go with you.' "* This satisfies Balak at once, that the prophet's good will was with him; that it was not from want of inclination that the messengers returned without him; and, he justly concludes, that with such a proportion of the man on his side, it would not be difficult to make the rest to follow. of a heart hunting after its covetousness; | knew no more than he had a mind to comand he promises to report in the morning the municate to them, he delivers it in terms result of his consultation. How faithfully calculated only to stimulate the eagerness the report was made the sequel will show. of the king of Moab, by encouraging a hope It appears, on the face of the history, that that something might be extorted, by dint of God waited not for an application from Ba- importunity and perseverance; or that, perlaam, concerning this business, but whether haps, he might be allowed to do that at a in a dream, a vision, or by a voice, prevented distance, which he might not do by a nearer him, with an inquiry concerning the deputa- approach. The command was clear and full, tion from Moab. In many instances, Jehovah "Thou shalt not go with them;" but in the is represented as drawing information from mouth of Balaam it is mutilated and pervertmen's own mouths, of what evidently lay re-ed: "The Lord refuseth to give me leave to vealed to his all-seeing eye, and thus making their folly and wickedness to expose, reprove, and condemn themselves. "And God came unto Balaam, and said, What men are these with thee?" This question must have put the prophet into great agitation. Awful is the voice of the Eternal, at whatever season, in whatever form, and on whatever occasion it is heard! How awful then to a bad man, harbouring an ill design, shutting wilfully his own eyes, and yet flattering himself, and saying, Doth God see, and is there knowledge with the Most High? That he considered the very question as ominous, and fatal to the cause of his avarice and vainglory, is evident from the circumstantiality of his answer. It discovers a soul tremblingly alive to the voice of interest: it is minute and particular, as if, by a parade of words, he could deceive his Maker into an approbation of his purpose and desire. What then must have been his chagrin and disappointment, when a prohibition, so peremptory and positive, in a moment blasted all his prospects of gain and preferment! The father of lies himself will speak truth, when it makes for his purpose; and Satan will quote scripture, if he can but deceive by it; as in his temptation of our Saviour in the wilderness. But then there is always some material circumstance disguised, perverted, or suppressed: and thereby a different meaning is conveyed from what was intended. The word of God, then, is handled deceitfully, not only when it is wrested, and made to speak a language not its own, but when any part of the truth is purposely, artfully, and wilfully concealed: and he "who shuns to declare the whole counsel of God," is equally criminal with him who presumes to deliver, as the word of God, what wants the stamp of his authority. Balaam simply relates, that he is not permitted to go; not a syllable of the prohibition to curse Israel, nor of the reason assigned for that prohibition. "And God said unto Balaam, Thou shalt not go with them, thou shalt not curse the people, for they are blessed." The applica As the message lost much by the way betion had two objects in view, permission to tween God and the princes of Moab, from go into the land of Moab, and liberty to curse Balaam's manner of rehearsing it; so it loses the children of Israel, and both meet with a still more between Balaam and their master, flat denial. He must not accompany the from their mutilated and partial report: so ambassadors to him who sent them; neither that by the time it reaches Balak, an entirely must he, either at home, or abroad, in this different turn and meaning is given to it, place or in that, presume to curse, or in any The words of the oracle are, "Thou shalt not shape whatever to molest that people. And, go with them: thou shalt not curse the peoas if the sternness of interdiction had not ple, for they are blessed :"+ rehearsed by Babeen sufficient, a reason is assigned, "for laam," the Lord refuseth to give me leave they are blessed." The commandments of to go with you:"* reported by the ambassaGod, in general, are so clear, that it is im- dors, "Balaam refuseth to come with us." possible to misunderstand them; it is not ig-Thus, by the alteration of a few circumstannorance, but presumption, that ruins mankind. ces, even without a direct violation of truth, by passing through a very few hands, a plain Balaam, however reluctant, must next proposition is made to contradict itself; and morning deliver an account of the night's if we add to the easiness of varying facts, by success; and we find he does it in a very varying phrases, and modes of expression; partial and imperfect manner. When he re- the difference, still more easily made, by the ported the message of Balak to God, having infinite diversity of tones, looks, and gesture, to do with the great Searcher of hearts, with we shall not be surprised to find, what fre whom disguise avails nothing, he is accurate quently happens, a man made to say diame and distinct; but in carrying back the an-trically the reverse of what he did say, and swer of God, having to do with men, who what he intended. Numb. xxii, 9, Numb. xxii. 12 * Num, xxii. 13, Num, xxii. 12 Num. xxii. 14, ing to deceive the king of Moab's messengers into the expectation of a response more favourable to their united wishes. Accordingly, he courteously invites them to lodge with him that night also; if, peradventure, there might be obtained a reversal of the decree. Balak having received this answer as the prophet's, with great colour of reason, considers it as a mere artifice, employed with a view to raise his price and importance; and he hopes to conquer Balaam's reluctance, by assiduity, perseverance, presents, and flattery; for both good and bad men judge of others by themselves and apprized, it would appear, of Balaam's weak side, ambition, and a varice, he despatches a second embassy, consisting of a greater number of persons, and of still higher rank, with this weighty and importunate address: "Thus saith Balak, the son of Zippor, Let nothing, I pray thee, hinder thee from coming unto me: for I will promote thee unto very great honour, and I will do whatsoever thou sayest unto me: come, therefore, I pray thee, curse me this people."