93. I hear again that Nadab and Abihu, for
having merely offered incense with strange fire, were with strange fire
destroyed, Lev. x. 1. the instrument of
their impiety being used for their punishment, and their destruction
following at the very time and place of their sacrilege; and not even
their father Aaron, who was next to Moses in the favor of God, could
save them. I know also of Eli the priest, and a little later of
Uzzah, the former made to pay the penalty for his sons’
transgression, in daring to violate the sacrifices by an untimely
exaction of the first fruits of the cauldrons, although he did not
condone their impiety, but frequently rebuked them; 1 Sam. ii. 12, 15, 23. the other, because he only touched the ark,
which was being thrown off the cart by the ox, 2 Sam. vi. 6.
and though he saved it, was himself destroyed, in God’s jealousy
for the reverence due to the ark.