3 Judas then, having received a band of men and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, cometh thither with lanterns and torches and weapons.



Ver. 3. Judas having then received a band] These are the enemies’ best arguments, and those they flee to when all is done. So the Jesuits, those sworn swordsmen of Satan, give out that their weapons are only preces et lachrymae, prayers and tears; and that it is unlawful for them to use any other, even then when they are about their most bloody designs. (Camd. Eliz. Epist. to Reader.) A late king of France (after his revolt to Popery) being persuaded by a great duke about him not to readmit the Jesuits, which had been justly banished the realm, he answered suddenly, "Give me then security for my life." He therefore admitted them, even into his bosom, giving them his house for a college; and in a public speech, saying, That they were Timothies in the house, Chrysostoms in the chair, Angustines in the schools, &c. But what came of it? One of the pope’s slaughter slaves, by the instigation of the Jesuits, stabbed him to the heart: these Timothies proved Judases; these Chrysostoms, Catilines; these Augustines, assassins. (Vita David Patti, Operib. praefix.)



Cometh thither with lanterns, &c.] Hypocrites may be compared (saith one) to those soldiers in the Gospel which came to seek Christ with lights and lanterns, as if they meant not to miss him; yea, they brought clubs and staves, as if they would fight for him: yet, when he saith, Here I am, take you up my cross, they stumble at the cross, and fall backwards. (Essays Divine and Moral.)