But, on the very first announcement of the impending judg- ments, they fasted and mourned, and cried mightily to God for mercy1. — They had heard from Jonah nothing but the simple declaration, that in forty days the whole city should be over- thrown. No hope of pardon had been held out to them; no idea had been suggested, that penitence, however deep or universal, would be of any avail : but they said, " Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish notk?" And upon this mere presumption they ventured to cry for mercy. And, behold, how graciously God listened to their prayers! No sooner did he see them turning from their evil ways, than he " repented of the evil that he said he would do unto them; and he did it not1." This was the very issue that Jonah had anticipated. And what an encouragement does it afford to every living man, to humble himself for his iniquities, and to implore mercy at the hands of this gracious God !
But that to which I desire chiefly to direct your attention, is God's mercy,]
3. In the enduring with such inconceivable for- bearance the expostulations and remonstrances of this impious man —
[This act of mercy towards Nineveh, so far from exciting joy and gratitude in the bosom of Jonah, filled him only with wrath ; yea, with such ungovernable wrath, that he broke forth into reproaches against God himself, on account of it. Whilst he was in the whale's belly, he had repented ; but now all his repentance had vanished, and he even vindicated before God the rebellion of which he had been guilty : and pleaded his anticipation of this very event, as a justification of it: "I pray thee, Lord, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish." He even went further, and "prayed to God to take away his life ;" for that, since he must appear to that people as a false prophet, "it were better for him to die than to livem." How astonish- ing was it, that God did not strike him dead upon the spot ! All the mercy that had been vouchsafed to himself, Jonah had quite forgotten. It was nothing now that he had been preserved alive in the belly of the whale, and been cast uninjured upon the dry land : no, his honour was assailed ; and every consideration of gratitude for his own mercies, and of compassion for above a million of souls that had been spared, was swallowed up in the apprehension that he should suffer in his credit, by reason of the revocation of God's
1 Jonah iii. 4 — 8. k Jonah iii. 9.
1 Jonah iii. 10. m ver. 3.