4. He sells him, and he sells him at a low rate too ; which shew- ed how vile an esteem he had of Christ. He is content to part with him for thirty pieces of silver. If these pieces, or shekels, were the shekels of the sanctuary, they amounted but to three pounds fifteen shillings -f\ But it is supposed they were the common she- kels, which were mostly used in buying and selling ; and then his price, that he put upon the Saviour of the world, was but one pound seventeen shillings and sixpence. A goodly price (as the prophet calls it) that he was valued at ! Zech. xi. 12, 13, I confess, it is a wonder, he asked no more ; knowing how much they longed for his blood ; and that they offered no more for him : how then should the scriptures have been fulfilled ? O what a sale was this ! to sell that blood, which all the gold and silver in the world is not worth one drop of, for a trifle ! still the wickedness of the fact rises higher and higher.
5. He left Christ in a most heavenly and excellent employment, when he went to make this soul-undoing bargain. For if he went away from the table, as some think, then he left Christ instituting and administering those heavenly signs of his body and blood : there he saw, or might have seen, the bloody work he was going about, acted as in a figure before him. If he sat out that ordi-» nance, as others suppose he did, then he left Christ singing an
* Suavis odor lueri ex re qualibet. + Godw. Antiq. lib. 6. p. 20J.
£38 THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE. SERM. XXIII,
heavenly hymn, and preparing to go where Judas was preparing to meet him. When the Lord Jesus was in the most serious and heavenly exercise, the wretch slinked away from him into the city, or else went under pretence to buy some necessaries *. But his de- si on was not to buy, but to sell, whatever his pretences were.
6. What he did, was not done by the persuasions of any. The high-priest sent not for him, and without doubt, was surprised when he came to him on such on errand. For it could never enter into any of their hearts, that any of his own disciples could ever be drawn into a confederacy against him. No, he went as a vo- lunteer, offering himself to this work : which still heightens the sin, and makes it out of measure sinful.
7. The manner in which he executes his treasonable design adds further malignity to the fact. He comes to Christ with fawning- words and carriage, " Hail, Master, and kissed him.'" Here is honey in the tongue, and poison in the heart. Here is hatred hid under lying lips. This was the man, and this was his fact. Let us enquire,
Thirdly, The cause and motives of this wickedness, how he came to attempt and perpetrate such a villany. Maldonate the Jesuit criminates the Protestant divines, for affirming that God had a hand in ordering and over-ruling this fact f .
But w£ say, that Satan and his own lust was the impulsive cause of it : that God, as it was a wicked treason, permitted it ; and as it was a delivering Christ to death, was not only the permitter, but the wise and holy director and orderer of it, and by the wisdom of his providence over-ruled it, to the great good and advantage of the church ; in respect of which happy issue, Judas' s treason is called fcelix scehts, " a happy wickedness." Satan inspired the mo- tion, Luke xxiii. 3, 4. " Then entered Satan into Judas, surnamed " Iscariot, and he went his way," &c. his own lusts, like dry tin- der, kindled presently : his heart was covetous ; there was pre- disposed matter enough for the devil to work on, so that it was but touch and take. Ver. 25. They covenanted to give him money,, and he promised, &c.
The holy God disposed and ordered all this to the singular bene- fit and good of his people ; Acts iv. 28. they did whatsoever " his
* Without doubt he went from Bethany, where the Lord then was, and either with- drew privately, or under pretence of buying necessaries. Pareus.
f In so far as it was Koobotiiiy i. e. a betraying, it was the deed of Judas, tempted by Satan ; in so far as it was xuoaboffig, i. e. a delivering up, it was the effect of God's secret purpose, relating to the redemption of the church. Surely God was not a careless permitter of that whole work, but a most wise orderer and director of it. Tarcus.
SERM. XXIII. THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE. 289
" hand and counsel had before determined to be done."* And by this determinate counsel of God, he was taken and slain, Acts ii. 23. Yet this no ways excuses the wickedness of the instruments : for what they did, was done from the power of their own lusts, most wickedly; what he did was done in the unsearchable depth of his own wisdom, most holy. God knows how to serve his own ends by the very sins of men, and yet have no communion at all in the sin he so over-rules. If a man let a dog out of his hand in pursuit of a hare, the dog hunts merely for a prey ; but he that lets him go, uses the sagacity and nimbleness of the dog to serve his own ends by it. Judas minded nothing but his own advantage to get money ; God permitted that lust to work, but over-ruled the issue to his own eternal glory, and the salvation of our souls.
Fourthly and lastly, But what was the end and issue of this fact ? As to Christ, it was his death ; for the hour being come, he doth not meditate an escape, nor put forth the power of his Godhead to deliver himself out of their hands. Indeed he shewed what he could do, when he made them go back and stagger with a word. He could have obtained more than twelve legions of angels to have been his life-guard; one of whom had been sufficient to havo coped with all the Roman legions : but how then should the scrip- tures have been fulfilled, or our salvation accomplished ? No, he resists not, but Judas, delivering him into their hands at that time, was his death.
And what got he as a reward of his wickedness ? It ended in the ruin both of his soul and body. For immediately a death-pang of despair seized his conscience ; which was so intolerable, that he ran to the halter for a remedy ; and so falling headlong, he burst asun- der, and all his bowels gushed out, Acts i. 18. And now he that had no bowels for Christ, hath none for himself. As for his soul, it went to its own place, ver. 25. even the place appointed for the son of perdition, as Christ calls him, John xvii. 12. His name retains an odious stench to this day, and shall to all generations : it is a bye- word, a proverb of reproach. This was his end ; we will next improve it.