smell of the hand lose the praise; it is twice given, that is given quickly. Those that defer their gifts till their deathbed, do as good as say, Lord, I will give thee something, when I can keep it no longer. Happy is the man that is his own executor: "I give my goods," not another's. It is a thankless vanity to be liberal of another man's purse: whoso gives of that which he hath taken away from the owner, doth more wrong in giving than in stealing: God expects our gifts, not our spoils. I fear there is too many a school and hospital, every stone whereof may be challenged. Had Zaccheus meant to give of his extortions, he had not been so careful of his restitution: now he restores to others, that he may give of his own: "I give half my goods." The publican's heart was as large as his estate; he was not more rich in goods than in bounty. Were this example binding, who should be rich to give? who should be poor to receive? In the strait beginnings of the church, those beneficences were requisite, which afterwards, in the larger elbow-room thereof, would have caused much confusion. If the first Christians laid down all at the apostle's feet, yet ere long it was enough for the believing Corinthians, every first day of the week, to lay aside some pittance for charitable purposes. We are no disciples, if we do not imitate Zaccheus so far as to give liberally, according to the proportion of our estate. Giving is sowing; the larger seeding, the greater crop giving to the poor is feneration to God: the greater bank, the more interest. Who can fear to be too wealthy? Time was when men faulted in excess. Proclamations were fain to restrain the Jews; statutes were fain to restrain our ancestors now there needs none of this; men know how to shut their hands alone: charity is in more danger of freezing than of burning. How happy were it for the church, if men were only close-handed to hold, and not lime-fingered to take. "To the poor," not to rich heirs God gives to him that hath, we to him that wants. Some want because they would, whether out of prodigality or idleness: some want because they must; these are the fit subjects of our beneficence, not those other. A poverty of our own making deserves no pity: he that sustains the lewd, feeds not his belly, but his vice. So then this living legacy of Zaccheus is free, "I give;" present," I do give;" just, " my goods;" large, "half my goods;" fit, "to the poor." Neither is he more bountiful in his gift, than just in his restitution: "If I have taken aught from any man by false accusation, I restore it four-fold." It was proper for a publican to pill and poll the subject, by devising complaints and raising causeless vexations, that his mouth might be stopt with fees, either for silence or composition: this had Zaccheus often done. Neither is this "if" a note of doubt, but of assertion: he is sure of the fact, he is not sure of the persons; their challenge must help to further his justice. The true penitence of this holy convert expresses itself in confession, in satisfaction: his confession is free, full, open. What cares he to shame himself, that he may give glory to God? Woe be to that bashfulness that ends in confusion of face! O God, let me blush before men, rather than be confounded before thee, thy saints and angels! His satisfaction is no less liberal than his gift. Had not Zaccheus been careful to pay the debts of his fraud, all had gone to the poor: he would have done that voluntarily, which the young man in the gospel was bidden to do, and refusing went away sorrowful. Now he knew that his misgotten gain was not for God's Corban; therefore he spares half, not to keep, but to restore: this was the best dish in Zaccheus's good cheer. In vain had he feasted Christ, given to the poor, confessed his extortions, if he had not made restitution. Woe is me for the paucity of true converts! there is much stolen goods, little brought home. Men's hands are like the fisher's flew; yea, like hell itself, which admits of no return. O God! we can never satisfy thee; our score is too great, our abilities too little; but if we make not even with men, in vain shall we look for mercy from thee. To each his own, had been well; but four for one was munificent. In our transactions of commerce, we do well to beat the bargain to the lowest; but in cases of moral or spiritual payments to God or men now, there must be a measure pressed, shaken, running over. In good offices and due retributions, we may not be pinching and niggardly. It argues an earthly and ignoble mind, where we have apparently wronged, to higgle and dodge in the amends. Thou gavest in present, thou dost not receive in hope; but, "This day is salvation come to thine house." Thine ill-gotten metals were a strong bar to bolt heaven gates against thee; now that they are dissolved by a seasonable beneficence and restitution, those gates of glory fly open to thy soul. Where is that man that can challenge God to be in his debt? who can ever say, Lord, this favour I did to the least of thine, unrequited? Thrice-happy publican, that has climbed from thy sycamore to heaven, and by a few worthless bags of unrighteous mainmon, hast purchased to thyself a kingdom incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away! CONTEMPLATION IV. JOHN BAPTIST BEHEADED. THREE of the evangelists have (with one pen) recorded the death of the great harbinger of Christ as most remarkable and useful. He was the forerunner of Christ, as into the world, so out of it; yea, he that made way for Christ into the world, made way for the name of Christ into the court of Herod. This Herod Antipas was son to that Herod who was, and is, ever infamous for the massacre at Bethlehem. Cruelty runs in a blood. The murderer of John, the forerunner of Christ, is well descended of him