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SHE SAID UNTO BALAAM, WHAT HAVE I DONE UNTO THEE, THAT THOU HAST SMITTEN ME THESE THREE TIMES?

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N whatever light this matter is viewed, whether as an operation of the Deity (which we have no right to difpute, fince *the fame power which can command water from the rock, can as eafily inspire the animal with argument) or whether we confider it in the light merely of a moral fable, it is wonderfully beautiful and pathetic. I fhall endeavour to illuftrate it both scripturally and historically.

"Now Balaam was riding upon his ass, "and his two fervants were with him."

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In the very setting out of the journey, it was a thing difpleafing to the Deity, and the first hints of his difpleafure were very remarkably difplayed. "And the ass faw "the angel of the Lord ftanding in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand.” Upon this, the poor creature, very naturally astonished at such a spectable, turned afide out of the way, and went into the field; "And Balaam fmote the afs to turn "her into the way." In oppofition however to blows, the animal awhile went on, till the fame angelic appearance, standing in a path of the vineyards, made her Ay in terror towards the wall, against which fhe unfortunately crushed the foot of her -mafter and for this fecond offence he fmote her again. But still the celestial vifitant refolved, as it were, to obstruct, or at least to delay the journey, ftood at last in fo narrow a place, that, there was no poffibility of paffing either to the right hand, or to the left; and when the afs found herself thus befet, and thus thwarted in all her endeavours-what could fhe do?

She

She had refpect to the commands of her lord, but he was unable to obey them; poffibly too fhe was more than affrighted -The might be awed by the figure before her-fhe, therefore, fell down; and Balaam, confidering this third trefpafs as a ftill greater aggravation of obftinacy, finote the afs with his ftaff. Then it was that the Power, who knew the innocence of the poor thing, took pity upon her sufferings, and, to put at once an end to the hard ufage, her mouth was opened, that he might plead her own caufe with the man, and enter into a pathetic remonstrance with him upon the fubject of his barbarity. "And "the faid unto Balaam, What have I done

unto thee, that thou haft fmitten me "these three times ?" But Balaam was now too violently angry to attend even to miracles, and, without regarding the circumftance, as being preternatural, he replied to it merely as an ordinary question, by wishing, in the vehemence of his heart, a fword was in his hand, that he might kill the offender upon the spot. And now fucceeds

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fucceeds an answer which might melt the hardest heart, and foften the compaffionate into tears. "Am not I thine afs upon "which thou haft ridden ever fince I was t thine, unto this day? "to do fo unto thee?" unavoidably extends the commentary. How, Balaam, canft thou thus ill entreat thy fervant? Have I at any time, save now, refifted thy defigns, and have not thy, flightest wishes been to me in the nature of injunctions? Thrice haft thou lifted up thine arm in anger against me, and thrice have I borne the anguifh without complaining. Ah, ungentle mafter-couldeft thou not conceive that fome peculiar occafion prevented my obedience? if haply nothing ftruck thine eye as an obstacle, furely, thou mighteft have relied upon one, whose fidelity, both by day and by night, thou haft so often experienced. Am I not the old flave of your pleasure, contented with whatever food it is convenient for you to allot me-nothing loath to perform the labours to which I was born, and to earn the herb

herb of the field before I ate it! To this expoftulation, which one would think might have force enough to restrain the iron hand of inhumanity itself, Balaam replied, by confeffing that her arguments were true: "Was I ever want to do "fo unto thee?" Nay, anfwered Balaam.

Soon after this dialogue, the angel convinced Balaam of his fault, and he then bowed his face to the earth-ftruck, probably, with a sense of double impropriety -Why haft thou fmitten thine afs ?-If a man was to be fairly asked this question in the courts of moral equity, thofe courts where Confcience fits as judge, how would he be able to answer it? There is no need to run this fine narrative into the perplexities of fubtle and latent meaning, it is fufficiently admirable as an addrefs to the human heart. And, indeed, the scriptures are not more earnest earneft and perfuafive compaffion, than in the There is fcarce a chap

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ter in which pity, that fweet emanation of

Heaven, is not enjoined; and that the

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