SERMON III.

NUMBERS, Xxii. 21-30.

And Balaam rose up in the morning, and saddled his ass, and went with the princes of Moab. And the ass said unto Bulaam, Am not I thine ass, upon which thou hast ridden ever since I was thine?

THERE are several methods of preaching in practice among

the several professors who pretend to that gift; but the chief seem to be these two-to make some text of Scripture either the foundation or occasion of their discourse. It answers much the same purpose, whether a sermon be taken from the text, or suggested by means thereof. I imagine my readers will easily conceive which of these methods I have observed in this discourse. Balaam rose up in the morning, and saddled his ass. There must be some matter of importance in hand, when a man of Balaam's character is up so early. Some pious purpose, no doubt, is to be executed when a prophet rises so soon in the morning. You will be surprised to hear that the anger of the Lord was kindled against the prophet. There was a reason for it:-Balaam loved the wages of unrighteousness, and rose with a design to curse a blessed people to procure them.

Alas! the whole creation groaneth and is in bondage until now; the meanest animal is brought into slavery by the iniqui ties of man. Men of deep designs and profound politics will make use of any instrument to obtain their ends. When a man is riding to the devil, an ass will serve the purpose as well as a horse. Our covetous prophet had now a great object in his eye-the King of Moab had promised to exalt him to riches and honour, if he would curse the children of Israel; and it is no wonder that a man of Balaam's disposition was up early in the morning to look after them. It was to serve a king too. The leaders in all nations, in all ages, have been well disposed to serve the great. I have read of bishops who have been employed the same way. But how shall he curse whom God hath blessed? What did the king of Moab mean, by asking Balaam to, curse Israel? Superstition has been very early in the world:-such as had no just notions of the true God had yet some notions of a Supreme Power to bless and curse.

Balaam seems to have been one of the Eastern Magi, and one of those who pretended to be hand and glove with some powerful divinity, whose aid he could call in at his pleasure, to bless or curse whom he had a mind. It is very likely this was all a perversion and corruption of the religion of the true God, which was made use of to serve the pious purposes of false prophets,

and

and the politics of princes. The greatest part of the leading men of this world, in almost every age, have meant no more by religion, than to make it an engine of state policy, or a tool of secular interest. Men of any degree of sagacity can easily see that the common people will not always be subject to their authority, unless they be brought under it by means of temporal advantage, or the influence of religion; and as they who aspire after power are seldom disposed to part with many worldly emoluments, they endeavour to gain the obedience of the vulgar with what costs them nothing, and what they themselves set no value upon. Severe as this reflection may seem upon human legislators, experience hath for a long time confirmed it; and it is evident from observation, that the greatest part of those who have wanted to bring over religion to their side have made use of it to serve the ends of their pride and ambition. It is difficult, if not impossible, to govern mankind without some form of religion; for it may be found by observation, that where there is least religion, or where it is most perverted, there is generally the greatest barbarity among the inhabitants of any country. Where the knowledge of the Deity is well nigh obliterated in the minds of a people, they differ but little from other animals; they are rude, savage, and untractable, till they are instructed in' the knowledge of religion.

I must observe here, that although princes have made religion an engine of government to manage their subjects by, yet they could never so far prevail over priests and prophets, as to make them subservient to the ends of their policy, without allowing them to go snacks with them in the profits that arise from it.

It would appear, from considering the influence of religion upon mankind, that it is necessary to their very constitution, in a civilized capacity; for without it they differ but little from brutes. The best civil policy cannot subsist without it; for where religion is once removed, there is neither law nor policy. Religion softens the mind, and makes it capable of inipressions that men are strangers to without it: without it we have no proper springs of action to excite us to what is truly noble and virtuous. Some men may have a sort of animal docility, and be more easily kept in order than others; but without religion they are at best but a milder sort of savage.

It is a pity, however, it should be made subservient to base ends and purposes: it seems to be the chief end of our nature, and should be the chief aim of our conduct. To it all other things should be made subservient; and it is no sign of the soundness of the human economy, when the mistress is made a dupe to her handmaids. It is a strong argument of the use fulness of religion, that generally all men, in the time of distress,' make her their dernier resort.

What kings find themselves unable to do by force of arms, they sometimes think may be done by the Deity without them. This

is

is a fair, but a forced acknowledgment of human impotence, and of the independence of the Deity.

Whatever may have been said by travellers, perhaps there are no people in the world but do worship a deity, under the characters of either good or bad. The human mind seems to be formed for religion; and notwithstanding the wrong bias that habit and custom do often give the minds of men, yet the very errors and excesses of mankind shew what way the mind would exercise herself, if she were once clear of those fetters and manacles that hold her.

Were there as many to instruct us in the ways of righteousness as there are to seduce us into the paths of error and falsehood, perhaps we would find matters very different from what they are. When civil and religious rulers are engaged in one interest to seduce mankind, if the Almighty himself were not at the head of the administration, it is hard to say where the end might be. It is observable, that every man, rich and poor, when they are in distress, if they enjoy the exercise of their reason, want to bring over the Deity to their interest; but often the means that they make use of to accomplish their end, deserve to be classed among the number of their provocations. No man ought to ask from God what will ruin another; for when the Almighty gives a favour to one, it does not incapacitate him to give another man the same, if he knows he stands in need of it. Curses, above all things, are most disagreeable to a good and merciful God. What, O Balak, didst thou mean, to send for a prophet to curse a people that had not yet injured thee? Good God! what would become of thy Israel, if the king of Moab had power? They would be all destroyed in a moment.

