show. The abundance of the earth saith Solomon is above all, Eccles. 5.8. & the King consisteth by the field that is tilled. Then the greatest cannot stand without husbandry and feeding of cattle. The infection of the plague, even among very beggars, will trouble the mightiest. The General is not safe, if an enemy hath made an irruption, into the tents of any of his soldiers. That Emperor may well stir in his own person, on whose land and coasts an army is entered: and that King is not free, whose imperial city where himself resideth, Trebellius Pollio in Galieno. is in the brink of danger. Galienus the Emperor is condemned as unwise, when he so neglected his provinces, that he made no more of it when Egypt was lost▪ then to say, cannot we be without the flax and linen of Egypt▪ and when France was gone, cannot the commonwealth stand sine sagis trabeatis, without those soldiers cassocks, which France doth send unto us? Wise men do never thus, but although themselves be as the head, they will look to the feet. Therefore it is not this, which I hold so necessary to be observed, that the king should know of it; but rather that so soon it should come unto him, for immediately upon the cry of jonas against them, the best understood of it. Which albeit it may be imputed to the amazedness of the people, who were not advised whither else to seek; or to the idle curiosity of some, who were glad to carry news of any thing, yet I rather ascribe it to the good government of the King, and his orderly proceeding, that his house was so settled, and his Court so disposed, that matters of moment were imparted to himself. He himself did not stand still, as an image wrapped in gold, very glorious without, yet neither seeing nor hearing, but putting all over to other, but he saw with his own eyes, and heard with his own ears, and with his own heart considered. And unto this opinion of him I am induced, by reason of those gracious parts, which the text recordeth to be performed by him, & could not have been so done, unless there had been in him a sensible feeling, with great understanding of his place & office, which groweth by practice. 4 The manner of some Courts is, that to satisfy the avaricious, or ambitious affections of some few in place, the humour of the Prince is fed with fair tales, or jests, or delights, yea wantonness peradventure, that the other may sway all things at their pleasure. Placentia are sung, and that which may content▪ If Sara a fair woman, Genes. 12.15 although a stranger, come into Egypt, the Princes of Pharaoh will think that to be a tale worth the carrying to their master: but if it be business which toucheth never so near, that must not be told, for fear lest it should disquiet. Thus by his voluptuousness, the King is made a child, and as Solomon saith, Eccles. 10.16 Woe is to the land when the King is a child, not in age so much as in manners: the land is impoverished, the subjects are injuried, justice is trodden down, iniquity prevaileth, a confusion of all things is begun and continued, and he who should amend it, silly man is brought a bed with folly and security. So no man is more a stranger to his own charge, and the heavy burden which lieth upon him, than he who is most interested in it. Vopiscus in Aureliano. Vopiscus in the life of Aurelian, doth utter to this purpose a good speech, which as it seemeth he borrowed from Diocletian, who sometimes had made trial of it. Four or five in the Court gather themselves together and take counsel to deceive the Emperor. They tell him what is to be liked and allowed of. The Emperor who in the mean while is shut up at home, doth not know the truth. He must only know that which they will speak to him. He maketh such judges as be not fit for the place, he removeth such from the Commonwealth as he should keep, and in brief the good Emperor, the honest and wary Emperor is bought and sold by them. If the good be thus dealt with, how pitifully are they used, who willingly fancy, and embrace all delights, tendered to them by their servants, and are nuzzled of purpose, that they might understand nothing, and think very well of it. In such places and with such persons, it is likely that a messenger, who should have brought such melancholic news to the king, might have stayed without doors, or perhaps have been sent back again, as wise as he came. 5 But this monarch of Ninive, is not made of that metal. Such cases as much import, are brought to his hearing. He knoweth that the Prince, as the father of the country, is set over the people for their good. That the foundation of justice remaineth in his own person, and is thence derived unto other men; that if he cease to do justice in his own person, if the case do so require, he should by right cease to reign, and give over the name of a King, Dion. lib. 69. Noli igitur regnare. as a woman once said to Hadrian the Emperor: and truth cannot be known, but by taking and admitting speech from the parties themselves. This is the cause, why the report of jonas is first brought to his own hearing, that he may know and judge, and take order accordingly. This may be a lesson to all the Princes of our time, that they themselves be partakers of all great causes of estate; that they lean not wholly upon other, because the Lord hath laid the charge upon them; but especially that their ears be open to God's word, when it shall be delivered by the Prophets, that they may be taught thence, what is healthful for their people, and acceptable to their maker, on whose service their prosperity doth wholly depend. Here may we conceive the happiness of our kingdom, where God hath placed a governess, who thinketh upon such things. Hence also the Magistrate, and every householder, in his private family may learn, to give easy access to sober information, that if there be any thing, that doth make for the good of their household, or other charge, it may not be rejected. It is best to quench fire, while it is but in the spark, to stop a watercourse at first, to bind up a wound betimes, to kill young foxes in the nest, to meet with danger, while it appeareth yet a great way off, and in such things not to rest on those who will fail, but to trust thine own eyes, thine own ears, thine own knowledge. So, many evil matters shall be met with in the egg; good things shall be advanced, and promoted opportunely; and as among the Ninivites all points succeeded well, although they sowed in tears, yet they reaped in joy, so shall it be with thee. But let word of causes important be still brought to thyself. 6 The next matter which in general I note in this great person, is that God would have him to be touched above other, that his humiliation might be accepted beyond others. For the Lord is much affected toward them, in the persons of whom he hath imprinted a majesty, and by special ordinance hath made them his Vicegerents. Psal. 82 6. As he hath seated them in a propriety of dignity above all their fellows, so the account which he hath of them, is of special property. Look through the Heathen men, as well as upon such as knew him and feared him. Where do we find a man furnished with such parts as Alexander was, Plutarch. in Alexandro. of celerity, of resolute magnanimity, of felicity in all his attempts? Where see we a man comparable, with that worthy julius Caesar? Idem in Caesare. joseph. Antiquit. lib. 14.27. Euseb. de vita Constantini. How admirable were the works of Herode the Great, and how majestical, yea terrible was the presence of his person, when enemies of his came into the place, where he was washing, and yet feared to make toward him, although he were naked and they armed? Name him who may be like to Constantine that blessed Emperor. And if it be suggested that the faculties and abilities, which they had to do great things (because they were mighty Princes) might make them to do such matters, as which others in their places might as well have effected; yet this serveth not the turn, since a spirit of rarer quality than other men have enjoyed, might apparently be seen in them. Now where the Lord soweth most, he looketh to reap most largely. Where he poureth forth most benefits, he expecteth most gratefulness. And if his service be neglected, but especially contemned by these royal Potentates, he taketh it more unkindly of them, then of a common man. When Saul being brought to a kingdom, 1. Sam. 15.9. from following his father's asses, had faulted in that case of Amelek, what furies did follow him ever after, with irreconcilable desolation? It was not a little punishment, 2. Sam. 11.4. which followed after the murder and adultery of David. The child's death, the reviling of Shimei, the rebellion of Absalon, the deflowering of his concubines, were evident corrections. 1. Reg. 11.4. When Solomon who was fraught with wisdom, fell foolishly to idolatry, at once ten tribes were rend off from from the kingdom of juda. The like may be said of many the persecuting Emperors: when they being advanced by Christ, turned their swords and sceptres against Christ and his Gospel, he did not long endure their tyranny, but with violence cast them down. 7 But on the other side, God so embraceth the true piety of those in highest authority, that themselves are not only blessed for their entire devotion, but their people for their sake. The blessings powered on the heads of them, run down unto the skirts and lower parts of their garments. When such as by God's hand are lifted up above others, do come nearer than their people to the heaven, not so much in place as in spirit and the inward man, the Lord doth accept them with greater favour and acquaintance. The Israelites knew this, when they thus make request for their king: Psal. 20.1. The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble: the name of the God of jacob defend thee. Send thee help from the Sanctuary, and strengthen thee out of Zion. Let him remember all thine offerings, and turn thy burnt offerings into ashes. Grant thee according to thy heart, and fulfil all thy purpose: That we may rejoice in thy salvation, and set up our banner in the name of our God, the Lord shall perform all thy petitions, And so they go forward: Now know I that the Lord will help his anointed, and will hear him from his sanctuary. They knew, that from him being blessed, good things would flow to them, and God would bless his devotion. How lovely and how precious in the eyes of the Almighty, was the melting heart of josias, 2. Reg. 22.19. when he heard the threats of the Law read unto him? What private man alone, ever turned back so much wrath? Yea God doth attribute so much to this his ordinance, that if it be but Ahab, 1. Reg. 21.29. yet if he put on sackcloth, and will fast and go barefoot, the Lord will de●erre that vengeance, which was to come on him and his land. Those countries than are right happy, where such sit in the throne of honour, and most eminent place of glory, who do love and fear the Lord in integrity, and sincerity full of faith. For mercy and loving kindness is by such conduit-pipes, diffused through all the coasts and quarters of a land. If the pestilence shall devour, yet the prayer of such David's will stay the destroying Angel. 2. Sam 24.17. 2. Reg 19.1. If Sennacherib shall revile, yet if such Hezekiahs, shall enter into the Temple, and with weeping shall lay open the letters before the Lord, a hook shall be put in his nostrils, and he shall be turned another way. judic. 5.1. If a victory shall be gotten, and such Deborahs' shall acknowledge it, by a public gratulation, this victory shall be doubled. When our Deborah and Hester as it is voiced and received with bended knees did beg of the Omnipotent maker, Oratio Reginae Elizabethae in expeditione ad Gades. Anno 1596. and guide of all our world's mass, that he would prosper the work, and with best forewinds guide the journey, speed the victory and make the return the advancement of his glory, the triumph of the fame of those which were sent, and the surety of our Realm, with least loss of English blood, we all know what effect this holy prayer had, to foil the proudest enemy, in a strange land; we all know it, and it were great pity, but succeeding ages should remember it. Rich. Hackluit, Navigationun, Tom 1. And that may serve for an example of the point whereof I now entreat, which is, that the actions of great monarch, have a straighter kind of reference unto God, than those of common men. Their voluntary debasing, doth lift them high with the Lord, their repentance is very gracious, their sorrow is much acceptable. Then it was well with the Ninivites, that such a king did reign over them, as had an humble mind: God dealt with them most bountifully, to send them such a ruler, as whose heart he himself did soften, and put some graces into it, and then did crown those graces, to the comfort of all his subjects. For I ascribe all this to God. The words of the Prophet were something, but the heart was touched from the lord 1. Cor. 3 6. August. in 1. johannis Epist. Tract. 3. Paul may plant and Apollo's water, but God must give the increase. And as Saint Austen speaketh, Teachings without, and admonitions are helps to set things forward, but he hath a chair in heaven, who teacheth the hearts of men. I speak saith he of the Lord. God then did them much favour, when he sent such a king among them, as whose heart he made to be flexible, that so the Lord might embrace him, and with him all his people. 8 In these general observations, yet a third thing is here offered. That the way to bring the city to conformity of repentance, was for the king to begin. For the actions of the leaders, are a great spur to the followers, to do as the other do before them. It is not in Rhetoric only that imitation holdeth, but in all the course of our life. For naturally the younger do tread the steps of the elder; servants do as their masters do, children walk like their fathers. But the example of the Prince, is the mainest provocation, 1. Reg. 12.30. to do either good or evil. If jeroboam sacrifice unto the golden calves, Lactant. Divinar. Instit. 5. Lodo. vives de causis corruptarartium lib. 1. he must not go alone; the people will have their part. Lactantius could say that to imitate the manners, yea the vices of kings, is held a kind of obedience. It is the observation of Lodovicus vives, that when Alexander of Macedon lived, because he was a warrior, every man would be a soldier: in the days of Augustus Caesar, because he delighted in Poetry, he was no body who could not make a verse. And in latter ages, when Leo the tenth was Pope of Rome, because he loved merry fellows, all Rome did ring with singers and jugglers and stage-players, but under julius the second who was both a warrior and a Pope, the city was full of armour. So the subjects ever press after the manner of their sovereigns, being even like apes in imitating of them, whom they know to have a power to honour them or disgrace them. Yea it is marvel to see, how meaner men than kings are followed by their inferiors, so that the thing which seemed to be honourable, if it be by the greater rufused, doth strait way grow contemptible, yea contrary to long custom. And that which seemed base if it be taken up by them, A. Gellius lib. 15.17. doth quickly grow in request. The old manner of Athens was, that young gentlemen did learn to play on a kind of pipe, the Recorder or some such like. And this was frequented by the most part of them. But when on a time, Alcibiades looking in a glass, did see his own cheeks to be puffed up with the blowing, he threw the pipe away, and so did all the gallants of Athens, immediately after him forbear that kind of Music. Plutarch. in praeceptis gerendae Reip. What was thought more vile in Thebes, then to take charge of the scouring of the gutters and sinks? but when that worthy person Epaminondas, had once borne that office, it was accounted a place of honour, and was sought for among other preferments. Therefore it is good that great men be advised in their actions, not only for their own sake, but for the avail of other: that by virtue they may breed virtue, lest by doing that which is vicious, they lay open a way to naughtiness. For if they once begin to do that which is preposterous, their scholars will be many, and they will add to their evil: the picture exceedeth the principal, the copy the original: a little gap being opened, in small process of time, cometh to be a great deal wider. Lewes the twelfth that king of France, who was called Pater patriae, Antimachiavellus. lib. 1. Cap. 1. the father of the country, being at exceedieg charges, in the getting of the Dukedom of Milan, and willing notwithstanding to spare his people from great payments, set those offices which belonged unto the Crown ot sale, but as for the places of dignity which were toward the law, he meddled not with them: But since that time, other by his example have gone so far, as to make sale of them also. It is a great misery to that kingdom, that justice is so bought and sold. But this grew from an ill example. 9 The ruler of the Ninivites did walk a better way, when he would not go before his people in evil things, but in good. He imagined that his own conversion, would draw on others with him. He should incite his Nobles, and his Nobles provoke his people, and so his city might be marvelously changed in one day, Isay. 66.8. like that saying in Esay, Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? shall the earth be brought forth in one day? or shall a nation be borne at once? He himself began the work, knowing that to be a strong loadstone, to pluck on other men. And indeed where good is intended, there let the best begin. Zaleucus might punish other with loss of eyes, for committing of adultery, when he made his son the first example, yea bereft himself of one eye, to spare one in his son. It is written of one Fredrick, Malmisbur. de gestis Pontificum Anglorum. li. 1. who was consecrated Bishop in the time of the Emperor Ludovicus Pius, that when upon the day of his installation, he was remembered at dinner time by the said Ludovicus, that he should be constant and resolute in his office, speak the truth, and do his duty; before that he would make any other answer, he requested to be told, whether he must begin on the fish that stood before him, at the head or at the tail? Whereunto the Emperor replied, that he must begin at the head. Truth it is then quoth the Bishop, we must begin with the head, & therefore you who are head to all your people, may do well to put away judith from you, the woman which is incestuously married to you. And this indeed was done afterward. It is a very natural and orderly course in any reformation, that the best should give the onset in good things, and the meaner sort should follow. If a stone thrown into a fishpond, make one circle in the middle, that strait way causeth a second, and that bringeth on a third, and so it goeth to the bank. Even so is it in honest or evil actions; being once set on foot by the chiefest, Sozom. Hist Eccl. 2.4. they provoke other to follow. When Constantine had once embraced the faith of jesus Christ, many heathen cities did likewise. Then the way to stir the Ninivites, was for the king to begin, which he did as fully and wholly as ever you heard of any. The particulars whereof follow now in my second part. He arose from his throne. 10 Among men, such as have their authority unlimited, which point belongeth only to absolute Princes, do think themselves exempted from the common sort of creatures, and therefore for the mighty prerogative of their sovereignty, will stand when other stoup, and will bear up the head, when other shall shrink for fear. It is therefore the more admirable, that this Monarch of the East, higher shall I say then ordinary, yea the highest as I think, of all the men on earth, a king over kings, and commander over nations (the Assyrian dominion being then in his pride) should not only be cast down, and debased with other, but before other and beyond other, in so noted a degree. For what was to be done, which he performed not willingly? That which Princes do in private, is not it which breedeth majesty, but their royal glory in public, when in the eyes of their subjects, they appear in their stateliness of pompous apparel, of rich and noble train, of guard and other matters, which procure a kind of amazedness, in those who are not accustomed to it. Act. 12.21. Cap. 25.23. 1. Reg. 7.7. This as Herode & Agrippa did use, do did Solomon and religious governors, which exciteth from other toward them a fearful reverence, yet withal a lovely admiration. But among all shows, there is nothing comparable to the throne, that magnificent seat of justice, where much honour is accumulated and heaped up together. In a palace large and spacious, a rich seat to be set, very eminent for the height, conspicuous for the furniture of gold and cloth of estate, compassed about with Nobles, and great Peers of a kingdom, in Parliament-like attire, attended with many trumpeters, and heralds and other officers, with a guard of strong and armed men, environed with much people, in a peaceable plentiful place. What on earth representeth a majesty, if it be not in such an assembly? The sight of this or the like, jornandes de rebus Geticis. in justinian the Emperor at Constantinople, made Athanaricus the king of the Goths, to break forth into these words, The Emperor without doubt is a God upon earth, & whosoever shall stir his hand against him, shallbe guilty of his own blood. But this phrase of sitting in the throne, is used by the Spirit of God, to point out unto us the highest honour among men. 1. Reg. 1.35.47. Solomon was said to be set in the throne of his father David. The people pray that his throne, that is to say his honour and magnificence, may be above his fathers. What a stately throne did the same Solomon make, Cap. 10.18. Apoc. 4.2. as one of his most glorious works? In Saint john's Revelation, where the Lord himself is described in inconceivable glory, the first thing named is a throne. How the Gentiles respected this, may appear by that of Alexander, Q Curt. lib. 8. who when a poor soldier of his own, who was as stupefied and amazed with cold and hunger, was by himself set down in his throne near the fire, told him that if he had so done to the royal seat of the Persians, it would have cost him his life, but this saith he shall save thy life; meaning that there he should be warmed, and freed from his cold. And it may be judged also by that speech of Demaratus the Corinthian, Plutarch. de fortuna Alexandri. who seeing Alexander in his pomp at Susis, did for joy break forth into tears, and said that those greeks who were dead before that day, had lost a great occasion of rejoicing, because they lived not, to see Alexander sitting in the throne of Darius. Then for the king of Ninive, being set in open show, to arise from his pompous place, is a sign of much humility: to top himself, to come down, with such a depressed diminishment, so grievous to flesh and blood, is a matter which is not common. He who never tasted the sweet of sovereignty or ambition, cannot judge aright of this deed. When the needle touched with the loadstone, shall bear itself toward the North, in passing a great part of the earth or sea, it is a great alteration, when it coming under the Equinoctial line, must give over that property wherein before it was excellent, and might justly have caused no little admiration. A proud mind cannot stoop: a lofty heart would not down. And yet the great king of Ninive, being touched with repentance, unseateth himself, unthroneth himself, and cometh as low as the meanest. 11 As he did put himself from his place, so he strippeth himself of his raiment. It should seem that it was some solemn time, that he was sitting in his throne, and adorned with his rob. Act. 12.21. When Herode would show himself in his magnificence, he put on his royal apparel. Otherwise the Eastern Princes went glorious in their attire, and so at this day do all men who are of worth among them, as travelers do report. They use a stately kind of clothing. By the witness of Christ himself, Matth. 11.8. they that wear soft or delicate raiment, are in the Courts of Kings: how then go the Kings themselves? They think that common clothing, maketh them seem but as common men: and they would that nothing should be wanting to them, which might increase an opinion of estate. We see that some inferour persons, do pin their greatest felicity on the gayness of their backs. There is more care to adorn the body, with vanities and new-fangles, then to beautify the soul with sanctity and devotion. The work of worms shall not be refused, to clothe a worm-eaten body. Colours shall be brought from the sea, and pearls taken out of fishes, gold digged out of the earth. Ethyopia and both the Indies shall be ransacked for new devices, and these things shall be put on with more greediness, more carefulness, and more orderliness, then if it were to do that, which most nearly appertaineth to the gaining of heaven. Fashions shall be invented so wide and spacious, in hoops and ruffs and supporters, that there is great danger, that the little gate which leadeth to eternal life and bliss, is not wide inongh to receive them. And if it be a grief, and even a death in comparison, for such as are not the most honourable, to part with these vanities (for who would live to lack things handsome?) how might it strain the heart of a King, to be uncased in such sort, as to put off that which distinguished him from a common man? I fear that there be many in our age, who hardly would yield to this. Yet the great ruler of Ninive doth make no stay thereat, but at this time putteth away from him, his rob of greatest dignity, as a hindrance to true piety. Where is a lively feeling indeed, that we should be arrayed with pure and fine linen, Apoc. 19.8. which is the righteousness of Saints, there the most sumptuous clothing, is upon some special occasion but accounted as the dung, and that which is most delectable, is detested as a Scorpion. Where a man is best clad within, there the least care is for the outward. 12 Well, you see what this Prince hath left: now hear what he taketh to him. He putteth not off one brave gown, that he might put on another, so to jet it in variety, whereupon the world standeth much; but that he might betake himself to mourning weeds, even sordid sackcloth, and earthy ashes. Sackcloth was used to express sorrow, as may be seen in jacob the Patriarch, Genes. 37.34. who upon the news of the death of his son joseph, rend his clothes, and put sackcloth about his loins, and sorrowed a great season. Ashes were used by men dejected to the lowest degree of misery, job. 2.8. as may be gathered by job, who after all his grievances so doubled upon him, went and sat him down in ashes. Esth. 4.1. Mordecai in the book of Esther giveth example of both: for when the King had yielded to the bloody request of Haman, for murdering all the jews, he put on sackcloth and ashes, and cried a great cry and a bitter, in the midst of the city. But by the testimony of our Saviour Christ, these two joined together, are arguments and tokens of the most humble repentance: Matth. 11.21. Woe be to thee Chorazin, woe be to thee Bethsaida, for if the great works which were done in you, had been done in Tyrus and Sidon, they had repent long agone in sackcloth and ashes, that is in the most lowly manner which may possibly be devised. Gregor. Moral. lib. 3●. Saint Gregory in his Morals doth show the reason, why these should be used in the time of grief: In sackcloth saith he is showed a roughness and a pricking, even the compunction of our sins. In ashes is signified the dust of men who are dead. And therefore both of these are used in repentance, that in pricking of sackcloth, we may know by our fault what it is which we have done, and in ashes we may weigh what we have deserved in judgement, that is, to be made dust and ashes. Consider then saith he in the sackcloth pricking vices, consider in the ashes the pain of vices, which followeth by the sentence of death. This is the spiritual meaning of this mourning attire, and it cannot choose but strike a kind of horror outwardly, into every one who beholdeth it. For doth not sackcloth or haircloth cast down the mind of the wearer, or the high conceit of the slander by, to see him who was most glorious with or beyond many other, now to be arrayed in that, which noteth manifest lamentation. And do not ashes more remember us of mortification, that he who liveth and moveth, should like a carcase turned into dust, be as already in his grave: that if he be not yet fallen into the dust of the earth, yet the dust is arisen up to him, and hath met him half the way. So living he is as dead, and moving as if he were already buried. 13 I cannot choose but admire the care of this worthy Ninivite, to satisfy in every kind so far as lay in him. Look in what he had offended, in that he would make a recompense. In former time he had displeased God, as well within as without, and now he would show the fruits of this his grief, as well within as without. Within, by debarring his belly and stomach of their sustenance: without, by making that flesh which had taken delight before, in beauty and in bravery, to be basely and ugly clothed. He saw the faults of himself, and therefore as a careful planter or overseer of trees, he bent that stock which grew awry, to the contrary side. And he took the rightest course to redress his faults, not doing as necessity many times urgeth men, in their chastisements to lay upon one member or part of the body, for the oversight of the other, as for the slips of the hands, to lay stripes upon the back or shoulders; but he correcteth the offenders in the most just and equitable order that might be. For had he not transgressed both in the back and the belly? His belly had been a receptacle of much luxury and excess: the sumptuous birds of the air, the dainty fish of the water, had been devoured by him. joseph. de bello judaico. lib. 5.13. Sueton. in Vitellio. It may be that he had offended as Vitellius did afterward▪ who caused all seas and lands to be sought, for rare creatures to feed on, and when they had been brought unto him at an inestimable price or rate, than they should not be touched in gross, but an eye only of this bird, or a tongue only of that fish must be tasted, that so the spoils of a many, might be taken at one meal. It may be that like his countryman Sardanapalus that Epicure, Athenaeus Dipnosophis. lib. 12.12. Philip. 3.19. he thought that alone to be his, which he had consumed in eating, and so had made his belly no less than his God. To make amends for this, by proclaiming a solemn fast, he abateth the superfluity of his unruly paunch, and pincheth it with famine, that because in former times it had had a great deal more than it should, now it might want that which is necessary. So his back and loins had been supporters of much excess, so that the most curious of workmanship, the most sumptuous of stuff, the most conspicuous of metals, the most precious of stones and pearls, had been bestowed upon them. There was in likelihood no pomp to be desired, which they knew not. Therefore to satisfy for those follies, and to bring his body to better compass, sackcloth bombasted with ashes, or underlaid with dust, must now be worn and sat on. I Enough not whether the wisdom 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 joined. He who had done all those things, that is, came down from his throne of honour, laid his kingly rob from him; put on sackcloth and ashes; by the advise of his counsel set forth such a Proclamation, for a fast to be kept by all his people, both young and old, men and cattle; bid cry to God so mightily; yea who appeased the fury of the Lord, and quenched his wrath toward them, need not be suspected now but to have joined his mind within, to his external actions. And that being put to, as a kind of celestial salt, maketh all the rest to be savoury. For above all things the sacrifice of God is a troubled spirit, and a broken and contrite heart the Lord doth not despise. Psal. ●1. 17. It were to be wished, that our Jesuits and Seminary men, would learn this of this Barbarian, to adorn their external penance and voluntary worships, which they enjoin to themselves, with this contrite mind within. For if sackcloth and haircloth, and fasting and whipping too, be used and oft-times doubled, they which do them are not the nearer to heaven, unless the inward conscience be established in the faith, and taught that nothing meriteth, but the blood of Christ our Redeemer. Matth. 23.27. 2. Reg 9.30. 1. Reg. 18.28. It is but like a whited sepulchre; whited, but full of rottenness: like old jezabel, who albeit she was painted, yet was she full of aged wrinkles: the deeds but of Baal's Priests, who could cut and lance themselves: the very works of hypocrites. They may gain praise with men, and make their Proclamations to the world as they do, Ant. Possevinus in refutatione respons●onis D. Chyt●ei. that their lodging is very hard, and their shirts made of course haircloth, yea as Possevinus saith, and seemeth to cite it from our Campian, that flying to wildernesses as Heremits, and to monasteries as Friars, all their life time in the schools of perfect virtue, 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 Devils too, they may hear in the day of judgement, from the mouth of the last judge, Matth. 7.23. Depart from me, I know you not, you workers of iniquity, unless the inward meaning be rectified, and made orderly, by believing, understanding, and justifying knowledge. And this may yet be feared to be wanting, by their making much of images, their invocation of Saints, their abusing of Christ in his institution in the Sacrifice of their Mass, by counting their prayers on beads, by reputing that which is sin to be meritorious with God. This maketh vain all the rest, and wringeth that speech from the Almighty, Who required these things at your hands? Isay. 1. 1●. Let them with the king of Ninive believe on God, and be inwardly settled in their mind out of the word, and then for Christ's sake, and not for their own merits, their deeds shall be acceptable. 15 Now to make application of this. There is nothing written here, but it is written for our instruction. If sin among that people did deserve so hard a doom, and provoke so fearful a wrath, why should it then be esteemed with us a light matter, & only a point of dalliance? Why do men now so embrace it, ●nd with greediness make after it, as after a blessed thing? God is one and the same God evermore, and hateth it now as he did before. And there remaineth an account to be made by us, as well as by men before. Then if we did as we should, we should seek to diminish the faults of former ages, and not to add unto the measure of them. The least burden is most easily borne; the fewest sins are soon reckoned for. It is a fearful thing to fall wilfully into the hands of the everliving God. Hebr. 10.31. Sin is like to that Siren, which Poets do describe, to sing then sweetly when it meaneth to destroy. It is like to the Hyaena, which can cry like a child, but intendeth to tear in pieces. Although the face be fair above, yet it hath a Scorpion's tail to sting. It was like to destroy a whole city, which was the greatest in all the world, & therefore it may bring desolation and perdition upon us. Again, if this mighty Monarch to appease the fury of God, did refuse no humble subjection, but did cast down himself by inward and outward means, than we oftentimes should change our ways, and give more signification of the feeling of our misery, that by open repentance, God's threats may be removed and turned into blessings. If we will turn unto him, he is a gracious Lord. But he loveth to be sought to, and to be solicited with earnest devotion. We do little deserve to have it, if we will not ask that which we want. Then let us cast ourselves down, by public and private prayer, and give him no rest till he grant us things convenient. Moreover as the king of that nation, did so oversway all his subjects, that he brought them also to God, so let all who have any other under them, stir up those to true holiness who are committed to them; that many hands being lifted up together, may take the stronger effect. And let him who hath fewest to rule, know that his affections are placed by the Almighty, as subjects under him, if he have the Spirit of God in him, and therefore let him labour to command them, and dispose them not to earthiness and iniquity, but to virtue and obedience. So shall the ground of our hearts, which bringeth forth nothing else of itself, but nettles and brambles and briars, yield lovely fruit, and that which is acceptable in the eyes and ears of the Highest. And then as the word from jonas, was effectual to the Ninivites, so shall the preaching of God's Ministers, and good pastors among us, be a pathway to eternity. To the which the father bring us for his own Son Christ his sake, to both whom and the holy Spirit, three persons in one Godhead, be honour now and for ever. THE XXI. LECTURE. The chief points. 1. Men in authority are to excite other to devotion. 6. Prince's may compel to the external means of God's service. 8. The greatest are to govern by advise. 11. Commendation of fasting. 12. Difference of meats maketh no fast. 13. Concerning Lent. 14. Of superstitious and immoderate fasts. 15. In colder countries men cannot fast as in the hotter. jonah. 3.7. And he proclaimed and said through Niniveh (by the counsel of the King and his Nobles) saying: Let neither man nor beast, bullock or sheep taste any thing, neither feed nor drink water. IN the verse before going, you have heard of a king, who upon report of the preaching of a Prophet, which denounced destruction both to him and to his, did humble himself in incredible manner. For sitting in his throne, and seat of royal estate, he cometh down from it, and being attired with princely attire, he putteth that off him, and seeming for his person to be no better, than any of his subjects, he goeth yet farther, and as one meaner than the meanest, putteth sackcloth on him, and sitteth him down in ashes. But as in the natural body of a man, it is not sufficient that the heart alone be warm, but the heat of it must be a propagating heat, which may breed the like in the rest of the members, and be orderly diffused to the exterior parts, even the hands and feet, which are the remotest portions of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or little world; and if this be not done, the heart doth not perform the office expected: So in this civil regiment and politic place, this Prince doth not think, that he hath completed that which lieth on him to do, if himself be thoroughly warmed with heat of devotion, unless his people also do participate that quality, and be brought even feelingly to know their own misery, that so they might work means to appease the Lords displeasure. This was a good motion, as at the first to hear with that zealous king David, what the Lord God would say concerning himself, Psal. 85.8. Psal. 122.1. so to be glad also when other would say to him, We will go into the house of the Lord, nay more, to be a spur to hasten them thither by crying, Psal. 34.11. Come vnt●●e you children, I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Fire desireth to breed fire. The custom of the hard rock, is to turn that earth which is joined to it, into stone. A sensible object received once in the air, striveth to multiply his species, as far as it may. And in like sort the soul which is truly converted to grace, loveth to convert other. A good servant doth think it the honour of his master, and consequently his own best contentment, to see many other as well as himself, clothed with his Lord's livery. It is the envious person, who grudgeth his neighbour a light from his light: but the sanctified creature, is more ready to offer information in holy things, than other to receive it. The good man desireth to make other good also. 2 This maketh the king of Ninive, who for his own part had tasted of remorse and anguish of conscience, for his offence toward the Highest, to be willing that his subjects should run to the same fountain of sorrow & tears, that with many groans of heart, and much weeping of the eyes, and many hands lift up, the long suffering God might be moved to compassion. And if this did not suffice, than his farther desire was, that the emptiness of the reasonable creatures, and hunger of the unreasonable ones, even the oxen and sheep and cattle, which should break forth into bellowing, & bleating and out-crying, might extort and wring forth commiseration. For I may well use that speech, Matth. 11. 1● in the same sense that the kingdom of heaven is said to suffer violence. And therefore taking counsel of his most honourable Nobles, and Princes, and Senators, he putteth forth an Edict, and most solemn Proclamation through the streets of the city, that every mother's child, be it male or be it female, young or old, or bond or free, should enter into abstinence, and put on sackcloth and pray, but especially with a hatred should turn away from sin. And to make the stronger outcry in the ears of the Almighty revenger, the brute beasts should be urged by the pinching of their bellies; to make a rueful noise, that these conjoined complaints might prevail and work out mercy. A good consideration of a heathen man, which as a glass may be set before us who be Christians by profession, and may also teach us something▪ which is very well worth the learning. Which that we may understand with better facility, may it please you to consider with me, first the induction to the Proclamation, which is here proposed by the Spirit of God: & that is by a double circumstance, one that he proclaimed through Ninive, the other that he did it by consent of his Nobles. And secondly, the Edict or Proclamation itself. These I am now to lay open to you, as the Lord shall enable me. He proclaimed. 3 It is for no small matters, that Princes and mighty rulers are set over people, and countries, and cities; not alone to brave it in pompous apparel, or by external helps to make show of majesty; for the most coward, the veriest fool, yea an image may in great sort perform this. But there is required of them a superuising care, and diligent respect, that their people should do well. By doing well, I mean have welfare and prosperity, and be free from plagues and punishments. So Moses being in the wilderness, did exceedingly desire that the Lords blessing might abound upon his people: and so also did David, when in the time of the devouring pestilence, he said unto his maker, I have sinned, 2. Sam. 24.17 ye● I have done wickedly, but these sheep what have ●hey done? But principally I understand by doing well, that they should do their duty, walk in fear of their maker, serve him with their heart, be informed in true religion, pursue that which is virtuous, jos 23.2. Cap. 24.2. fly from idolatry and sin. See how great the care of josuah was, that the children of Israel even after his death should stick fast to the Lord, and not do as the Gentiles, but keep their faith entirely. 1. Chr. 29.2. So David by his own example stirreth up his subjects, to offer part of their riches to the building of the Temple, yea calleth on them by plain words, and when he seeth it willingly done, he taketh much comfort in it. And which is most of all, 18. he prayeth the God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Israel, still to keep that devotion in the minds of his people, and to prepare their hearts unto him. In another place the devout mind of jehosaphat is lively expressed, 2. Chr. 17.7. who sent abroad his Princes, and his Levites joined with them, that first they might teach the men of juda, the law of Moses and the Scripture, that so they might know the way to walk uprightly and holily: Cap. 19 ●. and then afterward his judges, to see whether they lived according to their knowledge. And there was never King, who was commended in the Scripture, or by just and true desert in Christian commonwealth, but he did take such a course. They who failed in this▪ may be thought to fail in all: for this is the very scope wherefore Kings are ordained. 4 It is no question in holy Writ, but that the Lord requireth, ●hat every man should embrace and frame himself to his commandment: but he hath solemnly appointed the monarch of the earth, to see this to be done. He hath committed the charge of their inferiors to them, and doth expect from them such executions and accomplishments, as may bring the necks of their subjects under the yoke of Christ. Therefore he hath armed them with the highest authority: therefore he hath given them the help of wise advisers: therefore oftentimes he enricheth them with graces extraordinary, partly being carefully infused by education, and partly immediately inspired by his goodnessed, that so they may be able to foresee with wisdom, what the common sort do not think of, and to discern with judgement, and to prevent with diligence, and with violence to restrain from enormities and obliquities. And to remember them thereof, he giveth them titles accordingly: as rulers, that they may rule them with a faithful and true heart; Exod. 18. ●1. which cannot be done, but by teaching them obedience to the highest ruler. So, fathers of the people, 1. Chr. 2.24. that as parents are bound to train up their children in the fear of the Lord, Ephes. 6.4. and by natural affection to work them all happiness that may be, and intent them all good, so these should do to their subjects, who are placed under their government. In like sort they are called shepherds, ●o watch over them, to keep them from the wolves and foxes of heresy, of idolatry and schism, of Satanical resolutions, and to better their pasture, as conveniency may yield. The heathen Poet did use this name to Agamemnon his King: — Homer. Ilia. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Agamemnon the shepherd of the people. But they are put in mind of their du●ie, by nothing more significantly then by calling them heads, whereby he letteth them know, not so much that they are placed uppermost in the body, Numer. 1.4. but how they are placed, & why they are placed, that is, with ears to hear what is good for all the body, with smelling and tasting to choose what is wholesome, with the tongue to speak what will help, or what will hurt: but especially with the eyes to see a great way off, which way the feet should walk, the stomach should be relieved, the body should be cherished, and ever to think, that the rest of the parts are so united to it, that all make but one in the conjunction of the whole. God doth require this of the heads of lands and nations, that in the midst of danger, they should not be winking with drowsy eyes, but see what is coming, and withdrawing themselves, withdraw their people also. And there is no one thing, which he will so severely exact of them in the day of judgement, as an account for this. For albeit there must be a reckoning for the actions of themselves, how they have bestowed themselves, yet because many thousands are more than one soul, the account for their charge shall more strictly be stood upon. 5 Inferior Magistrates may herein take instruction, that it is not for themselves, that they are hoissed to their places, but to the good of other. Be they never so eminent for sanctity or sincerity, it is not enough, unless they whom they rule, do savour like to themselves. God expecteth of each of them, that they and their houses, josuah. 24.15 as josuah said should serve him, even so many as they rule over. And that if a blessing come upon them, it should like Aaron's ointment drop from the beard, to the skirts of their clothing; that the low valleys may have the benefit of that fruitful rain, which falleth upon the mountains. And if plagues and woes should come, that then the rest should be retired from the danger of the shot, as well as the fairest. That there should be a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and natural affection to all that be in their custody, principally to save them from the wrath which is to come, and afterward to encourage them, that they go with an upright foot; to quell that which is rebellious, to take pity upon the weak, to rectify the untoward, to think that to be the field wherein God hath bestowed them, and they will strive to make it like the Paradise of the Highest, by planting choice plants in it, by pruning them, by watering it, by fencing it and hedging it, by keeping out the boar; to take comfort in the beauty and prosperity thereof, and to delight in all happiness which shall befall unto it. Thus the faithful steward doth, being always pleased best when the common good doth flourish; not thinking himself a body besides the public body, and so as two substances to be contradivided things, and all well which is scraped and scratched away from the members, but a head unto that body where and in whom he liveth, and so to have a fellow-feeling of the sufferings of other. This doth well in all things, but in nothing so much, as urging them to aim at things celestial; to beg of God the continuance of his graces upon them; or to entreat him to be pleased, to turn away that fury which is coming out against them. And in this last case, the king of Ninive may well be proposed as an example very singular, who thinketh not his duty to be discharged at all, unless besides the subjecting and debasing of himself, he do stir up his people to a lively apprehension of the state wherein they stood, that they as the followers, & he as the leader, but both they and he, & he as well as they, like humble suppliants might make intercession, to recover God's favour, or at least to be pardoned. He showeth himself a man worthy to bear a sceptre, worthy to wear a crown, who is so considerate as to think, that since they should have part of the punishment, he might do well to bring them to part of the penance. 6 Now as this in general is gathered of that act, which is imported to us, by the scope of this verse & the next, so I judge that some farther matter is naturally yielded in this, that he put forth a precept or mandamus, an imperial Edict, and an urging Proclamation, that every one should fast. And this is, that Princes by the prerogative of their dignity, have under God a power, not only to animate, and encourage, and exhort, but by commandment to constrain, and by law to enforce their people, to the performance and practice of those religious proceedings, which they warranted by the word shall think fit. They may ordain laws in Ecclesiastical causes, as we commonly term them, and use compelling means to bring men to God. He who should dispute this against the Church of Rome, may easily declare out of the Scriptures, both in particular and sufficiently, concerning all the circumstances whereupon they do stand, that it is holy & just which our Princess doth claim, and our Church doth maintain. Th. Bilsonus Episcopus Wintoniensis. joh. Rainoldus in colloquio cum Harto. 1. Reg. 2.27.35. 2. Reg. 12.4. 2. Chron. 19.4. ca 30.1. c. 34.3. And this most plentifully hath been showed in excellent works extant to the view of the world. Therefore it shall be enough for me, now to touch and go. Wise Solomon deposed Abiathar from the Priesthood, and placed Sadoc in his room. Therefore Princes may deprive their Bishops of their dignities, if they deserve it, and place other in their steed. jehoash doth call the Priests to an account, for their negligent carelessness in repairing the Temple. Good jehosaphat, Hezechiah, and josiah do make laws, for the recalling and exercising of the service of God; they restore it and renew it according to the law: and therefore Christian Princes by their example may do the like. And if we will look lower, how great was Constantine's care for settling the faith of Christ? how did he labour both in the Nicene Council and otherwise? Doth he not call himself, Euseb. de vita Constantini. lib. 4.24. as Eusebius reporteth, a Bishop out of the Church? Others were Bishops within the Sanctuary, because they were to preach and administer the Sacraments; but himself one without, by reason of his care to discharge that duty which was imposed on him. How many laws did he make in causes of the Church? Legum Franciae. l. 1. & 2. and Theodosius after him? yea this prerogative was retained, until the time of Charles the Great, and Lodovicus after him, as appear by so many decrees extant to this day. These and many other knowing more fully than the Ninivite spoken of by jonas did, that God had appointed them to bear the sword not in vain, Rom. 13.4. made Edicts, and put out Proclamations, to command men to the exercise of Christian devotion. Yea some of them went farther, and by laws repressed diverse heresies, and enforced men to an embracing of the Orthodox Catholic faith. 7 A matter which may seem most strange, and improbable unto such, as in truth mistaking the issue of this question, do much use that Maxim, Fides non cogitur, faith cannot be enforced. It is very true that faith is an assent of the inward man, which indeed cannot be extorted, (if we will speak of the actual and complete apprehension in believing) for in that there must be a willing framing of the mind itself from within. But the means whereby men get faith, are visible and external, as the hearing of the word, the receiving of the Sacraments, the repairing to the Churches where religion is set forth, the flying from the Synagogues of heretics and schismatics, lest other should be infected: the forbidding of their assemblies: and these things Princes may not only use and set on foot, but they are bound by duty to the highest Lord, to exercise and execute them. 2. Chr. 34.33 josiah in his fervent zeal compelled all in the land, or bound them as other translate it, to serve the Lord their God.. And his deed is commended. Doth not Christ in the Parable show, Luc. 14.23. that he who made the banquet bid his servants go forth, and enforce them under the hedges to enter into his house, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, compel them to come in: out of which text Thomas of Aquine doth conclude and resolve, Aquinas. 2.2. q. 10. a. 8. Soz. l▪ 7.12. that men are to be enforced unto faith. Theodosius took this course as we read in Sozomen, when he made most severe laws, & put forth Proclamations against all those who crossed the stream of the Christian religion; and yet many of those laws were as the same author observeth, but only in terrorem. And that so much the more argued his religious affection, that he rather sought by frights and threats to win them, then by rigorous severity, unless against his will he should be constrained to chastise them by their obstinacy and intemperate behaviour. Never any of the Fathers of the Primititive Church, did more ponderously consider of this question, than Saint Austen did, and accordingly without any scruple he giveth his opinion, resolving this doubt. Aug Epi. 48 In one place, The Kings of the earth may serve Christ, in making laws for Christ. And in another: The Emperors when they command good, Epistol. 166. Lib. 2. contra secundam Gaudentij Epistolam. it is none but Christ who commandeth by them. Again: God doth not look for the help of worldly warfare, when he rather bestoweth it as a benefit on kings when he inspireth into them, that in their kingdom they should take order, that the commandment of their Lord should be done. For unto whom was it said, And now you Kings understand, be learned ye that are judges of the world? And when some disliked this position, Tract. 11. in johan. Et quomodo redderent rationem de imperio suo Deo? in another place he speaketh fully to them: They do marvel because the Christian powers are stirred up against the detestable dissipatours and scatterers of the Church. But should they not be moved? And how should they yield an account of their government to God? Let your charity observe what I speak, because this pertaineth to the Christian Kings of the world, that they should be willing that in their times, that Church their mother of whom they are spiritually borne, should be peaceable. I deny not but some of the ancient who lived a little before Saint Austin's time, and had not experience so much in this behalf as he had, were of a different opinion, and therefore they spoke otherwise. As Lactantius: Lactant. Divinar. Instit. lib. 5.20. There needeth no violence and injury, because religion cannot be enforced: the matter is rather to be dealt in by words then by stripes, that so there may be a will. So Athanasius speaking against the Atrians, Athanas. in Epistola ad vitam solitariam agentes. who by stripes and imprisonment did seek to draw men to their opinion: It is the property of holy religion, not to enforce but to persuade. For the Lord not enforcing but leaving liberty to the will, said openly to all: If any of you will come after me: And to his Apostles, will you also be gone? Gregor. Nazianz. de vita sua. And so Gregory Nazianzen, I do think it fitter to persuade then to compel. This was the judgement of them, who living not in times altogether so settled, as God sent afterward, could not have that insight into this case, August. ad Vincentium. Epistol. 48. as Saint Austen, who was purposely consulted in it, and more industriously did ●ift it, and discuss it. And that causeth him to show, that many were drawn from the Circumcellians, to be good Catholics, by violence which was offered them by the Magistrates. But he there requireth that there should be teaching joined to terror, and not most grievous punishment to be inflicted without instruction. But to my point, Qui phreneticum ligat, & qui lethargic excitat, an. bobus molesius, ambos amat. Contra literas Petiliani Donatistae. lib. 2. He who bindeth a frantic man, and rouseth him up who is sick of a lethargy, although he be troublesome to both, yet he loveth both. And elsewhere: If any laws be made against you (speaking of the Donatists who objected, that it was not in any man to enforce their wills to his religion) you are not by them compelled to do well, but you are forbidden to do ill. For no man can do well unless he choose to do so, unless he love it, which consisteth in freewill: but the fear of punishments, albeit yet it hath not the delight of a good conscience, yet at the least it restraineth evil lusts within the closet of the thoughts. Intra clausira cogitationis. Tractat. 11. in johannem. Exufflatores Christi. And once more: When God will stir up the Magistrates against heretics, against schismatics, against wasters of the Church, against such as would blow off Christ, against blasphemers of Baptism, let them not wonder: because God raiseth them up, that Agar may be beaten by Sara. If any man would yet see farther in this learned Father, concerning that opinion, Retract. l. 2.5 he may find in his Retractations, that whereas once himself had been minded, that it did not belong to the Magistrate, to compel men to the communion of the Orthodox: upon sounder experience, and more advised consideration, he doth plainly retract it. Upon all which we hold for an undoubted truth, that the Prince hath a power in commanding & proclaiming for God & God's religion, & all exercise of the same, which as you have heard I have gathered from that act of the king of Ninive, imposing upon his a fast by open Proclamation. 