BEFORE CHRIST 1452. Rev. 2. 14. b Gen. 49. 1. Dan. 2. 28. & 10. 14. e ver. 3, 4. BEFORE CHRIST 1452. silver and gold, I cannot enemies; and Israel shall C city. 20 And when he of the nations against Exod. 17. 8. destruction, Exod. 17. 14. 14 And now, behold, I go unto my people: come looked on Amalek, he took Mic. 6. 5. therefore, and I will ad- up his parable, and said, vertise thee what this Amalek was || the first of Or, the first people shall do to thy people the nations; but his latter that warred bin the latter days. end | shall be that he perish Israel, 15 And he took up for ever. his parable, and said, Ba- 21 And he looked on even to laam the son of Beor hath the Kenites, and took up said, and the man whose his parable, and said, Strong eyes are open hath said: is thy dwellingplace, and 16 He hath said, which thou puttest thy nest in a heard the words of God, rock. and knew the knowledge 22 Nevertheless of the most High, which Kenite shall be wasted, saw the vision of the until Asshur shall carry Almighty, falling into a thee away captive. trance, but having his eyes open: 1 Sam. 15. 3, 8. the Heb. Kain. Gen. 15. 19. Or, how long shall it be ere thee away 23 And he took up his Asshur carry parable, and said, Alas, captive? who shall live when God doeth this! 24 And ships shall come Dan. 11. 30. 17 d I shall see him, but not now I shall behold him, but not nigh: there shall come a Star out of from the coast of i Chittim, Gen. 10. 4. Jacob, and a Sceptre shall and shall afflict Asshur, and rise out of Israel, and shall shall afflict Eber, and he Gen. 10. 21. smite the corners of also shall perish for ever. Moab, and destroy all the 2 Sam. 8. 2. children of Sheth. Jer. 48. 45. € 2 Sam. 8. 14. 18 And & Edom shall be a possession, Seir also shall Ps. 60. 8, 9, be a possession for his 12. 25. 25 And Balaam rose up, and went and returned to See ch. 31. 8. his place and Balak also went his way. NUMBERS XXXIII. 49. 49 And they pitched by even unto || m Abel-shittim Or, the Jordan, from Beth-jesimoth in the plains of Moab. plains of Josh. 2. 1. PRAYER. LET US PRAY, that as the angels of heaven learn from the Church the manifold wisdom of God, we may also now begin the contemplations which shall form a part of the happiness and employment of our immortality, by surveying the past, the present, and the future dispensations of the Providence of God. That we become the members of the spiritual Church of God, as well as of the visible Israel. That Christ be our Star and Sceptre, our Prophet, Priest, and King; the Way in which we should walk; the Truth in which we believe; and the Life which we begin to live now, and hope to live for ever. O THOU, the infinite and eternal God, who fillest and rulest the universe of spiritual and material existence which Thy hand formed, Thy power created; who knowest the end from the beginning, and hast declared by the mouths of Thy servants the prophets the certainty of the arrival of the day when the head of the serpent shall be bruised, and the kingdom of Thine everlasting Son be established throughout the world; give us, we pray Thee, such elevation of mind and heart, that as the angels of heaven, the beings between God and man, desire to look into the deep things Thou hast revealed to us, and learn from the progress of the Church the manifold wisdom of God; so also may we, utterly unworthy though we be to look so high as to Thee and Thine heaven, begin to rejoice on earth in the contemplations of the Providence which shall remain with us, and increase with us in that world, where we shall meet with the spirits of the just made perfect, the innumerable company of angels, and Christ the Mediator of the New Covenant. We thank Thee for the promise that the Seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head. We thank Thee for the knowledge of the prophecies which reveal the records of history before they take place, and for the knowledge of the history which demonstrates the inspiration of Thy prophecy; and we beseech Thee to enable us more and more to delight in the study of Thy Word, the wisdom of Thy plans, the order of Thy government, the progress of Thy truth, and the gradual conquest of the hearts of men, by the influence of Thy Holy Spirit from on high. Thy kingdom come; Thy Will be done. Bruiser of the serpent's head in the world! make the kingdoms of men Thine own one everlasting dominion. Bruiser of the serpent's head within the heart of man! wake Thou, and live Thou within our souls; that our hearts may become Thy kingdom of God within us. As, with our understanding and our intellect, we rejoice in the