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 ought concern thee? Let not one death be enough for me, If I would ever have entertained any thought of evil against nation or man, that should have cost but a frown from thee. All the court of Persia can sufficiently witness, how I have magnified and adored thee, ever since the royal crown was set on thy head; neither did I ever fail to do thee all good offices unto that my sovereign master, whom thou hast now mortally incensed against me. O queen, no hand can save my life, but thine, that hath as good as bereaved it; show mercy to him, that never meant but loyalty to thee. As ever thou wouldst oblige an humble and faithful vassal to thee, as ever thou wouldst honour thy name and sex, with the praise of tender compassion, take pity upon me, and spare that life which shall be vowed to thy service; and whereas thy displeasure may justly allege against me that rancorous plot for the extirpation of that people, whom I, too late, know to be thine, let it suffice that I hate, I curse mine own cruelty, and only upon that condition shall beg the revival of my life, that I shall work and procure, by thy gracious aid, a full defeasance of that unjust execution. O let fall upon thy despairing servant one word of favour to my displeased master, that I may yet live. While he was speaking to this purpose, having prostrate himself, for the more humility, before the queen, and spread his arms in a vehement imploration up to her bed, the king comes in, and, as not unwilling to misconstrue the posture of him whom he now hated, says, "What, will he force the queen also before me in the house?" That which Haman meant as an humble supplicant, is interpreted as from a presumptuous offender: how oft might he have done so,. and more, while he was in favour, uncensured! Actions are not the same when the man alters. As charity makes a good sense of doubtful occurrents, so prejudice and displeasure take all things, though well meant, at the worst. It is an easy thing to pick a quarrel, where we intend a mischief. : The wrath of the king is as a messenger of death. While these words were yet in the mouth of Ahasuerus, Haman, in turning his head towards the king, is suddenly muffled for his execution: he shall no more see either face or sun; he shall be seen no more but as a spectacle of shame and horror and now he thinks, Woe is me, whose eyes serve me only to foresee the approach of a dishonourable and painful death! What am I the better to have been great? O that I had never been, O that I could not be ! How too truly have Zeresh, and my friends, foretold me of this heavy destiny! Now am I ready to feel, what it is that I meant to thousands of innocents; I shall die with pain and ignominy. O that the conscience of mine intended murder could die with me. It is no marvel if wicked men find nothing but utter discomforts in their end: rather than fail, their former happiness shall join with their imminent miseries, to torment them. It is the just judgment of God, that presumptuous sinners should be swallowed up of those evils, which they would not fear. Happy is that man who hath grace to foresee and avoid those ways which will lead him to a perfect confusion. Happy is he that hath so lived, that he can either welcome death as a friend, or defy it as an enemy. Who was ever the better for favours past? Those, that had before kissed the feet and smiled in the face of Haman, are now as ready to cover his head, and help him to the gallows. Harbonah, one of the chamberlains, seasonably tells the king, how stately a gibbet Haman had newly set up for well-deserving Mordecai within his own palace. I hear not one man open his mouth to intercede for the offender, to pacify the king, to excuse or lessen the fact: every one is ready to pull him down that is falling, to trample on him that is down: yet, no doubt, there were some of these courtiers whom Haman had obliged: had the cause been better, thus it would have been. Every cur is ready to fall upon the dog that he sees worried; but here, it was the just hand of God to set off all hearts from a man that had been so unreasonably merciless, and to raise up enemies, even among friends, to him that had professed enmity to God's church: so let thine enemies perish, O Lord, unsuccoured, unpitied. "Then the king said, Hang him thereon." There can be no truer justice than in retaliation: who can complain of his own measure? "Behold, the wicked travelleth with iniquity, and hath conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood. He made a pit and digged it, and is fallen into the ditch that he made; his mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate." There hangs Haman, in more reproach, than ever he stood in honour; and Mordecai, who is now first known for what he was, succeeds his favour and changes inheritances with his enemy: