soules sake consider where thou art what thou doest it is Gods house wherein thou standest not thine owne Looke about thee and see whether these vailes these Tables these Pillars these Walls these Pauements haue any resemblance of earth There is no place in all the world whence thy God hath excluded thee but only this this he hath reserued for his own vse And canst thou think much to allow one roome as proper to him who hath not grudged all the rest to thee But if it bee thy zeale of a personall seruice to God that hath caried thee hither alas how canst thou hope to please the Almighty with a forbidden sacrifice Which of thine holy Progenitors euer dared to tread where thy foot now standeth which of thē euer put forth their hand to touch this sacred Altar Thou knowest that God hath set apart and sanctified his owne attendants wherefore serues the Priesthood if this be the right of Kings Were it not for the strict prohibition of our God it could seeme no other then an honour to our profession that a King should thinke to dignifie himselfe by our employment but now knowing the seuere charge of the great King of heauen wee cannot but tremble to see that censer in thine hand who euer out of the holy Tribe hath weilded it vnreuenged This affront is not to vs it is to the God whō we serue In awe of that terrible Maiesty as thou wouldst auoid some exemplary iudgement O King withdraw thy selfe not without humble deprecations from this presence and lay down that interdicted handfull with feare and trembling Bee thou euer a King let vs bee Priests The Scepter is thine let Censers be ours What religious heart could do other then relent at so faithfull and iust an admonition But how hard it is for great persons to yeeld they haue offended Vzziah must not be faulty what is done rashly shall be born out with power He was wroth and thus expresses it What meanes this saucy expostulation O ye sons of Leui how dare ye thus malapertly controll the well-meant actions of your Soueraigne If ye be Priests remember that ye are subiects or if ye will needs forget it how easie is it for this hand to awake your memory What such offence can it be for me to come into that house and to touch that Altar which my royall Progenitors haue made beautified consecrated Is the God of this place only yours Why doe ye thus ambitiously ingrosse Religion If Princes haue not intermedled with these holy affaires it was because they would not not because they might not When those lawes were made for the Sanctuary there were no Kings to grace these diuine ceremonies yet euen then Moses was priuiledged The persons of Princes if yee know not are no lesse sacred then your owne It is your presumption to account the Lords anointed prophane Contest with those whose dry vnhallowed heads are subiect to your power For me I will not aske your leaue to bee deuout Looke yee to your owne Censers presume not to meddle with mine In the meane time can ye thinke this insolence of yours shall escape vnreuenged Can it stand with the honour of my soueraignty to be thus proudly checked by subiects God doe so to me and more also if Whiles Vzziah yet speakes God strikes Ere the words of fury can come forth of his mouth the leprosie appeares in his forhead Leprosie was a most loathsome disease the forhead is the most conspicuous part Had this shamefull scurfe broken forth vpon his hand or foot or brest it might haue been hid from the eyes of men now the forhead is smitten with this iudgement that God may proclaime to all beholders Thus shal it be done to the man whose arrogance hath thrust him vpon a sacred charge Publique offences must haue open shame It is a dangerous thing to put our selues into the affaires into the presence of God vnwarranted There cannot be a more foolish mesprision then because we are great on earth to thinke wee may be bold with heauen When Gods messengers cannot preuaile by counsels intreaties threats it is time for God to show his immediate iudgements Wilfull offenders can expect nothing but a fearfull reuenge Now begins Vzziah to be confounded in himselfe and shame striues with leprosie for a place in his forehead The hand of God hath done that in an instāt which all the tōgues of men had attempted in vaine There needs no further solicitor of his egresse the sense of his plague sends him forth alone And now he thinks Wretched man that I am how haue I angred God and vndone my selfe I would needs come in like a Priest I now goe forth a leper the pride of my hart made me thinke my selfe worthy the presence of a God Gods iust displeasure hath now made me vnworthy of the presence of men whiles I affected the altar I haue lost my throne whiles I scornfully reiected the aduice and censures of Gods ministers I am now becomne a spectacle of horror and deformity to my owne seruants I that would be sending vp perfumes to heauē haue made my nastinesse hatefull to my own senses What doe I vnder this sacred roofe Neither is Gods house now for mee nor