so are not the persons to pray earnestly, "Come, Lord Jesus."

With this amiable modesty, as far as regarded himself, St. John united a great charity in his manner of speaking of other persons: particularly of St. Peter, for whom, as was natural, he seems to have had an especial affection. For instance, you may observe, if you read attentively, that St. John, in his account of St. Peter's denying Christ, carefully mentions all those things, which tend in some sort to excuse him, and show how sorely he was tempted: as, that the servant, who at tacked him for being with our Lord, was a kinsman of the very man whose ear St. Peter had cut off; and some other such circumstances. And again, he mentions very particularly some things which happened after the resurrection, by which St. Peter showed his affectionate eagerness and his desire, if he could, to make up for his fault. So that, as we read, we hardly know which we ought to admire most, St. Peter for his anxious and earnest repentance, or St. John for his kind and brotherly way of relating it.

But, still, in praising this great apostle, we must begin and end with what he was to our Savior; his friend: particularly attached to him, as a man to a friend in whom he delights. And this, no doubt, was one reason why our Lord, on whom no instance of true affection is ever lost, chose St. John to be his friend. He knew beforehand how affectionately St. John would serve him. Accordingly, as our Lord's friend, he, above all the rest, took care to treasure up his last words: that heavenly discourse, on the night before his crucifixion, in which he bade his disciples farewell, and promised them and us a divine Comforter.

Again, after our Lord was gone, St. John, perhaps more than any other of the apostles, showed his zeal against profane persons, who were creeping into the church, and corrupting her by false doctrine. He could not endure any such: his whole gospel and his three epistles were all written to warn men against them: which shows what a mistake it is to think, that speaking

strongly of corrupters of the faith, and warning God's people of them sharply, is at all contrary to Christian love and charity. Whereas in the whole book of God there are no sharper and stronger warnings, no severer sentences about false prophets, than are to be found in the writings of him, who was the very apostle of love and charity. The preacher who taught us that God is love; the disciple whom Jesus loved: he has taught us, that if any man come as a teacher of religion, and bring not the true doctrine, as taught in the church, concerning Christ come in the flesh, we are not to receive him into our houses, neither to bid him God speed.

In this Christian care, then, as in all other parts of loyal affection, let us endeavor, by God's grace, to follow the holy and beloved disciple, and we shall be beloved as he was: and as we draw nearer our latter end, we may without presumption cry out as he did, when we read of Christ's near approach, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus."

THE SPIRIT OF THIS WORLD EXEMPLIFIED IN HEROD. 341

SERMON LXXII.

THE SPIRIT OF THIS WORLD EXEMPLIFIED IN HEROD.

PREACHED ON INNOCENTS' DAY.

MATTHEW ii. 16.

"Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem."

Most of the histories, contained in God's holy Book, are so framed, as to mix warning with encouragement in the instruction they give us. They are pictures of just such a world as we live in: neither entirely and hopelessly bad, nor yet ever very good. And this is just what we might make, if we would, most useful to ourselves. For thus we are shown, that no bad times can excuse us for want of goodness: it being plain from the Bible, that there have always been some good persons left, even in the worst of times. And on the other hand it thus appears, that no times, however good, no circumstances, however favorable, can put us out of danger there having always been too many, who have contrived to fall away from God, when he had done most to keep them to himself.

It is so in the history of the martyrdom of the innocents, in remembrance of which the church has ordained this day to be kept holy. It is half encouragement, and half warning.

For what can be more gracious encouragement, to those who have but seanty outward opportunities of acquainting themselves with God, than the seasonable assistance which he gave to those wise men, whose coming to worship Christ gave occasion to these things? They came from the east, a long journey, because they

wished to do God's will, and pay honor to his Son. And when the star, which at first guided them, vanished out of their sight, they did not, for discouragement, leave off their good work, but made inquiry at Jerusalem, the likeliest place to find out, "where he was that was born king of the Jews." And having thus made it out, that he was somewhere in Bethlehem, they were not left to themselves to make out the house where he was, but the very star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was. As much as to tell all the world, that God will never be wanting to those who sincerely take pains to do his will, how far soever he may seem to have placed them from the ordinary ways of knowing him, the ordinary opportunities of devotion.

Another instance of God's kindness to the wise men was this, that he warned them in a dream not to tell Christ's enemy where to find him: which otherwise, in the simplicity of their hearts, they were going to do. No doubt, God could have delivered his Son, even if they had done as Herod bade them, and brought him word where he might find him, to put him to death. But it would have been a grief to these good men to have brought the holy child into danger, even thus ignorantly; and this sorrow God graciously spared them. Not to mention, that very possibly their own lives might be saved by their not returning to Herod. For it would have been part of his hateful worldly wisdom, to destroy the witnesses of Christ if he could, as well as Christ himself.

Another great matter of encouragement, to any one who reads this history with a good mind, is the consideration of God's dealings with the holy innocents themselves.

It is true, they were cut off by the sword even in their mothers' arms, before they could know good from evil. Their death was, in a worldly sense, most untimely ; but in a better and heavenly sense, it was blessed indeed, and took place in the happiest time. It was just what, if they could have chosen, we may be sure they would

have fixed on for themselves. There is no other way that we can think of, in which little babes like these could so abundantly glorify God, as by dying (though they knew it not) in the place of his Son, that Son who after a few years was to die in their place, and so purchase, as it were, their lives, and all that they had, to be his own property for ever. Even if we judged after the manner of men, we should account them happy, who were thus taken away in peace from the evil so soon to come upon their nation, the great temptation and danger of rejecting Jesus Christ. Nor has the church ever made any question of their being brought, for his sake, to everlasting rest in heaven: having been taught by St. Matthew to apply to them the words of the prophet, comforting their afflicted mothers: "There is hope in thine end, saith the Lord, that thy children shall come again to their own border."

These are the comfortable parts of the history of the martyrdom of these holy and innocent babes. But we are not to forget, that it contains warning as well as comfort. There never was a more awful warning, than what is set forth, to every one calling himself a Christian, in the conduct of king Herod in this matter.

We are apt indeed to think of Herod, as of Judas, or of the other murderers of our blessed Lord, as though theirs was a sort of wickedness quite out of the common; quite beyond any that can be committed by ourselves, or in our Christian times. But it is no more true to suppose this, than it would be to imagine the good parts of Scripture history-the character, for instance, of Jesus Christ himself-beyond the reach of our imitation.

Let us consider Herod's doings, as they are related in this chapter, in their order, and we shall find them but too like a great deal of what we daily see and experience too like the general conduct of every obstinate, worldly-minded man.

To judge fairly of this, we must put ourselves in Herod's place, and look at all his doings as he might have done at the time. He did not know, when he was