such a trifle, when he well knew that the chief priests and rulers would have given him any sum rather than not have got him into their hands?

In fine, the supposition that Judas believed his Master to be an impostor, is directly confuted by the solemn declaration he made to the priests, when he declared the deepest conviction of the innocence of our great Redeemer: "I have sinned," says he, "in betraying innocent blood."

It must be remembered that the remorse he felt for his crime, when he saw his master condemned, was too bitter to be endured; so that he fled even to the king of terrors for relief.

The Evangelist, St. John, tells us, that he was of so covetous. a disposition, as to steal money out of our Lord's bag; and hence we have sufficient reason to believe, that he first followed Jesus with a view of obtaining riches, and other temporal advantages, which he expected the Messiah's friends would enjoy.It likewise authorizes us to think that as he had hitherto reaped none of these advantages, he might grow impatient under the delay and the rather, as Jesus had lately discouraged all ambitious views among his disciples, and neglected to embrace the opportunity of erecting that kingdom which was offered him by the multitude, who accompanied him into Jerusalem, with shouts, and crying, Hosannah to the Son of David. His impatience, therefore, becoming excessive, suggested to him the thought of delivering his Master into the hands of the council, firmly persuaded that he would then be obliged to assume the dignity of the Messiah, and consequently be able to reward his followers. For as this court was composed of the chief priests, elders, and scribes, that is, the principal persons of the sarcedotal order, the representatives of the great families, and the doctors of the law; the traitor did not doubt that his Master, when brought before so august an assembly, would assert his pretensions to the title of Messiah, prove his claim to their full conviction, gain them over to his interest, and immediately enter on his regal dignity. And though he must be sensible that the measures he took to compass his intention were very offensive to his Master, yet he might think the success of it would procure his pardon from so compassionate a master, and even recommend him to favor. In the mean time his project, however plausible it may appear to one of his turn, was far from being free from difficulty: and therefore, while he revolved it in his own mind, many things might occur to stagger his resolution. At length thinking himself affronted by the rebuke of Jesus, at the time when the woman anointed the head of his Master, he was provoked to execute the resolution he had form ed of obliging him to alter his measures. Rising, therefore, directly from the table, he went immediately into the city, to the

palace of the high priest, where he found the council assembled, consulting how they might take Jesus by subtlety in the absence of the multitude.

To them he made known his intention of delivering his Master into their hands; and undertook, for a small sum of money to conduct a band of armed men to the place where the Saviour of the world usually spent the night with his disciples, where they might apprehend him without the least danger of a tumult.

Some reasons may be offered in support of this opinion, con cerning the motives which induced Judas to betray his Master. First, From the nature of the contract: "What will ye give me," said he, " and I will deliver him unto you?" He did not mean that he would deliver him up to be put to death; for though the priests had consulted among themselves, how they might destroy Jesus, they had not been so abominably wicked as to declare their intention publicly; they only proposed to bring him to trial, for assuming the character of the Messiah, and to treat him as it should appear he deserved. The offer, therefore, which Judas made them of delivering him up, was in conformity to their declared resolutions. Nor did they understand it in any other light; for had the priests thought that his design in this was to get his Master punished with death, they must also have thought he believed him to be an impostor; in which case they would, doubtless, have produced him as one of their principal evidences, no person being more proper. Also, when Judas returned to them with the money, declaring that he had sinned in betraying the innocent blood, instead of replying, "What is that to us? see thou to that;" it was the most natural thing in the world to have upbraided him with the stain he had put upon his Master's character, by the contract they had made with him.

It is true they called the money they gave him "the price of blood;" but they did not mean this in the strictest sense, as they had neither hired Judas to assassinate his Master, nor can they be supposed to have charged themselves with the guilt of murdering him. It was only the price of blood, consequently being the reward they had given to the traitor, for putting it in their power to take away the life of Christ, under the color and form of public justice. Now it may be doubted whether Judas asked the money as a reward of his services. He covetously, indeed, kept it; and the priests, for that reason, called it the price of blood.

In short, Judas knew that the rulers could not take away the life of any person whatsoever, the Romans, having deprived them of that power, and therefore could have no design of this kind in delivering him up: not to mention that it was a common opinion among the Jews, that the Messiah could never die: an

opinion that Judas might readily embrace, having seen his Mas ter raise several persons, and among the rest one who had been in the grave no less than four days.

Another reason which may be assigned, in confirmation of this opinion, is the traitor's hanging himself, when he found him condemned, not by the governor, but by the council, whose prerogative it was to judge prophets. Had Judas proposed to take away the life of his Master, the sentence of condemnation passed upon him, instead of filling him with despair, must have gratified him, being the accomplishment of his project: whereas, the light wherein we have endeavored to place his conduct, shows this circumstance to have been perfectly natural.

He knew him to be thoroughly innocent, and expected that he would have wrought such miracles before the council as should have constrained them to believe. Therefore, when he found that nothing of this kind was done, and that the priests had passed the sentence of condemnation upon him, and were carrying him to the governor to get it executed, he repented of his rash and covetous project, came to the chief priests and elders, the persons to whom he had betrayed him, offered them their money again, and solemnly declared the deepest conviction. of his Master's innocence, hoping that they would have desisted from the persecution. But they were obstinate, and would not relent upon which his remorse arose to such a pitch, that, unable to support the torments of his conscience, he went and hanged himself.