mine owne what cell what dungeon is close enough for me wherin to weare out the residue of mine vnhappy and vncomfortable dayes O God thou art iust and I am miserable Thus with a deiected countenance and sad heart doth Vzziah hast to retire himselfe wishes that he could be no lesse hid from himselfe then from others how easie is it for the God of heauen to bring downe the hyest pitch of earthly greatnesse and to humble the stubbornest pride Vpon the leasure of second thoughts Vzziah cannot but acknowledge much fauour in this correction and confesse to haue escaped well Others hee knew had beene strucke dead or swallow'd vp quick for so presumptuous an intrusion It is happy for him if his forehad may excuse his soule Vzziah ceased not to be a King when he began to be a leper the disease of his forhead did not remoue his Crowne his sonne Iotham raigned for him vnder him and whiles he was not seene yet hee was obeyed The character of soueraignty is indeleble whether by bodily infirmity or by spirituall censure Neither is it otherwise O God betwixt thee and vs if we be once a royall generation vnto thee our leprosies may deforme vs they shall not dethrone vs stil shall we haue the right still the possession of that glorious kingdome wherin wee are inuested from eternity AHAZ with his new Altar AFter many vnhappy changes of the two thrones Ahaz succeedes Iotham in the Kingdome of Iudah an ill sonne of a good father not more the heyre of Dauids seat then of Ieroboams sinne Though Israel play the harlot yet who can abide that Iudah should sin It is hard not to be infected with a contagious neighbourhood who euer read
that the Kingdome of Israel was seasoned with the vicinity of the true religion of Iudah Goodnesse such as our nature is is not so apt to spread A tainted ayre doth more easily affect a sound body then an wholsome ayre can cleare the sicke Superstition hath euer bin more successefull then truth The yong yeares of Ahaz are soone mis-led to a plausible mis-deuotiō A man that is once falne from truth knowes not where he shall stay From the Calues of Ieroboam is Ahaz drawne to the gods of the heathen yea now bulls and goates are too little for those new deities his owne flesh and blood is but deare enough He made his son to passe through their fire Where doe we finde any religious Israelite thus zealous for God Neither doth the holinesse and mercy of our God require so cruell a sacrifice neither is our dull and niggardly hand ready to gratifie him with more easie obediences O God how gladly should wee offer vnto thee our soules and bodies which wee may inioy so much the more when they are thine since zealous Pagans sticke not to leese their owne flesh and blood in an Idols fire He that hath thus shamefully cast off the God of his fathers cannot bee long without a fearefull reuenge The King of Israel galls him on the one side the King of Syria on the other To auoid the shocke of both Ahaz doth not betake himselfe to the God whō he had offended who was able to make his enemies at peace with him but to Tiglath Pileser King of Ashur Him doth hee wooe with suits with gifts and robs God of those presents which may indeare so strong an helper Hee that thought not his son too deare for an Idol thinkes not Gods siluer and gold too deare for an Idolatrous abettor Oh the infinite patience of the Almighty God giues successe a while to so offensiue a riuality This Assyrian King preuailes against the King of Syria kils him and takes his chiefe City Damascus The quarrell of the King of Iudah hath inlarged the territories of his assistant beyond hope And now whiles this Assyrian victor is inioying the possession of his new-won Damascus Ahaz goes vp thither to meet him to congratulate the victory to adde vnto those triumphs which were drawne on by his solicitation There hee sees a new fashion'd Altar that pleases his eye That old forme of Salomons which was made by the pattern showd to Moses in the Mount is now growne stale and despicable A modell of this more exquisite frame is sent to Vrijah the Priest and must be sampled in Ierusalem It is a dangerous presumption to make innouations if but in the circumstances of Gods worship Those humane additions which would seeme to grace the institution of God depraue it That infinite wisedome knowes best what will please it selfe and prescribes accordingly The foolishnesse of God is wiser then the wisedome of men Idolatry and falshood is commonly more gawdy and plausible then truth That hart which can for the outward homelinesse despise the ordinances of God is already aliened from true religion and lyes open to the grossest superstition Neuer any Prince was so foully idolatrous at that he wanted a Priest to second him An Vrijah is fit to humor an Ahaz Greatnesse neuer could command any thing which some seruile wits were not ready both to applaud and iustifie Ere the King can be returned from Damascus the altar is finished It were happy if true godlinesse could be so