SERMON XII.

THE SENTENCE PASSED UPON JUDAS BY

JESUS CHRIST.

MATT, xxvi. 24,

The son of man goeth as it is written of him: but wo unte that man, by whom the son of man is betrayed: it had been good for that man if he had not been born.

THIS

HIS verse is part of a period beginning at the seventeenth, and ending with the twenty-fifth verse, in which the evangelist narrates two events, the last passover of Jesus Christ, and the treason of Judas. One of my colleagues will explain the other parts of this passage of sacred history, and I shall confine myself to this sentence of our Saviour against Judas, It had been good for that man if he had not been born.

This oracle is unequivocal. It conveys a most melancholy idea of the condition of the unhappy criminal. It should seem, Jesus Christ enveloped in qualified terms a truth the most dreadful imaginable. These words, It had been good for that man, if he had not been born, are equivalent to these, Judas is forever excluded from the happiness of heaven; Judas is forever condemned to the punishment of hell. It is the same truth, which the apostles expressed, after the example of their master, in milder terms, Thou Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, shew whether thou hast choşen Justus or Matthias, that he may take the part of this apostleship, from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place, Acts i. 24. 28. What is this place? The answer is easy, though some ancient heretics affirmed extravagant things about it. It is the place reserved for those, against whom the door of mercy is shut: it is the place reserved for those who must for ever serve for victims to divine justice. If

If you recal to mind all the most guilty persons, and those whose condition is the most desperate, you will not find one, of whom that can be said without rashness, which is here affirmed of Judas. Judas is the only person, literally the only person, whom we are allowed with certainty to declare is in the torments of hell. Certainly, we cannot help forming lamentable ideas of the condition of some sinners, who died in perpetrating their crimes; as of some who were less men than monsters of humanity, and who died blaspheming God, and attacking religion and morality, as Pharoah, Belshazzar, Julian, and others: but after all it is not for us to set limits to the mercy of God. The holy Spirit hath ways unknown to us to convert the hearts of men. Judas is the only one without exception, of whom I dare venture to affirm, he is irrecoverably lost. And when I form this judgment of his destiny, I do not ground it merely on his betraying Jesus Christ; for it is not impossible, that after he had committed that crime he might have obtained forgiveness by repentance. I do not ground it on the manner of his death, for he was distracted, and madness is sometimes caused by trouble, and in such a case reason hath no share, and divine justice doth not impute sin tó a man de prived of his senses. I ground my judgment of the punishment of Judas on the words of my text, It had been good for that man, if he had not been born; words never denounced by the Spirit of God against any other wretch that ever was. Thus the object, which I exhibit to your view to day, is not only a particular object, but it is even an unique, a sole, a single object.

But perhaps because it is a singular case, you think it does not regard you, and that you need not make any inferences concerning your own eternal destiny from it. And does not this object regard you! las! My brethren, I dare not .... but however hear me; condescend to accompany me in this mortifying and (I must tell you, how improper soever it may seem to conciliate your attention) deign to accompany us in this alarming meditation. Come and examine what a melancholy likeness there is between the features of some of our hearers, and those of the miserable Judas. How like are their dispositions! How sad soever the examination may be, there is at least one comfortable consideration, at least one difference between them and this traitor, that is, Jesus Christ hath pronounced the decree of his condemnation, whereas he hath not yet pronounced the sentence on my

hearers;

hearers; the door of mercy is yet open to them, the time of their visitation is not yet quite expired. O that they would avail themselves of the few inestimable moments that remain! O that they would throw themselves at the feet of that Jesus, whom they have so often betrayed! O that they may be washed in that blood, which they have so unworthily trodden under foot! God Almighty grant, for his great mercy's sake, that this may be the effect of this discourse! Grant, O God, that such of us as are best esta blished in piety may be filled with holy fear, by seeing to what excess self-interest may be carried! O Lord, incline my heart unto thy testimonies, and not unto covetousness. Amen.

It had been good for that man, if he had not been born, or what is the same thing in this place, If he had never existed, and were not to exist any longer. Let us first explain the meaning of Jesus Christ by a few reflections, and justify the idea I have given you of the words.

