Sermons on Jonah

The chief points in the first Lecture.

T Hat which Jerome said to Paulinus concerning the seven Catholic or General Epistles (for so they are called) of James, 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 Jonah, 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 horriblenesse of sin, which was able within forty days to pluck down an utter desolation, on so famous a city as Nineveh was. God's love in forewarning them who dwelt in that place, that they might be spared: the Prophets foul fall, and his strange punishment for it: his of-wardnesse from God, and God's favorable inclination evermore to him: the regard which the King of Nineveh and his people did bear to God's judgments 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 it self, and from them both, this thing of note is collected, that our Savior 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. The one of them is in the 11. of Luke, The men of Niniuy shall rise in judgment with this generation, & shall condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold a greater then Jonah is here. The other is in the twelfth of Matthew, As Jonah was three days and three nights in the whales belly, 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 Savior Christ, that as Jonah preaching long to the people of Israel, and doing little good there, by reason of the stubbornness of that nation, was sent unto Nineveh 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 Jerome hath well noted on the third verse of this Chapter. 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 Origenicall or wrestings at all.

2 The time wherein our Prophet did live, should seem to be soon after the death of Elisha, in as much as he did prophecy of Jeroboam the later, the son of Joash, that he should restore, or recover again the coasts of Israel which were lost. Jeroboam restored the coast of Israel, from the entering of Hamath to the sea of the wilderness, according to the word of the Lord God of Israel which he spake 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 Talmudicall vanities, and Cabalisticall subtleties have perverted much of the Scriptures, do teach, and have long so taught, that this Jonah was the son of the widow of Sareptha, 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, 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. Jerome 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 cōcealed it, not naming any such matter in the Scripture, (where notwithstanding is oftentimes speech of Jonah) 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 Jonah, 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 nurce 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 judgment 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, Gittah Hepher, which to S. Jerome are both one, was a city in the land of Israel, in the tribe of Zebulon, as we may read in Joshua. But Sareptha was not in Israel, as Christ himself very evidently doth signify in S. Luke, 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 leapers were in Israel in the time of Elisha 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, or a city of Sidon. And Josephus also telleth us, in the 8. of his Antiquities, that Sareptha is a city between Tyre and Sidon : where speaking of Elias, of the widow, and her son, he hath not a word of Jonah. And left it may be thought that Gath Hepher did stand near to this city of Sareptha, and so that our Prophet for the nearness of the places, may be said to be of both, it was the tribe of Asser, and not the tribe of Zebulon which was nearest unto Sidon. Then our Jonah being takē from the tribe of Zebulon, 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 Judah, and Israelites to the other ten tribes; which he had not here observed, if Jonah 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, used a word in Hebrew like to the name of Amittai, therefore Jonah 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; 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, that as Viues 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 Ierusalē 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 anything, that unadvisedly cometh from them.

5 The widow of Sareptha was not Jonah his mother, but himself doth let us know that Amittai was his father; where also another fable may justly be reproved, 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 fathers 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 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, Ergo they whose fathers are named, 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, 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 here thē be no less, thē a whole generation of Prophets. But I rather approve of the reasons of Arias Montanus, 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 frō 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, 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 [ 1] herein do contain several arguments. In the first is the fall of [ 2] Jonah, and his suffering for it. In the second, his repentance, [ 3] which is uttered in a prayer. In the third, the fruit of his preaching, [ 4] that is, the conversion of the Ninevites. In the fourth, his anger against the Lord's proceeding, and God's answer thereunto. Now to the first in the first place.

6 Tremellius and Junius do expound the Coniunctiue Hebrew particle, 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 intend, that when Jonah 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 Nineveh. Wherein God's 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 Ninevites 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 judgment, when God removeth his word or ministers from a nation, & giveth them to other. For where there is no vision, where prophecy ceaseth, the people decay. Azariah the man of God could tell the people of Judah, 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, that the Lord would make the tongue of the Prophet to clean to the roof of his mouth, that he should not exhort thē, that he should not reprove them. 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 ministry. It is a fearful sentence from the mouth of Christ him self, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, 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, then not to know a man's own want, or if he do know it, not to be of power to help it, 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 Jonah like a Dove (for so his name doth signify) must fly or must go from Samaria to Nineveh, 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. 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 contrariwise from the two unto the ten, from Judah to Israel, or from Israel to Judah, the matter had been less: but must Jonah go to Nineveh? We can conceive no otherwise, 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, & 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, 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 judgment but wormwood; if his word should be neglected, and his ministers be despised, let them fear least that befall them, which hath happened unto others. Those which were but wild branches and are now graffed into the Olive, can they be dearer unto God, then 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, 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 Greece, 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 partes, which gave light to their neighbors. But for the sins of the inhabitants, is not their candlestick since removed into the West? are not their lamps extinguished? Yes, their Ionasses are dead, or sent to other nations. Their temples are now made a cage of unclean birds: filthy spirits do possess them. The Turk with his Curaam, and Mahomet with his Alcoran are Lord's 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. 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 judgment, 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 natiō, & the careless abusing of so gracious a benefit, there came such a time as that Jonah might not stay in Israelit he would: either Jonah must fly, or Jonah must dy. Then Geneva, or Basil, or Franckford, or some other parts of Germany, were thought fitter places to receive the Lord's Prophets, then our England was.

9 That short time of mercy which God had shown before, had but a short time of chastisement succeeding it. Since those days God hath shown longer love, and poured 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, 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, which by enjoying we know not. Demosthenes perceiving the true danger of that case, could remember the Atheniens, 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. 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 Joshua) but by the trumpets of the Priests. 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 Ionasses, 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 fantacie or humor 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. Moses would not go to Pharaoh, till he had learned his lesson perfectly. Jeremiah is but a child, and knoweth not how to speak, till God stretcheth forth his hand, & putteth his word in his mouth. The Lord doth tell Ezekiel, 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. 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 broch 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, as Saint Paul telleth the Galatians. 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 aduertisements 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, least 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 God's written word which must be to us, as the thread of Ariadne, to lead us through all laberinths. The Law of the Lord is perfect, 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. This full Scripture, this perfect Law of God, is it which must be the guide, and as the load-star 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 Anabaptists, 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 Jonah 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 God's 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. Feede the flock saith Peter, but it followeth in the text, which doth depend upon you, 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, but they had their pass-port 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. When they were let go by the Spirit, they came unto Seleucia. And, they would have gone to Bithynia, 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 it self, 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 cosinage, or with lustful carnality, or one bad trick or other.

