Hadassa: or The history of Queene Ester with meditations thereupon, diuine and morall. By Fra. Quarles.

Hadassa: or The history of Queene Ester with meditations thereupon, diuine and morall. By Fra. Quarles.

Table of contents

Title page

[Figure] TO THE MOST HIGH AND MIGHTY PRINCE, RENOWNED FOR LEARNING, PIETY, AND ALL GRACIOVS GOVERNEMENT:

A PREFACE TO THE READER.

THE INTRODVCTION.

THE ARGVMENT OF THE HISTORY.

§

Meditatio prima.

Sect. 2.

2

Sect. 3.

3

Sect. 4.

Meditatio quarta.

Sect. 5.

Meditatio quinta.

§

Meditatio sexta.

§

7

Sect. 8.

Meditatio octaua.

Sect. 9.

9

Sect. 10.

10

Sect. 11.

Meditatio vndecima.

Sect. 12.

Meditatio duodecima.

§

Meditatio decimatertia.

§

Meditatio decimaquarta.

Meditatio decimaquinta.

Sect. 16.

Meditatio decimasexta.

Sect. 17.

17

Sect. 18.

Meditatio decimaoctaua.

Sect. 19.

19

Sect. 20.

Meditatio vltima.

§

§

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Hadassa: OR THE HISTORY OF QVEENE ESTER: With Meditations thereupon, Diuine and Morall.

Horat. Ode 6.

Conamur tenues, grandia; nec pudor,

Imbellisque Lyrae Musa potens vetat.

By FRA. QVARLES.

AT LONDON, Imprinted for Richard Moore, and are to be sold at his shop in Saint Dunstans Church-yard, in Fleetstreet. 1621.

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[figure]

[Page]TO THE MOST HIGH AND MIGHTY PRINCE, RENOWNED FOR LEARNING, PIETY, AND ALL GRACIOVS GOVERNEMENT:

IAMES, BY THE GRACE OF GOD, KING OF GREAT BRITTAINE, FRANCE AND IRELAND, DEFENDER OF THE FAITH.

FRANCIS QVARLES, HIS MOST HVMBLE SERVANT, and faithfull Homager, dedicates, presents, and consecrates these his labours, to receiue honour from his gracious countenance, and to be glorified by his approbation.

A PREFACE TO THE READER.

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A Sober vaine best suits Theologie: If therefore thou expectst such elegancy as takes the times, affect some subiect as will beare it.Audire fabulas, est impedimentum cognitioni veritatis. Arist. 2. Metaphis. Had I laboured with ouer-abundance of * fictions, or flourishes, perhaps they had exposed me, censurable, and disprized this sacred subiect: Therefore I rest more sparing in that kind.

Two things I would treat of: First, the matter, secondly, the manner of this History.

1 As for the matter, (so farre as I haue dealt) it is Canonicall, and indighted by the holy Spirit of God, not lyable to errour, and needs no blanching.

In it Theologie sits as Queene, attended by her handmaidThe excellence and vse of this History. Philosophy; both concurring, to make the vnderstanding Reader, a good Diuine, and a wise Moralist.

As for the Diuinity, it discouers the Almighty in his two great Attributes; in his Mercy, deliuering his Church; in his Iustice, confounding her enemies.

As for the Morality, it offers to vs the wholy practicke part of Philosophy, dealt out into Ethicks, Politicks, and Oeconomicks.

1 The Ethicall part (the obiect whereof is the Manners of a priuate man) ranges through the whole booke, and empties [Page] it selfe into the Catalogue of Morall vertues, either those thatHeiland in Eth. Mores instituūt ad virtutem. gouerne the body; as Fortitude, Chap. 9. 2. and Temperance, Chap. 1. 8. or those which direct the soule, either in outward things, as Liberality, Chap. 1. 3. Magnificence, Chap. 1. 6. Magnanimity, Chap. 2. 20. and Modesty, Chap. 6. 12. or in conuersation, as Iustice, Chap. 7. 9. Mansuetude, Chap. 5. 2, &c.

2 The Politicall part (the obiect whereof is Publike Society) instructs, first, in the behauiour of a Prince, to his Subiect; in punishing his vice, Chap. 7. 10. in rewarding of vertues, Chap. 8. 2, 15. Secondly, in the behauiour of the Subiect to his Prince; in obseruing his Lawes, and discouering his enemies, Chap. 2. 22. Thirdly, the behauiour of a Subiect, to a Subiect; in mutuality of loue, Chap. 4. 7. in propagation of peace, Chap. 10. 3.

3 The Oeconomicall part (the obiect whereof is Priuate Society) teacheth, first, the carriage of the Wife, to her Husband; in obeying, chap. 1. 22. of the Husband, to his Wife, in ruling, chap. 1. 22. Secondly, of a Father, to his Child, in aduising, chap. 2. 7, 10. of a Child, to his Father, in obseruing. chap. 2. 20. Thirdly, of a Master, to his Seruant, in commanding. chap. 4. 5. of a Seruant, to his Master, in effecting his command, chap. 4. 6.

Furthermore, in this History, the two principall faculties of the soule are (nor in vaine) imployed.

First, the Intellect, whose proper obiect is Truth. Secondly,Arist. Eth 3. Obiectum voluntatis non est nisi bonum. Arist. Eth. 10. the Will, whose proper obiect is * Good, whether Philosophicall, which that great Master of Philosophy cals * Wisdome; or Theologicall, which we poynt at now, hoping to enioy hereafter.

Who the Pen-man of this sacred History was, or why theDe dubijs non definies, sed suspensam teneas sententiam; Seneca de formali vita. name of God (as in few other parts of the Bible) is vnmentioned in this, it is immateriall, and doubtfull. For the first, it is enough for an vncurious questioner to know, it was indited [Page] by the Spirit of God: for the second, let it suffice, that, that Spirit will'd not here to reueale his name.

2 As for the Manner of this History (consisting in the Periphrase, the adiournment of the Story, and interposition of Meditations) I hope it hath not iniured the Matter: For in this, I was not the least carefull, to vse the light of the best Expositors (Authoritatis quorum sum germanus) not daring to goe vn-led, for feare of stumbling. Some say, Diuinity in Verse, is incongruous and vnpleasing: such I referre to the Psalmes of Dauid, or the Song of his sonne Salomon, to be corrected. But in these lewd times, the salt, and soule of a Verse, is obscene scurrility, without which it seemes dull, and liuelesse: And though the sacred History needs not (as humane doe) Poetry, to perpetuate the remembrance, (being by Gods owne mouth blest with Eternity) yet Verse (working so neere vpon the soule, and spirit) will oft times draw those to haue a History in familiarity, who (perchance) before, scarce knew there was such a Booke.

Reader, be more than my hasty pen stiles thee: Reade me with aduice, and thereafter iudge me, and in that iudgement censure me. If I iangle, thinke my intent thereby, is to toll better Ringers in. Farewell.

THE INTRODVCTION.

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WHen Zedechia (He whose haplesse hand

Once swaid the Scepter of Great Iudah's Land)

Went vp the Palace of proud Babylon,

(The Prince Seraiah him attending on,)

A dreadfull Prophet, (from whose blasting breath

Ierem. 52.

Came sudden death, and nothing else but death)

Into Seraiah's peacefull hand betooke

The sad Contents of a more dismall Booke:

Breake epe the leaues, those leaues so full of dread,

Reade (sonne of thunder) said the Prophet, reade,

Say thus, say freely thus, The Lord hath spoke it,

'Tis done, the world's vnable to reuoke it;

Woe, woe, and heauy woes ten thousand more

Betide great Babylon, that painted whore;

Thy buildings, and thy fensiue Towers shall

Flame on a sudden, and to cinders fall;

None shall be left, to waile thy griefe with Howles:

Thy streets shall peopl'd be with Bats, and

Isay 13. 21.

Owles:

None shall remaine, to call thy places voyd,

None to possesse, nor ought to be enioy'd;

Nought shall be left for thee to terme thine owne,

But helplesse ruines of a haplesse towne:

Said then the Prophet, When performance hath

Empty'd thy Cheekes of this thy borrow'd Breath, [...]

[Page]Euen so the Persian Host it selfe bestur'd,

So fell great Babel by the Persian sword,

Which warme with slaughter, and with blood imbru'd,

Ne'r sheath'd, till wounded Babel fell, subdu'd.

But see! These braue Ioynt-tenants that suruiu'd

To see a little world of men vnliu'd,

Must now be parted: Great Darius dyes,

Darius dyes.

And Cyrus shares alone, the new-got prize;

Cyrus, King alone.

Carionis Chro. lib. 2. p. 81. 2. Chro. 36. 23.

He fights for Heauen, Heauens foemen he subdues:

Carionis Chro. lib. 2. p. 81. 2. Chro. 36. 23.

He builds the Temple, he restores the Iewes,

By him was Zedechias force disioynted,

Vnknown to God he was, yet Gods Anoynted;

Isay 4. 45.

But marke the malice of a wayward Fate;

He whom successe crown'd alwaies fortunate,

He that was strong t'atchieue, bold to attempt,

Wise to foresee, and wary to preuent,

Valiant in Warre, successefull to obtaine,

Mustnow be slaine, and by a

Tomyris. Cyrus dyes.

Woman slaine.

Accursed be thy sacrelegious hand,

That of her Patrone rob'd the holy Land;

Curs'd be thy dying life, thy liuing death,

And curs'd be all things, that proud Tomyris hath.

Tomyris Queen of the Massagetans.

O worst that Death can doe, to take a life,

Which (lost) leaues kingdom's to a Tyrants knife:

For now, alas! degenerate Cambyses (vices)

Cambyses King succeeded Cyrus

(Whose hand was fill'd with blood, whose heart with

Sits crowned King, to vexe the Persian state,

With heauy burthens, and with sore regrate.

O Cyrus, more vnhappy in thy Son,

Then in that stroke wherewith thy life was don!

Cambyses now sits King, now Tyrant (rather:)

(Vnlucky Sonne of a renowmed Father.)

[Page]Blood cries for Blood: Himselfe reuenged hath

His bloody Tyranny, with his owne death;

Cambyses dyes.

That cruell

Chro. Carionis. lib. 2. p. 89.

sword on his owne flesh doth feed,

Which made so many loyall Persians bleed,

Whose wofull choyce made an indiff'rent thing,

To leaue their liues, or lose their Tyran' King:

Cambyses dead, with him the latest drop▪

Of Cyrus blood was spilt, his death did stop

The infant source of his braue Syers worth,

Ere after-times could spend his riuers forth.

Tyrant Cambyses being dead, and gone,

On the reuersion of his empty Throne,

A Magus succeeds Cambyses.

Mounts vp a Magus, which dissembled right,

Forging the name of him, whose greedy night

Smerdis.

Too early did perpetuate her owne,

And silent Death did snatch away vnknowne.

But when the tidings of this Royall cheat,

Tymes loyall Trumpe had fam'd, th'vsurped seat

Grew too too hot, and longer could not beare

So proud a burthen on so proud a Chayre:

The Nobles sought their freedome to regaine,

Not resting, till the Magi all-vvere slaine;

The Magi slaine by the Persians.