* How flattering all this to a worldly, selfish mind! Balak puts a chart blanche into his hands; leaves him to name his own terms. All the honour which a king could bestow, all the wealth of Moab is before him; the very things which his soul lusted after. Blessed Jesus, thou chief of the prophets, even the prince of this world, the chief of tempters, when he came, found nothing in thee! found no weak side, no vulnerable part. The kingdoms of this world, and the glory of them, dazzled not thine eyes: to the loudest calls of nature thou turnedst a deaf ear. The applause of men thou didst despise; thou soughtest not thine own glory, but the glory of Him that sent thee: thy "meat and drinkable embassy attends you. Your desire is to was to do the will of Him that sent thee." Balaam had now been at the summit of his wishes, but for a stern, pointed command of God; which, like a drawn sword, hung by a single hair over his head. Shocking dilemma! he is goaded on by desires as impetuous as ever took possession of a proud and covetous mind; he is bridled in by a prohibition, as decisive as words could make it. For a moment we are in hope that the good principle has got the ascendant, that the fear, if not the love of God is shed abroad in his heart. Who could speak better? "If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord my God, to do less or more." It is the very sentiment of chaste and virtuous Joseph, when solicited by temptation of a different sort. But here is the difference-Joseph fled from temptation and overcame: Balaam tampered with it, and fell. Even the worst of men feel themselves under a necessity, for their interest's sake, to save appearances; and something must be said, at least, to still the clamours of conscience. Unhappy man! steady, himself, to his own base and wicked purpose, he is weak enough to entertain the hope, that the great, the unchangeable Jehovah may depart from his. Thus deceiving himself, it is no wonder to see him attempt† Num. xxii. 18. * Num, xxii. 16, 17, And now the sable curtain is drawn, and Balaam is left alone, and no eye sees him but the all-seeing eye of God. Without waiting to be consulted, and the prophet, without doubt, was both afraid and ashamed to venture on this second rencounter, God again prevents him, and tacitly, though not directly, charges him with having invited this second application, in the face of a positive and decided answer. Balaam and Balak are both men of this world, and having one and the same spirit to govern them, they readily understand each other. Balaam evidently courts a second address; and Balak is not slow to pay it. Now, this is the very thing which gives so great and such just offence to a holy God-that two presumptuous, selfish wretches should presume to imagine, that the counsels of Heaven could be shaken, in compliance with their humour or interest. "And God came unto Balaam at night, and said unto him, If the men come to call thee, rise up, and go with them; but yet the word which I shall say unto thee, that shalt thou do."* The word might have been rendered, " Seeing the men have come to call thee, Balaam, you have carried, thus far, your point. A more honour go: you are unable to withstand the allure- * Num. xxii. 20. 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 tered fishermen speak with tongues; the dead | adversary. We find him on other occasions, shall arise; all these things shall be dissolved, appearing to direct the wandering, to protect and "new heavens, and a new earth, wherein the weak, and to succour the distressed; as 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. 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. 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 This formidable apparition was observed offered unto God, with which he is well neither by the prophet nor his servants. pleased, and to which he graciously submits Neither the natural vision of the latter, nor to yield; as when it is said, "the kingdom the extraordinary and supernatural sagacity of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent of the former, discerned any thing save take it by force." Hence the command- empty space, where the dullest of brute animent, to "strive to enter in at the strait mals descried the presence of Him, who gate," to wrestle and make supplication, "to makes all nature tremble at his nod; who pray always and not to faint." But there is" giveth understanding to the prudent, and to also suggested the idea of an impious, a pre-him that hath no might increaseth strength." sumptuous, and a fatal strife and contention Is not this a striking representation of what 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 respecting 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. 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 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 praise. 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."* 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 plain 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 The reproof now becomes more distinct up children, and they have rebelled against and direct. The wretched animal, urged on me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the by his furious rider, hemmed in with a wall ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not on either side, and opposed in front as with know, my people doth not consider." "Yea, a wall of fire, in making a desperate effort 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." 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. O that the children of light were thus perse |