forward in the prosecutions of good Neither is this strange pile reared onely but thrust vp betwixt Gods altar and the temple in an apparent precedency as if he said Let the God of Iudah come behind the Deities of Syria And now to make vp the full measure of his impiety this idolatrous King will himselfe be sacrificing vpon his new altar to his new gods the gods of Damascus An vsurped priesthood well becomes a false Deity Because saith he the gods of the Kings of Syria helpe them therefore will Isacrifice to them that they may helpe mee Oh blinde superstition how did the gods of Syria helpe their Kings when both those Kings and their gods were vanquished and taken by the King of Assyria Euen this Damascus and this altar were the spoyle of a forraigne enemy How then did the gods of Syria helpe their Kings any other then to their ruine what dotage is this to make choice of a foyled protection But had the Syrians prospered must their gods haue the thanks Are there no authors of good but blocks or Deuils Or is an outward prosperity the only argument of truth the onely motiue of deuotion O foolish Ahaz it is the God thou hast forsaken that plagues thee vnder whose onely arme thou might'st haue preuailed His power beats those Pagan stockes one against other so as one while one seems victorious another vanquisht and at last hee confounds both together with their proudest clients Thy selfe shall be the best instance Of all the Kings of Iudah hitherto there is none so dreadfull an example either of sin or iudgement as this son of good Iotham I abhor to think that such a monster should descend from the loynes of Dauid where shall bee the period of this wickednesse Hee beganne with the hie places thence he descends to the Calues of Dan and Bethel from thence he falls to a Syrian altar to the Syrian god then from a partnership hee falls to an vtter exclusion of the true God and blocking vp his Temple and then to the sacrifice of his owne sonne and at last as if hell were broken loose vpon Gods inheritance euery seuerall City euery hie place of Iudah hath a new god No maruell if he bee branded by the Spirit of God with This is that King Ahaz What a fearfull plague did this noysome deluge of sin leaue behind it in the land of Iudah who can expresse the horror of Gods reuenge vpō a people that should haue beene his Pekah the King of Israel slew an hundred and twentie thousand of them in one day amongst whom was Maseiah the sonne of Ahaz O iust iudgement of the Almighty Ahaz sheds the blood of one sonne to an idoll The true God sheds the blood of another of his sons in reuenge Yet the hand of the Lord is stretched out still Two hundred thousand of them were caried away by the Israelites captiue to Samaria The Edomites came and caried away another part of them for bondslaues to their country The Philistims came vp and shared the Cities of the south of Iudah and the villages thereof Shortly what other is miserable Iudah then the prey and spoile of all the neighbouring Nations For the Lord brought Iudah low because of Ahaz King of Israel for hee made Iudah naked and transgressed sore against the Lord As for the great King of Ashur whom Ahaz purchased with the sacrilegious pillage of the house of God in stead of an ayd hee proues a burden How
could say It is better that one man dye then that all the people should perish and here Haman can say It is better that all the people should perish then that one man should dye Thy mercy ô God by the willing death of one that had not sinned hath defrayed the iust death of a world of sinners Whiles the iniurious rigour of a man for the supposed fault of one would destroy a whole nation that had not offended It is true that by the sinne of one death raigned ouer all but it was because all sinned in that one had not all men beene in Adam all had not falne in him all had not dyed in him It was not the man but mankind that fell into sinne and by sinne into death No man can complaine of punishment whiles no man can exempt himselfe from the transgression Vnmercifull Haman would haue imbrued his hands in that blood which hee could not but confesse innocent It is a rare thing if the height of fauour cause not presumption Such is Hamans greatnesse that he takes his designe for granted ere it can receiue a motion The fittest dayes for this great massacre are determined by the lots of their common diuination according whereunto Haman chooseth the houre of this bloody suit and now waited on by opportunity he addresseth himselfe to King Ahasuerus There is a certaine people scattered abroad and dispersed among the people in all the Prouinces of the Kingdome and their lawes are diuers from all people neither keepe they the Kings lawes therefore it is not for the Kings profit to suffer them If it please the King let it bee written that they may be destroyed and I will pay tenne thousand talents of siluer to the hands of the officers With what cunning hath this man couched his malice He doth not