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. It 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 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 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, 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 : |