The men of Ninive shall rise , &c.

IT is obvious to every one within These Walls , that the Son of God made this terrible Commination not only to strike a Terror into his Auditors , but also to raise in them a wholesom Confusion ; not only to reproach their Stupidity , but also to animate them to a generous Emulation ; protesting , that if the Ninivites could not be an Example to provoke their Repentance , they should one day become their invincible Accusers . And to what end do's our Holy Mother the Church yearly repeat this Passage of the Gospel , and daily inculcate the Sense of it , but to invite her Children to an Imitation , as the only Plea remaining , as the only Defence we can make against such a cloud of witnesses , who will certainly bear us down , and convict us at the Day of Judgment , if they prove not our Instruction in this Day of Salvation .

Ninive , the Capital City of the Assyrian Monarchy , was the Babylon of those Times , Emasculated with a long Peace , Effeminate with Ease , dissolv'd in Luxury , Banquetting , and Wantonness , under the Reign of a Sensual Prince , a Sardanapalus , whose Life , says the Historian , was more soft and infamous , then his Name ; turpior vitâ , quam nomine ; and whose Example had so corrupted the Manners , and stifled the Warlike Genius of his People , that they were no longer formidable , but for their horrible Excesses ; no longer Masters of the World , but by drawing others into an imitation of their Crimes ; no longer the Brave Assyrians , but for defying Heaven , and assailing the Throne of God , not as their Predecessors with the Tower of Babel , which they could not finish ; but with the height and enormity of their Sins , which they brought to a point ; Jon . 1.2 . Ascendit malitia ejus coram me ; Their wickedness is come up before me ; and reaches to Heaven . Now it was high time for Justice and Mercy to enter into deliberation , whether this Seduced People , and Seducer of Nations , should out of hand be converted or destroy'd ; but while the one was preparing its Thunder and Lightning , its Showrs of Fire and Brimstone , the other dispatches a Herald to warn them of their approaching Ruine . But the Prophet Jonas , the Man pitch'd upon to carry the unpleasant Message , out of a Humane Prudence , and too warm a Zeal , declines the Office . He was unwilling to expose his Master's Honor , and his own Person , among a People where he was like to be so little consider'd , that the God was as unknown as the Prophet . But if possible they should own his Character , and take the Subject of his Embassie into consideration , That yet forty days and Ninive shall be destroy'd , probably they might repent , and more then probably God would pardon them if they did so , and Ninive would not be destroy'd , and by necessary consequence Jonas must bear the Ignominy , if a false Prophet ; which once detected , as it must be if the Judgment follow not the Sentence , the very Motive of their Conversion would prove a dangerous Temptation to return to their former Impiety . Wherefore the Prophet finding no other way to avoid the Points of this Dilemma , not only flies from the Employment , Jon . 1.3 . but also hopes to escape from the face of God ; he puts to Sea , makes all the Sail he can , and steers his Course as wide from the Coast of Assyria , as the Wind and his Fear could bear off . When behold , the Storm he would not prognosticate to others , was gather'd over his own Head ! Besides his own Guilt , the Divine Hand points him out as the Occasion of it ; yet he chuses rather to be cast over-board , then to tack about and make for Ninive ; and tho' a Whale was ready to receive him to that end , yet his Will and his Prayers ran so strong the other way , it was three Days before she could unload her miraculous Burthen upon the detested Shore .

But he was no sooner out of the Whales Belly , then he enters into himself ; and terrified with the Idea of the Dangers he had passed , admiring his own no less wonderful Stupidity , and revolving his strange Deliverance , incredible almost to himself , he joyfully embraces the Employment he had so obstinately refus'd , and abating both of his Zeal and Apprehension , he was contented Ninive should falsifie his Prediction , and by a timely Repentance prevent the Destruction he was going to denounce .

He enters the vast City , and stopping in one of the most frequented Places , he summons the Inhabitants , Adhuc quadraginta dies & Ninive subvertetur ; Yet forty days and Ninive shall be no more . The novelty of the Thing , the strange Figure of the Man , his Mien , as if he had newly risen from the Dead ; the particularity of his Habit , as if he came out of another World ; the brokenness of his Dialect , soon drew the Herd about him , to listen and gaze a while , and then to laugh ; and without doubt the Wits and Libertines to rally him , and some in Office to threaten him . But the Preacher go's on as insensible to their Affronts , as they were at first to his Doctrine ; he follows his Text , and they him , till at last , as Laughing and Crying are perform'd with the same Muscles of the Eyes and Face , so the same Words which at first provok'd their Laughter , now spread Sorrow , Fear , and Amazement upon their Countenances , and fetch Tears out of their Eyes , but could not work a thoro ' Reformation in their Hearts ; till the Voice of this Unknown penetrated thro' the Town into the Court , and reach'd the Ears of the King , Pervenit verbum ad Regem Ninive .

