.n.6O A CAVEAT AGAINST INFIntLI'YY. gression : It belongs not to thee, Uzziah, to burn ini'ense unto the Lord, but to thepriests the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense; and immediately the was smitten with a foul dis- ease, the leprosy rose up in fibsforehead, and he was thrust out f'r'om the temple, yea, himself hosted to go out, because the Lord had smitten him: .And Uzziah the king was a leper unto the day ofhis death, andwas cut offfrom the house ofthe Lord. Thus we see that God will spare neither priests, nor princes, nor indulge kings to make an inroad upon his appointed forms of worship,- or to alter any part of the ceremonies which he has ordained. " The Lordof Hosts is a great king and a jealous God." There is yet a fifth instance, that, in,some respect, seemsto carry a more tremendous evidence of the jealousy of the great God in this matter, and that is written ; 2 Sam. vi. 7. When the arkof the Lord was brought up from the house of Abinadab in a cart, "Uzzah put forth his hand to the ark of God, and tookholdof it, for the oxen shook it" Doubtless Uzzah did this out of a pious zealto preserve theark ofGod, and the things that. were in it from being shattered : But the law of God by Moses, . hadordained the priests only to bear the ark verse S. " And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah, andGod smotehim there for his error, andhe died by the ark of God." Here does not seem to be any ambition or insolence in the heart, presuming to attempt forbidden work : But even where piety and zeal itself were expressed in a forbidden manner, the great God is so jealous of the honour of his appointments, that he struck the man dead for his mistaken zeal : The Lordour God, says David, made a breach upon us, for that we sought himnot after the due order, that is, by employing alone the levites and priests in removing the ark ; 1 Chron. xv. 13. And this is left upon record as a warning-piece to affright us for everfrom pre- tending to honour God, and to express our devotion for him in any other methods than those, which he himself has ordained, and consecrated. V. " The hugecontempt that God himselfhas thrown upon theways and rules of his own appointment when their date is expired, gives us a plain intimation that he will accept of no methods of worship, but such as he appoints." Howmagnifi- cent and illustrious, beyond all our present thoughts and ex- pressions, was the worship of God in the tabernacle, and espe- cially in the temple, when those buildings were first set up, the one by Moses the prophet, and theother by Solomon the king i, All the pomp and glory of the heathen temples and their golden idols, all the splendor of the vestments of the priests, and fur- niture of cathedrals and altars in the church, of Rome, though the riches of the world seem to be amassed and laid out there, yet it falls incomparably short of the glory and grandeur ofthe
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=