One, like Demas, is turned aside by the love of this present evil world : another, like the stony-ground hearers, by the fear of persecution : another runs after some vain conceit, and " denies the Lord who bought him." Never do they reflect what dishonour they do to Christ, or what a base return they make him for all his love. They are intent only, like Judas, on the gratification of their lusts ; and they sacrifice him and his interests for a thing of nought. See this man, whoever he may be, who, " after having escaped the pollutions of the world, is again entangled therein and overcome ; and say, whether he be not obnoxious to the charge before us," and awfully accomplishing the prediction in my text.]
Thus extensively is the prediction verified. Let
us now consider,
II. What we may learn from the accomplishment of it- No doubt it is an instructive circumstance that our
blessed Lord should be so betrayed by one of his own
Disciples. We may surely learn from it,
1. That Christianity must be true —
[Had there been any collusion betwixt Christ and his Disciples, Judas would now most assuredly have made it known. But when he had agreed to betray his Master, he could do nothing more than point out his person : he could not allege any thing against him: he could not divulge any secret con- fided to him. And after he had betrayed his Master, so far was he from finding in his own mind any thing to justify his conduct, that he went to the chief priests, and confessed that he had betrayed innocent blood : nay more, he cast back the money that he had received, and went away and hanged him- self. This was a clear proof, that, as far at least as he knew, there was nothing in Christianity which would not bear the light. If it be said, that the circumstance of our Lord's being betrayed by one of his own Disciples was suspicious, and tended to cast a reflection on our Lord himself; I answer, that our Lord himself predicted it; and declared it to all the other Apostles, on purpose that, instead of being stumbled at it, they might rather make it an additional ground for believing in him'1.]
2. That the falls of its professors afford no just argument against it —
[In all ages of the world have the falls of religious pro- fessors afforded occasion to the ungodly to pour contempt on
d ver. 19.