Reflections on the Baptist's joy in Christ's success. all things into his hand. 155 SECT. xxvii. John by a constant presence, and operates by a per35 The Father loveth petual energy. For the Almighty Father loveth the Son, and hath given the Son incomparably beyond the most faithful of his servants; and hath not only established III. 35. him as the great Teacher of his church, but hath given the government of all things into his hand, that he may be regarded as the universal Lord.. 36 He that believeth on the Son hath ever lasting life; and he that believeth not the Son, shall not see life, but the wrath of God abid eth on him. So that instead of repining at his growing 36 glories, you should rather be solicitous to secure an interest in his favour: for this is the substance and this the end of my whole testimony, that he who believeth on the Son, hath a sure title to eternal life, and hath already the beginnings of it wrought in his soul; but he that is disobedient to the Son, and obstinately persists in his unbelief and impenitence, shall not see and enjoy that life; but, on the contrary, is so far from it, that the wrath of God, and the unpardoned aggravated guilt of all his sins, abideth even now upon him, and will quickly sink him into final condemnation and ruin. Thus did that holy man John the Baptist conclude those testimonies to Christ which are recorded in the gospel, and was quickly after imprisoned by Herod the tetrarch; as the course of this history will presently shew. IMPROVEMENT. Ir is indeed too true that the spirit which naturally dwelleth Ver. in us all lusteth to envy (Jam. iv. 5.) and it is far from being a 26 low attainment in religion to look with complacency and thankfulness on the superior abilities and acceptance of others, especially of those who once appeared in an inferior rank. But for the cure of this unreasonable and restless passion, sa contrary to the true spirit of the gospel, let us remember that a man can re-27 ceive nothing at all except it be given him from heaven. It is God that makes one man to differ from another; and surely nothing h This is the substance, and this the end of my whole testimony.] Erasmus here destroys (as he had done before at ver. 16.) the beauty of this discourse by supposing that the latter part of it is to be considered as the reflection and attestation of the evangelist, upon occasion of the testimony that was given by the Baptist; though he seems himself at a loss to fix the clause at which this supposed change of the person speaking begins. He that is disobedient to the Son.] I think it is of great importance to preserve can a difference in the translation, correspon- 156 SECT. John had reproved Herod for his marriage. can be more unreasonable than that, when we ourselves have received all from his bounty, our eye should be evil because he is good. Ver. (Mat. xx. 15.) 29 30 1 33 34, 35 SECT. If we are indeed the friends of Christ, we shall rejoice to see his interest advance, and especially to see souls espoused to him as the great Bridegroom of the church, whoever are the instruments of promoting so happy a work. Would to God that in this sense all the Lord's people were even as the greatest of the prophets, or as the very chief of the apostles! (Numb. xi. 29.) But if indeed they were so, yet, like those brightest luminaries of the church, they must in time have their change and their wane. If God does not darken their glories by a sudden eclipse, yet they who are now, like the Baptist, burning and shining lights, must like him gradually decrease, while others are increasing about them; as they, in their turns, grew up amidst the decays of the former generation. Let us know how to set as well as to rise; and let it comfort our declining days to trace in those that are like to succeed us in our work the openings of yet greater usefulness. So shall we grow in our meetness for that world where all the righteous shall shine forth together, as the sun, in the kingdom of their Father, in a bright resemblance of him with whom there is no variableness nor shadow of turning. As the surest means of guiding us to that happy world, let us make it our great care, by receiving the testimony of Christ, to set our seal to the truth of God, engaged in his cause.