Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A35232
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Female excellency, or, The ladies glory illustrated in the worthy lives and memorable actions of nine famous women, who have been renowned either for virtue or valour in several ages of the world ... : the whole adorned with poems and the picture of each lady / by R.B.
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R. B., 1632?-1725?
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1688
(1688)
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Wing C7326; ESTC R21134
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117,568
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206
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such willingness there was Till close approaches for we both it saw Made them Transgressors of the sacred Law Then from a corner of the garden whence We closely standing saw this foul offence Both of us made to the adultrous pair And came upon them e're they were aware To apprehend him but the sturdy knave Got from our feeble hands and did us leave And in swift hast out from the Garden flew As whom the guilt of conscience did pursue And she though much intreated ne'rtheless Will by no means the Criminals name confess These things are true which we here testify Now brethren judge if she ought not to dye The Assembly were in much consternation to hear this sever accusation against a woman who was renowned for Chastity but having the testimony of two grave Elders and Judges of the people to justify the truth thereof they could do no other but condemn her to death for this notorious crime Susanna having no defence for her innocence on earth appeals to heaven for her justification and cried out with a loud voice in the midst of the people O everlasting God who knowest the secrets of all hearts and from whom nothing is concealed or hidden for thou seest all things before they are acted I appeal to thy just judgment against these perjured and unjust Elders Thou-knowest O Lord that what they have witnessed against me is utterly false and behold I must dye for what I am not in the least guilty of thou knowest that it is all forgery and malice against me and that it is a conspiracy of these wicked Villains against my life in that which I am absolutely ignotant of Vindicate my innocence O God of truth and bring shame and confusion upon these false accusers O everlasting Lord to whom alone The thoughts of all men are entirely known O great Jehovah whos 's all seeing eye Runs through the circle of Eternity Thou know stand thou alone the wrong I bear From those who have polluted Moses Chair Have Law perverted and have witness given Against their conscience my poor life and heaven Gainst me that now must innocent dye and shame To after ages my disgrace proclaim It pleased divine providence to hearken to her request and therefore as she was leading to execution with a train of doleful mourners following her the Lord stirred up the H. Spirit of a young youth whose name was Daniel who cryed out with a loud voice I am clear from the bloud of this woman The whole multitude were much surprized to hear such words uttered by a young man and turning toward him asked what was his meaning Upon which Daniel standing up in the midst of them with an undaunted courage proceeded thus Are you such fools ye sons of Israel that without thorough examination and proof of the truth ye have condemned a daughter of Israel Return back into the seat of judgment and take more strict knowledge of this cause for though you have rashly sentenced this fair Innocent to death yet I am very certain that upon a more severe scrutiny into the matter you will find she as altogether faultless and that these old perjured wretches have born false witness against her Are ye such fools indeed In weighty things to make such careles speed Nay when a life 's concern'd For shame my friends See what dishonour all rash acts attends It makes us odious in the sight of those Who neither God nor yet true judgment knows When ere the truth 's discover'd or the cause You are so quick to execute the Laws And upon Israels daughter sentence give Who has done nothing but she still may live Return ye then unto the Judgment Seat Examine well for sure the impostures great And witnesses more false than Hell have stood To imbrue their hands in this Chast Ladies bloud Whereupon all the people being astonisht at the becoming confidence of Daniel whom they judged to be a Prophet inspiried from above turned back again in hast and the Judges commanded him to come and sit down among them saying Declare to us the truth of this affair since God hath bestowed the honour upon thee to be an Elder if not in years yet in wisdom and understanding Daniel then ordered that the two Elders should be put asunder and then he would examine them apart which being done he called one and said unto him O thou wicked wretch who art even grown old in malice and iniquity now is the time that the villanys which thou hast formerly committed are come to light and thy own conscience accuses thee that thou hast pronounced false Judgment and hast wilfully condemned the innocent and let the guilty go free though the Lord God hath said The innocent and righteous thou shalt not slay And now pray under what tree was it that thou pretendest thou sawest this chast Lady commit adultery Who answered Under a Mastick tree Then said Daniel Very well thou hast now wickedly lied and thereby forfeited thy head to Divine Justice and even now the Angel of God hath received commission to cut thee in two The first being set aside he commanded the other to be brought to whom he fiercely said O thou seed of Cham and not of Judah beauty hath deceived thee and lust hath perverted thy heart thus have you often done to other daughters of Israel who for fear of your power and malicious vengeance have complied and been polluted by you but the virtuous Susanna would not be frightned into wickedness and therefore you contrived her destruction Under what tree I beseech you did you see the young man defile her who answered Under an Holm tree Well said Daniel thou also hast lied against thy own life and the Angel of God waiteth with his sword to cut thee asunder and destroy thee Then pious Daniel to him mildly said Even now thou hast thy cursed life betrayd Gods holy Angel has commission ta'n Forthwith to cut thy wretched life in twain And with a sword attends this very hour Feirce vengeance on thy sinful head to pour At this strange discovery the whole Assembly were amazed and cryed out aloud glorifying and praising the name of that God who saves and delivers those that put their trust in him and finding these two base Elders thus notoriously convicted of perjury out of their own mouths they seized upon them and according to the Law of Moses executed the same sentence upon them which they maliciously and wickedly designed against this chast Lady putting them to death in the sight of the whole multitude who adored the divine Justice in their deserved punishment which had that day so eminently appeared in saving innocent bloud and punishing the guilty by the unexpected prudence of young Daniel who from that day was in much esteem and reputation among all the people And Chelcias and his wife gave abundant praises to Heaven for vindicating their daughters honour Joachim her husband and all her Friends joining with them in
