Ver. 1. At that time, &c.] When he was cast out by his countrymen, he was heard of at the court. The gospel, as the sea, what it loseth in one place, it getteth in another. But what? had not Herod heard of Christ till now? It is the misery of many good kings that they seldom hear the truth of things. Alphonsus king of Arragon bewailed it. And of Marcus Aurelius, one of the best Roman emperors, it is said, that he was even bought and sold by his court parasites. As for Herod, he may seem to have been of Gallio’s religion, even a mere irreligion. He lay melting in filthy pleasures, and minded not the things above. Whoredom, wine, and new wine had taken away his heart, Hosea 4:11. St Luke, Luke 9:9, adds that he desired to see Christ, but yet never stirred out of doors to go to him; good motions make but a thoroughfare of wicked men’s hearts; they pass away as a flash of lightning, that dazzleth the eyes only, and leaves more darkness behind it.
Ver. 2. And said unto his servants] So seeking a diversion of his inward terrors and torments. Perplexed he was and could find no way out, as St Luke’s word (Luke 9:7) importeth. (Διηπορει, de iis dicitur qui ita perplexi, et impediti quasi in luto tenentur, ut πορον μη ευρισκουσι, exitum non inveniant, Beza.) Conscience will hamper a guilty person, and fill him often with unquestionable conviction and horror. As those that were condemned to be crucified, bare their cross, that should soon after bear them: so God hath laid upon evildoers the cross of their own consciences, that thereon they may suffer afore they suffer; and their greatest enemies need not wish them a greater mischief. For assuredly, a body is not so torn with stripes, as a mind with the remembrance of wicked actions. And here Cain runs to building of cities, Saul to the delight of music, Belshazzar to quaffing and carousing, Herod to his minions and catamites; so to put by, if possible, that melancholy dumps and heartqualms, as they count and call inward terrors. But conscience will not be pacified by these sorry anodynes of the devil. Wicked men may skip and leap up and down for a while, as the wounded deer doth; sed haeret lateri lethalis arundo, the deadly dart sticks fast in their sides, and will do without true repentance, till it hath brought them, as it did Herod, to desperation and destruction, so that he laid violent hands upon himself at Lyons in France, whither he and his courtezan were banished by Augustus. This is John the Baptist] Herod had thought to have hugged his Herodias without control when once the Baptist was beheaded; but it proved somewhat otherwise. Indeed so long as he played alone, he was sure to win all. But now conscience came in to play her part, Herod is in a worse case than ever; for he imagined still that he saw and heard that holy head shouting and crying out against him, staring him also in the face at every turn; as that tyrant thought he saw the head of Symmachus, whom he had basely slain, in the mouth of the fish that was set before him on the table. And as Judge Morgan, who gave the sentence of condenmation against the Lady Jane Grey, shortly after he had condemned her, fell mad, and in his raving cried out continually to have the Lady Jane taken away from him, and so ended his life. τοις παισιν αυτου, to his boys, which haply were his serious loves. Nam non multo post haec, secutum est tyranni exilium et exitium. Joseph. lib. 18, cap. 9.
Ver. 3. For Herod had laid hold on John] If John touch Herod’s white sin (and who will stand still to have his eyes picked out?) John must to prison, without bail or mainprize; and there not only be confined, but bound as a malefactor, as a stirrer up of sedition (Unicum crimen eorum qui crimine vacabant, as Lipsius noteth upon Tacitus). Neither bound only, but beheaded without any law, right, or reason, as though God had known nothing at all of him, as that martyr expresseth it. All this befell the good Baptist, for telling the truth, Veritas odium parit. If conscience might but judge, how many of our hearers would be found to have a Herod’s heart towards their faithful ministers? Were there but a sword (of authority) in their hand, as he said to his ass, they would surely slay them, Numbers 22:29. They would deal by them no better than Saul did by David, 1 Samuel 18:10, while he was playing upon his harp to ease Saul’s distracted mind, he cast a spear at him. The most savoury salt (if they can do withal) must be cast out, and trodden underfoot; as Calvin and other faithful ministers were driven out of Geneva at the first; whereupon he uttered these gracious words: Truly, if I had served men, I had been ill rewarded, but it is well for me that I have served him who never faileth his, but will approve himself a liberal paymaster, a rich rewarder. And put him in prison] Having first laid hold upon all the principles in his own head that might any way disturb his course in sin, and locked them up in restraint, according to that, Romans 1:18, wicked men detain the truth, that is, the light of their own consciences (which is as another John Baptist, a prophet from God), this they imprison in unrighteousness, and become fugitives from their own hearts, as Austin hath it. For Herodias’ sake, his brother] Quam vulpinando fratri eripuerat, as one phraseth it. And he had her not only for his wife, but for his mistress; for she ruled him at her pleasure, as Jezebel did Ahab, of which wretched couple it is said, that Regina erat Rex, Rex vero Regina. The Queen was the king, and the king was truly the queen. But it never goes well when the hen crows. How many have we known, whose heads have been broken with their own rib? Satan hath found this bait to take so well, that he never changed it since he crept into Paradise. And it is remarkable, that in that first sentence against man, this cause is expressed, Because thou obeyedst the voice of thy wife, Genesis 3:17. The action of procuring the release of a prisoner by becoming surety (‘mainpernor’) for his appearance in court at a specified time. ŒD Certe si hominibus servivissem, male mihi merces persolveretur, &c. Beza in Vita Salv. Facti sunt a corde suo fugitivi. Pareus Eccles. Hist.