men; but only the word that I shall speak unto thee, that shalt thou speak."

Now what was this "word" which Balaam was to utter by the inspiration of the angel? Truly some of the most extraordinary prophecies which are to be found in the Old Testament; prophecies of singular weight and extent in regard to the future destinies of Israel; and amongst them the great and glorious prediction, under all circumstances, the most remarkable perhaps in the Bible, -the designation of the Messiah under the emblems of the "Star which should come out of Jacob, and the sceptre which should rise out of Israel." I confess I can scarcely understand, how, in accordance with the usual mode of procedure in Scripture, an inferior; a created angel; the mere messenger of the Eternal, could inspire the mind of a man with stores of prophetic knowledge in the manner in which the angel is stated in the context to have filled the mind of Balaam. The gift of prophecy in Scripture is usually attributed to the agency of Divinity; the peculiar province of Divinity; and which, when supplied, is received as the gift and the operation of the Almighty. I can easily understand an angel, as the angel Gabriel, descending to declare the will of God to man; and announcing tidings which should take place in their due season. But it opens a perfectly distinct and new principle, (which is averse from every idea that the study of Scripture has led me to receive,) that the prerogative of prophecy should be entrusted to a ministering angel; that he should enter into the mind of the prophet, and imbue it with thoughts, which comprise the most sublime

and awful counsels of the Deity. By following out such a mode of reasoning to the fullest extent, which the premises would admit, we might come at length to the conclusion, that the Deity never appeared to men, until Christ tabernacled in the flesh; and that the most express disclosures of the Divine Majesty were only disclosures in the person of a subordinate angel, who appeared and spake in the name of the Eternal.

Such a principle of course, cannot stand the slightest test which might be applied. Balaam's views were far different. He acknowledged God in the angel. He proceeded on his way. He raised the altars; he slew the victims; and, when every rite of sacrifice had been completed, exclaims to the king. "Stand by thy burnt-offering, and I will go; peradventure the Lord (JEHOVAH) will come to meet me, and whatsoever he sheweth me, I will tell thee. And God (Eloheem) met Balaam. . . and the Lord (JEHOVAH) put a word in Balaam's mouth, &c." In the second offering, Balaam repeats the same injunction to Balak, "Stand here by thy burnt-offering, while I go and meet the Lord (JEHOVAH) yonder, And the Lord met Balaam and put a word in his mouth, &c."

Whatever interpretation we may at this day put upon the Person appearing, the mind of Balaam was that of a prophet, and inspired. His thought rose at once, as we have intimated, to the Deity; and in his expectation of the vision, he fully believed that Jehovah would announce it.

Referring then to the first appearance of the angel as he journeyed towards Moab; and taking the

promise "the word that I shall speak, &c." in connection with the threefold fulfilment, we have no difficulty whatever in again arriving at the result, that an identity of Person is established throughout; and going back to the former proofs which have been given, we fully believe that the Lord and angel who thus declared himself to Balaam "falling in a trance, but having his eyes open," was the angel Christ, the Son of God.

We are now about to enter on another highly important branch of the subject; - the Passage of Israel into the land of promise, under the conduct of Joshua.

It seems a great point in connection with this Passage, to learn the feeling and belief of Moses on the Being who should conduct them. The great object of his whole life was now about to be accomplished; and there can be no doubt, but that the divine influence by which his mind had hitherto been actuated, would not, at this consummation of his desires, desert him. God, who had suffered him to behold from Mount Pisgah, the richness and fruitfulness of the land which he had prepared for his favored people; and who had blessed him with prophetic knowledge of the glories and triumphs, as well as the criminality and calamities, which would mark their future history, would not doubtless at that hour, keep from him the true bearing of his counsels, much less suffer his mind to imbibe a false impression on the eve of yielding up his life. It is therefore with a feeling of conviction, that amongst his latest addresses to the assembled congregation of Israel, we find him declaring in the most

explicit language, that the God who had hitherto led them to the sight of Canaan, would also conduct them to its possession. We read this with the greater interest, in that God had previously threatened by the mouth of Moses himself, that He would not go over Jordan with them. The idea might easily arise in the mind, that the threat, although cancelled at the time by the intercession of Moses, may yet have been renewed in the Divine mind on some subsequent offences of the people; and that as they had frequently proved themselves unworthy of Christ's presence, so now, when the time had come, they might actually be debarred from it. It is therefore with a feeling of conviction that we find Moses exclaiming to the nation-it might be only a few days before his death, "The Lord thy God, he will go over before thee, and he will destroy these nations from before thee, and thou shalt possess them and Joshua, he shall go over before thee, as the Lord hath said."* In continuation, he states, that the power and might by which they shall gain these countries should preside over and assure them to the Israelites long after they shall have enjoyed the land in peace; "Be strong," he adds, "and of good courage, fear not, be not afraid of them: for the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee nor forsake thee." But the mind of Moses at this time is endowed with a still clearer perception. He foresees that the people will forsake the Lord for the idolatries of the Canaanites and break the Covenant which God had so repeatedly made with them. He foresees the result of which * Deut. xxxi. 3.

this impiety will be productive. "The Lord (JEHOVAH) appeared in the tabernacle in a pillar of a cloud; and the pillar of a cloud stood over the door of the tabernacle. And the Lord said to Moses, (in allusion to the future defection of Israel,) My anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall befal them." The assertion that the same authority as that through which they were led over Jordan, would extend into the future history of the nation is sufficiently clear in these extracts; it is, as we have seen throughout, a prolongation of the first intervention; and it remains only to prove that the assertion is borne out by the evidence of the future history.

The death of Moses is no sooner made certain to the Israelites, than the Lord (JEHOVAH) appears without delay to Joshua, whom he had constituted his successor. "The Lord spake unto Joshua saying, Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give unto them, even to the children of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses. . . . As I was with Moses, so will I be with thee; I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee."*

Under these auspices Joshua, with the full concurrence of the nation, to whom this delegation of authority was fully known and recognized, undertook the future governance of Israel. He saw in it,

*Josh. i. 1-5.