11 Their calling in the mean time is not warranted in the word, although Jonah went to Nineveh. Ours is a stable profession, it is no gadding ministry. 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 our selves 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 free-will offering bestow our little talents. By writing we learn to write: by singing men learn to sing: by skirmishing we shall learn to fight the Lord's 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 our selves 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, that when Valens the Emperor with his Arian opinions, had be-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 fathers 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 shown the reason why Jonah went from Israel, I come to the second verse.

12 It should seem that our Prophet having long preached to his country-men, 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 Ezekiel, God himself doth foretell him, that he sendeth him to such as are a rebellious house, 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; Paul planteth, and Apollos watereth, but God giveth the increase. In the mean time, the labor of the faithful Minister, whether it speed or miss, is accepted of the Lord. For as he (saith Saint Agustine) 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 labor 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, 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 labor, yet we should not dismay our selves, because no more befalleth us, then did betide Christ. And the disciple as we know, is not greater then his master. If such a drowsiness or sleepiness were now upon Jonah, 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.

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 Nineveh, 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 Nineveh was then the greatest City that was upon the earth. When Moses doth mention it, he giveth that testimony of it, 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, 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 Nineveh thus much more: In the last chapter of this Prophecy it is put for the conclusion of the book, 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, 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 built by Ninus the great Monarch of Assyria, and husbànd to Semiramis, which is also the opinion of Saint Agustine, in his books De ciuitate Dei. Some argument why we should believe it to be so, may be gathered from the name, being termed of Ninus the king, Ninus, & Nineveh in the Scripture. But see whether that in this case, a man may not say as Agustine said to Jerome (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 Jerome had more witnesses in mumber to prove his assertion, thē Agustine 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. Agustine 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, or rather beyond all. And he doth tell us that this City was built by Assur. Neither doth the Hebrew name import ought to the contrary, if it be as some suppose, not Nineveh of Ninus, but Nineveh of Nauah the Hebrew word, & so signifying beautiful or goodly, or fair, or fit to be inhabited. But this controversy may be ended, 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.

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 cartes 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 nearness 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.

16 Our Jonah 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 Gracchi in Rome. He needed not to find fault that he had nothing to do, who had Nineveh 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 shown) here was a place of reputation for him, if any were upon earth. Tully was no great warrior, for ought that I can read, 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 egernesse, 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 Nineveh 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 someone kingdom. I do read in Seneca, that there was once a man of a turbulēt 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 Jonah 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, least 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 Nineveh, 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 Elijah said to the Baalites, that they were to cry allowed, 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 Isaiah is called upon to cry allowed and not to spare, 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, A voice said Cry : The Prophet asketh what shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and the beauty thereof as the flour 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. Again this word Cry is some other time used, when something 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 anything 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 belles. 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, that is indeed, the murder of Cain did call to God for vengeance. The cry of Sodom and Gomorrhah was great. The detaining of wages from the laborer & hired servant, doth yield forth a cry. And here in this place the wickedness of Nineveh 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. This was it which once plucked down fire and brimstone from heaven upon Sodom and Gomorrhah. This was it which caused that universal flood in the days of Noah. 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 Ierusalē, which sometimes was God's own City. Nay this very place Nineveh, 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. 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 Nineveh, as are said by Ezekiel to have been in Sodom, 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 falts may be picked out, which were great in that place. As first, witchcraft and enchantment, and sorcery & necromancie, and divination by the stars, which were exercised beyond measure, in all the Eastern parts where Nineveh stood. When the true wisdom of Salomō, 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 Diuiners, and all of that sort. There came to adore Christ, wise men as they are called, Magi, Diuiners 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 Nineveh, Enchanters, Astrologians, Chaldeans and Sorcerers ? & how doth God himself deride, & scoff at thē by his Prophet Isaiah, for entertaining of such, & for retaining of so many? In one word, the censure that is set on the Chaldeans, men not far frō Nineveh, by Tully in the second of his Diuination, and by Cornelius Tacitus in the first of his History, (where that by his Mathematicians he meaneth Chaldeans, 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 Magi in Herodotus, who would have had the kingdom after the death of Cābyses, do make this most plain, that in the East country these Arts were used much, and therefore likely so in Nineveh. But how odious these sins are in the sight of God, whosoever doth read the Scriptures, cannot be ignorant. In the tenth of Jeremiah the least of these faults are called the way or customs of the heathen, 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, or a marker of the flying of fowls, or a sorcerer, or a charmer, or that counselleth 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, 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, who at Pharaoh'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 superstitiō: 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 iugum, a token of disgrace to him self 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 Magicke 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 Apostate, 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 iesteth 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 him self was ashamed of that deed, 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, if they were to be found in Nineveh. 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 Nineveh 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, full of lies and robbery, from whence the pray 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 tapistrie, and plate, and armor, yea whatsoever else was precious in their eyes. So did that great Marcellus at the sacking of Syracusa, 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, cannot 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 Agustine, 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. 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

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 Nineveh be a warning unto us, and to all men in general, that we fly from their cruelty. And remembering that of the Prophet, 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 our selves, 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 leudly. It is put as the Prophet speaketh, 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, then they could be in Nineveh, because we have had many Ionasses, 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 Jonah was, and again what he was not, and who sent him from Israel, and who bid him go to Nineveh, and that Nineveh 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 forever.

THE II. LECTURE.

I ONAS hath received his charge to go to Nineveh, 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 reckenings which fall out between man & man, but with a proclamation of weight from the eternal God. Here a natural man would look, that since Jonah 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 Nineveh, 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 missed 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 Jonah would be naught, 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, 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 honor, 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, and fugitive from his God, yea a very careless rebel: that he slept in the ship-bottom, when all other were praying, for fear lest they should be drowned: that he crosseth the Lord always, wishing vengeance upon Nineveh, when God would have mercy; yea that as the testiest man whoever did live, he did fret and scold with God, and for anger would be dead; and lastly that chiding hand-smooth 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, 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 Jeremiah himself, the fretting of Jeremiah, because all things were not well, doth argue to the reader something 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, 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 then all, as Zozimus did against the Christians; or for their friends and countrymen set all at the highest, as Salust 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 anything of his own; but that Rome was saved by him from the fury of Catiline; that when he was Consul he did more then good service to the common-wealth, his tongue and his pen have never done. What learned man hath not heard of his

In the Commentaries of Caesar a book worthily penned, may we find anything which maketh against himself, yea in his civil wars? 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, whereas Christ took but three days) yea as Viues observeth, that he was the Cōforter 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 discouerers 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, 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 friends 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 pen-men 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, to stop the mouths of blasphemers and miscreants, who measure God by themselves, and piety by their profaneness. Jonah was better taught, not to give the glory to himself, but to God, having learned that lesson which Saint Agustine 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.