8 Then to return to him: in the next place it is said, that the Edict which was made, was by advise of his Nobles. As that which was said before doth import unto us his zeal, so this implieth his wisdom, that to direct himself he refuseth not good counsel, & to purchase the more authority he joined in his style his counsellors and great officers. And in civil affairs what can be more judicious then to harken to the wise? then to listen unto many? Many eyes see more than one: many ears hear more than one: many minds conceiving diversly, do utter most of understanding. where counsel is not saith Solomon, Prou. 11.14 there the people shall fall: but health is where are many counsellors. Cap. 15.22. And, without counsel thoughts come to nothing; but in multitude of counsellors there is stableness. Prou. 20.18. And again, Thoughts are strengthened by counsels, and by counsels are wars to be taken in hand. The impression of this matter hath wrought with all men of worth, with David & with Solomon, whose Nobleses and great captains were at hand with their instructions: yea hath had place in all estates, as the Ephori in Sparta, the Areopagites in Athens, the Senators in Rome did make manifest in old time: and in our age there is not the Ruff, but hath his solemn Senate, not the Turk but hath his Bassas, who at all turns may inform him. Now as that land is happy, Eccles. 10.17 where the Princes eat in time, for strength and not for drunkenness, that is, are sober and temperate, so blessed is that Prince who hath such men about him, as may be right hands, not left hands, Exod. 18.21. men faithful and fearing God, wise persons and hating covetousness: otherwise himself and all doth easily run to ruin. 2. Chr. 22.3. Ahaziah the king of juda had a mother, and other kinsfolks, who were of the house of Ahab for his counsellors, which turned in the end to his destruction. Cap. 24.17. joas is ill advised by the great men of his kingdom, which drew him to idolatry, & brought sin upon him, 1. Reg. 12.10. & all the land beside. Roboams case is well known, what good green heads did to him. Few kings have stood upright, when they have leaned on crooked props. It showeth that they are weak, when they cannot find the depravedness or infirmity of the other: but if themselves were able men, yet having none about them but silly or corrupted ones, or careless or unfaithful persons, many things must needs run to wrack, if men reputed wise have conceived things aright. Lampridius in the life of Alexander Severus, Lamprid. in vita Alexandri Severi. citeth this out of the works of Marius Maximus, as an approved truth, that the state is better, & a great deal safer, wherein the Prince is nought, if the Counsellors who be about him be good, then that wherein the friends of the Prince be evil men, although himself be good: for one who is amiss may easily be corrected by many which are right; but when many are depraved, it is hard for one to rectify them. Then it is well with that Prince, who being for his own part virtuously minded, hath other virtuous ones to assist him. 9 I might amplify this by the example of justinus the Emperor, spoken of by Euagrius, evagr. Hist. Eccles. 5 13. who being grown into much misery, imputeth the cause of it to his Magistrates, and those great men who were about him: but my purpose is rather to remember, that the highest should much depend upon good counsel, and not thinking themselves to be disgraced thereby, as not being selfe-sufficient, but to repute it their greatest honour, to hear as well as to speak. Liu. lib. 22. That which the Roman Minutius said of himself and Fabius, is very true, that the best thing is to give counsel: and he is but next the best, who can take it when other give it: but he is a most miserable man, who can neither give nor take. He is not the most eminent, whose weakness is such that he must only follow other men; but since none here can be absolute, as it is the highest glory to give, so to take it is no dishonour. Who was ever among the Romans more gracious for his person, Plutarch. An seni sit gerenda respubls. or glorious for his acts, than Scipio Africanus, and yet as Plutarch writeth, he so used his faithful and true friend Laelius for his counsellor, that some spared not to say, that Laelius was the Poet, and penner of all the play, and Scipio did but act it, and present it upon the stage. True wisdom had taught that honourable General, to be no way wanting to himself, howsoever other men would talk their pleasure of it. I could wish that in our age, persons of high esteem, would so use the help of their wise and faithful friends, that they might oftentimes run into so happy an error. You see that he who commanded Ninive did hold this rule; and the Spirit of God doth record it to the instruction of our age, and (if we will so receive it as I have expounded it before) to his exceeding commendation, that in so weighty a cause he would take the advise of his Nobles. And yet to say what I think, it may not unfitly be gathered, by those deeds which are reported of him in the former verse, that he himself stirred up his Princes, and was as a spur to them to give assent to his Edict: howbeit to show his mind to be temperate, and moderate, and humble unto men, as well as devout to God, he joineth them with himself, as not failing to grace them, and honour them in their places. The ambitious man, and he who is desirous of much gain agree in this one point, that they love to have no fellows. The man who is greedy upon money, excluding from himself all other companions, can in his private thought only, devour the greatest prey. And the haughty and proud heart, being like to the jealous man in his jealousy, loveth not to communicate to other, the least part of that honour, which gladly he would appropriate to his own actions. The more runneth to the boughs, the more the stock is lessened: Nichol. Machiavelli. Dis. in Livium. lib. 2.3. shred all the boughs saith Machiavelli, and the sap then going but one way, the body of the tree will prove the greater. But is that the way to be honourable? The mightiest that ever were have found it the truest glory, that bearing the rains aright (for that must ever be looked to) they have been kings over kings, and reigned not over beggars, but over men of worth. And God is better pleased, when good things shall be commanded, first by the highest in place, and then after it shall be added, by the Lords spiritual and temporal, and by the assent of the commons: Stylus Parlamenti Angliae. And princes which are gracious do never grieve at this; and wise men do love that style, when all is not appropriated to one, but there is a kind of parting. Plutarch in his state-precepts, Plutarch. in praeceptis reipubls. gerendae. telleth that when himself and another joined in office with him, were sent forth as Proconsul's, in some businesses for Rome, and occasion so fell out that his fellow stayed by the way, so that all was done by himself: when being again returned, he was to make declaration of all things which he had done in his journey, his own father lessoned him before, that he should not tell his tale in the singular number, but speak still plurally: not I went, but we went: and not I, but we said; assuring him that by this he should ease himself of much envy, and by his fair behaviour be very lovely and amiable. He was a wise father who taught thus, and he was a son much to be esteemed, who so inwardly embraced his good precept, that he thought of it many years afterward, & recorded it to be remembered of others. Now if it were wisdom and modesty in him so to do, than what humility was it, for the great king of Ninive to join with him, I do not say his fellows (for this great Monarch had none such) but his subjects in his style, by the King and his Nobles. And this I have gathered hitherto, from the Preface or induction to this Proclamation: now a little while let us enter into the Edict itself. Let neither man nor beast, etc. 10 It is good when an action is carried cleanly throughout, to be well and coherent both in matter and manner. Even ceremonies and circumstances detract much from good causes, if there be a failing in them: but where is a show of accidents, and the substance shall be defective, Diodor. Si●. Biblioth. 14 there all is but ridiculous. Diodorus Siculus telleth, that on a time Dionysius the great tyrant of Sicily, according to the custom used in those days by men of much honour, did send to the games of Olympus, diverse singers and Poets, who made so excellent music, that every one admired them, and commended them beyond measure. But afterward when the Poems (which were the matter of most expectance) came to be rehearsed, they were so base and barren, that both they and their master were scorned and derided by all men. That proved a matter fit to be laughed at, because the poem was curious, and the main did not answer to it. This king here in my text had deserved the like reproof, if after all his preparation, not in a game of sport, as were those shows at Olympus, but in the most earnest cause, which could touch him and his people, he had been weak and unperfect, when he came to the substance. If after his entertainment of the news of the Prophets preaching, after the coming down from his throne, after the putting off of his rob, after putting on of sackcloth, & sitting down in ashes, yea after charge of commanding his people to join with him, and assembling of his Nobility, no other thing had come forth, Parturiunt montes nascetur ridiculus mus. but some mouse from a mountain, some frivolous or vain thing, this scorn might be taken up, Much ado about a trifle: much expected and nought performed. But here it is clean contrary: the precedents have been right, but the subsequent is admirable; such as few Christian Princes being taken upon the sudden, would have equalled or matched, yea although they had been brought up all their days in the faith. For it is for a fast to be kept both from meat and sin, for an abstinence in general by men and brutish cattle, and for prayer in all vehemency of spirit, to be joined with it. But now only of the fast. 11 When the wrath of God is to be appeased, the Scriptures propose unto us, as one thing most effectual among many, the humbling of the body by abstaining from meat. And withal they mention this to us, as a means to stir up the favour of God toward us, to procure any thing needful for us. The Israelites when they were distressed for the murder of their men, judic. 20.26. 2. Sam. 12.16 21. which were slain down by the Beniamites, wept and fasted all the day. When David's child was sick, he wept and fasted for it. 2. Chr. 20.3. Nehem. 9.1. When the enemies of the jews had invaded his kingdom, jehosaphat commanded a public fast to be kept. And so did Nehemiah of purpose to turn away that vengeance, which might justly have befallen them, Exod. 34.28. for marrying of strange wives. This was exercised by Moses, and Elias, and our Saviour Christ at such time, 1. Reg. 19.8. Matth. 4.2. Luc. 2.37. as when great matters were to be attempted by them. And we find in the new Testament the renowned use of this, by persons which were most holy, as in Anna and Cornelius. And among those weapons wherewith Paul oppugned his enemies, Act. 10.30. 2. Cor. 6.6. were fastings and watchings. And this was frequented among men of fame in the Primitive Church. When Arrius the heretic having an injunction of the Emperor for it, Socrat. Hist. Eccles. 1.25 would needs come to the Communion, Alexander the good Bishop did betake himself to abstinence; and fasting did pray Christ jesus, to take the matter into his own hand, which accordingly was granted unto him, to the destruction of the heretic both in soul and body. Lib. 7.22. Socrates rehearseth this as a most shining virtue in the younger Theodosius, that he spent much time in fasting. Many are the commendations which the Fathers give unto it. Cyprian. de jeiunio Christi. Lib. 4. Epist. 4 As Saint Cyprian: By fasting the sink of vice is dried up: wantonness waxeth cold: concupiscences grow faint, and pleasures like fugitives run away. And in another place he exhorteth us unto it: In imminent dangers let us sigh and groan, not with the voice alone, but with fasting and tears, and all kind of deprecation. Tertulli. de Baptismo. August. in Psalm. 42. So Tertullian: Temptations which are incident upon fullness and immoderatnesse of belly, are choked by abstinence. And Saint Austen: Wilt thou have thy prayer fly up to God? then get thee two wings to it, Chry●o●●om. Hon●l. 1. in Gene●●. that is fasting & alms. And chrysostom upon Genesis: As the lighter ships do more swiftly pass over the sea, but chose they which are too heavy laden are drowned, so fasting making the mind lighter, doth cause it to pass the sea of this life the more lightly, and to look up to heaven and heavenly things, and not to esteem things present, but imagineth them to depart as shadows and meaner things. But drunkenness, and surfeiting, etc. 12 Hitherto the Church of Rome and we do well agree, & both of us do like the fast of the men of Ninive here: but we go a little farther, and observe that these men in this place mentioned, are forbidden to taste any thing, taste nothing nor drink water. He doth not say, forbear flesh, and feed on most dainty fish, Erasmus in Colloquio Militia & Carthusiani. (as the Carthusian Monks do) and power in wine withal: neither doth he say, eat of fruits, or sweet meats, but take heed of flesh, or of white meats, because they come from flesh; but he commandeth an entire abstinence. And that we do hold indeed to be an external circumstance required in a fast, & marvel at the stupidity of those who teach the contrary. If God had esteemed sea-creatures before those of the land, certainly he would have told us of it; johan. 21.3. or if he had forgotten it, yet S. Peter who was a fisher, and oftentimes did follow that trade, would at the least have thought upon it, in some corner of some Epistle. But what reason can be imagined, why God should prefer the fish before the meat of the butcher? Saint Paul doth make no distinction, when he useth the word flesh, applying it to fishes. There is one flesh of men, 1. Cor. 15.39 and another flesh of beasts, and another of fishes, and another of birds. In this disputation I speak not of positive laws, which are made for commonwealths, but I honour them and reverence them, according to their due place: but here I discuss the institution of God, who neither directly nor by any consequent, doth propose to us this difference. And concerning pampering of the flesh, which is many times objected, it is no hard thing to prove, from Physicians, and Philosophers, and Historians old and new, yea by reason and experience, that fruits and roots, & fishes, are not any way inferior to the most dainty flesh, & therefore are oftentimes bought at highrates & prices. But I will not pursue that argument. Only thus much I may say, that the reproof which Saint Austen useth against the Manichees, doth fitly fall upon these men, saving that those old heretics did hold that for every day, which our Papists hold but for some days. Augustin. de moribus Manichaeorum. lib. 2. But Saint Austen derideth those, when they thought that he was not more abstinent, who fed moderately and sparingly, only upon salt swine's flesh, than those who at their pleasure swilled in wine, and the purest juice of the most choice fruits: who did eat most fine cakes, and sweet meats of all make, and rice, and garden fruits belayed with pepper and sugar, and the costly spice of the world. See whether in our time this be not a custom among some people, that if a man were disposed to Epicurize a little, he would not rather choose to fast as some hold fasting, then to feast at a sober banquet. This is a blind superstition, and so palpably gross and filthy, that if it. were not, that custom from old time had so prevailed, and diverse of our countrymen did yet so hold it in their blindness, (and it is our duty to seek to win them) I should think myself very idle, and should partly be ashamed to speak of it in this place. The fasts in Scripture are pure abstinence: men eat nothing and drink no water: but here they may eat and drink, and be full and yet fast too. This is one of the grossest Paradoxes which the blind beast of Rome, that deceitful whore of Babylon, doth broach unto her followers. 13 And yet poor souls they see it not, nor the fondness of that doctrine, that such and such days should be fasted, not for laws sake and policy, but for religion and devotion. I do marvel what sound warrant they can have for that conclusion: for no such thing can be derived from any place of Scripture. Hear S. Austin's judgement upon that matter: Aug. Epi. 86. If you ask my opinion in this point, I revolving it in my mind do find, that in the writings of the Evangelists and the Apostles▪ and in all that instrument which is called the new Testament, fasting is commanded. But what days we should not fast, and what days we should, I see it not defined by the precept of the Lord or the Apostles. And in the ancient Church they had another custom than is kept at this day. Origen. in Leviticum. Homil. 10. origen upon Leviticus saith, that they had the fourth & sixth day of the week, wherein they solemnly fasted. Now to tie this, or the alteration from it, to be a case of religion, is a servitude of all servitudes, and a Babylonian bondage. The time of Lent I confess, is a very ancient custom, but so far from being found a point of faith and salvation, that the most approved ancient histories, Euseb. Hist. Eccles. 5.24. tell how diversely it was kept, one day, or two days, or seven days, and by some for twenty days, Socrat. Hist. Eccles. 5.21. and by some other for forty, by some coniunctim, by some divisim, some abstaining from this food, some from that, but that the Apostles left it (for so Socrates doth speak) to the liberty of the Church; nay to every man's mind and will. I would that our people understood this every where, that they might take things a●ight, civil orders to civil orders, and customs which were indifferent, for nothing else but indifferent, and not to put heaven and hell upon superstitious observances. True fasting is not of custom, but upon an especial purpose, by the good motion of the mind. 14 Yet these are not the only errors, in the fasts of the Church of Rome, but this may be added to them, that commonly they respect the external work alone. But the Apostle telleth us, 1. Tim. 4.8. that if there be nothing else, bodily exercise profiteth little. There must be a directing faith, and an understanding knowledge which must make all acceptable. The end why it is done, doth much make or mar the matter: if it be to humble the body, to work in it more obedience, so to practise spiritual things; if it be to testify true devotion, if to seek to abate the Lords fury, this showeth that all is right: but these other being for the most part ignorant, do think the thing barely done, to be a deserving work, & a meritorious action. And this thought being once received multiplieth evil on itself so far, that many in their superstition, do not fear to spill their body, that they may merit the more; and so macerate the flesh, that they make themselves unfit, Seneca de Ira lib. 3.9. Corpus attenuatum & infirmum incumbit anim●. to perform such Christian duties, as otherwise they might do. They procure diseases to themselves, and impotency by reason of sickness, whereby they make their body which is the house of their mind, to sink down on their soul, and to lad it over heavily. Then that mind, which with alacrity might many ways have served God, with impatiency peradventure, but assuredly with much grief, doth groan under the body. And so in steed of increasing, they diminish true devotion. Hierome as it is easy to be gathered, alludeth to this, when he saith, Hieronim. Epist. 10. Epist. secunda. that a little meat and a belly which is ever hungry, is preferred before fasting three days. And again: Do thou impose on thyself such a measure of fasting, as thou art able to bear. Let thy fasts be pure and chaste, and single and moderate, and not superstitious. And he addeth fully to that point, which I mentioned a little before, What doth it profit not to eat oil, and to seek out such troubles and difficulties of meats, carrots, pepper, nuts and dates, fine cakes and honey, and baked things? So Fulgentius giveth an item for fasting moderately, Pulgen●. Episto● 3. A temperature is in such sort to be added to our fasts, that neither saturity do stir up and provoke our body: nor immoderate abstinence weaken it. But some other of the ancient have not only dehorted it, but have perstringed it with right severe censures, and written against it. Athanas. de virginitate. As namely Athanasius, If thy enemy the Devil do suggest into thy mind great exercises of devotion, that thou mayest make thy body unprofitable and weak, do thou on the other side see that thy fasting have a measure. He reputeth it for no better than a temptation of the Devil, if it be excessive. Saint Basile speaketh to this matter, most sound and with much reason, Basil. de vera virginitate. I do not so beat down my body, that I wear it out with immoderate wounds, and make it unprofitable for service; but that is my only cause of chastising my body, that I may subdue it to service, and make it rightly obedient to his master. But he who bringeth his servant so under by hunger, that not only he is unprofitable for the ministry of his master, but is not sufficient for himself, what else doth he, then make himself a servant to his servant? For it must needs be that the body being unable to serve, and by infirmity waxing faint, his master must now serve him, while he must stand amazed about the curing of the infirmity of the other. So far Basile, who esteemeth the mind as the master, and the body as the servant, Unto these I will only add the judgement of Saint Bernard, Bernard. ad fratres de monte Dei. who uttereth a most godly and sober doctrine. Watchings, fastings and such like do not hinder, but help, if they be done with reason and discretion. Which things if by fault of indiscretion they be so done, that either by the spirit failing, or the body fainting, spiritual things be hindered, he who so doth, hath taken away from his body the effect of a good work, from the spirit a good affection, from his neighbour a good example, from God his honour: he is a sacrilegious person, and guilty of all these things toward God. Not that (according to the meaning of the Apostle) this seemeth unfit for a man, and be not decent and just, that the head should sometimes ache in the service of God, which hath ached oft before in the vanity of the world, or that the belly should be hungry even to croaping and roaring, Vsque ad rugitum. which hath been filled oftentimes even to vomiting; but a measure is to be used in all things. Affligendum non conterendum. The body is to be afflicted sometimes, but not to be quite worn out. See how gravely these learned fathers, inveigh against immoderate abstaining from necessary things▪ and give us to understand, that we may feed sparingly and moderately, and yet serve God too, although sometimes there be an abstinence from all meat to be required. 15 I do urge this doctrine so far, for some few who yet remain in our land here and there: but not for the common sort, who stay themselves enough from taking harm by abstaining. For a great part of men spend much of their time in gluttony and riot; and very few now fast, if it be not for want of meat. And herein our sensuality may be justly reproved, that whereas there is such occasion offered, to study for the turning away of God's judgements (which appear in sending famine and otherwise) and again when whatsoever is spared, may find good vent by poor men's bellies, yet we live not so temperately, as in reason we should. Surely the Almighty doth much threaten us, and therefore we should awake: and besides that, we enjoy many things, the continuance of whom is very well worth the begging, as especially the Gospel, and health and peace, and a lovely and gracious Prince: let us therefore not be so far wanting to ourselves, as to forget to pray that these may endure. And as here by the example of the Ninivites, there should in great cases be a great abstinence, so let every ma● ordinarily, so keep under his body, that it may be fit for all celestial and spiritual duties. And yet I do not think it convenient, for us who live in this country, to emulate and imitate the fasts of holy men in the Scriptures; I mean not, those of Moses and Elias, which were for forty days, and indeed were miraculous matters; but such as was that of the jews under Hester, Esth. 4.16. who did eat nothing nor drink water, for three days and three nights; or of some other Christians▪ who as Saint Austen mentioneth, August. de more ibus Ecclesiae Catholicae. did forbear in like sort, being both men and women. The difference of climates for heat and cold, maketh the stomach different, and that may be endured in hot countries, which in the cold cannot. Their inward heat is less, and therefore their appetite is not equal. Philosophers and Cosmographers do yield the reason of this, and why men eat more in the Northern countries, then in the Southern, and do digest it more readily. And experience doth so far witness this, that as Buchanan hath noted, Buchan. Hist. Scotiae li. 10. the French men do think that we of Brittany, that is Englishmen and Scots, are great devourers of flesh: so the Spaniards think of the French men; and the people of Africa do imagine so of the Spaniards. Then is it an unequal match, for us that are coldly situated, in comparison of them who live nearer the Tropic, to imitate them in fasting. And this consideration together with a remembrance, that amating and fear of death, do utterly quell the stomach, giveth much light to that place, Act. 27.33. where it is written, that Paul's company did abstain for so many days together, in the danger of a shipwreck. It is said that they continued fasting▪ and received nothing, which I understand to be meant, that they received nothing by any set and orderly meal, or they received nothing in comparison of their ordinary feeding. And so much I thought good to speak concerning fasting, being occasioned thereunto by the deed of the Ninivites, and the King's proclamation. This verse doth yield one thing more, that the cattle and beasts were enjoined here to the penance, which because it is offered again, in the next verse, I do defer it thereunto. In the mean time let us pray to God, that he will pardon us our negligence in our duty, and that he will stir up our spirits, partly by example here of these Ninivites, and partly by other in his word, to be fearful of his displeasure, and to be willing to serve him, that after the expiring of this life, we may live together with him, to whom with his blessed Son, and his most holy Spirit be glory for evermore. THE XXII. LECTURE. The chief points. 2. Some apparel showeth sorrow. 4. Reason's why beasts bore part in this humiliation. 8. How cattle may be said to cry to God. 9 The necessity and force of prayer. 12. Reformation of life must go with fasting and prayer. jonah. 3.8. But let man and beast put on sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea let every man turn from his evil way, and from the wickedness that is in their hands. I Have read this verse, as an imperative speech, but the Septuagint translate it, as an Indicative in the time past, that men and beasts did put on sackcloth, and cried mightily unto God. Wherein, as it may well be collected, they did not so much respect the original words in the Hebrew, as intended to make the deed of the Ninivites plain, who doubtless did repent, and performed that charge which their King did put upon them. But since the words and letter of the text are otherwise, as it is plain in the Prophet, and all other interpreters as far as I can find, do with one consent translate it as I read it; I think that they might well have forborn, to take on them the office of Expositors, or openers of the text at large, and kept themselves to the letter, allowing that to God's spirit, which is very familiar with it; that is to say, that oftentimes it should briefly insinuate things, and leave that by necessary circumstances to be understood, which yet it doth not openly specify in word. And the truth concerning this place now in hand is, that it is meant that we should take it, that the Ninivites repent: and so much is implied by such consequents, as afterwards follow: but this verse is a part of the King's Edict, wherein he enjoineth some thing more than a fast, which should pinch the belly, and commandeth sackcloth to be put on the back, as an external sign of sorrow, and then prayers to be powered out to the Lord, with vehement exclamation; and last of all, that there should be a conversion from iniquity and sin, that the cause of the wrath being once removed, vengeance itself might cease. I can never sufficiently commend the care of this mighty ruler, who left nothing unperformed, which might win God unto him. A man worthy to be eternised, in the memory of all ages. But my meaning is, that thos● things which he did, should rather commend him, than any praise of mine. You have heard some arguments of his goodness before, which I need not to repeat, but now there are offered to us three branches of his commandment. First, that men and beasts should wear sackcloth; Secondly, that there should be prayers. And thirdly▪ a full conversion, and departing from sin. These are the points which at this time I stand upon, the good Spirit of God assisting me. Let men and beasts put on sackcloth. 2 That sackcloth in times past was used for a sign of sorrow, I noted upon the sixth verse; and therefore if it should be taken here most literally, for itself and nothing else, it serveth fitly for our purpose, that is to import great sorrow. But if you list imagine, that every man in Ninive did not suit himself so suddenly, neither yet his cattle in such attire; then Metaphorically we may understand thereby, all sorrowing mourning weed, that is to say the basest apparel, and most sordid kind of vesture that the men could put on; and that the beasts were left rough, and uncombed, and undressed, and every way untrimmed in their kind. And that it may be so expounded, we have warrant from that place, where God saith of himself, I cloth the heavens with darkness, and make a sack their covering, which must needs be taken Tropically, for some ugly kind of appearance, and not for a material sack; for how doth that agree with the heaven? Then the beasts did want their ornaments, or were covered with some vile substance, and the men were rudely appareled, contrary to their custom: It is said by the wise man, Sirac●d. 19.28. that clothes are one of those things, which show what a man is. And indeed it is true; for so far as external things may witness of the inward, monstrous clothes show monstrous minds; & for the most part, sober apparel showeth a sober disposition. But in the course of every particular man's life, a difference in his garments noteth a difference in other matters. In solemn feasts, or when the mind is filled with joy & gladness, robes & dainty attire are put about the body: but when sorrow over-whelmeth & oppresseth the inward man, gayness is laid aside. Exod. 33.2.3.4. God being offended with the Israelites, telleth them that indeed they should go into the land of Canaan, but he himself would not go before them, as he had done in former times, but only would send his Angel. At this the people so grieved, because God would not go before them, that it is said, they sorrowed, and no man put on his best raiment. There is no greater outward token of heaviness, and dejection of the mind, then to go in very mournful clothing. 3 The great Monarch of Ninive meaning to purchase his peace, giveth commandment to his subjects, that laying aside their glorious and luxurious attire, they should be most meanly clothed, thinking thereby to strike a horror into the minds of his people. For when their eyes should take knowledge of that which they saw without, and as windows should let their receipts in to their understanding; and whereas things seen do move most▪ Visa movent maxim. and nature not perverted loveth cleanliness and decency, white garments and the head anointed: How could their heart choose but humble, and cast down itself within, to know that the limbs were compassed with most doleful apparel, and fine linen, and the best purple should be turned into rags, or course sackcloth, or haircloth? And when such as they did meet, should represent the like show, and so many witnesses of grief should be as so many spur●es unto groaning, it is very probable that a broken spirit and a contrite heart might grow from those visible things; and that of all other, is most acceptable to the lord Psal. 51.17. So the maker and governor of all things might take notice of their melting for their sin, and draw back his outstretched rod. He who pitied that evil King Achab, 1. Reg 21.27. who had sold himself over unto sin, when he once put sackcloth upon him, and fasted and went softly; he might right well spare the great city Ninive, when his eyes should as fully see their debasing of themselves, as his ears plainly receive the cries, which they sent up unto him. So the people by their mourning attire, might be bettered in works and conversation, and God's favour might be procured, when there was a witness both inwardly and outwardly of their repentance. Now as this is worth the knowing, concerning the reason of the changing of their clothes, so the doubt may not unfitly be moved, why the beasts are named here, as if they had offended; and why they should be so disguised? The reason is very manifest, wherefore it should be so with the men and women: they had grieved the Lord, by transgressions of all sorts, and therefore it was fit, that they should make amends. Yea the very little infants, and those who suck the breasts, as the Prophet joel speaketh, joel. 2.16. might well taste of the bitterness, as being slips of an evil root, cut out from a rotten rock, come from a polluted fountain: in the very propagation stained with original sin: But it is not so plain a matter, why the dumb beasts should fast, and b● barred of their food (for so it is in the former verse) or why they should be covered with sackcloth and mourning weed, who knew not what it is to offend. 4 But one reason might be, that the people might in those creatures see as in a glass, what was their own state. For when their ears should hear the bellowing of the oxen, the braying of the asses, the bleating of the sheep, the howling of the dogs, making piteous exclamation for want of food to their bellies; and their eyes also should see the outsides of them to be ugly and deformed, like that ground which lieth as overgrown, they might forthwith remember, that themselves had deserved to be pined, and starved to death, and to be deprived of all pleasures, and delights which they did enjoy, that from henceforth bearing on them many woes and lamentations, they might finally be over taken with unspeakable desolation. God made such use as this is, of the cattle in the old levitical sacrifices: for when he for whom they were offered, did see them to be slain, their blood to be let out, some of them to be burnt, all of them to be used with much violence, if not quartered and cut in pieces and mangled; he might presently be stricken at the heart, to think of his own deserts, that if he had his demerits, he should be martyred and mangled in his body here upon earth, and his soul should burn and fry in unquenchable flames of hell. It doth teach the Lion obedience, when he seeth that dog whom he loveth, and useth as his playfellow, to be cudgeled and beaten before him. And when for the young king's fault, the garment which he weareth should be beaten with many stripes, the Prince who had offended, might learn what his error was, conceiving himself blameworthy by that representation. The children of the Spartans might make this use, when they beheld the bondslaves of their fathers, lie tumbling in that filthiness, which drunkenness caused to them, as to think that they should be but loathsome beasts, if they proved to be drunkards. A sight so lively in their eyes, might be as a sharp spur in the consciences of the Ninivites, to deplore their own case, with a most careful contemplation of it, unless they were insensible & so obdurate in heart, as that no good thing could pierce them. Diodorus Siculus writeth, Diodor. Sicul. Antiq. lib. 4▪ 3. that in Ethiopia there is a people of that quality, that they are not at all moved with the speech of them who sail by them, or with the sight of strangers approaching to them, but only looking upon the earth, they use to stand unmovable, as if their senses took knowledge of no man. If any, saith he, should strike them with a drawn sword, they fly not, but bear the stripes and injuries: neither is any of them moved with the wound, or hurt of another, but oftentimes without any kind of passion, they behold their wives and children slain, showing no manner of token, of anger or of pity. An insensible sort of people, if there should be any such, which in truth I believe not: but these Ninivites should have been like to them, if when they had beheld horror and grief, and weeping, and out-skreeking, in every thing attending them, they would not be moved to think, that their part was in the bargain. And if it were so with that which wanted wit and reason, and knowledge to do evil things, how then should it stand with themselves, who had all these and abused them? Then the cattle served in such manner, might be an instruction this way to their masters. 5 Secondly, by the laws of the grand Creator, there is such affinity between man, and the beasts which are subjecteth to his use, that the sorrows of the better do easily touch the worse. For God hath so coupled all creatures to mankind, with a chain of strong dependence, that the being of them is much suitable to the flourishing, or fading of the other. It is a very mystical point, which Saint Paul hath in the eight to the Romans, Roman. 8.21. that the creature shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption, into the glorious liberty of the sons of God, 22. And that the creature groaneth and traveleth in pain with us; yet if we well weigh it, that text shall argue thus much unto us, that the heaven and earth and the other elements (for I may not amiss name the heavens, because Saint Peter telleth us, 2. Pet 3.7. that they shall melt with heat) by the fall of our first parents, fell into grievous bondage, even sinking in their excellency, when man did sink, to whose service next after God they were made. And when in the day of judgement, there shall be a renewing and restoring of that image of God, wherein man was first framed, then shall they return to that beauty, wherein they at first were established, so retaining still their substance, howsoever they may melt in the fire like gold, losing their dross and corruption. If then these mighty masses, the heaven and earth and the elements, have such a reference unto man, as being made to grace him; the earth for him to walk on, the air for him to breath on, the water for him to feed on, the heaven for him to look on, the Sun to give him light, every thing to yield him comfort, and when he standeth they stand, and when he falleth they fall, and when he is new moulded, they also shall be recovered; may we not much more imagine, that sheep, and oxen, and cattle, yea and all the beasts of the field, Hieron. contra lovinianum. lib. 2. Ad esum aut ad usum. which as Hierome noteth, were made for our using, or for our eating, are tied and chained unto us, with a straighter bond of analogy or proportion, that as we fare, so in reason they should do, either well or ill? It is truth, that man hath not that sovereignty in all degrees, which he had: Chrys. lib. de Virginitate. that is one part of his punishment: for as chrysostom doth observe, God hath taken away from man, a great portion of his power; for he who at the beginning was made a fearful Lord, and master over living bodies, when like an ungrateful servant he had offended a higher Lord, was brought into contempt of those, who were placed to be his servants. Pererius in Genes. lib. 4. ex Hugone de Sancto Victo●e. And thereupon (as it is by one noted) many creatures are grown in their behaviour toward him, as undisciplinated things; but most of all, the greatest and the least; Lions, Tigers and Panthers (to say nothing of the whale fishes) are very hardly brought to be tame, but bees and gnats, and flies, and such little ones, not at all. Thus man's dominion is scanted, and drawn into a narrow room. 6 But these creatures are not so quitted, but although they do less to man, yet with man they suffer more. For together with him, who now is but as a young master, or a kind of quartermaster to them, they stand both generally, and particularly, in deep disgrace. They which otherwise would have taken pleasure to do the will of their master, must now with blows and stripes oftentimes be forced unto it. They which should only have been used to good, and to the glory of their maker, by his fault who hath fallen, are now applied to evil; yea they be not in that esteem with him, who first created them. As in earthly kingdoms when a Nobleman, who hath received many favours and material benefits from his Prince, doth requite him who advanced and honoured him before, with treason and rebellion, than not only his own person (which lieth subject to the law) doth under-go the displeasure of his offended Sovereign, but every man about him, feeleth the smart of that rod, yea every thing that was his; his family is frowned on, his followers are held suspect, those which were preferred by him, are turned out of their livelihood and maintenance; and moreover his houses which were glorious before, are let run to decay, their stateliness soon droopeth, their beauty mouldreth away, his gardens and his orchards are overgrown with uncouthness, his fishponds and other pleasures lie disorderly and neglected; yea if there were any tame thing wherein he did delight, for lack of being handled, it groweth wild and untamed: So when Adam in Paradise, being in the highest degree of honour, proved a traitor to his God, to whom he was beholding even for his very self, the earthly house where he dwelled, grew out of fashion to him, his pleasurable profits were turned to briars and thistles, the arms of his nobility were utterly defaced; Psal. 8.6.7. but those who were his servants, to attend and wait upon him, especially all domestical kinds of cattle, partaking the reproach which lay upon their master, are subjecteth to much misery. And as in civil affairs, the restoring again of blood, and calling back into favour, putteth life into all the adiacents, and dependents of whom I spoke before, and maketh them resume some courage; yea the hope of such a matter doth a little cheer their spirit, but the greater the hope is, the greater is their alacrity; and yet as he still is dejected, so still again they fall: Even so without doubt, all regaining of good aspect from the Highest, doth refresh these inferior bodies, as sometimes appeareth, when in noted prosperity of the owner, the cattle fare the better; but while man doth stand disgraced, they must expect the like fortune; and if extraordinarily at any time he do smart, they must also look for some unusual kind of sorrow. Then when this strange fear and heaviness, possessed the minds of the Ninivites, the horses and beasts of Ninive by partaking that misery, which belonged to their masters, might be taught to be affected with some measure of that sorrow, as knowing that some evil was now lighting upon them. 7 This matter will grow plainer, if this also be considered, that the cattle many times do actually feel shrewd pains, together with their owners. When destructions happen unto places, all things abiding in those places, have their share in the misery. When a town of war is assaulted, do not the houses oft taste of the enemy's battery, and are not those razed or fired, together with the desolation of the walls? Are not the trees of pleasure near adjoining very often cut down? Yea are not the horses wounded, and perhaps slain in the fight? or other cattle burnt in the stall? Is not that proverb experimented diverse times in this case, Love the master, love his dog, hate the master, 1. Sam. 15.3. hate his dog? When Saul was sent to destroy Amalek, was there not a strong charge laid upon him, to kill the sheep and the oxen, and every living thing? And if God send forth a pestilence, come there not as well rots of cattle, and great murrens of beasts, as mortalities of men? But if there should be some earthquake, which either should cast down the houses, and crush that which were under them, or should force the ground to open, so to swallow up that where withal it meeteth, how could the dumb creatures hence escape? When therefore it was foretold, that within forty days, desolation should betide the city Ninive, and mention was not made in what particular sort it should come, the inhabitants could not tell, but that the beasts in their place, had as much need to cry, as those who were their owners. Add to these, that some living things whom use hath made domestical, are not so devoid of feeling, but that sensibly they perceive the joy, or discontentedness of those which are their keepers, and oftentimes are affected with some things like to man. Birds have their dumps and their notes, and take knowledge in general, when they hear the voice of music. Using to the hand, doth make the horse, and dog and calf, to play and be wanton, and to express some signs of joy. And I think that I do not abuse the word, to say, that some of them in some things, have a kind of fellow-felling with us. Now there is nothing, which doth more teach this, then by giving or denying them food for their bellies, which was done among the Ninivites, while the fast continued. For as the ox doth know his owner, Isay. 1.3. so the Ass doth take notice of his masters crib: although he be dull, yet his sense can serve him, to observe those things which make for the filling of his paunch. And if this be moreover true, that those beasts do take delight in their furniture and ornaments, and the proud neighing horse, job. 39.22. as we may gather from the words of job, knoweth when he goeth to the battle: if he think himself the braver, for his saddles and comparisons, or bells or plumes of feathers, which be about him; then by a reason drawn from the contrary, there may be in them a perceiving, what it is to be spread with vile things, and so it might be a discouragement, to be clothed with sackcloth. So we see by this time, that it was not without reason, when by the proclamation of the king, the beasts had their part, as well as the men; that either as a glass set before them, they might move them to think of themselves, by seeing the creatures, whose affliction could not choose but touch them, since they are given to men for helps: Or because by the providence of God, they are pinned to the suffering of man; in ordinary disgraces to be disgraced with him, and in sorrows extraordinary, to have their part in like manner. If I had not already been overlong in this point, I might join this also, to that which hath been said before, that it is the more reasonable, that the dumb creatures should feel some portion of the pains for sin, because they oftentimes are apparent means, and helps and instruments, for men to sin withal, as might largely be amplified. But no more of that matter. 8 I observed in the second place, that next to the sackcloth imposed on the men and beasts, it was enjoined by the King, that both the one and the other, should cry mightily to God. Then the next help which they had, was prayer and invocation. I mean not much to dispute, whether the cattle may be said to cry to God. We may hold it for an undoubted truth, that there be no such meditations, and reasonable discourses in them, as are fit to be in one of us, when we are praying: they have no such understanding: and yet the Lord, who in his providence doth take care over hairs and sparrows, Luc. 12.6.7. respecteth all their cries, and taketh many of those cries, as a kind of calling on him. We need not fear to speak that, which the Spirit of God hath spoken. In the hundredth forty and seventh Psalm, Psal. 147.9. our common translation hath, he feedeth the young ravens that call upon him: the letter in the Original goeth not so far, but he feedeth the young ravens who do cry or croape, not mentioning that they call upon God. But if we will supply it, from the nine and thirtieth of job, we may perfect it up to this purpose: for there the Lord himself speaketh thus: Who prepareth for the raven his meat, job. 39.3. when his birds cry unto God, wandering for lack of meat? He who heareth the cry of the ravens, heareth the cry of other things; and he who reputeth their croaping, a calling upon himself, may do so in other creatures. Then it offendeth him not, when together with the outcries of the men, and the howl of the women, and the schreeking of the children, the bellowing of the oxen, and the bleating of the sheep was heard: nay without doubt it was the more gracious in the ears of the Lord of hosts. For as when men do sing, it maketh the more perfect music, to join to their lively voices, the sound of diverse instruments, which are dead matters without life or feeling, so it helped the heavenly harmony of these calling and praying Ninivites, to have the outcries of the cattle mixed with them; and God did hold this variety, to be the more perfect a consort. So that the place beareth it not amiss, that both the men and the beasts cried mightily upon God. But if there should be any man, more scrupulous than need is, he may take this to be spoken by the figure Synecdoche, which applieth unto both, that which is meant of one only: and the whole (by that means) hath that adjunct, which is proper but to a part. And then it may be understood, that the dumb creatures had their portion in the sackcloth and the fast, but the men only did pray. But be it either the one way or the other, it yieldeth this lesson to us, for the instruction of our duty, that when danger is threatened, and there is fear or feeling of any direful thing upon us, among other our preparations, or above other if you will, we should break into open prayer, and jointly deplore our sins, and so call to God for mercy. For if any thing in such cases will serve the turn, it is faithful invocation, which is better than all burnt sacrifice. Surely the King of Niniveh took the rightest course that may be; and whether it were that he were taught, and informed by the light of nature, or the teaching of any other, or by secret revelation from the spirit of the Eternal, certainly he was in the right pathway, to purchase grace with God, when both himself and all his people, as humble suppliants did lift up their voice in prayer. 9 For very great is the reckoning which God doth make of prayer: he commandeth it, and expecteth it, and rewardeth it in his Saints. Psal. 50.15. Call on me in the day of trouble, and I will hear thee. Psal. 145.18. And in another Psalm, The Lord is nigh to all that call upon him, yea all such as call upon him faithfully. So our Saviour Christ biddeth, Matth. 7.7. Ask and you shall receive: knock and it shall be opened to you. Those many good things which were granted to Moses, to josuah, to Samuel, to David and Solomon, jacob. 5.17. confirm this plainly to us. Elias bound up heaven by a request to the Lord, and had rain again for ask. 2. Reg. 19 15. How but by prayer, did Ezechias turn the evil thought of Sennacherib away for his land and people? How was Peter brought out of prison, Act. 12.5. but by the cries of the Congregation? Euseb. de vita Constantini. lib. 1.11. Lib. 4.14. By this the good Constantius was said, to strengthen his family: but Constantine the Great, his son, did hereby fortify all his Empire. This is the sword and the shield, to which we all should fly, when the enemy doth invade us: and to this we should retire ourselves, when famine doth pinch our bellies, when we are in sickness or sorrow, in bondage or in banishment. This is it which flieth to the heavens, and is not kept back by the clouds, nor terrified with the height, nor frighted with the frowns of justice. But especially in our combats with our spiritual foes, we are to run to this, as to a most safe sanctuary, and to desire him who is the conquering Lion of the tribe of juda, to assist us and uphold us. Let not Satan on the one side be so fierce upon us, as we on the other side be earnest upon the Lord: if he urge us with sin, let us cry out for grace: if he talk to us of justice, let us beg the more for mercy. And when the trembling conscience, shall thus by request have recourse unto him who can help, it doth not return dismayed, but as being spoken to by God, cometh back with assured comfort. In the presence of Christ saith Saint Syprian, Cyprian. de Caena Domini. tears which are never held superfluous do beg a pardon for us, neither ever doth the sacrifice of a contrite heart take repulse. As often as I see thee groaning in the sight of the Lord, so often I do not doubt but the holy Ghost breatheth on thee: When I see thee weeping, I imagine him to be pardoning. So gracious and so pitiful is our good father to us. We may then account it as one of our sins, that when inward and outward sorrows, oftentimes do lay hold upon us, we do not use this remedy. We go on like unsensible men, as frantic ones being most sick, and yet we understand it not. And if we find that we need help, we lest of all require it by prayer; and he who should first be thought of, that is God the judge of all, doth come last in the reckoning. The Ninivites must all cry, and they must cry to the Lord, and nothing else, not to idols, not to Angels, not to Saints, or any creatures: but I handled that argument once already, upon some words of the second Chapter, jonah. 2.1. that jonas prayed to the Lord, and therefore I do now leave it. 10 And yet I must not here omit one circumstance of prayer, that they are bid cry might●lie, strongly, aloud, or earnestly: not that God doth rather hear, when the most noise is made: for he is not like Baal, 1. Reg. 18.27. who must be awaked with loud crying, but he knoweth the heart and reins, and searcheth the very thoughts. That is truly found to be so in the Lord, Tertullian. de Oratione which Tertullian reporteth of the Devil (or spirit of the Oracle of Apollo) that he assumeth thus much to himself; I both underst and ●he dumb, and hear him who speaketh not. God could say to Moses, Exod. 14.15 why criest thou unto me, and yet he spoke never a word: but within he sighed and groaned, and was troubled in his spirit. Then it is not for any weakness in the Lord, that man should cry aloud, but to signify that when we desire to obtain, our prayers should be vehement and with motion, not only formal or perfunctory, or cold, or drowsy and sleepy. But the usual prayers of the most men in our time are such; without touch what themselves do ask, and therefore it is no marvel, that they are heard so few times. It is a right good precept, and also a just reprehension to the people of his time, which Saint Cyprian doth use, and it may well be applied to our age, wherein the minds of many in the time of their devotions are upon pleasure, or profit, or some other such earthly thing: Thus he speaketh: Cyprian. de oratione Do nanica. Let all earthly and secular and carnal thoughts depart, neither let the mind then think on any thing, but only that for which it prayeth. What sluggishness is it to be estranged and taken with unfit thoughts and profane ones, when thou prayest to the Lord, as if there were anything else whereupon thou shouldest rather think, then that thou art speaking with God. How dost thou require that thou mayest be heard of God, when thou dost not hear thyself? This is to be awake with the eyes, and to be asleep with the heart, whereas a Christian man should then be awake with his heart, when he sleepeth with his eyes. Here that we may testify our zeal, and withal prevent this drowsiness, it is not amiss when we find ourselves to be heavy, that we do such things, as may be in place of whetstones to sharpen us; as to bend our knees, to cast up our eyes, to lift our hands to heaven, to beat our breasts, or the like, yea also with contention of spirit, and extension of voice, if time and place serve, to relieve our own infirmity. But this in sincerity as before God, and without feigned hypocrisy, which is a double wickedness. 11 There may also be a second use of this praying aloud, Seneca a heathen man, Senec E. p. 10 and yet as if seemeth religious in his Ethnic superstition, doth complain in this manner: What a madness is this in men? They do whisper unto their God's most filled high requests: and if a man do hearken unto them, they will bold their peace, and what they would not have a man know, that they tell to God. This custom hath prevailed among Christians, that lewd men will not fear to ask lewd things in their prayers, the wanton to speed in his wantonness, the deceiver in his bargains, the oppressor in his oppressions. Loud crying doth meet with this, for although we dread not God, yet we stand in fear of men. The Pythagoreans in old time did observe this well enough, of whom Clemens Alexandrinus doth write thus: What do the Pythagoreans mean, Clemens Alexandrinus. Strom. lib. 4. when they bid men cry aloud? Not as I think that they imagined, that God would not hear such as speak secretly: but because they would have the prayers of men just, which they should not fear to utter, yea although men did know it. It is certainly a preposterous course, more to respect men who stand by, than the Lord before whom they stand: but since the folly of men is such, it is to be met with in his kind. Macrob. Saturn. li. 1.7. He alluded well to this, who although he spoke not of loud crying, yet gave counsel that we should so speak to men, as if God did always hear us (that is, our talk should be with sobriety and wisdom) and so speak to God, as if men did ever hear us, that is, reverently and religiously. Now as this doth teach us something, so I am rather of that mind for the king of Ninive, that he commanded his by Proclamation, to cry stongly upon God, that by their importunity and vehement exclamation, the Lord might be more moved to take mercy upon them. When the hear of the heart within shall break forth into the tongue, it is so much the more forcible. Let them turn from their evil way. 12 There is yet a third thing to be found in this Proclamation, that besides fasting and prayer, there should be a reformation in manners and life. Let every man turn from his evil way, and from the wickedness that is in their hands. That which our English readeth wickedness, is by other most fitly translated violence, or robbery, or rapine, but Hierome and the Septuagint have iniquity, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Where one kind of sin is put in the place of all the rest: that one sin for all his fellows, either because that fault did much abound in Ninive, I mean rapine and oppression toward those who were their subjects, or toward the poor among them: or because in general, all men who know not the Lord, are soon taken in that crime, as from some words of Saint Paul may not unfitly be gathered; where after that he hath exhorted them, 1. Thes. 4.4.5.6 to possess their vessels in holiness, & not in the lust of concupiscence, as the Gentiles who know not God, he doth name this as a special fruit of their not knowing God, dehorting them from it, that no man oppress, or deceive his brother in any thing. But to leave this particular, the doctrine is, that every man who will turn to the Lord, must hate evil and fly wickedness, because the Lord requireth that, as a certain sign of repentance. When Solomon consecrating the Temple made his prayer, 1 Reg. 8.35. he speaketh to God on this manner: When the heaven shall be shut up, and there shall be no rain, because they have sinned against thee, and they shall pray in this place and shall confess thy name, and turn from their sin, when thou dost afflict them, then hear thou in heaven. The condition is put in, that they must turn from their sin. jerem. 