ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare | their meat in the summer; the conies are but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in the rocks; the locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands; the spider taketh hold with her hands, and is in king's

palaces."* May God open our eyes, and dis pose our minds to receive instruction from every thing around us; and preserve us from opposing his will, and make his way straight before our face.

* Prov. xxx. 24-28.

HISTORY OF BALAAM.

LECTURE LXX.

Who can count the dust of Jacob, and the number of the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his.-NUMBERS xxiii. 10.

HUMAN conduct, as far as it is governed by folly and the misery of man; we eagerly the spirit of this world, exhibits a wretched imbibe and follow the spirit of this world and contemptible, but a dangerous and fatal while we live; and fondly dream of assuming, opposition to the will of God. Men would in one propitious instant, the spirit of heaven, be happy in their own way; but whether when we come to die. We think of passing our they succeed in their pursuits, or whether thirty or forty years with the gay, the giddy, they fail, they find themselves miserable in and the vain; as if that could be a preparathe end. God is conducting us, if we would tion for an eternity with God, and angels, but be conducted, to real and substantial and the spirits of just men made perfect. happiness, but it is through a narrow gate, Our understanding and conscience are on and along a path in many places strewed with the side of wisdom and piety; our passions thorns. The prosperous successes of vanity and habits, and alas! they are more powerand wickedness, like a sweet poison, may ful, are of the party of dissipation and vice. afford a transient pleasure in the moment of" The fool says in his heart, there is no God;" swallowing but lasting and unutterable an- and men, reputed wise, live as if there were guish immediately succeeds. The bowels none. are torn with pain insupportable, and the man dies, dies for ever, for the indulgence and gratification of one poor instant of time. But the sacrifices we are enabled to make to God, and to the testimony of a good conscience, are like a nauseous medicine, which by means of a shortlived disgust, rectifies the constitution, sweetens the blood, confirms health, and prolongs a happy existence. The grievousness of affliction in due season, "yields the peaceable fruits of righteousness to them who are exercised thereby."

In whatever way men choose to live, and very different are the roads which they take, they have but one idea, one wish, one prayer, in the prospect of death and eternity. When man finds himself on the brink of the world of spirits, it will afford him but slender consolation, to reflect that he has lived long enough to amass a fortune, to enjoy a banquet, to attain a post of honour, to acquire a name. And he will feel as little pain and mortification, on the other hand, in recollecting that he has passed life in obscurity, that he has struggled with poverty, that he has endured unmerited reproach. But this is the

The unhappy man, whose character is farther unfolded to us in the text, exhibits a most affecting example of this strange inconsistency and self-delusion. Who so enlightened as Balaam," which heard the words of God, which saw the vision of the Almighty?" Who so blind as the covetous prophet who "loved the wages of unrighteousness," whose eyes the god of this world blinded? Hear him speak; the manna of heavenly eloquence falls from his lips: behold him act, and lo, a fiend from hell spreading snares and destruction. Under the control of God, not Moses himself thinks more affectionately, expresses affection more ardently towards Israel, than Balaam. Under the impulse of his own passions, not Satan could plot more malignantly nor more effectually. As the prophet of God, who so warm a friend? As the counsellor of Balak, who so dreadful an adversary? In the pros pect of death, who more devout? In life, who so profligate? In judgment and opinion, who so clear and sound? In practice, who so prostitute and abandoned?

