Sermons on Jonah

Plutarke in his Pelopidas, telleth that Antigonus had a soldier, who being vexed with an ill disease, and so loathing to live, was always foremost in his services, were it skirmish or other fight, and was so resolute, as no man in the army. The General much liking this, cast such an affection to the valure of the man, that to his great expense, he caused him to be cured, who held himself lately incurable. But then looking that his soldier should be forward as before, he found him to do far otherwise, and now never offer to come in danger. Asking the reason of this, his soldier maketh him answer, that now he had somewhat to loose, that was a healthful and sound body, with which he should grieve to part; but before when he was in misery, he had thought his case should have been very happy, if he might have been dead and buried. The wisdom of the Almighty did foresee that in us, which Antigonus found but afterward, that we who in anguish and persecution, do desire the company of the elect, who are triumphant in heaven, and with Saint Paul do long to be dissolved, would lie groveling in prosperity, as tied and glued to the ground; and therefore in his love he doth whip us oftentimes, that we may seek unto him, that we may sue to be with him.

18 This is one great occasion, wherefor the Lord doth send his chastisemēt upon us; & yet in the mean while also he doth aim at this, that we tasting of that bitterness, which other things yield unto us, may evermore fly to him by prayer & meditatiō; may be reposed on him, when other things do annoy us, when other things do affright us. It is a good comparison, which Chrysost. hath in this case, that mothers do use with vizards & bugbeares, to fright their unruly children, to make thē fly to their lap, not willing to hurt the infants, but to make them sit close by them. So God desiring to join us fast to himself, being a true lover of us, doth permit that oftentimes we are brought to such necessity, that perpetually we may intend to prayer and calling upon him, and leaving all other things, be only careful of him. Such an attractive violence, and violent attraction is in the cross, to draw us as well as Jonah unto the Lord. Happy men if we could see it, and make that benefit of it, which if we will not learn at first, he will come again unto us, and double his rods upon us, if we belong to his election. In the mean time we must learn, with patience to suffer whatsoever cometh from the Lord: since besides all other uses, it bringeth that good unto us, as to drive us to our duties, and obedience to our God. Our land hath long felt the sweetness of the Lord's distilling grace, prosperity, peace, and plenty, which maketh men forget the author of their felicity. They with the Ox, have tasted the fodder that lieth before thē, but they have not thought of the giver. Oh the blockishness of our nature, who return to God little love, for his great love unto us. Our neighbors of France and Flaunders, have drunk of another cup, and have taken another course. Some years now past, religion and true faith hath been oppugned in France. Edicts have been made, that the Protestants or Huguenots, as they call them, should get them out of that country, within such a time or such a space, under peril of their lives. Thousands of them have fled, and left their native country, but not the care of their country; for although they were elsewhere, wishing still good to Zion, they have harkened after the adventures of that Church and commonwealth, and have found both to be in hazard. Many invasions and great slaughters, and civil wars in that land, wherein those that have been the pillars of religion in that country, have been oftentimes shrewdly shaken. This hath caused them, as London doth well know, to assemble thenselves together in their Churches, with solemn fasts and prayers, which of likelihood they had not done, but that they saw themselves to be fallen into most perilous times. These assemblies and these fasts, being many more then we have had, did argue that more affliction was on them then on us, which made them so to cry. I would that we might learn by their example to be wise, before that we be stricken. But if peace do lull us asleep, the rod it is which can awake us. That we find by our Prophets case, in whom the next thing which I observed is the greatness of his calamity.

19 In the last place I have noted, that misery mindeth God unto us. Then the greater our misery is, the more is our mind on our maker. If this be true, our Jonah might well cry to the Lord, for great and exceeding troubles were at this time shown unto him. He saith that he was in hell, yea in the belly and midst of hell, and in the third verse plainer, that he was thrown into the bottom, in the very heart of the sea, for so it is in the Hebrew, that all the floods had passed over him, all the surges and all the waves. What can be expressed more horrible, then this was unto Jonah? The word which is used here is Sheol, which sometimes doth note the grave unto us, and other sometimes hell, and that double signification, together with the like in some few other words, doth cause that question so oft handled, of the manner of Christ's descending into hell. But partly because I love not to extrauagate from my text, (although occasion be here well offered by the nature of the word bearing so plain a difference) but especially in a desire of unity in our Church, least some by contradiction should gainsay, whatsoever is uttered in this argument, (so apt are we to be jarring, which I wish were otherwise) I pass over that point in silence; only observing unto the weak, that we all do hold the Article of Christ's descense into hell, but the disagreement is in the manner of his descending, and how that should be expounded. The Prophets words here import, that he was in the fishes belly, as a mā might be in his grave, without light, without sight, in darkness and discomfort, never hoping more to live, then a man who was dead and buried. Or else that he felt in himself such anguish of his conscience, because God's wrath did follow him, and because he knew that himself had deserved everlasting torment, that now he was so tortured, (with an Hyperbole speaking of it) as if he had been in hell. The Chaldee Paraphrase here hath a word, signifying a bottomeless pit, which intendeth to us, that the sea was very deep, wherein he was, as if he had been drowned. And this may be an argument, that the sea was very deep there, that the whale which devoured him was there, whose greatness was such and so huge, that it would require much water. The whale swimmeth not in the shallowes, neither can remain in the foords.

20 The greatness of this danger, so amplified by the Prophet in many parts of his song, first could not choose but much dismay him, and fright him home for the present; for what could he think of himself? that drowned he was, and not drowned; eaten up and not devoured; and yet for every moment, in case to come to his end, besides the pangs of his soulefearing eternal death. Secondly, when afterward he had by the mercy of God escaped from destruction, it might be a great remembrance and testimony to him, of the favor of the Lord. For the greater was his danger, the greater was his deliverance. Neither doth that man ever know, what it is to be freed from misery, who was never like to feel it. To be brought to the pits brink, and then and there to be stayed; nay to be in the midst of death, and there to be kept from dying, must needs urge in the patient, a meditation of thankfulness. That consideration of Ammianus Marcellinus in his story, is very good, that although it be a matter exceedingly to be wished for, that fortune would continue in flourishing state unto us, yet that quality of life hath not that feeling with it, as whē frō a desperate & very hard estate, we are recalled to a better fortune. We better know what health is, when sickness hath much broken us. We know what it is, to have store of clothing and competent food, if hunger and thirst and nakedness, do for a time assail us. It is a pretty reason (although the practice thereof were bad) which Herodotus saith, that the Samian tyrant Polycrates did use to make. He very much exercised piracie and robbery, as well by land as sea, and his custom was to spoil his friends as much as his enemies; whereof he assigned that cause, that when he should understand afterward, that his friend was robbed of anything, he might gratify that friend more, in restoring what he had lost, then if he had taken nothing from him. I do not commend his thieuing; but his reason had wit & meaning. God knoweth that whē himself taketh from us such things as are not ours, (we are but his disposers, or as tenants at will unto him) he maketh us so much the more embrace his mercy, who hath sent grace in wretchedness, and present comfort in extremity. Our Prophet in his suffering, had good experience of these things, which maketh him the rather break forth into a song of thanksgiving.

21 Thou hadst cast me into the bottom, in the very midst of the sea, as if he should have said, now it is otherwise, and the more am I beholding to thee. Where also observe his speech, that he referreth all his punishment to the hand of the Lord. He speaketh not of the mariners, by whose means it was done, much less doth he revile them, as in our time wicked offending persons oft do to the magistrates, or Judges, or other officers, who do but see that to be done, which just law layeth upon thē, and they willfully have deserved. But Jonah passing by the instrument and means whereby God wrought, seeketh unto the fountain and original of the deed. He acknowledgeth that his maker was he who was offended; that his hand had corrected him; that his wrath must be satisfied; but by all other he passeth. That evil Joram did not so, when his city of Samaria was oppressed with a famine so grievous, that the mother did eat her own child, which extremity it is likely, that the Prophet Elizaeus did foretell should fall upon them, for the greatness of their sin. But then he, instead of looking upward to God, whom he should have sought unto by fasting and by prayer, turneth his anger on the Prophet, the minister of the Almighty, and voweth himself to much evil, if innocent Elizaeus were not put to death that day. Blind man who could not look higher, and see whose messenger the Prophet was. How much better was Job's behavior? for when news was brought unto him, that the Sabees and Chaldeans, by violence and strong hand, had taken away his Oxen, and robbed him of his Camels, he did not straight way curse those sinners, and wish much evil on them, but not so much as naming them, did fasten his thoughts on God, and imputed all unto him, saying most patiently, The Lord hath given, and the Lord hath taken it; blessed be the name of the Lord. I would that men in our time, could carry his resolution. When ought amiss doth befall them, to have recourse to the Highest, and to suppose that either he doth try them, or doth punish thē for their sins, or hath some other good purpose. But we rather run to anything, then that which most doth urge us; oft surmising that which is not, and suspecting those that be innocents. And if we can find the means, whereby all is brought about, we double our force on that; this witch hath killed my beasts; this wicked man hath undone me; this mighty man hath crossed me: I would he were in his grave, or some mischief else were on him. Indeed I do not deny, but that the evil are oftentimes the rods of God, to chasten good men withal, but yet think thou evermore, that his hand is it which effecteth all, & that his stroke is in the action, Fasten thy eyes on him, and with sighing and true repentance, seek to appease his wrath; and thē the means shall not touch thee, no wicked thing shall have power over thee. But let this be thy song, to utter forth with the Prophet, thou hadst cast me into the water, thou hast laid this cross upon me.

[ 3] 22 The third circumstance now remaining, is that God did hear his prayer. I cried in mine affliction, and thou heardest me, and again, O Lord thou heardest my voice. You see that his woe was exceeding, and after the common course of sorrow it drove him unto his maker; it enforced him to pray. Where behold, the comfort is, that he did not loose his labor: the Lord did hear his voice. This evermore is his property, to attend to those who solicit him: to respect those who call on him. I called on the Lord in trouble, saith David, and the Lord heard me at large. So by Jeremiah his servant, God promiseth to the Jews, and in them to all his Saints, you shall cry to me, and shall go and pray to me, and I will hear you. And you shall seek and find me. So respective is the Lord to those who fly to him, which showeth his great prerogative above all heathen idols, who may be derided with Baal, that either they are busy in following of their enemies, or asleep and must be awaked, but surely they cannot hear. But especially to us it is comfort in extremity, that if sickness, or pinching poverty, or malice of any man, nay if pangs of death do hurt us, or if in the soul which is our better part, temptation overcharge us, and Satan's darts hardly drive at us, if we call unto that Lord, who can bind and loose, and hath the keys of hell and of death, he can rid us and deliver us. Yea he so yieldeth to our prayers, that they shall not return in vain, but comfort at the least, and patience in our miseries, shall be bestowed upon us. It is a good speech in Cyprian, if that tract be his De caena Domini. In the presence of Christ, our tears which are never superfluous, do beg a pardon for us: neither ever doth the sacrifice of a contrite heart take repulse. As often as in God's sight I see thee to be sighing, I doubt not but the holy Ghost doth breath vpō thee; when I see thee weeping, then I perceive him pardoning. This should be a great instigation, that when anything doth oppress us, be it inward or be it outward, we should run unto the Lord. So may also be that of Agustine: The prayer of the righteous is the key of heaven. Prayer ascendeth up, and God's mercy descendeth down. Although the earth be low, and the heaven high, the Lord doth hear the tongue of man, if he have a clean conscience. It speaketh with feeling, if it be but only our sigh. A shower of the eyes is sufficient for his ears: he doth sooner here our weeping then our speaking.

23 I doubt not but all the faithful do find this easily in thenselves, that when they do lay open their souls before the Lord, as Hezekiah did the letters of Sennacherib, & when they do earnestly pray, a dew of consolation, of most blessed consolation, is distilled down upon them, whereby they are assured, that they have to deal with a father, who seeth their frail infirmities, and hath compassion on them. Yea as a father doth pity his children, so hath the Lord compassion on all that do fear him, for he knoweth whereof we be made, he remembereth that we are but dust. He knoweth us to be most ignorant, & most foolish, and unfit for all goodness, very impotent and unable, to keep off wrong from our selves. He knoweth this & considereth it, & as evermore he supporteth us, & keepeth us to himself as the apple of his eye, giving when we demand not, & more then we think on; so if we lift up our voices, & pour out our complaints before him, he will never fail us seeking him. Only this he claimeth of us, that we ask that which is fit, not vanities or impieties, or to bestow upon our lusts; for he denieth these things to us, and [ 2] our faith hath no warrant, to ask such requests of the Lord. And again, that in those things which are lawful, we appoint no time unto him, but in humility wait his leisure. For as Chrysostom doth teach us, If to give be in God's power, it is also in his power to give when he thinketh good, and the time he best knoweth himself. If we do well keep these things, and earnestly and incessantly do make our complaints before him, he will deal with us as he did with Jonah, he will certainly hear our voice. Lord send us a mind to serve thee, that by willful disobedience, we pluck not thy punishments on us: and if we do turn from thee, draw us back to thyself, rather by thy temporal rods, being laid on us in great measure, then by heaping earthly pleasures, thou shouldst suffer us so to be choked with them, that we should fall from thee utterly. Do thou chastise us and correct us in iugdement, not in fury, and there grant us a mind to see, who it is that doth strike us, that so we may pray to thee, to be eased in our affliction. And of thy mercy add this, evermore to hear our prayer, that so passing this troublesome life, with fast hold laid on thy promises, we may come at length to thy kingdom, to the which ô Father bring us, for thine own Son Christ his sake, to whom with thee, and thy Spirit, be glory and praise forever.

THE XI. LECTURE.

M Any are the instructions which this Prophecy hath yielded in the hearing of most of you: aduertisements and warnings against sin; disputations against Atheism; observations against Papism; in the person of the mariners, comparisons of Gentiles with us that be Christians; and doctrines of diverse sorts, as God's spirit from time to time hath assisted me. But for informing of the conscience of a languishing sinner, who groaneth under the burden of heaviness and casting down; and is almost swallowed up in the gulf of desperation, by reason of the fear of God's displeasure for sin that hangeth upon him, (which things oftentimes befall some of the little ones of Christ Jesus) no one matter in this Prophecy is more apparently fruitful, or more worthy consideration, then that which I have now read. For what can be more wholesome then Physic to the sick, or remedy to him that is ready to perish? And who is more like to perish, then he who feeleth no rest either inwardly or outwardly, in body or in mind, but as it were gasping for breath, doth daily long for comfort in the midst of great distresses; his case being this, that sin eagerly insulteth, Satan fiercely impugneth, and his conscience beareth witness against his own soul, that in right justice should destroy it. To the relief of which tender ones, as I could wish that our speech were oftener directed, (for it is a needful argument to be handled, and blessed is that speech which bindeth up the broken, and giveth life to the dying) so the example of my Jonah doth fitly remember me to speak to this purpose, because he is as a glass for all such to look in, and thereby to see themselves, and in his case to help themselves, with the good assistance of that Spirit who herein is all in all.

2 For in this man may be seen, a most vehement and forcible conflict between faith and fear; between hope and despair, between sin and grace: on this hand the flesh sinking with distrustfulness into the bottom of hell, being like to acknowledge it self a forlorn creature, a cast-away from God, a reprobate from the promises, as if it were some Cain or some Judas: but on the other hand, the spirit forthwith mounting into the bosom of the Savior, and there apprehending mercy by remission of all iniquities, and forgiveness of all transgressions. In the mean while, amidst the one raising up, and the other hanging down, is a combat of such bitterness, as maketh the endurer of it, in the heat of the fishes stomach oft times to quake for cold, and in the cold of the sea, oft times to sweat for heat. Manie fevers and agues cannot shake him, as his own heart doth now shake him: his boiling is like the fire: his torture is like the hell. How many crowns and kingdoms? what thousands of gold and silver? what heaps of precious stones? how many lands and seas, and whole worlds would he give, if they were now in his power, to be freed from such a torment, as forced him with extremity to say as here he said, I am cast away from thy sight, I am but a damned reprobate. A very fearful thought, & yet recovered again by confidence in God's mercy, which faileth not his at need; so that thereby he is encouraged, to hope that he shall see Jerusalem, the sanctuary of the Lord, and his temple once again. Which recovery of his should make us much admire God's mercy; and yet withal teach us, to work out our salvation in great fear and great trembling. But because this text doth note unto us some doctrine besides this, and the illustration of that doth make a way for my purpose, I will first touch the other, observing in the general words, these three things to be handled. First the dejection of [ 1] our Prophet, I am cast out of thine eyes. Secondly his arising up [ 2] from that motion, and new assurednesse of God's favor. Yet I will look again toward thy holy temple. And thirdly by a comparing [ 3] of the one of these with the other, the great conflict in his conscience.

3 The Antithesis put between the casting away from the [ 1] sight of his God, and the beholding of his temple, is not to be taken coldly, as if it intended barely, that now he did not see the temple indeed, but he should see it again: that now he had lost his country, but after his deliverance the time should come, that he should return thither, as if he had made this accompt and no more, that for a while he was deprived of some temporal favors, or terrestrial benedictions, but should be restored: for this had been little, and in comparison as nothing. But it signifieth a suspicion, and mistrust of the loss of all God's love, a putting out of his protection, a rejecting or casting off to wrath and eternal damnation. For the eyes of God, being taken in good part in the Scripture, do still import his favor, and in his favor is life, and happiness, and felicity spiritual and celestial. Moses saith of the land of Canaan, that it was not as the land of Egypt from whence they came, that is a place hateful to him, inhabited with idolaters, but the eyes of the Lord God are always upon this, that is to say, his gracious love, from the beginning of the year, even unto the end of the year. So God promiseth to Solomon, in behalf of the Temple at Ierusalē, I have hallowed this house (which thou hast built) to put my name there forever, and mine eyes and my heart shall be there perpetually, that is my most kind blessing, & the presence of my grace. So David, I said in my hast I am cast out of thy sight, that is, I am deprived of thy sweet assistance. And in another place, The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous. As much as he doth tender them, and cherish them with his providence. It is the fear of our Prophet, lest the kindness of his maker, wherewith he had embraced him, should be utterly taken from him, and now nothing but hell fire and brimstone should remain for him, to plague him in another world.

4 The heaviness of the hand of God, which had followed after him with that rigor: the multiplicity of his punishment, by a tempest while he was in the ship, by drowning in the sea, and by imprisonment in the whale, the horror of his transgression, and disobedience toward his God, the remembrance of that grace before, from which he was now fallen, of a Prophet to become a runagate, do so amate his heart, that when he thinketh of himself, he resolveth as a despairing abject, that he hath no fellowship in the inheritance of God's Saints, but that as an outlaw, he was quite to be secluded from the covenant. So that now either he supposeth, that he belongeth not to God's election, and that he had never been booked, in the register of those Saints, which were appointed unto life, or that the Lord as a man doth vary and repent, and had altered his purpose concerning him. The first was against himself, to think himself to be a reprobate, appointed and predestinated before hand unto evil. And how woeful a thought was that, to persuade his soul, that nothing belonged unto him but damnation? The second was against the Highest, that his counsels should depend upon our mutability, as if his eternal purpose and decree, which is from everlasting, were tied to our well doing, and did not much rather dispose us, and enable us to do well, Whomsoeuer he ordaineth to the kingdom, he doth teach the way to that kingdom. Christ Jesus who is the life, is also the way: he that giveth the one, granteth the other. Where he intendeth to bestow the end, there he doth first bestow the means, which shall lead to that end. We are chosen not being holy, but that we should be holy. God then contemplating in himself, his counsel which is immutable, retaineth still his secret purpose, and whom he hath once cho • en, that man he chooseth ever. Whome he loveth, he loveth to the end, neither doth he for evermore cast one of his little ones out of his sight.

5 Then it is a wrong opinion, either of the Papist teaching, or the Prophet here mistrusting, that any of God's faithful ones, can be finally cast away. Saul may have a spirit of Prophecy, and Judas another spirit of doing miracles, and both of these may come to naught: but where the spirit of adoption, that spirit of sanctification, hath once made his residence, it doth ever inhabit there. The child of God shall be brought to repentance, and acknowledgement of his fault, to confession and contrition, and faith and hope and glory, through many seas of temptation, and downefals of despair, through Uriah his death with David, through denying of Christ with Peter. Either youth or age, life or death, in him that is elected, shall apprehend the promises. Be it the ninth hour, or the eleventh hour, yet there shall be a time. The Eternals beneplacitum, shall have his effect undoubtedly. And although that holy man Moses, can desire to be razed out of God's book, rather then his people should perish, and Saint Paul wisheth that he might be accursed, to save those which were his countrymen in the flesh: yet this shall but show their great zeal, and love unto their brethren, as also their earnestness for God's glory, which they thought might more appear by saving of a multitude, then by their private safety: but this tainteth not God's decree, who will certainly make up his work, wheresoever he beginneth it. And if the Spirit of the Almighty, do in some places of the Scripture, speak of blotting out of that book, which is the book of life, this is not by and by to be taken literally, but that God therein doth frame himself to our capacity, as sometimes in like sort he attributeth a foot or hand, or ear or eye, to his own divine Majesty. In all which, & other places of the same quality, the speech of Origen is most true, that as the most civil man if he were to go among Barbarians, (as suppose the Moors or Tartarians) had need to learn the language of that people, if he mean to speak unto them, or do any good among them, so when the Lord would teach us in the Scriptures, he contempereth his phrases to our capacity, and speaketh to us in our own tongue. And this he doth in the case in question, resolving by the speech of wiping out of God's book, an assurednesse that they shall never have any portion in the fellowship of eternity. But if it seemed unto any, that they were likely to be of the number of the elect, yet that seeming should be frustrate. Notwithstanding, the purpose of his good pleasure, in truth is never varied.

6 Then whosoever is once grown unto that measure of faith, that upon a settled knowledge, he can meditate in himself of God's true love toward him, and can satisfy his own soul, not with a foolish lightening, or hasty fond persuasion, (which may befall an hypocrite, or temporary believer) but with a resolved confidence, that his God is his father also, and dareth to cry Abba, father; that he is sealed up by his maker, against the day of redemption; that he is one of that number, whom Christ hath bought with his blood; that whether he live or die, yet evermore he is the Lord's; that neither death nor life, nor Angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, no that neither hell nor devil shall be able to separate him, from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord, this man need not stand in fear of casting out of God's sight, or perishing from his favor. And if that his sin, or Satan sometimes suggest the contrary, or his own heart do discourage him, this is but a temptation, which notwithstanding must be strongly resisted, with hearty and earnest prayer. For the infallible word of God hath taught us to say with Saint Paul, if God be on our side, what matter who be against us? And God justifieth: who shall condemn? And with Saint John in his first Epistle: I write those things that ye may know that ye have eternal life, And we know that he heareth us, And we know that we are of God. We do not rest upon our selves this full certain persuasion, this assurednesse of hope, for that were to build on the sand, that were to lean on a reed, which breaketh and the splints thereof do run into the hand: but we stay it upon the power of God, and on the love of our Christ, from the hands of whom, none are able to pluck that away, which they have chosen. In confidence of this, a man may be bold to say, although I be sick yet God is mighty: although I be weak yet Christ is strong: look what is too light in my flesh, that his Spirit doth make up. His grace is sufficient for me. I dare to say with Saint Bernard (and it is an excellent saying,) Three things I consider wherein my hope doth consist, the love of his adoption, the truth of his promise, the power of his performance. Now let my foolish cogitation murmur as long as it will, saying, Who art thou, or knowest thou how great that glory is, or by what merits thou hopest to obtain it? And I will answer boldly, I know whom I have trusted, and I am assured that in very great love he adopted me, and that he is true in his promises and able in his performance: for he can do what he will. This is that strong foundation whereon we may build safely: this is the stay of a Christian, unto the measure whereof, if any shall find that yet he hath not attained, let him pray to God to enlarge his knowledge and understanding. But let us most firmly hold this, that whom he hath once chosen, to a true feeling of his grace, he doth never utterly cast them away, from his sight and good favor. This then was the fault of our Jonah, and argued in him great infirmity, when he broke forth into this passion which savored so of desperation. And so much of this matter.

