A Study by John King (c. 1560-1621)   Jonah 1:2, pt. 1 - The City of Nineveh   [This continues a study taken from a series of lectures given in 1594 by John King, who later became the Bishop of London in 1611.] 1  The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: 2  “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me” (Jonah 1:1-2, KJV).   Not to trouble you with longer repetition, we inquired in the former exercise of these three points: 1. The place which Jonah was sent unto; 2. His business there; 3. The cause. Touching the place, we proposed four reasons why God sent him to Nineveh: 1. To keep his manner and use of foretelling the plague before he inflicts it; 2. To set up a standard of hope to the rest of the Gentiles, that they also should partake the goodness of God; 3. To prevent his people with mercy, and to take up favor in Assyria for them beforehand, against the time of their banishment; 4. To shame and confound the house of Israel, with the singular repentance of a strange people. Nineveh is further beautified in my text by two epithets or additions, the one describing the nature or kind of the place, ‘a city;’ the other, the quantity and ampleness thereof, ‘a great city.’ The inference from both these must needs be this, that because it was a city, and a great city, it was therefore stately for wealthiness, glorious for buildings, well peopled, tedious to be gone through, perilous to be threatened, where the prophet was likely to find in all states of men, princes, councilors, courtiers, merchants, commoners, mighty contradiction. The greatness of Nineveh is more plentifully set down in the third of this prophecy, where it is termed, “a great and an excellent city, of three days’ journey” (see Jonah 3:3). It had an ancient testimony long before in Genesis 10:11, for thus Moses wrote that “Asshur came from the land of Shinar, and built Nineveh and Rehoboth, and Calah, and Resen between Nineveh and Calah.”  At length, he singles out Nineveh from the rest, and sets a special mark of pre-eminence upon it, “This is a great city;” which honour, by the judgment of the most learned, though standing in the last place, belongeth to the first of the four cities, namely, to Nineveh. Others imagined, but their conjecture is without ground, that the whole four cities were closed up within the same walls, and made but one of an unusual bigness. Some ascribe the building of Nineveh to Ninus, the son of Belus, of whom it took its name, to be called either Ninus, as we read in Pliny, or, after the manner of the Hebrews, Nineveh. They conceive it thus, that when Nimrod had built Babylon, Ninus, disdaining his government, went into the fields of Asshur, and there erected a city after his own name, between the rivers Lycus and Tybris. Others suppose that the affinity betwixt these names, deceived profane writers touching the author thereof, and that it took the name Nineveh because it was beautiful or pleasant. Others hold opinion that Asshur and Ninus are but one and the same person; and lastly, to conclude, the judgment of some learned people is, that neither Asshur, nor Ninus, but Nimrod himself, was the founder of it. But by the confession of all, both sacred and gentile histories, the city was very spacious, having four hundred and eighty furlongs in circuit, when Babylon had fewer almost by an hundred, and as afterwards it grew in wealth and magnificence, so they write, it was much enlarged. Raphael Volateranus affirms that it was eight years in building, and not by fewer at once than ten thousand workmen. There was no city since, by the estimation of Diodorus Siculus, that had like compass of ground, or stateliness of walls, the height whereof was not less than an hundred feet, the breadth sufficiently capable to have received three carts on a row, and they were furnished and adorned besides with one thousand five hundred turrets. The Holy Ghost, no doubt, had a double purpose in giving this glorious title of distinction to Nineveh: the one in respect of Jonah, the other of Nineveh itself. I. In respect of Jonah, it was the meaning of God to try and arm his prophet beforehand with commemoration of the greatest difficulties, that by naming the worst at the first unto him, he might prove his obedience, whether he felt himself disposed to hold out, and so settle his thoughts in some sort in declaring the costs of the building before he undertook it, lest afterwards, when he came and found the danger of the place beyond his expectation, he might complain of God, as we read in Jeremiah 20, “I am deceived, Lord, and thou hast deceived me” (Jer. 20:7). Thus he dealt with Abraham his servant in Genesis 22, about the offering up of his son, whose faith and obedience he sounded before, by aggravating in his ears every