should afterwards be accomplished by the Jews of later days in reference to their Messiah.
How exactly it was accomplished, the New Testa- ment will inform us —
[When Judas conceived the design of betraying his Lord, he bargained with the chief priests, who offered him this pre- cise sum, thirty pieces of silver, which he took accordingly, as the price of the Redeemer's blood11. After he had betrayed his Lord, he went to return them their money : and finding that they would not regard his overtures, he cast down the money in the temple, and went and hanged himself. And what did they with the money ? They would not put it into the treasury, because it was the price of blood ; but, after consul- tation had, they bought with it a potter's field, to bury strangers in: and thus, as an inspired Apostle informs us, fulfilled what had so many hundred years before been pre- dicted concerning them1.]
From this minute accomplishment of it we derive most important instruction —
[Mark how many circumstances in this extraordinary transaction concurred to fulfil the prophecy : The person whose services were so valued; the good Shepherd. The price fixed ; thirty pieces of silver. The application of the money ; given to a potter. The spot where the transaction took place; the temple of the Lord. The persons chiefly concerned in it; the priests and elders. All this was predicted, in order to attest the truth of Christ's Messiahship. And was there any concert, think you, to fulfil the prophecy ? Did Judas and the chief priests commune together, to prove beyond a possibility of doubt that Jesus was the person to whom all the law and the prophets bare witness as the Saviour of the world ? Behold then, from one proof out of a hundred, on how firm a basis our faith is fixed !
Nor is the accomplishment of this prophecy instructive only as confirming our faith : it goes much farther, and gives us an insight into all God's dispensations , whether of providence or grace.
God has ordered every thing, both in heaven and earth, both in time and eternity. But are men therefore to be considered as mere passive instruments in his hands ? No : they are free agents in all that they do. The chief priests sought only the gra- tification of their own malice, as Judas did of his own covetous desires : neither the one nor the other acted from any impulse but of their own hearts. The spot where the transaction took
* Matt. xxvi. 14 — 16. * Matt, xxvii. 3 — 10.