acceptance of their offerings, now he makes it an instrument of destruction to those who had offended against him. Thus the same circumstance in Providence is a blessing to one, and a punishment to another, and the gospel itself is a savour of life to some, and a savour of death to others.

What a panic would this awful visitation strike into the whole assembly! What a solemn warning would it afford to every one who beheld it! Perhaps we think that if such visible and instantaneous displays of God's indignation against sin were made more frequently, there would be less of it. But alas the history of this people shews how soon they forgat both these judgments and mercies. And if such baring of his right hand, and such launching of his thunderbolts, are not so frequent in our age, what irreverence, forgetfulness, and ingratitude does it shew, if we pervert this forbearance into an encouragement to sin! Thus the Apostle expostulates,

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Despisest thou the riches of his goodness, and forbearance, and long-suffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth

thee to repentance! But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God?" The judgment revealed in that day will indeed be a righteous judgment. Creation will cry at its execution, Righteous art thou O Lord, because thou hast judged thus." But this is a day of grace, and still his mercy waits. May the blessed Spirit lead you to come unto God in a right manner,

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that you may find mercy and acceptance with

him before it be too late.

IV. I will state to you, in the fourth place, the reason assigned by Moses for this severe judgment. We read, "Then Moses said unto Aaron, This is it that the Lord spake, saying, I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me, and before all the people I will be glorified." The meaning is that God will have a holy awe and reverence of his divine majesty on the mind of all, and more especially of his priests, whenever they draw near to him in any act of solemn worship. He will not be approached with disrespect or

familiarity; he will not have the mind light and trifling on an entrance into his house; he will be feared and honoured by all his worshippers, as the Psalmist says, "God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of his saints, and to be had in reverence of all that are about him." But this reverence of God must be on our minds on all occasions, and we must sanctify the Lord in every circumstance. We have already seen, in a former sermon, that it was this particular failure which God punished so severely in Moses and Aaron, when they disobeyed his word in smiting the rock, and did that which he commanded them not. Though he did not break out upon them and kill them, though he did not even withhold the water from the people, yet he said unto them, "Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them." Thus we see that he will be honoured by such a regard to his word as shall neither overstep it, nor fall short of it: he will be implicitly believed and obeyed: he

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will not bear with those who go beyond his commandment any more than with those who omit to do it and if men do not glorify him by their obedience, he will glorify himself by his own judgments. Let us learn then to feel this profound reverence of him, and render him this undeviating obedience, that we may in all things, as we read in the prophet Isaiah, Sanctify his name and sanctify the holy one of Jacob, and fear the God of Israel." He declares by the prophet Ezekiel, when he is threatening some most terrible judgments upon a predicted mighty enemy of his church; when he threatens, "I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire and brimstone;" then he adds, "Thus will I magnify myself, and sanctify myself; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the Lord." This use of the word

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Sanctify" is also made by the Apostle Peter, quoting Isaiah, when he is warning

those to whom he wrote not to shrink from

bearing their testimony to the Lord through fear of the persecution of men. He says,

"Be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts;" that is, entertain so deep a sense of

his authority, power, and grace, and of your own duty and obligations, as to overpower every regard which you might otherwise feel to the threats of men.

V. But it is time that we go, in the fifth place, to consider the spirit of Aaron under this severe trial from the death of his sons. It is described in one short, but very emphatic sentence, "Aaron held his peace.

His

breast must have been torn with various distressing feelings. Consternation, horror, and grief, must all have laid hold on him. These were his two eldest sons; he had just been made happy by the distinguished honour which had been put upon them; he sees them struck dead in an instant; he feels himself dishonoured before the people by their punishment. We who know what angry feelings are ready to rise in our minds, and what hasty