or fault found in him0." This they were constrained to acknowledge, at the very time that they conspired to take away his life. " Then said these men, We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the law of his God." Here they not only acknowledge the astonishing ex- cellence of his character, but they actually found upon it their hope of prevailing against him ; since it was only by placing in direct opposition to each other the commands of God and the commands of man, that they could involve him in any thing which should furnish them with an occasion of complaint against him.
As for their envious malignity, I shall wave all further notice of it. It is the character of Daniel on which I would now fix your attention ; a character the more remarkable, as being drawn, not by friends, but by foes ; and not for the sake of commenda- tion, but for the sake only of finding out the most successful method of directing their efforts for his destruction.
For the establishment of such a character as this, there must have been in Daniel a very rare assem- blage of virtues ; which, therefore, it will be proper for us distinctly to consider, in order that we may clearly understand the character itself, and be stirred up to seek, each of us for himself, the attainment of it. Let me,
I. Open to you the constituent parts of this cha- racter—
Here we behold, in combined and unintermitted exercise, 1. Piety—
[This, beyond a doubt, was at the root of all. And how deeply-rooted it was in him, his enemies themselves pro- claimed, when they grounded upon that their hopes of pre- vailing against him ; since, if his piety was not sufficient to bear him up under his present difficulties, their plot, so far at least as a violation of human laws was concerned, would be defeated.
c ver. 4.