66 Balaam flattered himself and the Moabites, | quicksighted as a covetous man pursuing his with hearing more from God; but, as the pu- gain? And yet, who so stupid and dull, as nishment of abusing the light he had, he hears the man whose eyes the god of this world less than before; and the vision is obscured hath blinded? Balaam is up betimes in the to the man who had wilfully shut his own morning, equipped for his journey, on his way eyes. He was formerly forbidden either to for the land of Moab. For the children of go, or to curse. He is now, at his peril, al- this world are in their generation wiser than lowed to go: but should he be so rash as to the children of light." And there, for the proceed on so slender a warrant, he is, at his present, we shall leave him, with this melanperil, warned to walk by the instructions choly, mortifying reflection-that a corrupted which should be given him. How easily men heart has infinitely greater power to pervert a believe, how promptly they obey, when the sound understanding and a well informed condoctrine tallies with their prejudices; when science, than an intelligent conscience and a the precept coincides with their inclinations a clear head have to reform and purify a coror their interest. Balaam is weak, I ought rupted heart. If God permit, we shall continue to have said, wicked enough, to imagine his the history next Lord's day. May grace and way perfectly clear. Having carried, as he wisdom be granted us to make a proper use thought, one essential point, all the rest, he of it; and to God's holy name be praise. Amen. presumes, will follow of course. Who so *Luke xvi 8. HISTORY OF BALAAM. LECTURE LXIX. These are gone astray, following the way of Balaam, the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; but was rebuked for his iniquity; the dumb ass, speaking with man's voice, forbad the madness of the prophet.-2 PETER ii. 15, 16. | any degree of application, to the operations of his own mind; and to what, in the ordinary course of human affairs, is every hour pressing upon his observation. In a crowded assembly, without the utterance of a single sound, by one glance of the eye, the inmost thoughts, the most secret emotions, shall, quick as lightning, be conveyed from soul to soul: and the stranger be unable to intermeddle with, to partake of the sorrow or the joy. Let the veil of night be spread ever so thick, and the use of sight sus THE ordinary powers of nature, if we consider them attentively, are no less wonderful in themselves, and are not less a proof of the power and wisdom of God, than those extraordinary gifts which have been bestowed, and those preternatural powers which have been exercised at particular seasons, and for special purposes; and which have excited the admiration and astonishment of one part of mankind, and the incredulity of another. That a company of illiterate men should suddenly, and without instruction or study, be endowed with the gift of readily speaking various lan-pended, as if the eye ball were extinguished, guages, justly raises our wonder, and conveys to our minds a very lofty idea of that divine intelligence which can communicate such power unto men: but we overlook the wonder equally great, because it is continually occurring, of the common gift of speech, and the conveyance of thought by it; and the acquisition of language by means of letters and memory. That a dumb ass should speak with man's voice, and the dull ass reason, fills us with surprise, because the instance is singular and unparalleled; but the gradual increase of the human body, the imperceptible expansion of the powers of the human mind, pass for a thing of course; though the hand of God be conspicuous in the one case as in the other. Nothing is incredible to them who know the scriptures, and the power of God: nothing is incredible to him who attends, with the vibration of a little film of flesh shall dissipate the gloom, and convey the accents of affection or of wo to the ear and the heart of sympathy. Place the diameter of the globe between my friend and me, by an art subtile as the magic spell, what I know and feel in the frozen regions of the north, shall flee on the swift wings of the wind, and touch his soul under the more clement sky of the opposite hemisphere. Knowing from experience all this to be true, history can record no fact, promise suspend before my eyes no future event too wonderful for me to believe. The omniscience, omnipotence, and infinite goodness of God once admitted, every difficulty vanishes. Is there any thing too hard for the Lord to perform? No: Then Sarah conceives a son at ninety years old; the dumb ass reproves the madness of his master; unlet ered fishermen speak with tongues; the dead shall arise; all these things shall be dissolved, and "new heavens, and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness," shall be expanded, to endure for ever and ever. Having premised these things, not altogether foreign, we trust, to our subject, we proceed to the farther prosecution of a history, as singular, and as instructive, perhaps, as any in