therefore no mistake in imagining, or affirming, that whenever men suffer, or whatever they suffer, they suffer for sin. Now, as to the Galilæans, in particular, our blessed Saviour, tacitly at least, admitted, that they were punished as sinners, and that their calamity was a judgment of God upon them for their sins. Whether they were good men or bad is not said; but sinners they certainly were; and they could not suffer more at the hands of God than their sins had deserved. Temporal afflictions, at the highest, come not up to the demerit of men's sins: and therefore the best men alive cannot suffer more, with respect to God, than is due to their transgressions. But probably, those Galilæans were wicked men, being seditious, turbulent, factious; only not more wicked than the rest of their brethren: and our Lord, by his saying to the Jews, "but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise pe"rish," seems to insinuate, as if the Galilæans were not better than the other Jews, though there was no sufficient reason for thinking them worse. However that were, there can be no question made, but that the Galilæans were sinners, and punished in that extraordinary manner for their sins and the like may be very safely asserted of any other persons, when visited with afflictions; because all men are sinners, and suffer justly, whatsoever they suffer in this world, either by the direction or permission of Almighty God. For we may observe also,

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2. That all calamities whatever are to be understood as coming from the hand of God. This is implied in the former; as it was supposed also in the reasonings of the Jews upon the case of the Galilæans: and our blessed Saviour does not contradict nor condemn the notion, but rather allows and confirms it. The Jews, I say, supposed the Galilæans to be grievous sinners; and why? not surely because Pilate, a fallible and a cruel man, had punished them; but because God, they supposed, had done it by the hands of Pilate. They looked upwards to a higher hand than his, supposing Pilate to be the minister

or executioner only of the Divine vengeance; and in this they judged right: for if all events whatsoever are in God's most sovereign disposal; and if not so much as a sparrow falls, or a hair of one's head perishes, without his leave; we may be certain, that the lives of men are more particularly under his providential care; and that they are never sacrificed to any man's rage, or taken away by violence, but when God sees fitting that the thing should so take effect. He can unloose the hands of wicked men to execute his righteous vengeance, as often as he pleases; at the same time withdrawing his protecting arm from those whom he has determined to punish. In this sense, God is the author and disposer of all calamities: they come not upon us but when he pleases, or when he has determined to withdraw his protection; directing or permitting second causes to hurt us. This was true in the case of the Galilæans, and the other case of the eighteen that were crushed in the ruins of the tower of Siloam and it is no less true and undeniable in all tragical events whatever. Had the Jews carried their reflections upon the case no farther than this, that the Galilæans had suffered for sin, and that God himself was concerned as the supreme author and conductor of what had happened to them; they had then kept within the bounds of sobriety and truth: and the consideration of the thing, thus far, might have been both instructive and useful. If the sufferings of the Galilæans came from God, it might teach others to look up to heaven, and to stand in awe of the Divine judgments: and if those sufferings were brought upon them for their sins, then might others also have reason to tremble and be afraid; in as much as all are sinners, and justly liable to the same condemnation. Such reflections as these would be highly reasonable upon all such occasions, and would be productive of many excellent fruits. This is thinking justly and soberly upon God's judgments, and bringing them home to ourselves in the use and application. And this is really what God

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intends by sending his judgments abroad: it is to awaken and alarm all around, that so the inhabitants of the world' may learn righteousness.

But this is a conclusion which human depravity takes no pleasure in, but rather studiously evades, or passes it over. And hence it is that the generality of men, not content with that easy, obvious, natural account of God's judgments, strain their inventions to find out something further; something that shall make the judgments of God look particular, and personal to the sufferers only; thereby to render the thing useless, in a manner, and unaffecting, in respect to themselves. This is going into extremes, as I observed in the beginning: and I am now,

II.