say There is a Iew that hath affronted mee let me be auenged of his nation this rancour was too monstrous to be confessed perhaps this suggestion might haue bred in the mind of Ahasuerus a conceit of Hamans ill nature and intolerable immanity but his precences are plausible and such as driue at no other then the publique good Euery word hath his insinuation It is a scattered people were the nation intire their maintenance could not but stand with the Kings honour but now since they are but straglers as their losse would be insensible so their continuance and mixture cannot but be preiudiciall It was not the fault it was the misery of these poore Iewes that they were dispersed and now their dispersion is made an argument of their extirpation therefore must they be destroyed from the earth because they were scattered ouer the earth As good so euils draw on each other That which should plead for pitty in the well-affected is a motiue to cruelty in sauage minds Seldome euer hath extremity of mischiefe seized where easier afflictions haue not beene billeted before All faith full Iewes had wont to say vnto God Haue mercy vpon vs O God and saue vs for our soule is full of contempt and we are scattered amongst the heathen and here this enemy can say of them to Ahasuerus Destroy them for they are scattered Root them out for they are contemned How much better is it to fall into the hands of God thē of men since that which whets the sword of men works commiseration in the Almighty Besides the dissipation of the persons Their lawes are diuers from all people All other people liue by thy lawes they onely by their owne and how can this singularity of their fashions but breed disorder and inconuenience Did they liue in some corner of the earth apart their difference in religion and gouernment could not import much now that they are dispersed amongst all thy subiects vvhat doe these vncouth formes of theirs but teach all the vvorld to bee irregular vvhy should they liue vnder thy protection that will not be gouerned by thy lawes Wicked Haman what were the lawes of Israel but the lawes of God if this be a quarrell what shall the death of the Iewes bee other then martyrdome The diuersity of iudgement and practice from the rest of the world hath beene an old and enuious imputation cast vpō Gods Church What if we be singled from others whiles wee walke with God In matters lawfull arbitrary indifferent wisedome teacheth vs to conforme our selues to all others but where God hath laid a speciall imposition vpon vs we must either vary or sinne The greatest glory of Israel was their lawes wherein they as far exceeded all other nations as heauen is aboue earth yet here their lawes are quarrelled and are made the inducements of their destruction It is not possible the Church of God should escape persecution whiles that which it hath good is maligned whiles that offēds which makes it happy Yet that they haue lawes of their owne were not so vnsufferable if withall they did obserue thine ô King but these Iewes as they are vnconformable so they are seditious They keepe not the King lawes Thou slanderest Haman they could not keepe their owne lawes if they kept not the Kings for their lawes call them to obedience vnto their soueraignes and adiudge hell to the rebellious In all those hundred and seuen and twenty prouinces King Ahasuerus hath no subiects but them They obey out of conscience others out of feare why are they charged with that which they doe most abhorre What can be the ground of this crimination Ahasuerus commanded all knees to bow to Haman A Iew onely refuses Malicious Haman He that refused to bow vnto thee had sufficiently approued his loyalty to Ahasuerus Ahasuerus had not been if Mordecai had not beene a good subiect Hath the King no lawes but what concerne thine adoration Set aside religion wherein the Iew is ready to present if not actiue yet passiue obedience and name that Persian law which a Iew dares break As I neuer yet read or heard of a conscionable Israelite that hath not passed vnder this calumniation so I cannot yeeld him a true Israelite that deserues it In vaine doth hee professe to acknowledge a God in heauen that denies homage to his deputy on earth It is not for the Kings profit to suffer thē Worldly hearts are not led by good or euill but by profit or losse neither haue they grace to know that nothing is profitable but what is honest nothing so desperately incommodious as wickednesse They must needs offend by rule that measure all things by profit measure profit by their imagination How easie is it to suggest strange vntruths when there is no body to giue an answer False Hamā hovv is it not for the Kings profit to suffer the Iewes If thou construe this profit for honor The Kings honor is in the multitude of subiects and what people more numerous then they If for gaine The Kings profit is in the largenesse of his Tributes and what people are more deepe in their payments If for
