All the congregation were to ftone the fabbathbreaker. The hands of all the people were alfo to be on him who fhould entice to idolatry m. Thus were they all folemnly to approve of the punishment; and virtually to be witneffes against themselves, if they should ever be guilty of the crime. The fevere temporal punishments of the law extended to faints, equally with others. Miriam, the prophetess", was fmitten with leprofy, becaufe fhe murmured against Mofes ". Neither was Mofes "the man of God," nor Aaron, "the holy "one of JEHOVAH," permitted to bring the Ifraelites into Canaan; because they rebelled at the water of Meribah, in fmiting the rock, when God had commanded that they should speak to it; and in charging Ifrael, in their unhallowed wrath, with that very crime of which they were themfelves at this time guilty P. 'Uzzah, long afterwards, from mifguided piety, laid his hand on the ark of God, when the oxen in the cart, on which it was borne, fhook it by their unfteady motion. But "the anger of the LORD was kindled against Uzzah, and "God fmote him there for his error, and there he "died by the ark of God 9." What a damp muft this have brought on the hearts of the Ifraelites, in the midst of their joy on account of the return of the ark! Even the man after God's own heart was difpleafed. But as Uzzah was not a prieft, and therefore tranfgreffed the law when he touch ed the ark; God in this affecting 'manner manifefted his jealoufy, and taught his people that he would be fanctified in all that drew nigh him. Thus alfo he reproved David and the Ifraelites, for fuffering the ark to be drawn on a cart, by beafts, when it should have been carried on staves by the Levites. The fons of Kohath themselves, though fet apart for bearing the fanctuary and all the confecrated veffels, might not touch any holy thing, under pain of death. Even when God forgave his people, in as far as their fins merited eternal wrath, he "took vengeance on their in"ventions," by temporal judgments extending to death itfelft. The deftruction of this rebellious people was almoft univerfal. All thofe, who came out of Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, except two perfons, perifhed in the wilderness. For "the LORD's anger was kindled in the wilderness, "until all the generation that had done evil in "the fight of the LORD was confumed ". For the fin of one, God punished the whole congregation of Ifrael. Achan took fome of the goods of Jericho; although the city, with all that, was in it, had been devoted of God. The crime was charged against the Ifraelites in general, and they were punifhed on this account. "The "children of Ifrael committed a trefpafs in the "accurfed thing.-Therefore the children of If"rael could not ftand before their enemies,-be" caufe r Num. xviii. 3, 4. s Chap. iv. 15. t Pfal. xcix. 8. "cause they were accurfed." They fled before the men of Ai; and God declared that he would "not be with them any more," except they detroyed the accurfed perfon from among them ". Some of them perhaps knew, but did not reveal, the crime of Achan. God, at any rate, would difplay his justice in bringing fin to light; and by the tokens of his difpleafure at the whole camp, would teach them to fear fin, as that alone which exposed them to danger; to be diligent in fearching it out; and to be careful that others, as well as themselves, were obedient to his commandments. Thus he figuratively teftified the intimate union among the members of a church; and the neceffity, not only of purging out error and corruption, when difcovered, but of exercifing a holy jealoufy, left it fhould be working in fecret, becaufe "a little leaven leaveneth the "whole lump." Were the Ifraelites accurfed becaufe of Achan? And can any church expect God's bleffing, if fhe is not careful to "take away "the accursed thing?" Would an angel of God be accurfed, did he preach another gofpel, than that which Chrift hath given w; and can a church efcape the curfe, if the receive it, or "bear them "which are evil?" In a word, God often difplayed the terror of his justice, by involving, in the deftruction brought on the tranfgreffor, every thing that pertained to him. When he would teftify his indignation against those who engaged in the rebellion of KoG 2 rah, v Josh. vii. 1. 4. 12. w Gal. i. S. & Rev. ii. 2. 66 66 rah," the earth opened her mouth, and fwallow"ed them up, and their houses, and all the men "that appertained to Korah, and all their goods. They, and all that appertained to them, went "down alive into the pit, and the earth clofed upon them." In the cafe of Achan, by the exprefs commandment of JEHOVAH, judgment was to be executed by the hand of man, in all this extent. God had faid, "It fhall be, that he "that is taken with the accurfed thing, fhall be "burnt with fire, he and all that he hath."-And fuch was the punishment inflicted. Joshua and "all Ifrael took Achan the fon of Zerah, and the "filver, and the garment, and the wedge of goid, "and his fons, and his daughters, and his oxen, "and his affes, and his fheep, and all that he had: "and all Ifrael ftoned him with ftones, and "burned them with fire "." We intend afterwards to confider the vifitation of the guilt of fathers on their children; and therefore fhall not enter on it here. But it deferves our particular regard, that the deftruction extended even to things irrational and inanimate. The tents, and all the fubftance that was in the poffeffion of these finners, perifhed with them. Thefe could not poflibly be the fubjects of moral guilt or pollution. But as, in this punishment, "they became "a fign," an enfample not to the Ifraelites only, but to the Church in every age, expreffive of the holinefs and jealoufy of God; their very fubstance Y Num. xvi. 32, 33. z Jef. vii. 15. 24, 25. a Deut. xi. 6. b Num. xxvi. 10. ftance is treated as accurfed, that we might hence perceive the contaminating nature of fin, and its contagious influence, as fubjecting even innocent creatures to the effects of the curfe. This punishment alfo declares the rigorous claims of divine holinefs and juftice; which demand the utter extinction of fin itfelf, and of every thing that may be a memorial of it. We have already obferved, that the Mofaic economy was defigned to prepare the Church for receiving the doctrine of atonement by the fufferings of a divine Perfon. Such was its effect on the Ifraelites, obdurate as they were, that they virtually acknowledged, that finful man can have no comfortable intercourse with the holy and just God, but through a Mediator. This appears from the very manner in which God fpake the words of the law at firft; for the Second Perfon, as the Mediator and Angel of the covenant, fpake from Mount Sinai. But this the Ifraelites underflood not. When, therefore, they witneffed the terrors of this law, they said to Mofes, as with one voice, 66 Speak thou with us, and we will hear; but let "not God speak with us, left we die." God affented to this propofal, as it was his will to teach them the neceffity of it; and to fhew them that his law was "given in the hand of a mediator." Mofes defcribes the character of the great Prophet as correfponding with his in this very refpect. G 3 IV. Notwith c Exod. xx. 19. Deut. v. 24. e Chap. xviii. 15.-18. |