4.1. So in the Prophet jeremy: O Israel if thou return, return to me saith the Lord, and if thou put away thine abominations out of my sight, then shalt thou not remove. Matth 3.2. cap. 4.17. It was the preaching of john the Baptist, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, repent, be wiser, change your minds, or amend, and alter you lives, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. So the Apostle Peter, Amend your lives and return, Act. 3.19. that your sins may be put away. And this putting off of sin; this laying away of the old man, is that which maketh us apt to walk the ways of the Lord. For doing so we are expedite and nimble to tread his paths, to do as he doth command us, to go whither he biddeth us. But the pack of sin is so heavy, that we cannot choose but double under it, and sink and fall. Then why do we not make haste to be freed from this burden? Augustin. Tract. 11. in johan. If men, as Saint Austen speaketh, should bear any heavy load of wood, or stone, or the like, yea if it were something gainful, of wine, or corn, or money, they would hasten to put that off. But they bear a greater load of sin, and make no speed to be freed from it. But the retaining of this so long, doth in the end so tyre out the conscience, that it fainteth under the burden, as appeareth too often when in sickness & otherwise, the minds of some are so distracted, that they tremble & dread much, lest it be too late to cry for mercy. They have given way to malice, and have heaped evil upon evil, and are so incorporated into it, that they cannot in themselves see any way of separation. Yet let not such men despair, for God's mercy is infinite, and if a sentence were gone out against such, yet as Saint Ambrose writeth, Ambros. in Lucam. lib. 2. cap. 2. in his Commentary on Saint Luke, God knoweth how to change his sentence, if thou know how to amemd thy fault. But the fault at last must be amended, and the former offences unlearned and forgotten: else it is no good repentance. For he alone doth show himself worthily penitent, Gratian. par. 2. de Paenitentia. Dist. 3. E. Smarag. who so deploreth evils passed, that he doth ●not again commit the same afterward; for he who bewaileth sin, and afterward committeth that sin, is as if he were washed a raw or undried brick, where the more he rubbeth it in washing, the more dirt he doth make. Whosoever then cometh to God, who is a God of pure eyes, Habac. 1.13. must know that it is his will, that first he depart from evil. 13 And if this be not done, than all external works are but hypocritical shows: thy prayer is but hypocrisy, for thou faiest to God, thy will be done, and yet thou dost thine own. Thy sackcloth is but a cover of a counterfeit and deceiver. Without a whited sepulchre, Matth. 23.27. within full of dead men's bones. Thy speaking of good things, or condemning that which is evil, is but to condemn thyself, who in word dost renounce it, and yet in deed dost embrace it. Corn. Tacitus Histor. lib. 3. Tacitus reporteth, that in the civil war between Vitellius and Vespasian, a soldier had killed his own father, who was of and in his enemy's army. This was bruited about the host, and every man complained, and execrated that war, which caused such unnaturalness. And yet saith Tacitus, they never the less, nor slower, spoiled their neighbours, and kinsmen, and brethren, who were slain by them, they cried that nought was done, and yet themselves still did it. This is thy case, who speakest against sin, and yet every day committest it. Thy fasting and thy abstaining, is so far from being acceptable in the eyes of the most High, that it is exceeding odious. For as here the King of Ninive did join virtue with his abstinence, and a turning away from wickedness with his fast, so God doth still expect, that it should be done in all fasts. The mind must forbear malice, and injury, and oppression, as well as the belly doth meat. See how plainly God speaketh to this purpose, Isay. 58.4. You fast to strife and debate, and to strike with the fist of wickedness. Is this the fast which I have chosen, that a man should afflict his soul for a day, and bow down his head like a bulrush, and lie in sackcloth and ashes? wilt thou call this a fasting, and an acceptable day to the Lord? Is not this the fasting which I have chosen, to lose the bands of wickedness, to take off the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that wander unto thy house, when thou seest the naked that thou cover him? Then it is the leaving of sin, which the Lord doth more respect, than the emptiness of the belly. And of this the holy Saints of God have always thought: Ambros. Serm. 33. As Ambrose: This is the will of the Lord, that we should fast together from meats and from sins. Let us impose an abstinence on our bodies, that we may the more estrange our souls from vices. For the body when it is sucked dry, is a bridle to the luxuriant soul. And origen: Orig. Homil. 10. in Leviticum. Gregor. in 40. Homil. 16. Fast from all sin, do thou take no meat of malice, neither any delights of pleasure. And Gregory: To sanctify a fast is, when other good things are adjoined, to show an abstinence of the flesh worthy of God. Let anger cease, let chide be laid asleep, for the flesh is in vain tired out, if the mind be not refrained from his naughty pleasures. 14 I wish that such of our people, as yet have familiarity with that filthy harlot of Babylon, would think upon this matter, that it is not only ceremony, or bare performing of outward things, which doth appease the Lord when he is offended, no not if it be to macerate and pine the body to death, unless a sincere faith do purify all within, and an honest conversation do make all clear without. It must be a lively conversion, which God taketh for payment of us. And we who profess religion, may hold this for an assured ground, that our faith is but a dead faith, unless it shine by love: that all our speaking and seeming, is fraudulent and deceitful, if our life be not joined to it. Our repayting to the Church, and professing of strict holiness, will be rejected as too light, if we either oppress our neighbour, or grind the face of the poor, or scratch we care not what, be it never so unlawful, or lead lives polluted, with whoredom and adultery. If we make ourselves rich with usury or bribery, if we cirumvent men in bargaining, if we profane the Sabaoth, or despise the ministery, we frustrate that which we do pretend. And the very King of Ninive, who could learn with little teaching, that amendment of life was the truest devotion, and that as a most necessary clause, must be joined with all ceremonies, shall in the judgement condemn us, who after the hearing of many years, use to bring but halfe-repentance, and would willingly be the Lords, but we would be this worlds also. And so wishing, that this doctrine of amendment, may evermore be remembered by us, I leave you to Christ jesus, who multiply all good graces in us to the end, and bring us to his father, to whom with himself and his Spirit, the Unity in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity be glory for evermore. THE XXIII. LECTURE. The chief points. 1. It is not defined whether the faith of the Ninivites were only temporal. 3. 6. Sin is not to be thought of lightly. 5. The force of conscience in the guilt of sin. 7. Faith hopeth when there is little likelihood. 8. We are to trust on God's mercy. 9 God respecteth repentance. 10. Works must follow faith. 12. How the Lord is said to repent. 14. His threatenings are conditional. 15. How Ninive may be said to be destroyed. 16. Comfort to us. jonah. 3.9.10. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce wrath, that we perish not? And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil ways, and God repent of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them, and he did it not. THe broken melting heart, and contrite spirit of the king of Ninive, hath been signified unto you, in the words before going; how as a good Prince he giveth his people a religious example, and first by his deed coming off from his throne, and putting sackcloth on him; and afterward by his word, and commanding Proclamation, he stirreth his people up, to a rare humiliation. Here it might be discussed, of what sort their faith was, by which they apprehended the fear of the Lord, and how far their repentance went; either to be a permanent and justifying faith, a faith saving eternally, which could not be in them, but by hearing of Christ jesus, the redeeming Messias- (for among men there is no name given under heaven, Act. 4.12. whereby we must be saved, but that name of Christ) or whether their believing, was a temporary assent to that which they heard (and unto nothing else) of the destruction of their city, which might strike a mighty horror into their mind for a time, as the preaching of Elias did to that wicked King Ahab, 1. Reg. 21.29. when he humbled himself and fasted; yet they might relent afterward, and return to their vomit, alured by the world, or inveigled by such lusts, as were usual in former time. Howsoever it was; if you allow it to the least, but a short and particular faith, it teacheth us thus much, that if they in ●heir ignorance arose to so high a measure, than we in so much knowledge, should arise to much more, and so their example is not to us in vain. But for the main point, since the Spirit of God is silent therein, and doth not directly in any place determine it, for aught that I find, and the reasons which the interpreters do draw by consequent, concerning this faith of the Ninivites are such▪ as conclude not substantially without doubting, I pass over that question, and rather come to that, which literally and apparently, even at the first sight, the narration of the Prophet doth offer unto me. 2 Then, in the tenth verse, followeth Gods accepting of their sorrow, and how mightily their dejection, and debasing of themselves in sackcloth and ashes, with fasting and lamentation, wrought effectually with the Highest, to diminish his displeasure, yea to remove his wrath. But because the closing, and shutting up of that serious Proclamation in the ninth verse, doth intimate some opinion (although it be with a fearful mammering) of some such thing as might be, that the Lord might be appeased, although that were not very likely, in the eyes of flesh and blood, that must not be slipped over, but taken in the way. For thereby it shall appear, that sin is very horrible to the conscience of the sinner, conceiving the guiltiness thereof, that it may well make a trembling, and shaking and dread, a suspicion that God will not be moved to mercy, and yet this distrust doth not so kill the mind, but if faith be underneath, it will presume the contrary, be it never so weakly. It doth not resolve for, neither yet define against. On these terms, in these words, standeth the great King of Ninive. But that which was to him uncertain and unresolved, is determined by God, and he spareth indeed. Now that the doctrine may be orderly deduced from these roots, for our better instruction, we may divide the words, as the verses are divided, into these two general heads. First, the doubt of the King, Who knoweth if God will turn, and then the Lords resolution, And God saw their works, and repent of the evil. The first part doth touch the prisoner, who standeth upon his trial; the second, the judge, who is to give the sentence. Of both these as God's Spirit, shall at this time enable me. The doubt of the King. 3 He doth not speak here confidently, Surely God will return, and take mercy upon us, but he useth a word of more extenuation, as supposing that it was not very likely to be done. For even in the strongest faith, when such a phrase is uttered as I doubt, or peradventure, or it may be, or who knoweth, it importeth that men conceive much difficulty and hardness, in bringing that about which is in question. Caleb maketh request, josuah. 14.12. that the mountain wherein the Anakims, and great Giants did dwell, might be assigned him for his portion, If saith he the Lord will be with me to expel them, as the Lord himself hath spoken. He believed that he should compass it, but that if intendeth much difficulty, in the reason of man. And so did that of jonathas, when he speaketh thus to his armour bearer, 1. Sam. 14.6. Let us go up against the Philistines, It may be or peradventure the Lord will work with us. Act. 8.22. That saying of Peter unto Simon Magus, Repent of this thy wickedness, and pray unto God, if perhaps the thought of thy heart may be forgiven unto thee, doth note much more hardness: because as it should seem, the Apostle did much fear it; so rotten was Simon at the root. But as a mean between these, and most resembling my text, is that of joel, where after a denouncing of very horrible judgements, the Prophet exhorting to repentance, joel. 2.14. doth add, Who can tell if he will turn, and repent and leave a blessing? as if he had said, it may be that God may do this, although it be much unlikely, and it may be much despaired of; our sins are so plentiful, and his wrath is so furious. In the first book of Samuel, when the people of the Philistines were stricken with the Emerods', they asked counsel of their Soothsayers, how this plague might be stayed. 1. Sam. 6.5. They enjoined that some solemnities should be used to the Ark, which was now to be sent away, and thus they speak (as it is nearest to the Hebrew) Peradventure God will lift his hand from you. Gregory writing on that place, Gregor▪ in 1. Sam. 6. doth draw this doctrine from those words: When they say peradventure God may stay his hand from you, what else can be taken in this word of doubting, but that the reconciling of men who are grievous sinners, is showed to be difficult, as saith he, doth appear in the third Chapter of jonas, Who knoweth if God will turn? Then by the judgement of Gregory, it is noted in this place, that the reconciling of the Ninivites to the Lord, was a matter of much hardness. 4 Then in the heart of this heathen man, it is firmly imprinted, by that little light which he had received, that sin in the justice of some supreme power, doth deserve a punishment: that the greater the sin is, the more it doth provoke: that if by obstinacy and impiety, it be unmeasurable, it will scant be remitted. And this is a common opinion in all the world, that impiety is horrible, and may well be wondered at, for those punishments which it draweth upon men. jonah. 1.7. The mariners who were in the ship with jonas, seeing the tempest to grow terrible, and much beyond ordinary, conceived by and by, that sin was at one end of it, and drew down that severity. The people in the Island Melite (which we now a days call Malta) did miss in their particular, Act. 28.4. when they took Paul for a murderer: but their general guess was good, that vengeance doth follow intolerable transgressions. That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there spoken of, being the supposed Goddess of judgements, and punisher of guilty persons, as also that Nemesis which the Ethnics, and their Poets did hold, for an unavoidable revenger of evil men, appointed to be so by their jupiter, doth witness that every where was a settled opinion, that crimes lewdly done, would not lightly be passed over. And herein the wisdom of the Almighty Lord, is very highly to be admired, that whereas he hath not given down any law written in books, yet by the finger of his power, he hath written it in men's hearts, that there is a good and an evil: lawful things and unlawful: that their wise men should teach, that the observing eye of some superior judge, was ever at hand to look on the deeds of men, and at one time or another, to make them smart for committing of evil. That their lawgivers should forbid that, which God himself forbiddeth, and should punish that in their people, which the Lord doth punish in his own. The Scythians to condemn theft, justin. lib. 2. Dion. Halicarnas. lib. 2. Herodot. in Euterpe. the Romans adultery, the Egyptians idleness. That among them should be required a strictness of life, a performing of ceremonies, an offering of sacrifices, a consulting of Oracles, a frequenting of Temples, and a reverence to such who did perform those things, as in Rome a high opinion was had of Scipio, when he omitted not a day, Livius lib. 26. but that he went to the Capitol to perform his devotions. 5 But as I take it, the wisdom of the Lord in declaring to the ignorant how far he hateth evil, doth appear more fully in nothing, then by putting into men, a conscience within, which should accuse and condemn the most hard hearted sinner: which so often as by maliciousness great mischiefs are done, should represent the sin unto the inward thought, with terrible suggestions of vengeance to follow, and should give no rest to the disquieted sinner. Among ignorant men, there is no one token which enforceth like this token, that ungodliness is loathsome, and odious in itself, and beareth a sting with it. And this hath so far been known to haunt the offenders, and torture them within, that Tragedians on their stages, have oftentimes represented those passions, by furies of hell fearfully tormenting some, Tul. Oratio. pro S. Roscio Amerino. which thing Tully doth truly interpret, of the conscience of the transgressing sinner, which doth use to discruciate the person affected, in unspeakable manner. Now what is it, that the conscience being in this case, doth give warning of? Even that at the least it is unlikely; but many times that it is impossible that they should be remitted. Genes 4.11. Matth. 27 4. And hereof, in the Scriptures, Cain and judas are eminent examples, who had an opinion, that they had faulted so far, that they could not be pardoned. The biting remorse of heinous offences, doth gnaw, and gnaw through. The persecutors of others have tasted of this cup, and smarted with this rod. Philo. jud. in Flaccum. Philo judaeus writing against Flaccus, telleth that the same lewd man, played all the parts of cruelty, which he could devise against the jews, for their religion sake; but afterward when the doom of Caligula fell upon him, and he was banished into Andros, an Island near Greece, he was so tormented with the memory of his bloody iniquities, and a fear of suffering for them, that if he saw any man, walking softly near to him, he would say to himself, This man is devising to work my destruction. If he saw any go hastily; Sure it is not for nothing: he maketh speed to kill me. If any man sp●ke him fair, he suspected that he would cousin him, and sought to entrap him. If any talked roughly to him, than he thought that he contemned him. If meat were given him in any plentiful sort, this is but to fat me, as a sheep or an ox is fed, to be slaughtered. Thus his sin did lie upon him, and ever remember him, that some vengeance was to follow, from God, or men, or both. In our time such measure hath been measured to murderers: their thoughts have been so troublesome after their wickedness done, that they have no more rested, then if continually and uncessantly, they had been pursued with legions of evil spirits. The ages which are passed have had their examples in this kind. When Theodorike sometimes King of the Goths, Procop. lib. 1. de bello Gothico. had unjustly and tyrannously slain Symmachus and Boëtius, two Noble men of Rome, the cruelty of that deed, and guilt of that foul trespass, did so boil in his heart, that when once at his table, among other meat a fishes head was set, he conceived it to be the very head of Symmachus, the eyes to be his eyes, the teeth to grin upon him, and falling into a fright, and stiff coldness withal, he lieth him down, as a ●an much distracted, and dieth. So heavy a burden is sin in the heart, which depresseth and crusheth down, without recovery if it be not helped with some better persuasion, sent immediately from God. There may in a natural man, be a struggling and wrestling against such motions: but his heart and conscience are greater than himself, and will put him in mind, that terrible desolation remaineth for him, who hath sinned presumptuously, or wilfully, and of purpose, and that he is not very likely to be quitted from such crimes. This knowing of monstrous iniquities in Ninive, doth make the king thereof, as one who was amated and distracted, to hope but doubtfully, and fearfully, for reconcilement between God and his soul, between the Lord and his people. 6 And if he had reason for this, because of the heaviness of that sin, which even by the light of nature, and assent of his own heart, he might fear would be punished, we may make this use thereof, that boldly and audaciously we dive not into wickedness, and plunging into the depth, do not tumble in the suds of it, and wallow in the sink, lest when we would be glad to come forth again, and turn another leaf, distrust be our portion, and doubting in a high degree, whether God will receive us. It is good so to embrace the mercy of our Saviour, that we also remember the severity of our judge. When for many years together, we with greediness have drunk in the puddle-water of wickedness, we cannot be assured, that the Lord at our beck will bend himself to clemency. Perhaps, time may be wanting: perhaps the counsel of God's Ministers; it may be the mind enured to a custom of filthiness, cannot extricate itself: perhaps God will not give the gift of repentance, but as we have despised to hear when he calleth us, so when we shall call to him unfruitfully and unfaithfully, he will not attend. It may be that the canker of desperate sins, hath so eaten out all faith in us, that we cannot by any means appropriate God's mercy, to ourselves and our souls. It is a fearful thing, when the Lords goodness shall be ingeminated again and again, to the fainting heart, how ready he is to receive the repentant; how he calleth to sinners, and openeth the bosom for them, and stretcheth out his arms: and how Christ of purpose came to die for offenders; and yet all this shall find no other answer, but, These things are for other, they be not for me. I doubt not but the Ministers of God, who have had trial in like cases, do sometimes quake in their flesh, and tremble in their bones, to remember such examples, as their own eyes have seen. It had been good for such, who at length be so touched, and indeed for all men, to have made stay in time; for if they go on, and will not be reclaimed when mercy is offered, who knoweth if afterward God will turn and repent, and show pity upon them? Citò, longè, tardè, ut in pesie ●ugienda. Then learn to fly from sin, as from a kill pestilence: go from it soon and far, and never turn again. This is worse than the pestilence: it is poison sugared over, which may be sweet in taste, but is pernicious in effect. The pleasure is soon gone, Chrysost. de Lazaro, Concione. 4. but the guilt remaineth. Saint chrysostom therefore doth make a fit Antithesis, between it and the travel of a woman. She, saith he, hath her throbs and pangs at the first, which in truth are very vehement; but afterward there cometh joy, when she beholdeth a child borne of herself into the world. But on the other side, while it is in performance, sin maketh much mirth and glee, and the humour is contented with it, but when it is come forth, and now may be seen, it causeth to the committer more sorrows and anguishes, than the sorrows of a woman. And what can be truer? For what grief is like that, when the creature who might have been assured thereof, shall make doubt of the mercy of his maker? It is not well, when the heart shall go but thus far, at the highest, Who knoweth of God will turn? or it may be, that he will do it, but we cannot reckon of it. 7 Yet as this which I have spoken, may be gathered from the hardness of the thing, from the guiltiness of maliciousness, from the strictness of God's justice, from the doubtful speech of the King: So observe I pray you therein, a faith like a grain of mustard seed, a spark among the ashes, a little breath in the body. Who knoweth if God will turn? It may be: yet, it may be: it is not a thing impossible: God may do that which we think not of: no man can swear the contrary. Here then was a wrestling between hope and despair, between faith and distrust, where although the better part were foiled and overthrown, and laid along and wearied, yet lying upon the ground, even when it cannot arise, it looketh upward: albeit it have no strength to live, yet it will not die while it can live. It is recorded as a famous matter of Abraham, that he did hope beyond hope: when all reason did cease, yet he did not give over. Roman 4.18. Of David, that he held on, when innumerable troubles did come about him, Psal. 40.15. when his sins had taken hold of him, when they were more in number then the hairs of his head, yea his heart did fail him too, in very great measure. Such a property hath faith, it is not quite discouraged, where once it hath set footing. Even this Ninivite, he who is far from perfection, doth think that God can spare sinners; that it standeth with the nature, with the custom, with the honour, of so excellent a being as that Supreme power is, to pardon and forgive. That although in themselves the errors of men deserve desolation, and irrecoverable destruction, yet in that true compassion whereof God is the father, he may be pleased to bear, and wink at transgressions. So that when of man's part, not a dram of any commiseration may be expected, of the Lords part somewhat may be looked for. And that is the only stake whereunto we must trust, the anchor to fly to, the altar to lay hold on, in confidence whereof, the offender who can believe may lift up his head; although his faith be full of weakness, Psal. 130 3. and had much need to be helped. If thou Lord shouldst be extreme, to mark what is done amiss, who might abide it? But there is mercy with thee. But there is mercy with thee. 8 And indeed so there is, very plentifully and abundant mercy with our Creator, and that more in this time of grace, and the days of the Gospel, than was in former ages. He who in the wilderness was a consuming fire to the Israelites, is now a gentle father: he who was an exacting judge, is now a redeeming Saviour: he who punished those that came not, now calleth men to come, and with an appeased countenance, and intent to be merciful, he meeteth them and embraceth them. Cyprian de passione Domini. We may now cry with Saint Cyprian, Thou who in times past, waste a God of revengement, now pitiest and sparest those who have offended: thou healest the broken in heart, and bindest up the wounded; to the prodigal son returning, thou reprochest not his riot: to the adulterous harlot, thou obieclest not her wantonness, thou refusest not the service of the woman, albeit she were a common sinner: to him who ought thee money, thou dost forgive the debt. So the wounded conscience may apprehend that comfort in another, which it cannot find in itself, and may oppose Gods only love, as a most sufficient shield against all temptations. And where this is once conceived with a mite of catching faith, which is true and unfeigned faith, although an humble, stowping, creeping, weak and unable faith, there the soul doth not quite sink, but floateth above the water, until more strength be gathered. The son of man showeth pity, Match. 12.20 seeketh out that which is lost▪ bindeth up that which was broken, helpeth that which is weak; the bruised reed he breaketh not, the smoking flax he quencheth not. His coming was to save sinners: he came not to call the righteous. If we had no faults in us, we had no work for his blood: and our sins be they many, or be they mighty, are not so powerful, but his blood is of more virtue. Therefore as Gregory speaketh: Gregor. in Ezechiel. Homil. 9 Let not the multitude of our wounds depress us unto despair, because the power of our Physician is greater than the greatness of our sickness. For what is it that he cannot repair unto salvation, who could create all things of nothing? And when we shall rest ourselves upon this, even after our offence some comfort doth remain. But my purpose here is not much to follow this point, concerning God's mercy, because a full occasion of discussing the same, will be offered again in the second verse of the next Chapter; jonah. 4 2. yet now withal remember, that although the king of Ninive were frighted at first, lest pardon should be denied him, for the heinousness of his crimes, yet he doth not despair, but with a glimce of faith, doth put it to the adventure, saying God can return, he is able to stay the plague, which we have deserved. And the doctrine of Christianity doth most incline to this, where albeit we speak of justice, yet we rather offer mercy, according as Saint john doth direct us, 1. johan. 2.1. My babes I write these things unto you, that you sin not, that is, that you abstain from it so far forth as you may, that willingly you do it not, nor of purpose, nor presumtuously, but if any man have sinned, that is by weakness or infirmity, or repent for it when he hath done, we have an advocate with the Father, we be not left quite destitute, even jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the propitiation for our sins. And thus hitherto having spoken of the doubt of the king, now let us see how God determineth it. And God saw their works, how they turned. 9 It is a rule in giving of benefits, that those are bestowed happily, who light on such a one, as is so far intelligent, as to know what he receiveth, that he may think thereof accordingly; and surely in our devotions it is man's great felicity, that he sendeth them up to God, who knoweth all and considereth all. Not one cup of cold water, but he taketh notice of it. If it be for his sake, and for a good conscience, that we are driven up and down, Psal. 56.8. 1. Reg. 18.28. he telleth our flittings, he putteth our tears into a bottle, he noteth all in a book. He is not as Baal was, whose servants might cry and lance themselves with knives, and all for his honour, yet himself be never the wiser. The Ninivites fasted and put on sackcloth and prayed, upon the news of the Prophets preaching, and with lamentable behaviour did labour to show their sorrow, that they should be reputed justly so vile in God's eyes. They acknowledge themselves to be ashes and dust: they stand as the stubble now ready for the flame. How the heaven might help they know not, but from the earth, is like to come no consolation. The Lord whose drift it was to bring them to that pass, and had no other end of the sending of jonas, so far from his own country, but to work them hereunto, sitteth above in the heaven, and beholding it, is much pleased. A favourable judge, who will turn his eyes of jealousy, into a gracious aspect, and will endure as much to save men, as he will to spill them. As the crying sins of Ninive, and of Sodom and like places, had access unto his cares, and so did call for vengeance, so the repentance of the Ninivites had access unto his seat, and did plead hard for a pardon. Yea to show that he delighteth to help, rather than to hurt, to spare rather than to punish, he who would not receive the cries of the great sins of the Sodomites, Genes. 18.21. until he came down to prove whether it were so or no, taketh the sorrows of the city, even at the first rebound, and not standing to examine them, in the strictness of his severity, is by and by appeased. He who is slow to anger, is quicke● sighted at repentance, and when his son is coming home, Luc. 15.20. he beholdeth him a great way off, and meeteth with him, and falleth on him, and kisseth him, and with much love embraceth him. 10 He saw that which they did. But mark, God saw their works. That which they outwardly did, was a token of their mind, and a fruit of their faith; which faith had entered into their heart, and in some measure purified that, which of itself was corrupt. But he beheld their works: not their speech but their deeds, not their tongue but their hands; not that afterward they would do better, but that already they had left their filthiness. And this fruit is it which God requireth to testify, whether the root be good. If words would have served the turn, the Prophet needed not have gone to the Gentiles in Assyria: the Israelites and jews, could have furnished him well enough; who made no spare to say, that they would serve the Lord; the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord was ever in their mouths: jerem. 7.4. Matth. 3. ●. and afterward, We have Abraham to our father, but they did nothing which was suitable, but clean contrary to their speaking. The Pharisees who succeeded long after our Prophet's time, had by this reckoning been very holy, for they could pray in the streets, and disguise their faces with fasting, yet Christ brandeth them for hypocrites; and speaketh to all in general, Matth. 7.21. Not every one that saith unto me Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doth the will of my father which is in heaven. Saint Basile upon these words of the Prophet Esay, Basil● in Isai. 1. And if they multiply their prayers, I will not hear them, doth declare what the mind of God is, toward such as think religion to be in words: They who in this life do no work, which is worthy the name of virtue, but only for the lengths sake of their prayers, do hold themselves to be righteous, let them hear these words with attentive ears. For prayers are not a help, when they are powered out in any sort whatsoever, but if they be uttered with earnest and fervent affection. For the Pharisee did multiply prayers in show, but what saith the Scripture? The Pharisee standing did pray thus with himself. But it was not with the Lord. For all of it returned to the good opinion of himself; for he still remained in the sin of pride. That man who would not be taken for such a Pharisee, and so consequently be refused of the Lord, must think that there is something else in the service of the Highest, then to say or seem to be holy. For that is a matter common to reprobates, to idolaters, to dissemblers and deceitful men, which yet escape not his eyes who trieth the hearts and reins, and rewardeth men accordingly. Bernard de S. Andrea Serm. 3. Saint Bernard observeth that the two Kings Saul and David, when they were reproved by the two Prophets Samuel and Nathan, cried peccavi both alike, and yet Saul heard that sentence, the Lord hath taken thy kingdom from thee, and will give it to thy servant, and David heard that comfort, The Lord hath removed away thy sin, and thou shalt not die for it. What was this saith Saint Bernard, but that Saul had not that in his heart, which he had in his mouth: but with David it was otherwise. 11 Then he who hath gone astray, and by that means hath offended God, and desireth to return at last (after a thousand provocations) into the judges favour; let him first depart from evil, Augustin. de salutaribus documentis. Matth. 5.16. and purge himself of all poison, as the serpent doth going to drink, and let him never again resume it: but secondly therewithal, let him do that which good. His light must shine before men, that they may see his good works: his life must shine before God in purity and integrity. Of which how little all sorts of men do think now a days, experience too much witnesseth. For who is he almost, that intendeth to that which he should? I speak not of the Atheist, who is an enemy to God the father? I speak not of the Papist who is no friend to Christ the son (many points of their doctrine crossing the life of his redemption) but of those who seem to be somewhat. The Pastors which are learned, are almost like the unlearned. The one cannot, the other will not, but neither of them do preach. They think it is enough to be able to the somewhat, when they shall see occasion: that to censure the works of other, this was well, or this was ill, is a great part of learning, but work they will not themselves; neither God nor men see their labours. The gentlemen in the country, I mean very many of them, think it is enough, if they like not any thing which cometh from Rome: but if they can declaim in the greatest assemblies, against the errors of the Clergy, or spy a fault in their government, they are more than common men: yea, but if they come so far, as to have prayers in their houses (which is a very holy sacrifice, if other things accordingly be joined) they think that there is no more needful to heaven. But as for any works of mercy, or charitable pity, they are not oftentimes to be found. They yield small comfort to the poor, who perish before their faces. Little help unto the Minister, who may conflict with poverty, with bareness, and with hunger: nay he shall speed very well, if some portion of his maintenance be not detained, and kept from him with violence● or with cunning. For his necessary relief, who must teach them the way to heaven, it would be death to part with the price of the meanest gown, which their wives or daughters wear. In very many places, the citizens and townsmen desire to have much preaching, but scant any taketh care of following: they are more scrupulous, lest some old word which was used in time of Popery, should be named in common talk, then to deceive their brother, in selling or in bargaining. It is good that the smallest things, in their kind should be cared for, and that words and external gesture should be composed unto sanctity; but yet let the greatest matters, be embraced with greatest zeal. They are works which God expecteth, and not naked words only. Yet there was never age, wherein that complaint of seeming, and not being, might not truly be made: but the complaint is there most grievous, where religion is most professed, when that may be taken up which Saint Bernard sometimes wrote, Bernard. in Caena Domini. There are many who have the commandments of the Lord; but yet they keep them not: many have them in their book, but have them not in their mind: many have them in their speech, but have them not in their work; many have them in their memory, but have them not in their life: many have them in their word, but not in their example. 12 But the Ninivites left their evil ways, and betook themselves to better. Now see what followed of it. God repent of the evil which he said that he would bring upon them. This phrase may seem a strange phrase, that there should be repentance in God, which implieth a change of purpose, and also a taking of notice, that something which was before, was not so well disposed, or determined or decreed; which is much, to be once suspected in the Lord, whose counsels are immutable, and all his ways appointed before hand, to be without variation. This may argue weakness in him, who is the Lord of strength: and an unresolved mind in him who is most constant: A thing which he would not have his creatures, in any sort to think of him, 1. Sam. 15.29. and therefore proclaimeth, that indeed the strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for he is not a man that he should change or repent. How then cometh it about, that the King should say this of him? Or if we will imagine that a heathenish and ignorant man, might mistake a word toward God, yet how is it that the Prophet, who was so well instructed in celestial things, should record that word to all ages? Yea that joel also should second it, in the place which I named before: Who knoweth ●f he will return, joel. 2, 14. and repent, and leave a blessing? For removing of which doubt, we are to hold that fast, that the Lord doth not upon any occurrents, alter his decrees, which he proposeth in his counsels; but what he once resolveth, either in circumstance or in substance, he accomplisheth in due time. He grieveth not as men do, that this or that falleth out, which maketh him change his mind. Yet speaking as men speak, and so framing his greatness to the capacity of us weak ones, he altereth that which did seem to men, to be his purpose, and this he meaneth by repentance. Gregory thus layeth down the matter, Gregor. in 1. Sam. 15. Because he who is immutability in the highest degree, doth speak with those which are mutable, after the manner of them with whom he speaketh, being said to repent that he made Saul King, he noteth that the rashness of proud men doth despl●ase him. He than reputeth it for a phrase, which is only used for our understanding. 13 justinus Martyr in his Questions and Answers, justinus Martyr in Quaest & Respons. ad Orthodoxos. Quaest 36. Ad Orthodoxos, moving this doubt, That if no change do fall upon the Godhead, why the Lord did say, concerning the anointing of Saul, that he repented, and of the overturning of Ninive, that another thing was determined, giveth this answer to it: God both in that which he is, and in this, that he doth such actions, as best beseem himself, is immutable: but taking care of those who are subject to change, he provideth for the commodity of them, over whom he doth take care, and oftentimes he changeth things. Therefore when he doth pardon and when he doth not pardon, he retaineth his immutability: for those who amend their faults, he pardoneth and changeth not, and those who remain in their faults he pardoneth not, and yet changeth not. He applieth this to Saules case, and that other of the Ninivites. The words are somewhat obscure: but in substance he decideth it thus: that the Lord doth hold fast his counsels, but yet changeth things of appearance, which it was thought that he minded. Gregory whom I have named before, hath a saying much to this purpose: Gregor. Moral. lib. 20. Because God himself who is immutable, doth change that which he would, he is said to repent, although he change the things, but doth not change his counsel. If this yet be not so plain, that the ignorant may conceive it, then take it thus: that God from the beginning meant to spare them, but yet on that condition, that they should first repent. And to bring them to that repentance, he sent his threatenings by jonas, of purpose wishing their good: yet because absolutely in word he denounced that unto them (the more to fear and fright them) which he purposed but conditionally (if they turned not unto him) therefore he speaketh of God, as they thought, Hieron. in jon. 3. not as he did. Hierome doth fully give down his mind, according to some part of this doctrine: God is said to change his mind: Nay rather God persevered in his purpose, meaning from the beginning to pity them: for no man desiring to punish, will threaten that which he meaneth to do. Then by his threatenings he showeth, that he meant not to destroy them. 14 For conceiving of the rest, whereof Hierome doth make no mention, we are farther to take knowledge, that generally God when he threateneth, intendeth that if men repent not, than this or that shall fall out: but if they turn unto him, that it shall not be done. And God layeth this down universally, as a certain Axiom of himself, to be so understood in all the course of the Scripture, where any threats are mentioned. But yet more significantly in no place, then by the Prophet jeremy, where he speaketh in this manner: jerem. 18.7.8 I will speak suddenly against a nation or a kingdom, to pluck up, and to root out, and to destroy. But if this nation against which I have pronounced, do turn away from his wickedness, I will repent of the plague which I thought to bring upon them. Now this being allowed for a maxim, all denouncing of judgement from him, do contain in them a condition, secretly and inclusively: where if the threats be not executed, no absolute speech is broken (for far be that from the Lord) but only a comminatory word hath obtained that, which it would have. God sent unto Ezechiah, Isai. 38.1. and bade him set his house in order, for he should die, and not live. This seemed to be an absolute speech, yet it contained in it this condition, if Ezechiah did not make his peace by tears and repentance: but when that once was accomplished, Ezechiah lived and died not. Yet because such fearful words, are delivered from the Lord, as firmly resolved by him, and men know not the contrary, but that he meaneth to strike, he forbearing is said to change that which indeed he never decreed, and this supposed change he calleth a repenting: therein framing his words to our dullness, who are men to be taught, and learn best, when we hear our own phrases. 15 I think it yet not amiss, to mention thus much farther. That there be some of the ancient, who think that God fulfilled his threatenings upon Ninive, so that Ninive was destroyed: that is, the sinful City did cease now to be sinful, so that the evil of it was overturned, not the men, not the walls, not the houses; and this way God performed whatsoever himself did threaten. Augustin. de civitate Dei. 21.24. And this is the opinion of Saint Austen: The walls saith he standing up, the city was overthrown in the evil manners of it, and so albeit not simply Ninive, yet sinful Ninive perished. Hierome on the fourth of Daniel, Hieron in Daniel. 4. subscribeth to this doctrine, but it is in other words. The Lord doth change his sentence, but that is not on the men, but on the works which were changed. For God was not displeased against the men, but against their vices, which when they were not in the men, God doth not punish that which now was ceased to be. He thinketh that sin being abated, the city might stand upright, and yet God keep his word also. Thus we see that God, and good men agree, that it was that penance which they laid on themselves, nay which they laid on their sins, which kept them from the Lords punishment. For either God or they were to chastise their evil ways. All iniquity great or small, must of necessity have punishment, either from man repenting, or from the Lord revenging. But he who repenteth, layeth a chastisement on himself. Then the upshot of all, is on the part of these Assyrians, that with their tears and cries so affectionate and so passionate, so hearty and sincere, the Lord who had strong reason to deal with them as with Sodom, to root out their memorial from the earth, and from under heaven, hath changed that doom, which of likelihood was to be pronounced against them. His anger is appeased: his fury is dissolved: the city standeth as it did: no ruin, no destruction. 16 This is a great comfort to us, that if the Eternal father did deal thus with these Ethnics, that when they turned to him, he turned also to them, nay he first sent one to turn them, we may assure ourselves a fair deal more of his mercy: if after our transgressions, & very many infirmities, we run & fly to him with a believing sorrow. For if he did take such compassion under the law, what will he do under the Gospel? If he did so show forth his kindness, to barbarous heathen men, what will he do to Christians? If he showed that he did love them, by sending one Prophet to them, to preach his word once among them, what care doth he take of us, to whom he hath given his word, and his Sacraments in so great abundance, by so many of his messengers, and for so many years together? It seemeth that he wooeth us with a iealosy, and sueth unto us that we would be his own. Let us not take heart thereby, to abuse his kind affection: let us not provoke his justice, with wilful provocations. He loveth to spare, but such as are willing to be spared: not those who offend upon malicious wickedness. He overthroweth the proud Oak, which will not stoop at his blasts, but he cherisheth the bending reed. He receiveth them to grace, who are grieved to grieve him, & who by their good will would not fall, but being fallen do mourn at it. Then let the heavy conscience lift us his head at last. He who could find a pardon, for so many thousand bad ones, will never stick at one, who cometh trembling before him. Yea all who feel themselves to be weary, Matth. 11.28. and heavy laden, if they come to him, or his son, he hath promised to help them. God every us so with his grace, that with the Ninivites we fall not into crying transgressions: but since we are oftentimes down, he so raise us up with his Spirit, that his anger and displeasure may still be removed from us, that our sins may be washed away in the blood of Christ, who is the true object of our repentance, that so after this life, we may follow the Lamb wheresoever he goeth, into that kingdom of blessedness, to the which the Father bring us for his Son Christ his sake, to both whom and the holy Spirit be glory for evermore. THE XXIIII. LECTURE. The chief points. 2. jonas should have rejoiced at their conversion. 3. The verity of the Scriptures appeareth because the writers accuse themselves. 4. Many arguments of the excellency of the word of God. 5. Other writers magnify themselves. 6. The best do fall, and the use which is to be made thereof. 9 What was the cause of grief in jonas. 13. Especially his own credit, 14. or a preposterous care of God's glory. 15. When we have laboured, let us leave the success to God. jonah. 4.1. Therefore it displeased jonah exceedingly, and he was argry. BEing now come to this fourth Chapter which is the last of this Prophecy, and remembering with myself, how long it is since I first began this work, I partly imagine it to be fatal to the business which is handled in this book, to be done very slowly. For the Prophet was very long, before he would begin, and could not be haled to it, till it might not be avoided: sometimes he goeth backward, and other times slowly forward, and what with flying to the sea, and lying there in the whale, and going afterward to preach, and staying when he had done, he is long about a little. And God hath so disposed of me, that I have been much slower, in opening to you how far he is from speed. Before that I can come to this fourth Chapter, the fourth year is now expired, in which time a quick discourser, might deliberately have gone over a good part of the Scripture, if either this place had called him oftener to it, or other occasions had not elsewhere diverted him. But be it as it may be; Gods will must be done: and perhaps he may be pleased to afford so much grace, that he who hath attained to the end of three, may complete the fourth also, that so, although slowly (for overrunning my Prophet) yet surely at the last, according to that power which God shall give unto me, I may on to the end. 2 Now then hitherto we are come, that he who at first refused and could not be induced to it, hath preached to the Ninivites as sharp as sharp may be: yet forty days, and Ninive is like to be destroyed: and his sermon hath so wrought, that their beauty, and pleasure, and music, and all mirth is turned out of door, and sackcloth and ashes, and weeping and lamenting, great signs of repentance are come in steed of them: their heart is dismayed, and their whole body shaken: no help now nor comfort, Philo judaeus in legatione ad Canin. unless it be from heaven. But where man's means do fail, there God's mercy doth break forth: he is moved to pity, and in commiseration all past shall be pardoned. Here a man would have thought, that in the mean while, the messenger as sent from God, and therefore full of all mild and lovely behaviour, would have opened his heart with the largest joy, because the seed which he had sowed, had fallen in so good ground, Matth. 13.8. that it had now brought forth not thirty, not sixty, but many thousand fold. That his tongue had so far been the instrument of God's glory: that his threats as the thunder should so be trembled at: that his mouth had in so high a degree been the means of the Lords mercy, that both Prince and people, old and young should be quit of their transgressions, and excused of their iniquity. But it falleth out clean contrary, and he as the man who had only learned that lesson, to do nothing aright, is grown into great anger, and is so filled with choler, that he fretteth and chafeth handsmooth with the Lord, that he had not razed down the whole city Ninive even to the foundation. That which should have been to him for his glory and his crown, to have helped so many prisoners from the dungeon of darkness, and the shadow of death, is the greatest vexation and corrosive that might be to him in his distemper; which yieldeth to us a singular example of the infirmity of man, that such a one as he was, on so light an occasion should be so far offended, and that with God himself. The true cause whereof, howsoever it seem different and diverse to diverse, yet by all is agreed on to be most blame worthy. I cannot so fitly expound the manner of it as this history requireth, but that by degrees I must descend unto it, and so out of one thing win the matter of another. I think therefore best, first to refer all things to these two heads, a general doctrine which may be gathered in gross, and a particular instruction which the words literally offer, both fitly in my judgement taken out of the text. And both these do contain their several considerations, as by God's assistance I shall make plain unto you. But I begin with the general. The general doctrine. 3 When I look into the narration which doth follow from henceforth to the end of this Prophecy, & see how all runneth against jonas himself, and describeth him to be froward, and testy, and peevish, rebellious and overthwart, even brawling with the Lord, and chopping word for word with him, as if he were the wiser and better of the two, jonah. 4.9. Dost thou well to be angry? Yea to be angry to the death: such an answer as scant any man was ever known to make, not a judas, not a Cain; I therein do admire the excellency of the Scripture, and rare wisdom of him, whose glory it most concerneth, that he so overruleth the pens of the writers, that they must depress themselves to infamy and disgrace, and for their follies and infirmities, be offered as wonderments to all succeeding ages. It declareth a singularity in those books and writings, that the glory of God is the only thing which is aimed at, and that men who naturally are ambitious & desirous to blaze their own praises, or if they have fallen, to extenuate their faults by Apologies and excuses, are not left to their own liberty, in setting down of that, which he appointeth for the Canon to direct our lives by. But that as Saint Peter speaketh, 2. Pet. 1.20. no prophecy in the Scripture is of any private motion, for the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the holy Ghost. They therefore who did well, are commended for their well doing, but if they did amiss, their friends or their own writings paint them out to the full. Genes. 9.21. Cap. 19.33. The falls of No and Lot are not concealed by him, who honoured the memory of Noah and of Lot. jer. 20.14. Whether it were Baruch or jeremy, who wrote the Prophecy of jeremy it is not much material, but therein he himself is not forgotten, Act. 15.39. for his vexing impatiency. Luke as all men may suppose, loved Paul and Barnabas well, yet recording their behaviour, he showeth that there was between them so hot a contention, as becomed not two such men. But most do conceive that jonas in his own person delivered this Prophecy to the Church, (and there is no reason to the contrary) but yet from the beginning to the end thereof, he telleth such a tale, that if all his enemies should have studied to lash him, they could not have matched that, which his own hand hath published: not one word to his commendation, but all to his dispraise. That he fled from his charge, and would have gone to Tharshish: that he slept in security, and a heathen man did awake him, and teach him his duty: that the lot fell upon him as a noted malefactor, that for his due desert (after that a tempest had pursued him) he was tumbled into the sea: that there for three days he was iayled up in a whales belly: that all that while he was little better than in distrustful despair. Nay moreover, that when he was out again he preached endeavoured, but as a shrewd cow after that she hath given milk, doth cast it down with her heel, so he marred all with his murmuring, and furious displeasure. And this was the case of Moses, who without doubt wrote those five books which are called by his name: & there as he spared not his brother nor his sister, Num. 12.1. Exod. 4.25. that is, Aaron and Miriam, nor Tsippora his wife, if she came in his way, so he lest favoureth himself, but relateth that the Lord had almost killed him for his negligence, 24. in not circumcising his child: that in those provocations wherewith the people provoked God himself did fall to murmuring: that the Lord was so displeased with him, Num. 11.11. Deut. 34.4. that therefore he debarred him from coming into Canaan. Thus the inditing spirit doth rule the writer's pen, and as over-maistering the hand of a young learner, maketh him to set down what it will, and not what the other fancieth. This is one great argument of the finger of God, and a supernatural power that is in these books of holy writ, that not flesh and blood, and sensual carnality which is swayed with affection, are the composers of them, but an author more glorious first made them and now keepeth them. 4 There are many demonstrative proofs of the unmatchable excellency, and incomparable rarity of the volumes of the Bible, although the dazzled eyes of some know not how to behold them. That the truth of so many things should be fulfilled in their time, when they had been spoken of so long before: that their credit should continue from the days of Moses unto our age: that there should be an universal approbation of them, in all parts of the world, by men & tongues so different: that every part thereof should have such coherence, and agreement with itself, when it was written by so diverse parties, in seveuerall ages and places: that the scope of it should be to build up no worldly thing, but to direct all to Christ: that there should be such a majesty in the style thereof, not so powerful in words (yet in words very mighty) as forcible and effectual in working and operation, renting the heart and marrow, and dividing the bones in sunder. Hier. Epistol. 50. Saint Hierome can say of Paul, As oft as I read him, it seemeth unto me that they be not words, but thunders which I hear. Bernard. de Nativitate Domini. Serm. 1. Blandiebatur Virgil. Dulcius mihi immurmurat filius jesse. And Bernard confesseth this of himself: In times past Tully seemed sweet unto me, Virgil stole away my affection, and being as Mermaids sweet to destroy, had enchanted mine understanding. The Law, the Prophets, the Gospel, the Epistles, and all the glory of the sentences of my Lord, and his servants, seemed either small or none unto me. But now I know not what sweeter thing the son of less doth whisper into me, who by the diverse harmony of his speeches and sentences, doth make all those whom I was accustomed to love, uneloquent and very dumb. Euseb. de praeparat. Euangelic. lib. 14. in praefatione. Eusebius speaketh more generally: When I do compare the Philosophers of the Gentiles, either among themselves or with other, I will not deny but they were excellent men. But when I compare them to the Divines, and Philosophers of the Hebrews, and I lay the doctrine of the one with the doctrine of the other, all those things which their Philosophers have devised, seem to me to be brittle and frivolous. Furthermore that we should have the old Testament delivered to us from the jews, who as friends do not conspire with us, to make a pack for both purposes; but are enemies both to us, and to our Saviour Christ. August. de consensu Evangelist. lib. 1.26 And yet as Saint Austen observeth, those jews are scattered over the world, and bear those books with them, that the enemies of our faith may be witnesses to our truth. Moreover that those who were the holy Spirits secretaries, should be in request with all, not while they lived, but when they were dead and rotten, whereupon Basile hath well noted, that they were made Princes over Princes, Basil. in Psal. 45. Chrys. in ope●. imperfecto. Homil. 