Satan. Yet the Jews still demanded of him a sign, and, to satisfy their incredulity, he must give them " a sign from heaven V It is to persons of this description that our Lord replies in the words before us ; telling them, that no different kind of sign should be given them, till his resurrection ; and, that the repenting Ninevites would in the last day condemn their obstinacy and unbelief.
The text naturally leads us to shew, I. Wherein Jonah was a type of Christ —
Whatever agreement there is between the histories of Jonah and of Christ ; the leading points, wherein the former typified our Lord, are two :
1. His miraculous restoration to dry land after having been three days confined in the belly of a fish —
[This was doubtless a wonderful event ; that he should be preserved three days in the bell}- of a fish, imhiirt ; and that, after so long a continuance in that situation, the fish, which seemed destined for his destruction, should be the instrument of his preservation ! To this, under God, we must ascribe the efficacy of his word at Nineveh ; for our Lord tells us, that, by this means, he was made *' a sign to the Ninevites." What means they had of ascertaining the fact itself, we do not ex- actly know ; but they evidently had not the smallest doubt respecting the truth of it; and therefore they received his message as coming immediately from God.
Now in this he was e\'idently a type of Christ. Our Lord having, like Jonah, been voluntarily delivered up to death for the salvation of others, was confined in the heart of the earth. The term of his imprisonment there was the same with that of Jonah's continuance in the fish's belly ; yet he " saw no cor- ruption ;" and, at the appointed time, he burst the bands of death (of which it was not possible he should be holden) and thus became a sign to the Jewish nation''. On this he laid the whole stress of his Messiahship, while he was yet minister- ing among his countrymen ; and, after the event had taken place, he gave so many, and such convincing, evidences of the fact, as to leave no possibility of doubt respecting his divine mission : this therefore was made the very corner-stone of Christianity ; and his sending down of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost in consequence of his resurrection, was such " a sign from heaven " as must leave unbelievers without excuse to all eternity.]
a Luke xi. 16, 29. * Luke xi. 30.