the wicked one,' who should justly be set over them,' when they had delivered themselves into his hands: that Satan,' who had stood by them to tempt them, should 'stand at their right hand' to accuse them at the tribunal of God; that when tried, they would be convicted and condemned,'

and even their prayer' would be abomination in the sight of the Lord, as being offered without true contrition and repentance, without faith, hope, or charity. Such is the wretched state of the Jews, estranged from God, and in bondage to the devil; such the prayers which, from hardened and malignant hearts, they continually utter, for the excision of all Christians, and for the extirpation of that blessed name on which Christians call. These prayers, instead of lightening the burden of their sins, certainly add to its weight. Enable us, O Lord Jesus, to resist Satan as a tempter, that he may not be our accuser; and grant us always so to pray, that our prayers may be heard.

8. His days shall be few; and another shall take his office.

This is the verse which St. Peter hath cited and applied in his discourse to the disciples, at the election of Matthias into the place of Judas. Men and brethren, this scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost, by the mouth of David, spake before concerning Judas, who was guide to them that took Jesus. For he was numbered with us, and had obtained part of this ministry. Now this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity, and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out. For it is written in the book of Psalms, Let

his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein; and his bishopric let another take.' The former of these two citations is made from Psal. lxix. 25, the latter is a part of the verse now before us. If Judas, therefore, be the person whose destruction the sufferer foretelleth, the person speaking in this prophetical Psalm must of necessity be our Lord himself, who suffered by the treachery of Judas. In Ps. lxix. 25, the prediction is in the plural number, Their habitation shall be void;' yet St. Peter applies it, in the singular number, to Judas. The passage in our Psalm is singular, yet applicable not to Judas only, but to the whole nation of the Jews; whose days,' after they had crucified the Lord of glory, were few ;' who were dispossessed of the place and office' which they held as the church of God, and to which, with all its honours and privileges, the Gentile Christian church succeeded in their stead, when the Aaronical priesthood was abolished, and that of the true Melchizedek established for ever.

9. His children shall be fatherless, and his wife a widow. 10. His children shall be continually vagabonds, and beg; they shall seek their bread also out of their desolate places.

If, by the wretched death of Judas, his wife became a widow, and his children orphans, vagabonds, and beggars, their fate was but a prelude to that of thousands and ten thousands of the same nation, whose husbands and fathers came afterwards to a miserable end, at the destruction of Jerusalem. Their children, and children's children, have since been continually vagabonds' upon the earth, in the state of Cain, when he had

murdered his righteous brother, not cut off, but marvellously preserved for punishment and woe. Having nothing of their own, they roam through all parts of the world, civilized or barbarous, the scorn and contempt of mankind. And even if they are able to amass wealth, their unparalleled avarice still keeps them poor and beggarly in the midst of it. Thus Dr. Hammond, in his Annotation on these verses: "By this is described, in a very lively manner, the condition of the Jewish posterity, ever since their ancestors fell under that signal vengeance, for the crucifying of Christ. First, their desolations and vastations in their own country, and being ejected thence; secondly, their continual wanderings from place to place, scattered over the face of the earth; and, thirdly, their remarkable covetousness, keeping them always poor and beggarly, be they never so rich, and continually labouring and moiling for gain, as the poorest are wont to do; and this is continually the constant curse attending this people wheresoever they are scattered."

11. The extortioner, or, creditor, shall catch, or, seize, all that he hath; and the stranger shall spoil his labour. 12. There shall be none to extend mercy to him; neither shall there be any to favour his fatherless children.

Since the destruction of Jerusalem, how often hath this race been seized, pillaged, stripped, and impoverished, by prince and people, in all the nations of the known world; none appearing, as in other cases, to 'favour and extend mercy' to them!'

1 Thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled evermore, and no man shall save thee.-The fruit of thy land, and all thy labours,

"They have had no nation, none to avenge their grievous wrong, which the Lord God of their forefathers had ordained they should suffer, at all times, and in all places, wheresoever they have come, without redress. Nay, their general carriage hath been so odious and preposterous, that, albeit the Christian magistrates had conspired together for their good, they would themselves have certainly provoked their own misery." Thus, that excellent divine, the learned and pious Dr. Jackson, vol. i. p. 142 and 135; whose reflections upon the history of the Jews, at and since their dispersion, it were to be wished that every Christian could peruse. For, as he himself observes, "Christian parents, whether bodily or spiritual, should be as careful to instruct their children what the Lord hath done to these Jews, as the Israelites should have been to tell their sons what God had done to Pharaoh." Ibid. p. 452.

13. His posterity shall be cut off, and in the generation following, their name shall be blotted out. 14. The iniquity of his fathers shall be remembered with the Lord, and the sin of his mother shall not be blotted out. 15. They shall be before the Lord continually, that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth.

The traitorous and rebellious posterity' of traitorous and rebellious parents, suffered an 'excision' by the Roman sword, and in the generation fol lowing, their name,' as as a church and civil polity, was blotted out' of the list of states and king

shall a nation which thou knowest not, eat up; and thou shalt be only oppressed and crushed alway.' Deut. xxviii. 29, 33.

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doms upon earth. The iniquity of their fathers,' which they had filled up, was remembered with Jehovah, and the sin of their mother,' that is, perhaps, of the synagogue of Jerusalem, now in bondage with her children,' was not blotted out; that upon them might come all the righteous blood shed, from the blood of righteous Abel, unto the blood of Zacharias, whom they slew between the temple and the altar.' Matt. xxiii. 35. The blood of the prophets cried for vengeance against those who crucified the Lord of the prophets. God hid not his face any longer from all these horrible transgressions, but 'they were before him continually,' and occasioned him to cut off the memory' of his people, once precious and fragrant, 'from the earth;' so that while apostles and martyrs are annually commemorated with honour, and their good deeds, blossoming out of the dust, perfume the church, and delight the souls of the faithful, the names of 'Judas' and 'Jew' are never mentioned but with contempt and abhorrence.

16. Because that he remembered not to show mercy; but persecuted the poor and needy man, that he might even slay the broken in heart.

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The crime which brought upon its perpetrators all the above-mentioned judgments and calamities, is here pointed out too plainly to be mistaken. They remembered not to show mercy' to him who showed it to all the world; they persecuted' him who for our sakes became poor,' and who condescended to ask of his creatures water to drink; they betrayed and murdered the lowly and afflicted Jesus, whose heart' was 'broken' with sorrow for their sins, and with a sense of the punishment due to them. How long will it be, ere the brethren of