41. and Lords over the highest Kings, yea more mighty than they, for they swayed while they lived; but these most after death. This made chrysostom compare them to the flesh of beasts, which no man at all doth eat off, while they are alive, but when they are dead, men taste of them. So scant any man respected the Sermons of the Prophets, and other divine writers, while they were living upon earth, but after their death every one layeth hold upon them. These matters and many more do show, that there is a singularity in the sacred volumes of the Bible, but that whereof I spoke being joined to them, is not the least; that the compilers of those books were not free, and had liberty to touch their own fancies, but they were taught in the first place, to renounce all their affections, and as men inspired to deliver the message of another, even against their own glory and reputation. 5 Look upon the works of other men. who were not directed so immediately by this spirit as those were, and this shall be more evident. There is not any worldly writer, but although he profess to lay down the only truth, yet sometimes he straineth a string, either by ignorance or affection: this friend or that faction shall receive a partial ●auour. If wisdom bear some stroke, it shall not be palpably and grossly to be noted, but secretly and covertly, and by insinuation: and his own industry in searching out the depth of deeds, or his truth in reporting, or boldness in detecting, shall deserve commendation. Not Livy, not Plutarch, not Seneca (as it may easily be showed) but may this way be touched. Herein they are all fellows more or less. Yet there be books in the Scripture, which appear not to come so far. But that any one should in sobriety, and advisedly and of purpose, make a treatise to declare the faults of himself, and have no other argument but what must needs be joined with that, as it is here with our jonas, I verily am persuaded is no where to be found, in all the works of the heathen, no not in the most sober and grave. To give examples from the greatest sort of them, Tull Offic. lib. 1. Dio. Cassius. lib. 37. Xenoph. de exped. Cyri. lib. 6. & 7. joseph. de bell. jud. lib. 3 8. ovid. Metamorph. 15. in fine. Tully will not have it buried, that Rome was beholding to him for Catiline's cause, and otherwise too. Dion will have the world know, that he was a man of employment in businesses of the Commonwealth. Xenophon will record his counsels to posterity, and josephus is plentiful in relating his own stratagems: But if we will look among the Poets, we shall have ovid ending his Metamorphosis tell us, Iámque opus exegi, quod nec lovis ira nec ignis Nec ferrum poterit, nec edax abolere vetustas. I have ended such a work, as never any thing shall deface. Horace will not be behind him, but will conclude one of his books thus, Exegi monumentum aere perennius, Horat. lib. 3. Carm. Od. 30. Regalíque situ Pyramidum altius. I have set up a monument which will last longer than brass, and is more eminent than the Pyramids in Egypt. Martial. ad Auitium. lib. 9.1. But Martial for his part, rather than he will be out, will tell us that for trifles he is equal with the best. ay I'll ego sum nulli nugarum laud secundus. Thus men will be men, that is to say humorous and ambitious, & full of self-love, and it will not be restrained, but that directly or indirectly they will to their kind. Nature will not be driven away, no not with a fork. Yet where grace is predominant, and God doth rule the stern, there self-love is laid aside, and out it shall come, Psal. 32.6. I will confess my sins against myself, yea commend them to posterity, that the ages to come, and the ends of the world shall take notice of mine errors. Thus as God hath no peers, so his book hath no fellows, but is every way full of judgement, and justice, and truth, and wisdom, and perfection. God will ever be the Lord, and every man is a sinner. But in the third verse of the first Chapter, jon. 1.3. I touched this somewhat more largely, and therefore I now leave it. 6 My next observation in this general compass, is that jonas is here described, to have sinned once again. This plentifully appeareth in the first Chapter, & so it doth in this last chapter, by the reproof of God himself used toward him: and the words of my text do necessarily include it: for to be grieved at the Lords will, and to be angry at his works, is a very high transgression. And so much the higher, because it is in a Prophet, a sanctified servant, sequestered for God's business, and attendance on himself, more enlightened then ordinary, and better acquainted with divine mysteries, than other men. Then from this man it is evident, as well as from David, from Solomon, from josiah, from Hezechiah, from Peter, that the greatest in this life fall, 1. Reg 8.48. Prou. 24.16. and fall to the ground. There is no man that sinneth not. The just man doth fall seven times and ariseth again. In many things we sin all, jac. 3.2. 1. joh. 1.8. saith the Apostle Saint james. And Saint john doth second it, If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and there is no truth in us. jonas being once freed, and delivered from his sin by the mercy of the Lord, which purged him by a suffering, is a second time in, and yet remaineth God's servant, and a member of the Church, clean contrary to that heresy which the Novatians held, Euseb Eccl. Hist. lib. 6.35. who denying repentance to sins after Baptism, and secluding offenders from acceptance into the congregation among the faithful, much impeached Gods mercy, and laid an intolerable burden upon men's consciences. Why should the servant be hard, where the master is easy and gentle? Where the wise owner is well pleased, why is the steward strait? When he whom it most concerneth, hath proclaimed by his Prophet, Ezech. 18.21.22. that if a sinner repent be it once or be it often, from the bottom of his heart, God will put away his sins quite out of his remembrance. Indeed from the falls of the old patriarchs, we should not learn, to adventure upon iniquities with greediness and boldness, lest presuming, we come short of that which was granted unto them. For if we will provoke God, in hope of that which in likelihood will never be given to us, because we would so provoke him, who can tell whether the Lord will turn, and repent, and abate his fury? The end wherefore the examples of falls in the greatest men, are proposed to our reading, is not to encourage us to ill, for that were to abuse the kindness of God, and out of a good flower to suck deadly poison. Yet it is a thing too common for Libertines and carnal men, so to apply good to evil. Many will fall with David saith Saint Austen, August. in Psal. 50. and will not arise with David. There is not proposed to thee any example of falling, but of arising when thou art fallen. Take heed thou do not fall. Let not the slip of the greater, be the delight of the lesser, but let the fall of the greater, be a trembling to the lesser. What he there saith of David, may most fitly be applied to the rest of the patriarchs, and other Prophets, that by any thing of theirs we must not be enticed to disobedience. 7 Saint chrysostom taketh occasion by David, Chrysost. de paenitentia Homil. 6. of whom Austen also spoke, to draw a threefold benefit from the example of his transgression, which I think not amiss to be mentioned in this place. David saith he, for three reasons was suffered to go astray. First that he might make the righteous man to look more earnestly to his way. He perhaps saith to himself, I am a religious man: I am famous for many merits: now I have done those things which appertain to the garland. Deceive not thyself, saith he, thou hast done no more than David. His meaning is, that if such captains and leaders in the faith, so gracious with the Highest, so acceptable in God's sight, yet by human infirmities have fallen, and fallen notoriously▪ then no man should be proud, none senselessly secure, no man confidently foolish, because his turn may be next. He should set a watch before his heart, and a hatch before his lips, that nothing may enter thither, nothing may come out thence, which is not weighed and balanced. And that this is one of the causes, why the oversights of the best are made known in the Scriptures, Saint Austen also consenteth: August. de Doct. Christ. lib. 3.23. The sins of great men are written to this purpose, that the saying of the Apostle may every where be trembled at, where he saith, Let him that standeth, take heed lest he fall. The second reason in Saint chrysostom is, that it might appear, that Christ jesus alone in man's body was pure from all offence. For if the holiest creatures, and most sanctified sons of women, men upright and fearing God, men after the Lords own heart, the best men of famous memory, yet bore about them a body which was heavy to the soul, and were shamefully overtaken with crimes, which their inferiors knew to be enormous, than the single prerogative, and that privilege of innocency and unspottedness, which is not to be communicated to any of Adam's children, appeareth to belong only to Christ. joh. 8.46. He alone could say to the jews, Which of you can rebuke me of sin? But all other have this sin on them, although it reign not in them. The just man must confess that of Hierome to be very true, Hier. lib. 1. Epist. 8. ad Demetriadem. that while we dwell here in the tabernacle of this body, and are compassed with frail and brittle flesh, we may moderate our affections, and rule our perturbations, but cut them off we cannot, we cannot root them out. Then all arrogant merite-mongers may boast themselves while they will, of meriting of salvation, and Pelagius he may vaunt that he can keep the law, but we account those speeches to be cursed, and heretical, and derogatory from the eminency of Christ. We say to them as Orosius sometimes wrote to that heretic Pelagius: Oros. de arbitrij libertate. Thou sayest that it is possible that a man should be without sin. I repeat it again & oftentimes, the man which can do this is Christ the Son of God. Either take that name unto thee, or lay aside thy boldness. God hath given that but to one, and that is he which is chief, and first borne among many brethren. Then other, yea the Virgin Mary herself, must renounce themselves and all their possibility, and admire the unspotted beauty of jesus our Redeemer. 8 The third reason in chrysostom, is a matter of more comfort: Chrysost. ubi suprà. The faults of others are written, that sinners may the less despair of their own errors: but if any one have offended, let him daily confess his sins: yea if he have sinned a thousand times, yet let him go forward to confess a thousand times. Forthere is nothing worse than distrust or despair. This sentence of turning again a thousand times to God, was it whereof Socrates speaketh, Socrat. Hist. Eccles. 6.19. that chrysostom did dare to teach this, in that time which was so filled with the Novatian heretics. And this is a most comfortable point to a distressed conscience, which I think did never more need to be plastered and suppled, then in these our present days, wherein Satan is busy, to take advantage of the tenderness and softness of them, who earnestly desire to have peace with God. And he seeing that it grieveth them, to displease so good a father, straightway representeth to their eyes the fearfulness of his justice, and the multiplicity of their crimes. Oh it is a deadly enemy, subtle and full of sleights: he hath baits for every one. For the wanton, shows of wantonness: for the idolater superstitions; for the Atheist, ways of obstinacy: for the envious, cause of spite: for him who hateth to sin, a tickling pride of doing well: for those who love the word, terrors out of the word, to beat them down & to drown them: so that all threatenings shall be applied to them, & mercies shallbe passed over, as no way appertaining unto their comfort. How careful had we need be, & stand continually on our watch, serve God while we have time, pray to him for perseverance, & evermore be busied about that which is good, that solitary idleness & melancholic temptations, great means to a greater fall, do not grievously oppress us? But to prevent that objection, which is common to all those who are so affected, as I speak of God who writeth for all our good, that testified in his sacred book, that the bel-wethers of his flock, have stumbled & lain along, & that not in toys or trifles, but in causes of great importance, they have given witness of much weakness. And yet they have risen again, more humbled and more purged, more renewed by grace, taught to fly from themselves unto the throne of mercy, to repose all their salvation on him who is far more sure, Psal. 51 17. than the strongest rock or castle. And when the spirit is thus contrite, God accepteth it as a sacrifice: he is so far from despising the troubled broken heart, that he loveth it and embraceth it. Thus he dealt with them in old time, under the threatening law: and therefore he will rather do so under the Gospel. The errors of our time are no otherwise then theirs were: we are made of the self same metal: he is made of the self same mercy. He changeth not, he varieth not, he evermore remaineth himself. Then why should we yield ourselves to diffidence and distrust? why sink we under our burden, which lieth heavy for a moment, and no longer? Sorrow may endure for a night, Psal. 30.5. 1. Cor. 10.13. but joy cometh in the morning. He tempteth not above our strength, but in the midst of trial he giveth an issue out. That which we feel in the mean while, is our burden and we must bear it. We cannot live here like Angels. Spe, non re. Our purity is in hope: it is not yet indeed. Christ well knew that there would be faults in us, when he bade us every day to pray, Matth. 6.12. forgive us our trespasses. Then let us rouse up our spirits, and shake off that dull kind of blockishness, and sin that hangeth so fast on, Hebr. 12.1. and let us with alacrity run to jesus our Redeemer, our brother and Saviour, and the finisher of our faith. Matth 4.1. Hebr. 2.18. He sometimes was tempted himself, which maketh him the better know, how to pity those which are tempted. And thus much generally I have spoken, that the Scripture maketh no spare, to display the worst of the writers thereof, and how the best do offend, yea and double it too with jonas, and yet still remain God's servants. The special fault of jonas. 9 By this time you expect as I think, that I should not stand so far off, and look on my text per transennam, but that I should touch it nearer, and so indeed is my meaning. All this while you have heard that the Prophet was out, but what was it wherein he faulted? It displeased jonas exceedingly, and he was angry at it. And what was it whereat he vexed, and knew not which way to take it? That Ninive should be spared. God meant to continue the standing of that city, and jonas would not have it so. The Lord thought best to spare the inhabitants, but our man is of another mind. Here in the mean time are two sides, but the match is very unequal. I am certainly persuaded, that jonas is not like to gain much by such bargains. The potter is of one side, and the potsheard of another. Fire and thunder and flaming lightning doth say it shall be so, and flax and tow doth say otherwise. And yet this weak one is right angry, that he may not bear away the bucklers. Now a man might have seen this messenger a perfect malcontent, that every thing went not as he conceived before, that it should. But why should this fretter grieve, that Ninive should have a taste of his mercy, who is the father of pity and compassion? All agree that he did so, but there is not any common consent, what that was which specially did move him. Hierome telleth that some imagined, Hieron. in jonae. 4. that jonas was now grown spiteful, and boiled very much with envy, that the Gentiles should be called. As if God's grace toward him, and other of his people, were now so much the less, because it was communicated to a foreign nation. This was to make no difference between the sons of Cham and Sem: to bring Esau and Israel to be beloved alike. This were to make the Ethnics as good men as the jews, yea to make such as were, or hereafter might be great enemies to jerusalem, to taste the best fruits of Zion. Where then was the promise to Abraham, or the oath which was sworn to Isaac, if the Ninivites should be called, as well as the holy seed? Thus perhaps flesh might reason, and murmur in our jonas. 10 If this were it which troubled him, he might justly be concluded to be envious and malicious, and therefore to sin highly. Matth. 20.15. For was his eye grown evil, because his master was good? Would he repine that other should find that kindness at the Lords hand, which himself had felt before? As soon as he was over, must the bridge by and by be broken? As soon as he was in, must the door forthwith be shut? Would not that sufficiently content him, that he should have a place in heaven; but must he be the porter, nay rather the householder, to direct who should come after? his friends and acquaintance only? This was a fault which reigned much among the people of the jews: they could not brook the fellowship of the despised Gentiles. Luc. 15.28. Christ noted this their envy, by the parable of the elder brother, grudging that the younger which was the prodigal son, should be received with such grace. But it is very manifestly storied to be true in the Acts, Act. 13 45. Cap. 17.5. as both at Antioch and so otherwise at Thessalonica: for when the greeks began to believe, the jews envied at it, and reviled with evil words, yea made an uproar. But when Paul another time being at Jerusalem spoke unto them, they heard him with great patience, Cap. 22.21. till he came to that sentence, Depart, for I will send thee a great way hence to the Gentiles: but when once they heard that from him, as men able to hold no longer, they lift up their voices and said, Away with such a fellow from off the earth, for it is not fit that he should live. Surely charity and humanity should have weaned them from that fault; but piety should much more have remembered jonas, not to dislike Gods will, although it had been to destroy: But when it savoured of clemency, and recovering that which was lost, he should more vehemently have loved it. God's servants joy, when those graces which are most visible in themselves, be communicated to other. Numer. 11.29. When two were said to prophecy, Moses was not troubled at it: but he rather wished that all the Lords people could do so. Galat. 2 9 When Paul grew to be a preacher, the pillars of the Apostles envied him not that office, but gave to him and Barnabas the right hands of good fellowship, being glad to see many more besides themselves, in the livery of their master. Yea we read of some other men, that being now ready to step into heaven, by the bloody way of martyrdom, grudged not that other should follow, but whereas there were some, whom their carnal reason might rather have wished, to be secluded from eternal comfort, I mean their murderers and persecutors, they notwithstanding setting aside their private injuries, desired and earnestly prayed, that they might be admitted into the same glory, Fulgent. Serm. de Sancto Stephano. whither themselves are going. Let Steven be an example for this, of whom Fulgentius noteth, that whither he went before, being slain by the stones of Paul, thither did Paul come after, helped by the prayers of Steven. He meaneth those requests, which he made as he was dying, when he kneeled down, Act. 7.60. and cried with a loud voice, Lord lay not this sin to their charge. He did not malign his enemies, but wished them the same favour, which he himself enjoyed. If the calling home of the Ninivites, was that whereat jonas grieved, how far was he from the mind of Steven, or from another holy man named Paul, of whom Eusebius reporteth, Euseb. Hist. Eccles. 8.18. that when he went to be martyred, he prayed for the jews & Gentiles, that both might be converted to the faith. He begged of God also for the Emperor, by whose laws he was condemned; for the judge who pronounced the sentence against him; yea for the very hangman who executed him, that his death might not be laid as a sin against them. Then it was a fault in jonas, that when as by his education, and knowledge in God's service, he knew as much as those other, yet he would suffer malice & emulation, to carry him so contrary a way. 11 But Hierome writing upon this text, doth disclaim that to be the reason of this man's choler here, and cannot think that the Prophet was so simple, as to vex at it. And indeed I am of this mind, tha● this was not the cause. For it seemeth in the next verse, that he oftentimes thought of that, that God was pitiful and merciful, and very slow to anger. Whereby he might well gather, that it was no news, nor strange thing, that he should spare offenders. But what then was it, which caused this sorrow? Hierome giveth a more pregnant reason, that he by this foresaw, Hier. in. jon. 4. Deut 32.21. that the fall of Israel was come, so that it must be rejected. He remembered that of Moses, They angered and provoked me by those who were no Gods, and I will anger them again, by those who are no people. I will stir them up to wrath, by a very foolish nation. Hence saith Hierome, he despaireth of Israel's salvation, and breaking forth into sorrow, he uttereth it thus in a manner, Am I the only Prophet who by saving of other men, should foreshow ruin to mine own? To make this the more plain, he bringeth in that for this cause Christ wept over Jerusalem: Luc. 19.41. Marc. 7.26. Matth. 10.6. that he would not take the children's bread, and give it unto dogs: that he first sent his Apostles to preach to the lost sheep of Israel: Rom. 9.3. and for this saith he, Paul desired to be Anathema for his brethren. Now in truth this were a more tolerable case, to be jealous in that sort for his countrymen. For if the rising of others had been the standing of Israel, that jointly as two sisters they might have served the Lord, two people, but of one church, it had been a gain to the latter, but no loss to the former. But being that it was with them, as the Poets imagined it to be with Castor & Pollux, Virgil Aeneid. 6. that when the one lived the other died; or as with two buckets in one well, while the one dippeth the other drieth, this might trouble & disquiet a man otherwise much resolved. The jews could not be blamed, when they were displeased at Agrippa (as josephus showeth) for when he had built Caesarea, joseph. Antiquit. lib. 20.8. he did not only adorn that being a foreign city, & so neglected all his own, but took away such ornaments as were any way in his kingdom, and removed them to that place, so that the flourishing of this new one, was the sinking of all the rest. If the fault of jonas were of this nature, it was a very commendable fault, agreeing with all good Israelites, yea with every Christian mind, who would desire the celestial, and spiritual good of his country and people: yea with our Saviour Christ, who did so love the jews, Luc. 19.41. and was so troubled at thei●●●sll, that it made him shed tears for it. Tull. Offic. lib. 3. 12 But as sometimes it was said by Tully, declaring how Romulus pretended a law, to kill his brother Remus, it was a fault by the leave of Romulus or Quirinus, so by the leave of Hierome so rare and renowned a father, there was a fault in the matter: and this could not be the reason; for the Prophet imputeth the cause of his anger to God's mercy, and not to his justice: I knew thou waste a merciful God, not I saw that thou wouldst leave the Israelites. Not one word of rejecting: not any thing of his people. But to put it out of question. That had been a zealous jealousy toward the honour of the Lord, an affection to the Church, Exod. 32.32. an imitation of Moses, a drawing near to Christ, a thirst that his people should be saved. But my text doth not grace it so, but calleth his passion, anger. He was displeased: he was angry. And lest any man should imagine him to be angry and not to sin, Ephes. 4.26. God himself is in dislike with him for it, which he useth not to be, but toward those who transgress, Dost thou well to be angry? Then let us go a little farther, and take it that he murmured, because the Ninivites perished not: & this not because he desired their destruction, as principally intending it; neither because he originally envied their finding grace with the Lord; but because it followed consequently, upon that which he intended. But the main point which did vex him, and put him to all the sorrow, was lest he should be accounted a false and lying Prophet, to tell a tale, and deliver a message which proved clean otherwise. He had spoken it definitely, in the name of the Lord, Yet forty days and Ninive shall be destroyed. And since that the city stood in majesty as before, untouched and unharmed, he might very well be taken for a forger and a feigner. And this is declared by the text, to be the cause of his moving. Was not this saith he my saying, when I was yet in my country? that is, did I not suppose, that thou who art so merciful, and dost take pity so soon, wouldst relent from this thine indignation, and so I should be sent but on a sleeveless errand? Therefore I took this course, and prevented this inconvenience by flying to Tharsis. Then his anger was, because by the Lord's direction he was forced to say that, which he saw fell out otherwise. 13 It is his reputation then whereupon he so much standeth: yet perhaps with a certain reference to this, lest God should be blasphemed, and traduced as unconstant. But under this opinion, not knowing of what spirit he is, or aught to be, in a most preposterous zeal he could have wished with the Apostles, Luc. 9.54. 2. Reg. 1.10. that as in the days of Elias, fire might be brought from heaven, to consume the city Ninive, or that the earth might open under them and swallow them up, Num. 16.32. as Corah and Abiron were served. All this while he runneth on a very wrong ground, exacting overmuch the rigour of the letter in his preaching, and not knowing that inclusively God understood this condition, Ninive shall be destroyed: that is, if they repent not. But he is firmly persuaded, that the glory of the Lord is like only to appear, and be eminent by vengeance. He had already said it, and averred it, that ruin and desolation was immediately to follow: and a Prophet was sent forth of purpose to do that message; therefore in his opinion it is high time, that the thing were now performed. If we think of him alone, than a matter of reputation and credit in the world, doth carry him so far headlong. But that was fame dearly bought; and the credit of one man, prized at too high a value. What? must God be the minister and worker of his ambition, and must he establish it by such a ruin, and such destruction of so many thousands? This, although in a different sense, was pride little inferior to that of wicked Haman, Esther. 3 3. who because he would teach such fellows as Mardocheus was, next time to bow before him, would have all the jews, which were dispersed through six score and seven Provinces, to be slain upon one day, and the mighty king Assuerus must be he that must do it, by a very sharp proclamation. Our Prophet looketh so much to the ruff of his own glory, that rather than himself will be tainted for his word, not an earthly Assuerus, but God must be the instrument, to destroy the lives of thousands. In the wars, he is thought but a hard General and Commander, who when himself unadvisedly by fury or sudden passion, hath said he will have this; or such a day he will do it, when afterward it falleth out to be a thing of great difficulty, yet will thrust his soldiers on, and make them be slain like sheep; whereas if he had his will, that for which he did sweat, will bring no profit to him, but the matter is, he will keep his word. Oh the lives of men should be dear, and blood should be much esteemed. There was a Roman who could say, I had leisure save one citizen, then destroy ten of mine enemies. The Ninivites who formerly were miscreants, are now come to be God's subjects: then jonas thou shalt be but a bloody leader, if for thy words sake, thousands of them should die. It is better, that thou shouldest lose thy will: better that thou shouldest lose thy longing, than they should lose their lives. 14 If it were, that he thought the glory of God was hazarded by that bargain, and thereupon he was angry, that is a most inconsiderate zeal, to take on him to be wiser, than the very fountain of knowledge. Can man be more jealous than God himself is of his glory? Can the creature better know what belongeth to it, than his maker? How dareth flesh band with God, for justice or for mercy, or for true understanding? Were it not the easier way for it, to think itself to be ignorant, to be defective, to be far short of the Lords projects and purposes? and to suppose that he best knoweth what is fittest for himself, and for all those which are under him? If the Prophet had been set to the guiding of an Elephant, or a ship upon the sea, he knew not how to rule it: yet the silly man would now sit in a throne, and dispose of Ninive, and by a consequent, of the world, and of God also, how he should order it. And although it be the Lords honour which is in question, yet he will be the carver, to tell what best befitteth. It had been his part rather, to subject his discretion to the discretion of his maker, and if that wise Creator would in justice have proceeded against that people, to like well of that justice, because the Lord liked of it: but if he would have inclined to a favourable pardoning, to be best pleased with that. Exod. 32.32. Nay rather if he with Moses had stepped in as an intercessor, it had argued more charity; or if he imagined that to undertake that, was too hard a point for him to manage, yet at least upon the smallest inkling, that grace should be afforded, he should have waited for it, and should have rejoiced that light might break out of darkness, and that the frowning countenance of God, had been turned into a pleasing. And if he could not be induced to go thus far, yet he should never have made stay, to be content with the Lords doing: let him work his will: but to fret and grieve and vex at it, yea to chide with God as he did afterward, is a fault of a grievous nature. 15 The doctrine which we must learn by it, is of more than ordinary benefit. Wheresoever we live, and God offereth unto us any matter, wherein we are to spend our labour, it concerneth us to be diligent & industrious in the performance of that, which belongeth unto us. 2. Tim. 4.2. In season and out of season, by friends, by purse, by presence, by all our strength and endeavour, to further and forward that, which we undoubtedly know to be good, and to advance all duty of piety and charity, or of service to the Church. But when we have done all, let us leave the event to God: let us leave the success to him, to whom it properly appertaineth, & let there not be the least murmuring, or grudging if we speed not. For our friends or children, the Lord better knoweth what is good, than we ourselves can devise; but in the mean while, we must pray and beg the best of him; and yet with this condition, Matth. 6.10. Thy will be done. That which we think is most dangerous, turneth oftentimes to our good: and thence whence we expect our undoing, God raiseth our greatest comfort. The case of Monica, mother to Saint Austen is famous: she grieved that her son was spotted with the heresy of the Manichees, and she prayed that the Lord would bring him to the Orthodox Catholic faith. August. de moribus Catholicae Ecclesiae lib. 1.18. She remembered this, day by day, and yet as himself doth witness, for nine years together he continued so infected. It fell out afterward, that he would needs go, and travel out of Africa into Italy. His mother being loath to part with him, who was as the staff of her old age unto her, earnestly prayed, that God would hinder him of that purpose. Yet Austen went, and by hearing the Sermons of Saint Ambrose at Milan, he was converted to that, which in former times he could never like. He reporting all this matter doth use this good speech of it, August. Confession. lib. 5.8. Thou o God being deep in counsel, and hearing the substance of my mother's desire, didst not care for that which she did then ask, that in me thou mightest do that, which she ever asked. Thus the Almighty dealeth with other of his servants, working all things to the best, but it is at such times as he himself doth think good. If it be in him to bless, it is in him to do it, when it seemeth good to himself. Therefore let us never be angry, and repine at that, which he altereth from the intent of our mind. 16 But among all, let the Minister be most patient this way. He peradventure beateth down pride, or crieth out against extortion: he is derided for it: then he poureth out many threats against scoffers and deriders. If repentance follow in them afterward, and so their prosperity continue, let not him be offended at it, but let him rather rejoice, that God hath so prospered the word which came out of his mouth. Again, it may be that he requesteth at the hands of his heavenly father, that he would spare some whom he seeth to be tempted, and in Christian commiseration, wisheth that they were refreshed, with the sweet dew of God's comfort: Or else he seeth some tainted with superstition, and doting on the See of Rome, whom yet he loveth in human affection, as being of neighbourhood or kindred, or because they be of his charge, or for their lovely behaviour, and other amiable moral virtues. Let him use the best means that he can to bring them unto the sheepfold, by preaching, by exhortation, by conference and by prayer, but especially by honest and holy conversation: but if God still shut their eyes, let him not be angry at it, and fret against the Almighty: but leave all to his dispensing. Perhaps that hour which afterward shall appear, is not yet come. Perhaps God meaneth that it shall never come; but according to his unsearchable purpose, he will leave them in darkness. Here do thou admire God's justice toward them; but his favour to thyself: stand amazed at the one, and kindly embrace the other: but be patient in both. And as it may be said of Socrates, Aristides, or Curius, or Fabricius, that for the desire of honesty which was more in them, then in other people of their time, we could in human commiseration, wish that they were in heaven, among the Lords elect, but that when we in Christian understanding do think upon the matter, we find that it is not for us to be more merciful, then God the father of mercy, and fountain of loving kindness; so in this case of our own experience, we may not take upon us, when we have wisely considered of our duty, to be more pitiful to our friends, than God who is perfect pity. Let us in humility sigh and groan for them, and be thankful for ourselves, but no anger, no displeasure. God is King over all the earth, and on whom he will have mercy, on him he will have mercy: and whom he will, he will harden. Now he who is this gracious father to us, continue this favour on us, Rom. 9.18. for his own Son Christ his sake, that in the joy or the sorrow, the welfare or the ill fare of ourselves or other men, we may yield ourselves to his will, who is the rule of justice, of integrity, and of clemency, that so we may be obedient unto him, to whom be praise and glory for evermore THE XXV. LECTURE. The chief points. I. jonas doth not quite turn from God. 3. The force and virtue of orayer. 5. Our prayers are ofentimes faulty. 7. jonas to excuse himself will lay the blame on God. 10. The forbearance and patience of the Lord. 13. The words of jonas condemn himself. 14. They are blinded who frame not themselves to Gods will. jonah. 4.2. And he prayed unto the Lord and said, I pray thee, o Lord, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I prevented it to fly unto Tarshish. For I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil. THat the Prophet was to blame, for being angry with any thing, which the Lord would have done, I hope from the former verse, hath been made plain unto you. Yet furious as he is, he is not so forgetful as to turn● quite away from God, and to leave him in the plain field: he doth not throw down his livery, neither doth he openly answer him, that he will no more belong unto him: but follow him he will, Marc 14.54. although it be as Peter followed Christ, a far off, with infirmities and weaknesses heaped up with over-measure. When the women in Samaria, 2. Reg. 6.31.33. by reason of the violent & strong famine, which was caused by the siege, fell to eating their children, jehoram rageth at it, and there is neither God nor good man that cometh in his way, but at him he doth strike. God do thus and thus to me, if the head of Elizeus stand on him this day. And, this evil is of the Lord: shall I wait any longer on him? That was the rage of a reprobate, who could have been content there had been no Lord in the heaven; or that he had had his will on him. Like to which or something worse, is the fury which is described by Saint john in his Revelation, Apoc. 16.21. where when hail like talents is mentioned to fall, men on earth are said to grieve at it, yea to blaspheme the Almighty, for the plague of the hail. jonas is not so far gone, but although he fret that his will is not every way completed, yet he shaketh not quite off the yoke of obedience and humility, neither yet taking the bit perversely in his teeth, runneth on to his destruction. He is not so far in as he should, nor so far out as he might be, if God's grace had forsaken him. Notwithstanding to testify some thing, for indeed it is but some thing, he betaketh himself to his prayers: he prayed unto the Lord. 2 Then a general obedience yet remaineth in this sinner, wherein he could wish all well, as having learned by his smart, to stand in awe of that great Majesty, which had so followed him before, and might reckon with him afterward. But as water which ariseth from the purest and cleanest fountain, if it come through a puddle channel, will keep still to be water, but it will be troubled water, by means of that which it toucheth: so his intendment to pray, springing certainly from devotion, is so mingled with dregs of wrath, and vanity and excuse, to quit himself and blame God, that as good almost not at all, as not to be better. Some drams and grains of gold, appear in him and his action; but dross is there by pounds. Little wine, but store of water: some wheat, but chaff enough. That he came to God it was good, and that he came by prayer, for that is the best sacrifice which the soul can send up into heaven: but that it was in such sort, to expostulate, not to beg, to reason, not to confess, to chide, not to ask pardon, is a many faults put together. My meaning is not to exagitate this in jonas, otherwise then by looking particularly to the circumstance of the fact, to see how good instructions we may gather from this his prayer, to right ourselves and strait our steps, in that where he went amiss; which I shall the better do, if I propose unto you these three things to be considered: First, the preface which here is used; And he prayed unto the Lord: secondly, the excuse which he maketh, I pray thee was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I prevented it to fly unto Tharshish. And thirdly, the reason whereon he grounded all, because the Lord was merciful. In the first I shall speak of prayer: in the second of our excusing and shifting sin from ourselves; and in the third, of that wherein must be all our comfort, that the Lord is kind and long suffering. And he prayed unto the Lord. 3 That anguishs and perplexities do here wait upon us, as companions more unseparable than the shadow to the body, is a matter by Scripture and experience so evident, as is the light at noon day. Psal. 34.19. Act. 14.22. 2. Tim. 3.12. Many are the troubles of the righteous. By many afflictions we must enter into the kingdom of God. And whosoever will live godly in Christ jesus must suffer persecution. Persecution is of diverse sorts: it may be inward or outward, in body or in mind, in goods or in fame, in sickness or in sorrow, and the most holy have abundantly tasted some one of these, the patriarchs and Prophets, the Apostles and Martyrs, Christ jesus himself. The weight of which burden, he is not well advised who seeketh not to support by some firm under-lyer, and that is faithful invocation upon the name of God, and flying to him by prayer. For if there be any thing which may appease sorrow, & ease the grieved heart oppressed with the feeling of temporal occurrents, or wounded with the want of spiritual consolations, it is to have recourse to the throne of grace, and there with watered eyes and cheeks be deawed with tears, to lay open those grievances which breed sorrow unto us. Psal. 1 16.4. I shall find trouble and heaviness saith David, but I shall call upon the name of the Lord. jacob. 5.13. It is the counsel of Saint james, Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Hanna being vexed in her spirit, did betake herself to this medicine: ●. Sam. 1.11. she went to the Tabernacle, and there she earnestly entreated. The whole book of Psalms doth witness, that this was the Altar whereunto David when he was pursued, did still retire himself. This was the stay of Hezechiah when he turned him to the wall, 2. Reg. 20.2. being in extreme anguish. And Saint Paul being buffeted by the Angel of Satan, 2. Cor. 12.8. ran to this as a refuge: I besought the Lord thrice saith he, that is, many times. And where can be comfort, if it be not in this? When worldly things do fail us, and there is help from no man, when friends are few, or weak, or absent, or perhaps grown unfaithful, but foes are fierce and malicious; when Satan himself suggesteth all things to the worst, when the thoughts within are much disquieted, the conscience even amazed and standing at the gaze, scant knowing which way to walk: then to power forth our complaints, and discover our miseries to him who doth know all, because he is almighty, to him who considereth all, because he is our father; and who both can and will take pity of the distressed. The practice of this, doth both expeditely and assuredly bring relief to him that trieth it: that sigh which breatheth out sorrow, by a backe-breathing bringeth in joy. That hand which being thrust out, doth reach a supplication upward, reacheth down contentation: deliverance doth break forth, or at least patience sitteth within: yea now there may be joy in suffering. Thus mercy is powered down, and seasonable showers of sound and sure refreshing do fall upon us, as upon the thirsty land. Were it not for this precious ointment, the heart which is sometimes puffed and stretched with care, would break and rend in pieces: but by praying it is suppled and mollified, and stroked, till it return unto his settled nature. 4 Then are not we to blame the while, who having a remedy so fair, so lovely in itself, for what is like speaking to God? so profitable for us, for what doth so assuage our grief? so acceptable to our maker, for what doth he account a better sacrifice than this? so ready at hand to us, for where or when may we not pray? Yet in our many molestations, we rather seek to ease ourselves, with any thing then with this; and so indeed we disease ourselves, either presently heaping more evil upon evil, or if we think that we slack our sorrow, it cometh forthwith more vehemently on us, as the fever doth to him who drinketh cold water in his fit: there may be a superficial skin bred above, but rankled, festered, dead flesh doth putrify underneath. If one mighty man do oppress us, we seek to back ourselves by another which is his equal: if our neighbour agree not with us, the law shall end all between us: if we speed not there, then more money shall be employed, to fetch it another way: if that practice go not forward, we will try a farther conclusion of slander and defamation, so to quit a friend in his kind. If that way we cannot reach him, yet we will have our pennyworths out, in railing upon him, or at least in secret whispering: inward we chafe, and outward we act it, with more than tragical gesture And thus we do in those things, which we account not as trifles, but in such as bite and gripe us, and break our sleep and quiet. Yea in matters of greater consequence, we run a very wrong race. If our conscience be now touched with the horror of some thing past, or fear some future punishment, or a falling away from grace, which terrors are sometimes incident to the faithful, we either wish merry company, or some sport to pass the time, or music, or some stage-play, or if we be much possessed, we throw ourselves on our beds, and in melancholy we muse, or we walk solitary, till we be even steeped and dissolved in most dull contemplation, the heart frighted, the spirits weakened, the brain crazed, the remembrance perished, and so either God's graces are obscured, and diminished in us, or endangered quite to leave us, which I cannot speak without horror. Where now is our Christian wisdom, and spiritual understanding, when we have a help so compendious, so forcible, so effectual, to be wanting yet to our own good? Here the author whereon we should take told, is earnest and frequent prayer: we are to get us into our chambers, and there with mighty contention, to knock and rap at heaven gate, to beg resolution and constant patience, of him who denieth not any good thing to the asker, that so the issue may prove well, and the end may be with comfort. In this sort to solicit with a lively faith, and not sleepingly or faintingly, is the lancing of that imposthume, which doth canker and heat within us: and this we may do, if we were but single & alone. But if this serve not the turn, then let us join with other faithful: the more company the more cry. Where two or three be together, there Christ will be among them. Matth. 18.20. That which cometh slowly when it is entreated by several ones, cometh quickly when many are joined together. And therefore God hath made the communion of Saints, that one might help another. As men going upon the ice or some slippery place, do stand so much the surer, if one hold hands with the other, Gregor. Epistol. lib 1. Epist. 24. so is it saith Saint Gregory, when we join hands in prayer, we ask so much the stronger, we obtain so much the sooner. But whether we be alone or otherwise, the heaven and our heart will make a consort, which will allay all distemper. If the fire be not thus let out, or our wine be not thus vented, it doth break the place which holdeth it. Wise men upon observation, lay it down as a most expedient rule, that grief of mind should be imparted to some one or other: it is much eased with the telling: but by taking part in the hearer, and by counsel and comfort from him, it is very much diminished. If it be prescribed to us, to do thus by man, then how fit is it that we should have recourse to God, that we should double ourselves before his approved goodness, who best considereth, and helpeth soon, and therefore were it but in that, he excelleth all other; but otherwise none of Adam's children is to be compared to him: for he scorneth not at the miseries of other men: he dissembleth not hypocritically: he telleth no tales to enemies, who would joy at the fall of those whom they hate: he playeth not false as men do, who take advantage of the sufferings of their neighbours; but concealingly and compassionately he seeth all, and he salveth all. He then who flieth to this sanctuary, is well, and very sure of succour. 5 Then hitherto our jonas is right, that in the midst of his disturbance mentioned in the former verse, he went and prayed to the Lord. But he doth not keep him there: for although the cloth were good, he setteth an ill dye upon it; yea he staineth it and marreth it all. For if we will but look backward, and see what anger was in that mind of his, from whence all was derived, and if then we will look forward, and see how turbulent the words themselves are, laying a salt on God, and drawing an ill conclusion, from the pity of him who is most merciful, and afterward wishing to die, we may easily conjecture that the fashion marred the garment, and the sauce disgraced the meat, I mean the quality of his work, defaced the goodness of it. For he prayed indeed, but it was tumultuously, and expostulatory-wise, rather chiding then beseeching: he calleth God to a reckoning, as if his counsel were amiss, and jonas were in the better: and on he goeth most impatiently, and wished that he were dead. How apparent is the infirmity of man, and how unfit is he for celestial business, when our prayers which are the beauty and glory of our best thoughts, shall be mingled with so much evil? And how do other men serve, when Prophets go thus awry? In matters touching men what slips are there, when in that which immediately appertaineth unto God, there is such stumbling and falling? How many are the sins, which we must have forgiven at God's hand, before that we can speed well, when we fail so in his service? When every thing requireth a purity and cleanness; Exod. 3.5. the ground whereon we stand, that the shoes of all base affections should be put off from our feet; the Tabernacle whereinto we enter, that we should be washed and purged; the seat before which we appear, that the best clothes of our soul should carefully be put on; his greatness to whom we come, that we should only intend to him; yea the approaching of ourselves, that for that time at the least we should be appropriated, and devoted to himself, we are, and we are not; we draw near with our lips, and our hearts are a great way from him. The very name of praying, and of praying to a judge, should strike a terror into us, and imprint in us a reverence both what we did and how. Chrysost. Homil. in dictum johannis, Veniet hora. Look saith chrysostom on the manner of prayer. Dost thou not when thou showest thy hands, openest thy breast, liftest up thy face unto heaven, castest up thy eyes, show thyself wholly unto the Lord thy maker? Then happy be thy hands if they be clean, blessed is thy breast if it be pure, glorious thy face if it shine in simplicity, worthy thine eyes if they be not spotted with concupiscence, happy thy whole man if all of it be undefiled. But this serveth not our turn: we will pray although it be unfitly, as God knoweth it is many times. 6 For sometimes when we ask good things, as the enlightening of our souls, the free way of the Gospel, the increase of the faithful, the tranquility of the Church, the continuance of graces from above, yea patience and repentance, and everlasting life, we do it with such coldness, such perfunctory formality, such idle and gaping sleepiness, that we ourselves are not moved with any zeal towards God's glory, but we do it because we do it, and we care not much what cometh of it. Yea if we will acknowledge that which is the truth of the matter, we are filled with such wandering thoughts, and straggling cogitations of Mammon and of ambition, of envy or of lust, that rather we do any thing, Deut. 6.5. then that which we are doing. Whereas all the heart, and all the soul, and all the strength should be the Lords, the vigour of our wit, the intentness of our brain, the most fixed meditation of the spirit, that if it were a thing possible, we should be wrapped from the earth, and sequestered from that body, while we be in that holy exercise. Some other times, the manner is not the only thing wherein we trip, but the matter itself is nought. For gold and precious stones we bring stubble and straw: we ask such things of him, who is an immaculate, unspotted and undefiled spirit, as we would be ashamed that men should know. We tender that to our maker, which we would not ask of our neighbour. I do not here speak of such vanity, as wherein the Pharisee abounded, Luc. 18.11. I thank God I am not as other, but rather of carnal devotions. We entreat for our sports, and for our wantonness, as for everlasting matters. I had liefer that you should hear from the words of Saint Gregory, Gregor. in 40. Homil. 27. rather than from mine, what things we do ask. In the house of jesus you seek not jesus, if in the Temple of eternity, you importunely ask for temporal things. Behold one in his prayer asketh for a wife, another beggeth for a farm, a third maketh request for a garment, another would have meat given unto him. Nay, may not we go farther, Erasm. in Peregrinat. Religionis Ergo. even as sometimes Erasmus noted, how in the days of superstition the Virgin Mary was solicited: for the soldier prayeth for his booty, the thief for his rich cheat, the dicer for his good fortune. Do not these things very suitably agree with so sacred a Majesty? Do they not become us very well? I doubt not but that we may ask for such things, as are needful to this life, if we place them in their fit place, and sue for them with condition, If it shall seem good to the Lord; but those other things are toys and trifles, and do favour of carnal motions. And it is no marvel, if in such cases we speed not: for as once it was said, to the mother of james and john, Ye ask you know not what, so it is with us in our prayers. God seeth that such things do hurt us, Matth. 20.22. and therefore in his kind love, he denieth them unto us. Here that of Saint james hath place, Ye ask and receive not because ye ask amiss, jac. 4.3. Bernard. Serm. 5. in Quadragesima. to consume upon your lusts. And that also of Saint Bernard: When his little child asketh bread, the father reacheth it unto him, but when he asketh for a knife, he denieth it. So God doth grant fit things to those who ask them, but unto him who entreateth for voluptuous or bad matters, he doth deny them. And surely if he should give them, they were rather tokens of his displeasure, then of his favour to us. But how merciful doth God appear to be, when he beareth these things at our hands, and doth not consume us, as he did those who brought strange fire unto his Altar? Leuit. 10.1. Let us study to amend this fault, neither begging in bad manner with other, nor bad matters with jonas, but let us be earnest in that, which we know to be good, as that entreaty of Fulgentius is, where he prayeth for himself, Fulgentius de praedestinat. lib. 1. I beseech him who is the truth, that by his mercy preventing me and following after me, he will teach me whatsoever things are healthfully to be known, and I know them not: that he will keep me in those true things which I do know: that wherein as a man I am deceived, he will correct me: in what true things I do stumble, he will confirm me: and that from false and hurtful things he will deliver me. And thus much of the preface. Now come we to the words themselves, which do mention his excuse. Was not this my saying, when yet I was 7 It were well for the Prophet, if his choice had been as good, as his resolution was. Those things which he apprehended, had need be just and holy, for were it well or otherwise, if he once had entertained a matter, he would strongly have maintained it. He imagined that God in the end would not destroy the Ninivites, but that his mercy would over-way, and overbalance his justice: therefore fearing lest himself denouncing their destruction, should be taken but for a liar, and so God's name should be blasphemed, he thought to end all at once, and run away from his calling, jon. 1.3. as it is in the first Chapter. In steed of land he getteth him to sea, for Eastward he goeth Westward, for Ninive to Tharsus. What God thought of this, he had pretty well felt already. The tempest which belaboured him, the lot which deprehended him, the whale which devoured him, might acquaint him what the Lord conceived of him. But to the end that no doubt may remain, God a second time biddeth him go, and preach to the Ninivites. Here duty would have supposed, that the Lord knew well enough what he did, and the issue of the matter would be his glory. But jonas thinketh otherwise, that God might spare his honour, and himself might save his labour, and stay at home at the first, and not come with a great show, and all but in a sleeveless errand. And whereas he ran to Tharsus, he supposeth that he had reason for it: he took the best course that might be; and if the Lord might be pleased so to think of it, he did well: he did as he should: that did he. Oh the incredible folly of man, that to justify itself in a most undecent action, careth not how it layeth about it, and rappeth it esteemeth not whom. The Highest was overseen: not the best but sometimes sleepeth: and the servant was in the right. Psal. 51.4. Yet welfare king David: Against thee have I sinned, and done evil in thy sight, that thou mightest be just when thou speakest, 2. Sam. 24.17. and pure when thou dost judge. And when the Angel with the pestilence destroyed seventy thousand, he standeth not to defend his folly, but confesseth that he had sinned. Old Eli wanted no faults, yet he had learned that lesson, not to stand on his justification, when threats were denounced against him, 1. Sam. 3.18. but replieth, It is the Lord, and let him do what seemeth good unto him. But our man where he taketh an opinion, will not be removed from it, be it right or be it otherwise. Although here he would withdraw from himself the blame of his former flight (which while he goeth about to maintain, he maketh himself twice guilty) yet still he will be innocent. Wherein appeareth how blind man naturally is: when it cometh to him or his, there will be a selfeweening, a selfe-liking, a selfe-conceipt, in the grossest errors that may be. This sin of thinking well of ourselves, sitteth close and long, even when other sins are shaken off, which showeth that the speech reported of Plato is true, evagr. Hist. Eccl. lib. 1.21. that this is as the inmost garment, or shirt next the skin, which doth sit on last and fastest, yea when we have put off all the rest of our other clothing. Hence it is, that be accused who will, we for our parts are always innocents. When Saul had spared King Agag, 1. Sam. 15.21. and brought home the best beasts of Amalek, it was the people that did it, his hand was not in the fact: nay he could make good use of the oversight: the cattle would serve for sacrifice, to be offered to the lord Matth. 27.24. Pilate will not be to blame, for crucifying of Christ: he taketh water and washeth his hands, and the jews only are in fault. The high Priests were wondrous clear, when judas brought back the money, and threw it into the treasury: and if there were any betraying of the innocent blood of Christ, it was judas that must look to that, for what was it to them? And almost there is no cause in the world between man and man, touching discord or discourtesy, or quarrel or question, but the party who is conferred with, is clear and free from offence, and the other side hath transgressed. The remembrance of which matter, vives de bello Turcito. made Lodovicus vives compare men to his children, who oftentimes disagreed, as children use to do, yet never any of them did wrong, but injury was done to him. All the earth doth run this race: other men are only nocent, and we innocent in all causes. 