However, lest all these arguments should not be sufficient to quiet their minds, he had still another, which could not fail of success: If ye loved me," says he, " ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto my father:" intimating that he would consider it as a proof of their love to him, if they ceased to mourn. They doubtless thought, that by grieving for his death, they expressed their love for their master; and it should seem strange that our Saviour should put so contrary an interpretation on their friendly sor-** row, or require so unnatural a thing of them, as to rejoice at his departure. What! (might they think) shall we rejoice at so amiable a friend's removal from us; or can we be glad that he retires and leaves us in this vale of misery? No, it is impossible; the human heart, on so melancholy an occasion, has no disposition to rejoice. Our blessed Saviour, therefore, adds this reason to solve the seeming paradox, because he was going to the father; that is, he was going to ascend to the right hand of infinite power, from whence he would send them all the assistance they could desire. It must not however be supposed, that our Saviour meant by these words, that his disciples should not be concerned at his death, or that they could not love him unless they expressed a visible joy on this occasion: that would indeed have been a hard interpretation of their grief; he well knew their grief flowed from love, and if their love had not been strong, their sorrow had been much less. Indeed their Master was fully convinced, that love was the occasion of their sorrow; and, for that reason, he used those arguments to mitigate it.

Our Lord did not intend to intimate, that all sorrow for so worthy a friend was unlawful, or an unbecoming expression of their love; doubtless hers was not displeased to see his disciples so tenderly affected at his removal from them he who shed tears at the grave of Lazarus, blended with sighs and groans, cannot be thought to forbid them wholly at his own; he, therefore did not chide his disciples with angry reproaches, as though they had been entirely in the wrong, but gently reasoned with them by the kind persuasion, "Let not your hearts be troubled,” as rather pitying than con->{ demning their sorrow. Soon after Jesus had spoken these things, his heart was greatly troubled, to think that one of his disciples should prove his enemy: be complained of it at the table, declaring that one of them should betray him. This moving declaration greatly affected the disciples and they began every one of them to say to their Master, Lord, is it İ ?") But Jesus giving them no decisive answer, John, the beloved disciple, whose sweet disposition and other amiable qualities, is perpetuated in the b peculiar love his great Master bore him, and was now reclining on his bosom, asked him, who among the disciples could be guilty of so detestable a crime? JESUS told him, that the person to whom he should give the sop, when he had dipped it, was he who should betray him: accordingly, as soon as he had dipped the sop in the dish, he gave it to Judas Iscariot saying to bim at the same time, That thou doest do quickly."

Judas received the sop, without knowing any thing of what his Master had told the beloved disciple, nor did any of the disciples, except St. John, entertain the least suspicion, that Judas was the person who would betray their Master. They were, indeed, so deeply affected with his decla ration, that one of them should betray him that they did not remark the words of Jesus to his apostate disciple: but continued to ask him, who was the person that should be guilty of so unnatural a crime? Willing at last to satisfy their importunity the blessed JESUS declared, that the person who dipped his hand with him in the dish should betray him. This to the eleven, was a joyful declaration, but confounding in the highest degree to Judas: imprudent as he was, it struck him speechless, → displaying the foulness of his heart, and pointing him out plainly.

Judas continued mute with confusion, while the blessed Jesus declared, his death should be brought about according to the decrees of heaven,✨

nothing by his treachery, but the price he put upon his life, how came he to sell him for such a trifle, when be well knew, that the chief priests and rulers would have given him any sum, rather than not have gotten 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," said he," in betraying the ianocent blood." And it must be remembered that the remorse he felt for his crime, was too bitter to be endured; so that he fled even to the king of terrors for relief, after he saw his master condemned.

However, since the treachery of Judas did not proceed from any of these motives, it may be asked, what other motives can be assigned for his conduct? 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 authorises 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 am bitious views amongst his disciples, and neglected to embrace the opportunity of erecting his kingdom, which was offered him by the multitude who accompanied him into Jerusalem with shouts and crying, "Hosanna to the Son of David." His impatience, therefore becoming excessive, inspired him with the thought of delivering his Master into the hands of the council, firmly persuaded that h he would then be obliged to assume the dignity of the Messiah, and consequently able to reward his followers; fer as this court was composed of the chief priests, elders and scribes, that is, the

of

repre that at families, and the doctors of the law; the traitor

did not bis Master, when brought before so august an assembly, would assert his pretentions, to the title of the 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 this intention were very offending to his Master; yet be might think the success of it would procure his pardon from so compas sionate a Master, and even recommend him to favour. In the mean time this project, however plausible it might appear to one of his turn, was far from being free from difficulty; and therefore, while he revolved 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 formed 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 priests, 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 intentions 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 with out the least danger of a tumult. Thus the great deceiver of mankind tempted him to commit the horrid action, by laying hold of the various passions which now agitated the traitor's breast.d

