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. Ixix. 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.

4

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 de"scribed, 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 peo"ple 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 * ! They

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

"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 “exci"sion" by the Roman sword, and "in the genera

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

"tion following, their name," as a church and civil polity, was "blotted out" of the list of states and kingdoms upon earth. "The iniquity of their fa"thers," which they had filled up, "was remember"ed 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 conti"nually," and occasioned him to "cut off the me"mory" 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, 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.

The crime which brought upon its perpetrators all the above-mentioned judgements 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 conde

scended 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 this most innocent and most injured Joseph," say one "to another, We are verily guilty concerning our "brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul, "when he besought us, and we would not hear: "THEREFORE is this distress come upon us!" Gen. xlii. 21.

17. As he loved cursing, so shall it come unto him: as he delighted not in blessing, so shall it be far from him. 18. As he clothed himself with cursing, like as with his garment, so shall it come into his bowels like water, and like oil into his bones. 19. It shall be unto him as the garment which covereth him, and for a girdle wherewith he is girded continually. 20. This shall be the reward of mine adversaries from the LORD, and of them that speak evil against my soul.

sure.

They who reject Christ, reject the fountain of "blessing," and choose a "curse" for their portion; and this portion, when they have finally made their choice, will certainly be given to them in full meaThe curse, that lighted on the Jewish nation, is resembled, for its universality and adhesion, to a garment," which covereth the whole man, and is girded" close about his loins; for its diffusive and penetrating nature, to "water," which, from the stomach, passeth into the "bowels," and is dispersed through all the vessels of the frame; and to " ofl,"