Use. Let us hate those sins that brought Judas to destruction. If you imitate him, you make him your patriarch. We all defy his memory, but we love his practices. Every one that bearetli the name of a christian would have nothing to do with Judas. Abandon his sins ; you have heard what they are.
1. Covetousness. It is the root of all evil. This is that which betrayed Christ. Let us turn our displeasure upon the sin rather than the person ; it made an apostle to become a devil. We stroke it with a gentle censure, as if it were but a little evil. Oh ! you do not know how far this may carry you : Ps. x. 3, ' The wicked boasteth of his heart's desire, and blesseth the covetous, Avhom the Lord abhorreth.' Sensuality hath more of the beast ; covetousness seems to have more of the man. Oh ! but think of it ; here was the rise. Covetousness beginneth with inordinate desire, and ends in injustice, that (with h}'pocrisy to veil it) brings hardening ; this hardness brings at length to despair, and so you are made sons of perdition by degrees. A man may insensibly grow a perfect Judas, to betray Christ and ruin his own soul. Cherish but this one sin, follow it, and obey it, and it will not leave you till it hath brought you in laqueum diaboli, into the snare of the devil: 1 Tim. vi. 9, 'They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.' Beware of that covetousness which is proper to Judas, begruding what is spent upon God. If thou thinkest thy time is lost that is spent in holy services, or thy money lost that is laid out upon God or good uses, thou hast much of his spirit, and it is a step to it. Seneca said of the Jews, that they were a foolish people, because they lost a full seventh part of their lives, meaning the sabbath. Oh ! there are more of his mind, that think all is lost
VeR. 12.] SERMONS UPON JOHN XVII. 347
that is not laid out upon their callings, and upon their sports and pleasures, and upon their temporal provision ; that look upon the sabbath as a melancholy interruption ; that say, as Amos viii. 5, ' When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn ? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat ? '
2. Beware of hypocrisy, or of taking up the profession of Christianity for carnal ends. Oh ! look to your grounds and motives, when you take up with the stricter ways of Christ. A sound beginning will have a happy end ; but if you take up this profession upon carnal reasons, one time or other you will fall off, and all will end in shame and horror. Therefore take heed of following Christ for the loaves, John vi. 26. It was an old complaint, non diligunt Jesum pi^ojjter Jesum. Men have their carnal ends in religion, as to make it a step to promo- tion, a cloak to injustice, a means to get rich matches. Whatever thou dost in religion, do it upon reasons of religion. Especially take heed of neglecting warnings, reproofs, and checks of conscience ; stifling of convictions makes way for hardness. When you are con- vinced of any sin, or neglect of duty, oh ! do not ' hold the truth in unrighteousness,' Eom. i. 18. Truths many times are imprisoned in the conscience ; there they are, but they cannot get a fair hearing till Grod give them a gaol-delivery, and bring them out of the house of bondage. The devil holds you prisoners ; when you hold the truth in prison, when you are convinced of any sin, or of the neglect of any dutj^ do not choke conscience, but humble thyself, till the heart be gained to practise the duty, and the disposition of heart towards sin be in some measure abated.
3. Beware of treason against Christ. God forbid, you will say, any of us should be treacherous to Christ. Many are so that seem to defy it. Judas did put a great affront upon Christ when he sold him for thirty jjieces, a cheap and vile price. You will find in the law that thirty pieces was the price of a slave : Exod. xxi. 32, ' If an ox shall push a man-servant or maid-servant, he shall give unto their master thirty shekels, and the ox shall be stoned.' They proffered no more than was wont to be given for the basest of men. Possibly there may be something of mystery in it, that Christ should be sold for the price of a servant or slave ; however, it aggravated his treason and treachery. There are many such Judases alive, that do but wait for a chapman, that are ready to sell heaven, and happiness, and religion, and all their profession, for a j^enny matter. God tries us, as Constantius did them in his army. Having some sense of the christian religion, he made this proclamation, Whoever would not renounce their profession, they should no longer have their military places ; and this he did to prove them. Said he. For if they be not faithful to their God, they will not be faithful to me. So the Lord in his providence seems to put us upon such a trial, whether we will renounce our profession. Though we cannot sell Christ in person, and there be no priests to deal with us, yet Satan is still alive ; and therefore, when for worldly ease and peace, and handfuls of barley and pieces of silver, we part with the promise, and comfort, and hopes of it, and hazard the favour of God and peace of conscience, for the trifling matters of the world, we are guilty of this treason of Judas. Though you hate the memory of