light, it will give us no reason to think well of ourselves, if we are wanting in our duty to God; and that we should not only be charitable, but grateful also, just, temperate, and blameless, in all our dealings with mankind. For we should remember that the duty we owe to the Almighty is no other than what is due to men in the like circumstances, and which it would be unjust in us to neglect. It consists in dispositions and actions, the same in kind, but different in degree, proportionate to the perfec tion of the object.

He who loves and admires holiness, justice, and truth in men, cannot but love those perfections in God, that is, he must love God; so, likewise, he that is truly grateful to any earthly benefactor, cannot be ungrateful to one from whose bounty he receives all the good things he enjoys; and since ingratitude in men is nothing more than forgetting the benefits received, and the benefactor who conferred the favor; how can we acquit ourselves from the charge of ingratitude to God; if we forget the obligations we lie under to him, and are at no pains to return him thanks; that is, if we wholly neglect the external and internal exercises of devotion?

Since, therefore, the duty we owe to God is the same in kind with what we owe to man in like circumstances, it will undeniabiy follow, that true morality can never exist where piety is wanting; and that those who pretend to morality, and are destitute of piety, render themselves ridiculous.

The awful judge himself has told us, that after he has passed the happy sentence on the righteous, he will pronounce the following sentence of condemnation upon the wicked: "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily, I say unto you, inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me." Matt. xxv. 41, &c.

It is remarkable, that our blessed Saviour has told us, that the original design of Omnipotence was to render man happy, not miserable: a state of consummate felicity was formed for the human race, at the time they were created; but the fire of hell was prepared for the devil and his angels immediately after their fall. And as wicked men joined with devils in their sin of rebellion against the Almighty, they are doomed to share

with them in their punishment: a punishment of the heaviest kind; a punishment of devils.

After having represented the sentences that are to be passed on the righteous and the wicked, our Saviour closes the parable in the following manner: "And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal." Matt.

xxv. 46.

Happy decision to the followers of the Lamb! awful sentence to the workers of iniquity! may it excite us to pray for that grace by which alone we shall obtain the latter !

CHAPTER XXXII.

The

Our blessed Lord is anointed by a poor but pious woman. perfidious Judas consents to betray his Master.-The humble Jesus washes the feet of his Disciples, and foretels that Disciple who was to betray him into the hands of his inveterate

enemies.

THE blessed Jesus used frequently to retire, in the evening, from the city to the Mount of Olives, and there spend the night, either in some village or the gardens, in order to avoid falling into the hands of his enemies. They did not, indeed, presume to attack him, while he was surrounded by his followers in the day time but, in all probability, had he lodged within the city, they would have apprehended him during the darkness and silence of the night.

When our blessed Saviour had finished these parables, he added a short account of his own death, in order to fortify his disciples against the greatest trial they had met with; namely, the sufferings of their Master. "And it came to pass, when Jesus had finished all these sayings, he said unto his disciples, Ye know that after two days is the feast of the passover, and the Son of Man is betrayed to be crucified. Then assembled together the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders of the people, unto the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, and consulted that they might take Jesus by subtlety, and kill him. But they said, Not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar among the people." Matt. xxvi. 1, &c.

When the evening approached, our blessed Saviour, with his disciples, repaired to Bethany, and entered the house of Simon the leper, probably one who had experienced the healing efficacy of his power. But while he sat at meat, a woman, who

had also, doubtless, been an object of his mercy, poured a box of precious ointment upon his head.

This action displeased the disciples, who knew that their Master was not delighted with luxuries of any kind; and therefore they rebuked the woman, imagining that it would have been more acceptable to the Son of God, if the ointment had been sold, and the money distributed among the sons and daughters of poverty and affliction.

To reprove the disciples, Jesus told them, that it had pleasea the divine Providence to order that there should always be persons in necessitous circumstances, that the virtuous might never want occasions for exercising their charity; but that those who did not now testify their love to him would never more have the opportunity of doing it, as the time of his ministry was near its period, when the king of terrors should enjoy a short triumph over his body; and therefore this woman had seasonably anointed him for his burial. And to make them sensible of their folly, in blaming the woman for this her expression of love to him, he assured them that she should be highly esteemed for this action, in every part of the world, and her memory live to the latest period of time.

Judas Iscariot (one of the twelve, having been more forward than the rest in condemning the woman, thought the rebuke was particularly directed to him) stung with the guilt of his own conscience, arose from the table, and went immediately into the city to the high priest's palace, where he found the whole council assembled. His passion would not suffer him to reflect on the horrid deed he was going to commit; he immediately promised for the reward of thirty pieces of silver, to betray into their hands his Lord and Master.

Having thus engaged with the rulers of Israel, to put into their hands a person who had been long laboring for their salvation, who had often invited them in the most pathetic manner, to embrace the benevolent terms of the Gospel, offered by the Almighty, he sought an opportunity to betray him in the absence of the multitude.