This King had as little reason as any of his Subjects to be satisfi'd with his own Life , and more reason to apprehend the verity of Jonas's Prediction , being conscious to himself into how dreadful a Precipice his ill Example had drawn a People , never so Complying , never so Obedient to the Prince as in his Vices . In fine , he believes the threatned Judgment so much more probable , as he knew it was too much deserved . He rises therefore from his Throne , lays by the Ensigns of Majesty , puts himself in the state and posture of a Criminal , Preaches and Enjoyns the Pennance that he Practises ; Fasting and Sackcloth become the Mode , the Court and Town are presently in it , and follow it with so much eagerness , vigour and perseverance , that the Storm which was ready to break upon their Heads , disperses of it self , the Heavens clear up , the Anger of God is disarm'd , and as the Prophet foresaw , he draws in the menacing Hand .

Let us make a stand here , Christians , and rest a while in Contemplation of a History as Instructive as it is Astonishing ; a Record of what pass'd in Ninive , an Account of the present State of most Cities in the World , and I hope a Prophecy of our Repentances . It is like a good Picture , which seems to fix the Eye upon every one that regards it . I promis'd not to offend your Ears with any rude Comparison , or to apply Causticks , to use a burning Iron where a Balsam , a gentle Remedy may work the Cure . Yet I beg leave to put you in mind , that Ninive is still threatned , but is not yet destroy'd ; that it survives in every City whose Impieties , whose Irreligion , whose Extortion , whose insatiable Avarice , and detestable Luxuries , cry to Heaven for Vengeance , and to avert whose total Overthrow a Jonas is dispatch'd . Et plus quam Jonas hîc . And how far we are short of Ninive , how little we want of equalling their Crimes , and filling up the number of our Sins , he only can tell who is more then Jonas , who numbers the Sands of the Sea .

Ninive a Pagan Town , the Centre and Fountain of Superstition and Idolatry , buried for so many Ages in the darkness of Gentilism , where the Sun of Justice never shone , the saving Faith never shed a Beam ; amidst an infinity of Deities without the Knowledge of God , labouring under a double Night , of Infidelity and of the blackest Crimes .

But Ninive at the Preaching of a Jonas , a meer Stranger , without any thing to make himself Considerable ; a Man never heard of before , a Man contemptible for his Person , with Distraction and Amazement in his Countenance , still frothy and reeking from the Belly of the Whale ; without any Credentials or Proof of his Mission , without any Miracle to back his Doctrine , or other Testimony to support it , then what he gave himself ; and this to a People so little prepar'd to receive it , that in all likelihood , he might as well have Preach'd to the Rocks and Waves , from the Entrails of the Leviathan . Yet this Unknown Preacheth , these Infidels Believe , these wicked Men , these Monsters of Nature , even Sardanapalus is Converted : Sardanapalus sheds manly Tears , Sardanapalus do's Pennance ; such exemplar Pennance , that the Holy Ghost thought it material to transmit each Circumstance to Posterity ; Surrexit de Solio , says the Text , He rises from his Throne , he detests that unfortunate Power which enabled him to sin without controll : Abjecit vestimentum , he casts the Purple from his Shoulders , which he had not only stain'd , but even drench'd with his repeated Crimes : Indutus est Sacco , he changes it for Sackcloth , to chastise that Flesh he had so pamper'd and indulg'd : Et sedit in cinere , and is not contented till his Mortification is accompanied with the profoundest Humility ; and therefore he prostrates and rowls himself in Ashes . Res admiratione digna , &c. ( cries St. John Chrysostom ) O what a Spectacle ! delightful and new to the Heavens , and worthy the Admiration of the whole Earth ! Sackcloth and Haircloth imperiously invade and banish the Purple ; Ashes and Dust tarnish the lustre of the Crown . He had Sinn'd , and he Repents like a King . He resolves the Example , which had been such an Incentive to Vice , should be no less exciting to Repentance . He deposes the Marks , but not the Power of a King . His Obedience to the Voice of God , do's not abate of his Authority with his People : While he lies prostrate as a Criminal , he Enacts Laws , and Enjoyns a solemn Fast thro' all his Dominions ; Homines & jumenta non gustent quicquam . And when did he issue forth this Proclamation ? after he had call'd a Board to debate it , after he had taken the thing into Deliberation , or Advis'd with his Council and Sages ? No , says the Text , Et pervenit Verbum , as soon as this Word came to his Ear , without ballancing , without hesitation , Motu proprio , immediately at the very instant he falls to work : He was already doing Pennance while he was commanding it ; binding his People to comply first by Example , and then by Precept .

