[Look at Herod in the midst of all his indulgences : was he happy ? Which of the two, I would ask, was the happier ; Herod, in the midst of his excesses, or John, when bound with chains in prison for righteousness' sake? No one, I think, can entertain a doubt. The truth is, that sin and misery are indis- solubly connected even in this life ; according as the Apostle, speaking of the ungodly, has said, " Destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace have they not known1." Take the adulterer, for instance : You may suppose him as happy as his heart can wish. But what is Job's account of him? "The eye of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight, saying, No eye shall see me ; and he disguiseth his face. In the dark they dig through houses which they had marked for themselves in the-day time. They know not the light : for the morning is to them even as the shadow of death : if one know them, they are in the terrors of the shadoiv of death^" And of the wicked generally, Eliphaz says, " The wicked man travail- eth with pain all his days : a dreadful sound is in his ears : he believeth not that he shall return out of darkness, and he is waited for of the sword1." Yes, an evil conscience will so haunt a man, that he shall be afraid to go out into the dark, or almost even to look under his bed : so truly is it said, " The way of transgressors is hard"1." There are indeed those who will pro- fess to feel no apprehensions : but we are assured by the heart- searching God, that their boastings are vain : for " the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt : there is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked"."]
2. On the world at large — [See what misery the gratification of Herod's lusts pro- duced ; on Philip, whose wife he took ; on Herodias, whose mind and conscience he so defiled; on John, whom for his fidelity he murdered ; and on all the Church of God, whom he thus deprived of a faithful counsellor and instructor. But he cared not what evils he inflicted, if only he might have his own licentious passions gratified. And who can tell what miseries the seducer inflicts upon his hapless victim ; and the adulterer,
on the object of his unlawful desires? The same may
be spoken of the ambitious man, who wades through seas of
blood to the attainment of fame and power May I not
mention the scoffer too, who hates and derides all serious piety, and cares not how many souls he ruins, provided he may but
indulge his enmity against God and his Christ ? But
what is it that has turned the whole world into one vast theatre
5 Rom. iii. 1 G, 1 7. k Job xxiv. 15—1 7. ' Job xv. 20—22. m Prov. xiii. 15. n Isai. lvii. 20, 21.