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Sect. VIII.

SECTION VIII.

Confiderations on the circumftances of
St. John's Death.

W

E have now accompanied St. John through the several stages of his life. We have rejoiced with his parents and kinsfolk at his birth, and fpent fome time in contemplation with him in the defarts; we have stood by him, as a preacher and a baptift, at the river Jordan, and have been made acquainted with the repeated teftimonies born by him, at different times, to the Meffiahship of Jefus; we have heard him, like another Elijah, reproving another Ahab, and have vifited him in prifon, where the glory of his great Mafter, and the falvation of those committed to his care, ftill continued to be the objects of his attention. It remains only, that we behold him paying that debt to nature, from which the greatest of them that are born of women are

not

not exempted. And here our acquaint- Se&.VIIL ance with him muft end, till we meet him in the kingdom of God. Thus do fcenes of real life pafs fwiftly away, and, when looked back upon, appear like those which are described within the compass of a small volume like this. In the course of a few years, the child, at whose birth we made merry, is become a man; he fickens, and dies, and we mourn at his funeral. Some gleams of fuccefs and profperity, perhaps, brighten and adorn certain parts of his life, as the fun gilds the edges of a dark cloud, or imprints upon it the ftill more beautiful colours of the rainbow. But while we gaze, the fun fets, the colours fade, the bow vanishes, and "the place "thereof knoweth it no more."

Or prophets, as well as of kings, it may be observed, that there is generally but a fhort interval between their imprisonment and their death; the enmity which occafioned one, feldom leaving them, till it have accomplished the other. And "more bitter even than death it"felf is the woman whose heart is

"fnares

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Sect. VIII."fnares and nets, and her hands bands"." Herod had thrown John into prison; but this would not fatisfy Herodias. Even there she heard him ftill preaching upon the old text, and reproaching her with her crimes. "She had a quar"rel against him; ever Tw, she faf"tened upon him, and would have kill"ed him, but," for fome time, the "could not "." For though Herod had not religion enough to produce in him. the fear of God, he had policy enough to produce the fear of the Jews, among whom John's reputation, as a prophet, ran very high. Herodias, however, in her heart, had determined to effect her purpose by procuring, fooner or later, the execution of him whom the falfely deemed her enemy. As if fin could not be committed with impunity, while John was living to hear of it; as if his blood would not cry louder than his voice had done; or the head of the prophet could enter the palace, without reproving the adultery of the tetrarch. But an imperious luft, in the height of

a Ecclef. vii. 26.

Mark vi. 19, &c.

it's dareer, can brook no obftruction; Sect. VIII. and were it poffible, as well as neceffary, the world itself would be blown up to make way for it

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OTSIN being once refolved on in the
heart, an opportunity of committing it is
feldom long wanting; and the mind is
upon the watch, to embrace the very
firft that offers. When a convenient
day was come, that Herod's birth day
I should be kept, he made a great fup-
per to his lords, high captains, and
chief eftates of Galilee." It is cer-
tainly no fin in a prince to keep his
birth day, or to make a great fupper
upon
it. But how much it behoveth a
-man, at fuch times of rejoicing, 'to be
upon his guard, left unawares he be in-
duced to facrifice truth and confcience
to mirth and gaiety, the melancholy ca-
tastrophe of this banquet may ferve to
fhew us; fince neither Herod, nor any
of his guests imagined, when they fate
down to table on that fatal evening,
how horribly their great fupper would
conclude. But fo it happened, that,
before the night was out, a deed was
-done, which difplayed to all fucceeding

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Sect.VIII. generations the malice and cruelty of Herodias, with the weaknefs and wickedness of Herods teaching us, at the fame time, that the greateft of prophets and the best of men are not more secure from violence, than from natural death, but rather more exposed to it than the reft of mankind, if with fidelity and fortitude they execute the truft' committed to them.

HERODIAS, by her lawful husband Philip, had a daughter named Salome, who condefcended to grace the festivity by dancing before the company, in a manner which "pleafed Herod, and "them that fat with him." A pious prelate of our church, in his contemplations on this occurrence, obferves, that "dancing, in itself, as it is a fet, regular, harmonious, graceful motion "of the body, cannot be unlawful, any "more than walking, or running." We may add, that it hath in all ages and nations been one way, and that a natural one, of expreffing an uncommon degree of joy and gladness; on which account it was adopted into the number of religious ceremonies formerly on

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