not from any real impression made upon their minds, or any high or good thoughts they had indeed conceived of him; but how meanly soever they thought of him, they were resolved thus to curry favour with him, and strengthen the new-made peace between him and them. Thus great men are made an easy prey to flatterers, if they lend an ear to them, and encourage them. Grotius here observes, that though magistrates are called gods, (Ps. 82. 1.) yet kings or monarchs, that is, single persons, are not, lest countenance should thereby be given to the Gentiles, who give divine honours to their kings alive and dead, as here; but they are a college of senators, or a bench of judges, that are called gods. In collegia toto senatorum non idem erat periculi; itaque eos, non autem reges, invenimus dictos elohim. Those that live by sense, vilify God, as if he were altogether such a one as themselves; and deify men, as if they were gods; having their persons in admiration, because of advantage. This is not only a great affront to God, giving that glory to others, which is due to him alone, but a great injury to those who are thus flattered, as it makes them forget themselves, and so puffs them up with pride, that they are in the utmost danger possible of falling into the condemnation of the devil.
(6.) These undue praises he took to himself, pleased himself with them, and prided himself in them; and that was his sin. We do not find that he had given any private orders to his confidents to begin such a shout, or to put those words into the mouths of the people, or that he returned them thanks for the compliment, and undertook to answer their opinion of him. But his fault was, that he said nothing, did not rebuke their flattery, nor disown the title they had given him, nor give God the glory, (v. 23.) but he took it to himself, was very willing it should terminate in himself, and that he should be thought a god and have divine honours paid him. Si populus vult decipi, decipiatur—If the people will be deceived, let them. And it was worse in him who was a Jew, and professed to believe one God only, than it was in the heathen emperors, who had gods many and lords many.
2. Observe, How his iniquity was punished; Immediately (v. 23.) the angel of the Lord smote him, (by the order of Christ, for to him all judgment is committed,) because he gave not God the glory; (for God is jealous for his own honour, and will be glorified upon those whom he is not glorified by;) and he was eaten of worms, above ground, and gave up the ghost. Now he was reckoned with for vexing the church of Christ, killing James, imprisoning Peter, and all the other mischiefs he had done. Observe in the destruction of Herod,
(1.) It was no less than an angel that was the agent; the angel of the Lord, that angel that was ordered and commissioned to do it, or that angel that used to be employed in works of this nature, the destroying angel: or the angel, that is, that angel that delivered Peter in the former part of the chapter—that angel smote Herod. For, those ministering spirits are the ministers either of divine justice or of divine mercy, as God is pleased to employ them. The angel smote him with a sore disease just at that instant when he was strutting at the applauses of the people, and adoring his own shadow. Thus the king of Tyre said in his pride, I am a god, I sit in the seat of God; and set his heart as the heart of God; but he shall be a man, and no god, a weak mortal man, in the hand of him that slayeth him; (Ezek. 28. 2, 9.) so Herod here. Potent princes must know, not only that God is omnipotent, but that angels too are greater in power and might than they. The angel smote him, because he gave not the glory to God; angels are jealous for God's honour, and as soon as ever they have commission, are ready to smite those that usurp his prerogatives, and rob God of his honour.
(2.) It was no more than a worm that was the instrument of Herod's destruction; he was eaten of worms, γενόμενος σκωληκόβρωτος—he became worm-eaten, so it must be read; rotten he was, and he became like a piece of rotten wood. The body in the grave is destroyed by worms; but Herod's body putrefied while he was yet alive, and bred the worms that began to feed upon it betimes; so Antiochus, that great persecutor, died. See here, [1.] What vile bodies those are which we carry about with us; they carry about with them the seeds of their own dissolution, by which they will soon be destroyed whenever God does but speak the word. Surprising discoveries have of late been made by microscopes of the multitude of worms that there are in human bodies, and how much they contribute to the diseases of them; which is a good reason why we should not be proud of our bodies, or of any of their accomplishments; and why we should not pamper our bodies, for that is but feeding the worms, and feeding them for the worms. [2.] See what weak and contemptible creatures God can make the instruments of his justice, when he pleases. Pharaoh is plagued with lice and flies, Ephraim consumed as with a moth, and Herod eaten of worms. [3.] See how God delights not only to bring down proud men, but to bring them down in such a way as is most mortifying, and pours most contempt upon them. Herod is not only destroyed, but destroyed by worms, that the pride of his glory may be effectualy stained.
This story of the death of Herod is particularly related by Josephus, a Jew, Antiquit. lib. 19. cap. 7. thus : "That Herod came down to Cesarea, to celebrate a festival in honour of Caesar; that the second day of the festival, he went in the morning to the theatre, clothed with that splendid robe mentioned before; that his flatterers saluted him as a god, begged that he would be propitious to them; that hitherto they had reverenced him as a man, but now they would confess to be in him something more excellent than a mortal nature. That he did not refuse or correct this impious flattery; (so the historian expresses it;) but, presently after, looking up, he saw an owl perched over his head, and was at the same instant seized with a most violent pain in his bowels, and gripes in his belly, which were exquisite from the very first; that he turned his eyes upon his friends, and said to this purpose; Now I, whom you called a god, and therefore immortal, must be proved a man, and mortal. That his torture continued without intermission, or the least abatement, and then he died in the fifty-fourth year of his age, when he had been king seven years.
II. The progress of the gospel after this.
1. The word of God grew and multiplied; as seed sown, which comes up with a great increase, thirty, sixty, a hundred-fold; wherever the gospel was preached, multitudes embraced it, and were added to the church by it, v. 24. After the death of James, the word of God grew; for the church, the more it was afflicted, the more it multiplied, like Israel in Egypt. The courage and comfort of the martyrs, and God's owning them, did more to invite them to christianity, than their sufferings did to deter them from it. After the death of Herod the word of God got ground. When such a persecutor was taken off by a dreadful judgment, many were thereby convinced, that the cause of christianity was doubtless the cause of Christ, and therefore embraced it.
2. Barnabas and Saul returned to Antioch as soon as they had dispatched the business they were sent upon; When they had fulfilled their ministry, had paid in their money to the proper persons,