7 You have now seen him at the worst: for worse he [ 2] could not well be; a prisoner in a strange dungeon, without light, without company, without comfort in a whales belly, so disquieted in his anguish, that he accounteth himself a reprobate, and inheritor of hell fire. He had been a woeful man if he had stayed here, disgraced and left by his Savior: but as his soul was departing, he fetcheth it back again with a sigh and gasp of faith. He plucketh in the rein of his own heart; he giveth the check to himself; he recovereth in the instant, when he was in the pits mouth, ready to sink eternally. This showeth that in former time he had been used to temptation: being practiced in God's service, he knew well what belonged to faith, when he did so soon apprehend it. He was not ignorant that he had offended, and offended a fearful God; yet such a one as would have compassion upon a repenting sinner. This grief of his, was sustained by a trust in God's free promises, who hath said, that if the wicked will return from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all his statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, and shall not die. All his transgressions that he hath committed, shall not be mentioned unto him. The two wings of faith and repentance, do mount him up into heaven, even from the gates of hell. His faith kept him from blasphemy, that in the heat of his extremity, he had still a mind to God: which maketh him speak unto him, not as the despairing miscreant, whose manner is to speak of God in the third person, not to God; he hateth me, he plagueth me, he detesteth me, he doth not love me, which words argue no hope remaining; but in his bitterness he turneth his speech unto the Lord, I am cast away from thy sight, I will look again to thy Temple, so in want of hope showing a hope, a confidence in a diffidence. This is the fruit of believing the sweet mercy of our Savior, that in the day of sorest trial, it is able to keep us upright, who else should fall down groveling. As a ship without his ballace, is tilted & tossed at sea, and cannot endure the wave, so is that soul right unstable, and every hour apt to perish, which hath not faith in temptation. It is written of the Cranes, that when they do intend in stormy and troublesome times, to fly over the seas, fearing lest by the blasts of the wind, their bodies which be but light, should be beaten into the sea, or kept from the place whither they be desirous to go, they swallow some sand, and little stones into their bellies, whereby they are so moderately peized, that they are able to resist the wind. While we do cross this troublesome world of sin and great temptation, it is faith which must be our ballace, it is faith which must preserve us equably upright, or recover us when we are going. Now it stood the Prophet in steed, in the bottom and depth of misery; to have feeling what belonged to believing upon the Lord.

8 This belief inferred repentance, which is acceptable in great measure to our most gracious father. As he scorneth not the weak man falling, so he embraceth him that riseth; which point Novatus and his fellows, with their hard harts did deny. If the prodigal son can say, good father I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son, he runneth to him, and falleth on him, and kisseth him as his beloved. He liketh in us a sorrow for that wherein we have faulted. It was a good speech of Saint Jerome, to call repentance after sin, by the name of a second board, or plank after a shipwreck. In a wrack at sea, a board oftentimes doth save a man from drowning, by his lying fast thereupon. But if he be beaten by the violence of the wave, from this first plank, and be now floating in the water; if a second by some accident be afforded him, and he can keep him fast thereto, it setteth him free from all danger. It is more then apparent that we have suffered a wrack, and are diuing in the sea of sin and desperation, even ready still to be drenched. The first table which relieveth us, is the Sacrament of Baptism, which by the blood of Christ washing us, and for the covenants sake, doth acquit us from the guilt of original sin: from the which if we be beat off, by the force of actual crimes, the second plank is repentance to be caught at, which if we hold fast and do not leave, it will bring us into the haven of blessed and quiet rest. Then let us evermore call upon God, to bestow upon us this compunction of heart, that since every day we fall, we may daily rise again, and not sink under our burden.

9 The weak Prophet now leaning on these two such assured staves, first sorowing, then believing, doth raise himself up with a correction: that although he had said before, that he was cast away from God's sight, yet he will not leave it so: he will not give over there, but once again he will look unto God's holy Temple. Once again I will see Jerusalem, and the place of thy true worship. Which words as Jerome noteth, do either import a confidence, and hope that it should be so, or a wish that so it might be. And in the Hebrew the future tense which is used in this place, is very frequent for wishing. Both show a will to the Temple : by which some understand the whole service of God, circumcision, and the sacrifices, and the expounding of the Law, or whatsoever else was of speciality, in the tabernacle of the Lord; so taking one for the other, the place for the duties in it, making that which was so eminent, as the matter, and the object of his confidence and faith. He certainly had a mind, not to die there where he was, as unprofitable, and in a place so obscure, but openly to honor God whom he had so dishonored before: and therefore now he was desirous, in conspicuous manner to draw other to his obedience. But of all places, he chooseth the Temple to do the deed, because that was the house where God had put his name, who although he be everywhere, by his being and presence and power, yet he was more apparently conversant there, by his special grace. This did make that house and city, to be counted an holy mansion, the very joy of the earth, the beauty of the world, the glory of all nations, the palace of the great king, the delight and paradise, and garden of the Highest. There was the Ark of the Covenant, the Tables of the Testimony, the Cherubims and the Mercy-seat, all being strange things of much excellency: but the summity of all happiness, was the residence of God's favor there.

10 All which how much the faithful esteemed and accounted of, David's example may teach us, who when there was but a Tabernacle, whose beauty was much inferior to the magnificent Temple of Solomon, so grieved that himself in his flights and persecutions, was hindered from assembling within those courts of the Lord, that he witnesseth for his own part, that never heart did so bray, to find the brook of water, as his heart and conscience did thirst for that place; yea his tears did trickle down, to think that he might not come there. And elsewhere he complaineth, that the sparrow and the swallow were happy, being compared to him, for they might come to the Altar, to make their nest near about it; but leave to do that was denied unto him. But afterward, when Solomon had erected his famous house to the Lord; that had many extraordinary blessings granted to it, at the time of the dedication: when God witnessed by his presence, that he heard the requests of Solomon, among which these were some, that if famine, or plague, or any other affliction, did vex the hearts of the Israelites, and they thē came into that Temple, and there prayed to be delivered from that cross, the Lord would remove it from them. Yea if they were out of their own land, either going against their enemies, or captives in other countries, if they turning their faces about to the coastward of this house, should either pray for victory, or for release from their captivity, their God would grant it unto them. The Jews afterward observed this, evermore in the earnestness of their prayer in what land soever they were, turning them toward the Temple: not tying superstitiously the power of God to that place, but knowing that the same house was not erected in vain. And witnessing withal, their obedience unto the Lord, and to men the constancy of their profession, who held that place as the seal of the Lord's assured protection over them. So when Daniel in Chaldea would pray, he set his windows open toward Jerusalem, to the hazard of his life. And truly the majesty, and great fame of the place was such, that when the second Temple, which was a far meaner matter, was raised up, the Princes of the earth which were of the very Gentiles, did repute it and esteem it a thing most holy. The regard which was borne to that sanctuary, by Alexander the great, sometimes king of the Macedonians, by Ptolomeus Philadelphus, by Pompey the great Roman, some whereof did there offer sacrifice, as it is testified by Josephus, and the coming up of the Eunuch of Candace the Queen of Ethiopia, who resorted thither of purpose for to worship, do make this very plain unto us. Then our man (who sometimes had been a Prophet, and of likely hood had gone up to Jerusalem to do his devotions, contrary to the custom of the Israelites in his time) had great reason to bethink himself of this place.

11 The doctrine to be derived unto us from hence, is this, that since in substance we are inheritors of that faith, which the Israelites and Jews did hold, and in stead of their Temple, have the Churches of the Christians, which are places severed to God's service, & for the assembly of his Saints, and the gathering together of his people, that we therefore should bear the like affection to these, as they did to that house, and this so much the rather, because the substance is here, when there was but the shadow; there the figure, but here the truth, there sacrifices made of beasts, here the true Lamb Jesus Christ. We should therefore resort to these Sanctuaries with greediness, even as to the type of heaven: we should joy to be there, and see all other there whom we love: and a Christian man loveth every man. Christ did frequent the Temple: he called it an house of prayer: Anna that widow so much commended, lived in the Tēple: the Apostles came to this: and after that Christ was ascended, the holy men who were in the time of the Primitive Church, did rejoice to see the Oratories, and places of devotion, which were built in honor of Christ. They knew that if the private prayers, or lifting up of the hands of one man, were acceptable to the Lord, thē the voice of a multitude, making their requests joy • tly together, would more sound in the ears of God. If the Savior hath made a promise to be in the middle of them, where two or three are gathered together, with what an eye of compassion, is he present to look upon hundreds, or thousands of his, assembled into one place? Then let us account it our happiness, that we may join our prayers unto a great congregation, which God denieth to his best children, in the time of persecution, and of banishment, & great sickness: and let us press to this place, as to that where bread is broken, which is the very food of life. For herein God giveth a most approved argument of his love, that we are not forced to run from this sea to another, from this land unto that, so to enjoy this blessing: but we need no more but even step out of doors, it is so brought home unto us. And let us each man exhort that brother of his, who yet wanteth understanding, to hasten unto this banket: for it is a good token of more grace which is afterward to follow, when men come to this place, although it be for other purposes. God catcheth them upon the sudden; the hook is fastened in them, before themselves be aware. Agustine came with another mind to hear Saint Ambrose preach; it was to observe his words, and his eloquence, and the manner of his gracious delivery (for Ambrose was an eloquent and sweet man) but at length the matter of his Sermons took him, and made him a good Christian. So mighty God's word is; and hearing is the means to bring men unto faith, by which faith, they are saved; and this is the place of hearing. If any man, saith Chrysostom upon John, do sit near to a perfumer, or a perfumers shop, even against his will he shall receive some savor from it: much more shall he who frequenteth the Church, receive some goodness from it.

12 Then they are much to be blamed, who do willingly and of purpose, absent themselves from this place, be they either the stiff and stubborn recusants, whose fancy and refractary will, is called by the name of conscience: who being invited to the Supper of the Lamb, yet keep themselves away, and therefore according to Christ's parable, are well compelled by the Magistrate to come in. It is a most blessed compulsion, for a man to be driven to truth, for a woman to be forced to heaven. Or be it the idle person, who preferreth his rest and sleep, before his own souls salvation. In which case he is worse then the Jew, of whom (as Ambrose well observeth) the Prophet saith, that he honoreth God with his lips, although his heart be far from him. The Jew did yield his speech, and the Jew did yield his presence, & seemed to give some countenance to the word, but this slothful man cometh not so far. Or be it the ancient Donatist, or Rogatian, in times past so peeuishly bent, who abstained from the assemblies of all other men whatsoever, which were not of his opinion, and tied to a small corner in Africa, that Catholic Church, which is so far diffused over all the face of the earth. Vincentius one of their company, is justly reproved by Saint Agustine, because when the Lord had said that all the earth should be filled with his majesty, Amen, Amen, so be it, so be it, for so it is in the Psalm, he would sit at Cartenae, some mean place belike in Africa, and with ten perhaps of his Rogatians, which yet remained with him, would say Non fiat, non fiat, that it should not be so. Or be they our new Barrhoists, sprong from the seed of the Donatists, who because they conceive, that some spots & spotted men, do yet remain within the Church of England, they single themselves from us, by a schismatical rent. They forget that the spouse is black, while she remaineth on earth, that in the field where the best seed is said by Christ to be sown, tares spring up as well as wheat; and both must grow together until the day of harvest. That in the womb of Rebecca, which was a good figure of the Church, is Esau as well as Jacob, which cannot be discerned, until the time of their birth. And this birth is the judgment. What a holy and wise saying is that, which Agustine hath in this behalf, We suffer many in the Church, whom we can neither correct nor punish. But yet for the chaffes sake, we do not forsake the threshing floor of the Lord; nor for the bad fishes sake, do we break the nets of the Lord, nor for the goats which are to be severed in the end, do we leave the flock of the Lord, nor for the vessels made to dishonor, do we flit out of the house of the Lord. Let the spirit of singularity, carry these mē in our time, headlong while it will, but let us love the public meetings of the faithful, the sacraments duly administered, the word sincerely taught, the devotions uttered here. Let us hold it our joy and crown, that we may so come together; that we may not only with our Prophet here, look toward the temple, but that if we will, our feet may stand in the gates of Jerusalem. We do sin against our souls, when by a fancy we debar our selves, from the fellowship of the faithful, and communion of God's Saints. And so now leaving this, let us come unto the third thing, which was at the first proposed by me, and that is the grievous conflict which Jonah here sustained.

[ 3] 13 And what can be stranger to a man at first sight, then that he, who late before was the Prophet of the Highest, and therefore much in his grace, acquainted with his counsels, and purpose concerning Israel, where he had long preached, one near about his God, should now with such a horror, as a despairing person, be up, and then down; be at the first so distrustful, although afterward resolved. But the remembrance of that favor which he before enjoyed, doth deject him the more; that after so large measure of God's bountifulness toward him, he should be unthankful. For now his conscience crieth out against him, that he was most unworthy to have any part in the Redeemer, who had turned from him so willfully. Now he breatheth out displeasure and indignation against himself. So fearful a thing is sin: it doth so wound the soul. Hence great fights do oftentimes arise unto the faithful, where the flesh armed with desperation, layeth on load even to destruction; but faith holdeth out a buckler, wherewith she wardeth the blows. Notwithstanding between the one and the other, there is a combat hardly fought out, much ebbing and much flowing, much rising and much falling, that the waves are not so various, as the thoughts of this sufferer are; disputing pro and con, acquitting and condemning. Whereunto at the last a victory cometh, but it is with great difficulty in the mean while, the inward man and the outward, the spirit and the flesh most vehemently wrestling. Now as Saint James hath told us: Blessed is the man that endureth temptation : he that striveth, and standeth, and in the end cōquereth, shall not loose his reward. But in the mean time it maketh the weak one, the tender and sickly conscience to droop and be discouraged, so that being heated violently, he thirsteth after comfort. In which case, since God himself is so far from despising the broken and contrite heart, that in very truth, he doth love it; and Christ for his part came for that purpose, not to break the bruised reed, nor to quench the smoking flax, we are in example of thē both (the father & the word) to bind up the broken, & to seek out that which is perishing.

14 Then to speak to this argument, whosoever thou art, that gronest under this heavy burden, strengthen thy feeble knees, & resume thy decaying spirits. If the motions of thy mind be fearful beyond measure, yea unfit to be spoken, and uttered by thee, so that thou art ashamed even to name them, as, that God's being is not certain; that the Scriptures may be doubted of, that Christ was not the Messias & Savior of the world that thy sins shall not be forgivē thee; that thou belōgest not to God's electiō; that the promises of his mercy appertain to other mē, but are not true in thee; that thy best way were to dispatch thyself of thy life, by some fall, or a knife, or by drowning, or otherwise, since thou art but a forlorn person, and a castaway in God's sight, (which is a most fearful and uncomfortable thought,) yet understand that these suggestions and a thousand more of that kind, are but attempts of thine enemy, who would willingly rush upon thee: but know that thou herein art not alone, such co • flicts are very common. The Prophets and the Apostles, the best Saints of God have endured them. How great was Job's extremity, when he cursed the day of his birth, and being impatient and unruly, he satisfieth not himself again and again to curse it? In what a case was David, when he seemed to fear utter perdition? Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy holy Spirit from me. He speaketh as if he doubted of his election. It was not well with him, when he distrusted God in his promises, daring to say unadvisedly in the midst of his distresses, that all men were liars, that was, everyone of them who did tell him, and that from the mouth of Samuel, the true Prophet of the Lord, that he should be the king over Israel. How was Jeremiah on his knees, when he cursed and fretted bitterly, and wished that he had never been, or would that he had been slain at his first entering into the world? How was Elias troubled, when he cried, It is enough, Lord take away my soul ? How did Peter strive in himself, whether he should deny Christ or no? and imagine what he thought of it when he had done it, and wept bitterly. What disquietness did the prick in the flesh bring to Saint Paul, when it made him pray thrice, that is, very many times, that he might be delivered from it? But how hot is his conflict between the flesh and the spirit, when he termeth himself a wretched man, and knoweth not how to be freed from the bondage of sin, that body of death. Yet at the last, to his inward consolation he remembereth himself, that it should be done by Christ Jesus. Now, who were dearer to God then these, who higher in his favor, then Job a mirror of patience, and David a man after his own heart, and Jeremiah who specially was preserved in the desolation of Jerusalem, and Elias who was taken up into heaven with a whirl-wind, and Peter a great Apostle, & Paul the Doctor of the Gentiles? Join Jonah here to the number of these, a Prophet once, and appointed to everlasting life, yet in one place he would needs be dead, and in this place he thinketh that he should be damned. And as it was with these, so it is in our days. The Ministers of the Gospel who are employed in their calling, and know anything in the world, have manifold experience of such cases of conscience, although they speak it not to every man.

15 Some for one thing, and some for another are troubled every day: for fancies and temptations do arise a thousand ways: especially in those who are weak in mind or body, by reading or by hearing, by being too much alone, by children and by friends, by prosperity or adversity, by a word spoken at adventure, by anything which the mind of the troubled party doth apprehend. Where faith is not extinguished, or plucked up by the root, but weakened for a time, as the Sun under a cloud, is shadowed for a moment, or as fire under the ashes, is raked up and not seen. And when it hath been amated and discouraged for a time, then it breaketh forth again, and peradventure it is then a second while dismayed, as the ship upon the sea, sometimes is carried up to the heaven, and then down again to the deep: or as the winter water which freezeth in the night, and melteth in the day, and hath his intermissions, and therein many alterations. In this appeareth God's providence, and his endless love in protecting, that he so ballanceth discomfort, with an equal weight of comfort, that evil and distrust doth not prevail, but if the scale do tippe down, it raiseth up again upon the sudden. If the challenger be on the left hand ready to defy us, the defendant is on the right hand as ready to maintain us. If the inuader be behind us, the protector is before us: yea if a strong armed man have set-footing in our house, a stronger then himself cometh, and driveth him from the possession. But he will keep us thus exercised; and he doth it in great wisdom.

16 If we had not this to quicken us, we should yield our selves to security, & be overgrown with the weeds, & moss of careless negligence. For as flesh saith Origen if it be not sprinkled with salt, doth putrefy & corrupt, although there be great store of it, and that of the best, so the soul will presently grow loose and licentious, if it be not as it were salted with continual temptations. The best would grow to be high minded, & proud in his own conceit: but by this we are much humbled. So we are made the fitter to receive the crown in heaven, which is for the lowly minded, & is never given to any, but to those who do get a victory. And how can there be a conquest, unless there be a fight? how a fight without an enemy? Then this life is our striving; the other is the reward which we receive for our striving. Here we wrestle saith Saint Ambrose, but we are crowned elsewhere: here is the striving, there the reward, here the warfare, there the wages. Therefore while I am in this world, I do yet wrestle, I do yet strive, I am yet driven at that I may fall. But the comfort is that which followeth, which Ambrose addeth in that place. But the Lord is mighty, who supporteth me when I am thrust at, who setteth me up when I am slipping, who raiseth me tilting aside. This is phisike for thy sickness, & remedy for thy evil, whosoever thou art that gronest in thy soul: thou hast much ready to hurt thee, but thou hast more to help thee: thou hast a strong one against thee, but thou hast a stronger for thee, one who loveth thee & respecteth thee, & pitieth thee at thy need. And if he do stand for thee, what matter who is against thee? He bringeth thee unto this battle, & his hand is upon thine enemy, to limit how far he shall urge thee, & farther he cannot go: no tempting above thy strength. He looketh on thee, & relieueth thee, & doth as much saith S. Agustine, as cry to thee out of heaven, I look upon you: do you wrestle, I will help you: do you conquer, I will crown you. Nay, he maketh us conquer; he breatheth into us a strength, which shall never be ouerborne. Well thou mayest have blows, and bruses, and shrewd brushes in the heat of thy fight, but the victory shall be thine: floating thou shalt not sink, encountering thou shalt not perish.

17 If he were ignorant of that case wherein thou art, then thou mightest justly fear, and suspect his ignorance: but he conceiveth of thy infirmity, & therefore as a father he taketh compassion on thee. He knoweth whereof thou art made, he remēbreth that thou art but dust. Yea to the end that he might the better understand, what thy miseries be, amidst such strong throbbes of temptation, he let his own son take flesh upon him, who became a man clothed with mortality, that therein by human practice, and not only by divine contemplation, he might be tempted and feel assaults, and so, as the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews speaketh, he might the better be able to succor those that are tempted. Now what needest thou at all to shake or quiver, when his shield and his safeguard do perpetually attend thee? The experience of things past, should encourage thee for hereafter. Remember how he hath kept thee, and cherished thee in his bosom in former times, when thou wast in danger. That did abode good unto thee. He who loved thee then, will love thee still. When David had to do against Goliath, no impression wrought so forcibly with him, as recounting what he had done before. When I was a boy and kept my fathers sheep, a Bear came and took a sheep out of my flock, and I killed that Bear: then a Lyon came and did as much, and I killed that Lyon also. Surely that Lord, which saved his servant from the paw of the Lyon, and of the Bear, will deliver me also from this Philistine. Bethinke thyself in the like. Thy God hath ever favored thee even from thy mothers womb: when thou wast not, then he made thee, when thou wast lost he redeemed thee, when thou wentest astray, he reclaimed thee: whē thou wast naked, he clothed thee, when thou wast hungry he fed thee: he hath nourished thee and maintained thee: whē thou wast ignorant he did teach thee, and hath given thee some good measure of knowledge, and will to serve him: he hath admitted thee by baptism, into the fellowship of his Saints, he hath sealed his affection toward thee, by the Sacrament of his body and his blood; in great griefs he hath stood by thee; in anguishes he hath blessed thee; the pit hath been open for thee, but yet thou never didst fall in; Satan hath gaped and roared, but yet his fangs have not touched thee; in conflicts thou hast been safe, thou hast been preserved in combats. How fully should these sound experiments confirm thee in thy faith? how should this lively feeling, for the delightfulnes of the joy conceived thereby, as it were melt thee in kindness toward thy God? Why sholdest thou not say with David, what shall I render unto the Lord, for all his benefits toward me? Or I will love thee dearly ô Lord my strength. I will honor thee, I will embrace thee, (I want words to express it) I will joy in thee, I will devote myself wholly unto thy service. With thy favor and loving countenance with thy hand and thy heart, thou hast helped me, kept me, saved me; thou hast strengthened me, raised me, blessed me, and I know that thou wilt never leave me. For thou art the same God forever, and continuest thy goodness daily over me.

