288

Judas is told, that what he did he should do quickly.

SECT. will make the immortality of his being his ever

clxx.

Mat.

lasting curse.

answered and said,

Then Judas who was indeed the person that 25 Then Judas XXVI. betrayed him, answered in some confusion, lest which betrayed him, 25 by his silence he should seem to confess his Master, is it 1? He guilt, and said, Master, is it I that shall do said unto him, Thou this thing, and to whom thou referrest in these hast said. severe words? And he said to him, Thou hast said [right; thou art the very person, and I will conceal it no longer 1.

And after the sop, Sa

JOHN XIII. 27.

Then said Jesus unto him, That thou doest,

John And after he was thus expressly marked out, XIII.27. not only by the sop which Jesus gave him ", but tan entered into him. also by the answer which he had returned to his question, Satan entered into him with greater do quickly. violence, and stirred up in his bosom such indignation and rage at the disgrace he had met with, that he could bear the place no longer; but prepared abruptly to leave it before the table was dismissed, Then Jesus said to him, What you are going to do, do quickly; farther intimating to him his perfect knowledge of the appointment he had made with the chief priests and elders, and admonishing him, as it were, not to lose the opportunity by over-staying his 28 time. But the reference being thus particular to what none of the company but himself was privy to, no man at the table knew what was his this unto him. meaning, or for what purpose he spake this to him. For some [of them, thought because Ju das had the keeping of the common purse, on which they were to subsist during their stay at Jerusalem, that it was as if Jesus had said to him, Take the first opportunity to buy those sacrifices, and other things, which we shall need for the feast to-morrow and on the following days"; to the poor.

29

1 Thou hast said right.] This is plainly
the import of the original phrase; It is as
thou hast spoken (See Mat. xxvi. 63-65.
Mark xiv. 61, 62. Luke xxii. 70. John
xviii. 37.) Thus, Now you say something,
signifies among us, You speak right.

m After the sop.] It seems very unna-
tural to apprehend, with Dr. Reynolds (in
his Works, p. 101, 102,) that Judas was
encouraged by Christ giving him the sop to
hope that Christ would, after all, pro-
vide for his own safety, and admit him
into favour again. Christ's words above
expressly cut
off all such hope; and I
believe every reader will judge the com-
mon account given of the connection much
more probable.

↳ Which we shall need for the feast.] This

or

28 Now no man at the table knew for what intent he spake

29 For some of them thought, because Judas had the bag, that Jesus

had said unto him, Buy those things that we have need of against should give something

the feast; or that he

is one of the passages which has led Grotius and other considerable critics to conclude that our Lord kept the passover at least one day sooner than the rest of the Jews. The controversy is too large to be critically discussed here: I content myself with referring to Dr. Whitby's excellent Dissertation on the subject (in his Appendix to Mark xiv.) only observing, that the supposition of Christ's anticipat ing the day appointed by the law, is so improbable, that I think it more reasonable to suppose that the word feast, or passover, may signify the offerings at. tending the whole feast, and particularly those presented on the first day of unleavened bread which is certainly the sense of the word elsewhere. (See Deut, xvi. 2.

and

Reflections on the hardness of the traitor's heart.

30 He then hav

ing received the sop, went immediately out;

and it was night.

289

clxx.

or that perhaps he intended he should give SECT.
something to the poor, which Christ used to do,
though their stock was so small; but always John
did it in a very private manner, which made it XIII.29.
the more probable that he should only give
such an oblique hint of that intention. Of this
they thought, rather than of any bad design of
Judas; for they did not imagine that, if he
was to prove the traitor, his wickedness could
immediately take place; or that he was so ut-
terly abandoned as to go away to accomplish
it with those awful words of his master sound-
ing, as it were, in his ears.

But he was capable of committing the crime, 30
even with this aggravation; and therefore hav-
ing, as was said, received the sop, he immediately
went out without any farther reply; and as it
was night, which was the time he had appoint-
ed to meet those who were consulting the death
of Jesus, under the covert of it he went to
them, and fulfilled his engagements, in a few
hours after, by delivering his Master into their
hands.

IMPROVEMENT.

