God? if this be a quarrel, what shall the death of the Jews be other than martyrdom? The diversity of judgment and practice from the rest of the world hath been an old and envious imputation cast upon God's church. What if we be singled from others, while we walk with God? In matters lawful, arbitrary, indifferent, wisdom teacheth us to conform ourselves to all others; but where God hath laid a special imposition upon us, we must either vary or sin. The greatest glory of Israel was their laws, wherein they as far exceeded all other nations, as heaven is above earth; yet here their laws are quarreled, and are made the inducements of their destruction. It is not possible that the church of God should escape persecution, while that which it hath good is maligned, while that offends which makes it happy. Yet that they have laws of their own were not so unsufferable, if withal they did observe thine, O king! but these Jews, as they are unconformable, so they are seditious: "They keep not the king's laws." Thou slanderest, Haman! they could not keep their own laws, if they kept not the king's; for their laws call them to obedience unto their sovereigns, and adjudge hell to the rebellious. In all those hundred and seven and twenty provinces, king Ahasuerus hath no subjects but them; they obey out of conscience, others out of fear: why are they charged with that, which they do most abhor? what can be the ground of this crimination? Ahasuerus commanded all knees to bow to Haman; a Jew only refuses. Malicious Haman! he that refused to bow unto thee, had sufficiently approved his loyalty to Ahasuerus; Ahasuerus had not been, if Mordecai had not been a good subject. Hath the king no laws, but what concern thine adoration? Set aside religion (wherein the Jew is ready to present, if not active, yet passive obedience) and name that Persian law which a Jew dares break. As I never yet read or heard of a conscionable Israelite, that hath not passed under this calumniation, so I cannot yield him a true Israelite that deserves it. In vain doth he profess to acknowledge a God in heaven, that denies homage to his deputy on earth. "It is not for the king's profit to suffer them." Worldly hearts are not led by good or evil, but by profit or loss; neither have they grace to know, that nothing is profitable but what is honest, nothing so desperately incommodious as wickedness; they must needs offend by rule, that measure all things by profit, and measure profit by their imagination. How easy is it to suggest strange untruths when there is nobody to make answer! False Haman! how is it not for the king's profit to suffer the Jews? if thou construe this profit for honour, the king's honour is in the multitude of subjects; and what people more numerous than they? if for gain, the king's profit is in the largeness of his tributes; and what people are more deep in their payments? if for service, what people are more officious? How can it stand with the king's profit to bereave himself of subjects, his subjects of their lives, his exchequer of their tributes, his state of their defence? He is a weak politician that knows not to gild over the worst project with a pretence of public utility. No name under heaven hath made so many fools, so many villains, as this of profit. Lastly, as Ahasuerus reaps nothing but disprofit by the lives of the Jews, so he shall reap no small profit by their deaths: "I will pay ten thousand talents of silver to the king's treasury for this execution." If revenge were not very sweet to the malicious man, he could not be content to purchase it at so high a rate. How do we see daily, that the thirst hereof carries men to a riotous prodigality of estate, body, soul! Cruel Haman! if thou couldst have swimmed in a whole sea of Jewish blood, if thou couldst have raised mountains of their carcasses, if thou couldst have made all Persia thy shambles, who would have given thee one farthing for all those piles of flesh, for all those streams of blood? yea, who would not rather have been at charge for the avoiding of the annoyances of those slaughtered bodies, which thou offerest to buy at ten thousand talents? It were a happy thing, if charity could enlarge itself but so much as malice: if the preservation of mankind could be so much beholden to our bounty, as the destruction. Now when all these are laid togetherthe baseness and dispersedness of the people, the diversity of the laws, the irregularity of their government, the rebellion of their practice, the inconvenience of their toleration, the gain of their extirpation; what could the wit or art of man devise more insinuative, more likely to persuade? How could it be but Ahasuerus must needs think (since he could not suspect the ground of this suit), What a zealous patriot have I raised, that can be content to buy off the incommodity of the state at his own charge! how worthy is he rather of the aid both of my power and