circumstance of the action, that Abraham might forecast with himself whether the infirmity of his nature were able to brook it, for it is written there that “God did prove Abraham.” The proof was thus: Abraham, take (1) thy son; (2) thine only son; (3) Isaac thy son; (4) whom thou lovest; take him (5) thyself; take him (6) now presently; (7) get thee into the land of Moriah; (8) there offer him; offer him (9) for a burnt-offering upon one of the mountains which I shall show thee. The weight of every word is enough to bruise him in pieces, and make him sink down under the burden of that charge. (1) Take thy son, not thy bondman, nor beast, nor any common thing, that belongs to thee; (2) thine only son, the only begotten of the free woman; (3) not Ishmael, but Isaac thy son, to whom thy promises are established; (4) Isaac whom thou lovest, as tender and dear unto thee as the bowels of thine own breast; (5) take him in thine own person, even thou, the father of the child, turn not over the execution to any other man; (6) take him without delay, I give thee no time to deliberate, nor day nor hour to confer with thyself, and to comfort thy broken heart about the loss of thy beloved; (7) get thee into the land of Moriah, which will ask the travel of three days, so long will I hold and suspend thy soul in bitterness; (8) leave not thy son in Moriah as an orphan without his father, to sojourn in a strange country; offer him in sacrifice, commit slaughter upon his flesh; (9) lastly, when thou hast slain him, thou shalt burn him in the fire, and consume him to ashes; thou shalt not spare thy son for my sake, neither quick nor dead. So, likewise, when he sent Ezekiel to the rebels of Israel, he gave him this provision, in Ezekiel 2: “Son of man, I send thee to the children of Israel” (Ezek. 2:3). What are they? I will not dissemble with thee, they are “a rebellious nation, they and their fathers before them unto this day, children hard of face and stiff- hearted… Thou shalt say unto them. ‘Thus saith the Lord God,’… but surely they will not hear, neither will they cease, for they are rebels, and thorns, and scorpions” (Ezek. 2:3-6). I have now unfolded the conditions of thy charge; if thou findest thy courage sufficient to endure the gainsaying of rebels, the pricking and rending of thorns, tearing the ears with contumely, and the name of thy maker with blasphemous speech, the hissing and stinging of pestilent scorpions, then go to the children of Israel; if not, thou art unmeet for this business. As if a prophet of our days should be sent to Constantinople, and have his instruction given him at his setting forth, that it is a portly and insolent city, the seat of the great Turk, the heart of the empire, a cage of all uncleanness, an enemy to the name of Christians, warring continually against the saints, a scorner of our crucified Redeemer, a worshipper of the false prophet Mahomet, with other such like cold encouragements, feeling his pulses, as it were, and examining his spirit, whether it hath a power to fight with these dangers. It was some comfort, no doubt, amongst the discomforts to come, that our Saviour taught his disciples before their going abroad: In Matt. 10, “Behold I send you as lambs among wolves;… they will deliver you up to the councils, and scourge you in their synagogues: and you shall be brought to the governors and kings for my sake, in witness to them and to the Gentiles” (Matt. 10:16-18). In the 16th of John, he plainly professes his meaning, in these kind of predictions, “These things have I said unto you that ye should not be offended. They shall excommunicate you: yea, the time shall come, that whosoever killeth you shall think that he doth God service. But these things have I told you, that when the hour shall come you may re-remember that I told you of them” (John 16:1-4). The foreknowledge of dangers ensuing gave invincible constancy and resolution to Paul, as appears in his excellent oration made at Miletum, in Acts 20:22, “Behold I go bound in the spirit to Jerusalem, and know not what things shall come unto me there: save that the Holy Ghost witnesses in every city, saying that bands and afflictions stay for me.” Hereupon he composes his heart to patience, and calls all his forces home to himself to resist those afflictions: “But I pass not at all, neither is my life dear unto me,” etc. And when Agabus at Caesarea, in chap. 21, had taken the girdle off Paul, and bound his own hands and feet, saying from the mouth of the Holy Ghost, “So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle,”  when his friends would have held him back from going to Jerusalem, he answered boldly, and said, “What do ye, weeping and breaking mine heart? For I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem, for the name