Such confequence did his fanctity, his wifdom, and the favour of the Almighty give him!

Of all this Balaam was fully fenfible. He faw the advantages of the prophetic character; but fo corrupt was he, fo fordid in his views, that he confidered these great talents, thefe gifts of heaven, in no other light, than as the means of procuring, under their disguife, the paltry trappings of a few worldly diftinctions.

Of the melancholy hiftory of this wicked man let us make its proper use.-Many are the truths it teaches.

It teaches the danger of giving way in the first inftance to temptation. After we have been once conquered, we have loft half our ftrength. It is probable, the king of Moab, could not at firft have > prevailed on Balaam, with his houfe full of filver and gold to have taken up arms in favour of an idolatrous prince, and againft God's favoured people but at a lefs price he was able to make him begin his journey, tho it was plainly contrary to the will of God. All the reft followed of courfe.

Again, we are taught by this ftory, that a religious difpofition makes always the greateft, and

beft

beft part of every man's character. Shining ta lents are, in general, what men defire; as they procure them the admiration of the world: but we fee in God's fight it is otherwife. He often gives them to the most unworthy. A good heart is worth them all; and will make us illuftrious, when all the reft become nothing. This even fingle is of value; while talents, without a heart, often ruin their poffeffor; are a nuisance to mankind, and make us only the more confpicuoufly infamous.

We learn farther from this ftory, the dreadful ftate of being, what the fcriptures call forfaken of God. God, we believe, will never forfake any one, who earneftly defires his affiftance. But when we reject his grace, through our own obstinate wickedness, we may place ourselves in a ftate almost beyond recovery. Balaam in the early, and innocent part of his life, was probably greatly favoured by God; till he began to think the king of Moab the better mafter. He then forfook God, and his ftrides to deftruction were rapid.

But the most obvious ufe, that may be made of the ftory of Balaam, is to convince ourselves of the folly, and wickedness of acting under two charac

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characters of hiding a bad heart under the pretences of religion. Let us confider the pains it cofts; the conftant attention to every word, and action. In fact, it would coft lefs to be good in. earneft. Befides, we deceive ourfelves, if we think we can long deceive the world. Rarely did hypocrify ever carry its deceit to the grave.-But if we could deceive the world, and carry off our deceit, with our grey hairs, to the grave; (and I fuppofe this is as far as the most practised hypocrite can hope to carry it) is it worth while? Will the best gains of hypocrify repay us for a bad confcience; or give us any folid return for the remorse of a death-bed?

What, may we fuppofe, were Balaam's fentiments, when he lay bleeding on the plains of Midian? when all his wicked vifion was fledwhen he found himself ftruck with the hand of death, deftitute of all comfort upon earth; and of all hope from heaven? In those bitter moments, we may suppose, he saw things in their true light-in the agony of defpair and horror, he was at length convinced of the folly, and wickednefs of all his worldly schemes-his Sin had now found him out and he exclaimed in earnest, (what in the hypocrify of his foul, he had once

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uttered) Oh! that I might die the death of the righteous, and that my latter end might be like his !

-May we all catch the warning voice!

and may God grant us grace to make a better use of it, through Jefus Chrift our Lord!

SERMON

SERMON VIII.

HEBREWS 11. xiii.

THEY CONFESSED, THAT THEY WERE STRANGERS, AND PILGRIMS ON THE EARTH,

UR paffage through life is compared in holy scripture, to various things-fometimes to an arrow flitting through the air, which quickly ftrikes the mark it aimed at fometimes to a race, in which we foon arrive at the deftined goalfometimes to a flower, which is to day in the field; to-morrow, cut down, and withered.But no figure, I think, more beautifully, and more comprehensively describes it, than that of a journey, to which it is compared by the apoftle in the text. ---The other figures, I have mentioned, give us

an