go fo far for a difcovery of their crime, nor to account for the feverity with which it was punished. The fin of Nadab and Abihu confifted fimply in this, they burnt incenfe with strange fire. Now the meaning of this expreffion we fhall be able eafily to collect, by comparing together a few paffages that have an obvious connexion, and ferve to illustrate and explain each other. First, in Leviticus chapter the ninth, verfe twenty-fourth, it is faid that "fire from the Lord," that is, either fire immediately defcending from heaven, or iffuing out of the cloud that covered the tabernacle, confumed the first victims which Aaron offered for a burnt-offering. Again-This facred fire, once miraculously kindled, was by a special ordinance to be kept forever alive; as we read, Leviticus chapter the fixth, verses twelfth and thirteenth. Thus the vigilance, attention and care of man, was to preferve and continue what Providence had begun. By another ordinance it was enjoined, that the incense to be offered on the day of atonement, fhould be kindled by a portion of that perpetual fire. This we read in Leviticus chapter the fixteenth, verfes eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth. This then was the fire which the Lord commanded to be used; and of course, every other kind of fire, however produced, and though in all other refpects adequate to the purpofe, was unlawful, forbidden or ftrange. This accordingly conftituted the guilt, they took upon them to kindle the incenfe, which their office obliged them to burn every evening and morning, with a fire different from that which burnt continually on the altar of burntoffering; every other being strange fire, which the Lord commanded not. Now it was certainly fit and neceffary that fuch a crime fhould be punished in the moft exemplary manner. The fanctity of the whole inftitution was over at once, if the minifters of it might with impunity, in the very fetting out, prefume to dispense with its most auguft ceremonies. The rank and. ftation of the offenders was a high aggravation VCL. IV.

L

of

66

of their offence. It was their duty to have fet an example of fcrupulous regard to the known will of God. They had been admitted to more intimate communion with God than others; had feen more of the terrors of his power, more of the wonders of his grace. Unhappy men! how had they been be trayed into an error fo fatal? Ignorance it could not be, the voice of the law was yet founding in their ears. Dared they to be careless in any thing that re lated to the fervice of a holy God? They had feen the exactness of their pious uncle, in forming every thing according to the pattern fhewed him in the mount. Was it indeed a wilful and deliberate violation of the law? I fear, I fear it was; and dreadful was the expiation. The unhallowed fire of their own kindling was quickly abforbed in a hotter flame: they died before the Lord, for there went out fire from the Lord, and devoured them.”* Neither their facred character, the facredness of the place, nor the facredness of the employment, can protect them from the keen ftroke of avenging juftice. "Let us have grace whereby we may ferve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear for our God is a confuming fire."t Unhappy father! what were now thy feelings; bereaved in one fad day of half thy children, of thy first, thy darling hopes: to behold them thus immaturely cut off, taken away in anger! The bitternefs of death is not relieved by one confolatory circumftance. What is the lofs of children in infancy, and falling by the ftroke of nature, compared to this? To heighten the old man's affliction, he is exprefsly forbidden to mourn, or to affift in the laft fad offices of humanity towards his deceafed fons. Behold him in mute dejection and diftrefs, miniftring in the duties of his charge, attentive to the calls of the living, leaving to others, the care of burying the dead. How feverely muft his own offences now have been brought to his remembrance! He had been guilty of a crime of

* Lev. x. 2.

Heb. xii. 28, 29.

of equal or greater magnitude; he had led the way in idolatry, and prefided in the worship of a thing of his own fabrication; but justice fuffered him to live, to live to fee his own fons dying for a crime fimilar to his own. Alas, what is prolonged life but lengthened anguish!