And so renovvned vvas that happy slaughter,

That it solemniz'd was for euer after;

So that what pen shall write the Persian story,

Shall treat that Triumph, and write that dayes glory;

For to this time the Persians (as they say)

The feast is called [...], which is the slaughter of the Magi.

Obserue a Feast, and keepe it holy-day;

Now Persia lacks a King, and now the State

Labours as much in want, as it of late

Did in abundance; Too great calms doe harme

Sometimes as much the Sea-man, as a storme;

[Page]One while they thinke t'erect a Monarchy;

But that (corrupted) breeds a Tyranny,

And dead Cambyses fresh before their eyes,

Afrights them with their new-scap'd miseries;

Some to the Nobles would commit the State,

Otanes.

In change of Rule, expecting change of fate;

Others cri'd no, more Kings then one incumber;

Darius, Gobrias, Asphatines, Hidarnes.

Better admit one Tyrant, than a number:

The rule of many doth disquiet bring;

One Monarch is enough, one Lord, one King:

One saies, Let's rule our selues, let's all be kings;

No, saies another, that confusion brings;

Thus moderne danger bred a carefull trouble,

Double their care is, as their feare is double;

And doubtfull to resolue of what conclusion,

To barre confusion, thus they bred confusion;

At last (and well aduis'd) they put their choyce

They put the choyce of their King to seuen Electors.

Vpon the verdit of a Iuries voyce;

Seuen is a perfect number; then by seuen,

Be Persia's royall Crowne, and Scepter giuen;

Now Persia, doe thy plagues, or ioyes commence;

God giue thy Iury sacred euidence:

Fearefull to chuse, and faithlesse in their choyce,

(Since weale, or woe depended on their voyce,)

A few from many they extracted forth,

Whose euen poys'd valour, and like equall worth

Had set a Non plus on their doubtfull tongues,

Vnweeting where the most reward belongs,

They this agreed, and thus (aduis'd) bespake;

Since bleare-eyd mortals, of themselues, can make

The speech of the Electors.

No difference 'twixt good, and euill, nor know

A good from what is only good, in show,

[Page]But, with vnconstant frailty, doth vary

From what is good, to what is cleane contrary;

And since it lies not in the braine of man,

To make his drooping state more happy, than

His vnprospitious stars allot, much lesse

To lend another, or a state successe,

In vaine you therefore shall expect this thing,

That we should giue you fortune, with a King:

Since you haue made vs meanes to propagate

The ioyfull welfare of our headlesse State,

(Bound by the tender seruice that we beare

Our natiue soyle, far then our liues more deare)

We sifted haue, and boulted from the Rest,

Whose worst admits no badnes, and whose best

Cannot be bettered:

When Chaunticleere, (the Belman of the morne)

Shall summon twilight, with his bugle horne,

Let these braue Hero's, drest in warlike wise,

And richly mounted on their Palferies,

Attend our rising Sun-gods ruddy face,

Within the limits of our Royall place.

And he whose lusty

The Persians did dedicate Horses to their God, which was the Sunne.

Stallion first shall neigh,

To him be giuen the doubtfull Monarchy;

The choyce of Kings lies not in mortals brest,

This we; the Gods, and fortune doe the rest.

So said, the people, tickl'd with the motion,

Some tost their caps, some fell to their deuotion,

Some clapt their ioyfull hands, some shout, some sing,

And all at once cri'd out, A King, A King.

When Phoebus Harbinger had chac'd the night,

And tedious Phospher brought the breaking light,

Complete in armes, and glorious in their trayne,

[Page]Came these braue Heroes, prauncing o're the playne,

With mighty streamers came these blazing starres,

Portending Warres, (and nothing else but Warres;)

Into the royall Palace now they come:

There sounds the martiall Trump, here beats the Drum,

There stands a Steede, and champes his frothy steele,

This stroaks the ground, that skorn's it with his heele,

One snorts, another pufs out angry wind,

This mounts before, and that curuets behind;

By this, the fomy Steeds of Phaëton

Puffe too, and spurne the Easterne Horizon:

Whereat the Nobles, prostrate to the ground,

Ador'd their

The Persian worshipped the Sunne.

God, (Their God was early found.)

Heroditus in medio Tholiae Iustin.

Forthwith, from out the thickest of the crowd,

In depth of silence, there was heard the loud,

And lustfull language of

Stiled Assuerus, whom Metactines calls Artaxerxes.

Darius Horse,

Who in the dialect of his discourse,

Proclaim'd his rider, King; whereat the rest

(Patient to beare what cannot be redrest)

Dismount their lofty Steeds, and prostrate bring

Their humbled bodies to their happy King;

God saue the King, they ioyntly say, God blesse

Thy prosprous actions with a due successe;

The people clap their sweatty palmes, and shout,

The bonfires smoke, the bels ring round about,

The minstrels play, the Parrats learne to sing,

(Perchaunce as well as they,) God saue the King.

Assuerus now's inuested in the throne,

Ester▪ 1. 1.

And Persia's rul'd by him, and him alone;

Prooue, happy Persia's Great Assuerus, prooue

As equall happy in thy peoples loue.

Enough; And let this broken breuiate

[Page]Suffice to shadow forth the downefall state

Of mighty Babel, and the conquest made

By the fierce Medes, and Persians conqu'ring blade;

Whose iust succession we haue traced downe,

Till great Assuerus weare the Persian Crowne;

Him haue we sought, and hauing found him, rest:

To morrow goe we to his royall Feast.

FINIS.

THE ARGVMENT OF THE HISTORY.

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KIng Assuerus makes two feasts: to that, he inuites his Courtly ghests, to this, the Citizens of Susa, wherevnto he sends for Queene Vashti, who denyes to come; whereupon the King is angry, and referres the censure of her offence to his Councell, who giue sentence that shee should be degraded from her Princely estate: Forthwith the King commands the fairest Virgins in the Land to bee brought before him, for him to take his choyce, among whom Ester (the Orphane of a Iew) is chosen, married, and Crowned Queene. Mordecai, Queene Esters Vnkle, discouers a treason, which was entred into the Records: Haman, the son of Amedatha, is promoted into the Kings fauour: the King commands his Subiects to bow to him, which Mordecai alone refused to doe: whereupon Haman is full of wrath, and (directed by a lot) begs of the King to destroy all the Iewes in his Prouinces vpon the thirteenth day of the twelfth moneth; which the King granting, Haman sends Letters in the Kings name to make the Massacre vpon that day: The Queene vnderstanding the plot, ventures in to the King, (vncalled:) The King demanding the cause of her comming; she inuites him, and Haman to a feast: They come: the King is pleased to demand her further suit; whereupon she inuites them both to a second Feast. In the meane while Haman, aduised by his wife, builds vp a Gallowes for Mordecai, (intending [Page] at the Banquet to beg his life.) That night, the King (indisposed to sleepe) reades the Chronicles, where hee findes, that Mordecai discouered a Treason; which seruice the King intending to reward, askes Haman (who then came to beg Mordecai's life) what Worship best befits him that the King meanes to honour? Haman (supposing himselfe the man) spake largely: whereupon the King commands him to doe that very honour to Mordecai: So Haman goes home discomforted, and is straight sent for to attend the King to the Queenes Feast; where (in his presence) the King vrges the Queene to mooue her suit; whereupon shee humbly begs hers, and her peoples life, which Haman sought to betray: wherat the King is inraged, & cōmands Haman to be hanged on the Gallowes which he built for Mordecai, and giues his Estate to the Queene, and his Honour to Mordecai: The Queene earnestly requests the King, that he would reuerse the letters which Haman had deuised for the Iewes destruction: the King referres it to the Queene, and Mordecai, who sent Letters in the Kings name, that the Iewes should defend themselues on the day that Haman had appoynted for their slaughter; vpon which day the Iewes slay in Susa fiue hundred men, and the ten sonnes of Haman, and in the other Prouinces 70000. Whereupon the Queene desires the King, that the next day the Iewes might likewise defend themselues from their enemies: and that the dead sons of Haman may be hanged vp; all which the King grants: so as the Iewes slew the next day in Susa, 300. men, and Hamans ten sons were hanged vp; whereupon the Feasts of Purim are instituted, and in the Kings name confirmed for euer.

§

§

[...]

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Partly to blow the coles of old affection,

Which now are dying through a forc'd subiection;

Partly to make his Princely might appeare,

To make them feare for loue, or loue for feare,

He made a Feast: He made a Royall Feast,

The King makes a Feast to his Princes.

Fit for himselfe, had he himselfe bin Ghest;

To which he calls the Princes of his Land,

Who (paying tribute) by his power stand;

To which he calls his seruants of Estate,

His Captaines, and his Rulers of the State,

That he may shew the glory of his store,

The like vnseene by any Prince before;

That he may boast his Kingdomes beauty forth,

His seruant Princes, and their Princely worth;

That he may shew the Type of Sou'raignty,

Fulfil'd in th'honour of his Maiesty:

He made a Feast, whose time did full extend

One hundred fourescore dayes before an end:

And when this royall-tedious Feast was ended,

(For good more common 'tis, 'tis more commended)

For meaner sort he made a second Feast;

The King makes another Feast to the common people.

His Ghests were from the greatest to the least

In Susa's place; Seuen dayes they did resort

To Feast i'th Palace Garden of the Court;

Where in the midst, the house of Bacchus stands,

The description of the banqueting house.

To entertaine when Bounty claps her hands;

The Tap'stry hangings were of diuers hiew,

Pure White, and youthfull Greene, and ioyfull Blue,

The maine supporting Pillers of the Place

Were perfect Marble of the purest race;

The Beds were rich, right Princely to behold,

Whereon they vsed to feast.

Of beaten Siluer, and of burnish't Gold.

[Page]The Pauement was discolour'd Porphyry,

And during Marble, colour'd diuersly;

In lauish Cups of oft-refined gold,

Came wine vnwisht, drinke what the people would;

The Golden vessels did in number passe,

Great choyce of Cups, great choyce of Wine there was.

And since Abuse attends vpon Excesse,

A Law against immoderate drinking.

Leading sweet Mirth to lothsome Drunkennesse,

A temp'rate Law was made, that no man might

Inforce an vndisposed Appetite:

So that a sober mind may vse his pleasure,

And measure drinking, though not drinke by measure.

Explicit Hist.

Meditatio prima.

NO man is borne vnto himselfe alone;

Who liues vnto himselfe, he liues to none:

The World's a body, each man a member is,

To adde some measure to the publike blisse;

Where much is giuen, there much shal be requir'd,

Where little, lesse, for Riches are but hyr'd;

Hesiod.

Wisdome is sold for sweat, Pleasures for paine;

Who liues vnto himselfe, he liues in vaine;

To be a Monarch is a glorious thing;

Who liues not full of Care, he liues no King;

The boundlesse tryumph of a King is such,

To sweeten Care, because his Care is much:

The Sun (whose radient beames reflect so bright)

Comforts, and warmes, as well as it giues light,

[Page]By whose example Phoebe (though more dim)

Does counterfeit his beams, and shines from him:

So mighty Kings are not ordain'd alone

To pearch in glory on the princely Throne,

But to direct in Peace, command in Warre

Those Subiects, for whose sakes they onely are;

So loyall Subiects must adapt them to

Such vertuous actions as their Princes doe:

So shall his people, euen as well as He,

Princes (though in a lesser volume) be.