18 He who hath learned these lessons, maketh true use of the battles between hope and despair, between the flesh and the spirit: and the farther he goeth forward, the more always he doth conquer. He recounteth thus with his own heart: God might have suffered me to have frozen in my dregs, to run on to all filthiness & uncleanness with the worldlings, to have died before that I had understood what belonged unto his service, and so to have dropped down to hell, before that I knew what I did; but he hath dealt better by me, he hath afforded me more grace. Now he bringeth this fire of temptation, to warm me, and resolve me, but it is to good, and not to evil. I doubt not but I am his, I shall not perish finally. He slubbereth me to scour me, he rubbeth me to make me brighter; he whetteth me to make me sharper. If I were not pressed and urged, I should not know what he doth for me: but to relieve me when I need, to help me when I am ready to drown, to save me when I am sinking, to quicken me when I am at deaths door, is an argument of such favor as he can better give, then I can well conceive. And since I have these testimonies of his assured favor, let the world allure and slily entice, let the flesh insult while it will, let Satan tempt and not spare, let doubts and thoughts & distrusts, be eger and eger again; in life and death, either day or night; I know who it is that bought me, and paid for me with his blood, and I know that he will not leave me. As Saint Agustine saith, A mighty man will not lose that which he hath bought for his monie, and will Christ loose that which he hath bought with his blood ? I doubt not but my Jonah in his troubled meditations, did grow to these resolutions, and by thinking thereon, did shake off that his heavy passion, that he should be cast away from God's sight. It was a lively feeling of former mercies which made him to break forth into so religious an insinuatiō, as if he did bleed with tenderness and softness, calling upon God, ô Lord my God. Wherein he shown so sound an hope, that although he should kill him (as Job saith of himself) yet he would not leave him, but would evermore trust in him: although his sin did more then abound, yet God's grace did superabound.

19 These words well understood, and applied unto the conscience, may serve for every soul which languisheth with grief taken for evil motions. But because every tender spirit, is not grown so far in God's school, and where so hard a siege is laid by Satan, there cannot be too many helps, therefore some other remedies may be added unto this before named: for the describing whereof, I could wish more leisure to meditate upon them, and more time to utter them, but it shall now suffice to point at them. Then first, when any Christian shall feel himself [ 1] hardly laid at, let him have recourse to God's word, and the comfortable writings of other wise and learned men. There is better balm in the Scriptures, then ever was in Gilead; there is a refreshing river; the very well of life, which will give strength to the fainting. And therein no book more profitable then be the Psalms of David. Secondly, let him resort unto the [ 2] temple, where the word of God is taught. Jonah did think of this, before all other matters. Here, that is, in the house of God, David did find wholesome instruction, when he was so affretted with the prosperity of the wicked, that he had almost renounced the service of the Lord. How was he troubled with that conceit and could not be resolved, until he went into the Sanctuary? God directeth the mouth of the preacher, that when himself scant thinketh of that particular fruit, he speaketh to the heart of someone man in this point, of some other in another. Thirdly, let him pray to God, both in public and in private. The [ 3] Lord loveth to be sought to by us, and it pleaseth him to be called upon: and in the midst of our prayer, if it be with vehement intention of our spirits, he will distill down a dew, of the sweet influence of his grace, that we shall arise up more settled. Heartie and earnest prayer, what clouds doth it not pierce, what heavens doth it not enter? Fourthly let him not fear, to impart his grief to his friend, but especially to the minister, who is learned and feareth God. They are made for such purposes, and such things are not strange unto them. Man is ordained for man, to help him and to comfort him, and more eyes do see better thē fewer, and what a joy to the mind, is a word spoken in season? But the faithful minister, of all other things doth hold this for his charge, to hearken to such complaining, to raise up such mē lamenting. He that converteth a sinner, doth save a soul from death, and covereth a multitude of sins. If that precept of Jude do belong unto any man, it is unto him, have compassion of some in putting difference, and other save with fear pulling them out of the fire. This is to imitate Christ, who will not break a bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax. This is to seek out the lost, and to bind up that which is broken. Unto these this may be added, that it shall not a little help to have conference with such, who in former times have been exercised with the like temptations, that out of their experience being plentifully poured out; the distressed mind may be relieved. None can speak more sufficiently, and unto better purpose, then he that hath felt the same fire, wherein this grieved soul is now burned. And they who are in this cafe, are not a little revived, to know that any other hath been troubled like themselves, which they will hardly believe, thinking that none did ever bear such a burden, [ 6] as is upon their shoulders. Lastly, as they ought rather to remember their former deliverances, then the grief which presently is upon them: so they are rather to believe the speeches of other men, I mean God's children, who come to yield comfort to thē, then their own troubled thoughts, which being perplexed and disquieted with frightful imaginations, can give no settled judgment. This matter were worthy a longer speech, but I am forced here to end. Lord comfort those which are comfortless, and strengthen thy weak children, that they may not be so cast down, and plunged into perdition, but that in their greatest temptation, they may retain thee still for their Savior, that living in thy fear, and dying in thy faith, they may come to eternal glory. To the which ô Father bring us, for thine own son Christ his sake, to whom with thee and thy holy Spirit be glory for evermore.

THE XII. LECTURE.

T He fearful conflict which the Prophet sustained, in the verse next before going hath been made plain unto you. A passion of little less then distrustful despair, did vex him and disquiet him for the time. From the terror and danger whereof, being recovered by the effectual apprehension of grace, by a lively faith, he returneth to contemplate the peril of his body; which as it was great, in the middle of the sea, in the belly of the whale, which was irrecoverable in man's judgment, so he seeketh to express it by multitude of words, repeating it, and reuoluing it with variety of phrase, but all tending to one end; yet with such copiousnesse, especially being in so short a prayer, that a man would wonder at first, how the Spirit of God which useth to speak pressely and briefly, so that no one word may fitly be spared, should so run upon one thing, with difference of speech, but in substance all agreeing. Yet the use of it is such, as of words fully replenished with sanctity and holiness, as shall appear in his due place. In the mean time that which he saith is this.

[ 1] 2 First, the waters did compass me about unto the soul ; to the death, saith the Chaldee Paraphrase, as intending that he was now likely to be drowned, his life to depart from him, his soul to be severed from her carnal habitation. David also doth use such vehemency of words, Save me ô God, for the waters are entered even to my soul. Neither is there any speech which more lively discovereth the earnestness of that which is presently in hand, be it prayer or peril, or desire or detestation, then the name of soul doth. As the Hart brayeth for the rivers of water, so panteth my soul after thee ô God. My soul thirsteth for God. This noteth an entire affection, and earnest desire, wherewith David was moved. As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee, saith Elizaeus to Elias. A very passionate affirmation. Jacob in Genesis giveth this censure of Simeon and Levi. The instruments of cruelty are in their habitations. Into their secret let not my soul come. This argueth a perfect detestation. So the depth of danger is purported here, when he speaketh thus, the waters compassed me unto the soul ; the enemy of my life, the water which hath no mercy, was above me and below me and round about me, without me and within me, that my being was death, my hope was but destruction, nothing possible unto me but drowning, as far as man's [ 2] wit might imagine. Secondly, the depth did close me round about. I was not in the shallow as a man in a lake, who lying down may be stifled, but standing may be safe; but I was in the main Ocean, which is called for the hugenesse of it, the gathering of waters, and elsewhere Tehom, a gulf or bottomeless pit, I was in that vastness, which sometimes cannot be sounded by very long lines; I was in waters by multitudes, and there not diuing or floating up and down, but as closed and shut up, as included in a sepulcher, or made fast in a prison: this deep pit, this dark pit, this vncōfortable dungeon, had closed her mouth upon me.

3 Thirdly, the weeds were wrapped about mine head. The sea doth bear weeds, as well as shallow water; yea somewhere very straungely, strangely I say, that in such places as where the depth seemeth to be of incredible greatness, weeds should be seen in abundance, in the upper superficies, the very top of the water, and that so plentifully, that in nauigation the course of ships is stayed sometimes by them. Experience hath confirmed this in the huge Atlantike sea, as men sails to America, whereout doth grow a very strange Dilemma or Division, because either they be there without any roots at all, and that is very marvelous, or because the roots do go down exceeding deep in the water, which is not otherwise afforded by nature in thin spindie bodies. But that weeds do grow in the sea, & those of some price, Solinus letteth us know, saying that shrubs and weeds in the Ligustike sea, are those from whence our Corall cometh. Such then being in the bottom, are about the head of our Prophet: he is wreathed and tangled in them▪ or as some do suppose, he was so fast in the water, as if he had been tied there; with as little hope of rising or coming up again. But the words here being positive, that his head was wrapped in them, I imagine that when he sunk, & went down to the bottom, he there struggled for life, as men do that are dying, and by that means he was entangled in the weeds, as if some net had bespread him. And in my judgment this cleareth that doubt, which ariseth unto some, in the third verse of this chapter, where because it is reported, that he was in the very bottom in the midst of the sea, and all the waves and surges did go over and over him, they suppose the meaning of it to be, that as soon as he was cast forth over shipboord by the mariners, the whale forthwith devoured him, on which because the waves passed, and he was in the whale, he saith they went over him: and because the fish went down to the bottom of the sea, the Prophet in the fish is said to do the like. Whereas this place doth rather enforce, that between the time of his casting forth, and the swallowing of the whale, there was some pretty little space, which in this text is insinuated.

[ 4] 4 Fourthly he dilateth his sorrow, by adding that he went down, to the bottom of the mountains. It is very likely that it was some Cape or Promontorie, which did shoot forth from the continent or firm-land, whereof there are very many in all the sea shore near to Iapho; both Syria and Judea being described, to be hemmed in with mountains. And this argueth all to be done, not very far from the shore, because a tempest deprehended the mariners at the first, soon after that they put frō land. Or else he may mean the rocks, which being in the midst of the water, have the hugenesse of pretty mountains; and this desolate man is now fallen into the clifts, or concauities, of one or other of these. He is then every way a prisoner, fast fettered in the sedge, and closed up in the hollowness of the mountain which was over him. Thus water, and weeds, and earth, have all conspired to drown him. If otherwise he might have risen, yet now the hill is upon him, not feinedly as Aetna was said to be on Enceladus, but verily and indeed, not to crush him with the weight, but only to keep him there, and detain him till he were drowned.

[ 5] 5 And this he maketh more plain unto us, in the fifth circumstance, when he saith the earth with her bars was about him, and that forever. Barres are to make things strong, as in doors or otherwise. Then the strength of the earth had him within her keeping; even that which David doth call the pillars of the earth, I will establish the pillars of it. He was now as in a pit, fast bolted and surely kept, and as it seemed unto him, forever and forever, never hoping to escape, and to be freed from that danger. He held that the doom of fearful death, was pronounced over him, the sentence of dissolution and destruction, & now he is in the midst of his dolorous execution. Thus he doth paint out unto us, the abundance of his misery, proposing himself as a wretched spectacle for the time, environed with such woes, as he knoweth not how to describe them. The water, that did compass him, even to the very soul; the depth did round beset him; the sedge was about his head; he was at the roots of the mountains; the great bars of the earth were closed, and made fast upon him. What more could a carnal man wish upon his enemy, if he would wish to be never afterward troubled with him on earth? This is the full recounting in particular, of those fears which were upon this sinner. Now let us see the use of these words.

6 If I should be asked here, why I have used this Paraphrasticall exposition, so much speech in a case so evident and apparent, whereas doctrine and store of matter, is more fit and acceptable to this auditory, I must forthwith shroud myself under the Prophets shield. He thought good to write it, and I think not amiss to touch it: if any man shall say, unfruitfully; he doth wrong to God's Spirit, who throughout all the whole book of the Scripture, hath put no one thing in vain, although the dim eyes of our weakness cannot hastily comprehend the mystery of his meaning. The speaker then and the reader, are in this case to pray God, that he will descend and come down unto them, that he will touch the heart of the one with the key of knowledge, and that he will sear the lips of the other, with the coal of the Seraphim. And then this shall be gathered out of it. The vehement inculcation of so many degrees of misery, doth the more magnify God's great mercy unto our Jonah. The harder his necessity was, the more welcome was God's aid. The more grievous that his wound was, the greater was the cure. The more dangerous the sickness was, the more gracious was the healing. Beyond hope to save, beyond thought to preserve, in a deplored state, and at a desperate pinch to succor, is an eminent grace and favor, never enough recorded, never enough reported. My danger was unspeakable, my peril was vndescribable: all hope was past and exiled; yet now in this wretched tenure, ô Lord my blessed God and everlasting Father, thou hast brought up my life from the pit. Now his obstinate hard affection beginneth to yield: this doth even melt the heart of the Prophet in kindness, to see that from the bottom of millions of extremities, he was delivered by the free grace of his maker.

7 The remembrance of this benefit, doth so stir up his mind, in his holiest meditations, and giveth such life to his motions, that he doth not satisfy himself, but the more express his misery, the more to extol God's mercy. He thinketh himself the more deeply devoted to such a Savior. The lower he was dejected, the greater was his deliverance; and the more sound his deliverance, the more sufficient should his thankfulness be to the Lord. Now he seeth his God to be a God of power and majesty, able to free from anything. Where his creatures do depress, there he alone can lift up. Although the wind rage, and the sea roar, and all the earth be disquieted, yet he doth bear sway over them. Then we need not despair in the waves of woe and extremity: if our faith be not extinguished. It is God's greatest glory to rid from greatest evils. Where all man's help is wanting, there his finger is most conspicuous. It was a good speech of Philo the Jew, which he uttered on this occasion: whē that beast Caligula could be persuaded by no reason, nor by any man's intercession, but that his image must be set up at Jerusalem, which would quickly have inferred the adoration of it, and he was so earnest on it, that there was no way, but do it or dy, Philo turned him unto his fellows, and bad them not be discouraged, for where man's help doth cease, there God's help doth begin. Then it proved so with them; and so it doth with other oftentimes: but nothing could be more evident then this, to him who wrote my text. He ioyeth that in such a downfall, he did taste of God's kindness: but the particular contemplation of his heaviness, by recounting special circumstances, doth wring from him more gratefulness, more thanks giving.

8 When Christ being invited came to the Pharisees house, he had some entertainment of him, but no way to be compared with that of the woman reputed the great sinner. She washed his feet with her tears, and wiped them with her hair, and afterward kissed them, and anointed them with ointment. She could not content herself with many demonstrations of her affection toward him. The Savior Christ, who knew all things, did yield the reason of it, and that was she loved much because much was forgiven her. Then where much is received, there should be much returned. That man is very blessed, whose eyes are opened so, as to see and iudiciously behold, what it is that is done for him. The Lord oft times doth leave us very far to our selves, that we may take knowledge of our infirmity, and then give him entire and complete praise, as unto him belongeth. Adam was quickly fallen, but he was not so hastily raised up again, by the actual and present performance of the promised seed. Man might wrestle and struggle to get up again, and cast his devises, and beat his brains long, but all would not serve. God suffered him to languish almost four thousand years, and the longer he did lie, the deeper still he did sink. This time of long staying, was first to make man without all excuse, who if he had been restored immediately, peradventure would have boasted in the pride of his heart, that it had been a needless labor, for God to repair him; for as in time he had fallen, so in time he would have risen, without help of any. Now God took away this exception. Secondly it was to remember man of his lamentable state, who had lain vndeliuered so many years and ages, and thousands of times, and now at a desperate pinch, was set on foot again by the free favor of God. The opinion of which mystery shall take deeper root in us, if therein we use our selves as Jonah did here, that is, specially recount the evil then sustained, and severally remember the good things now received. If we will say as Zechariah the father of John the Baptist said, that when we sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, a light was given unto us; and add withal, that Adam had condemned us, and Eve had undone us: our hands were polluted, our hearts were defiled, our deeds were depraved, our tongues were profaned, our thoughts were corrupted, our knowledge was decayed, our understanding darkened, all the powers of our mind even to the death were wounded: the world triumphing without, the flesh insulting within, and Satan gaping for us, as for a pray surely accounted of, yea hell & damnation being in us and on us: yet the riches of the mercy of him, who redeemed us by his own precious blood, did frustrate our enemies, did supply all our infirmities, did amend our defects, and set us at liberty, that nothing should be laid to the charge of us.

9 This sweet recapitulation, moveth a tender conceit in soul, & is pleasing unto God, who delighteth in that conscience, which is bruised with such often and ingeminated motions. It argueth a lively feeling, & true touch in that, which is for the present thought upon. How doth the spouse of Christ in the Canticles, fetch backward and forward the description of her love? how particularly doth she speak? It is not enough to say that her well-beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest of ten thousand, but, his head is as fine gold, his locks curled and black as a rauen: his eyes are like doves upon the rivers of waters, which are washed with milk, and remain by the full vessels, his cheeks are as a bed of spices, and as sweet flowers, and his lips like lilies dropping down pure myrrh. Yea she goeth forward to his hands and legs and mouth. When Jeremiah in the heat of his Lamentations, was desirous to move commiseration at God's hands, if it might be, he holdeth it not sufficient to say, the city is solitary which was lately full of people, she is now as a widow, but in special he doth amplify the desolatiō of it. The fire had destroyed her buildings, the sword had slain her mighty ones, the famine had pinched her tender ones, the walls & streets and temple were ruinated and defaced; the Princes and the people, the Elders and Priests and Nazarites had lost their ancient glory. What should I say of David, when once he doth complain then everything is too little, and where he doth give thanks there nothing is too much. In the two and twentieth Psalm: I am like water poured out, and all my bones are out of joint: mine heart is like wax, it is molten in the midst of my bowels, my strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws, and thou hast brought me out into the dust of death. There he speaketh of bulls & oxen, & Lions, and dogs, and Unicorns, for by such names he calleth his enemies that oppressed him. So when he cometh in another mood to give thanks, he feareth not to speak: in the abundance of his gratefulness he spareth no cost to utter it. I will name one place for all: I will love thee dearly ô Lord my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress, and he that delivereth me, my God and my strength, in him will I trust, my shield, the horn also of my salvation and my refuge. What words almost could he devise, which he hath not here put in?

10 I would that this age of ours, which is so apt to learn all evil, could learn this one good lesson, either of Jonah here, or of the other parties whom I have named, to lay unto the heart such things as do befall us, or the works of God which we see; and then to abide and dwell upon them, not slightly but in serious contemplation, between God and our souls. But the truth is, it is far otherwise. We are alive and quick in God's business only, while the sharp spurr doth prick us. It is the rod which doth quicken us, but not so much as it should. Commonly and for the greatest part, let there come upon us weal or woe, good or evil, great blessing or small blessing, we are dull and insensible. We observe not as we should, by amplified circumstances, what it is that is upon us. We feel the rod, but it is as men sleeping, or in a trance: we see God's goodness over us, but it is like men standing a far off: great things do seem but small things to us. When we come to give thanks, we put all in one gross sum, and if we begin to pray, we huddle our needs together. In a word, our best laying open of our hearts before the Lord, which should be with an exquisitenesse and curiousnesse if it might be, not of words so much and of form, but of matter and sighs and groans, and compunction and contrition, is but shuffled and scambled over. Lord lay not this idleness, and great negligence to our charge. If we come to a Pysician, we lay open our grief by parts; this ach is in the head, this distemperature in the stomach, this griping is at the heart. In our merchandise or business committed to our servants, we examine all from point to point. Let us do so in God's benefits: it shall procure in us a more ingenuous acknowledgement, then we ever did imagine. One example or two to teach this.

11 This present day doth remember us of the birth of her, by whom under God we do receive a multitude of great blessings, as the free course of the Gospel, an admirable peace, prosperity and abundance. He is little less then a brutish creature, or at least he is a very ill minded subject, who having age and experience, doth not give the Lord thanks for her. Yet in this so apparent a chain of God's benefits, let us examine it from link to link, and it shall wring out better motions, from him who is best minded. That the everlasting Father should bring her to the crown and scepter of this kingdom, through so many difficulties. Her brother (as he supposed to prevent a greater mischief) denying her that prerogative: her sister coming between: and matching with that Prince, who was then held the chief flower of Christendom; a certain expectation of issue being between them; the Spaniards thereat joyous, as hoping thereupon to tyrannize and domineer at their pleasure. Nay yet much more then this. The Clergy giving counsel to take away her life: Gardener thirsting for her blood, as a wearied man would long for water: Story daring to say, when some each day were burnt in question of religion, that these were but the branches, they should strike at the root: a suspicion of strong treason against her sister, being sought to be fastened on her: imprisonment of her being procured in rigorous and hard manner: yea the very sentence of death as it is thought once being gone out against her. Yet that the Lord should deliver her from all this, and advance her to the guiding of this land and people: That he should so preserve her being a woman (and therefore by nature weak, and exceeding fearful) in so many plots laid against her: Pope Pius with his Anathema deposing her from the Crown, and absolving (if he could get us to believe him) her subjects from their obedience: Pope Gregory by the setting up of his Seminaries, inveigling some of her own to play some treacherous part against her; in oft-intended invasions; in a rebellion once plainly attempted; in conspiracies of sons of Belial more then twenty; To bring her yet notwithstanding, to such an age of her life, to such a year of her reign; and if this be too little, if we will serve God and honor him, to give us hope that more shall be added unto her days, and by a consequent to our happiness: To carry her who in her self is a mortal dying creature, apt to be broken like a glass, yet as if she had been borne in the bosom or hand of Angels, so that nothing hath annoyed her. This particular Analyzing or scanning of the graces of God upon her, will wrest from us a true joy, with feeling and understanding. And what we do in her, we may all do in our selves.

12 Let us run from step to step, through God's favors shown unto us. Either as Barnard doth, God deserveth to be loved by us, because he loved us first, that is something; so great a God as he is, that is more; so fervently as he doth, that is yet more; and freely, whereas we were such little ones, when as we were such bad ones. Or otherwise if you please. To create us when we were not; to make us men, not beasts; to redeem us when we were lost, and that with so inestimable a price: among men to grant us to be Christians, and not infidels, Turks or Jews, who are bitter enemies to his son: to give us so long a life, as that we may comprehend what pertaineth unto his service: to bring us in place, where we may see his Sacraments to be administered, and hear his word taught: to touch our hearts with faith, and an earnest desire of perseverance, to fill our consciences with spiritual joy, and comfort in his promises; in sickness to stand by us; in adversity to uphold us; in temptation to strengthen us. All this should make our hearts pant, and say with David, What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits toward me ? or with the Patriarke Jacob, I am not worthy of the least of all thy mercies, and all the truth, which thou hast shown unto thy servant. So to think, when other beg, that we might beg likewise: when we see other deprived of their senses or common understanding, to remember that the same might be our portion; or banishment, or imprisonment, or bondage and captivity. But there is a Lord in heaven, who hath dealt otherwise with us, and given unto us a maintenance from our cradle, clothing unto our back, and bread unto our belly, yea peradventure to come from state of necessity, to such a condition, as rather to be able to give, then to take, to help, then to be helped. We may go on in these meditations. When evil hath been conspired, when mischief hath been contrived, then he hath afforded us that favor, as to go on the thorns vnpricked, to walk in the fire vnburnt. When slanders and defamations have been devised, and such complaints made and suggested against us, yet all hath vanished as the smoke, and in the uprightness of a good conscience, we have gone quite untouched, as if no such thing had befallen us. What sweet thoughts should this work? what passions of admiration? what embracings of God's mercies? He who knoweth this and performeth it, doth make true use of that which befalleth him, in crossing over the troublesome sea of this world, and in passing through this wretched vale of misery.