calamities to nature to chance that acknowledging but one God of all the world are yet carelesse to know him to serue him One of the Priests of Israel is appointed to bee caried backe to Samaria to teach the Assyrian Colony the fashions of the God of the land not for deuotion but for impunity vaine Politicians thinke to satisfie God by patching vp religions any formes are good enough for an vnknowne deity The Assyrian Priests teach and practise the worship of their own Gods The Israelitish Priest prescribes the worship of the true God The people will follow both the one out of liking the other out of feare What a prodigious mixture was here of religions true with false Iewish with Paganish diuine with diuellish Euery diuision of these transplanted Assyrians had their seuerall deities high places sacrifices this Priest of Israel intercommons with euery of them So as now these fathers of Samaritanisme are in at all They feare the Lord and serue their idols No beggers cloak is more peeced then the religion of these new inhabitants of Israel I know not how their bodies sped for the Lyons I am sure their soules fared the worse for this medlie Aboue all things God hates a mungrell deuotion If we be not all Israel it were better to bee all Ashur It cannot so much displease God to bee vnknowne or neglected as to bee consorted with Idols HEZEKIAH and SENACHERIB ISrael is gone Iudah is left standing or rather some few sprigs of those two Tribes so we haue seene in the shredding of some large Timber-tree one or two boughes left at the top to hold vp the sap Who can but lament the poore remainders of that languishing kingdome of Dauid Take out of the two Tribes of Iudah and Beniamin one hundred and twenty thousand whom Pekah the King of Israel slew in one day Take out two hundred thousand that were caried away captiue to Samaria Take out those that were transported into the bondage of the Edomites and those that were subdued in the South parts by the Philistims alas what an handfull was left to the king of Iudah scarce worth the name of a dominion Yet euen now out of the gleeds of Iudah doth God raise vp a glorious light to his forlorne Church yea from the wretched loynes of Ahaz doth God fetch an holy Ezekiah It had beene hard to conceiue the state of Iudah worse then it was neither was it more miserable then sinfull and in regard of both desperate when beyond hope God reuiues this dying stocke of Dauid and out of very ruines builds vp his owne house Ahaz was not more the ill sonne of a good father then he was the ill father of a good sonne He was the ill sonne of good Iotham the ill father of good Hezekiah Good Hezekiah makes amends for his fathers impietie and puts a new life into the hartlesse remnant of Gods people The wisedome of our good God knowes when his ayd will bee most seasonable most welcome which hee then loues to giue when he findes vs left of all our hopes That mercifull hand is reserued for a dead lift then he failes vs not Now you might haue seene this pious Prince busily bestirring himselfe in so late and needfull a reformation remouing the high places battering and burning the Idolls demolishing their temples cutting downe their groues opening the Temple purging the altars and vessells sanctifying the Priests rekindling the Lampes renuing the incense reinstituting the sacrifices establishing the order of Gods seruice appointing the courses setling the maintenance of the ministers publishing the decrees for the long-neglected Pass-ouer celebrating it and the other feasts with due solemnity incouraging the people contributing bountifully to the offerings and in one word so ordering all the affayres of God as if hee had beene sent downe from heauen to restore Religion as if Dauid himself had been aliue againe in this blessed heyre not so much of his Crowne as of his piety Oh Iudah happy in thy Ezekiah Oh Ezekiah happy in the gratious restauration of thy Iudah Ahaz shall haue no thanke for such a sonne The God that is able of the very stones to raise children to Abraham rayses a true seed of Dauid out of the corrupt loynes of an Idolater That infinite mercy is not tyed to the termes of an immediate propagation For the space of three hundred yeares the man after Gods owne heart had no perfect heyre till now Till now did the high places stand the deuotions of the best Princes of Iudah were blemished with some weake omissions Now the zeale of good Ezekiah cleares all those defects and workes an intyre change How seasonably hath the prouidence of God kept the best man for the worst times When God hath a great worke to doe hee knowes to fit himselfe with instruments No maruell if the Paganish Idolls goe to vvracke vvhen euen the brazen Serpent that Moses had made by Gods owne appointment is broken in peeces The Israelites were stung with fiery Serpents this brazen Serpent healed them which they did no sooner see then they recouered But now such was the venome of the Israelitish Idolatry that this Serpent of brasse