scripture. Balaam having obtained what he was willing to believe the consent of God to his journey into the land of Moab, for we easily believe what we wish, loses not a moment in making preparation for it. He is mounted, and on his journey by the first dawning of the day, as if afraid of prevention, by a revocation of the permission; ill at ease in his mind, but smothering conviction, in the exultation of having princes in his train, and in the prospect of all the riches and honour which confederated kings had to bestow. Scripture gives us the idea of a holy violence offered unto God, with which he is well pleased, and to which he graciously submits to yield; as when it is said, "the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force." Hence the commandment, to "strive to enter in at the strait gate," to wrestle and make supplication, "to pray always and not to faint." But there is also suggested the idea of an impious, a presumptuous, and a fatal strife and contention with our Maker, in which, wo be to the man that prevails. Such was the violence which worldly minded Balaam offered; and how could he think to prosper? God, justly displeased at his perseverance in a cause which he knew to be disapproved of Heaven, leaves him not long in uncertainty respect ing his will. The princes of Moab, it would appear, had now left him, and were proceeding with a quicker pace to apprise their master of the prophet's approach; and Balaam remains attended by only two of his own servants, when the angel of the Lord places himself in the way for an adversary against him. We shall find, in the sequel, the person styled the angel of the Lord, as in other places, so here, assuming the character and exercising the prerogative of Deity: for he it is that afterwards says, "The word that I shall speak unto thee, that thou shalt speak." We are to understand, therefore, by this designation, the mighty, the uncreated Angel, by whom God made the worlds; the eternal Word, which was in the beginning, which was with God, and which was God, and which, in the fulness of time was made flesh, and dwelt among men: "And they beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."* But never, till now, did he appear in the character of an * John i. 14. adversary. We find him on other occasions, appearing to direct the wandering, to protect the weak, and to succour the distressed; as in the case of Hagar, Lot, and Jacob: but the face of the Lord is set against them that do evil. And now behold him in the way to check the progress of pride, violence, and covetousness. The great enemy, foe to God and man, is termed by way of distinction the adversary: but lo! that awful character is assumed by a very different being-by one, infinitely greater and mightier than him; whose wrath is infinitely more terrible; who has power to save and to destroy; and, if he take upon him that form, it is still in consistency with his gracious characters of good and merciful: it is to humble the proud, to prevent and counteract the causeless curse; to disappoint malice, and make the purposes of revenge recoil upon itself; it is to support the friendless, to guard the innocent, and to relieve the miserable. This formidable apparition was observed neither by the prophet nor his servants. Neither the natural vision of the latter, nor the extraordinary and supernatural sagacity of the former, discerned any thing save empty space, where the dullest of brute animals descried the presence of Him, who makes all nature tremble at his nod; who "giveth understanding to the prudent, and to him that hath no might increaseth strength." Is not this a striking representation of what daily comes to pass in the course of providence? We see men soaring in the clouds, with their eyes and imagination, while with their feet they stumble and fall into the ditch that is before them; possessing every kind of sense, except common sense: pretending to superior refinement, and yet stupid and gross, in the plainest and most essential things. Thus the simplicity of the gospel was "to the Jews a stumbling-block and to the Greeks foolishness:" and on this very account, the condescending Saviour of mankind is represented as rejoicing in spirit, and saying, "I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight."* Thus God destroyeth the wisdom of the wise, and brings to nothing the understanding of the prudent."+ What an object of terror is here represented as obstructing the passage! An angel! The prince of angels armed with a sword, and that sword drawn in his hand! What was the strength of Egypt, in that dreadful night, when one of his flaming messengers walked through the midst of it, and made all its first-born to bleed to death under his stroke? How easy had it been for that arm, with one stroke of that sword, to have † 1 Cor. i. 19. * Matt. xi. 25, 26. put an end to the life and madness of the prophet! But he chose to employ a meaner instrument, and thereby to vindicate to himself higher pra.se. me. There is a striking progress described in the mode of admonition and reproof, administered to the prophet by the successive actions of the dumb creature. First, "he turned aside out of the way, and went into the field;" a piain intimation to his accustomed rider, that something extraordinary obstructed his path. Thus, in many passages of scripture, the common instincts of the dullest animals, are employed to expose the greater thoughtlessness and folly of rational beings. "Ask, now, the beasts," says Job, "and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee: or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee; and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee. Who knoweth not in all these, that the hand of the Lord hath wrought this!"