d from cursing in words. One would not think it possible that
the weakness, even of religious self-deceit in its utmost excess, could
have so poor a distinction, so fond an evasion, to serve itself of. But
so it was; and he could think of no other method than to betray the
children of Israel to provoke His wrath, who was their only strength and
defence. The temptation which he pitched upon was that concerning which
Solomon afterwards observed, that it had _cast down many wounded_; _yea_,
_many strong men had been slain by it_: and of which he himself was a sad
example, when _his wives turned away his heart after other gods_. This
succeeded: the people sin against God; and thus the Prophet's counsel
brought on that destruction which he could by no means be prevailed upon
to assist with the religious ceremony of execration, which the king of
Moab thought would itself have affected it. Their crime and punishment
are related in Deuteronomy {21} and Numbers. {22} And from the relation
repeated in Numbers, {23} it appears, that Balaam was the contriver of
the whole matter. It is also ascribed to him in the Revelation, {24}
where he is said to have _taught Balak to cast a stumbling-block before
the children of Israel_.

This was the man, this Balaam, I say, was the man, who desired to _die
the death of the righteous_, and that his _last 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,
persisting still in his wickedness, and preferring the wages of
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 prostituting himself; and likewise a
prospect, 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 inconsistency, 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
ran on headlong in vice and folly, without ever making a stand to ask
himself what he was doing: no; he acted upon the cool motives of interest
and advantage.