¶ When as I fixe my sharpe-contracted eye

Vpon Assuerus Feast, me thinkes, I spye

The Temple daunce, in my attentiue eare

(Rauisht with th'Heauenly musike that I heare)

I well conceiue this sence-bereauing song,

Like dainty warbling of an Angels tong,

Vashti shall fall, and Ester rise,

Sion shall thriue, when Haman dyes.

Blest are the meetings, and the Banquets blest▪

Where Angels caroll musike to the Feast;

¶ How doe our wretched times degenerate

From former Ages! How intemperate

Hath lauish custome made our bed-rid Age,

Acting obsceane Sceanes on her drunken Stage!

Our times are guided by a lewder lot,

As if that world another world begot:

Their friendly Feasts were fill'd with sweet sobriety;

Ours, with obsceane delights, and foule ebriety.

Theirs, the vnualued prize of Loue intended;

Ours seeke the cause, whereby our Loue is ended.

How in so blind an age could those men see!

And in a seeing Age, how blinde are wee!

[Page]¶ Let poore men then diuide their wants to me,

If not to them my wealth diuided be.

THE ARGVMENT.

The King sends for the Queene, the Queene

Denies to come; His hasty spleene

Inflames, vnto the Persian Lawes

He leaues the censure of his cause.

Sect. 2.

TO adde more honour to this Royall Feast,

Chap. 1. 9. Queene Vashti makes a Feast.

That Glory may with Glory be increast,

Vashti the Queene, (the fairest Queen on earth)

Shee made a Feast, and put on iolly mirth,

To bid sweet welcome with her Princely cheere

To all her Ghests; Her Ghests all, women were.

By this the Royall bounty of the King

Hath well-nigh spent the seuen dayes banqueting.

Six Iouiall dayes haue run their howers out,

And now the seuenth doth wheele the weeke about,

Vpon which day, (the Queenes vnlucky Day)

The King, with iollity intic'd away,

And gently hauing slipt the stricter reynes

Of Temperance, (that ouer-mirth restraines)

The King sends for Queene Vashti.

Rose vp, commanded that without delay,

(How-e're the Persian custome doe gain-say [...]

2

[Page]How hast thou thus defil'd thy Yu'ry feet!

Thy sweetnesse that was once how farre from sweet!

Where are thy maiden smiles? thy blushing cheeke?

Thy Lamb-like countenance, so faire, so meeke?

Where is that spotlesse flower that while-ere

Within thy lilly-bosome thou did'st weare?

Ha's wanton Cupid snatcht it? Hath his Dart

Sent courtly tokens to thy simple heart?

Where dost thou bide? The Countrey halfe disclaimes thee;

The City wonders when a body names thee:

Or haue the sounding Woods ingrost thee there,

And thus fore-stal'd our empty Markets here?

Sure th'art not, or hid where no man shewes thee,

Or chang'd so much, scarce man or woman knowes thee.

¶ Our Grandame Eue, before it was forbid,

Desired not that Fruit, she after did:

Had not the Custome of those times ordain'd

That women from mens Feasts should be restrain'd,

Perhaps (Assuerus) Vasti might haue stayd

Vnsent for, and thy selfe been vndenayd:

Such are the fruits of myrths, and Wines abuse,

Customes must crack, and Loue must break his Truce,

Anger, contentious Wrath, and wrathfull Hate

Attend the Feast, where Wine's immoderate.

¶ More difficult it is, and greater skill

To beare a mischiefe, than preuent an ill:

Passion is naturall, but to bridle Passion,

Is more Diuine, and vertues operation:

To doe amisse, is Natures Act; to erre,

Is but a wretched mortalls Character:

But to preuent the danger of the Ill,

Is more than Man, surpassing humane skill▪

[Page]Who playes a happy game with crafty sleyte,

Confirmes himselfe but Fortunes Fauourite;

But he that husbands well an ill-dealt Game,

Deserues the credit of a Gamesters name:

¶ Lord, if my Cards be bad, yet lend me skill

To play them wisely', and make the best of ill.

THE ARGVMENT.

The learned Councell plead the case,

The Queene degraded from her place,

Decrees are sent throughout the Land,

That wiues obey, and men command.

Sect. 3.

THe righteous Councell (hauing heard the Cause)

Chap. 1. 16.

Aduiz'd awhile, with respit of a pause,

Till Memucan (the first that silence brake)

Vnseal'd his serious lips, and thus bespake:

The Great Assuerus sou'raigne Lord and King,

Memucan's speech.

(To grace the period of his Banqueting)

Hath sent for Vashti: Vashti would not come,

And now it rests in vs to giue the doome.

But lest that too much rashnesse violate

The sacred Iustice of our happy state,

We first propound the height of her offence,

Next, the succeeding Inconuenience, [...]

3

[Page]Thus broke in two, he did anew ordaine

That these same two should be made One againe:

Till singling Death this sacred knot vndoe,

And part this new-made One, once more in two.

¶ Since of a Rib first framed was a Wife,

Let Ribs be Hi'rogliphicks of their life:

Ribs coast the heart, and guard it round about,

And like a trusty Watch keepe danger out;

So tender Wiues should loyally impart

Their watchfull care to fence their Spouses heart:

All members else from out their places roue,

But Ribs are firmely fixt, and seldome moue:

Women (like Ribs) must keepe their wonted home,

And not (like Dinah that was rauish't) rome:

Genes. 34. 2.

If Ribs be ouer-bent, or handled rough,

Costa dura est & difficiliter flectitur: Sphinx. Ioh. Stig. in Poematis▪ Coniugium humanae diuina Academia vitae est.

They breake; If let alone, they bend enough:

Women must (vnconstrain'd) be plyent still,

And gently bending to their Husbands will.

The sacred Academy of mans life

Is holy wedlocke in a happy Wife.

It was a wise mans speech, Could neuer they

now to command, that knew not first t'obey:

Wher's then that high Command, that ample Glory,

Which for a patterne (left in endlesse story)

Your noble Sexe in former dayes atchiu'd?

Whose sounding Fame no after-Times outliu'd.

What braue Command? How well-succeeding broyles?

What stately Triumphs? What victorious spoyles

Hand vlla vnquam salua mansit familia, partes priores vxor in qua gesserit. Euripid. in Androm.

Their hands achiu'd? They sway'd their Scepters thē

As well in Kingdomes, as in hearts of men;

And sweet obedience was the lowly stayre

Mounted their steps to that Commanding chaire:

[Page]A womans Rule should be in such a fashion,

Onely to guide her houshold, and her Passion:

And her obedience neuer's out of season,

So long as either Husband lasts, or Reason:

Ill thriues the haplesse Family, that showes

Non placet mihi ista domus, in qua Gallina cantat, Gallus tacet.

A Cocke that's silent, and a Hen that crowes.

I know not which liue more vngodly liues,

¶

[...].

Obeying Husbands, or commanding Wiues.

THE ARGVMENT.

Assuerus pleas'd, His seruants motion

Propounded, gaine his approbation.

Esters descent, her Iewish race:

Her beautyes, and her perfit Grace.

Sect. 4.

VVHen Time (that endeth all things) did asswage

Chap. 2. 1.

The burning Feuer of Assüerus rage,

And quiet satisfaction had assign'd

Delightfull Iu'lyps to his troubled mind,

He cal'd his old remembrance to account

Of Vashti, and her Crimes that did amount

To th'summe of their diuorcement: In his thought

He weigh'd the censure of her heedlesse fault:

His fawning seruants willing to preuent him,

If too much thought should make his loue repent him,

[Page] Said thus: (If it shall please our gracious Lord

The Kings seruants speech to the King.

To crowne with Audience his seruants word)

Let strict Inquest, and carefull Inquisition

In all the Realme be made, and quicke prouision

Throughout the Medes and Persians all among,

For comely Virgins, beautifull and yong,

Which (curiously selected) let them bring

Into the Royall Palace of the King;

And let the Eunuchs of the King take care

For Princely Robes, and Vestures, and prepare

Sweet Odours, choyse Perfumes, and all things meet,

To adde a greater sweetnesse to their sweet;

And she, whose perfect beames shall best delight,

And seeme most gracious in his Kingly sight;

To her be giuen the Conquest of her face,

And be inthron'd in scornfull Vashties place.

The proiect pleas'd the King, who made an Act

The King pleased with the speech. Mordecaies parentage.

To second what was said with soone effect.

Within the walls of Shusa dwelt there one,

By breeding, and by birth a Iew, and knowne

By th'name of Mordecai,

1. Sam. 9. 1.

of mighty kin,

Descended from the Tribe of Beniamin,

(Whose necke was subiect to the slauish yoke,

When

2. Kin. 24. 15.

Ieconiah was surpris'd and tooke,

And carried captiue into Babels Land,

With strength of mighty Neb'chadnezzars hand;)

Within his house abode a Virgin bright,

Whose name was Ester, or Hadassa hight,

Esters parentage, vertue, and beauty.

His brothers Daughter, whom (her parents dead)

This Iew did foster, in her fathers stead;

She wanted none, though father she had none,

Her vncles loue assum'd her for his owne;

[Page]Bright beames of beauty streamed from her eye,

And in her cheekes sate maiden modesty;

Which peerelesse beauty lent so kinde a rellish

To modest vertue, that they did imbellish

Each others ex'lence, with a full assent,

In her to boast their perfect complement.

Explicit Hist.

Meditatio quarta.

THe strongest Arcteries that knit and tye

The members of a mixed Monarchy,

Are learned Councels, timely Consultations,

Rip'ned Aduice, and sage Deliberations;

And if those Kingdomes be but ill be-blest,

Whose Rule's committed to a young mans brest;

Then such Estates are more vnhappy farre,

Whose choycest Councellors but

Iuuines meribus.

Children are:

How many Kingdomes blest with high renowne,

(In all things happy else) haue plac'd their Crowne

Vpon the temples of a childish head,

Vntill with ruine, King, or State be sped!

What Massacres (begun by factious iarres,

And ended by the spoyle of ciuill warres)

Haue made braue Monarchyes vnfortunate,

And raz'd the glory' of many' a mighty State?

How many hopefull Princes (ill-aduis'd

By young, and smooth-fac'd Councell) haue despis'd

The sacred Oracles of riper yeeres,

Till deare Repentance washt the Land with teares!

[Page]Witnes thou lucklesse, and succeeding

Rehoboam. 1. King. 12. 8.

Son

Of (wisdomes Fauourite) great Salomon;

How did thy rash, and beardlesse Councell bring,

Thy fortunes subiect to a stranger King?

And laying burthens on thy peoples neck,

The weight hung sadly on thy bended back.

Thou second

Sonne to the blacke Prince.

Richard (once our Brittaine King,

Whose Syr's, and Grandsyr's fame the world did ring)

How was thy gentle nature led aside,

By greene aduisements, which thy State did guide,

Vntill the title of thy Crowne did crack,

And fortunes (like thy Fathers name) were black?