* Hear, O heavens;" says God by Isaiah, "and give ear, O earth: for the Lord hath spoken: I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider." "Yea, the stork in the heaven," saith God by another prophet, "knoweth her appointed times and the turtle, and the crane, and the swallow observe the time of her coming; but my people know not the judgment of the Lord." Thus, in the passage before us, a more indirect reprooof was given to the eagerness and speed of Balaam, pricked on by the spur of covetousness and ambition, by the action of the ass, in deviating from the right path; and had not the eyes of his understanding been blinded by the wages of unrighteousness, this, without the vision of an angel, might have taught him that the way in which he went was perverse before God. But following only the blind impulse of a carnal mind, he wreaks, in reiterated blows upon the unoffending brute, the resentment which ought to have been levelled against his own rashness and presumption. Who was here most worthy of stripes? Let the adage of the wise man determine. "A whip for the horse, a bridle for the ass, and a rod for the fool's back." Behold the patience and longsuffering of God. The ass, by dint of blows, is forced back again into the road, and the angel himself gives place and retires. Folly and obstinacy seem to have carried off the victory; but alas, how short is the triumph of impiety! If omnipotence yield, it is only to meet the sinner on ground more difficult and danger arm of the great Archangel, in front, to oppose. There is no way of safety but in turning back and fleeing for life, and yet he will madly push on to his own destruction. When men are once engaged in a way that is not good, difficulty only stimulates their ardour; they rush on through danger to danger, till they involve themselves in inevitable destruction; according to the fearful progress described by the prophet--“ Fear, and the pit, and the snare shall be upon thee, O inhabitant of Moab, saith the Lord. He that fleeth from the fear shall fall into the pit, and he that getteth up out of the pit, shall be taken in the snare: for I will bring upon it, even upon Moab, the year of their visitation, saith the Lord. They that fled stood under the shadow of Heshbon, because of the force; but a fire shall come forth out of Heshbon, and a flame from the midst of Sion, and shall devour the corner of Moab, and the crowd of the head of the tumultuous ones." The reproof now becomes more distinct and direct. The wretched animal, urged on by his furious rider, hemmed in with a wall on either side, and opposed in front as with a wall of fire, in making a desperate efort to pass by and advance, thrusts herself close to the wall, and crushes the prophet's foot. Thus slow, thus reluctant, is a merciful God to proceed to judgment. He first warns and threatens; then touches the extremities, if peradventure the sinner will take warning, and turn back: and not till all means have been tried and found ineffectual, is he provoked to strike the deadly blow that reaches the heart. Mark on the other hand, by what dreadful degrees sinners harden themselves against God, till they become lost to feeling. The commission of one sin as naturally leads to another, as every step down a steep place accelerates the speed of that which is to follow: and yet transgressors vainly imagine it is in their power to stop when they please, or to turn against the bias. One of the most fearful symptoms of a reprobate mind, is, when the very means of awakening, convincing, and converting, serve as opiates to the conscience, and increase that insensibility which they were meant to cure. If the constitution of the patient be so vitiated as to convert medicine into poison, dissolution cannot be at a great distance. Affliction, that wholesome, though unpalatable potion, never leaves the mind exactly where it found it. A cure is either begun by it, or the distemper is confirmed. The history of Balaam is the illustration of this position. The pain of his foot has only served to whet the asperity of his disposition; and the more he is opposed, the more earnest he is to get forwards. that the children of light were thus perse * Jeremiah xlviii. 