13 I beat this point the more, as partly to demonstrate that these words of my text, which seem to us so barren, are not altogether without their fruit; yea if nothing else should be gathered from them, but that which I have already taught (although I doubt not, but another man might find some other doctrine in them, as God doth give diverse conceits to diverse of his servants.) So again to draw each of us to a special consideration, of that good or that evil, which hath or doth fall upon us. It is a very dull age, even the dotage and last time of the world, wherein we do now live: our memory is decayed, by reason of the heaviness of our spirits, and the earthinesse of that corruptible carcass, which hangeth so fast upon us. Then we had need be wakened with often and loud remembrances, that as drop after drop doth pierce the hardest stone, so thought after thought may make our dead heart to be pliable. This is the course of our Prophet, by manifold repetitions of the dangers wherein he was, to acknowledge the Lord's aid, to be so much the more over him; and himself the more beholding, the more bound and devoted to such full mercies on him. Great love requireth a great measure of returning retribution, if that possibly may be; if not that, yet of consideration, and earnest contemplation, and acknowledgement to the uttermost. Take Jonah here for an example of behavior in like danger. This was my case, this my state, this my forlorn hope of rising, yet thou hast brought my life from the pit, ô Lord my God. This word yet cometh with an Emphasis, which confesseth that his help came more welcome. But before that I speak of his restoring, one little note more from hence.

14 The danger whereinto Jonah was fallen, being thus expressed by himself, and that with so sensible a feeling, might recall into his mind, the vanity and folly of his former fear, which was, that when by the Lord he was appointed to go to Nineveh, he would needs unto Tarshish. I shown in the third verse of the first chapter, that among some other reasons, the fear of danger might make him change his course. It might have been, that in Nineveh he should have been much disgraced, it might have been quite despised, perhaps by the king imprisoned, peradventure put to death. It was best for him to escape all this; good sailing in the haven; good sleeping in a whole skin. The safest way were to make sure work, and not to come there at all. But what a change did he make? He feared a little hurt, and now he hath a great deal. He suspected, that only one thing might annoy him, and now he hath found another. Nay in truth for every ten, he doth receive a thousand. Before, he did distrust that his body might have smarted; now body and soul pay for it. Before he might have had some man perhaps his enemy, but God his friend assured: now not so much as any man is his friend, and God like to a furious enemy doth chase him, and make after him. In this sort, such who in the Lord's causes will not depend upon him, but in their imagination cast great perils to themselves, thinking to avoid those by declining from their duty, in that their turning away, do plunge themselves into greater dangers. They think that they fly from a dog, and they turn them upon a cockatrice. They hope to escape a blow, and receive a deadly wound. They imagine to save a finger, and are pierced to the heart. Saul would not displease the people, by killing the king of Amelek, but he displeased the Lord, which was a higher matter. He was unwilling to loose so much cattle, but he lost his crown and his life. Pilate would not offend the Emperor: what? spare him who was said to be the king of the Jews? but he plucked on himself the anger of the great king, and Emperor of the heavens. This is a fault too common among the sons of men, to dread that which is little, and to pass by that which is more; to make a straining at a gnat, and to swallow up a whole Camel. It is an excellent saying, which Chrysostom hath to this purpose: It is a point of extreme madness, to stand in fear of those things which are not to be feared, but to laugh at such matters as in truth are dreadful. In this saith he, men do differ from children, that these (as not having their understanding perfect) do fear vizards, and men clothed with sacks, but think that it is nothing to revile their father or their mother, and they leap into the fire or touch candles which are burning, but they quake at some noises which are not to be feared. But men do care for none of all these things. If we look upon our selves, and sift our hearts as we ought, we shall find our selves in the number of these babies and silly infants, when we make much scruple of some trifles, but respect not an higher duty, and so to escape the rain, we run our selves into the river.

15 What is more common amongst us, then when we are in hope of preferment, to fear this or that cross? the anger of this mighty man, or of that noble woman? If their names be but used, or their letters be procured, although upon wrong information, yet if they be induced to move something inconvenient, or scandalous, or amiss, (be it never so much against the will of the writer, for that he wanteth true notice) do we not more fear to fail their unjustly extorted motion, then we dread the Lord's displeasure, or the great account which one day we must yield for our selves, when no Prince of the earth shall be able to protect us? Thus for men's sakes we leave God, (for so it may be termed, when we decline from justice, and that which should be done) and when we think that we have dealt most subtly and most wisely, God's finger is up against us, and overturneth all our policies. Yea peradventure he whom we have served, or she whom we have feared, by the motion of the Spirit of the Lord, is made a rod to whip us, considering that we have dishonored them, in making them the authors of unfit actions; or else that person for some worldly respect, is drawn away from our purpose, and so the hope of our labor is frustrated and made nothing. And then this wound remaineth upon our conscience, that we have done this and this, which our heart did tell us was untoward and indirect, or at the least to be doubted. And what a grief is it to us, to have such a worm within us, fretting and gnawing on us? The way to prevent all this, is evermore to look on God's fear, and his precise commandment, and not to swerve from that, and then he whom we sincerely serve, will either send us the fruit of our desires, or patience in the contrary. The kings heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of waters: he turneth it whither so ever it pleaseth him : Then how much more the hearts of other inferior persons? If he think that it be fit for us, where-about we go, he will send it us; but when he pleaseth: if not, his will be done. Only this is our comfort, whether that come or not, the bird is safe in the bosom: sorrow shall not upbraid us, that we have feared men more then the eternal God: that we have for the pleasure of any, made ship-wrack of a good conscience, or very far adventured toward it. Take heed then by the Prophet, that in seeking to fly such harm as is but imaginary, or little in comparison, we do not run our selves by offending of the Lord, into danger which is inevitable. Now go we a little forward.

16 The common translation hath in the future tense, thou wilt lift up my life. The Septuagint, let my life ascend from corruption. The Chaldee Paraphrase, it is ready, or but a small thing unto thee, to bring me from corruption. The best do translate it by the time that is past, thou hast brought my life from the pit, or corruption. He ascribeth all to God as moving in him, and living in him, and in him having his being. So the faithful do evermore. I waited saith David patiently for the Lord, and he inclined unto me and heard my cry. He brought me also out of the horrible pit, out of the mire and clay, and set my feet upon the rock, and ordered my goings. A gracious God, who can strike us and can heal us; can foil us & can raise us. He whippeth us by number, & scourgeth us by measure, and when we turn unto him, he will quicken us and revive us, from death and the gates of hell. Jonah sinning is punished: Jonah crying is helped. While stubbornness is on him, down must his proud heart: but when fear and faith possess him, he is hoyssed up again. Let us then change our heart, and God will change his hand, in the midst of his roughness toward us. Saint Agustine in those eight questions which were proposed to him by Dulcitius, speaketh fitly to this matter. When the woman came to Christ from Syro Phoenicia, he said unto her, the children's bread is not to be thrown to dogs: but afterward, not O dog great is thy faith, but O woman great is thy faith. He changeth his word because he saw her affection changed, and he understood that the same reproof of his was grown up to good fruit. So it is with this patient: when his faith once breaketh forth, he shall come from corruption.

17 But what may be the matter, that he so much rejoiceth, that he should live again. The words which go before from the beginning of the chapter, do show a fast hold to be laid on God's favor by faith, (howsoever for some little time it was dismayed) a remission of sins, and a hope of life eternal, although he had very much transgressed. Then since his life was sealed up against another world, why should he desire to be here again? Why should he so rejoice that he should be delivered? Very shame might have enforced him to hate the light. The report of the mariners, who would freely speak wheresoever they came, might spread the name of him, as of a most infamous person. He might be pointed at with the finger, by children and vile folks, as he went in the street. Howsoever, God's children should thirst to be above, should long to be dissolved, and be at home with their father. So did Saint Paul in the New Testament, when he desired to be loosed : so did Elias in the old when he cried, It is now enough, ô Lord take my soul, for I am no better then my fathers. And who would be in his pilgrimage, when he might be in his country? who would be in the sea, when he might be in the haven? who would be warring, when a crown might then be given him for his victory? who would be in the way, when he might be at home in rest? It seemeth then at the first sight, that the Prophet doth take joy in his loss, and desireth that for a benefit, which was a harm unto him. But when all these things are scanned as they should be, it will appear far otherwise.

18 Now it was no time to fear the shame of the world: he was rather to seek to please one, and that was his old master; yea if he displeased all other by it. It was a good resolution of him, who did write the eight of those Epistles, which be in the end of Saint Jerome's works: Let everyone say what himself will. In the mean time according to my small understanding, I have judged it better for myself to blush before sinners upon earth, then before the holy Angels in heaven, or wheresoever the Lord will show his judgment. And to wish as Elias wished, were but to be impatient; wherein Jonah is not behind, as appeareth in the fourth chapter. And his case was not like Saint Paul's, who might yield up his soul in quietness of conscience, as having in his heart a testimony of the Lord's good accepatnce of his labors in this world. Now he who is settled in such an opinion, need not fear to depart from this transitory habitation: nay he may well long to die. But with Jonah it is otherwise: he standeth yet in a mammering, and knoweth not which way to turn him. Yet he is not quite exempted from that conflict of his, between hope and despair: yet, (although his faith be not extinguished) he is not assured, how the Lord will take his sin at his hands. This maketh him wish for more time to testify his obedience; to make a recompense if it might be, for his sinful rebellion; or at the least to wash away his iniquity with many tears. And having this purpose in him, to ask pardon with sighs and sobbes, he ioyeth with all his heart, that time is permitted him, to perform the vows of his soul, and to remove away from the Church of God, that scandal which he had offered.

19 Moreover if he had died in the sea, and the belly of the fish, his departure had been violent, and laid upon him for his sin, as a grievous punishment for ungodliness: and such a kind of death, the faithful servants of the Lord have no desire to die. It may well be gathered out of the thirtieth Psalm, that the sickness of David there insinuated (for that Psalm may best be understood of sickness) was laid upon him for one fault or other: perhaps for presumption, he thought that he was too strong. But when for that cause, he felt the hand of the Lord sharply chastising him; he beggeth that he might not in such a sort go down to the grave. What profit is there in my blood when I go down to the pit? shall the dust give thanks unto thee? or shall it declare thy truth? For someone reason or other, which the Spirit of God hath concealed, Hezekiah was not ready, when the Prophet Isaiah came unto him, and told him that he must die. This did make him turn himself to the wall, and weep, and pray to the Lord, that if it might stand with his good pleasure, that sentence might be reversed. Then it is not our best safety, at every time, and in every case, to be removed hence, but upon some occasion we may joy with Jonah, that longer time is afforded us to bethink our selves. This is his exceeding comfort, that though the pangs of death were upon him, yet that God once again brought his life from corruption.

20 The only thing now remaining, is the confident appellation, which he useth to the Lord, Jehovah ô my God. This showeth a faith beyond faith, and a hope beyond hope: when he knew that the Lord was angry, and extremely wrathful at him, yet to cling in so to his mercy, as to appropriate to himself a portion in his maker. For what greater insinuation of confidence can there be, then by particular application to apprehend God's mercy: to lay hold upon him as on a father; and that not as we say, with a reference to the Communion of Saints, Our father which art in heaven, but my father and my God. This hath been the perfect trust of the faithful in all ages, which hath encouraged them to approach with boldness, unto the throne of grace. My God, my God saith David. And, thou that art the God of my salvation. And Job, I am sure that my Redeemer liveth. My spirit saith the Virgin Marie, doth rejoice in God my Savior. My Lord and my God, saith Thomas. Paul saith of himself, I live by faith in the Son of God, who hath loved me and given himself for me. This true faith doth close with God, and incorporateth it self into the body of the Redeemer.

21 And this is it, which bringeth comfort unto the wounded soul, and afflicted conscience, not that Christ is a Savior, for what am I the better for that? but a Savior unto me. That I am one of the adoption, reconciled and brought into favor, sealed up against that day, when the quick and dead shall be judged: my portion is with the Highest, mine inheritance with the Saints. How could flesh and blood ever bear the heat of strong temptation, without this firm persuasion? What is it to my belly, that bread is prepared for other, unless I be assured that my part is therein? What is it to my soul, that Christ hath died for other, unless I know that my sins are washed away in his blood? It may be good for Moses, it may be good for Paul, or Peter, or James, or Stephen, but what is it unto me? It is Meus then and Tuus, as Luther did well teach, it is my God and thy Savior which doth satisfy thirsty consciences. There is the joy of the Spirit, when men come to that measure. Then it is a blessed doctrine which instilleth that faith into us; and in that if in anything, doth appear the fruit of the Gospel, which is preached in our days, that people sick and dying, being taught before in their health, can give most divine words, and right admirable speeches, in this behalf whereof I speak, sayings full of holy trust and assurance; which as it is a thing most comfortable to themselves, beyond all gold and treasure, which are but as dung and dross, to a man yielding up the ghost, so it bringeth good meditations unto the standers by, in causing them to acknowledge very evident an plain arguments of election in the other, whom they see to be so possessed with joy in the holy Ghost, and so wrapped up, as if they had already one foot within the heaven.

22 But it is otherwise with the ignorant; they lie groveling upon the ground, and cannot mount up with the Eagle. So is it in that doctrine which the Church of Rome doth maintain, when their people are taught, that they must believe in general, that some shall go to heaven, that some belong to God: but to say or think, that themselves shall be certainly of that number, or constantly to hope it, that is boldness overmuch, that is over-weening presumption. They are to wish and pray, that it may be so with them, but yet it appertaineth to thē evermore to doubt because they know not the worthiness of their merits: a most uncomfortable opinion, which cannot choose but distract the heart of a dying man, that he must not dare to believe with confidence, that he shall go to God: that Jesus is his Savior, & the pardoner of his faults. No marvel if the life and death of such who hearken unto them, be full of sighs and sobs, & groans, and fears, and doubts, since quietness and settled rest cannot be in their hearts. They have a way to walk, but what is the end they know not. They are sure of their departure, but whither they cannot tell. A lamentable taking, and wherein of necessity must be small joy. How contrary hereunto doth Saint Paul speak, being justified by faith we have peace toward God, through our Lord Jesus Christ. How contrary to this doth Saint John speak in the name of the faithful, we know that we are of God. How doth dejected Jonah yet keep him fast to this tackling, when he crieth ô Lord my God ?

23 And this is the surest anker, whereunto a Christian man may possibly know how to trust. This is it which in the blasts of adversity, will keep him fast at the root; which in the waves of temptation, will hold him fast by the chin, which in the greatest discomforts, and very pangs of death, will bring him to life again: To ground himself upon this, as on a rock assured, that his God is his father, that Jesus is his redeemer, that the holy Ghost doth sanctify him, that although he sin ofttimes, yet evermore he is forgiven; and albeit he do transgress daily, yet it is still forgotten; that whether he live or die, yet ever he is the Lord's. Good father lead us so by thy most blessed Spirit, that we never do fall from this. But although sin hange upon us, as it did upon the Prophet, yet raise us so by thy love, that laying hold on thy promises, and the sweetness of thy favor, we may reap eternal life, to the which ô blessed Lord bring us for thine own Son Christ his sake, to whom with thee and thy Spirit, be laude for evermore.

THE XIII. LECTURE.

I T is evident unto us, by the whole process of the Chapter before going, that the transgression of Jonah, did seem unto the Lord a grievous transgression: And his fall may seem to us, a very strange fault, that a Prophet exercised before in God's service, among the Israelites, acquainted with secrets and revelations from above, should so vary from the tenure of piety and obedience. But great sins require great punishments, strange faults require strange chastisements. Our Jonah as I think, may make his profession, that it hath been so with him. A tempest did follow him, which would not give him over: a lot did discover him to be a malefactor: and when he could answer to the evidence, no one word but guilty, which imported his confession, the mariners will they, nill they, must cast him over ship-board: where after sinking down to the bottom of the water, after wrapping and entangling of his head within the weeds, he is caught up by a fish, in whose belly he is lodged, for three days and three nights. Here how perplexed his state was, who cannot imagine? Without food, without light, without company and comfort: a man drowned, and not drowned; devoured but not digested, alive but yet as dead, in perpetual expectation of the fearful dissolution, of his soul from his body. Nay the torment was greater, which he sustained in his heart, that horror in his conscience, that conflict in his soul, as if God had forsaken him, and given sentence upon him, as on a reprobate cast-away, a firebrand of hell, an inheritor of damnation. Woful sinner, who for his fancies sake, and upon the suggestion of flesh and blood, would draw such a judgment to himself, as which a man well advised would not have sustained, but the space of one day, for any treasure on earth. For it is a fearful thing, to grapple with the Highest, or to wrestle with our maker.

2 As this anguish hath been largely before touched, so to make it up complete, he addeth as the conclusion of his misery, although not of his prayer, that his soul fainted in him, it doubled it self together (as some men do translate it) as the knees of a man dying do double; it was as overwhelmed, fainting as in a swound, his life was at last cast, even ready now to go out, as a consumed lamp: the gasps and groans and pangs, of very death were upon him. Yea throbs of desperation did oppugn him with such violence, that the hope of eternal life seemed for some moments, to be exiled from him; his forlorn soul was sinking in diffidence and distrust. So the best are dejected when God doth eclypse his presence and comfortable aspect. But that absence and forbearing, maketh a more tender feeling of succor when it returneth, a more abundant thankfulness: for it deserveth gratefulness in great measure, to be brought from the depth of sorrow, to the height of joy; to be saved from extremity. Jonah yet striketh this string, amplifying God's mercy over him, from the circumstance of the time: when my ghost was giving up, when all hope was past and gone. Which argument because I fully handled in my last Lecture, I would now leave it, and teach some other doctrine. These two verses note two persons; the former of them the Prophet, the latter some other men, who wait on lying vanities. The actions of the one of them, and the other, are here specified, and the fruit which both of them do reap. Then these two persons yield two parts, to be handled by God's assistance. In the former which concerneth the Prophet, these circumstances are: what he did, and how he sped: what he did, in that he saith he remembered the Lord, how he sped, in that he addeth, that his prayer came unto God in his holy Temple.

3 The purpose of God's election, in fore-appointing some unto [ 1] life eternal, is a matter so immutable, and unchangeable in it self, that nothing can impeach it. The flesh with her frailty, the world with his suttlety, the multitudes and millions of infernal spirits, cannot alter that decree. There may be some shadows, and seemings to the contrary, but the substance is kept inviolable. The very gates of hell, prevail not against him whose the determination is; neither prevail they against his. No creature can cross the intent of the Creator. He can bring us, he can force us, from sin, unto sorrow and heaviness for sin, from filthiness unto innocence, from transgression to repentance, from forsaking of goodness to embracing of grace. He it is who can regenerate us, renew us, and reform us, remould us, and reframe us, that natural corruptions, and actual deprauations, even idolatry with Naaman, or extortion with Zacchaeus, or persecution with Paul, or denying Christ with Peter, or entertaining of seven devils with sinful Mary Magdalene, shall be to us no prejudice, no detayning of his favor. Where he appointeth salvation, there everything in his time shall work unto salvation; but it must be in his time. He draweth the unwilling to him, the broken he bindeth up, the lost he seeketh out, he toucheth that with remorse, which was before as the Adamāt, the hardest heart he doth mollify. He that ordaineth glory to any, will give him grace to attain it. He who is the life is the way leading to that life: he who giveth the one, granteth the other. Where he determineth the end, there also he offereth the means to apprehend that end. As before more at large.

4 But there is no mean more direct, to bring any to God, then to teach him to know God, who never knew him before: and such a man as did know him, and now is as if he were fallen away, to bring him to remember him; that he may once again assume that confidence, and resolution to himself, that he who loved him before, will return his affection toward his soul, if it do seek unto him. Which favor, look to whom God in his mercy granteth, it is an assured argument that he is not such a lost child, as who finally shall perish. For with his sweet remembrance (for so I may well term it, when it cometh after bitter temptation, and a grievous fall) doth go a faith of that nature, that if it be once admitted to presence, it will never out again; no justice can dismay it, no judgment can affright it; but although it creep on his knees, it will to the mercy seat; from which albeit rigor should offer to repel it & remove it, yet it clingeth & clutcheth so fast, that it will not out anymore. Then, the best men who have fall̄ by the infirmity of their flesh, think their case very happy, if that may be granted to them, to have God in their mind, and to have recourse to him: and they make much of that motion, retaining it and pursuing it, as the best way to their blessedness: they account this in greatest difficulties, as the first step to a conquest, as the first link of a chain, which being plucked will bring on much more with it.

5 In the two and fortieth Psalm David complaineth thus: My God, my soul is vexed within me, but yet he addeth for his comfort, therefore I will remember thee. In the seventy and seventh Psalm, In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord, my sore ran and ceased not in the night: my soul refused comfort, But I did think upon God. What a joy was it to Job, when after loss of all, after his biles and botches, and scraping them with a pot-sheard, after his wives temptation, after his friends reproaching him that he was a sinful hypocrite (else God would not have so plagued him) he found that grace with his maker, as to grow to this resolution to say, Lo, though he slay me, yet will I trust in him. For it is the only rock of contentment, the best and sole assurance, which languishing souls can have, to run unto the Lord, all-sufficient for his power, and merciful in his love. Jonah was past the pikes, and now entering upon a victory, when after his dejection, and discouragement in his suffering, he beginneth to remember God, whose amiable countenance he had seen so oft before, and whose favor he had enjoyed. And that is a great matter, unto a wounded soul (whereby he may close again with the Highest, and gather in with the Judge) to have had former experience of his love, as of a father. This experience bringeth hope, and hope will never cease to beg, and urge for a pardon. God is my king of old, saith the Church of God in affliction, & it resteth it self on that. When Habacuc had complained of those, who in his time did grievously persecute the faithful, his refuge is, the remembrance of the Lord's foregoing favor, which evermore had sustained him. Art not thou of old saith he my Lord my God, my holy one? Therefore we shall not die.

6 The siliest soul among us, may hence derive some comfort to himself: that is, when any fearful waves of temptation do grow on us to drown us, then to think on the mighty Jehovah who alone can rid us out. If •• can speak against us, what matter is it if God be for us? If our sins within us be great, yet is the Lord's mercy greater. What blackness can be so filthy, as that Christ's blood cannot wash it? I cannot owe so much, but my God can forgive it. I cannot want so much, but my Savior can supply it. If I look upon myself, behold woe and damnation; but if I look up to heaven, there I have a strong redeemer. Now as for earthly matters, and these corruptible trifles, with which we have to do, they are to the regenerate man, far lighter then the other. If penury or poverty come, God hath enough for all, he can relieve in abundance. If sorrow oppress the mind, it may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. If sickness do vex the body, what Physician is like to the Lord? If Achitophel should take counsel, God can turn it into foolishness; if Doeg should lay snares he can destroy and break them. And all this may be soundly warranted to me, by those former experiments which I have had. I have lived so many years, and have ever been preserved: I have slipped oft but never fallen; or fallen but risen again. I have been much bruised, but never broken: in adversity he hath helped me, in temptation he hath succoured me: he is the same God ever, most gracious and most kind; him will I serve in weal, him will I seek too in woe.

7 Well fare this good remembrance, and flying to the Lord; unto whō, the holy men of all ages have had recourse, the Patriarchs & the Prophets, & every grieved soul. And whither could they better go, then to the spring of grace, then to the well of power? No fishing unto the sea: no service to a king: where most is, most may be gotten. No seeking like to that which is to the king of kings, who is more then a sea of bounty. But in remembering him, remember this withal, that it be with a lively faith, with a confident apprehension of the sweetness of his love. For in this, the elect do differ from the wicked: both of them are in distress, and both remember God: but the one of them with a hope, the other with a horror: the elect firmly believing, that his God doth think upon him: that although the beams of his countenance, for a time be shadowed from him, yet they will break forth again: that he smiteth but not to death, he striketh, but not to kill. Whereas on the other side, the unbelieving sinner, be he hypocrite or idolater, doth think that his God or God's, have utterly forgotten him; or if they do remember him, it is but for to plague him, to vex him or torment him: by which meditatiō, he breaketh into wrath & most impatiēt fury, sometimes raging with heat, sometimes despairing for fear, evermore quaking with horror. So the one of these liveth, & recovereth, & daily approacheth more near to the Lord; the other sinketh & fainteth, as the melting ice doth in the sun-shine; or else fretting he blasphemeth, not unlike to a stroke of thunder, which rattleth and maketh a great noise, but presently dissolveth, and goeth away unto nothing.

