Esther 2

REFLECTIONS UPON CHAP. II.—What is done in haste and passion issues in bitter repentance and grief. And what odd shifts crafty courtiers will take to avoid coming under the power of a female whom they have injured. Yes, men will practise the greatest extravagance and wickedness to gratify their fleshly lusts. Surely we may here observe the need there was of the gospel, in order to reduce men to the observance even of the plainest laws of nature: and at the same time we discern the sovereignty of God in carrying on his wise and holy designs by means of the most absurd extravagance. What care he takes of orphans and fatherless! And great is the care which men ought to take of them. Yes, it is comely when near relations have a tender and fixed regard for one another. Great prudence is sometimes necessary to enable us to discern what truths may be told, and what concealed, without bordering on falsehood. And the guardians of virgins ought to take the greatest care of them, especially if they are brought into slippery and dangerous situations. How strangely God brings treasonable plots to light! And it is an advantage for courts to have faithful attendants; and very honourable to risk our own life for the sake of our sovereign, even when we have no prospect of reward. 3