suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty V Here, for one single expression relating to his justice, there is a vast accu- mulation of rich and diversified terms to convey to our minds a just idea of his mercy; all shewing, that "judgment is a strange act," to which he is utterly averse ; but that mercy is the attribute, in the exercise of which is all his delight0.]
2. From the marvellous display which had been made of it, throughout the whole of his dealings with his people in all ages —
[Scarcely had the people been brought out of Egypt, be- fore they made a golden calf, and worshipped it as the author of their deliverance. This greatly incensed God ; and deter- mined him to cut them off, and to raise up to himself another people from his servant Moses : but, at the intercession of Moses, he forgave them, and " repented of the evil which he had thought to do unto themd." So, throughout all their stay in the wilderness, and in all their rebellions after their esta- blishment in Canaan, he manifested the same compassion to- wards them ; as David informs us : " Many times did he deliver them: but they provoked him with their counsels, and were brought low for their iniquity. Nevertheless, he regarded their affliction when he heard their cry: and he remembered for them his covenant, and repented according to the multitude of his tender mercies6"
Well, therefore, might Jonah say, " He knew God to be a merciful God ;" the very existence of his nation, after such long-continued and aggravated offences, being an ample proof of it.]
But my chief object is, to open to you the mercy of God,
II. As illustrated in the history before us —
View it,
1. In the preservation of Jonah himself —
[God commanded Jonah to go to Nineveh, and to pro- claim to them his determination to destroy the inhabitants thereof for their iniquities ; and to inform them, at the same time, that the judgment should be executed within the short space of forty days. Jonah, averse to execute the commission, fled from the presence of the Lord, and took ship, in order to
b Exod. xxxiv. G, 7. c Isai. xxviii. 21. Mic. vii. 18.
d Exod. xxxii. 9 — 14. e Ps. cvi. 43 — 45.