knowledge of Thy past, Thy present, and Thy future government of the world; as with our bodies we rejoice in our membership of Thy visible Church; so with our hearts and souls, and wills and affections, may we rejoice in the inward and spiritual obedience, which is the best proof that we honour Thee, and love Thee. Make us of Thy spiritual Israel, as well as of Thy visible Israel; that our knowledge, and faith, and contemplation, and wonder at Thy glory, be not in vain. Not only may we rejoice in the goodliness of the tents of Jacob, and the beauty of the tabernacles of Israel; but do Thou bring our souls out of Egypt, direct us through the wilderness, and bring us to Canaan. We have heard the words of God; we have seen in Thy word the visions of the Almighty. Give, O give us the faith which shall see Christ the Lord as the bright and morning Star, scattering the darkness of the hour of death, as the Sceptre to rule the enemies of God in the heart. Make the souls Thou hast entrusted to our charge the possession of the Son of God. May Christ have the dominion within us and over us; that we become a part of the inheritance which Thou the Creator of the soul hast given to the Son who hath redeemed us. We thank Thee for the Revelation of the Prophet, the Priest, and the King. O may the Son of God be the Prophet to teach us the way to the Father. May Christ be to us the Priest in whose atonement we trust, whose intercession continues, whose blessing shall rest on His people. May Christ be to us the King of glory, ruling and conquering the imaginations of the heart by the power of His Holy Spirit. May Christ be the Way in which our wandering footsteps seek Thee. May we follow His example, as well as believe. in His death. May the holiness of His life, His resignation to Thy will, His patience in suffering and in death, be our guide, our imitation, and our study. May Christ be the Truth in which we believe; the foundation of our hope, the object of our faith, the substance of the types and ceremonies of Thy Law, and the completeness and fulness of the Gospel. May Christ be to us the life of the soul, the new and living principle within us; which begins in the world that now is, and continues with the soul in the world to come. May the Son of God be to us the Way of faith, the Truth of the promise, and the Life of the Spirit of God. From this Way may we never wander. From this Truth may we never err. From this Life may we never die. As Christ came down from heaven to be the new and living Way, so may we walk with Him in the way from earth to heaven. As Christ came down from the light to give the light of His truth to us who were in darkness, so make us to rise out of our darkness into the light of His eternal Truth. As Christ, who was the Life which was Divine, became the Life which was human ; so may our life which is human on earth, be changed into the spiritual and divine life in heaven; that we may ever live and dwell with Thee in that state, where Christ was, where Christ is, and that the hopes of an immortality with Thee be not in vain. Forgive the imperfections of our prayers, pardon our sins; and for the sake of Him, the same Jesus Christ, hear and accept Thy servants. In His name and words we call upon Thee, as Our Father, &c. The grace of our Lord, &c. NOTES. NOTE 1. On Balaam's prediction respecting the "Star" and the "Sceptre," and its double reference-to David and to the Messiah. Numb. xxiv. 17. Mr. Faber is of opinion that the prediction of Balaam, which, in general terms only, describes as future the manifestation of the symbolical star and sceptre, is capable of, and ought to be understood in, a double sense; that it, first, primarily, though imperfectly, relates to David, and that it ultimately and perfectly relates to Christ, who is repeatedly, though mystically, termed the David of God. If, then, a prediction which eminently relates to Christ be delivered before the time of the literal David, we may expect it to relate also to that victorious sovereign. And such we accordingly find to be the case with the prophecy of Balaam. In the person of the literal David, a warlike sovereign rose up out of Jacob, who subjugated the whole of Edom, who smote every male capable of bearing arms throughout Mount Seir, who exterminated two-thirds of Moab, who reduced the remaining third to servitude, and who occupied as his possession the entire territories of each nation. Under him Israel did valiantly; and instead of being repeatedly made tribu tary to others, as in the time of the Judges, or of being vanquished in battle, as at the close of Saul's