But where is it that I speak ? Is it not to a Christian Assembly , to a Christian Town , an ancient Theatre of Religion , and once the Metropolis of this Kingdom as well in Piety as in Grandeur and Commerce ? Is it not to a Court once Peopled with Saints , once a Nursery of Heaven , illustrastrated with the Morning-brightness of the Gospel , and reflecting its Light thro' the whole World ? Is it not before the Successor of St. Lucius , the first Christian King , and to the first Christian Kingdom of the Western World ? Is it not to a People early Born into , and long Educated in the Bosom of the Church , having Kings for Nursing Fathers , and Queens for Nursing Mothers , nourish'd with the Bread of Heaven , and the Fat of the Earth ? and yet amidst such an overflow of Divine Blessings , such infallible Helps , such efficacious Sacraments , such moving Exhortations , we remain unshaken to the Menaces , insensible to the Promises , rebellious to the Light , and deaf to the Voice , not of a Jonas , but of a JESUS . One unknown Preacher Converted the most Heathenish , the most corrupted , the most populous City of the World , at one Sermon ; while we who speak your own Language , nay even your own Sence ; Preach what you believe , and Menace what you apprehend ; speak what you know to be just and reasonable ; We , whose Mission you acknowledge , whose Character you reverence , whose Authority you do not dispute , Think it a great Victory if we Convert the meanest of this crouded Auditory , after a hundred Sermons . And do you wonder that the Ninivites shall rise in the day of Judgment against this more Criminal , ( I must say it ) because more Obdurate Generation ; which amidst so much knowledge of its Duty , amidst such pressing Motives , such strong Convictions , such cogent Arguments , such illustrious Examples , puts off its Repentance from day to day ? But to press this is my Second Point .

It was a notable Advice , and becoming its Author , Eccles . 5.8 . the wisest of Men , Non tardes converti ; Do not slacken to be converted to our Lord , nor put it off from day to day . For one of the most crafty Slights of the Devil to keep an unhappy Soul in his possession , one of the falsest Steps we make , one of the most dangerous Errors we slide into , is the deferring our Repentance from time to time , till it be past time . An Error not only most pernicious , because in the highest Concern , but also the most wicked , as proceeding not from Surprise , Weakness , Inadvertence , or Ignorance , ( the Heads whence other Mistakes arise ) but springing from the most affected Wilfulness , and downright Malice . People will not believe daily Experience , will not credit their common Sense , will not hearken to their own Reason and Conviction ; but in despite of Sense , Reason , Conscience , and Experience , will still persist in a vain and groundless Presumption , That after forty days their Ninive shall not be destroy'd ; that they shall have a much longer time to repent in . Yet you see Funerals pass every day under your Windows , you meet them in the Streets ; you behold your Friends , your Children , your Husbands and your Wives expiring under your Roofs , giving up the Ghost in your Arms ; you see them die , who had as much reason to promise themselves a longer Date of Life ; you see them die , you see Ninive fall , ( for when one dies , all the World dies to him ) you see them die unprepar'd , one without any sense of a future Life , another in Despair ; one is suddenly cut off , another falls in a Duel , in Drink , in Adultery : And these are dreadful , but late and almost daily Examples . You see them die impenitent , and hear them bid you beware of the same Presumption , which brought them to their eternal Ruine ; and yet you are deaf to all Persuasions . And if you will be so , who can help it ? But then you must not wonder that the Ninivites shall rise at the Day of Judgment against you ; for they repented at the Preaching , at the first Sermon of Jonas . Besides , they had forty days allow'd them to prevent their Ruine ; but you hear Truth it self protesting , that you neither do , nor shall know , not only a certain Period of days to prepare your selves in , but not so much as one day , Matth . 25.13 . no not an hour ; Nescitis diem neque horam . You hear the Judge menacing that Death , that Judgment shall steal upon you like a thief in the night , Apoc . 16.15 . that is , when you rest securely , and dream of no such thing ; when you are dissolv'd in your Pleasures , when you are intoxicated with Wine , when you are extended in Wantonness , that even this Night perhaps your Soul shall be ravish'd from you , Stulte hâc nocte , &c. Luc . 12.20 . and yet in the sound of this dreadful Alarm , in sight of the threatning Hand which is writing your Sentence upon the Wall of your Chamber , upon the brink of this frightful Precipice you lie as supinely , as unconcern'd , as if you had the Works of the Just , or rather as if you were already dead , and asleep , Aug. not in your Beds , but in your Graves , Ad tantum tonitruum qui non evigilat , non dormit , sed mortuus est .

