Miscellanies Christian and Judaical, Chapter 25
CAP. XXV. Niniuehs conuersion: Ionah 3.
THe booke of Ionah is wholly composed of wonders. Some hold Ionah to be wonderfull in his birth. As that he should be the sonne of the Sarepta widow, whom Eliah raised to life: And because the mother of the child said, Now I know that the word of God in thy mouth is true, therefore he is called Ben Amittai, the sonne of my truth: whether the story may be called Ben Amittai, or a true storie, let the reader censure, by the two townes of Sarepta and Gath-hepher. Howsoeuer Ionah was wondrous in his birth, I am sure he was wondrous in his life. A Prophet, and a runnagate, before his shipwracke, a man drowned, and yet aliue, in his shipwracke, and a Preacher of repentance, and yet a Repiner at Repentance, after. The least wonder in the booke is not the conuersion of Niniueh. It was a great wonder (as D. Kimchi saies) that Ionah was in the belly of the fish three daies and three nights and yet liued. And it was another wonder that he was not stupid but continued in his senses and intellectuals and prayed: And do but well consider it, and it will appeare almost as great a wonder, that Niniueh so great a town, so long wicked, in so short time should be conuerted. To say as Rabbi Ioshuah doth, that the men of the ship were got to Niniueh, and had told all the occurrence about Ionah, how they had throwen him ouer hatches, and yet he it was that was among them, and therefore they beleeued the sooner, as it is without Authority, so doth it lessen the wonder of the townes conuersion.
Ionah an vnknowne man, of a forraigne people, to come into so great a City with a Fourty dayes and Niniueh shall be destroyed, was strange. But for the King vponupon so short a time, to send a cryer to proclaime repentance, is as strange if not stranger. Ionah proclaimes the towne shall bee destroyed, the King (in a manner) proclaimes, the towne shall not bee destroyed, by proclaiming the meanes how to saue it, Repentance. To say as *Aben Ezra giues 2 reasons of poore force to proue, that Niniueh feared God in old time. 1 Because otherwise he would not hauehave sent his Prophet to them, and so hee lessens the wonder of Gods mercy. 2. Because wee reade not that they brake their images, therefore they had not any. How f…r the Fa… is beside the …ushion both for construction and reasō one of small skill may iudge.Aben Ezra does, that because the City is called Gnir gedholah leelohim, a great citie of God, that therfore they feared God in old time, but now in Ionahs time began to do euill, is still to lessen the wonder, about their conuersion: a stranger repentance then which the world neuer saw. The old world had a time of warning, of yeares, for Niniuehs houres, and yet eat and drunke till the flood came, and then in the flouds of many waters, Repentance and Prayers would not come neere God, Psal. 32. Faire warning had Sodome by the preaching of Lot, whose righteous soule they vexed, and would not repent, till their Hell (as it were) began from heauen, and fire and brimstone brought them to the lake of fire and brimstone: and when the wicked seed of him that derided his fathers nakednesse, perished for their naked beastlinesse, and their flames of lust brought them to flames on earth and in hell. The men of Niniueh shall rise vp in iudgement against the generation of the Iewes, and condemne them, because these at the preaching of Ionah repented, and they not for the preaching of a greater then Ionah, that was among them. When the Master of the vineyard sent his seruants, nay his owne sonne, they put him to death. In the conuersion and deliuerie of Niniueh I cannot but admire a double mercy of God, who (to vse a fathers words) sic dedit penitentibus veniam, qui sic dedit peccantibus penitentiam: who was so ready vponupon their repentance to grant them pardon, who was so ready vponupon his threatning to giuegive them repentance.
Other kind of entertainment (then Ionah had) had he, that came from Gregorie Bishop of Rome, to preach to our Realme of England. The passage of which story our countriman Bede hath fully related. That when Austen had preached the Gospell to the King, and dehorted him from his irreligious religion: your words (saith the King) are good, but I hauehave beene trained vp so in the religion I now follow, that I cannot forsake it to change for a new. This argument too many superstitious soules ground vponupon in these dayes, choosing rather to erre with Plato, then to follow the truth with another. Desiring rather to be, and being as they desire, of a false religion, then to forsake the profession of their Parents and Predecessors. Not refusing (like good fellowes) to go to hell for company, rather then to heauen alone. Such a boon companion was Rochardus king of the Phrisons: of whom it is recorded, that whereas a Bishop had perswaded him so farre towards Christianity, as that he had got him into ye water to baptize him: the king there questions, which way his forefathers went, which died vnbaptized, whether to heauen or hell? The Bishop answers, that most certainely they were gone to hell. Then will I go the same way with them (saith the wicked king) and pulls backe his foot out of the water, and would not bee baptized at all. Hoc animus meminisse horret luctu que refugit.