he behold; wherefore, then, were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses? And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them; and he departed."

His judgment fell instantly on Miriam, as the chief instigator of the faction; and she became a leper. It is not however either to the fact, or to the judgment by which it was followed, that we wish, as we have said, to draw the attention; but to the remarkable terms in which God himself declares that he manifested himself to Moses.

Now in the opinions of the Jewish Rabbies, Moses, on many accounts, excelled every prophet who had arisen from the nation. They have pointed out a variety of principles, in which the Divine disclosures to him differed from those which he vouchsafed to other prophets. And amongst these is a confirmation of the fact, to which our argument tends; that, while the senses of other men in the season of their inspiration were bound up, and they received the divine counsel in dreams and visions; the senses of Moses were perfectly open, and that he conversed with and received the laws and will of God" face to face, as a man speaketh with his friend." It is under this impression, that they revere him far above every other prophet; and receive his laws with an implicit faith, which admits of no particle of doubt in the very severest and most difficult laws which he has bequeathed to them.

It is true that this is at best but an opinion, and of no other authority, than as it is fairly deduced, but it is of this value, that it is an opinion, given by the universal consent of men, who drew their in

ferences from a close and accurate comparison of their revered Legislator with other prophets, whom they also religiously remembered; and who, in the conclusions which they came to, had no feeling of the impossibility of the personal appearance of the Almighty; which on the word of Christ himself, we, as Christians, are bound to entertain. They saw that there were circumstances in the spiritual intercourse of Moses with the Deity, which were totally unlike,—in that they were superior to those which happened to any other man, who had existed upon earth; they saw, that the language in which he announced the miraculous interference of the Deity to himself, was such, that no other prophet, priest or teacher, had dared to use. They saw that there was a decided interval between him, and the most exalted prophets; and which only admitted of the belief, that Moses conversed with the Eternal openly; heard his voice openly; and possessed that degree of favour in his sight, as could only be rightly expressed in his own words, that God spake with him as man to his friend.

I would in this place venture to make a remark, in confirmation of this view of the Rabbies. Moses desired to see God in his full glory. But he had been with God in the Mount forty days; and I cannot but think, that this request to see the Deity in a full and open revelation of his Majesty, presupposes his having seen him already in some lesser degree of glory. I cannot think that Moses would have preferred the request to see him in his celestial greatness and splendor, unless he had conceived it possible, from some previous knowledge, that he

might see it fully revealed, and yet survive it. But

to resume:

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The forty years of Israel's wanderings have almost past. They have left the wilderness, and have pitched in the plains of Moab, on this side Jordan by Jericho." Balak, the King of Moab was terrified at their approach. He had heard of their victories over the Amorites; and he trembled for the stability of his own throne. He was in a great strait; he felt that his own armies were not equal to cope with the arms of Israel. His allies were stricken with a like fear; and seemed less capable of counsel, the more imminently the danger pressed upon them. In this extremity, he followed the natural impulse of a weak and superstitious mind; and hoped that he might prevail by divinations and enchantments, when he could neither hope to prosper by the justice of his cause, nor the potency of his resources. A prophet, Balaam, who united in himself the fame of righteousness with the feeling of venality, was the refuge of the alarmed monarch. An honourable embassy of the elders of Moab and Midian, was speedily despatched unto him. "The rewards of divination were in their hands;" and they were urgent with the inspired seer, to set forth to the Court of Moab, charged with curses and maledictions on the heads of the hated Israelites.

The character of Balaam is without the subject of our present enquiry. He had formerly been inspired; he might then have been righteous; and the fame of that former goodness might have survived the wreck of his right principles. However this might have been, he saw that, however his own

heart and feelings might have been inclined of their own free will towards the king of Moab, and the splendid rewards which he had transmitted to him, he yet could not curse those whom God had not cursed; and that if Israel were his chosen people, he had no power whatever effectually to oppose them. His reply then, was as became his character as a prophet. Lodge here this night, and I will bring you word again, as the Lord shall speak unto me.

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The hope of Balaam was not falsified in the result. He expected an intimation of the divine will, and it was given to him. "And God came unto Balaam, and said; What men are these with you?" The prophet declared the ambassage of Balak, and the hopes which the monarch entertained of prevailing against Israel, when they should be laid under a prophet's curse. "And God said; Thou shalt not go with them; thou shalt not curse the people, for they are blessed."

This prohibition was evidently given to Balaam in a vision of the night; and it is by no means necessary, that he should have either seen any form or heard any voice; and consequently there is nothing in the fact itself, which prevents it from having been delivered by God the Father. And in the second vision which the prophet beheld,-when Balak, finding that he refused to come, had sent a more honourable embassy to entreat him,—the same person is introduced, in precisely the same manner, as giving a reluctant and limited permission to go. "And God came unto Balaam at night; and said unto him; If the men come to call thee, rise up,

* Numb. xxii. 8.

and go with them; but yet the word that I shall say unto thee, that shalt thou do."

Balaam, however, exceeded the permission that was given to him* "And God's anger was kindled against him because he went; and the angel of the Lord stood in the way for an adversary against him.” If, now, we have allowed the possibility of the Father's interference in the former instance, the history in the passage just quoted reverts to its usual current, and preserves its consistency. We therefore receive "God" in the one part of the sentence, to be "the angel of the Lord" in the other. The form of the expression, it is true, seems to present two distinct persons; the Angel; and the God, whose minister he was, and whose wrath was kindled ;—and had the narrative stopped at this point, the identity contended for might have been open to question. But proceeding with the history, we find, that when Balaam at length himself saw "the angel of the Lord standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand;"—when he was severely reproved by him for the pertinacity in evil which he had displayed through the whole transaction; and when in fear and trembling he offered to return to his own house, regardless alike of his own wishes, and the entreaties of the king of Moab; - we find the angel addressing him in these remarkable terms: "Go with the

* It is not very clear how he exceeded it. The most probable solution appears to me to be this; that God said, "If the men come to call thee, go." Having all along expressed his strong disapprobation, he gave at last a conditional permission ;—but Balaam rose up eagerly of his own accord; anticipated the messengers; sought them out; and went with such ill-feelings, that God's anger was kindled against him.