them not. And there went out fire from the The sin of Nadab and Abihu consisted simply Lord, and devoured them, and they died in this, they burnt incense with strange fire. before the Lord." The words are few, but Now the meaning of this expression we shall they convey a full and distinct idea of the be able easily to collect, by comparing toguilt of the parties: though by attending together a few passages that have an obvious the context, we shall have reason to conclude connexion, and serve to illustrate and explain their crime was of a very complex nature. each other. First, in Leviticus chapter the And sure it could be no common transgres- ninth, verse the twenty-fourth, it is said that sion which drew down a judgment so dread-"fire from the Lord," that is, either fire imful. Bishop Patrick is of opinion that Nadab mediately descending from heaven, or issuing and Abihu had rendered themselves incapable out of the cloud that covered the tabernacle, of doing their duty by intemperance: that consumed the first victims which Aaron ofthey indulged in the delicacies of the sacri- fered for a burnt-offering. Again,-This safice to a criminal excess, till they were in-cred fire, once miraculously kindled, was by capable of putting a difference between holy a special ordinance to be kept for over alive; and unholy, and between clean and unclean. as we read, Leviticus chapter the sixth, This conjecture is founded upon the injunction which immediately follows the narration of this dismal story in the ninth and tenth verses. "Do not drink wine nor strong drink, thou nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the tabernacle of the congregation, Test ye die: it shall be a statute for ever, throughout your generations; and that ye may put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean." If there be truth in this conjecture, it is a melancholy proof, that the best things are most liable to abuse, that the brutal part of our nature is ever ready to run away with the rational: that as God is continually employing himself in bringing good out of evil, so men are for ever perversely employing themselves in bringing evil out of good. Others have charged upon these two sons of Aaron, the criminality of attempting to enter the most holy place, which was not permitted but to the high priest, and that only at certain stated times. This charge is established in the following manner. In the passage we have quoted, it is said, that it was before the Lord that Nadab and Abihu offered incense with strange fire. Upon comparing this with what is recorded in the sixteenth chapter in the first and second verses, where Moses recapitulates this sad event, we find it added, “The Lord said unto Moses, Speak unto Aaron thy brother, that he come not at all times into the holy place, within the veil before the mercy-seat, which is upon the ark; that he die not: for I will appear in the cloud upon the mercy-seat.' Hence it has been inferred that the two young men, uncalled, unauthorised, presumed to enter that august department of the tabernacle, assuming to themselves privileges that belonged only to the supreme priesthood, which in their father's life time it was unlawful to intermeddle with, and which even he himself durst not at all times exercise. But though neither of these suppositions be improbable, we have no occasion to go so far for a discovery of their crime, nor to account for the severity with which it was punished. * Lev. x. 1, 2. verses twelfth and thirteenth. Thus the vigilance, attention, and care of man, was to preserve and continue what Providence had begun. By another ordinance it was enjoined, that the incense to be offered on the day of atonement, should be kindled by a portion of that perpetual fire. This we read in Leviticus chapter the sixteenth, verses 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 respects adequate to the purpose, was unlawful, forbidden, or strange. This accordingly constituted the guilt, they took upon them to kindle the incense, which their office obliged them to burn every evening and morning, with a fire different from that which burnt continually on the altar of burnt-offering; every other being strange fire, which the Lord commanded not. Now it was certainly fit and necessary that such a crime should be punished in the most exemplary manner. The sanctity of the whole institution was over at once, if the ministers of it might with impunity, in the very setting out, presume to dispense with its most august ceremonies. The rank and station of the offenders was a high aggravation of their offence. It was their duty to have set an example of scrupulous regard to the known will of God. They had been admitted to more intimate communion with God than others; had seen more of the terrors of his power, more of the wonders of his grace. Unhappy men! how had they been betrayed into an error so fatal? Ignorance it could not be, the voice of the law was yet sounding in their ears. Dared they to be careless in any thing that related to the service of a holy God? They had seen the exactness of their pious uncle, in forming every thing according to the pattern showed 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 absorbed in a hotter flame: "they died before the Lord:* for there went out fire * Lev. x. 2. 