1. Existence is the foundation of happiness and misery. Nothing bath no properties. Not to exist is to be neither happy nor miserable. To exist is to be capable of one, or the other, or both together. Existence considered in itself is indifferent to the being existing, it is the happiness, or the misery with which it is accompanied, which determines the value of it. If it were possible for a man to exist without being either happy or miserable, his existence would be in some sort useless and indifferent, and it would be true in regard to him, that it would be neither good nor evil to him to be born, or not to be born. If the existence of a man be accompanied with equal degrees of happiness and misery, we must form the same judgment; misery is compensated by happiness, and happiness by misery; the balance is equal, and preponderates neither way. If there be more happiness than misery in his existence, it is true in regard to him, that it is better for him to be than not to be on the contrary, if misery exceed happiness. . . . finish this proposition yourselves, and apply it to the subject in hand. It had been good for Judas, if he had not been born. So Jesus Christ declares. The existence of Judas then must be attended with more misery than happiness. This is our first reflection.

2. To judge whether a man be happy or miserable, whe ther it be better for him to exist, or not to exist, we must not consider him in regard to a few moments, but in the VOL. V.

Ii

whole

whole of his existence: we must examine whether, all things considered, good be greater than evil, or evil greater than good, The good and ills of past life generally leave no impression on our minds, they contribute only to our present happiness or misery, and there remains nothing but a remembrance of them. If you judge of the happiness or misery of man by his actual condition, you will say in each moment of his happiness, it is better for him to be than not to be; and during every moment of his misery, you will say it is better for him not to exist than to exist. But, as I said before, it is not in regard to a single instant that a man ought to be considered, to determine whether he be happy or miserable; it is in the whole of his existence.

I make this reflection to prevent your supposing that when Jesus Christ said, It had been good for Judas, if he had not been born, he meant Judas should be annihilated. Had Judas been annihilated after death, it must be said, according to our first proposition, that Judas after death would not be either happy or miserable; that it would not have been either good or evil for him to be born, or not to be born. In this case, to form a just idea of the value of the existence of Judas, it would be necessary to compare the misery of his end with the happiness of his life, and as we have no reason to think he had been more miserable than happy in his life, as we have reason to presume, on the contrary, that having been in a middling state of life he had enjoyed the gifts of nature with some kind of tranquillity, it could not be affirmed, strictly speaking, that because he died a violent death, it had been good for him, if he had not been born. The death of Judas separated from its consequences was not more miserable than that of a man, who dies in his bed after lying ill some days; and as we cannot affirm of a man, who after enjoying a tranquil life dies by an illness of some days, that it had been good for that man, if he had not been born, so neither can we affirm of Judas,. if he had been annihilated after death. When Jesus Christ says, it had been good for that man if he had not been born, he sup poses, he would subsist after death. He compares the condition he would be in after death with all the good he had enjoyed, and would enjoy during life; and by thus forming his judgment on the whole of existence, he determines that the existence of this traitor would be accompanied with more evil than good, and he pronounces, it would have been good for that man if he had not been born, that is to

say,

say, if he never had existed, and if he never were to exist any longer. This is our second reflection.

3. Whatever misfortunes attend the present life, there are few men, who, all things considered, would not rather choose to live for ever as we live in this world than to be annihilated after living a few years. I do not inquire whether their choice be good; I only say it is their choice, the fact is incontestable. If few men be of the mind of Mecanas, who said, "Let me suffer, let me be despised and miserable, yet I would rather exist than not exist," if there be, I say, few men of the opinion of this favourite of Augustus, there are few also, who adopt the sentiment of the wise man, or shall I say of the fool? (for there is some reason to doubt, whether it be the language of Solomon or the fool introduced in the book) I praised the dead which are already dead, more than the living which are yet alive yea, better is he than both they, which hath not yet been, Eccles. iv. 2, 3. To consider things as they usually are, whatever misfortunes attend life, mankind prefer life before annihilation. Whether their taste be good or bad, we do not inquire now, we speak of a fact, and the fact is indisputable. Jesus Christ speaks to men, he supposes their ideas to be what they are, and he speaks according to these ideas. When he says, it had been good for Judas, if he had not been born, he means that his misery would be greater after death than it had been during his life; for how disgusting soever life may be, mankind prefer it before annihilation; and if Judas had no other punishment to suffer for his perfidy than such as belonged to the present state, Jesus Christ would not have said, it had been good for that man, if he had not been born. He intended we should understand that Judas would be more miserable in a future œconomy, than we are in this life, in spite of the maladies to which our frailty exposes us, in spite of the vicissitudes we experience, and in spite of the sacrifices, which we are daily required to make.

4. If, as we said at first, the sentence of Jesus Christ against Judas be expressed in mild terms, we must, in order fully to comprehend the sense, Jay aside the soft language, and advert to the terrible subject. But can we without rashness change the terms of a sentence, which the Saviour pronounced, and give the whole of what he spoke only in part? Yes, provided the part we add be taken not from our own systems, but from that of Jesus Christ, who only can.