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He had been highly exalted by King Assuerus; and the servants of the king bent the knee before him, and worshipped him, "only Mardochai did not bend the knee nor worship him." This apparent slight so wounded the pride of Haman, that he could enjoy neither peace nor happiness so long as Mardochai, the Jew, sat at the king's gate.
6 Beside vttering of our countrey commodities, which the Indians, &c. much esteeme: as appeareth in Hester, where the pompe is expressed of the great king of India, Assuerus, who matched the coloured clothes, wherewith his houses and tents were apparelled, with gold and siluer, as part of his greatest treasure: not mentioning either veluets, silkes, cloth of gold, cloth of siluer, or such like, being in those countreyes most plentifull: whereby it plainly appeareth in what great estimation they would haue the clothes of this our countrey, so that there would be found a farre better vent for them by this meanes, then yet this realme euer had: and that without depending either vpon France, Spaine, Flanders, Portugall, Hamborow, Emden, or any other part of Europe.
After this sort did Haman specially bring the nation of the Jews into the hatred of the king Assuerus, because, said he, "they were a rebellious and stubborn people, and despised the ordinances and commandments of princes."
For the object of almsgiving is the misery of the needy which it tries as far as possible to relieve, and that of charity is God, Who is the sovereign Good, worthy to be loved above all things for His own sake." "But," I said, "when almsgiving is practised for the love of God, can we not then call it charity?" "No," he replied, "not any more than you can call Esther Assuerus, and Assuerus Esther.
The truth was that she did not in the least care for her ornaments, but as it was her husband's will that she should dress as before, she followed the example of Esther, who, though she detested all vain pomp and show, to please Assuerus, decked herself out with magnificence.
In answer to my objection that this was actually the case with Esther, who, though only a slave, was chosen by Assuerus to be his queen, and crowned by his royal hand, he replied: "You only strengthen my argument, for Esther would have remained in her state of servitude had she not become the spouse of Assuerus, and, queen though she was, she only wore her crown dependently on his will and pleasure.
Also in the first chapter of Hester be these wordes, In the dayes of Assuerus which ruled from India to Aethiopia, which Assuerus liued 580 yeeres before Christ. Also, Arianus, Philostratus, and Sidrach in his discourses of the warres of the king of Bactria, and of Garaab, who had the most part of India vnder his gouernment.
In illustration of this he would quote Moses, who preferred the reproach of Israel to the glories of a kingdom offered to him by Pharaoh's daughter; of Esther, who hated the splendid ornaments with which they decked her to make her pleasing in the eyes of Assuerus; of the Apostles, whose greatest joy was to suffer shame and reproach for the name of Jesus; and of David, who danced before the Ark amid a crowd of buffoons and mountebanks, and who exulted in thus making himself appear contemptible in the eyes of Michol, his wife.
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