43-45. O verant in a good cause, and not weary of well | pleasure elevate it to a higher, or depress it doing. It is astonishing that superstition, if not the fear of God, did not now turn him back. Surely never journey had a more ominous, inauspicious beginning: but the passions, by which he was actuated, are among the last to be discouraged; on he drives, and the angel, in patience mixt with displeasure, continues to retreat, till at length the path becomes so narrow, that it was impossible to turn to the right hand or to the left, when the patient brute, wearied and wasted with stripes, and scared with the dreadful vision immediately before her eyes, at last sinks to the earth under her burden. This was the third stage of admonition and reproof. God first waves the flaming sword, but cuts not; shakes the rod, but smites not. That being disregarded, he puts forth his hand and smites the heal, but spares the vitals. He then proceeds to block up the way, that the sinner cannot pass; but is constrained to fall down before him. Humanity is shocked as we proceed. "The merciful man is merciful to his beast, but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel." Behold an old, simple, uncomplaining drudge expiring under the angry blows of her unkind master. The very stones of the field are ready to cry out, and to upbraid the hardhearted, ungrateful wretch with his cruelty. "Balaam's anger was kindled, and he smote her with a staff." to a lower sphere; can confer upon it a force unknown before, or deprive it of what it formerly possessed; can break the strength of Egypt, by an army of frogs or flies, or preserve Daniel unhurt in the midst of the lions; can catch the serpent in his own craftiness, and teach the dull ass speech and reason. The cunning of Satan, and the understanding of man, look out for likely, promising and adequate instruments to carry on their designs. The wisdom of God chooses to execute his by such as are apparently weak, unpromising, and inadequate. To seduce our first parents, the devil employed the agency of that creature which was the most sagacious of all the beasts of the field. The most stupid, in the hand of the Almighty, was sufficient to confound, and to convict, and to condemn, the proudest and most highly gifted of his race. And the gospel of Christ becometh effectual unto salvation, not through the wisdom of words, but by demonstration of the Spirit; for "God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: that no flesh should glory in his presence." Finally, for we must make an end of our reflections on the subject-What creature In the history of the miracle which follows, so brutish, as a rational being under the doa multitude of reflections crowd upon us. In minion of his lusts! the novelty of an ass the order and frame of nature, every creature speaking, reasoning, remonstrating, seems to of God has a special use and end; neither is have excited no astonishment in the furious there any schism, deficiency, or redundancy, prophet: he is not awakened to one sentiment permitted in the great body of the universe. of compassion, nor of godly fear, by a pheEvery thing is in its place; every thing is nomenon so singular. The only regret he fulfilling the purpose of its Creator; and feels, is the want of a deadly instrument to therefore nothing ought to be mean or con- prosecute his resentment to the full. Men temptible in our eyes. The great Lord of most vainly, and in the face of experience, all, exercises a tender concern about the imagine, that such and such means of conlowest of the brute creation, provides for viction would certainly work their effect. them, and resents the cruelty and injustice "Nay, but if one went from the dead they which are offered them. 66 He feeds the ra- will repent;" but the truth is too well convens," "the young lions ask their meat from firmed by every day's experience, to be called God," "he careth for oxen," "a sparrow fall-in question, that "if they hear not Moses eth not to the ground without our Heavenly and the prophets, neither will they be perFather." And lo, the dull ass findeth com- suaded though one rose from the dead."† A passion and an avenger, when under oppres- miracle greater than even opening the ass's sion, from him whom angels worship. Who mouth must be performed, before Balaam be so lofty as to be beyond his reach, as to defy persuaded. A heart wedded to gain, is not his power? What so little as to be beneath to be reasoned out of its favourite pursuit; his notice, or shut out from his pity. There and unbelief, do what you will, always finds is of consequence a return of attention and a strong hold whereto it can resort, and tenderness due from the human race to every order of creatures below themselves, and whose services, whatever their faculties may be, Providence permits them to employ either for pleasure or for use. The power and wisdom which stationed every creature in its proper place, and preserves it there, can at which it easily renders impregnable. "Show us a sign from heaven and we will believe." Well, the very petulance of incredulity is humoured, the sign is exhibited, Satan is cast out. Surely they will now believe. No such thing. "This man casteth out devils † Luke xvi. 31. * 1 Cor. i. 27-29. by Beelzebub the prince of the devils." The eyes of Balaam are blinder, his heart