John Trapp on Jonah 4:10

Verſe 10. Then ſaid the Lord] He did not roare upon Jonah, nor run upon him with a drawn ſword, even on his neck, upon the thick boſſes of his bucklers: but gently ſaid unto him, that he might the more admire his own impotency and Gods lenity;Iob 15.26. both which he ſtudiouſly deſcribeth all along this Propheſy; a good ſigne of his ſound repentance.

Thou haſt had pitty on the gourd] Here is the end ſcope and application of the parable; whereby it apeareth that God prepared not the gourd ſo much for the eaſe and uſe of Jonah's body, as for a medicine to his ſoule, convincing him of the iniquity both of his wayes and wiſhes, by an argument drawn from the leſſe to the greater: and confuting him by a compariſon. Thou, a ſinfull and wretched man, haſt had pitty Or ſpared, and art ſorry it periſhed. The gourd a ſorry ſhrub, a meane muſhrome, and none of thine neither, but as lent thee: Alaſſe maſter, ſaid they it was but borrowed.

for the which thou haſt not laboured] And ſo canſt not be ſo faſt-affected to it. [non-Latin text not transcribed]. Ethic. l. 4. For all men love their own works rather then other mens, as parents and poets, ſaith Ariſtotle: proving thereby, that thoſe which have received their riches from their parents are more liberall, then they which have gotten them by their own labour.

neither madeſt it grow] Thou haſt neither planted nor watered it, or any way added to it, by thine induſtry: for that alſo was no part of thy paines but mine. Not that God laboureth about his creatures; for he doth all his work without toole or toile Eſa. 40.28 but this, as many other things in Scripture, are ſpoken after the manner of men, and ſo muſt be taken.

which came up in a night] Heb: was the ſon of a night, not without a miracle? though Pliny ſpeak of the quick and wonderfull grouth of this ſhrub.

and periſhed in a night] Citò oriens, citò itidem moriens, quickly come, and as quickly gone; a fit embleme of earths happineſſe. Surely man walketh in a vaine ſhew; faeneâ quadam foelicitate temporaliter florens: Aug. Ep. 120. they ſhall ſoon be cut down like the graſs, and wither as the green herb. They are but Hemerobij: their life is but a day (and ſuch a day too, as no man is ſure to have twelve houres to it) as this gourd was but of one dayes continuance, a it came up in a night, ſo it periſhed the next; citò crevit, citò decrevit, repentè prolatus, repentè ſublatus, of very ſmall continuance.Tarnou.