Ser.VII. ample, when his Wives turned away his Heart after other Gods. This fucceeded : The People fin against God; and thus the Prophet's Counsel brought on that Destruction, which he could by no means be prevailed upon to affift with the religious Ceremony of Execration, which the King of Moab thought would itself have effected it. Their Crime and Punishment are related in Deuteronomy, and Numbers †.

And from the Relation repeated in Numbers (a), it appears, that Balaam was the Contriver of the whole Matter. It is also ascribed to him in the Revelation (b), where he is faid to have taught Balak to cast a stumblingblock before the Children of Ifrael.

This was the Man, this Balaam, I say, was the Man who defired to die the Death of the Righteous, and that his laft End might be like his : And this was the State of his Mind, when he pronounced these Words.

So that the Object we have now before us is the most astonishing in the World: A very wicked Man, under a deep Sense of God and Religion, perfifting ftill in his Wicked

Chap. iv. Chap. xxv. (a) Chap. xxxi. (6) Chap. ii.

Wickedness, and preferring the Wages of Ser.VII. Unrighteousness, even when he had before

him a lively View of Death, and that approaching Period of his Days, which should deprive him of all those Advantages for which he was proftituting himself; and likewise a Profpect, whether certain or uncertain, of a future State of Retribution: All this joined with an explicit ardent Wish, that when he was to leave this World he might be in the Condition of a righteous Man. Good God, what Inconfiftency, what Perplexity is here! With what different Views of things, with what contradictory Principles of Action, must such a Mind be torn and distracted! It was not unthinking Carelessness, by which he run on headlong in Vice and Folly, without ever making a ftand to ask himself what he was doing: No; he acted upon the cool Motives of Interest and Advantage. Neither was he totally hard and callous to Impreffions of Religion, what we call Abandoned; for he abfolutely denyed to curfe Ifrael. When Reafon affumes her Place, when convinced of his Duty, when he owns and feels, and is actually under the Influence of the divine Authority; whilft he is carrying on his

Views

A

Ser.VII. Views to the Grave, the End of all tempo

ral Greatness; under this Senfe of things with the better Character and more defirable State prefent-full before him-in his Thoughts, in his Wishes, voluntarily to choose the worse- -What Fatality is here! Or how otherwise can fuch a Character be explained? And yet ftrange as it may appear, it is not altogether an uncommon one: Nay, with fome small Alterations, and put a little lower, it is applicable to a very con. fiderable Part of the World. For, if the reasonable Choice be feen and acknowledged, and yet Men make the unreafona. ble one, is not this the fame Contradiction; that very Inconsistency, which appeared fo unaccountable?

To give fome little Opening to fuch Characters and Behaviour, it is to be observed in general, that there is no Account to be given in the Way of Reason, of Men's fo strong Attachments to the present World: Our Hopes and Fears and Purftits are in Degrees beyond all Proportion to the known Value of the Things they refpect. This may be faid without taking into Confideration Religion and a future State; and when these are confidered, the Disproportion is infinite

ly

ly heightened. Now when Men go against Ser.VII. their Reason, and contradict a more important Interest at a Distance, for one nearer, though of lefs Confideration; if this be the Whole of the Cafe, all that can be faid is, that strong Paffions, fome kind of brute Force within, prevails over the Principle of Rationality. However, if this be with a clear, full and diftinct View of the Truth of Things, then it is doing the utmost Violence to Themselves, acting in Contradiction to their very Nature: But if there be any fuch thing in Mankind, as putting Halfdeceits upon themselves; which there plainly is, either by avoiding Reflection; or if they do reflect, by religious Equivocation, Subterfuges, and palliating Matters to themfelves; by these Means Conscience may be laid asleep, and they may go on in a Course of Wickedness with less Disturbance. the various Turns, Doubles and Intricacies in a dishonest Heart cannot be unfolded or laid open; but that there is fomewhat of that kind is manifeft, be it to be called Self-deceit, or by any other Name. Balaam had before his Eyes the Authority of God, abfolutely forbidding him what he, for the Sake of a Reward, had the ftrongest IncliK nation

All

Ser.VII. nation to: He was likewife in a State of Mind fober enough to confider Death and his laft End: By thefe Confiderations he was restrained, first from going to the King of Moab; and after he did go, from curfing Ifrael. But notwithstanding this, there was great Wickedness in his Heart. He could not forego the Rewards of Unrighteou ness: He therefore first seeks for Indulgences; and when these could not be obtained, he fins against the whole Meaning, End and Defign of the Prohibition, which no Confideration in the World could prevail with him to go against the Letter of. And furely that impious Council, he gave to Balak against the Children of Ifrael, was, confidered in itself, a greater Piece of Wickedness, than if he had curfed them in Words.

If it be inquired what his Situation, his Hopes and Fears were, in refpect to this his Wish The Answer must be, that Conscicufness of the Wickedness of his Heart muft neceffarily have deftroyed all fettled Hopes of dying the Death of the Righteous: He could have no calm Satisfaction in this View of his laft End: Yet, on the other hand, it is poffible that those partial Regards