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when the God of heaven notes, and punishes | a sin in chase, it is good to follow it home, tneir offences? Whoso walketh by this rule, not slackening our pursuit, till we have fully can neither err nor miscarry. It is no trust-prevailed; and when it is once fallen under ing to the external remedies of sin; either our hands, we cannot kill it too much. they are not always present, or, if present, not powerful enough: but if the fear of God have once taken up the heart, it goes ever with us, and is strong enough to overmaster the most forcible temptation.

Now, Nehemiah having thus happily delivered his people from a domestical captivity, commends his service to the gracious remuneration of the Almighty: “Think upon me, my God, for good, according to all that I have done for this people:" therefore doth he refuse the bread of the governor, that he may receive the reward of the Governor of heaven. Had he taken a temporary recompense, both he and it had been forgotten; now he hath made a happy change for eternity. Not that he pleads his merit, but sues for mercy; neither doth he pray to be remembered for his work, but according his work.

Therefore must these Jews follow this example of Nehemiah, because he followed not the example of his predecessors: because he left their evil, they must imitate his good. In vain shall rulers advise against their own practice: when they lead the way, they may well challenge to be followed. Seldom hath it been ever seen, that great persons have not been seconded in evil: why should not their power serve to make part-to ners of their virtues.

Thus well did it speed with Nehemiah: his merciful carriage, and zealous suit, have drawn the rulers to a promise of restitution: 66 We will restore them, and will require nothing of them, so will we do as thou sayest."

It is no small advantage that these nobles must forego in their releases: there cannot be a better sign of a sound amendment, than that we can be content to be losers by our repentance. Many formal penitents have yielded to part with so much of their sin as may abate nothing of their profit: as if these rulers should have been willing to restore the persons, but withal should have stood stiffly to require their sums: this whining and partial satisfaction had been thankless. True remorse enlargeth the heart, and openeth the hand, to a bountiful redemption of

our errors.

Good purposes do too often cool .n time, and vanish into a careless forgetfulness. Nehemiah feared this issue of these holy resolutions, and therefore he prosecutes them in their first heat; not leaving these promises, till he had secured them with an oath: the priests are called for, that in their mouths the adjuration may be more solemn and sacred. It is the best point of wisdom to take the first opportunity of fixing good motions, which otherwise are of themselves light and flighty. To make all yet more sure, their oaths are cross-barred with his execration: Also I shook my lap, and said, So God shake out every man from his house, and from his labour, that performeth not this promise, even thus be he shaken out, and emptied; and all the congregation said, Amen." A promise, an oath, a curse, are passed upon this act: now, no Israelite dares falter in the execution. When we have |

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Our good deeds, as they are well accepted of God, so they shall not go unrewarded; and what God will give, why may not we crave? Doubtless, as we may offer up our honest obedience unto God, so we may expect and beg his promised retributions; not out of a proud conceit of the worth of our earnings, which, at the best, are no other than unprofitable servants, but out of a faithful dependence upon his pact of bounty, who cannot be less than his word. O God, if we do aught that is good, it is thine act, and not ours! crown thine own work in us, and take thou the glory of thine own mercies.

While Nehemiah is busy in reforming abuses at home, the enemy is plotting against him abroad: Sanballat, and Tobiah, and Geshem the Arabian, conspire against his life, and, in him, against the peace of Jerusalem. What open hostility could not do, they hope to effect by pretence of treaties: four several messages call Nehemiah to a friendly meeting. Distrust is a sure guard. The wise governor hath learned to suspect the hollow favours of an enemy, and to return them with safe and just excuses: I cannot come down: why should the work cease, while I leave it, and come down to you?" I do not hear him say, You intend mischief to me, I will not come forth to you, though this were the proper cause of his forbearance; but he turns them off with an answer, that had as much truth as reservedness. Fraud is the fitliest answered with subtlety: even innocency is allowed a lawful craft. That man is in an ill case, that conceals no truth from an adversary.