8 This is a pretty paradox: the man who is most culpable, is least of all to be blamed. But it were more tolerable, if man only to man used this, by a strain of wit to divert, or boldly to overface that, which justly may be reproved: But this is it which passeth a good man's understanding, that so we may be scotfree, the just and terrible judge, all whose ways are truth and equity, shall have the spot cast upon him. If any thing be amiss, it is by God's decree, or by some thing which he hath done, which we cannot avoid: or if we had had our will, it had proved far otherwise: I foresaw this in my country, saith jonas, and therefore I prevented it by flying, and getting me to Tharsh●sh: but the Lord would have his own way, and now see what is come of it. Here he showeth himself to be a very right son of Adam, who although he had borne himself disobediently in Paradise, yet he would shift the matter, and lay it upon God. August. lib. 2. contra Manicheo●. Adam doth not say saith Saint Austen, the woman gave me the fruit, but the woman which thou didst give me. And with sinners nothing is so familiar as to attribute that to God whereof they be accused. It was marvel that Adam going a little farther, Aug. in Psal. 70. he had not added this: Why should I not eat this fruit, for if it be not good what doth it here in Paradise? and if it be good why should it be forbidden to us? Since God made it and set it here, he is to blame if we may not eat it. This humour is by propagation derived far and near, and although it be not showed in toys, where our patience beareth no burden, yet when there is any grievous feeling, too many do run that way. My natural inclination doth lead me to this folly. I have it from my nativity. I do but tread the steps of my father, from whom I have it hereditary, that I know not how to avoid this love to Bacchus and Venus. Why should God give me a body, which by sicknesses and diseases, is so subject to impatiency, if he like not that I should grieve thus? He ordained me for a beggar, or laid a curse on my patrimony, which is come down on me, and on my father's house, and therefore if luxuriously I wast all, who can hinder that which must be? who can hold that which will away? These are fearful & cruel words which being uttered falsely and unadvisedly, provoke great wrath from heaven. If any thing in thee be amiss, it is by imitation of evil, or by a degeneration from the commandment at the first; Genes. 3.6. and the miseries which do follow thee, are either sins in thyself, because thou fliest from grace, or punishments of such sins as were in thy predecessors, of whom thou hast part by their means. But if thou wouldst call for grace, and enure thyself to good, and to a desuetude of evil, thy natural inclinations would be turned to be spiritual; thy soul would cast her slough of impiety and presumption, and the maladies of thy body would all turn to thy benefit, that is, to increase thy faith and humility. Then learn to confess thy sins to the Lord against thyself, Psal. 32.5. and let him be excused. 9 For such bitter words as these be, do not savour of the spirit, but of that furious fiend who waiteth upon the reprobates. And they oftentimes (as Paul intimateth) to quit themselves of such sins as bring condemnation on them, Roman 9. 1●. lay all upon the Lord's appointment and decree unto life or death, which they cannot withstand. So they know not, that howsoever God in his secret counsel (which we are to wonder at and not to search into) doth leave them to themselves, yet they by heaping up of wickedness, do make up their own condemnation, and add unto their torments; and that whereas by original stain they are too much infected, yet by actual wilfulness they will multiply the guilt of the former, by some thousands of degrees. And herein is their grievous error, that they impute that to God, which is their own by inheritance, and besides that, purchased also through their merit, and so by a double right: but it is the Lords in no other circumstance, saving because he will be just, which he is and ever will be, let them spurn while they can. It were a more direct course, and more honourable in the end, to let God go untouched, to allow what he alloweth, and to ratify what he liketh: to accuse man who deserveth it, and not to seek crickes and starting holes, to lay the fault on the judge. But especially to be vigilant, that with all thy power thou fly sin: for be thou either elect or reprobate, that shall bring ease unto thee. If yet thou be in doubt whether thou be the Lords, or not his, thy faith not being yet fervent, then love virtue morally, that the Almighty may the ●ooner bring thee to the sheepfold, if he mean at all to power grace on thee. And evermore h●pe the best: for he can call the most wicked, and of stones raise up seed to Abraham. Matth. 3.9. Yea if thy heart seem to condemn thee, yet God doth rule thy heart, and can mollify it and soften it; and the devil himself which tempteth thee, is but a lying spirit, for although he do suggest, that thou art nothing but a castaway, yet he is a deceiver, and is not of God's counsel. But suppose that thou belong not to him (whereof I would not have any man distrustfully to doubt) yet fly from sin, and do moral virtues, and that at least shall ease some part of the extremity of those torments, which thou shalt have in hell fire. Although thou gain no joy by it, yet thou shalt escape much evil. Thy pain shall be the less: not because thou hast done well, but because thou hast less declined from virtue, as Austen speaketh, making difference between Catiline and Fabricius: Augustin. contra Pelagianum julianum lib. 4. Fabricius shall be less punished than Catiline, not because he was good, but because the other was more bad: and Fabricius was less wicked than Catiline was, not in that he had true virtues, but because he did not as far as might be, stray from true virtues. But be it the one or the other, take all thy sins upon thyself, and seek not to excuse the nocent, by accusing the innocent, who is free from the smallest blemish. In a lesser matter than eternal life or death is, it was a fault in our Prophet, that he would assume the better, and God must have the worse: he will be clear, and the Lord shall be culpable. And let this be said of his excuse. The mercy of God. 10 The third note is the reason, whereon he groundeth his defence, & that is the Lords proclivity and propenseness unto mercy. And here, howsoever the former matters may trouble us by a remembrance that they may be our own case, yet this maketh amends for all, that we have to do with a Lord, whose goodness is so great, & whose graciousness so plentiful, that we need words to utter it. jonas therein walking right howsoever else he tread ill, goeth as far as may be. A gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil: such a one is ready every way to take pity, but cometh to vengeance and fury with heavy and leaden feet. Our man doth so well at this, that we need not doubt but he had a good schoolmaster to direct him, and that is the Lord himself, who appearing unto Moses, Exod 34.6.7. doth cry thus of his majesty, The Lord, the Lord, strong and merciful, gracious and slow to anger, abundant in goodness and truth, reserving mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin; in which place of Exodus although afterward there follow a little of his justice, which he may not forget, yet we see the main stream runneth concerning mildness, and kindness, and compassion. That is it wherein the Lord may be said to delight, joying to be a Saviour, a deliverer, a preserver, a redeemer & a pardoner, rather than to be a judge. He hath one scale of justice, but the other doth prove the heavier: mercy doth overway. He who is ever just, is merciful more than ever, if possibly that may be. And it seemeth that every day, as his Gospel was growing on, so his pity came also forward. He who for one transgression, thrust the Angels out of heaven, and for his first slipping awry, turned Adam out of Paradise (his fury breaking forth against both them) now in the days of grace, beareth with us years and years, from our cradle to our grave, after a thousand and a thousand falls, of weakness and wilfulness, by word, by thought, by deed. Yea he came to this soon, not long after the creation, giving in the days of Noah, Genes. 6.3. a hundred and twenty years of repentance, before the flood. Our Ninive from the mouth of this present Prophet, had forty days, jon. 3.4. before it should be destroyed. But Jerusalem being grown to the height of all iniquity, so that both the servants and Son of God were slain by them, the Sabaoth polluted, the Sanctuary profaned, yea a horrible sink of filth being now among them, yet was spared forty years, before that God sent up Vespasian and Titus. Euseb. Hist. Eccles. lib. 3.8. See whether this be not tollerancie, which we with amazedness may admire. Indeed when nothing would serve, but the member being quite uncurable, must needs be cut off by him; when their sin extorted and wrung down vengeance; he paid them for all together, that they who would none of his love, might have full heaps of his hatred. His arm being lift up the higher, did fall so much the heavier: the watercourse stopped the longer, did break out the more fiercely, according to the custom of God, who as Bernard sometimes spoke, Bernard. de Anima. cap. 2. By how much the longer he expecteth that we should amend, so much the more strictly he will judge us if we neglect. The jews felt this to the full: but how slow was he to his anger? 11 Christ jesus who is the image, and engraven form of his father, was not behind hand in this property, while he lived here upon earth. He taught it by the figtree, which bearing no fruit, Luc. 13.6. was not by and by cut down, but first for one or two years it should be dunged and trimmed, to see what good would come of it. He sustained many ignorances, & untowardnesses in the Apostles, and yet did not reject them: yea his patience was so great, that it showed itself to judas, No marvel saith Saint Cyprian that he showed himself patient toward his obedient disciples, Cypr. de bono patientiae. who could with long suffering endure very judas to the last; could take his meat in company of his enemy; knew a foe to be in his house, and did not openly descry him; yea refused not the kiss of a traitor. joh. 1.29. He might rightly be called a lamb, yea that innocent Lamb of God, by an excellency above all other, who could see such a one, and suffer him so often and so near him, and scant say a word against him. This did no good on judas, but as the same Cyprian observeth, the like tolerance was effectual to salvation in other men. If those who did shed the blood of Christ, had been taken presently after, they had perished everlastingly: but God so graciously disposed for their good, Act. 2.37. that they were pricked in their hearts, and so brought home to the sheepfold; of enemies being now made friends. Which made that father say, Cypr. ubi suprà. He who shed the blood of Christ, was quickened by the blood of Christ; such and so great was Christ's patience, which if it had not been such and so great, the Church should not have had Saint Paul for an Apostle. Thus the holy and blessed Trinity dealeth with men in this present age, in great mercy after years and twenty years before they come to the grave, respecting such as have been men audacious and impudent in ungodliness; such as have been superstitious, and Popish even unto idolatry; such as in a conceited fancy were so fastened to Antichrist, that to lose their lives for the beast, they thought to be to do God good service. Those persons who had lain & fried in hell, as firebrands to be burnt, remediless and everlastingly, if they had departed in that mind to the grave, the place where is no redemption; by compassion from the mighty one, whose bowels are made of mercy, are suffered to live, till with tears they wash away many folly's. But then apprehending Christ aright, they bless the eternal father, who hath thought upon them so kindly: they bless the day and the hour, that ever their eyes were opened: that their mist was removed away: that they have changed the puddle of traditions and superstitions, and will-worships and ignorances, of customs and vain inventions, into the bright delightful water, which streameth from him and his word who is the well of life. 12 We who never drank of those dregs, yet may make the same confession: for we feel God's favour every day. It is an argument of his love, that we have so many things, life and breath, and food and raiment: that many such accidents do not overtake us, as whereby other come to ruin, sword and fire, and hunger and pestilence, and diverse others occurrents, which destroy many in this life: that in so many provocations, for forty years together we have enjoyed such rest, that the ages to come will hear it and scant believe it, but never again expect it: the soul so fed and the body: such honour and reputation, in all the coasts of the earth, under a woman's conduct, that we cannot choose but confess, that the Lords aspect hath been good over this blessed Island. But besides that general sea of grace, which lieth open to all that come, how long suffering is the Lord to every one of us? Indeed he is singular in clemency, for when he found nothing in us, why his eye should be upon us, than he prevented us with grace, and touched our heart with a feeling. Since that time, when we would slip from him, he catcheth us and holdeth us fast: when every toy would allure us to sell God & be gone, he will not so part with us: if we be lost, out he seeketh us, if we lie long he raiseth us, if we come not, than he draweth us, in temptation he doth strengthen us, in strong despair he relieveth us. Who would ever have to do with such a froward generation, so slippery and so tickle, so giddy and so perverse, but only he who is like himself, who will love because he will love: our inconstancy shall not hinder his firm and sure good pleasure. The pains of the mother with the infant, is a matter of various labour: her sleep his broken, her business hindered, her necessities even neglected: yet because she loveth she swalloweth all: but she must come short of God, who, were it not that he is resolved to do it, because he is full of mercy, he would never so wait upon us, and expect us as he doth. We reap the comfort of it, and he reapeth the praise, the honour and admiration. For as every thing in him is worthy to to be wondered at, so this is to be embraced with admiring amazedness, Hilar. in Psal. 144. that he so respecteth man. Hilary hath a sentence worthy to be recited here. This is an especial thing in God: this is to be wondered at in that mighty one, not that he made the heaven, because he is powerful: not that he settled the earth, because he is strength: not that he tempered or distinguished the year with the stars, because is wise: not that he gave man a soul, because he is life: not that he did move the sea into anebbing and a flowing, because is a spirit: but that he should be merciful who is just; but that he should be pitiful, who is a King: but that he should bear with us, who is a God. At this we may wonder, but receive it with great comfort, for the harvest thereof is ours. 13 But to return to my jonas. Thou saidst when thou wast in thy country, that God was so kind and gracious, and would relent from the fury which he threatened to the Ninivites: then wherefore dost thou now grieve at it? Thou didst resolve before, that the end and conclusion would be such; therefore it is likely, that God advisedly performed that which he did, since thou hadst thought so long of it. Then why art thou now angry at it? Who would grieve that fire should burn, or water should be moist? that the earth should be dull and heavy? that the Sun should yield forth light? The creatures cannot so much challenge those properties, as God doth challenge to himself the title of mercy. Then so it is, and thou thinkest so, and saidst so long agone, and yet thou grievest that it is so. Thou thoughtest it so in the theoric, but believed'st it not in the Practic. He is gracious where thou listest, but must not be so where he pleaseth. To jonas he is and may be, but not so to the Ninivites. But thou saidst that he would do it, and yet thou chafest that he did it. Now jonas thou condemnest thyself: thine own mouth hath so taken thee, that thou canst not avoid this strait. For if God be just, and do punish this people, than thou saidst ill, that he would repent of the evil: if he be kind and do not destroy them, than thou frettest amiss, that he who is grace and pity, should show himself in his kind. Then thy collection for the justifying of thine anger is most absurd and preposterous: God is merciful, therefore I fret because he will show mercy: when it should have been clean contrary, God is merciful, therefore I should grieve, if he should not show mercy to them: or, he is slow to anger, therefore he will forgive them. The master in the parable would have turned this answer on him, Luc. 19.22. Not thou evil, but foolish servant, from thine own mouth I condemn thee. For what a speech is this, did I not say that it would be so? Yes: but why then dost thou murmur that it is so? Thou saidst that the Lord would deal thus with the Ninivites; then when it had been done, thou shouldest not have grumbled at it. 14 It is a lesson to us, that still we submit our judgement to the judgement of the Lord: that we seek not with our own wit to carry that which is his, besides the streams of his purposes, but to look to his revealed will, and with modesty and humility, to submit ourselves thereunto. For if upon any affection of discontent, or envy, or ambition, or gainsaying, we will vary from his designments, he will let us be as absurd and unreasonable as jonas was, to please ourselves in conclusions, which manifestly teach the contrary to our opinion. God is marvelous and unsearchable, in taking entangled man in the snares of his own inventions. And if we be as jonas, that is Prophets, & will be foolish, in things which touch his own determinations, he will most of all take and whip us. In this case God's counsels are deep, and oftentimes leave a scar, of a mind unsatisfied in itself, or of just reproof with other, when the crachets of our wit must overrule his will, and we will have it our way, when God hath said it otherwise. What a dash of great reproach to this day, Vineentius Lyrinens adverse. haeres. cap. 23. did light upon origen, besides the fear of a farther danger, when the spirit of his conceit, must be taken for the marrow of the Scripture, and look what with tricks he devised, other men must strait believe. His conclusions grew as inconsequent, as ever this did of jonas. Because we also are Prophets, let us fear in like sort, to force the word of God to any thing, but to what he meant it; or to broach any new devices by singularity of opinion. For as the Lord both blesseth and graceth things done with a good mind, although they have their imperfections, so when our purpose is but vanity, or rareness, or a fancy to sing a note beyond all men, in that where soundness seasoned with care and industry, is best, God a little to bridle us, leaveth us unto ourselves, and in steed of praise more than common, our spot is more than ordinary. Concerning the matter of God's business, the best ground is the common way: to teach as the Lord doth teach, and as the words are naturally, and then if all other good helps be used, it is not amiss: but let no human passion make us vary from the substance, because we will have it one way, when God will have it another, lest the Almighty be not so much honoured as otherwise he should, and we ourselves be discomforted. God grant that we may make use of the examples in the Scriptures, that in need we may seek to him who is able to help us: that we may pray to him as we should, in humility and obedience, accusing our own infirmities, that so we may taste of that mercy, wherein he is so plenteous, especially in his Son, to both whom and the holy Spirit be praise for evermore. THE XXVI. LECTURE. The chief points. 1. Out of evil groweth evil. 3. God is Lord of life and death. 5. Man is to regard himself as an excellent creature. 6. No man should lay violent hands on himself, 8. nor do things tending thereto. 10. Christians are not excused who killed themselves to avoid their persecutors. 11. How a man may desire to be dead. 12. God in mercy doth not grant all our wishes. 13. The Lord's mildness in reproving jonas. 14. Which should be imitated by all, but especially by the Minister. jonah. 4.3.4 Therefore now, o Lord, take I beseech thee, my life from me: for it is better for me to die then to live. Then said the Lord, Dost thou well to be angry? IT is a speech true, as well in Divinity as in Philosophy, uno absurdo dato mill consequuntur. that grant one absurdity, and a many will follow: which is more commonly seen in practice of life, then in holding opinions. For when we have once gone aside from God's law, and from the rule of virtue, one sin draweth on another, as the links of a chain move their fellows, where the first plucketh on the second. And as a stone which is cast into a pool or standing water, maketh one circle where it falleth, and that circle breedeth another, and so forward successively, till it come to the bank; so evil groweth of evil, and the first begetteth one farther, and there it will not rest, but on in infinitum, unless grace sent from heaven as a bridle of restraint, Genes. 3.6. do make stay in the soul. When Adam had once yielded to hearken to the woman more indulgently than he should, credulity cometh on him: that hatcheth out ambition: thence floweth disobedience; after that cometh excusing, and posting all over to God. 1. Sam. 15.9. When Saul by a foolish pity, had spared the king of Amalec, and by a greedy covetousness had saved the cattle alive, he despaireth upon those threatenings, which were denounced against him by Samuel: then he grieveth to lose his kingdom: afterward hearing that David was the man, who should succeed him, he seeketh every way to slay him. After his hatred toward him, he hated every man who in least sort entertained him, 1. Sam. 22.18. he murdered the Lords Priests: and then to the end that he might procure that from hell, which would not come from heaven, Cap. 28.8. he consulteth with a witch: and at last for the upshot he slaughtereth himself. Cap. 31.4. jonas is not so far left to his own disposition, as to mar all in the end: God's grace is more upon him: yet to show how far weakness in his calling had surprised him, he maketh an ill gradation. Being in up to the shoes, he will on to the shoulders, and it was more by grace then by nature, that he had not dived over head and all. For first he had unadvisedly resolved on the destruction of the city, without any sparing: and in his longing for it, he was grown bloody in mind; then seeing that God would pardon them, he is displeased at it, and he proveth angry with the Lord himself. His wrathful mind breaketh forth, and excusing himself for all, he layeth the fault on the Lord. Yet here he sitteth not down, but furious as he is, in all hast he will be dead, to be rid of all the trouble. And although the Lord do interrupt him there, yet he will be dead the second time, as afterward it doth follow. 2 In this place I am to handle the conclusion of his prayer; wherein after that he had tendered his own justification, as it is in the former verse, and had vexed himself that he could not see that which he intended, he requesteth that he might die, accounting his peevish anguish to be a thing so intolerable, as that a living man might not bear it. Wherein he still continueth an example of human frailty, which being led by affection, and fancy-full opinion of some present encumbrance, forgetteth the rules of piety, and very grounds of reason, and speaketh it knoweth not what. For how unfit was that motion, because other men must live, jonas himself will die. Because he might not have revenge on those who hurt him not (for their faults were against the Highest) he would be revenged on himself. Thus dealt he at that time; when as a man whose heart had been seasoned with understanding, should have taken such contentation, at the conversion of so many sinners, that his joy should have been the greater, and his life should have been the sweeter, to see such a metamorphosis, that unrepentant sinners should be now crying out for pardon. But my text leadeth me to speak, not what a one he should be, but what a one he was, and therein these two verses offer to us several matters: the one, the desire of jonas that his life should be taken from him: the other the increpation or rebuke, which the Lord bestoweth on him. And these two are the main drift. But the former doth branch itself into a second sort of instructions, as first that the Lord is he, who taketh away life from man, secondly that therefore to deprive ourselves of our breath, is against his holy ordinance: and thirdly in what cases we may wish ourselves to be dead, and in what it is unlawful. These three things being handled, as God's spirit shall enable me, I will come to Lords reproof. Life and death is from God. 3 This unpatient Prophet mingling good and bad together, layeth it down in his ecstasy, that it belongeth to God, to take away life from man. Not I will die for anger, or I will destroy myself, but Lord take away my life. And in their greatest sobriety, the holiest Saints have and must acknowledge that jehova was he who in the first creation, breathed into the clay a living moving soul. Genes. 2.7. Act. 17.28. In him saith Saint Paul, we live and move, and have our being. And whose it is to build, his it is to destroy: whose the making is, his is the marring. This caused Moses speaking plainly in Gods own person, to join them both together. Deut. 32.39. Behold now for I am he, and there are no Gods with me: I kill and I give life, I wound and I make whole, neither is there any who can deliver out of my hands. So job that holy man: job. 12.10. In God's hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind. If in his hand, then to give it where he pleaseth to give it, and where he listeth to deny it. Solomon the wise doth apparently aim at this, Eccles. 8.8. where he saith: Man is not Lord over his breath, to retain his spirit, neither hath power in the day of death, nor deliverance in the battle. Where by an Antithesis it must needs be understood, that God then is Lord over it, and he doth dispose of it. And he hath learned little in the school of Christ jesus, who perfectly knoweth not this, that his breath in his body as a tenant at will, is put into a house, whereinto it may not enter, but by the good will of the landlord, and being once in, there it must keep and hold the building upright, till it have his discharge to remove some whither else. It must not stay longer, than the term set by the owner, neither must it depart till that moment come. In the beginning of our being, it is God who giveth the barren a power to conceive, who quickeneth that within, sometimes sooner, sometimes later, which he meaneth shall see the Sun: who bringeth it into the world: thou art he saith the Prophet David, Psal. 71.5. who took me out of my mother's womb: who preserveth from the cradle, by thee have I been holden up ever since I was borne: and leading us along, he lengtheneth or he shorteneth the race which we shall run, and when we come to the period of the time decreed by himself, there he biddeth us stay and fall. Our glass being run, we return to the earth from whence we were taken. 4 And that it might appear, to be only his prerogative, to begin and end life, howsoever he giveth the entrance unto it but by one way, Seneca. lib. 7.1. Controversiarum. that is by generation (as a heathen man noteth) yet arbitrarily, by innumerable means he dissolveth it and destroyeth it. And this he doth not at haphazard, but he ordaineth it before with an immutable decree, so that it may not be changed. jerem. 43.11. jeremy the Prophet useth these words: The king of Babel when he cometh shall strike the land of Egypt, such as before death unto death, and such as be appointed for captivity to captivity, and such as be for the sword to the sword. This intimateth that by the providence of the Lord, who did set that king on work, several persons in their times are determined to their several ends, some to the sword, some to famine, some to the pestilence, Ezech. 14.21. and some other to the teeth of wild beasts (which are the Lords four great plagues) and some other to other deaths. The execution of this decree is so various and so manifold, that there is no one man's tongue which possibly can describe it. Genes. 4.8. judic. 9.53. Abel he is slain by his brother. Abimileches brains are beaten out by the hand of a woman, throwing a piece a millstone from a wall. Agag is hewed in pieces. 1. Sam. 15.33. 2. Reg. 9.24. Epiphan de vitis Prophetarum. Luc. 13.1.4. Plin. Natur. Hist. lib 7 7. Hier. Epist. 19 Tom. 9 jehoram slain with an arrow. Esay cut with a wooden saw. Amos slain with a dore-barre: the blood of other was mingled with the blood of their own sacrifices. Some there were on whom the tower of Siloah did fall, Anacreon the Poet as Pliny telleth, was choked with the kernel of a raisin, and Fabius the Senator was served so with a hair. Pope Adrian the fourth as Cremonensis writeth, was choked with a fly. Valentinian the Emperor came to his end, Sozom. Hist. Eccles. lib. 6.6. by straining himself with crying too loud. jovian another Emperor was found dead in his bed. And to recite no more of ancient time, now in our days, many come to their graves by Apoplexies and Lethargies, and dead palseyes, some by falling, some by drowning, some other as a wasted candle go out naturally. What the Lord hath appointed over them, that every one partaketh. So that it is a thing peculiar to his own pleasure, to withdraw breath from mankind, which if at any time he be not pleased to do, no devise of man can bring about the destruction of the least person: snares and ambushes laid as against Elizeus, 2. Reg. 6.14. Dan. 6.22. Cap. 3.27. shall be frustrated and escaped. Lion's teeth shall stand still as they did at Daniel: fire shall not burn, as it was in that oven, where the three children were. All policy shall sink, and all complots shall be dissolved, as the Lord hath manifestly testified in his anointed handmaid, who reigneth over us: whom he hath kept hitherto amidst most strange conspiracies, because his purpose is, that yet longer he will honour her. 5 Here it shall be no ill advise, to intersert this word: that since the Lord himself, who forgetteth not his other creatures, is notedly & especially so careful over man, to let his life in into him, and to let it out by decree, to measure out his sufferings, and to moderate his endure, to deliver when he listeth, and to save when he thinketh good (the remembrance of all which, and the like benefits, Psal. 8.4. made David cry out, Lord what is man that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou dost so visit him?) we should esteem of ourselves as of God's special workmanship, in a degree beyond ordinary. My intent is not to puff up our hearts with any pride, or to thrust into a selfliking (for the Lord doth hate pride: Prou. 16.5.18. Matth. 11.29. it goeth before a fall: and the humble men are those, on whom Christ's yoke is laid) but to rouse us up from that neglect, which commonly is in all carnal men, I mean a careless estimation, and drowsy consideration of the graces of God upon us. For do we not see many, as if they were only borne to be somewhat in the world, and that so small a somewhat, as if it were but nothing, go on as forlorn people, who make no account of their being, and only eat and drink and sleep, and walk on idly, as if they cared not much, whether this or that did fall out, to themselves or other men, and they were but a sort of things, which be they or be they not, it maketh not any matter. A conceit which is very earthy, and dull as is the clay, and in no sort beseeming a reasonable soul, who should carry his face upright to God, and to the heavens, and think himself to be made for somewhat: to glorify the Almighty, to be a part of the Church, to help to adorn the world, to be doing honest actions, while he is here in this life, and not to go poring forward, as a beast which looketh only downward. Is it nothing, that he hath given thee speech and reason, which he denieth to every thing but man? Is it nothing, that his son redeemed thee with his blood, and paid such a ransom for thee? Or, to note what my text doth note, is it nothing that thy life is dayed and houred, and inched out, by a fearful God and a terrible? who among so many motions, and directions, and disposings, and altering transmutations, of heaven and earth and water, yet hath thee so in his reckoning, Psal. 139.1. and beareth such an eye upon thee, on thy in-going and thy outgoing, of thy lying own & thy rising, of thy sickness and thy health, of thy living and thy dying, as if only he did intend unto thyself in special. Do not thou esteem that to be vile, which he reckoneth of so much worth: let that soul be precious to thee, which he accounteth of so great price: do not hang down thy head, but with industry adorn thy soul, and with diligence in his service, thinking it a shame to see that active, nimble and stirring substance, to be overgrown with mossiness, and rust of such neglect, as hitherto hath possessed it. 6 Now as it is not unproper, to observe this in glancing sort, because the Prophet giveth that attribute to the Lord, that it is his prerogative to take away life; so from this, there evidently ariseth as a doctrine, to be thought of in the next place, that it is a great fault and a transgression not excusable, to thrust ourselves into that which belongeth unto our maker, and so by an usurpation to deprive God of that singular privilege, which is proper to himself, of taking away life from man. I do not here speak of the Magistrates, who carry the sword as from God, and are bound not to acquit or excuse the guilty. To them the charge is given, against murderers and manquellers, that he who sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed. Genes▪ 9.6 Leu. 24.10. jos. 7.25. 1. Reg. 2 31. Moses stoned the blasphemer: josuah did so by Achan, and Solomon in his uprightness took away the life of joab. But I speak here of that case, which might touch our Prophet nearer: that is, that although he did pretend, that he willingly would be dead, yet he doth not take a course, violently to lay hands on himself and his own body, but prayeth the Lord to dissolve him. Wherein it appeareth, that although he were perverse and discontent; yet he was not come to that height of iniquity and impiety, as to destroy himself. A sin of the most strange nature, that any is in the world, that whereas all other sins are to preserve the body, indeed, or in a fancy, in circumstance or in substance, this is to overthrow it. Yea to overthrow it with God, and overthrow it with man, in this world and the next, without hope and all recovery, unless the Lords mercy which cannot be limited, do that whereof is no warrant. His commandment is in general, Thou shalt commit no murder. If no murder upon other, Exod. 20.13. then much less on thyself. For thou must love thy neighbour, but as thou lovest thyself; and the pattern of all duty to be extended in him, Matth. 22.39. is taken from thine own person. Then when the Lord hath created thee, and put thee into the world, and bid thee there to keep, as in a standing place, as in a watch or ward, from whence thou mayest not move till he come to discharge thee, wilt thou dare to leave thy ground, and forsake that which he hath enjoined thee? When thy soul shall come before his just and fearefulll countenance, how must it needs be dismayed, when that speech shall come from his mouth, what dost thou in this place? who sent for thee? who dismissed thee? As thou with violence hast cut thyself from thy body, so with violence I do cut thee from all hope of participation in my glory. 7 What a trembling may this sentence procure upon this soul? what mountains may it not cry to, or what hills to fall upon it, Apoc. 6.16. to be freed from such a doom? It is good therefore that every Christian, who desireth to have his part in the holy resurrection, should fly from this, as the way to everlasting damnation. 1. Sam. 31.4. 2. Sam. 17.23. Matth. 27.5. This is a prank for such as despairing Saul was, to fall upon his own sword: or of cursed crafty Ahitophell, to go home and hang himself: or of judas, to go forth, and work himself to his end. How many are the miseries and vexations, which a Christian should suffer all his life time here, before that he should once think of this? With what earnestness of prayer, should he resist this tentation? joseph. de bello judaico. 3.14. Should I say that josephus a jew, with full reasons refuted that, which was urged for this ungodly fact, at such time as he was pressed unto it, by his bloody minded fellows? Yea heathen men have taught this, as Plato in Phaedone, Mocrob. in Somn. Scipion. 1.13. Tull. in Somnio Scipionis. from whom we find, that Macrobius hath collected seven reasons, why we should not dare to attempt this. But the speech of Tully is excellent, in that Somnium Scipionis, whereupon Macrobius there commenteth. For when Scipio had said, If true life be only in heaven, why stay I then upon earth? why hast I not, to come to you? No it is not so, saith his father, for unless that God whose Temple all this is that thou seest, free thee from the fetters of thy body, thou canst not have an entrance thither. For men are begotten, and bred upon that condition, that they should maintain that round thing, which thou seest in the midst of that Temple, and which is called the earth. And there is given unto them a soul, of those everlasting fires, which you call stars and planets. Wherefore o Publius, both thy soul and the souls of all good men, is to be kept by them, in the safe custody of thy body, neither without his commandment by whom it is given unto you, are you to leave this life, lest you should seem to fly this duty assigned by God. If a heathen man by the light of nature could go so far, it were a thing very admirable, that bare reason should be able to teach so much. But we may very well imagine, that this came from the Divinity of the Jews. For Tully in that place deriveth his position from Plato, Macrob. ut suprà. which Macrobius plainly noteth, and Plato's divine Philosophy, was by hearing or reading, sucked from the books of Moses, which thing Eusebius in his book De Praeparatione evangelica, Euseb. de▪ Praeparat. Euangelic. lib 9.3. doth manifestly lay down, citing there Numenius the Pythagorean, who writeth that Plato was nothing else, but Moses speaking Greek, or in the Attic language. But be this so, or be it otherwise, the doctrine is most true. 8 First then in this are condemned those, who yielding themselves too much unto Satan's suggestions, wilfully destroy their own bodies: from whom as I dare not generally withdraw the hope of salvation, and everlasting life (for God's mercy may give grace, and a sudden hasty repentance, between the bridge and the water, between the deed & the dying, so that then they could wish all were well, and no violence offered) so on the other side, I cannot but pronounce that the case is very dangerous, and in the highest sort to be suspected and feared, unless the Lord do give apparent tokens of penitency. Do not first take strong poison, and then afterward seek some such remedy, as may be offered in an instant, whereunto to trust thou hast no warrant, but almost all to the contrary. Secondly they are here taxed, who wilfully and without cause, adventure upon such things, as are the ways of death, by that means tempting God, to see whether he will preserve them: for so it must needs be, Matt. 4.6.7. if they think of him at all. Remember how Christ discountenanced all leaping off from the Temple, which in nature had been a means, to dash himself to pieces. Some dangerous tumbling tricks, and walking upon ropes not without danger of life, and other sports of that quality, are very near to this. Here let me acknowledge one thing to you, whereof I have oftentimes thought in myself by occasion of that text, which was cited to our Saviour, by Satan the great tempter in the story last mentioned. When he would have Christ throw himself from the pinnacle of the Temple, he encouraged him by that place of the Psalm: Psal. 91.11.12. He shall give his Angels charge over thee, and with their hands they shall lift thee up, that thou dash not thy foot against a stone. Where, as every man may see, he cited the Scripture falsely, leaving out that which is very material, to keep thee in all thy ways. He shall give his Angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. I have heard that a reverend man, preaching on a time in our sister University, at the burial of one or two gentlemen, who came to an untimely end by swimming, enforced out of that place of Matthew, that it is the policy of the tempter, to draw men from their own ways, to the ways of other creatures. And therein (as I have heard) he observed, that a man's way was to go, a birds way was to fly, as fishes way was to swim: and if we would leave our own paths, dangerously and without cause, to do as fishes or birds do, we tempt God in that case, and suppress as much of the Psalm to ourselves, as Satan did to Christ. For God will keep thee in all thy ways, not in the ways of a bird, not in the ways of a fish. I cannot say that at that time, by collection from that text, or by the doleful example which was then before his eyes, that reverend learned man utterly forbade that exercise, as impious & unlawful; neither dare I do so: for fishermen have use of it: and Peter in the presence of our Saviour, joh 21.7. girded his linnnen garment to him, and threw himself into the sea: and the means that some escaped from the shipwreck, Act. 27.43. in the company of Saint Paul, was their swimming: and soldiers in passing waters, are oftentimes constrained to betake them to this exercise. So that utterly to condemn it, or dislike it, I think it not convenient, or warrantable; but certainly in that sort as many use it, and too many in great cities, and perhaps some in this place, that is to say, young ones, & in the deep, and without company or good help, yea and upon the Sabaoth day, which the Lord hath notedly punished, as some of us may remember, doth fall within just reproof, of being too much accessary of shortening men's own lives. Let the elder and the younger lay this to their own consciences, and make the use to themselves. Only upon occasion of this summer time of the year, I do briefly mention it. 9 Within this compass, there come plainly our challenges, and defendances for combats in the fields, for every trifling brawl; where not for God and their country, or for their Prince's safety, but upon every brawling disgrace, the life is thrust into danger. How uncomfortable a thing is it, in a mortal deadly wound, which may very well be thy share, to think that thou hast sought the dissolution of thy soul from thy body, and to have rather stood on thy manhood, and fame with other men, then upon thy Christian duty? How many laws did Moses make, but none for the duellum, or combat between two? Deut. 19.5. Nay, he who laid it down, that if the head of an axe fly off, as a man is cutting wood, and slay his neighbour being near unto him, with whom he had no quarrel, if the pursuer should take his person, before he came to the city of refuge, it was lawful to kill him; what would he have thought of these men, who will thrust themselves into this straigth, to slay or to be slain? What the Emperor Honorius, son to that good Theodosius, thought of this, appeareth hereby, that as Theodoret writeth, Theodor. Hist. Eccl. lib. 5.26. he took away all sword-playings and gladiatory fights, which so long had been used in Rome, because they were the means of many slaughters. The very Turks in this case are worthy of commendation, of whom I find in the Epistles of Augerius Busbequius, Augerius Busbequius Epist. 3. Ambassador sometimes among them, for Ferdinandus the Emperor, that while he was in the country, when one of the Turkish Captains had reported before the Bassas, that he had challenged into the field, another of the San-iacks or Lieutenants of the Turk, of whom he had received some grievance, the Bassas that Grand Signior thrust him presently into prison, and used these words unto him: Didst thou dare to denounce the combat against thy fellow soldier? were there not Christians to fight with? You live both by the bread of our Emperor, and would you try for each others life? Know you not that whether soever of you had ben● slain, it had been a loss to our Sovereign? he had lost a man? a soldier? This was but a worldly reason, which yet holdeth among us also. But for the avoiding of slaughter, upon other men or ourselves, which point concerneth the Lord's commandment, we should fly from these great occasions of murder, which is so horrible a sin. But to return to the main cause, if these accessaries and helps to bring ourselves to the grave, be things not to be justified, than what a great fault is manslaughter, directly done upon ourselves? 10 I have said more of these adiacents, than my purpose was to speak: but for the great point, which naturally ariseth from my text, I have therein said less, because I debated this question at large, jon. 1. 1●. upon the twelfth verse of the first Chapter of this Prophecy: and in the opening of this book, I have ever aimed at that, not to repeat the same things oft, in manner or in matter. Yet one word more before I leave this, and that is, that in the Primitive Church, it was somewhat a strange kind of opinion, that men confessing Christ might make away themselves, to withdraw their bodies from torments, which their persecutors would offer to them; and they knew not certainly whether their strength were able to sustain. Euseb. Hist. Eccles. 8.24. Eusebius in his history telleth, that in the bloody time of cruel Diocletian, there were diverse, who for the reason named, did procure death to themselves, by throwing their bodies from floors and lofts, & high places. And he addeth farther there, that a certain Chistian mother & her two daughters being taken, and fearing lest she or they should be deflowered, which of all things she detested, stepped aside from their keepers, & threw themselves into the river, and so perished in the water. Cap. 27. Afterward, the same Eusebius speaketh of another matron, who going into her chamber, as it were to attire herself, while the officers of the Emperor expected her return, thrust herself through with a sword. And these matters Eusebius doth not only historically relate, but by an insinuation, doth little less than commend them: but of certainty he evidently approveth them. Now true divinity doth maintain, that this praise is not good; but such deeds are very unlawful. God who simply forbiddeth all murder on ourselves, doth also forbid this, because he giveth no exception in this point or case, either directly or indirectly. The Prophets and the Apostles, and our Saviour Christ himself, did with humility expect, that the will of God should be wrought upon them by others: they did not make themselves guilty, by laying violent hands on their own flesh. That were not patience, but impatiency, and breaking away from the cross imposed on them. 2. Mach. 14.42. Augustin. contra secundam Gaudentij Epistolam. Hieron. in jon. 1. By occasion of the example of Razias, mentioned in the second book of the Maccabees, and there said to destroy himself. Saint Austen very excellently disputeth this against the Donatists, whose treatise who so listeth to read, shall see that he plainly and substantially proveth that this is not to be liked in any Christian. Hierome upon the first of jonas, desirous as it seemeth to make excuse for such facts, giveth thus his judgement on this matter: It is not our part to hasten death to ourselves, but willingly to receive it being laid upon us by other. Whereupon even in persecutions, Absque hoc ubicastitas periclitatur. it is not lawful for us to perish with our own hands (unless it be where chastity is endangered) but to submit ourselves unto the striker. In general he condemneth it, and that particular exception where our chastity is endangered may very well be left out: for violence which is offered to the body of man or woman, and cannot be resisted, doth not make the party sinful. It is consent which staineth us with transgression, and not that force which we cannot avoid, and which we approve in no sort. He who lived in a deeper time of darkness and superstition, Sarisbur. de nugis Curialium. lib. 5.17. that is Sarisburiensis in the fifth of his Policraticus, could see definitely and positively to determine all this doubt. His words are plain and direct, and therefore I think good to cite them: None of them who have laid hands on themselves, are sufficiently excused by me, although the Ecclesiastical story with great commendation, doth extol some who hastened their own death, because they had liefer that their temporal life should be endangered, than their chastity. His judgement therein is sound, although the faults of those who were surprised, and deceived with such an opinion, should be covered with silence, and left to God's secret judgement. Now to come to my third circumstance. 11 jonas being full of errors, yet knoweth that it is the Lords part, to give life and take it away: and he is not ignorant that to use violence on himself, were a very grievous sin: but yet he goeth so far, as to wish himself dead: he prayeth God to end his life, and concludeth it to be better for him, to die then to live. Here is a double fault in the Prophet; one, that the cause which did move him, to such vehemency of thoughts was a matter much unbeseeming: for all his anger was, that the Lord would spare the Ninivites, which he thought was against his credit, and the esteem of a Prophet; and jonas by a consequent is in this case grown bloody. But of this before in this Chapter. The second fault is, that in this his mad and raging anger, he doth wish himself dead. For this in him proceeded from a vexed unquiet heart, possessed with impatiency, and not from a sanctified resolution. We deny not but in some cases, a man who is here on earth warfaring, and in a combat with his spiritual enemies, may wish himself out of life. As when there is a mere and fervent desire to be joined with his head, to be with the blessed Trinity, and the Angels about the throne, as accounting that glory to be the garland, for which we must sigh and groan. And this doth Saint Paul teach us by his evident example, Philip. 1.23. where he professeth of himself, that he longed to be dissolved, and to be with Christ. And this love hath filled the minds of many of the martyrs, who thought all to be dung, in comparison of that heavenly celestial beatitude, which is aloft with God. And therefore they feared not to press on to that mark, by fire, and sword, and racking. And is these days of the Gospel, that is one of the consolations, wherein we do abound, that we see many of our Christian brethren and sisters, when in the extremity of their sickness, they lie upon their deathbeds, to embrace our Saviour Christ, and thirst for their dissolution, to think each hour a year, before they be in heaven. Again, when there is truly in us a settled hate against sin, which ariseth from a servant love to the Lord, whom we grieve to displease, not for fear, but for kindness toward so gracious a father; than it it is a good desire, soberly and with ripe judgement, to wish ourselves out of this body, where daily we provoke him, whom we love so entirely. And in this also, we have the steps of holy Paul to tread, and to walk in, who considering the great burden of sin, which was upon him, and how it did evermore disturb him, doth cry out passionately, O wretched man that I am, Roman. 7.24. who shall deliver me from this body of death? Where certainly he intendeth so much, as that in this consideration, he could wish himself from this earth. But on the other side, if they be but froward thoughts, and werying perturbations, which distemper us too much; or if it be for some sorrows, and afflictions which fall on us; or because by one or other we are thwarted in our designments, then in wishing for death, we prove plainly to be offenders, for want of submitting our will unto the Lords will, for lack of waiting with patience, and attending the leisure of the Almighty. If Elias that powerful Prophet, be overtaken thus, to cry, now it is enough, O Lord take away my soul, 1. Reg. 19.4. for I am no better than my fathers, because jezabel pursued him, to destroy him if she could take him, he may not be excused. 12 But for our man, it is evident that he was in this brack: it was no earnest motion to be with God which did stir him; for now he was angry with him: neither was it because he loathed sin; for he heaped that as fast on him, as possibly he could: but because in a testy peevishness, and unbeseeming curstness, he could not see that effected, which he so hotly desired, that was, to see all Ninive brought to utter desolation. And in this fury, the man would be nothing else but dead. He had never been dead before, and therefore did not know, what it was to come unprovided and unfurnished, yea indeed clothed with frowardness, before so high a judge. If it then had been removed when it was in that fury, with what comfort could his soul approach before the tribunal? Whereby it appeareth, how mercifully the Eternal dealeth with us, who oftentimes in his love denieth to us those things, for which we wish; which if we should evermore enjoy, we were better be without them. Theseus as Tully saith, Tullius' office. lib 1. by obtaining the thing which he desired, gained this, that his only son Hippolytus was lost, and torn in pieces. The same which that fable reporteth, of those wishes which Neptune granted to him, that they did hurt and not help Theseus, is true of God's part toward us: if he should evermore grant, that which we wish on ourselves or other, it would overturn our bodies, and make our souls to perish. Do we not many times, unadvisedly wish ourselves in our grave, as jonas did in this place, when I wis we little think it? And if then there should come any, who would take us at our word, should we not make twenty pauses, yea a hundred exceptions, before we would be ready? It is but Aesopsfable, but the moral thereof is true, Aesopus de Seine & Morte. that a poor and desolate old man, turning home from the wood with a burden of sticks upon him, threw them down, and in remembrance of the misery which he sustained, called oftentimes for death to come to him, as if he would live no longer. But when Death came to him in earnest, and asked what he should do, the old man presently changed his mind, and said that his request unto him was, that he would help him up with his wood. This most commonly is our case: we would find some other business to set Death about, if he should come to us, when vainly we have wished for him. And it is not much unlikely, that our Prophet in this place, would have played such a prank, when he prayed to God with such vehemency to take away his soul. But be that as it will be; let this stand good between us, that with anger and with chase at that which the Lord decreed, and with wishing death in his rage, the Prophet highly offended. Which being so largely discoursed, now come we in the second place, to see how the Lord taketh this, which I shall pass as briefly over, as I have been long in the former. And the Lord said, Dost thou well to be angry? 13 That which jonas had witnessed in the second verse of this Chapter, that the Lord is very merciful and slow to anger, is in this place experimented: for when the potsheard so grossly had overseen itself, to grudge against the potter, the creature against his maker, the hot spirit of man would easily have imagined, that he to whom the wrong was done, to the end that he might preserve his greatness entire, would have let him known his own, and received all roughness from him. How would a landlord here have ruffled up his tenant? but the Prince would have rung such a lesson to his subject, that he should well have remembered with whom he had to deal. Nay may we not justly think, that the mighty jehova, who is covered with the thunder, and clothed with the lightning, who speaketh and the earth doth tremble, who moveth and the heaven doth quake, Leuit. 10 2. 2. Sam. 6.7. 2. Reg. 5.27. 2. Chr. 26.19. who blasted Nadab and Abihu dead in the instant: who stroke Vzzah in a moment, that he never spoke again: who made the body of Gehazi, and the face of King Vzziah to be covered with a leprosy: who so disgraced Herode, Act. 12 23. that in the ruff of his majesty he was eaten up with worms, would have shaken up jonas so with taunt and reproaches, that he should never have forgotten it? But the Lord to give a token of his infinite moderation, and unconceivable softness, maketh no answer but this, Dost thou well to be angry? Wherein as he doth show that jonas was to blame (and therein overturneth the excuse of Saint Hierome, Hieron. in jonae. 4. who most willingly would cover all, as if there were no fault, and therefore goeth not right, since the text is to the contrary) so he beareth with the infirmity of the distracted Prophet, and doth rather warn him kindly, then entreat him very roughly. Dost thou well to be angry? as if he should have said, Thou frettest when thou shouldest not: wilt thou be the judge jonas, to decide what is most for my glory? thou takest on thee to prejudice my wisdom, or my will: that either my discretion is not such as it should be; or when I know the best, yet I will follow the contrary. This is not aright jonas: for if any have occasion to be angry it is I, who must be ruled now and not rule, be directed and not govern. This mild increpation would have moved any man, but him who was steeped in anger, as jonas was. I do not here any farther pursue God's patience in his own person, because I have oftentimes touched it. 14 My lesson which I gather here, is rather for ourselves, that when we have to do with passionate persons, that is to say, brethren which are weak, but not desperately evil, and see them overtaken with affections of anger, of sorrow, or displeasure, we by our mild behaviour, seek to win them from that fault. When rage is repelled with rage, it increaseth farther fury, and so oil is put to flame, and contention to strife. A soft answer appeaseth wrath: Prou. 15.1. but grievous words stir up anger. Although to equals this may fitly be applied, and to superiors, yet the saying is general, and hath place toward inferiors also. The bending yielding spirit is most likely to prevail, with the most robustious persons; but a good man will have an eye, that he yield not in things unlawful. The Apostle dealeth thus with the Corinthians: 1. Cor. 4.14. I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved children I do warn you. The Apostle would not of purpose shame those, whom he saw coming willingly enough to God, but the matter itself will shame (yet with a bashfulness to good purpose) the man who is intelligent, when he shall see another, who is greater than himself, to be calm when he is troubled, yea more & more to be calm, when he seeth another troubled: when himself is surprised with heat to behold his better to stand unmovable, no more but to hear him and be silent, or only to look upon him, or to turn away, to be gone until the storm be passed: or if there be a speaking, only to say as God saith here, without further provocation, Dost thou well to be angry? He who is wise and prudent, hath learned to pity those who are blind and deaf, or distracted in wit, and not to study to be like such: but those who are impatient, are for the time no better. Blind, in that they see not what is commodious: deaf from heating any reason: yea possessed with a frenzy, to speak and do things unlawful. Where although flesh and blood would suggest, that as one noise is best of all beaten back with another noise, or one wooden pin with another, so violence with violence, and great words with great speeches, are soon done down and appeased, yet Christian imitation of the best, and patience fit for Saints, biddeth tread another path, of quietness and of softness. 