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〈◊〉〈◊〉 will some say, how shall I know whether Ionas said, yet forty daies and Ni∣•…•… shalbe destroyed, or yet three daies? who seeth not that the Prophet presaging 〈◊〉〈◊〉 destruction could not say both: if at three daies end they were to bee des∣•…•…, then not at fourty: if at fourty then not at three.
If I bee asked the question, I answer for the Hebrew. For the LXX. being 〈◊〉〈◊〉 after, might say otherwise, and yet not against the sence, but as pertinent to the matter as the other, though in another signification: aduising the reader not to leaue the signification of the historie for the circumstance of a word, no•…•… to con∣temne either of the authorities: for those things were truly done (〈◊〉〈◊〉) at Ni•…•…ie, and yet had a reference farther then Niniuie: as it was true that the Prophet * 1.1 was three dayes in the Whales belly, and yet intimated the being of the Lord of all the Prophets three dayes in the wombe of the graue. Wherefore if the Church of the Gentiles were prophetically figured by Niniuie, as being dest•…•…oy∣ed in repentance, to become quite different from what it was: Christ doi•…•…g this in the said Church, it is hee that is signified both by the forty dayes, and by the three: by forty, because hee was so long with his disciples after hi•…•… resurrection, and then ascended into heauen: by three, for on the third day hee aro•…•…e againe: as if the Septuag•…•…nts intended to stir the reader to looke further into the mat∣ter then the meere history, and that the prophet had intended to intimate the depth of the mysterie: as if hee had said: Seeke him in forty dayes •…•…hom thou shalt finde in three: this in his resurrection, and the other in his asce•…•…sion Wherefore both numbers haue their fitte signification, both are spok•…•…n by one spirit, the first in Ionas, the latter in the translators. Were it no•…•… for •…•…diousnesse I could reconcile the LXX. and the Hebrew in many places wherein they are held to differ. But I study breuity, and according to my talent haue followed the Apo∣stles, who assumed what made for their purposes out of both the copies, knowing the holy spirit to be one in both. But forward with our purpose.
YEt (a) forty dayes] Hierome wonders that the seauenty would translate three, for forty, the Hebrew hauing no such similitude in figure or accent. In these straites is the excel∣lent witte of Saint Augustine now •…•…n angl•…•…d, nor can hee well acquit him-selfe of th•…•…m (b) At Ni•…•…iuie] A citty in Assyria, built by Ninus. Wee haue spoaken of it already.
Nin•…•…uie, a figure of the Church