-With how much pleasure should we do it, and with what joy should we reflect that the Father so loveth the Son that he has not only given him the rich and unmeasureable communications of the Spirit, but has committed also into his hand the reins of government! Let his faithful servants remember it with joy, and cheerfully commit their concerns to him who is made head over all things for the benefit of his church, (Eph. i. 22.) And to conclude; let it engage us to see the sincerity of our faith in him and subjection to him; since it is not a light matter, but our life, even the very life of our souls. May God awaken those on whom his wrath now abideth to a sense of their danger; and may he strengthen in each of our souls that faith which is the pledge of a happy immortality! SECT. XXVIII. John the Baptist is imprisoned by Herod. Luke III. 19-20. LUKE III. 19. LUKE III. 19. trarch being re xxviii. THUS John went on to prosecute the great BUT Herod the tedesign of his appearance, and to prepare the way Luke I. 19. proved rod had done. [MAT. Herod apprehends and imprisons John. 157 Luke proved by him, for way for the reception of Jesus: but much about SECT. Herodias' [sake] his this time it pleased God to permit the course of brother Philip's wife; [MARK, for he had his ministry to be interrupted, and his life itmarried her] and for self to be quickly after brought to its period. III.19. all the evils which He For Herod Antipas, the tetrarch of Galilee, havXIV. 3. MARK VI. ing out of curiosity sent for him to his court, 17.] this holy man thought it his duty to admonish him in regard to the public scandals of his life and reign. Now Herod being this plainly and faithfully reproved by him, both on account of Herodias his brother Philip's wife, (for, to the infamy and scandal of his character, he had uagenerously taken her from her husband, and publicly married her in contempt of all laws human and divine, and also for all the other evils that Herod had done, which were many and great, that haughty prince was so exasperated, that, instead of falling under the admonition, he meditated revenge: And though for the pre- 20 sent he dismissed him it was not long before he prosecuted his design, and added yet this act of wickedness to all the rest] of his enormous crimes, that he confined and shut up John in MARK VI. 17. For prison. For Herod himself sent officers after Mark Herod himself had sent him, and seized John, who had returned to proon John, and bound secute his ministry in a place which lay within him [and put him] in the territories of Galilee; and having thus got prison him into his power, he bound him with chains, 20. Added yet this above all, that he shut up John in prison. forth and laid hold up a On account of Herodias.-for he had married her.] Josephus gives us an acCount of this incestors marriage, which proved the occasion of the Baptist's imprisonm at and death, (Antiq. lib. xviii.cap. 5. (al. 7.) § 1, 4, Havercamp,) from whence it appears that this Herodias was daughter to Aristobulus, one of the sons of Herod the Great, and consequently was niece both to Philip her former husband, and to Herod Antipas the tetrarch, her latter. By Philip, whom Josephus also calls Herod (as princes had often several names) she had one daughter whose name was Salome, (ind. p. 885.) who probably was the young lady afterwards mentioned, scct. Ixxvii. as instructed by her mother to ask the head of John the Baptist. And that historian informs us that Herod the tetrarch, to make way for his marriage, with Herodias, divorced his former wife, the daughter of Aretas; which made this commerce a kind of double adultery, and was the occasion of a war between those two princes in which Herod's forces were defeated. b In contempt of all laws human and Livine. The only case in which the law VOL. VI. b and allowed of marrying one who had been a Though for the present he dismissed Herod himself.] There seems to be a peculiar emphasis in this expression, which probably may be designed to intimate that his seizing John was not merely the effect of Herodias's solicitations, but of his own resentment. The place where he seized him might probably be Enon, where John had lately baptized, and where he again might return to his work and if so, Enon must have been in Herod's jurisdiction. Compare note a on John iii. 23. p. 151. e Bound him with chains.] It is plain from Matthew's manner of expressing this, S that VI. 17. 158 He declines putting him to death, for fear of the people. SECT and put him in prison; though his confinement prison. [MAT. XIV. 3.] there was not so close but that his disciples were xxviii. Mark sometimes suffered to converse with him; (comVI. 