I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Ye shall all likewise perish - Ὡσαυτως, ὁμοιως, In a like way, in the same manner. This prediction of our Lord was literally fulfilled. When the city was taken by the Romans, multitudes of the priests, etc., who were going on with their sacrifices, were slain, and their blood mingled with the blood of their victims; and multitudes were buried under the ruins of the walls, houses, and temple. See Josephus, War, b. vi. ch. iv., v., vi.; and see the notes on Matthew 24 (note).
It is very wrong to suppose that those who suffer by the sword, or by natural accidents, are the most culpable before God. An adequate punishment for sin cannot be inflicted in this world: what God does here, in this way, is in general:
1st, through mercy, to alarm others;
2, to show his hatred to sin;
3, to preserve in men's minds a proper sense of his providence and justice; and
4, to give sinners, in one or two particular instances, a general specimen of the punishment that awaits all the perseveringly impenitent.