of the Lord Jesus” (Acts 21:13). Peter persuades the dispersed saints, dwelling here and there, to patience in troubles, by an argument drawn from the knowledge and experience thereof before had, in 1 Peter 4:12, “Dearly beloved,” saith he, “think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is among you to prove you, as though some new thing was come unto you;” as if he had said, This fire is ancient and well known; you have long seen the smoke thereof, and therefore the breaking forth of the flames should not so greatly astonish you. His own practice was not inferior to his advice; for upon that presage which his master gave in the last of John, “When thou art old, thou shalt stretch forth thine hands, and another shall gird thee,” etc., he took his occasion to use more diligence in his calling, knowing, as himself speaketh, in 2 Peter 1, that “the time was at hand, when he must lay down his tabernacle, even as the Lord Jesus Christ had shewed him.” Thus much on the behalf of Jonah, that if the greatness of the city were any terror unto him, he might not complain that he was taken at unawares, suddenly called, and improvidently thrust forth, but with alacrity of mind set his shoulder to the work, and settle his confidence in the greatness of that God from whom he was commanded. It is a direction to us all, whatsoever our service be wherein God shall employ us, whether in church or in commonwealth, whether we sit upon the thrones of David for execution of judgment, or in the chair of Moses for exposition of the law, which are the most cumbersome charges upon the earth, the very heat and burden of the day, if I may so term them, not to remit our labours, and with the sons of Ephraim, being armed and bearing bows, to turn our backs in the day of battle. But though we be crossed with a thousand afflictions, and have just cause to cry out, as Moses in his government. Num. 11:2, “Why hast thou vexed thy servant?” yet persist and go forward in our pains, addressing our souls to contentment and quietness. This was I called unto; I cannot plead ignorance, neither had I reason to expect less; travail, vexation, anguish of spirit were given me for my lot and my portion to drink, when I first entered into these affairs. II. Touching the place, when we hear it commended for a great city, shall we infer hereupon, therefore privileged to carelessness, haughtiness, oppression, wickedness, which are the worms and moths, for the most part, that breed of greatness? Therefore may Nineveh sin with impunity, and say, I am the queen of the earth, who shall control me? Therefore must sins set up a monarchy also in Nineveh? Must prophets go to Bethel, and prophesy in our corners, because Nineveh is the king’s court, and cannot bear the words of prophets? Can the mightiness of her state, singularity of her government, climbing of her walls, aspiring of her towers, multitude of her people, make her secure against the wrath of the Lord of hosts? Or can the bars of her gates keep out his judgments? Alas, what is the greatness of Nineveh compared with the greatness of the Lord? The lands of Alcibiades, in the map of the whole world, were less than a center, and small tittle, they could not be espied; all the islands of the sea are as a little dust, in the sight of the Almighty, and the nations “as the drop of a well-bucket,” (Isa. 11). What is the number and the height of thy proud turrets? Though they hold the earth in awe, they cannot threaten heaven, and the closer they press to the seat of God, the nearer they lie to his lightning. The challenge of God to the selfsame city, is notably set down in the prophecy of Nahum, in Nahum 3:8, “Art thou better than No, which was full of people, that lay in the rivers, and had the waters round about it, whose ditch was the sea, and her wall was from the sea? Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength, and there was no end; Put and Lubim were her helpers. Yet was she carried away, and went into captivity: her young children were broken in pieces at the head of all the streets: and they cast lots for her noble men, and all her mighty men were bound in chains.” The reason holds by equality: the strength and puissance of No was abased, and thy might shall be cast down. It was afterward accomplished upon Nineveh, because “she was full of blood, full of lies and robbery, a mistress of witchcrafts, her multitude was slain, and the dead bodies were many, there was no end of her carcasses, and they even stumbled as they went upon her corpses.” Mercurius Trismegistus sometimes spoke to Asclepius of Egypt after this sort. Art thou ignorant, Asclepius, that Egypt is the image of heaven? etc.