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What entreaties cannot do, shall be at tempted by threats. Sanballat's servant comes now the fifth time with an open letter, importing dangerous intimations, where

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der, and to advise him, for shelter, to fly to the forbidden refuge of the temple. The colour was fair. Violence is meant to thy person; no place but one can promise thee

And what if Nehemiah had hearkened to this counsel? sin and shame had followed: that holy place was for none but persons sacred, such as were privileged by blood and function; others should presume and offend in entering: and now, what would the people say? What shall become of us, while our governor hides his head for fear? Where shall we find a temple to secure us? What do we depending upon a cowardly leader?

in it is written, "It is reported among the heathen, and Gashmu saith it, that the Tews think to rebel; for which cause thou buildest the wall, that thou mayest be their king." "It is reported:" and what false-safety; the city hath as yet no gates; come, hood may not plead this warrant? what therefore, and shut thyself up in the temcan be more lying than report? Among ple: there only shalt thou be free from all the heathen :" and who is more ethnic than assault. Sanballat? what pagan can be worse than a mongrel idolater?" And Gashmu saith it," ask my fellow else: this Arabian was one of those three heads of all the hostile combination against Jerusalem, against Nehemiah. It would be wide with innocence, if enemies might be allowed to accuse. "That the Jews think to rebel:" a stale suggestion, but once powerful: malice hath learned to miscal all actions; where the hands cannot be taxed, the very thoughts are prejudged: "For which cause thou buildest the wall, that thou mayest be their king." He was never a true Israelite, that hath not passed spiteful slanders and misconstructions. Artaxerxes knew his servant too well, to believe any rumour that should have been so shameless. The ambition of Nehemiah was well known to reach only to the cup, not to the sceptre of his sovereign; and yet, to make up a sound tale, "Prophets are suborned to preach, There is a king in Judah;" as if that loyal governor had corrupted the pulpits also, and had taught them the language of treason.

But what of all this? what if some false tongue have whispered such idle tales? It is not safe for thee, O Nehemiah, to contemn report: perhaps this news shall fly to the court, and work thee a deadly displeasure, ere thou canst know thyself traduced; come, therefore, and let us take counsel together. Surely that man cannot be sparing of any thing, that is prodigal of his reputation. If aught under heaven can fetch Nehemiah out of his hold, it is the care of his fame. But that wary governor sees a net spread near unto this stall, and therefore keeps aloof, not without contempt of those sly devices: "There are no such things done as thou sayest, but thou feignest them out of thine own heart." Some imputations are best answered with a neglective denial. It falls out often, that plain dealing puts craft out of countenance.

Since neither force nor fraud can kill Nehemiah, they will now try to draw him into a sin, and thereby into a reproach: O God! that any prophet's tongue should be mercenary! Shemaiah the seer is hired by Tobiah and Sanballat, to affright the governor with the noise of his intended mur.

Well did Nehemiah forecast these circumstances, both of act and event; and therefore, resolving to distrust a prophet that persuaded him to the violation of a law, he rejects the motion with scorn: "Should such a man as I flee? should I go into the temple to save my life? I will not go." It is fit for great persons to stand upon the honour of their places: their very stations should put those spirits into them, that should make them hate to stoop unto base conditions.

Had God sent this message, we know he hath power to dispense with his own laws; but well might the contradiction of a law argue the message not sent of God: God, as he is one, so doth he perfectly agree with himself. If any private spirit cross a written word, let him be accursed.

CONTEMPLATION IV.AHASUERUS FEASTING
-VASHTI CAST OFF ESTHER CHOSEN.

He hath

WHAT bounds can be set to human ambition? Ahasuerus, that is, Xerxes, the son of Darius, is already the king of a hundred and seven and twenty provinces, and now is ready to fight for more. newly subdued Egypt, and is now addressing himself for the conquest of Greece. He cannot hope ever to see all the land that he possesseth, and yet he cannot be quiet while he hears of more. Less than two ells of earth shall ere long serve him, whom, for the time, a whole world shall scarce satisfy. In vain shall a man strive to have that which he cannot enjoy, and to enjoy aught by mere relation: it is a windy happiness that is sought in the exaggeration of these titles which are taken upon others' credit, without the sense of the owner.