5 Jonah 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 rouzeth up himself, as if he intended to fall hardly to his matters; but after the first step, he trode not one foot right. He should have rose to cry, and he arose to fly: he should have gone East to Nineveh, and he went Westward to Iapho. 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, as Solomon saith, And the just man doth fall seven times, whereof although Jerome 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 Savior in the midst of his wisdom, wherewith he governeth his Church, would have appointed for them some other prayer, then the ordinary Lord's prayer: 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 Jonah fall, and Job, and Noah, and Lot, and David, whom the scripture calleth just and righteous persons, and after God's 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 Jonah 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 willfulness. 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 Jonah many souls in Nineveh might escape his net. Perhaps [ 1] 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. This was one part of David's fear, whē being with Achis he feigned himself mad, because among strangers out of his own country, he had none on whom he might repose him self, as on his familiar and fast true friend. But a meaner man then a Prophet, might here have answered Satan, that the whole earth is the Lord's, 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 Jonah here also. It may be that the tempter would [ 2] 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 Jonah might have heard, that the day was, when those which were with Elisha and his servant, 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, 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. It was but one pair, when Joshua 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 Phocion among the Atheniens, of whom it is written, that when Apollo by his Oracle at Delphi, had given an answer, that one man did disagree, although all the rest of their City consented; and they were much troubled to know who that one was, Phocion 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. Jonah might have been as bold as ever Phocion 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 destructiō of Nineveh, he might be murdered, or at the least be much abused; and that therefore [ 3] 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, Elias could hardly escape the fingers of Jezebel, 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. It was noted for folly in him that could say, that there was a better Moon at Athens then any was at Corinth. It savored of infidelity in him that should think, that God was not as strong at Nineveh, as he had been in Israel. But Jonah wouldst thou not adventure an abusing, to win unto the Lord so goodly a City as Nineveh was? such a king, and such a people? enlarge heaven with so many? A Philosopher after thee, 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 fisher-men 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 Nineveh 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, Jonah, 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, Jonah, 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, (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, 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, then a Prophet will do for the kingdom of heaven? This yet therefore is no reason: let us hear a little further.

[ 4] 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, & 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 labor 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? Had he diued 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 straight. 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, Apollos watereth, but God giveth the increase. But if God be not pleased to give any increase, yet let Paul plant, and let Apollos water. The resolution which Joab sometimes did bear speaking to the Israelites, should be the resolution of the Minister, 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 Jonah have said. In an unknown country God might have sent him fruit, who found none in his own. 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 stomaked it, that the Gentiles should [ 5] know God, which was a fault in his country-men, while they accounted all other men dogs, but themselves the holy seed. We have Abraham to our father. 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, that he had gone in to mē uncircumcised. So the Prophet being sick of his country-men's disease, might murmur that the Ninevites 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 refu • all of the Jews, and the calling of the Gentiles so spoken of by Noah, so told of by Jacob, so fore-prophesied 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, yet had a finger in the Temple of Solomon; so Nineveh 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 Cherubims, which signified God's presence, and lost all the fruit of them and many blessings besides. 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 Jonah. 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 Jonah. But [ 6] there is one which expressly is named in the body of the text, as appeareth in the fourth chapter. Jonah 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 straight laced, that rather then him self 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 serpents head. 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 Jonah had remembered, when he was to utter his speech, That Nineveh 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 wherefor he should fly from God's service, is more grievous then 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 pardō also? Was Jonah 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, to show meekness to all men, and he layeth this down as one cause, for that we our selves also were in times past unwise and disobedient. 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, wherein himself and other had been guilty. S. Austē 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 favor 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, least 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, that whereas himself upon Alexanders 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,

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 lightening, and fire from heaven would serve the turn, if he must go to Nineveh. A humor very ambitious, which to feed it self 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, 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 Nineveh and ten Niniues sink, burn, or do what it will: he had leifer have his mind satisfied, then all the world besides. 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 bad 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.

12 The Septuagint translate it, he went up to Iapho; but Jerome 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 Iapho did stand low, and therefore to be more fit for descending then ascending. It is a haven town in Palestine standing upon the Mediterrane sea, and it is the same which is called Joppa in the tenth of the Acts, whither Cornelius sent for Peter. This is one of those towns, which the Christians sometimes in their voyage to the holy land, did recover from Saladine the great king of Egypt: and it had afterward been regained by him, but that Richard the first then king of this land, being returning on his journey for England, did bring back his army, and succor it at need, as Neubringensis writeth. From this Iapho our Prophet would go unto Tarshish, which some have thought to be the old city Carthage, and Jerome himself though not in this place yet in the seven and twentieth of Ezekiel 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 Solomon'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 Silicia in Asia the lesser, 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 Silicia. I am the more induced hereunto, because Josephus reciting this story saith expressly, that Jonah meant to fly to Tarsus in Silicia. 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 iuorie and Apes and peacockes.

13 This City then being a place of great traffike, whither merchants did frequent, to buy and sell wares, doth yield probable conjecture, although no necessary inference, that Jonah not liking his message to Nineveh, 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, A merchant cannot lightly keep him from wrong. And, As a nail in the wall sticketh fast between the joints of the stones, 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 nauigation, 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 fishers men came to be Apostles; and I know that after their sanctifying, 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, and find no such example. Only this, it was small praise to Demas as here it is to Jonah, that he left S. Paul, and embraced this present world. In our time let mē take heed, whō God hath blessed with very good gifts, that it be not laid unto their charge, that they with Jonah have chosen to do something else, as to be farmors, or graziers, or husbandmē in the country, rather then 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, then who hath now recalled thē? 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 anything, 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, 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 cā 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 Jonah to go from Nineveh to Tarsus, from being a Prophet, to be a merchant, or follow some other calling. Jonah by it sped but il, let thē look to themselves. I desire that all should be well.