In the face of a prohibition, the clearest

and fullest that words could convey, through the difficulties and dangers of a journey the most eventful upon record, Balaam is now arrived at Balak's metropolis, Kirjath-huzoth, the city of streets.-Greetings, such as may be supposed to pass between wicked and selfish men, being over, the sacrifice is of fered up, and the banquet is prepared, according to the state of a king, and the sacredness and importance of his guest. The evening being passed in festivity, they retire to rest; and early on the morrow, Balaam permits himself to be conducted by the Moabitish prince into the "high places of Baal, that thence he might see the utmost parts of the people." Here the cloven foot appears at once. Balaam was too intelligent to believe that Baal was any thing; that his sacrifices or high places were any thing: but Balak's gold being, indeed, the god whom he himself worshipped, it is to him a matter of the last indifference before what idol the superstitious monarch bowed down. Reason and religion say, "What concord can there be between God and Belial; between him that believeth, and an infidel? Ye cannot serve God and mammon." But avarice will attempt any thing, submit to any thing, commit any thing; will adore the God of Israel, or bend at the altar of Baal, just as it serves the occasion. Balaam even volunteers in the service of the idol; feeds the superstition of Balak, which it was his duty to have corrected; and, as if there had been something potent and mysterious in the number, directs seven altars to be erected, and a bullock and a ram to be prepared for a sacrifice upon each of the

seven.

number seven is, through the whole of divine revelation, connected with many important ideas, institutions, and events, in cases depending on the sovereign authority of the great God. This leads us to conclude, that it has a meaning and design, the knowledge of which is either lost to the world or never has yet been revealed to man. It cannot be for nothing that it presents itself so often, and in so many forms, upon the sacred page. That God rested the seventh day from all his work, and sanctified itthat on the solemn day of the atonement, under the law, the blood of the sin-offering was sprinkled before and upon the mercyseat seven times-that the altar of burntoffering was consecrated by being anointed seven times with the holy oil-that the consecration of Aaron to the priesthood consisted of a service of seven days-that the leper was to be sprinkled, in order to purification, seven times; and after a separation of seven days, be admitted to his rank as a citizen-that every seventh year was ordained a year of rest, to the land of promise; and that a revolution of seven times seven years brought on the jubilee, or universal release

that seven priests, bearing so many trumpets, were commanded to begin the conquest of Canaan, by seven days encompassing Jericho; and that, upon the seventh circuit, and at the seventh blowing of the trumpet, the walls of that city should fall to the ground-that the like number of priests should be employed to precede and announce the removal of the ark, when David brought it home; and not to multiply instances without end-that the Lamb, which John saw in Behold how soon the reproof of a speaking, vision in the midst of the throne, should be reasoning brute, the terrors of the opposing represented as having seven horns and seven angel, and the admonitions of the heavenly eyes, which are the seven spirits of God, sent vision, are disregarded and forgotten! Balak out into all the earth-that the book in the right is deliberately suffered to remain the dupe hand of Him who sat upon the throne, should of his own credulity: he is fed with the vain be sealed with seven seals-that in these, hope of triumph, in a way by which it could and so many more cases, which the careful not be achieved; and an attempt is impious- reader of the scriptures need not have pointly made to aid him in an enterprise which ed out to him, the Spirit of God should see Heaven had repeatedly condemned; and, meet to press upon our minds, with such pedreadful to think, this is done under all the culiar emphasis, this number of perfection, awful forms of a religious service; and a as it hath been called both by Jews and purpose too vile to be avowed, even to men, Heathens, though we cannot account for it, is presumptuously obtruded upon the great leads to this pleasing conclusion-That Jehovah, as if his determinations were to there are in the word of God, many precious fluctuate with the vile interests and caprices mines of knowledge, yet undiscovered; endof mortals. "The sacrifice of the wicked," less mysteries of wisdom, goodness, and love, saith the wise man, "is an abomination, yet to be unveiled; depths of mercy, which how much more when he bringeth it with the capacity of angels has not yet fathomed; a wicked mind." The religion of God is, heights of grace, to which the seraphim's "I will have mercy and not sacrifice." But wing hath not soared. Is it imagination, the leading article of Balaam's creed is, merely, to suppose that the felicity of saints "Gain is godliness:" hence he attempts to in bliss may consist in diving deeper and sanction cursing and cruelty, under the deeper into the plan of redemption; in tracing solemn ordinances of the blessed God. its progress, its history, to its consummation, We have observed formerly without pre-in reading this wonderfu' book, with the veil tending to assign a reason for it, that the removed from our eyes; to find in it all the

to the same great poet; who, beholding their pure and innocent affection, "turned aside for envy," and exclaimed:

"Sight hateful, sight tormenting! Thus these two,
Imparadis'd in one another's arms,

The happier Eden, shall enjoy their fill
Of bliss on bliss, while I to hell am thrust;
Where neither joy nor love, but fierce desire,
Still unfulfilled, with pain of longing pines."