Notning can fill the heart of man, but he that made it.

This great monarch, partly in triumph of the great victories that he had lately won in Egypt, and partly for the animation of his princes and soldiers to his future exploits, makes a feast, like himself, royal and magnificent.

What is greatness if it be not showed? and wherein can greatness be better shown than in the achievements of war, and the entertainments of peace?

promiscuous meetings. O shameful unchastity of those loose Christians, who must feed their lust while they fill their bellies, and think the feast imperfect, where they may not satiate their eye no less than palate!

The last day of this pompous feast is now come: king Ahasuerus is so much more cheerful, by how much his guests are nearer to their dismission. Every one is wont to close up his courtesy with so much more passion, as the last acts use to make the deeper impression. And now, that he might at once amaze and endear the beholders, Vashti the queen, in all her royalty, is called for: her sight shall shut up the feast, that the princes and people may say, How happy is king Ahasuerus, not so much in this greatness, as in that beauty!

Seven officers of the chamber are sent to carry the message, to attend her entrance, and are returned with a denial. Perhaps Vashti thought, What means this uncouth motion? More than six months hath this feast continued; and, all this while, we have enjoyed the wonted liberty of our sex. Were the king still himself, this command could not be sent; it is the wine, and not he, that is guilty of this errand is it for me to humour him in so vain a desire? will it agree with our modest reservedness. to of

All other feasts were but hunger to this of Ahasuerus, whether we regard the number of guests, or the largeness of preparation, or continuance of time. During the space of a whole half year, all the tables were sumptuously furnished for all comers, from India to Ethiopia; a world of meat; every meal was so set on, as if it should have been the last: yet all this long feast hath an end, and all this glory is shut up in forgetfulness. What is Ahasuerus the better, that his peers then said he was incomparably great? what are his peers the better, that they were feasted? Happy is ne that eats bread, and drinks new wine, in the kingdom of God; this banquet is for eternity, without intermission, without satiety! What variety of habits, of languages, offer ourselves to be gazed at by millions of manners, met at the boards of Ahasuerus? What confluence of strange guests was there now to Shushan? And, lest the glory of this great king might seem, like some coarse picture, only fair afar off, after the princes and nobles of the remote provinces, all the people of Shushan are entertained for seven days, with equal pomp and state. The spacious court of the palace is turned into a royal hall, the walls are of rich hangings, the pillars of marble, the beds of silver and gold, the pavement of porphyry, curiously checkered: the wine and the vessels strove whether should be the richer; no men drunk in worse than gold: and while the metal was the same, the form of each cup was diverse. The attendance was answerable to the cheer, and the freedom matched both: here was no compulsion, either to the measure or quality of the draught; every man's rule was his own choice. Who can but blush to see forced healths in Christian banquets, when the civility of very pagans commands liberty?

I cannot but envy the modesty of heathen dames Vashti the queen, and her ladies, with all the several ranks of that sex, feast apart, entertaining each other with a bashful courtesy, without wantonness, without that wild scurrility which useth to haunt

eyes? Who knows what wanton attempts may follow upon this ungoverned excess: This very message argues, that wit and reason have yielded their places to that besotting liquor. Nothing but absence can secure us from some unbeseeming proffer: neither doubt I but the king, when he returns to himself, will give me thanks for so wise a forbearance.

Thus, upon the conceit, as is likely, that her presence would be either needless or unsafe, Vashti refuseth to come; although, perhaps, her great spirit thought much to receive a command from the hand of officers.

The blood, that is once inflamed with wine, is apt to boil with rage; Ahasuerus is very wroth with this indign repulse. It was the ostentation of his glory and might that he affected before these princes, peers, people; and now that seems eclipsed, in the shutting up of all his magnificence, with the disgraceful affront of a woman. It vexes him to think that those nobles, whom he meant to send away astonished with the admiration of his power and majesty, should now say, What boots it Ahasuerus to rule afar off, when he cannot command at home? In vain doth he boast to govern kings, while he is checked by a woman.