—And if we shall speak more truly, our land is the temple of the whole world;—and yet the time shall come when Egypt shall be forsaken, and that land which was the seat of the Godhead shall be deprived of religion, and left destitute of the presence of the gods. It is written of Tyrus, in Isaiah 23, that she was “rich with the seed of Nilus, that brought her abundance; the harvest of the river were her revenues, and she was a mart of the nations,” etc. Yet the Lord triumphs and makes disport at her overthrow: “Is this that glorious city of yours, whose antiquity is of ancient days?..., who hath decreed this against Tyrus? She that crowned men, whose merchants are princes, and her chapmen the nobles of the world? The Lord of hosts hath decreed it, to stain the pride of all glory, and to bring to contempt all the honourable in the earth.” “It is fallen, it is fallen,” (saith the angel in the Revelation, chap. 18), “Babylon the great city” (having the same title of greatness that Nineveh hath in this place), “and is become the habitation of devils, and the hole of all foul spirits, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird,” though she had said in her heart, “I sit as a queen, I am no widow, and shall see no mourning.” That everlasting city of Rome, the eternal city, as Ammianus Marcellinus called her, shall see the day when the eternity of her name, and the immortality of her soul wherewith she is quickened, I mean the supremacy of her prelates above emperors and princes, shall be taken from her; and as Babylon before mentioned has left her the inheritance of her name, so it shall leave her the inheritance of her destruction also, and she shall become as other presumptuous cities, “a dwelling for hedgehogs, an habitation for owls and vultures; thorns shall grow in her palaces, and nettles in her strongholds.” The lamentations of Jeremiah touching the ruin of Jerusalem, sometimes “the perfection of beauty, and the joy of the whole earth,” (Lam. 2), as near unto God as the signet upon his right hand, yet afterwards destroyed as a lodge in a garden, that is made but for one night, if they can pass by the ears of any man and leave not lamentation and passion behind them, I will say that his heart is harder than the nether millstone. How were her gates sunk to the ground, her bars broken, the stones of her sanctuary scattered in the corners of every street, her mountain of Sion so desolate, that the very foxes run upon it, whose strength was such before, “that the kings of the earth, and all the inhabitants of the world, would never have believed that the enemy should have entered into the gates of Jerusalem” (chap. 4). I now conclude. Greatness of sins will shake the foundations of the greatest cities upon the earth; if their heads stood amongst the stars, iniquity would bring them down into dust and rubble. Multitude of offenses will minish and consume multitudes of men, that although the streets were sown with the seed of man, yet they shall be so scarce that a child may tell them: yea, the desolation shall be so great, that none shall remain to say to his friend, “Leave thy fatherless children behind thee, and I will preserve them alive, and let thy widows trust in me” (Jer. 49).   The days can speak, and the multitude of years can teach wisdom; ask your fathers, and they can report to you, that grass has grown in the streets of your cities for want of passengers, and a man has been as precious as the gold of Ophir, as rare almost to be found as if the ground of your city had been the moors and wastes where no man dwells. One would have wished a friend more than the treasures of the east, to have kept him company, relieved his necessity, to have taken some pains with his widow and orphans, to have closed his eyes at the time of his death, to have seen him laid forth for burial, and his bones but brought to the grave in peace. The arm of the Lord is not shortened; he that smote you once can smite you the second time; he can visit the sons as well as the fathers; he is a God, both in the mountains and in the valleys, in the former and later ages; he is able again to measure the ground of your city with a line of vanity, pull down your houses into the dust of the earth, and turn the glory of your dwellings into ploughed fields; only the fear of his name is your safest refuge, righteousness shall be a stronger bulwark to you than if you were walled with brass; mercy, and judgment, and truth, and sobriety, and sanctimony of life shall stand with your enemies in the gate, and repel the vengeance of God in the highest strength thereof. [This study will continue, D.V., in the next issue.]     This article is taken from:  King, John (Bishop of London). Lectures Upon Jonah. Edinburgh: James Nichol, 1864 (originally published c. 1600). A PDF file of this book can be downloaded, free of charge, at: http://www.ClassicChristianLibrary.com.