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 so brutish, as a rational being under the dominion of his lusts! the novelty of an ass speaking, reasoning, remonstrating, seems to have excited no astonishment in the furious prophet: he is not awakened to one sentiment of compassion, nor of godly fear, by a phenomenon so singular. The only regret he feels, is the want of a deadly instrument to prosecute his resentment to the full. Men most vainly, and in the face of experience, imagine, that such and such means of conviction would certainly work their effect. 66 In the history of the miracle which follows, a multitude of reflections crowd upon us. In the order and frame of nature, every creature of God has a special use and end; neither is there any schism, deficiency, or redundancy, permitted in the great body of the universe. Every thing is in its place; every thing is fulfilling the purpose of its Creator; and therefore nothing ought to be mean or contemptible in our eyes. The great Lord of all, exercises a tender concern about the lowest of the brute creation, provides for them, and resents the cruelty and injustice Nay, but if one went from the dead they which are offered them. "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." 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 A 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 * 1 Cor. i. 27-29. † Luke xvi. 31. 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. 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 caught in the snare! How vain the expectation of fleeing from God, or of opposing him with success! How dreadful it is to meet as an adversary, Him whose counsels we have slighted as a friend! Balaam has now the unspeakable mortification of discovering that he owed the preservation of his life to the slender sagacity and discernment of the poor brute whom he had treated so unmercifully; and he is again assured, without reserve or disguise, that the design of this journey was highly odious and offensive to God. Behold, I went out to withstand thee, because thy way is perverse before me. And the ass saw me, and turned from me these three times; unless she had turned from me, surely now also I had slain thee, and saved her alive."* 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."t 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." 46 prevail over his enemies, by the power of enchantment; 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."* The prophecy itself, one of the most beautiful passages in the sacred history, though uttered by profane lips; and the power of God therein exemplified in making the wrath of man to praise him, will furnish useful matter for another discourse. Let what has been said, be improved as a solemn warning to observe, regard, and submit to the admonitions of God's word and providence. Wo be to that man who sees no angel standing in the way of a sinful career, till the angel of death stop him with his fatal dart. Let the checks of conscience be listened to. Has the hand, or the foot been bruised, retreat in time. There is a lion in the way. He that proves too strong for his Maker, by a bold perseverance in an evil course, is only hastening forward his own destruction. The same person 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 snmmer, and gathereth her food in the harvest. How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? When wilt thou arise out of thy sleep?" "The ben gathereth her chickens under her wings." "There be four things which are little upon the earth, but they are exceeding wise. The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare | palaces."* May God open our eyes, and distheir meat in the summer; the conies are but pose our minds to receive instruction from a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in every thing around us; and preserve us from the rocks; the locusts have no king, yet go opposing his will, and make his way straight they forth all of them by bands; the spider before our face. taketh hold with her hands, and is in king's * 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 the spirit of this world, exhibits a wretched and contemptible, but a dangerous and fatal opposition to the will of God. Men would be happy in their own way; but whether they succeed in their pursuits, or whether they fail, they find themselves miserable in the end. God is conducting us, if we would but be conducted, to real and substantial happiness, but it is through a narrow gate, and along a path in many places strewed with thorns. The prosperous successes of vanity and wickedness, like a sweet poison, may afford a transient pleasure in the moment of swallowing but lasting and unutterable anguish immediately succeeds. The bowels 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 folly and the misery of man; we eagerly imbibe and follow the spirit of this world while we live; and fondly dream of assuming, in one propitious instant, the spirit of heaven, when we come to die. We think of passing our thirty or forty years with the gay, the giddy, and the vain; as if that could be a preparation for an eternity with God, and angels, and the spirits of just men made perfect. Our understanding and conscience are on the side of wisdom and piety; our passions and habits, and alas! they are more powerful, are of the party of dissipation and vice. "The fool says in his heart, there is no God;" and men, reputed wise, live as if there were none. 