Whatever were the intentions of Vasliti,

surely her disobedience was inexcusable. It is not for a good wife to judge of her husband's will, but to execute it; neither wit nor stomach may carry her into a curious inquisition into the reasons of an enjoined charge, much less to a resistance; but in a hood-winked simplicity, she must follow whither she is led, as one that holds her chief praise to consist in subjection.

Where should the perfection of wisdom dwell, if not in the courts of great princes? or what can the treasures of monarchs purchase more invaluably precious, than learned and judicious attendance? or who can be so fit for honour as the wisest?

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I doubt how Ahasuerus could have been so great, if his throne had not been still compassed with them that knew the times, and understood the law and judgment. These were his oracles in all his doubts; these are now consulted in this difficulty: neither must their advice be secretly whispered in the king's ear, but publicly delivered in the audience of all the princes. It is a perilous way that these sages are called to go, betwixt a husband and wife, especially of such power and eminency: yet Memucan fears not to pass a heavy sentence against queen Vashti : Vashti the queen hath not done wrong to the king only, but also to all the princes, and all the people, that are in all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus." A deep and sore crimination. Injuries are so much more intolerable, as they are dilated unto more: those offences, which are of narrow extent, may receive an easy satisfaction; the amends are not possible, where the wrong is universal: "For this deed of the queen shall come abroad to all women, so that they shall despise their husbands in their eyes." Indeed, so public a fact must needs fly; that concourse gave fit opportunity to diffuse it all the world over. The examples of the great are easily drawn into rules. Bad lessons are apt to be taken out; as honour, so contempt, falls down from the head to the skirts, never ascends from the skirts to the head.

These wise men are so much the more sensible of this danger, as they saw it more likely the case might prove their own: "Likewise shall the ladies of Persia and Media say this day unto all the kings and princes." The first precedents of evil must be carefully avoided. If we care to keep a constant order in good, prudence cannot better bestir itself than in keeping mischief from home.

The foundation of this doom of Memucan is not laid so deep for nothing: "If it please the king, let there go a royal com

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mandment from him, and let it be written among the laws of the Persians and Medians, that it be not altered, that Vashti come no more before Ahasuerus; and let the king give her royal estate to another that is better than she." How bold a word was this, and how hazardous! Had Ahasuerus more loved the beauty of Vashti than his honour, Memucan had spoken against his own life. Howsoever, a queen of so great a spirit could not want strength of favour and faction in the Persian court, which could not but take fire at so desperate a motion. Faithful statesmen, overlooking private respects, must bend their eyes upon public dangers, labouring to prevent a common mischief, though with the adventure of their own. Nature had taught these pagans the necessity of a female subjection, and the hate and scorn of a proud disobedience. They have unlearned the very dictates of nature, that can abide the head to be set below the rib.

I cannot say but Vashti was worthy of a sharp censure; I cannot say she was worthy a repudiation. This plaster drew too hard: it was but heathen justice to punish the wife's disobedience, in one indifferent act, with a divorce. Nothing but the violation of the marriage-bed can either break or untie the knot of marriage. Had she not been a queen, had not that contemptuous act been public, the sentence had not been so hard: now the punishment must be exemplary, lest the sin should be so. Many a one had smarted less, if their persons, if their place, had been meaner.

The king, the princes, approve this heavy judgment of Memucan: it is not in the power of the fair face of Vashti to warrant her stomach. No doubt, many messages passed ere the rigour of this execution. That great heart knows not to relent, but will rather break, than yield to an humble deprecation. When the stone and the steel meet, fire is stricken: it is a soft answer that appeaseth wrath. Vashti is cast off. Letters are sent from the king, into all his provinces, to command that every man should rule at home: the court affords them an awful pattern of authority. Had not Ahasuerus doted much upon Vashti's beauty, he had not called her forth at the feast to be wondered at by his peers and people; yet now he so feels the wound of his reputation, that he forgets he ever felt any wound of his affection. Even the greatest love may be overstrained: it is not safe presuming upon the deepest assurances of dearness. There is no heart that may not be estranged. It is not possible that great

princes should want soothing up in all their inclinations, in all their actions. While Ahasuerus is following the chase of his ambition in the wars of Greece, his followers are providing for his lust at home. Nothing could sound more pleasing to a carnal ear, than that all the fair young virgins, throughout all his dominions, should be gathered into his palace at Shushan, for his assay and choice. The decree is soon published: the charge is committed to Hege, the king's chamberlain, both of their purification and

ornaments.

