suddenly the whole scene changes, and in the second part of this moral picture, Belshazzar is weighed in the balances of justice, and the fingers of a man's hand are seen writing over against the candlestick, upon the plaster of the wall of his palace, in three words, the humiliating estimate of his moral character and the sentence of his condemnation.

The sight of these mysterious words, greatly troubles the king. His countenance changes, and his whole frame becomes agitated. All his wise men, magicians, and astrologers are immediately summoned into his presence, that the writing may be read, and its meaning explained. He offers costly presents and distinguishing honors to the one who shall expound the writing. But as the magi are totally unable to comprehend the writing, the terror and confusion of the king's mind become greatly increased. At the instance of the queen, Daniel, one of the Hebrew captives is sent for, who receives from the king, the same offer of honors and presents, which had been made to the magicians, if he would explain the writing. Daniel piously declines the offer made him, but readily

performs his request. He first animadverts upon his past life, and reproves him with great plainness for his base ingratitude to God,for his profanation of the vessels which were consecrated to the service of the Most High-and for giving the glory due the true God to dumb idols; and then proceeds to the interpretation of the writing, which is this; Mene, Tekel, Upharsin. Each word stands for a sentence; Mene, signifies numbered, intimating that the days both of the king's life and reign, were numbered. Tekel, signifies weighed, meaning that he had been weighed in the balances of Jehovah and found wanting. Upharsin and Peres signify divided and Persian; intimating that his kingdom was divided and given to the Medes and Persians.

Though a part of the writing upon the wall of the king's palace, is applicable only to Belshazzar, the last Chaldean king, yet, that part which comprises our text, should be viewed as of universal interest and importance. It must be of eminent service to every student in divine philosophy,

'In searching the causes out of good and ill,
Profoundly calculating their effects,

Far past the bounds of Time; and balancing,
In the arithmetic of future things,

The loss and profit of the soul to all
Eternity-

Let us, my friends, endeavor to enter upon the contemplation of the truths suggested by the text, with deep and devout attention, lest, ere we leave this holy temple, God should in wrath, write opposite each one of us, upon the wall, in characters of fire, Tekel:

Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting. The words of the text direct the attention,-First, To an infallible standard for testing moral character.

THE BALANCES.

Second, To the process of testing moral worth.

THOU ART WEIGHED.

Third, To an humiliating estimate of many of the subjects of God's moral empire with respect to moral worth.

FOUND WANTING.

Let us, first, Consider the perfect standard for testing moral worth, the balances. By moral worth is meant that whole assemblage of virtues and excellencies comprehended in holiness, or the moral image of God, in distinction from all the endowments of nature, whether intellectual, physical, social, or civil. That the term balances is used in the sense of a moral test, is evident,

From the circumstances immediately connected with the text. Belshazzar was a moral agent, a subject of God's moral government; but he had abused his agency in violating the law, and setting at defiance the authority of that government. The writing upon the wall of his palace, contained the humiliating estimate of his moral worth, announced his fearful doom, and was written in a miraculous manner, consequently under the direct agency of God, and in immediate connexion with the administration of his moral government. It is manifest, therefore, from the manner and the connexion in which the term 'balances' was used by the moral governor of the world, in his address to Belshazzar, that he must have used it in the sense of a moral test.

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2. The word balances is used in the sense of a standard for testing moral worth in other passages. Said Job, "Let me be weighed in an even balance,' or more literally, Let God weigh me the balances of justice, that he may know mine integrity. In this passage, Job expresses a readiness to have the purity of his heart, and the righteousness of his life, tested by an unerring standard of moral worth, the holy law of God, feeling conscious, that when so tested, he should not be found wanting. The Hebrew monarch, when surveying the moral character of many around him, said, Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie; to be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighterthan vanity. In this quotation, the two ranks of men named, are represented as vanity, so that when put together in one scale and the law of God, the test of all moral excellence in the opposite, both would ascend in the scale.

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3. The term " balances,' being used in the sense of a standard for testing moral worth, emblematically implies the divine constitution, under which God hath placed our world.

This divine consti

tution comprises two parts; legal, and evangelical, or the law, and the gospel. The legal part of this constitution, or the moral government of God, is coeval with the existence of moral agents, because there could be no moral agency, without moral government. And as there can be no rational government where there is no revealed law, the law of God must be coeval in its revelation with his moral government, and is in its principles, coeval with Jehovah himself. The law, (speaking after the manner of men,) is a copy of the eternal mind; a transcript of the divine nature; yea, it is the fairest offspring of the everlasting Father, the brightest efflux of his essential wisdom, the visible beauty of the Most High."* The law which God has established as the law of his moral government, and extended equally over all moral agents is in its fundamental principles essentially the same, which are thus expressed by the christian lawgiver, 'thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy strength, with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself.' As one of these principles is founded upon the natural relation of all intelligent creatures to each other, and the other on their natural relation to God, the law involved in these two great first principles, may be presumed to be universal. And as it is immutable and eternal, it must necessarily relate to every intelligent creature forever. The divine law as expressed in its two first principles, is admirably adapted to unite all rational creatures to God, as the common Lord and Father, and to each other, as fellow subjects and brethren.' And out of one, or the other of these two comprehensive commandments, arise all particular precepts, whether they relate to the Supreme Ruler, or to fellow subjects. And all particular laws imply the general one. The decalogue engraven by the finger of God upon the tables of stone, the injunctions and instructions of the prophets, and even the whole of the preceptive parts of divine revelation are implied in these two fundamental principles of the divine law. On these two commandments hang the law and the prophets.' They are like the first and last links of a chain, all the intermediate depend on them.' The law of God is absolutely perfect. No imperfection can possibly be attached to it. It is perfect in its sanctions. A law without sanctions, would be powerless, consequently imperfect. The sanctions with which the divine law is clothed, are most alarming to the fears, or most enlivening to the hopes of all moral agents. These sanctions accompanied the promulgation of the law, as motives to obedience; for as all rational beings were made free, they were evidently designed to yield a willing service, consequently an irresistible agency could have no place in their goy

