17 For he was numbered with us, and had obtained part of this ministry.



18 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.



Ver. 18. And all his bowels gushed out] Because he had no bowels of compassion toward his Master, he burst in the midst with a huge crack (as the word åëáêçóå signifieth), by a singular judgment of God. So Foxford, chancellor to the bishop of London, a cruel persecutor in Henry VIII’s time, died suddenly in his chair; his belly being burst and his guts falling out before him. So Arius voiding out his bowels, sent his soul as a harbinger to the devil to provide room for his body. Papias (that ancient millenary, scholar to St John) tells us ( In Traditionibus quas vocant Apostolicis), that Judas having hanged himself, the rope broke, and he lived some time after, and was crushed to death by the fall of a cart that was to pass by him; but this is a mere fiction of his, and it gives us cause to credit Eusebius, who saith that this Papias, though much reverenced for opinion of his holiness and learning, yet was homo ingenii pertenuis, a slender-witted man.