October 18, 2010

Andrew Kingsmill (1538–1569) on Christ’s Question to Judas

Even as that lamentable question imports, Judas, you betray the Son of Man with a kiss? [Luke 22:48] Which was to say, “you whom I have chosen of many a thousand, one of my twelve familiars, you upon whom I have bestowed so many good turns, to whom I have given freely so many good lessons, upon whom I have wasted so many words, you that eat bread with me, you that dip in one dish with me, you you lift up your heel against me, and tread me under foot? you that provide for the sustenance of my body, are you become the betrayer of my soul? whose salvation I have sought by so many means, do you thirst for my blood? for whom I am content to lay down my life, are you become my hangman? Come you unto me with the face of a friend, and give me up to my enemies? You call me master, and wish me the curse of the cross? You give me a kiss, and wound my heart?” These sighs no doubt came up with that question.
Andrew Kingsmill, A View of Man’s Estate, Wherein the Great Mercie of God in Man’s Free Justification by Christ, is Very Comfortably Declared (London: H. Bynneman, for Lucas Harison and George Bishop, 1574), E3v; or p. 62 [no pagination; pages numbered manually from the beginning of the treatise; some spelling updated and modernized].

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