move the hinderances of our true spiritual joy, those stubborn corruptions that will not stoop to the power of grace!

CONTEMPLATION VII.-MORDECAI HONOURED BY HAMAN.

THE wit of Zeresh had like to have gone beyond the wit of Esther: had not the working Providence of the Almighty contrived these events beyond all hopes, all conceits, Mordecai had been dispatched ere Esther's second banquet. To-morrow was the day pitched for both their designs; had not the stream been unexpectedly turned, in vain had the queen blamed her delays: Mordecai's breakfast had prevented Esther's dinner; for certainly he that had given to Haman so many thousand lives, would never have made dainty upon the same suit to anticipate one of those whom he had condemned to the slaughter. But God meant better things to his church, and fetches about all his holy purposes, after a wonderful fashion, in the very instant of opportunity: "He that keepeth Israel, and neither slumbereth nor sleepeth," causeth sleep that night to depart from him that had decreed to root out Israel. Great Ahasuerus, that commanded a hundred and seven and twenty provinces, cannot command an hour's sleep. Poverty is rather blessed with the freedom of rest, than wealth and power. Cares and surfeit withhold that from the great, which presseth upon the spare diet and labour of the meanest. Nothing is more tedious than an eager pursuit of denied sleep, which, like to a shadow, flies away so much faster as it is more followed. Experience tells us, that this benefit is best solicited by neglect, and soonest found when we have forgotten to seek it.

Whether to deceive the time, or to bestow it well, Ahasuerus shall spend his restless hours in the chronicles of his time. Nothing is more requisite for princes, than to look back upon their own actions and events, and those of their predecessors; the examination of fore-past actions makes them wise-of events, thankful and cautelous.

Amongst those voluminous registers of acts and monuments, which so many scores of provinces must needs yield, the book shall open upon Mordecai's discovery of the late treason of the two eunuchs: the reader is turned thither by an insensible sway of Providence. Our most arbitrary or casual actions are overruled by a hand in heaven.

The king now feels afresh the danger of that conspiracy; and as great spirits abide

not to smother or bury good offices, inquires into the recompense of so royal a service: "What honour and dignity hath been done to Mordecai for this?" Surely Mordecai did but his duty; he had heinously sinned, if he had not revealed this wicked treachery: yet Ahasuerus takes thought for his remuneration. How much more careful art thou, O God of all mercies, to reward the weak obedience of thine (at the best) unprofitable servants!

That which was intended to procure rest, sets it off: king Ahasuerus is unquiet in himself, to think that so great a merit should lie but so long neglected; neither can he find any peace in himself, till he have given order for a speedy retribution. Hearing, therefore, by his servants, that Haman was below in the court, he sends for him up to consult with him, "What should be done to the man whom the king delighteth to honour?" O marvellous concurrence of circumstances, drawn together by the infinite wisdom and power of the Almighty! Who but Haman should be the man? and when should Haman be called to advise of Mordecai's honour, but in the very instant when he came to sue for Mordecai's hanging? Had Ahasuerus but slept that night, Mordecai had been that morning advanced fifty cubits higher than the earth, ere the king could have remembered to whom he was beholden. What shall we say, then, to reconcile these cross-passions in Ahasuerus? Before he signed that decree of killing all the Jews, he could not but know that a Jew had saved his life; and now, after that he had enacted the slaughter of all Jews as rebels, he is giving order to honour a Jew as his preserver. It were strange, if great persons, in the multitude of their distractions, should not let fall some incongruities.

Yet who can but think that king Ahasuerus meant, upon some second thoughts, to make amends to Mordecai? neither can he choose but put these two together: the Jews are appointed to death at the suit of Haman; this Mordecai is a Jew: how then can I do more grace to him that hath saved my life, than to command him to be honoured by that man who would spill his?

When Haman heard himself called up to the bed-chamber of his master, he thinks himself too happy in so early an opportunity of presenting his suit; but yet more in the pleasing question of Ahasuerus, wherein he could not but imagine that favour forced itself upon him with strange importunity for how could he conceive that any intention of more than ordinary honour could fall besides himself? Self-love, like to a good

why might it not have come to Mordecai's ear? what could he therefore now imagine other than that he was called out to that execution? But, when he saw the royal robe that Haman brought to him, he thinks, Is it not enough for this man to kill me, but he must mock me too: what an addition is this to the former cruelty, thus to insult and play upon my last distress! But, when he yet saw the royal crown ready to be set on his head, and the king's own horse richly furnished at his gate, and found himself raised by princely hands into the royal seat, he thinks, What may all this mean? Is it the purpose of mine adversary that I shall die in state? would he have me hanged in triumph? At last, when he | sees such a train of Persian peers attending him, with a grave reverence, and hears Haman proclaim before him, “ Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delighteth to honour!" finding this pomp to be serious and well meant, he imagines, in all likelihood, that this unexpected change proceeds from the suit of his Esther; now he begins to lift up his head and to hope well of himself and his people, and could not but say within himself, that he had not fasted for nothing. O the wondrous alteration that one morning hath made in the court of Persia! He that was yesternight despised by Haman's footmen, is now waited on by Haman, and all his fellow princes: he, that yesternight had the homage of all knees but one, and was ready to burst for the lack of that, now doth obeisance to that one by whom he was wilfully neglected! It was not Ahasuerus that wrought this strange mutation; it was the overruling power of the Almighty, whose immediate hand would thus prevent Esther's suit, that he might challenge all the thank to himself: while princes have their own wills, they must do his; and shall either exalt or depress according to divine appointment.