66 been able to subdue indwelling corruption; for we immediately find him in a plot, with Miriam his sister, to disturb the peace, diminish the respect, and distress the government of their brother Moses. Their pretence was his marriage with an Ethiopian woman;" an event which had taken place forty years before; an union which had no immorality in it: which transgressed no law, for the law was not then given; and against which God himself had not expressed any displeasure; but had crowned it with the blessing of children, who were justly admitted to rank in Israel. from the Lord, and devoured them." Neither their sacred character, the sacredness of the place, nor the sacredness of the employment, can protect them from the keen stroke of avenging justice. "Let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear: for our God is a Consuming fire." Unhappy father! what were now thy feelings; bereaved in one sad day of half thy children, of thy first, thy darling hopes: to behold them thus immaturely cut off, taken away in anger! The bitterness of death is not relieved by one consolatory circumstance. What is the loss of children in infancy, and falling by the stroke of nature, compared to this? To heighten the old man's affliction, he is expressly forbidden to mourn, or to assist in the last sad offices of humanity towards his deceased sons. Behold him in inute dejection and distress, ministering in the duties of his charge, attentive to the calls of the living, leaying to others the care of burying the dead. How severely must his own offences now have been brought to his remembrance! He had been guilty of a crime of equal or greater magnitude: he had led the way in idolatry, and presided in the worship of a thing of his own fabrication; but justice suffered him to live, to live to see his own sons dying for a crime similar to his own. Alas, what is prolonged life but length-venomed tongues of his own brother and sisened anguish! As the giving of the law was fenced round with fire, and the sanctity of the tabernacle worship guarded by a flaming sword, so the mecker, gentler institution of the gospel, fortified its first beginnings by executing judgment on presumptuous sinners. Seve'rity is the soul of a law, especially when it is notified to those who are obliged to submit to it; indulgence, or the appearance of feebleness, are of the most dangerous consequence, 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 shot from his eyes were mortal, and the sudden death of two false and perfidious disciples was the seal of his apostleship. The second 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 Jesus Christ."‡ Aaron had now arrived at an advanced period of life, and at the possession of an office and rank in life, which rendered him an object of envy to some, and of veneration to others. He had oftener than once been corrected by his own folly, and he was "the man who had seen affliction by the rod of God's anger;" but neither the fire of calamity, nor the frost of age; neither the counsels of experience, nor the sanctity of office, have † Acts v. Heb. xii. 28, 29. The real cause was their envy of the preeminence, which their younger brother had obtained over them in all things, civil and sacred. 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 Moses? Hath he not spoken also by us?"* If Moses indeed erred by marrying Jethro's daughter, he had severely smarted for it: for being induced, by an improper compliance with her humour, to neglect the circumcision of his son, he had nearly paid the forfeit of that neglect with his life, by the hand of God himself; and now his good name is bleeding on Zipporah's account, by the en ter; and "who can stand before envy?" Who can think to escape, if Moses remain not unhurt? This attack upon his fame and comfort, gives Moses occasion to deliver his own eulogium: and I believe it just, for he gives it with that lovely simplicity, which characterises all that he relates of himself or of others. "Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth." He either had not heard the scandalous speeches which were propagated to his disadvantage by Aaron and Miriam; or he pitied and neglected them. Who knows what length the mischief might have gone, had it not been heard and avenged by the Protector of injured innocence. "The Lord heard it." Let the slanderer hear this and tremble. The two brothers and their sister are now summoned to present themselves together at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord appears: and a voice from that glory pronounces aloud and at full length, the praise of the man who had spoken so modestly of himself, and who had been so wickedly maligned by his own nearest relations. "And he said, Hear now my words; if there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in dream. My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house. With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the sequence? In the event of difference of Lord shall he behold: wherefore then were opinion, or of attachment, one man is unmerye not afraid to speak against my servant cifully, unrelentingly run down, and another Moses!"