3 อย Zebrzyja À IN Aydet #ery 1 1282; and yoshining ani is ONEY succes were in* Salaam found that all his payonu apange de 12atiers of God towards J. de que break out into the words M chaded Asperge for a share of their blessedness; wwwww de returned to his base hatred of the pudry, and the language of unchosen nation, and, instead of giving counsels of holiness to Balak, he framed temptations to ungodliness for Israel; and he prevailed, to a great degree, by the arts which he suggested, to draw down the anger of God upon that people, whom he was not permitted to curse with his lips. It would seem, then, more just, to consider the passage immediately in connexion with the text, not as bearing reference to Balak and Balaam, but, according to our previous statement, as expressing the anxious desire of a penitent Jew to obtain the favour of God; and the answer of God by his prophet to such an interesting inquiry. We have, then, in the verses immediately preceding the text, the inquiries of a penitent and awakened Jew, respecting the mode of his restoration to the divine favour. It is one peculiarity of a state of habitual sin, that it blinds the faculties of the mind, and keeps the sinner in the most dangerous ignorance of his real condition. It draws off his attention from the future, and leaves him unconcerned respecting the account which he must one day give before the judgment-seat of Christ. In order that a sinner may take the first step towards salvation, there must be the illumination of the mind by the spirit of grace; there must be the conviction of danger, and the anxiety to escape from it; there must be the casting off all indifference to his eternal interests; the strong desire to obtain reconciliation with an offended God. Perhaps there is no man who has not, at some period, felt the expostulations of God with his conscience, and experienced some alarm as to the welfare of his soul. It is indeed a blessing, when this alarm creates deep anxiety for repentance, and when the heart is sincere in the inquiry, "What must I do to be saved?" Here, however, the erroneous views of former notions, and the suggestions of the pride and naughtiness of the human heart, often raise difficulties and doubts, which render abortive the feelings of conscience, or turn aside the inquirer from the paths of true wisdom, into the mazes of darkness and error. To a mind accustomed to the ritual of the Mosaic dispensation, the sacrifices of that ritual would naturally be first suggested, as the means of restoring the favour of God. The appointed offerings and expiations would be supposed effectual to cleanse the soul from those sins, under which it suffered the displeasure of the Almighty; or if offences had been multiplied, might not an attempt to equal the number of sacrifices with the multitude of transgressions, be acceptable? Or, as a last resource, would the sacrifice of a beloved child, as might have been perhaps vainly expected from the example of Abraham, be available in propitiating the wrath of God? With such ideas as these, a penitent Jew might imagine that he could atone for his transgres sions, and thus escape the result of that controversy which God was about to institute against his people. And are not the suggestions of the human heart at the present day similar to these views? Is there not even now a tendency to rest satisfied with merely ceremonial observances, in order to recommend ourselves to the divine favour? Men are ready to submit to any penance, or mortification, or discipline, which they may be advised to adopt, as long as such observances do not interfere with their cherished lusts and passions. Any system of external services, any routine of charitable exertions, will be readily substituted, instead of a thorough change of heart, and a real conversion to God. But can we suppose that there is indeed any thing in external ceremonies, that can either avail to effect our reconciliation to God, or enable us to continue in a state of favour and acceptance with him? Can outward penitence and ceremonial observances, which in themselves are of no real value, and which never can be effectual to change the heart, ever be accepted instead of deep contrition, humble faith, and unfeigned obedience? Mercifully then has God vouchsafed to guide us aright in our endeavours to seek his favour. Mercifully has he interposed to correct our erroneous estimate of the things which are acceptable in his sight. "He hath showed thee, O man, what is good;" he has declared the express object and purpose of those sacrifices on which the Jew relied, and has fully explained the only view in which they were not liable to be abused, and thus to become "statutes that were not good." They were never intended to be substi tuted for obedience, or to be preferred before obedience; nor even for their own intrinsic value were they ordained: for Moses had long ago expressly told his people, “And now, Israel, what doth the Lord require of thee but to fear the Lord thy God, and to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, to keep the commandments of the Lord and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good?" * The answer then, in the text, is in accordance with these views of the inefficacy of mere external ceremonies, without their inward effect upon the heart. Our blessed Saviour probably had this very text in view, when he rebuked the Pharisees for their substitution of ceremonial in the place of moral obedience: the strict and exact in the payment of t the most trifling herbs, and externa their prayers and their fasts; but th the weightier mat mercy, and faith. extent, but the prin |
