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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 Verse. 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 curse Facob, and defie the Armies of Ifrael. This Balaam we find represented, throughout the whole Account we have of him, under a Mixt

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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 Promises, if he would but Curse 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 God came upon him, and it pleased God to direct him, what he should speak from time to time. He thought fit to confound and terrifie the Moabites, out of the Mouth of a Prophet of their own choofing: God may make use of what Instruments he pleases to declare his Will, and may sometimes see 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 Visions to Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar, and to Saul and Caiaphas, (as here to Balaam,) by Prophetick Inspirations; yet all of them were wicked Men, and some of them Idolaters. And this was Balaam's Cafe; who, after all his fair Flourishes, appears to have been a very ill Man. -That God, he knew, who could command the Mouth of his Ass, could easily 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 less or more. Which seems rather a Declaration of God's Power, than a Submission to his Will; for tho' he knew that God's Word must stand, yet he was very loth that it should, when it stood in Bar to his promised Rewards: And therefore tho an Angel was sent from Heaven, to stand in his way, to shew him that his way was Numb: perverse before God, yet he would still fain go xxii. 32. on; and does often afsay to make God alter his Mind, superftitiously 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 ofxxiii. 19. Man that he should Repent; when he found it beyond the Power of his Art to bring a Curfe on those whom God had blessed; and faw that all his Magick-Skill, all his Charms and Enchantments were of no Force at all againft those that were under God's Protection, and was, (to his Shame,) constrained to acknowledge it, even to the Midianites and Moabites, ver. 23. Surely there is no Enchantment against Jacob, 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 still 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 Curse upon Ifrael, he is for trying another fort of Charms upon them,

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Numb. advising their Enemies to insnare them, by xxxi. 16. the Midianitish Women, to Lewdness and IdoRev. ii. 14. latry, as the only way to alienate God from them.

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xxiv. 3.

2 Pet. ii.

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Thus did this old Southsayer, upon the hopes of Worldly Advantage, act against his Conscience, and still go on with his Eyes open. Yet after all, tho' he suffer'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 Last 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 cafe with Men, in the State of Nature; not Insensible, nor Hardned in Sin, nor yet Reclaimed from it; but drawn different ways, stagger'd, and halting betwixt Duty and Sin; betwixt the opposite Principles of the Carnal and of the Chriftian Life, led away by diverse Lufts and Passions : but Confcience all the while regrating, and preffing