and SAVIOUR, JESUS CHRIST, and his APOSTLES, &c. 225 concerned at his death,- or that they could not love him unlefs they expreffed a vifible joy on this occaflon: that would, indeed, have been a hard interpretation of their grief; he well knew their grief flowed from love, and that if their love had not been ftrong, their forrow had been much lets. Indeed, their Mailer was fully con- vinced, that love was the occafion of their forrow; and, for that reafon, he ufed thefe arguments to mitigate it. Our Lord did not intend to intimate, that all forrow for fo worthy a friend was unlawful, or an unbecoming expreffion of their love; doubtlefs, he was not difpleafed to fee his difciples fo tenderly affefed at his removal from them: he who fhed tears . at the grave of Lazarus, blendedwith fighs and groans, cannot be thought to forbid them wholly at his own ; he, therefore, did not chide his difciples with angry re- proaches, as though they had been entirely in the wrong, but gently reafoned with them by kind perfuafion, Let notyourheart be troubled, as rather pitying than condemn- ing their forrow. Soon after JESUS had fpoken thefe things, his heart was greatly troubled, to think that one of his difciples fhould prove his enemy ; he complained of it at the table, declaring that one of them fhould betray him. This moving de- claration greatly affeted the difciples, and they began every one of them to fay to their Mailer, Lord, is it I? But Jesus giving them no decifive anfwer, John, the beloved difciple, whole Tweet difpofition, end other amiable qualities, is perpe- tuated in the peculiar love his great Mailer bore him, and was now reclining on his bofom, afked him, who among the dif- ciples could be guilty of fo deteffable a crime? Jesus told him, that the perfon to whom he fhould give the fop, when he had dipped it, was he who fhould betray him ; accordingly, as foon as he had dip- ped the fop in the difh, he gave it to Judas Ifcariot, Paying to him at the fame time, That thou doe, do quickly. Judas received the fop, without knowing No. tg. any thing of what his Malter had told the beloved difciple, nor did any of the dif- ciples, except St. John, entertain the leafi fufpicion, that Judas was the perfon who would betray their Mailer. They were, indeed, fo deeply affeëled with his decla- ration, that one of them fhould betray him, that they did not remark the words of JEsus to his apoftate difciple; but conti- nued to afk him, who was the perfon that fhould be guilty of fo unnatural a crime ? Willing at haft to fatisfy their importunity, the bleffed JEsus declared, that the perfon who dipped his handwith him in the dill' fhould betray him. This, to the eleven, was a jo'yful declaration, but confounding in the highefl degree to Judas: impudent as he was, it ftruck him fpeechlefs, dif- playing the foulnefs ofhis heart, and point= ing him out plainly. Judas continued mute with confufion, while the bleffed JEsus declared, that his death fhould be brought about according to the decrees of heaven, though that would not in the leaft mitigate the crime ofthe perfon who betrayed him ; adding, it had been goodfor that man ifhe had not been born: Judas having now recovered himfelf a little, afferted his innocence, by a queftion which implied a negation ofthe charge. But his Mailer pofitively affirm- ing that he was the perfon, he was foon frlenced. Judas Ifcariot's treachery in betraying his Mailer, muff raife the allonifhment of every reader, who has any notion of the charaller of our great, our merciful Re- deemer. It will not therefore, I hope, be difagreeable to the reader to explain the motives that induced him to be guilty of this atrocious crime, and confider particu- larly the circumftances that attended fo hi- human an anion. Some are of opinion, that he was induced to commit this villany by the refentment ofthe rebuke given him by his Malter for blaming the womanwho came with the precious ointment, and anointed the head of Jesus, as he fat at meat in the houfe of Simon the leper : 3 1 but
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