Numbers 27

But when the land of promise had at length been reached, [Moses] was called into the mountain and heard of the fault which he had committed eight and thirty years before, as I have said, in that he had doubted about drawing water from the rock. And for this reason he was told that he might not enter the land of promise. Herein it is for us to consider how formidable is the judgment of the almighty God, who did so many signs through that servant of his whose fault he still bore in remembrance for so long a time.

If Aaron and Moses (who seemed to waver at the waters of contradiction) did not deserve to enter the Promised Land, does it not stand to reason that we, bent under the burden of sin, shall be far less able to cross the river Jordan and reach Gilgal, the place of circumcision, if we shall cause one of these little ones to sin?

One is said to be superior to another either with respect to the origin of nature, or with respect to the dominion of power or presidency, or with respect to the governance of providence. The first superiority belongs to nature itself by reason of itself, because "nature is a force implanted in things, producing like from like"; the second by reason of vice, because, as Ambrose says, servitude is the punishment of sin; but the third belongs by reason of remedy, according to that passage in Numbers twenty-seven: Let the God of the spirits of all flesh provide a man who may be over this multitude, lest they be as sheep without a shepherd. To the first superiority is owed filial obedience, to the second servile obedience, and to the third jurisdictional obedience, which regards the dignity of prelacy.