15 I know not to whom this precept may rather be commended, then to the Ministers of the Gospel, who should not be over ready, to take knowledge of such censures as their people do pass upon them, for those things which they preach: when it is not of any malice, or pretended thought to disgrace, but of idle curiosity, and because men have their fancies. Into what flames do these matters break forth, when heat can hold no longer, but on the next Sabaoth day, to sound out of the pulpit, an invective declaration against such carping judges? when perhaps the words were mistaken, perhaps increased and aggravated, by the carrier of the tale. But the end is, that whereas before the party was a brother, and a hearer, now he proveth to be an enemy, and forbeareth to hear the Sermons, from whence he only looketh to be galled: the congregation is disquieted, and in steed of one speaking before, now each man's mouth is open: and the pastor himself being now torn and rend on every side, is troubled in his mind, and discouraged in his calling. How much safer were it here, if it could not be avoided but knowledge must be taken, in private thus to appease the thing which is not right? Do you well to be angry, or do you well thus to say? But if it be a thing possible, the way were to hear and not to hear: to avoid all notice of it. There was never man wiser than Solomon, Prou. 19.11. Eccles. 7.23. and he taught much to that purpose, The glory of a man is to pass by an offence, And in his Ecclesiastes, Do not give thy heart also to hear all words that men speak, lest thou hear thine own servant cursing thee. These precepts are true in all, therefore much more in the pastor, who should shine before other men, and should be more observant, because if it be not in the matter, yet in manner or circumstance, he possibly may err. Prou. 28.14. And blessed is the man that feareth alway, saith Solomon. To which sense may be applied, the beginning of ano-speech of his, Cap. 14.16. A wise man feareth. Yea the first point of wisdom, is to distrust himself. And so much of God's mild reproof. Let us pray to him, so to guide us that we may walk aright, while we be here in this world, and acknowledging him the giver and sender of life and death, submit ourselves in both to his most holy will, unto whom with his Son Christ, and their most blessed Spirit, be glory and praise for ever. THE XXVII. LECTURE. The chief points. 1. The whole Prophecy of jonas is not to be applied to Christ. 3 Reasons why jonas went out of Ninive. 4. Christians are to fly danger. 6. Reason's why he sat on the East side. 8. We should grieve at the ruin of others. 9 God's servants are oftentimes meanly entertained in this world. 10. Therefore none should murmur at their want. 11. We may use any of God's gifts of forded us. 12. Reason's why jonas waited near the city. 13. Satan is the author of all doubts which are against God's word. jonah. 4.5. So jonah went out of the city, and sat on the East side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what should be done in the city. HOw some of the ancient fathers of the Primitive Church, Hieron in jonae. 4. have by allegorizing laboured, to apply the greatest part of the whole Prophecy of jonas, to the person of Christ, may easily appear to those, who are conversant in the volumes of those reverent writers. And I fear that to a judicious and sober reader, it will too plain appear, that those excellent lights and great pillars of the Church, have somewhat troubled their own wits, and forced the text also, to make that good in jesus, which is only true in jonas. For although there be some thing, which by the open witness of our Saviour himself, hath good place in him, Matth. 12.40. that as the Prophet was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so the son of man should be three days and three nights in the belly of the earth, Hieron. in jonae. 1. and some things more beside, which not unfitly may resemble him, yet it is most apparent, that very many matters are as far from him; in the one whereof and other, he may quickly be satisfied, who listeth to look but on the observations of Mercerus, Merceri observat. in jonae. 4. upon the book of this Prophecy. But if any would be refractory, and stand stiff for that, which is passed in the Chapters foregoing, yet here he must needs yield, or be mightily overtaken. For how fitly shall this going out, and expecting what shall become of the city, be applied unto Christ? What shall the gourd be, which is spoken of in the next verse, and the worm which did destroy it? Shall the one be his flesh, and the other his death, or some thing farther fetched? The gourd brought ease to jonas, and delight and contentment, but Christ's flesh brought him none, but rather sorrow and much anguish. The Prophet grieved to leave the thing which shadowed him, but Christ willingly died & gave up the ghost. But above all, this messenger which now was at Ninive, joh. 19.30. was offended with God, and did chide and chafe at him: and when the Lord disliked that, as it is in the ninth verse, and asked him whether he did well to be angry, for the gourd which was destroyed, he most furiously and testily forthwith replied, that he did well to be angry, even to the very death. There is no extenuation or imagining supposal, which can fit this to Christ, and keep the text sound too, and therefore let us rather leave those fathers, where they study a little too much to be like origen (who would turn every thing into Allegories, although the story wrecked for it) and let us hearken to Saint Austen, Augustin. de Trinitate. lib. 4.6. where he speaketh like himself, yet in a matter more general: Against reason no sober man, against Scripture no Christian man, against the Church no peaceable man will think or dispute. But both reason and Scripture put us here from a figure, and therefore we must literally understand it of the Prophet, and aim only at the story. 2 Then mention is made before, how jonas was aggrieved, that the city should be spared, when he had preached the contrary. But there is some difference among the interpreters, whether that knowledge was given unto him being in the city, that it should not so prove as he had foretold, and so he came troubled out, not meaning to stay in that place, where he might be derided as a lying Prophet; or whether he was informed that the Lord would be merciful, after his coming forth, when he severed himself, partly to fright the Ninivites, but especially to sequester himself, from taking part of their hastening destruction. Again it is controversed, whether this which now followeth to the end of the Chapter, jonae. 4.1. were a new grief that surprised him, besides that which before had troubled and vexed him, or rather but only a farther explication of that which is past, which junius and Tremelius not obscurely do insinuate, expressing the beginning of this verse and the next, by, For he went out of the city, and for the Lord prepared a gourd. And thirdly here ariseth a farther ambiguity, whether at his coming out, the gourd were prepared ready, so that thereby at the first he eased himself, plotting the leaves thereof as fit to shadow him, jun. in jonae. 4. in manner of a booth, to the which also junius very openly doth bend, so intending that he sat there, no more than one day (for the next morning the gourd withered) or whether as some other do rather suppose, he made himself first a booth, or sommer-house of boughs, whereof when the freshness was soon decayed, by the drying up of the greenness, than the gourd sprung up in place, as a fresher and kindlier and more contentful cooler. Which doubts so far forth as they shall vary any point of doctrine, I shall touch very briefly; but because they make no difference in the substance of the story, I mind not to pursue them, avoiding on the one side, confusion of the part of the hearer, which cannot choose but arise by intricate things; & on the other side curiosity in the speaker, which by following such nice points cannot choose but be suspected. Then to keep close to the text, and to make all as plain as possibly I can, this verse doth offer to us four observable circumstances, first, his going out of the city, jonah went out of the city, secondly, his sitting down & where, he sat on the East side of the city, thirdly, what he did there, he made him a booth and sat there in the shadow, fourthly, the end and reason of his staying in that place, till he might see what should become of the city. While I handle these things as God's Spirit shall direct me, afford me your wont patience. So he went out of the city. 3 If jonas having very peremptorily preached the destruction of Ninive, were advertised in the city, that the decree gone out against them was altered, and that God who meant to strike would now shut up all, and quit it with a pardon, than this messenger who mightily stood upon his reputation, as before I have showed (although therein he made no dainty, to mistake the whole matter, which must ever be supposed) had great reason to be gone. For allowing his own ground, that himself had said one thing, and now there fell out another, in the altering whereof, he was no way satisfied, he might think that as a liar, he might justly be derided, and pointed at with the finger, as he went in the streets, for a fellow threatening much, and then performing nothing. Now that a man should come so far, and should openly cry out, before such a multitude, who brought it to the King's ear, that there was ready at the doors the ruin of a place Imperial, as that was, the Queen of many kingdoms, and Mistress of many nations, and should set all not in an uproar, but in screeking and lamenting, and in the end and upshot, it should neither be so nor so: Yea that God's name should be used, and threats should be uttered from that fearful jehovah, that the Lord might be taunted at, as well as he, There is a wise God of Israel, Psal. 42.13. to send such a message; and where is now his God? as in another sense was often said to David; might well make this erring and misunderstanding man, to slink aside from them, who before had been witnesses of his terrible words, which now were returned all to wind. For had he been but a man, yet to speak an untruth voluntarily and asseverantly, had been a shameful thing, especially in the hearing of many and great men, Eccles. 41.17. as Syracides well noteth, be ashamed of lies before the Prince and men of authority; but being a Prophet, and denouncing all voluntarily, and of likelihood mentioning a very strange matter, that he had been in the whale, and yet had escaped, and now should tell so palpable and notorious a lie, was a disgraceful reproach, yea reproaches a great many. And that this also should be in the name of the Lord, whose honour should be much dearer to him then this life, but not lay open to be blasphemed by ethnics and Atheists, might make him who was led and possessed with a fancy of ignorance and error, to fly the sight of men: Dan. 4.30. like some Nabuchodonosor, to get him into the wilderness: as Timon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to think himself most happy, when no other man was near him. They who have the greatest spirits in aspiring to honour, and stand most on their braving, are most of all dejected, and disgraced in their thoughts, when they sensibly miss their aim. 2. Sam. 7.23. Ahitophel who presumed on the depth of his own wit, and the acceptance of his counsel, cannot endure and suffer that it should not take place, but rather he will die. Sueton. in julio Caesari. julius Caesar will be Pontifex, or Rome shall not hold him; he will leave all and into banishment, where speak who list of him: but no friend of his shall see him. It is good to be moderate in affecting things desired, and then if there be no speeding, the grief is the less. jonas for being too much eager on his thoughts, is the more discontented, and therefore partly angry, and partly ashamed, getteth himself out of the city. 4 But if we will take it, that being out of the place, knowledge was brought unto him, that the Lord would spare Ninive, than the reason wherefore he departed is otherwise, and that was for his own safety. For if desolation were now to come upon them, and as reprobate castaways, or impenitent sinners, they were to smart home, the Prophet had great cause to hasten him from among them, lest remaining with them, he might with them be stricken. Nature itself had taught him, to fly from that which he threatened as a plague to others. He is in vain wise, who is not wise to himself. And it is true of a Prophet, as well as of a Sophister, Odi Sophistam, and Odi Prophetam, qui sibi non sapit. I like not that Sophister, nor I like not that Prophet, who is not wise for his own good. But Gods own direction might make him wary therein, who when he meant to destroy Sodom and Gomorrha, Genes. 19.12. he sent two Angels to Lot, both to warn him and to hasten him, from the danger there to follow. And when he was disposed to make Corah, Dathan and Abiron, Num. 16.26. a fearful example to all succeeding ages, he made Moses cry to all that were near him, Depart from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, lest you perish in all their sins. jonas might learn by these. And Christians unless they will tempt God, by presuming of his mercy, or of their own merit are bound to depart from all such places, where they know that deservedly the rod of the Lord doth hang over. If it come once to that pass, that the sins of whorish Babylon be gone up into heaven, & God remember her iniquities, we must take it as spoken to us, Apoc. 18.4. Go out of her my people, lest you be partakers of her sins, and that you receive not of her plagues. Yea we should so much fear, to be overtaken with the sins and sufferings, of men infamously wicked, that when we have no special warrant, nor any revelation but God's general justice, that punishments will follow, yet we should by all means decline them. It was Saint john's case, who coming into the bath, Euseb. Hist. Eccles. 3.22. where he found the Arch-hereticke Cerinthus washing, he went hastily out and called to his company, Let us fly away with speed, lest the bathing house do fall upon us. It were much to be wished, that as he did by the heretic, so all who love religion, or civility, or honesty, would do by noted sinners, that if they come in place, where drunkards or swearers be, or ruffianly companions, whom only filthiness of speech or disguised hair, or other swaggering behaviour full of rudeness Thraso-like, doth commend shall I say? or much rather doth condemn, they would secretly slip away, or fly back, as as a man who hath trod upon a serpent. For if plagues do wait on sin, as undoubtedly they do, why may not God strike suddenly between cups and crowzing, Dan. 5.30. as almost befell to Balthasar? Why may he not turn the weapons of one against another, like the Centaurs and the Lapiths? ovid. Metamorph. lib. 12. And what assurance is there, that he who is with the wicked wilfully, and amidst their follies, should not suffer with the wicked? It is good to fear the worst, and to avoid the occasion of plucking any evil on us, although God do not say before, that there and then he will strike. 5 But it is manifest that destruction is to come to Ninive, therefore jonas were very unwise, if he would not get him packing, if so be that yet he had not intelligence, that the Lord would spare the place. And withal it is likely, that God's spirit did suggest that to be done of the Prophet. Wherein the scope at which the Lord did aim, might be double. First to safeguard his servant, that the just with the unjust, the Israelite with the Ninivite, might not be overthrown. For oftentimes the Lord disposeth so, 1. Reg. 22.37. as that Ahab alone shall die, and jehosaphat shall escape. But at the siege of Jerusalem, when it was taken by Titus, this manifestly appeared. For when the rest of the city most miserably died, by the sword and grievous famine, and havoc was made of all things, both within and without, the Disciples of the Apostles, Epiphan. de mensuris & ponderibus. that little faithful flock, being forewarned by an Angel, had gotten themselves to Pella, a city not far off, where they remained in safety. Another cause why the Lord might make jonas remove, might be the more to fright and terrify that people: for if he had stayed there still, they forthwith would have gathered, that it had been but a bug; for why should he who brought the news of evil to other, expect the extremity of the evil with the other? But now when he departed, and left them all to the vengeance, they might justly suppose, that some sore thing was following. Then if they grieved not before, yet they might begin upon this occasion: if they did repent before, they might proceed more earnestly, to continue it and increase it. So merciful is the Lord toward those whom he will save, that one thing or another shall be represented to them, yea peradventure diverse matters, this heard, another seen, a third supposed or imagined, all which shall quicken on unto grace. As those whom in his purpose he hath designed to evil, shall have all things to the worst (as all the miracles were to Pharaoh) they shall either have their sight blinded, that seeing they shall not see, or they shall have ears & not hear; so where the Lord hath compassion, that he may show himself admirable in his mercies, many matters shalljoine to help forward, as affliction, sickness, poverty, reading, good counsel, threatenings, hope, fear, & a thousand other things. If the Ninivites shall be called, they shall not only hear the Prophet preach the word, but they shall behold his example, of going out of the city, more lively to avoid that by repentance, which they see another fly from by wisdom. And this be spoken of his departure. He sat on the East side of the city. 6 Being come out of the city, he sitteth him down not far off, against the East of the city, as Hierome doth translate it, or on the East of the city, as other more plainly have it, which place why of all other he chose for his abode, may be very well worth the doubting. At first I was of opinion, that some of the Popish writers, might make this as a figure of some thing in the Church, for so far sometimes do they strain. The matter which I minded most, was that his sitting upon the East side, might foreshow the manner of the Christians service, which was accustomed to be toward the East, as Gregory Nazianzen writeth, Greg. Naz. Epist. 66. Aug. lib▪ 2. de Serm. Domini in monte. Iust. Ma●t. Quaest 118. and Saint Austen also, who took on him to give a reason for it, and justine Martyr in his Questions, where he yieldeth another reason. Now if I had found this, than had I spoken somewhat largely, concerning that custom of praying toward the East, with some consequents of it, as the building of Churches Eastward among the Christians, and the manner of burial observed likewise, from the East to the West. But because I find none who have intimated so much, and I love not to discourse that, whereof there is no ground, I pass it over, and rather come to more probable reasons, of the which one is given, that he sat on the East side, because the holy city Jerusalem (in the which most apparently of all the earth, the Lord resided) was Westward, toward which he did look, as well as toward Ninive. For that thing being true, which David hath recorded, In jewry is God known, Psal. 76.1. his name is great in Israel, At Salem is his Tabernacle, and his dwelling in Zion, and whatsoever was to come, being to come from thence-ward, he might rather look that way, then to any other coast or quarter of the heaven. 1. Reg. 8.44.48. And since we do find in that prayer of Solomon, at the dedicating of the Temple, that the Israelites being in strange lands, were to look toward that place, when they begged any thing of God, our Prophet in blind zeal might turn himself thither, to ask the consummation and performance indeed, of that which he had spoken. Again if the Lord had promised, to send from that place, comfort to his being in distress, whensoever he was pleased to show mercy, it might well be conjectured, that now intending anger and judgement in high measure, he might from thence send it upon the city Ninive. Which way if it should come, than jonas was so wise, to be as far of-ward as possibly he might, and be within the sight of Ninive also. If a pestilence should be, he would not have that pestilence come over his body: if fire and brimstone came, he would not have that fire come over his head, but so far as it might be, he would be out of danger. But concerning the withdrawing him from the peril, I spoke but even now, in his going out of the city; and that the jews looked to Jerusalem, I formerly touched, when I opened the second Chapter, jonae. 2.4. and therefore of that no farther. 7 A second cause there is more commonly assigned, why he sat on the East side, and that is, because there as it may be supposed, was a hill, from which he might look downward, and see this mighty place, which now was in such hazard. You must think that all his heart and soul was now on Ninive, as imagining that therein was his making and his marring, his credit or disgrace, and therefore he was much eased, that he had such a hill, where his eye might be upon it. And certainly if he were fit to fret, as it is most plain that he was, such a hill might make him fret the more, when each hour he should see those houses stand, which he wished might fall; those men alive whom he wished dead; that multitude in safety, after whose ruin he thirsted. Nothing grieveth envy more, then that which it beholdeth. The Scripture maketh mention of a wicked evil eye, Matth. 20.15. Chrysost. in Genesim. Homil. 16. as being a grudging sense. chrysostom writing upon Genesis, supposeth that to be one of the greatest temptations, wherewith Satan oppugned Adam, when he was in the bliss of Paradise. He bringeth him in speaking thus: What profit is it to you to be here in this Garden, and not to enjoy those things which this delicate place doth yield? Nay therefore is your grief the more bitter and smartfull, that see these things you may, but use them you may not. What he urged there as an argument, to a wanton lustful eye, no doubt he plieth much, to an envious spiteful eye. What a grief is it, to see the thing which thou dost hate, and not to see thy will on it? How careful should we be, to pray to God, to remove us from the causes of such temptations, that he do not set before us things, whereon we may set our mind, with an evil passion or sinister affection; that he do not place us on hills, or in rooms fit to behold them, lest our sin be thence increased; but especially that he suffer not our heart to be defiled, with lusting or malice, or our eye to be infected; but both of them to be single. The greatest fault in jonas was, that envy and bloody cruelty had filled his heart before, but it now did help his sin more forward, that he had a hill to behold that, which was a spur to his envy. 8 If he had been a man of any mercy, or but of common pity, it had wrought with him otherwise. For if of himself he would not be content in piety, that an increase of his masters retinue should be made, by the coming in of so many, by repentance and sorrow: If in charity he would not joy, that so many men who were dead, should revive and live again, and so many which were lost should be found; yet in ordinary humanity and manly commiseration, when he had been up in the mount, and seen so many houses, so goodly and glorious workmanship, as must needs be in that city, such temples and such palaces, so sumptuous and delightful: when he saw that in such a mass of houses as there was, there must needs be thousands of people, some of them morally honest, some infants who never actually deserved to perish, this rigour of his fury, and cruelty of his stomach, must at the last have relented. If magnitude and multitude, and both before his eyes, could not work, nothing could work with him. Yet the heart of God's son was far more tender, than this of his servant. For when Christ who doubtless was to bring a sharp sentence against the jews, Luc. 19.41.42. came within the sight of Jerusalem, and beholding looked upon it, how great it was and stately, he could not forbear to weep, and utter words of compassion, Oh if thou hadst known at the least in this thy day, those things which are for thy peace, but now they are hidden from thee. Yea heathen men by that light which nature yielded to them, when it came to that pass, that they saw great things must perish, they have wept that it should be so, and could have wished the contrary. An example of this in some sort, may be that gentle and soft and kind Titus, who deserved to be called Deliciae human generis, the delicacy of mankind, for he being to see that executed, which Christ foretold should happen to Jerusalem, joseph. de Bel. jud. lib. 6.14. & 7.10. stretched forth his hands, and called heaven and earth to witness, in great bitterness, that he was not to blame, that the jews perished in such sort, but they themselves: and would not by any means, that fire should be set on the Temple. Livius lib. 27. But that sturdy and rough Marcellus, who neither winning nor losing, conquering nor conquered could let Hannibal be in quiet, shall not lose his praises here. Lib. 25. For Livye recounteth of him, that when after three years spent in the siege, he was entering Siracufa, whereof he had taken one part, and was like to win the rest, looking down upon the city, from some hill-side or overground, and beholding it to be one of the fairest which then was on all the earth, he could not choose but weep. Which as partly he did for joy, to see such a conquest gotten, so the author doth not dissemble it, that partly it was again, with remembrance of the ancient glory of that brave city, where when so many things of fame, had been done in former ages, and so many gallant things now were, yet at this time the glass being fully run out, and the period being come, in a moment of time it was all to be burnt to ashes. He made better use of his hill, than jonas did in this place, and so also did Scipio of his seeing of Carthage, when it could not be remedied. Appianus de bellis punicis. For as Appian mentioneth, he wept when he beheld the walls and buildings thereof to be utterly overthrown, and openly deplored the fortune of his enemies, considering long and deeply, that even cities and kingdoms are subject to dissolution, and great states as well as those of private men. Perhaps therein he imagined, that the time might come, when Rome his country and the earth's glory, might drink of the same cup. Our Prophet in his looking upon Ninive, might have dreamt, that Jerusalem or Samaria, this of Israel, that of juda might come to the self same misery, which now hanged over other, and what he could have wished should in like extremity have been done to his own, that he might have wished to this other. That is a great oversight in men, when they long for the falls of their brethren, and help to set them forward, not remembering that the same may very well be their portion. What measure we meat to other, shall be measured to us again. Most men are beaten with their own rods. The stone cast at our neighbour, may rebound on our own heads▪ Therefore it is good, that evermore we should do reason to other men, that the thing which falleth on us may be so much the milder. And this be spoken of the East side. He made himself a booth and sat in the shadow. 9 My third note, is the ease which he there procured to himself. He made a little booth. Be it that he cut down boughs, as some men do interpret it, and so made him a shadow, or be it that the gourd was prepared ready for him, and under it as under a cover, he did furnish himself a seat, it maketh not to our matter. God knoweth when it was at best, it was but a silly house, a cottage, or a cabin, or such a place as beggars do sit in by the way, to ask alms of the passengers. This was the receipt, and hosting place of jonas the Lord's Prophet. Here was not any harbinger to take up his lodging before him, no carriages to convey his tents and bedding for him, no train to make all decent, but poor Prophet he is glad to get a shroud for his head, although a sheep-coate thatched, or covered with reed had been better. See how the Lord entertaineth his own servants in this world, when it standeth with his good pleasure. They are not to expect palaces, and goodly manner houses, and other things accordingly, but the meanest and basest matters oftentimes shall be their portion. And thus he doth with those, Genes. 28.11. who are most dear unto him. jacob shall be glad when he goeth to his uncle Laban, to have a stone under his head instead of a pillow, and that the ground may be his bed. Moses must not think scorn to keep sheep in the wilderness. Exod. 3.1. David shall be forced to send to that churlish Nabal, 1. Sam. 25.8. 1. Reg. 17.6. to beg bread for his train. Elias shall think himself well, if he may drink of the brook, and have the ravens to bring him bread and flesh in the morning. Luc. 16.21. Lazarus is not the worse in God's sight, that he lieth at the gate, when other be in the house; and would be well apaid with the crumbs (which is a short reversion) other in the mean time sitting at full dishes; and when the dogs with their licking, did yield him more comfort than all mankind, in whose possession were so many things fit to relieve him. Yea the son of man himself, he who made the world and all in it, that thereby he might teach us patience, was in worse state than the birds, in worse case than the foxes: for the one of them have nests, Matth. 8.20. and the other of them have holes, but the son of man had not where to repose or rest his head. If it were thus with those holy ones, who were dear to the Almighty, that although they lacked many things of beauty and of pleasure, yet he loved them not the less, and so showed that worldly accidents, are not those which make men blessed, then why doth wormes-meate boast of that which it holdeth his glory, but indeed is but a toy? of pied and coloured clothes, which sheep and worms send unto them? Habac. 2.6. of gold which is but thick clay? of music all whose sweetness is ended with the stroke? of curious sumptuous houses, which have less rest than a cottage? of dainty fair which once eaten, hath no farther use in the world? Why should other be despised, for the want of these unnecessaries, when the worst oft times enjoy them, and the holiest seldom touch them? It is a vanity of all vanities, to set our rest upon that, without which a man may well be. 10 Now concerning the unpatient soul, which doth vex and disturb itself, with the wants which it endureth, what reason hath it for that? This party fareth not, or lodgeth not, or is not clothed with the best. Therefore the spending of the day is anguish and bitterness; and murmuring complaint is his passing of the night. And wherefore is all this? Give me leave to speak to him a little. Art thou not the child of God, and dost thou not call him father? Thou art not. Then he doth justly punish thee, because thou art none of his. But dost thou love him and serve him? Why then wilt thou be wiser than he, who is perfection of wisdom? Is it not a most likely thing, that he best understandeth, what it is that is good for thee? When he seeth thee fit for better, than thou shalt have better from him. These things are but as fire, wherewith thou wouldst play like a child, or as a sharp pointed knife, wherewith thou wouldst hurt thyself, & therefore he putteth them from thee. But in the mean while thou livest, and hast clothes and such food, as whereby nature is sustained. Yea but other men, who serve not God nor fear him, have more. Why, but that is only to fat them, and make them fit for the slaughter. Yea but God's children have more. Yea and many of them have less. But impatiency replieth: there was never any like to myself. Indeed he who beareth a burden, thinketh that no other man beareth so much. But what is that, wherein never any was so plagued as thou art? Art thou sick and full of sores? I hope thou wilt not offer to compare thyself with job. job. 2.7. Art thou ragged in thy clothes, and hast no house but a poor one, wherein is nothing but want? I trust that thou art short of them, who wandered up and down in sheepes-skinnes and in goates-skinnes, Hebr. 11.37. on the mountains and in caves. Thou canst not well have a meaner house, than this booth of jonas was. Art thou forced to drink water? I believe thou art not farther urged, than our Saviour Christ himself was, johan 4.7. when he begged water of the woman of Samaria. Art thou glad to get an apple from a tree, or roots out of the ground? Suppose that Christ was as far driven, when he desired to have a fig off from a figtree, Matth. 21.18. and yet miss of it when he came thither. But surely the Apostles were in as hard state, when for pure hunger they rubbed the ears of corn in their hands, Marc. 2.23. and eat it when they had done. Perchance thou hast not a penny to bless thyself withal. Hast thou less than Peter had, when he said, Act. 3.6. and cared not who heard him, Silver and gold have I none. Is thy ordinary no better than a little mess of pottage, and a small morsel of flesh? 2. Reg▪ 4.38. The children of the Prophets did far but so, and gave God's thanks for it. Yet peradventure (as Daniel did with his pulse) thou mayest look better, than other with many dishes: Daniel. 1.15. but thy mind may be more fraught with knowledge and understanding, than scores and hundreds of them. Then be content with thy lot, and do not so much reckon, what it is which is wanting to thee, as what it is which thou hast. And when thou hast made thy account, and findest that thou hast least, yet thou possessest more than thou deferuest, as sight and hearing, and reason and breath, and many more good gifts: set the one against the other, and rather joy in thy have, then murmur at thy want: Or if thou wilt needs contemplate on such things as thou lackest, think on the Prophets and patriarchs, the Apostles and holy martyrs, and repute thyself no better, than they were in their sufferings. The shroud of jonas was a little shadow, and he thought that he sped well too. 11 He sat there in the shade, and so did take the benefit of that creature which did ease him. As he was not to grieve, that he had no better matter to cover himself withal, so he is not so stupidious, and blockish of conceit, but he would use that which was offered. And that is the Lords will, that since he hath made man so eminent amongst his creatures (him alone to be the governor, and other things to obey) that he should take comfort of such supplies, as are brought unto him in his necessity, and on the one side should not stand by as timorous and fearful, nor on the other as Stoical and insensible. He may take shade against the Sun, and cover against the rain. Yea if so be that he abuse it not in circumstance and quality (as unlawfully to seek it; to use it beyond his calling; to hinder better things by it; to embrace it with too much desire and greediness; without thankfulness to God, and other points of like sort) the everlasting father doth grant unto a man great prerogative, to use things of delight, Psal. 104.15. wine to glad the heart of man, for so David doth speak; Genes. 21.8. feasting and delicate fare, so Abraham made a feast at the weaning of his son, and the Israelites kept many: Es●h. 5.1. Glorious and costly attire, for Hester did wear such, Gen. 24.22. Eccles. 9.8. & Abraham's servant gave to Rebecca Isaac's spouse, both earings for her ears, and bracelets for her hands. Let thy clothes be white saith the wiseman, intending neatness and cleanliness. The coat of Christ himself was of workmanship more than ordinary, johan. 19.23. either woven, or knit, or needlework, for there was no seam therein: Where we may also remember that coat which jacob made for joseph, Genes. 37.3. of various diverse colours. Yea in hunting and in hawking (taken how and when and by whom, it ought of right to be taken) as God's glory appeareth, who hath so disposed dumb creatures to persecute one another, so is man's good creation, and making of him fitter to serve God in his calling. Genes, 27.3. Isaac would eat of venison which he sendeth his son to hunt for. But most pregnant is that place, where jacob giving his blessing to the twelve tribes of Israel, thus describeth the lot of Aser: Concerning Aser his bread shall be fat, Gen. 49.20. and he shall give pleasures for a king. Then there be delights and pleasures royal and fit for kings, which the Patriarch would never have recounted as God's blessings, but that some men may use them. I speak not this, as encouraging men to a voluptuous life, but mentioning the pre-eminence of man, while he keepeth a moderation in it; distinguishing the use of things from the abuse, and not doubting but worldly persons do strain these matters too far. Hereupon there is crept in among all, drunkenness and gluttony, and intolerable pride in gewgaws and devices, so that now they are rather noted, who have means to maintain them and do not use them, than they who will not want them. But these shall rather answer for abusing with superfluity, then for warrantably using them. But in the mean while concerning all persons, jonas may well instruct us to take benefit of all things, which God doth offer to us, or wherewithal honestly and justly our labour and our wit may furnish us. We may use them in our need, and help to relieve ourselves, and give the Lord thanks for them. Not shadows only of boughs, but of great men to defend us, and encourage us in good things: of Cyrus so far forth as we may help on the Temple: Ezr. 1.1. Esth. 5.1. 1. Reg. 1.22. of Assuerus, so that we may protect the innocent. We may come to the court with Nathan; if it be to requite a Sunamite, 2. Reg. 4.13. we may with Eliseus speak for something to the King or the Captain of the army. In like sort we may take the shodow of a privilege or a law, not shaming with Saint Paul, Act. 22.25. to profess that we are free of the Imperial city Rome, and that we are ill entreated and unjustly dealt with, to be beaten uncondemned. And when we see ourselves to be overborne, with the malice and impudent importunity of the priests and the people, Act. 25.11. we need not fear to appeal to a court of justice, if it be to Caesar's seat, where although we find all worse than before, yet that is not our fault: we have sought the lawful means, and God guide it as he seeth best. And this be spoken in the third place, of his sitting in the shadow. That he might see what should be done in the city. 12 If he came out of the city, before that he knew the mind of God, repenting him of the evil, which he said that he would bring upon them, he had great cause to wait, what the end of all should be. For in as much as at the first he had been unwilling to come to do his message, and had smarted well for it, having now sustained the brunt, and endured the worst of the matter, he might very well expect the end, either for his own satisfaction, or the better to tell it to other; besides the point of obedience, which might tie him to stay the longer, because he came the later. God might purpose, as it is evident that he did afterward, that the whole acts of this story should be put into writing, as a monument for future times to be laid up in his Church: & who might be fitter to write it, than he who was the chief agent; who could have delivered unto other but an imperfect narration, if he had departed before that all had been accomplished. But if before his coming to the East side of the city, and the making of his booth, he had received intimation of God's mind, to spare the Ninivites, (as the narration literally lieth) than it noteth the resolved greediness which was in him, to see all ruinated. His mind was so on that credit of his, which he loved, albeit it were to be stained with blood, that although there were no hope of it, yet he would hope beyond hope. Quid non speramus amantes? for his fancy doth suggest unto him, that although in general he knew, that God was merciful & pitiful; although he saw that they repented, from the king to the beggar, in sackcloth and ashes, in fasting and strong prayer; although of late he had understood, that the sentence was reversed, and the whole judgement revoked, yet there might be good expectation, that they should be whipped and lashed, with some meaner kind of punishment, if they utterly did not perish. And if he might see but some thing, yet he should not lose all his longing. Yea there might be a farther hope, that they who at the first day of the forty, were by his preaching stirred up to repentance, yet within a little while after, might turn unto their vomit, and wallowing in the mire. For nothing which is violent doth use to last too long. Heavy things may be forced upward, but they will back to the centre. A bowl will to his biace. Thus he feedeth himself with conceit, thinking every hour a year, before that he might see his will on them. Now if it had been referred to his discretion, to give the sign of invading, or to put fire to some mine, which might have blown up all, he would willingly have done it. His fingers would have itched, till all had been effected. How filthy is man's nature, how prone to blood and all naughtiness, if God's grace be a little from us, when an Israelite and a Prophet, shall sit and watch every moment, (as Aegeus did for his son Theseus) when such a city as Ninive shall come to desolation? Livius li. 45. When that noble Paulus Aemilius had received from Perseus (who was now enforced to misery) a letter which imported the yielding of himself, and the kingdom of Macedonia, to the mercy of the conqueror: although this was like to be much for the gain and honour of Aemilius, yet now thinking that his fall was the ending of that monarchy, which while Alexander lived was renowned in all the earth, he broke forth into tears: But our Prophet, when a kingdom of far greater esteem, than Macedonia at that time was, is to be dissipated and ruinated, albeit he gain nothing by it, neither wealth, nor ease, nor honour, can be content to rejoice, and take much pleasure in it. And so he is on fire upon it, that nothing can persuade him, but that it will be done, because done he would have it; and if it should not be done, yet he will try the uttermost, and know a reason for it, why he should be put from his purpose: but indeed he will not otherwise believe, but still it shall be so. 13 Such doubting as this is, where so ever it be found, and a striving to have things be, according to man's project, against the apparent truth of God's designs, or his word, is derived from the capital or chief enemy of our soul, who like the old man in Horace, Horat. de Arte Poetica. is spe longus, long in hope, and will not quickly give over, if he have a mind to a matter. He sped in his encounter against our first parents Adam and Eve in Paradise, when there was much reason to the contrary, and therefore he will not distrust but that he may reach other also. Hence it is, that although he hear from the mouth of Christ himself, Matth. 16.18. that the gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church, yet still he will be doing; by heresy or hypocrisy, or persecuting by tyrants, to do his best against it. When he knoweth, that where the Lord beginneth a good work, he will perfect it, yet he will not leave to oppugn the regenerate man, even to his death: he thinketh still, that he may do good on him. But it never appeared more in him, then in his behaviour toward our Saviour Christ, of whom although it were foretold, that he should be the Messias, yea the mighty God, Isa. 9.6. as Esay speaketh, and the everlasting father, though he were miraculously borne, and many apparent signs of his Deity were then given, though afterward he tried with him when having fasted for forty days, Mat. 4.1. he endured three such temptations, as none but God's son could; though he had raised up the dead, and given sight to the blind, yea casting out many devils, had enforced them to acknowledge him; though voices had come from heaven, to agnise him for God's child, and therefore in all likelihood nothing could happen to him, but exceedingly to his honour, and to the good of his Church: yet he could not be quiet, till he had him upon the cross; here he pricketh judas on for the desire of gain, there he spurreth the priests forward, for envy and cruel hatred, he setteth Pilate on work, to bring him to his end, for contenting of the multitude; not knowing whether if once he brought it to that pass as to lay him in his grave, with weight or watch or somewhat, he might happen to keep him there. Who knew whether that his fortune or policy may be such, as to hold him there when he had him? But indeed he was over-matched: for when he brought him to the cross, he brought him as to a chariot, whereon he was to triumph, and when as a fish he had catched at his body being put into the grave, as if he had taken it for a bait, with the hook of his Divinity which was covered underneath, himself was catched and choked. But until that he had fully felt it, he would never be brought unto it. Then if it be a practice of Satan, to use such a diffident incertainty, and yet a confident kind of doubting, and our Prophet borrowed from him whatsoever he had thereof, 1. joh. 4.1. let us learn another lesson, first to try all spirits, that we be not deceived in taking error for truth, that so we may not yield to each suggestion, of appearance or probability, for that is not Christian wisdom, but to hearken what the Lord doth say of us, and of all men. But secondly when we see by the assurance of the word, and the motions of God's spirit, that this or that he would have, then with constant resolution, with patience and obedience, let us yield ourselves unto it, not with humming or standing like Lot's wife, Genes. 19.26. who desired very feign to be safe in the mountains, yet would she be in Sodom too. God loveth a cheerful obedience, a ready resolved submission, to take well what he would have. And although we miss of our minds, as jonas did here in his, yet if we renounce ourselves, and will be led by him, the end shall still be with comfort. But no kicking against the pricks, Act 9.5. no spurning against heaven, no wrestling against God, but obey and live for ever. The Lord direct us so with his grace, that making use of such lessons, as the word in every petty circumstance doth yield unto us, we may serve him with alacrity, never swayed aside by our will, till we come unto his kingdom, to the which the Father bring us for his own Son Christ his sake, to both whom and the holy Spirit be praise for evermore. THE XXVIII. LECTURE. The chief points. 3. It hath been controversed what green thing it was, which grew up unto jonas. 5. What it was in truth. 6. God's power in helping his servants. 7. His providence disposeth smallest things. 8. in our grief God refresheth us one way or other. 9 The unwise joy of jonas for the gourd. 10. Our mind runneth too much on worldly things; as children, 11. beauty and long hair●. 12. Hasty mat●ers are soon gone. 13. All things here are unconstant. 14. God in his love taketh many of them from us. jonah. 4.6.7. And the Lord God prepared a gourd & made it to come up over jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, and deliver him from his grief. So jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd. But God prepared a worm, when the morning arose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered. Our Prophet being earnest on every thing, save that which he ought to do (for therein he is slow enough, jonah. 1.3. as appeareth in the first Chapter) with a burning desire to see Ninive desolated, sitteth him down near the city, thinking every minute long before that was effected. Albeit these people were far more, Genes. 18.23. yet he doth not for them as Abraham did for Sodom, that is, double and triple a passionate request, that they might be forgiven, but having a desire that himself might seem no liar, he doth wish & could willingly put to his hand, to help it forward, that all were overthrown. But when he taketh notice, that without his motion God would spare that multitude, he fretteth and rageth at it, and in exceeding discontentment, remaineth not far off, even hoping beyond hope, that some evil would befall them. Being thus in his anguish, because he might not have his will (for so the most do interpret it, and the literal proceeding, and going on of the story do seem to enforce it) or being troubled otherwise (as some other would have it) with the scorching heat of the Sun, while he remaineth there expecting what should be the end, God raiseth up a certain plant, or growing kind of creature, to yield some relief to this angry person, that so consequently some little comfort might accrue unto him. Whether this were prepared at the first, when he came out of the city, that he made his booth only with that, or whether having cut down some other boughs, and enjoyed them in manner of a sommer-house, and those now being dried, the other did spring up as a better sort of succour, more natural and more fresh, it is not much to our matter: but by Gods special work he had it, and sat under it. There is a double drift which is aimed at, by the sending of this green thing to the Prophet, one to teach him by a parable, and demonstrative instruction, that he was much to blame, that himself loving such a trifle, would have had no reckoning made, of such a city as Ninive. But of that I shall have occasion to speak in the end of the Chapter, where the Lord himself apparently deduceth it in that manner. 2 The other thing to be considered by us for the present, is the plain direct narration, wherein we are let to know, that jonas to comfort him, and appease him for the time, hath a little tree raised up upon the sudden out of the ground, which the Lord of purpose stirred up, so that it had not been there, but only upon that occasion. Which when it had brought unto him a delicate pleasing shadow, fitting to his opportunity, he took as much joy in it, as if it had been some great treasure. But when he was more proud of it, than a wise man would have been, the glory and beauty of it, was dashed quite on a sudden. There cometh a little gnawing worm, which destroyed the life of this green thing, so that it proved to be dry and withered, and the cover was now as nothing, the shadow was clean ceased. Then he who very lately thought himself a happy man, in having somewhat to refresh him, is now as far to seek, as ever he was before. That you may the better conceive this whole case of the Prophet, so plentifully teaching us as it doth, may it please you to note with me those three things, which the text doth orderly offer to us. First the provision here made for him, of purpose by the Lord; and therein we may observe the thing itself which was sent, and then by whom it came, and afterward the use of it. My second part is the hasty contentment, which the Prophet too violently, and greedily received by the coming of this to him. And the third is the dissolution, & ending of all his joy, by taking his pleasure from him. The instructions arising hence, shall be mingled with the doctrine. The Lord God prepared a gourd. 3 What that was which is here spoken of, hath not only been doubted, in the ancient primitive Church, but it hath caused some stir also. The Septuagint expressed it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which our English translation doth apparently follow, and nameth it to be a gourd. The later Greek interpreters, to wit Aquila, and Symmachus, and Theodotion, not liking of that word, did render it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which is as much as ivy. When Hierome afterward took on him to translate the old Testament, out of the Hebrew into Latin, he following those later ones, put it hederam that is ivy. And his translation now in his own time growing to be read, and that commonly in Churches, it seemed strange to the people, who were before used to copies taken out of the Septuagint, to hear such an alteration. The matter was most exasperated, by occasion of a Bishop which was in Af●ica, who reading to his people, as Hierome readeth, ivy, they rather believing that, whereunto themselves had been used, by their former books and copies, fell to brawling with the Bishop: but especially the greeks in honour of their Septuagint, would have nothing but a gourd; and exclaiming of the falsifying, and depraving of the text, wrought much trouble to the Bishop. Here the good man was enforced, to have recourse to the jews, to know the Hebrew of them, who either upon ignorance, or malice to the Bishop, or perchance to all the Christians, whom they could be glad to see ●arring, pronounced it to be a gourd, and Hierome to be deceived. Austen who at that time lived at Hippon, not very far off, understanding of this matter, and having other sayings to Hierome, August. Epist. 10. (as men who are most learned, do not evermore agree in all matters and circumstances) with humility and great modesty, but yet roundly to the point, doth challenge Hierome for it, and relating all the tale of the Bishop, desireth to be satisfied. Hierome knowing his own worth, and by his skill in the Hebrew, which was then rare among the Christians, being sure that he had advantage over all that would oppugn him, spareth not to keep his own, for credit and reputation; and first disclaimeth the jews for ignorant or malicious, and then secretly girdeth at them, who would needs have it a gourd, calling them Cucurbitarios. Augustin. Epistol. 11. This is to be found in that Epistle, which is counted the eleventh in Austen, where but briefly showing the truth, he referreth the reader farther to his Commentary on jonas. Then from those two places put together, this is the point of the matter. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 4 The word saith he in the Hebrew is Kikajon, or Kikejon, for I find them both in Hierome, although our common Hebrew Bibles do read only Kikajon, and it is saith he a kind of little shrub, or tree, which hath broad leaves like a vine, and a very thick shadow, Hieron. in jonae 4. which with his stock or stalk beareth and holdeth up itself. This groweth much in Palestina, but most of all in sandy places. In the Syriake and Punic tongue, it is called Elkeroa. He addeth this of it further; that it is of that strange nature, that throw the seed of it into the earth, and there very quickly proving, it groweth to the quantity of a tree, so that within few days, after that it hath been an herb, and new green, it is in show a pretty tree. And this Hierome acknowledgeth to be the true thing, which here suddenly grew up to jonas, which could be neither gourd nor ivy; as for diverse other reasons, so because they had need to be held up, and sustained by other props, like to the vines amongst us, but this shrub of itself, beareth and shooteth upward. Yet the reason why he expressed it by ivy, was especially to give the name of such a thing as was known in other countries, and ivy did best please him, because Aquila and his fellows thought good so to expound it. Now having no apt Latin word, I thought it not fit saith he, to use the Hebrew, Kikajon, the Lord prepared a Kikajon, lest Grammarians lighting on it, when they could not understand it, should imagine it or conceive it, for some strange beast of India, or mountain of Boeotia, or some other monstrous matter. Thus was Hierome put to his shifts, neither ignorantly nor faithlesly, perverting the holy Scripture, but putting such a word, as according to that reason which God had given unto him, he judged to be most convenient. This is an instruction to us, that either in translators or expositors of the Scripture, we should not be too severe, to censure them or control them, especially when their learning and faithfulness is known to all, and that they willingly would not serve: For as sometimes they cannot sound to the depth of God's judgements, the knowledge of all men being by measure, so other times again when they may take things rightly, they may want a word for their matter, because the tongue will not bear it; or they may be forced by a Periphrasis, to circumscribe and delate that, which themselves could wish were shorter. (And yet afterward, another may come, who at the first sight, lighteth on a word or phrase, whereof the former could not think.) Here to show a man's integrity, in obscurities and great difficulties, the translator shall do well, to give a reason of his deed, in some observations or illustrations, that those things may appear in the margin, or after the Chapter, Hieron. in jonam. which do not in the text: and this way did Saint Hierome much make amends, by his commentary, which cleareth all this doubt in jonas. 5 I said that one might see that, which another had not revealed to him: and so it is in this case, time having opened that, which formerly was not known. For our later interpreters, discovering that Kikajon in the Hebrew, Dioscor. li. 4. 164. theophra. Hist. 1.16. Gal●n. in Simplicibus. 〈◊〉. Nature. Hist. 15.7 is the same that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek, which is spoken of by Dioscorides, and Theophrastus, and Galen, and whence that oil doth come, which is commonly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek, is the same also with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, have found out Latin words, which may express them both. Pliny speaking of oils, nameth one made of the tree cici, of which kind there is much in Egypt. Other saith he, call it croton, and some do name it trixis, and some sesamum silvester. He hath that last name without question, from the writings of Dioscorides, who calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. But now the Latin word Ricinus, is best known for this tree, whereof the oil which is made is called Olium ricininum. The Christian Philosophers and Physicians of later time, commonly term it Palma Christi. So that for the Latin translation we have now words fit enough, but wanting for the English, it is still read a gourd. Then to take the tree as it is, it appeareth by the description, first that it is one of those things, which do grow up very quickly, and therefore God bred here, and prepared such a matter, as most agreed with nature: not an Oak nor an Elm, which needeth a long time for growth, but that which might shoot up hastily. Secondly that the leaves of this, being large like to the Plane-leafe, as some have set it down, or to the Vine-leafe, as the most agree, were apt to yield a shadow, which is the point here intended. Whereunto this may be added as the third, which I did not mention before, that this plant is very subject to the gnawing and hurt of worms, which more cleareth that, which anon followeth in the third place. 