Printed for J. NOON, at the White Hart, near 1. a. 151 JONAH ii. 8, 9. But let Man and Beast be covered with Sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God; yea let them turn every one from his evil Way, and from the Violence that is in their Hands. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce Anger, that we pe·rish not? J ONAH is reckoned to have prophefied in the Reign of Jeboabaz *, the Son of Jehu King of Ifrael, when Idolatry, with all its concomitant Crimes, greatly prevailed. At firft, it is likely, he exercised his Office among the People of Ifrael, but as, like others of the Prophets in other Reigns, he met with little or no Success, it pleased God to fend him with a Meffage to another People. The Word of the Lord came unto Jonah Jaying, Arife, go to Nineveh that great City, and cry against it, for their Wickedness is come up before me, c. i. v. 1. Nineveh was the Metropolis of the Affyrian Kingdom, one of the first Cities that were built after the Flood, founded, as is thought, by Nimrod, and perhaps afterwards enlarged by Ninus, from whom it might * 2 Kings xiv. 25. A 2 have have its Name, fo that it was now of about 1400 Years ftanding; and, as it might be reckoned one of the firft, feems now to have been the greatest City in the World, much larger than Babylon, for which Reafon it is here ftiled by God, that great City, or as it is in the Original, that City of God. And as it is ufual with great and opulent Cities, through a long Continuance of Profperity and Eafe, to fink into Vice, and grow more and more corrupt in their Minds and Manners, the Iniquities of the Ninevites were become fo heinous and open, that they are here faid to come up before God, that is, not now first seen and obferved, for he had done that all along, but now come to fuch an enormous Height, that unless reformed, it was no longer confiftent with the Methods and Ends of his wife Government, to let them go unpunished. It may be inquired by fome, why God fhould fend a Prophet with a Meffage to fuch a wicked idolatrous and diftant City, fo many hundred Miles from the Land of Ifrael? But befides the Regard which he might herein have had to the Men of Nineveh, and the Intention to frow, that tho' he had particular Care of the Jewish Nation, he was not without Care of the Gentile World, it might be defigned alfo to work a good Effect upon the People of the Jews. For if the Ninevites had rejected the Meffage of Jonah, and incurred the Deftruction I. ftruction he was commiffioned to threaten, the Jews would have had an illuftrious Example of the Vengeance of God against Idolatry and Vice, by which to take a Warning; and if the Ninevites fhould hearken and repent, he might defign to upbraid the Stubbornness of his People, and fhame them, as it were, into Repentance, by their Example; and the Greatnefs of the City, and the Greatness of their Wickedness, render'd them the more effectual Inftruments of that End. Some may be apt to wonder, that fuch a wicked and idolatrous City, both King and People, fhould fo foon be moved to Repentance by a Prophet who came to them with a Meffage from a God whom they did not worfhip or acknowledge as theirs. But there is little room for it, if we confider that their Distance was not fo great but that the Fame of the Works of the God of Ifrael muft probably have reached them; and that they could not, fo foon as they were put upon reflecting, but read the Danger they were in of Punishment, in the Confcioufnefs of Guilt which they felt in themselves, and the Juftnefs of the Threatning that the Prophet brought them: tho' they had neither a clear and diftinct Idea of, nor entertained any Reverence for the Deity from whom it came. And this lets us fee how the Difpenfation of God to the Jews was actually of Service, as it was no doubt defigned |