the imputation of falsehood did not lie against him. And yet, though the whole strength of his excuse, such as it was, depended upon the merciful disposition of God, his conscience smote him with the guilt of disobedience, and he did not think himself secure from punishment, unless he could put himself out of his reach, by going down to Tarshish. What a strange notion does this give us of Jonah's opinions concerning the Almighty Being whose servant he professed himself to be! or rather, what a warning is it, that our knowledge of God in all his infinite perfections, is rendered foolishness by the prevalence of our carnal will, when we suffer that to get the upper hand of us, and to urge us on in pursuit of the vain imaginations of an evil and deceitful heart. Jonah, perverse enough to refuse to do the bidding of God, because he was merciful-inconsistent enough to wish to flee from the presence of that merciful God-and foolish enough to imagine for a moment that it was possible to do so, presents but too faithful an image of many wise in their own conceits, who nevertheless are guilty in their daily conduct of all such perversity, and inconsistency, and folly; who "observe lying vanities, and forsake their own mercy;' ."* who fail to remember or to apply that important saying of the Psalmist in his address to God, "There is forgiveness with thee, therefore shalt thou be feared ;"† who forget that "if they take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the utmost parts of the sea, even there his hand shall lead them, and his right hand shall hold them." This lesson speedily was impressed, in a manner not to be resisted, upon Jonah's mind. The Lord sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest, so that the ship in which he was sailing was like to be broken. Ibid. cxxxix. 9, 10.

* Jonah ii. 8. + Psalm cxxx. 4.

The heathen sailors having vainly called upon their gods for help, awoke Jonah out of his sleep, and desired him to pray to his proceeding at the same time to ascertain, by casting lots, for whose cause that evil was upon them. The lot having fallen upon Jonah, they asked him who he was, and from whence and learning from his answer that he was a disobedient servant of the great Jehovah of Israel, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land, they feared greatly, and, though not without a creditable exhibition of much humane reluctance, they agreed to his own request, and cast him overboard into the sea, as the only means of calming its troubled waters, and saving their lives. The same Lord who had sent the tempest, caused it now to cease; and while the mariners in grateful astonishment held on their course, he made a great fish, which he had brought thither for the purpose, swallow up Jonah, and retain him in this living prison for three days and nights. Feeling, no doubt, while in this extraordinary situation, how impossible it was for him to have remained alive for ever so short a time without the manifest interference of God's great power in his behalf, he offered up his prayer to him in hopeful confidence of release, and mingled it with thanksgiving, as though already set free.

In this respect, as well as in the period during which his confinement lasted, Jonah may be looked upon as a type of our Lord Jesus Christ: of him concerning whom David spake in language strikingly appropriate to the feelings with which Jonah was actuated, while composing his prayer," I foresaw the Lord alway before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved: therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope: because, thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer

thine holy one to see corruption. Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance."* Compare with this the expressions of Jonah, "I cried, by reason of my affliction, unto the Lord, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice. Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight, yet I will look again toward thy holy temple. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth, with her bars, was about me for ever; yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O Lord, my God. I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving. Salvation is of the Lord."+ We have here not only a similarity of sentiment, but of expression also; a similarity which might, I think, of itself have attracted our attention, even had we been without any positive assurance that Jonah was actually a type of Christ. But this we know he was, from no less certain an authority than the mouth of our Lord himself, who, when urged by some of the obstinately unbelieving Pharisees to show them a sign, replied, "An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it but the sign of the prophet Jonas: for as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." This declaration of Christ concerning himself was brought to pass by his resurrection from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion; and to his resurrection it is that the words of David already repeated were applied by St. Peter in his celebrated discourse upon the day of Pentecost, where he says that "David, being a prophet, spake this of the resurrection of Christ,

Psalm xvi. 8-11. Acts ii 25-28. + Jonah ii. 2, 4, 6, 9. 1 Matt. xii. 39.

that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption ;"* and thus is justified the language of our creed, where it professes that Christ, having been crucified, dead, and buried, descended into hell, and rose again the third day from the dead. On the third day, in like manner, it appears, from the history of Jonah, he was thrown again out of his miraculous place of detention, upon the dry land and being now convinced of the necessity of obedience, as well as filled with gratitude for God's mercy towards him, he forthwith proceeded on his journey towards Nineveh, urged onward by a renewed command from the Lord; and having entered into the city a day's journey, being only a third part of its prodigious extent, he preached unto it the preaching which God had bidden him, being to the effect that within forty days from that time it should be destroyed.† The consequences ensued which he had already foreseen the people of Nineveh believed him, and did all in their power, from the least unto the greatest, to avert, by every expression of penitential sorrow, this terrible calamity. They had doubtless heard, either from Jonah himself, or from some of his companions, his wonderful restoration from the jaws of death; he was, Christ tells us, a sign unto the Ninevites," even as he was himself a sign to the Jewish people; but with a far different effect-for "the men of Nineveh," he declared, "shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold a greater than Jonah is here." The power and grace of God, which showed themselves so evidently in the treatment of the prophet, procured for him, on the part of the Ninevites, a reverential belief in the message that he was commanded to bring them, and

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*Acts ii. 30, 31.

+ Jonah iii. 2, 4.

Luke xi. 30, 32.

yet encouraged a hope that, in consideration of their sincere repentance, it might not be carried into effect. The same power and grace of God, displayed yet more strikingly in the resurrection of Jesus, were urged by his apostles in vain to the Jews, as inducements to believe him, and to forsake their sins: therefore the wrath came upon them to the uttermost, and that destruction, which was averted from Nineveh by its repentance, became their dreadful doom. Let us not be high-minded, but fear: "for if God spared not the natural branches," the people of his ancient choice, but cut them off when they became unfruitful, "take heed," says the apostle, "lest he also spare not thee."*

While the Ninevites fasted and prayed, and were in all the agony of uncertainty, as to the final determination of God, Jonah, having delivered his message, quitted the city, and established himself on a spot at a short distance from it, in order to see the end. God's dealings with him, though they had done him much good, had not altogether overcome that exclusive attention to his own reputation as a prophet which had led him astray before. When the forty days were expired, and all things went on in their usual order; when he found that God had indeed listened to the fervent prayers of the Ninevites, and had repented of the evil that he said he would do unto them, and done it not; instead of joining in their grateful thanksgiving to the Lord for his great mercy, Jonah was exceedingly displeased, and very angry. He wished to die, so mortified was he, because his prophecy had not come to pass. He wished to die, also, being thoroughly vexed, and out of temper with himself, and all things else, for another and a most trifling cause because a plant of the gourd kind, which had

* Rom. xi. 21.