We observe, secondly, that truth is not injured by being conveyed through an impure channel, and therefore ought not to be rejected on that account. Indeed it rather confers a higher lustre upon it, just as hypocrisy pays the most honourable compliment to true religion, by assuming its sacred habit and form The word of God shall not fail of its effect, though Balaam, or though Satan speak it. It may do good to others, while he who bears it is injured, not benefited. And sur rly, when we hear such divine sentences coming from such unhallowed lips, a holy jealousy will be kindled, a holy watchfulness inculcated on all who bring the messages of God to others; as the great apostle of the Gentiles felt and expressed, when he says, "I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a cast away."*

to have quashed the hopes of Balak, and he is | serve, first, that it behoved him now to be now disposed to compound with the prophet convinced by so many successive and corresfor total silence. Neither curse them at ponding revelations, of the steady, determinall, nor bless them at all." But O, the ob- ed purpose of Heaven, in favour of Israel. In stinate perseverance of the carnal mind in a spite of all his subterfuges, after all his turnsinful course! After all he had seen and ings and windings, he finds himself still heard, he returns a third time to the charge, brought back to the same point; a language and dreams of another station, a repeated sa- is forced upon his tongue which his heart recrifice, and an altered purpose. How morti- jected, a glory is spread before his eyes, fying to think that good men are so much which excited only envy and sorrow: and this sooner weary of well-doing, so much more renders his after conduct more unaccountaeasily discouraged from the pursuit of duty. ble, odious, and criminal. Indeed it is a comBut though Balaam gave directions for the plicated transgression, containing so many building of new altars, he can no longer be circumstances of aggravation, that we should the dupe of his own sinful wishes and magi- be tempted to doubt its existence, did not mecal arts, and therefore dares not to have re- lancholy experience too frequently confirm course to them again. Such is the awful, the possibility of it. such the glorious power of God! Magicians may for a little while amuse themselves and deceive others, by their enchantments; but Aaron's rod at length swallows up those of the Egyptian wizards; and Balaam is at length constrained to resign his fruitless arts, and to acknowledge the finger of God from the top of Peor, where Baal was worshipped. He again surveys the tents of Israel, where Jehovah resided, and charmed, by the prospect, from his malevolent design, seems to give cordially in to the views of that Spirit who spake by his mouth. "And when Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, he went not as at other times to seek for enchantments, but he set his face toward the wilderness. And Balaam lift up his eyes, and he saw Israel abiding in his tents, according to their tribes; and the Spirit of God came upon him. And he took up his parable, and said, Balaam the son of Beor, hath said: and the man whose eyes are opened hath said: he hath said, which heard the words of God, which saw the vision of the Almighty, falling into a trance, but having his eyes open: How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel! As the vallies are they spread forth, as gardens by the river side, as the trees of lign-aloes which the Lord hath planted, and as cedar trees beside the waters. He shall pour the water out of his buckets, and his seed shall be in many waters, and his king shall be higher than Agag, and his kingdom shall be exalted. God brought him forth out of Egypt, he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn: he shall eat up the nations his enemies, and shall break their bones, and pierce them through with his arrows. He couched, he lay down as a lion, and as a great lion: who shall stir him up? Blessed is he that blesseth thee, and cursed is he that curseth thee."+

We are led, thirdly, to observe, and to lament how rarely fine talents and ample means of doing good, are in the possession of an honest, benevolent, and sanctified heart! The elevation of genius too seldom aims its flight to the feet of the Father of lights, "from whom cometh down every good gift and every perfect;" and affluence is frequently abused, to increase that misery which it was given to relieve. But then, surely, men are likest God, when enlargement of understanding, and plenitude of power, obey the calls of goodness, and strive to diffuse more widely the gifts of an indulgent Providence; and that benevolence is the most exalted, which aims at the highest good, and seeks to promote interests that are immortal. What then must be the malignity of that heart which, in Balaam, perverted the soundest understanding, disfigured and misled the finest abilities? How dark and dismal that unfeeling passion, which scrupled not to devote a whole nation, for the sake of a little silver and gold! How greatly do men err in the estimation which they make both of their own qualities and those of others! Those of the head are the objects of universal admira

* 1 Cor. iz. 27.