WHO would not gladly continue with Christ in the strictest Luke fidelity, amidst all the trials which can arise, when he observes xxii. 25. how liberally he repays his servants, and how graciously he seems to relish his own honours the more, in proportion to the degree in which those honours are shared with them; appointing them a glorious kingdom, and erecting thrones for each of them? 29, 30 And surely, though the apostles of the Lamb are to have their peculiar dignity in the great day of his triumph, there is a sense in which he will perform to every one that overcometh, that yet more condescending promise, I will grant him to sit down with me on my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father on his throne. (Rey. iii. 21.) Let our souls in that confidence be strengthened to all the labours and sufferings to which he may call us forth.

It is a melancholy reflection, that there should be any one in this select company, to whom this endearing promise did not belong; especially one who, having eaten of Christ's bread, should John in such a sense and degree as Judas, lift up his heel against him. Deliver

and 2 Chron. xxxv. 7-9.) And if this be admitted, it will obviate the most plausible argument for Grotius' opinion, which is that taken from John xviii. 28.

Others grounded on John xiii. 1, 2. xix.
14. and Mat. xxvi. 5. are obviated in the
paraphrase or notes on those places, as the
attentive reader will easily perccive.

xiii. 18.

290

Reflections on the hardness of the traitor's heart.

SECT. Deliver us, O Lord, from any share in that guilt! We are treated clxx. as thy friends; we are set at thy table: let us not ungratefully Mat. kick against thee, while the ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his XXV. master's crib; (Isa. i. 3.)

16

XXVI. 22.

If we would not do it, let us be jealous over ourselves with a godly jealousy. Happy are they whose hearts witness to their sinMat. cerity in the presence of him that searches them, and can cheerfully say, Lord, is it I? Let them say it humbly too; lest the infirmity of nature prevail upon them beyond their present purpose or apprehension, and lead them on to do that, the very thought of which they would now abhor.

Mark

Mat.

How artfully must Judas have conducted himself, when on xiv. 19. such an intimation no particular suspicion appears to have fallen on him! But how vain is that artifice, be it ever so refined, which, while it preserves a character in the sight of men, cannot in the xxvi. least degree impose upon Christ! The day will come when he will 23, 25 lay open the false and ungrateful hypocrite, in a more overwhelm24ing manner than that in which he here exposed Judas; and, whatever advantage he may have gained, either by professing religion, or by betraying it, he will undoubtedly find that it had been good for him that he never had been born.

30

by

One would have imagined that an admonition like this, which laid bare the secrets of his heart, and warned him so plainly and faithfully of his danger, might have wrought some remorse in his heart, or at least have proved some impediment to the immediate execution of his design: but, being now given up by the righJohn teous judgment of God to the influence of Satan, and the lust of xii. 27. his own depraved mind, he is exasperated, rather than reclaimed it; and immediately goes forth, under the covert of the night, to hasten the accomplishment of that work of darkness, the consequences of which had been so awfully represented. O Lord, let thy grace, and thy love, do that for us which thy terrors alone. cannot do! Let our hearts be melted by that nobler principle, and taught to abhor every thing which would displease thee! Oh, let them flow forth into such workings of compassion to the afflicted 29 as engaged the blessed Jesus to relieve the poor out of his own little stock; and into those sentiments of candor which would not permit the apostles, even after this admonition, to imagine Judas altogether so bad as indeed he was, but led them to put the mildest construction on their Master's ambiguous address to him! Such may our mistakes be, wherever we do mistake; the errors of a charity, which would not by excessive rigour injure the vilest sinner, and much less the least and weakest of God's servants!

SECT.

Jesus declares that he should soon be glorified.

291

SECT. CLXXI.

Christ, having exhorted his disciples to mutual love, forewarns them of their approaching trial, and foretells Peter's fall, immediately before the eucharist. Luke XXII. 31-34. John XIII. 31, to the end.

JOHN XII. 31. THEREFORE when

he was gone out, IT

Jesus said, Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in

him.

32 If God be glorified in him, God shall

also glorify him in himself, and shall straightway glorify him.

33 Little children, yet a little white I an

with you: Ye shall seek me; and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot come;

so now I say unto you.

JOHN XIII. 31.

cixxi.

John

was observed in the preceding section how SECT.
Judas, being marked out both by Christ's ac-
tions and his words, quitted the place in a mix-
ture of rage and confusion: when therefore he x11.31.
was thus gone out, Jesus said to the rest of his
disciples as they sat at the table with him, Now
is the Son of man just on the point of being glo-
rified far more remarkably than ever; and God
in a most illustrious manner is to be glorified in
him, by the signal and extraordinary circum-
stances of his abasement and exaltation. And 32
you may assure yourselves, that if God be glo-
rified in him, God will also glorify him in and
with himself, in such a degree as shall in the
most convincing manner declare his intimate re-
lation to him; and the time will presently come
when he will eminently glorify him: for the Son
of man is very shortly to enter on the honours
of his celestial and universal kingdom, and in
the mean time some rays of Divine glory shall
shine through all that cloud of ignominy, re-
proach, and distress, which shall surround him.