* In many respects Moses was is, with equal want of reason, magnified and "the figure of him who was to come," and in exalted. Women, young women, good young both were peculiarly verified the words of women, think they are only yielding to the Christ, "a man's foes shall be they of his impulse of a pious affection, when they apown house," and, "a prophet is not without plaud or censure this or the other public honour, save in his own country, and in his character. But what are they doing inown house." With God to resent is to deed? Blowing up one poor vain idol of avenge; having reproved the transgressors straw into self-consequence and importance; he withdraws in anger, and lo, the punish- and piercing through, on the other hand, an ment is already inflicted. "The cloud de- honest heart with anguish unutterable; perparted from off the tabernacle, and behold, haps robbing a worthy, happy family of its Miriam became leprous, white as snow: and bread, or, what is more, of its peace and Aaron looked upon Miriam, and behold she comfort. I am no stranger to what is by was leprous." A shocking example of di- some termed religious conversation, and I vine displeasure against one of the most am seriously concerned about the topics of it. odious of crimes. My fair hearers, let me It generally turns upon persons, not things. whisper an advice in your ears. I am no Now, it ought to be just the reverse. Percommonplace declaimer against your sex; I sons always mislead us, for no one is wholly honour it, and I wish to improve it; you must impartial; but truth is eternal and unchangehear me with the greater attention, and mark able. Apply then the test-Does the conwhat I say. You lie under a general impu-versation dwell upon this man or his neightation, respecting the vices of the tongue; bour, his rival or his enemy-check it, away but general imputations are for the most part with it; what have the interests of piety to ill-founded. I do not mean, however, to in- do in the case? Had he never been born, sinuate that you are totally innocent, or more "the foundation of God" would have stood so than the other sex: for your affections are as it does, without his feeble aid. Call no eager, and what the heart feels, by the eyes man master in sacred things, but Christ; and or the tongue you will express; and that ex- take care that you measure neither orthopression is sometimes too strong for either doxy, sense, nor virtue, by the imperfect, piety or prudence. I mean to caution you fluctuating standard of your own caprice, at present, on a particular fault of the tongue, affection, or understanding. Were similar which affects my own profession, which is punishment instantly to follow the vices of far from being foreign to the subject, and on the tongue, as in the case of Miriam, I shudwhich I deem myself both qualified and en-der to think how many a fair face now lovely titled to advise you. Women, among other favourite objects, have their favourite systems of religion, and their favourite preachers; and, following the impulse of an honest affection, they are for establishing their favourite object on the ruins of every competitor. What is the con to the sight, must by to-morrow morning. stand in need of a veil; but not for the same reason that the face of Moses did on his descending from the mount, to temper its lustre; but to shroud its loathsomeness and deformity. Consider what hath been said, and "set a watch on the door of your lips," and "keep the heart with all diligence." HISTORY OF AARON. LECTURE LXVI. And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in mount Hor, by the coast of the land of Edom, saying, Aaron shall be gathered unto his people: for he shall not enter into the land which I have given unto the children of Israel, because ye rebelled against my word at the water of Meribah. Take Aaron and Eleazer his son, and bring them up unto mount Hor: and strip Aaron of his garments, and put them upon Eleazer his son: and Aaron shall be gathered unto his people, and shall die there. And Moses did as the Lord commanded: and they went up into mount Hor, in the sight of all the congregation. And Moses stripped Aaron of his garments, and put them upon Eleazer his son: and Aaron died there in the top of the mount And Moses and Eleazer came down from the mount. And when all the congregation saw that Aaron was dead, they mourned for Aaron thirty days, even all the house of Israel.