Discourses on the Whole Book of Esther Author:George Lawson Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: DISCOURSE IV. ESTHER MADE QUEEN OF PERSIA.-BY HER MEANS MORDECAI DISCOVERS TO THE KING A CONSPIRACY FORMED A- GAINST HIS LIFE. -- Chap. ii. 12. -- 23. ... more »Ver. 12. -- Now, when emery maid's turn was come to go in to king Ahasuerus, after that she bad been twelve months, according to the manner of the ivarnen, (for so were the days of their purification accomplished, to wit, fix months with oil of myrrh, and six months with sweet odours, and with other things for the purifying of tts ivomen), The pleasures of sensuality were carried to the highest excess by those men who ruled over the Persian empire. The women designed for their embraces were obliged to undergo a wearisome purification, to render them the more agreeable to their pampered lords. Their eyes and their nostrils must be at once regaled by the presence of their beauteous C Dions. Voluptuousness must be turned into an art, and a toil, to gratify their senses. Had they never learned, that they who devote themselves to pleasure destroy it ? Moderation in the pleasures of sense is necessary for the enjoyment of them ; and those who can relish pleasure only in excess, prepare for themselves satiety, disappointment, or chagrin. If we will not regulate our enjoyments by the laws of God, made known to us by reason, religion, and experience, our pleasures will end in the worst of pains. Ver. 13. 14". -- Then thus came every maiden unto the king ; whatsoever she desired ixas given her, t. o go with her out of the house of the women unto the king's Louse. In the evening she went, and on the morrow sle returned into the second house of . u'oaicn, to the custody of Shaashgaz, the king's chamberlain, which kept /Zv concubines ; she came in unto the king no more, except the king delighted in her, and that she were call...« less