¶ Now glorious Brittaine, clap thy hands, and blesse

Thy sacred fortunes; for thy happinesse

(As doth thy Iland) does it selfe deuide,

And sequester from all the world beside;

Blest are thy open Gates with ioyfull peace,

Blest are thy heaped barnes with sweet increase,

Blest in thy Councell, whose industrious skill,

Is but to make thy fortunes happy still;

In all things blest, that to a State pertaine;

Thrise happy in my dreaded Soueraigne,

My sacred Sou'raigne, in whose onely brest,

A wise Assembl' of Priuy Councels rest,

Who conquers with his princely Heart as far▪

By peace, as Alexander did by War,

And with his Olife branch more hearts did boord,

Then daring Cesar did, with Cesars sword:

Long mayst thou hold within thy Royall hand,

The peacefull Scepter of our happy Land:

¶ Great Iudah's Lyon, and the Flow'r of Iesse,

Preserue thy Lynes, and thy Flowers blesse.

[Page]

THE ARGVMENT.

Faire Virgins brought to Hege's hand,

The custome of the Persian Land;

Esters neglect of rich attire,

To whet the wanton Kings desire.

Sect. 5.

ANd when the lustfull Kings Decree was read

Chap. 2. 8.

In eu'ry eare, and Shire proclaim'd, and spred,

Forthwith vnto the Eunuch Hege's hand

Virgins brought to the Eunuch Hege.

The Beuy came, the pride of beauties band,

Armed with ioy, and warring with their eyes,

To gaine the Conquest of a Princely prize;

But none in peerlesse beauty shin'd so bright,

Hege affects Ester.

As louely Ester did, in Hege's sight,

In loyall seruice he obserued her;

He sent for costly Oyles, and dainty Myrrh,

To fit her for the presence of the King:

Rich Tyres, and change of vesture did he bring;

Seuen comely maids he gaue, to tend vpon her,

To shew his seruice, and increase her honour:

But she was watchfull of her lips, and wise,

Disclosing not her kindred, or alyes:

For trusty Mardocheus tender care

Gaue hopefull Ester Items to beware

[Page]To blaze her kin, or make her people knowne,

Lest for their sake, her hopes be ouerthrowne;

Before the Gates he to and fro did passe,

Wherein inclos'd (the Courtly) Ester was,

To vnderstand how Ester did behaue her,

And how she kept her in the Eunuchs fauour.

Now when as Time had fitted eu'ry thing,

By course these Virgins came before the King.

Such was the custome of the Persian soyle,

The Persian custome.

Sixe months the Maids embalm'd in Myrrh and Oyle,

Sixe other months perfum'd in odours sweet,

That perfect lust, and great excesse may meet;

What costly Robes, rare Iewels, rich attire,

Or, curious Fare, these Virgins did desire,

'Twas giuen, and freely granted, when they bring

Their bodies to be prostrate to the King:

Each Virgin keepes her turne, and all the night

They lewdly lauish in the Kings delight,

And soone as morning shall restore the day,

They in their bosomes beare blacke night away,

And (in their guilty brests, as are their sinnes

Close prisoners) in the house of Concubines,

Euen so are they, vntill the King shall please,

With lustfull bayle their bondage to release.

Now when the turne of Ester was at hand,

Esters behauiour.

To satisfie the wanton Kings command,

Shee sought not (as the rest) with braue attire,

To lend a needlesse spurre to foule Desire,

Nor yet indeuours with a whorish Grace,

T'adulterate the beauty of her face:

Nothing she sought to make her glory brauer,

But simply tooke, what gentle Hege gaue her:

[Page]Her sober visage daily wan her honour:

Each wandring eye inflam'd, that look'd vpon her.

Explicit Hist.

Meditatio quinta.

WHen God had with his All-producing Blast,

Blowne vp the bubble of the World, and plac't

In order that, which he had made in measure,

As well for needfull vse, as ioyfull pleasure:

Then out of earthy mould he fram'd a

Genes. 1. 26.

creature

Farre more Diuine, and of more glorious feature

Than earst he made, indu'd with vnderstanding,

With strength victorious, & with awe commanding,

With Reason, Wit, replete with Maiesty,

With heauenly knowledge, and Capacity,

True embleme of his Maker: Him he made

The sou'raigne Lord of all; Him all obay'd;

Yeelding their liues (as tribute) to their King;

Both Fish, and Bird, and Beast, and euery thing:

His body's rear'd vpright, and in his eye,

Stand Radient beames of awfull sou'rainty;

All Creatures else pore downward to the ground,

Man lookes to heauen, and all his thoughts rebound:

Vpon the Earth (where tydes of pleasures meet)

He treads, and daily tramples with his feet;

Which reade sweet Lectures to his wandring eyes,

And teach his lustfull heart to moralize:

Gen. 2. 25.

Naked he liu'd, nak'd to the world he came;

For he had then nor fault to hide, nor shame: [...]

6

[Page]He lik't them all, but when with strict reuye,

He viewed Esters face, his wounded eye

The King fauoured Ester.

Sparkl'd, whilst Cupid with his youthfull Dart,

Transfixt the Center of his feeble heart;

Ester is now his ioy, and in her eyes,

The sweetest flower of his Garland lyes:

Who now but Ester? Ester crownes his blisse;

And hee's become her prisoner, that was his:

Ester obtaines the prize, her high desert

Like Di'mond's richly mounted in his heart;

Iö, now Iö Hymen sings; for she

Ester made wife, and Queene.

That crownes his ioy, must likewise crowned be:

The Crowne is set on Princely Esters head,

Ester sits Queene in scornfull Vashties stead.

To consecrate this Day to more delights,

The Nuptials celebrated.

In due solemnizing the nuptiall rites,

In Esters name, Assuerus made a Feast,

Inuited all his Princes, and releast

The hard taxation, that his heauy hand

Laid on the groning subiects of his Land;

No rites were wanting to augment his ioyes,

Great gifts confirm'd the bounty of his choyce:

Yet had not Esters (lauish) tongue descri'd

Her Iewish kin, or where she was aly'd;

For still the words of Mordecai did rest

Within the Cabbin of her Royall brest,

That was as plyent (being now a Queene)

To sage aduice, as ere before sh'ad been.

It came to passe, as Mardochaeus sate

Mordecai ouerheares treason.

Within the Portall of the Princes gate,

He ouer-heard two seruants of the King,

Closly combin'd in hollow whispering,

[Page](Like whistling Notus that foretells a raine)

To breathe out treason 'gainst their Soueraigne:

Which, soone as loyall Mardochaeus heard,

Discouers it to the Queene.

Forthwith to Esters presence he repair'd;

Disclos'd to her, and to her care commended

The Traitors, and the treason they intended:

Whereat, the Queene (impatient of delay)

The Queene discouers it to the King.

Betrayd the Traitors, that would her betray,

And to the King vnbosom'd all her heart,

And who her Newes-man was, and his desert.

Now all on hurly-burly was the Court,

Fild with the foulenesse of this sad report:

The watch was set, pursuit was sent about,

The traitors pursued.

To guard the King, and finde the Traitours out,

Who found, and guilty found, by speedy triall,

Found, and tryed.

(Where witnesse speakes, what boots a bare deniall?)

Were both hang'd vp, vpon the shamefull tree:

Hanged.

(To beare such fruit let trees ne'r barren be▪)

And what successe this happy Day afforded,

Was in the Persian Chronicles recorded.

Explicit Hist.

Meditatio sexta.

THe hollow Concaue of a humane brest

Is Gods Exchequer, and therein the best,

And sum of all his chiefest wealth consists,

Which he shuts vp, and opens when he lists:

No power is of man: To loue, or hate,

Lyes not in mortals brest, or pow'r of Fate: [...]

7

[Page]

Who was the issue of a Royall breed,

The off-cast off-spring of the cursed seed

Of Amalek, from

Esau.

him descended right,

That sold his birth-right for his Appetite;

Haman his name; His fortunes did improue,

Haman comes into fauour with the King.

Increast by fauour of the Princes loue:

Full great he grew, preferd to high command,

And plac'd before the Princes of the Land:

And since that honour, and due reuerence

Attend, where Princes giue preeminence;

The King commands the seruants of his State,

To suit Respect to Hamans high estate,

And doe him honour, fitting his degree,

With vayled Bonnet, and low bended knee:

They all obseru'd; But aged Mordecai

Mordecai refuseth to reuerence Haman.

(Whose stubborne ioynts-neglected to obey

The seed, which God with infamy had branded)

Stoutly refused what the King commanded;

Which, when the seruants of the King had seene,

Their fell disdaine, mixt with an enuious spleene,

Inflam'd; They question'd how he durst withstand

The iust performance of the Kings Command:

Daily they checkt him for his high disdaine,

And he their checks did daily entertaine

With silent slight behauiour, which did proue

As full of care, as their rebukes of loue.

Since then their hearts (not able to abide

A longer suffrance of his peeuish pride)

(Whose scorching fires, passion did augment,)

Must either breake, or finde a speedy vent:

The Kings seruants complaine of Mordecai, to Haman.

To Haman they th'vnwelcome newes related,

And what they said, their malice aggrauated.

[Page]Enuie did ope her Snake-deuouring Iawes,

Foamd frothy blood, and bent her vnked Pawes,

Her hollow eyes did cast out sudden flame,

And pale as ashes lookt this angry Dame,

And thus bespake! Art thou that man of might,

That Impe of Glory? Times great Fauorite?

Hath thy deserued worth restor'd againe

The blemisht honour of thy Princely straine?

Art thou that Wonder which the Persian State

Stands gazing at so much, and poynting at?

Filling all wondring eyes with Admiration,

And euery loyall heart with Adoration?

Art thou that mighty He? How haps it then

That wretched Mordecai, the worst of men,

A captiue slaue, a superstitious Iew,

Slights thee, and robs thee of thy rightfull due?

Nor was his fault disguis'd with Ignorance,

(The vnfee'd Aduocate of sinne) or Chance,

But backt with Arrogance and foule Despite:

Rise vp, and doe thy blemisht honour right.

Vp (like his deepe Reuenge) rose Haman then,

Hamans passion.

And like a sleeping Lion from his Den,

Rouz'd his relentlesse Rage; But when his eye

Confirm'd the newes Report did testifie,

His Reason straight was heau'd from off his henge,

And Fury rounded in his eare, Reuenge,

And (like a rash Aduiser) thus began:

There's nothing (Haman) is more deare to man,

And cooles his boyling veynes with sweeter pleasure,

Than quicke Reuenge; for to reuenge by leisure,

Is but like feeding, when the stomacke's past,

Pleasing nor eager appetite, nor taste: [...]

7

[Page]

¶ Lord, let my fortunes be or rich, or poore:

If small, the lesse account; if great, the more.

THE ARGVMENT.

Vnto the King proud Haman sues,

For the destruction of the Iewes:

The King consents, and in his name

Decrees were sent t'effect the same.

Sect. 8.

NOw when the yeere had tum'd his course about,

Chap. 3. 7.

And fully worne his weary howers out,

And left his circling trauell to his heire,

That now sets onset to th'ensuing yeere,

Proud Haman (pain'd with trauell in the birth,

Till after-time could bring his mischiefe forth)

Cast Lots, from month to month, from day to day,

To picke the choycest time, when Fortune may

Be most prospicious to his damned plot;

Till on the last month fell th'vnwilling Lot:

So Haman guided by his Idoll Fate,

(Cloking with publike good his priuate Hate)

In plaintiffe tearmes, where Reason lent the rellish,

Vnto the King, his speech did thus imbellish:

Vpon the limits of this happy Nation,

Hamans speech to the King.