I should commend Haman's obedience, in his humble condescent to so unpleasing and harsh a command of his master, were it not, that either he durst do no other, or that he thus stooped for an advantage. It is a thankless respect that is either forced, or for ends. True subjection is free and absolute, out of the conscience of duty, not out of fears or hopes.

All Shushan is in amaze at this sudden glory of Mordecai, and studies how to reconcile this day with the thirteenth of Adar. Mordecai had reason to hope well: it could not stand with the honour of the king to kill him whom he saw cause to advance; neither could this be any other than the

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beginning of a durable promotion: otherwise, what recompense had an hour's riding been to so great a service?

On the other side, Haman droops, and hath changed passions with Mordecai : neither was that Jew ever more deeply afflicted with the decree of his own death, than this Agagite was with that Jew's honour. How heavy doth it lie at Haman's heart, that no tongue but his might serve to proclaim Mordecai happy! Even the greatest minions of the world must have their turns of sorrow.

With a covered head, and a dejected countenance, doth he hasten home, and longs to impart his grief, where he had received his advice. It was but cold comfort that he finds from his wife Zeresh, and his friends: "If Mordecai be of the seed of the Jews, before whom thou hast begun to fall, thou shalt not prevail against him, but shalt surely fall before him." Out of the mouth of pagans, O God, thou hast ordained strength, that thou mayest still the enemy and avenger. What credit hath thy great name won with these barbarous nations, that they can out of all experience make maxims of thine undoubted protection of thy people, and the certain ruin of thine adversaries? Men find no difference in themselves: the face of a Jew looks so like other men's, that Esther and Mordecai were not, of long, taken for what they were; he that made them, makes the distinction betwixt them: so as a Jew may fall before a Persian, and get up and prevail; but if a Persian, or whosoever of the Gentiles, begin to fall before a Jew, he can neither stay nor rise. There is an invisible hand of omnipotency that strikes in for his own and confounds their opposites. O God, neither is thine hand shortened, nor thy bowels straitened in thee: thou art still and ever thyself. If we be thy true spiritual Israel, neither earth nor hell shall prevail against us; we shall either stand sure, or surely rise, while our enemies shall lick the dust.

CONTEMPLATION VIII.—HAMAN HANGED, MORDECAI ADVANCED.

HAMAN's day is now come: that vengeance which hath hitherto slept is now awake, and rouseth up itself to a just execution; that heavy mourning was but the preface to his last sorrow, and the sad presage of friends is verified in the speaking; while the word was in their mouths, the messengers were at the door to fetch Haman to his funeral banquet.

How little do we know what is towards us! As the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare, so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them.

It was, as Haman conceived, the only privilege of his dearness, and the comfort of his present heaviness, that he only was called with the king to Esther's banquet, when this was only meant for his bane. The face of this invitation is fair, and promiseth much; and now the ingenious man begins to set good constructions upon all events. Surely, thinks he, the king was tied in his honour to give some public gratification to Mordecai: so good an office could deserve no less than an hour's glory. But little doth my master know what terms there are betwixt me and Mordecai: had he fully understood the insolencies of this Jew, and should, notwithstanding, have enjoined me to honour him, I might have had just cause to complain of disgrace and disparagement; but now, since all this business hath been carried in ignorance and casualty, why do I wrong myself in being too much affected with that which was not ill meant? Had either the king or the queen abated aught of their favour to me, I might have dined at home: now this renewed invitation argues me to stand right in the grace of both; and why may not I hope this day to meet with a good occasion of my desired revenge? how just will it seem to the king, that the same man whom he hath publicly rewarded for his loyalty, should now be publicly punished for his disobedience.

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With suchlike thoughts Haman cheers up himself, and addresseth himself to the royal banquet, with a countenance that would fain seem to forget his morning's task Esther works her face to an unwilling smile upon that hateful guest; and the king, as not unguilty of any dignity that he hath put upon his favourite, frames himself to as much cheerfulness as his want of rest would permit. The table is royally furnished with all delicate confections, with all pleasing liquors. King Ahasuerus so eats, as one that both knew he was, and meant to make himself welcome: Haman so pours in, as one that meant to drown his cares. And now, in this fulness of cheer, the king hungers for that long-delayed suit of queen Esther: thrice hath he graciously called for it, and, as a man constant to his own favours. thrice hath he, in the same words, vowed the performance of it, though to the half of his kingdom. It falls out

oftentimes, that, when large promises fall suddenly from great persons, they abate by leisure, and shrink upon cold thoughts here Ahasuerus is not more liberal in his offer than firm in his resolutions, as if his first word had been, like his law, unalterable. I am ashamed to miss that steadiness in Christians which I find in a pagan. It was a great word that he had said; yet he eats it not, as over lavishly spoken, but doubles and triples it with hearty assurances of a real prosecution; while those tongues, which profess the name of the true God, say and unsay at pleasure, recanting their good purposes, contradicting their own just engagements, upon no cause but their own changeableness.