As the giving of the law was fenced round with fire, and the fanctity of the tabernacle worship guarded by a flaming fword, fo the meeker, gentler institution of the gofpel, fortified its first beginnings by executing judgment on prefumptuous finners. Severity is the foul of a law, efpecially when it is notified to those who are obliged to fubmit to it; indulgence, or the appearance of feeblenefs, are of the most dangerous confequence, especially in the commencement of a new constitution. One of the heralds of the Saviour of mankind began his ministry by a clap of thunder; the first rays he fhot from his eyes were mortal, and the fudden death of two falfe and perfidious difciples was the feal of his apostleship.* The fecond coming of the Lord himself is to be "in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jefus Chrift."t

Aaron had now arrived at an advanced period of life, and at the poffeffion of an office and rank in life, which rendered him an object of envy to fome, and of veneration to others. He had oftener than once been corrected by his own folly, and he was "the man who had feen affliction by the rod of God's anger; but neither the fire of calamity, nor the froft of age; neither the counfels of experience, nor the fanctity of. office, have been able to fubdue indwelling corruption; for we immediately find him in a plot, with Miriam his fifter, to disturb the peace, diminish the refpect, and diftrefs the government of their brother Mofes. Their pretence was his marriage with an Ethiopian woman ;" an event which had taken

* A&ts v.

L 2

t-2 Theff. i. 8.

place

place forty years before; an union which had no immorality in it; which tranfgreffed no law, for the law was not then given; and against which God himself had not expreffed any difpleafure; but had crowned it with the blefling of children, who were juftly admitted to rank in Ifrael.

The real caufe was their envy of the pre-eminence, which their younger brother had obtained over them in all things, civil and facred. For this, in spite of all their art, breaks out in the malicious whispers which they scatter abroad to blacken their brother's reputation. "Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Mofes? Hath he not spoken alfo by us?"* If Mofes indeed erred by marrying Jethro's daughter, he had feverely fmarted for it; for being induced, by an improper compliance with her humour, to neglect the circumcifion of his fon, he had nearly paid the forfeit of that neglect with his life, by the hand of God himfelf; and now his good name is bleeding on Zipporah's account, by the envenomed tongues of his own brother and fifter; and " who can ftand before envy?" Who can think to escape, if Mofes remain not unhurt? This attack upon his fame and comfort gives Mofes occafion to deliver his own eulogium; and I believe it juft, for he gives it with that lovely fimplicity, which characterifes all that he relates of himfelf or of others. "Now the man Mofes was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth." He either had not heard the fcandalous fpeeches which were propagated to his difadvantage by Aaron and Miriam; or he pitied and neglected them. Who knows what length the mifchief might have gone, had it not been heard and avenged by the Protector of injured innocence. "The Lord heard it." Let the flanderer hear this and tremble.

The two brothers and their fifter are now fummoned to prefent themfelves together at the door of the tabernacle

tabernacle of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord appears and a voice from that glory pronounces aloud and at full length, the praife of the man who had spoken fo modeftly of himself, and who had been fo wickedly maligned by his own nearest relations. "And he faid, Hear now my words if there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vifion, and will speak unto him in a dream. My fervant Mofes is not fo, who is faithful in all mine houfe. With him will I fpeak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the fimilitude of the Lord fhall he behold: wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Mofes ?"* In many respects Mofes was "the figure of Him who was to come," and in both were peculiarly verified the words of Christ, "a man's foes fhall be they of his own houfe," and, "a prophet is not without honour, fave in his own country, and in his own houfe." With God to refent is to avenge; having reproved the tranfgreffors he withdraws in anger, and lo, the punishment is already inflicted. "The cloud departed from off the tabernacle, and behold, Miriam became leprous, white as fnow and Aaron looked upon Miriam, and behold fhe was leprous." A fhocking example of divine displeasure against one of the moft odious of crimes. My fair hearers, let me whisper an advice in your ears. I am no common-place declaimer against your fex; I honour it, and I wish to improve it; you must hear me with the greater attention, and mark what I fay. You lie under a general imputation, respecting the vices of the tongue; but general imputations are for the most part ill-founded. I do not mean, however, to infinuate that you are totally innocent, or more fo than the other fex: for your af fections are eager, and what the heart feels, by the eyes or the tongue you will exprefs; and that expreffion

*Numb. xii. 6, 7,

8.

+ Matth. xiii. 57.

‡ Numb. xii. 10,