¶ And though christ taughte all waye to forgeue / yet peter after longe goenge to scole / axed wether men shuld forgeue .vij. tymes / thynkinge yt .viij. tymes had bene to moch. And at ye last soper Peter wold have died with christe / but yet within fewe howres after / he denied hym / both cowardly & shamefully. And after ye same maner / though he had so lōge herd that nomā might auenge him selfe / but rather turne ye other cheke to / then to smyte agayne / yet when Christ was in takīge / peter axed whether it were lawfull to smyte with ye swerde / ād taried none answere / but layed on rashly. So that though when we come first vn to ye knowlege of the trueth / and the peace is made betwene God & vs / & we loue his lawes & beleue & trust in hym / as in oure father & haue good hertes vn to him & be born anew in ye sprite: yet we are but childern ād younge scolars weake & [foble] & must have leysar to grow in ye spirite / in knowlege / loue & in ye dedes therof / as younge childern must have tyme to grow in their bodies.
¶ And God oure father & scolemaster fedeth vs & teached vs accordinge vn to the capacite of oure stomakes / & maketh vs to grow & waxe perfecte / & fineth vs & trieth vs as gold / in ye fire of temptaciōs & tribulations. As Moses wittneseth Deutero. viij. sayēge: Remēber all ye waye by which ye lord thy God caried ye this .xl. yeres in ye wildernesse / to vmble the & to tēpte or proue the / yt it might be knowen what were in thine hert. He [brougt] the in to aduersite & made ye an hongred / & then feed ye with mā which nether thou ner yet thi fathers euer knew of / to teach ye that a mā liueth not by bred only / but by all that proceadeth out of the mouth of God. For ye promises of god are life vn to all yt cleaue vn to thē / moch moare thē is bred & bodyly sustinaunce: as ye iourney of ye childern of Israel out of egypte in to ye londe promised them / ministreth the notable ensamples & yt aboundātly / as doeth all ye rest of the bible also. How be it / it is impossible for flesh to beleue & to trust in ye trueth of gods promises / vntyll he haue lerned it in moch tribulacion / after that God hath deliuered hī out therof agayne.
¶ God therfore to teach Ionas & to shew him his awne hert & to make him perfecte & to enstructe vs also bi his ensample / sent him out of ye lande of Israel where he was a prophete / to goo amonge ye heathē people & to ye greatest & mightiest citie of ye world thē / called Niniue: to preache yt within .xl. dayes they shuld all perish for their sinnes & that ye citie shuld be ouerthrowē. Which message ye frewil of Ionas had as moch power to doo / as the weakest herted womā in the world hath power / if she were cōmaunded / to leppe in to a tobbe of lyuinge snakes & edders: as happely if God had cōmaunded Sara to haue sacrificed hir sonne Isaac / as he did Abrahā / she wold haue disputed with hī yer she had done it / or though she were strōge ynough / yet many an holy seint coud not haue found in their hertes / but wold haue disobeyed ād haue runne awaye frō ye presens of ye cōmaūdemēt of god wt Ionas if thei had bene so strōgly tēpted.
¶ For Ionas thought of this maner: loo / I am here a prophete vn to Gods people the Israelites. Which though they haue gods word testified vn to them dayly / yet dispice it & worshepe God vnder ye likenesse of calues & after all maner facions saue after his awne worde / & therfore are of all naciōs ye worst & most worthy of punishment. And yet god for loue of few yt are amonge them & for his names sake spareth them & defendeth them. How thē shuld god take so cruell vengeaunce on so greate a multitude of them to whome his name was neuer preached to ād therfore are not ye tenth parte so euel as these? If I shal therfore goo preach so shall I lye & shame my selfe & God therto and make them the moare to dispice god and sett the lesse by him ād to be the moare cruell vn to his people.
¶ And vppon that imaginaciō he fled frō the face or presens of God: that is / out of ye contre where God was worsheped in & frō prosecutynge of Gods cōmaundemēt / and thought / I wyll gett me a nother waye amonge ye hethen people & be no moare a prophete / but lyue at rest & out of all cōbraunce. Neuer ye lesse the god of all mercie which careth for his electe childern & turneth all vn to good to them & smiteth thē to heale them agayne & killeth thē to make thē aliue agayne / & playeth with thē (as a father doth some tyme with his yoūge ignoraunt childern) & tempteth them & proueth them to make them se theyr awne hertes / prouided for Ionas / how all thinge shuld be.