There flotes a skumme, an off-cast Generation,

[Page]Disperst; despis'd, and noysome to the Land,

And Refractory to the Lawes, and thy Command,

Not stooping to thy Power, but despising

All Gouernment, but of their owne deuising,

And stirre the glowing embers of diuision,

The hatefull mother of a States sedition,

The which (not soone redrest by Reformation)

Will ruine breed to thee, and to thy Nation,

Begetting Rebels, and seditious broyles,

And fill thy peacefull Land, with bloody spoyles:

His request.

Now therefore, if it please my gracious Lord,

To right this grieuance with his Princely sword,

That Death, and due Destruction may be sent,

To take the Couie of this rabblement,

Vnto the Royall Treasure of the King,

Ten thousand siluer Talents will I bring.

Then gaue the King, from off his heedlesse hand,

The King grants Hamans suit.

His Ring to Haman, with that Ring, command,

And said: Thy proffer'd wealth possesse,

Yet be thy iust Petition ne'rthelesse

Entirely granted. Lo, before thy face

Thy vassals lye, with all their rebell race;

Thine be the people, and the power thine,

To doome the Traitors their deserued Fine.

Forthwith the Scribes were summon'd to appeare,

The Decree was made.

Decrees were written, sent to eu'ry Shiere;

To all Lieutenants, Captaines of the Band,

And all the Prouinces throughout the Land,

Stil'd in the name and person of the King,

And made authentick with his Royall Ring;

By speedy Post-men were the Letters sent;

And this the summe is of their sad content:

[Page]

Let eu'ry Prouince in the Persian Land,

The Decree.

(Vpon the

The 13. day of the twelfth month, which was part of February, part of March.

Day prefixt) prepare his hand,

To make the Channels flow with Rebels blood,

And from the earth to root the Iewish brood:

And let the softnesse of no partiall heart,

Through melting pitty, loue, or fond desert,

Spare either young or old, or man, or woman,

But like their fault, so let their plagues be common;

Decreed, and sealed by our Princely Grace,

And giuen at Sushan, from our Royall Place.

So Haman fill'd with ioy (his fortunes blest

With faire succeeding of his foule request)

Laid care aside to sleepe, and with the King,

Consum'd the time in iolly banqueting:

Meane while, the Iewes, (the poore afflicted Iewes

Perplext, and startl'd with the newbred newes)

With drooping heads, and selfe-imbracing armes,

Wept forth the Dirge of their ensuing harmes.

Explicit Hist.

Meditatio octaua.

OF all diseases in a publike weale,

No one more dangerous, and hard to heale,

(Except a tyrant King) then when great might

Is trusted to the hands, that take delight

To bathe, and paddle in the blood of those,

Whom iealousies, and not iust cause oppose:

For when as haughty power is conioynd

Vnto the will of a distemper'd mind,

[Page] What e'r it can, it will, and what it will,

Paling. Cui ius est, ius non me [...]uit, ius obruitur vi.

It in it selfe, hath power to fulfill:

What mischiefe then can linger, vnattempted?

What base attempts can happen, vnpreuented?

Statutes must breake, good Lawes must go to wracke,

And (like a Bowe that's ouerbent) must cracke:

Iustice (the life of Law) becomes so furious,

That (ouer-doing right) it prooues iniurious:

Summum ius est summa iniuria.

Mercy (the Steare of Iustice) flyes the Citty,

And falsly must be tearm'd, a foolish Pitty:

Meane while the gracious Princes tender brest

(Gently possest with nothing but the best

Of the disguis'd dissembler) is abus'd▪

And made the cloke, wherewith his fault's excus'd:

The radient beames that warme, and shine so bright,

Simile.

Comfort this lower world with heate, and light,

But drawne, and recollected in a glasse,

They burne, and their appoynted limits passe:

Euen so the power from the Princes hand,

Directs the subiect with a sweet command,

But to peruerse fantasticks if confer'd,

Whom wealth, or blinded Fortune hath prefer'd,

It spurres on wrong, and makes the right retire,

And sets the grumbling Common-wealth on fire:

Their foule intent, the Common good pretends,

And with that good, they maske their priuate ends,

Their glorie's dimme, and cannot b'vnderstood,

Vnlesse it shine in pride, or swimme in blood:

Their will's a Law, their mischiefe Policy,

Their frownes are Death, their power Tyranny:

Ill thriues the State, that harbours such a man,

That can, what e'r he wills, wills, what he can.

[Page]

May my vngarnisht Quill presume so much,

To glorifie it selfe, and giue a touch

Vpon the Iland of my Sou'raigne Lord?

What language shall I vse, what new-found word,

T'abridge the mighty volume of his worth,

And keepe me blamelesse, from th'vntimely birth

(Of false reputed flattery?) He lends

No cursed Haman pow'r, to worke his Ends

Vpon our ruine, but transferres his grace

On iust desert, which in the vgly face

Of foule Detraction, (vntoucht) can dare,

And smile till black-mouth'd Enuy blush, and tare

Her Snaky fleece. Thus, thus in happy peace

He rules, to make our happinesse increase,

Directs with loue, commands with Princely awe,

And in his brest he beares a liuing Law:

Defend vs thou, and heauens thee defend,

And let proud Hamans haue proud Hamans end.

[Page]

THE ARGVMENT.

The Iewes, and Mordecai lament,

And wayle the height of their distresses:

But Mordecai the Queene possesses,

With cruell Hamans soule intent.

Sect. 9.

NOw when as Fame (the daughter of the earth

Chap. 4. 1.

Newly dis-burthen'd of her plumed birth)

From off her Turrets did her wings display,

And pearcht in the sad eares of Mordecai,

He rent his garments, wearing in their stead

Mordecaies passion.

Distressed sackcloth: on his fainting head

He strowed Dust, and from his showring eyes

Ran flouds of sorrow, and with bitter cryes

His griefe saluted heauen; his groanes did borrow

No Art, to draw the true pourtraict of sorrow,

Nor yet within his troubled brest alone,

(Too small a stage for griefe to trample on)

Did Tyrant sorrow act her liuely Sceane,

But did inlarge (such griefe admits no meane)

The lawlesse limits of her Theater

Ith' hearts of all the Iewish Nation, where

(With no dissembled Action) she exprest

The liuely Passion of a pensiue brest. [...]

9

[Page]Aboue, or here below; And he that doth

Inioy the one, may neuer taste of both;

Sweating, and constant labour wins the Goale

Of Rest; Afflictions clarifie the soule,

And like hard Masters, giue more hard directions,

Tut'ring the nonage of vncurb'd affections:

Wisedome (the Antidote of sad despaire)

Makes sharpe Afflictions seeme not as they are,

Through patient suffrance, and doth apprehend,

Not as they seeming are, but as they end:

To beare Affliction with a bended brow,

Or stubborne heart, is but to disallow

The speedy meanes to health; salue heales no sore,

If misapply'd, but makes the griefe the more:

Who sends Affliction, sends an end; and He

Best knowes what's best for him, what's best for me:

'Tis not for me to carue me where I like;

Him pleases when he list, to stroake or strike:

I'le neither wish, nor yet auoyd Tentation,

But still expect it, and make Preparation:

If he thinke best my Faith shall not be tride;

(Lord) keepe me spotlesse from presumptuous pride:

If otherwise; with triall, giue me care,

By thankfull patience, to preuent Despaire;

Fit me to beare what e'r thou shalt assigne;

I kisse the Rod, because the Rod is thine.

How-e'r, let me not boast, nor yet repine,

With triall, or without (Lord) make me thine.

[Page]

THE ARGVMENT.

Her aydimplor'd, the Queene refuses

To helpe them, and her selfe excuses:

But (vrg'd by Mordecai) consents

To die, or crosse their foes intents.

Sect. 10.

NOw when the seruant had return'd the words

Cahp. 4. 9.

Of wretched Mordecai, like poynted swords,

They neere impierc't Queen Esters tender hart,

That well could pitty, but no helpe impart;

Ballast with griefe, and with the burthen foyld,

(Like Ordnance ouer-charg'd) she thus recoyld:

Goe, Hatach, tell my wretched kinsman thus,

Esters message to Mordecai.

The case concernes not him alone, but vs:

We are the subiect of proud Hamans hate,

As well as you; our life is poynted at

As well as yours, or as the meanest Iew,

Nor can I helpe my selfe, nor them, nor you:

You know the Custome of the Persian State,

No King may breake, no subiect violate:

How may I then presume to make accesse

Before th' offended King? or rudely presse

(Vncall'd) into his presence? How can I

Expect my suit, and haue deseru'd to dye? [...]

10

[Page]Must suit his deare indeuour to his might;

Each one must lift, to make the burthen light,

Prouing the power, that his gifts afford,

To raise the best aduantage for his Lord,

Whose substitute he is, and for whose sake

We liue and breathe; each his account must make,

Or more, or lesse; and he whose power lacks

The meanes to gather honey, must bring waxe:

Fiue Talents double fiue, two render foure;

Wher's little, little's crau'd, where much, ther's more:

Kings by their Royall priuiledge may doe,

What vnbefits a mind to search into,

But by the force of their Prerogatiues,

They cannot free the custome of their liues:

The silly Widdow, (from whose wrinkled browes

Faint drops distill, through labour that she owes

Her needy life,) must make her Audite too,

As well as Kings, and mighty Monarkes doe:

The world's a Stage, each mortall acts thereon,

As well the King that glitters on the Throne,

As needy beggers: Heau'n Spectator is,

And markes who acteth well, and who amisse.

¶ What part befits me best, I cannot tell:

It matters not how meane, so acted well.

[Page]

THE ARGVMENT.

Vnto the King Queene Ester goes,

He (vnexpected) fauour showes,

Demands her suit, shee doth request

The King and Haman to a Feast.

Sect. 11.

WHen as Queene Esters solemne three dayes Fast

Chap. 54.

Had feasted heauen, with a sweet repast,

Her lowly bended body she vnbow'd,

And (like faire Titan breaking from a cloud)

She rose, and with her Royall Robes she clad

Her liuelesse limmes, and with a face as sad

As griefe could paint, (wanting no Art to borrow

A needlesse helpe to counterfeit a sorrow,)

Softly she did direct her feeble pace

Vnto the inner Court, where for a space,

She boldly stood before the Royall Throne,

Like one that would, but durst not make her mone:

Which when her gracious Lord did well behold,

His heart relented, (Fortune helpes the bold)

And to expresse a welcome vnexpected,

Forth to the Queene his Scepter he directed;

Whom (now imboldn'd to approch secur'd)

In gracious tearmes, he gently thus coniur'd:

[Page]

What is't Queene Ester would? What sad request

The Kings speech to the Queene.

Hangs on her lips, dwells in her doubtfull brest?

Say, say, (my lifes preseruer) what's the thing,

That lyes in the performance of a King,

Shall be deny'd? Faire Queene, what e'r is mine

Vnto the moyty of my Kingdom's thine.

So Ester thus: If in thy Princely eyes

The Queene inuites the King to a feast.

Thy loyall seruant hath obtain'd the prize

Of vndeserued fauour, let the King

And Haman grace my this-dayes-banqueting,

To crowne the dainties of his handmaids Feast,

Humbly deuoted to so great a Ghest.

