of Nineveh,[195] which did
not come to pass; and many other threats of the prophets were not put
into execution, because God, moved by the repentance of the sinful,
revoked or commuted his former sentence. The repentance of the
Ninevites guarantied them against the last misfortune.

Isaiah had distinctly foretold to King Hezekiah[196] that he would not
recover from his illness: "Set thine house in order, for thou shalt
die, and not live." Nevertheless, God, moved with the prayer of this
prince, revoked the sentence of death; and before the prophet had left
the court of the king's house, God commanded him to return and tell
the king that God would add yet fifteen years to his life.

Moses assigns the mark of a true prophet to be, when he leads us to
God and his worship--and the mark of a false prophet is, when he
withdraws us from the Lord, and inclines us to superstition and
idolatry. Balaam was a true prophet, inspired by God, who foretold
things which were followed up by the event; but his morals were very
corrupt, and he was extremely self-interested. He did everything he
could to deserve the recompense promised him by the king of Moab, and
to curse and immolate Israel.[197] God did not permit him to do so; he
put into his mouth blessings instead of curses; he did not induce the
Israelites to forsake the Lord; but he advised the Moabites to seduce
the people of God, and cause them to commit fornication, and to worship
the idols of the country, and by that means to irritate God against
them, and draw upon them the effects of his vengeance. Moses caused the
chiefs among the people, who had consented to this crime, to be hung;
and caused to perish the Midianites who had led the Hebrews into it.
And lastly, Balaam, who was the first cause of this evil, was also
punished with death.[198]

In all the predictions of diviners or oracles, when they are followed
by fulfilment, we can hardly disavow that the evil spirit intervenes,
and discovers the future to those who consult him. St. Augustine, in
his book _de Divinatione Daemonum_,[199] or of predictions made by the
evil spirit, when they are fulfilled, supposes that the demons are of
an aerial nature, and much more subtile than bodies in general;
insomuch that they surpass beyond comparison the lightness both of men
and the swiftest animals, and even the flight of birds, which enables
them to announce things that are passing in very distant places, and
beyond the common