stung worse then the fiery That which first cured by the eye now by the eye poysoned the soule That which was at first the type of a Sauiour is now the deadly engine of the Enemy Whiles it helped it stood it stood whiles it hurt not but when once wicked abuse hath turned it into an Idoll what was it but Nehushtan The holinesse of the first institution cannot priuiledge ought from the danger of a future profanation nor as the case may stand from an vtter abolition What antiquity what authoritie what primary seruice might this Serpent haue pleaded All that cannot keepe it out of the dust Those things which are necessarie in their being beneficiall in their continuance may still remaine when their abuse is purged but those things whose vse is but temporary or whose duration is needlesse and vnprofitable may cease with the occasion and much more perish with an inseparable abuse Ezekiah willingly forgets who made the Serpent when he fees the Israelites make it an idoll It is no lesse intolerable for God to haue a riuall of his owne making Since Hezekiah was thus aboue all his Ancestors pright with the Lord it is no maruell if the Lord were with him if he prospered whither soeuer hee went The same God that would haue his iustice magnified in the confusion of the wicked Princes of Issrael and Iudah would haue his mercy no lesse acknowledged in the blessings of faithfull Hezekiah The great King of Assyria had in a sort swallowed vp both the Kingdomes of Iudah and Israel yet not with an equall cruelty He made Israel captiue Iudah vpon a willing composition tributary Israel is vanished in a transportation Iudah continues vnder the homage wherein Ahaz left it Hezekiah had raigned but sixe yeares when he saw his neighbours
auengers It was his treasure and munitiō wherin he prides himselfe to these men of Babylon The men of Babylon shall cary away his treasure and munition What now doth Hezekiah but tempt them with a glorious booty as some fond traueler that would show his gold to a Thiefe These worldly things are furthest off from the heart Perhaps Hezekiah might not bee much troubled with their losse Loe God comes closer to him yet As yet was Ezekiah childlesse how much better had it beene to continue so still then to bee plagued in his issue He shall now beget children to seruitude his loines shall yeeld Pages to the Court of Babylon Whiles he sees them borne Princes he shal foresee them made Eunuches in a forraigne Palace What comfort can he take in the wishes and hopes of sonnes when ere they bee borne hee heares them destin'd to captiuitie and bondage This rod was smart yet good Ezekiah kisses it his heart strucke him no lesse then the mouth of the Prophet meekly therefore doth he yeeld to this diuine correction Good is the Word of the Lord which thou hast spoken Thou hast spoken this word but from the Lord it is not thine but his and being his it must needs bee like himselfe good Good because it is iust for I haue deserued more and worse Good because mercifull for I suffer not according to my deserts Is it not good if there be peace and truth in my daies I haue deserued a present paymēt O God thou deferrest it I haue deserued it in person thou reseruest it for those whom I cannot yet so feele because they are not I haue deserued war tumult thou fauorest me with peace I haue deseru'd to be ouer-run with superstition and Idolatry thou blessest me with truth shouldst thou continue truth vnto me though vpon the most vnquiet termes the blessing were too good for me but now thou hast promised and wilt not reuerse it that both truth and peace shall bee in my dayes Lord I adore thy iustice I blesse thy mercy Gods children are neither waspish nor fullen whē they are chid or beaten but patiently hold their backes to the stripes of a displeased mercy knowing how much more God is to be magnified for what he might haue done then repined at for what hee hath done resigning themselues ouer into the hand of that gracious iustice which in their smart seekes their reformation and glory MANASSEH AT last some three yeares after his recouery Hezekiah hath a sonne but such a one as if he could haue foreseene orbity had beene a blessing Still in the throne of Iudah there is a succession and interchange of good and euill Good Iotham is succeeded by wicked Ahaz wicked Ahaz is succeed by good Ezekiah Good Ezekiah is succeeded by wicked Manasseh Euill Princes succeed to good for the exercise of the Church and good succeed to euill for the comfort of the Church The young yeares of Manasseh giue aduantage to his mis-cariage Euen whiles he might haue been vnder the Ferule hee swayed the Scepter Whither may not a child be drawne especially to a garish and puppet-like superstition As infancy is capable of all impressions so most of the worst Neither did Manasseh beginne more earely thē he held out long He raigned more yeares then his good father liu'd notwithstanding the miraculous addition to his age More then euer any King of Iudah