It was a spirit and a situation not unlike "to this, which suggested to the wicked prophet the words of the text; "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his !"* Unhappy Balaam! he descried from the top of the rock goodly tents, in which he had no part nor lot; he discerned the happy estate of the righteous, but chose to be a partaker with the ungodly; he admired and envied the happy end of the people of God, but felt his own end approaching without hope; he saw and approved the beauty and loveliness of virtue; he persisted to the last, pursuing and cleaving to the wages of unrighteousness.

I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them. Thou didst blow with thy wind, the sea covered them: they sank as lead in the mighty waters. Who is like unto thee, O Lord, amongst the gods! who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders!"* Mark how the slow and reluctant prophecy of Balaam accords with the predictions of former times, and the history of periods yet to come. "Look up now," says God to Abraham, "toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.Ӡ | And lo, the promise is more than fulfilled: it is infinitely exceeded by the accomplishment. "Who can count the dust of Jacob, and the number of the fourth part of Israel!" Look forward to the days of Solomon, when the glory of Israel was in its zenith, when the descendants of the men in the plains of Moab were multiplied as the sand on the sea shore; and thence rise higher still, to a greater promise, to a better covenant, to the spiritual seed of faithful Abraham increased "to a great multitude, which no man can number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;" encamped not in a fertile terrestrial plain, but expatiating through the vast regions of eternal day, and possessing, not a land flowing with milk and honey, but the pure and sublime delights of the paradise of God. How I envy Balaam the prospect from the top of the rock! A rich champaign country, skirted by the silver Jordan, meeting the distant horizon; the tents of Israel spread out like the trees in the forest, and covering an innumerable multitude; a whole nation of men beloved of God, and destined to conquest; the spacious tabernacle, the habitation | of the Most High, expanded in the midst, and the cloud of glory, the unequivocal proof of the presence of the great King, resting upon it. How many objects to delight the eye, to swell the imagination, to elevate the soul! No wonder the tongue of envy was charmed from its purpose. But alas! the heart of malice and covetousness remains unchanged; a chest full of gold had been to Balaam a sight more enchanting. Place him in heaven, like Mammon his father; according to the description of our great poet, his attention had been fixed but on one object.

"Mammon, the least erected spirit that fell
From heaven; for even in heaven, his looks and
thoughts

Were always downward bent, admiring more
The riches of heaven's pavement, trodden gold,
Than aught divine or holy else enjoyed
In vision beatific."

The beautiful view beneath, therefore, was to Balaam what the conjugal bliss of our first parents in paradise was to Satan, according

Exod. xv. 9. 11. † Gen. xv. 5. Rev. vii. 9.

But what, I beseech you, could dictate this wish to Balaam? What but a strong and irresistible persuasion of the immortality of the soul, and an approaching unalterable state of rewards and punishments? What but a consciousness of having acted wrong, and the dreadful knowledge of his being accountable to a holy and righteous God? And is it really possible for reasonable creatures to fall into such gross absurdity and contradiction? And can there exist such characters in the world? Let us bring the case home to ourselves. It is too evident to need a proof, that many indulge themselves in very unwarrantable practices, whose religious principles, notwithstanding, are exceedingly sound and just. Try them on the side of soundness in sentiment and opinion, and they talk and reason like angels from heaven: consider how they live, they are mere men of this world. They find a salvo for conscience, by making a sort of composition with their Maker, as some men find a salvo for their integrity, by putting off their good-natured creditors with a certain proportion of their debt, when they are either unwilling or unable to pay the whole. And, with equal insolence and presumption, the one vainly imagines that his Creator and Lord, the other that his credulous friend, may think themselves sufficiently satisfied with such partial payments as they think fit to render. Such of God's commands they will cheerfully obey; but as to others, why, they will make all the atonement in their power-the proud, the ambitious, the covetous, the dissolute, each in a way that shall not clash with his favourite pursuit. One will give his time, another his diligence, a third his money to God, just according as it is the article upon which he himself puts least value, and the conscious deficiency he attempts feebly to eke out, by