What strife, what emulation, was now amongst all the Persian damsels, that either were, or thought themselves fair! Every one hopes to be a queen, and sees no reason why any other should be thought more excellent. How happy were we, if we could be so ambitious of our espousals to the King of heaven!

Amongst all this throng of virgins, God hath provided a wife for Ahasuerus, having determined his choice, where most advantage shall rise to his forlorn people.

The Jews were miserably scattered over the world, in that woful deportation under Jeconiah; scarce a handful of them returned to Jerusalem; the rest remain still dispersed, where they may but have leave to live. There are many thousands of them turned over, with the Babylonian monarchy, to the Persian: amongst the rest was Mordecai the son of Jair, of the tribe of Benjamin-a man of no mean note or ability, who, living in Shushan, had brought up Hadassah, or Esther, his uncle's daughter, in a liberal fashion. It was happy for this orphan, that, in a region of captivity, she lighted into such good hands. Her wise kinsman finds it fit, that her breeding and habit should be Persian-like: in outward and civil forms, there was no need to vary from the heathen; her religion must be her own; the rest was so altogether theirs, that her very nation was not discerned.

The same God, that had given incomparable beauty to this Jewess, gave her also favour in the eyes of Hege, the keeper of the women she is not only taken into the Persian court, as one of the selected vir. gins, but observed with more than ordinary respect all necessaries for her speedy purification are brought to her; seven maids are allowed for her attendance, and the best and most honourable place in that seraglio is allotted to her; as if this great officer had designed her for a queen, before the choice of his master.

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What strange preparation was here for the impure bed of a heathen! Every virgin

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must be six months purified with the oil of myrrh, and six other months perfumed with sweet odours, besides those special receipts that were allowed to each upon their own election. O God, what care, what cost is requisite to that soul which should be addressed a fit bride for thine own holy and glorious Majesty! When we have scoured ourselves with the most cleansing oil of our repentance, and have perfumed ourselves with thy best graces, and our perfectest obedience, it is the only praise of thy mercy that we may be accepted.

The other virgins passed their probation unregarded. When Esther's turn came, though she required nothing, but took what was given her; though she affected nothing, but brought that face, that demeanour which nature had cast upon her, no eye sees her without admiration: the king takes such pleasure in her beauty, that, contemning all the other vulgar forms, his choice is fully fixed upon her. All things must prosper, where God hath intended the success. The most wise providence of the Almighty fetches his projects from far: the preservation and advantage of his own people is in hand; for the contriving of this, Vashti shall be abandoned, the virgins shall be chosen ; Esther only shall please Ahasuerus; Mordecai shall displease Haman; Haman's ruin shall raise Mordecai. The purposes of God cannot be judged by his remote actions; only the accomplishment shows his designs: in the meantime, it pleaseth him to look another way than he moves, and to work his own ends by arbitrary and unlikely accidents.

None but Esther shall succeed Vashti: she only carries the heart of Ahasuerus from all her sex; the royal crown is set upon her head; and as Vashti was cast off at a feast, so with a solemn feast shall Esther be espoused. Here wanted no triumph to express the joy of this great bridegroom, and, that the world might witness he could be no less loving than severe, all his provinces shall feel the pleasure of this happy match, in their immunities, in their rich gifts.

With what envious eyes do we think Vashti looked upon her glorious rival! how does she now, though too late, secretly chide her peevish will, that had thus stript her of her royal crown, and made way for a more happy successor! Little did she think her refusal could have had so heinous a construction; little did she fear, that one word, perhaps not ill-meant, should have forfeited her husband, her crown, and all that she was. Whoso is not wise enough

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