It is not for queen Esther to drive off any longer; the same wisdom that taught her to defer her suit, now teaches her to propound it: a well chosen season, is the greatest advantage of any action, which, as it is seldom found in haste, so is too often lost in delay. Now, therefore, with an humble and graceful obeisance, and with a countenance full of modest fear and sad gravity, she so delivers her petition, that the king might see it was necessity that both forced it upon her, and wrung it from her: "If I have found favour in thy sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request." Expectation is either a friend or an enemy, according to the occasion: Ahasuerus looked for some high and difficult boon; now that he hears his queen beg for her life, it could not be but that the surplusage of his love to her must be turned into fury against her adversary; and his zeal must be so much more to her, as her suit was more meek and humble: "For we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish; but if we had been sold for bondmen and bondwomen, I had held my tongue, although the enemy could not countervail the king's damage." Crafty men are sometimes choked with their own plots. It was the proffer of ten thousand talents wherewith Haman hoped both to purchase his intended revenge, and the reputation of a worthy patriot: that sum is now laid in his dish, for a just argument of malicious corruption; for well might Esther plead, If we Jews deserved death, what needed our slaughter to be bought out? and if we deserved it not, what hor. rible cruelty was it to set a price upon innocent blood? It is not any offence of ours, it is only the despite of an enemy, that nath wrought our destruction.

Besides, now it appears the king was

But what shall we say to so harsh an aggravation? Could Esther have been silent in a case of decreed bondage, who is now so vehement in a case of death? Certainly, to a generous nature, death is far more easy than bondage: why would she have endured the greater, and yet so abhors the less? Was it for that the Jews were already too well inured to captivity, and those evils are more tolerable wherewith we are acquainted? or was it for that there may be hopes in bondage, none in death? Surely either of them were lamentable, and such as might deserve her humblest deprecation. The queen was going on to have said, But, alas! nothing will satisfy our bloody enemy, save the utter extirpation of me and my nation when the impatient rage of the king interrupts her sentence in the midst, and, as if he had heard too much already, and could easily supply the residue of her complaint, snatches the word out of her mouth with a furious demand: "Who is he, and where is he, that durst presume in his heart to do so?" It was the interest of queen Esther's person that raised this storm in Ahasuerus: set that aside, how quietly, how merrily, was the determined massacre of the Jews formerly digested! Actions have not the same face, when we look upon them with contrary affections.

Now queen Esther musters up her inward forces, and, with an undaunted courage, fixing her angry eyes upon that hated Agagite, she says, "The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman." The word was loath to come forth, but it strikes home at the last. Never till now did Haman hear his true title; before, some had styled him noble, others great, some magnificent, and some, perhaps, virtuous; only Esther gave him his own, "Wicked Haman." Illdeserving greatness doth in vain promise to itself a perpetuity of applause. If our ways be foul, the time shall come, when after all vain flattery, after all our momentary glory, our sins shall be ripped up, and our iniquities laid before us, to our utter confusion. With what consternation did Haman now stand! how do we think he looked to hear himself thus enstyled, thus accused, yea thus condemned! Certainly, death was in his

In what a passionate distemper doth this banquet shut up! King Ahasuerus flies from the table, as if he had been hurried away with a tempest. His wrath is too great to come forth at his mouth; only his eyes tell Haman that he hates to see him, and vows to see his despatch. For solitarinesss, and not for pleasure, doth he now walk into his garden, and thinks with himself, "What a monster have I favoured? is it possible that so much cruelty and presumption should harbour in a breast that I thought ingenuous? Could I be so bewitched as to pass so bloody a decree? is my credulity thus abused by the treacherous subtilty of a miscreant whom I trusted? I confess it was my weak rashness to yield unto so prodigious a motion, but it was the villany of this Agagite to circumvent me by false. suggestions: he shall pay for my error; the world shall see, that as I exceeded in grace, so I will not come short in justice. Haman, thy guilty blood shall expiate that innocent blood which thy malice might have shed."

In the meantime, Haman, so soon as ever he could recover the qualm of his astonishment, finding himself left alone with queen Esther, loseth no time, spareth no breath, to mitigate her anger, which had made way to his destruction. Doubtless, with many vows and tears, and solemn oaths, he labours to clear his intentions to her person, bewailing his danger, imploring her mercy, confessing the unjust extent of his malice, proffering endeavours of satisfaction. "Wretched man that I am! I am condemned before I speak; and when I have spoken, I am condemned. Upon thy sentence, O queen, I see death waits for me: in vain shall I seek to avoid it it is thy will that I should perish; but let that little breath I have left, acquit me so far with thee, as to call heaven and earth to record, that in regard of thee, I die innocent. It is true, that mine impetuous malice miscarried me against the nation of the Jews, for the sake of one stubborn offender; but did I know there was the least drop of Israelitish blood in thy sacred person? could I suspect that Mordecai, or that people, did