their times; but exceptional cases are recorded, in which, for wise and special purposes, men of very questionable character, or even of character unquestionably bad, have been invested with some of these divine prerogatives. Balaam seems to have been an instance, and the old prophet of Samaria, and the royal persecutor of the anointed son of Jesse; and, up to a certain point, the magicians of Egypt matched the miracles of Moses and Aaron; and does not St. Paul himself give us reason for believing