purse! Why should I be fee'd to ease my kingdoms of rebels? "The silver is given to thee, the people also, to do with them as seemeth good to thee." Without all delay, the secretaries are called to write the warrants; the king's ring is given to seal them; the posts are sent out to carry them into all the provinces: the day is set wherein all Jews, of all ages, of both sexes, through the hundred and seven and twenty provinces of the king, shall be sacrificed to the wrath of Haman. In all the carriage of Ahasuerus, who sees not too much headiness of passion? Vashti is cast off for a trifle; the Jews are given to the slaughter for nothing: his rage in the one, his favour in the other, is too impotent. He is not a worse husband than a king: the bare word of Haman is enough to kill so many subjects. No disposition can be more dangerous in great persons, than violence of affection mixed with credulity. O the seeming inequality of human conditions! "The king and Haman sat down to drink, but the city of Shushan was perplexed." It is a woful thing to see great ones quaff the tears of the oppressed, and to hear them make music of shrieks. With what lamentation do we think all the synagogues of Jews, through the world, received this fatal message of their proclaimed destruction! How do they bemoan themselves each to other! how do their conjoined cries fill heaven and earth! But above all, what sackcloth and ashes could suffice woful Mordecai, that found in himself the occasion of all this slaughter! what soul could be capable of more bitterness than he felt! While he could not but think, "Wretched man that I am! it is I that have brought all this calamity upon my nation; it is I that have been the ruin of my people! Woe is me that I ever put myself into the court, into the service of a pagan! How unhappy was I to cast myself into these straits, that I must either honour an Agagite, or draw vengeance upon Israel! Yet how could I imagine, that the flame of Haman's rage would have broken out so far? Might that revenge have determined in my blood, how happy should I have been! Now I have brought death upon many thousands of innocents, that cannot know wherefore they die. Why did I not hide myself rather from the place of that proud Amalekite? why did I stand out in contestation with so over-powerful an enemy? Alas! no man of Israel shall so much as live to curse me: only mine enemies shall record my name with ignominy, and say, Mordecai was the bane of his nation! O that my zeal should have reserved me for so heavy a service! Where now are those vain ambitions, wherewith I pleased myself in this great match of Esther? How fondly did I | hope, by this undue means, to raise myself and my people! yea, is not this carnal presumption the quarrel that God had against me? do I not therefore smart from these pagans, for that I secretly affected this uncircumcised alliance? Howsoever it be, yet, O God! what have thy people done? O let it be thy just mercy that I may perish alone!" In these sad thoughts did Mordecai spend his heart, while he walked mournfully in sackcloth before that gate wherein he was wont to sit: now his habit bars his approach; no sackcloth might come within the court. Lo! that which is welcomest in the court of heaven, is here excluded from the presence of this earthly royalty: “A broken and a contrite heart, O God thou wilt not despise." Neither did it a little add to the sorrow of Mordecai, to hear the bitter insultations of his former monitors: "Did we not advise thee better? did we not fore-admonish thee of thy danger? see now the issue of thine obstinacy:" now see, what it is for thine earthen pitcher to knock with brass. Now, where is the man that would needs contest with Haman? Hast thou not now brought thy matters to a fair pass? Thy stomach had long owed thee a spite, and now it hath paid thee: who can pity thy wilfulness? Since thou wouldst needs deride our counsel, we will take leave to laugh at thy sackcloth. Nothing but scorns, and griefs, and terrors, present themselves to miserable Mordecai. All the external buffets of adversaries were slight to the wounds that he hath made, and felt in his own heart. The perpetual intelligences that were closely held betwixt Esther and Mordecai, could not suffer his public sorrow to be long concealed from her. The news of his sackcloth afflicts her, ere she can suspect the cause; her crown doth but clog her head, while she hears of his ashes. True friendship transforms us into the condition of those we love; and, if it cannot raise them to our cheerfulness, draws us down to their dejection. Fain would she uncase her foster-father of these mournful weeds, and change his sackcloth for tissue; that yet, at least, his clothes might not hinder his | access to her presence, for the free opening of his griefs. It is but a slight sorrow that abides to take in outward comforts: Mordecai refuses that kind offer, and would have