we have been relieved in straits, comforted in distresses, and supported all along, under divers exigencie sand casualties. It will be of great use to us in life, to have always a present, lively, feeling apprehension of God's presence with us, and his care over us. It will make us thankful in prosperity and patient in adversity. It will support our spirits under trouble or danger, and make us easy and well contented under checks and disappointments. It would be the best preservative against querulousness, pride, envy, and other foolish and hurtful vices or passions. When we consider all things as coming from God, and conducted by an all-wise and steady hand, we shall then take all things in good part, and rest content with any thing that befalls us. We shall live, as it were, under God's eye, and look up to him in all emergencies. And, what is more than all, by thus constantly thinking of him, we shall make it our daily study and endeavour to serve and please him, that so we may enjoy his favour and blessings here, and his presence hereafter.

SERMON VII.

The Case of passing Judgment concerning Calamities examined: what Kind of Judgment on such Occasions is innocent and just ascertained; and the culpable extremes noted and censured.

The First Sermon on this Subject.

LUKE xiii. 2, 3.

And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galilæans were sinners above all the Galilæans, because they suffered such things?

I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.

THIS answer of our blessed Lord was pursuant to some discourse which passed about the Galilæans, a seditious sect of men, who had refused subjection to the Roman government, upon superstitious principles, which they had imbibed.

"There were present at that season," says St. Luke in the first verse of this chapter, "some that told him" (told our Lord) "of the Galilæans, whose blood Pilate "had mingled with their sacrifices." Those Galilæans, probably, were the followers of Judas of Gaulonitis, who seems to have been the head of the discontented party, dissuading their countrymen from paying submission to the Romans. The plea or pretence was, that they were the Lord's people, and owed no subjection to any mortal

upon earth, or at least to no foreign power whatever : they would therefore pay no tribute to Cæsar, or his officers, but to the Lord only, and his ministers, or, in one word, to the temple. At the time of the Passover, as is reasonably supposed, they came up, as the custom was, to pay their devotions, and to offer their sacrifices at God's altar. Pilate, the Roman governor, took the advantage, and resolved to chastise the rebels, as he esteemed them to be. He sent soldiers after them into the very temple where they were sacrificing, and there he miserably slaughtered many of them, where the beasts for sacrifice had been newly slain, and so mingling the blood of one with the blood of the other. This massacre thus committed, in so sacred a place, and upon persons attending on the most sacred and solemn offices, had the appearance of something extraordinary, different from common providences; and so gave occasion, or umbrage, for a suspicion, that the dreadful usage they had met with was a judgment of God upon them for some great impieties. They could never have been sinners of an ordinary size, whose punishment was so extraordinary. Such were the thoughts and reasonings of many upon that sad occasion; as it is natural, in such cases, to load the unfortunate, and to trample upon those who are already fallen. But our blessed Lord, having more humanity, as well as a truer and more exact judgment of things, took occasion to reprove their uncharitableness, and to correct their gross mistakes. He does not indeed deny either that the Galilæans were sinners, or that their sufferings were brought upon them for their sins: but he condemns those that censured them yet more hardly, for their groundless and ill-natured conclusion, that the suffering Galilæans had been "sinners above all the Galilæans;" had been the greatest of sinners, only because of their suffering more than others had: and he further tacitly reproves their fond and partial conceits in their own favour; as if they were comparatively innocent and righteous, only because no such calamity had as yet befallen them.

"Suppose ye," says he, "that these Galilæans were "sinners above all the Galilæans, because they suffered "such things? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye "shall all likewise perish." To this instance of the Galilæans he very appositely joins another of like kind, upon which also he makes the like reflection: " Or those "eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and "slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all "men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, Nay:" and so on. Commentators have taken notice, that these words of our Lord had very probably a particular reference to those temporal calamities which were to come upon the Jewish nation; and so were spoken by our Saviour in the way of prediction, foretelling the fate of the Jews who should continue impenitent; that "they should all like"wise perish :" and so indeed it came to pass within forty years after. But my design from these words is, to consider the text in its general view only; as containing a very instructive lesson how to behave, and what reflections or use to make of it, whenever it pleases God to humble and afflict others by any severe visitations. concerns us first to entertain true and just sentiments upon such occasions: and next, to make all proper and suitable improvement of them. There was something true, and something false, in what the Jews suggested of the Galilæans. They set out upon true principles, but reasoned ill from them; pushing the point too far, and running it to an extreme. The fault which they committed therein is very natural and common; such as all sorts of men, in all ages, are but too much inclined to. We are very apt to pass our opinions or censures upon our neighbours, when any calamities befall them; and do not always consider so carefully as we ought, when and where to stop but forgetting the just bounds of moderation, we sometimes carry our reflections a great deal too far; till we both misinterpret the Divine dispensations, and defeat their use. Such being the case, it may be proper to consider this subject in its whole compass, with

It

all due care and accuracy, for the right forming our notions of it, and for the regulating our conduct in it. In order hereto, I shall discourse as follows.

I. I shall observe what kind of reflections or conclusions we may justly raise upon any calamities or afflictions which befall other men.

II. I shall take notice of the extremes which many run into upon those occasions, and which we ought carefully to avoid.

And,

III. I shall conclude with showing what is, or ought to be, the practical result of the whole.

I.

I shall observe what kind of reflections or conclusions we may justly raise upon any calamities which befall other men.

1. In the first place, we need not be scrupulous of thinking or saying, that the persons so visited are visited for their sins. Our blessed Lord finds no fault with the Jews for suggesting, or supposing, that the Galilæans were sinners, and were punished by God for their sins. All mere men are sinners: and all afflictions whatever have a retrospect to sins committed, and are, in strictness of speech, punishments of sin. It may be said, indeed, that good men are afflicted for their trial and improvement, to exercise their faith and patience, and to raise their virtues, as well as to heighten their rewards. All this may be very true, and very consistent also with the principle before mentioned: for if afflictions are sent upon good men, to cure them of some defects, and to advance their virtues higher than before; this, in other words, is punishing them for their sins; for those defects are sins in them, though of a less dangerous nature than the greater provocations. Besides, it is very certain, that all misery and pain, all trouble and uneasiness, have respect to sin; for it is sin only that hath brought forth sorrow, as well as death and not mortality alone, but all the diseases and discomforts incident to mortality, are the fruits and consequences, the proper wages of sin. There is