even the wretch who betrayed him should, with very pecuHar solemnity, attest his innocence.
We might from this circumstance proceed to prove the Messiahship of Jesus, and the consequent truth of the religion which he has established. But it is our intention to enter more deeply into the passage before us ; and to consider, not merely the general result of Judas' confession, but the various characters delineated in the words before us.
And here we have a very striking picture of,
I. The thoughtless sinner —
[Judas, it should seem, never thought that his Master would suffer himself to be apprehended and put to death. He had often seen Jesus escaping in a miraculous manner out of the hands of his enemies*', and confounding the people who came to apprehend him, so that they could not prosecute their purpose*^: and therefore he expected that he would act in a somewhat similar manner on this occasion. It was in the hope of this that he was prevailed upon to sell and betray his Lord. Had he foreseen all the consequences that followed, it is pro- bable he would not, at least for so small a sum, have subjected his Master to such miseries, and himself to such infamy and ruin.
And is it not thus with sinners in general ? Do they not all proceed to gratify their own inclinations under the idea that no great evil shall arise from it, either to themselves or others ? Had David the remotest thought that his numbering of the people would issue in the destruction of seventy thousand of his subjects ? Or did he, when sending for Bathsheba, foresee the murder of Uriah, together with about forty others ; or the hardening of so many thousands, in that and every age, against the ways of God?
Let us come still nearer home : does the seducer consider what he is likely to bring upon the person whom he tempts from the path of virtue? Does he contemplate her shame and sorrow, or the inconsolable anguish of her parents ; or the temporal and eternal ruin which she herself will bring on others? Does he contemplate her infamous life, her lothesome death, her endless misery ? Ah ! were he to have one glimpse of all the consequences of his conduct, we can scarcely conceive any man so abandoned as to purchase a momentary gratification at so high a price. Does he also consider the consequences as they respect himself? Alas! he thinks of nothing but the indulgence of his lusts: he considers the bait, without adverting
^ Luke iv. 30. John viii. 59. <= John vii. 45, 4G.