more hard than when the tongue of the ass is mute. prevail over his enemies, by the power of en chantment; the other to possess himself of the riches and honours of Moab. The one lays aside the state of a king, and advances to his utmost border, out of respect to his expected guest. The other, with more speed than became a prophet, hastens to partake of the prince's repast, little scrupulous whether the bill of fare consisted of things offered unto idols or not. But happily for Israel, God, their protector, had put a hook in his nose, and a bridle in his jaws. He himself feels and acknowledges it, however reluctantly. "And Balaam said unto Balak, Lo, I am come unto thee: have I now any power at all to say any thing? the word that God putteth in my mouth, that shall I speak." At length, God vouchsafes to effect that by a second miracle, which had been obvious to a tender conscience, much more to a prophetic eye, without any miracle at all; and the angel stands confest to the sight of the soothsayer, clothed in all his terror. And now violence, ambition, and covetousness stand for a while suspended, swallowed up of fear at this alarming sight. His eyes are no sooner opened to see with whom he had to contend, than he shuts them again in consternation and astonishment; "he bowed his head and fell flat on his face." What a miserable figure a haughty man makes when The prophecy itself, one of the most beaucaught in the snare! How vain the expect- tiful passages in the sacred history, though ation of fleeing from God, or of opposing him uttered by profane lips; and the power of with success! How dreadful it is to meet as God therein exemplified in making the wrath an adversary, Him whose counsels we have of man to praise him, will furnish useful matslighted as a friend! Balaam has now the ter for another discourse. Let what has been unspeakable mortification of discovering that said, be improved as a solemn warning to obhe owed the preservation of his life to the serve, regard, and submit to the admonitions slender sagacity and discernment of the poor of God's word and providence. Wo be to brute whom he had treated so unmercifully; that man who sees no angel standing in the and he is again assured, without reserve or way of a sinful career, till the angel of death disguise, that the design of this journey was stop him with his fatal dart. Let the checks highly odious and offensive to God. Behold, of conscience be listened to. Has the hand, I went out to withstand thee, because thy or the foot been bruised, retreat in time. way is perverse before me. And the ass There is a lion in the way. He that proves saw me, and turned from me these three too strong for his Maker, by a bold persevetimes; unless she had turned from me, sure-rance in an evil course, is only hastening ly now also I had slain thee, and saved her forward his own destruction. The same peralive."* But though intimidated and confounded, his heart still cleaves to "the wages of unrighteousness." Disapprobation could not be expressed in clearer and stronger words, than had all along been employed, "thou shalt not go, thou shalt not curse," "I went out to withstand thee: thy way is perverse before me," and yet he has the assurance to make it a matter of doubt whether God were displeased with him or not. A conscience not quite callous, a heart not totally hardened like his, would have sought instantly to retreat, thankful that his presumption had not already cost him his life; but he cannot give up the hope of getting forward. "If it displease thee, I will get me back again." "If it displease thee." Could he doubt it? What kind of assurance would he have had? And yet, wonderful to be told, the angel continues once more to give way; and Balaam has still the hardiness to proceed; and the issue proves the truth of the wise man's assertion: "He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy."‡ The history now hastens on to the meeting of Balaam and Balak; the one eager to † Num. xxii. 34. Num. xxii. 32, 33. Prov. xxix. 1. son is the kindest friend, and the most formidable adversary. God can find an instrument to punish, in the meanest and most contemptible creature; therefore despise none, abuse none. Be not weary in well doing. Take an example from Balaam, in respect of perseverance; but choose an honester and worthier object of pursuit. Honour God with your superior reason and use of speech. Behold an ass wise, and a prophet mad: blush at thy own folly, and be humble. Let us go, as has been already suggested, and learn wisdom from the brute creation. "The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib;" be instructed to acknowledge the hand that feeds thee: learn attachment to thy Protector, learn gratitude to thy Benefactor, repay kindness with kindness. Learn industry from the bee. "Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest. How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? When wilt thou arise out of thy sleep?" "The hen gathereth her chickens under her wings." "There be four things which are little upon the earth, but they are exceeding wise. The |