own computation, the time must have been at hand, when, according to Daniel, the Prince must be cut off,' how could they avoid, either when they were consulting about his death, or when they were telling out the pieces to Judas; how, I say, could they avoid reflecting on the qualities of the metal, or the number of the pieces? Had they paid him in gold, or given him one piece more or less, they might have afterward proved Jesus not to be the Messiah. Had not Judas been an apostle and bishop, Jesus could not have been the Messiah; for the prophecy of David, in Psalm cix, where speaking of the traitor, he says, 'Let his days be few, and let another take his bishoprick,' could not have been verified, as it was by his disastrous death, and the election of Matthias into his place. Let infidelity behold, and be amazed (for it cannot be convinced), when it finds the Jewish rulers chaffering and cheapening with Judas about the blood of his Master, and at length, contrary to the treacherous intention of his heart, and the malicious designs of theirs, unwittingly agreeing on the single scheme that could fulfil the prophecies, and prove, beyond question, what they were that instant labouring to disprove, that Christ was actually the Messiah; that the wonders he wrought were true and genuine miracles; and that the religion he preached was the very will and word of God.

But, I foresee, an infidel will be ready enough to object here, that the story about Judas tells ill, and seems improbable, alleging, that if Judas had known his Master to be an impostor, his conscience could never have thrown him into such deadly agonies for having brought him to the cross; and that, if he had not only seen Christ work so many miracles, but also wrought some himself in the name, and by the power of Christ, it had been impossible for him to turn either apostate or traitor.

If historical facts, so very possible, and so well vouched as this, may be refuted by surmises, then it will be unsafe to build any thing on the accounts of former times. But, that the objector may not think this altogether so extraordinary a phenomenon in a very depraved mind, let him strictly examine his past life, and perhaps he may recollect his having acted, on some occasions, directly against the convictions of reason, and the admonitions of conscience,

when, as in the case of Judas, the prospect of some worldly advantage, or the dread of some very threatening evil, or both at once, have, for the time, proved too strong for all his prudence and principles. This is no uncommon case; although I shall readily own, that it is difficult, perhaps impossible, to find a case so hard to be reconciled to reason as that of Judas; which, considering what he had formerly seen Christ do, and what he had done himself, may require a mind as irregular and black as his own to account for. It may be, a man, whose mind was so untowardly turned as his, might have doubted whether the miracles he wrought himself were the effects of a good or evil power. We have too much reason to think there are men, who, from the inveterate habits and violent motions of a bad heart, are capable of acting against the clearest convictions a bad head can receive. Besides, I believe we should not be far from the truth, if we should say conviction is never perfect, I mean in matters of morality or religion, if the heart does not second it. It is, however, after all, by no means so strange, that a very ill-minded man, like him, should fall, as that the better disciples of our Saviour should stagger in the faith, as we find they were inclined to do, after all they had seen and done, upon their Saviour's crucifixion. If so honest a man, and so zealous a servant, as Peter, could, through fear, forswear his. Master, notwithstanding the reasons for his faith were so strong; we are not to be surprised, that such a monster as Judas should, in spite of the like reasons for his faith, through covetousness, sell the same Master.

If parallel instances from Scripture might be allowed on this occasion, we might serve ourselves with several. Simon Magus saw the miracles wrought by Peter and John at Samaria; but, instead of becoming by that means a true and real Christian, he would have purchased the same power with money, in order to make ten times the sum by it, and to get himself the name of something more than man. Was not Balaam a real prophet? And yet was he not a very bad man? Did he not give advice to the enemies of the Israelites, advice the most dangerous and pernicious to that people, whom God, by a very extraordinary revelation, had taught him to distinguish from all others, as his peculiar people? Wholesome food turns to corruption on a vitiated stomach;

and truth itself to intellectual poison, in a depraved and wicked mind. But why should we seek to account for this difficulty by other means, since the gospel itself clears up the point? Judas was in himself a dishonest and bad man. When Mary, in the zeal of her heart, had anointed the feet of Jesus with the precious ointment, and wiped them with her hair; Judas said, in the hypocrisy of his, 'Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor? But this he said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein.' Yet, thief and hypocrite as he was, it is probable his own unassisted wickedness might not have carried him to such an height of villany, as to betray his Master, had not Satan, immediately on his receiving the sop, entered into him, and added all the wickedness of a devil to his own. Satan, who from an angel became a devil, could easily teach an apostle how to become an apostate and a traitor.

