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"for he transgressed against the Lord his God, and went into "the temple of the Lord, to burn incense upon the altar of "incense. And Azariah the Priest went in after him, and "with him fourscore Priests of the Lord, that were valiant men and they withstood Uzziah the King, and said unto "him-It appertaineth not unto thee, Uzziah, to burn incense "unto the Lord, but to the Priests, the sons of Aaron, that are "consecrated to burn incense; Go out of the sanctuary! for "thou hast trespassed, neither shall it be for thine honour from "the Lord God.” 2 Chron. xxvi. 16—18. And he was struck with leprosy, and "cut off from the house of the Lord,”—and counted a leper until the day of his death,―rer. 21.

The kingdom also was rent from Saul-when it would have been" established for ever,"-on his presuming to offer a sacrifice without waiting for Samuel—the Prophet-(see ante p. 63.) who had declared that he would come and make the offering-the King thus unwarrantably assuming to himself to act in the Priest's office. 1 Sam. x. 8, and xiii. 13, 14.

But the strongest cases are those of Korah, and of Uzzahand of Nadab and Abihu:-all, themselves, of the sacred order, and each of whose peculiar functions were guarded against intrusion. Korah, not content with the duties and privileges of his office,-the ministering to the Priests,-Num. iii. 6,—and under pretence of equal holiness,-xvi. 3,-aspired to the Priest's office,-xvi. 10,-and was swallowed up alive with his rebellious companions, Dathan and Abiram; the Lord "making a new thing" in order to mark this arrogant intrusion with his signal vengeance; and directing" the censers of "these sinners against their own souls," to be made into broad plates for the altar; "to be a memorial unto the chil"dren of Israel, that no stranger, which is not of the seed of "Aaron, come near to offer incense before the Lord; that he "be not as Korah and as his company."-xvi. 40. Not resting the matter here, the Lord, at the same time, confirmed the authority he had vested in the house of Aaron, by the miraculous budding of his rod, which rod-ever flourishing—was

also directed to be preserved as "a token against the rebels," xvii. 1-10, and the Apostle, St. Jude, refers, in his General Epistle to all Christians, to both the crime and the punishment, as incurred and inflicted even in the times of the Christian Priesthood.

Uzzah-also a Levite-was punished for a mistaken zeal only, in putting forth his hand to support the ark of God, which it was not lawful for any but the Priests to touch, or even to look at without a covering :-Num. iv. 15, 20-though he did this from an apprehension, that through the stumbling of the oxen-1 Chron. xiii. 9-the sacred load was about to fall;" and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah, "and God smote him there for his error, and there he died by the ark of God.” 2 Sam. vi. 6, 7. ; a visitation which made even David afraid, "and he said, how shall the ark of the Lord come to me." ib. vi. 9.

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Nadab and Abihu were of the second order of Priests, the sons of Aaron himself,-who presuming to set up their own opinions against the wisdom and commandment of God, and to burn their incense with common, instead of the sacred, fire, intrenching too, probably, on the High Priest's peculiar office, -Lev. ix. 7-were destroyed by an appropriate punishment. "There went out fire from the Lord, and devoured them, and they died before the Lord." Lev. x. 2. This event was also marked with attending circumstances of God's wrath—as in similar cases. Aaron, the unhappy father, though thus awfully and suddenly deprived of his sons, was forbidden with his family to grieve for them, "lest," says Moses, "you die, and "lest wrath come upon all the people: but let your brethren, "the whole house of Israel, bewail the burning which the "Lord hath kindled:" Lev. x. 6, and " this is it," says he, "that the Lord spake, saying, I will be sanctified in them "that come nigh me, and before all the people I will be glo"rified. And Aaron held his peace." Lev. x. 3. He thus acknowledged the enormity of the crime, and justified the severity of the punishment.

The preparation common before entering upon any sacred

office, as well as that of the Aaronical Priesthood, may be seen in the instances of Moses, who fasted 40 days and 40 nights while he was receiving instructions from God respecting that establishment:-of Elijah, who fasted the same time, after which the Lord communed with him in the " still small voice," 1 Kings xix. 8-12. :-of John the Baptist who lived a life of retirement and mortification in the wilderness, before "the "word of the Lord came to him ;"-and of our Lord himself, who also fasted in the Wilderness a like period of 40 days and 40 nights.