besides could reach Length of daies is no true rule of Gods fauour As plants last longer then sensitiue creatures and brute creatures out-liue the reasonable so amongst the reasonable it is no newes for the wickedly great to inherit these earthly glories longer then the best There wants not apparent reason for this difference Good Princes are fetcht away to a better Crowne They cannot bee losers that exchange a weake and fading honor for a perfection and eternity of blessednesse Wicked men liue long to their owne disaduantage they do but cary so many more brands to their hell If therefore there be a iust man that perisheth in his righteousnesse and there bee a wicked man that prolongs his life in his wickednesse farre be it from vs either to pity the remouall of the iust or to enuie the continuance of the wicked This continues to his losse that departs to an happy aduancement It is very like that Ezekiah marrying so late in the vigour both of his age and holinesse made a carefull choyce of a wife sutable to his owne piety Neither had his delight beene so much in her according to her name if her delight had not beene as his in God Their issue swarues from both so fully inheriting the vices of his grandfather Ahaz as if there had beene no interuention of an Ezekiah So wee haue seene the kernell of a well fruited plant degenerate into that crab or willow which gaue the originall to his stocke yet can I not say that Ezekiah was as free from traducing euill to his sonne Manasseh as Ahaz was free from traducing good to his sonne Hezekiah Euill is incorporated into the best nature whereas euen the least good descends from aboue We may not measure grace by meanes Was it possible that Manasseh hauing beene trained vp in the religious Court of his father Hezekiah vnder the eye of so holy Prophets and Priests vnder the shadow of the Temple of God after a childhood seasoned with so gracious precepts with so frequent exercise of deuotiō should run thus wild into all heathenish abominations as if there had bin nothing but Idolatry in the seed of his conception in the milke of his nourishment in the rules of his institution in the practice of his examples How vaine are all outward helpes without the influence of Gods Spirit and that spirit breathes where he listeth good educatiō raiseth great hopes but the proofe of them is in the diuine benediction I feare to looke at the out-rages of this wicked sonne of Ezekiah What hauocke doth hee make in the Church of God as if hee had beene borne to ruine Religion as if his onely felicity had beene to vntwist or teare in one day that holy web which his father had beene weauing nine and twenty yeares and contrarily to set vp in one houre that offensiue pile which had beene aboue three hundred yeares in pulling down so long had the high places stood the zeale of Ezekiah in demolishing them honored him aboue all his predecessors and now the first act of this greene head was their reedifiyng That mischiefe may be done in a day which many ages cannot redresse Fearefull were the presages of these bold beginnings From the mis-building of these chappels of the Hills to the true God Manasseh proceeds to erecting of altars to a false euen to Baal the God of Ahab the stale Idoll of the heathen yet further not content with so few Deities he worships all the hoast of heauen and that hee might despight God yet more he sets vp altas to these
inioyned charge much lesse to a resistance but in an hood-winkt simplicity she must follow whither shee is led as one that holds her chiefe praise to consist in subiection Where should the perfection of wisedome dwell if not in the Courts of great Princes or what can the treasures of Monarchs purchase more invaluably precious then learned and iudicious attendance Or who can be so fit for honour as the wisest I doubt how Ahasuerus could haue beene so great if his throne had not beene still compassed with them that knew the times and vnderstood the law and iudgement These were his Oracles in all his doubts These are now consulted in this difficulty neither must their aduice bee secretly whispered in the Kings eare but publikely deliuered in the audience of all the Princes It is a perillous way that these sages are called to goe betwixt an husband and wife especially of such power and eminency yet Memucan feares not to passe an heauie sentence against Queen Vashti Vashti the Queene hath not done wrong to the King onely but also to all the Princes and all the people that are in all the Prouinces of the King Ahasuerus A deepe and sore commination iniuries are so much more intolerable as they are dilated vnto more those offences which are of narrow extent may receiue an easie satisfaction the amends are not possible where the wrong is vniuersall For this deed of the Queene shall come abroad to all women so that they shall despise their husbands in their eyes Indeed so publique a fact must needs fly That concourse gaue fit opportunity to diffuse it all