Religion & morality > History of Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob

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- It is liard to say what was the gourd that covered
' Jonah’s head at Nineveh : Jerome says, it was a
i small shiub, which, in the sandy places of Canaan,
1 grows up in a few days to a considerable height, and
with ite large leaves forms an agreeable shade. It
: is now generally thought to be the Palma Clmsti,
1 which is somewhat like'a lily, with large smooth and
black spotted leaves t one kind of it grows to the
height of a fig-tree; and whose branches and trunk are
i hollow as a reed ; there is also the wild gourd, which
1 creeps along the surface of the earth, as those of cu-
: cumbers; its fruit is of the size and form of an orange,
4 containing a light substance, but so excessively bitter
that it ha's been called the gall of-the earth.
I'.'i I have now given you a short account of the
1 History of Jonah, which could be greatly enlarged
:i if space would permit—also the command given by
jiijCrod to preach at Nineveh—Jonah’s disobedience1 to
! that command—the pursuit and arrest of him for
,1 that disobedience by a' storm, in which he was asleep
~ —the.discovery of him and his disobedience to be
M the cause of the storm—the casting of him into the
ii sea, for the stilling of the storm—the miraculous
n preservation of his life there in the belly of a fish,
1 which was his preservation for -further services. We
I have also Jonah’s praying mite God : it; hi» prayer
we have, the great distress and danger lie Was in—
the despair he was thereby almost reduced to—the
encouragement he took to himself in this deplorable
condition—»-the assurance he had of God’s favour to
him—dho warning1 and instruction: he gives to
others—the praise and; glory of all given to. God—
his deliverance out of-tlie belly of the fish—and his
t> coming safe and- sound upon: dry land again-^-his
li mission renewed—and the command a second time
1 given him to go preach at Nineveh—his message to
I Nineveh faithfully delivered, by which its speedy
> evertJirow was threatened—-the rcpentanCfy humjliiv-
k