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It is hard to say what was the gourd that covered
Jonah’s head at Nineveh : Jerome says, it was a
small shrub, which, in the sandy places of Canaan,
grows up in a few days to a considerable height, and
with its large leaves forms an agreeable shade. It
is now generally thought to be the Palma Christi,
which is somewhat like a lily, with large smooth and
black spotted leaves; one kind of it grows to the
height of a fig-tree; and whose branches and trunk are
hollow as a reed ; there is also the wild gourd, which
creeps along the surface of the earth, as those of cu-
cumbers; its fruit is of the size and form of an orange,
containing a light substance, but so excessively bitter
that it has been called the gall of the earth.
I have now given you a short account of the
History of Jonah, which could be greatly enlarged
if space would permit—also the command given by
God to preach at Nineveh—Jonah’s disobedience to
that command—the pursuit and arrest of him for
that disobedience by a storm, in which he was asleep
the discovery of him and his disobedience to be
- the cause of the storm—the casting of him into the
sea, for the stilling of the storm—the miraculous
preservation of his life there in the belly of a fish,
which was his preservation for further services. We
have also Jonah’s praying unto God : in; his prayer
we have, the great distress and danger he 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 — the warning and instruction: he gives to
others — the praise and; glory of all given to. God—
his deliverance out of-the belly of the fish — and his
coming safe and sound upon: dry land again - his
mission renewed—and the command a second time
given him to go preach at Nineveh — his message to
Nineveh faithfully delivered, by which its speedy
overthrow was threatened — the repentance humilia-
