himself could heartily repent for labouring so long for so little profit.

It is true, he knew something of the holy law of God, and of God's hatred to sin, by the advice that he gave to Balak, in order to set a trap for Israel, to entangle them in sin, and awake the wrath of God against them, as it is written, "Behold these caused the children of Israel through the counsel of Balaam to commit trespass against the Lord in the matter of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation." Nor was Balaam without some glimpse of the Saviour; the poor ass upon which he rode had seen the angel of the covenant and the flaming sword of justice drawn against her rider, which is more than one half of our present evangelists, falsely so called, have seen; who, like the foolish prophets, follow their own spirit and have seen nothing, Ezek. xiii. 3. Balaam had perceived his eyes to be opened; he had seen the sword of justice in the visions of God; fell into a trance at the sight of it; saw the star of Jacob; the destruction of Moab; the damnation of Amalek; the victory of Israel; the glorious death of the righteous, and desired that his last end might be like theirs. But his candour for Moab, and his love for independency swallowed up all; he counselled Balak to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, and in his heart he loved the wages of unrighteousness; which ended his candour and love to independency by the sword of Israel, and brought him to the

company of those inchanters, whose inchantments he had so often sought, both by prayer and sacrifice.

Thirdly, A man may have a ministerial gift, which may be much admired, and much followed; and whatever use it may be of to the church in order to purge the floor, and blow away the chaff from the wheat, or draw away the hypocrites from the upright, yet we know, those that run before they are sent shall not profit the people at all. They are called wells, but there is no drawing water out of them, for they are called wells without water; they are called clouds, on the account of their pompous and popular appearance, but there is no water for them that are thirsty, nor floods for the dry ground, for they are clouds without rain: they are called musical instruments, none give more sound than they do, but no quickening power attends their noise, for they are said to be instruments without lifegiving sound, so that no spiritual soldier knows what is piped or harped, and as the sound is uncertain, who can prepare for the battle? they are called stars, as the seven angels of the seven churches are, but no vessel of mercy can steer his course by them; they know nothing of the daystar, or of the morning star, nor of him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turns the shadow of death into the morning; but they are called wandering stars, compared to glutinous vapours, exhaled from the bogs of the earth by the rays of the sun, and cast down with

their false rays, by the nightly damps of the atmosphere.

They are called lamps, which serve to light others, but always go out themselves about midnight, or before the morning appears, which will be the midnight cry of all hypocrites; and no wonder, when there is no oil in their vessels: and if they have no oil for themselves, there is no likelihood of any for poor men, who fall among the thieves, namely, Satan, sin, and death; there is no oil in these vessels to pour into the wounds of a bleeding conscience, no new wine in these old bottles for those that are of an heavy heart; their own lamps are gone out, nor is there any of the oil of joy, which is to be given in exchange for mourning, much less can the garments of praise be brought forth in exchange for the spirit of heaviness.

Whatever use these gifts may be of to alarm insensible consciences, or purge the church of God from light, vain, and trifling hypocrites, it is plain there is nothing but damnation for them in the end, whether they make use of their talent or pound, or whether they lay it up in a napkin. If the prince give a gift to one of his servants, it shall without fail go out, or return to the prince at the year of jubilee. The servant abideth not in the house ever, but his son's inheritance shall be his son's for them, Ezek. xlvi. 16, 17; the son abideth in the house ever.

And it is clear that some of these servants will

accuse the master himself of the want of candour in the great day: here, says one, is thy pound which I have kept laid up in a napkin. This man seems to be one that had waited on ladies or attended a sideboard, yet he falls to accusing the master; "I knew thee that thou art an austere man," one of a bad spirit, destitute of candour, "reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strewed." You see this man contended for candour, though he owned the Lord had never sown or strewed any thing in his heart; which serves to show, that those who make the greatest stir about universal charity, or candour, are the most destitute of grace. The Saviour answers him on the ground of his own argument; Thou knewest that I was an austere man, reaping where I had not sowed, and gathering where I had not strewed; thou oughtest therefore to have been the more careful, as thou hadst such a severe master to deal with; thou oughtest to have put my money into the bank; yet sticks to the old prophecy as the Prince of Peace, who was to receive his gift again at the year of liberty, and therefore adds, that I might have received mine own gift with usury, Matt. xxv. 27; Luke xix. 23; but never says a word about receiving the servant who had received the gift, pound, or talent. These are called servants, but neither of these are the servants intended in my text; these are legal servants, servants of sin, and servants of Mammon, though they daringly called the

Lord Jesus their master, their Lord, and their God.

There are others who attend the word of God on purpose to learn to talk about religion; and having no inward heart-work to attend to, they make great proficiency in the head and tongue, and will learn to prate publicly in prayer; prate I say, because Wisdom calls them prating fools, that shall fall. They will attempt to call upon God in public prayer in behalf of others before a poor buffeted and tempted soul can beg for himself, or dares to adopt the language of the publican, and say, "God be merciful to me a sinner." This is one of the children that we say are too witty to live; simple souls that have no eyes, and hypocrites that have no feeling, stand astonished at the clapper of his mouth, at his furious zeal, his undaunted courage, and the progress he makes with the unruly member of his head; and no wonder, for there is no strife between the devil and he; Satan knows the kingdom of God is not in word as well as we do, nor is he afraid of the speech of them that are puffed up; if he was he would be afraid of his own work. Now the common labours of the day begin to be burdensome to him, and idleness to gain ground; his call to the ministry seems clear; his abilities are sufficient for the pulpit, with a little human scouring, and a few gestures of the body, and some of Master Merryman's antic motions with the hand, which may be learnt at certain places of exhibition, at a mountebank stage,