prophecy is remarkable---" For the Lord faw the affliction of Ifrael very bitter; even quite fhut up and quite forfaken, and no helper to Ifrael. And the Lord faid not that he would blot out the name of Ifrael from under heaven; but he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the fon of Joath." These words may be compared with the fong of Mofes, Deut. xxxii. 26,

&c.

We cannot confider this falvation by the hand of Jeroboam but as a fign of fomething further intended in thefe words. The Lord had faid before by the prophet Ahijah, Kings, xiv. 15. "The Lord fhall fmite Ifrael as a reed is fhaken in the water, and he shall root up Ifrael out of this good land, which he gave to their fathers, and fhall fcatter them beyond the river, because they have made their groves, provoking the Lord to anger. And he fhall give Ifrael up, because of the fins of Jeroboam, who did fin, and who made Ifrael to fin. Yet (as in the forecited place) he said not that he would blot out the name of Ifrael from under heaven." God then enlarged Ifrael unto their ancient border, as a pledge that he would not blot out the name of Ifrael from under heaven. Where fhall we find a prefervation of this name fuitable to the pledge or fign given, but in the coming in of the fulness of the gentiles, together with the restoration of all the children of Abraham, when all Ifrael will be faved or restored? For we have little account of the ten tribes after the captivity. We find Jonah, then, first fpeaking relief to the corrupted houfe of Ifrael, when oppreffed, fhut up, forsaken, and helpless, and that as a fign and pledge of a future deliverance and enlargement: and then afterwards we find him preaching repentance to the most popu lous city of the gentiles then in the world. So we find Jefus preaching glad tidings "to the loft sheep of the houfe of Ifrael, to them who were fitting in darkness and in the fhadow of death, and healing all that were oppreffed of the devil,” as an evidence of his power to give repentance and the remiffion of fins to finners without difference and then after his refurrection extending that repentance and remiffion of fins univerfally to all nations, confiftent with the first gofpel promife, that "the feed of the woman would bruise the head of the ferpent," even the fon of God, who was made manifeft that he might destroy the works of the devil.

"

3. But when we confider Jonah, as preaching repentance to the Ninevites, we muft think of him as a fign: for feeing Chrift fays, he was a fign to the Ninevites, even as he himfelf was to be to that generation, and seeing we find the Nine

vites believed God, when they heard Jonah, we must confider the Ninevites as acquainted with the hiftory of Jonah's commiffion to them, which indeed could not fail to give full proof that God had fent him.

4. In this hiftory, when we view Jonah as a man, or an Ifraelite, acting according to his own temper and difpofition, we see a lively picture of that temper of mind which appeared in the felf-righteous Jews, in oppofition to the Divine grace in the gofpel. On the other hand, when we view the conduct of God towards him, and the ufe he made of him, we fee a lively fign of the freedom and extent of the Divine grace to finners, which is manifested in the gospel of Christ.

5. The account we have of Jonah in the fhip going to Tarfhifh is very particular, and closed with a remarkable effect wrought on the minds of the idolatrous mariners. The first view we have of Jónah in the fhip, (tho' it did not appear to the mariners till the cafting of lots) is of a rebel against God, involving all the partners of his flight, (however unwittingly) in the fame condemnation with himfelf; for they were in the utmost perplexity and danger, being ready to perifh, having already forfeited their merchandize to the waves; while the author of all this diftrefs was faft afleep in the height of fecurity, and utterly incapable, even when awakened, to contribute any thing towards their relief. Thus far we fee Jonah led by his own temper and purpose. Next we view him under another influence; for after lots were caft, and he was marked out by the lot falling on him, and the attention of the mariners by this means fufficiently drawn to him, as the cause of the evil that came upon them, he begins to appear to them in a new character, as the fervant and prophet not of any fuch God as they ferved, but of Jehovah the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land; and when the men, ftruck with new awe and fear, applied to him for directions, what they fhould do to him or for him, he freely gives up his own life for the preservation of theirs, ordering them to take him up and caft him forth into the fea, affuring them that upon this, the fea fhould be calm to them. They were very averse from making use of this expedient, and instead of expecting any benefit, by cafting into the fea the only perfon among them who belonged to the God of heaven, they were afraid of perifhing by. the displeasure of the true God, in becoming guilty of innocent blood; for they could not charge Jonah with an intention of doing evil to any of them: fo they rowed hard to bring the fhip to land; but finding this impoffible, God refifting them by the violence of the tempeft, they at last with submission to the

will of God, did as Jonah bade them, faying, "For thou, O Jehovah, haft done as it pleased thee." Immediately upon this "the sea ceased from its raging. Then the men feared Jehovah exceedingly, and offered a facrifice to Jehovah, and made Vows." Thus every man forgot his own god, and instead of worshipping a variety of gods, as dividing among them the heavens, the fea, and the dry land, they all with one confent turned to Jehovah, the maker of all. They had been witneffes to a notable difcovery of the fovereignty of the true God over the life of man, in connecting many with one tranfgreffor, fo as to make them fharers in the punishment of his fin, and in giving a marvellous deliverance to many from the very brink of deftruction, by taking away the life of one perfon; who, according to their own confeffion, was with respect to them innocent, and who was the only perfon among them who knew and feared him. They had an awful proof of the Divine justice in its oppofition to all fin, and of the fearful confequences of one act of difobedience to the will of God, as exposing many to deftruction, and the impoffibility of escaping this deftruction by the utmost exertion of their abilities. They had likewise an aftonishing discovery of the Divine mercy and compaffion to miferable helplefs men, when they beheld the wrath of God (appearing to them in a fearful manner in the violent raging of the fea) at once appeafed, by fwallowing up the victim he had appointed, even his own prophet, and who was moved to give himfelf up for this purpofe, and who prophefied a calm to them, immediately upon his being thrown into the fea; upon which they could no longer doubt of his acting in concert with the true God in this matter. It may also be observed, that however averse the men were to this way of relief, being willing to undergo any labour and fatigue, rather than comply with it yet when they were brought to acquiefce in the fovereign will of God, they beheld fuch a discovery of the glory of the true God in the whole matter, as determined to worship and ferve him. May we not in this matter behold a lively fign of that discovery of God in the gospel, by which the idolatrous nations were turned from idols, to ferve the living and true God?