15 God doth many times suffer those things to be ready, by the which we may fall, that we may learn that in our selves 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, 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 thread-bare, 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 labored for him, should have the price of their pains. A lesson worth the learning, for those which have to do with laborers, and poor workmen, that they do not detain their wages. The laborer saith our Savior, is worthy of his hire. God hath diverse sayings in his Law, that the wages of such persons as are hired, should not be detained from them, least 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. 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 enflamed to run from his duty, that rather then 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 corruptnesse 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, 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, the soldiers shall have large pay. The Apostate Julian was eger enough to get money from the Christians, by exactions and oppressions, but when he bad the Jews build the Temple at Jerusalem, in spite of Jesus Christ, who had told before that it never should be reedified, 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 neighbors, 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 honor 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 Jonah? 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 anywhere, where God cannot see him? He who framed the eye shall not he see? or he who made the ear, shall he not hear? Surely Jonah 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, then he well might remember that excellent Psalm of David; 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 ô Lord. Whither shall I go from thy Spirit, or whither shall I fly from thy [ 7] 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 secretes 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, they might hide thenselves. 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. 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, 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 judgment. When Pericles once was sad, about yielding an account of much money to the Atheniens, 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 Atheniens 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. Jonah 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: or if another to avoid a shower of rain, should leap into the river: for if God's hand anywhere do evidently appear, or if anywhere it be fearful, 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, and occupy by the great waters, they see the works of the Lord and his wonders in the deep. Paul found this by experience, 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, what a tempest is described to have befallen Aeneas in the Sicilian sea. So then if God be present anywhere 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 Jonah did. When Pliny the elder was choked, in going to see Vesuuius a hill which burned in Campania (as Aetna oftentimes doth in Sicilia) the sight thereof was so terrible, that the beholders were all amazed at it. But there were saith the younger 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 Jonah 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 functiō as they should. So the Lord separated the tribe of Levi, 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. 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 Elisha use, in another place to Naaman the Syrian. The contrary of which speech is uttered by that wicked Cain, 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 Prophets 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 anything more upon them, then 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, 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 our selves frō the work. In the fifteenth of the Acts, 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 Lord's 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 Jonah we should leave him, and turn away from his presence when he hath use for us in the field, let us fear least a greater judgment befall us, then did unto Jonah. 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 Nineveh, 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 forever.

THE III. LECTURE.

O Vr 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 Nineveh, 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, 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 sea-men are so afraid, Jonah 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 Jonah his sake. For the question is here true, 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 Jonah, 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, least they smart for it with his servants. For if the green wood so burn, 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 willfully, in steed of asking pardon by confession and repentance, can sooth 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 Jonah here forsaketh his vocation, 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 Spiders property to suck such poison from them) but rather, as S. Agustine teacheth us, to put us in mind of that warning of the Apostle, that he who standeth should take heed least 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, least 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. 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 Absalom ready so with all kind of contumely to scourge offending David, as to abuse his fathers concubines, and to seek his fathers life? 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. 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 Seuera, whom he was unwilling to leave, he was in love also with another virgin called Iustina, and he married her too. And least this fault should seem most gross, if he alone were noted for so scandalous behavior, 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 Jonah 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, 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? Manie hope for it but few have it; many speak of it, but few use it, which maketh that worthy saying of S. Agustine to be true, Manie 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 God's righteous judgment. You shall hear how Jonah sped.

4 It is well said by David, that God rayneth on the wicked fire and brimstone and stormy tempest. But more fitly to my purpose, that fire and hail, and snow, and vapors, and stormy wind 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, the God of glory maketh it to thunder. If it do hail in Egypt, where it raineth very few times, 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 ought or beat it back again, these are but God's hand-maidens, to work his designements. If Carus the Emperor be blasted to death with lightening, it is the Lord's 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, that he or his son Honorius who was then present with him, is much beloved of God, O ninimium dilecte 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 childrē) if we would do as we should do, we must sing with S. Ambrose, Te Deum laudamus. We praise thee ô 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 Jonah; 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 glimsing sight of reason, they laid it down that a divine substance did govern these creatures, (although they missed 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 then the Greeks and more barbarous then the Romans, have gessed at such a thing, and had such a like conceit; I mean the Western Indians, 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 judgment, a people of Italy where both learning and civility did grow. 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 Northrē wind blew, & so wracked those ships, that they were spilled almost all. In remembrance whereof, they by a common consent made this North-wind a God, admitted him into their City, incorporated him among them, appointed him an house and goods of his own, and every year besides 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, 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 him self, or the ministers of Satan, enchaunters 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, that tēpests could not be raised by any inchauntments, 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 Brenz 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,

Charmes 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. I have forced rain out of the clouds which before were dry. The soothsayers of Hetruria, 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. This Captain, saith he, pursuing the Moors in the hot country of Affrike, 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 Magike he would procure down some rain, or at least suffer it so to be, professing that him self 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 it self 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.

7 Iouianus Pontanus in the fifth book of the Acts of his time, hath a Narration to this purpose, but a judgment to the contrary. In that mighty quarrel between the kings of Aragon, and the house of Aniou in France for the kingdom of Naples, Ferdinandus king of Aragon 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, then 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 lightening, trees were plucked up by the roots, the stones did rent in pieces, & there fell such abundance of rain, that from the top of the rock whole streams did run of water. So the king missed of his purpose. The Author which writeth this, confessing the whole matter, and describing it as I have done, doth think that their Magicke did not cause the rain, but that it came naturally, so much wet falling after so long a drouth. 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 frō 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 shown 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, and to make the fish to die, (for that may be collected, because the text saith that the enchaunters 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 Ephesiās, Satan by the Apostle is called the prince that now ruleth in the air, which name although it may note to us some other thing besides, yet it doth also intend (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, whē God will give him license. But for the point of the question, this is put out of controversy, by that which we read in Job, 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) God's leave going before, a fire fell out of the air, and burnt up Job's sheep and servants, and such a wind came from the wilderness, as at one time striking all the corners of the house, destroyed Job's 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 positiuelie 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 spokē of in Job to be Satan, he hath these words, This Behemoth who is the beginning of the ways of God, whē 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 judgment of Saint Agustine writing on these words of the seventy and eight Psalm, 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 Job's 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 Brenz 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 questiō (as some thē 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. 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 then 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, that these storms of their raising, may be easily distinguished from natural tempests arising frō 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 thē they are, whē 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 perditiō. He that would see more examples of the working of sorcerers in this kind, let him read some places of Olaus Magnus. And so I leave this questiō.

10 Not Satan in this place, but God sendeth the storm on Jonah; & 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 Jonah is the sinner, but all the ship smarteth for it: the mariners & the master, who were not at all accessory 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 Nineveh. 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 [ 1] 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 honor 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 Jonah, 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 then 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 iayle, and punished in one day, and suffer all on one tree. I doubt not for these sea-men, but if all of them had been drowned, they had sufficiently deserved it, although they had never heard of Jonah. 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, (as Seneca De ira writeth) to show the bloody humor which was in him, commanded that a soldier should be put to death, for returning without his fellow, with whom he went from the campe, 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 missed 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. 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 sea-men. 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 someone 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 judgments, although many times they be secret, yet evermore they are just.

