6.
Doth a man affright you? Hasten to the Lord above, and thou wilt suffer no evil. Thus the ancients had release from their calamities; and not men only, but also women. There was a certain Hebrew woman, Esther was her name. This Esther rescued the whole people of the Jews, when they were about to be delivered over to destruction, by this very method. For when the Persian king gave orders that all the Jews should be utterly destroyed, and there was no one who was able to stand in the way of his wrath,--this woman having divested herself of the splendid robe, and clothed herself with sackcloth and being besprinkled with ashes, supplicated the merciful God to go in with her to the king; and offering up her prayer to Him, these were the words she uttered, "O Lord, make my words acceptable, 1 and put eloquent speech in my mouth." 2 Let this be the prayer which we offer to God for our Teacher. For if a woman, supplicating on behalf of the Jews, prevailed to allay the wrath of a barbarian, much rather will our Teacher, entreating on behalf of so great a city, and in conjunction with so great a Church, be able to persuade this most mild and merciful Emperor. For if he hath received authority to loose sins committed against God, much more will he be able to take away and blot out those which have been committed against a man. He is also himself a ruler and a ruler of more dignity than the other. For the sacred laws take and place under his hands even the royal head. And when there is need of any good thing from above, the Emperor is accustomed to fly to the priest: but not the priest to the Emperor. He 3 too hath his breast-plate, that of righteousness. 4 He too hath his girdle, that of truth, and sandals 5 of much greater dignity, those of the Gospel of peace. He too hath a sword, not of iron, but of the Spirit; he too hath a crown resting on his head. This panoply is the more splendid. The weapons are grander, the license of speech greater, 6 and mightier 7 the strength. So that from the weight of his authority, and from his own greatness of soul; and more than all the rest, from the hope which he has in God, he will address the Emperor with much freedom and much discretion.
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This clause is not in our text. ↩
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From the additions to the Book of Esther, in the Apocrypha, ch. xiv. 2, 3, 13. ↩
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Sav. and M. om. For. ↩
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The imperial armature is here compared not with the Ecclesiastical dress, but with the spiritual armour, which the Church has somewhat differently, according to her discretion, represented by outward forms. What is applied by St. Paul to the individual Christian is here used specially of one who represents our Lord in authority as well as in person. Compare on the breastplate, Ex. xxvii. 15, Isa. lix. 7; on the girdle, Ex. xxviii. 40, Isa. xi. 5, Rev. i. 13, Eph. vi. 14; on the sandals, Isa. lii. 7, Eph. vi. 15; on the sword, Heb. iv. 12, Eph. vi. 17; on the crown, Ex. xxix. 6, Eph. vi. 17; see also Fabr. Ag. ii. 34 (Graev. Thes. viii. p. 2095). Martene de Ant. Eccl. Rit. l. i. c. 4, art. 1, sec. 12; Durand. Rat. Div. Off. lib. 3. ↩
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See on Rom. viii. 25; Hom. XIV. Mor., where the shoes are especially noticed as a part of imperial magnificence. ↩
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meizon he parrhesia, lit. "greater the boldness of speech," but the context seems to give this meaning. ↩
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i.e., than those belonging to an emperor. See Const. Ap. ii. 34, and note 11 of Cotelerius, p. 247. ↩