who would have murdered Christ, and, for his sake, murdered the infants. It was late ere this Herod heard the fame of Jesus; not till he had taken off the head of John Baptist. The father of this Herod inquired for Christ too soon, this too late. Great men should have the best intelligence. If they improve it to all other uses of either frivolous or civil affairs, with neglect of spiritual, their judgment shall be so much more, as their helps and means were greater. Whether this Herod was taken up with his Arabian wars against Arethas his father-in-law; or whether he was employed in his journey to Rome, I inquire not: but if he was at home, I must wonder how he could be so long without the noise of Christ. Certainly, it was a sign he had a very irreligious court, that none of his followers did so much as report to him the miracles of our Saviour; who doubtless told him many a vain tale the while. One tells him of his brother Philip's discontentment; another relates the news of the Roman court; another the angry threats of Arethas; another flatters him with the admiration of his new mistress, and disparagement of the old: no man so much as says, Sir, there is a prophet in your kingdom that doth wonders. There was not a man in his country that had not been astonished with the fame of Jesus; yea, all Syria, and the adjoining regions, rung of it; only Herod's court hears nothing. Miserable is that greatness which keeps men from the notice of Christ. How plain is it from thence, that our Saviour kept aloof from the court! The austere and eremetical harbinger of Christ, it seems, preached there oft, and was heard gladly, though at last, to his cost; while our Saviour, who was more sociable, came not there. He sent a message to that fox, whose den he would not approach. Whether it were that he purposely forbore, lest he should give that tyrant occasion to revive and pursue his father's suspicion; or whether for that he would not so much honour a place so infamously graceless and disordered; or whether, by his example, to teach us the avoidance of outward pomp and glory; surely Herod saw him not till his death, heard not of him till the death of John Baptist. And now his unintelligence was not more strange than his misconstruction: "This is John Baptist, whom I beheaded." First he doubted, then he resolved; he doubted upon other suggestions, upon his own apprehensions he resolved thus. And though he thought good to set a face on it to strangers, unto whom it was not safe to bewray his fear, yet to his domestics he freely discovered his thoughts: "This is John Baptist." The troubled conscience will many a time open that to familiars, which it hides from the eyes of others. Shame and fear meet together in guiltiness. How could he imagine this to be John? That common conceit of transanimation could have no place here: there could be no transmigration of souls into a grown and well-statured body. That received fancy of the Jews held only in the case of conception and birth, not of full age. What need we scan this point, when Herod himself professes, "He is risen from the dead?" He that was a Jew by profession, and knew the story of Elisha's bones, of the Sareptan's and Shunamite's son, and, in all likelihood, had now heard of our Saviour's miraculous resuscitation of others, might think this power reflected upon himself. Even Herod, as bad as he was, believed a resurrection. Lewdness of life and practice may stand with orthodoxy in some main points of religion. Who can doubt of this when "the devils believe and tremble?" Where shall those men appear, wh are Christian, but their hearts the terrors and tortures of a guilty heart! Herod's conscience told him he had offered an unjust and cruel violence to an innocent; and now he thinks that John's ghost haunts him. Had it not been for this guilt of his bosom, why might he not as well have thought that the same God, whose hand is not shortened, had conferred this power of miracles upon some other? Now it could be nobody but John that doth these wonders. And how can it be, thinks he, but that this revived prophet, who doth these strange things, will be revenged on me for his head? he, that could give himself life, can more easily take mine; how can I escape the hands of a now immortal and impassable avenger? A wicked man needs no other tormentor, especially for the sins of blood, than his own heart. Revel, O Herod, and feast, and frolic, and please thyself with dances, and triumphs, and pastimes: thy sin shall be as some fury that shall invisibly follow thee, and scourge thy guilty heart with secret lashes, and upon all occasions shall begin thine hell within thee. He wanted not other sins, that yet cried, "Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God!" self for thy sin, and have laboured to make thy peace with God and him? The greater the fame and power was of him whom thou supposedst recovered from thy slaughter, the more should have been thy penitence. Impiety is wont to besot men, and turn them senseless of their own safety and welfare. One would have thought, that our first grandsire Adam, when he found his heart to strike him for his disobedience, should have run to meet God upon his knees, and sued for pardon of his offence: instead of that, he runs to hide his head among the bushes. The case is still ours: we inherit both his sin and his senselessBesides the infinite displeasure of God, wickedness makes the heart incapable of grace, and impregnable to the means of conversion. ness. Even the very first act of Herod's cruelty was heinous. He was foul enough with other sins: "He added this above all, that he shut up John in prison." The violence offered to God's messengers is branded for notorious. The sanctity and austere carriage of the man won him honour justly from the