hat the Lord is "gracious and merciful, slow to anger
and of great kindness," chap. iv. 2. The view which these words, at
once, open up into the future, is, that at some future period the Lord
will grant to the Gentiles the preaching of His word, and admission
into His kingdom. The glory of His mercy and grace would have
been darkened, if the revelation of them had been for ever limited
to a particular, small portion of the human race. Nineveh, the
representative of the heathen multitude, is very significantly called
the "great city" at the very outset, in i. 2, and "a great city for
God," in iii. 3, for which, as _Michaelis_ remarks, God specially
cared, on account of the great number of souls; compare iv. 11.

If the symbolical and prophetical character of the book be denied, the
fact of its having its place among the prophetical, and not among the
historical, books, admits of no explanation at all. For so much is
evident, that this fact cannot be satisfactorily accounted for by the
circumstance that the book reports the events which happened to a
prophet. The sound explanation has been already given by _Marckius_:
"The book is, in a great measure, historical, but in such a manner,
that in the history itself there is hidden the mystery of the greatest
prophecy, and that Jonah proves himself to be a true prophet, by the
events which happened to him, not less than by his utterances." A
similar explanation is given by _Carpzovius_: "By his own example, as
well as by the event itself, he bore witness that it was the will of
God that all men should be saved, and should come to the knowledge of
the truth," 1 Tim. ii. 4.

We are led to the same conclusion by the representation itself. This
differs very widely from that given in the historical books. The
objection raised by _Hitzig_ against the historical truth,--viz., that
the narrative is fragmentary,--that it wants completeness,--that a
number of events are communicated only in so far as is required by the
object of gaining a foundation for the graphic representation of the
doctrinal contents,--cannot be set aside so easily as is done by
_Haevernich_ when he says: [Pg 411] "By arguments of a nature so flimsy,
suspicions may be raised against the truth of every historical report."
We cannot but confess that, to the writer, history is indeed a means
only of representing a thought to which he is anxious to give currency
in the Church of God. It is just for this reason that h