effectually defeated the king's intention. "The Lord fent his Angel, and delivered Peter out of the hand of Herod, and from all the expectation of the Jews." Yet his miraculous prefervation was delayed till within a few hours of the time appointed for his execution. On this account it was the more confpicuous, and calculated to recommend the Gospel to the favourable notice, at leaft to reftrain the fury, of its adverfaries. God, as it were, publicly declared the caufe of the prifoner to be his own, and all, who paid any serious attention to that teftimony, muft have perceived that oppofition was vain, foolish, and wicked. Who fhall prefume to fight against Him? The multitude were disappointed of the entertainment, which had been promised them in the tortures and death of the Apoftle. The bloody perfecutor commanded diligent fearch to be made for his intended victim; but Peter was fecured from his rage, the Lord having concealed him, as he had done Baruch and Jeremiah on a fimilar occafion*. Thus the pride of the tyrant was mortified, when he found himself robbed of his prey; but his heart refused to be humbled. He ought to have confeffed his own iniquity, for having defigned to take away an innocent life. But alas! in what numerous inftances are we conftrained to remark the blindness and obduracy of men in a ftate of impenitence! "Lord, when thy hand is lifted up, they will not fee;" they will not believe or regard the manifeft interpofitions of Heaven: but the time is coming, when "they fhall fee, and be afhamed for their envy at the people +." Whatever might be Herod's view of the matter, he doubtlefs wifhed to difcredit the miracle, and prevent its influence upon the public mind. He flew the guards, to whofe care Peter was committed,

* Jer. xxxvi. 26.

+ Ifa. xxvi. 11.

that

that fo the escape of the prifoner might be afcribed totheir negligence. It has been a common device with the enemies of Chriftianity to fpread falfe reports, and give a wrong statement of real facts, in order to prejudice others, and obviate the probable effect of the truth. We should therefore be afraid of lif tening to any mifreprefentations of the religion of the Gospel. Let us examine with ftrict impartiality, and judge with the most serious deliberation. Shall we not be inexcufable, if through inattention we fuffer ourselves to be impofed on, and tricked out of our falvation, "by the fleight of men, and cunning craftinefs, whereby they lie in wait to deceive?"

Perhaps, Herod declined all further perfecution of the Church but the cries of them, whom he had oppreffed, "entered into the ears of the Lord of fabaoth." The blood, which he had fhed, and that alfo, which he had defigned to fpill, demanded vengeance against him. Yet he was fpared for fome time. God is patient and exerciseth much forbearance towards his enemies. Why elfe is not the common course of events obftructed, and the world itfelf deftroyed? Confidering the daring provocations of his creatures, we may wonder, that He doth not make bare his arm, and confume them in his anger. But his juftice will ftrike at the last. "If the wicked turn not, He will whet his fword; he hath bent his bow, and made it ready. He hath alfo prepared for him the inftruments of death; he ordaineth his arrows against the perfecutors †.

Herod removed from Jerufalem to Cefarea, to celebrate certain games, as Jofephus reports, in honour of the Roman Emperor. Here we fhall behold him, at one moment in a state of high dignity and glory, at another debased even to the duft. During his refidence at Cefarea, the Tyrians and Sidonians,

whom he had threatened with war for fome offence, fent a deputation to him, profeffing fubmiffion, and deprecating his anger. Through the influence of the king's chamberlain, they obtained the desired reconciliation; and the plan of hoftilities was relinquifhed. But Herod, for the gratification of his own exceffive vanity by a pompous difplay of his greatness, gave a public audience to the ambafsadors, and endeavoured to imprefs them with an idea of his abilities, magnificence, and power. He had provided for the purpofe a fplendid robe of richest texture, which, according to Jofephus, was fo exquifitely wrought with filver, that, when the fun fhone upon it, the eyes of fpectators were dazzled. Thus arrayed, he entered the crowded theatre, and feated himself upon a throne of ftate, defirous to attract the general notice, admiration, and applause.

