SERMO N.

ESTHER ix. 27, 28.

"The Jews ordained, and took upon them, and upon their seed, and upon all such as joined themselves unto them, so as it should not fail, that they would keep these two days according to their writing, and according to their appointed time every year; and that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city; and that these days of Purim should not fail from among the Jews, nor the memorial of them perish from their seed."

THE events recorded in this book occurred subsequently to the Babylonish captivity; but how long after, or who the particular monarch was, according to the name he bears in profane history, that is here called Ahasuerus,* is involved in some degree of uncertainty.

The Babylonish dynasty, under which the Jews were carried captive to Babylon, had now tottered to its fall, and had been succeeded by that of the Medes and Persians;† and although the return of the Jews to their own land had commenced, under the decree of Cyrus, yet very many of them were still dispersed throughout the more immediate provinces of the Persian empire.

In the reign of Ahasuerus, an individual named Haman was advanced to the highest dignity next the royal person.|| He was a man of unbounded ambition, of excessive pride, and of the most violent resentments. While "all the king's

* Esth. i. 1.

Dan. v. 30, 31.

Ezra i. 2. || Esth. iii. 1.

servants bowed and reverenced" him, Mordecai, the Jew, declined complying with the universal custom; and thereupon. Haman, "full of wrath," and "scorning to lay hands on Mordecai alone," formed the cruel and barbarous design of destroying all the Jews in the kingdom of Ahasuerus.* By misrepresentation of the real character of that people, and by promises to enrich the royal treasury, Haman succeeded in obtaining the monarch's consent, and "letters were sent by post into all the king's provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, even upon the thirteenth day of the month Adar, and to take the spoil of them for a prey."+

opportunity. His providence Events which had previously

But man's extremity is God's works in a marvellous manner. occurred were now shown to be intimately connected with the frustration of this malevolent design, although at the time the secret working of the Divine purpose could be perceived by none. The king had, in a moment of displeasure, divorced and deposed his queen Vashti,‡ and had subsequently married Esther, the cousin of Mordecai, a Jewess by birth, who, however, according to the charge given her by her relative, had "not shown her kindred nor her people." When the decree of extermination went forth, "there was great mourning among the Jews," and Mordecai, afflicted like the rest, but hoping that the advancement of Esther might open a way for their deliverance, approached the king's gate "clothed with sackcloth," and solicited the queen to interpose for the rescue of her people. The laws of Persia rendered this an office of some peril, inasmuch as no one could safely go in unto the king without being called. Esther, therefore, hesitated at first; and there is something very striking in the manner in which Mordecai pleaded with her in the moment of her hesitation :-"Think not with thyself that thou shalt +i.

Esth. iii. 5, &c.

+ iii. 8-15.

ii.

escape in the king's house, more than all the Jews. For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this ?"* On this remonstrance. the queen yielded. She resolved to encounter the dangers of the proposed course. She cast herself on the religious devotions of her people; and seeking in her own person, too, the divine help, she "put on her royal apparel," and drew near to the king, when, to her infinite joy, the "golden sceptre was held out to her," and she was not only graciously received, but told that her request should be granted "even to the half of the kingdom."+

Not to dwell on various intervening details, the result was, that, after an alternation of joy and mortification to Hamanjoy, in being invited to a banquet with the king and queen, ‡ little imagining the real purpose of the invitation; and mortification, in having, by the king's command, to bestow honour on Mordecai|| before the people for his proved loyalty, though he himself, at the suggestion of his wife, had previously prepared a gallows for his execution §-Haman himself, accused by the queen, was executed ¶-Esther and Mordecai were enriched and honoured-the decree for the extermination of the Jews was reversed, and they were granted the royal permission to rise and slay their enemies, and "to take the spoil of them for a prey.' According to this decree, they did put their enemies to death; but it is particularly said several times, "they laid not their hands on the spoil;"++ and the festival of Purim (so called from the lots to which Haman had had recourse‡‡ when he conceived his design against the Jews, the word Pur in Persian signifying a lot) was then instituted as a grateful memorial of the deliverance they had experienced." Mordecai sent letters unto all the Jews, that

"**

they should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar, and the fifteenth day of the same, yearly, as the days wherein the Jews rested from their enemies, and the month which was turned unto them from sorrow to joy, and from mourning into a good day. Wherefore they called these days Purim, after the name of Pur: therefore, for all the words of this letter, and of that which they had seen concerning this matter, and which had come unto them, the Jews ordained, and took upon them, and upon their seed, and upon all such as joined themselves unto them, so as it should not fail, that they would keep these two days according to their writing, and according to their appointed time, every year; and that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city; and that these days of Purim should not fail from among the Jews, nor the memorial of them perish from their seed."*

I have thus given an outline of the history with which the text is connected, as the basis of those remarks which are naturally suggested on the present occasion. There are two events which we this day celebrate with thankfulness to Almighty God: the first, the frustrating of that "horrible and wicked enterprise, plotted and intended to have been executed against the king and the whole state of England, for the subversion of the government and religion established among us ;" and the second, the arrival of King William III." for the deliverance of our Church and nation from Popish tyranny and arbitrary power."+ It is my intention to confine myself entirely to the first of these, as being the original cause of the thanksgiving, and that for which the special service was in the first instance framed. And, in reference to this, the text may suggest for our contemplation, successively, THE FACT ITSELF, and THE MEMORIAL OF IT. May God the Holy Spirit enable us to enter on the consideration with candour, with faithfulness, and with charity.

* Esther ix. 20-28.

+ Special Service for the day