and SAVIOUR, JESUS CHRIST, and his APOSTLES, &c. reward for performing the bate act of betraying his Mailer, who had deferved from hini the belt of treatment. Convinced now, that it was not in his power to alfiit his Saviour, Judas's con- fcience,.being flung with remorfe, lathed himmore furioufly than before, fuggefling thoughts, which by turns; made the deepen wounds in his foul. TIM innocence and benevolence of his Mailer, the many fa- vours he himfelf had received from him, and the many kind offices he had done for the fönsand daughters ofaifliaiori, crowded at önce into his mind, and rendered his torment intolerable: He was, if I may be allowed the comparifon; like one placed on the brink of the infernal lake. Racked with thefe agonizing paflions; and unable to fupport the mifery, he threw down the wages of his iniquity in the temple; and confeffing at the fame time his own fin, and the innocence of his Mailer, went away in defpair and hanged himfelE Thus .perished Judas Ifcariot the traitor; a mifer- able example of the fatal influence Of cò- vetoufnefs, and a Handing monument of divine vengeance, to deter future genera- tions from ailing in oppofition to the dic- tates of confcience, through a love of the things of this world ; for which; this wretched mortal betrayed his Mailer, his Friend, his Saviour, and accumulated fuch a loadof guilt on himfelf as funk his foul into the lowest pit of anguilh and defpondency. The people gathered up the pieces of filver tail down, by Judas, and delivered them to the priefls, who, thinking it un- lawful to put them into the treafury, be- caufe they were the wages of a traitor, agreed to lay them out in purchafing the potter's field, and to make it a common burial -place for (rangers. This the evan- geliit tells us was done, that a particular prophecy relating to the Meffrah might be fulfilled : And they took the thirty pieces of filver, the price of him that was valued, whom they ofthe children ofIfrael did value and gave then for the potter's field, as the Lord appointed me. This prophecy ?5 is found in Zechariah, but by a miflake of fome copyift, the. word Jeremy is in- ferted in the Greek manufcripts of St- Matthew's gofpel ; unlefs we fuppofe with the learned Grotius, that this remarkable prophecy was frrft made by Jeremiah, and afterwards repeated by, the immediate di- rection of the Spirit, by Zechariah; and that, therefore, the evangelill has only afcribed the prophecy to it's original au- thor: but.höwever this be, the prophet' is remarkable, and was remarkably fulfilled; and the evangelifl puts the truth of this, Part of the hiftory beyond all manner of exception, by thus appealing to a public tranfatuion. We have before remarked, that the chief priefts and elders refufed to go themfelves into the judgment-hall, left they fhould, contrait fome pollutions in the houfe of an Heathen, which would have rendered them unfit for eating the paffòver. The fame reafòn alfo hindered them from en- tering the governor's palace on other fefti- vals, when that magilirate attended in order tó adminifter juftice : a kind of ftruc- ture wás therefore ereited, adjoining to the palace, which ferved inftead of a tri- bunal or judgmentdeat. This ftruiture, called in the Hebrew Gabbatha, was finely pavedwith fmall pieces ofmarble of differ- ent colours, being always expofed to the weather. Perhaps, it refembled a loge, but larger, open on all fides, and on one part of it a thronewas placed, whereon the governor fat to hear caufes. One fide of this ftruiture joined to the palace; and a door was made in the wall, through which the governor paffed to this tribunal. $y this contrivance, the people might stand round the tribunal in the open air, hear and fee the governor when he fpalte to them from the pavement, and obferve the whole adminiftration of juiice, without danger of being defiled either by him or any ofhis attendants. The great. Redeemer of mankind was brought before this tribunal ; and the priefts and elders having taken their places round the
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