necks of many kings. These were designed to be figurative representations of the divine judgements which would be executed upon those kings and their subjects. No reasonable man can believe that these actions were really performed: the impossibility of the thing stares you in the face; and therefore these are commonly allowed to have been visions, and should be a guide to us for the interpretation of other prophetic actions.

So also Isaiah is ordered to walk naked and barefoot for three years together, as a type and a sign to the Ægyptians, with whom he did not dwell, and as a prediction of their captivity; which may justly be ranked amongst prophetic visions, even for the sake of the grievous inconveniencies arising from the literal

sense.

The prophecies of Ezechiel abound with actions of this kind, which must be thus interpreted; as his eating the book which God gave him, his besieging a pan-tile, and lying down before it three hundred and ninety days on his left side, and forty days on his right side, and all that time eating bread that was baked with dung. All this was done to foretel the dreadful calamities and desolation of Jerusalem, and must have been an imaginary scene, which answered the prophetic purpose as much as a real one, and was as much a prediction of things to come, which was verified by the event.

In the same manner may be understood his shaving* his head and beard, and dividing it into three parts, some to be burnt, some to be smitten with a knife, and some to be cast away; for Ezechiel was a priest, and the shaving himself in this manner seems to have been prohibited by the law of Moses.

Many other instances might be produced from the prophetic writings, where the nature of the transaction induced the most reasonable and judicious interpreters of Scripture to have recourse to the visionary sense and to prophetic scenery: whence the conclusion seems to follow which we have been aiming at, that the affair of Balaam might have been of the same kind, and a mixture of reality and of vision.

If a man will allow, and must allow some of these prophetic actions to have been visionary, and yet will not allow a possibility that the conversation between Balaam and his beast might have been of the same nature, such a person will hardly be able to give a reason why he admits the one and rejects the other.

Let us consider the alteration which befel Balaam's beast in a philosophical way.

* Absit ut Deus prophetas suos dementibus aut ebriis similes reddat, eosve dementium aut furiosorum in modum se gerere jubeat! præterquam quod ultimum illud præceptum Legi repugnasset. Fuit enim Ezechiel sacerdos magnus, et propterea duobus illis præceptis negativis, de non radendo angulo capitis et angulo barbæ tenebatur. Proinde non nisi in visione prophetica factum fuit. Maimonides Moreh Neb. p. ii. c. 46.

If

you adhere to the letter, you must say that the ass talked, and talked to the purpose, and reasoned. She was changedy for a short time into a rational creature, and then returned back again to her first condition. Is this probable or conceivable? The defenders of the literal sense have granted that it is not. The ass, say they, did not know what she uttered, but was a passive instrument under the direction of a spiritual agent. They will not say that it was an evil dæmon, and introduce Satan into the machinery; and it seemeth beneath the dignity of a holy angel to enter into a brute, for a purpose which, though kind and good, yet might easily have been brought about by other methods. We do not find, from one end of the Scriptures to the other, that a good angel ever acted in a manner so fantastical in all appearance.

Thus much for the history of Balaam. I must add a few words concerning its moral use. It sets before us the infatuating power of ambition and covetousness, and the folly and danger of setting the affections on the transitory objects of this life, and of sacrificing religion and duty to dirty lucre, and to temporal advan tages.

Here is a man who had the honour to be a priest and a prophet; who had a great reputation in the world; who probably was not young, and had the less reason to be anxious about rewards, honours, and pro

y Nunc animal compos rationis, nuper asella,
Rursus et in speciem fato revoluta priorem.

motions; who seems to have been a worshipper of the true God, and not ignorant of the moral duties, but well apprized of the important truth, that to keep innocency and to do the thing that is right, will bring a man peace at the last, and that he who would die the death, must live the life of the righteous.

The Devil, in the form of money and preferment, comes and tempts him, and he is in danger of yielding to the importunate seducer. But God hath compassion on him, and uses all the methods to save him that are proper to be applied to a free agent. He forbids him to go with the messengers, he assures him that his designs would not prosper'; he sends an angel to meet him and to terrify him in the way; he compels him, instead of uttering curses, to pronounce blessings upon the Israelites, and to foretel the prosperity of that people and the destruction of their adversaries, in such expressions as plainly showed at the same time that happiness was the reward of piety and obedience, and that wickedness brought on misery and ended in ruin. But all these kind warnings and corrections were lost upon the prophet: vexed at his disappointment, blinded by his passions, and deaf to the divine admonitions, he hardens himself still more, till at last he acts the part of the Devil, and lays projects of se ducing the Israelites from their allegiance to God, and then, instead of going home, he loiters amongst the devoted nations till destruction overtakes him.

The world abounds with persons, who, like Balaam,

are slaves to covetousness and ambition, and who resemble him more or less, according as these predominant vices are checked and counterbalanced more or less by religion and conscience..

Some of them are quite estranged from virtue, have dismissed all shame and remorse, all moral sense and discernment, and judge of good and evil by arithmetical rules of gain and loss.

Others are not so far gone: by the blessing of a proper education, and by a serious temper, they are confirmed in religious principles; the fear of God and the fear of man restrain them from grosser enormities. Amongst these you shall find persons who have learning, knowledge, acuteness, dexterity, and industry. But the love of money and of power lies lurking at the heart, and betrays itself from time to time in actions suitable to such mean motives and miserable views. In many instances they are able to practise what is barely honest, but never can they do what is truly great.

The worst of all is, that these evil dispositions are seldom corrected, but length of time, which weakens the bodily powers, rather inflames than lessens the distempers of the soul. The man grows old, and his irregular passions remain young and lively; and this is most remarkably the case of avarice and rapaciousness, which survive the strength of the body and the abilities of the mind, subject to no decay, and cursed with immortality.