This Stupidity , this affected Insensibility of ours , provok'd our Blessed Saviour to such a Degree , that , contrary to his usual Meekness , he calls such People Fools , Stultos , insensate , stupid , brutish , and irrational , beyond all that can be imagin'd . Your God is your Accuser , and the Ninivites are your Judges ; but you pronounce the Sentence upon your selves ; all the other Actions of your Life are your Condemnation . For who of you all is so senseless as to trust the smallest Temporal Concern to so great a hazard , as to expose your Life and your Estate , when you may easily secure and enjoy both the one and the other , and to run the risque of losing all , for want of a little Care , of Compounding for a small Fine , a little Trouble , a welltim'd Sigh , or a seasonable Tear ? Should your House take Fire , and your Friends and Neighbors run in to give you notice of it , before the spreading Flame has taken hold of the main Timber ; would you phlegmatickly reply , There is no haste in the Business , it will be time enough to bring the Engines when the Fire has reached the Foundations ? Would a Man need a great Stock of Philosophy to convince you that you are a Fool , or a Madman , which is all one , since Madness is but a raging Folly ? Why , your Soul is all in a Flame with a long Habit of Sin ; Ignis in ossibus ; you are burnt up with unlawful and lawless Desires , with Passions more raging and more destroying then Fire . The Preacher comes as a Friend to advertise you of it , bids you make haste to stop the Conflagration , lest it swallow you up in unquenchable Flames . You bid him not trouble you with that yet a while , Thirty or Forty years hence perhaps you may give him a hearing , that is to say , speaking your Sense in the other Circumstance , Let me alone till the Fire has insinuated it self into the very Heart of the Building , till it has taken such hold upon me , that it will be impossible to lay it , impossible to rescue me from the devouring Element , beyond hopes of your Assistance , or Power to help my self , when Horror reigns without , and Confusion within , till I know not where I am , what to do , which way to turn me , which way to go about to draw Tears out of my parched Eyes , or press Sorrow out of my petrified Heart , which is the only Water can quench the Criminal Flame .

Stulte ! Foolish and insensate Man ! Should you find your self overcharg'd with a heavy Burthen , which even grows upon your Shoulders , and which you are oblig'd to carry , or sink ; would you refuse to stir a Step while you are in the Flower of your Age , in the height of your Strength ? Would you tell such as advise you to work while it is yet day , John 9.4 . before night come upon you , to get to your Journeys end as soon as you can , That it is time enough , you will begin when you grow Old ? that is to say , you will begin when you should end , when your Nature is decay'd , your Spirits exhausted , your Nerves debilitated , and have more need of being carried your self . Sinner , your Crimes are a great Load : Psal . 37.5 . Sicut onus grave gravata sunt super me ; Even your God , the Strong one of Israel , groans under the Weight , he can bear them no longer ; he gives you warning that he is just ready to withdraw the Hand of his long-suffering patience , and leave you to your self ; Gal. 6.5 . Unusquisque onus suum portabit . 't is in your own choice whether you will , now you have strength and opportunity , work them off , and lay them down at the foot of the Cross , by embracing a Penitential Life , or sweat under them till they sink you into Hell . And do you still deliberate upon the Point ? Is the Matter so difficult , is the Case so perplex'd , that you cannot tell which Party to take ? or rather , is not the Necessity so evident , so pressing , so irresistible , that to demur one Day upon it , is to renounce as well your Senses as your Faith , as well your Reason as Religion ? You promise your selves late Years to repent in , when you have not the assurance of one Day ; Is not this as great a Shock to Reason , as it is an Affront to Religion ? Is it not to invade the Prerogative of God , by placing the times and moments in your own power and disposition ? And certainly those Purposes of Repentance you so much relie on , those Resolutions you so often break and so often renew , those Promises which have so often deceiv'd both your self and your Confessor , cannot be true , real and unfeigned , if the Term you assign be false and imaginary . But there is no such thing as Forty years hence , there is no such thing as Twenty years hence , there is no such thing as To morrow : Procrastinated Repentance is nothing , but a present Impenitency .

