his imprisonment by Herod, we feel but little interest, except as we condemn the licentiousness of Herod, and commiserate the fate of his faithful monitor. But if we would divest ourselves of the idea that it passed many centuries ago, and consider the trans- action as having recently occurred in our own neigh- bourhood, we should almost of necessity be led to contemplate it in a more general view, and to notice in it the pozver and malignity of sin. It is in that view that I propose to call your attention to it at this time.
Let us take occasion then to remark from it, I. The power of sin —
Wonderful indeed is its power to blind, to enslave, to harden all in whom it dwells —
1. It blinds —
[Herod could not but know, that it was wrong for him to take his brother Philip's wife. Yet doubtless he contrived by some vain excuses to justify it to himself. And thus it is that every sinner deludes himself. In some cases, he denies the criminality of his actions altogether, " calling evil good, and good evil, and putting darkness for light, and light for dark- ness a." Where they cannot altogether hide from themselves the evil of their ways, they find some excuse, either from their constitutional propensities, or the habits of all around them, or some peculiarity in their situation at the time. " They feed on ashes; and yet to such a degree hath a deceived heart turned them aside, that they cannot deliver their souls, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right handb?" Whatever be the par- ticular lust of which they are enamoured it is " Satan
that hath blinded their eyesc ;" they walk in the vanity of their mind, " having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their hearts d:" and " they know not whither they go, because that darkness hath blinded their eyes6."]
2. It enslaves —
[Though Herod was willing to " do many things," and forbear many things respecting which he was admonished by John, he could in no wise be prevailed on to part with his in- cestuous consort. And thus it is with sinners of every descrip- tion: there are some sins to which they have but little inclination, and which therefore they may be induced to renounce : but
a Isai. v. 20. b Isai. xliv. 20. c 2 Cor. iv. 4.
d Eph. iv. 18. e i Johnii. 11.
u 2