give no heed to them! Oh let us never thanklessly imagine, that if God had only once saved us signally, we should be more disposed to serve Him, than now when He is preserving us continually!

But the prophet is not the only pattern of obedience here supplied to us. The men of Nineveh are pointed out by our blessed Lord, as a notable example of attention to God's word, and of meek submission to God's will. "They repented at the preaching of Jonas." Matt. 12. 41. The terrors of the Lord were the subject of his preaching. "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown;" these were his awful words, as he went a whole day's journey into the city. This was the message which he delivered at God's bidding, and which the people of Nineveh believed at Jonah's preaching. And not only the people, but also their king; all were of one mind, high and low, rich and poor; and that, the very mind which the Lord desired by this warning to bring about. The king and his nobles proclaimed a decree for fasting and repentance. And to the weight of their authority they added the force of their example. The whole city, as one man, abstained from the use of food, and adopted the garb of mourning. Nay, they extended these observances to their cattle, as if to signify their sense, that these also must suffer in the general destruction, and that being in the service of man, it became them to share in the humiliation of their masters, before Him who created all.

"Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?" this was the reasonable and pious summing up of the proclamation published in Nineveh. This is the just and consistent view which a right faith teaches us to take of the terrors and warnings of the Lord. Certainly He is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent." Num. 23. 19. That is to say, He is not changeable as we are, one while of one mind, and another of another. But his warnings, however expressly stated, prevent Him not from forgiving them that repent. For it is all along his purpose to forgive the penitent. And the more entirely we believe such a word of prophecy as this which Jonah preached, we ought to feel so much the more anxious to repent, and to express the depth of our repentance, in the hope that God, though He never change his mind, will vouchsafe to reverse our sentence. Thus acted the Ninevites, more wise than they, who consider such decrees on the part of God as irreversible. And God seeing what they did, and knowing that their contrition was sincere," repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not!" Here then is another very powerful motive to repent; the hope of pardon. It may be now or never that we can turn to God. We may have had mercies past number persuading us to turn. And if even these considerations fail to move us, let us lay to heart this one more: if we repent, even now at length, God is graciously willing to forgive.

Jonah murmuring is reproved by means of a gourd.

1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very

angry.

2 And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, I pray thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.

3 Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.

4 Then said the LORD, Doest thou well to be angry?

5 So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city.

6 And the LORD God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jo

nah was exceeding glad of the gourd.

7 But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered.

8 And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live.

9 And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death.

10 Then said the LORD, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night:

11 And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?

LECTURE 1421.

The ends for which God chastises us.

Here we see the selfishness of the heart of man laid open, in all its foul deformity. Jonah had rather Nineveh should perish, than that his own credit should be impeached, in the message he had been charged to deliver. Here we see man's proud notions of consistency, in contrast with God's gracious attributes of truth and mercy. Jonah considers his honour implicated in the execution of the sentence to which he had given utterance, however greatly the case might be altered by the change which has taken place in the party condemned. God speaks, and acts, as though it were not derogatory to his glory, nor inconsistent with his knowing all things, as He does from the beginning to the end, and also overruling all, for Him to sentence unto death, and yet to spare the life, to threaten the wicked, and yet to forgive

the penitent. Which then would we wish to imitate? which would we prefer to be like? the prophet; or the Lord who sent him? selfish, vainglorious, peevish, passionate man; or the holy and good God?

The extreme folly of Jonah's conduct is placed in the more striking light by his own remarkable declaration: "I pray thee, O Lord was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil." He had a just conception of the divine character. And yet how little had he studied to conform the thoughts of his own heart to the attributes he ascribed to God! How blind must passion have made him to the true state of the case, to his own foolishness and sinfulness, when he could thus account for his misconduct, and excuse his ill temper, by the consideration which of all others most aggravated his fault! To denounce destruction against that great city, without any hope of its being spared, would have been indeed a painful office. To preach the terrors of the Lord would be a duty almost too burdensome for the most faithful minister to discharge, if it were not that he is all the time fully aware of the boundless compass of God's mercy.

And truly we have a striking instance of the divine mercifulness, in God's dealings on this occasion with Jonah himself; in the pains He took to convince the prophet, and by him to convince us, how ill we do to fret and murmur at the divine dispensations. Here was a plant made to spring up out of the earth, that it might shade him from the heat, and comfort him as he sat watching what would become of the city, and brooding over that change of God's sentence, which he took to heart as an affront put upon himself. "So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd." And yet he little knew how much he was to be beholden to it. He little thought how it was that this welcome plant would be made a means to "deliver him from his grief." It was not by the shade which it imparted to his body, but by the light which through God's word would strike upon his mind, when he again gave way to his angry temper at the pain he felt on the withering of the gourd. Our worldly comforts seldom do us so much good in respect of God, as when we lose them. In possession they are apt to make us vain instead of thankful, wilful instead of meek and soberminded. When they wither, then our hearts are more likely to be open to conviction; as we may hope that Jonah's was at last. His loss had indeed an especial signification, applicable, as a parable, to his especial case. But the use to which God applied it may well signify to us, that He does not willingly afflict the children of men, and that as He had rather spare than punish, so also it is his object, in chastising us, to convince us of our sins, and lead us to repent, and pave the way to our forgiveness.