his reign in the twelfth month called Adar or February And edicts were sent throughout all his kingdoms to proclaim a Feast in honour of this wedding he himself likewise feasting the Medes Persians and Princes of other Nations for a whole month upon that account When Esher entered the Royal Palace the king set a Diadem of gold upon her head and lived with her with all manner of content and satisfaction never questioning her birth nor of what Nation she was Her uncle Mordecai came with her from Babylon where she was found by the Kings officers to Shusan the cheif City of Persia and walked dayly before the Palace inquiring of her welfare whom he loved as tenderly as if she had been his own Now the king had published a Law that no man should approach his presence unless 〈◊〉 sent for In pursuance whereof while he sate on his Royal Throne certain Officers stood with their Axes ready to punish any that should attempt to infringe this Decree The king himself sate aloft holding a golden Scepter in his hand and when any presumed to come near without being called if the King would save his life he touched him therewith who thereby avoided death It happened about this time that Bigthan and Teresh two of the kings chamberlains had conspired against their Master which Mordecai who was not of a drowsy Spirit soon perceived and narrowly observing their carriage he discovered the whole design which he imparted to Queen Esther and she to the King in the name of Mordecai who being taken and examined confessed their abominable Treason and received their due reward the king at present only returned Mordecai hearty thanks for saving his life but commanded him to continue in his Pallace and ordered his name to be registred in the Chronicles of Persia with the whole process against the Malefactors After this Ahasuerus exalted Haman an Amalekite above all his Princes and Nobles and he became the chief Favourite so that the king saw but with his eyes and heard with his ears All the Court adored this new Idol and all knees were bowed before him but Mordecai shewed him no reverence nor respect both because he knew the wickedness of his nature and that the Laws of the Jews forbad him to give honour to any of the wicked race of Amalek Haman elevated even to giddiness by the greatness he so suddenly arrived to had at first little regard to it but being dayly advertised thereof by his Flatterers who informed him that they had often in vain reproved Mordecai for his contempt he was thereat inflamed with rage against him and understanding he was a Jew was much disturbed that all the Persian Nobility who were free should prostrate themselves before him and a Jewish slave should refuse to reverence him he therefore scorns to revenge himself on Mordecai alone as thinking it much below his grandeur to punish one man only but resolves utterly to exterminate the whole race of the Jews to whom he was a mortal enemy by nature the Amalekites his predecessors having been destroyed by the Israelites in former ages and revenge may be imagined thus to inflame him Remember Haman there 's no sweeter pleasure Than swift revenge for to revenge by leasure Is but like feeding when the Stomach 's past Not pleasing th' eager appetite nor tast 'T is not for th' honour of thy personage Nor stands it with thy greatness to ingage Thy noble thoughts to make revenge so poor To be reveng'd on One alone thy sore Needs many Plaisters make thy honour good Not with a drop but with a world of bloud Borrow the sythe of Time and let thy passion Mow down and ruin the whole Jewish Nation In pursuance of this hellish resolution Haman addresseth himself to the King and tells him That there were a certain cursed people called Jews dispersed through all the Provinces of his kingdom who were divided by Religion and laws from the rest of the World and by affection from his Person and government That they were pernicious to his Empire and upon all occasions ready and disposed to insurrections and rebellions and that for preventing the mischiefs which might happen by them nothing would be more secure than to cut them off all at once and utterly to extinguish their race so that neither Captive nor Slave should be left alive among them And lest their destruction should prove prejudicial to his Majesties Revenue he freely offered to pay out of his own Estate forty thousand Talents of Silver into the Exchequer being willing rather to part with so much money for the publick safety than that such a cursed generation of men should indanger the kingdom Thus is the horrid Scene laid for the ruin of so many millions of people by the pernicious counsel of one malicious and ambitious favourite The king is soon led away by this evil advice and trusts this proud Haman with the execution thereof as if he had committed the sheep to the protection of the Wolf He triumphs with joy for having obtained his desire and the kings Ring He calls the Secretaries and commands them in the name of Ahasuerus to write bloudy Letters to all the Provinces That the thirteenth day of the last month which was February the Jews should be massacred in all the Cities and Towns within the utmost limits of the Empire and that from the least to the greatest not sparing man woman nor child all should be put to the sword without remorse their goods to be confiscate exposed to pillage These Letters confirmed with the Kings seal flew like lightning through the hundred and twenty seven provinces of the Persian Monarchy The evil was universal and the terror began at the Capital City of Shushan where the Edict hanged upon Pillars was seen and read to all the world containing this dreadful Sentence Ahasuerus Rex Let every Province in the Persian Land Upon the day prefixt prepare his hand To make the Channels flow with Rebels bloud And from the earth to root the Jewish brood Let not the softness of a partial heart Through melting pity Love or false desert Spare either young or old or man or woman But like their crimes so let their plagues be common Decreed and signed by our Princely Grace And given at Shushan from our royal place This sanguinary Proclamation being published in all places many bloudy Miscreants rejoiced at the news and prepared themselves to execute the contents thereof resolving at the day appointed utterly to destroy the Jews and to leave no remembrance of them upon earth The Metropolitan City of Shushan abounded with these Instruments of cruelty though in the mean time the K. and Haman feasted drowned themselves in debauchery Poor Mordecai foreseeing the Tempest ready to fall upon his people cloathed himself with Sackcloth and put ashes upon his head in which equipage he walked through the City protesting that his Nation had done nothing to deserve this severity designed