Upon one day in all the provinces of king Ahasuerus, [namely], upon the thirteenth [day] of the twelfth month, which [is] the month Adar.
Ver. 12. Upon one day in all the provinces, &c.] That once fatal day, but henceforth (the brunt once past) festival. That long-looked-for day, wherein the enemy hoped to revel in the Church's ruins; to frame comedies out of her tragedies; to wash their feet in her blood, yea, to ride their horses up to the saddle skirts therein, as Farnesius, the pope's champion, threatened to do in Germany, and Minerius in France, and the Papists here in England, at the death of Queen Elizabeth, and again upon the good success of the gunpowder plot, that great crack and black day, as they called it. For the speeding and furthering whereof, they had a devilish ditty, consisting of a seven-fold psalmody, which secretly they passed from hand to hand with tunes set to be sung for the cheering up of their wicked hearts with an expectation (as they called it) of their day of Jubilee. This is one passage therein, Confirm your hearts with hope, for the day of your redemption is not far off. The year of visitation draweth to an end, and jubilation is at hand, &c. (Spec. Bell. Sacr. xx. 2). The psalter is hard to be had, for they are taken up by the Papists, as other books be that discover their shame. But do what they can, shame shall be the promotion of fools (as it was of Haman), but the wise (as Mordecai) shall inherit glory, Proverbs 3:35 .