angers and travellers in it, as all our fathers were. It is therefore
to be considered as a foreign country; in which our poverty and wants,
and the insufficient supplies of them, were designed to turn our views to
that higher and better state we are heirs to: a state where will be no
follies to be overlooked, no miseries to be pitied, no wants to be
relieved; where the affection we have been now treating of will happily
be lost, as there will be no objects to exercise it upon: for _God shall
wipe away all tears from their eyes_, _and there shall be no more death_,
_neither sorrow_, _nor crying_; _neither shall there be any more pain_;
_for the former things are passed away_.

SERMON VII. UPON THE CHARACTER OF BALAAM.
PREACHED THE SECOND SUNDAY AFTER EASTER.

NUMBERS xxiii. 10.

_Let me die the death of the righteous_, _and let my last end be like
his_.

These words, taken alone, and without respect to him who spoke them, lead
our thoughts immediately to the different ends of good and bad men. For
though the comparison is not expressed, yet it is manifestly implied; as
is also the preference of one of these characters to the other in that
last circumstance, death. And, since dying the death of the righteous or
of the wicked necessarily implies men's being righteous or wicked;
_i.e._, having lived righteously or wickedly; a comparison of them in
their lives also might come into consideration, from such a single view
of the words themselves. But my present design is to consider them with
a particular reference or respect to him who spoke them; which reference,
if you please to attend, you will see. And if what shall be offered to
your consideration at this time be thought a discourse upon the whole
history of this man, rather than upon the particular words I have read,
this is of no consequence: it is sufficient if it afford reflection of
use and service to ourselves.

But, in order to avoid cavils respecting this remarkable relation in
Scripture, either that part of it which you have heard in the first
lesson for the day, or any other; let me just observe that as this is not
a place for answering them, so they no way affect the following
discourse; since the character there given is plainly a real one in life,
and such as there are parallels to.

The occasion of Balaam's coming out of his own country into the land of
Moab, where he pronounced this solemn prayer or wish, he himself relates
in