unhappy reign, prevailed even to "the great river," when led on by him who was fated to have dominion. NOTE 2. On the prediction of Balaam," He shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth." Numb. xxiv. 17. For, "He shall smite the corners of Moab," the margin reads, "He shall smite through the princes of Moab." The LXX have, θραύσει τοὺς ἀρχηγοὺς Μωάβ. The Vulgate has, "percutiet duces Moab." The question respecting the right interpretation of the passage turns on the meaning of the word E, which scarcely any other version besides our own renders "corners ;" and which the Syriac, not receding far from the rest of the more ancient ones, renders "giants." I own that I incline to the terms employed by the LXX and the Vulgate, which Houbigant seems to prefer, as he uses the word "duces," after the Vulgate. Mr. Faber, applying to the elucidation of the passage the canons of Hebrew poetry, observes that the structure of the verse, composed, as usual, of two hemistics, requires that the Hebrew word n should signify "men"- great men, political or ecclesiastical rulers. He says, 66 The original word, in its plural form, as expressed in English letters, is Patai. If we suppose it, therefore, to be a foreign term, and not the plural of the Hebrew word whence it is generally deduced', its singular form will be Pata. Now, Pat or Bad (the final a being quiescent in such Oriental terms) was used by the old Persians, or Iranians, to denote a priest, or a Brahman, or a Magus. When the name, previously to the time of Abraham, was brought into Palestine and Egypt by the military shepherds of the East, they pronounced it, as it is still pronounced in India, Pata, or Pati. Hence, in noting down the prophecy of Balaam, Moses was led to write it plurally, Patai; and hence, still using it to describe a Magus, or priest, the Egyptians were wont to express it Poti, or Petah. Thus the priest of On, or the Sun, is styled Potipherah, a title which, in our English Bible, appears as if it were a proper name; but in reality, Potipherah, and the priest of On, are two appellations of exactly the same import. . . . The Patai of Moab, then, mentioned in the prophecy of Balaam, are not the regions or the boundaries of that country, but they are the priests, or Brahmans, or Magi, of the god Pata, whose name the Phoenicians sometimes expressed Banth 2.” NOTE 3. On the fulfilment of the prophecies respecting the destruction of the Amalekites, in the reigns of Saul and David. Numb. xxiv. 20. There are upon record two remarkable predictions respecting the punishment of Amalek, who was the first of the many hostile tribes that molested the Israelites on their way through the wilderness to the promised land (Exod. xvii. 8-13; Deut. xxv. 17-19); and although this unprovoked aggression was signally chastised, Jehovah was pleased to command Moses to register this decree in a book, and to rehearse it in the ears of Joshua, "That he would utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven "." The other prediction respecting 1 Heb. ND. Samar. D. 2 Faber's Eight Dissertations, on certain connected Prophetical passages of Holy Scripture, bearing more or less upon the Promise of a Mighty Deliverer, vol. i. Dissert. iv. chap. iii. 3 Our Translation renders the Hebrew 2, in Exod. xvii. 14, by "for:" but it is plain from the context that the true force of the particle is "that," as in the LXX, T. Another instance of this mistranslation of occurs in Ps. xvi. 10, where by rendering it "for," and separating the tenth verse from the preceding, our Translators have obscured the meaning of the Psalmist, whose words run thus: " My flesh also shall rest in hope that Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, and that Thou wilt not suffer thine Holy One to see corruption." The student will see an error of the the total excision of Amalek occurs in the present Section, and was uttered by Balaam: "Amalek was the first of the nations; but his latter end shall be that he perish for ever." (Numb. xxiv. 20.) The full measure of Divine vengeance seems to have slept for nearly four hundred years; but it awoke with fearful severity in the reign of Saul, to whom the Lord spake by the mouth of His servant Samuel: "Thus saith the Lord of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way, when he came up from Egypt. Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not..... And Saul smote the Amalekites from Havilah until thou comest to Shur, that is over against Egypt." (1 Sam. xv. 2-7.) The final destruction of this doomed race was reserved for the sword of David, who with his host "went up, and invaded the Geshurites, and the Gezrites, and the Amalekites: for those nations were of old the inhabitants of the land, as thou goest to Shur, even unto the land of Egypt. And David smote the land, and left neither man nor woman alive." (1 Sam. xxvii. 