cause. It should seem that they had adopted this uncharitable mode of judging respecting those on whom the tower in Siloam fell, or whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices, as though they were sinners above all others of their own nation3. On one occasion they openly avowed this principle, ascribing the blindness of a man who had been born blind, either to some peculiar wickedness in his parents, or to some heinous crimes, which he himself had com- mitted in a former state of existence15. Indeed this sentiment was the foundation of all the dispute be- tween Job and his friends : they argued on the pre- sumption that no good man was ever left to endure very grievous trials ; but that the wrath of God against hypocritical or audacious sinners would be visibly dis- played in this world0. This idea also obtained among the heathen world. When Paul, after his shipwreck on the island of Malta, was bitten by a viper which fastened on his hand, the inhabitants instantly ex- claimed, " No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he hath escaped the sea, vengeance suffereth not to lived."
Now this construction was put upon the sufferings of our Lord. The people saw Jesus dying under a more accumulated weight of misery than ever had been endured by man. No one since the foundation of the world had been so universally execrated, or had met with so little compassion from his fellow- creatures. They therefore concluded, that God had marked him out as an object fit to have every species and degree of cruelty exercised towards him ; " they esteemed him stricken, judicially* smitten of God himself." What a shocking indignity was this ! That they should not merely regard him as a sinner, but as the most atrocious sinner in the universe, who deserved to have a murderer preferred before him !
But this was both foretold by the prophets, and fully obviated by the occurrences of his life.
In two different Psalms, confessedly relating to
a Luke xiii. 2, 4. b Johnix. 2. c Job iv. 7 — 9.
d Acts xxviii. 4. e This is the import of the words.