Our Lord, who well knew that the time of his suffering drew nigh, desired, therefore, to celebrate the passover with his disciples. He was now going to finish the mighty work for which he came into the world; and therefore would not neglect to fulfil the smallest particular of the law of Moses. He therefore sent two of his disciples into the city, to prepare a lamb, and make it ready, for eating the passover; telling them that they should meet a man, bearing a pitcher of water, who would conduct them to his house, and show them a large upper room fur nished, where they were to make ready for him. He was wil. ling in this last transaction to convince his disciples, that he

knew every thing that should befall him; that his sufferings were all pre-determined by the Almighty, and that they were all, on his own account submitted unto voluntarily.

When night approached, Jesus left Bethany; and every thing being ready for him, at the time he entered into the city, he sat down at the appointed hour. But knowing that his sufferings were now near, he told his disciples in the most affectionate manner, that he greatly longed to eat the passover with them before he suffered, in order to show them the strongest proof of his love. These proofs were to give them a pattern of humility and charity by washing their feet; instructing them in the nature of his death, and a propitiatory sacrifice; instituting the sacra ment, in commemoration of his sufferings; comforting them by the tender discourses recorded John, xiv. xv. xvi., in which he gave them a variety of excellent directions, together with many gracious promises; and recommending them to the kind protec tion of his heavenly Father. "With desire I have desired to passover with you, before I suffer. For I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God."

eat this

Having thus spoken, he arose from the table, laid aside his garments like a servant, and, with all the officiousness of a humble minister, washed the feet of his disciples, without distinction, though one of them, Judas Iscariot, was a monster of impiety; that they might at once behold a conjunction of charity, and humility, and self-denial, and indifference, represented by a person glorious beyond expression, their great Lord and Master.

He washed their feet (according to a custom which prevailed in those hot countries both before and after meat) in order to show them an example of the utmost humility and condescension.

The omnipotent Son of the Father lays every thing aside that he may serve his followers: heaven stoops to earth, one abyss calls upon another, and the miseries of man, which were almost infinite, are exceeded by a mercy equal to the immensity of the Almighty. He deferred this ceremony which was a customary civility paid to honorable strangers at the beginning of their feast, that it might be preparatory to the second, which he intended should be a feast to the whole world, when all the followers of the blessed Jesus should have an opportunity, in a spiritual manner, of feeding on his flesh, and drinking his blood.

When our blessed Saviour came to Peter, he modestly declined it; but his Master told him, if he refused to submit implicitly to all his orders, he could have no part with him. On which Peter cried out, "Lord, not my feet only, but also my

hands and my head." But Jesus told him, that the person who had bathed himself had no reason to wash any part of the body, except his feet, which he might have dirtied by walking from the bath. And added, Ye are all clean, as to the outward laver, but not as to the inward and spiritual laver: I well know that one of you will betray me.

When our gracious Lord had finished this menial service, he asked his disciples, if they knew the meaning of what he had done, as the action was purely emblematical? You truly, added he, style me Master and Lord, for I am the Son of God, and the Saviour of the world. But if I your Master and your Lord, have condescended to wash your feet, you surely ought to perform with the utmost pleasure, the humblest offices of charity one to another. I have set you a pattern of humility, and I recommend it to you.

And certainly nothing can more effectually show us the necessity of this heavenly temper of mind than its being recommended to us by so great an example: a recommendation, which in the present circumstances, was particularly seasonable; for the disciples having heard their great Master declare that the kingdom of heaven was at hand, their minds were filled with ambitious thoughts. And therefore our blessed Saviour added, Ye need not be ashamed to follow my example in this particular; for no servant can think it beneath him to condescend to perform those actions his lord had done before him. And therefore if he knows his duty, he will be happy if he practises it. He moreover added, that though he had called them all to the apostleship. and well knew the secret dispositions of every heart, before he chose them, they need not be surprised that one among them should prove a traitor, as it was done that the Scripture might be fulfilled: "He that eateth bread with me, hath lifted up his heel against me."

As our blessed Saviour was now to be but a short time with his disciples, he thought proper to take his farewell of them, which he did in a most affectionate manner. These melancholy tidings greatly troubled them. They were unwilling to part with so kind a friend, so dear a Master, so wise a guide, and so profitable a teacher; especially as they thought they should be left in a forlorn condition, a poor and helpless prey to the rage and hatred of a blind and malicious generation. They seemed willing to die with their Lord, if that might be accepted. Why cannot I follow thee! I will lay down my life for thee was the language of one, and even all of them: but they could not support the thoughts of a disconsolate separation.

Their great and compassionate Master, seeing them thus dejected, endeavored to cheer their drooping spirits: "Let not