Esther see that his affliction was such, as that he might well resolve to put off his sackcloth and his skin at once; that he must mourn to death, rather than see her face to live. art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" The expectation of death had not quelled the strong heart of faithful Mordecai: even while he mourns, his zeal droops not; there could have been no life in that breast, which this message could not have roused. The good queen is astonished with this constant humiliation of so dear a friend; and now she sends Hatach, a trusty, though a pagan attendant, to inquire into the occasion of this so irremediable heaviness. It should seem Esther inquired not greatly into matters of state; that which perplexed all Shushan, was not yet known to her: her followers, not knowing her to be a Jew-in ess, conceived not how the news might concern her, and therefore had forborne the relation. Mordecai first informs her, by her messenger, of the decree that was gone out against all her nation, of the day wherein they must all prepare to bleed, of the sum which Haman had proffered for their heads, and delivers the copy of that bloody edict, charging her now, if ever, to bestir herself, and to improve all her love, all her power, with king Ahasuerus, in a speedy and humble supplication for the saving of the life, not of himself, so much as of her people. It was tidings able to confound a weak heart; and hers so much the more, as she could apprehend nothing but impossibility of redress. She needs but to put Mordecai in mind of that which all the king's servants and subjects knew well enough, that the Persian law made it no less than death, for whomsoever, man or woman, that should press into the inner court of the king uncalled: nothing but the royal sceptre extended, could keep that presumptuous offender from the grave. For her, thirty days were now passed, since she was called in to the king, an intermission, that might be justly suspicious, whether the heat of his first affection were thus soon of itself allayed towards her; or whether some suggestions of a secret enemy, perhaps this Agagite, might have set him off; or whether some more pleasing object may have laid hold on his eyes. Whatever it might be, this absence could not but argue some strangeness, and this strangeness must needs imply a danger in her bold intrusion. She could bewail, therefore, she could not hope to remedy, this dismal day of her people. This answer in the ears of Mordecai sounded truth, but weakness; neither can he take up with so feeble a return: these occasions require other spirits, other resolutions, which must be quickened by a more stirring reply: Think not with thyself, that thou shalt escape in the king's house, more than all the Jews; for, if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place, but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed; and who knoweth whether thou What then? is it death that thou fearest this attempt of thy supplication? what other than death awaits thee in the neglect of it? There is but this difference: sue, and thou mayest die; sue not, and thou must die. What blood hast thou but Jewish? and if these unalterable edicts exempt no living soul, what shall become of thine? And canst thou be so vainly timorous, as to die for fear of death? to prefer certainty of danger before a possibility of hope? Away with this weak cowardice, unworthy of an Israelite, unworthy of a queen! But if faint-heartedness or private respects shall seal up thy lips, or withhold thine hand from the aid of thy people; if thou canst so far neglect God's church, know thou that God will not neglect it: it shall not be in the power of tyrants to root out his chosen seed; that Holy One of Israel shall rather work miracles from heaven, than his inheritance shall perish upon earth: and how just shall it then be for that jealous God to take vengeance upon thee and thy father's house, for this cold unhelpfulness to his distressed church? Suffer me, therefore, to adjure thee, by all that tenderness of love wherewith I have trained up thine orphan infancy, by all those dear and thankful respects which thou hast vowed to me again, by the name of the God of Israel whom we serve, that thou awaken and stir up thine holy courage, and dare to adventure thy life for the saving of many! It hath pleased the Almighty to raise thee up to that height of honour, which our progenitors could little expect: why shouldst thou be wanting to him, that hath been so bountiful to thee? yea, why should I not think that God hath put this very act into the intendment of thine exaltation, having on purpose thus seasonably raised thee to the throne, that thou mayest rescue his poor church from an utter ruin? O the admirable faith of Mordecai, that shines through all these clouds, and, in the thickest of these fogs, descries a cheerful glimpse of deliverance! He saw the day of their