6 Now we have that whereon all the working was, agreed upon; whence it followeth to be considered, who it was that sent it thither. The Lord God prepared this Ricinus. And manifest it is, that he prepared it suddenly, for it followeth afterward, Thou hast pity on the gourd, jonah 4.10. which grew up in the night, and perished in another night. Therefore if it were not made in a moment, which may probably be disputed, yet it was but one night in growing. This showeth the power of God, in the general dispensation of all things in the world, that when he listeth, he can make and send creatures on the earth, which shall complete his designments. He can raise up unto us, both trees, and fruits, and grains; when the earth seemeth to be barren, and the seed to be rotten in it, by too much or too little moisture, he can amend all with a word, and make the fields to be fruitful, and the drowned ground to be cheerful. Of him David saith truly: Psal. 107.33. He turneth the floods into a wilderness, and drieth up the water-springs. A fruitful land he maketh barren, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein. Again he maketh the wilderness a standing water, and water-springs of a dry ground. Where it pleaseth him to visit, the basket shall be blessed, and blessed shall be the store, Deut. 28.5. blessed the fruit of the cattle, and blessed the fruit of the ground, blessed the coming in, and blessed the going out. In the time of dearth in Samaria, within the space of a day he can make a measure of fine flower to be sold for a sickle, 2. Reg. 7.1.2. and two measures of barley to be at the self same rate: when to the unbeliever it seemeth a thing incredible, though the very windows of heaven should open, and rain down corn. We have had some late experience of his power in this behalf, when after years spent in moisture, and harvests seasoned with tears, he hath sent a more blessed reaping, and gathering in of corn. It is a great comfort to his servants, that evermore he can, and oftentimes he doth provide for his in their need, not a shadow only with jonas, to hang over their heads, but satiety or sufficiency of all good things beside. If he do not yield abundance, yet patience and obedience doth hold itself content: it hath to do with a father; it hath to do with a Lord; a father who surely loveth, a Lord who can do all things: in his wisdom he best knoweth, what it is which will serve the turn: in his kindness knowing of it, he certainly will bestow it. But if it were for our good, what combining or conspiring of all the world against us, what adversity or extremity, shall hinder us from our happiness? If among our own, we find not that comfort which we should, Genes. 39.2. Dan. 2.48. then as he did to joseph, and as he did to Daniel, he can send it among strangers. If both our own and strangers, and all mankind should leave us, yet birds and beasts he hath for us, 1. Reg. 17.6. Luc. 16.21. the ravens to feed Elias, the dogs to lick the sores of Lazarus the poor beggar. If all living things do forsake us▪ yet the dumb and the dead, shall bring protection to us; Exod. 14.21. 2. Reg. 2.13. the sea shall part for the Israelites, and jordan for Elizeus. So powerful and so mighty is the Lords right hand, to to those who are his unfeigned servants: they shall ●ant nothing that is good. He meaneth not such as they think of in their fancy, but as he surely knoweth. Some figtrees whereof they thought not before, shall yield them meat: some strange tree shall yield them shadow, that even when they deserve it not, as here it was with jonas, they might sit in the shadow. 7 As the raising of this plant doth note his unmeasured power, so the word which here is used, doth note his all-seeing providence. He prepared this Ricinus. I find this word in the first Chapter, jonah. 1.17. the Lord prepared a fish, but here it is thrice together: he prepared this tree to shadow him: and in the next verse after, he did prepare a worm, and in the verse after that, he prepared a fervent Eastwind. What? is a little blast of wind, the immediate work of God? and a little tree for a shadow, was it made by his finger? yea was the worm his ordinance, such a base and creeping creature? Doth God take care of these things? Where is the Atheist and the Epicure, who if he will be so good, as to allow the being of an high power, which sitteth above in majesty, yet he will not be persuaded, that he meaneth to trouble himself with inferior & small matters. Perhaps he regardeth the tumbling about of heaven, & the going out of the Sun, or Moon, or stars, but for these lower bodies, no care nor account of them. Or if the earth in general, or the sea be thought upon, yet these individual substances, which be of lesser kinds, come not within his reckoning. Who will think that God will be busied, about the riding and going, the inventions and devices, the trades and occupations, of wise men and of fools? Harken Atheist and listen Epicure, not the meanest man on earth, not the smallest child in the womb, not a sleeping or a waking, a waxing or decreasing, yea not a thought of the heart, Psal. 94.9. but is distinctly known, & severally considered of. He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? or he that made the eye, shall not he see, or he that teacheth man knowledge, shall not he understand? Thou art about my path, Psal. 139.2. and about my bed, and spiest out all my ways. There is not a word in my tongue, but thou knowest it altogether. Nay, dost thou make any doubt of man? Very trees, and winds, and worms, the smallest dust and Atomus is made and guided by God. Genes. 2.1. He who in the first creation, framed the heaven and earth, and their armies, hath not the least soldier there, not a gnat, not a fly, but he knoweth & counteth on him. It was he who made the frogs, and grasshoppers and flies, and very creeping louse in Egypt. Luc. 12.6. Mat. 10.29. Not a sparrow lighteth on the ground, not a hair falleth off the head, but by his leave and licence. Therefore tremble thou unbeliever, and think what a case thy case is: thou hast lived so many years, and in every moment of them thou hast been watched and looked on: thou hast spoken so many foolish words, and uttered so many froward sayings: thou hast done so many wicked things, thou hast thought so many wanton and irreligious thoughts, & thou must have all discovered, Apoc. 20.12. and disclosed to thy face, when the throne shall be set, and the books shall be opened, when the sea shall yield up her dead, and the grave shall yield up hers, and there shall not be any escaping, but thou must hear thy doom. Then thou shalt feel him condemning, whom thou wouldst not believe calling. But thou poor and mild one in spirit, whosoever thou art, which trustest in Christ, and hast a will to serve him, lift up thy head at last, and hang it down no longer, for the sufferings of thy sorrows, the troubles of thy heart, the endure of thy vexations, the conflicts of thy conscience, are known & daily seen. Aug. in Psal. 39 God crieth to thee from heaven, It is I who look upon you, do you wrestle and I will help you, do you conquer and I will crown you. He who taketh such care as God doth, of winds and trees and worms, certainly reckoneth all thy flights, putteth thy tears in a bottle, Psal. 56.8. noteth all things in a book. Thy hands are not lifted to him, thy breast is not beat before him, thy cheeks are not deawed unto him, but he noteth it and remembreth it. There is not a cup of cold water given, Mat. 10.42. which shall lose his reward. Then we serve a blessed service, who live under such a Lord. But to say no more of him, (either for his power or his providence) who provided this for jonas, in a word let us see the use of that which is prepared. 8 The end why God sent this pretty tree, was to cover the head of jonas, that it might be a shadow for him, to comfort him in his grief. That the man was out of tune, I have showed before so often, that I need not again repeat it. The everlasting Father, most of all to teach him, to bear a good mind to Ninive, but in present to sustain him, that he utterly sink not down by his peevish and froward grief, doth send him here a small thing, to serve his turn the while. The nature of fretting persons is, that when they have apprehended any great cause of discontentment, as they persuade themselves, they are sorely troubled with it: but if a second cause be heaped upon the first, and another upon that, no measure doth contain them, but they rage and storm, as if all things had conspired to work their bane, and they were men accursed. And indeed by this means, the wicked oftentimes do come to their final destruction. But God being better minded to all those whom he loveth, doth moderate their vexations, and measure out their grievaunces, that they many times shall have their back burdens, but they shall not have too much. Either one thing or another shall stand up in the gap, although it be so small a matter, that taken by itself, it seemeth rather contemptible: but for that present time, by the fancy of the party, may be thought worthy the having. When the mother hath beaten her child, whom she would have to be chastised, but not his heart broken, she reacheth out an apple to him, or some trifle to appease him. In comparison of God we are as babies, especially when fury & passionate vexation hath surprised all our affections, and therefore as a child is pleased with a little, (but that endureth but a small time) so a little thing doth stay us, although I dare not say doth content us. When we are ready to drown, a little twig being suddenly catched on, doth relieve us. When we are ready to famish, a little food doth preserve us, and hold our life for the time. And it is marvel to see (so humorous is our nature,) how small things bring breathing to us, even as little ones as this shadow, which was here over the Prophet's head. When jeremy was oppressed with misery upon misery, nothing was more heavy to him, jer. 38.6. than his thrusting into the dungeon. Yet when by the blacke-Moores means, he was gotten out of that hole, although he were still restrained in the utter court of the prison, and had evils enough upon him, yet this appeased him well; as may easily be gathered, jer. 39.17. judic. 15.19. in that the blacke-Moore had his life for a recompense of his kindness. When Samson was most in need, some water out of the jaw-bone of the Ass did quiet him. When jonathan in the battle had over-fasted himself, a little honey taken up upon the end of a stick, recovered his dimmed eyesight. Doubtless the conflicts of Paul were many while he lived at Rome, with Gentiles and jews, with the learned and unlearned, with the persecuting tyrant, yet I verily suppose (because God's spirit doth mention the matter) that it was a good ease to him, Act. 28.30. that he might hire a house by himself, and at home be free from their baiting. In this point let every one of God's children look to himself, and remember, if oftentimes when his fretting hath been greatest, he hath not had some allay, by the coming in of a friend, by receiving of some letter, by hearing somewhat else which better doth content him, by some thing before not thought of, which pleaseth for the time, and if by nothing else, yet by falling on sleep. These be mercies from the Lord, who will not have his to sink; and there is not the least of these, seem it never so base a thing to the standers by, but it is sent in unto thee, even from heaven and the Highest, to refresh thee as his child, as this shadow was here to jonas. And thus much be now spoken of these three circumstances, arising from my first general note, what it was that was prepared, by whom, and to what end. And jonas was exceeding glad because 9 We are now in the second place, to look in what sort he embraced this favour. He was exceedingly glad. The opportunity of the thing, which so served him for his purpose, to refresh him withal, and peradventure the rareness of it, (for rare things in every kind do most of all delight) put the Prophet into such gladness, as if he had found some precious treasure. If it were not, that we all are such, it were strange to see of what metal this messenger here was made, that a little maketh him grieve, and a lesser thing maketh him glad, and as a child or a boy, moderately he taketh nothing. What a matter was this, that jonas who had been trained up in Israel, and had done the Lord service there, who was sent in a message to such a City as Ninive, where his words might concern a Monarch, and Princes, & great Peers, should be so silly a creature, as to joy in a thing so brittle? In dehorting men from too much embracing the delights of the world, we figuratively use to call all pleasures here, but very fumos & umbras, no better than smokes and shadows, not that we really imagine, that men set their hearts upon such things. But here is one who in earnest is much in love with a shadow, and that not the shadow of himself, ovid. Metamorph. lib. 3. as the Poet feigned of Narcissus, but of a little tree. Here if he had had some company, it is likely that he would have led them round about this his joy, and showed them all his pleasures, which with some admiration he had received from it. If this man had been some Solomon, that he might have had in all magnificence, whatsoever his heart desired, he would have been much in love with it: but if he had been in Paradise, he would have been mighty proud of his trees, and fruits, and shadows; very likely that doting on them, he would not so soon have parted with them as Adam did. Yes, possibly much sooner, if possibly that might be: when he showed himself so fantastical; any toy would soon have turned him, who was up and down with such trifles. 10 Hereafter do not marvel, that the Lord forbiddeth men to glory in greater matters: jerem. 9.23. Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, nor the strong man glory in his strength, neither the rich man glory in his riches; but let him that glorieth, glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, when a Prophet shall be pleased in such silly shadows, as if it were in some celestial joy. For the emphasis of the word doth intend that he was very highly pleased. And yet it is a thing much vain, to set too great affection on strength, or wit, or wealth, or any terrestrial matter. For do we not a wrong to God, and much spoil him of his honour, Matth. 22.37. that when we are to love him with all our heart, and all our soul, to think of him, to rest in him, to make him our meditation, and to use all other creatures but as his gifts and blessings, by a million of degrees subordinate to himself, and only to be employed to the setting forward of his service: we will dream of them, and think of them sleeping and waking, in company and alone. Do not parents thus oftentimes, set their hearts upon their children, and make almost Gods of them? at every word my son, or my boy, or little girl: and when they grow somewhat bigger, there are no children like their children: the wind may scant blow on them: the very ground is the better that they do go upon: the sleep is never too much broken, nor the belly too much pinched, to heap up trash for these children. Yea from whom will they not pull, even the widow, and the fatherless, to enrich this their delight? Do they not grieve to part with a penny to the use of the most holy businesses, because it may diminish their portions? This made Saint Austen say, August. in Psal. 48. For whom do they keep their riches? for their children he answereth, and they again for their children, and the third descent for theirs. But what is here for Christ? what is here for thy soul? Is every whit for thy children? Among their sons on earth let them think upon one brother above in heaven, on whom they should bestow all, or at the least divide with him. But Christ and God shall stand back, when it cometh to these dainty children. Now to speak plainly, was this the end wherefore thou beggedst children at the hand of thy maker, to delight thy soul with them? Was this the cause wherefore God gave them, that they might thrust him out from the habitation of thy heart? Thou dost use his blessings fairly, to joy more of the gift, than thou dost of the giver, not to think who sent the tree, but to joy only in the shadow. It is odds of many to one, but that thy wantoness, 1. Sam. 2.22. afterward will work thee as much joy, as Elies children did to their doting father, that is, bring a curse on thee or them; 2. Sam. 13.1. or as David's sons did to him, when Amnon ravished Thamar; and Absalon slew Amnon. 11 Look what is here said of children, is as true also of beauty. God doth give to some the countenance of a joseph, or a Hester, of purpose to remember them, that as their bodies exceed, so their souls should go beyond their fellows in devotion, in sanctity, and all virtue: else the outside will be fair, and the inside will be foul; it will be but a painted sheath, it will be but a whited sepulchre. But it falleth out oftentimes, that in steed of thankfulness and humility, there groweth such an over-liking of this frail and brittle show, that God is displeased therewith. Heathen men have thought upon the fading of this flowe●, Forma bonum fragile est. Vir. Eclog. 2. Beauty is but a brittle good thing. O formose puer nimium ne crede colori. O fair boy do not trust too much to thy colour. Both Solomon and his mother, although she were a woman and certainly very fair, yet have recorded this for ever, Prou. 31.30. that favour is deceitful, and beauty is but vanity. Yet do we not know, that some take more pleasure in this, than jonas did in his shadow? For he did this only for a day, but they do it all the prime of their youth, and that with such affectation, such earnestness and such labour, (as indeed pride is painful) that in the morning and evening, their cogitations are set on their clothing and kemming, 2. Reg. 9.30. yea perhaps on jezabels' art, and it may be that in their sleep they dream of it too. If that Pambo of whom Socrates doth write, were now alive, he might have work many times. Socrat. Hist. Eccles. 4 18. For he once beholding a woman most curiously trimmed, and exquisitely tifted up, broke forth into bitter tears, and being asked the reason, he assigned two causes of it: one was, that she should take such pains to help forward the destruction of her own soul; and the other was, that she was more careful of her face, to entice men unto lust, than she was of pleasing God. I think now he might much sooner find examples of such things, than Diogenes could find a man. But for the male sex, are there not which take more care of their slicking and of their plaiting, then of the kingdom of heaven? Did jonas more set his heart on the shadow of his head, than they do on their hair? He chode with God for the one: & they will stand to the uttermost with God's officers, his vicegerents upon earth, for the other: yea be thrust from a society, or be clapped up in prison, rather than part with that fleece. There were such in the days of Seneca, whose words if they be too bitter, lay the fault upon him, and imagine that I do but cite them. How are they angry saith he, if ought be cut off from this mane? Seneca de brevitate vitae. cap. 12. Si quid ex iuba sua. In annulos suos. Comptior esse mallet quam honestior. if ought be out of order? if every thing fall not into those round rings or hoops? Which of these had not much leifer, that all the state should be troubled, than his hair be displotted? who is not much more careful of the grace of his head, then of his health? who maketh not more account to be count, then to be honest? Will you think that these men are idle, who have so much work as they have, between the comb and the glass? If this speech do seem somewhat hard, the fault must lie upon Seneca: but surely he saw some as proud, and glad of their tricknesse, as jonas was of his shadow. Saint Austen was not so Stoical, but a more sociable man: August. in Psal. 32. Cum talibus cincinnis in●●dere. let us rather therefore hear him. Thou art not well pulled, saith a grave man unto a wanton youth: it doth not become thee to go with such feakes and locks. But he knoweth saith Austen, that his hair doth please I know not whom. He hateth thee, reprehending him with true judgement, and keepeth in himself, what he liketh with perverse counsel. But to follow this point no farther, let nothing which God giveth, be delighted in too much: let us take such things as he offereth us for helps, and use them accordingly; but let us not esteem of moale-hils, as if they were mighty mountains, not of shadows as of graces, not of transitory trifles, as of heavenly and spiritual joys, not of creatures, as of God. Our great joy must be in the Lord: other things must be but appendices, and additaments, and circumstances. As we need not be unsensible, when such things are bestowed upon us, so we must take heed of exceeding gladness, and overmuch joying in them, lest besides the offence to God, that end come on them quickly, which did light here upon the cover of jonas, which now cometh in the third place to be delivered to you. The Lord prepared a worm. 12 When jonas thought with himself, that he had such a pleasing knack, as no man had the like, it is all dashed on the sudden. The Lord prepared a worm. Perhaps it was a caterpillar, perhaps of some other kind, and this the very next morning, after that the Prophet was in his glory, came and gnawed the stalk of his shroud, and made it forthwith wither, so that the shadow and greenness of that, which the man before esteemed as his chief delight, did perish in a moment. Now might this vexed soul easily learn, that his love before was vain, when a little worm was able to overturn his felicity. Look what course God used here in this his extraordinary work, the same he oftentimes doth use in matters which are more common. When things come to us in haste, as this tree did here in one night, they as hastily part again. When riches come too quickly, they quickly take their flight. Sudden glories decay suddenly. When we behold green things to show themselves, as with a kind of violence, we may fear a quick dissolution. The fruit which is soon ripe, is found to be soon rotten. When children in tender years, do abound with incredible wits, as being over forward, they hold out few times long. God doth recompense that in towardliness, which he denieth in time, & when he hath made them fit, he taketh them to himself. When the greenness, and the freshness, and shade is more than it should be, then fear some worm which may gnaw, some sickness which may dissolve this rath-ripe soone-rotten fruit. 13 But this doctrine is yet more general: for if there be any thing, (come it soon, or come it late) whereon the heart is too much set, God hath means to destroy it, and the more our joy is on it, the rather he doth remove it. For there is nothing here of longer lasting, then seemeth good to himself: and to speak generally, here is nothing of continuance. Rocks themselves do consume: great towers come tumbling down: the timber hath his rottenness, the iron hath his rust: the garments have their moths. The favour of mighty Princes hath a sudden worm of mutation. 1. Reg. 2.5. joab the greatest about David, is by the mouth of David designed to execution. Parmenio and Philotas as they felt the sweet of Alexander, Plutarch. in Alex. magno Tacitus Annalium. li. 15. job. 1.1. Ester. 7.10. so they felt the bitter also. Honest Seneca had hard measure at the hands of his scholar Nero. So riches have their wings to fly away when we most need them. job the mightiest in all the East, is poor even to a Proverb. Haman who was so glorious, that he thought to have devoured a whole nation for one pray, is suddenly stripped of all, yea and put from his life too. Li●. lib. 1. So it is for health, and so for wit. Tullus Hostilius the king of Rome, who before was healthful and an able stirring man, lieth afterward drooping with sickness. The Emperor justinus who thought that he had wit at will, lost it all and became a mad man. evagr. Hist. Eccles. l. 5.11 Then what is there here, wherewith a wise man would be in love, especially to joy in it so, as to count it his high contentment, when there is not the least moment, but in it all may be dissolved, and a departure made of this felicity: but i● none of so many good things (as the world reputeth them) be diminished, yet there cometh some small matter beside, which spilleth all the glory of them. Augustin. de cathechiz. rudibus. Insanagaudiae Hear what Austen saith of this: It is a true and worthy saying: Although mad joys be no joys indeed, yet be they as they be, and delight they what they can, the gloriousness of riches, the swelling pomp of honour, the devouring of dainty fare, Pru●igo thormarum. the wars which are seen on stages, the uncleanness of harlotry, the wantonness of baths, yet if there come but a little ague, it taketh away all these, una febriculae and depriveth men while they live of this false beatitude. There remaineth an empty and wounded conscience, which must feel the Lord for a judge, whom it would not have for a keeper, and find him a rough master, whom it did despise to seek unto, and love as a sweet father. Such is the known uncertainty and vanity of those things which this world yieldeth to us, and therefore we are well helped up, to set our hearts upon them. 14 To wean us from such thoughts, and make us see our folly, when we let our eyes be dazzled with the brightness of such a glass, God doth take away that, wherein our pleasure did most consist: that when we have admired some things of this world as excellent, and thought them to be great, yet lose them in a trice, we may see how vain they be, and so direct our thoughts, our hopes and meditations, unto that which is more lasting. And this he doth to us in his fatherly discretion: for as the burned child dreadeth the fire, so when by sound experiment it shall be beaten into us, that we have leaned but on that, which is like a broken reed, which faileth and peradventure hurteth too, we may afterward pass by such things, as not esteeming them at all, or but think of them in their place. And this is a certain argument of God's friendly mind unto us, that in the end he meaneth to bring us home to himself, because he cutteth off such snares, and entanglements, and impediments, as would pluck us from heavenly studies: he maketh the wilderness tedious, and bitter, and smartfull to us, that we may the more long for Canaan. But he suffereth the worldlings and Epicures to enjoy their fill: their pleasures do stand with them, and follow one another, that they may have their heaven here, & their glory upon earth, (for elsewhere they shall not see it) that being full fed with earthly and temporary delights, they may be in love with those follies and choking vanities. And that is the cause, why wicked and unmortified men being ready to die, do account it a hell unto them, to leave all and depart with death God's messenger, which cometh for them, and must be the end of all, when they see themselves housed with glory, and lodged with all kind of beauty, their fishpools & their orchards without door to please them, their music of all instruments within door to delight them, their cattle about their ground, their children about their table. Whereas the man who hath been used to bear the yoke from his youth, Lam. 3 27. and to leave, and lose, and lack, never standeth nor staggereth at it, but when he is bid come, he slippeth his coat with joseph, and with a good will springeth away, being assured that he leaveth nothing which may be reckoned of, but shrubs, and leaves, and shadows: but he goeth to such a Saviour, Redeemer, and Intercessor, as he long hath thought of and longed for, whom until he saw, he was never contented and in quiet, and who will welcome him when he cometh, who will keep him when he is there; who will dwell with him for ever. God imprint into our hearts a true desire of this Saviour, that esteeming all worldly things but transitory and vain, we may only aspire to him, to whom with the blessed Father, and the everlasting Spirit be praise for evermore. THE XXIX. LECTURE. The chief points. 3. It is to no purpose to murmur against God. 4 What Eastern wind was here sent. 6 Too much heat and prosperity do hurt. 8. 11 The impatiency of men in afflictions. 10 The manner & matter of God's reproof. 12 Of sin groweth sin. 13. jonas would justify his fault. 14 The using of weak instruments glorifieth God the more. 15 Doctrine gathered from the fall of jonas. jonah. 4.8.9. And when the Sun did arise, God prepared also a fervent Eastwind, and the Sun beat upon the head of jonah, that he fainted, and wished in his heart to die, and said, It is better for me to die then to live. And God said unto jonah, Dost thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry unto the death. AS by that which went before, in part may be seen, that the patience of the Prophet is once again to be tried, so by that which now followeth, it most evidently appeareth. While he sat in expectation for Ninives' destruction, much pained with the burden of his distempered thoughts, God a little to appease him, whom each small thing perplexed, raiseth up a certain tree, or growing kind of creature, to shadow him and refresh him. Wherein when he had taken more contentment and delight, than a Prophet should have done, or then a wise man would, the same hand which did send it, by a very abject body, a worm, did overthrow it. We need not doubt, but he who was so proud of that trifle, would be much out of quiet, to be stripped of all his joy, (for the more we love what we have, the more we grieve to leave it,) but the Lord goeth one step farther, and when he hath taken from him, that which so highly pleased him, he sendeth him the contrary, another thing to displease him. The wind and Sun are set to warm him without, who was so hot within, that since he was prone to anger for the losing of his shadow, he might see what it was to miss it, when there was now such use and necessity to enjoy it. jonas being like himself, very quickly apprehendeth this, & boiling in impatiency, would be no less than dead, to be rid of this vexation. In his very heart he doth wish it, such a fiery heart was his heart, that his life were removed from him. And his tongue secondeth his mind, so that he feareth not to speak it out, that it were better for him to die then to live. So because he had not his shadow, he would not have his life. 2 God who had a double purpose, first to reprove his impatiency, and untemperate kind of carriage, and secondly by his own words to school him, that he should not be so hard-hearted, and very cruel to Ninive, doth not let him waste himself in his choler, no not for a moment, but asketh of him mildly, if he did well to be angry for such a green growing cover: so giving him to understand by an insinuation, (if his judgement had been capable thereof) that he went much awry. But the other in his fury, will not be checked therewith, but cometh on him again, I do well to be angry, that I do, even to the death. You see he maketh no spare at God, but fond having thought, he doth utter it more foolishly; and he maketh no stay, but come what will come of it, out shall his passion go. Thus yet farther is offered matter of the Prophet's weakness, who maketh no care to bind one sin upon another, and in the same transgression of anger & impatiency, to lay load upon load, which yet the Lord doth bear with, and turneth to our instruction. Which that we may the better fasten on to our edification, we may note in the former verse, God's trial, and jonahs' patience: God's trial which was little, and his patience which was none. In the latter verse, the Lords reproof, and his entertainment of it: the one mild, which had great cause to be rough and severe: the other frowning and boisterous, who if he had looked well to it, had great reason to bend and carry a lower sail. In all these the first thing offered, is the plain direct narration of that which befell to jonas. Of the Eastwind and the Sun. 3 If we love our own ease and quiet, we had need be very vigilant, that we strive not with God, nor show ourselves discontented with any thing that pleaseth him, since he hath such power over us, as to cross us and curb us, in as many sorts as he pleaseth. Because we are his creatures, and he is Lord of all, we lie open on every side to be beaten and stricken by him, in taking away our liking, and sending us that which we loathe, and doubling it and tripling it, as seemeth good to himself. When David had lost that child of his, 2. Sam. 12. 1● which was conceived in adultery, he had gained much by the bargain to have fretted & grumbled at it; because it was immediately in God's hand, to let Absalon rise against him, Cap. 15.1. Cap. 16.22. Cap. 17.2. Cap. 16.5. job. 1.14. first to deflower his concubines, and then to seek his life; and after to suffer Shimei to rail on him, and revile him. When job had the news first brought unto him, that his oxen and his asses were seized on by the Sabees, his case had been much amended, to have grudged and grieved at it: whereas his Camels and his sheep, yea his very children were under the same hazard, yea his flesh every hour lay subject to be stricken with blains and sores. This messenger sent to the Ninivites, who thought to have found his harbour in the morning, as green for him as he left it in the evening, had been well helped up, to mutter that all was dry and withered, when he was within ones fingers, who (to teach him that no sorrows do use to go alone, but one waiteth on another, when he is disposed so to send them) could bring a second cause of vexation on his head, which immediately he doth. For when the Sun did arise, whose appearance is most pleasing, for dispelling of the darkness, and bringing light to the world, and therefore by all creatures is naturally desired, God accompanied that Planet, with such a more than common heat, that this weak man could not bear it. He stirred up an Eastern wind, which had in it such a quality, that it made the heat of the Sun the stronger, and less to be endured by him. 4 I do not find that the Expositors speak so fully to the matter of this wind, as me seemeth this text doth wish, but look what I find any where fitly spoken, I shall deliver that to you. Commonly the Eastern wind is a strong & ruffling wind. As in Exodus, Exod. 14.21. when the red sea was miraculously to be made to part itself in sunder, to give passage to the Israelites, God caused a strong East wind to blow upon it all the night, & that made the sea to become dry land. In the eight & fortieth Psalm, God is said to break the ships, Psal. 48.7. and it is with the Eastern wind, which intendeth it to be boisteous and blustering. In the Prophecy of Esay, Isay. 27.8. when God speaketh of such afflictions as he would in some measure lay upon his people and Church, he saith, that he will keep that measure, when he bloweth with his rough wind, in the day of his East wind, which importeth a very great storm. This made some think that the wind which was sent here, was a vehement and great East wind, and so they do translate it. And none herein are more forward than the Rabbins of the jews, being the more encouraged thereto, because the adjunct here used, doth come of the radix 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which signifying surdum esse, or surdum se facere, to be deaf or thick of hearing, maketh them render it by this speech, vehemens Eurus, that is, such a one as while it bloweth, men are made deaf, because they can hear little or nothing. But see whether this imply not a very flat contrariety. For whereas the Sun with a marvelous parching heat, did beat upon him, (which matter is evident in the text) if so great a wind had been added thereunto, it had brought all to a temper, which might tolerably be borne. For what the Sun had warmed, the great breathing had cooled; and what the wind had hurt him, by the too cold blowing on him, had been helped by the Sun heating, and so of the two extremes had been made a mediocrity, which needed not to have offended this patient so impatient. Then we must look farther yet, and find some other meaning. The word in the original will best unfold it to us; for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before mentioned, doth signify silere or tacere, to be silent, as well as to be deaf. So the East wind which was here sent, was a silent and calm East wind: which junius and Tremelius did very well observe, when they put it Eurum silentem, junius in jon. 4. a calm or quiet East wind, and noted thereupon, that that word was put to distinguish it from the violent & big Eastwind spoken of in other places. This was then so small a wind, as that it violently did not pierce through the air, to trouble and cool it, but rather joined with the Sun to warm it. And this hath the true analogy, and reference to that meaning which is aimed at in this place. 5 Saint Hierome helpeth us well here, Hieron. in jon. 4. who in the words of my text, hath vento calido & urenti, a hot and burning wind, and in some other Scriptures doth interpret the words used here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, by ventus urens, a burning wind, for an East wind, as if the name of the East wind in Hebrew came of burning. So he doth in the nineteenth of Ezechiel, Ezech. 19.12 Ose. 13.15. and so in the thirteenth of Osee, in which places other men only put it an Eastern wind. Now that the wind hath some force of an extraordinary heat, may be gathered from such blast, as are spoken of in the Bible: Agg. 2.18. as when it is said, I have stricken you with blast, meaning their corn, or the blossoms of their fruits upon the trees; which if it be not sufficiently declared, by the experience of husbandmen, who (if I be not deceived) do call it a red wind among us, Genes. 41.6. yet let the dream of Pharaoh confirm the one and the other; that the wind doth blast, and especially the East wind of all winds. For the seven thin ears of corn, which are there mentioned, are said to be burned or blasted, & that with the Eastern wind, as supposing that in those East parts, near Egypt or Palestina, that wind is much accustomed to it. Then that which parcheth the corn and maketh it satty, that which scaldeth the blossoms by a still warm exhalation, being now used of purpose (by him who ruleth all things) to make the air to be sultry, might well double the heat upon jonas. Luc. 12.55. Franc. Vales. de sacra Philos. cap. 86. Our Saviour hath a saying, When you see the South wind blow, you say it will be hot, and it cometh so to pass. Franciscus Valesius taking on him to yield a reason out of nature, wherefore it should be so, assigneth this as the cause, that the Southwind bloweth from that coast, wherein there is store of fire. I doubt not but he meaneth by fire, heat of the Sun, which is warmest in the Southpoint. The Sunbeams and the blowing, coming both from the self same place, make each other the hotter. This reason for the Southwind might increase the heat of the Eastwind, upon the head of the Prophet: for it is said in the text, that it was at the Sun rising, (which we know to be about the East) that the wind blew warm upon him. By all which we may find it evident, that a fainty sultry blowing, which might open the pores apace, and provoke sweat in great plenty, might without any kind of miracle, effect what is here spoken. Especially when the Sun, as the fountain of all heat, was joined thereunto, Psal. 121.6. who as David describeth, doth use to burn by day; for smiting is there burning: and concerning which, the spouse in the Canticles can say of herself, Cantic. 1.5. I am black, for the Sun hath looked upon me. 6 Thus literally we have the true sense of the story: wherein it is added farther, that the heat which came by this means, beating upon his head, made him no less than faint, which befalleth sometimes to travelers, or men bathing too long when the vapour over-quelleth them. There is nothing more natural to our life then heat; for life consisteth in heat & moisture; & heat moderately tempered, is desired by man & beast; & the very earth doth more flourish by the warmth of the Sun upon it. But heat more than convenient to the body which receiveth it, doth more hurt and destroy, then cherish and preserve. In this fitly resembling the prosperity of the world, which so long as it is so moderate, as that men's minds can wield it, it encourageth unto good, and stayeth from many falls, which necessity would enforce: but when it is heaped upon us with such a weight as is beyond our supportation, we sink under the burden of plenty and abundance. The wise man saw this well, when he made request to God, Prou. 30.8. Give me neither riches nor poverty, but feed me with convenient food: lest I be full and deny thee, and say, who is the Lord? or lest I be poor and steal, and take God's name in vain. Then it is ordinary, that as too much heat doth faint us, so too much wealth doth choke us; while the Lord doth not give to every man the mind of job, or of Abraham, or of Solomon while he stood upright, that is, with thankfulness and temperance, to dispose of great things well. Oftentimes great wealth giveth great spirits, and so puffeth the possessors up to pride, maketh men despise their maker, and contemn their brethren: it bringeth also much idleness, and so inflameth the lust, and maketh a God of the belly: it bringeth great store of care, and worldly perturbations, and so doth choke the seed of the word. Esth. 3.1. What brought Haman to the height of his arrogancy and folly, but the plenty which he had? What brought him in the Gospel to yield his soul to security, Luc. 12.16. Lactan. Diu. Instit. lib. 2.1. Hier. in jer. cap. 32. Horat. lib. 1. Epist. 18. Eutrapelus cuicunque nocere voleba●, Donabat v●stes, etc. but that his ground brought forth much fruit? Of prosperity saith Lactantius, cometh luxury, of luxury grow all vices, yea impiety against God. So Hierome writing on the Prophet jeremy: Plenty breedeth security, and security, neglect, and neglect breedeth contempt. The heathen Poet Horace alludeth to this, by naming his Eutrapelus, who when he meant to do hurt to any, would give him gay clothes, for together with them, he knew that he would alter his counsels, and his hopes from the better to the worse, as there he doth exemplify. I would that this were not true in very many other men, that as their state increaseth, so doth increase their sin. 7 This hath made some dispute, I say not that a competent measure, but penury and necessity, and adversity, and the cross, are rather preservers of piety and duty, than plenty and prosperity: Plutarch. de praeceptis conjugalibus. illustrating their intent, by that Parable in Plutarch so well known to every man, of the Sun and the wind, who were at strife whether of them two should sooner put a man beside the cloak which he had upon him. While the wind blew, he held it the harder, but the Sun with the strength of his beams made him throw it from him. Prosperity maketh many lay aside that clean vesture of purity and innocency, which they buckled hard to them, while they were duly exercised in carrying the cross. Peradventure this point hath too often been verified in the Church. Euseb. Eccl. Hist. lib. 8.1. They who in the ancient persecutions loved one another, fell to discord and dissensions, and shameful stirs each with other, when the Emperors once grew to be Christians, & peace shined in the world. Hath it not been too true, that some who in the time of bloody persecutors have lived admired lives, in exile beyond the seas, yet have scant retained their first love, and kept their ancient zeal, but have thought that to be fence enough, to shield off some not commendable actions, that they might say, that the time was, when for Christ's sake they left their country. How fitly may men in such a like case be compared to the ice which hangeth down from the house in frosty weather, which is able to endure the sharp blast of the Northern wind, but when the Sun once breaketh forth, it melteth and falleth away. Again, were there never such, who when in this place they were masters but of small things, & the greatest part of their maintenance, so depended upon God's providence, that in the beginning of the year, they could not make account to reap one half of that, which would satisfy, and yet God sent it in unto them, were then studious and diligent, and laborious in their calling; but afterward when they came to more eminent and noted preferments in the Church and commonwealth, have been dumb as the fish, and go the Church as it will go, neither tongue nor pen shall once move to ruinate the forts of Antichrist, or to build one foot for Christ. Shall I say that they have left the net, because they have that for which they fished? Or shall I rather liken them to the Adamant stone, (although peradventure you will say that that is too severe) whom no cold nor hammer can dissolve, Solin. cap. 65 & yet as Solinus writeth a warm thing maketh it yield and fly in pieces. But that is the blood of a goat; and these men touch not blood. I could wish that blood did not touch them, and that the blood of better things than goats. Their idleness in abundance, and abundance in their idleness, is stained with the blood of the sheep of God's pasture, who perish for want of food. How much better had it been for these persons to have lived still private men, & to have pleased God, by consecrating their little to Christ jesus, which doubtless they would have done, if they had risen no higher, them to have so much, as by their usage of it, extinguisheth both the fire and sparks of devotion? Shall God the more he sendeth us, be the less honoured for it? Shall we in our small wealth pay him much, and fly off from him in the greater? It was a fault both noted and condemned in the Carthaginians, that whereas they were sprung from Tyrus, Diod. Sicul. lib 20. and used yearly to send the tenth or tith of their incomes to Hercules the peculiar God of the Tyrians, which custom they observed while their commodities were small, they neglected afterward (when they grew to be masters and possessors of greater matters) to send at all, and so by little and little came to contemn that Hercules. In the service of the true God, let this never be said of Christians, of learned men and Ministers, that they so forget themselves. When we think that we are at the highest, let us not then indeed be lowest: most knowledge and best place may do the Lord best service. But no man while he is on earth, is at the highest of his desires: there remaineth yet one step to heaven, before the obtaining of which, if any settle his thoughts, it is no better than in the depth of folly. My conclusion of this point is, that we should take heed of prosperity, as a most enticing thing: it was too much heat that brought jonas to his last enormous crime. Let us know who it is that sendeth all, and let us still be thankful unto him: let us know that worldy felicity must be reckoned for, in the day of great account: in the height thereof, let us remember to be humble: let us think that it may soon end, and be tumbled up-side down. Gregor. Nazien. Orat. 8. That which Gregory Nazianzen reporteth of himself, can never sufficiently be commended; for his custom was, that when any matter fell prosperously out unto him, (to the end that he might make his mind modest and lowly as it ought to be) he would read over jeremy's Lamentations, a fit book for such a purpose. A wise course and a godly, and most worthy of such a man. And this be spoken of that trial, which here was laid on the Prophet. He fainted and wished in his heart to die. 8 When the heat had plied him in this sort, that both Sun and wind jointly warmed him, as if they meant to melt him, he kindleth as fast within as ever he did without. In the natural course of things, look where the air without is coldest, there the inward parts are warmest, which maketh men in the Northern countries eat with better stomachs: but where the air is hottest, there the heat within is diminished, as appeareth by the Southern people, and ourselves in the height of Summer. Thus it useth to be in nature. But jonas in his action passeth nature and grace too. For as if all his heat without, had gathered from the exterior circumference of his body, to the centre of his heart, so he chafeth and he rageth, and he thinketh it, and he speaketh it, that he willingly would be dead. Some think that which they in wisdom forbear to speak: some speak that in fury, which themselves scant think. But this man is no dissembler, he thinketh it with his heart, and he uttereth it with his tongue. Franciscus. Guicciard. Hist. lib. 6. Caesar Borgia and his father Pope Alexander the sixth had a Proverb fastened on them by the Italians of that time, that the one of them never thought as he spoke, and the other never spoke as he thought. But it is plain that jonas was of another metal. His mind and mouth went together; and both were most unadvised; for needs he will be dead. Some think that his vexing anger was, because he saw what the Lord intended in all this matter, that is, to spare the Ninivites, whose destruction in truth might more justly be displeasing to him, then that of the tree to jonas. I deny not but the same reason stirred him up to his former anger mentioned in the first & fourth verse of this chapter; jon. 4.1.4. but here the cause of vexing was apparently for the gourd, for so God speaketh in the ninth verse. He had set his heart too much upon it, doting on that which pleased him, and had not by meditating of patience, and prayer to God to send it him, composed himself to endure the smallest cross, were it but to come from Sun or wind, and therefore he was so troubled. How ready is all mankind to take at the Lords hands, whatsoever he will send beneficial to them, but let him diminish but a little, and proffer the rod in steed of it, and all flieth out of joint. job. 1.21. Few in misery say with job, The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken, blessed be the name of the Lord. This made Bernard complain, Bernard. Ser. 6. in vigilia Natalis Domini. that many acknowledge jesus, but do not acknowledge Christ, (so he descanteth on these names) they love him as a Saviour, and while he heapeth good things on them, but they endure him not anointing them with medicines and afflictions. Perhaps they can speak of patience, and suffering all occurrents, with fortitude and constancy, and settled resolution, but when it cometh to the trial, Dion. hist. 38 (as Tully sometimes said of himself, to his friend Philiscus) It is one thing to say it, another thing to suffer it. But a champion is not known, till he have one to assail him. It is the tempest which trieth the ship. Strength appeareth not but by a burden. In Saint john's Revelation, when captivity and the sword had been mentioned close before, Apoc. 13 it followeth, Here is the patience and the faith of Saints. It is but peevish hypocrisy, to make show to love the best virtues, but to fly from all things that make trial of them. Concerning men who use that fashion, Gregor. Moral. lib. 7. Saint Gregory doth speak thus: Humble saith he, they will be, but without any despising from other: they will be content with their own, but so that they must want nothing: they willingly will be chaste, but without●pulling down the body: so they will be patient gladly, but without any to reproach them. But this is not it, the performance whereof is looked for at the hands of a Christian man: there goeth somewhat else to the reckoning. 9 Although Satan were much mistaken in the person of job, yet it seemeth that he shrewdly guessed at the manners of men, when he said that job did not serve God for nought, job. 1.10. Thou hast made a hedge about him, and blessed the works of his hands: but now stretch out thy hand against him, and he will curse thee to thy face. But it is an iniquity of iniquities, that when we have received good things, we will bind God to maintain and perpetuate them upon us; else we will be out of all quiet, and ready to renounce him. If we could once learn that lesson, to use things of this world, as though we used them not, to run and lick, Plin. lib. 8.40 and lick and run, as the dogs in Nilus do; to know in what sort we hold all which we have, life, and lands, and goods, and children, and necessities, and delights, but as tenants at will, we would repress in ourselves all turbulent affections, which arise for transitory matters, resolving that howsoever they please our distempered humours, yet they are nothing but motions of refractory flesh, which striveth against the spirit, and is heavy to the soul. And then we should know, that we may use temporal things while we have them, but not vex or murmur, or grumble for them when we lose them. But to wish ourselves dead, that if there were in us any goodness, which might advance God's glory, that might clean be extinguished; and to wish ourselves off from this earth, before we be prepared to come before such a judge as he is, who is known to be of pure eyes, Hab. 1.23. and to judge of all things uprightly; is both folly & impiety. Let jonas in this case, be an example of infirmity to be avoided in other men, who because he had not some accident, would needs part with the substance: who because he had lost that shadow, which he he neither had, nor needed in all his life, before those last four and twenty hours, would needs depart with his life. That which was of all human things the most precious, should be lost for that which is of small moment. Yet there be some in our time, who tread the steps of the Prophet, nay do go a great way beyond him, (for what he said they perform) most damnably working their destruction, for vain trifles in comparison of that soul, which the Lord suffereth to breath within them. But I have handled that question twice before in this Prophecy, and therefore I leave this whole matter, and come to the second verse. Dost thou well to be angry for the gourd? 10 Here the manner of God's reproof might yield good matter to us, to note in what mild sort he doth it: that whereas it had been fitter that jonas should have been meek, and the Lord should have been moved, jonas is the stirring party, and God himself doth speak calmly. But I have touched this before in this present Chapter, In vers. 4. and what we should learn from it. Again it might be noted, that he speaketh not here simply, thou dost ill to be angry, but by an interrogation, which as in Rhetoric we are taught, doth urge and pierce the deeper. And therefore even in the Scripture, for more vehemency sake, things are propounded by questions. But to leave all this concerning the manner, the matter is it which I do point at, wherein God doth as much as demand thus; Son of man art thou wise, or art thou obedient, to rage thus for the gourd? See what thy wisdom is, thou ragest at the death of this green thing, and why dost thou ask for thine own death? Thou canst not endure the spilling of that which is as nothing, and yet thou wilt press earnestly to the kill of thyself, a creature far more excellent. And is there not great reason, why thou shouldst be thus offended? to chafe and brawl with thy maker? It is on the one side for a gourd, and on the other for a sweat, procured by the wind and Sun. Are not these great spurrings and provocations to anger, a blast of wind and a shadow; because thou hast too much of the one, and too little of the other. I did look that thou shouldest suffer far greater things for my sake; not the shadow only of thy head to be taken from thee, but thy head itself by the sword; not the heat of the Sun alone, but of the fire to burn thee as a martyr if I would. I see that thou wouldst shrink at great things, as at torture or cruel torment, when thou sinkest so at a little. But where is thy obedience, that as yet thou hast not learned to subscribe to all my pleasure? Thus might God justly reprove him, & by his words illustrate the malignity of his humour, if we only will understand it, that now he meant the gourd. But if we will conceive it, that he blameth him for all his anger, and not alone for the gourd, but because Ninive should be spared, than jonas lieth more open to him; for that he who had been favoured, should not grieve that other men should find the self same mercy. He sinning had been delivered from drowning and the whale, therefore he did ill to vex, Mat. 18.24. that others also sinning should live. When one servant hath found favour, peradventure for a hundred talents, he should not grudge if another his fellow servant do find the self same measure. But I will not extend this doctrine so far as to this point, because the text evidently delivereth it, that the reproof of him was for his anger about the gourd. 11 We may make this use thereof, that if it were such a fault, fit to be blamed by Gods own mouth, to be so much disquieted for a matter of so small consequence, I will not say far from God's kingdom, but from the life and being of a man, see whether we may not justly be taxed by the self same Lord, for fretting and such distemper in things of like importance. If an office or small preferment, which is a thing of more burden then recompense any way, be desired or intended by us, and we fail in our hope, how do we grow malcontented with our Colleges and studies, with our calling and vocation? who would live to be thus disgraced? This ariseth from some root of preposterous emulation, or avarice, or ambition, or such a plant as by right should not have place in the heart. But because we have not more, shall we loathe that which we have? How worthily may the Lord take from us that which we do enjoy, when we will so prescribe unto him? But because we have too much learned to embrace these worldy things, although they be but shrubs and shadows, therefore we so take the loss of them, and use worse means to gain them, even dissembling and deceiving, and lying, and forswearing, (such parts as become not Christians.) May not God now say to us, as here he saith to jonas: Do you well thus to be moved, for the gaining or the losing of matters of so small moment? May it not be much suspected, that in the day of great trial, when temptations shall grow strong, you will slip your neck from the yoke, or sink under your burdens, when such petty points overthrow you? Would you with the Apostles leave all, or be offered up with Saint Paul? Marc. 10 28. 2. Tim. 4.6. How would you break faith or honesty, if it were for a kingdom, since you do thus for a moale-hill? how would hundreds or thousands lead you, when thus you do transgress for a few pieces of silver? I wish that this were laid to the heart of all of us in this place, that with consciences content, and resting upon God's providence, we might cheerfully go forward, with that which is assigned to us for our share or lot, to the honour of the Lord, the Church, and University. In a wife religious man, nature is content with a little, and if we could defalk and pluck that away from our mind, which otherwise may not be had, there be few but have enough, until God do send more. And by reason of the want of this mind in us, it falleth out oftentimes, that they have least contentment, who seem to enjoy the most. But beware of coming to that pass of murmuring, and of fretting, when we have not what we would. If we needs will follow the Prophet, let us follow him otherwise, then in that, for the which so justly he is in this place rebuked. 12 But himself still like himself meaneth not thus to give over, but he cometh on with an answer. Dost thou well to be angry? Yea that I do saith he, to be angry to the death. Was there ever man under heaven so testy and so peevish, to chop thus with his maker? And still the further he goeth, the more to be out of square? Yet his moderation was far greater in the fourth verse, jon. 4.4. where being asked the same question, he took it for a check, and answered all with silence, not replying a word again. But here as if he had meant, to vie who should speak last, he will break if he hold his tongue, and therefore answer he must, though with such extreme perverseness, as never man did the like. If we may guess by his words, all the gesture of his body was suitable thereunto, his teeth set, his eyes glowing, his countenance very red: but his words are plain, that he did well to be angry to the death. How do we fall without measure, if God's grace preventing and following us, Gratia praeveniens & s●bsequem. be not over us, and lead us all the way, when such a choice man as jonas, who was singled out for a Prophet, shall be thus overtaken? We had need pray for assistance, and diligently take heed, that in all our deeds we yield not Satan the least footing; for if once we let him land, and give a consent unto him to abide with us, although it be but in a corner, 2. Sam. 11. 