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John had said unto Herod, It is not lawful for thee to have thy brother's wife.

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Herod the King (as he was popularly called) the Tetrarch (as St. Matthew and St. Luke exactly call him) the Governor that is of Galilee," heard of the fame of Jesus," "and he was perplexed, because that it was said of some, that John was risen from the dead." 2 The Jews had an idea that it was granted to some to return to life, and exercise miraculous powers after having passed through death. Others supposed it might be Elijah,3 whom, through a too literal interpretation of the Scripture, they were expecting to appear; or, if not that Prophet, at least one equal to the Prophets of old. Herod, after some hesitation," seems, from what he said to his servants to have inclined to the first of these suppositions. "And he desired to see Him."

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But not till the hour of His humiliation was the desire gratified. Then Herod made but a bad use of his opportunity. Here we have, in a parenthesis, the history of what had happened some little time before. We have already heard of John's being in prison. Here we are told the cause, so much to his credit. Herod had, in popular language, married his brother's wife.10 It would not have been a lawful marriage had his brother been dead; but as he was still living, it was adultery. The Baptist had probably pointed out both these things to the royal offender. Herod's first impulse, in his passion, was to punish this brave man with death for simply doing his duty. He was restrained however from this extreme measure by fear of the people, who might have risen up against him if he had slain in the height of his popularity one whom they reverenced as a

1 St. Matt. xiv. 1.

2 St. Luke ix. 7.

3 "John the Baptist is the Elijah of the Gospel, Herod is the Ahab, and Herodias is the Jezebel."—Bp. Wordsworth.

Mal. iv. 5; St. Matt. xi. 14; St. Luke i. 17.

5 St. Luke ix. 7, 9. 6 St. Matt. xiv. 2.

7 St. Luke ix. 9.

8 St. Luke xxiii. 8.

St. Luke iii. 19, 20.

10 This Philip was not the Tetrarch of that name (St. Luke iii. 1) but the half-brother of this Herod Antipas, another son of his father Herod the Great, by another wife. Herod, while on a visit to Philip, prevailed on Herodias to forsake her husband and live with him. Josephus, Antt. xviii. v. 1, 2.

Prophet. He contented himself therefore, at the time, with shutting him up in prison, where the indignity of bonds was added to the rigour of confinement.

CCXLIX.

THE SAME SUBJECT-continued.

St. Mark vi. 19--24.

Therefore Herodias had a quarrel against him, and would have killed him; but she could not: for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a just man and an holy, and observed him; and when he heard him, he did many things, and heard him gladly. And when a convenient day was come, that Herod on his birthday made a supper to his lords, high captains, and chief estates of Galilee; and when the daughter of the said Herodias came in, and danced, and pleased Herod and them that sat with him, the king said unto the damsel, Ask of me whatsoever thou wilt, and I will give it thee. And he sware unto her, Whatsoever thou shalt ask of me, I will give it thee, unto the half of my kingdom. And she went forth, and said unto her mother, What shall I ask? And she said, The head of John the Baptist.

The partner of Herod's crime seems to have been stirring him up ever and anon to further vengeance; but when Herod's passion had cooled, he could not it appears be prevailed upon to proceed to extremities. "For Herod feared John," as a bad man sometimes has a superstitious dread of a good one. He knew in his conscience that John was not only just towards men, but also a Saint of God. So he preserved1 him; shutting him up in safety at least, though in a prison; thus sufficiently gratifying his own resentment, and

1 Such seems to be the force of the word rendered "observed" in v. 20.

2 Herod, it has been already remarked (Lect. LXX.), resembles in some respects our own Henry the

Eighth; and a sort of parallel might also be drawn between the Baptist's imprisonment in the Fortress of Machorus, and Luther's detention in the Castle of Wartburg.