the world ouer The examples of the great are easily drawne into rules Bad lessons are apt to be taken out as honour so contempt fals downe from the head to the skirts neuer 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 proue their owne Likewise shall the Ladies of Persia and Media say this day vnto all the Kings Princes The first precedents of euill must bee carefully auoided if wee care to keepe a constant order in good Prudence cannot better bestirre it selfe then in keeping mischiefe from home The foundation of this doom of Memucan is not laid so deep for nothing If it please the King let there goe a royall commandement from him and let it bee written among the lawes of the Persians and Medians that it bee not altered that Vashti come no more before Ahasuerus and let the King giue her royall estate to another that is better then she How bold a word was this and how hazardous Had Ahasuerus more loued the beauty of Vashti then his honor Memucan had spoken this against his owne life Howsoeuer a Queene of so great spirit could not want strength of fauour and faction in the Persian Court which could not but take fire at so desperate a motiō Faithfull statesmen ouerlooking priuate respects must bend their eies vpon publique dangers labouring to preuent a common mischiefe though with the aduenture of their owne Nature had taught these Pagans the necessitie of a female subiection and the hate and scorne of a proud disobedience They haue vnlearned the very dictates of Nature that can abide the head to bee set below the ribbe I cannot say but Vashti was worthy of a sharpe censure I cannot say she was worthy a repudiation This plaister drew too hard It was but heathen iustice to punish the wiues disobedience in one indifferent act with a diuorce Nothing but the violation of the mariage-bed can either breake or vntye the knot of mariage Had she not been a Queen had not that contemptuous act beene publique the sentence had not beene so hard now the punishment must be exemplary lest the sin should be so Many a one had smarted lesse if their persons if their places had beene meaner The King the Princes approue this heauy iudgment of Memucan It is not in the power of the faire face of Vashti to warrant her stomacke No doubt many messages passed ere the rigour of this execution That great hart knows not to relēt but will rather break then yeeld to an humble deprecation When the stone and the steele 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 Prouinces to command that euery man should rule at home The Court affords thē an awfull patterne of authority Had not Ahasuerus doted much vpon Vashties beauty hee had not called her forth at the feast to be wōdredat by his Peeres people yet now hee so feeles the wound of his reputation that he forgets he euer felt any wound of his affection Euen the greatest loue may be ouer-strained It is not safe presuming vpon the deepest assurances of dearnesse There is no heart that may not be estranged It is not possible that great Princes should want soothing vp in all their inclinations in all their actions Whiles Ahasuerus is following the chace of his ambition in the wars of Greece his followers are prouiding for his lust at home Nothing could sound more pleasing to a carnall eare then that all the faire yong virgins throughout all his dominions should be gathered into his palace at Shushan for his assay and choice The decree is soone published The charge is committed to Hege the Kings Chamberlain both of their purification and ornaments What strife what emulation was now amongst all the Persian damosells that either were or thought themselues faire Euery one hopes to bee a Queene and sees no reason why any other should be thought more excellent How happy were wee if we could be so ambitious of our espousalls to the King of heauen Amongst all this throng of Virgins God hath prouided a wife for Ahasuerus hauing determined his choice where most aduantage shall rise to his forlorne people The Iewes were miserably scattered ouer the world in that wofull deportation vnder Iechoniah scarce an handfull of them returned to Ierusalem the rest remaine still dispersed where they may but haue leaue to liue There are many thousands of them turned ouer with the Babylonian Monarchy to the Persian amōgst the rest was Mordecai the sonne of Iair of the tribe of Beniamin a man of no meane note or ability who liuing in Shushan had brought vp Hadassah or Esther his vncles daughter in a liberall fashion It was happy for this orphane that in a region of captiuity shee light into such good hands Her wise kinsman finds it fit that her breeding and habit shold be Persian-like In outward and ciuill formes there was no need to vary from the heathen her religion must bee her owne the rest was so altogether theirs that her very nation was not discerned The same God that had giuen incomparable beauty to this Iewesse gaue her also fauor in the eies of Hegai the keeper of the women Shee is not