Divine poems :: :: University of Virginia Library

The sonnes of Haman (that were slaine)
Are all hang'd up: The Iewes obtaine
Freedome to fight the morrow after;
They put three hundred more to slaughter.

When as the fame of that dayes bloody newes
Came to the King, he said; Behold, the Iewes
Have wonne the day, and in their just defence,
Have made their wrong, a rightfull recompence;
Five hundred men in Susan they have staine,
And that remainder of proud Hamans straine,
Their hands have 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
My boone be pleasing, or thou take delight
To grant thy servants suit, Let that Commission
(Which gave the Iewes this happy dayes permission
To save their lives) 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
Lye all ingoar'd, unfit to taint a Grave)
Be hang'd on Gibbets, and (like co-heires) have
Like equall shares of that deserved shame,
Their wretched father purchas'd in his name:

The King was pleas'd, and the Decree was giv'n
From Susan, where betwixt the earth and Heaven,

162

(Most undeserving to be own'd by either)
These cursed ten (like twins) were borne together.

When Titan (ready for his journall chase)
Had rouz'd his dewy locks, and Rosie face
Inricht with morning beauty, up 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
No hand was laid: so, sweet and jolly rest
The Iewes enjoy'd, and with a solemne Feast,
(Like joyfull Victors dispossest of sorrow)
They consecrated the ensuing morrow;
And in the Provinces throughout the Land,
Before their mighty and victorious hand,
Fell more than seventy thousand, but the prey
They seiz'd not; and in mem'ry of that day,
They solemnized their victorious Guests,
With gifts, and triumphs, and with holy Feasts.

Medit. 18.

The Doctrine of the Schoole of Grace dissents
From Natures (more uncertaine) rudiments,
And are as much contrayr, and opposite
As Yea, and Nay, or blacke, and purest white:
For nature teaches, first to understand,
And then beleeve; but Grace doth first command
Man to beleeve, and then to comprehend;
Faith is of things unknowne, and must intend,
And soare above conceit; What we conceive,
We stand possest of, and already have:
But faith beholds such things, as yet we have not,
Which eye sees not, eare heares not, heart conceives not.

163

Hereon, as on her ground-worke, our salvation
Erects her pillars; From this firme foundation,
Our soules mount up the new Ierusalem,
To take possession of her Diademe;
God loves no sophistry; Who argues least
In graces Schoole, concludes, and argues best;
A womans Logicke passes there; For 'tis
Good proofe to say, 'Tis so, because it is;
Had Abraham adviz'd with flesh and blood,
Bad had his faith beene, though his reasons good:
If God bid doe, for man to urge a Why?
Is, but in better language, a deny:
The fleshly ballances of our conceits
Have neither equall poysure, nor just weights.
To weigh, without impeachment, Gods designe;
There's no proportion betwixt things Divine,
And mortall: Lively faith may not depend,
Either upon th'occasion, or the end.

The glorious Suns reflected beames suffice
To lend a luster to the feeblest eyes,
But if the Eye too covetous of the light,
Boldly out-face the Sun, (whose beames so bright
And undispers'd, are too-too much refin'd
For view) is it not justly strucken blind?
I dare not taske stout Samson for his death;
Nor wandring Ionah, that bequeath'd his breath
To raging Seas, when God commanded so;
Nor thee (great Queene) whose lips did overflow
With streames of blood; nor thee (O cruell kind)
To quench the fier of a womans mind,
With flowing rivers of thy subjects blood;
From bad beginnings, God creates a good,
And happy end: What I cannot conceive,
Lord, let my soule admier, and beleeve.