106 The frrfl Booke ofDiuinitie, CxAr.4. palman among them;the verynight before this mifchia- uous plot fhould haue beene executed , God kept the Kings eyes refileffe,that all fleepe departed from him,and calling for the Chronicles,Gods fecret Prouidence direc- ted him to the place where t lfordecaies fay was regi.. flred.Thereupon willing to doe him honour,he comma- dethHamaa,that carne at the fame infant with a mind to hangvp Mordecai, to bee the man todoe him fcruice. By that meanes God abated Hammes pride,difappointed his cruell praftices , and finally giuing Efter fauour in the Kings fight,made her fuite more gracious,fo as not onely Hamm tooke feifin of the Gallowes , which Mordecai fhould haue beene hanged vpon ; but her owne andher peoples life were giuen voto her at her requefi, and that, with libertie to exercife dominion vpon their Enemies, which wouldhaue tyrannized ouer them. Mordecai, or whofoeuer was the Writer of that Storie, penning it(as weemay conievîure)not onely for the Church, but as a Monument to be laid vp among the Recordsand Yeere- books ofthe Pertians,who would neuer haue abidden fo religious an obferuationof the ProuidenceofGod,as the co.uríe of that action worthily required , doth not in words muchinfili vpon it, (as for the fame caufe it may be thought that heforbeareth fo much as tomention the NameofGod in al that Booke:)But for the thing is felfe, there is no doubt, he giueth particularly, and mots nota- bly to bee obfcrued, the hand of God in euery circutu- #}ance.But how euident is all this to be feene it the Birth ofour Sauiour Chrif},who,as the Prophea,many anhun- dred yeere before had prophefied , was to bee borne at Betbiem, the Citie of Damid ? This how wonderfully God brought about, it is a maruell to behold Mariehis Mother,as it feemeth, forgetting, ¬ fo much as once thinking of it,when the holyGholi had ouerfhaddowed her,that fhe conceiued and was with child,fhe yet dwelt at 2eazareth a Citie of Gable, fare from the Towne of Betb-
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