Thus, it is probable that the traitor's intention in delivering up his Master, was not to get him punished with death, but only to lay him under a necessity of proving his pretensions before the grandees, whom he had hitherto shunned; thinking, that if they had yielded, the whole nation would immediately have been raised forthwith to the summit of their expec

tations.

This account of Judas' conduct is by no means calculated to lessen the foulness of his crime, which was the blackest imaginable. For even in the light above mentioned, it implied both an insatiable avarice, and a wilful opposition to the councils of Providence, and rendered the actor of it a disgrace to human nature. But it is calculated to set the credibility of the traitor's action in a proper light, and to show that he was not moved to it by any thing suspicious in the character of his Master: because, according to his view of it, his perfidy, instead of implying that he entertained suspicions of his Master's integrity, plainly proves that he had the fullest conviction of his being the Messiah. Nor was it pos

sible for any one, who had been present at the miracles which Jesus wrought, and the doctrines which he delivered, to admit of a doubt of his being the Son of God, the Saviour of mankind; unless blinded by the most obstinate prejudice.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

Jesus institutes the Sacrament in commemoration of his Death and Sufferings.-Settles a dispute which arose among his Disciples. --Predicts Peter's cowardice in denying his Master.—Fortifies his Disciples against the approaching shock.-Foretels Peter's cowardice again.-Preaches to, and prays with, his Disciples for the last time.-Passionate address of our Lord to his Father, in the Garden.

THE great Redeemer, ever mindful of the grand design of his mission, even the salvation of lost and perishing sinners, was not in the least affected by the treachery of his apostate disciple. For, knowing that he must become a sacrifice for sin, &c. he instituted the sacrament of his supper, to perpetuate the memory of it throughout all ages. Accordingly, as they were eating the paschal supper, "Jesus took bread, and blessed it and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat: this is my body." Matt. xxvi. 26. Observe this rite no longer in remembrance of your deliverance from Egypt, but in remembrance of me; who by dying for you, will bring you out of the spiritual bondage, a bondage far worse than the Egyptian, under which your fathers groaned, and will establish you in the glorious liberty of the children of God. Do it in remembrance of me, who, by laying down my life, will ransom you from sin, from death, from hell, and will set open the gates of heaven to you, that you may enter immortality in triumph.

Having given the bread to his disciples, he also took the cup, and gave it to them, saying, "Drink ye all of it; for this is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many, for the remission of sins." Matt. xxvi. 27, 28. All of you, and all of my disciples, in all ages, must drink of this cup, because it represents my blood shed for the remission of the sins of mankind: my blood by which the new covenant between God and man is ratified. It is, therefore, my blood of the new covenant: so that this institution exhibits to your joyful meditation, the

grand basis of the hopes of the children of men, and perpet uates the memory of it to the end of the world. He added, "I will not drink henceforth of the fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom." Matt. xxvi. 29.

The manifestation of the Son of God is the most illustrious, the most momentous event that is possible to engage the meditations of mankind. To his life and death, his resurrection and ascension into glory, we are indebted for our hopes and assurances of pardon, for our peace, for our happiness. To procure our benefit, he made the most amazing condescension from the dignity he enjoyed with his Father, by putting on the veil of flesh he poured divine instruction from his lips, and shone forth with an all-perfect, and all-lovely example. For our benefit, he submitted to a course of the most cruel treatment from his bitter enemies, to the agonies of the cross, and to the stroke of the king of terrors. For our benefit he arose again with power and lustre, ascended into the mansions of eternal happiness, manages our affairs with the Almighty, and holdeth the reins of government. With the greatest wisdom and goodness, therefore, this beneficent Jesus instituted a rite that should recall his love to our memories, and awake each pious passion in our breast; a rite, which, by the breaking of bread, and the pouring out of wine, should represent to us, in a striking manner, that most signal proof of the affection both of him and his heavenly Father, when his tender frame was exposed to wounds and bruises, when streams of the most precious blood issued from his sacred veins.

The more we reflect on this instance of divine love, the more we shall perceive that there was a peculiar propriety in pointing out by a particular ordinance, a fact of such immense importance in the system of revelation. Nay, we may venture to conjecture. that in some dark and corrupt ages, when the scriptures were but little known by the common people, and hardly studied by the priests, the death of our Saviour would have been almost forgotten, had not the remembrance of it been renewed by the celebration of this sacred ordinance.

It should also be remembered, that the vanities of the world, the allurements of sensual pleasure, the charms of ambition, the splendor of riches; in short, temptations from present objects of every kind, have often too fatal an influence on our temper and conduct. They have a fatal aptitude to draw the soul aside to folly, and to obliterate the impression of things divine. It was therefore a wise, a kind intention of our great Redeemer, by a frequent repetition of the sacramental feast, to call back the wandering heart of man to a sense of his duty and obligations as a Christian.