Leviticus 10

REFLECTIONS UPON CHAP. X.—Stand in awe, my soul, and sin not! Let no honours, no gifts, no graces, render thee proud or inattentive to God’s institutions. Who can stand before this holy Lord God, the fire of whose zeal for his own institutions burns hottest the nearest to his altar! His noted favours and his tremendous judgments are often most closely connected: and, for the warning of others, he sometimes punishes the first transgressors with the most fearful severity, and deeply marks their sin in their punishment. How insufficient were the giving of the law, the typical tabernacle, or the ceremonial priesthood, to prevent either sins or judgments! When God severely afflicts me or mine, let me draw my heart-composing considerations from the word, the providence, the glory, of God as concerned in it; and never may my indulgence of private affection interfere with the honour or sovereign will of God, nor lead me to disgrace my spiritual unction with carnal cares, or the sorrow of the world, which worketh death. While my soul trembles at God’s righteous judgments, never let my confusion occasion mistakes in any part of my duty: and, if I desire more of intimate fellowship with God, let me hearken to the voice of his messengers, and, after all interruptions, re-apply myself to my work.—Let ministers seriously ponder how dangerous it is to change God’s ordinances even in the smallest circumstance; or to be animated to their work from earthly and carnal motives! Base and dangerous is it, especially for them, to be overcharged with surfeiting or drunkenness, and the cares of this life, in a work of such importance and concern, which requires the most faithful attention to reprove the sinner, to comfort the believer, and tenderly to regard the reasonable excuses of such whose minds are distressed!