My dear little children, whom I love even with 33
parental tenderness, and whom my heart pities
under all your trials and sorrows, it is yet but a
very little while longer that I am to continue
with you; a few hours more will part us: -and
when I am gone, ye shall seek me, and wish for
my presence and converse; but, as I said to the
Jews, that whither I go, ye cannot come (John
vii. 34; and viii. 21, Vol. VI. p. 519, 533); so
now I say to you, Ye cannot as yet come to the
place

a When therefore he was gone out.] The reader will observe that, if the former rea soning relating to the order of this part of the story be just, Judas certainly went out before the eucharist was instituted. And indeed one cannot reasonably suppose VOL. VII.

Christ would have commanded him to
drink of the cup, as the blood shed for him
for the remission of his sins, when he had
just before been declaring in effect that his
sins should never be forgiven.

b A

292

clxxi.

John

He commands his disciples to love one another.

34 A new command. ment I give unto you,

SECT place whither I am going. But observe my parting words, and let them be written on your That ye love one anovery hearts; for I give it you as a new com- ther; as I have loved XIII.54. mandment, and press you by new motives and you, that ye also love a new example to a duty which hitherto, alas, one another. has been too little regarded; and from henceforth would have you to consider it as confirmed by a new sanction, and to keep it ever fresh in your memories; That ye love one another with a most sincere and ardent affection, such as mankind have never known before; yea, I would now enjoin you, even as I have loved you, that ye also would love one another, with a friendship which may carry you through such difficulties and sufferings as I am going to endure for you 35 all. This will be the most acceptable and the most ornamental token of your relation to me; and I recommend it to you, as the noblest badge love one to another. of your profession: for by this shall all men know that you are my disciples indeed, if they see you have that lively and generous love for each other which nothing but my gospel can be sufficient to inspire.

35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have

36 Simon Peter said unto him, Lord, whi

36 On this Jesus paused, that they might have an
opportunity to reflect seriously on the important ther guest thou? Jesus
charge he had given them. And Simon Peter, answered him, Whi-
touched with what he had said of his being ready ther I go, thou canst
to go whither they could not come, said to him,
Lord, permit us to inquire, whither art thou go-

b A new commandment.] I apprehend this expression signifies much more than merely a renewed command. (Compare 1 John ii. 7, 8; and 2 John ver. 5.) It seems a strong and lively intimation that the engagements to mutual love, peculiar to the Christian dispensation, are so singular, and so cogent, that all other men, when compared with its votaries, may seem uninstructed in the school of friendship, and Jesus may appear, as it were, the first professor of that Divine science. Jamblicus (Vit. Pythag. cap. 33) seems very injuriously to have preferred the Pythagoreans to all other men on that account; but it may be observed, that both he and Eunapius, like many moderns, seem to have had very little regard to truth when falsehood night cast a slur on Christianity- Dr. Clarke well observes that our Lord seems to have laid this peculiar stress on charity, as foreseeing that general corruption and destruction of true Christianity, which the want of it would cause among those that should call themselves his church. (Clarke's Ser

ing?

not follow me now;

but

mons, Vol. III. p. 297.- -Raphelius
(Annot. ex. Xen. p. 137-139) has the
best note I ever saw on the passage, though
I think it hardly reaches the full spirit
of it; in which he shews that Xenophon
calls the laws of Lycurgus naivolalo vojos,
very new laws, several hundred years after
they were made; because, though they
had been commended by other nations,
they had not been practised by them.—
Perhaps our Lord may here insinuate a re-
flection, not only on that party spirit which
prevailed so much in the Jews, but like-
wise on the emulations and contentions
among the apostles themselves, which mu
tual love would easily have cured.
this sense it is still a new commandment to
us, who generally act as if we had not yet
got time to learn, or even to read it.

In

c The noblest badge of your profession.] It is well known that the founders of new societies appoint some peculiar ornament, sign, or mode of living, by which their followers may be known from others. This seems to be here alluded to.

d Thou