* Num. xxiii. 10.

66

faint hopes and half resolves, that some time live what way men will, they have but one or another he will exhibit a more uniform thought, one conviction, one prayer, when they and thorough obedience to the will of God. come to die. After the pleasure or the advanWhen the command is clear and express, tage of a wicked action is over, who would not to question and reason on the subject is re- gladly get clear of the guilt of it! But this bellion. By this the allegiance of man in a is the misery; the profit and pleasure quickly state of innocence was assailed; and, listen-pass away, the guilt and pain are immortal. ing to this, he staggered and felì, Yea, Could a lazy wish or two supply the place hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of virtue, all would be well: the conscience of the garden?" When temptation of this would go to rest, the "strong man armed sort is once listened to, men will gradually would keep the house." But the very wishes come to doubt of every thing and learn to ex- of indolence and impiety betray their own plain away every thing. Deliberation and flimsiness; and Balaam feels his own prayer doubt in the face of "Thus saith the Lord," falling back with an oppressive weight on his are dishonesty and impiety and to attempt guilty head. Let us be instructed to mend it to get rid of one uneasy text of scripture, is a little, and say with Paul," None of us liva direct attack on the validity of the whole. eth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. When we see a man so intelligent as Ba- For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; laam, duped by his passions into a train of and whether we die, we die unto the Lord : folly and wickedness so gross and palpable, whether we live, therefore, or die, we are let us look well to ourselves. The absurdi- the Lord's."*. "To me to live is Christ, and ties into which we fall, escape our own notice: to die is gain." Lord help us so to live, as but a discerning by-stander sees them, smiles to be raised above the fear of death. Let me at them, perhaps makes his advantage of them. fall asleep in the bosom of my heavenly FaIf we are conscious of the influence of any ther, and I shall awake in perfect peace. very powerful propensity or aversion, it is a just ground of suspicion, that we may be tempted to act unworthily; and it is a powerful admonition to watch our hearts narrowly on the side of that infirmity" which doth more easily beset us."

We see in the dying struggles of Balaam's conscience, a deep, a rooted concern about futurity: a concern which no one, let him say what he will, has been able to overcome. His ardent wish, "Let me die the death of the righteous," is the involuntary homage which vice pays to piety. Think what way,

Happy, unspeakably happy, they, who in reviewing life, and in the prospect of death, can with holy joy and confidence adopt these words of the apostle, and say, "I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only but unto all them also that love his appearing."+

HISTORY OF BALAAM.

LECTURE LXXI.

But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling-block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication.-REVELATION ii. 14.

THE mystery of iniquity, which the human | the same person could possibly be so much heart is daily bringing to light, is as strange changed, and by what steps the man was and incomprehensible as any thing in the gradually transformed into the devil. Scripframe of nature, or in the conduct of Provi- ture represents to us a man shrinking with dence. In the first stages of a sinful career, horror from a prophetic display of his own a spectator could not conceive, the man him- character, and an anticipated view of his own self cannot believe the desperate wickedness conduct-"What, is thy servant a dog, that to which he may in time be brought. The he should do this great thing?" He viewlatter end is so very unlike the beginning, ed it then, through the calm medium of reathat it becomes matter of astonishment how * 2 Kings viii, 13.