[ 2] 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: 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 God's 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. Many of the Israelites had felt this another time, if they had not fled from the tents of Dathan and Abiron. The companions of Jonah were sure that they tasted of it. And it seemeth that either by the light of nature, or by some sea-observation, they thought that they had one or other, whose room might be far better then his company was unto them, when they fell to casting lots, to see for whose sake it was, that all this came upon thē. That such things are thought on at sea, and that by natural men, let Horace be my witness, who can say this for himself

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 sails in the same ship with me. The speech of Juno in another Poet doth give some light hereunto. 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 Aiax Oileus? The infidels and Ethnics have thought these things at sea, either noting them by experience, or borrowing them by tradition frō 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.

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 killing 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, and called to his fellows, that they should come away with hast, frō 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 them selves with all comers, not fearing the faults of others, but when they do know their wickedness, they are glad that they have such companions, 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 naught be naught, what is it then to be naught? If company do bring danger, as you see it did by Jonah, 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.

14 To such as use nauigation it is a verity undoubted, that there be at sea many tokens and prognosticates of great tēpests, gathered from the Sun and Moon, and waves and winds and clouds, and other things, the use whereof our Savior Christ himself disliketh not, so that men go not too far, or be not too peremptory in them. 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, 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, but a great one. Vnà 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, 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 keele 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 shiuers; 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 God's, for there was no help now frō 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, til the Sheriff come & seize his guest, and himself to the Princes mercy, so was it here with these mariners. These men had money of Jonah, to let him come into their vessel, but by this time I think they could have wished, that they had given him money to keep him farther of. Jonah, thou mightest have gone to thy Nineveh, 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 sea-men are afraid, a stiffer kind of men then other people are, and who do not regard a small thing: they had borne many brunts before, and of likelihood escaped many dangers: they were acquainted with the working of the sea, and the egernesse of the wind: An hot storm and away: after a tempest cometh a calm. A man who were new come thither, and perhaps at first were sea-sick, might be agast 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, 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 nauigations, 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 ad 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, whē the mariners among whō Paul was, did first throw out their carriage, then 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 frō 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 Job's case, 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 ransomes, to redeem frō death with money, yea to give incredible sūmes, to the impoverishing of the parties, & of their friends, nay sometimes of a whole State, as Richard the first of England once knew well, in his return frō the holy land, & so did Frāces the Great that king of France, whē after his captivity, he was rāsomed frō Charles the 5. then Emperor. Here the fellows of Jonah being put to very hard shifts, do choose the less of two evils; their lives rather without wares, thē to lose both wares & lives. Whē Alexāders soldiers were to pass the swift river Tigris, by the violence of the stream many of thē lost their packes; & striving there for their fardels, to take them up again, they were almost drowned in the water. The king who saw their folly, bid thē look to their lives, to hold their armor fast, & let the rest go, he himself would make thē recompense. The wise captain thought it far better, to lose the Accidēt then the substance. That which nature teacheth all men, these mariners did here practice.

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 [ 1] into the sea, was in this desperate mood to make some kind of satisfaction, for that which they had gotten by fraud, or piracie, 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 Louis the eleventh, king of France, did in his death-bed restore two Counties to the heirs of John the king of Aragon, to the which in all his life time before, he would never condescend. Yet thē his conscience so wrought with him. Or else it may [ 2] be supposed, that it might have been for some vow, whereof seamen are not sparing, 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 [ 3] substance, as a ransom for their lives to their idolatrous God's; 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 mentiō these things, & it is not amiss to observe thē, yet the spirit of God doth say, that necessity made them drown their wares; even that hard dart of necessity, which will pluck frō men anything that doth not immediately concern their being, rather then all shall run to ruin. Apparel, & wealth, & bravery, & house, & land, & beauty shall away if need require. Dionysius leaveth his kingdom. Pōpey forsaketh his country, being urged both by necessity. Although nature do teach the contrary, as Paul writeth to the Corinthians: yet rather thē the citisens of Salonae will yield to Octauius, the hair of their women's heads shall be cut of, to help make engines for them, and devises 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 God's. Jonah 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 God's, till that danger did grow upon them. Their mind did run at randon, till affliction as a spurr did quicken their strong oblivion. Sea-dangers 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, Coelum vndique & vndique 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. In them the voice of the Lord maketh the wilderness to tremble : the renting of the clouds, the cracking of the air, 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, 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 judgment, 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, 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 thē in bargaining: yea it was become a very holy place. But whē 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 then thirty years agone, after the putting forth of that Edict, which is commonly called the Edict of January; and in like sort in the second & third of those wars, such as were of the Religion, then groaning under the cross of poverty, 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 whē 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 ouergrow the harts 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 thē two years space, that a Sermō soundly 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 anything; and then the mariners in the ship with Jonah, did not cry more hotly on their God's, then the French men our neighbors, 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 Queens 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? Coldnesse hath since benumbed some hot ones of that time. The Spaniard threatened war not many years agone; 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, being visited by God's messenger the pestilence, which destroyeth as well by night as by day, 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, 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, then 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 God's. 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 Jonah have offended by willful 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 God's 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 forever.

THE IIII. LECTURE.

WHen Alexander the Great, with his happy temerity as a Philosopher doth call it, but by the providence of God, as Daniel doth describe it, had proceeded so far, as that after one great overthrow given to Darius in person, in the straights of Silicia, 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 raunged into array, the enemy coming forward, the General Alexander who otherwise did stir with the foremost was fast asleep in his tent. Permenion and his Nobles, who for no cause of their own, but for his sake and his honor, 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 soundly sleeping. The Prophet in this place, shall be no whit behind him, but rather much beyond him. He hath listes 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 froath 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 Jonah's 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 Jonah, thou who shouldst be a mā beyond a many, even the Prophet of the highest, thou art now short of a mā, 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 Nineveh, 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 talent at Tarshish when he came there, and done some good on the merchants; & by the way going thither, he might have given exhortatiō to his fellow travelers, to serve the true God of Israel. If he had not had so many auditors as were in Nineveh, 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, he had not utterly lost his labor: 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 conuerter hath committed. But it is not for this cause that our Jonah 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 Jonah 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. 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. Therof 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 cōpunction, David swaloweth 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 drunk̄nesse unto thirst, that is, heap sin on sin; or Herod do join to his ambitiō, a cruel massacring mind; or Nero abound in wickedness, & link villainy unto mischief. When the bowels of God's elect shall be so filled and possessed with carelessness, what shall refrain the wicked, frō proving to be some Judas or some Julian? Afflictions, threatenings, counsels, & the holiest exhortations, (as S. Agustine in another case doth make comparison) are but as a blast of wind, which in a vehement fire doth keep down the flame for a puff, but it riseth again so much the stronger. Or as a draught of cold water, to a mā 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 pray. 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 panch. 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 then himself do not drive him from the same, he will eat them out to damnation. As therefore by the counsel of the Wise man, 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 frentike person, when we be at worst, we imagine our selves to be in a most happy estate. He who will not start in danger, is in case to suffer anything; but he that will sleep in danger, when easily he may be awaked, forgetteth himself beyond measure. When our Savior 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? 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 them selves 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. O wretced man saith Tully against Anthony, as in deed, so in this also, that thou doest 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 maynest matters, which nearest of all do press us. Viues that worthy learned man, doth wonder at some Physicians, that they could possibly be covetous & greedy vpō 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 strōgest 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, and the grace of it but a flower, that our breath is but a vapor, 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 Jonah 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 Jonah, 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 hark̄ 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.