-NUMBERS XX. 23-29. more, I know I am to die; let my tongue, then, yet once again speak praise to God and instruction to man, before it becomes for ever silent. Before the cold hand of death freezes up the genial current at my heart, let it pour out the gentle stream of kindness, sympathy, and love. While this arm is able as yet to extend itself, and this hand to expand, let it be extended to protect the oppressed, to support the weak; let it be expanded to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to relieve the miserable. Ere my eyes close, to open no more, let some one of the wonderful things of God again pass through them, to revive my drooping spirits, to cheer and elevate my sinking soul; and before I divest myself of my robes of office, never to resume them, let me humbly endeavour to minister to the Lord, and to the spiritual wants of men, in the duties of my station." THE love of life is one of the most useful flesh, for the greater good of the church and and important principles implanted in human of the world, argues a great, a noble, and nature; and death, the necessary end of all disinterested spirit; it excites our love and men, is an event mercifully and in wisdom admiration. That man is indeed immortal, hid from our eyes. Hoping that we may the daily language of whose conduct is, live till to-morrow, we feel ourselves impelled" Let me perform at least one good action to exert ourselves to-day, to make some provision for it. Not knowing the time of their death, men are engaged to act as if they were immortal. And though no wise man would "wish to live always," or can deem it possible, yet the precise period never comes, when we find ourselves so entirely unoccupied with temporal prospects or pursuits, so totally mortified to the world, as to be disposed with cheerfulness to leave it. Hence the business of the world goes on, which would otherwise stand still; and that God, of whose years there can be no end, is carrying on designs of everlasting moment, by frail and shortlived instruments. This man makes a few feeble, dying efforts, and expires. Another comes after him, takes up the instrument which his fellow had laid down, makes his stroke or two, and expires likewise; and yet by means of efforts so weak, so interrupted, and self-destroying, the purposes of Heaven proceed, the building of God rises; every loss is instantly repaired, every defect supplied, and no chasm in the chain of Providence is permitted to take place. Hence men are dignified with the title of fellowworkers with God, and the perishing attempts of perishing creatures are employed in maturing the plans of infinite wisdom, and are honoured by the acceptance and approbation of Him who "worketh all things after the counsel of his own will." What a motive to diligence, exertion, and perseverance! Calm and composed as was the death of Aaron, we advance toward it with slowness and reluctance, and therefore with eagerness seize the occasion which scripture affords, of adverting to some farther incidents of his life, before we come to the history of that fatal event. It was with astonishment and grief, we saw him engaged in a plan of disaffection and sedition against his amiable and excellent brother; and in wonder mixed with terror, we observed the mingled lenity and severity of the punishment inflicted by God on that impious, unnatural, and ungrateful conduct. But the offence was not expiated when Miriam was struck with leprosy, and Aaron thereby tacitly reprehended; when Miriam was restored, and Israel permitted to move forwards. Transgressors often flatter themselves that surely the bitterness of death "I paint for eternity," replied the great artist of antiquity, when reprehended for an over curious, painful, and laborious attention to the more nice and delicate touches of his favourite pieces. What a lesson of encouragement, admonition, and reproof to Christians! They are indeed acting for eternity; not like the painter, pursuing the empty bub-is past, when a righteous God is but awaking ble, reputation, but aiming at "the end of their faith, even the salvation of their souls." They are striving continually to bring a new tribute of praise to God, and to promote the everlasting happiness of mankind. to vengeance; and it is not seldom found, that between crimes and punishments there is such an apparent affinity, that the criminal cannot but read his guilt in the evil which overtakes him; and the world is made to It is truly pitiable to see a poor creature" see," not only "the rod," but "him that cleaving to life after the relish of it is gone, hath appointed it." merely from a fond attachment to the things of time. It is more lamentable still to behold a miserable wretch shrinking from death, through a well-grounded horror of its consequences. But to desire life from a desire of doing good; to be willing to continue in the Six years have elapsed, from the sedition of Aaron and Miriam, when a similar conspiracy is formed to discredit the government of Moses, and the priesthood of Aaron, by certain turbulent, envious, and ambitious men of their own tribe, in confederacy with some folly of men! He was pleased to appoint a lasting memorial of the preference which he had bestowed on Aaron and his family, and to confer a fresh badge of distinction on the man whom he delighted to honour. Moses is directed to take