law judges and condemns them. They accept the punishment of their iniquities, and realize that they deserve to be destroyed more than any they know of, who ever have been, or ever will be destroyed.

Finally, in the view of this subject, impenitent sinners may see their guilty and deplorable condition. Every imagination of the thoughts of their heart has been evil, only evil continually. They have never felt as they ought to feel, nor acted as they ought to act. They have been constantly adding sin to sin and increasing their load of guilt, by which they have forfeited the favor of God and of all good beings. They have despised the love of God in sending his Son to redeem them. They have despised the love of Christ in dying for them. They have despised the salvation he has offered to them. And now what can they say it God should punish them forever according to their deserts? They must be speechless. What will their pious friends and dearest relatives say, if they should see them lifting up their eyes in torments? We know they will say "Amen, Alleluia." They will not have a friend in the universe, that will take their part. All heaven will justify God and condemn them. Those, who once sincerely prayed, that they might repent and flee from the wrath to come, will be pleased to see God glorify his justice upon those, who refused to repent and give glory to him. Can their hands be strong, or their heart endure, in the day that God shall deal with them and make them completely friendless and hopeless forever! But some may ask, can all this be true? Ask your pious father and mother, your pious brother and sis ter or any of your pious friends; and they will tell you that all this is true; and perhaps they often have told you so. But if you are still in doubt ask your own consciences and they will tell you so. The only reason, why you do not now feel yourselves in the gall of bitterness and the bonds of iniquity, is because you have neglected or refused to see the plague of your own hearts and to realize that ill desert, which you constantly carry about with you and which will infallibly bind you

over to everlasting destruction, except you repent. And what reason have you to hope you ever will repent? Neither the word, nor providence, nor patience of God have yet brought you to repentance. God may justly let you alone and leave you to fill up the measure of your sins and treasure up to yourselves wrath against the day of wrath and your final doom. There may be but a step between you and both temporal and eternal death. Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver you to the judge and the judge deliver you to the officer and you be cast into prison. Verily I say unto you, you shall by no means come out thence, till you have paid the uttermost farthing."

SERMON XVIII.

THE PERDITION OF JUDAS.

MATTHEW, XXVI. 24.-It had been good for that man, if he had not been born.

Our Lord, the same night in which he was betrayed, called together his twelve disciples to celebrate the Passover. On that solemn occasion, he informed them of one peculiar circumstance of his approaching death, which he had never hinted to them before and which deeply affected their hearts. "As they did eat, he said, Verily I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me. And they were exceeding sorrowful; and began every one to say unto him, Lord, is it I ? And he answered and said, He, that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray me. The Son of man goeth, as it is written of him; but woe unto that man, by whom the Son of man is betrayed: it had been good for that man, if he had not been born."

The text naturally leads us to make several observations respecting Judas, the person, of whom the Sav ior here speaks. In these observations I intend to exhibit, from the scriptures, a statement of plain facts, which are stubborn things and which bring irresistible evidence in favor of whatever doctrines are justly deduced from them. And to begin;

1. Judas was a man. He was one of the natural

descendants of Adam. He was the son of Simon. Twice he is called the son of Simon and twice Simon's son. Christ, who perfectly knew him, calls him a man in the text. And though elsewhere he calls him a devil, yet he evidently calls him so figuratively, as having the spirit of the devil, or rather as being pos

sessed of him and instigated by him, after he had received the sop, to betray his divine Master. Hence it is evident, that he was a fallen man, under the influence of a fallen angel.

Now Judas, as a man, possessed all the powers and faculties, which belong to human nature. He was endued with perception, memory, reason, conscience and volition. These he exercised and manifested, as clearly as the other apostles. He was no more nor less dependant upon God than other men. He was a free, moral agent. He acted of choice and design in the view of motives. For we know of some of the motives, in view of which he acted from time to time.--There is no intimation, that he was the least of the apostles, as to natural powers and abilities. In this respect he was, no doubt, upon a level with the rest of his fellow men and fellow apostles.

2. Judas was a man, whom God was pleased to treat with distinguishing favor. He blessed him with a rational and immortal spirit. He formed him wiser than the beasts of the field and the fowls of heaven; and made him but little lower than the angels. And he gave him his birth in a happy place; not in the dark corners of the western world, but in the most enlightened part of Asia; in the land of Canaan, where he had fixed the residence of his chosen people and deposited his sacred oracles. He also gave him his birth at a happy time; just as Christ was making his appearance among men, as the Savior of the world: `a time which Abraham, Moses and the prophets would have esteemed it a signal favour to have seen. over, he gave him an opportunity to become personally acquainted with Christ and to be admitted into the number of his apostles, who were his constant attendants. In a word, God raised Judas to heaven in point of privileges,

More

3. God used no compulsive measures to lead him into sin. He neither commanded nor advised him to sin; nor once intimated, that he should be pleased with his sinning. He never compelled him to love or hate ;

or to say or do any thing whatever contrary to his own inclination. Of this we have the best evidence; even the evidence of Judas against himself. When he stood

in the most pressing need of some excuse to exculpate himself, not only before God and the world, but before his own conscience, he brings no complaint against God; nor attempts to plead the least degree of compulsion to act wickedly, contrary to the voluntary exercises of his own heart. He confesses he betrayed innocent blood; he acknowledges the action to be his own; he feels and takes all the blame to himself, though it sinks him into horror and despair. But,

4. Instead of being compelled to sin, he had the most powerful means used with him to restrain him from it. He enjoyed the writings of Moses and the prophets and the living example of the Son of God. He was placed under the watch and care of Christ; and heard the gracious words, which fell from his lips. He heard his sermon on the mount, the parable of the sower, the talents, the tares, the ten virgins, the prodigal, the unjust steward, the rich fool and Dives and Lazarus. As these were designed to expose the guilt and danger of hypocrisy, coveteousness and injustice; so they were adapted to fasten conviction upon his guilty conscience and restrain him from that treason and murder, which finally proved his ruin. He was likewise a witness of the supernatural and miraculous works of Christ. He beheld the eyes of the blind opened, the ears of the deaf unstopped, the tongues of the dumb unloosed, the feet of the lame strengthened, the disorders of the sick removed and even the reason of the insane and the life of the dead restored, by the almighty voice of the compassionate Redeemer. And then all these united, it is hard to conceive what stronger motives could be set before him, or what greater restraints could be laid upon him, to guard him from sin. Yet,

All the

5. Judas was a prodigy of wickedness. time he followed Christ and carried the bag and preached the gospel, he inwardly cherished a selfish, sordid