6. Jonah's prayer in the fifh's belly, leads us to think of Chrift, "who in the days of his fefh, offered up prayers and fupplications, with ftrong crying and tears, unto him that was able to restore him from death, and was heard for his reverence;" efpecially as thofe prayers are uttered in much the fame words with the prayers adapted to the Meffiah in the Pfalms. noticing of this may likewife explain to us the correspondence

The

betwixt

betwixt Jonah's being three days and three nights in the whale's belly, and Christ's being fo long in the heart of the earth. For we fhall find three nights intervening betwixt Chrift's being mortally wounded for tranfgreffion, when he said " My foul is exceeding forrowful even unto death;" and his rifing again from the dead. And the prayers expreffing Chrift's agony, in the Pfalms, plainly point forth his condition in like expreffions to that of being in the heart of the earth; as when they point him forth as laid in the loweft pit, finking in deep mire, laid in darkness and deeps. See Pfalm lxxi. 20. And the lower parts or heart of the earth, are phrases plainly used to fignify the depth of mifery; even as being fet on high places, fignifies exaltation and glory: for when Chrift fpeaks of the deftruction of his enemies, he fays, "they that feek my foul to destroy it, shall go into the lower parts of the earth." Pfalm lxiii. 9. And it is plain that Jonah's prayer chiefly reprefents to us this part of Chrift's humiliation and agony, the deadly force of which could not have been proved and manifefted, if he had not thereby been brought down to the grave.

7. In the deliverance of Jonah we fee a lively figure of Chrift's being heard and restored from death for his reverend fubmiffion to the will of God. For upon Jonah's prayer, "the Lord fpake unto the fish, and it brought up Jonah upon the dry land."

8. Jonah, immediately upon his deliverance, is again commanded to go to Nineveh. He goes, and denounces the Divine wrath against their fins, according to his firft commiffion, threatening the oyerthrow of Nineveh. The Ninevites immediately repent. If we confider them as acquainted with the manner of Jonah's being fent to them, we can eafily fee how it came to pafs they believed God immediately on hearing Jonah; the argument upon which they repented, the view they had of God in their repentance, is indeed a moft natural inference from the former part of Jonah's ftory--" Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger that we perifh not?" When we confider what an idolatrous city Nineveh, the head of the Affyrian empire, was, how came they all at once to lose their confidence in the many gods whom they boafted in as the promoters of their wealth and power, and their protectors in the violence that was in their hands, but by their being overawed with undoubted evidence of the fupreme power of that God who fent Jonah? It ap→ pears alfo that they were throughly satisfied of the difference of his character from that of all their gods: when, with the

moft

moft fubmiffive fear, they exprefs their fenfe of his fierce anger against thofe things wherein they thought that they had the countenance of their own gods, even every one's way, now called evil, by which we may understand idolatry; and the violence in their hands, the means of promoting their wealth and power. They fhew a reverend fubmiffion to his fove.. reignty as to the abfolute difpofal of them and their city, fay-· ing, "Who can tell if God will turn?" &c. as having no claim upon God, referring the cafe wholly to his will, who alone knew what it became him to do. Yet they have hope from an apprehenfion that there was fuch a thing with God as turning from anger; that, if it pleafed him, he could fhew mercy as well as he fhewed wrath, that there was forgiveness with him that he might be feared; and by this they are encouraged to cry mightily to the God of Jonah, having been made fenfible that no God could deliver out of his hand. At the fame time they made a full acknowledgment of the juftice of God in their destruction, not only by ceafing from what dif pleafed God, but also disclaiming all title to live, and publicly expreffing the forfeiture of their lives, by abftaining from all the fupport of life, and fitting in fackcloth and afhes, fhewing the juftice of their returning to duft; until they fhould obtain fome intimation of a fresh grant of their lives from God. For whatever may be faid of the forty days mentioned in the threatening, it is clear, that God gave fuch a plain intimation of his grace and forbearance to Nineveh as difpleafed Jonah exceedingly, and this before the time was elapfed, wherein Jonah impatiently waited without the city to fee what would become of it.

9. Whence could the Ninevites have so awful and so just a view of the true God, and fo oppofite to the notions they had of their idols, as led them to this repentance, but from the inftructions of Jonah? So Chrift tells us they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and from the words of Chrift we also learn that Jonah, in what befel, him, was an inftructive and perfuafive fign unto them of what he preached. He preached, then, what befel himself; and though his ftory could not be told without the fhameful circumftance of his flying from the prefence of the Lord, yet there was a grandeur in his character, that appeared to the Ninevites fo very ftriking as influenced their repentance; to which Chrift points when he fays, "they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold a greater than Jonah is here."

VOL, III.

LI

ro. Jonah