multitude, and aggravated the sin: but whatever his person had been, his mission was sacred: "He shall send his messenger;" the wrong redounds to the God that sent him. It is the charge of God, "Touch not mine anointed, nor do my prophets any harm." The precept is per What an honour was done to John in this misprision! While that man lived, the world was apt to think that John was the Christ now, that John is dead, Herod thinks Christ to be John. God gives to his poor conscionable servants a kind of re-haps one, for even prophets were anointverence and high respect, even from those men that malign them most; so as they cannot but venerate whom they hate. Contrarily, no wit or power can shield a lewd man from contempt. John did no miracle in his life, yet now Herod thinks he did miracles in his resurrection; as supposing that a new supernatural life brought with it a supernatural power. Who can but wonder at the stupid partiality of Herod and these Jews? They can imagine and yield John risen from the dead, that never did miracle, and rose not; whereas Christ, who did infinite miracles, and rose from the dead by his almighty power, is not yielded by them to have risen. Their over-bountiful misconceit of the servant is not so injurious as their niggardly infidelity to the Master. Both of them shall convince and confound them before the face of God. But, O yet more biockish Herod thy conscience affrights thee with John's resurrection, and flies in thy face for the cruel murder of so great a saint: yet where is thy repentance for so foul a fact? who would not have expected that thou shouldst hereupon have humbled thy- | As a ed; but, at least, next to violation of ma- goes on some paces readily and eagerly, but anon either stands still, or falls to flinging and plunging, and never leaves till he hath cast his rider. What then might be the cause of John's bonds, and Herod's displeasure? For Herodias' sake, his brother Philip's wife." That woman was the subject of Herod's lust, and exciter of his revenge. This light housewife ran away with her husband's brother; and now doting upon her incestuous lover, and finding John to be a rub in the way of her licentious adultery, is impatient of his liberty, and will not rest till his restraint. Resolved sinners are mad upon their lewd courses, and run furiously apon their gainsayers. A bear robbed of her whelps is less impetuous. Indeed, those that have determined to love their sins more than their souls, whom can they care for? Though Herod was wicked enough, yet, had it not been upon Herodias' instigation, he had never imprisoned John. Importunity of lewd solicitors may be of dangerous consequence, and many times draws greatness into those ways, which it either would not have thought of, or abhorred. In the removal of the wicked is the establishment of the throne. Yet still is this dame called the wife of Philip. She had utterly left his bed, and was solemnly coupled to Herod; but all the ritual ceremonies of her new nuptials cannot make her other than Philip's wife. It is a sure rule, that which is originally faulty can never be rectified. The ordination of marriage is one for one: "They twain shall be one flesh." There cannot be two heads to one body, nor two bodies to one head. Herod was her adulterer; he was not her husband: she was Herod's harlot, Philip's wife. Yet how doth Herod dote on her, that for her sake he loads John with irons! Whither will not the fury of inordinate lust transport a man? Certainly John was of late in Herod's favour. That rough-hewn preacher was for a wilderness, not for a court: Herod's invitation drew him thither; his reverence and respects encouraged him there. Now the love of nis lust carried him into a hate of God's messenger. That man can have no hold of nimself, or care of others, who hath given the reins to his unruly concupiscence. He that hath once fixed his heart upon the face of a harlot, and hath beslaved himself to a bewitching beauty, casts off at once all fear of God, respect to laws, shame of the world, regard of his estate, care of wife, children, friends, reputation, patrimony, body, soul. So violent is this beastly passion where it | takes; neither ever leaves, till it have hur ried him into the chambers of death. Herodias herself had first plotted to kill the Baptist; her murderers were suborned, her ambushes laid; the success failed, and now she works with Herod for his durance. O marvellous hand of the Almighty! John was a mean man for estate; solitary, guardless, unarmed, impotent: Herodias a queen, so great, that she swayed Herod himself; and not more great than subtile, and not more great and subtile than malicious; yet Herodias laid to kill John, and could not. What an invisible and yet sure guard there is about the poor servants of God, that seem helpless and despicable in themselves! There is over them a hand of divine protection, which can be no more opposed than seen. Malice is not so strong in the hand as in the heart. The devil is stronger than a world of men; a legion of devils stronger than fewer spirits: yet a legion of devils cannot hurt one swine without a permission. What can bands of enemies, or gates of hell, do against God's secret ones? "It is better to trust in the Lord, than to trust in princes." It is not more clear who was the author, than what was the motive of this imprisonment― the free reproof of Herod's incest : It is not lawful," &c. Both the offenders were nettled at this bold reprehension. Herod knew the reputation that John carried; his conscience could not but suggest the foulness of his own fact; neither could he but see how odious it would seem to persecute a prophet for so just a reproof. For the colour, therefore, of so tyrannical an act, he brands John with sedition. These presumptuous taxations are a