1. That nothing is more unreasonable in it felf. Should not finite and fallible creatures, (as the best of men are) having erred and mistaken, if they return to fober judgment, right apprehenfions, fee their error, and disclaim what they have done amifs, humble themselves, ask God forgivenefs, and fubmit to him, and deprecate his difpleafure; fhould not fuch find mercy with infinite goodness? there is nothing more reasonable.

2. Nothing is worfe for Jonah himself, and the whole world befides him. For, what fhould become of us all, if there were no place for repentance? and for Jonah himself, how fhall he be pardoned for his prefent diftemper, if God fhould not allow place for repentance ?

3. Nothing is more unnatural, in refpect of his of fice; for by his office, he was a prophet; and, was it not his work to promote repentance and reformation among finners and fhould this be with

out effect? But,

4. Nothing worfe can be put upon God, than to be represented implacable and irreconcileable. Will he have God full of anger, and retain it for ever? Would he have God forget to be merciful?

5. And lastly, This would render men hopeless and defperate in the world. 'Tis pity, Jonah's notion fhould be true. What, no place for repentance, and repentance without effect? what, all one with the impenitent and penitent? this is the cafe; but this is not the firft diftemper that we find Jonah in.. For, if we look to Jonah, chap. I.

1. We fhall find Jonah in great refractoriness and disobedience; God fends him to Nineveh, and he goes to Tarshish, Jonah i. 3.

2. We fhall find him ftupid and fenfeless, and more blockish than the idolatrous mariners; and of them, they use to fay, None nearer death, none farther from God. These stupid persons learned this in the ftorm, to apply to their gods; and they came and awakened him with indignation, and faid unto him, What meanest thou, O fleeper? arife and call upon thy God; art thou not fenfible of the danger that thou art in? Jonah i. 5, 6.

3. We find him in a case of desperate infolency for when the mariners found out that he was to blame, (for he could not avoid telling them) they incline to compaffionate him, and rowed hard to bring the fhip to land, but he bid them throw him into the fea, verfe 12, 13. ; for we have no reason to think that this came from the greatness of his faith; for we do not read any word of his application to God, or of his prayer, till he came into the whale's belly.

Take notice here by the way, that Jonah is not wrought upon by storms and tempests, but he is affected with the fenfe of God's preservation. "Tis ingenuity, goodness, and kindness that works upon men, that effects their repentance, and brings them home to God; and this is his courfe generally. Defpifeft thou the riches of his goodness, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance, Rom. ii. 4.

But

But for all this, we find Jonah in a bad temper, Jonah iv. 9. where God asks him, if he did well to be angry; and he faid, I do well to be angry, even unto death. Here you fee he was refractory, peevish, and in a difingenuous temper. But

4. We find him in a state that is unnatural, barbarous and inhumane; for he defired the deftruction of fixfcore thousand perfons, body and foul, to fecure his credit, and reputation of being a true prophet; as you may fee by God's reafoning with him, Jonah iv. II.

5. All these his diftempers are aggravated by his late deliverance in the belly of a whale.

6. He is not overcome by the declaration of the reafon of things; no, not out of the mouth of God himself. For, God reasons with him by a gourd, which he had caused to come up as a fhelter for him; but he caused a worm to fmite it, fo that it withered. But Jonah had pity on the gourd, and he was angry for what had happened to it; and God made advantage of this, and improved it for his information Hadft thou compaffion on the gourd, for which thou didst not labour, but it rose up of itself in a night, on a fudden, and a thing of no long continuance, and should not I have compassion of such a multitude of people? Jonah iv. 10, 14.

And lastly, The story leaves him without any account of returning to himself, and to a due temper; upon which I fhall obferve this; that in high iniquities and great enormities, we should not be too forward to pass a fentence of abfolution upon high and great offenders. Not that I will deny them the benefit of repentance,

repentance, but I would not have them have the credit of it in this ftate; for it may prove but hurt◄ ful to the community, and contrary to the example of fcripture for fo we find concerning Solomon, notwithstanding fo great things are spoken of him before his idolatry, yet afterwards there is no mention of him; fo that we are left without any decla ration of his ftate God-ward. And David, after his great fin, there is never abfolute testimony given of his integrity, but with refervation. It is to the hurt of mankind, that great and enormous offenders fhould have the fentence of abfolution paffed upon them. I do not deprive any of the benefit of repentance for the fafety of their foul; but let us not talk so much of it, as to give them the credit of it; for this would be to credit their state, which we fhould not do, neither do we follow the example of fcripture therein.

Now, to make fome obfervations upon what we have been speaking.

1. Let us learn from what we have heard of Jonah, to confider, in how fad and forlorn a condition we are, if God be not with us. Let every man use Jonah as a glafs for him to fee his own foulness in: and let us examine and fee what hath been paft, and if in fome time of our life, we have not been in fuch a diftemper as Jonah here was.

2. Observe how fin multiplies, and grows upon us, if once we fall into a diftemper. Here is difobedi-' ence, and peevishness and wrathfulness, and difpleafure against God; and barbarous cruelty, and inhumanity, and cafting off the bowels of compaffion.

3. Take

I

23. Take notice from hence, of the great danger of felfishness, and ftiffly adhering to a man's own fenfe. If once we relax our felves from the rules and laws of action, and then humour ourselves, fee how we may be misguided.

4. Let this be for caution and admonition; which is a very unhappy observation, That perfons acquainted with religion, if once out of the way of reason and confcience, they prove rather more exorbitant than others; as we have fad inftances of it in fcrip ture. When David had once broken loose, we then find him idle, and from idlenefs to wantonnefs, from wantonnefs to adultery, and from adultery, to murder: we alfo find him, 2 Sam. xii. 31. practising cruelty, beyond the bounds of reason, contrary to the doctrine of religion and human nature; for had it not been enough to have fubdued the Ammonites, but he must cause them to pafs under faws and har rows of iron, and to go through the brick-kiln; things which were never commanded him to do; and man fhould never profecute revenge to the ut most. Thus we find David to do, after he had contracted the guilt of those former fins and 2 Sam. xix. 29. we find him most rash in his judgment; for a falfe accufation of Mephibofbeth, he gives his land to his fervant, and upon complaint made unto him, he faith, Trouble me no more in this matter; I have faid, thou and Ziba divide the land, Even fo, when Peter had once broken loofe and denied his mafter, he foon after adds imprecations and curfings. I do not now inftance in these failings of good men, but for our advantage; for the apostle hath told us that:

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