common destruction enacted; he knew the Persian decrees to be unalterable; but, withal, he knew there was a Messiah to come: he was so well acquainted with God's covenanted assurances to his church, that he can, through the midst of those bloody resolutions, foresee indemnity to Israel, rather trusting the promises of God, than the threats of men. This is the victory that overcomes all the fears and fury of the world, even our faith. It is quarrel enough against any person, or community, not to have been aidful to the distresses of God's people. Not to ward the blow, if we may, is construed for little better than striking. Till we have tried our utmost, we know not whether we have done what we came for. Mordecai hath said enough: these words have so put a new life into Esther, that she is resolute to hazard the old: "Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day; I also and my maidens will fast likewise, and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law; and if I perish I perish." Heroical thoughts do well befit great actions. Life can never be better adventured, than where it shall be gain to lose it. There can be no law against the humble deprecation of evils where the necessity of God's church calls to us, no danger should withhold us from all honest means of relief. Deep humiliations must make way for the success of great enterprises: we are most capable of mercy, when we are thoroughly empty. A short hunger doth but whet the appetite; but so long an abstinence meets death half-way, to prevent it. Well may they enjoin sharp penances unto others, who practise it upon themselves. It was the face of Esther that must hope to win Ahasuerus; yet that shall be macerated with fasting, that she may prevail. A carnal heart would have pampered the flesh, that it might allure those wanton eyes: she pines it, that she may please. God, and not she, must work the heart of the king. Faith teaches her rather to trust her devotions, than her beauty. CONTEMPLATION VI. ESTHER SUING TO AHASUERUS. THE Jews are easily entreated to fast, who had received in themselves the sentence of death: what pleasure can they take in meat, that knew what day they must eat their last? The three days of abstinence are expired: now Esther changes her spirits, no less than her clothes: who, that sees that face, and that habit, can say she had mourned, she had fasted? Never did her royal apparel become her so well. That God, before whom she had humbled herself, made her so much more beautiful, as she had been more dejected; and now, with a winning confidence, she walks into the inner court of the king, and puts herself into that forbidden presence; as if she said, "Here I am, with my life in my hand: if it please the king to take it, it is ready for him. Vashti, my predecessor, forfeited her place for not coming when she was called: Esther shall now hazard the forfeiture of her life, for coming when she is not called. It is necessity, not disobedience, that hath put me upon this bold approach; according to thy construction, O king, I do either live or die; either shall be welcome." The unexpectedness of pleasing objects makes them many times the more acceptable: the beautiful countenance, the graceful demeanour and goodly presence of Esther, have no sooner taken the eyes, than they have ravished the heart of king Ahasuerus: love hath soon banished all dreadfulness: "And the king held out to Esther the golden sceptre that was in his hand." Moderate intermission is so far from cooling the affection, that it inflames it. Had Esther been seen every day, perhaps that satiety had abated of the height of her welcome; now, three and thirty days' retiredness hath endeared her more to the surfeited eyes of Ahasuerus. Had not the golden sceptre been held out, where had queen Esther been? The Persian kings affected a stern awfulness to their subjects: it was death to solicit them uncalled. How safe, how easy, how happy a thing it is, to have to do with the King of heaven, who is so pleased with our access, that he solicits suitors! who, as he is unweariable with our requests, so he is infinite in his beneficences ! How gladly doth Esther touch the top of that sceptre by which she holds her life! and now, while she thinks it well that she may live, she receives, besides pardon, favour: "What wilt thou, queen Esther, and what is thy request? it shall be given thee, even to the half of the kingdom.' Commonly, when we fear most, we speed best; God then most of all magnifies his bounty to us, when we have most afflicted ourselves. Over-confident expectations are seldom but disappointed, while humble suspicions go laughing away. It was the benefit and safety of but one piece of the kingdom, that Esther comes to sue for; and, behold, Ahasuerus offers her the free power of the half: he, that gave Haman, at the first word, the lives of all his Jewish subjects, is ready to give Esther half his