had given him sufficient intimations,) he was at length permitted to proceed in his own way, and to his own destruction.

4. Observe next, how foolish a part a man acts, and how he exposes himself to contempt and scorn, as well as danger, when he takes upon him to follow his own way and humour, and will not have God for his guide. It was a weak thing in Balaam to ask God a second time, after God had abundantly signified his pleasure: and it was still weaker, after he had received a second answer discouraging him from any thought of cursing the people, for him to go on with the princes of Moab, and to offer himself to Balak, when he could do him no service. But to show some good inclination towards serving Balak, he resolved to make very free with Almighty God; though he had carried his irreverent familiarity too far before. He was now come to Balak, and something he must do; though as to the main thing, which was cursing the people, he knew very well that God had tied up his mouth. However, he makes Balak prepare altars and sacrifices, and he would thereby try again and again what God would say to him. A dangerous thing thus to tempt and trifle with the eternal God! Well: the effect was, that, much against his inclination, he was made to bless the people whom he came to curse; which highly offended Balak, and made the prophet ridiculous in the eyes of all there present. Yet this was not sufficient, but the foolish man goes on to tempt God again, and with the same success; till Balak was perfectly enraged against the prophet, and God let them both see, that his will should prevail, and not theirs.

5. Observe farther, that when once stubborn and wilful men have run such lengths in opposition to the will of Heaven, God then gives them up to a reprobate mind, and lets them fall from one degree of wickedness to another. So it was in Balaam. He had been provoking God, time after time, by the foolish, irreverent, and conceited part he had been acting: and now God left him to

do a great deal worse; to be counsellor to Balak in as wicked policy as hell itself could invent; to seduce the Israelites into fornication, and into the abominable lewdnesses which went along with the feasts and revellings made in honour of Baal-peor. A man who could give such counsel as that, must have first shaken off all honour, respect, or reverence for the living God; which indeed appears to have been Balaam's case in the end.

6. One thing more we may observe from his history, which is this; that the Spirit of God may sometimes vouchsafe to come upon a very wicked man, (so far as concerns the extraordinary gifts,) without reforming or influencing the same man as to his life and morals, in the way of ordinary operation. These two things are very distinct, and may often be separate; as in Balaam at that time, and in Judas afterwards. Balaam had undoubtedly the gift of prophecy, even while he was doing amiss, and tempting Almighty God. For "the Spirit of God came upon him P," and made use of his organs in the delivering several remarkable prophecies fulfilled in their season: as the rising strength and growing greatness of the Israelites the fall of Moab and of Edom, which was to be effected in the time of King David: the destruction of Amalek, which came to pass somewhat sooner, in King Saul's time the overthrow also of the Kenites by the hand of the Assyrians: and, what is more than all, the overthrow of the Assyrian conquerors themselves by the hands of the Chittim, that is, of the Macedonians; which was executed under the conduct of Alexander the Great. These were great and valuable prophecies, and most of them, besides their more immediate reference, had a further view to the coming of Christ and hence it is that this history of Balaam deserved the more especial notice, and is made to fill up so many chapters in Moses. But when we find such considerable prophecies delivered by the mouth of an ungodly man; give God the glory, and

:

P Numb. xxiv. 2.

let the shame rest where it ought. The prophecies are of standing use in the Church; but the prophet will be no gainer by them: our Lord himself has fully interpreted this case, in the words following; " Many will say to me "in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy "name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy 66 name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity 9."

66

9 Matt. vii. 22, 23.

SERMON XXXIII.

The Appearance of Samuel to Saul at En-dor.

I SAM. xxviii. 15, 16.

And Samuel said to Saul, Why hast thou disquieted me, to bring me up? And Saul answered, I am sore distressed; for the Philistines make war against me, and God is departed from me, and answereth me no more, neither by prophets, nor by dreams: therefore I have called thee, that thou mayest make known unto me what I shall do. Then said Samuel, Wherefore then dost thou ask of me, seeing the Lord is departed from thee, and is become thine enemy?

THIS chapter contains a most remarkable passage of sacred story: melancholy indeed it is, but entertaining withal, and, when considered in all its views, highly instructive. King Saul is here introduced, not in his glory and splendor, as when first called to the throne of Israel, but in his decline of life, and his most deplorable circumstances, which his many and grievous transgressions had brought him into. Vengeance, which had long hovered and waited, now advanced with large and quick strides, and his fate drew on apace. He perceived it, and was very sensibly affected with it. One cannot express, nor indeed conceive, the pains and agonies he must then have felt in his mind. He had abandoned God for some time, and he was now sadly sensible that God had abandoned him: yet he had a great desire to consult him once again, and to obtain a kind answer from him in his day of dis

tress.

He put on the outward garb of a devotee, while his heart was still hard as ever, and his mind not changed. His present fears, rather than any thing of true penitence, roused him up, and made him have recourse to God; prepared at the same time, if God should not answer, to make his next resort to a sorceress, and by her to come at Samuel's ghost.

But first he applies to God. The Philistines bore hard upon him at that time with a formidable army, and so near to him that there was but a valley between them and him; whereupon he was greatly distressed. In such pressing exigency, he attempted every method he could think of (by dream, or by Urim, or by prophecy) to obtain some instructive answer from God: but God would not hear him, nor take the least notice of him, knowing him still to be the same wicked man as before; afflicted indeed, but not more humble; sorrowful, but not penitent, nor at all changed in the inward man.

Saul, thus finding himself repulsed and rejected, like a distracted man resolved to struggle with his fate to the utmost, and to run any lengths of madness. Though God had deserted him, yet he was weak enough to imagine that Samuel however (that is, the ghost of Samuel; for he had been dead about four years before) might be prevailed upon to listen to him, and to return him a kind answer. But in order to come at Samuel, he repairs to a sorceress, a woman of En-dor, skilled in magic art, and famed for conjuring up ghosts (as the world believed) by her sorceries or enchantments. It is not material here to inquire into the mysteries of that art, or whether it ever hath, or can perform so much as it pretends to. It is sufficient that fame so reported of that woman, and Saul believed it; and the woman, trusting to her art, undertook the thing: but God himself, as it seems, interposed, and both conducted and governed the whole transaction. There hath been great variety of sentiments among the learned, and very different accounts have been given, of this famed adventure.