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 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. For as Jerome noteth on this place, it is natural unto every man, in extremity of danger, to hope better of another, thē 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 Jerome doth intimate this to be the reason; but indeed because he so rebuketh Jonah, 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 then Jonah 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 thē, & trust not the eyes of other: the blind swalloweth many a fly: he that knoweth his charge but only by relatiō, 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 willful winking in many things that are gross, as it is but too too oft, that cannot excuse it self, 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. 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 breath 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, then Silla must bear the burden. Or if Silla will not remit some of his ambitious humor, 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, that he do no wrong to any, yet a Prince ought to take order, that other men do no injury. For those who fuffer 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, 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 behavior of other men. This ship-master would see everyone who was in the ship about him. David knew his household people, whē he said that none but the righteous should be with him as his servant; that no deceiptful person should dwell with him in his family. This is a good lesson for all Princes, who sit as at the stern of kingdoms & common-wealths, 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, 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. Lōg may she live and reign happily, unto our farther comfort, who in this exceedeth her self, 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.

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, 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 anything of him? The Lord be praised for it, our neighbors 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.

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, whē 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 Jonah himself who fretted so testily & so eagerly, when God destroyed his gourd, 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 circūspection, that the man was wise in his kind, (& 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 spokē, and what is not fit to be uttered) he rouzeth him with no more, then O sleeper what doest thou mean? thou sleepy drowsy fellow, what doest thou think upon? what, doest thou not regard that thyself & we all do perish? He doth very justly cal 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. Jerome doth not name him) who could not sleep because he was stirred, 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 vpō thy God. Here the world is turned upside down. Jonah should teach them their duty, & they must teach him his: the Prophet is now an auditor, and the ship-master is the Prophet. Here the sheep leadeth the shepherd, the patient cureth the Phisitiō, the scholar doth teach the master. Al maketh against thee Jonah, that this heathē man should be more devout in his superstition, then thou in thy true religiō; 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,

The gardener or herb-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, that we perish not. The Gentiles and idolaters did dream of more God's then one, as these did in the fifth verse. Many God's 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 God's by men, or men esteemed as God's, for some benefits done to mankind. And as these were God's at large, so many several countries had Protectors for themselves. The fire was the God of the Persiās, whom the Sun did represent; so Hercules was for the Tyrians, and Dagon for the Philistines, and Astaroth for the Sidonians, & Milcom for the Ammonites, & Chemosh for the Moabites. Yea they had God's for their cities, & demi-gods for them selves, household Saints and tutelary powers, to whom they cried in distresses. Yea superstitiō was so endless, as Agustine doth observe, that they had a God for everything, 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 sprong up: this when it was in the blade, that when it was in the ear, another for the barn. The place in Saint Agustine is worth the reading. The Jews followed this pretty well, when they offered their incense under every green tree; when the number of their God's was to the number of their cities; whē there was in every street, an altar to sacrifice to their idols. The Church of Rome thinketh scorn, 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 appeareth 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, special Patrones; many women John the Evangelist, M. Campian John the Baptist.

12 So wretchedlie 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 God's. The Egyptians as Origen writeth, did adore their dogs, & goats, & apes, and Crocodiles. No doubt S. Paul did allude to them, when speaking of the unbelievers, he said that they turned the glory of the incorruptible God to the similitude of the image of a corruptible man, and of birds and four footed beasts, and of creeping things. 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, 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 neighbor, not very far distant from them. But of these he reporteth, 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 God's ô Israel, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt? What, that they make of their God's, some helpers and some hurters, Laeua 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, asking of Jupiter, by what means some places might be purged, which were blasted not long before with lightning, received this answer, that it must be with a head, meaning the head of a mā; but Numa giveth him the head of an onion. That which I would have saith Jupiter must belong unto a mā. Yea saith Numa, but it shall then be the hair; nay quoth Jupiter I do require a life; the other answered, then it must be of a fish. Thus durst he whom they accounted for the founder of all their ceremonies, deride their high God 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 thē another, or more willing, or more at leisure, and now they would try the best. Crie 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, then 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, as if Surius do say true, Barbarossa did, a General of the Turks being overcome in battle by Charles the fifth in Afric, 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, as Licinius did in his battles, when he was overcome by Constantine. When his old God's in whom he put his trust had deceived him, he sought out new ones to worship. At least take it vnkindlie, 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 foughten battles, now destroy him and his fellow citisens, evē at the gates of Rome? Thus when men make God's 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 then ours is? whether that this sleepy fellow, be more accepted of him? for it was an opiniō entertained evē by heathē mē, that one person was more loved by their God's thē 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 Jonah 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 mē, are at all times more acceptable to the everlasting Lord, then 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 Jeremiah, whē once so precisely he forbad him, to entreat for the people. There were given unto Lot, his wife and his daughters: and his sons in law, if they would, might have had their portion in that favor. How much did the Lord love and tender Abraham, 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, 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, then 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 God's. For whē 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) someone 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 stoue; least while they are creeping and crooching to someone Saint, some other should take it in dudgeō, that any should be preferred, or sought to before themselves. But I think that to amend the matter, their Church hath taken the pains, to put All the Saints in one day together, to keep them quiet, and All the souls in another, least 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 sea-men, 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 God's, 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, they are worse then 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, 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.

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. Agustine 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 God's, evermore in extremities crying and calling to them. But what should I name any particulars, 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 judgment, and for thee Plato, & for thee Seneca, then for many who live not in Ethnicisme 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.

