afs faw me, and turned from me these three times unless she had turned from me, furely now alfo I had flain thee, and faved her alive."*

But though intimidated and confounded, his heart ftill cleaves to "the wages of unrighteousness." Difapprobation could not be expreffed in clearer and tronger words, than had all along been employed, "thou shalt not go, thou fhalt not curfe," "I went out to withstand thee: thy way is perverse before me,” and yet he has the affurance to make it a matter of doubt whether God were displeased with him or not. A confcience not quite callous, a heart not totally hardened like his, would have fought inftantly to retreat, thankful that his presumption had not already coft 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 difpleafe thee." Could he doubt it? What kind of affurance would he have had? And yet, wonderful to be told, the angel continues once more to give way; and Balaam has ftill the hardiness to proceed; and the iffue proves the truth of the wife man's affertion: "He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, fhall fuddenly be deftroyed, and that without remedy."‡

The history now haftens on to the meeting of Balaam and Balak; the one eager to prevail over his enemies, by the power of enchantment; the other to poffefs himself of the riches and honours of Moab. The one lays afide the state of a king, and advances to his utmost border, out of respect to his expected gueft. The other, with more speed than became a prophet, haftens to partake of the prince's repast, little fcrupulous whether the bill of fare confifted of things offered unto idols or not. But happily for Ifrael, 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 faid

faid unto Balak, Lo, I am come unto thee: have I now any power at all to fay any thing? The word that God putteth in my mouth, that fhall I speak.” *

The prophecy itself, one of the most beautiful paffages in the facred hiftory, though uttered by profane lips; and the power of God therein exemplified, in making the wrath of man to praise him, will furnish ufeful matter for another difcourfe. Let what has been faid, be improved as a folemn warning to obferve, regard and fubmit to the admonitions of God's word and providence. Woe be to that man who fees no angel ftanding in the way of a finful career, till the angel of death ftop him with his fatal dart. Let the checks of confcience be liftened 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 perfeverance in an evil course, is only haftening forward his own deftruction. The fame perfon is the kindest friend, and the most formidable adverfary.

God can find an inftrument 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 refpect of perfeverance; but choose an honester and worthier object of pursuit. Honour God with your fuperior reafon and use of fpeech. Behold an afs wife, and a prophet mad : blush at thy own folly, and be humble.

Let us go, as has been already fuggefted, and learn wisdom from the brute creation. "The ox knoweth his owner, and the afs his mafter's crib :" be inftructed to acknowledge the hand that feeds thee: learn attachment to thy Protector, learn gratitude to thy Benefactor, repay kindness with kindness. Learn induftry from the bee. "Go to the ant, thou fluggard; confider her ways, and be wife which having no guide, overfeer, or ruler, provideth her meat in the fummer, and gathereth her food in the harvest. How

* Verfe 38.

long

long wilt thou fleep, O fluggard? When wilt thou arife out of thy fleep?"* "The hen gathereth her chickens under her wings." "There be four things which are little upon the earth, but they are exceeding wife. The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the fummer; the conies are but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in the rocks; the locufts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands; the spider taketh hold with her hands, and is in kings palaces." May God open our eyes, and difpofe our minds to receive inftruction from every thing around us; and preferve us from oppofing his will; and make his way straight before our face.

*Prov. vi. 6-9. † Prov. xxx. 24-28.

Hiftory

Hiftory of Balaam.

LECTURE XVI.

NUMBERS Xxiii. 10.

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

HUMAN conduct, as far as it is governed by the fpirit of this world, exhibits a wretched and contempti ble, but a dangerous and fatal oppofition to the will of God. Men would be happy in their own way; but whether they fucceed in their purfuits, or whether they fail, they find themselves miferable in the end. God is conducting us, if we would but be conducted, to real and fubftantial happiness, but it is through a narrow gate, and along a path in many places ftrewed with thorns. The profperous fucceffes of vanity and wickedness, like a sweet poison, may afford a tranfient pleasure in the moment of swallowing: but lafting and unutterable anguish immediately fucceeds. The bowels are torn with pain infupportable, and the man dies, dies forever, for the indulgence and gratification of one poor instant of time. But the facrifices we are enabled to make to God, and to the teftimony of a good confcience, are like a naufeous medicine, which by means of a fhort-lived difguft, rectifies the conftitution, fweetens the blood, confirms health, and prolongs a happy existence. The grievousness of afflic

tion in due feafon " yields the peaceable fruits of righteousness to them who are exercifed 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 profpect of death and eternity. When a man finds himself on the brink of the world of fpirits, it will afford him but flender confolation, 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 paffed life in obfcurity, that he has ftruggled with poverty, that he has endured unmerited reproach. But this is the folly and the mifery of man; we eagerly imbibe and follow the fpirit of this world while we live; and fondly dream of affuming, in one propitious inftant, the spirit of heaven, when we come to die. We think of paffing 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 confcience are on the fide of wisdom and piety; our paffions and habits, and alas! they are more powerful, are of the party of diffipation and vice. "The fool fays in his heart, there is no God;" and men reputed wife, live as if there were none.

The unhappy man, whofe character is farther unfolded to us in the text, exhibits a moft affecting example of this strange inconfiftency and self-delufion. Who fo enlightened as Balaam, "which heard the words of God, which faw the vifion of the Almighty?" Who fo blind as the covetous prophet, who "loved the wages of unrighteoufnefs," whofe eyes the god of this world blinded? Hear him fpeak; the manna of heavenly eloquence falls from his lips: behold him. act, and lo, a fiend from hell spreading fnares and deftruction. Under the control of God, not Mofes himself thinks more affectionately, expreffes affection more ardently towards Ifrael, than Balaam. Under VOL. IV.

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