The motion pleas'd, and fairly well succeeded:

(To willing minds, no twice intreaty needed)

They came, but in Queene Esters troubled face,

Rob'd of the sweetnesse of her wonted Grace,

The King read discontent; her face diuinde

The greatnesse of some further suit behinde.

Say, say, (thou bounteous haruest of my ioyes)

The Kings speech to the Queene.

(Said then the King) what dumpish griefe annoyes

Thy troubled soule? Speake, Lady, what's the thing

Thy heart desires? By th'onour of a King,

My Kingdomes halfe, requested, I'le diuide

To faire Queene Ester, to my fairest Bride.

The Queene inuites the King, and Haman to a second feast.

Lo then the tenor of my deare Request,

(Replide the Queene,) Vnto a second Feast,

Thy humble suitor doth presume to bid

The King, and Haman, as before she did:

Now therefore, if it please my Gracious Lord,

To daine his Royall presence, and afford

The peerlesse treasure of his Princely Grace,

To dry the sorrowes of his Handmaids face,

[Page]Then to my Kingly, and thrice-welcome Ghest,

His seruant shall vnbosome her Request.

Expl. Hist.

Meditatio vndecima.

HE that inuites his Maker to a Feast,

(Aduising well the greatnesse of his Chest)

Must clense his dining roome from foule infections,

And sweepe the Cobwebs of his lewd Affections,

And then prouide such Cates, as most delight

His Palate, and best please his Appetite:

And such are holy workes, and pious deeds,

These are the dainties whereon heau'n feeds:

Faith playes the Cooke, seasons, directs, and guides;

So man findes meate, so God the Cooke prouides:

His drinke are teares, sprung from a midnight cry,

Heau'n sips out Nectar from a sinners eye;

The dining Chamber, is the soule opprest;

God keepes his Reuels in a Sinners brest:

The musick that attends the Feast, are grones,

Deepe-sounding sighes, and lowd-lamenting mones:

Heau'n heares no sweeter musick, than complaints;

The Fasts of sinners, are the Feasts of Saints,

To which heau'n daynes to stoop, & heau'ns hie King

Transcends, whil'st all the Quire of Angels sing,

And with such sense-bereauing Sonnets fill

The hearts of wretched men, that my rude Quill

(Dazeld with too much light) it selfe addressing

To blaze them forth, obscures them in th'expressing:

[Page]Thrice happy man, and thrice thrice happy Feast,

Grac'd with the presence of so great a Ghest;

To

The power of a faithfull man. Math. 16. 19. and 18. 18.

him are freely giuen the

The power of a faithfull man. Math. 16. 19. and 18. 18.

priuie keyes

Of heauen and earth, to open when he please,

And locke when-e'r he list; In him it lies

To ope the showring floud-gates of the skyes,

1. King. 18. 45.

Or shut them at his pleasure; In his hand

The Host of heauen is put; If he command,

The Sunne (not daring to withstand) obeyes,

2. King 20. 9. Iosh. 10. 12.

Out runnes his equall howres, flyes backe, or stayes,

To him there's nought vneasie to atchieue;

1. King. 17. 22. 2. King. 4. 35. Act. 9. 40.

Hee'le rouze the graues, and make the dead aliue.

¶ Lord, I'me vnfit t'inuite thee to my Home,

My Cates are all too course, too meane my Roome:

Yet come and welcome; By thy pow'r Diuine,

Thy Grace may turne my water into Wine.

THE ARGVMENT.

Good Mordecai's vnreuerence

Great Hamans haughty pride offends:

H'acquaints his wife with the offence;

The counsell of his wife and friends.

Sect. 12.

THat day went Haman forth; his swolne brest

Chap. 5. 9.

Was fill'd with ioyes, and heart was full possest

[Page]Of all the height Ambition could require,

To satisfie her prodigall Desire.

But when he passed through the Palace Gate,

Mordecai neglects his seruice to Haman.

(His eye-sore) aged Mardocheus sate,

With dauntlesse head vnbar'd, and knee vnbent,

Vnapt to fawne, with slauish blandishment:

Which when Great Haman saw, his boyling brest

Haman discontented.

(So foule disdaine vnable to digest)

Ran o're; his blood grew hot, and new desires

Incenst, and kindled his auenging fires:

Surcharg'd with griefe, and sicke with male-content

Of his distemper'd passion, home he went;

Where (to asswage the swelling of his sorrow

With words, the poorest helpes distresse can borrow)

His wife, and friends he summon'd to partake

His cause of discontent, and thus bespake:

See, see, how Fortune with a lib'rall hand,

Hamans speech to his wife and friends.

Hath with the best, and sweetest of the Land,

Crown'd my desires, and hath timely blowne

My budded hopes, whose ripenesse hath out-growne

The limits, and the height of expectation,

Scarce to b'inioyd, but in a Contemplation:

See, see, how Fortune (to inlarge my breath,

And make me liuing in despight of Death)

Hath multiplide my loynes, that after-Fame

May in my stocke preserue my Blood, my Name.

To make my honour with my fortunes euen,

Behold, my gracious Lord the King hath giuen

And trusted to my hand the sword of Pow'r;

Or life, or death lies where I laugh or lowre:

Who stands more gracious in the Princes eye?

How frownes the King, if Haman be not by?

[Page]

Ester the Queene hath made the King her Ghest,

And (wisely weighing how to grace the Feast

With most aduantage) hath (in policy)

Inuited me: And no man else but I

(Onely a fit Companion for a King)

May taste the secrets of the banqueting:

Yet what auailes my wealth, my place, my might?

How can I rellish them? with what delight?

What pleasure is in dainties, if the Tast

Be in it selfe distemper'd? Better Fast:

In many sweets, one sowre offends the Pallate;

One loth some weed annoyes the choycest Sallat:

What are my riches? What my honour'd Place?

What are my children? or my Princes Grace,

So long as cursed Mordecai furuiues?

Whose very breath infects, whose life depriues

My life of blisse, and visage sternly strikes

Worse venime to mine eyes, than Basilisks.

When Haman then had lanc'd his rip'ned griefe

In bloody tearmes, they thus appli'd reliefe:

Erect a Gibbet, fifty Cubits hie,

The answere of Hamans wife and friends.

Then vrge the King (what will the King denie

When Haman sues?) that slauish Mordecai

Be hang'd thereon; his blood will soone allay

The heate of thine; His cursed death shall fame

The highnesse of thy power, and his shame;

So when thy suit shall finde a faire euent,

Goe banquet with the King, and liue content.

The Counsell pleas'd: The Gibbet fairely stands,

Soone done, as said: Reuenge findes nimble hands.

Expl. Hist.

[Page]

Meditatio duodecima.

SOme Eu'ls I must approue, All Goods, I dare not,

Some are and seeme not good; some seeme, and are not:

In chusing Goods, my heart shall make the choyce,

My flattring eye shall haue no casting voyce;

No outward sence may chuse an inward blisse,

For seeming Happinesse least happy is:

The eye (the chiefest Cink-port of the Hart)

Keepes open doores, and playes the Panders part

To painted pleasures, luring the Affections,

And maskes foule faces vnder false complections;

It hath no pow'r to iudge, nor can it see

Things as they are, but as they seeme to be.

There's but one happinesse, one perfect blisse;

But how obtaind, or where, or what it is,

The world of nature ne'r could apprehend,

Grounding their labours on no other end

Then supposition, dinersly affecting

Some one thing, some another, still proiecting

Prodigious fancies, till their learned Schooles

Lent so much knowledge, as to make them fooles:

One builds his blisse vpon the blaze of Glory,

Can perfect happinesse be transitory?

In strength, another summes Felicity:

What horse is not more happy farre than he?

Some pile their happinesse on heapes of wealth,

Which (sicke) they'd loath, if gold could purchase health; [...]

13

[Page]Be done to him the King shall most affect;

In Robes Imperiall be his body drest,

And brauely mounted on that very Beast

The King bestrides; then be the Crowne of State

Plac'd on his lofty browes; let Princes waite

Vpon his Stirrop, and in triumph leade

This Impe of Honour, in Assuerus stead;

And to expresse the glory of his name,

Like Heralds, let the Princes thus proclaime,

This peerlesse honour, and these Princely rites

Be done to him, in whom the King delights.

Said then the King, (O sudden change of fate!

The Kings reply.

Within the Portall of our Palace Gate

There sits a Iew, whose name is Mordecai,

Be he the man; Let no peruerse delay

Protract; But what thy lauish tongue hath said,

Doe thou to him: So Haman, sore dismaid:

His tongue (ty'd to his Roofe) made no reply,

But (neither daring answere, nor deny)

Perforce obeyd, and so his Page became,

Whose life he sought to haue bereau'd with shame:

The Rites obserued, Mordecai return'd

Vnto the Gate, Haman went home and mourn'd,

(His visage muffled in a mournfull vale)

And told his wife this melancholy Tale;

Whereat amaz'd and startl'd at the newes,

Despairing, thus she spake; If from the Iewes

Hamans wife speakes to him.

This Mordecai deriue his happy line,

His be the Palme of victory, not thine;

The highest heau'ns haue still conspir'd to blesse

That faithfull seed, and with afaire successe,

Haue crown'd their iust designes: If Mordecai

[Page]Descend from thence, thy hopes shall soone decay,

And melt like waxe before the mid-day Sunne.

So said, her broken speech not fully done,

Haman was hasted to Queene Esters Feast;

To mirth and ioy, an indisposed Ghest.

Expl. Hist.

Meditatio decimatertia.

14

THere's nothing vnder heauen more glorifies

The name of Kings, or in a subiects eyes

Winnes more obseruance, or true loyalty,

Than sacred Iustice, shared equally:

No greater glory can belong to Might,

Than to defend the feeble in their right;

To helpe the helplesse, and their wrongs redresse,

To curbe the haughty-hearted, and suppresse

The proud; requiting eu'ry speciall Deed

Solon. Praemio & poena conseruatur resp.

With punishment, or honourable meed:

Herein Kings aptly may deserue the name

Of Gods, inshrined in an earthly frame;

Nor can they any way approach more nye

The full perfection of a Deity,

Then by true Iustice imitating heauen

In nothing more, than in the poyzing euen

Their righteous ballance: Iustice is not blind,

As Poets faine, but with a sight refin'd

Her Lyncian eyes are cleer'd, and shine as bright

As doe their errours, that deny her sight;

The soule of Iustice resteth in her eye;

Her Contemplation is to descry [...]

[Page]Thy hand maid hath found fauour; let my Lord

Grant me my life (my life so much abhorr'd,

To doe him seruice) and my peoples life,

Which now lye open to a Tyrants knife:

Our liues are sold, 'tis I, 'tis guiltlesse I,

Thy loyall Spouse, thy Queene and hers must dye;

The spotlesse blood of me, thy faithfull Bride,

Must sivage the swelling of a Tyrants pride:

Had we been sold for drudges, to attend

The busie Spindle, or for slaues, to spend

Our weary howers to deserue our bread,

So as the gaine stood but my Lord in stead,

I had been silent, and ne'r spent my breath:

But neither he that seekes it, nor my Death,

Can to himselfe the least aduantage bring,

(Except Reuenge) nor to my Lord the King.

Like to a Lion rouzed from his rest,

Rag'd then the King, and thus his rage exprest:

Who is the man, that dares attempt this thing?

