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 sober judgment, right apprehenfions, see their error, and disclaim what they have done amifs, humble themselves, ask God forgiveness, and fubmit to him, and deprecate his displeasure; should not fuch find mercy with infinite goodness ? there is nothing more reasonable.

2. Nothing is worse for Jonah himself, and the whole world besides him. For, what should become of us all, if there were no place for repentance? and for Jonah himself, how shall he be pardoned for his present distemper, if God should not allow place for repentance ?

3. Nothing is more unnatural, in refpect of his office; for by his office, he was a prophet; and, was it not his work to promote repentance and reformation among finners? and should this be without effect? But,

4. Nothing worse 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 desperate in the world. 'Tis pity, Jonah's notion should 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 first distemper that we find Jonah in. For, if we look to Jonah, chap. 1.

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

2. We shall find him stupid and fenfeless, and more blockish than the idolatrous mariners; and of them, they use to say, None nearer death, none farther from God. These stupid persons learned this in the storm, 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 sensible of the danger that thau 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 ship to land, but he bid them throw him into the fea, verse 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 tempefts, but he is affected with the sense 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 course generally. Defpifest 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 said, I do well to be angry, even unto death. Here you fee he was refractory, peevish, and in a disingenuous temper. But

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

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

6. He is not overcome by the declaration of the reason 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 shelter for him; but he caused a worm to smite it, so 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: Hadst thou compassion an the gourd, for which thou didst not labour, but it rose up of itself in a night, on a sudden, 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 shall observe this; that in high iniquities and great enormities, we should not be too forward to pass a fentence of absolution 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 state; for it may prove but hurtful to the community, and contrary to the example of scripture: for so we find concerning Solomon, notwithstanding fo great things are spoken of him before his idolatry, yet afterwards there is no mention of him; so that we are left without any declaration of his state God-ward. And David, after his great fin, there is never absolute teftimony given of his integrity, but with reservation. It is to the hurt of mankind, that great and enormous offenders should have the sentence of absolution passed upon them. I do not deprive any of the benefit of repentance for the safety 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 should not do, neither do we follow the example of scripture therein.

Now, to make some 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 glass for him to fee his own foulness in: and let us examine and fee what hath been past, and if in fome time of our life, we have not been in such a distemper as Jonah here was.

2. Observe how fin multiplies, and grows upon us, if once we fall into a distemper. Here is disobedience, and peevishness and wrathfulness, and displeafure against God; and barbarous cruelty, and inhu manity, and cafting off the bowels of compaffion. 3. Take

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

4. Let this be for caution and admonition; which is a very unhappy observation, That persons acquainted with religion, if once out of the way of reason and confcience, they prove rather more exorbitant than others; as we have sad instances of it in scrip ture. When David had once broken loose, we then find him idle, and from idleness to wantonness, from wantonness 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 pass under faws and har rows of iron, and to go through the brick-kiln; things which were never commanded him to do; and at man should never profecute revenge to the rut moft. Thus we find David to do, after he had contracted the guilt of those former sins : and 2 Sam. xix. 29. we find him most rash in his judgment; for a false accusation of Mephibosheth, 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 so, when Peter had once broken loose and denied his master, he foon after adds imprecations and curfings. I do not now instance in these failings of good men, but for our advantage; for the apostle hath told us that

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