And these teachers of licence in the name of freedom moved among the Christian Churches as though they were true brethren. They used Christian phrases in their "feigned words," yet were ready to lead their followers in a way as dissolute as that which the son of Beor suggested to the Midianites (Num. xxxi. 16) that the children of Israel might trespass against the Lord. For these men's hearts were set on the hire of wrong-doing. Yet their offence was even fouler than Balaam's, for to their lust and covetousness they added hypocrisy. _But he was rebuked for his own transgression: a dumb ass spake with man's voice and stayed the madness of the prophet._ The word which St. Peter here uses for "rebuke", and which is found nowhere else in the New Testament, implies a rebuke administered by argument, a refutation such as reasonable persons will yield to. The dumb ass (St. Peter's word is literally _beast of burden_) appealed to her conduct all her life through. Was I ever wont to do this unto thee? Should I do so now without good reason? The reason was made plain at the sight of the angel. That presence made the rider bow his head and fall on his face. But what excuse was there for his lawlessness? For that is the sense which the Apostle puts on Balaam's transgression. And the word which he adds makes the rebuke more strong. It was _his own_ transgression. The swerving of the dumb beast was not of herself. She would have held to the right way had it been possible, but her master's lawlessness was very madness; and he was the prophet, she the speechless brute. It has been said, _Quem Deus vult perdere prius dementat_. But the proverb is not true. The destruction is not of God's will; the madness comes of a self-chosen course of rebellion. Ever God's voice is, as it was of old, "It is thy destruction, O Israel, that thou art against Me, against thy help" (Hos. xiii. 9). The ruin is self-destruction, an infatuation which will accept no remonstrance, brook no check. For the warning voice of the dumb beast only hindered Balaam's evil project for a brief moment; and though the Divine power which loosed the tongue of the ass kept her master's in check, the maddening greed for Balak's gold was in his heart, and at all costs would be satisfied, and led him to destruction. Such is the penalty of those who willingly desert the right way through love of the hire of wrong-doing. In forsaking God, they forsake the fountain of wisdom. Then their lawlessness degrades their human endowments to the level of the brutish, and the obedient drudging of the dumb beasts of burden speaks loud--for God gives it a tongue--against the mad errors of rebellious men. XXV _ALTOGETHER BECOME ABOMINABLE_