8, 9.) NOTE 4. On "Chittim," □. Numb, xxiv. 24. Some of the ancient, and nearly all of the more recent commentators are of opinion, that by the Chittim, or Kittim (a branch of the descendants of Javan, the son of Japheth, Gen. x. 4), are meant Cyprus, or the inhabitants of that island. Josephus says that the Chittim migrated from Phoenicia to Cyprus, and founded there the town of Citium, the modern Chitti. "Chethimus possessed the island of Chethima, which is now called Cyprus; and from this all islands and maritime places are called Chethim by the Hebrews." Cicero also speaks of the Citians as a Phoenician colony: "Scis enim Cities tuos a Phoeniciâ profectos." The Vulgate renders the word "Italia ;" and with this the LXX, the Chaldee Paraphrase, and Vatablus agree. In the Maccabees (lib. 1. i. 1.) the name is applied to the Macedonians. haps the name is of more general application than all these, and designates all people who came from Cyprus, and from all the maritime places to the west of that island in ships. Per like sort in the authorized rendering of or in Rom. viii. 21, where, by disjoining that verse from the preceding, and translating or by "because," our version has obscured the meaning of the passage, which ought to run thus: "For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of Him who hath subjected the same, in hope that the creature itself" &c. 4 Antiq. lib. i. cap. vi. § 1. 5 De Finib. iv. 20. SECTION CLXI. NUMBERS XXV. 1-13. 16-18. XXVI. 1, 2. 64, 65. XXXI. 1, 2. 7-9. XXXIII. 50, TO THE END. 16. TITLE.-Idolatry is the dividing the affections of the heart with God. The last encampment of the Israelites, and the last act of idolatry in the wilderness. Zeal for God's glory the source of man's honour and happiness. The praise of Phinehas. All God's threatenings are prophecies, and will certainly be accomplished. The generation which came from Egypt perishes in the wilderness, as God had decreed. The first act of the youthful generation, before they possess Canaan, is the destruction of the idolaters of Midian, who had corrupted them. God's gifts are different from God's graces. The prophet Balaam is slain as an enemy, among the enemies of Israel. The Canaanites are to be extirpated. The destruction of the sins of the soul is essential to the holy rest in heaven. INTRODUCTION.-We have now arrived at the last encampment of the Israelites in the wilderness; and as we shall omit the numberings of the people, the repetition of the old law, and the enactment of the new laws of inheritance, and some other points peculiar to the people of Israel, we shall sooner come to the conclusion of our survey of that most interesting history of mankind, from the Creation to the settlement of the chosen people in the promised land. May the reader of these Sections enjoy as much mental happiness in their perusal, as the author has derived from their composition! We might have supposed that the Israelites, after all their wanderings, and warnings, and punishments, would by this time have put away from them the odious and abominable idolatries which disgraced the nations around them. The experience, however, of every one who has been brought up in the knowledge and fear of God, will convince him of the truth, that his own heart shows him the nature of the wickedness of the ungodly;-that we have two great enemies within us, constantly withdrawing the affections of the heart from God, and constantly separating the reason from the will. The concord between the reason and the will constituted the holiness in which man was originally created. The separation of reason from the will is the chief cause of the origin, the continuance, and the success of evil. These two great enemies are, the desire of the heart making a wrong choice of good, and the perversion of the intellect, defending, excusing, palliating, or justifying the wrong choice when it has been made. We cannot possibly account for the strange narrative to which we are brought in this Section, unless we keep in view this perversity of the human mind, to invent apologies for evil, rather than to yield to the better reason, which commands us to avoid evil, or, if evil is committed, to forsake it with repentance and tears. The people of Israel had now arrived at Settim, or Sittim, a place so named from an idol there. Now, the idolatry of the |