To how great a pitch of wickedness must the chief priests and elders have arrived, when they dared to proceed in their perfecution of Chrift, after so public an acknowledgment of his innocence by the very person who had betrayed him! Instances have occurred in which judges, misled by false appearances or for want of a thorough knowledge of the fubject, have punished the innocent and let the guilty go free: in every fuch cafe, whereever it has appeared that the ignorance of the judge, who presumed to pass senhas proceeded from inattention and a want of due application to the evidence produced, the whole world has joined in condemning him as unworthy of the important' office: what, then, must those have to answer for, and how infinitely greater must be their guilt, who perfecute the innocent, knowing them to be fo? Judas's idol, as I have before had occafion to observe, was wealth; at whose shrine he facrificed honor, conscience, and every virtue which adorns human nature: this tence, hardened hardened his heart against the gentle admonition of his Lord, conveyed in the words, "Judas, betrayeft thou the Son of man with a kifs ?" May his wretched case prove a warning to us, to avoid covetoufnefs and inattention to the admonitions of our own confciences! as by them Chrift fpeaks to us, as he did to Judas when he betrayed him. How foon was this dear-bought and ill-gotten wealth caft from him with abhorrence! Self-deftruction is a crime, of all others, the most dreadful; as it cannot be repented of, and the Gospel threatens the heavieft punishment against unrepented fins. God, who gave us life, and who knows what is beft for us, has alone the right to put a period to it. How great, then, is the presumption of those who, ufurping his prerogative, dare to rush into their Maker's prefence uncalled! Dreadful, indeed, must be their fituation, who, when the Almighty in mercy fends down great afflictions on them, for the purpose of bringing them to a sense of their danger and of reclaim ing their wandering steps, instead of fanctifying them to the end designed, resist his fatherly correction, and, to escape from it, plunge themselves, by wilful and premeditated felf-murder, into tenfold guilt! It not unfrequently, however, happens, that events of this nature are produced by disorders; particularly, those which prey upon the fpirits: in this case, the parties can be confidered as no more anfwerable than for any other acts which delirium, the confequence of a raging fever, or infanity, may cause them to commit; and are objects of compaffion, inftead of condemnation. Let those, therefore, who are of a meek and timid dispofition, guard themselves against habitual melancholy, or despair: for when our foe finds we are not to be allured from our duty, he endeavors to distract and interrupt us in our most earnest defires of serving and obeying God. This is one of our feverest trials; but, even this, we may be affured of overcoming, if we will apply to Him for affiftance; who is both willing and able to carry us fafe through all difficulties and dangers, till we arrive at the place of the bleffed, there to dwell with him for ever and ever. Ready as we are to condemn the traitor Judas, there are too many (I fear) who pretend to repentance, without advancing fo near towards it as even he did: let them not deceive themfelves. How can they expect to have their repentance accepted who retain the wages of iniquity, and refuse to acknowledge the injuries they have done to others? fuch penitence is a mere pretence; by which they may, indeed, impose upon their fellow-creatures, nay, perhaps upon themselves, but can be of no avail in the fight of God. 66 "28. Then led they Jefus from Caiaphas unto the hall of Judgment: and "it was early; and they themselves went "not into the Judgment-hall, left they "fhould be defiled; but that they might 06 eat the Paffover." Although Although the Jews were at this very time engaged in the most iniquitous perfecution ever known, endeavoring by means of false witneffes to fhed innocent blood, yet these same people fcrupled to enter the Judgment-hall, where all this premeditated mischief and villany was to be transacted, • left they should be defiled,' and unfit to eat the Paffover. Nothing can more ftrongly prove what I have obferved before, that they only attended to the ceremonial part of their religion, omitting the weightier matters of the law-judgment, mercy, and truth; and were, as our Lord upon another occafion calls them, "whited "fepulchres, beautiful without, but within "full of corruption and all uncleanness." 66 29. Pilate then went out unto them, "and faid, What accufation bring ye "against this man? 66 66 30. They answered and faid unto him, If he were not a malefactor, we "would not have delivered him up unto "thee. 4K 2 "31. Then |