II. How little improvement we have made of them — What effect Belshazzar's knowledge ought to have produced upon him is here plainly declared. It should have led him to humble his soul before God. But it had been unproductive of any good : " he had not humbled his heart, though he knew all this." The revels, in which he was indulging at this mo- ment, shewed that he was as much under the influ- ence of pride, dissipation, and impiety, as if no such warning had been ever given him. And what, I would ask, is the state of our hearts before God ?
Are we not addicted to the same evils as he ?
[There may not be in us the same bold defiance of God as in him; but there is practically the same pride of heart which exalts itself against God, the same surrender of our- selves to the cares and pleasures of life, and the same actual preference of created confidences before Him who is the Creator of heaven and earth. The Psalmist's description of the wicked too justly represents our state: "The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts : his ways are always grievous : thy judgments are far above, out of his sight: as for all his enemies, he puffeth at thema." Here is the same principle of pride as that by which Belshazzar was actuated. Here is God altogether banished from our thoughts, as much as from his; and utter contempt poured upon his authority and on his every word, whether of judgment or of mercy. Look around, and see if this be not the state of all around us. If the luxurious feasting of Belshazzar be unattainable by us, still it is that which is regarded as the very summit of happiness; and which is mimicked by persons, according to their ability, in every rank of life. From what we know of God's displea- sure against such carnal proceedings, it might be supposed that they should long since have been banished from the world : but the world is as full of them as ever, and the heart of sinful man as much addicted to them as ever.]
Have we " humbled our hearts," any more than he?
[One might expect, from all that we have read of God's dealings with the world, that we should all be like the Nine- vites, humbling ourselves before God in sackcloth and ashes. But where do we see any thing of humiliation and contrition ?
a Ps. x. 4, 5. k k 2