tended. Herod, on his birth-day, gave an entertainment to the principal officers of his army and of his court; and as a peculiar and very uncommon compliment on the occa fron, Salome, the daughter of his wife Herodias by her former husband, came in and danced before the company in a manner fo pleafing to Herod and to all his guests, that the king in a fudden tranfport of delight, cried out to the damfel, as St. Mark relates it, "Ask of me whatsoever thou wilt, and I will give it thee." And he sware unto her, "whatsoever thou fhalt ask of me I will give it thee even unto the half of my kingdom*." The folly, the rashness, and the madness of fuch an oath as this, on fo foolish an occafion, could be exceeded by nothing but the horrible purpofe to which it was perverted by the young creature to whom it was made, or rather by her profligate inftructor and adviser, her mother Herodias. Aftonished and overwhelmed probably with the magnitude of fuch an unexpected offer, which laid at her feet half the wealth, the power and the fplendor of a kingdom, fhe found herfelf unable to decide between the various dazzling objects that would prefent themselves to her imagination, and therefore very naturally applies to her mother for advice and direction. Moft mothers, on fuch an occafion, would have asked for a daughter a magnificent establishment, a fituation of high rank and power! But Herodias had a paffion to gratify, ftronger perhaps than any other, when it takes full poffeffion of the human heart, and that was revenge. She had been mortally injured, as fhe conceived, by the Baptift, who had attempted to diffolve her prefent infamous connection with Herod. And the not only felt the highest indignation at this infult, but was cafraid that his repeated remonftrances might at length prevail. She therefore did not hesitate one moment what to afk; fhe gave way to all the fury of her refentment; and without the leaft regard to the character or the delicate fituation of her inexperienced daughter, fhe immediately ordered her to demand the head of her detefted enemy, John the Baptift! The wretched young woman unfortunately obeyed this dreadful command; and, as we are 'told by the evangelift, "came in ftraightway with hafte unto the king." She came with speed in her steps, and * Mark, vi. 223 23Mark, vi. 25. Matth, xiv. 8.

eagerness in her eye, and faid, "Give me here John the Baptift's head in a charger." This favage request appal- led even the unfealing heart of Herod himself. He did not expect it, and was not prepared for it; and although he was highly difgufted with John, yet, for the reasons above mentioned, he did not choose to go to extremeties with him. He was therefore exceeding forry, as the facred Hiftorian informs us, to be thus forced upon fo violent and hazardous a meafure; nevertheless, for his oath's fake, and them which fat with him at meat, he come manded it to be given to her." Conceiving himself, moft abfurdly, bound by his oath to comply even with this inhuman demand, and afraid left he fhould be reproached by those that were around him with having broken his promife, he prefered the real guilt of murder to the falfe imputation of perjury, and "fent and beheaded John in prifon; and his head was brought in a charger, and given to the damfel, and fhe brought it to her mother."It is well known that it was a custom in the east, and is fo ftill in the Turkish court, to produce the heads of thofe that are ordered to be put to death, as a proof that they have been really executed. But how this wretched damfel could fo far fubdue the common feelings of human nature, and still more the natural tendernefs and delicacy of her fex, as not only to endure fo disgusting and shocking a spectacle, but even to carry the bleeding trophy in triumph to her mother, it is not eafy to imagine; and it would fcarce be credited, did we not know that in times and in countries much nearer to our own, fights of still greater horror than this have been contemplated, even by women and children, with complacency and with delight."

Such was the conclufion of this fingular tranfaction; and every part of it isfo pregnant with useful inftruction and admonition, that I fhall ftand excufed, I hope, if I take up a little more of your time than is usual in difcourses of this nature, in commenting fomewhat at large on the conduct and characters of the feveral actors in this dreadful tragedy.

And, in the first place, there can be no doubt that the moft guilty and the most unpardonable of all the parties) concerned in this murber of an innocent and excellent man

"

was the abandoned Herodias. For it was the whose indig nation against John was carried to the greatest length, and in the end effected his ruin. It was fhe who was contiually importuning and urging Herod to put the Baptift to death, from which, for a confiderable time, his fears reftrained him. It was she who, as St. Mark expresses it, "had a quarrel against John, and would have killed him, but she could not*." The words tranflated, had a quarrel against him, have in the original much greater force and energy, Eneiphen auto. She, as it were, fastened and hung upon John, and was determined not to let go her hold till fhe had deftroyed himt.