tion, the subject of universal praise; those of the heart are lightly esteemed, and do not always escape censure. But apply the balance of the sanctuary, and what a reverse! A little humility outweighs a great deal of learning; faith, as a grain of mustard-seed, preponderates against a mountain of gold; and charity, though with the simplicity of a child, brings down the scale, against the wit of men, and the eloquence of angels. By all means covet earnestly the best gifts, though they fall to the lot c but a few: but rather cultivate the more precious graces which God conferreth liberally on all that ask him. Whatever you solicit, whatever you receive, see that you have the blessing which sweetens, which sanctifies, which ennobles, which improves it.

nations, but his latter end shall be that he perish for ever. And he looked on the Kenites, and took up his parable, and said, Strong is thy dwelling-place, and thou puttest thy nest in a rock; nevertheless, the Kenite shall be wasted until Ashur shall carry thee away captive. And he took up his parable and said, Alas, who shall live when God doeth this."*

The burden of this prophecy has evidently a twofold object, the one improving upon, rising above, and extending beyond the other. Its primary and nearer object, David, God's anointed king to crush the power of the enemy, and Moab in particular, and to perfect the conquest of the promised land. Its secondary and more remote one, though first in point of importance, "Jesus, the root and Finally, we may observe the dreadful mi- offspring of David." In the one, Balak saw sery of that man whose heart and head are the death of all his earthly hopes, the apat variance; whom inclination drags one way, proaching dominion of a hated power, estaand conscience another; who lives with a blished on the ruins of his own country. In drawn sword continually hanging over his the other, Balaam beheld the ruin of all his head by a single hair; for ever doing what prospects beyond the grave; a Light that he is constrained for ever to condemn; and should shine but to conduct him to the place reluctantly ready to execute the judgment of punishment; a Star that should arise to of God upon himself. What dismal and un- shed the mildest influence on others, but pleasant progress must he make, who sees only to breathe pestilence and death upon an angel in arms opposing him at every step, himself; a Ruler who should exercise uniand whose way is hedged about on every versal dominion, but who, while he presided side by thorns of his own planting! over his willing and obedient subjects in Balak can now refrain no longer, but smi-mercy and loving-kindness, should rule reting together his hands in a rage, exclaims, "I called thee to curse mine enemies, and behold thou hast altogether blessed them these three times; therefore now flee thou to thy place: I thought to promote thee unto great honour, but lo, the Lord hath kept thee back from honour."* An expostulation of no pleasant complexion ensues; for what is the friendship of bad men, but a commerce of interest, a confederacy that aims only at self, and it concludes on the part of Balaam with a prediction clearer, fuller, and more pointed than ever, of Israel's glory and Moab's downfall: "And he took up his parable and said, Balaam, the son of Beor, hath said, and the man whose eyes are open hath said he hath said, which heard the words of God, and knew the knowledge of the Most High, which saw the vision of the Almighty falling into a trance, but having his eyes open: I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not nigh: there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth. And Edom shall be a possession, Seir also shall be a possession for his enemies, and Israel shall do valiantly. Out of Jacob shall come he that shall have dominion, and shall destroy him that remaineth of the city. And when he looked on Amalek, he took up his parable and said, Amalek was the first of the

:

Numb. xxiv. 10, 11,

bels like him with a rod of iron. Indeed, if Balaam had any presentiment of a Saviour when he uttered this prophecy, as is highly probable, his character is the most detestable, and his condition the most deplorable that can be imagined. Unhappy man, with one breath preaching the unsearchable riches of Christ to a guilty world, and with the next, teaching the arts of seduction to ensnare the innocent. In words exulting in the greatest blessing which God had to bestow upon mankind, but dreadfully conscious to himself that he had wilfully rejected the counsel of God against himself. With all the weight and importance of the soul and eternity before his eyes, but this world steadfastly enthroned in his heart; a prophet, yet a reprobate, descending to the grave with the blood of thousands upon his head. The twenty-fifth chapter of Numbers contains the history of the stumbling-block which "Balaam taught Balak to cast before the children of Israel-to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication," and of its dreadful success. As a prophet, he could not hurt Israel; but as a politician, he unhappily prevails. He was well aware where their strength lay; and unfortunately, it appears, he had likewise discovered their weak side. Their God could not be prevailed on to withdraw his protection; but may not they be persuaded or allured to change their allegiance? This † Rev. ii. 14.