¶ When Ionas was entered in to the sheppe / he layed him downe to slepe ād to take his rest: that is / his cōscience was tossed betwene the [cōmaudemēt] of God which sent him to Niniue / & his fleshly wisdome that dissuaded & counseled hym ye cōtrary & at ye last preualed agēst ye cōmaundemēt & caried hym a nother waye / as a sheppe caught betwene .ii. streames / & as poetes faine the mother of Meliager to be betwene diuers affectiōs / while to aduēge hir brothers deeth / she sought to sle hir awne sonne. Where vppon for very payne & tediousnesse / he laye downe to slepe / for to put ye cōmaundement which so gnew & freate his cōscience / out of minde / as ye nature of all weked is / whē they haue sinned a good / to seke al meanes with riot / reuell & pastyme / to driue ye remenbraunce of synne out of their thoughtes or as Adā did / to couer their nakednesse with aporns of pope holy workes. But God awoke hym out of his dreame / and sett his synnes before his face.
¶ For when ye Lott had caught Ionas / thē be sure yt his synnes came to remēbraunce agayne & that his conscience raged no lesse thē ye waues of the se. And thē he thought that he only was a sinner & ye hethen that ware in ye shepp none in respecte of him / [ad] thought also / as veryly as he was fled frō god / that as verily god had cast hī awaye: for ye sight of ye rod maketh ye natural child not ōly to se & to knowlege his faulte / but also to forgett all his fathers olde mercie & kindnesse. And then he cōfessed his synne openly & had yet leuer perish alone thē yt ye other shuld haue perished with him for his sake: and so of very desperacion to haue liued any lenger / bad cast him in to ye see betymes / excepte they wold be lost also.
¶ To speake of lottes / how ferforth they are lawfull / is a light questiō. First to vse thē for the breakinge of strife / as when partenars / their goodes as equally diuided as they cā / take euery mā his parte by lott / to auoyde all suspiciō of disceytfulnesse: & as ye appostles in ye first of ye Actes / whē they sought a nother to succede Iudas the traytoure / & .ii. persones were presentes / thē to breake strife & to satisfie al parties / did cast [lotttes] / wheter shuld be admitted / desirynge god to [teper] thē & to take whō he knew most mete / seynge they wist not wheter to preferre / or haply coude not all agre on ether / is lawfull [ad] in all like cases. But to abuse them vn to ye temptinge of God & to cōpell him therwith to vtter thinges wherof we stōd in doute / when we haue no commaundemēt of him so to do / as these hethē here dyd / though God turned it vn to his glorie / can not be but euell.
¶ The hethen scepmē asstonied at ye sight of ye miracle / feared God / prayed to him / offered sacrifice & vowed vowes. And I doute not / but that some of thē or haply all came therby vn to the true knowlege & true worshepinge of God & ware wōne to God in theyr soules. And ys God which is infinite mercifull in all his wayes / wrought their soules health out of ye infirmite of Ionas / euen of his good will & purpose & loue wherewith he loued them before the world was made / & not of chaunce / as it appereth vn to the eyes of the ignoraunt.
¶ And that Ionas was .iii. dayes & .iii. nightes in the bely of his fish: we cā not therby proue vn to [te] Iewes & īfideles or vn to any man / yt Christ must therfore dye ād be buried & rise agayne. But we vse ye ensample ād likenesse to strength the faith of the weake. For he that beleaueth the one can not doute in ye other: in as moch as the hād of God was no lesse mightie in preseruīge Ionas aliue agenst all naturall possibilite & in deliuerynge hī safe out of his fish / thē in reysynge vpp Christe agayne out of his sepulchre. And we maye describe ye power & vertue of ye resurrecciō therby / as Christ hī selfe boroweth ye similitude therto Mat. xij. sayēge vn to ye Iewes that came aboute him & desyred a signe or a wōder frō heuen to certifye thē that he was christ: this euell & wedlockebreakīge naciō (which breake ye wedlocke of faith wherwith they be maried vn to God / ād beleue in their false workes) seke a signe / but there shal no signe be geuen thē saue ye signe of the Prophete Ionas. For as Ionas was .iij. dayes ād iij. nightes in the bely of the whale / euē so shall the sonne of man be .iij. dayes & .iij. nyghtes in the herte of the erth. Which was a watch word / as we saye / & a sharpe threateninge vn to ye Iewes & as moch to saye as thus / ye harde herted Iewes seke a signe: loo / thys shalbe youre sygne / as Ionas was reysed out of the sepulchre of his fishe & then sent vn to the Niniuites to preach yt they shuld perish / euen so shall I ryse agayne out of my sepulchre & come & preach repentaunce vn to you. Se therfore when ye se ye signe that ye repēt or else ye shal suerly perish & not escape. For though the infirmities which ye now se ī my flesh be a lett vn to youre faythes / ye shall yet then be with out excuse / when ye se so greate a miracle & so greate power of god shed out vppō you. And so Christe came agayne after ye resurrecciō / in his spirite & preached repētaunce vn to them / by the mouth of his appostles & disciples / & with miracles of ye holy gost. And all that repented not perished shortly after ād were for ye most parte slayne with swerde ād ye rest caried awaye captiue in to all quarters of the world for an ensample / as ye se vn to this daye.