Micah proclaimeth God's judgments coming on his people.

1 The word of the LORD that came to Micah the Morasthite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.

2 Hear, all ye people; hearken, O earth, and all that therein is: and let the Lord God be witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple.

3 For, behold, the LORD cometh forth out of his place, and will come down, and tread upon the high places of the earth."

4 And the mountains shall be molten under him, and the valleys shall be cleft, as wax before the fire, and as the waters that are poured down a steep place. 5 For the transgression of Jacob is all this, and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? is it not Samaria? and what are the high places of Judah? are they not Jerusalem?

6 Therefore I will make Samaria as an heap of the field, and as plantings of a vineyard: and I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley, and I will discover the foundations thereof. 7 And all the graven images thereof shall be beaten to pieces, and all the hires thereof shall be burned with the fire, and all the idols thereof will I lay desolate : for she gathered it of the hire of an harlot, and they shall return to the hire of an harlot.

8 Therefore I will wail and

howl, I will go stripped and naked: I will make a wailing like the dragons, and mourning as the owls.

9 For her wound is incurable; for it is come unto Judah; he is come unto the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem.

10 Declare ye it not at Gath, weep ye not at all: in the house of Aphrah roll thyself in the dust.

11 Pass ye away, thou inhabitant of Saphir, having thy shame naked: the inhabitant of Zaanan came not forth in the mourning of Beth-ezel; he shall receive of you his standing.

12 For the inhabitant of Maroth waited carefully for good: but evil came down from the LORD unto the gate of Jerusalem.

13 O thou inhabitant of Lachish, bind the chariot to the swift beast: she is the beginning of the sin to the daughter of Zion: for the transgressions of Israel were found in thee.

14 Therefore shalt thou give presents to Moresheth-gath: the houses of Achzib shall be a lie to the kings of Israel.

15 Yet will I bring an heir unto thee, O inhabitant of Mareshah: he shall come unto Adullam the glory of Israel.

16 Make thee bald, and poll thee for thy delicate children; enlarge thy baldness as the eagle; for they are gone into captivity from thee.

LECTURE 1422.

Our being chosen of God aggravates our sins.

It is painful to reflect, that whilst the men of Nineveh repented so readily at Jonah's preaching, the children of Israel gave so

little heed to the multitude of prophets sent them by the Lord. Micah, we find, prophesied amongst them in the days of three successive kings of Judah; but to how little purpose his own words plainly testify. Nay, the result bears testimony still more express. For the Lord found no occasion to reverse the fearful sentence, which He caused this prophet amongst others to proclaim, against Samaria, and against Jerusalem. It is of the daughter of his people that He declares, "her wound is incurable." And of the many terrible things with which He here threatens her, there is not one of which it can be said, that because of her repentance, "he did it not." Jonah 3. 10. Of the blessings, on the other hand, most graciously mingled with his threatenings, throughout the prophetic Scriptures, there are many which yet wait for their fulfilment. A painful reflexion, that this is for want of faith and love, in those whom He has chosen for his people. A profitable subject of self examination, to inquire, whether we, in proportion to our privileges, believe in Him, and love Him, and obey Him. A fearful consideration, that if we, whom He has chosen in Christ, be found wanting, the men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment against us, and condemn us; "for they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here." Luke 11. 32.

Yes, Christ is our Prophet; it is his voice which we hear in the New Testament, it is his word and will, which we believe to be revealed, and study to understand, in the writings of the older covenant. He it is, whom we may consider as here calling on all the earth to listen, whilst He testifies against us, if we sin. He it is who here proclaims, that He is coming down from on high to judgment, and more especially to judge those who are called by his name. "For the transgression of Jacob is all this." Of all the iniquity abounding in the world, there is none so hateful in his sight, as that which He beholds in the people of his choice; the high places of religion becoming the head quarters of idolatry. There must we expect that his righteous judgments will fall most heavily; there will be heard the loudest wailing, there will be inflicted the most dreadful desolation. And what will be the shame, and agony of remorse, at that day, of those in whom are found "the transgressions of Israel;" whose sins are tenfold sinful, because the sinners are God's people! Oh never may we fail to bear in mind our high and holy calling! Oh never may we neglect to hear the voice, and to obey the will of Him, who has called us to the knowledge of his truth, and to the enjoyment of his grace and glory! Make us, O God, deeply sensible, of how much we have to answer for, in possessing so many inestimable privileges. And help us by thy grace so to use the talents entrusted to our charge, that when we stand before the judgment seat of Christ, He may make us partakers of his joy.