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this we can now answer in the words of Job: "Knoweft thou not this, fince man was placed upon the earth, that the triumphing of the wicked is fhort, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment. Though his excellency mount unto the heavens, and his head reach unto the clouds, yet he fhali perifh for ever, and they that have feen him fhall fay, where is he*?”

In fact it has been proved, in the courfe of this enquiry, that in fuch an immenfe and complicated system as that of the univerfe, there are many reafons which we can dif cern, and a thousand others perhaps totally unknown to us, which render it neceffary that the virtuous should fuffer a temporary depreffion, and the wicked enjoy a temporary triumph. But let not thefe apparent irregularities difpirit or difcourage us: for whenever the purposes of Providence in thefe myfterious difpenfations fhall have been accomplished, every diforder fhall be rectified, and every appearance of injuftice done away. The time and the feafon for doing this God has referved in his own pow er: and we must not prefume to prescribe rules to the wif dom of the Almighty. To men excruciated with pain, every moment seems an age; and to men groaning under oppreffion, their deliverance, if it come not inftantly, may feem extremely diftant. But let them not difpair: in due feason they fhall reap if they faint not. At the period marked out by infinite wifdom, and which it is their duty to await with patience, God fhall cause his judgment to be heard from heaven, and the earth fhall tremble and be ftill. He fhall then demonftrate to the whole world "that his hand is not shortened that it cannot

redeem, and that he ftill retains the power to favet.". He shall prove, in a manner the most awful and most fatiffactory, "that verily there is a reward for the righteous, and a punishment for the wicked; that doubtless there is a God that judgeth the earth.”

* Job xx. 5. + Ifaiah, 1, 2

Pfalm lviii. 10.

LECTURE XIV.

MATTHEW xiv.

W

E are now, in the courfe of thefe Lectures, arrived at the fourteenth chapter of St. Matthew, which begins in the following manner :

"At that time Herod the tetrarch heard of the fame of Jefus, and faid unto his fervants, this is John the Baptift; he is rifen from the dead; and therefore mighty works do fhew forth themselves in him; for Herod had laid hold on John, and bound him, and put him in prison, for Herodias fake, his brother Philip's wife; for John faid unto him, it is not lawful for thee to have her. And when he would have put him to death, he feared the multitude, because they counted him as a prophet. But when Herod's birth-day was kept, the daughter of Herodias danced before them, and pleafed Herod; whereupon he promised with an oath, that he would give her whatsoever she would ask; and fhe, being before instructed of her mother, said, give me here John Baptist's head in a charger. And the king was forry; nevertheless, for the bath's fake, and them which fat with him at meat, he commanded it to be given her, and he sent and beheaded John in the prifon; and his head was brought in a charger, and given to the damfel; and the brought it to her mother; and his difciples came and took up the body and buried it, and went and told Jefus."

Before we enter upon this remarkable and affecting narrative of the murder of John the Baptift by Herod, it will be proper to take notice of the two first verses of this chapter, which gave occafion to the introduction of that tranfaction in this place, although it had happened fome time before.

"At that time, fays the evangelift, Herod the tetrarch heard of the fame of Jefus, and faid unto his fervants, this is John the Baptist; he is rifen from the dead; and therefore mighty works do fhew forth themselves in him."

It is not easy to meet with a more striking inftance than this of the force of confcience over a guilty mind, or a stronger proof how perpetually it goads the finner, not only with well-grounded fears and appehenfions of impending punifhment and vengeance, but with imaginary terrors and vifionary dangers.