2.8.13.1●. he will certainly have more. When David by the door or window of his eye, had let it into his heart, that Bethsabe must be fancied, it worketh him on to adultery; then to cozening of Urias; after that to make him drunk, and las● of all to slay him. jonas is first content to desire the death of the Ninivites: then he is angry to think that it should be otherwise: afterward he who had no love to a city of that quantity, yet is in love with a tree, and more setteth his heart upon it, than a man should on any creature: then he grieveth because he had lost it, and being rebuked for it, he chideth handsmooth with God. So one sin breedeth another, whereas obedience at the first had marred all that rank. Let us all take heed of too much delighting in any earthly thing, in husband, or wife, or children, o● any matter of like nature, because sin which groweth fro● the loss of these, will spread itself far; as first to grieve 〈◊〉 Gentiles, ●. Thes. 4 13 and heathens who have no hope; then impatiently 〈◊〉 murmur against the divine dispensation, and that is suited with like effects. Perhaps changing of religion, as if when the God of the mountains being coldly served, 1. Reg 20 23 would not help and save from such perplexities, they would to the God of the valleys: peradventure refusing to come to church, as if they had been holy too long: yea perhaps fasting or solitariness, till that the understanding and memory being ●razed almost past recovery, give such an entrance to Satan, that there is little power of nature, or faith, or grace left, to resist fearful temptations, or to take comfort or counsel. The enemy of our souls so windeth in by degrees, that he is hardly expelled, if at first we yield unto him, to give him place but a little. I do well to be angry unto the death. 13 What would he have done to men, who dealeth thus with God? or how bravely would he have spoken, if he had done some good deed, who in so foul a matter, (his judgement is so depraved by self-love, and self-opinion) both excuseth and commendeth that, which was in truth so outrageous? David was very far gone; 2. Sam. 12.13 but being once touched by Nathan, he standeth not on his own justification, but out he crieth, Peccavi, I have sinned against the Lord. Genes. 4.13. Yea Cain when he was convicted of murdering his brother, took knowledge that he deserved much ill. And concerning judas himself, indeed I find that the Cainites (who were a kind of heretics, Epiphan. haeres. 38. as Epiphanius writeth) did commend him, that since he saw that Satan's force was to be diminished by the death of Christ, he made all the means which he could to hasten him to his death: but I do not find, that judas for his own part did so think of it, but confessed that he had sinned, Matth. 27.4. in betraying innocent blood. But our man, for want of good neighbours, standeth in his own commendations, (for it is more than an Apology) I do well to be angry, yea if I should do more, it were so much the better, even to be angry to the death. How far is he out of temper? he who should have been a light to other, is in darkness and desperateness: he who should have been mild to men, is now cocking with God: he who should be renowned for patience, is impatient in the highest degree: he whom much should not move, is up-side down with a little: the Preacher worse than the people, the Prophet more to seek then any private man. Paul writing to the Ephesians, Ephes. 2.20. saith that they were built upon the foundation of the Prophets and the Apostles, jesus Christ being the chief corner stone. If our Prophet had been taken now, he had been full unfit to have been in this foundation, yea in any part of God's building: for those who are therein, must be wrought and squared stones. But God knoweth he was not near that: Gregor. Homil. 21 in Ezechielem. for as Gregory doth remember us; Whosoever in prosperity is not puffed up too high: whosoever in adversity is not cast down too low: whosoever by persuasion is not drawn to evil: whosoever by dispraise is not kept back from good, he is a squared stone. Then was jonas out of square, who being proud of his gourd, a matter far from prosperity, and vexed with the losing of it, and the heat beating upon his head, loved what he had too dearly, and lost what he left too grudgingly. 14 But we doubt not but he recovered this, and grew to grace again: for the Spirit of the Lord was not extinguished in him, although now the fire thereof seemed to be raked up under the ashes: now the sap of his election seemed to lie hid within the root, and not to flourish above the ground: but although his heart did seem frozen, yet afterward it thaweth again. For as Saint Austen speaketh, Aug. Serm. 88 de tempore. as when the water congealeth with too much cold, and when the Sun cometh on it, it resolveth again, and the same Sun again departing, it beginneth again to be hard, so with the frost of sin the love of many doth wax cold, (he might have said so of their obedience) and they are hardened like the ice, but when the heat of the Lords mercy cometh again on them, they are resolved and relent. So doubtless it was with jonas, else he had never been reckoned among the Lords holy Prophets, from the which, as we see, his grievous fall did not seclude him. But in the mean while, here is a marvel never sufficiently wondered at, that God who hath the choice of all things in the world, will use such brittle means, to the ministery of his word, and building of his kingdom, shall I say herdmen with Amos, Amos. 7.14. Matth 4.18. 1. Sam. 17.34 Mat. 9.9. Act 9.1. Exod. 32.2. Num. 11.11. jer. 15.10. or fishermen with Andrew, or shepherds as was David, or customers as was Matthew, some unlearned, all of base calling, nay men nore-able for their weakness, and reprochable for their folly: not only Paul before his calling, but Moses and Aaron who in their calling were oftentimes much to blame, jeremy who raged bitterly, and jonas who was made of fretting and impatiency. This showeth how great God himself is, omnipotent, and Almighty, who by weak confoundeth the strong, by foolish confuteth the wise, by base convinceth the noble, by men under exception, doth things beyond exception, and all because his name therein may be the more glorified. Exod. 10.13. 〈…〉 Iud ●. 31. cap. 1●. 15. 15 It was his greater praise, that by grasshoppers and flies, he could make Pharaoh crouch; by hornets drive out Kings; make Samgar with an Oxe-goade destroy six hundred Philistines; and Samson a thousand of them, with the jaw-bone of an Ass. What could more sound out his honour, than the overturning of Hierico, jos. 6.4. Iu. ii●. 7.20. 1. Sam. 17.49 with trumpets made of rams horns? and the victory of Gedeon upon the Madianites, or the slaying of Goliath with a sling and a stone? It had been less fame to have brought great things about, with great and mighty means. In like sort it demonstrateth his powerful ability, that he can so dispose of his creatures, as that a Cock should fright a Lion, a mouse trouble an Elephant, Solin. cap. 38 an Ichneumon a little serpent, destroy a huge and big Crocodile. Even so in the course of the Gospel, it declared Gods own finger, when fishers converted Orators, and poor men persuaded Kings. And so it singeth out his salvation, that sinners should bring home sinners, and faulty persons, men blameworthy. As it was answered to Paul complaining of his weakness, 2. Cor. 12.9. My grace is sufficient for thee, for my power is made perfect by weakness: so where the grace and strength of God, do accompany the tongues of sinners, in proclaiming forth his word, they shall prevail and prosper, albeit not for the comers cause, yet for the senders sake. Though it be but an earthen vessel, which containeth that which is brought, yet because there is treasure in it, some there be which shall receive it. This is no protection for sin, for all faults are worthy blame, but especially in the Minister, in whom all things are conspicuous, like spots in the fairest garment. If the eye be dark, what shall see? if the guide be blind, who shall lead? if he who should shine for purity, be impure beyond other men, who shall profit by good example? Matth. 5.14. You are a city set on an hill. Yet this is a just defence against our runagates, & Seminary priests of Rome, who take occasion by reason of some slips in our Clergy, & defects in our ministery (which yet may easily be demonstrated to be greater at this time in their Papacy; and in the highest of their Hierarchy, their own stories resound them to have been exceeding filthy) to under-mine any good opinion of our religion in the simple: But this is practised most of all to the ignorant, and to silly women, 2. Tim. 3.6. into whose houses they creep, and lead them captive being laden with sins, and led with diverse lusts. In like sort, it is an answer to Atheists, and hypocrites living among us: who to cover their oppression, their avarice and extortion, pretend it to be no fault, to detain and hold away any thing from men so culpable; by that means requiring, that their brethren the Preachers of the word, should be no less than Saints, when they themselves who require it, are most far off from all sanctified and good things. God hath made his Pastors and Ministers of like mould with other men: he expecteth it not, neither can it be that they should live here like Angels: for this is the way, Via non patriae. and not the country: yet by his Spirit he keepeth his servants, from delighting and persisting in gross sins, and he covereth their errors, and imputeth them not unto them. But he pinneth not the verity of his doctrine upon men. As Moses chair was Moses chair, Matth. 23.2. when the Pharisees did sit in: as Christ's faith was the assured faith, although the traitor judas might preach it: and the Prophecy was God's message, when weak jonas did carry it, so the Gospel is the Gospel, when ignorant men, and young men, and sinful men do deliver it. Blessed be the God of our hope, who will not have us depend on flesh, or blood, or man, but on his assured truth, and his overruling Spirit. God guide us so by his grace, that by the good we may learn good, and by the evil to fly from evil, that so we may be fit members of that body, whereof his Son is the true and living head, to both whom and to the holy Ghost, the Trinity in Unity, be honour for evermore. THE XXX. LECTURE. The chief points. 3. Parables may be used, 4. and all good eloquence by the Minister. 6. jonahs' words returned upon himself. 7. The comparison between God and jonah. 8. The multitude of inhabitants in Ninive, 9 with whom the gourd was not to be balanced. 10. God provideth blessings for man, without his labour. 11. God's care over infants and all beasts. 12. Therefore parents should not be too careful. 13. jonas at length yieldeth. 14. The conclusion of the Prophecy joined with exhortation. jonah. 4.10.11. Then said the Lord, thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow: which came up in a night, and perished in a night. And should not I spare Ninive that great city, wherein are six score thousand persons, that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand, and also much cattles? IN that which goeth before, the intemperate fury and unadvised rashness of the Prophet hath been such, that he is ready to take an occasion of chiding with the Lord, upon a most trifling cause, even the withering of a gourd. And being reproved for it, not by his fellow servant, but by his masters own mouth, he standeth on his own justification, that he did well to be angry, yea if it were to the death. In which mood if he had departed, his judgement now was so perverted, that he would have thought that he had had a great hand upon God, that he himself had been in the right, and the Lord had been to blame, because he had not fitted his fancy. But the inconceivable wisdom of the everlasting Father, doth so far overmatch him, that where he expected victory, although it were but in words and thoughts, he is taken at that advantage, that he is for ever put to silence in this matter. For his own speech is so fitly returned upon himself, and he is so caught and entangled in the words of his own mouth, that he is enforced to yield a greater thing, then that whereof the present question was, and that is concerning Ninive: that since justice was pleased to turn itself into mercy, and severity into clemency, nothing was done unjustly, or unbeseeming him, who is the rule of truth. For that was it which the Prophet's master in this place especially did aim at; that his servant should be satisfied, and thereby all the world be advertised to the full, that the holy one of Israel is delighted to show pity upon the sons of men: that where repentance ascendeth from the earth to the heaven, there a pardon will come down from the Highest upon his creatures: that Ninive itself whose sins did cry for vengeance, upon submission and conversion, should be spared from destruction. So that mankind in general taking notice of such grace, and propenseness unto clemency, might confess that the Lord is gracious, and that his mercy endureth for ever. 2 But to make this the more evident, and so to work in the Prophet a manifest conviction of his error and mistaking; from that which had been done, and said before of the gourd, he doth gather a kind of Parable, which is rather real then verbal, full of wisdom and art, familiar to God's spirit; which doth naturally yield a most significant comparison both of persons and of matters, and in the upshot conclude the equity and integrity of the Lords proceedings. Wilt thou assume to thyself a privilege to be moved with affection, and wilt thou deny me my prerogative in the like? wilt thou wish that aught should be saved, and wilt thou grieve that it should be spilt, and shall not I much more take a delight in preserving that which otherwise would perish? Yea is all thy love fixed on that green thing, wherein the pleasure was small, but the profit none at all: which was but the son of a night (for so it is in the Hebrew) quickly up and quickly gone? And shall not I more respect a city, and such a city as is that mighty Ninive, wherein, besides store of cattle, the life of the worst whereof, is far to be preferred before things without sense, are young and old, male and female of reasonable creatures, to a very great sort of thousands. By such not disputation, but demonstration rather, is warranted the favour which was showed to that city, and the mouth of him who murmured is to such purpose stopped, that there followeth no more reply. In handling all which matter, I shall omit to divide that which very well will not bear it, and shall touch such observations successively and in order, as the text doth offer to me. Wherein first I must say something of this Parable, and of other the like used in the Scripture. 3 The use of speech is one of the rarest gifts, that the divine Creator hath given unto man. For it ministereth a power of opening the inward thought, or of discoursing freely concerning high or low causes, of celestial matters, or terrestrial affairs, of spirits, of Angels, of the joys of the elect, of Christ's incarnation, of the blessed God himself. But the excellency of this is so much the greater, because it maketh man not only to differ from the beast, but from other of his own kind, yea and from himself also. The difference is great between the rude lips, and the tongue of the learned; between zealous and cold speech; the mildness of comfort, and the sharpness of rebuke; between affirming, and ask by a piercing interrogative; between naked assevering, and figurative uttering of the intention of the mind. But of all kinds there is none which doth more cunningly creep by an insinuation into the understanding, and leaveth deeper impression with a feeling conceit, than a Parable doth: whose proper nature is to make show of one matter, and to aim at another: and if it be personal the issue of it is to touch to the quick, & in a sort to extort that, which otherwise would not be granted. The exercise whereof is for elegancy so seemly, and for powerfulness so effectual to procure admiration, and attention in those which hear, that in the sacred Scriptures men inspired with a supernatural and celestial spirit, have held this as the height of that whereunto they could attain. When David would raise himself to speak of high meditations, which exceeded the common quality, Psal. 49.4. I will saith he incline mine ear unto a Parable. Psal. 78.2. And in another place, I will open my mouth in Parables. The wise sentences of Solomon, which the holy Ghost thought fit to commit to eternal memory, are inscribed with that title, Prou. 1.1. cap. 10.1 The parables of Solomon. Yea the Son of God himself, who spoke as never man spoke, whose words were with authority, and not as the Scribes, whose speech provoked reverence, and amazedness, and astonishment, to hear that it was so gracious, spent not the least part of his doctrine in Parables & similitudes, the mysticalnesse whereof prevailed much with the auditors. Matth. 13.1.24.31.33.44 45.47. See the thirteenth Chapter of Saint Matthew, and there you shall find seven Parables, of the sour, of the mustard seed, of the leaven, and of the treasure, and other things beside. These made the people wonder, and give more honour to him. 4 The Ministers of the Gospel, who have a general warrant to be imitators of Christ in any thing that they may, 1. Cor. 11.1. may here behold the liberty which is left unto them in the performance of their calling; not only nakedly to lay open the truth, but to use helps of wit, of invention and art, (which are the good gifts of God) so to remove away all disdain, and loathing of the word from the dull hearts of the auditory. Similitudes, and Comparisons, Allusions, Applications, yea Parables, and proverbs which may tend to edification, and illustrating of the word. For they have to do with weak ones, as well as with the strong, with some of queisie stomachs, with some of dull capacity, with some which must be enticed & alured with a bait of industry and eloquence, of pretty and witty sentences. And where should labour be spent, but in the work of God, which he who doth negligently is accursed; jerem. 48.10 or where should skill be showed, but in fishing for men's souls, after whom Christ himself so caught? And such is the weakness of sinners, that they are as much moved with the form & with the utterance, as they are with the matter. Aug. de doct. Christ. l. 4.24 Saint Austen telleth that in Caesarea a city of Mauritania, where himself sometimes lived, was a brutish senseless custom, that on certaines days of the year, the people of that place did gather themselves together, and as if they had been mad, the father against the children, and the children against their fathers, and the neighbours against their neighbours, did throw stones with that violence, that not a few were killed with it. Who would think that any one, who had the face of a man, would grow to that stupidious foolery? Yet let it not seem incredible. For first so grave an author as Saint Austen is doth witness it, & that of his own knowledge: and secondly I find that Leo Africanus doth make mention, Leo Afric. in descript. Africa. lib. 3. that a custom not unlike this, doth remain until our time, in places very near that, to wit, in the kingdom of Fez: and thirdly such absurdities have elsewhere been experimented. But concerning this of Saint Austen, he avoucheth of himself, that being to dissuade his neighbours of Caesarea from this so long a settled custom, he speaketh to them in a lofty and eloquent kind of oration, in grandi dicendi genere, and prevailed in his desire. It is easy to be gathered from the narration of the author, and whole course of his report, that his opinion was, that if he had spoken coldly, but frigidè & ieiunè, as of a common matter, he had failed of his whole purpose. So it is with other pastors, in other people and places. Quint. Orat. Instit. 2.17. Si mihi sapientes judices dentur sapientum conciones atque omine consilium. Nec enim qui recta via depulsus estreduci ad eam, nisi alio flexi● potest. 5 Quintilian that good Orator hath this saying concerning eloquence, If in my cause I were sure to have the judges wise, and wise men to my auditors, that envy might bear no sway, nor favour, nor fore-conceit, nor false witnesses might hurt, than the use of eloquence were small, and it should serve only for delight: but if the minds of the hearers be so movable and inconstant, and truth be subject to injuries, we are to contend by art, & to use any thing which may profit. For one who is out of the way, cannot be brought in again but by another turning. This is as true of the Preacher, as it ever was of the Orator. If we had none to hear us, but Lydia or Cornelius, persons right devout, and affected with religious attention, Act. 16.14. cap. 10.1. we needed not be very careful; but because among such as come to us, some are weak and must be comforted, some rude and must be informed, some drowsy and must be awaked, some hard and must be suppled, some perverse and with full stream of power must be overwhelmed; to please the tastes of so many, and to help on those which hang backward, all good means are to be used, that God himself may be glorified, and our brethren may be bettered. See whether Paul writing to the Corinthians do not thus, 1. Cor. 15.36.39.40. when handling the resurrection, he proveth and illustrateth it, by natural similitudes of seed sown in the ground, of difference of flesh, of the stars in heaven, and the like. Such liberty for comparisons, for Parables, for Examples, is left to us, in time and place to be used in God's business. Provided evermore, that it be not for ostentation of the vanity of man's wit, but only for edification, and to the benefit of the hearers: that we turn not all into Allegories, to make plain things obscure, and to destroy the letter, as origen sometimes did: that we always keep the majesty of the sacred word of God, and not give other men occasion, to think unfitly and unreverently of so high a mystery, by bringing that which pleaseth us, but no body beside; even ridiculous and base stuff. As we must ever speak those things which savour of sound doctrine, so we must evermore handle them as the pure and chaste word of God. 6 As this may most generally be said of Parables, that they have an use in divine things, so to speak a little more specially, we find some of these in the Scripture, which in particular cases go exceedingly to the quick of that which is in question, and being personally applied, do very much confound the guilty. Such a one was that which jotham uttered to the Sichemites, judic. 9.8. where the trees would choose a king, and the Bramble must be he; by the which he doth reproach unto them, their unthankfulness toward him and his father's house. Such a one was that of Nathan to David, 2. Sam. 12.1. of him who had many sheep, yet took one from his poor neighbour, whom when David had condemned, the Prophet so turned all upon him, that as David sometimes killed Goliath with his own sword, so Nathan took him in his own word. That is the wisdom of God, that he can deprehend another man; as in the Gospel he caught the bad servant in his own talk, Luc. 19.22. and replied: From thine own mouth I shall judge thee. That which was said in the person of a stranger, if another will apply to his own person, he will then amend his judgement. This was the case of jonas, to whom the Lord used a Parable, but rather real then verbal. He had a gourd and enjoyed it; then he losing it raged at it; but knew not what all this meant. The Lord then to bring him forward, and make him see his hard heart toward that great city Ninive, asked if he did well to be angry. jonas balketh him not at all, but forth with replieth, that he did well to be angry, yea if it had been to the death. Here indeed the Lord doth come on him. Thou hast pity upon this trifle, and shall not I upon Ninive: Thus with his own rod he beat him, and with his own net he caught him. After the battle of Cannae, Liu. lib. 23. when Mago being sent from his brother Hannibal, had in the Carthaginian Senate much boasted of the victory; how many armies and Generals of the Romans they had overthrown, and withal for the finishing of that conquest, desired a new supply of soldiers and money. It is written that one Himilco a friend to Hannibal, took occasion to insult over Hanno another noble man, who was of the adverse faction, and who evermore had dissuaded their making war with the romans: That he was a proper counsellor, who had sought to hinder that which had brought them such advantage, such a victory, and such honour. But it was the wisdom and art of Hanno being thus provoked, to retort the matter upon him ex tempore as he did. You speak of a glorious victory; but what gain we thereby? for if you had lost the field, what could you have asked more than now ye do, that is fresh men and money? Have the Romans yielded unto you? or have they sued for peace? If they have not, than their stomach is as great as it was before: and if their force be diminished, so is yours as well as theirs: so that peize the one with the other, you are as far from your purpose, as you were at the beginning. It was there the praise of Hanno, that he turned their own tale upon them. In this place God being so much wiser, as infinite and unlimited may be beyond dust and ashes, turneth both matter and words upon the head of our jonas, and doth teach him such a lesson, that what the Prophet thought made most for him, he showed made most against him. By his anger for the gourd, he condemned his former anger. If he would grieve that the green thing should be marred, because he liked it, how unjustly did he fret that Ninive should be spared, when the Lord had a liking to it? So step by step, and by degrees God is feign to teach him to know himself, and that wherein he thought himself very cunning. Yet at length by a demonstration, plainly gathered from the precedents, he evicteth what he desireth. Now let us see what that was. 7 The second thing which I note, is the form or expression of the Parable, by entering a comparison between the Lord and jonas. There is a great Antithesis between the persons compared, and the things whereabout they strove, and the end of their intention. Of the persons one was a man, whose breath was in his nostrils, who had neither wisdom to judge, what was fittest to be done, nor power to bring about, what he fond had imagined: whose pleasure if it were amiss must be censured by a judge; if right, than it must depend upon the beck of another. The one was he who was fanciful, and mutable, and humorous, and inconstant in all his ways, who would dote on a green bough, and be spiteful to a whole city. But the other was that grand one who reigneth above in heaven, full of power and full of wisdom, who directeth all his creatures in number, weight, and measure: whose word goeth for an Oracle, whose will is for a law, who can do what he listeth, & none must stand against him. So the things whereof the question was, were in like sort different: the one spoke for a tree, or green herb of the ground, which grew up on the sudden, and as suddenly was gone, which was but of one days standing, and which so long as he had it, was not at all by his labour: he neither planted nor watered it, but his great master did send it: and again for that space wherein he had it, none else was the better for it, but he alone made use of it: and his pleasure was no more, but either to ●it under it as a shadow or a bower, or to gaze and look upon it. But the other thing was Ninive, the huge city of the world, the governess of the East, the mansion of the king, the glory of the Empire, where were so many thousands as were leaves upon the gourd: where children were in great number, little infants, and little innocents: and where was much store of cattle, the life of the worst whereof was better than a gourd. A city, and a great city, and populous, and repentant, should sway more than a shadow. Then their ends were as different: the one would show his fancy, the other would show his mercy: the one thought of his present pleasure, the other would record to all posterity an example of clemency & pity: the one had respect to himself, the other to his creatures. Now if the servant so loved the gourd, because he liked it, how might the master love a city, because he had a mind unto it? 8 For the better opening of this comparison, the text observeth unto us, jonah. 1.2. that Ninive was a great city, which I have touched twice before, as first in the first chapter, where that title a great city, is given unto it: and then in the third chapter, where it is named an excellent city, Cap. 3.3. and of three days journey. In which two places, both from the Scriptures and other approved authors, I showed the greatness of it, for the compass & for the walls, and made plain the reasons of it. Now hear something is added for the hugeness of the place, which agreeth with all the rest; that there were so many infants within the compass of it, A million is commonly taken for ten hundred thousand: but sometimes for ten thousand. as one hundred and twenty thousand: so many, as if we take a million for ten thousand, do make no less than twelve millions, which arise to six score thousands. And lest any man should imagine, that children of riper age were comprehended there, the text describeth these children to be all of them so little, that they could not discern between their right hand and their left hand: which seemeth to be some Proverb among the Hebrews, 1. Reg. 21.21 like that, I will cut off from Ahab every one that maketh water against a wall, that is, all that are males: & here are meant none but very young ones. I know that some have thought the number set down here, to be a certain number standing for an uncertain: & so they do interpret it, that there were many thousand babes; and no more to be implied. But I will not do that injury to the Spirit of God, as to doubt but this number must definitely be taken for so many thousands full out: that there were at least of these little ones six score completed thousands. The compass of the city, as in former times I have showed, was threescore Italian miles, wherein that many thousands, yea a hundred thousand houses might stand, may well appear from proportion of other cities. Athens was never tak● in the number of very great ones: yet as Xenophon doth report in that time when he lived, Xenoph. lib. 3. Memorab. Philo judaeus in Flaccum. there were ten thousand houses in it. Philo judaeus showeth that in his time, there were many of the jews inhabiting in Egypt & Africa. He nameth Alexandria, which as we know was no huge city, as a place distinct against all the other of that country, as if there were their special residence, and in other towns, and cities, and shires, were but a scattering of them. But saith he, in Alexandria, and the other named places there were of jews ten hundred thousand. Then with the number of that people who were naturals of that country, and with all other strangers and trafiquers in that place, how many were the persons which lodged within those walls? Rome was famous, but never great. When it was at the largest, it was never the six part so spacious as Ninive was: Epitome Decad 6. l. 4. Censa sunt civium capita 428000. not ten miles about in compass: and yet we find in that Epitome which Lucius Florus left, gathered out of those books of Livy which are lost, that the Censors taking view of the citizens of that Rome, found of souls & of heads full out four hundred thousand. That, for all the inhabitants, was more than thrice the number of infants who were found in the mighty city Ninive. According to which proportion if we will compare place to place, we shall see that there needeth no scruple to remain in this whole matter. Ordinarily there are more of children in all places, then of any age by proportion. All who are elder, have first been infants: but all infants grow not elder: death cutteth off many of them. Allow then that these children of three years old and under, or four years if ye will, were the seventh part of the city: yet the whole number of inhabitants, shall but little exceed the double of the Romans. If you will suppose the children for the tenth or the twelfth part, and not so low as the seventh, yet Ninive will still bear it. Then this must be accepted as a justifiable truth, not only ratified by faith and the word of God, but probable and most likely in the natural course of things. Which being so, than it is no marvel, if the Lord who oftentimes pitieth his creatures sole and single, did take such open commiseration upon so populous a place. 9 Now what like thing had jonas which he might balance against this? Such a small thing, such a light thing, such a vain thing in comparison, as is scant worth the naming. When they should be weighed together, how justly might he stand backward, and hide his face for shame? It is a gourd-like Kikajon, a thing of one days antiquity, whose wood was not for building, whose fruit was not for feeding, but the use was only a shadow, and yet so too, that a little worm might destroy it all in a moment. When at that time Ninive had stood and flourished a thousand years. How is the judgement of man besotted, when we are left to ourselves, to stick upon things so contemptible, and pass by that which is of moment? Socrates the Historien doth tell of some, Socrat. Hist. Eccles. 5.21. who accounted of whoredom but as of a thing indifferent: but if question were concerning an holiday, they would strive for that as for their life. Our Saviour saith that the Pharisees stood to tith mint and anise, Matth. 23.23 but let go judgement and mercy. An absurdity of absurdities: but yet short of this in our Prophet. For if ever man strained a gnat, and swallowed up a camel, 24. it may be said to be he. Indeed Adam went beyond him, when in the height of his wisdom, he preferred the taste of an apple, or some such other fruit of a tree, before the perpetuated joys which should have been in Paradise. And so consequently they do, who embrace the fraud of this world, and contemn the bliss of eternity. But between eternal and temporal, there should be no comparison. And as little almost is there between a gourd and Ninive. Yet, so that in his melancholy, he might sit under the one, he careth not what becometh of the other. An unsociable part, and exceedingly inhuman. What man of kind affection would not leave pleasure & profit, to do well to a many? Camillus, and Aristides, and Cato would have done it. But they are wretched creatures who care not what sink or swim, rather than themselves be disquieted the wagging of a finger. A●l. Gel Noct. Artic. lib. 10.6. It is recorded by Gellius, as an everlasting blot against the daughter of Appius Caecus, that when coming once out of a play, she was thronged by a multitude, she wished that a brother of hers were alive again, who lately before had lost many thousands of the Romans in Sicily: that he might make a hand with more of them. The Aediles of the people set a great fine on her head for that her cruel conceit; because rather than herself who might have stayed at home, would be thrust at a play, she would wish the death of so many. jonas deserved higher punishment, in as much as when his case was no more serious, yet he wished a greater matter. But God willing to include his messenger in his mercy as well as the strangers of Ninive, will not deal with him so severely, but only talking with him, doth let him see his folly, and so secretly reproveth him. By an argument which is drawn à minori ad maius, he doth open his understanding. Thou a man dost love a plant; I a God do love a people: thou likest that which hath no sense, I stand for that which hath reason: thou carest for that which is but of thy new acquaintance; I respect mine ancient charge. Thou desirest that which did grow without any of thy labour, I preserve that which I planted and watered with great diligence: thou regardest that which is most momentany, I that which may stand thousands of years: thou one individual body, I millions of more worth: thou only carest for thine ease; but I do this for mine honour, that all the earth may know it. In all which we may consider that,/, is put with an Emphasis, still designing the highest Majesty. And this may be said of the comparison. 10 If I should proceed at large to observe unto you every point, which may fitly be deduced hence, I might justly offend your patience. I will therefore but briefly touch that which may be enlarged farther. In speaking of the gourd, it is said that the Prophet did never labour for it: he had it when he thought not of it. This commendeth the most large bounty of him who ruleth all things, who not only sendeth somewhat to jonas without his labour, but to every man beside. In that sort he began with him, from whom we all are derived: he put him into the world, as into a house prepared and furnished to his hand. Although not in that high degree, yet many men of the world do taste of this in great measure. Inheritors unto kingdoms, & other earthly possessions left to them by their parents, and for which they did never sweat, but found them ready provided, are partakers of this blessing. Their thankfulness should be the greater, because their labour was the less. Many of us here assembled, have experience of God's kindness powered on us in that behalf; when we inhabit houses which we ourselves never built, and feed of that, and are clothed with it which we did never buy. God's selected and choice instruments our honourable founders, have provided these things for us, wherein we had no more finger, than jonas had in his gourd, and the enjoying whereof we could no more promise unto ourselves, than they which least partake them. It behoveth us to remember, that these consecrated things are not disposed by God, nor dispensed by his servants, for idleness or luxury, or pampering of ourselves, but there is another end which will exactly be required of us, the glorifying of Christ, an attendance at the altar, a service in the Tabernacle, or at least a doing of good in a civil and sociable life, that it be not ill spent upon us, which might better be spared. Now as some do plentifully taste of wells which they never digged, so there is not the poorest man, nor most discontented creature, but herein he hath a share. For doth he live and move? what pains did he take for that? It was given unto him when he thought not of it. Hath he the earth to bear him, the water to refresh him, the air to return him breath? what doth he for all these matters? We are very dull if we see not, that all the treasure upon earth, is not like to these gifts: the worth whereof we conceive not, because we have them, but let us want them but a little, and we shall easily see at how high a rate they are to be esteemed. But who is he that will earnestly enter into himself, and call his wits to remembrance, who may not see that from his cradle unto this day, many things according to his proportion have been bestowed upon him: which came wholly by God's providence, and quite without his travel. The conscience of each private man may best of all testify this: but every one hath had more or less; the most needy many an alms, and other men other matters. He who sent the gourd to the Prophet when he did not labour for it, sent these good gifts to them, and it was none but himself: his name be praised for it. 11 As this may teach true patience to him who wanteth many things, so to return to the infants, somewhat more than is in them, which may offer comfort unto him. What the number of little ones was in Ninive, was well known to the Lord. By means of his infinite providence, he hath the reckoning of them. Psal. 147.4. He who calleth the stars by their names, knew their kindreds and their houses, and the account of the children. And did he then precisely know, how many and whose they were, and doth he not so now? Was there knowledge under the law, and is there not in the time of grace? was there favour to the Gentiles, and is there not to the Christians? Yes, he is the Lord and changeth not: his goodness shall never decrease. Then certainly as he is not ignorant of the reprobates, so he taketh note of the faithful with a peculiar knowledge: he understandeth how many be in each of all their families, what old ones, and what impotent, what young ones and weak ones there be, and there is not one of them, but by one means or another, he feedeth him and sustaineth him. If we could look back a little, and remember those pinching seasons which not long since gripped our land, it would teach us this point; when some poor who had many children, were miraculously so kept alive unfamished, as no man's wit could devise. Psal. 147.9. He who feedeth the young ravens, then provided for them. He never made a belly, but he made meat for that belly: he never framed a back, but he made clothes to cover it. Perhaps in that hard season, the poor sold and pledged that little which they had. But the time was in Egypt, Genes. 47.13 when the rich ones were glad to do that; when first money and cattle went, and then afterward land and liberty. But suppose that some sold their stuff to relieve themselves and their children: yet was not their life preserved? and may not God send a time to restore those things again? Who gave them that stuff at first, but he who may give it them a second time? And it may be that in the mean while, he did teach unthrifty persons not to waste as fast as they get, but by diligence to provide somewhat against a day of need. He who fed the hungry then, is the same God for hereafter: when we seek to him we shall try it: he knoweth the houses and little ones of Oxford and of London, & of the country villages, as well as those of Ninive. 12 Therefore let not any virtuous a●d religious mother, be too much careful and troubled for the multitude of that issue wherewith the Lord hath blessed her; what shall become of each of them, if herself or their father die, what friend shall provide for them. Even that Father who sitteth in heaven, who hath most right unto them, Psal. 100L. 3. Psal. 27.12. (because they are sheep of his pasture) will give them what is convenient. When David's father and mother forsook him, the Lord took him up. So he dealeth with all his servants. He who could rain bread from heaven, & bring water out of a rock, can touch the heart of some friend, or kinsman, or neighbour, or peradventure of some stranger, to take them to his protection: or work some other means, which it is not in man's power specially to prescribe. And the more to strengthen the faith of such whom this concerneth, in our age he advanceth men of low estate to great places: as Saul from seeking the Asses, 1. Sam. 9.3. Psal. 78.70. and David from the Sheepfold, to be rulers over Israel; so the children of poor parents, by wisdom and by learning, by Divinity and by Law, by skill in navigation, or military service, to stand before the greatest, yea to sit sometimes with Princes. Then let heathenish solicitude and caring without end, never trouble the hearts of Christians: they have to do with a Lord who knoweth them & their retinue: he hath them in a roll, and maketh provision for them: their dimensum, that is, their portion shall not be detained from them. Yea to make them the more assured, that the Lord doth think on the meanest men, in my text he speaketh of cattle, that in Ninive they were not forgotten. They are also his handiwork, and therefore he neglecteth not them, but he accounteth of them in their due place. He made them to beautify the great frame of the world, that the earth should not be solitary and naked in any place: he created them as attendants, and servants unto man, to do him many offices: his eye is daily upon them, to multiply them and feed them, and therefore it is no marvel, if he do forget them no where. But in Ninive by an open Proclamation from the King and his Nobles, jonah. 3.8. they were forced to abstain from their food, and to cry to God as they could, and therefore as they bore some burden in the penance, so the Lord meant that they also should have a part of the mercy. Now if these brutish creatures be so thought on by the Highest; if by so many respects he hath tied them to himself, then how precious is the life and lasting of man, how is that eye which never slumbereth nor sleepeth, fixed upon him? An horse, or ox, or ass is respected by his maker, and therefore a man much more. The infants are cared for by him, and accounted of, and considered, and therefore elder folks more. 13 I should not leave these children yet, but show that the Almighty God, who is gracious to all creatures, old and young, and man and beast, according to the course of his ordinary proceedings, had great reason to spare the little ones, and with them all the City. For the Lord neither useth elsewhere, neither doth practise it in this place, to send any extraordinary punishment, only for original sin; and yet there was little actual transgression in these silly infants. That which should have happened unto them, was most for their parents sakes; & they already had repent in sackcloth & in ashes; therefore together with the reconciling of the elder sort, they also were undoubtedly reconciled. But he who would have spared Sodom, Genes. 18 3●. if ten righteous persons had been in it; this propense one unto mercy, might have been pleased, if he had liked it, to have spared all the rest for the innocent infant's sake: for so in some sort I may call them. He might have urged jonas thus: If the men & women have deserved to be destroyed, yet what have the children done? But I will prosecute this no farther. Thus every way the integrity of God's deed standeth upright: his threats were to their good: his forbearing was a sign of his endless commiseration, which the most rigorous man, if he would not put off the bowels of all human affection, must not only acknowledge to be blameless, and free from reproof; but also graciously admire the same. And if any would be so impudent, as yet to rest unsatisfied, although God had debased himself, to come to yield a reason, and capitulate with his servant; yet this must stop his mouth: He liketh it, and therefore who dareth dislike it? But it is not so with our Prophet: for although in former times he wanted no faults, yet he is not still so refractory, as stubbornly to stand out, but his cursed heart at length cometh down, and he yieldeth as he should. For as if he had been fully answered by this last demonstration, we find not that he replied: but he is as mute as a fish. Which may be a good instruction, to men the most peremptory and settled in their opinions, that with the strength of their fancy or prejudicate conceit, they be not too straightly laced in their thoughts to other men. For where an ill mind toward other is entertained, by mistaking or wrong informing, or whispering tales of slanderers, if an answer may be heard, or reason compared with reason, fury may be quickly appeased. 2. Sam. 19.24. cap. 16.1. When Miphiboseth was heard speak, the strength of Ziba his former slander was presently laid on ground. But if we will be so headstrong, that nothing can reclaim us, let us consider other folks, and not only ourselves, and grief will soon be appeased. If jonas had had the grace to think that it might be his case, as it was the case of the Ninivites, or that it might be the portion of Jerusalem Gods own City, he might have been patient before. But being now as he was, when he looked upon the Lord, and saw that it more concerned him, for the blazoning of his pity, over all the coasts of the earth, and for the safe-garding of such a City, than it could concern his fond and unadvised fancy, he had no more to say. His silence showeth his consent. Because he gave no reply, it seemeth that he was satisfied. He endeth well who began ill, and better late than never. Thus albeit the entrance was rough, the close was very calm. jonas is freed from his transgression: and the Ninivites from their punishment: God is merciful in great plenty, and honoured in his mercy. 14 And thus by the assistance of the Lord, at length I am come to the end of this message, delivered by the Prophet, wherein as occasion hath served, I have from time to time, in this place discharged my duty, with faithfulness, and that measure of utterance which I had. And although it hath been long in coming, yet am I the more bound to give praises to the Lord, who hath given strength, and a mind, and every way opportunity, to finish this, be it whatsoever, without any great interruption. Whereunto if now I should add any thing, it should be but to stir up ourselves to a duty; us I say, upon whom a like burden lieth, as did here upon jonas. For although it be not so immediately, as it came to him, yet we have received a Commission, to be executed in God's name. And we need not seek far for Niniveh, either travel much by land, or take a ship to find it; it is every where among us. Not the greatness of that City, but the greatness of sin which crieth to heaven for vengeance. Where may we not find matter, for the hammer of the Law, to beat down strong iniquity? Where may we not find place, for the Tweete balm of the Gospel, to supple the wounded conscience? Here now if we will find starting holes, to pull our hand from the work, and to slip ourselves from the business; if we will deceive our own heart, by feigning of excuses, and entertaining discouragements, which may slake the zeal, which is or aught to be within us, let us ●eare jest God's wrath attend upon us as it did upon flying jonas: nay let us fear somewhat worse. Surely he who liveth in this pilgrimage, shall find many great impediments, to way him down from his duty; his own defects and inabilities which do most displease himself, because he is most privy to them: the Critical curiosity of such as come to hear: their prejudicate opinions that men preach not for Christ's glory, but upon vain ostentation, and because they love to be doing: the small return and unfruitfulness of the seed, which is scattered by them: the danger to displease: the unwelcomenesse of so reverend a message to the world: the scorning of many hypocrites: the small reward for great labours, and a thousand things best known to the particular mind of each man. But what are these, when we look to the dignity of our calling? to the burden which we bear? to the charge that lieth upon us? to the account which we must make? to the pleasing and the recompense of him whose the work is? 15 If these matters should have stayed Gods servants, how had the Apostles gone to spread the word at first? Or if you would except against that their example, because they were so furnished, with special gifts and graces, how should they who were our fathers, and begetters in the faith, men of quality like ourselves, clothed with the same infirmities, have adventured upon the service? If some should not have been doing, and set light of the taunts of other, how should we ever have had monuments and books of learning, to instruct ourselves withal? Is it not far better in the eyes of God and men, (since no man liveth upon earth, but subject to the censures of other) to be blamed unjustly, for labouring to do somewhat after our mediocrity, then justly to be taxed, because we will do nothing? If we must needs be reproved, how much better is it to endure that for doing of our duty, then for sitting still and doing nothing? I dare pronounce this, as first of all from out the Scripture, so secondly from some other matters which myself have heard and seen, that at such time as we come to our deathbed, (when it were ten thousand follies to flatter our souls in vanity, and sooth ourselves with a lie) it is one of the hardest and heaviest burdens, to think that we have neglected the ministery of the Gospel: our own hearts cannot be satisfied, by exclaiming against that oversight. And on the other side, it is a joy of all joys, inconceiveable and unspeakable, that our conscience shall give witness, and that before the Lord, that we have not refused to bear the heat of the day, to stand up in the gap, but have planted and watered duly: we have passed on with cheerfulness, to the mark which is before us, and have not lived as a byword, or a burden of the Church. This meditation alone, should be of more worth unto us, than all snares and entanglements, to withdraw us and pluck us back. And before that we come to this, God be praised we need not say, that we are left without comfort, but good things are provided for us. But that should be the least respect, for not for gain or aught else, should virtue and religion be loved, but for virtues sake. That virtutis amore, to love virtue for virtues sake, and religion for religion, is the right that we should aim at. Let us shake off all incumberments, and if we have a message in our mouths, at one Ninive or another, let us do it, let us deliver it. Let the punishment upon jonas detracting his masters business, be a spur to all, who with judgement and sobriety are able, to remove away that accusation, which I simply profess, is not most unjust upon this place; and the guilt whereof I pray God be not one day required of many of us. 16 If we will quicken the Spirit, and stir up the grace which is in us, God may give us the same blessing, which he gave here to his word, out of the mouth of his Prophet; that we shall not beat the air, nor spend our spirits in vain, but although ourselves be weak, yet we shall make others strong; and although we ourselves be poor, yet we shall make others rich. We shall raze the forts of ignorance, and overturn the holds of sin, we shall bring persons and places, as stubborn and as stout as ever was mighty Ninive, to compunction and remorse, to fasting and lamentation. For the force of that word is great, which cometh from the most high majesty of the Almighty: and especially when it is uttered with a zeal, which is mixed with sober discretion; and when God's honour is principally shot at by the speaker, and his omnipotency is thoroughly solicited with frequent and holy prayer, to give a blessing to the labour. And what a joy is it, to be an instrument not contemptible, in saving the souls of men; to have had a piece of a finger, in completing that for which Christ jesus came from heaven? Lord send us thy best direction, that we may make conscience of our calling, that nothing do abash us, or detain us in the exercise of our vocation, but that with an upright foot we may cross the way of this pilgrimage, that so we may be admitted, to reign with thy Son Christ jesus, to whom with thee and the everlasting Spirit, be glory and praise eternal. Soli Deo honour. To the Reader. CHRISTIAN Reader, having learned this lesson, that a Minister of the Gospel is to do good, in and to the Church of Christ, so farrefoorth as possibly he may while he liveth in this world; I do not refuse to publish to the view of many men these small labours of mine, that either learned or unlearned may reap some profit from them. And if in the perusing of them, thou do find either directly or by circumstance, that mention is made of some things, which were done or suffered now some years past; understand it for a truth, that I first adventured on the handling of this Prophecy in the year 1594, and brought it to an end in 99 For it is the manner of our University, that no one man doth continually keep and read our English Lectures or Sermons, as it is in diverse other charges in this Realm; but in as much as there be among us many, who are furnished with great gifts and graces from above, our exercises here are supplied by sundry persons; who when they have performed any of these solemn ones, are not immediately called again, but have a convenient space left to employ their talon, in other Churches of the city, or country adjoining, or in their private Colleges, or where else it pleaseth God to offer them opportunity. But among other the most holy, religious, and fruitful exercises in our assembly, there is none in my opinion more honourable to the Almighty, nor more profitable to our brethren among us, than those Lectures, which with solemnity are kept both winter and summer on the thursday mornings early; where sometimes before daylight, the praises of God are by preaching sounded out in the great congregation. For there even on the working days, not only our youth which are sent hither for good education from most places of this land, are trained up in the knowledge of godliness, which maketh them afterward the more devoutly able, to do service and perform a duty in Church and commonwealth: but the elder and strongest sort, by fresh and various remembrances are quickened to go forward in the way of righteousness, the weak are comforted, the straying are recalled, the obstinate are convinced, and all kinds of men which will repair thither are duly instructed. It were great pity therefore, but that the reverend & godly Vice-chauncellers, and chief governors of this body, should from time to time take faithful care, to perpetuate this holy service and business, by stirring up the spirits of many of their brethren with alacrity and cheerfulness to continue this freewill offering to the Lord, which he himself certainly will requite, and already in his mercy hath not left unrewarded in many of them who have taken pains this way. There is no man that in the end loseth, but gaineth by the true service of our Almighty maker. In the turns of this voluntary Lecture, have the most part of these Sermons upon jonas been preached: which hath been the cause that I have been forced to be so long, in perfecting and consummating this work. But yet, now that I am resolved to communicate it farther, I think it not unfit therein to recount those things, which upon special occasions of the times, had their first and most direct use before; in as much as I have warrant thereof by examples of holy Scripture, where there be plentifully recorded to us matters past: and in the Sermons and Homilies of the ancient Fathers of the Primitive Church, we at this day read mention made of famines, or pestilences, or wars, or unseasonable weather, or such other like occurrents, from which great utility may now be reaped; as to teach the people (for their comfort in misery, or warning in prosperity) that God dealeth by men in this age as in former times; and the Minister, that he should not be blind but quicksighted, to make application to his auditory, of such benefits or punishments, as are sensibly represented to his congregation. The same or the like use we may make of hearing that good or evil, which lately before befell ourselves or our brethren, that so by things which are past, as well as by the present, God's name may be glorified, and our consciences religiously edified. As for the most part of matters handled here, be they either exhortations, or applications, or doctrines, or refutations of any opinions, Popish, or otherwise erroneous, they have their perpetual commodity, and somewhat may evermore be sucked out of them. In the revolving whereof if any man shall take profit, I shall be right glad, and account it a blessing of God on me, that he maketh my weakness the means and instrument to build any thing, be it but little in his spiritual house. The Lord direct us aright in our knowledge and understanding: the Lord guide our ways, that we may evermore walk in his fear, that passing over the days of this pilgrimage with comfort, we may in the end dwell in joyful and everlasting habitations. Amen. FINIS.