from Balak and Balaam : but Balak had no such wish to please God : on the contrary, he wanted nothing so much as to destroy his people : and Balaam ex- pressed no such solicitude to lead Balak to a holy life ; but, on the contrary, taught him how to ruin the souls of God's people, by tempting them to an illicit intercourse with the daughters of Midian.
The view before given seems to be the more just : and agreeably to it we shall consider,
I. The inquiries of an awakened soul —
A person convinced of his lost estate, cannot but desire to obtain peace with God —
[The most abandoned sinner, previous to the illumination of his mind by the Spirit of God, will be regardless of his state, and unconcerned about the account which he must give of himself at the judgment-seat of Christ. But, when once his eyes are opened to see his guilt and danger, he can no longer be indifferent about his eternal interests : he feels that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of God ; and, how- ever hardened he may have before been, he will cry out with agony of mind, " What shall I do to be saveda?" ]
But the ways he devises for his restoration to the Divine favour are invariably erroneous and absurd —
[The Jew, like all others of his own nation, first proposes a compliance with the ordinances of the ceremonial law ; then, if that will not suffice, he will multiply them, so as to offer, if possible, thousands of rams instead of one, and " ten thou- sands of rivers of oil," instead of about one or three pints, prescribed for the meat-offerings b. If this be not of sufficient value, he is ready to offer even his first-born son; determined, that neither the heathen deities shall be more honoured than Jehovah c, nor Abraham himself perform a more self-denying act of obedience than hed.
Such are the means whereby men still hope to recommend themselves to the Divine favour. They will multiply rites and observances far beyond what God himself has required : they will very readily submit to penances, and mortifications, and all manner of painful discipline : but to part with their bosom lusts, and to obtain a thorough renovation of their souls, they have
a Actsii. 37. and xvi. 30. b Lev. xiv. 10, 21. Exod. xxix. 40. c 2 Kings xvii. 16, 17.
d This idea will account for such a proposal in the mouth of a penitent Jew. Gen. xxii. 2, 16.