Balaam's first attempt to curse Israel.
Numb, xxiii. 7 — 10. And he took up his parable, and said, JBalak, the king of Moab, hath brought me from Aram, out of the mountains of the East, saying, Come, curse me Jacob; and come, defy Israel. Hoio shall I curse whom God hath not cursed ? or how shall I defy whom the Lord hath not defied ? For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him, : lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations. Who can count the dust of Jacob, and the number of the fourth part of Israel ? Let me die the death of the righteous ; and let my last end be like his !
IT is scarcely to be conceived to what a degree superstition will blind the eyes of men. There is nothing so absurd or incredible, which a person un- der the influence of it is not ready to believe. Who would imagine that persons could be brought to be- lieve the infallibility of the Pope, and the power of the Popish priests to forgive sin ? Who would sup- pose that any person could be brought to believe, that a priest is able to convert bread and wine into the body and soul, yea, and into the Godhead also, of Christ ; and that every individual who partakes of that bread and wine, eats and drinks the whole body, the whole soul, and the whole Godhead of Christ ? Yet these things are credited by millions of persons, as firmly as they believe that there is a God.
Were it not that we have such evidence of the power of superstition in later ages, we should scarcely con- ceive, that any Being endowed with reason would act like Balak, when he sent for Balaam to curse Israel. How could he entertain such a foolish thought, as that Balaam should be able to inflict a curse upon the whole Israelitish nation, so as to ensure the conquest of them to the king of Moab ? Yet this superstition obtained, not only there, and at that time, but fifteen hundred years after- wards at Rome also, where there was an officer expressly appointed to imprecate curses on their enemies.