kingdom. ere she ask. Now she is no less amazed | How is Haman now exalted in himself with at the loving munificence of Ahasuerus, the singular graces of queen Esther! and than she was before afraid of his austerity: begins to value himself, so much more, as "The king's heart is in the hand of the he sees himself higher in the rate of other's Lord; as the rivers of water, he turneth opinion! it whithersoever he will." It is not good to swallow favours too greedily, lest they either choke us in the passage, or prove hard of digestion. The wise queen, however she might seem to have a fair opportunity offered to her suit, finds it not good to apprehend it too suddenly, as desiring, by this small dilation, to prepare the ear and heart of the king for so important a request. Now all her petition ends in a banquet: "If it seem good unto the king, let the king and Haman come this day unto the banquet that I have prepared for him." It is an easy favour to receive a small courtesy, where we offer to give great. Haman is called; the king comes to Esther's table: and now, highly pleased with his entertainment, he himself solicits her to propound that suit, for which her modesty would, but durst not solicit him. Bashfulness shall lose nothing at the hand of well-governed greatness. Yet still Esther's suit sticks in her teeth, and dares not come forth without a further preface of time and expectation; another banquet must pass, ere this reckoning can be given in. Other suitors wait long for the delivery of their petition, longer for the receipt of their answer: here the king is fain to wait for her suit. Whether Esther's heart would not yet serve her to contest with so strong an adversary as Haman, without fuller recollection; or whether she desired to get better hold of the king, by endearing him with so pleasing entertainments; or whether she would thus ripen her hopes, by working in the mind of king Ahasuerus a foreconceit of the greatness and difficulty of that suit, which was so loath to come forth; or whether she meant thus to give scope to the pride and malice of Haman, for his more certain ruin: howsoever it were, to-morrow is a new day set for Esther's second banquet, and third petition. The king is not invited without Haman. Favours are sometimes done to men with a purpose of displeasure: doubtless Haman tasteth of the same cates with his master; neither could he, in the forehead of Esther, read any other characters, than of respect and kind applause, yet had she then in her hopes designed him to a just revenge. Little do we know, by outward carriages, in what terms we stand with either God or man. Every little wind raiseth up a bubble. Only surly and sulien Mordecai is an alloy to his happiness: no edict of death can bow the knees of that stout Jew; yea, the notice of that bloody cruelty of this Agagite hath stiffened them so much the more. Before, he looked at Haman as an Amalekite, now as a persecutor. Disdain and anger look out at those eyes, and bid that proud enemy do his worst. No doubt Mordecai had been listening after the speed of queen Esther: how she came in to the king; how she was welcomed with the golden sceptre, and with the more precious words of Ahasuerus; how she had entertained the king, how she pleased: the news had made him quit his sackcloth, and raised his courage to a more scornful neglect of his professed adversary. Haman comes home, I know not whether more full of pride or of rage; calls an inward counsel of his choice friends, together with his wife; makes a glorious report of all his wealth, magnificence, height of favour, both with the king and queen; and, at last, after all his sunshine, sets in this cloudy epilogue: "Yet all this availeth me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate." It is seldom seen that God allows, even to the greatest darlings of the world, a perfect contentment: something they must have to complain of, that shall give an unsavoury verdure to their sweetest morsels, and make their very felicity miserable. The wit of women hath wont to be noted for more sudden, and more sharp. Zeresh, the wife of Haman, sets on foot that motion of speedy revenge, which is applauded by the rest: "Let a gallows be made of fifty cubits high, and to-morrow speak thou to the king, that Mordecai may be hanged thereon; then go thou in merrily with the king unto the banquet." I do not hear them say, Be patient a while: thou hast already set Mordecai his last day, the month Adar will not be long in coming; the determination of his death hath made him desperate, let him in the meantime eat his own heart in envy at thy greatness. But they rather advise of a quick despatch. Malice is a thing full of impatience, and hates delay of execution, next unto mercy. While any grudge lies at the heart, it cannot be freely cheerful. Forced smiles are but the hypocrisy of mirth. How happy were it for us, if we would be zealously careful to re |