Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders,
Ver. 3. Then Judas, which had betrayed him] Might not Judas have sang care away, now that he had both the bag and the price of blood, but he must come and betray himself. While he played alone, he won all; but soon after, his own "wickedness corrected him, and his backslidings reproved him,"Jeremiah 2:19. Sin will surely prove evil and bitter, when the bottom of the bag is once turned upward. A man may have the stone, who feels no fit of it. Conscience will work once; though for the time, one may feel no fit of accusation: Laban showed himself at parting. "Knowest thou not that there will be bitterness in the latter end?" 2 Samuel 2:26. But the devil deals with men as the panther does with the beasts: he hides his deformed head, till his sweet scent have drawn them into his danger. Till we have sinned, Satan is a parasite; when we have sinned he is a tyrant. But it is good to consider that of Bernard. At the day of judgment a pure conscience shall better bestead one than a full purse. In die iudicii plus valebit conscientia pura quam marsupia plena.
When he saw that he was condemned] He hoped, belike, that Christ would, as at other times he did, have delivered himself by a miracle. Let no man flatter himself, as if there were no such hurt in sin; for like dirty dogs, it doth but defile us in fawning: and like a treacherous host, though it welcome us into the inn with smiling countenance, yet it will cut our throats in our beds. Judas was first nibbling upon the silver bait, after which the hook of conscience troubled him.
He repented] That is, he changed his mind (μεταμεληθεις), from thinking well of his former actions. So those miscreants in Malachi are said to "return and discern," &c., Malachi 3:18. So Rodolphus, Duke of Suabia, when, at the pope's instigation, taking up arms against Henry the emperor, he had lost his right hand in the battle, he sent for his bishops and other his confederates, and said unto them: Lo, this is that hand wherewith I swore that allegiance to my sovereign, which by your means and motion I have violated. Videte an recta via me duxeritis, &c. Consider whether you have led me on in a right way or not. (Func. Chronol.)
" Hic fuit ille cui Papa coronam misit cum ista inscriptione,
Petra dedit Petro, Petrus diadema Rodulpho. "
And brought again the thirty pieces] So did James Abbes bring to the Bishop of Norwich his forty pence fastened upon him by the bishop; which when he had received (saith Mr Fox) and was gone from the bishop, who had prevailed with him to recant, his conscience began to throb, and inwardly to accuse this fact, how he had displeased the Lord by consenting to their beastly illusions. In which combat with himself, being piteously vexed, he went to the bishop again, and there threw him his money, and said, it repented him that he ever consented to their wicked persuasions in taking of his money. Hereupon the bishop with his chaplains laboured afresh to win him again, but he was better resolved, and crying out to God for pardon of his sin (which Judas did not) he obtained mercy, and suffered martyrdom.