of each of the tribes of Israel a several rod, and to inscribe every one with the name of the prince of that tribe to which it belonged, writing the name of Aaron on the rod of the tribe of Levi. They were to be laid up together over night before the Lord, in the tabernacle of the congregation before the testimony, and previous intimation was given to all concerned, that by the next morning God would give an explicit, and unequivocal declaration of his will, respecting the office of priesthood. of a similar spirit of the tribe of Reuben. So signal and alarming, is apt speedily to be obwidely and so suddenly has the malignity of literated-such is the thoughtlessness and revolt spread itself, that no less than two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown, with their adherents, have been infected by it: and Aaron has his large share of that obloquy, which he had before so unjustly employed, to weaken the hands, and to blast the reputation of his brother. But ah! my friends, a leprosy of seven days could not wash away the stain of this transgression; neither could the blood of one unhappy victim, make atonement for a crime in which so many were involved. The Lord creates "a new thing," to mark the severity of his hot displeasure. When Moses had made an end of denouncing the judgment of God, it came to pass that "the ground clave asunder that was under them, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods. They, and all that appertained to them, went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon them: and they perished from among the congregation. And there came out fire from the Lord, and consumed the two hundred and fifty men that offered incense."* A plague broke out among the people, which, before it was stayed by the interposition of the high priest himself, offering incense between the living and the dead, had consumed fourteen thousand seven hundred. What, O Aaron, were now thy feelings, surveying a field of blood so dreadful and so extensive! What were thy feelings in reflecting that for the very offence which thou thyself hadst committed, Miriam was a leper, and thousands were slain! Did not thy heart tremble, as the sword of the destroying angel laid heaps upon heaps, whilst thou stoodst in the fearful gap, lest its keen edge should reach thyself? It is remarkable, that the enormity of the greater crimes which Aaron committed, was exposed by the judgments wherewith God visited similar crimes in others, not in himself; whereas, for an apparently lighter transgression, his life was irrecoverably forfeited, and he fell under a doom, which no penitence nor supplication could alter or avert. We cannot judge of the malignity of crimes from certain external circumstances. Both in the good which men do, and the evil they commit, God principally regards the heart and intention; but to discern and to judge of the thoughts and intents of the heart, is a prerogative, which with awful propriety he has reserved to himself. God has punished the defection of Korah and his abettors in the most open and exemplary manner. Not satisfied with this, because the memory of judgments the most Numb. xv. 31-33. 35. The God whom we adore, would rather make himself known by the wonders which he performs, and the mercies which he dispenses, than by the judgments which he executes. It was fulfilled accordingly. The rods of the eleven other tribes remained as they were deposited; separated from the parent stock, sapless, withered, and dead; but the rod of Aaron, as if it had been still a branch united to a living root, and by a progress of vegetation infinitely more rapid than nature knows, in the course of one night, "brought forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, and yielded almonds."* And lo, a miracle as great as a lifeless twig bringing forth fruit, the fierce and angry spirit which acts of just vengeance had but irritated, is by a miracle of kindness and condescension, mollified, melted, subdued, extinguished: and thus necessary are signs and wonders to silence and persuade murmuring, unbelieving Hebrews, as well as to render inexcusable impenitent Egyptians. This mark of preference having been openly exhibited, for the conviction and satisfaction of all, commandment is once more given to carry back this wondrous rod, and to deposit it by itself before God, with the other sacred furniture of the most holy place, to serve to latest posterity as one of the precious monuments of the divine favour to their forefathers. It is highly probable, that it always preserved that verdure to which it was thus preternaturally restored; and is a lively image of the constant preservation of the universe, by that all-powerful Word which spake it into existence at first; of the continued support of life, by the merciful visitation of that Spirit who "breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul."+ Aaron, thus again distinguished and honoured of Heaven, continues to enjoy the dignity, and to perform the duties of the priesthood for thirty-one years longer; we doubt not, with |