Jeroboam's conduct in making Priests of those who "were "not of the sons of Levi," " became sin" to his house," even "to cut it off, and to destroy it from off the face of the earth.” 1 Kings xii. 31. xiii. 33, 34—and Abijah, the son of Rehoboam, makes this an express cause of confidence in his war against Jeroboam, "Have ye not," says he, "cast out the Priests of "the Lord, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites, and have made

you Priests after the manner of the nations of other lands?— "But as for us, the Lord is our God, and we have not for"saken him; and the Priests which minister unto the Lord "are the sons of Aaron, and the Levites wait upon their "business."-" We keep the charge of the Lord our God, "but ye have forsaken him; and behold God himself is with "us for our Captain: and his priests with sounding trumpets "to cry alarm against you."" Then the men of Judah gave "a shout; and as the men of Judah shouted, it came to pass "that God smote Jeroboam,"-" and the Lord struck him, " and he died." 2 Chron. xiii. 9-20.

The sentiments entertained by the people of Israel—the chosen people-the sacred character with which the regularly ordained Priest was invested, may be gathered from the story of Micah the Ephramite. Living at the time affairs were in their most unsettled state, and when "there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes," and being desirous to preserve some form of public worship in his family,-for it appears that he adored the true God, Judg. xvii. 3-13.-this man made an image, and a

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house of Gods (Elohim), and an ephod, and teraphim; and consecrated one of his sons, probably his first-born, as his Priest: bnt afterwards meeting with a sojourning Levite, he said, "Dwell with me, and be unto me a father, and a Priest:" and when the stranger acceded to this, Micah exclaimed, "Now know I that the Lord will do me good, seeing I have "a Levite to my Priest." ver. 4—13. This establishment was not ineffectual; for when the Danites, being in search of an inheritance, unexpectedly recognized this Levite, and desired him to "ask counsel of God," a satisfactory answer was given ; and in consequence they were induced to carry away the image and the ephod, &c. together with the Priest, and establish them in their own inheritance; where they remained “until the day of the captivity of the land"-" all the time that the "house of God was in Shiloh." Judg. xviii. 5, 30, 31.

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A remarkable contrast to this is the case of Gideon.-He, too, "made an ephod" of the spoils taken in war, and established a place of worship;—but he had no Priest; and it "became a snare unto Gideon and to his house." Judg. viii. 27. There is reason for believing that this establishment also was for the worship of the true God, for in a subsequent passage, it is said, "that as soon as Gideon was dead, the chil"dren of Israel turned again, and went a whoring after 'Baalim, and made Baal-Berith their God. And the chil"dren of Israel remembered not the Lord their God, who had "delivered them out of the hands of all their enemies on every side neither shewed they kindness to the house of Jerubbaal, namely Gideon, according to all the goodness "which he had showed unto Israel." Judg. viii. 33—35. Gideon himself" died in a good old age," leaving a numerous issue. The snare, therefore, thus occasioned to him and his house, was probably his having the service of the "Ephod" performed by persons not duly qualified and commissioned for the office.

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III. The nature of the Call to the Ministry, and the inviolability of the sacred office-under the Gospel Dispensation.

THUS it clearly appears from the earliest revelation, and according to the firmly established economy of the Priesthood, that no one was to run except he was sent,-no stranger to intermeddle with sacred things; "neither must the children of "Israel henceforth come nigh the tabernacle of the congrega❝tion, lest they bear sin, and die." Num. xviii. 22. -Andthere seems little reason for supposing that the dispensation as to this point has been disannulled, or that this economy has undergone any essential change. The declaration of the Apostle St. Paul-himself" called to be an Apostle, separated

unto the Gospel of God."-Rom i. 1.-" not of men, "neither by man, but by Jesus Christ." Gal. i. 1.—" through "the will of God."-1 Cor. i. 1.-" ordained a preacher, and "an Apostle, (I speak the truth," says he, "in Christ and lie

not,) a teacher of the Gentiles."-1 Tim. ii. 7.-his declaration, that "no man taketh this honour unto himself, but he "that is called of God as was Aaron." Heb. v. 4. see Ex. xxx. 30, refers evidently to the Christian, as well as to the Levitical Priesthood: and if the commission of the immediate forerunner of Christ be considered-if the pattern our Lord has proposed to us, both in his own waiting for an actual call and his solemnly delegating to his successors-the Apostlesthe commission he had himself received from God-be of any weight-the important axiom seems as much applicable to the state of the Christian Church as it shall be to the end of the world, as to its state or form at any period of its existence. As long as the Christian minister is an ambassador from God, who shall venture to act in this responsible and honourable office uncalled and uncommissioned ?-and if all are ambas→ sadors, to whom shall they be sent?

"No man," then, "taketh this honour unto himself, but

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