We here fee a fatal proof of the extreme barbarities to which that moft diabolical fentiment of revenge will drive the natural tenderness even of a female mind; what a clofe connection there is between crimes of apparently a very different complexion, and how frepuently the uncontrolled indulgence of what are called the fofter affections, lead ultimately to the most violent exceffes of the malignant paffions. The voluptuary generally piques himself on his benevolence, his humanity, and gentleness of dispofition. His claim even to these virtues is at the best very problematical; becaufe in his pursuit of pleasure, he makes no fcruple of facrificing the peace, the comfort, the happiness of those for whom he pretends the tenderest affection, to the gratification of his own selfish desires.--But however he may preferve his good humour, when he meets with no refiftance, the moment he is thwarted and oppofed in his flagitious purposes, he has no hesitation in going any lengths to gain his point, and will fight his way to the object he has in view through the heart of the very best friend he has in the world. The fame thing we fee in a ftill more striking point of view, in the conduct of Herodias. She was at firft only a bold unprincipled libertine, and might perhaps be admired and celebrated, as many others of that difeription have been, for her good temper, her fenfibility, her generofity to the poor; and with this

* Mark, vi. 19.

Hefychius explains enephei by elkeitai, flicks close to in hatred or fpite. Doddridge gives ftill greater force to the expreffion; but Parkburft does not allow it.

character fhe might have gone out of the world, had no fuch perfon as John arifen to reprove her and her husband for their profligacy, and to endanger the continuance of her guilty commerce. But no fooner does he rebuke them as they deferved, than Herodias fhewed that she had other paffions to indulge befides thofe which had hitherto dif graced her character; and that, when the found it neceffary to her pleasures, fhe could be as cruel as she had been licentious; could contrive and accomplish the destruction. of a great and good man, could feast her eyes with the fight of his mangled head in a charger, could even make her own poor child the instrument of her vengeance, and, as I am inclined to think, a reluctant accomplice in a most atrocious murder.

Here is a moft awful leffon held out, not only to the female fex, but to both fexes, to perfons of all ages and conditions, to beware of giving way to any one evil propenfity in their nature, however it may be disguised un der popular names, however indulgently it may be treated by the world, however it may be authorized by the general practice of mankind; because they here fee that they may not only be led into the groffeft extravagancies of that individual paffion, but may also be infenfibly betrayed into the commiffion of crimes of the deepest dye, which in their ferious moments they always contemplated with the utmoft horror.

Let us now take our leave of this wretched woman, and turn our attention for a moment to her unhappy daughter. Here undoubtedly there is much to blame, but there is alfo fomething to pity and to lament. Her youth, her inexperience, her unfortunate fituation in a moft corrupt court, the vile example that was conftantly before her eyes, the influence, the authority, the commands of a profli gate mother, these are circumstances that plead power fully for compaffion, and tend in fome degree to mitigate her guilt. Her first fault evidently was that grofs violation of all decorum, and all custom too, in appearing and dancing publicly before Herod and a large number of his friends affembled at a feftive meeting, and perhaps half intoxicated with wine. But it is not probable that a young woman of high rank, and fo very tender an age as she seems

to have been, fhould have voluntarily taken fuch a step as this, or should have been able to fubdue at once all the modesty and the timidity of her fex, and acquire courage! enough to encounter the eyes and the obfervations of fo licentious an affembly. There can be little doubt, that fhe was wrought upon by the perfuafions of her artful mother, who flattered herfelf that this artifice might pro duce fome fuch effect in the mind of Herod as actually followed. What adds great weight to this conjecture is, that her next dreadful tranfgreffion, her fingular and fan guinary request to have the head of John the Baptift prefented to her, was unqeftionably the fuggeftion of the abandoned Herodias.

The facred historian expressly informs us, that it was in confequence of being before inftructed of her mother that the made this demand. Nor is this all; there is great reafon to believe that it was with the utmost difficulty fhe was prevailed on to comply with the injunctions that were given her; for the original words probibaftheifa upo tēs mētros, which we tranflate before infucted of her mother, more strictly fignify being wrought upon, inftigated, and impelled by her mother; for this is the fenfe in which that expreffion is ufed by the best Greek writers.

This fuppofition receives no fmall confirmation from the manner in which fhe is represented by the evangelift as delivering her anfwer to Herod. "She came ftrightway with hafte unto the king;" fhe betrayed on her return the utmost emotion and agitation of mind. She had worked herself up to a refolution of obeying her mother; and was in hafte to execute her commiffion, left if any paufe had intervened her heart fhould relent, her fpirits fail her, and she should not have courage to utter the dreadful demand she had to make.

All this feems to imply great reluctance on her part, and evidently is a confiderable alleviation of her crime; yet does by no means exempt her from all guilt. For although obedience to parents is a very facred duty, yet there is anoth er duty fuperior to it, that which we owe to our Maker. And whenever even a parent would incite us to any thing plainly repugnant to his laws, as was the cafe in the pref