disgrace and disparagement to authority. It is no news with tyrants, to cloak their cruelty with pretences of justice. Never was it other than the lot of God's faithful servants to be loaded with unjust reproaches in the conscionable performance of their duties. They should speed too well in the opinion of men, if they might but appear in their true shape. The fact of Herod was horrible and prodigious, to rob his own brother of the partner of his bed, to tear away part of his flesh, yea, his body from his head; so as here was at once, in one act, adultery, incest, violence. Adultery, that he took another's wife; incest, that he took his brother's; violence, that he thus took her in spite of her husband. Justly, therefore, might John say, "It is not lawful for thee." He baulked not one of Herod's sins, but reproved him of all the evils that he had done; though more eminently of this, as Stir up all his creatures to plague thee, and that which more filled the eye of the world. | when he hath done, tumble thee down to It was not the crown or awful sceptre of hell, and there torment thee everlastingly. Herod that could daunt the homely but O fond Herod, that fearest where no fear faithful messenger of God: as one that came was, and fearest not where there is nothing in the spirit of Elias, he fears no faces, but terror! spares no wickedness. There must meet in God's ministers courage and impartiality: impartiality, not to make difference of persons; courage, not to make spare of the sins of the greatest. It is a hard condition that the necessity of our calling casts upon us, in some cases, to run upon the pikes of displeasure. Prophecies were no burdens, if they did not expose us to these dangers. We must connive at no evil: every sin unreproved becomes ours. : Hatred is the daughter of truth. Herod is inwardly vexed with so peremptory a reprehension and now he seeks to kill the author. And why did he not?" He feared the people." The time was, when he feared John no less than now he hates him: he once reverenced him as a just and holy man, whom now he heartburns as an enemy: neither was it any counterfeit respect; sure the man was then in earnest. What shall we say then? Was it that his inconstant heart was now fetched off by Herodias, and wrought to a disaffection? or was it with Herod, as with Solomon's sluggard, that at once would and would not? His thoughts are distracted with a mixed voluntary contradiction of purposes: as a holy man, and honoured of the people, he would not kill | John: he would kill him as an enemy to his lust. The worst part prevaileth: appetite oversways reason and conscience; and now, were it not for fear of the people, John should be murdered. What a self-conflicting and prodigious creature is a wicked man left over to his own thoughts, while on the one side he is urged by his conscience, on the other by his lustful desires, and by the importunity of Satan! "There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked:" and after all his inward broils, he falls upon the worst, so as his yieldance is worse than his fight. When God sees fit, Herod's tyranny shall effect that which the wise providence of the Almighty hath decreed for his servant's glory. In the meanwhile, rubs shall be cast in his way; and this for one, "He feared the people." What an absurd and sottish thing is hypocrisy! Herod fears the people, he fears not God. Tell me then, Herod, what could the people do at the worst? Perhaps mutiny against thee, raise arms and tumults, disturb the government-it may be, shake it off. What could God do? yea, what not? How God fits lewd men with restraints! If they be so godless as to regard his creature above himself, he hath external bugs to affright them withal; if bashful, he hath shame; if covetous, losses; if proud, disgrace: and by this means the most wise Providence keeps the world in order. We cannot better judge of our hearts, than by what we most fear. No man is so great as to be utterly exempted from fear. The Jews feared Herod, Herod feared the Jews: the healthful fear sickness, the free servitude: the people fear a tyrant's oppression and cruelty; the tyrant fears the people's mutiny and insurrection. If there have been some so great as to be above the reach of the power and machinations of inferiors, yet never any that have been free from their fears and suspicions. Happy is he that fears nothing but what he should-God. Why did Herod fear the people? "They held John for a prophet." And this opinion was both common and constant: even the Scribes and Pharisees durst not say, his baptism was from men. It is the wisdom and goodness of God, ever to give his children favour somewhere. If Jezebel hate Elias, Ahab shall for the time honour him; and if Herod hate the Baptist, and would kill him, yet the people reverence him. Herod's malice would make him away; the people's reputation keeps him alive. As wise princes have been content to maintain a faction in their court or state for their own purposes, so here did the God of heaven contrive and order differences of judgment and affection betwixt Herod and his subjects, for his own holy ends; else certainly, if all wicked men should conspire in evil, there could be no being upon earth; as, contrarily, if evil spirits did not accord, hell could not stand. O the unjust and fond partiality of this people! They all generally applaud John for a prophet, yet they receive not his message. Whose prophet was John, but of the Highest? what was his errand, but to be the way-maker unto Christ? what was he, but the voice of that eternal Word of his Father? what was the sound of that voice, but, "Behold the Lamb of God: he that comes after me is greater than I, whose shoe-latchet I am not worthy to unloose?" Yet they honour the servant, and reject the Master: they |