The Kings answere.

Where is the Traitor? What? Am I a King?

May not our subiects serue, but must our Queene

Be made the subiect of a villaines spleene?

Is not Queene Ester bosom'd in our heart?

What Traitor then dares be so bold, part

Our heart, and vs? Who dares attempt this thing?

Can Ester then be slaine, and not the King?

Repli'd the Queene, The man that hath done this,

The Queenes reply.

That cursed Haman, wicked Haman is:

Like as a Felon shakes before the Bench,

Whose troubled silence proues the Euidence,

So Haman trembled, when Queene Ester spake,

Nor answere, nor excuse, his Guilt could make.

[Page]

The King, no longer able to digest

So foule a Trechery, forsooke the Feast,

Walk'd in the Garden, where consuming rage

Boyl'd in his heart, with fire (vnapt t'asswage.)

So Haman pleading guilty to the fault,

Besought his life of her, whose life he sought.

When as the King had walk'd a little space,

(So rage and choller often shift their place)

In, he return'd, where Haman fallen flat

Was on the bed, whereon Queene Ester sate;

Whereat the King new cause of rage debates,

(Apt to suppose the worst, of whom he hates)

New passion adds new fuell to his fire,

And faines a cause, to make it blaze the higher:

Is't not enough for him to seeke her death,

The Kings speech.

(Said he) but with a Lechers tainted breath,

Will he inforce my Queene before my face?

And make his Brothell in our Royall Place?

So said, they vailed Hamans face, as he

Vnfit were to be seene, or yet to see:

Said then an *Eunuch sadly standing by,

Harbona's speech to the King.

In Hamans Garden, fifty Cubits high,

There stands a Gibbet, built but yesterday,

Made for thy loyall seruant Mordecai,

Whose faithfull lips thy life from danger freed,

And merit leads him to a fairer meed.

Said then the King, It seemeth iust and good,

The King commands to hang Haman.

To shead his blood, that thirsted after blood;

Who plants the tree, deserues the fruit; 'tis fit

That he that bought the purchase, hansell it:

Hang Haman there; It is his proper good;

So let the Horseleach burst himselfe with blood:

[Page]They straight obey'd: Lo here the end of Pride:

Now rests the King appeas'd, and satisfi'de.

Explicit. hist.

Meditatio decimaquarta.

CHeere vp, and caroll forth your siluer ditty,

(Heau'ns winged Quiristers) and fill your Citty

(The new Ierusalem) with iolly mirth:

The Church hath peace in heauen, hath peace on earth;

Spread forth your golden pinions, and cleaue

The flitting skies; dismount, and quite bereaue

Our stupid senses with your heauenly mirth,

For lo, there's peace in heauen, there's peace on earth:

Let Haleluiah fill your warbling tongues,

And let the ayre, compos'd of Saintly songs,

Breathe such Celestiall Sonnets in our eares;

That whosoe'r this heauenly musicke heares,

May stand amaz'd, and (rauish't at the mirth)

Chaunt forth, There's peace in heauen, there's peace on earth;

Let Mountaines clap their ioyfull, ioyfull hands,

And let the lesser Hills trace o'r the lands

In equall measure; and resounding Woods,

Bow downe your heads, and kisse your neighb'ring floods:

Let peace and loue exalt your key of mirth;

For loe, there's peace in heauen, there's peace on earth:

You holy temples of the highest King,

Triumph with ioy; Your sacred Anthemes sing;

Chaunt forth your Hymnes, and heauenly Roundelayes,

And touch your Organs on their deeper keyes:

[Page]For Haman's dead that daunted all your mirth,

And now there's peace in heau'n, there's peace on earth:

Proud Haman's dead, who (liuing) thee opprest,

Seeking to cut, and seare thy Lilly brest;

The rau'ning Fox, that did annoyance bring

Vnto thy Vineyard,'s taken in a Spring.

¶ Seem'd not thy Spouse vnkind, to heare thee weepe,

And not redresse thee? Seem'd he not asleepe?

No, (Sion) no, he heard thy bitter pray'r,

But let thee weepe: for weeping makes thee faire.

The morning Sunne reflects, and shines most bright,

When Pilgrims grope in darknesse all the night:

The Church must conquer, e'r she gets the prize,

But there's no conquest, where's no enemies:

The Day is thine; In triumph make thy mirth,

For now there's peace in heauen, there's peace on earth:

What man's so dull, or in his braines vndone,

To say, (because he sees not) There's no Sunne?

Weake is the faith, vpon a sudden griefe,

That sayes, (because not now) There's no reliefe:

God's* bound to helpe, but loues to see men sue:

By promise.

Though datelesse, yet the bond's not present due.

¶ Like to the sorrowes of our Child-bed wines,

Is the sad pilgrimage of humane liues:

But when by throes God sends a ioyfull birth,

Then find we Peace in heauen, and Peace on earth. [...]

[Page]

Meditatio decimaquinta.

TO breathe,'s a necessary gift of nature,

Whereby she may discerne a liuing Creature

From plants, or stones: 'Tis but a meere degree

From Vegitation; and this, hath she

Like equally shar'd out to brutish beasts

With man, who lesse obserues her due behests

(Sometimes) than they, and oft by accident,

Doe lesse improue the gift in the euent:

But man, whose organs are more fairly drest,

To entertaine a farre more noble Ghest,

Hath, through the excellence of his Creation,

A Soule Diuine; Diuine by inspiration;

Diuine through likenesse to that pow'r Diuine,

That made and plac'd her in her mortall shrine;

From hence we challenge lifes prerogatiue;

Beasts onely breathe; 'Tis man alone doth liue;

The end of mans Creation, was Society,

Mutuall Communion, and friendly Piety:

The man that liues vnto himselfe alone,

Subsists and breathes, but liues not; Neuer one

Deseru'd the moity of himselfe, for he

That's borne, may challenge but one part of three;

Triparted thus; his Country claimes the best;

The next, his Parents; and Himselfe, the least.

He husbands best his life, that freely giues

It for the publike good; He rightly liues;

[Page]That nobly dies: 'tis greatest mastery,

Not to be fond to liue, nor feare to dye

On iust occasion; He that (in case) despises

Life, earnes it best, but he that ouer-prizes

His dearest blood, when Honour bids him dye,

Steales but a life, and liues by Robbery.

¶ O sweet Redeemer of the world, whose death

Deseru'd a world of liues! Had Thy deare breath

Been deare to Thee; Oh had'st Thou but deny'd

Thy precious Blood, the world for e'r had dy'd:

O spoyle my life, when I desire to saue it,

By keeping it from Thee, that freely gaue it.

THE ARGVMENT.

Letters are sent by Mordecai,

That all the Iewes, vpon the day

Appointed for their death, withstand

The fury of their foe-mens hand.

Sect. 16.

FOrthwith the Scribes were summon'd to appeare:

Chap. 8. 9.

To eu'ry Prouince, and to eu'ry Shiere

Letters they wrote (as Mordecai directed)

To all the Iewes, (the Iewes so much deiected)

To all Lieu-tenants, Captaines of the Band,

To all the States and Princes of the Land,

[Page]According to the phrase, and diuers fashion

Of Dialect, and speech of eu'ry Nation;

All which was stiled in the name of King,

And canonized with his Royall Ring:

Loe here the tenor of the Kings Commission;

Whereas of late, (through Hamans foule sedition,)

The Kings commission.

Decrees were sent, and spred throughout the Land,

To spoyle the Iewes, and with impartiall hand,

(Vpon a day prefixt) to kill, and slay;

* The 13. day of the twelfth moneth.

We likewise grant vpon that very day,

Full power to the Iewes, to make defence,

And quit their liues, and for a Recompence,

To take the spoyles of those they shall suppresse,

Shewing like mercy to the mercilesse.

On posts, as swift as Time, was this Decree

Commanded forth; As fast as Day they flee,

Spurr'd on, and hast'ned with the Kings Command,

Which straight was noys'd, & publisht through ye Land,

As warning to the Iewes, to make prouision

To entertaine so great an opposition.

So Mordecai (disburthen'd of his griefe,

Which now found hopefull tokens of reliefe)

Departs the presence of the King, addrest

In Royall Robes, and on his lofty Crest

He bore a Crowne of gold, his body spred

With Lawne, and Purple deeply coloured:

Fill'd are the Iewes with triumphs, and with noyse

The ioy of the Iewes▪ Simile.

(The common Heralds to proclaime true ioyes:)

Like as a prisner muffl'd at the tree,

Whose life's remou'd from death scarce one degree,

His last pray'r said, and hearts confession made,

(His eyes possessing deaths eternall shade)

[Page]At last (vnlook'd for) comes a slow Reprieue,

And makes him (euen as dead) once more aliue:

Amaz'd, he rends deaths Muffler from his eyes,

And (ouer-ioy'd) knowes not he liues, or dyes;

So ioy'd the Iewes, whose liues, this new Decree

Had quit from death and danger, and set free

Their gasping soules, and (like a blazing light)

Disperst the darknesse of th'approching night;

So ioy'd the Iewes: and with their solemne Feasts,

They chas'd dull sorrow from their pensiue brests:

Meane while, the people (startl'd at the newes)

Some grieu'd, some enui'd, some (for feare) turn'd Iewes.

Expl. Hist.

Meditatio decimasexta.

AMong the Noble Greekes, it was no shame

To lose a Sword; It but deseru'd the name

Of Warres disastrous fortune; but to yeeld

The right and safe possession of the Shield,

Was foule reproach, and man-lesse cowardize,

Farre worse than death to him that skorn'd to prize

His life before his Honour; Honour's wonne

Most in a iust defence; Defence is gone,

The Shield once lost: The wounded Theban cry'd,

How fares my Shield? which safe, he smil'd, & dy'd▪

True Honour bides at home, and takes delight

In keeping, not in gaining of a Right;

Scornes vsurpation, nor seekes she blood,

And thirsts to make her name not great, as good:

[Page]God giues a Right to man; To man, defence

To guard it giu'n; But when a false pretence

Shall ground her title on a greater Might,

What doth he else but warre with Heau'n, and fight

With Prouidence? God sets the Princely Crowne

On heads of Kings; Who then may take it downe?

No iuster Quarrell, or more noble Fight,

Than to maintaine, where God hath giu'n a Right;

There's no despaire of Conquest in that warre,

Where God's the Leader; Policy's no barre

To his Designes; no Power can withstand

His high exployts; within whose mighty Hand

Are all the corners of the earth; the hills

His fensiue Bulwarks are, which, when he wills,

His lesser breath can bandy vp and downe,

And crush the world, and with a winke, can drowne

The spacious Vniuerse in suds of Clay;

Where Heau'n is Leader, Heau'n must win the Day:

God reapes his honour hence; That combat's safe,

Where hee's a Combatant, and ventures halfe:

Right's not impair'd with weaknesse, but preuailes

Nil fortitudine indigemus, si omnes iusti simus, Plutarch.

In spight of strength, when strength and power failes:

Fraile is the trust repos'd on Troopes of Horse;

Truth in a handfull, findes a greater force.

¶ Lord, maile my heart with Faith, and be my Shield,

And if a world confront me, I'le not yeeld.

[Page]

THE ARGVMENT.

