before its termination, Moses himself also was con- strained to yield to the stroke of death. In the death of Aaron, to which we would now call your attention, there are two things more especially to be noticed;
I. The transfer of his office —
Moses received an order to " strip off Aaron's gar- ments, and to put them on Eleazar his son." That order was now executed: and in the execution of it we may see the true nature of that law, of which Aaron was the chief minister. We may see,
1. That it could not save —
[In the preceding Discourse we have observed, that the sentence of death passed on Moses, marked the insufficiency of the moral law to justify : and now we observe, that the transfer of Aaron's priesthood marked the same respecting the ceremo- nial law. The ceremonial law was never designed to make any real satisfaction for sin. The annual repetition of the same sacrifices shewed, that they had not fully prevailed for the re- moval of guilt. As they could not satisfy divine justice, so neither could they satisfy the consciences of those who offered them : " they were remembrances of sin," calculated to pre- serve a sense of guilt upon the conscience, and to direct the people to that great Sacrifice, which should in due time be offered for the sins of the whole worldb. This, I say, was shadowed forth in the death of Aaron : for, if those sacrifices which he had offered could really atone for sin, why were they not accepted for his sin ; or why was not some fresh sacrifice appointed for it? They could not so much as avert from him a temporal punishment, or procure for him an admission into the earthly Canaan : how then could they prevail for the re- moval of eternal punishment, and for the admission of sinners into the heavenly land ? The Apostle tells us, that " it was not possible for the blood of bulls and of goats to take away sin : " nor could a more striking evidence of its inefficiency be con- ceived, than that which was exhibited in the event before us.]
2. That it was not to continue —
[The sentence of death denounced against Aaron, mani- fested, as we have before shewn, that the law itself was in due time to be disannulled0. The stripping off of Aaron's garments, and putting of them upon Eleazar, still more clearly marked
* Heb. x. 1—4. andix. 9, 10.
c See the preceding Discourse. If this subject were taken alone, that part of it which illustrates this idea should, in substance, be in- troduced in this place.