And Jesus answering, said unto them
Neither approving, nor condemning Pilate's action; and though he
allowed the Galileans to be sinners, which could not be denied,
he does not bear hard upon them, but improves the instance for
the conviction of his hearers, and in order to show them the
necessity of repentance, and to bring them to it:
suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all
the
Galileans, because they suffered such things?
such a supposition they seem to have made, by their speaking to
Christ concerning this matter; and concluded from their violent
and untimely deaths, that they had been notorious and uncommon
sinners, and guilty of the most enormous crimes, which had
brought upon them the just judgments of God: whereas this is not
a rule of judging; oftentimes the best of men suffer exceedingly
in this life; God's judgments are a great deep, and not to be
fathomed by us, nor is it to be easily known, when any thing
befalls persons in a way of judgment; there is nothing comes by
chance, but every thing by the wise disposal of divine
providence, to answer some end or another; nor are persons that
are punished, either immediately by the hand of God, or by the
civil magistrate, to be insulted, but rather to be pitied;
besides, love and hatred, the characters and states of men, are
not to be known by these effects in providence.
