The works of George Swinnock, M.A

First Jonah runs from his business; God sends him to Nineveh, he will go to Tarshish; here was plain rebellion against his Sovereign. One would have expected that the jealous God should have given him a Traitors wages, and when he was at Sea have suffered the Ocean of waters to have swallowed up his body, and the Ocean of fire and wrath, his soul; but lo, he cannot permit his Jonah to perish; he will rather whip him to his work, then let him wander to his ruin. But how gentle is the rod? God cannot forget the love of a Father, though Jonah forget the duty of a child, but will rather work a miracle, and make the devourer his Saviour, then Jonah shall miscarry. Tis true, he was tossed with a violent tempest and thrown over-board, but God provided him a shelter before the storm, and prepared a Whale to swallow him down, not for his destruction, but his deliverance; And the Lord spake to the fish, and it vomited up Jonah upon the dry land.

First Ionah runs from his business; God sends him to Niniveh, he will go to Tarshish; here was plain rebellion against his Soveraign. One would have expected that the jealous God should have given him a Traytors wages, and when he was at Sea have suffered the Ocean of waters to have swallowed up his body, and the Ocean of fire and wrath, his soul; but loe, he cannot permit his Ionah to perish; he will rather whip him to his work, then let him wander to his ruine. But how gentle is the rod? God cannot forget the love of a Father, though Ionah forget the duty of a childe, but will rather work a miracle, and make the devourer his Saviour, then Ionah shall miscarry. Tis true, he was tossed with a violent tempest and thrown over-board, but God provided him a shelter before the storm, and prepared a Whale to swallow him down, not for his destruction, but his deliverance; And the Lord spake to the fish, and it vomited up Jonah upon the dry land.

Well now, the child is brought home, you will look that he should make some recompense for his former disobedience, by his faithfulness and diligence for the future; that the danger he had been in, the death he had so narrowly escaped, the miracle which had been wrought for him, and the extraordinary mercy he had so lately received, should have melted him wholly into Gods mould, and have made him, like Abraham, to have come up wholly to Gods foot. But alas he addeth sin to sin, and neither mercy nor misery prevail with him to know himself. Indeed he undertakes the journey and message