for while Haman inherits the gibbet of Mordecai, Mordecai inherits the house and honour of Haman. "O Lord, let the malice of the wicked come to an end, but establish thou the just." One hour hath changed the face of the Persian court; what stability is there in earthly greatness? He, who in the morning all knees bowed unto, as more than a man, now hangs up like a despised vermin, for a prey to the ravens ; he, who this morning was destined to the gallows, now rules over princes; neither was it for nothing, that he this day rode in triumph. The king's ring that was taken from Haman, is now given to Mordecai as the pledge of his authority; and he, that even now sat in the gate, is called up next to the throne. Wickedness and honest innocence have now paid their debts to both their clients. Little joy would it yet have been to Esther, that her enemy was dead, her kinsman advanced, if still her people must for all this expect their fatal day; her next suit therefore is for the safety of her nation, in the countermand of that bloody decree which Haman had obtained against them: that which was surreptitiously gotten, and rashly given, is so much more gladly reversed, by how much mercy is more pleasing to a good nature than a cruel injustice. Mordecai hath power to indite, seal, send out letters of favour to the Jews, which were causelessly sentenced to the slaughter. If a Persian law might not be reversed, yet it might be counterchanged. Mordecai may not write, "Let no Jew be slain;" he may write, "Let the Jews meet, and stand for their lives against those that would slay them." This command flies after the former so fast, as if it would overtake that which it cannot recall. The Jews are revived with these happy tidings, that they may have protection as well as enmity, that authority will not be their executioner, that their own hands are allowed to be their avengers. Who would imagine, that after public notice of this alteration at the court, when the world could not choose but know the malicious ground of that wrongful edict, the shameful death of the procurer, the power of the party opposite, any one should be found, throughout all the provinces, that would once lift up his hand against a Jew, that, with his own danger, would endeavour to execute a controlled degree? The church of God should cease to be itself, if it wanted malicious persecution: there needs no other quarrel than the name, the religion of Israel. Notwithstanding the known favour of the king, and the patronage of Mordecai, the thirteenth of Adar is meant to be a bloody day: Haman hath too many abettors in the Persian dominions; these join together to perform that sentence, whereof the author repented. The Jews take heart to defend themselves, to kill their murderers. All the provinces are turned into a field of civil war, wherein innocence vanquisheth malice. The Jews are victors, and not only are alive, but are feared; the most resist them not, many assist them, and some become theirs. The countenance of the great leads the world at pleasure; fear of authority sways thousands that are not guilty of a conscience. : Yea, besides the liberty of defence, the Jews are now made their own justices that there may be none left from the loins of that accursed Agagite, who would have left none of the Jewish seed, they slay the ten sons of Haman, and obtain new days of further executions: neither can death satisfy their revenge; those ten sons of Haman shall, in their very carcasses, bear the reproach of their father, and hang aloft upon his gallows. Finally, no man doth, no man dares frown upon a Jew; they are now become lords in the midst of their captivity: no marvel if they ordain and celebrate their joyful Purim, for a perpetual memory, to all posterities, of their happy deliverance. It were pity that the church of God should not have sunshines as well as storms, and should not meet with interchanges of joy in their warfare, before they enter upon the unchangeable joy of their endless triumph. CONTEMPLATIONS. BOOK I. CONTEMPLATION I-THE ANGEL AND ZACHARY. : WHEN things are at the worst, then God begins a change the state of the Jewish church was extremely corrupted immediately before the news of the gospel: yet, as bad as it was, not only the priesthood, but the courses of attendance, continued even from David's time, till Christ's. It is a desperately depraved condition of a church, where no good orders are left. Judea passed many troubles, many alterations, yet this orderly combination endured about eleven hundred years. A settled good will not easily be defeated, but, in the change of persons, will remain unchanged, and, if it be forced to give way, leaves memorable footsteps behind it. If David foresaw the perpetuation of this holy ordinance, how much did he rejoice in the knowledge of it! Who would not be glad to do good, on condition that it may