8 We find such in the Scripture. In the eighth Chapter of the Prophecy of Isaiah, God threateneth thus unto Judah, then he that is afflicted and famished, shall go too and fro in it, and when he shall be hungry he shall even fret himself, and curse his King and his God's, and shall look upward. Here is a thinking upon those, which were but supposed God's, but it is with indignation. When Samaria was besieged, and famine did shrewdly pinch it, Joram that wicked king thereof, had God in his memory, but to murmur and fret at him. His message unto the Prophet shown that, when he durst to say, Behold this evil cometh of the Lord: shall I attend on him any longer? As if he should say, that he would no longer wait the Lord's pleasure. His words before show as much, when in steed of making his prayer to the Almighty God, he doth curse and ban himself, if he did not that very day, take off the head of Elisha the Prophet of the Lord. In the sixteenth of the Revelation of Saint John, is is reported that a great hail did fall, every stone as big as a talent; but it is added withal, that men blasphemed God, because of the plague of the hail: for the plague thereof was exceeding great. Among heathen men, the wisest have herein foully fallen, being dejected to desperation, upon every great occurrent. I would pray to the God's for these things, saith Tully, ad Quintum Fratrem, but that the God's have given over to hear anything of my prayers. Among the old Roman historians which have written, who was wiser then Cornelius Tacitus? men do now study him for policy. Yet in the first of his history, recounting those great grievances, which befell Rome by the civil wars, under Galba and Vitellius, he useth this desperate speech: Never by greater slaughters on the Roman people, or by more just judgments was it approved unto us, that the God's do not at all respect our safety and security, but to take vengeance on us they are ready enough. Here policy hath forgotten the very first grounds of piety, which are patience and humility. Liuie a grave writer although otherwise superstitious enough, as appeareth by his Prodigia, and yearly monsters, yet tasteth of these dregs, when in his fourth book he writeth thus: Here followeth a year, which for slaughters and civil uproars, and famine was very famous. Only foreign war was wanting, wherewithal if our state had been laded, things could hardly have been stayed by the help of all the God's, but that they had run to ruin.

9. Thus the wisdom of this world, is nothing else but foolishness, nothing but doting folly, when it cometh indeed to the cross, or to the fiery trial. The knowledge of God is wanting, or at least the laying hold aright by faith is wanting. And where faith is not to be found, there is neither hope nor patience, which are two infallible notes of a just and Christian man. There is nothing saith Saint Cyprian, which putteth more difference between the just and the unjust, then this, that the evil man in his adversity, doth complain and impatiently blaspheme, but the good doth suffer quietly. The just hath trust in his Savior, but the other hath no part in him. What marvel then is it, if the wicked do fret and rage without comfort, since he hath no share in him, who is the God of comfort? What marvel is it, if he perish? Plutarch telleth that this is the quality of Tigres, that if drums or tabours sound about them, they will grow mad, and then they tear their own flesh, and rent themselves in pieces. If the unbelieving reprobate do hear the noise of affliction, he is ready to rent himself: but by cursing and by swearing, he will tear the body of Christ from top to toe in pieces. As Jonah did remember God; so the reprobate will not forget him; but it is not to pray unto him; not to believe upon him, for he harh not so much grace, but to ban him and blaspheme him I could wish that such profaneness as this, might never be heard off, in earnest or in play, in the life or death of any man. We should think of him with a reverence, we should mind him with a fear; in prosperity with a trembling, in adversity with a hope. There should be no fretting against his providence, no grudging against his punishment. When my soul did faint within me, I remembered the Lord saith Jonah, I remembered him to beseech him, I remembered him to entreat him, I remembered him to embrace him, to trust in him as a deliverer, to believe in him as a father. I called to him and doubted not: and he afterward heard my voice.

10 Saint Jerome doth give this note upon this place, taking it out of the Septuagint. That because he thought upon the Lord, when his soul did faint, and he was ready to die, we by his example, should above all things mind our maker, when we are in the fits and pangs of death. A very needful doctrine, if anything may be needful; that when we must dislodge, and be removed hence, when our glass is so far run, that immediately a change must follow, and that not to a trifle, or toye, which is to be contemned, but either to heaven or hell, either to perpetual joy, or to everlasting torment; we have him in our meditations, who is to see our judge, who is to scan our actions, and to peruse our conscience, and give the last sentence on us: that then with our best remembrance we think upon his mercy, and contemplate on his great love, in the redemption of his son, and desire him for his bloods sake, to take us into his favor. That this lesson might the better be taught unto us, Jesus the son of God, and fore-runner of our faith, when he was ready to yield up his spirit, did commend his unspotted soul, to his most righteous father. Father into thy hands I commend my spirit. Good Stephen the eldest martyr, did tread these steps right after him, when at the time of his death he cried, Lord Jesus receive my spirit. And every Christian man should struggle and strive to do so; to shake off as much as may be, the heaviness of his sickness, and as having that one prize, that last great prize to play, should stir up his spirit in him, and should then pray to God to comfort him, to conduct him unto heaven, to lead him along to glory. It is a good thing to live well; but because death is the up-shot, which maketh or marreth the rest, it is the best thing to die well. He who hath begun aright, hath half that whereat he aimeth; but to begin is our hurt (it shall be a witness against our conscience) unless we do persevere. The man who shall be blessed, must continue to the ende.

11 Then may the dangerous state of such, be justly deplored, who in their life time have so fondly doated upon the world, that when death which is God's baylife, doth summon them to appear before the judgment seat, they do least of all other things know, wherewith he should be furnished, who cometh there: but as before in the time of their health, so in their despaired sickness, do think only upon their Mammon, admiring it and embracing it, and kissing it in their thought, as if they were wedded to it. But neither of themselves, nor by the instigation of the Minister (who is a remembrancer for the Lord) can they be any way urged, to speak of celestial things, to call on God for mercy, or to profess their faith, and confidence in their Savior. And this worldly imagination, first ministereth hope of life, they not dreaming that death will take them, till on the sudden both body and soul, do eternally die together. Next if they do conceive, that it must be so, and there is no way with them but the grave, then is their heart oppressed with sorrow, and a huge weight of grief, that there must be a separation, from their beloved treasure. And lastly if their memory do serve, there must be an unsettled and unresolved disposing, with disquietness and much vexing, of that which hath been ill gotten, to this child or to that friend, and much stir there must be about the pomp of a funeral: by which means all good motions are so stifled and choked, that there is scant one word of him, who made all and must judge all. See what it is, in our life time to thirst after this trash, to repose our full contentment and blessedness in this dross. When the heart should be lifted up to celestial contemplation, this hangeth so about it, that it cannot but lie groveling, upon the the rotten ground.

12 Vain glory, or any sinister passion which doth possess the mind, hath the same effect; and so hath ignorance of the true God; which ignorance and vain glory, as I suppose were the reasons, wherefor Titus the Romaine Emperor (who was among the heathen a mirror of men) was so loath to depart from this earth; when knowing that he must die, being carried as he was in his horse-litter, he looketh up toward heaven, & most bitterly maketh complaint, that his life should so be taken away, from him, not deserving so ill. How vain are all the shows of virtue, without the knowledge of Christ Jesus? Yet the end of Saint Ambrose, was in a more holy manner, when he being spoke unto by his friends, to pray that yet he might not die, made his answer as he lay, at the very door of death, I have not lived so ill among you, that I am ashamed to live any longer: neither am I afraid to die because we have a good Lord, upon whom he then did trust. There can be no better meditation, to any man at that time of departure, then to think on that good Lord. It causeth a willing and safe leaving of this world; a perfecting and completing of all, that hath been here begun; which is more to be desired, then all the land or treasure, which ever the Sun did see. When the time of receiving the reward cometh, it is good to be ready. It is best to be advised of our standing, but most of all of our falling. He that for a long time runneth nimbly, but stumbleth immediately before the mark, hath lost his former labor, and is deprived of the price. If at any time, then at that time, when our soul doth faint within us, and is leaving her habitation, together with our Prophet, let us think upon our God. Now let us come to the next circumstance, and that is how he did speed.

13 Jonah in great misery, and expectation of his end, hath his mind upon his master, & with faith he remembered him, and he remembered him to pray to him. Now his prayer was not unfruitful, as that which is made to idols, or unto hard hearted men, but by the favor of the Judge, it hath audience to the full. It came to God in his Temple, which is not to be intended, as taken of the heaven, the chief seat of his majesty, and residence of his power (although in general all the prayers of his elect and chosen, do ascend and go up thither) but in more special manner it is meant of the Temple, which Solomon did erect: where together with the Ark of the covenant, and the Cherubims and the mercy-seat, the presence of God's grace was in most peculiar sort. And this house was to the Jews, a visible sign and Sacrament thereof, so that according to the request which Solomon made to God, they repaired thither when anything did oppress them, as appeareth by Hezekiah, who laid open the letter of Sennacherib, in the Temple before the Lord. Yea whensoever the Israelites were in a strange land, in bondage or captivity, and called upon the Lord earnestly, they did turn themselves to that coast, which way this house did stand, as I then made plain unto you by the example of Daniel, when I handled the fourth verse of this present Chapter. Then to say no more of that point, his prayer was directed to him who sat in this Temple.

14 But observe withal, with what reverence he speaketh here of God's house, the Temple of thy holiness, for so it is in the Hebrew, or into thy holy Temple, as we commonly do translate it. If we refer the appellation of holiness to the Lord, who is so holy as he, whose sacred goodness and sanctity, doth exceed the thought of all creatures? In Leviticus he speaketh thus, be you holy, for I the Lord your God am holy. So in Exodus it was written in that plate, which was in Aaron's forehead, Holiness to the Lord. If we take it of the Temple, this also was a holy place, consecrated unto piety, and dedicated to religion; whose inner part by an excellency, was called Sanctum Sanctorum, the holy of holies, as implying that the rest was also of good quality. From hence all profaned persons and polluted things, were precisely bid to be kept. The violating of this house did much offend the Lord, as may be seen many times in the Prophets; and Josephus is of opinion, that nothing sooner brought destruction to Jerusalem, then the execrable deeds committed in the Temple. The place was made for all kind of goodness, and devotion to the Lord; but it was so far abused, as anything which is most filthy. These are warnings to us, that since in our age Churches are as much to the Christians, as that Temple was to the Israelites, or at least they are sequestered houses, to serve God truly in, that we use them with all reverence, for his sake to whom they belong: that as we repute them, to be consecrated matters, so in truth we do use them, as God's most holy Temple. Which whether men do or no, let the chopping and the changing in symoniacall sort, the buying and the selling of these Churches as of most profane things, witness unto the world. If we should be silent, yet let the preassing in of the vilest, right Jereboam's Priests, proclaim the truth herein. Let the carelessness of those Pastors, whom God hath blessed with skill, make open declaration, who do mind that field or barn, whence corn or wool cometh to them, oftener in one month, then the pulpit in a year. They can inquire for a Curate, where one may be had best cheap, (not respecting whether he be able to teach,) or what payments be to the Prince, or impositions to the state, but how the people shall be instructed, they do not regard at all. And on the other side, let the general behavior of men throughout the land▪ speak whether those that be of the congregation, do use these houses as sanctified things or no. Look into their cold coming on the week days, in such places where Lectures are continued, their talking and gazing about, when their soul should be instructed; their reuoluing of their worldly business; their observing rather of eloquence in the minister or preacher, or in some, what may be carped at, then how their own life may be bettered, or their conscience informed; their perfunctory praying, and formal invocation of him who requireth the heart. These matters show that it is made unholy by us, which in it self is ordained to be holy. Of likelihood the temple at Jerusalem was used in another sort, when the Prophet here called it holy: otherwise he might justly have feared, that God had not been there to have heard him, when he cried out of the fishes belly.

15 But hitherto the Temple was not relinquished by him, as the later house was afterward, when a voice was heard in the night saying, Migremus hinc, let us be gone from this place; and therefore the Prophets prayer which was directed hither, found the success which it wished. It came thither to the Lord. The distance of the place, the great depth of the water, the shutting up in the whale, yea the odiousness of his sin, could not detain his crying, and seeking to the Lord. He who in the fourteenth of Exodus, did hear the cry of Moses, although never a word were uttered, and he who heard Hannas prayer, when her lips only did move, and no word was spoken out, did attend Jonah when he besought him with faith, and implored his gracious goodness over him. He hath bid us call upon him in the day, that is, in every day of trouble, and he hath said that he will hear. It is he who never failed any of those who seek to him. As in all other matters, so in this he hath a prerogative above all other: he can hear, and he will hear. Heathenish God's are but delusions, and imaginary toys; he who prayeth to them prayeth to nothing. Baal may be jested at, as sleeping or being busy. Idols are but dead stocks; they cannot move themselves, and therefore not help themselves, much less those that pray to them. Yet a man exceedeth all these, if they were in number ten thousand: although oftentimes he debaseth himself, as a servant unto these. But how short of God doth this man come? This will not if he could: another could if he would: a third both could and would, but is absent, and therefore ignorant what it is that is begged of him. The power of all is so limited, that the greatest cannot grant the tenth thing which is asked, and either themselves do confess this, or use base shifts to cover it. And how hardly do men part with that which is in their power? As Seneca writeth, on a time a Cynike Philosopher asked a talent of Antigonus, who would gladly have been reputed a bountiful Prince. His answer was, that a talent was too much for a Cynike to receive. Then the other asked him a penny. That saith he is too little for a king as I am to give. How oft soever such answers be given from men, they do never come from God. He giveth without reproaching; he heareth without delaying. But we must ask that which is lawful, and we must ask in faith, and we shall not have a denial.

16 It pleaseth him to yield so much unto our prayer, appointing that as the instrument whereby we do approach him. And indeed it is a good means to come into his presence. For prayer is so piercing, that it will get to the seat of God, through the very heavens and clouds. It is winged and ascendeth upward, being made light by the heat of fiery pure devotion. The wind is not so quick: the lightning is not so nimble, which goeth from East to West, as this is in his passage. In a moment it ascendeth from our tongs to God's ears. His eyes see our eyes weeping: he well conceiveth our groans; he well understandeth our sighs. If heaviness do oppress us, and sorrow weigh us down, yet if our knees be bent unto him, or our hands held up on high, or our breasts be beaten before him, or our cheeks bedewed with tears, we shall be eased from all. Then this is the only remedy, in agonies and in anguishes, for the afflicted soul to seek to. It hasteneth to and fro, and never returneth empty. Our sinning and suffering Prophet, this drowning and dying Jonah, did cry f • om the middle of the whale, from the bottom of the sea, from the very belly of hell, and as he said before, so here again he professeth it, the Lord did hear his voice: his prayer came to God's temple. Now you have heard what he did, and how likewise he sped. Let us here come to the second part, which noteth some other persons, whose words and deeds are otherwise.

17 These words do imply a kind of Antithesis, or contrary [ 2] success, between him before mentioned, and those who do now follow: as if he should say, I scant looked for mercy, and yet I did find it; I prayed and was heard: but these might receive mercy, and themselves do forsake it. These are such which observe, or keep, or wait upon lying vanity instead of truth, not ignorantly falling into it, but willfully pursuing it. Such as set their whole labor on that which is but error, and make a study of it. Now those who with such egernesse do follow wrong paths, the farther they go on, the more they go astray. They bend indeed all their diligence to somewhat, but it is to lying vanity: under which name, the Scripture doth comprehend all things, which are besides piety, and the true service of God. I have hated them saith David, who give themselves to deceitful vanities. And in another place: Trust not in oppression and robbery, be not vain. God's Spirit doth account everything to be but vain, and lying, and deceitful, which cannot endure the trial, which faileth us and falleth from us, and when we most trust to it, is least able to do us good. Such are all earthly things, without the grace of God being joined to them; as riches which are so much desired, and honor which is so hotly sought, or beauty, or strength, or friends, which help not in that day, when judgment or vengeance cometh.

18 Such are all the inventions, and devised figments of men, superstitions and false religions, Pharisaical observations, papistical dreams and fancies, for whose sake, whosoever will leave the true prescript of God's word, he may be said to forsake the fountain of living water, and dignity unto himself broken pits. He may be said to have turned from the Lord who is only truth, and to have embraced falsehood; to have refused grace, and forsaken his own mercy. For where as God hath promised to be merciful to all such, who serve him as he hath taught, by their neglecting of true devotion, they also neglect that mercy, which was offered to them before. So they make themselves unworthy of remission and pardoning of their sins. And in this case, the end doth prove heavy, like to that rule of Aristotle, where he saith that it must needs be in progress of time, that of counterfeited good things, should grow that which is truly evil. That wherein Zedekiah trusted was but a lying vanity, and had a doleful issue, when (as Josephus did well gather) he thought that the two Prophets Ezekiel and Jeremiah, had spoken contrary things, & therefore that the Lord had not at all sent them. The reason was, for that the one foretold that he should be led to Babylon, and the other had foresaid, that he never should see Babylon. Whereas both these things were true; for his eyes were first put out, and then he was carried prisoner thither. The heretical understanding of Scripture is of this kind, being nothing else but a lying vanity: and so is the feigning of that to be Scripture, which is not written by God's Spirit, and the grounding thereupon of such positions, as touch piety and salvation. But because the consideration of this doctrine is very ample, and good fruit is herein to be found, let us see some few examples of such, as have or do so fall away from their mercy.

19 First our old parents in Paradise, did observe lying vanity. God had expressly forbidden unto them, the touching of the tree of good and evil. All other but none of that. Satan cometh with his temptation, and suggesteth another matter, and that was this, as Chrysostom writeth upon Genesis: What profit is it to be in Paradise, and not to enjoy such things as are in it? Nay therefore your grief is the greater, that see these things you may, but use them you may not. Or as Agustine turning it another way, supposeth thus. God saith, do not touch it: what? This tree. And what I pray you is this tree? if it be good, why may not I touch it? if it be bad what doth it in Paradise? There is no hurt in the tree; but God in his spiteful mood, is loath that you should be graced so far forth as himself. You shall be God's if you do it, and able to discern good and evil. Thus was a lie inculcated instead of a simple truth, and Adam was induced to hearken to the vanity of the deceiving serpent, whereby he lost that mercy, which the Lord had appointed over him, and plucked on himself and his posterity after him, that misery, that body and soul forever had jointly perished by it, if our Savior in compassion had not made restitution. Other by his example may take heed and warning also, what that thing shall be, whereunto they presume to trust.

20 Secondly, idolatrous persons do come within this cōpass, [ 2] who declining once from him, who is the only Lord, do multiply to themselves filthy abominations, and therein are so obsequious, and scrupulous every way, that true piety doth not come near them, in accomplishing that duty which appertaineth to it. When Balaam would curse the Israelites, he goeth from place to place, imagining as dicers do, that one standing room was more fortunate for his purpose, or lucky then another. But in every place he must have seven altars to be erected, and seven bullocks, and seven rams to be offered on them. He held this number of seven to besom holy number, & therefore would not break it. How did they tie themselves to idolatrous observations, who had their idols standing under every green tree? Or those of whom Saint Agustine speaketh, who had for everything a peculiar God or Goddess. When the corn was in the barn, they had a Goddess for that, and when it was in the earth, they had another for that, & when it began to blade, and when it began to ear, Tutelina, and Segetia, and Patulina, and Volutina, and how many I cannot tell. How careful think you were they, to watch when the times did come, to offer sacrifice unto everyone of them in his kind? How laborious is their folly who live in Scandinauia, in Biarmia or Scricfinnia, which are Northern parts of Europe beyond Sweden, who as Olaus Magnus reporteth, do mark every morning what living thing they do first see, in the air or earth or water, and all that day until the evening, they adore that creature for a God, be it bird or beast or fish, yea or creeping thing, as a worm. Jehoiakim who is mentioned in the book of the Chronicles, did much dote on his idols, when he had found on him being dead, marks and prints in his flesh, which were made for their sakes, (for so the story is expounded. ) So Licinius was fond upon his God's, whom he did serve many ways; yea and upon occasions used to change them also, as he did when he fought against blessed Constantine. But no man more then Julian, who did honor unto his Idols, with such and so many sacrifices, as were against human nature, and decorum in a man, as we find in the Ecclesiastical stories. Now see what can be more vain, then stocks and stones, & imaginary supposed powers as these were: what could be more lying, and more fraudulent, then such fond God's as these? And they who wholly intend such toys, have renounced the true service of the Lord, who is jealous of his honor, and will not have any creature rob him of his glory; but such vain toys least of all. From this text, they may fear judgment, who wait on he Saints and she Saints, and serve God and the Virgin Marie, with so many Pater Nosters, and so many Ave Marias, and Credoes, upon their beads. All these are without the warrant of God's book, and therefore lying vanities: yet how careful are superstitious persons to number them, and accompt them, and keep true reckoning of them, as if therein lay all the virtue.

[ 3] 21 Thirdly they are noted here, who make an occupation of trying tricks and conclusions, some wanton and some worse. I speak not against good learning, nor any honest experiment in it, but rather against such lies as Albertus and Bartholomaeus Anglicus De proprietatibus rerum, and other of that stamp, do suggest to idle heads, and young men which are too credulous. Take the liver or some other part of this bird or that beast, such a stone, or such an herb, at such a time of the Moon, and you shall do this or that; imagine, go invisibly, or understand birds languages, or obtain some evil purpose. If anything be a vanity, this is a lying vanity, and a mis-spending of that time, which God hath given unto us, not to abuse, but to serve him; and he will require a reckoning of it at our hands, when we do least think upon it. There fall within this number, the ancient Aruspicia and Auguria of the Romans, that is, the marking of the flights of birds, or of the entrails of beasts, or other things of that quality, all which are foolish vanity; and yet much time was spent in them, and some made profession to be very skillful about them. The wisest among the heathens, although they did not know God, yet held these things for cousinage. It is a renowned speech which is fathered upon Cato, that he would say, that he wondered very much, how one of their Aruspices could forbear to laugh, when he met with any of his fellows, to see how they deceived men, and made a great number of simple ones in the city. Saint Agustine thought another matter, fit to be recorded of that Cato, and that was this, that when one asked counsel of him in sober earnest, what harm he supposed was aboded him, because rats had eat his hose; he answered that party with a jest, that it was no very strange thing to see that, but it had been much more marvelous, if his hose had eat up the rats. In Tullius disputation concerning such arguments, when one to enforce the verity of Diuination, had said that a victory which fell to the Thebanes, was foreshowed by some extraordinary crowing of Cockes, Tully could answer that with a smooth flowte, but very significant, that it was no miracle that Cockes should crow, but if fishes had done it, that had been strange indeed. Those Ethniks could see that these things were falsehood, and exceeding lying vanities, worthy to be but laughed at; yet how did some of their greatest men attend and wait upon them? I may call these foolish Arts, for I think that they come not so far, as curious crafts extend, which are named in the Acts of the Apostles. But to speak mine opinion, I imagine that figure-casting for such things as are lost, or to judge of Natiuities, is fully within that kind, and is a lying vanity, as that which is most lying. Yet although by the Prophets it be sharply rebuked, although condemned by Philosophers, although ill spoken of by Historians, although by good laws forbidden, in well governed common wealths, although no Principle therein have approved verity, neither may there be any good argument or conclusion made for it, yet how do some wait upon it, and in no sort will go from it? Of whom I may also say, as Cato said of the Aruspices, that I marvel when they meet one another, how they can forbear to laugh to see how they get monie. From the number of these, I may not seclude superstitious observations of ominous or unfortunate things, upon which some men do so dote, that they believe such vanities, as a man should believe the Gospel. All fearful judgments sent from God, are to be regarded by us, but frivolous superstitions, and traditions from old tales, are rather to be contemned. He that observeth the wind shall not sow, and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap. Take heed of such lying vanities.

