Esther 3:12

Then were the king's scribes called on the thirteenth day of the first month, and there was written according to all that Haman had commanded unto the king's lieutenants, and to the governors that [were] over every province, and to the rulers of every people of every province according to the writing thereof, and [to] every people after their language; in the name of king Ahasuerus was it written, and sealed with the king's ring.

Ver. 12. Then were the king's scribes called] Then, presently upon it, so soon as the word was out of the king's mouth, licet quod libet, the scribes were called, and all things despatched with all possible haste, art, and industry. So Judas, what he did, did quickly; he was up and at it, when Peter and the rest of the apostles were found asleep. The children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light; for why? they have the devil to help them, and to prick them on; and hence their restlessness.

On the thirteenth day of the first month] Soon after they had begun to cast lots, Esther 3:7 .

And there was written according to all that Haman had commanded] Right or wrong, that was never once questioned by these overly officious officers. If the king commanded it, and Haman will have it so, the secretaries and rulers (those servile souls) are ready to say, as Tiberius once did to Justinus, Si tu volueris, ego sum; si tu non vis, ego non sum. If you are willing, so am I, if you are not willing, so am I. Or as he in Lucan did to Caesar,

Iussa sequi, tam velle mihi, quam posse, necesse.

We are wholly at your devotion and dispose. We are only your clay and wax, &c. It is not for us to take upon us as counsellors, but only to write what is dictated unto us, &c. But this was no sufficient excuse for them before God; as neither was it for Doeg, that he was commanded to slay all the Lord's priests, which Abner and others of Saul's servants rightly and stoutly refused to do, 1 Samuel 22:18. A warrant once came down under seal for Lady Elizabeth's execution, while she was prisoner at Woodstock; Stephen Gardiner, like another Haman, being the chief engineer. But Mr. Bridges, her keeper, mistrusting false play, presently made haste to the queen, who renounced and reversed it. So might Ahasuerus haply have done this bloody edict, had his officers showed him the iniquity of it. But they took not this to be any part of their business; or if any one of them should be more conscientious, yet he might be surprised by a sudden onset, as the Lord Cromwell, when, by the instigation of Gardiner, he was commanded by King Henry VIII to read the sentence of death against Lambert the martyr, whereof he repented afterwards, sending for Lambert, and asking him forgiveness, as Mr Fox relateth.

And to every people after their language] See Esther 1:22 .

In the name of the king Ahasuerus] For more authority' sake, and that Haman's malice and cruelty might lie hid under the king's cloak. So Jezebel wrote letters in Ahab's name against Naboth; so the Egyptians oppressed the Israelites in the name of their king; the Jews pretended to be all for Caesar, when they sought and sucked our Saviour's blood. The Popish persecutors here did all in Queen Mary's name, when as it might be said to her, as Josephus doth of Queen Alexandra among the Jews, Ipsa solum nomen regium ferebat, &c., She had the name only of queen, but the Pharisees ruled the kingdom; so did the bishops in those days; and some of them would have done the like in ours, and that was their downfall; after that, as rotten teeth, they had put the king and kingdom to a great deal of misery.

And sealed with the king's ring] Lest it should by any means be reversed, Daniel 6:8; Daniel 6:12,13. Of the right antiquity, use, and matter of rings let them that will, read Plin. lib. 33, cap. 1; 37, 1; Macrob. lib. 1; Saturn. cap. 13; Alexand. ab Alex. lib. 2. genial dier.; Rhodig. lib. 6, cap. 12.