17. pare Mat. xi. 2, 4. and Luke vii. 19, 20. sect. 18 19 Ivii. had said unto Herod, It 4.] And though he might assign other political 18. For John reasons to excuse his conduct, as if his grow- is not lawful for thee ing popularity rendered him dangerous to the to have thy brother's state, yet the true reason for which he did it wife. [MAT. XIV. was this, that John had treated him with such a freedom as he knew not how to bear, and had told Herod to his very face, It is not lawful for thee that thou shouldest take upon thee as thou doest to have thy brother's wife, nor canst thou ever have any solid peace of conscience while thou continuest to retain her. And for this 19. Therefore Hecause Herodias also was yet more furiously in- rodias had a quarrel against him, and would censed against him, and with an unrelenting cru- have killed him, but elty still hung upon him ; and not contented she could not. with what he suffered in his imprisonment, would fain have put him to death, but she could 20 not immediately compass that design: For 20. For Herod feared Herod, notwithstanding all his resentment, still John, knowing that he was a just man and reverenced John in his heart; knowing that an holy, and observed he was a righteous and holy man, of which the him; and when he fidelity of his reproofs was a very convincing heard him, he did maevidence. And therefore calling him to frequent him gladly. audiences, he heard him discourse with attention and pleasure; and was so far influenced by it that he did many things according to his exhor tations *. that he bound him, and put him in prison, f Dangerous to the state.] Josephus ex- g Herodias hung upon him.] This seems to me the import of the phrase EVE auw, which is with peculiar propriety applied to a dog's fastening his teeth into his prey, and holding it down. See De Dieu in lor, and compare Luke xi. 53There seems an opposition seldom remark. ed between this and ver. 17. Herod himself seized him, but Herodias went still far But ny things, and heard ther.-Josephus gives a very bad character of this Herodias, and assures us that her ambitious and envious spirit was at last the cause of Herod's ruin and her own. Antiq. lib. xviii. cap. 7. (al. 9.) h Reverenced John, 579.] The same word is justly so translated, Eph. v. 53. and there are many other passages where it has the same sense. See Luke xii. 5, and Rev. xi. 18. xiv. 7. i Heard him with attention.] So I chuse to render Guvernçu autov, rather than preserved, or protected him, (compare Luke ii. 19. Gr.) though I know that the word sometimes signifies to preserve. (Mat. ix. 17.) Our English version of this passage appears to be improper; and I hope the little transposition I have made here will be forgiven, since it makes not the least alteration in the sense, and suits best with the genius of our language. Such little liberties elsewhere seem not so considerable as to need a more particular apology. Did many things.] Grotius would have it Reflections on Herod's putting John in prison. MATI XIV. 5. And 159 Mat. But as John was still pressing him to dismiss SECT. when he would have Herodias, and telling him the insufficiency of xxvii. put him to death, he feared the multitude, any other reformation while he continued his because they counted infamous commerce with her; and she in the XIV. 5. him as a prophct. mean time wearied Herod with her importunity; when he at length was so far wrought upon that he would gladly have consented to put him to death, he was so apprehensive of the consequences of it that he durst not do it, since he feared the multitude; because he knew that they respected John, and looked upon him as a prophet', and he did not think it safe to provoke such a factious people by an action so extremely unpopular. IMPROVEMENT. 20. WHAT dangerous things are grandeur and power, if Divine Luke grace does not secure the hearts of those who possess them! How I 19, unhappy are they whose fatal prerogative it is to be able to oppress with impunity, and to render it hazardous even to reprove them! John well deserved the veneration and esteem of Herod when Mark he thus took the freedom to perform this dangerous office of friendship, and to manifest a fidelity so seldom to be found in courts, and indeed so often wanting elsewhere. A wise prince would have courted his friendship, and sought his advice; but he is at length rewarded with imprisonment and death. This good man was taken from his work, and laid aside in the Mark midst of his days and his usefulness; but he calmly acquiesced in VI. 17. the disposals of Providence, and no doubt carried along with him to his prison incomparably more happiness than his persecutors could find on the throne. In this confinement the prophet was not forgotten; but as if Herod had studied to increase his own torment, he must be sent for again and again to discourse before him. That he reverenced 20 a man of such approved integrity, none can wonder: but while he would not be entirely reformed by his remonstrances, that he should hear him with pleasure, and do many things, is very surprising. Delusive pleasure! unprofitable reformation! while, whatsoever instances he gave of his regarding him, Herodias was yet retained. May divine grace preserve us from such fatal it rendered, that he had heard him formerly with pleasure, and had done many things; supposing this refers to what had passed before his imprisonment: but such a change doth not appear necessary, as the paraphrase plainly shews. parti 1 Looked upon him as a prophet.] Accord- |