22 Fourthly, ordinary transgressions may very well be taxed hence, and adultery among other: wherein although Satan the more to inflame it, do buzz a tale into want on flesh, that great men have sinned so; that God will not call such natural faults as those be to reckoning; that there is time enough to repent in old age; and it is best in the mean while to satisfy concupiscence: yet when these things come to be weighed in the balance of God's justice, they prove both light and lying. For the wrath of the Lord is oftentimes kindled against such willful crimes; and he hath threatened, that whore mongers shall be shut out from the new Jerusalem. They then do forsake their own mercy, who pollute themselves in such sort, and withal are a cause for other to be filthy. Yet how some wait upon this, it is lamentable to think, seeking to hurt themselves by every kind of wantonness. Good Job in his confession, held this for a gross sin, and disclaimed it from himself, If my heart have been deceived saith he by a woman, or if I have laid wait at the door of my neighbor, observe that adulterers do wait vpō their sin, let my wife grind unto another man, and let other men bow down upon her, that is, let my wife also be false to me: for this is a wickedness and iniquity to be condemned. But many do not fear this, and so pluck God's judgment on them.

23 Fifthly, they who in desire to enrich themselves or theirs, [ 5] do set their heart upon money, and care not how they gain it, by robbery or oppression by bribery or extortion, so that it come in unto them, do wait upon lying vanity. Which may easily be gathered from the very words of David, whom I cited before, trust not in oppression nor in robbery: be not vain, or give not yourselves unto vanity, if riches increase, set not your heart upon them. If any, then this is a vain conceit to think that a man's purse is the best friend which he hath, that riches can preserve in the day of greatest trouble, that God accepteth money, that ill gotten goods can long prosper. Oftentimes money is kept to the hurt and death of the owner: and children are so far off from being blessed with goods which are ill gotten, that fretting and consuming, and a curse is joined with them. Then what folly is it to force and strain our consciences, and so to adventure on God's displeasure, and the loss of his best mercy, for the gaining of that which is but a fugitive servant, and cannot help at need? And yet it is strange to see, how the world lieth open to unlawful and filthy gain, what wringing there is from all sortes, what griping of the poor, what thirsting after gifts and hunting after rewards. Are there not which wait upon this, and make a study of it, as a man would study heaven, devising and contriving by what fine sleight and skill, this money may be soked out, and this cheat may be gotten, and that gift may be had? and then like to the hypocrite, whereof Zechariah speaketh in his time, they can cry blessed be God for I am rich and live well, seeming to give the Lord thanks for that, which they have spoiled, and robbed from their brethren, whom as there the Prophet speaketh, they slay and sell for money. It is great thanks which we return to God, for the wit and reason which he hath bestowed upon us, to employ it in that sort; as to offend his divine Majesty, to abuse those with whom we live, to help our selves, (so farrefoorth as is in our own power) to infamy in this life, with all such as be virtuous, & to destruction in another. Better it is to have clean hands here with a little, then much profit by false vanity.

24 The same application may be made, concerning ambition and other sins, in all which we may take this for a warning; that our sight is so dim, and our understanding so dark, and such are the false shows of many things in this life, that we may quickly pursue a lie, in steed of truth, and vanity for sound verity, and so purchase God's wrath, unless with a single eye we look on things aright, and ever take the judgment of Scripture for our trial; and withal pray that our heart and intellectual powers, may be lightened in that behalf, that so having will and strength, by the mercy of the Lord, we may walk as we ought, and as it beseemeth our calling. And here I end. Holy Father we beseech thee to direct our steps in thy paths, that renouncing all lying vanities, we may acknowledge thee in our life time, to be the only Lord; and when our soul fainteth within us, and is departing hence, we may only think on thee, that both our present prayers, and spirits afterward may ascend into thy celestial temple, where thou raignest with thy most blessed Son, to whom with thee and thy holy Spirit be laud and praise forever.

THE XIIII. LECTURE.

I N the words before going, the Prophet doth comfort himself exceedingly, that he serveth such a master, as is best able to help him whē he most needeth, and in his Temple attended to his hearty prayer, when as his soul fainted within him; whereas all other things, be they idols or heathen God's, or any devised refuges, be nothing but lying vanity, and therefore those who wait and depend upon them, do forsake their own mercy. Where, when he had found God so eminent, and incomparably great, in comparing him with those weak ones, he esteemeth it a special point of duty, to yield to one so excellent, a high measure of praise; and most deserved thanks to him, who in extremity had so raised him from the pit. And this is the drift of this present verse, to acknowledge himself so bound and devoted to God, that all the powers of his mind, and faculties of his soul, should be employed in his service. A conclusion well beseeming him who had received such favor, that he would not as beasts, or as unthankfull persons do, only take that which doth come, and make no more adoo; but with a respect unto the giver, who beyond all expectation had raised him and relieved him, would record it, and repeat it, and in his best meditation, again and again reuolue it, as not knowing how to return enough, for God's great mercy.

2 But in the mean while, the words which he useth are various and significant. He doth mention thanksgiving, which declareth his grateful mind: and the better to express it, he nameth the voice of thanksgiving, as intending, that he would advance the honor of him who saved him, not in secret only, but with manifest declaration to others: and to both these he doth ad the act of offering sacrifice, applying that to his thanks, which was the most solemn service, used in old time to God. Neither doth he make his stand here, but whereas he had vowed some things unto the Lord, which he promised to perform, if ever he did escape, he saith he will pay those vows: and at the last for a conclusion, he shutteth up all with these words, salvation is of the Lord. Where because (as you see) the circumstances in the text are manifold, and all of them have their use, for better order of instruction, I think good to observe two things. First the duty returned by Jonah, and that consisted in a double deed, one, the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and the other, the paying of his vows. Secondly, that good which cometh from God, not only to the Prophet, but to all those who do serve him. Salvation is of the Lord. Among all which the word of sacrificing is first proposed unto us.

[ 1] 3 The only thing which God doth look for at man's hands for creating him in so goodly a shape, for enriching him with gifts, so glorious in show, so gracious in deed, for preserving him and protecting him in such infinite variety of dangerous occurrence, for heaping daily upon him such multiplied benefits, is to be served and feared by him. Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. In this, because he hath made all, he doth require all, our selves and all ours, the body and the soul, the inward and the outward, the sensible and invisible; although especially the heart and immaterial soul, yet jointly the hand, and action from without, yea and the wealth also, that every part may recommend a duty to the author. And for these external matters, he hath given unto man not only members, as in prayer his hands to be lifted up, his breast to be beaten on, his knees to be bowed, his eyes to be bedewed, that so compunction in the mind may the more be stirred up; but also his other creatures, either dum or dead things, the fruits of the earth, the birds of the air, the beasts of the field, the metals of the ground, to be used to his glory. And this in old time was done, in nothing more then in sacrifices, which was in some to consecrate and dedicate them unto him, in some other to offer them in whole or in part consumed with fire, to testify their obedience and seeking unto him. Which manner of sacrificing was known unto men from the first time of nature; as good Abel and bad Cain, the first heirs of the world, presented an oblation of such things as they had, to him who had sent them. Noah after the flood offered a sweet smelling savor, and Abraham by commandment, intended to sacrifice his only son Isaac. By all which it is evident, that sacrificing was common, before that any order for God's service was settled.

4 But when the people once were returned out of Egypt, and God by the hand of Moses had ordained a civil policy, for the government of the laity, and a Hierarchy Ecclesiastical (for so I may well call it) for guiding of his Clergy, to the end that everything afterward might be practiced with conformity, he appointed first for the Tabernacle, and after that for the Temple, a tribe of Priests & Levites, whose office was to attend to the offerings of the people. And himself did name the matter and manner of every sacrifice, what bird, or beast, daily, or on other occasion should be offered, as the whole body of the Levitical law doth make known to us. Thence grew the daily sacrifice, which never was omitted; the sin-offerings, and free-will-offerings, and many sorts besides: and when extra-ordinary cause was given, great store of beasts were slain; as when Solomon to consecrate the Temple at Jerusalem, did offer in his magnificence, two and twenty thousand Oxen, and one hundred and twenty thousand sheep, such a sacrifice as I think the like was never seen. And that time only excepted, when the Jews were captives in Babylon, or when Antiochus did tyrannize at his pleasure, the altars were still going, till the very time of Christ, and diverse years afterward, until that the city and the Temple were brought to desolation by the Romans under Titus: the Priests and people so precisely observing that, (when other sins, and dishonors to God did abound) that in the time of war and close siege, when they might not issue forth to have cattle for their offerings, they would bargain with the enemies, at high price and great rates, to serve the turn for their money, as we may read in Josephus. In such manner was the succession of sacrificing, for so many years together; God both approving it and commanding it.

5 Now these external sacrifices, as when they were rightly brought with true faith and obedience, and understanding knowledge, they had their use very good, as to thank God for his blessings, to acknowledge that all benefits were derived frō his goodness, to testify their obedience in performing his commandments; but above all to figure Jesus Christ, the true Lamb, who was one day to be offered on the altar of the cross to redeem the sins of the faithful, whereof in the mean time, their offerings were a sign and seal unto them; so if they were brought by any, as perfunctory things, formally and for a fashion, as hypocrites and worldlings did come with them, the Lord was so far off from accepting them as his service, that he hated them and detested them. In the first chapter of Isaiah, God speaketh to them by his Prophet: What have I to do with the multitude of your sacrifices, saith the Lord? I am full of the burnt offerings of Rammes, and of the fat of fed beasts, and I desire not the blood of bullocks, nor of lambes nor of goats. Bring no more oblations in vain, incense is an abominatiō unto me, I cannot suffer your new moons. Which agreed with that of Solomon: The sacrifice of the wicked, is abomination to the Lord. God then required in them, that besides the material gift, there should be a true mind to serve him; humility and lively faith, which should express and show it self, with charity and good life; and a killing of the evil affections which were in them. To which purpose the Prophet Micah most excellently doth speak, Wherewithall should I come before the Lord, or bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt-offerings, and with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of Rammes, or with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give my first borne for my transgression, even the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul ? No: he hath shown thee ô man what is good, and what the Lord requireth of thee; surely to do justly and to love mercy, and to humble thyself to walk with thy God.

6 Then it was the spiritual sacrifice, at which God chiefly did aim; the laying down of their souls on the altar of his will, the killing of evil thoughts, the mortifying of the members, the consecrating of themselves wholly unto his honor; which doctrine Paul unto the Romans doth plainly teach, where he beseecheth them by the mercies of God, to offer up their bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, that is their reasonable service of God. And this not only under the Gospel, was seen by the faithful, but was foreseen also under the Law. David can say in his fourth Psalm, Offer the sacrifices of righteousness : and in the one and fiftieth Psalm, The sacrifice of God is a troubled spirit. So Osee in his sixth Chapter, I desired mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God rather then any burnt-offerings. It seemeth also by my text, that our Prophet understood this, when he promiseth to sacrifice, but with the voice of thanksgiving, as knowing that to be it, which God indeed preferred before all things. And reason might well teach him, that it was that which the Lord meant, by the external sign; for what delight could he take in the blood of brutish creatures, a spirit in their bodies, the impassible in such savors as did arise from their altars? What need had he of an Ox, or ten Rammes of a man, who is the owner and chief Lord of all the beasts of the field, of all the birds of the air? If he but speak, they be, if he but call, they come: he made them, and he knoweth them, and hath no want at all of them. Then he respecteth the mind, and the life, and not the offering. The verity of which doctrine, is of so assured a truth, that Gentiles by the light of nature, believed it and acknowledged it, as above other, Menander the Poet in one of his Comedies, as Clemens Alexandrinus noteth in the fifth of his Stromata, where he citeth his words to this purpose: If any man offering sacrifice, a multitude of goats or bulls, or anything wrought by art, although of yuorie, gold, or pearl, do think that God will therefore be merciful unto him, he is deceived exceedingly: for the man whom God regardeth, must be good and honest, no deflowrer of women, no adulterer, thief, or murderer. And afrerward again: The just man doth every day offer sacrifice to his God, but it is not with clean clothes, but with a shining heart.

7 These are good lessons for us, who profess a service to [ 1] the highest God, that first we make no spare of external things, to honor the Lord withal, when cause shall be offered. Our cattle and our clothes, our houses and our money, yea our best and dearest friends, should be employed in good services, to the countenancing of the Minister, to the spredding of the Gospel, to the establishing of religion, to the succouring of the innocent, to the relieving of the poor. These things should be to us, as their substance was to the Jews, to bring it in sacrifice to the Highest, but especially we should consecrate our bodies to his name, our feet to approach his Courts, our ears to hear his word, our tongue to sound out his praises, our hands to fight his battles, if Antichrist should oppugn. And [ 2] secondly together with our bodies, and those things which we have, our spirit within should join, a true and entire affection, a sound and grounded love to him who is most lovely, the husband of our souls; that hypocrisy and feigned dissimulation be not in us, but truth, although in much infirmity and weakness of the flesh. And when our soul shall be devoted to him in that sort, he receiveth it, & embraceth it most kindly as his own, more respecting the mind, then any apparent thing. The two mites of the poor widow, came welcome into God's treasury, because her heart was rich, though her purse were very empty. It is recorded of Aeschines, that when he saw his fellow scholars, give great gifts to his master Socrates, he being poor, and having nothing else to bestow, did give himself to Socrates, as professing to be his in heart and good will, and wholly at his devotion. And the Philosopher took this most kindly, esteeming it above all other presents, and returned him love accordingly. The gracious disposition of our eternal father, taketh in far better part, then any man can take it, the laying down of our souls, and prostrating of our selves to the fulfilling of his will. He accounteth that the best sacrifice, because it is spiritual. External things do well, but inward gifts do better. I have noted this unto you, from out of the word of sacrificing, where the Prophet doth not stay, but particularizeth specially, what it is that he will offer.

8 This voice doth imply an open and manifest declaration of the mercies of the Lord, that he meant not to conceal his willful disobedience, nor his punishment for the same, but every man should know, how he had been in the sea, fast closed up in the whale, in pangs of death and extremity, and yet the Lord had brought his soul out of the pit. He thought it not enough to ruminate in his own mind, and chew upon this mercy, but others shall be advertised of it, that so by his example, they may learn to know their Creator, they may learn to dread their maker. This was a custom of David, who upon great things obtained, doth use to make solemn professiō, that he will praise his God in the great congregation. It is but a small thing to think it, but he will speak of God's glory. And thus everyone should do, yielding unto the world a testimony of his faith, and honor unto him, whom he chiefly doth honor, that such as yet are not called, by that means may be provoked, to hearken to true religion, pricked forward by that comfort, which they see in God's children. The speech of Miltiades which was in the mouth of every man, and his victorious acts, set Themistocles on fire to attempt to do the like. The fame that was of Alexander, gave heart to Julius Caesar, to become the more noble warrior. And shall not our speaking of God, & the reporting of his acts, his justice in correcting, his mercy in defending, his providence in disposing, his willingness in redeeming, his readiness in forgiving, uttered by Christian mē, incite others to be Christians? God did know that, to be a great means of bringing mē unto him, whē he gave charge, that the Israelites should recount unto their children, his glorious facts, and the works which he had shown in Egypt. It is a fault in our days, that parents are not careful to instill into their children, the remembrance of such things as they have read, or known to come obseruably from the Almighty. It is a fault in others, that if they come in place where religion is not respected, as among Papists or Atheists, they think best to conceal the profession of true piety, lest they should be scorned, or derided, or pointed at with the finger: and so by a policy stopping the course of their zeal, in time they quench their zeal, and make themselves as key-cold as those with whom they do live. They should discharge a good conscience, by acknowledging of their hope, & peradventure they might by the blessing of the Lord, draw on other which were backward before: for the heart of him who heareth, is not in the power of himself, but God doth rule & guide it, & the means whereby he worketh is the hearing of good things. Let the voice then go to serve the Lord, and let him bless and prosper it, as seemeth good to himself. But thou hast discharged thy duty: he hath given thee a tongue to praise him, and with it thou doest honor him.

9 The voice of Jonah goeth, and it is in giving thanks, unto which the name of sacrifice is oft given in the Psalms, as namely in the fiftieth, Offer to God praise or thanksgiving ; where the word offer, doth plainly import a sacrifice. And in the hundred and seventh Psalm, Let them offer sacrifices of praise, and declare his works with rejoicing. This gratefulness is marvelously acceptable to the Lord, when he bestoweth not his benefits as upon the ox or asse, who have them and forget them, but on those, which are mindful who is the author of them. And that is the sole reward, and only retribution which we can render to him, and if he have not that, then he reapeth nothing for all his blessings: but if he may have that, many good things of necessity will be joined therewithal. Therefore he straightly requireth it, of all that belong unto him. In the eighth Chapter of Deuteronomy, he speaketh thus to the Israelites, When being come into the land of Canaan, thou hast eaten and filled thyself, thou shalt bless the Lord thy God, for the good land which he hath given unto thee. In the thirtieth of Jeremiah, he saith in this manner, Thus saith the Lord, Behold I will bring again the captivity of Jacob's tents, and have compassion on his dwelling places, and the city shall be built upon her own heap, and the palace shall remain after the manner thereof. But immediately he addeth: And out of them shall proceed thanksgiving, and the voice of them that are joyous. The precepts are diverse, which be in the New Testament to this purpose. Let there be in you no filthiness, neither foolish talking, nor jesting, but rather giving of thanks, And again, What soever you shall do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God even the father by him. The Patriarchs and the Prophets, and the faithful of all times, had ever this in their memory. How did Moses and the people, with timbrels and with dances, sing and rejoice to God, when Pharaoh and his chariots were drowned in the red sea? How did Barack and Deborah sing, upon the fall of Sisara? There is no end of examples, what hath been done in this case: but the rule may generally be given, so many as have been faithful, so many have been thankful.

10 It causeth a continuance of the love of God unto men, and an adding of further graces, when he seeth them to be mindful of that which is bestowed. But on the other side, unthankfulness is the mean to stay his hand from bounty: for as Bernard hath well observed, he is unworthy of things to be received, who shall be unthankfull for such as he hath received. Here everyone of us may examine his own heart, whether he do rightly discharge his duty. We do all long for perpetuating and augmenting the favors of God upon us, but see whether we requite those, which are already come unto us. As Jonah was in danger to be drowned by the sea, and devoured quite by the whale, so was mankind in general (by reason of Adams transgression) even as in the pit of hell, and very jaws of Satan, apparent heirs of damnation, fuel for eternal fire, forlorn men and past hope. Yet by the death of our Savior, we were set free from all, redeemed by his body, and ransomed by his blood, admitted into the covenant, and incorporated into himself, so that now we are made free denizons of the city which is above. What can be a greater blessing? When ignorance and barbarism were grown over the world, and the darkness of superstition, as thick as that of Egypt, had possessed the show of all Christendom, that main Antichrist dominering and triumphing at his pleasure, so that few were to be found, without the mark of the beast, God did dispel that darkness, by sending us light from heaven; and causing the Sun of righteousness to shine out by his word, he cleared that filthy mist, that the nations of the earth, may now fully behold the purity of the Gospel. That which was denied to great ones, hath been revealed to us. As Moses had more liberty to see the Lord, then the people had, so we see more then our ancestors. But what thanks do we yield for that celestial comfort? Do we magnify his mighty name, and sing and speak out the honor of him, who hath done such things for men? Where is that Glory to God on high, and blessed be our strong Redeemer?

11 We who live in this land, have sat as at the well head, for many years together. We have had a most gracious Princesse, a mother to our country, and a nource unto God's Church; under the shadow of whose wings, next after the eternal Lord, we have enjoyed much peace, prosperity and abundance. Our neighbors who groan under the burden of heaviness and oppression, of persecution and civil wars, do very much admire it. Learning hath flourished with us, and manual arts increased; nauigation hath been advanced, and traffic entered with many, to the enriching of our people, and the honor of our nation. I doubt that we are not so thankful, as all this hath deserved. Yea it hath come so fast on us, and continued without interruption, that our hearts are fatted with it, and we as full and glutted have fallen a sleep in security, so that we understand not the sweet things which are on us; much less do we with heart and soul, and all the powers which are in us, extol the author, who hath done such things for us. Conspiracies have been made, to deprive our land of her governess, and to bring it into the thralldom of a proud and bloody nation; yet by the Lord's strong providence, they all have been prevented. The great fleet which meant to have made such havoc, hath been confounded: when men did not much to help us, the winds and waves did fight for us. Truth it is, that as the Romans did give thanks to their God's, when Hannibal was removed, who had oppressed and troubled Italy, for sixteen years together, so by the highest authority, in the most famous place of our land, and by the noblest persons, and in most solemn manner, God's praise was sounded forth, which was a most holy action, and worthy of a Christian kingdom: but see whether since that time, the common sort of men do study to remember it. Our thoughts within are so curious, and our ears without are so itching, that we loath to hear the Preacher to name this in the pulpit: we imagine that this never cometh, but for want of other matter, being a crambe, oftentimes sodde. It seemeth that we are little moved, whē we think so lightly of that, which to the natural inhabitants of this land, was so great a deliverance as our eyes never saw. We have reason to fear, that God lately hath brought the same enemy so near our land, to quicken us and to stir us, to a remembrance of the former mercy, by shaking his rod over the sea unto us. The acts which God did in Egypt (of the which I spake before) and his victories by the conduct of Joshua, were commanded to be proclaimed to all succeeding ages, and were bidden to be spoken off. I do marvel why no man in that time objected; What shall we never have done of hearing these old matters? No, their thankful mind did use it otherwise, and recorded that matter, and recounted it as the fairest flour in their garland, and their honor with all the earth. We should make such reckoning of all God's mercies towards us, but most of all of the greatest. The enjoying of apparent good things, or the escaping of fearful and dreadful evils, doth deserve thanksgiving with us. Jonah had felt the bitterness, being in hazard of destruction of body and soul together: but by compassion of his master, he is like to pass through this danger; and therefore he maketh a promise, that he will sacrifice to the Highest in spiritual manner, by giving him praise and glory. And thus you have the first point of that which he undertook: now let us come to the second.

12 The making of vows, was a solemn custom among the children of Israel, that when any good thing was granted unto them, but especially if they earnestly desired to have anything, they would bind themselves by promise, or peradventure by an oath to be kept without violating, that this they would perform, or that they would abstain from, as it might be, drink no wine, or not cut their hair, as the use of the Nazarites was, or dedicate their children to an attendance in God's tabernacle, or offer such and such offerings. Wherein the care of those who were faithful, was first that they vowed nothing but that which was lawful, and secondly that they performed the thing which they vowed. So the Israelites did vow, that if the Lord would give them victory, they would raze down and destroy the cities of Canaan. A matter which was lawful, nay which God required of them. Barren Hanna did vow, that if the Lord would so respect her, as to send her a son, she would give him to God all the days of his life. She spake it, and she performed it in Samuel her child. Thou shalt render thy vows, saith Eliphaz to Job. My vows will I perform before all that do fear him, saith David of himself. They knew that God did expect it, & precisely had enjoined it by a special law. It is a peremptory place, in the three and twentieth of Deuteronomy, When thou shalt vow a vow unto the Lord thy God, thou shalt not be slack to pay it; for the Lord thy God will surely require it of thee, and it should be sin unto thee, he meaneth if thou perform it not, but when thou abstainest from vowing, it shall be no sin unto thee. He would not have men bear themselves so carelessly toward him, as foolishly to promise, and falsely to break promise.