It may be gathered from the nature of the contract, that these were really the motives which induced Judas to betray his Master: 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 appeared he deserved. The offer, therefore, which Judas made them of delivering him up, was in conformity to their public 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 to bear witness than his companion. Or, supposing Judas repented before the trial came on, and had withdrawn himself, the priests might have argued with great plausibility, both in their own court and before the governor, that for a man's disciple to require the Judges to bring him to condign punishment, branded him with such a suspicion of guilt, as was almost equal to a full proof, 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 charge themselves with the guilt of murdering him: it was only the price of blood in consequence of its being the reward they had given to the traitor for putting it in their power to take away the life of CHRIST under the colour and form of public justice; nay, it may be even doubted, whether Judas asked the money, as a reward for his service; he covetously, indeed, kept it, and the priests, for that reason, called it the price of blood.

Judas, in short, 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 which Judas might easily embrace, having seen his Master raise several persons, and among the rest one who had been in the grave no less than four days.

It is probable that the traitor's intention in betraying his Master was that mentioned above, from his hanging himself when he found him condemned not by the governor but by the council, whose prerogative it was to judge the 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, this circumstance is shewn to have been perfectly natural, by the light wherein we have endeavoured to place his conduct.

Having been witness to the greatest part of our Lord's miracles, and having experienced the certain truth of them, in the powers that had been conferred on himself, Judas could never think that the council would have condemned him as an impostor far less as a blasphemer; he knew him to be perfectly innocent, and expected he would have wrought such miracles before the council, as should have constrained them to believe therefore, when he found nothing of this kind was done, and that the priests had pas sed 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 prosecution; 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 I think it 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 the necessity of

proving his pretentions before the grandees, whom he had hitherto shanned; thinking that the whole nation would immediately have submitted and the disciples have been raised forthwith to the summit of their expectations if they had yielded.

But 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 counsels 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 actions in a proper light, & to shew that he was not moved to it by any thing suspicious in the character of his Master; because, according to this view of it, his perfidy, instead of implying that he entertained suspicions of his Master's integrity, plainly proves, that he had the fullest ronviction that he was the Messiah: and to say the truth, it was not possible for any one intimately acquainted with our Lord, as Judas was to judge otherwise of him? having seen his miracles, which were great and true beyond exception, and having experienced his power in the ability of working miracles which he had received from him, and no doubt exercised with extraordinary pleasure, together with the rest of the apostles.

Our Saviour institutes the Sacrament of his supper: He checketh the ambitious Strife of his Disciples, and promiseth them a Share in his Kingdom: He telleth Peter of Satan's desire to sift him, but that his Faith should be supported: and yet he should thrice deny him: He adviseth his Disciples to provide Necessaries, and to arm themselves against the Day of Trial: He promiseth them Power to do greater Works than his own, and the Grant of all that they should ask in his Name, He requireth their Obedience as a Proof of their Love, and giveth them a Promise of the Comforter, the Holy Ghost. Under the Parable of a Vine, CHRIST setteth forth God's Government of his Church, and exhorteth his Disciples to abide in his Faith and Doctrine: He commandeth them to love one another, according to the great Love he had shewed for them; & warneth them of their Sufferings for his Sake: tle comforteth them by a Promise of the Holy Ghost: He intimateth his Death, Resurrection, and Ascension: His Disciples confess their Faith in him; he foretelleth their Desertion of him, and promiseth them Peace in him amidst their Tribulation in the World: He prayeth to the Father to glorify him and to preserve his Apostles in Unity of Faith, and from all Evil; and to sanctify them with the Word of truth; and for the perfect Union of all Believers, and their admission to a Share of his Glory in heaven.

IT does not appear that our Saviour was in the least disturbed at the consideration of the treachery of Judas; for in order to render his love to mankind more effectual, 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, which is given for you; this do ye in remembrance of me," observe this rite na 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