Jonah iv. 2. I knew that thou art a gracious God, and mer- ciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.
IN the parable of the Prodigal Son, we read of as hateful a character as can well be imagined : it is that of the elder brother, who, instead of uniting with his family in rejoicing over the recovery of the younger brother from his evil ways, took occasion, from his father's parental tenderness, to reproach him for par- tiality and unkindness ; since, having " never re- warded his obedience with so much as a kid, he had killed for his prodigal and licentious brother the fatted calf a." But a far worse character is portrayed in the history before us. Indeed, it is scarcely credible, that any person of common humanity, and still less that a good man, should be capable of acting as Jonah did ; even reproaching God to his face for the exercise of his mercy towards a repenting people, and making his very anticipation of that mercy a ground and an excuse for his own wilful disobedience. But, beyond all doubt, the history of Jonah records a literal fact, without any exaggeration or poetical embellishment : he did, as he informs us, " know God to be a merciful God;" and he did make that very mercy a ground of wrathful indignation, and of acrimonious complaint.
The acknowledgment here made, will lead me to set before you the mercy of God,
I. As delineated by Jonah —
Jonah " hiexv " God to be a merciful God. He knew it,
1. From the description which God himself had given of his own character —
[In answer to the prayer of Moses, God had made his glory to pass before him ; and had proclaimed his name, as " The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-
a Luke xv. 29, 30.