13 This made men under the law, to be very well advised, what it was whereunto they tied themselves by vow, that what they undertook should still be to God's glory: and withal their promise was for such things, as should be in their power to perform, if the Lord did continue his ordinary blessings over them: And these were rather praises & thanksgivings to the Almighty, (indeed perhaps in the open Temple, or great public congregation) then any material gifts, although those also were not wanting. David's Psalms do make that plain; for wheresoever he speaketh of vows, there commonly he joineth praises to them: and in my text, thanksgiving and vows, are coupled together by Jonah, as noting that the one hath a reference to the other. And I doubt not but we may make such vows in sobriety, in knowledge and in faith, to bind our selves to God, and seal it as with a covenant, that we will serve his Majesty, while we live here in this world; that we will give among profane persons, a good testification of his honor; that we will sing Psalms unto him; that we will teach our children religion and true faith: yea further in particular, that if God would give us leave, we which be of the ministry, will look carefully to our charge, and will be diligent in the word: if the Lord send no great let, will preach at least every Sabaoth; or if we have not that strength, once or twice in a month: which task if we do enjoin our selves, and use the ordinary means of reading and of study, and pray to God to assist us, his Spirit will aid us more, then we ever did imagine. Then we do not utterly deny vows; but we willingly allow whatsoever is justifiable by the prescript of the Law and the Gospel. But because many kinds of men make question in this matter, the Papists for their votaries, other men for other causes, I think it not amiss to limit this whole doctrine, by some Aphorisms or Positions, which shall clear the whole controversy.

14 Then the first rule maybe this: We in no case may vow evil things, that is, such as are contrary to piety toward God, or charity toward men. For these are sinful vows, and ought not to be made; in as much as it beseemeth us not, to bind two sins together: but an evil deed is the one, and swearing to perform it, is no less then another. Hence we condemn the act of them, who being angry with Paul, did bind themselves with an oath, that they would neither eat nor drink, till they had murdered Paul. A most malicious, and ungodly, and uncharitable promise: and yet there were more then forty of them, who had combined themselves together in that wickedness. And as it is a sin to make entrance into such an action, by speaking it or swearing it, so it is a greater sin to perform it being sworn. Saint Bernard hath a good saying to this purpose: Among the French men it is accounted a reproach to break an oath, although it be sworn evidently amiss: although no wise mā doth doubt that unlawful oaths are not to be kept. Within this compass such rash vows do come, which infer some evident evil, although when they were made, no such thing was intended. Of which nature that oath was, which Herod did take, when being delighted with the dancing of the daughter of Herodias, he swore that he would give her whatsoever she should ask, to the one half of his kingdom. A hasty & fond promise, as appeared by the demand made thereupon, for the head of John the Baptist; which he would never have granted, if he had not purposed to go on in his iniquity and tie two faults together. For as Origen saith disputing upon that deed, The head of John the Baptist was cut off for an oaths sake, which was rather to be broken by forswearing then to be kept. For it was not so great a fault to have made an oath hastily, as it was for a hasty oath to be the death of a Prophet. The vow which Iephthe made, to sacrifice whatsoever living thing he first met, at his return from his victory, is by this position found to be made without judgment: but his fault was the more grievous, that he observed it so precisely, as to destroy his daughter. Take heed of vowing evil things directly or by a consequent.

15 The second rule is this: that there be many good things, which all of us ought to vow, and earnestly keep, because they touch the glory of God immediately, by a duty unavoidable; as that we will serve him truly, and evermore accompt him that mighty one which is to be honored. Such was that vow of Jacob, of which Moses reporteth thus: Then Jacob vowed a vow saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this journey which I go, and will give me bread to eat, and clothes to put on: so that I come again unto my fathers house in safety, then shall the Lord be my God. The covenant of the Israelites is also of this kind, where by the motion of good Joshua, they do promise solemnly to put away their idols, and to serve the true God only. So is that promise also, of the people of Judah under king Asa, where both great and small, do enter an oath to serve Jehovah alone, the true God of all the world. Among us who are Christians, the celebration of Baptism doth include as much in it self, to which whosoever cometh (as all of us should come) doth bind himself by a vow, to renounce the pomps and vanities of this spotted filthy world, and manfully to fight against the flesh and the devil. How much do they forget this, whose whole delight is vanity, and idleness, and security, aiming at nothing more, then at voluptuous pleasure? Now when any goeth about to break such a vow as this, he maketh a separation between God and his soul, and as far as is in him, doth divorce himself from the spouse and husband of all the faithful. Do thou make these vows advisedly, and pray earnestly to God, that being made thou mayest keep them.

16 The third rule may be this: some things there be indifferent, neither in themselves good nor evil, which if a man do use, they make him not the better, and if he do refuse them, yet is he not the worse. If occasion should be offered, in devotion toward God, or in charity towards men, to promise to do such, or to abstain from the custom of them, I doubt not but we may vow. But in these we must put some limiting circumstances, as first that it be apparently for good and not for evil: Secondly that we undertake that action with great judgment, not rashly nor unadvisedly, but upon just occasion: Thirdly that we put no kind of superstition therein, as imagining that our deed should be meritorious with God: Fourthly that we be assured that it is in our power to do it: in which respect that condition is also to be put, if God will, or if the Lord do not hinder us. Within this kind I find the usage of the Rechabites, who were bound by their fathers charge (and as it seemeth they assented thereunto) that they would neither drink wine, nor sow seed, nor plant vineyard, nor dwell in any house, but only remain in tents; that so they might the better remember themselves to be strangers in the land where they inhabited; and of likelihood moreover, that they were but pilgrims upon the earth. And he who maketh such vows, under these fore-named conditions, is now bound to observe them, For although at the first, and in themselves they were things indifferent, yet now they are become otherwise, because an oath is passed upon them. He who was free is made bound by a voluntary offering, and therefore hath lost his liberty. Then these three positions may be gathered [ 1] thus in brief. Evil things ought not to vowed at all: and [ 2] if they be rashly spoken, yet they should not be kept. Some good things we must vow, as especially those in Baptism, and when [ 3] we have vowed, we must perform them. Other matters which are indifferent, may be vowed or not be vowed, as I have shown above by circumstances, but being once undertaken, they are not to be broken.

17 Here the pretences of Popish votaries, may be in a word examined. Their common vows are of such things, as be not absolutely evil; neither are they of such matters as being simply good, do lie upon us by a duty of necessity, but they may much rather be accounted indifferent, although by their usage of them they make them to be otherwise; they make them to be wicked. A great part of their vows, is the going to places far distant, in pilgrimage as they call it, to Rome, or to Jerusalem, or Saint James of Compostella, or to the three kings of Coleyn: their keeping of the great Jubilees; their abstaining from all flesh, and feeding rather on fish, as their Carthusian Monks do: their wearing of a hair-cloth or sack-cloth next their body, and other things of like stamp. All which as they do use them, may well be accounted in the number of those will-worships, that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , against which Saint Paul doth inveigh, and concerning which the Lord may ask, who required this at your hands ? They do fail in diverse circumstances, which should make their vows to be lawful, as first they cannot be warranted to them as assuredly holy, by faith which is grounded upon the word of God. Secondly they put a great deal of superstition in them, while they account them meritorious. Thirdly they tie themselves rather to the external thing, then to a sound reformation and bettering of the mind. It were better therefore, that such vows were omitted then made by them. Their vow of willful poverty, is a thing of their own devising. Rich Abraham, and king David, and Job with his multitude of cattle, knew how • o serve the Lord in the abundance of their riches, and did not think, that religion only was in them who begged. And although our Savior Christ and other of his Apostles, had little of their own, yet they left us no such precept, nay they rather did teach the contrary, saying that it is more blessed to give then to receive. And it is said that a Bishop (of whom it is presumed that he should be a man of religion) should be hospital, that is an entertainer of strangers, which implieth a set kind of maintenance. When the Gospel was first preached, miraculous means were used to bring men to the faith; and this was one, that God could mightily provide for those, who were the messengers of his will, and relieve them from day today, although they had nothing of their own. His purpose also was to show his power, that by means most contemptible in the eye of the world, he could settle his kingdom: and withal he would leave their wants as an example, to encourage his children in succeeding ages, that they should not be dismayed, if sometimes they were driven to penury and necessity, since his dear servants and his son were in that case before them. But these times now are past, and miracles are ceased, and such extraordinary feeding as the Apostles had, is not willfully to be sought, lest we tempt God, and live without a lawful calling. The Church now hath an established government, and therein the Ministers which are needful, are to be provided for. And the word hath enjoined this, that where spiritual things are sowed, there temporal should be reaped: as knowing that in the end of the world men's charity would wax cold, and they who lived of alms, oftentimes should have hungry bellies. The living then of their Friers in a voluntary beggary, is a worship of their own, and he who voweth thereunto, doth vow to that, wherein his conscience can never have good warrant.

18 They stand as much upon chastity, that their religions men should vow a single life; wherein although I might show by good proof from the Scripture, and from the ancient Church, that Bishops and Priests did marry, yet omitting that, I will rather speak of the quality of their vow. Virginity without controversy is an excellent gift, in him to whom the Lord doth give it. Christ himself was borne of a virgin, and did lead a virgins life, and both he and Saint Paul, have commended it unto us, that we ought to strive for it. But who is he that so far hath power of his own flesh, as that before hand he can swear, to quench the lust of concupiscence, so that it shall not burn? I suppose that no man on earth, who is in his strong age, and in good health of his body can promise that to himself: then how much less their young ones, their Novices or Nuns of lesser age, who before the time that themselves come to experience, are put into the monastaries, by their parents or their friends, or are inueigled by others to take their rules upon them: which hath been a great occasion of much vile fornication, and the killing of many infants, besides the enduring of such untamed affections, as have boiled in their bodies. It is a good lesson of Solomon, that we should not suffer our mouth to make our flesh to sin, he meaneth in vowing that which is not in our power. He had commanded before, that we should pay our vows, intending it in those things which we have promised to the Lord: but lest thereby we should take occasion, to promise anything whatsoever, he giveth a restraint down with it, that we should be advised, that we vow not that, which our flesh afterward cannot make good. For want of this wholesome caveat, they were put to much extremity, who were votaries first in monasteries, but afterward by the true light of the Gospel, did shake off the heavy yoke of Antichrist, and became great setters out of God's truth in this last age. They had entered a rash vow, in their minority and young years, which afterward they found themselves not able to perform, and therefore they did marry. Against which although our Campian and his fellows, do with open mouth most bitterly inveigh, yet they never can be able by sound truth to condemn them. Their choice was hard, that either their vow must be broken by them, or else they must bear about a daily sin in their bodies. They adventured on the lesser fault, I doubt not but asking pardon, for the rash and unadvised oath which they had taken. And God doth forgive us such things, when we call to him by repentance, as may very well be gathered from the fifth Chapter of Leviticus, where was appointed an offering, as a kind of satisfaction, for him who had vowed anything, which he afterward doth find out not to be in his powor to accomplish. Charity doth bid me think, that those fathers in the Gospel, and excellent men in the faith, did enter into wedlock, with all labor to satisfy a good conscience towards God. And therein their own hearts, might be the best witness and direction to themselves. Yet the person who hath so vowed, and in so doing hath not done well, let him fear to break that vow causeless, by a licentious liberty: and if God do give the gift of chastity, let him live in continency if he can, as otherwise for the honor given to virginity in the Scripture, so for his vows sake also. And so much I thought good to teach concerning vows, by occasion of the words of the Prophet Jonah; wherein if I have been over-long, let this excuse the matter, that this doctrine is few times handled, and now the text did minister opportunity. That second part which now followeth, I will overrun most briefly.

19 Many of the old interpreters, and Jerome among [ 2] other, not observing such a distinction, or point which ought to be in the sentence, have joined these words with the former, and so caused the sense of all to be troubled. The Hebrew hath it thus: Salvation is to the Lord, which the most careful expositors do plainly express, by Salvation is from the Lord. Tremellius doth interpret it, All manner of salvation or sauetie is to Jehovah. So that here the Prophet gathering by a constant faith, that after his great fears in the sea, and in the whale, he should be freed from all peril, and enjoy his life once again, ascribeth all to God, and with this Epiphonema maketh conclusion of his prayer, acknowledging that whatsoever came unto him well, was from the Almighty. For to whom should he impute it, but only unto him, whose inconceiuable power he had felt before, to the full: who to punish and chastise him, had the air and water at his commandment, and had for three days kept him alive in the fishes belly? Now if he should bring him to liberty, out of bondage and desolation, and should pardon his sin and transgression, he had great reason to magnify his mercy and goodness over him. Mine aid cometh not from me: I cannot help myself: it cometh not from fortune or blind chance; there is no such thing in nature; not from any lying vanity of idol or heathen God, but from the all-sufficient Lord, who can help when he pleaseth, and raise up when he lifteth: he putteth down and setteth up, he doth what himself will. If I have hope of anything, it is derived from him.

20 Yea under this general speech, he remembereth unto all, that every of their escapes from danger, are only from the Lord. If the Israelites be delivered from the bondage of the Egyptians, if David get from Saul, if Elias be freed from Jezebel, this good doth come from that father, who sitteth above in heaven. Or if any one of us, being laid for by the malice of cruel and wicked men, be not made a pray to their power, or deceiving policy, it is not of our wit, neither is any flesh our arm, but this safety is of the Lord. And if we will look higher, the delivery of our souls from the chains and bands of Satan, the saving of us from the violence of all our ghostlie enemies, the redeeming of us from sin, the incorporating of us into his own Sons body, the bringing of us to that glorious liberty of the sons of God, is the work of the Almighty. Not unto us ô Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give the glory. We may say as the Elders say, in the Revelation of John, to Christ the Lamb of God: Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof, because thou wast killed and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred and tongue and poeple and nation: and hast made us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth, nay we shall reign in the heaven. But the whole work of our ransom, only belongeth to the Trinity. As Jonah concludeth that prayer of his, which hath been so full of passion, so do I end at this time, salvation is to the Lord. Let us pray to him to bless us still, that by grace given unto us, we may be sons of adoption, and at last be brought to salvation, which himself grant unto us for his blessed Christ's sake, to both whom, with the holy Spirit, be majesty power and glory, both now and evermore. Amen.

THE XV. LECTURE.

I T is not without cause, that so oftentimes in the Scriptures, God is compared to a father, and called by that name, as Our father which art in heaven ; and, Ye shall therefore be perfect as your father which is in heaven, is perfect : And, as a father hath compassion on his children, so hath the Lord compassion on them that fear him : for he beareth a very father-like and natural affection, to all those who are chosen to be his. If they be led by weakness into diverse temptations, or by infirmity of their flesh be stained with great transgressions, he looketh angrily for a time, and with a terrible countenance severely frowneth on them; but yet in the middle of his justice, he remembereth mercy, and doth not utterly reject them, nor cast them away. It may be that he doth chastise them, with parent-like correction, according to the measure and quality of their crime; yea he layeth smart blows on them, not sparing to strike them, till he hath brought them, and depressed them to the pit of death, and entrance of the grave; but there he maketh a stay, in his kindness being satisfied with judgment, not with fury, rather topping them and shredding them with some short adversity, then plucking them up by the root. And that is the manner of severe, but yet natural parents, in restraining their children from gross & foul enormities, to bend thē not to break them: to seem more angry then indeed they be: or if they justly be displeased, to be so but for a time, giving pardon to such faults as be past, and expecting with much patience, that it may at length be better.

2 The righteous Lord of all, doth so look here upon our Prophet with a favorable eye. He had deprehended him long since, as a run-agate from his charge: he made his own mouth give sentence, that he had deserved to be drowned: he had thrown him into the water, where as if it had been, with a death upon a death, he had made a fish to devour him, and for three days space to keep him close prisoner in his belly, in all the anguish and torment that his heart could imagine. He was as though he lived not, and yet he could not die; having time enough to meditate in what misery he was, but not knowing with all the wit which was in his understanding, how to rid himself from that sorrow. But at the last, lifting up his thoughts to his Almighty maker, he flieth by faith and repentance, to the throne of grace, desiring God to pity him, and show compassion on him, that once more returning to land, he might by open obedience, make some little recompense for his former fault. And the Lord graciously respecting his earnest and hearty prayer, doth content himself with the punishment past, and with a most free favor restoreth him to liberty. As a dead man from the grave, as one buried from the sepulcher, so is this man brought forth: his prison-doors shall be opened: his fetters shall be shaken off; he shall be rid from the whale, and set on foot on the land: yea as he was a messenger before, so he shall be a messenger still, a Prophet for the Highest, to go and preach at Nineveh. My charge at this time is, to show the means of his deliverance, which is set down so briefly, and plainly in my text, that the words do neither need division, nor much interpretation, but that which shall be convenient to be touched, you shall hear of in the doctrine.

3 If otherwise we did doubt, what power and authority God hath over his creatures, yet it is assured to us in the end of the first chapter, as in that place I gathered: when the Lord had a whale as at a beck for his purpose prepared, and in a readiness to swallow up the Prophet, being thrown into the sea. And as he there used that fish for his instrument, so he might have had obsequious to him any other thing in heaven, or in the earth, or in the sea: and as he might at that time, so might he at all times. That vnrestrained prerogative in God, is once more expressed to us in the self same fish, whom after that he had caused to keep his burden in him, for so many days & hours and moments of time, as himself had appointed, now he will have him in a trice disburden his belly, and be eased of his carriage. But note with what facility he fulfilleth his designment, The Lord spake to the fish. Not the struggling of Jonah, nor his pricking of the fish within; no other receipt which should urge him to disgorge, and cast up his stomach; no violence which was offered from man or fish, or ship, or any other thing without him, did extort or force him out of his belly: but one word spoken frō God, or less then that if it might be, did bring about that which was done. Which is not to be taken after the understanding of the gross Anthropomorphites, called otherwise Audaeani, (who did attribute to God the members and body of a man) as if the Lord had used some language, or talked to the fish, as men commonly do talk each to other, for that agreeth not with his spiritual nature, his impassible and pure and divine being. God is a Spirit saith our Savior Christ. And although he assumed a voice unto him, when he was pleased to proclaim the law of the ten Commandments before the Israelites; and may do the like again when it seemeth good to himself, as when he was disposed with words uttered from heaven, to glorify his Son Christ, yet that was not of his nature, but an action of his will, wherein extraordinarily he did take to himself some means, which are besides his essence, and which are not frequent with him. But here the word of speaking, is used to notify unto us, who are of dull capacity, and love our own phrases best, that he signified and gave inkling, in some sort or other (which was easy for him to do, but not for us to conceive) to the whale, that it must perform that service. And that the Lord in such manner doth frame himself in the Scripture, unto our understanding, as a rude one to the rude, as barbarous to Barbarians, as men to little infants do stammer and talk like children, is a verity so apparent and so common an observation to those who read the Bible, that it were but lost time to handle it: and once before I have said somewhat of that matter.

4 It is a thing more worth the knowing of us, to observe his forcible power, that his saying is a doing, and his speech a commanding. In the very beginning of Genesis, God said, let there be light, that is, he did command it. The words of the tempter unto Christ were, Do thou say, or do thou speak, that these stones should be made bread, that is, as it is commonly translated do thou command. The Lord said to the fish, he laid his commandment on him; and who or what is that which can resist his will? If he bid come, all cometh: if he bid go, all goeth: the greatest is within his compass, the least is not exempted. If he will plague the Egyptians, armies of frogs, and flies, and swarms of lice shall attend him: and if on the other side he do but put up his finger, they shall all away in a moment. If he will feed the Israelites, the heaven shall give them bread, and the rock shall bring them water. For Joshua, the Sun shall stand still, and it shall fly back for Ezechiahs sake. For the passage of the children of Israel, Jordan shall part in two: and so it shall do for Elijah. And for the same Prophet, the ravens shall bring food in the morning and evening. The lions mouths shall be musled, when Daniel is among them, but they shall devour most greedily, when the wicked accusers are cast in unto them. He who hath the key of heaven, and hell, and death, to open when he pleaseth, and shut when he listeth, can so order his servants and ministers which are under him, that sometimes they shall take, and sometimes they shall loose, here punish and there save, this day sound out his justice, and the next day teach his mercy.

5 Neither was it only in the time of the Prophets and Apostles, that God had all his creatures, miraculously if need be to execute his appointment; but also since their time they give the self same assistance, although miracles be not common, as they were in former ages. Tertullian in his Apollogie, and Eusebius do witness that at the prayer of a legion of the Christians, the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, in his wars against the Germans, had his army relieved with rain, which was before in danger to perish for want of water: and they add, that at that time, certain thunderbolts did strike and beat down the enemy. In some Editions of the works of Justin Martyr, may be seen the copy of the Epistle of the Emperor himself who giveth witness thereunto. When Julian the Apostate, upon an intendment to cross the faith of Jesus Christ, had set the Jews on work, to build again the Temple at Jerusalem, as both Saint Chrysostom and Socrates write, at first an earth-quake marred their work, and afterward fire from heaven did burn and spoil their instruments and tools wherewith they wrought, so that they could not proceed. Yea something more then this is to be found in the story, of the sign of the cross appearing upon their garments. Ammianus Marcellinus who was no friend to the Christians, yet giveth testimony to some part thereof, saving that he rather supposeth that the fire issued out of the earth; which cometh all to one end. When the barbarous Northern nations did break into the bounds of the Roman Empire, in the days of Basil the Great, who lived in the time of Valens the Emperor, as Basil himself writeth, God destroyed them with fire and hail without the hand of man. And as we read in the same place of that Father, the Lord did so by the Persians attempting to do the like. But in my judgment there is no example more memorable or true, then that which fell out in our own time, after that great Massacre in France, but especially at Paris, in the year seventy and two. For at that time the whole power almost of that kingdom, being gathered together against the city Rochelle, and besieging them with extremity who defended the town, God in the time of famine and want of bread, did for some whole months together, daily cast up a kind of fish unto them, out of the sea, wherewith so many hundreds were relieved, without any labor of their own, even as the Israelites were fed with Manna, every morning while they were in the wilderness. And as all the while that the enemy was before them, this endured to their marvelous comfort, so to proclaim to the world God's providence the more, when the enemies tents were once removed, and the city was open again, this provision immediately did cease. It was a good testification, that the Lord of hosts would leave a remnant, even a seed of his faithful in that land: and although he had sealed his truth, with the blood of his other servants, yet he would not deal so with them. To the end that all might not sink in despair, he ordained that when men failed, yet the sea should be a maintainer to them.

