UNCLE IN ENGLAND. 243 



knowledge of this general and powerful cause > 

 the Deluge. What physical means Providence 

 employed to produce this great convulsion, 

 have not been revealed to us, but that the whole 

 globe must have been involved in its fury is 

 everywhere apparent. The former bed of the 

 ocean must have been lifted up ; former conti- 

 nents must have been sunk ; and the entire crust 

 of the earth must have been rent, shattered, and 

 tossed into every variety of position." 



12th) Sunday. ' And Balaam rose up, and 

 went and returned to his place.' 



" The place alluded to here," said my uncle, 

 " was his own country, Mesopotamia. His pro- 

 phecies having been delivered, the design of 

 heaven was answered, and the instrument was 

 thrown aside. The wicked Balaam was now 

 left to pursue the schemes of his ambition ; and 

 they were intended to be as destructive to the 

 Israelites as if he had even succeeded in cursing 

 them. Josephus tells us, that Balaam informed 

 the king that he could never subdue the Is- 

 raelites, unless they should be disobedient to 

 their God ; and he instructed him how to make 

 them so. This seems to be confirmed in Sacred 

 History by Moses, who says that Balaam 

 * caused the Israelites to commit trespass against 

 the Lord,' and also by St. John, in the second 

 chapter of Revelations. The consequence was 



Y 2 



