us bow the knee in gratitude to that great Prophet, who has wholly, and forever, done away the curfe; let us give glory to "God, who hath fent his Son Chrift Jefus to blefs every one of us, in turning us from our iniquities ;" and to introduce us into more than an Eden, more than a Canaan, even into the paradife of God; where there is "no more curfe❞— where God fhall wipe away all tears from our eyes; and there fhall be no more death, neither forrow, nor crying, neither fhall there be any more pain: for the former things are paffed away.

IV. While we behold" the madness of the prophet"-a heart hardened through the deceitfulness of fin, let us tremble to think that the feeds of this very fin are implanted deeply in our own nature; that they have even difcovered their baleful fhoots ; that they bring forth fruit unto death. Every plant which our heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be plucked up and rooted out; and this is one of them. Look to it carefully, O man: watch it with a holy jealousy. It is "the root of all evil.” "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the luft of the flesh, and the luft of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world paffeth away, and the luft thereof; but he that doeth the will of God, abideth forever."t

* Rev. xxi. 4.

+1 John ii. 15-17.

History

And Balaam rofe up in the morning, and faddled his ass, and went with the princes of Moab.

THE eagerness which men discover in pursuing the objects of time and sense, is a melancholy contraft to their coldness and indifference refpecting the things of God and eternity. The carnal mind needs but a hint to attach itself to the pursuit of riches, pleasure or honour; and when engaged, no argument is of weight fufficient to diffuade; no danger intimidates, no difficulty difcourages. The understanding becomes the dupe of the paffions, confcience is led hoodwinked by appetite, and the man is fhamefully funk in the brute. But the alarm must be louder than thunder, which awakens the thoughtless, the fenfual and the selfish to serious reflection; and it must be repeated every hour, else they will flumber and fleep again.

Water has in its natural coldness a tendency to congeal; and, once reduced to ice, has no principle in itfelf to recover from that torpid ftate. The caufe of change must come from without. To diffolve and reftore it to its liquid state, the fun must shine, the wind must blow; withdraw the action of air and fire, and it will gradually freeze again. In like manner, without any cause from without, the human body, by a principle of corruption within itself, muft fpeedily diffolve

and

and be destroyed; and the human mind, by a fimilar internal principle of moral corruption, degenerates from depravity to depravity, till, lost to shame, fear, remorfe, and, at length, to feeling, men come to commit iniquity with greedinefs, and to glory in their fhame. To preferve the body in life, there must be conftant fupplies of nourishment administered; and to preferve the foul in health, there must be "line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little."

It is truly affecting to fee men enlightened and perfuaded, yet wedded to their lufts; clearly informed of the right path, but wilfully and deliberately perfifting in error; hardening themselves against God and yet 'thinking to profper; acknowledging God in words, but in works denying him.

Thefe obfervations are all ftrikingly exemplified in the character and conduct of Balaam, of which we attempted to give you a general idea in the last Lecture, and to which were added fome observations tending to elucidate his fingular history. We are now to enter on the particular detail of it, as it is delivered in the facred record.

The Ifraelitifh nation was now in the last year of their peregrination through the wilderness; their civil and religious government were fully fettled, and the theocracy finally established. They were now approaching the banks of the Jordan: and by their number, order and discipline, striking terror into all the neighbouring nations. Two kings, their armies and their people, have already fallen before their victorious arms; and nothing is left to oppofe their progrefs to Canaan, but the river, the boundary itself of the promifed land. They pitch their camp quietly in the plains of Moab, expecting the fignal from their divine leader and commander to pafs over, conquer, and take posfeffion. Their warlike array and recent fucceffes, have alarmed the apprehenfions of Balak, king of Moab, as their profperity and profpects had excited his envy

and

and jealoufy. Diffident of his ftrength, either to repel invafion, if attacked by fo powerful an adversary, or to attack them firft, and endeavour to obstruct their progrefs, he enters into an alliance with the people of Midian, for their mutual fecurity and defence. And even then, still doubtful of the force of their united arms, they agree to employ the arts of divination in aid of the fword, and dream of conquering by the power of enchantment, thofe whom they were afraid to encounter in the field. To fuch bafe, fuch wretched fhifts do princes and nations refort, to gratify pride, ambition or revenge. For this purpose, they fend a joint embaffy to Balaam, the fon of Beor, a noted foothfayer in the neighbourhood.

Balak and Moab had degenerated from the faith of Lot, their forefather, and were funk into idolatry; it is therefore no wonder to fee them of a jealous and hoftile spirit towards Ifrael, their brother. A principle of religion, confifting in the fear and love of God, is the great bond of union among men; it ftrengthens the ties of natural affection, and even conciliates friendship between enemies; but irreligion, or what is worse, an erroneous principle of religion, turns men loofe against each other, diffolves fociety, and fattens the earth with human blood. We cannot help recollecting, alas! that Abraham and Lot, the uncle and nephew, the progenitors of the two nations, were under the neceflity of feparating from each other, on account of their increafing wealth; and we fee, many years after they were laid in the duft, the felf-fame caufe, whetting the fpirits and the fwords of their pofterity, and arming them for their mutual deftruction. The whole world is a poffeffion too fcanty for avarice and ambition; the fuccefs of one feems to be a diminution of the happiness of another; and even the immenfe ocean is crimfoned with gore, that one may enjoy fole and fullen empire; as if that vast fpace could not accommodate the operations of two

tribes

tribes of ants on yonder mole-hill. Bleffed world, where envy and ftrife fhall rage no more; where there is bread enough and to spare, room enough and to fpare; where the felicity of every one is an acceffion of felicity to every one!

Balaam is defcribed in fcripture by his parentage, his country and profeffion. He was the fon of Beor, or Bofor, the difference of which pronunciation is accounted for, from the difference of dialect in the oriental languages. The father exifts to us only in his name, and in the history of his fon and happy had it been for that fon, to have left behind him nothing too but a mere name, instead of one loaded with infamy and deteftation. Pethor, the place of his refidence, was a city of Aram, or Mefopotamia, the very country where Abraham himself was born, and where he refided till his feventy-fifth year; the native country of Rebekah, the wife of Ifaac; the country where Jacob paffed a great part of his youthful years; where he married; where all his children, except Benjamin, were born, and whence he obtained the name of a Syrian. Pethor was fituated on the river Euphrates, called the river, by way of eminence or distinction, it being the largest in the country; and thence, in many paffages of fcripture, ftyled the great river. The country adjacent, to a vaft diftance, being plain, it was favourable to the obfervation of the heavenly bodies; and accordingly we find the fcience of af tronomy was early cultivated there; and the pretended science of aftrology, that is, the power of foretelling future events, from the appearances and supposed influence of the ftars, was fpeedily grafted upon it. Pride, prefumption, and a little knowledge, foon arrogated to themselves a power of controlling these great luminaries, which feem in perpetual motion to encompass our earth, and of fufpending or altering their influences; and ignorance, fuperftition and credulity easily admitted the infolent claim, and reforted

to