6 There God to show his power, did fill a many with fish, and here to show his power, he did empty a fish of one, both declaring his love and greatness; which he purposing to complete, & make perfect in our Prophet, to whom I now return, not only causeth the fish to free him from his stomach, and that not in the midst of the Ocean sea, that there once again he might be shifting for his life, that is, if he could not swim, sink, and drown: but he so directeth this carier, as that he came to the shore. Of all liklyhood this was a chosen shore, where the water was so deep, as that it could bear the whale, who swimmeth not in the shallow; and yet the bank withal so low, as that with putting up his head, he might cast the prisoner to the land. When the Lord doth decree the substance of a matter, the circumstance shall not be wanting. He who made all the rest, will find a place for accomplishing of the deed. It is not much material, where or in what coast of the world the Prophet was cast on land, but Josephus saith that the report was, that this happened in Pontus Euxinus, as it is commonly called, and that it was that part of the Ocean, where he was put to shore. If it were so, then the whale did carry him a great way, from the sea towards Silicia on the south side of Natolia, or Asia the lesser, through the Hellespont, and Propontis, & all the straights near to Thrasia, and so into that Pontus Euxinus, which was a long space of way, in so short a time to be passed. But if this were so done, then the fish was as a ship, as the fleetest and swiftest ship, to convey him forward on the way; that whereas toward Nineveh the place whither he should go, the coast was East, he was brought back again to the East, on the Northside of Natolia, so much being recovered by the fish, as he was carried by the ship before toward the West. But this is only conjectural, and therefore I do not follow it.

7 Thus far the Spirit of God hath plainly said, that Jonah is gotten to the land: he is freed from the terror and imprisonment of the whale, and now he is so set at liberty, as if there had never been any such matter. Which whether we will in the figure apply to Christ, or by example to our selves, it is worthy consideration. Our Savior who is the best interpreter, and expositor of the Prophets, in the twelfth of Saint Matthew, doth compare this lying of Jonah for three days in the whale, to the burying of himself for three days in the grave. Then by the same Analogy or proportion, the restoring of Jonah from the belly of the fish, must represent Christ's resurrection. As this sinner was designed, not forever but for a time, to be kept within that ward, and when his hour was expired, his keeper might not hold him; so our Savior was shut up in the tomb, not forever, nor until the day of judgment, but a set space was appointed, wherein he was to rest, and when that was consummated, the grave could no longer hold him. It had received a burden, which it had no power to bear. It detained him for a little while, because it was his good pleasure, to be so detained there; but when he began to stir, it felt it self overcharged, and could last out no longer. And in my judgment, the Metaphor which is used here in the type, doth express this in Christ Jesus, for the Original hath it Vajake eth-Jonah, which Vajake coming of Ko with Aleph in the end, signifying Vomere, is as much as if it were said, the fish did vomit up Jonah: the quality of which word Vomite, doth imply that which I have spoken. For when the stomach of any living thing, hath received that, which either for the weakness of it self, or by reason of the strength of the meat, it hath no power to digest, it doth cast it up and vomit. The hardness for digestion, of that which is the ingredient, or the weakness of the part, receiving more then it ought, doth cause that evacuation. The case was so with death and the grave, when they received Christ.

8 It was no common meat which it had taken into it, but that which it was impossible should be concocted by it: not an ordinary man, but one who had no fellows. His body was but a bait, to entice the grave to swallow him, but underneath was the hook of eternity, and that Godhead which caught both grave and death, and made them glad to put up such a one out of their bowels. Faine they were to be rid of him, because he did ouerbeare them: The Godhead raised him up, & loosed the sorrows of death, because it was impossible that he should be holden by them. When Samson was disposed, he brake the cords and ropes wherewith he was tied: they fittered and dissolved, even as the flax which is burnt with the fire: he rent off the gates of Azzah, and posts and bars and all; and putting them on his shoulders, he carried them whither he pleased. So when Christ was disposed, be shook off the grave-clothes from him, and bore up all before him, the rock which was about him, and the stone which was upon him, resigned their strength unto him, and he cometh forth victorious, as a Champion who had slept, or a Giaunt refreshed with wine. As a tamed Lyon, he had suffered death, and Satan, and the infernal spirits, for a time to play with him, and disgrace him, and have some hand upon him: but when it seemed good unto him, he rowzed up his body, and roaring in his might, this he renteth and that he teareth, he knappeth their chains in sunder, and maketh them glad to fly; happy he who could get farthest. The whale was not so glad to part here with our Jonah, as the earth was with our Jesus. Here the drowned man is restored; there the dead man is revived, being the first fruit of the resurrection.

9 As he died so we shall dy: and as he rose again, so we also need not doubt but we shall rise again. Only he did it by his own power, but we not by our own force, but by the power of him. The head is gone before: the members shall follow after. Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and perpetual contempt. God's children shall be translated into a better state, recovering the same purity, which was given to Adam in Paradise, where he was after the image of God, in innocence and integrity. But first by death they must be beat in sunder, and knocked in pieces, that so they may be remoulded, and new cast by the workman, not only to their old figure, but to a better form in the day of the resurrection. But as their captain was, so must they first by death be dissolved and separated, that their bodies may be refined, and made a great deal better. When we pluck down a house (this is Saint Chrysostom's comparison) meaning to build it new, or repair the ruins of it, we withdraw such from the house, as inhabited it before, lest they should be soyled with the dust, or offended with the noise, and bid them for a time to rest in some other place: but when we have new trimmed and dressed it, we bring them back again to a better habitation. So God when he over-turneth the rotten room of our flesh, calleth out the soul for a little, and lodgeth it with himself, in some corner of his kingdom, but repaireth the brackes of our body, against the resurrection: and then having made it decent, yea glorions and incorruptible, he doth put the soul back again, into her acquainted mansion. He hath determined this concerning us; that dust shall recover breath, and rottenness shall have life: against all Atheists and Epicures, there shall be a resurrection. But I pursue this no farther, because in the end of the first Chapter, I handled it at large.

10 If in another sense we will turn the present example, to the benefit of our selves, this giveth great consolation to the dejected conscience, which groaneth under the weight of her sins. Such things as are written, are written for our learning. This wretched suffering man had displeased the Lord most grievously. For the heinousness of his fault, wrath was gone out against him. The Lord would not be satisfied, but with drowning and devouring, in the belly of such a monster, where the fear of death, and almost the pains of hell were upon him. The passions of his heart had been desperate and distrustful, if faith had not come to the rescue. Yet we see that he did not perish, but when his woe was passed over him, he came to good again. God did but give signification, as small a thing as might be, as if a man should nodde, or wink upon another, and his sorrows are shaked off from him: he is set alive on the land. If grief do assault our minds, that we think our hearts will break, if temptation have so rent us, that we suppose we are all to shiuers; if pangs of desperation, with remembrance of sins past, have beat faith so out of countenance, that we see no way, but our souls must be a pray to Satan, yet there is hope with God, and mercy with the Highest. He bringeth men to the door of death, but he doth not turn them in. Or he putteth them into the pit, that they are half way down to the bottom; but his hand goeth along with them, and suddenly in a trice he draweth them back again. If we be within the jaws of Satan, he putteth a gagge in his mouth, that it shall not close upon us. It is never too late for him to help, while life and soul hang together. He who bid the dust become Adam, and Adam was made of dust: he who spake to the grave, and bad Lazarus come forth from it, and Lazarus came out of the grave: he who commanded the fish to loose Jonah, and Jonah was loosed in a moment. This Lord, if he speak to hell or devil, or all the feends of darkness, they shall not dare once to touch thee, but thou shalt escape from their clutches, as a bird from the snare. How much less shall mortal man oppress thee, or triumph over thee, if it be he that doth vex thee? God doth but cast an eye upon thee, and the mist before the Sun, cannot be dispersed so suddenly, as thy sorrow and heaviness. In steed of sadness, joy and mirth shall compass thee & embrace thee. If once his refreshing spirit cast but an aspect upon thee, thou art as safe, as thyself wouldest ever desire to be. Only to win God hereunto, be thou sorry for thy transgression, and grieve at thine own iniquity. If thou have fallen with David, spare not to sing with David a Psalm of Miserere : if thou have offended with Peter, with Peter go thou forth, and cease not to weep bitterly. With Jonah pray and call, and thou shalt be delivered.

11 Look what hath been spoken hitherto, may manifestly be gathered by the plain words of my text, and therefore as you have seen, I have passed it very briefly. But pondering farther on this Scripture, and looking nearer into it, yea withal, comparing it with some things of the Gentiles, it seemeth unto me to offer a farther doctrine. For thinking with myself, how strangely those mariners, who in the Chapter before threw him into the sea, and made account they had drowned him, would look upon him, if they met him anywhere afterward, (as that was no impossible matter) maruelling how he should live whom they left in the sea, and how he should be at land whom they cast into the water, and there relinquished him remediless and past hope; I called to mind the narration of Arion in Herodotus, who being said to be thrown into the Ocean by mariners, and supposed by them to be drowned, was afterward seen at Corinth, in the court of Periander, to the great amazement of them, who before had consented to his death. And I thought of this the rather, because Saint Agustine in his first book, De ciuitate Dei, doth compare this story of Jonah, unto that of Arion, reproaching the Gentiles, that whereas they would not believe this, which was written of our Prophet, yet they would give credit to that, which their Poets and other writers reported of Arion. Whereupon conferring yet farther the likeness of these two matters, although not in every circumstance, yet in the mainest points, I could not but suspect, that the Greek tale of the one, meant the Hebrew truth of the other. And therein I imagined, that the Musician of the Gentiles, was the Israelite mentioned here, although the story were peeced up with another narration, after the custom of the Heathens, in dealing with the Scriptures. And moreover, the note of a learned interpreter writing upon this place, did further this opinion, who nameth our Jonah here Arion Christianus, the Arion of the Christians. I find also, that this report is very ancient among the Greeks, and therefore might well sort with the antiquity of the Prophet. Now, as if we will allow this to be true, it doth yield us fruitful doctrine, fit to be handled in this place, before so learned and judicious an auditory; so being otherwise, that is, untrue and false, it is also worthy of our consideration: and therefore give me leave to speak a little unto it. You shall see anon to what end.

12 Herodotus in his Clio, hath a narration to this purpose: that Arion a skillful harper, going from Greece his own country into Italy, there and in Sicilia, by the excellency of his music, had gained a great deal of money. Being now desirous with his wealth to return again to Corinth, to his old Prince Periander, he found a vessel at Tarentum, which belonged to certain ship-men of Corinth, who were returning home: and with them he agreeth for his fare. When they had him at sea, being men of ill conditions, and desirous of his money, they intended to drown him. He now in this peril, maketh request for his life: but when nothing would serve those hard-hearted persons, but that such must be his doom, he begged this favor of them, that yet before he died, he might cloth himself with his best clothes: which being done, he taketh his harp, and singing and playing to it a most melodious song, then threw himself into the sea. There a Dolphin a kind of fish, delighted as it seemeth with the music, doth undertake him, and ceased not to bear him on her back, till it landed him safe at Taenarus; whence he going to Periander the tyrant, then reigning at Corinth, so appareled as he was when he came out of the water, informeth him of all the matter, who believed it not, till at length sending for the self same mariners, who were arrived in his country, and showing them Arion (who upon the sight of him were exceedingly amazed, as indeed they had great cause) he learned that all was so. This▪ saith Herodotus is reported at Lesbos, and at Corinth; and at Taenarus there is a very great image made of brass, which is a man sitting on a Dolphin: and that image was set up there by Arion. This tale with all his circumstances, is so common among the ancient, that Pliny, and Plutarke and Ovid, and Gellius both do report it at large, and Pliny giveth other examples, that Dolphines couching down their pinnas, their sins, which as he seemeth to say go all along their backs, have carried diverse other over the water, and so saved them.

13 If I shall give my judgment concerning this, I do not at all doubt, but that it is a fable. The diversity of the report which is among the ancient, doth argue the uncertainty. For although the most record it to be one Dolphines doing, one that carried him all the while, yet Plutarke hath it otherwise, that they were diverse Dolphines which carried him in the sea, meaning belike by turns, or many at once supporting him. So they agree not in the manner. But whether it were one or many, why did not the mariners see it, that it was so strange a thing unto them, when they met him on the land? If he went above the water, they of likelihood might have spied him, and so made some shift to vnhorse him: if it were under the water, how came it about that he was not drowned in all that time? The ancient full well saw, that this was but a feigned thing. That made Soudas in Arion, to say nothing of the fish, nor his escape from drowning: although he have other things of him. Strabo in his thirteenth book, saith plainly it is a fable. The late writers think no otherwise, and hold these tales of Pliny to be but feigned matters: and they give this reason for it, because the nature of Dolphines, and of all other fishes, as also of all other creatures, is the same in our days, which it was in ages long agone: but since those ancient times, we hear not of any Dolphine, which delighted in Music, or saved any man in the sea, or carried any over the water. Besides that, Rondeletius whose work is many times joined with Gesners, denieth that a Dolphine hath any such sins, as they in old time did describe him to have, for that, saith he, there is only one in his back, and it is not all along him, which may be thought unfit to bear a man. But imagine that it were true which Pliny hath concerning them, yet his speech is, that they were brought to that custom by much practice, and feeding them with bread, which agreeth with the qualities of that strange fish Matum, which the Historian Peter Martyr reporteth to have been in the West Indies. But how could this acquaintance with men, and feeding by hand, happen to this fish of Arion, who was found at all-adventure, in the midst of the Mediterrane sea?

14 Neither doth the report at Lesbos any whit confirm this tale. For who knoweth not that every country, hath strange reports of it self, which by the common sort are reputed for great truths? If we look on our own land, how many things have been said of King Arthure, and of the Prophet Merlin, who although they may have in them some ground of truth (which I will not stand to dispute) yet questionless much vanity is mixed there withal. We need no better example, then the self same Herodotus, who although in his positive declarations, he be held a good Historian, and therefore is named by Tully Historiae pater, the father of story, yet in his by-digressions by hear-says and reports, he hath so many untruths, that by other men he is termed with a censure too too gauling, mendaciorum pater, the father of lies. That such fames have gone for currant even among Christians, the words of Paul to Timothy, and Titus may show, where he speaketh of fables and Jewish fables, and of old wives fables also. Now for the picture or image of the Dolphin, and the man sitting upon it, that doth make a great deal less: for inventions and wrong devises, are wrought as well as truths, by painters and image-makers. Saint Agustine telleth how the Gentiles reported, that Christ was a sorcerer, and that he did his works by Magicke; and because they had seen Jesus in windows, painted with Peter and Paul standing by him, they gave out that he wrote unto them, some things concerning Magicke, not knowing saith Saint Agustine, that Paul was converted to the faith, somewhat after Christ's death. But he maketh this conclusion upon them: Thus have they deserved to err, who have sought Christ and his Apostles, not in holy books but in painted walls, and windows. That which he judged in a matter of far greater importance, that I may say of this. A picture or image is not an argument of an approved truth, although Master Campian do call such in church windows, for witnesses of the verity of his cause. So the song which is now extant, and said to be Arions, is as weak a proof as any; for why might not another man, believing the tale to be true, put it out in his name? Yea peradventure if he did not believe it, as in Poets we have many speeches feigned on other men's persons. Then we may gather, that either the narration is altogether fabulous, or if he were so thrown by any into the water, that another ship intercepted him, the badge whereof was a Dolphin (as in the Acts of the Apostles, the badge of that ship wherein Paul sailed, was Castor and Pollux. ) And thereupon together with the invention of Antiquity, grew the fable, as some other have imagined.

15 To apply this somewhat nearer to my bresent purpose, and to a true use in Divinity, if there were any such matter of the Dolphin and Arion, (as I in no sort do believe it) we must hold it for a miracle wrought by the Devil, who by the Lord's permission hath false wonders of his, as God hath true of his. Christ saith that false Christ's, and false Prophets, shall show great signs and wonders, so that if it were possible, they should deceive the very elect. The beast in the Revelation, doth bring fire down from heaven. When Moses was in Egypt, the sorcerers had their sleights, wrought by the finger of Satan. Eusebius speaketh of strange deeds, done by the Devil and by Magicke. Saint Agustine in his tenth book De ciuitate Dei, doth attribute such credit to the stories of the Romans, that he thinketh that the Troiane Penates (which were a kind of images) did go from place to place: and that Tarquine with a razor, (Liuie saith it was Actius Nauius) did cut a whetstone in pieces, and other such like things named there, but he addeth that these were done, by the power of infernal spirits. So in his book De Vnitate Ecclesiae, speaking of miraculous matters, he maketh this division of them: Let these things be set aside, being either feigned inventions of lying men, or monstrous acts of cousining spirits, supposing that some strange reports, were feigned and invented by men, and some other things were indeed brought about and effected by the Devil. If we would hold this, of the Musician in Herodotus for a truth, then it teacheth us this doctrine, that as an Ape is the imitatour of man, in his acts and gestures, so is Satan the Ape of God, to follow him in his powerful works. But how far doth he come short of the original which he looketh at? He followeth him indeed, but it is non passibus aequis, with very unequal steppes. He seeth that God is mightily glorified, in doing such strange and rare deeds, as he pleaseth; and he will study to do the like, that himself also may be glorified among the sons of darkness. As the Lord shall have his Jonah to be spoken of everywhere, so he will have his Arion, both of them thrown down into the sea, and both saved by a fish.

16 Hence it is, that we have so many arguments of his suttle imitation. God hath appeared like an Angel: and Satan transformeth himself into an Angel of light. God rained stones on the enemies of Joshua, when they fled before him from the battle; and Liuie writeth of credit, that in the time of the Roman wars with Hannibal, it rained stones for two days together on the hill called Mons Albanus. So Hirtius that great welwiller of Julius Caesar, doth write that when Caesar was personally present in his wars in Africa, very stones fell on the army, as it useth to hail. God rained Manna from heaven, and fire and brimstone upon Sodom, the one to help, the other to hurt. So the stories of the Romans do mention, that it rained blood, and rained flesh, and wool too saith Orosius, in the days of the Emperor Valentinian, and milk & other such stuff: which (as the learned do gather) were of purpose caused by Satan, that supplications might be made, and sacrifices to him, as the heathen people did commonly use, in such fearful & frightful times, thinking that they had performed some devotion to some God's, when all was to the Devil. Abraham was commanded to sacrifice his son to please the Lord; Agamemnon was bid to sacrifice his daughter, to please the prince of darkness. A ram was slain for Isaac: for Iphigenia an hind. As Iephthe offered up his daughter, which was supposed by some to be a point of religion, so the Carthaginians and many other Gentiles, did offer men to their idols, upon their altars. There came from God answers, in obscure and dark causes: the Oracles of the heathen, as at Delphi and elsewhere did resemble that, when foul spirits did there give answer. The true Temple at Jerusalem, had in imitation of it, a false temple at Ephesus to Diana, and in diverse other places the like to other, as the Capitol at Rome. Aulus Gellius in reckoning up the apparel, and ceremonies of the Roman Flamen Dialis, hath many things merely taken from the high Priest of the Jews, as he may see who compareth them. Ambrose in his Commentary on the eighth Chapter to the Romans, showeth that as Christ was taken up to his Father in a cloud, so Simon Magus also to procure himself credit, did fly above in the air, which no doubt was done by the special means of the Prince of the air, who advanced such a business. This is the fraud of him, who is the fountain and wellspring, and chief Lord of all deceit. And as on the one side, by his undertaking of such actions, or semblances rather, his great vain-glory doth appear, and that the means whereby he seeketh it, is the imitation of God: so, on the other side, it is a great argument for the truth, against all Epicures, and Atheists, convincing that in the books of the Bible, there is a divine and most undoubted verity. For as counterfeits do evermore presuppose, that there be some such indeed, as whom they take on them to resemble, (as he who made show to be the son of Herod the Great, did argue that there had been such a one, who was in truth called Alexander: and in England in the days of King Henry the seventh, Perkin Warbecke, who pretended to be the Prince Edward the fifth, did manifestly declare that there had been one of that name.) And as the coyners of false money, do imply by their attempt, that some of that stamp, is good and currant in one place or other. And as Alchimistes who do labor to make gold by proiection, do intend that there is natural gold. Yea as painters howsoever they may sometimes make pictures of feigned devises, yet account their art to be a resemblance of that, which verily is, or hath been: So the manifold and laborious affected imitation, of the sacred stories, and such things as were done in them, doth give the wise and holy soul fully to understand, that the pattern which is so followed, and curiously shadowed by so many inventions, is a matter of truth, of justifiable verity, and absolutely without exception. But I urge not this any farther.

17 In the second place, if we will take the whole tale of Arion for an untruth, which it much rather doth deserve, it doth remember us of as fruitful instruction another way. And that is the wonderful suttlety of Satan, to discredit the writings of the Scriptures, as far as lieth in him. For when it should be spoken over any part of the world, that such or such a thing was done, which was true in our Prophet, if he might be able to bring another matter, like to it in resemblance, which yet in truth should be but fabulous, the first might be disgraced with the common sort of men, in comparing it with the second. Quintilian in his sixth book of the Principles of Rhetoric, going about to teach how one false thing, may be displayed and discovered with another, bringeth this for an example: When one Victoriatus had said, that in Sicily he had bought a Lamprey, which was five foot long, another called Galba did make him answer, that it was no marvel, for in that country saith he, the breed of them is commonly so large, that fishermen do use them for the lines of their angles. Here if any man had inferred, that the latter tale was certainly a lie, Galba by and by would have replied, so also is the other. The old and crafty serpent, saw this to be a good way, to bring the Scripture in doubt, by fables like to the Scripture. And this doth Justinus Martyr assign to be the reason, why so many things in the old tales, are like to the truths of the word of God. He principally insisteth in the person of Christ Jesus himself. The devils saith he being taught by the Oracles of the Prophets, many things concerning Christ who was to come, caused like things to be spread touching diverse sons of Jupiter, hoping that those who heard those monstrous trifles, would believe no more of Christ, then they did of the other. For an example he citeth that of Aesculapius, who by the Heathen was reported, to be able to cure any defect, and was held to be the son of God: which was drawn from hence, because it was fore-prophesied of Jesus, that his power should be such, as to give sight to the blind, to restore limbs to the lame, to raise up those which were dead. He reputeth this to be the work of Satan, that men might no more believe the true reports of our Savior, then the feigned things of the other.

18 If we will look on their old Poets, as well Latin as Greeks, we shall see how this purpose was pursued, in very many matters. The confusion of all things which was before the world was made, and the manner of the creation, is shadowed and pointed at, by the Chaos of Hesiodus, but most elegantly by Ovid, in the beginning of his Metamorphosis. If God have a tree of life in Paradise, whereof who so ever eateth shall not die, but by the restauratiue force thereof, shall be kept and evermore maintained in cheerfulness and fresh youth, the Poets will have Nectar and Ambrosia, which shall work with their God's the like effect. The deluge in Noah's time, is quitted among the Greeks with the deluge of Deucalion. If Noah did see things before and after the flood, they will have Ianus for him, who shall be double-faced, and look forward and backward, for the learned do suppose that Noah was meant by their Ianus. If the people do go about, to build the tower of Babel up to the heavē, so to get themselves a name, the Giants shall be said to lay Pelion upon Ossa, and Olympus on the top of both, so to pluck Jupiter out of heaven. Justin Martyr who is ancient, saith expressly that all the tale of the Giants piling up those hills, was in imitation of the story of the tower of Babel. If Lots wife for her fault be turned into a salt-stone, their Niobe for her fault, shall be turned to a stone likewise. If there be a Sampson of the Israelites exceeding for his strength, there is a Hercules among the Gentiles, who shall do as much as he. If there be hell for the damned, and heaven for those that be blessed, Virgil will have his Paradise, those Elysian fields, and tortures also for wicked ones, among the ghosts below. But if all of them should be served, as Virgil was for his labor, they would gain little by the bargain; for as he had hell from us, so the Papists to be quit with him, have Purgatory from him. And if in our Prophet here, there be anything worth the looking on, both Satan and his Poets will not be behind hand with him. If he be in the whale for three days and three nights,