not to direct him to the mode of leading God's people into a sensuality and idolatry, which, unchecked, would be their ruin. O what an extent of guilt is here! Balak aimed only at a victory over the Israelites. Balaam, professing reverence the while for the God of Israel, shews the King how he may destroy their souls. He succeeded to his wish; and twenty four thousand men perished by the plague, from among the congregation. How miserable is such a subterfuge, how malignant the guilt of such a rebellion! And yet, it is imitated by those who harden their hearts against the Lord, and, checked from dishonouring him and destroying themselves, in one direction, aim a more deadly blow against his authority, his love, and the cross of his son in another. Surely it had been well with Balaam, if, when he beheld and testified the happiness of Israel, he had fled from the camp of Moab into the valley, where the chosen people lay with the all-sufficient Lord as their guard, and, if he had said, 'I will go with you, for I have heard that God is with you.' Allow me affectionately to warn you against the destructive error and the sad obduracy of Balaam. Ye may have a name to live, while ye are dead. Ye may have the form of godliness while ye deny its power; but consider, that, unlike the forced, hollow obedience of Balaam, while his

heart meditated the deepest treason against the Most High, and his hand was opened to receive the bribe, true religion is of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men but of God.

V. While Balaam was effecting his unrighteous purpose against the thousands of Israel, he was himself hardened by the deceitfulness of sin, and seduced to his destruction. He goes forward to curse the people; and probably, notwithstanding the divine prohibition, with a lurking hope that he might destroy them. Yet so entirely is he withheld, that the much extolled emphasis of his curse cannot even reach the life of the beast on which he rode-" I would there were a sword in mine hand, for now would I slay thee." What! is the man who came from Mesopotamia to Moab, in order to devote a mighty nation to destruction, unable to slay an ass? Yet thus it is, that sinners delude themselves, and imagine they may oppose their longsuffering God triumphantly, when their utmost power is as contemptible in his sight, as if they should forbid the sun to rise, the ocean to heave, or the seasons to succeed each other, and expect obedience to the command. O guilty man, who art thus deluded, "hast thou an arm like God; canst thou thunder with a voice like him?" Canst thou change the current of his purpose,

or affect, in the slightest degree, the determinations of his omnipotent will? Will ye then, my brethren, persist in endeavouring to appose the designs of his love, and in daring the terrors of his wrath? What will ye do, when he riseth up; and when he visiteth, what shall ye answer him?

Little indeed, will the knowledge of the seer, or the commission of the prophet avail to prove their wisdom, or to second their pretensions to admiration, while their way is perverse before

their God. Jonah is sent with a commission against Nineveh; but he fled from the presence of the Lord, went down into the sides of the ship, and lay, and was fast asleep, amidst the roaring of that tempest which his own disobedience had provoked, until he was aroused by the voice of a heathen shipmaster. Balaam is the admiration of Moab. His fame as a diviner has travelled far and wide.

Yet, while on the

very errand which was so triumphantly to establish his reputation, he is rebuked by the voice of an ass. Then, and not till then, the scales fall from his eyes. Sin wars against the soul by its stupifying, not less than by its polluting influence. It lays hold of transgressors, confident because they are ignorant, and leads them on to their destruction, as Elisha led the Syrians, smitten with blindness, into the midst of Samaría, when they believed themselves in the way

to seize the man whom their master sought. If men knew whither the adversary of their souls is conducting them-if they could behold the Lord opposing their guilty way, with what dread would the discovery overwhelm them! But Satan casts them into a deep slumber; and God in judgment permits it to fall upon them. When, like Balaam, they run greedily after the rewards of evil, he even sends them strong delusions, that they may believe a lie, since they "will not believe the truth, but have pleasure in unrighteousness." Here was one whose eyes were opened-who heard the words of God, and saw the vision of the almighty-who proclaimed the coming triumphs of Israel, and the advent of Israel's Saviour-who yet beheld not the fate impending over himself; or was so far led astray by the love of sin, as to brave the consequences. Here was one, who in obedience to the remaining struggles of a better principle within him, could say, as he contrasted the privileges of God's own heritage, with the portion of his enemies, "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his." Yet he remained so fully enslaved by evil, that he had no power to seek the salvation for which his Spirit appears to yearn, or else, in total defiance of every thing which he must have learned concerning the character of God, expects to die the

death of the righteous, while he lives the life of the wicked. With what a complete, with what an awful delusion does the conduct of Balaam present us! What numbers alas, almost passing numbers, "profess that they know God, but in works deny him,"—give utterance to a hope full of immortality-call themselves by the Redeemer's name—and expect all the privileges and blessedness of his people, who defy his authority, insult his cross, and do despite to the Spirit of his grace. Balaam wished to have his dying portion with the righteous, but his end was violence and the sword, among the sinners of Moab, with whom he had lingered, or to whom he returned, that he might claim the wages of iniquity. He beheld the Saviour, but not nigh; and the star of redeeming love, which he saw rising over the world at the distance of fourteen hundred and fifty years, never dawned upon his soul with the light of its salvation. Vain, worse than vain, were the doctrinal attainments and the visions of Balaam. Beware, lest ye pride yourselves in such an acquaintance with religion as influences not your hearts and conduct. Beware, lest ye foster that most dreadful of all the deceptions which man can apply to his soul, that he may walk in the paths of his own device, live to himself, and dishonour the Lord who bought him, yet have his portion with