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at the same time rescuing him from hers. It would appear also that, as Felix afterwards fetched St. Paul out of prison and communed with him,' so Herod here occasionally heard St. John Baptist reasoning of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come. For he was on an expedition to Macharus at the time, and the Baptist was imprisoned in the Fortress there. He heard him gladly. He is not the only tyrant who has taken some interest in sermons and points of theology. Some slight impression too the Baptist's preaching seems to have made on him. He trembled as Felix did. He even "did many things," but not the one thing which was needful in the matter. He could not bring himself to part with the partner of his guilt. Herodias however cherished her revenge. Herod's birthday would be a convenient day for her savage purpose. Her own daughter, the child of her already outraged husband, is employed by this shameless, abandoned woman as the instrument of her malice. The pantomimic, dissolute dance 3 had been planned by her beforehand as likely to please, (as a new sensation,) the King and his dissolute courtiers. It was as she expected. And when the King, aping the worst times and manners of despotic Eastern monarchs, offered, as another Ahasuerus,* to grant her request, even to the half of his kingdom, confirming his rash promise by an impious oath; and when the damsel, giddy with the success of her achievement and its dazzling recompense, went to consult her mother on the matter,—that crafty woman had her answer ready, "The head of John the Baptist." What cared she for her daughter's interest? Thus are those ever treated who consign their consciences to be tutored by the world. The world uses them only for its own purposes. Revenge was to this monster still the sweetest morsel. All that she has also Hor. Car. III. vi. 21.

1 Acts xxiv. 24-26.

2 In this, no less than in his licentiousness, he seems to have resembled our Henry the Eighth, whose keen interest in theological questions it is hard to reconcile with his careless life.

Recently introduced into Julæa, and censured by Juvenal, vi. 63. Sce

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4 Esther v. 6.

5 St. Matt. xiv. 8 does not signify that it was preconcerted with her mother, but simply that she had been so instructed before she answered. Having withdrawn to consult, and having been so instructed, she returns with this demand.

or hopes for avails her nothing so long as she sees this Mordecai sitting at the King's gate.'

CCL.

THE SAME SUBJECT-continued.

St. Mark vi. 25-29.

And she came in straightway with haste unto the king, and asked, saying, I will that thou give me by and by in a charger the head of John the Baptist. And the king was exceeding sorry; yet for his oath's sake, and for their sakes which sat with him, he would not reject her. And immediately the king sent an executioner, and commanded his head to be brought: and he went and beheaded him in the prison, and brought his head in a charger, and gave it to the damsel: and the damsel gave it to her mother. And when his disciples heard of it, they came and took up his corpse, and laid it in a tomb.

The damsel returns with indecent haste to the banquet of wine, and demands that in one of the dishes taken off the table the head of this holiest man should be immediately2 brought back to her. The king's sorrow, though sincere so far as it went, was weaker than his pride. The opinion of the world herein prevails with him who yet in so many other respects defied it. A false point of honour overrides all other considerations. As if an impious oath could ever justify an unlawful action. One of his body-guard is despatched to the dungeon of the Fortress not far off, where the great martyr lies. Without a hearing, without a trial, in spite of admitted innocence, his head is fetched as a bullock out of the despot's herd. There was something singularly grand in his end. It was no ordinary martyrdom. The place was a prison; the time, night. There and then is this greatest of any mother's son among us sacrificed to the vindictive rage

Esther v. 13.

2 It is only in later times that our

by and by has obtained a future rather than a present force.

of a licentious woman. Suddenly, with no notice beforehand, no time of preparation allowed him, the bolts are drawn back, the door of the dungeon opens, the executioner enters with his dreadful instrument of death. The surprised but not alarmed confessor meekly bows his head.1 Death is to him the door of life. The soldier's sword is made a key to unlock the gate of Paradise. Others have had friends around them to strengthen and support them in their hour of trial; but there was no such solace for this great solitary soul. No devoted disciples to treasure up his last words. No admiring spectators to animate him in that closing scene. He closes his eyes in a prison to open them in Paradise. His body seems to have been cast out with contempt as a common criminal; which yet enabled his disciples to possess themselves of it. They lay it reverently in a tomb, "and went and told Jesus."2 All jealousy of Him3 seems now at an end. They have been well prepared by their Master for a greater than he. They are bereaved of one blessing only to be endowed with a better. In all our trials and bereaveLet us tell Him our trouble.*

ments let us do as they did.

CCLI.

THE RETURN OF THE APOSTLES.

St. Mark vi. 30-34.

And the apostles gathered themselves together unto Jesus, and told him all things, both what they had done, and what they had taught. And he said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while: for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat. And they departed into a desert place by ship privately. And the people saw them departing, and many knew him, and ran afoot thither out of all cities, and outwent them, and came Seneca, de Benef. iii. 25, has a remarkable story of a slave who so suffered for his lord.

2 St. Matt. xiv. 12.

3 St. John iii. 26; St. Matt. ix. 14 . 4 Ps. cxlii. 2.

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