Vol. 2

!CHAPTER VI. 87" 26. And the king was exceeding sorry ;yet forhis oath's sake, and for their sakes which sat withhim, he would not reject her. 27. And immediatelythe king sent an executioner, and commanded hisliead to be brought: and he went and beheaded himin the prison,".Observe here in Herod, hypocrisy, superstition,and too great a regard to men. His sorrow is thesign of the remorse of his conscience; and his conscienceis his accuser and a witness of his crime. Itis a penal blindness, justly due to the abuse of lightand instruction, for a man to make a scruple of notperforming an unjust oath, and to make none ofdelivering up an innocent person and a saint, at therequest of a dancer, to the revenge of an incensedadulteress. An oath is criminal, and by consequencevoid, when it cannot be performed withoutsin and injustice. How dangerous is it to take butone step in the paths of sin, since it is so very difficultto go back and retreat from it" 28. And brought his head in a charger, andgave it to the damsel: and the damsel gave it to hermother."See here the fruit of a bad education, a wickeddaughter of a wicked mother: they are serviceableto one another in order only to sin and damnation.Revenge causes a person to take pleasure and delightin that, which, if passion were absent, wouldraise the greatest horror. This is a dreadful examplefor this sex, which is naturally so soft, timorous,and bashful :a woman could not arrive at onceat such an excess of fury, as to prefer the present ofa head swimming in blood before every other favour