17 They see that there was something in it, beyond the common course of nature. The sodainnesse of the tempest, and the violence of the storm, shown 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 straungely, 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 our selves, & 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, when going in a good cause, to take vengeance upon the Benjamites, for the abuse of the Levites concubine, there perished of them in two days no less then forty thousand. They went and wept before the Lord, and fasted till the evening, to know what the cause was. But whē they who came before presuming upon their multitude, had learned to humble themselves, they obtained that which they desired. If anything should happen straungely, as while we be in this mortality, we may very well expect, we can take no better course, then with these ship-men presently to fear, least 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 staws or cuts, so to determine that, which otherwise without strife could not be accorded, or to put that unto God which mē could not decide. So S. Agustine doth describe it, A lot is such a thing as in the doubts of men doth show the will of God. So whē men knew not who it was, that had taken the excommunicate thing, the lot shown it to be Achan: for so the most do expound it. So when no man could tell Saul, that Ionathas was the man, who so contrary to the rash oath of Saul, had tasted of the honey, it was found by lot who it was. Least strife should arise, and parts be taken, about Joseph and Mathias, which of them should be admitted into the room of Judas, 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 Aiax. But whereas according to the rules of divinity, these lots should be used but in special causes, and that with great judgment 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, 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 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. Yea Jerome 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 anything 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 straight; the lot is cast into the lap, but the whole dispositiō 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. Agustine 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, let it be decided by a lot. Indeed he doth not like that lots should be made of everything, 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 judgment, may easily be resolved, by considering the several sortes of lots, which are found to be three. For there are either lots appointed to divide, 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, as Solomon doth import in the place which I named before. In this kind did Joshua part out the land of Canaan by lot, to the people of Israel. The second is not unlawful, that is, to consult what shall be 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. 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, then 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 consultatorie. They took it a thing granted, that one or other among them had committed some wicked offense, and because they could not tell, who it was that had done the deed, they will put it to their God's. 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 endaunger 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 tithe his soldiers, every tenth man to the block, as Appius dealt with his legiōs. 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, 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 mā hath this hope, that it wilt rather fall to another then happen to himself. We can sooth our selves of our selves, either in foolish presumption that we are not the worst of all, some are more bad then 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, & let the lots go on other. As Tacitus saith of war, This is the misery of it: if anything fall out well, everyone challengeth that to himself: but if it fall out ill, everyone slippeth his neck out of the collar, the blame shall be laid vpō 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. 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 thē. 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, If thou ô Lord straightly markest iniquities, ô Lord who shall stand? All these had deserved death, and merited to be served as Jonah 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, then he did of ordinary persons. To whom the most is committed, of him most is required. Jonah 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 sea-faring 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 Jonah. 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. His state was like to Achan: he cannot escape the judgment, 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, 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 Jonah. 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. 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 Jupiter's priest, an office of some moment in that country, he wrought a pretty seat 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 everyone 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 shown himself in Sicilia. He that would have Jonah taken, needeth not to use any such leger-demaine: his creatures be at commandment: they do as himself enjoineth. So Jonah 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. 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 then 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, 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, to fear his angry judgment. 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 Jonah, we sleep not in sin with Jonah, but as the careful ship-master, looking in all sincerity through the corners of our hearts, we may raise up our selves, 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 favor: but that we may reign with thee, in thy most blessed kingdom, to the which bring us ô good father, for thine own son Christ his sake, to whom with thee and thy Spirit, be glory for evermore.

THE V. LECTURE.

B Ecause our Jonah hath a great deal more mind, to go to Tarshish by sea, then to Nineveh by land, rather about his own pleasure, then 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 [ 1] execution. I am here to look into the manner of inquiry which is made upon him; and that is laid down unto us in [ 2] 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 Jerome doth observe the manner of the words, 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 concisenesse of the Poet Virgil, who in a manner right compendious, is accustomed to inclose many questions in very few words. He citeth that one place,

Young men, what cause hath brought you into these unknown ways? whither go you? of what kindred are you? where do you dwell? bring you hither war or peace? But the matter of the words, is rather the ground whereon we are to stand, every question including something 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 God's, 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 anything 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 • ear, he by whom or in whom it might be conjectured to be, should be plucked, and tugged, and hailed, 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 doest thou? how cometh all this about?

3 For men in such extremities cannot satisfy them selves, 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, by Hannibal the Carthaginian, and their City was grown into that perplexity, as it never was in almost before, that wise Fabius Maximus, causeth scoutes 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 God's 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 mā is brought in, making request to Abraham, that he would send Lazarus to his fathers house, to give warning to his five brethrē, that they by the wickedness & retchlesnesse 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 preassing 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? Jonah 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 doest thou come? what countreyman art thou sirra? what is thine occupation?

4 Thus the place must be understood, if we respect the egernesse of men in such perplexity, or the hast 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 judgment 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 God's, 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 Jonah, 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 cōiectures, or by plain declaratiō, 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 indaungered? 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, seethe villainy of this boy, see the cursedness of this wenche; see the diuellishnesse 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 Jonah 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, 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 then 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 fellow-feeling, holding it an unspeakable blessedness, that this little Island of ours should not only be a temple, to serve God in for our selves, but an harbor for the weather-beaten, a sanctuary to the stranger, wherein he may honor the true Lord: remembering the precise charge which God gave to the Israelites, to deal well with all strangers, 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 aliaunt, 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 presentnesse of the peril, or the hast 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 iusticers, yea be they but common Iurours, 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, when she desired him to execute an innocent harmless man; and that she might the more prevail with him, remembered him that her self 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, 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 asking of many questions, and the scanning out of all doubts, ere the last sentence come. Certainly God knew the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrhah, as he sat above in heaven; 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, 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, inquiry 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, then 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 then life and death, all Magistrates ought to afford that measure to their people, which these mariners did to Jonah, that is, to sift out the whole truth by demands, before that they give any judgment. Moses could say of himself to the Israelites, I charged your Judges the same time saying, 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 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, and know what he hath done? So Felix could tell Saint Paul, that he would not judge his cause, before that he had heard it perfectly. Otherwise, the accused person should have a hard bargain by it: for as Julian the Apostate once answered very wittily, If it be sufficient to accuse, shall any man be an innocent? The Poet therefore said well,

He who determineth anything 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 Jonah. Let us gather a little nearer to the particular words.