The bloody Massacre: The Iewes

Preuaile: their fatall Sword subdues

A world of men, and in that fray,

Hamans ten cursed sonnes they slay.

Sect. 17.

NOw when as Time had rip'ned the Decree,

Chap. 9. 1.

(Whose Winter fruit vnshaken from the tree

Full ready was to fall) and brought that Day,

Wherein pretended mischiefe was to play

Her tragicke Seane vpon the Iewish Stage,

And spit the venome of her bloody rage,

Vpon the face of that dispersed Nation,

And in a minute breathe their desolation;

Vpon that day (as patients in the fight)

Their scatter'd force, the Iewes did reünite,

And to a head their straggling strength reduc'd,

And with their fatall hand (their hand disus'd

To bathe in blood) they made so strong recoyle,

That with a purple streame, the thirsty soyle

O'rflowd: and on the pauement (drown'd with blood)

Where neuer was before, they rais'd a flood:

There lyes a headlesse body, here a limme

The Massacre.

Newly dis-ioynted from the trunke of him [...]

17

[Page]Heau'n fought for Isr'el, weakned Pharo's heart,

Who had no Counter-god to take his part:

What meant that cloudy Piller, that by day

Exod. 13. 21.

Did vsher Isr'el in an vnknowne way?

What meant that fi'ry Piller, that by night

Appear'd to Isr'el, and gaue Isr'el light?

'Twas not the secret force of Moses Rod,

Exod. 14. 16.

That charm'd the Seas in twayne; 'Twas Moses God

That fought for Isr'el, and made Pharo fall;

Well thriues the Fray where God's the Generall:

'Tis neither strength, nor vndermining sleight

Preuailes, where heauen's ingaged in the fight.

¶ Me list not ramble into antique dayes,

To manne this Theame, lest while Vlysses strayes,

His heart forget his home Penelope:

Our iolly Brittaine findes sufficient Plea

To proue her blisse, and heau'ns protecting power,

Which had she mist, her glory, in an hower

Had falne to Cinders, and had past away

Like smoke before the wind; Which happy Day,

5. Nouemb.

Let none but faithlesse Traitors euer faile

To consecrate, and let this Age entayle,

Vpon succeeding times Eternity,

Heau'ns highest loue, in that Dayes memory.

[Page]

THE ARGVMENT.

The sonnes of Haman (that were slaine)

Are all hang'd vp: The Iewes obtaine

Freedome to fight the morrow after;

They put three hundred more to slaughter.

Sect. 18.

WHen as the fame of that dayes bloody newes

Chap. 9. 11.

Came to the King, he said, Behold, the Iewes

The Kings speech to the Queene.

Haue wonne the Day, and in their iust defence,

Haue made their wrong, a rightfull recompence;

Fiue hundred men in Susan haue they slaine,

And that remainder of proud Hamans straine,

Their hands haue rooted out; Queene Ester, say,

What further suit (wherein Assuerus may

Expresse the bounty of his Royall hand)

Rests in thy bosome: What is thy demand?

Said then the Queene: If in thy Princely sight

The Queenes Answere.

My boone be pleasing, or thou take delight

To grant thy seruants suite, Let that Commisssion

(Which gaue the Iewes this happy dayes permission

To saue their liues) to morrow stand in force,

For their behalfes that onely make recourse

To God, and thee, and let that cursed brood

(The sonnes of Haman, that in guilty blood,

[Page]Lye all ingoar'd, vnfit to taint a Graue)

Be hang'd on Gibbets, and (like co-heires) haue

Like equall shares of that deserued shame,

Their wretched father purchas'd in his name:

The King was pleas'd, and the Decree was giuen

From Susan, where 'twixt earth and heauen,

(Most vndeseruing to be own'd by either)

These cursed ten (like twins) were borne together:

When Titan (ready for his Iournall chase)

Had rouz'd his dewy locks, and Rosie face

Inricht with morning beauty, vp arose

The Iewes in Susan, and their bloody blowes

So roughly dealt, that in that dismall day,

A lease of hundreds fell, but on the prey

300. in Susan slaine by the Iewes.

No hand was laid, so, sweet and iolly rest

The Iewes enioy'd, and with a solemne Feast,

(Like ioyfull Victors dispossest of sorrow)

They consecrated the ensuing morrow;

And in the Prouinces throughout the Land,

Before their mighty, and victorious hand,

Fell more than seuenty thousand, but the prey

75000. slaine by the Iewes in the Prouinces.

They seaz'd not, and in mem'ry of that day,

They solemnized their victorious Gests,

With gifts, and triumphs, and with holy Feasts.

Explicit hist.

Meditatio decimaoctaua.

THe Doctrine of the Schoole of Grace discents

From Natures (more vncertaine) rudiments,

[Page]And are as much contrayr, and opposite

As Yea, and Nay, or blacke, and purest white:

For nature teaches, first to vnderstand,

And then beleeue; but grace doth first command

Man to beleeue, and then to comprehend;

Faith is of things vnknowne, and must intend,

And so are aboue conceit; What we conceiue,

We stand possest of, and already haue,

But faith concernes such things, as yet we haue not,

Which eye sees not, eare heares not, heart conceiues not;

Hereon, as on her ground-worke, our saluation

Erects her pillers; From this firme foundation,

Our soules mount vp the new Ierusalem,

To take possession of her Diademe;

God loues no sophistry; Who argues least

In graces Schoole, concludes, and argues best;

A womans Logicke passes heere; For 'tis

Good proofe to say, 'Tis so, because it is:

Had that old

Abraham▪ Gen. 22. 10.

Patr'arch cours'd with flesh and blood,

Bad had his faith been, though his reasons good;

If God bid doe, for man to question, Why?

Is but an interrogatiue deny:

The fleshly ballances of our conceits,

Haue neither equall poysure; nor iust weights,

To weigh, without impeachment, Gods designe;

There's no proportion 'twixt things Diuine,

And mortall: Liuely faith may not depend,

Either vpon th'occasion, or the end.

¶ The glorious Suns reflected beames suffise,

To lend a luster to the feeblest eyes,

But if the Eye too couetous of the light,

Boldly outface the Sunne, (whose beames so bright

[Page]And vndispers'd, are too-too much refin'd

For view) is it not iustly strucken blind?

I dare not taske stout Samson for his death;

Iudg. 16. 30.

Nor wandring Ionah, that bequeath'd his breath

To raging Seas, when God commanded so;

Iona. 1. 12. Ester 9. 13.

Nor thee (great Queene) whose lips did ouerflow

With streames of blood; nor thee (O cruell kind)

Ester 9. 14.

To slake the vengeance of a womans mind,

With flowing riuers of thy subiects blood;

From bad beginnings, God creates a good,

And happy end: What I cannot conceiue,

Lord, let my soule admire, and beleeue.

THE ARGVMENT.

The Feast of Purim consecrated:

Th'occasion why 'twas celebrated;

Letters wrote by Mordecai,

To keepe the mem'ry of that Day.

Sect. 19.

SO Mardocheus throughout all the Land

Chap. 9. 20. Mordecai sends letters to celebrate a Feast yeerly.

Dispers'd his Letters, and with them, command

To celebrate these two dayes memory

With Feasts, and gifts, and yeerly iollity,

That after ages may record that day,

And keepe it from the rust of time, that they

[Page]Which shall succeed, may ground their holy mirth

Vpon the ioyes, those happy dayes brought forth,

Which chang'd their sadnes, & black nights of sorrow,

Into the brightnesse of a gladsome morrow;

Whereto the Iewes (to whom these Letters came)

Gaue due obseruance, and did soone proclaime

Their sacred Festiuals, in memory

Of that dayes ioy, and ioyfull victory:

And since the Lots (that Haman did abuse,

The originall of the feasts of Purim.

To know the dismall day, which to the Iewes

Might fall most fatall, and, to his intent,

Least vnprospitious) were in th'euent

Crost with a higher Fate, than blinded Chance,

To worke his ruine, their deliuerance:

They therefore in remembrance of the Lot

(Whose hop'd-for sad euent succeeded not)

The solemne Feasts of * Purim did inuest,

Interp. Lo [...].

And by the name of Purim call'd their Feast;

Which to obserue with sacred Complement,

And ceremoniall rites, their soules indent,

And firmly'inroll the happy memory

Ith'hearts of their succeeding progeny,

That time (the enemy of mortall things)

May not, with hou'ring of his nimble wings.

Beat downe the deare memoriall of that time,

But keepe it flowring in perpetuall prime.

Now, lest this shining day in times progresse

Ester, and Mordecai send letters to confirme the feasts of Purim.

Perchance be clouded with forgetfulnesse,

Or left the gaulled Persians should debate

The bloody slaughter, and re vlcerate

In after-times, their former misery,

And blurre the glory' of this dayes memory, [...]

19

[Page]

THE ARGVMENT.

Assuerus Acts vpon Record:

The iust mans vertue, and reward.

Sect. 20.

ANd Assuerus stretcht his heauie hand,

Chap. 10. 1.

And laid a Tribute, both on Sea, and Land;

What else he did, what Trophies of his fame,

He left for Time to glorifie his Name,

With what renowne, and grace, he did appay

The faithfull heart of loyall Mordecai;

Are they not kept in endlesse memory,

Recorded in the Persian History?

For Mordecai possest the second seat

The greatnesse and vertue of Mordecai.

In all the Kingdome, and his name was great;

Of God and man his vertues were approu'd,

By God and man, both honour'd, and belou'd;

Seeking his peoples good, and sweet prosperity,

And speaking ioyfull peace to his posterity.

Expl. Hist.

[Page]

Meditatio vltima.

THus thriues the man, Thus prosper his endeuors,

That builds on faith, and in that faith perseuers▪

¶ It is no losse, to lose; no gaine, to get,

If he that loses all, shall win the Set:

God helpes the weakest, takes the losers chayre,

And setting on the King, doth soone repaire

His losse with vengeance; Hee's not alway best

That takes the highest place, nor he the least

That sits beneath: for outward fortunes can

Expresse (how great, but) not how good's the man:

Whom God will raise, he humbles first a while;

And where he raises, oft he meanes to foyle.

¶ It matters not (Lord) what my fortunes be,

May they but leade, or whip me home to thee.

FINIS.

Information about this book

Title statement

Hadassa: or The history of Queene Ester with meditations thereupon, diuine and morall. By Fra. Quarles.

Quarles, Francis, 1592-1644.

Edition statement

1621

Publication

Publisher

Text Creation Partnership,

Place of publication

Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) :

Date

2005-12 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1).

ID [DLPS]

A10262

ID [STC]

STC 20546

ID [STC]

ESTC S115479

ID [EEBO-CITATION]

99850698

ID [PROQUEST]

99850698

ID [VID]

15922

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(EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A10262)

Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 15922)

Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1475-1640 ; 1253:09)

Source

— Hadassa: or The history of Queene Ester with meditations thereupon, diuine and morall. By Fra. Quarles., Quarles, Francis, 1592-1644..

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[100] p.

Imprinted [by Felix Kingston] for Richard Moore, and are to be sold at his shop in Saint Dunstans Church-yard, in Fleetstreet,. At London :: 1621.. (In verse.) (Printer's name from STC.) (Signatures: A-M⁴ N² .) (Reproduction of the original in the Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery.)

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