To take notice of those extremes which many so run into, but which we ought above all things carefully to avoid. There are two noted excesses in this matter: one the text expressly mentions, the other is omitted, or only tacitly pointed to. That which is mentioned is, the drawing rash and uncharitable conclusions from greater sufferings to greater sins; as if they who have suffered most, must of consequence have been the worst of sinners. The other, which is not mentioned, but yet is tacitly condemned, is, the being positive and peremptory as to the particular sin, or kind of sin, that draws down God's judgments upon any particular person or persons. These two excesses, or extremes, as I call them, often go together, being near akin to each other: for when we have once concluded that such a person, so and so suffering, must have been guilty of more than ordinary sins; curiosity, or vanity, or some other worse principle, draws us on to be further inquisitive; and to fix upon some particular sins, or kind of sins, which we may lay to his charge. But if the case be obscure, and affords not so. much as light sufficient for any plausible conjecture, then we are content to rest in generals; and to conclude that the sufferer must undoubtedly have been a very great sinner, though we can neither say how nor in what. This

is more ungenerous and unfair than the former; and may always be pretended when there is no place for the other; wherefore this principally is what the text takes notice of, and our Lord condemns. But because both of them are bad enough, and deserve our censure, I shall consider both, one after another, as I go along: and because I shall not have room to speak largely and severally of each, at one and the same time; I shall confine myself to one only at present, and reserve the other for a discourse by itself. That which I now intend to treat of, is the pointing out or specifying the particular sin, or sins, for which we suppose God's judgments to have fallen upon any particular person or persons. The motives for doing this are many and various, as circumstances vary, though all centering in self-flattery, or partial fondness to ourselves.

Sometimes it is vanity and ostentation, while we affect to make a show of more than common sagacity in discovering the hidden springs of events, and in interpreting the secrets of Divine Providence.

Sometimes party prejudices and passions have the greatest hand in it; while we are willing to measure God by ourselves, and to fancy that he takes the same side that we do. If our opposers or adversaries fall into troubles or disasters; how agreeable a thought is it to imagine, that it was a judgment upon them for their opposition to us, and that God has thereby declared himself a friend to our cause, and an enemy to theirs!

But the most common and prevailing motive of all, for censuring others in this manner on account of their afflictions, is to ward off the apprehension of the like from our own doors, and to speak peace to ourselves. Observe it carefully, and you will scarce find a man charging a judgment of God upon others for any particular sin, and at the same time acknowledging himself guilty in the like kind. No, he will be particularly careful to pitch upon smoe vice, which he himself, in imagination at least, stands clear of, and is the farthest from: and so he per

suades himself, that he is perfectly safe and secure from suffering in such manner as others have suffered, because he has not sinned in the like instances as they have. Here lies the secret root and source of men's proneness to charge the unfortunate with such or such particular sins, as the ground of their troubles: it is to fence off home applications, and to throw off all apprehension of danger from themselves. Having seen what motives men go upon in their constructions of God's judgments upon others; let us now proceed to observe how rash and unwarrantable a thing it is, generally speaking, to pretend to specify the particular sin, or sins, which draw down God's judgments on particular persons. It is difficult in most cases to determine, without a special revelation, (which now cannot be had,) upon what particular errand God's judgments come; or for what sins, exclusive of others, they have been sent. The designs of Providence are vast and large; God's thoughts are very deep, his judgments unsearchable, his ways past finding out.

1. Sometimes the primary reasons, or moving causes, of the Divine judgments lie remote and distant in place or in time; several years, perhaps, or even generations, backwards. God may "visit the sins of the fathers

upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation "of them that hate him." He has at any time full power and right to take away the life which he gives, or any worldly comforts which himself bestows: and if he sometimes chooses to exercise this right and power on account of things done several years or ages upwards, there can be no injustice in so doing; but it may more fully answer the ends of discipline, and God may show forth his wisdom in it. This I hint, by the way, as to the reason of the thing: the facts are evident from the sacred history. When King Ahab had sinned, God denounced his judgments against him, but suspended the execution, in part, to another time; assigning also the reason for deferring it: "Because he humbleth himself before me, I will not "bring the evil in his days, but in his son's days will I