He exhibited all the grandeur of his majefty, and it fhould feem that he was alfo oftentatious of his eloquence. He addreffed the affembly in a fpeech prepared for the occafion; the purport of which was, most probably, to celebrate his own power and clemency before the gaping multitude. They were not backward to pay him the deference he wished for. They might be ftruck with a pleasing astonishment; or rather, perceiving his defign, they were difpofed to gratify his pride by expreffions of grofs adulation. They gave a fhout, declaring their high admiration; and, as if they were ready to exalt him above the rank of mortals, by giving him divine honours, they cried out, "It is the voice of a god, and not, of a man." This was profane language indeed, and the more fo, as many of the company had been inftructed to worship none but Jehovah. The king himself was fufficiently acquainted with the facred fcriptures, to be convinced that fuch adoration was impious in the extreme, and he ought to have rejected it with abhorrence. But he was evidently delighted; and,

being elated with vanity, he confented to receive that homage, which fhould be paid only to our Almighty Creator. "He gave not God the glory:" he did not refer the people to Him, and, as if he forgot his own entire dependence, acknowledged not his obligations to the fovereign Lord of all, for the diftinguished eminence, to which he was raised.

Such was Herod; fet up as fomething more than human, revered as a deity by flattering parafites, and foolish enough to be pleafed with their idolatrous oblations of praise. The abfurdity as well as wickednefs of the king in this tranfaction may furprife us; but we shall cease to wonder, if we seriously attend to the ftate of our fallen nature. Pride is mcft unsuitable to us, as creatures and finners; yet it is interwoven in our very frame. We are not unwilling to be extolled for excellencies which we do not poffefs; we wish to renounce our fubjection to Him who made us, and claim a confequence and refpect, which are due only to Divinity itfelf. There are 'peculiar fnares and dangers attendant on perfons in an elevated rank they are more efpecially liable to be puffed up with a conceit of their own importance. "Man, being in honour, is like the beafts that perish *.” Such a fituation ftupifies the mind, and renders it incapable of proper difcernment. He, who is the object of general admiration and applaufe, is not himself, and cannot make a fair eftimate of things. Or, like the brute animals, he is engroffed with fuch matters, as are immediately within his view, to the neglect and contempt of fuch as are remote. cordingly, the hiftory of mankind will furnish many inftances of thofe, who have rifen to great power, claiming or receiving titles and profeffions of homage, which are the unalienable and exclufive right of the Lord Almighty. Let none among ourselves prefume,

Ac

that the highest eminence cannot poffibly produce fo bad an effect upon them. Let us all, rather, fufpect our own hearts, and pray earnestly, that God may fubdue our natural vanity, and keep us humble under a fenfe of our infignificance, weakness, and depravity.

An exemplary punishment was inflicted on the haughty king. In the midst of all his splendour, while he was elated with the notion of his own fuperior excellence, as if he were a god, he felt a mortifying conviction, and exhibited a melancholy proof, of his helpleffness and mortality. He was inftantly feized with excruciating pains, forced to confefs his folly and wretchednefs to his idolatrous admirers, and, after a few days of extreme fuffering, became a loathfome corpfe. Whatever philofophical account may be given of his difeafe, we are taught to confider it as a punishment for his pride, inflicted by God himself: "the Angel of the Lord fmote him." We ask not for any other explanation; and we lament that fo many feem determined to afcribe every event to natural principles and fecond caufes, unwilling to acknowledge the firft great Cause of all, or allow the God of nature any influence in the government of the universe.

The vifitation of God in this cafe was the more remarkable, as it followed immediately upon the fin, which had provoked his anger. "Because fentence against an evil work is not executed speedily therefore the heart of the fons of men is fully fet in them. to do evil *." But here juftice overtook the offender with fwift fteps, and exhibited him to public view, even in the moment of his highest exaltation and triumph, as a figual inftance of the divine vengeance againft pride and perfecution. Thus, while Nebuchadnezzar boaftingly exclaimed, "Is not this great

Ecclef. viii. II.

Babylon,