so long outlive him! It The successive turns of the legal ministration held on in a line never interrupted: even in a forlorn and miserable church, there may be a personal succession. How little were the Jews better for this, when they had lost the Urim and Thummim, sincerity of doctrine and manners? This staid with them, even while they and their sons crucified Christ. What is more ordinary, than wicked sons of holy parents? is the succession of truth and holiness that makes or institutes a church, whatever become of the persons. Never times were so barren, as not to yield some good. The greatest dearth affords some few good ears to the gleaners. Christ would not have come into the world, but he would have some faithful to entertain him. He, that had the disposing of all times and men, would cast some holy ones into his own times. There had been no equality, that all should either overrun or follow him, and none attend him. Zachary and Elizabeth are just, both of Aaron's blood, and John Baptist of theirs: whence should a holy seed spring, if not of the loins of Levi? It is not in the power of parents to traduce holiness to their children; it is the blessing of God that feoffees them in their sins. There is no certainty, but there is likelihood of a holy generation, when the parents are such. Elizabeth was just, as well as Zachary, that the forerunner of a Saviour might be holy on both sides. If the stock and the graff be not both good, there is much danger of the fruit. It is a happy match, when the husband and the wife are one, not only in Grace themselves but in God; not more in flesh, than in the Spirit. makes no difference of sexes; rather the weaker carries away the more honour, besause it hath had less helps. It is easy to observe, that the New Testament affordeth more store of good women than the Old : Elizabeth led the ring of this mercy, whose barrenness ended in a miraculous fruit, both of her body, and of her time. This religious pair made no less progress in virtue than in age, and yet their virtue could not make their best age fruitful: "Elizabeth was barren." A just soul, and a barren womb, may well agree together. Among the Jews, barrenness was not a defect only, but a reproach : yet, while this good woman was fruitful of holy obedience, she was barren of children: as John, which was miraculously conceived by man, was a fit forerunner of him that was conceived by the Holy Ghost, so a barren matron was meet to make way for a virgin. : None, but a son of Aaron, might offer incense to God in the temple ; and not every son of Aaron, and not any one at all seasons. God is a God of order, and hates confusion no less than irreligion. Albeit he hath not so straitened himself under the gospel, as to tie his service to persons or places; yet his choice is now no less curious, because it is more large he allows none but the authorized, he authorizeth none but the worthy. The incense doth ever smell of the hand that offers it; I doubt not but that perfume was sweeter, which ascended up from the hand of a just Zachary. "The sacrifice of the wicked is abomination to God." There were courses of ministration in the legal services, God never purposed to burden any of his creatures with devotion. How vain is the ambition of any soul, that would load itself with the universal charge of all men ! How thankless is their labour, that do wilfully overspend themselves in their ordinary avocations! As Zachary had a course in God's house, so he carefully observed it: the favour of these respites doubled his diligence. The more high and sacred our calling is, the more dangerous is neglect. It is our honour, that we may be allowed to wait upon the God of heaven in these immediate services. Woe be to us, if we slacken those duties, wherein God honours us more than we can honour him! Many sons of Aaron, yea of the same family, served at once in the temple, according to the variety of employments. To avoid all difference, they agreed by lot to assign themselves to the several offices of each day. The lot of this day called Zachary to offer incense in the outer temple. I do not find any prescription they had from God of this particular manner of designment. Matters of good order, in holy affairs, may be ruled by the wise institution of men according to reason and expediency. It fell out well, that Zachary was chosen by lot to this ministration, that God's immediate hand might be seen in all the passages that concerned his great prophet; that as the person, so the occasion might be of God's own choosing. In lots, and their seeming casual disposition, God can give a reason, though we can give none. Morning and evening, twice a-day, their law called them to offer incense to God, that both parts of the day might be consecrate to the Maker of time. The outer temple was the figure of the whole church upon earth, like as the holy |