the proposal. If indeed they had seized on Judas, and threat- ened to put him to extreme torture if he would not further their designs, we might offer some little excuse for him : but who could conceive that the proposal should originate with him, and that he should be a volunteer in such a service ?
It was immediately after he had received an express warning respecting it. Our blessed Lord had, but a few hours before, told his Disciples that one of them would betray him: and upon being interrogated by each of them, " Lord, is it I ?" he told them all, that it was the person to whom he should give the sopb ; and told Judas in particular that it was he ; and that since he was thus bent on the commission of this sin, it would have been better for him that he had never been bornc. Would one not have supposed that such a warning should have diverted him from his purpose ? Yet, instead of being checked by it, he went out " immediately" under the cover of the night, that he might execute his plot without delay.
We cannot but be astonished for hoiv small a consideration he was induced to do this. Had he been promised great riches, sufficient to keep him in opulence and splendour all his days, we should have wondered less at the power of the temptation : but it was only " thirty pieces of silver3," (the price of a slave,) that he was to receive for his recompence : so little a value did he set upon his master's life.
The diabolical malignity which he expressed on the occasion, is a yet further aggravation of his guilt. When agreeing with the Chief Priests, he gave them a strict charge, " Take him, hold him fast, lead him away safely e." As Ahithophel, the treache- rous friend of David, counselled the rebellious Absalom : " Give me twelve thousand men, and I will come upon him while he is weary and weak-handed, and I will smite the king onlyf;" so did Judas respecting the true King of Israel : he reminded the Chief Priests how often he had escaped out of their hands ; and, that they might secure him now, he charged them to use the utmost vigilance and circumspection.
Such was the sin of Judas ; a sin unparalleled in the annals of the world.]
Let us now extend our views, and consider the text,
II. In reference to traitors of every description —
Though the precise sin which was committed by Judas never was, nor will be, committed by any other,
b John xiii. 26. c Matt. xxvi. 21—25.
d Compare Zech. xi. 12, 13. with Matt. xxvi. 15.
e Matt. xxvi. 48. Mark xiv. 44. f 2 Sam. xvii. 1, 2.