But he could not teach him how to betray the religion of Christ, wher. he betrayed Christ himself. Neither could they, who put Christ to death, extinguish that religion. On the contrary, by so doing, they took the only way that could be taken to perfect the great work, and to establish it in the world. They intended the murder of one man; but, without knowing what they did, they wrought the salvation of all men. Wicked as they were, they did the work of God. The storms of the natural, and the crimes of the moral, world, be they ever so boisterous or enormous, are forced to promote the designs of him who permits the one, and causes the other. If a man will be wicked, will be rebellious against God, will be malicious towards men, will set himself to do all the mischief he can towards all men, and, as far as in him lies, endeavour to disappoint the very end of his creation; Providence will not, indeed, always hinder him (any more than it will a plague from spreading misery or death) from pursuing the dictates of his own infernal heart; but it will bring a greater good out of all that evil, and only permits the evil for the sake of the good. The wickedest of men must still, although against his intention, be the servant of God who made him. And although he will not be good, he shall be a useful servant too; for God

will not be disappointed. It is true, he hath made angels and men free; but, free as they are, and wicked as they may be, he will, as their Maker and Governor, be served by them, one way or another. If they will not serve him willingly, and be happy, they must serve him against their wills, and be miserable; for he did not make them altogether for their own sakes, much less for the service of his enemy. Accordingly, Herod may persecute or despise; the Jewish chiefs may plot and bribe; Judas may sell and betray; Pilate may compliment the mob with the life of a man whom he found innocent; and the devil may, by his power over their hearts, inspire and manage this whole scheme of iniquity and murder; but still there is one higher than the highest that regardeth.' There is one higher than them all, that shall control and overrule the whole transaction, although the blackest hell ever contrived, and turn it to the most glorious exemplification of goodness; to the happiest of all events; to the retrieval of a lost, and to the salvation of a desperate, world.

How ought we to admire the goodness, and adore the wisdom, and revere the power of God, in this most important, this most amazing, piece of history! Can any thing give such a rock for faith to build on, or ground for such a battery against sin? If Judas, without speaking or writing, demonstrates the truth of a religion he did all he could to suppress, who will not believe it to be true? If our infidels will not listen to the arguments of Peter or Paul, upon a supposition that they were deceivers, surely they will admit Judas, who acted a contrary part, and was of a spirit truly modern, to be their apostle. Whoever considers attentively his whole story, must go away either a fool, or a Christian.

Nor does this history furnish stronger arguments for faith, than it does against sin. To the man whose conviction it hath already wrought, it will set the sins of covetousness, dissimulation, treachery, and murder, in a stronger light, and paint them in fouler colours, than they can otherwise be possibly seen in. It will shew him what conscience, enraged to the highest, can do, even in the most hardened minds. It will give him a most sensible and awful proof of speedy vengeance, executed by the devil, in a mortal fit of despair, on the wretch he had so lately seduced. To con

clude; it will lead his eyes forward to the cross of Christ, and shew him what sin is, by the infinite value and dignity of the atonement made for it; and, while he beholds the blood streaming from his Saviour's wounds, it will remind him, that he too must be a traitor, and a Judas, if, by his sins, he again puts Christ to open shame, and crucifies him afresh. We are all the disciples, and some of us the apostles, of Christ, enlisted into his service, as well as the twelve, by a solemn vow or covenant. The honour of him and his holy religion, and the well-being of his spiritual body the church, are intrusted with us. If, therefore, we grossly or perseveringly sin, we are traitors and Judases, as well as he whose treachery gave occasion to this Discourse; for do we not expose the name of Christ, and the credit of his religion, to the contempt and ridicule of infidels, for the pleasure or profit accruing from our sins? Do we not sell and betray our Master to a severer cross than that on mount Calvary? I say severer; for surely such it was in the estimation of Christ himself, who willingly suffered death in his natural, that he might give life to his mystical, body, which we by our sins corrupt, deface, and do all we can to destroy. But, whatever the debauched, or the ambitious, may say, to clear himself of a copartnership in sin with Iscariot, let not the covetous, or the treacherous, who postpone the honour and service of Christ to the peculiar vices of that traitor, deny that he is a Judas. What can so strongly demonstrate the force of that unhappy prejudice, wherewith the minds of people, otherwise of the clearest understandings, are blinded by a too close conversation with the seducing world, as that they cannot see their sins in this just and affecting light, in which both reason and Scripture represent them!

God grant, however, that we may at length lay these things to heart, as we ought to do; and to him be the praise, and the honour, and the glory, of our faith and obedience, now, and for evermore. Amen.