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SERMON I.

Men have Naturally proper Notions of Good and Evil. How they are prevail'd upon to go contrary to them in their Lives, which they repent of at their Deaths.

NUM. XXIII. Part of the 10th Verfe. Let me dye the Death of the Righteous, and let my Laft End be like His.

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HE Words are Part of Balaam's Parable, when he was fent for by Balak King of the Moabites, to curfe Jacob, and defie the Armies of Ifrael. This Balaam we find reprefented, throughout the whole Account we have of him, under a Mixt

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and

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and very Different Character; a Character, wherein there appears much of the Sorcerer, and Somewhat that looks like a True Prophet. Tho' he was invited by honourable Chap. xxii. Meffengers, with the Rewards of Divination in their Hands, great Rewards, and greater Promifes, if he would but Curfe the Enemies of Moab and Midian; yet he over and over declares,that nothing should tempt him, to stir a Step or speak a Word, beyond the Word of the Lord; But what the Lord faith unto me, that will I fpeak. Accordingly we are Chap.xxiv. told, that the Spirit of Gad came upon him, and it pleased God to direct him, what he should speak from time to time. He thought fit to confound and terrific the Moabites, out of the Mouth of a Prophet of their own choofing: God may make use of what Inftruments he pleases to declare his Will, and may fometimes fee it more for his Glory, to make the Mouths of the Wicked denounce his Judgments, or utter forth his Praife. Thus he appeared by Dreams and Vifions to Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar, and to Saul and Caiaphas, (as here to Balaam,) by Prophetick Infpirations; yet all of them were wicked Men, and fome of them Idolaters. And this was Balaam's Cafe; who, after all his fair Flourishcs, appears to have been a very ill Man.

That God, he knew, who could command the Mouth of his Afs, could eafily put a Bridle Numb.xxi. into his Mouth, that he Could not go beyond

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the Word of the Lord, to do lefs or more. Which feems rather a Declaration of God's Power, than a Submiflion to his Will; for tho' he knew that God's Word must ftand, yet he was very loth that it should, when it stood in Bar to his promifed Rewards: And therefore tho' an Angel was fent from Heaven, to ftand in his way, to fhew him that his way was Numb. perverfe before God, yet he would still fain goxxii. 32. on, and does often affay to make God alter his Mind, fuperftitiously removing from Place to Place, and trying new Altars, and new Sacrifices, and Enchantments, in hopes that he might at length obtain from God an Anfwer to his Mind. But after that he found, and was fully fatisfy'd, that God was not a Numb. Man that he should Lye, nor as the Son of xxiii. 19. Man that he fhould Repent; when he found it beyond the Power of his Art to bring a Curfe on those whom God had bleffed; and faw that all his Magick-Skill, all his Charms and Enchantments were of no Force at all against thofe that were under God's Protection, and was, (to his Shame,) conftrained to acknowledge it, even to the Midianites and Moabites, ver. 23. Surely there is no Enchantment against Facob, neither is there any Divination against Ifrael; yet, does he even then, after all This, quit his evil Arts, and join himself in the true Worship with the People of God? No, but his Mercenary Soul is ftill hankering and lingring after the Rewards: Tho' he knew fo B 2 much

much of the true God, yet he still sticks to those Idolatrous Nations; and when he could no other way procure a Curfe upon Ifrael, he is for trying another fort of Charms upon them, advifing their Enemies to infnare them, by Numb. the Midianitish Women, to Lewdness and IdoRev. ii. 14. latry, as the only way to alienate God from them.

xxxi. 16.

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xxiv. 3.

2 Pet. ii.

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Thus did this old Southfayer, upon the hopes of Worldly Advantage, act against his Confcience, and still go on with his Eyes open. Yet after all, tho' he fuffer'd himself to be borne down by Worldly Confiderations, and would not be brought to Live with the Righteous, yet, he could not but think and pronounce them Happy, and wish, that he might Dye the Death of the Righteous, and have his Laft End like His.

This was the way of Balaam: And in Himwe have a lively Image of a double-minded Man; divided betwixt God and the World, distracted in his own Mind, approving one way, acting another, and condemning himfelf in his own Choice.

And this is a common case with Men, in the State of Nature; not Infenfible, nor Hardned in Sin, nor yet Reclaimed from it; but drawn different ways, ftagger'd, and halting betwixt Duty and Sin; betwixt the oppofite Principles of the Carnal and of the Chriftian Life, led away by diverfe Lufts and Paffions: but Confcience all the while regrating, and

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preffing