No fooner did the fame of Jefus reach the ears of the tyrant Herod, than it immediately occurred to his mind that he had himself, not long before, moft cruelly and wantonly put to death an innocent, virtuous, and holy man, whofe reputation for wifdom, integrity, and fanc tity of manners, ftood almost as high in the estimation of the world as that of Jefus; and who had even declared himself the herald and the forerunner of that extraordi nary perfon. This inftantly fuggefted to him an idea the most extravagant that could be imagined, that this very person who affumed the name of Jefus was in fact no other than John the Baptist himself, whom he had beheaded, and who was now rifen from the dead, and was endowed with the power of working miracles, though he never performed any when living. It is evident, that nothing could be more improbable and abfurd than these fuppofitions, nothing more contrary even to his own principles; for there is reason to believe that Herod, like moft other people of high rank at that time, was of the fect called the Sadducees, a fect which rejected the immortality of the foul, and the doctrine of a refurrection, and muft therefore be perfectly adverse to the strange im agination of John the Baptist being rifen from the dead.Yet the fears of Herod overruled all the prejudices of his fect, and raised up before his eyes the femblance of the murdered Baptift armed with the power of miracles, for the very purpose (he perhaps imagined) of inflicting exemplary vengeance upon him for that atrocious deed, as well as for his adultery, his inceft, and all his other crimes: which now probably presented themselves in their

moft hideous forms to his terrified imagination, pursued him into his moft fecret retirements, and tortured his breaft with unceafing agonies.

The evangelist having thus introduced the mention of John the Baptift, goes back a little in his narrative, to make the reader acquainted with that part of the Baptist's history which brought down upon him the indignation of Herod, and was the occafion of his death.

J

This flagitious prince had, it feems, in the face of day, and in defiance of all laws, human and divine, committed the complicated crime of adultery and inceft, attended with every circumftance that could mark an abandoned and unprincipled mind.

He had been married a confiderable time to the daugh ter of Aretas, king of Arabia Petræa, but conceiving a violent paffion for his brother Philip's, wife, Herodias, he first feduced her affections from her husband, then difmiffed his own wife, and married Herodias, during the. life-time of his brother. It was impoffible that fuch por-. tentous wickedness as this could escape the obfervation or the reproof of the holy Baptift. He had the honefty and. the courage to reproach the tyrant with the enormity of his guilt, although he could not be ignorant of the danger he incurred by such a measure; but he determined to do his duty, and to take the confequences. The confequences were, "that Herod laid hold of John, and bound him, and threw him into prifon*." And undoubtedly his wifh was to have put him immediately to death, but he was restrained by two confiderations. The first was,. because John was held in fuch high esteem and veneration by all the people, that had any violence been offered to him by Herod, he was apprehenfive that it might have occafioned a general infurrection against his government; for we are informed by St. Matthew that "he feared the multitude, because they counted John as a prophet+."

The other reason was, that although he felt the utmost indignation and resentment against John for the freedom he had ufed in reproaching him for his licentious conduct,

* Matth. xiv, 3. + Matth. xiv. 5.

yet at the fame time the character of that excellent man, his picty, his fanctity, his integrity, his difinterestedness, nay, even the courage which had so much offended and provoked him, commanded his refpect and veneration, and excited his fears; for we are told exprefsly that Hered feared John, knowing he was a just man and a holy Nor is this all, he not only feared John, but in fome degree paid court to him. He frequently fent for him out of prison, and converfed with him, and, as the evangel ift expreffes it, obferved him; that is, liftened to him with attention and with pleasure; nay he went farther ftill, he did many things, many things which John exhorted and enjoined him to dot. He perhaps fhowed more attention to many of his public duties, more gentlenefs to his fubjects, more compaffion to the poor, more equity in his judicial determinations, more regard to public worship; and vainly hoped perhaps, like many other audacious finners, that this partial reformation, this half-way amendment, would avert the judgments with which John probably threatened him. But the main point, the great object of John's reprehenfion, the incestuous adultery in which he lived, that he could not part with; it was too precious, too favorite a fin to give up; too great a facrifice to make to confcience and to God.

What a picture does this hold out to us of that ftrange thing called human nature, of that inconfiftence, that contradiction, that contrariety, which fometimes take place in the heart of man, unsanctified and unsubdued by the power of divine grace! and what an exalted idea at the fame time does it give us of the dignity of a truly religious character, like that of John, which compels even its bitterest enemies to reverence and to fear it; and forces even the most profligate and most powerful of men to pay an unwilling homage to excellence, at the very moment, perhaps, when they are meditating its destruction !

In this ftate of irrefolution Herod might probably have continued, and the fate of John have remained undecided for a confiderable time, had not an incident taken place, which determined both much fooner perhaps than was in† Mark, vi. 20.

* Mark, vi. 20.

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