*

† Watson's Institutes.

Wesley's Sermons.

‡ Dr. A. Clark's Commentary.

ernment, moral motives only, could be applied to induce obedience. And in the tremendous sanctions of God's law there can be no want of reasonable motive to induce obedience, as one sanction involves all the fearful consequences of transgression, and the other, the eminently glorious reward of obedience.

The divine law is perfect in its requirements. The rights of all moral agents are respected, and all the injunctions and prohibitions of this law are emanations from the absolute moral perfection of God, and are designed to promote the highest happiness of his moral kingdom. The Scriptures are most copious in their commendations of the divine law. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the Judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. The law is holy, and the commandment holy, just and good.'

The moral law is inflexible in its demands on all moral agents for universal obedience, because they are all placed under the law. Those who have not the revealed law, have a law written in their hearts, and are a law unto themselves,' and because all were originally capacitated to yield perfect obedience. 'God is not a hard master reaping where he has not sown, and gathering where he has not strewed. His commandments are not grievous.' If God should relax the rigor of his law in any degree, it would be ruinous to the interests of moral beings, yea, it would endanger the happiness of his whole moral kingdom. God has a right to be obeyed, as he is the proprietor and Lord of all creatures, and the absolute rectitude of his nature will not permit him to abate that right in the least degree. But will he not relax his law in respect to fallen man? By no means. God will not relax aught of his law in reference to sinful man; he requires of him perfect obedience to the moral law, and even more than this, he demands of him obedience to another law, called by St. Paul, the law of faith.'

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This law or doctrine respects the provisions of the gospel for the salvation of the world, secured by the death and mediation of IMMANUEL, (God with us) in perfect harmony with the essential rectitude of God's moral government. Obedience to the law of faith,' will secure the pardon of all past transgressions of the moral law, will absolve the believer from that law as a covenant of works or system of salvation, but not as a rule of life; it will also secure through the agency of the divine spirit, the moral renovation of the heart, and the disposition and the power to keep the moral law. To those who believe in Christ, he gives power to become the sons of God; consequently power to keep the law of God. The Gospel worketh effectually in those who believe.

The law, or doctrine of faith, sustains a very important relation

to the moral law; and so far from implying the abrogation of that law, it most undeniably implies its eternal obligation and inflexible character. Obedience to the law of faith, honors the moral law, and is an acknowledgment of an imperious obligation to observe it as a rule of life. Evangelical faith necessarily implies obedience to the whole law of God, because faith works by love,' and 'love is the fulfiling of the law.' This second part of the divine constitution, which God hath extended over the whole human family, embraces the whole Gospel, or system of divine truth, and is clothed with the same momentous sanctions, or motives to obedience, as those of the legal part, or the moral law. He that believeth shall be saved, he that believeth not shall be damned.' 'He that believeth hath everlasting life, he that believeth not hath not life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.' This constitution is in both its parts the result of the eternal moral perfection of God. He will, therefore, strictly maintain and vindicate all its principles; and it is just and right that he should, because they are all, in every respect and degree, perfect. Were God to relax any of the principles of this constitution, it would argue imperfection in Him, and would bring His whole government into disrespect in view of his rational creatures, just as any civil constitution would be brought into contempt by the relaxation of its authority.

The divine constitution under which we live, differs essentially from all human constitutions in the originality, sublimity, grandeur, purity, and pervading extent of its principles. It addresses itself to inward sentiments and feelings, as well as to external acts. It condemns a sinful heart, as well as a sinful life. It condemns the first wanderings of the affections, as well as acts of idolatry,—passion in the soul, as well as passionate acts, feelings of vindictiveness, as well as vindictive acts,-impure desires, as well as wanton acts, and insincerity, equally with open breaches of covenant. It pronounces all these first conceptions of evil, as really criminal, as overt acts of evil. This constitution is exceedingly broad, demanding a perfect heart, a blameless and useful life. It is the purest in its spirit, the most extensive in its application, the most beneficial in its effects, the most spirit-stirring, and spiritennobling in its motives, and the most complete in its whole machinery, of any constitution ever contemplated by created minds, or that infinite wisdom could devise, neither the laws of Confucius, of Zoroaster, of Lycurgus, and Solon, nor the Institutes of Mense, nor the Republic of Plato, nor the various systems of the Grecian ethic philosophers, nor the Koran of Mahommed, present any competition to this constitution, nor are deserving of a comparison with it.

This constitution comprises the balances of Jehovah in which he weighs the world. As the constitution under which God has placed