Numb. xxiv. 15-23.

while one iota or one tittle of this book of God remains.

will do the work of Satan equally well. Israel was now at ease, with the promised land under their eye, and part of it already We shall have attended, however, to the in their possession. They were flushed with history of this singular man in vain, unless recent victory, assured of divine protection, we learn from it the infinite danger of being and thereby confident of farther success. A under the dominion of any one ungovernable situation full of danger; for then, when our passion; and unless we are persuaded to mountain seems to us to stand most strong, watch over, to resist, and to subdue, "the sin we are most easily liable to be moved, cast which doth so easily beset us." Of little down, destroyed. Balaam accordingly, deep avail is it that our vice is not the vice which read as he was in the book of human nature, governed, ensnared, and ruined Balaam, if it suggests to Balak the diabolical counsel of alienate the heart from God, dissolve the obattempting to decoy the people into idolatry ligations of religion, disorder the understandby means of female insinuation and address. ing, and lull the conscience asleep. One disThe experiment is made, and fatally suc- ease for another, one vice for another, is but ceeds. And it is this counsel which stamps a miserable exchange. If the patient must the character of Balaam with infamy indeli- die, it will not alleviate one pang, that he ble; as it exhibits a dissolution of moral prin- perishes by the fever rather than the hydropciple, to be equalled only by him who is a sy, the consumption, or any other distemper. murderer from the beginning. The unrestrained dominion of any one sin

Covetousness, pride, lust, envy, malice, revenge, are the mortal distempers of the soul, which, perhaps insensibly, but most certainly, are impairing its beauty, and wasting its strength. Lust," whatever be its particular name, "having conceived, bringeth forth sin; and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." Instead, therefore, of amusing or perplexing himself with inquiries into the general symptoms of discase, it concerns every man to study his own particular case; to

Think what it is to advise a father to ex-ful appetite must become fatal at length. pose his daughter to prostitution: think what it is to devise and to encompass the death of one fellow-creature, who has never offended us: think of the malice which aims its deadly shaft, not at the body, but at the soul: think of the presumption which flies directly in the face of the great and terrible Jehovah, and defies his power: and then think of the vile wretch, recommending the prostitution of a whole nation in cold blood plotting the destruction of myriads; and what is worse, infinitely worse than any temporal evil, re-watch against "the sin which doth so easily morselessly involving them in guilt which threatened eternal ruin: and all this under the character of a prophet, whose office bound him to call the people away from their wickedness, and to save perishing souls from death; and all for what? "For so much trash as may be grasped thus.”—Base passion, what canst thou not make us do? "Surely the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?"

The history of Israel's seduction, in consequence of Balaam's horrid advice, falls not within our present design, and we are forbid by decency to pursue it. The guilt of this fatal defection cost no less than twenty-four thousand lives of them who died of the plague, besides those who suffered by the bands of justice. So horrid are the sacrifices which pride, ambition, and covetousness, are daily offering up! So dreadful the havoc which ungoverned passion makes amongst the works of God!-But short is the triumph of the most successful villany: remorse embitters the enjoyment of it, and justice hastens to bring it to a period.

In the very first attack made upon Midian, we find Balaam in arms, supporting his pernicious counsel by the sword; but it cannot prosper Midian is discomfitted on the first onset, and the hoary traitor falls unpitied in the field, leaving behind him a name to be detested and despised of all generations,

beset him ;" to keep himself from his iniquity; to discover, and to rectify the disorder of his own constitution, "the plague of his own heart." That where he is naturally, or by habit, weak, he may become strong, "through the grace that is in Christ."

66

"As

Let us be instructed to value qualities, whether natural or acquired, not from their currency and estimation in the world, but from their appearance in the sight of God. the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."* "By him actions are weighed." By his judgment we must stand or fall. Has Heaven blessed thee, O man, with extraordinary gifts? Let it be a motive to humility, not a source of pride. It is a trust of which thou must render an account; and to whom men have committed much, of him will they require the more." If he who buries his one talent in the ground be criminal, what shall become of that man who dissipates and destroys ten in riotous living?

There is but one road to a happy end-a holy life. There is but one ground of hope, in death, to a guilty creature-the mercy of God through a Redeemer. Abraham saw the Saviour's day afar off, believed and rejoiced. Balaam saw it afar off, persisted in impenitence and unbelief, and died without hope,

Isaiah lv. 9.

INTRODUCTORY LECTURE.

LECTURE LXXIL

And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God, and the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it: and death and hell gave up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.-REVELATION XX. 11-13.

little saved remnant, from that deluge which | his pontifical robes, resigning his charge, destroyed a world of ungodly men, in the ark closing his eyes in death; and heard Moses which God commanded; which that "preacher of righteousness prepared for the saving of his house;" and which Providence conducted and preserved amidst the wild uproar of contending elements-and with him perceived the wrathful storm spending its fury, and the dawning light of a day of mercy returning.