It is well for the world that God is the supreme governor of it, whose laws are love, and his government mercy. The king of Moab must have been very ignorant of the character of that God that rules the universe, to think that he had not an equal goodwill to the same works of his hands. Perhaps he had been taught the doctrine of a good and evil genius; one that could curse, and another that could bless. At this time he wanted the aid of the evil genius, to distribute maledictions among a people he was afraid of. Fear and hatred are very closely allied; Quisquis timet, quanquam est intactus, et odit.

When matters go on pleasantly with wicked men, they forget their God; but when they find their own incapacity to bear their burdens, they would willingly throw them upon the Almighty. This they do, not out of love, but fear.

There are many men in the world that have the same opinion of God that they have of the devil-that he is disposed to do ill to them that are his enemies. Their notions of good and evil are much the same; and therefore their God and their devil must have the same character. Their notions of good are, that it is fit they do what they please without punishment, and follow the

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the bent of their own inclination with impunity and they mean no more by evil than punishment for their offences. It is good. ness to suffer them to continue as they are; and it is evil to interrupt them in the gratification of their appetites and passions. Virtue is not good to them, and vice evil; but punishment is evil, and impunity good.

The king of Moab and his prophet Balaam have now the character of some dæmon in their eye. He must curse Israel, or he does nothing. What malignity must there be in some men's temper, that they cannot rest satisfied but with the destruction of their fellow-creatures? Had thy children, Balak, all died in that battle where thy friend Balaam fell, and all his children perished with himself, the world would have had no cause to lament the loss. But the case is otherwise. Thy offspring, like Pharaoh's locusts, overspread all the kingdoms of Europe. From thee and thy prophet Balaam, statesmen have learned to curse their enemies, and to ask the aid of prophets to support their cause. From Balaam churches have taken the hint of devoting such to eternal destruction as will not join in their common creed, to support the common craft. How has the name of the Deity been profaned by malevolent invocations, to curse thousands that have been dear in his sight! The leaders of state and church policy have ever acted upon the same principle. What cannot be so easily effected by reason and strength of argument has often been obtained by curses and church anathemas.

It is a long time since statesmen have found need of the assistance of some deity, and churchmen have pretended interest enough to procure it; yet the first have often been disappointed, and the latter found to be liars. The God of this universe has more mercy and goodness than to hear the prayers of either civil or religious politicians, who only make use of his assistance to serve their own pride and ambition. Worldly interest has ever been the chief bond of alliance between churchmen and statesmen; and to serve this pious purpose, they have abused both the characters of God and the Devil.

We can find authentic accounts of two parties near Dunbar, in the time of the usurpation, ready to shed one another's blood in the name of the Lord,-and both confidently assured of success by their prophets, that consulted their oracles. Could it be the God of heaven that these enthusiasts consulted, and from whom they affirmed they had received assurance of success? If so, they must either have mistaken his meaning, or he deceived some of them. I am afraid, the prophets were like Balaam, and the rulers like Balak, who went to curse their enemies, but God turned it unto a blessing; not for the deserts of them that prospered, but for the impertinence and impiety of them who suffered.

There seems to be one reason why wicked men in the time of difficulty seek the assistance of some invisible deity :-they

choose

choose not to have it thought that they depend upon any visible agent. All men in the time of prosperity affect a sort of independence, and would be deities if they could. When distress comes upon them, they are stimulated by pride not to acknowledge their dependence upon such as they have accounted their inferiors;they betake themselves therefore to some invisible divinity, which their consciences tell them somewhere existeth, but which they have neglected to acknowledge till distress urged them to it. They only give up their notions of independence, when they can no longer support them with any credit. This is the most honourable way of retreating they can think on, to acknowledge a power which they would willingly suppose the rest of mankind have not so much interest with as themselves.

Thus wicked men change atheism for hypocrisy for when they find themselves under some necessity to acknowledge a deity, they at the same time incline to monopolize his favour, and pretend they are his greatest intimates; when, at the same time, they rather make use ofthese pretences to serve their own ends and purposes, than sincerely behave as the friends of God.

When men are obliged to renounce any degree of their own independence, they would willingly do it with as much regard to their notions of dignity as they could; and it is for this reason, when they are disposed to depend upon the Almighty, that they always incline to make the world believe that him and them are very familiar; that though they dare not consider themselves his superior, yet they would willingly be as near equal to him as they possibly could. Hence it is, that false prophets and enthue siasts of all sorts have always given out what influence they had with their divinities, that one would almost conclude that they durst not do any thing without their good leave, nor refuse any thing they had a mind to ask. Such an opinion as this Balak seems to have had of the false prophet Balaam: for, says he, "whom thou blessest is blessed, and whom thou cursest is cursed.”

This prophet affected divinity as long as he could,-till the Almighty made him understand that his divinations were under his controul, and then he was obliged to confess that he could do nothing beyond the commandment of the Lord. Mankind in general make as great a secret of their dependence upon God as they possibly can, and in the capital points of their dependence pretend that none knows it but God and themselves. This seems to be the resson why some devout people do not consider intercourse with God as a common privilege, but peculiar to themselves, as the favourites of heaven. If men were entirely satisfied in their own minds with their dependence upon God, they would make no secret of it, but humbly confess it on every occasion:-but when they want to wrap it up in mysticism, and conceal it under some form of divination, it still says they are not satisfied, whatever they pretend. It seems to be more the disposition of mankind to be divinities, than to seek after intercourse