Now go and complain you are hardly dealt with , you have not time allow'd you to repent , because you have not more Years allow'd you to offend : Complain that the Ninivites had more favour shew'd them then you have , because they had Forty days , and you have had Forty years . Quarrel with the Divine Providence , because they were call'd , and repented the first day ; you were call'd the first , and think much to repent on the last . Be very angry at the Preacher for discomposing you , and stopping you short in the career of your Sins , with a Whisper in your Ear , That the Term is just expiring , that the Sword is unsheath'd over your Head , and the Hand of Vengeance is lifted up to give you the fatal Blow : Tell him he is troublesom and impertinent , because he does you the best Office in the World , and bid him go Preach to Ninive .

He has done , and is ready to leave the Chair ; but assure your selves , the Men of Ninive will immediately succeed in his Place ; you shall not be able to impose Silence upon them , their Voice shall ring in your Ears , either till their Preaching convert , or their Sentence burst your Hearts . They shall follow you thro' all the windings and mazes of Sin , they shall meet you in every crooked path which themselves traced out , and you follow ; They know your Haunts , which themselves frequented ; They shall meet you at the Theatre , at the Masquerade , at the Rendezvouz , at the Gaming house , at the Tavern ; They shall insinuate themselves in your Cabinets , and your most studied Recesses shall not exclude them . Clamabunt etenim & non silebunt ; Their Sackcloth shall confound your Niceness and Gallantry ; Their Ashes shall condemn your Pride and Vanity ; Their Fasting shall upbraid your Gluttony and Drunkenness ; Their Humiliation shall check your Ambition ; Their Sighs shall play the Ground to your Musick and Merriment in this time of Sorrow ; Their ready Obedience to the Voice of the Preacher , shall exprobrate the insensibility of your seared Hearts ; And their Examples shall give the Lye to all your Excuses . In fine , those lamentable Cries of Men , Women , Children , and Animals , suing to the Throne of Mercy to prevent the Overthrow of that City , shall cry Vengeance against this , and eccho it thro' the whole World , that God desires not the Damnation of Christians , who was so Merciful to Heathens ; That you deserve indeed not so much warning , because your whole Life has been one continued Advertisement ; That because they offended against the Law of Nature , they deserv'd an Eternity of Suffering , and to pass out of one Darkness into another : But because you have openly resisted the Holy Ghost , Rebelles lumini , Miserable , not for want of Light , but Impious because you rebell'd against it , you have merited the Outward darkness , the Nether hell . Yet to shew that God wills not the death of a Sinner , but rather that he should be converted and live ; Extendit terminos tuos , He suspends the Sentence of your Condemnation till the remainder of this Forty days , this Penitential Season is elapsed ; and sends his Prophets , the Interpreters of his Word , to acquaint you with the peremptory Term .

And now to sum up this Discourse , as Moses did all his Remonstrance to the People of Israel , Deut . 30.19 . Testes invoco bodie coelum & terram , quod proposuerim vobis vitam & mortem , &c. I take heaven and earth to witness , that I have proposed to you life and death , and set the Blessings and the Judgments of God before your Eyes , and within your reach , to stretch out your Hand to which you please ; The Heavens , which are Peopled with Saints , who desir'd to see those things which you see , Mat . 13.17 . and did not see them ; to hear those things which you hear , and did not hear them ; who were destitute of the many Advantages which you enjoy ; The Earth , a great part of whose Inhabitants is still cover'd with Egyptian Darkness , and involv'd in the Sins of Ninive , yet at the first Sermon would repent in Sackcloth and Ashes . And I call even Hell to witness , which is Throng'd with so many justly Condemn'd for Crimes incomparably less then you daily commit ; That God has not been wanting on his part , that the Bowels of his Mercy are as fruitful , that his Arms are as much extended , that his Heart is as open , that his Call is as vigorous , that his Hand is as powerful and as ready to save this Generation , as when he pardon'd the Ninivites , whom we Copy in our Vices , and who sit to us as a perfect Model of a hearty , of an exemplar , and of a speedy Repentance ,

Which God of his infinite Mercy , &c.