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 prospect 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 it— that 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 wonderful book, with the veil tending to assign a reason for it, that the removed from our eyes; to find in it all the stores of natural, moral, and divine truth; in for ever learning, ever beginning to learn "the love of Christ which passeth knowledge?" I will indulge the dear, the delightful hope, that the period will come, when, taught of that Spirit, who is promised to "take of the things of Christ and show them unto us," I shall discover, in this blest volume, ten thousand excellencies to which I am now blind; ten thousand truths, of which I have at present no perception; ten thousand beauties I am now incapable of relishing. But to return. It is no great wonder to find a man of so mixed a character as Balaam, employing altars and victims, according to a number and quality long before sanctified by the appointment of the true God. For all the rites of idolatry may easily be traced up to divine institutions. But what signifies the form, when the spirit and meaning is lost? Chemosh was the peculiar idol of the Moabites, as we learn from chap. xxi. 29; for Baal, that is, lord, was a general term, descriptive of the whole tribe of deities, and applied by every particular nation to its respective patron; yet we find Balak easily persuaded by Balaam to offer sacrifice to Jehovah. For they that have false notions of Deity, cannot be very difficult in their choice of a god; and Balak probably was so weak as to imagine, that by this piece of flattery and respect, the God of the Israelites might be decoyed from them, withdraw his protection, and give them up to the sword of their enemies. Balaam, now the sacrifice was set on fire, directs the king to stand by it, in solemn expectation of its success; he himself withdraws to an "high place," or, he went solitary; probably to some adjoining clift of the rock, favourable either to meditation, or the practice of his enchantments: for observation of any preternatural signs that might be given, or for a clearer prospect of the camp to be devoted. Nothing astonishes me more than the boldness of this retreat. An ill conscience seeks concealment from the eye of God in noise and a crowd. To what a pitch of insensibility has this man attained, who has the dreadful courage to go forth to meet an offended God in solitude!" And God met Balaam." In what manner we are not told, neither is it of any importance to know; but it is of importance to observe that "God's ways are not our ways, nor his thoughts our thoughts." Insulted in the same manner, what man but would have felt resentment, and have returned insult for insult! In nothing, Father of Mercies! is thy glorious superiority more conspicuous than in thy gentleness and patience. God is not a man that he should be ruffled and discomposed, nor the son of man, that he should oppose vehemence to vehemence. The wrath of man provokes him not, the haste of man urges him not, the tardiness of man delays him not, the flattery of man sways him not. Balaam has the confidence to advance a plea of merit for the service which he had performed, in erecting so many altars, and offering so many victims; but he has not the assurance to avow the motive, nor directly to prefer the request to which it plainly led. Without paying the least regard to the one or to the other, God, the great God, puts the word he would have spoken into Balaam's mouth, and sends him back to pronounce it aloud in the ear of Balak, and his attendants. I see, with an honest satisfaction, the disappointed, mortified enchanter, returning with downcast eyes, sullen and slow from the solemn meeting: his schemes of malignity checked and prohibited, all his prospects of ambition and avarice for ever blasted; cursing in his heart that inflexibility of purpose which he durst neither attempt to alter or oppose. I see the expecting monarch in the midst of his seven altars, all eye to watch the moment of the prophet's return; eagerly anticipating his message from his looks, and all ear to hear it delivered in articulate sounds. The emotions which filled the hearts of both, are to be conceived, not described, when the reluctant tongue of Balaam thus pronounced the immutable decree of the Holy Oracle, while the assembled princes of Moab listened with sorrow and disappointment. "Balak, the king of Moab, hath brought me from Aram, out of the mountains of the east, saying, Come, curse me, Jacob, and come, defy, Israel. How shall I curse whom God hath not cursed? Or how shall I defy whom the Lord hath not defied? For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him: lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations. Who can count the dust of Jacob, and the number of the fourth part of Israel?"* The first reflection that naturally presents itself, on hearing these words, is one that has frequently occurred in the course of these exercises, and which it is impossible to repeat too often:-How wonderful, how tremendous, how irresistible the power of God, which has thus all matter, all spirit, at its disposal! which can make the dumb ass speak what naturally he cannot, and the mad prophet to utter what wickedly and perversely he would not: "and out of the mouths of babes and sucklings perfecteth praise." Mark how God brings to nought the counsel of the heathen; writes vanity upon the counsels of princes, and "maketh diviners mad." Thus said Balak; thus did the king of Moab; how poor and contemptible, compared to "Thus saith the Lord." "The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my lust shall be satisfied upon them; *Numb. xxiii. 7-10. |