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Jon_1:12 And he said unto them, Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you: for I know that for my sake this great tempest [is] upon you.
Ver. 12. And he said unto them] More by God’s inward revelation than by discourse of reason; not as rashly offering himself to death, but as freely submitting to the mind of God, signified by the lot that fell upon him, calling for him to punishment.
Take me up, and cast me forth unto the sea] Eximia fides, saith Mercer. Before we had his repentance, testified by his confession with aggravation; here we have his faith, whereby he triumpheth over death in his most dreadful representations (Take me up, saith he, with a present mind and good courage), as also his charity, whereby he chose rather to die, as a piacular {a} person, than to cause the death of so many men for his fault. Like unto this was that of Nazianzen, who desired, Jonah-like, to be cast into the sea himself so be it all might be calm in the public; that of Athanasius, who by his sweat and tears, as by the bleeding of a chaste vine, cured the leprosy of that tainted age; that of Ambrose, who was far more solicitous of the Church’s welfare than of his own; that of Chrysostom, who saith, That to seek the public good of the Church, and to prefer the salvation of others before a man’s private profit, is the most perfect canon of Christianism, the very top gallant of religion, the highest point and pitch of piety. In 1Co_11:1-34 ôïõôï ïñïò çêñéâùìåíïò áõôç ç êïñõöç ç áíùôáôù .
So shall the sea be calm unto you] Not else: for I have forfeited my life by my disobedience; and my repentance (though true, and so, "to salvation never to be repented of," 2Co_7:10) comes too late, in regard of temporal punishments; as did likewise that of Moses, Deu_3:26, and of David, 2Sa_12:10, such is the venomous nature of sin in the saints (it is treachery, because against covenant), and such is the displeasure of God upon it, that he chastiseth his here more than any other sinners, Lam_4:6 Dan_9:12, and whoever else escape, they shall be sure of it, Amo_3:2. The word here rendered calm signifieth silent; for the sea, when troubled, roareth hideously, so that the roaring of the devils at the painful preconceit of their last doom of damnation is set forth by a word that is taken from the tossing of the sea and the noise thereupon, Jam_2:19, "The devils believe and tremble," or shiver and shudder with horrible yellings ( öñéóóïõóé. öñéî , est maria agitatio. Eustath. in Hom. Iliad).
For I know that for my sake this tempest is upon you] If Jonah were a type of Christ in that being cast into the sea a calm followed; yet herein he differed, that Christ suffered not for his own offences, but "bore our sins in his own body on the tree," and died, "the just for the unjust," 1Pe_2:24; 1Pe_3:18.
{a} Making expiation or atonement; expiatory. ŒD