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 Jonah, they gessed him to be the sinner. Now to know the particulars, they asked him of his trade, for, good men, they little dreamed of a Prophet: they demand of him for his country, and the place from whence he came. For both Rhetoric and experience, and divinity most of all, do show that good conjectures, and presumptions for anything 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 doest thou spend thy time? If thou be a robber or a rouer, no marvel if some strange punishment do pursue thee at the heels. If a sorcerer or a necromancer, the same may be thy doom. If a stews-master or a broaker for uncleanness of the body, it is very likely that wrath may follow thee. If a flattering hungry iester, who waytest upon a trencher, and makest no kind of conscience, to taunte 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. 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, to say that he was a heardman, 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, 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 willful 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. Thou that preachest a man should not steal, doest thou steal? saith Saint Paul, doest thou spoil? It was the speech of Apollonius in Eusebius, against the Montanist Prophets, doth a Prophet color his hair? or annoint 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 judgment of all the ancient fathers, the Canon and civil laws, the constitutions of most good common-wealths, 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 sortes 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, Thou shall not give to usury to thy brother, as usury of money, usury of meat, usury of anything 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, & 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; with Zacchaeus 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, 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 dancing-masters, 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 labor 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 mā may draw frō some places such a stain, as cannot be washed off but with vengeance. He that toucheth pitch, shall be defiled with it. Holy Joseph being among the Egyptians, had learned new devised oaths: he could swear by the life of Pharaoh. Lots wife did so well like the company which she had in Sodom, that she longed to be there again, although for her labor, it cost her the turning into a pillar of salt. 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, 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. 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 Curtisans. Only Surius to extenuate the filthiness of the matter, saith they be but the baser 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 thē 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 Jonah & fear his heavy judgment. 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, 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 reuolue 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 tauerne 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? or as God spake 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 Lord's good blessing, be well employed, are ill and fruitlessely 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 our selves, when we are once grown to a custom of any evil.

11 The ship-master and his fellows, yet have not enough of Jonah: 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 Palestine, 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 ouergrown 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, 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. The Ammonites and the Moabites, were little accepted of him. But Amelechs name was so cursed, that the Lord would have the remembrance of them to be rooted out from under the heaven. 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, that the Cretans were great liars. Now least 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 Jonah. Now let us come to his answer.

12 When the whip of God, and the rod of his justice, had [ 2] overtaken Jonah so, that now he seeth heaven and earth to be against him, down cometh his proud heart: the sleeper now awaketh; the runaway crieth peccaui ; contrition & confession come now tumbling upon him, yea to make up his full penance, there shall be satisfaction, if his life can make amends. Now with David he will confess his sins against him self, in ingenuous manner no concealing, no excusing, no pleading for himself. It is I, who by my folly, have wrought you all this danger. Wreake your anger upon me.

It is I, it is I, here I am who did it, turn your swords against me: all the fault is mine, as Nisus saith in Virgil, to save his friend Eurialus. 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 frō evil, and practice 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, (which thē 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, 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 God's miracles, & 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. 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, 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, 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, from Princes and from Magistrates, to whom the name of God in some sense is permitted. But Jonah to make him known, 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 someone time or other, been specified to these mariners; they used to go to Iapho a haven town near Palestine: 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, Iouis, & Iouem, which might roaue 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 judgment, for the grievousness of his sin, or else, he belongeth unto him as a servant, he reverenceth him, and oweth duty to him. For oftentimes in the Scripture, the fear of the Lord importeth his honor or his service, and so Saint Jerome doth expound it, writing upon this place. But as Saint Agustine 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 her self? So might not I say to Jonah, if thou serve the Lord Jehovah, why then doest thou fly from him? or if thou run from him, how doest thou serve him? Jonah 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 honor 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 Nineveh was to the Prophet. He that should withdraw from thee, 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? 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 honor? if I be a master where is my fear ? If Jonah 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, 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 Savior, 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, 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, when he thus professed, I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes ? In what an horrible anguish was Peter, when he went out and wept bitterly? But our Prophet of all other, fearing the dreadful burden of sin upon his shoulders, and gessing 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 willfully into sin, for as it is noted in one of those Epistles, 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 least 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 Agustine doth describe this slavish quaking fear in one, and childes 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, least he should come to her, The good wife is in fear, least her husband should go from her. This feareth least he should condemn her, because she hath deserved it, That feareth least he should forsake her, because she loveth him dearly. Remember these things, saith Agustine, and so thou shalt find a bad fear, whom charity driveth forth, and another chaste fear, which abideth forever and ever.

16 Jonah 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 vngratefulnesse, 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. Fye filthy sin, that for thy sake we should thus disable our selves, 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, then the presence of the Trinity, 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 our selves on that rock, that evermore we are the Lord's, 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 foolerie 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 our selves 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 judgment, 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 our selves 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, then sin with his tail of a scorpion, who departeth not without stinging. Better to love God as Jonah should, then to quake at God as Jonah did.

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, Jonah 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 then 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 nauigable, be it above or below, this maker did create it. So Nehemiah witnesseth: Thou art Lord alone: thou hast made heavē 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 preseruest them all, and the host of the heaven worshippeth thee. 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 thē we look for. S. Peter long ago foretold it, 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 judgment, 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 Lodouicus Viues hath well observed, that Judaism and Muhammadism • , 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, vnfigured & unformed. This is affirmed by Moses, & it may be a Machiauel doth deny this. Now whether of these two shall we believe? Either Machiauel 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 anything 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 Justin giveth testimony, although it be obscured with some heathen minglings, and Iuuenal the Poet when he saith of the Jews,

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. 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, besides the two renowned Jews, Josephus and Philo. This Moses was he, whose books were so accounted of by Ptolemy, 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 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , that is, first pattern to all the services of the heathen, toward their idol God's, 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 Machiauel, will seem to men that be indifferent, 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, 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? How is it that Hesiodus, so ancient a Poet doth lay it so plainly down? Look on the beginning of Ouids Metamorphosis where he hath the very words, Primáque ab origin mundi, from the first beginning of the world, and see whether that his chaos, (which I think he boroweth from Hesiode) be not like to that in Genesis: his forging unto God's 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 judgment: 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,

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 anything more ancient, then the war of Thebes, and the sacking of Troye? The world did begin in time, because nothing is recorded in the writings of any authors, but for a little time. 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 whō 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 Ouide in the middle of his ignorance, did not truly understand, he applieth it to the fire of Phaeton. He remembereth 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 Lucane did more then guess at this, when speaking of those, whom Caesar left unburied, at the battle of Pharsalia, he bringeth in this, 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 bone-fire which shall be common to all the world, and shall mingle the stars in heaven, with their bones on earth. Ouer and above these men of learning, Peru the South part of America, doth yield to us an ignorant people, 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 Deucaliō, 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 spilled by the water; which could not have been, but by him who made both the earth and the water. Thus the Poets do roaue 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? 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. 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, then knowledge and the arts of learning. But Mercury as some say, as some other, the Phoenicians 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 Evēgelica, was more ancient thē the God's 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.