Sermons by the late Rev. Richard de Courcy

by Richard De Courcy

I might here call your attention to the singular contrivances of divine wisdom displayed, in the case of Daniel, with a view to exalt debased and injured excellence; or, consider, how incumbent it is upon Christ’s ministers, when called upon, to do it, in imitation of the illustrious Hebrew, with faithfulness and impartiality, even before kings. But waving any enlargement upon these points, I shall proceed to state, as the last practical observation upon the history before us,

4. How unsafe and fallacious it is, to infer any man’s happiness or infelicity, merely from outward appearances, be they ever so specious, or afflicted.

Behold Belshazzar upon his throne! Contemplate the magnificence of his palace, and the extent of his empire. He looks around upon Babylon, the superb residence of his court, and calling “the glory of the Chaldees excellency” his own, thinks himself the happiest and most august monarch of the East. Thousands do him homage, and tens of thousands bow at his footstool. The earth and seas are ransacked to supply his table with delicacies; and he needs only ask, to have every luxury that the most unbounded appetite could desire. Multitudes live upon his smile, and princes triumph in the honor of being in the train of his dependants. His word is a law, and confers dignities or death at pleasure. And the grand emulation among courtiers, domestics, and subjects, is, who shall be first in obedience to the tyrant’s edicts.—Such is Belshazzar on his throne. But could we only have followed him to his secret retirements, or looked into his breast, we should have seen all this semblance of splendor and felicity tarnished by some corroding care, that banished repose even from his bed of down; or some vicious passion, that preyed continually upon his heart. A dreadful rival in power, a sullen contemner of his false dignity, like another Mordecai, refusing to bow to impious Haman, or a single disappointment in the pursuit of dominion and conquest, were sufficient to make his diadem tremble on his brow, and to plant such sharp thorns in the crown that adorned it, that a man upon the rack could not be more miserable than the haughty monarch of Babylon seated on his imperial throne. Who, therefore, would not have preferred the situation of a peasant in his cottage, or that of the poorest captive Jew within the walls of Babylon, before the grandeur of a palace, in which wretchedness and sin took up their abode?

But, follow Belshazzar to his banquet. See him seated at the head of his convivial assembly. The sumptuous feast is prepared; and his lords sit down to share in the entertainment. The charms of beauty, and the harmony of music, are called in, to heighten the repast. Every face shines with mirth, and every heart overflows with joy. The richest juice of the vine contributes, in abundance, to the festivity of the scene. And, to the heart of an epicure, or in the eye of a bacchanalian, there never was a more pleasing object than Belshazzar, at the head of his lords and concubines, laughing at religion, toasting his favorite gods, drinking destruction (as it is probable he did) to the poor captive Jews, and getting drunk out of the hallowed cups that once adorned their temple. But, should any really think this jovial assembly a happy one, let them remember the text, and the hand that wrote it. Look from the festive board to the lettered wall. What is written there? Then turn to Belshazzar. See, he looks aghast, and trembles! Whither is his mirth fled? Why are his lords astonished? What will his riches and the glory of his kingdom do for him now? See him falling under the sword of a victorious adversary; and, after death, falling into the hands of the living God; and then say, who would have been in his case, for his crown and empire? or, for a thousand worlds?

From hence it is manifest, that, in order to judge aright of happiness, we must look deeper than the surface, and farther than the passing moment. The completest misery is, often, permitted to assume a smiling countenance; and it is only the event of things that is to throw light on the mysteries that veil present dispensations. A fallacious outside deceives and deludes the world in general. And were our judgment to be guided by the opinions, or our practice modelled by the lives of many, we should conclude, that the rich man “clothed in purple and fine linen, and faring sumptuously every day,” had the best pretensions to happiness, and Lazarus at his gate, full of sores, was misery itself; till we heard, that the one was translated to Abraham’s bosom, and that the other was lifting up his eyes in the torments of hell. With a view, therefore, to detect the fallacy and danger of such conclusions, and to brush the vermilion from the cheek of painted misery or gilded error, I go on, as proposed, to

II. Accommodate the images in our text to the purpose of forming a scrutiny into the hearts and lives, the principles and pretensions, of sinners of various complexions.

The principal image in the text is taken from a custom, which hath prevailed amongst all nations, of regulating commercial intercourse, by the test of the balance, or of determining the value or deficiency of any commodity, by certain standard weights. In allusion to this mode, the adjustment of which formed a part of that sacred code of juridical ceremonies, which God gave to the Jewish legislator; the king of Babylon is represented as put into the balance. His kingdom, and the glory thereof, his crown and sceptre, his wealth, dominion, and titles, are put in with him. These would be thought objects of prodigious appreciation in the eyes of the world, and would weigh immensely heavy in the false balance of human estimation; as they probably did, in the opinion of Belshazzar and his abandoned court. But it is not a human hand that holds the balance, or the eye of a superficial mortal that is to watch its preponderation. No; the beam is suspended from God’s hand, and the balance is to be regulated by One, in whose sight “a false balance is an abomination.” Prov. xi. 1. Belshazzar is weighed by Him, who can neither err nor be deceived. And the result of the scrutiny is, that he is found wanting. His moral character is defective, weighs nothing. The glory of an empire cannot make up for what is wanting in the man. In God’s account, an act of truth or mercy outweighs a kingdom; and, without holiness, earthly dignities are as the small dust of the balance, and all sublunary excellence lighter than vanity itself. Belshazzar’s whole empire is no counter-balance against Belshazzar’s iniquities. And, while a court or pulpit-flatterer pronounces bliss and glory in the king, God makes no other account of his royalty, than to damn it in the sinner with the greater emphasis.

Let us borrow the striking imagery in the text, and apply it to ourselves. Let each individual fancy himself represented, as a mortal and a sinner, in the person of the king of Babylon, before his doom was fixed, and his life hung in suspense. Let him suppose himself,—his principles and pretensions,—his heart and life,—put into the balance. The scriptures of the Old and New Testament, in perfect coincidence with each other, are the two sacred even-balanced scales, by which his whole self is to be weighed. As the decalogue is the great standard of moral rectitude, and the gospel is the test of evangelical principles; I hope it will not be any straining of the metaphor, to consider the two tables of the law, and the requisitions of the gospel, as the just weights, by which the pretensions of the pharisee and the soaring professor are to be examined; since we are commanded to bring every thing to the test of “the law and the testimony.” This is the more requisite, because the essential truth of God is the beam, from whence the two scales of scripture are suspended, and by which they are made to connect in perfect harmony. Let us consider the hand of infinite justice as holding the balance, weighing its contents, and determining the value. And let every sinner under heaven fancy himself thus subjected to the examination of the Most High God, and his state to be determined by his just and unalterable judgment; while the fate of his never-dying soul is to be fixed for ever by the issue. It is in vain to attempt either to supersede or elude this scrutiny. For, it is carrying on, every moment, though by an invisible process; death is now hovering round the head of every one of us, and only waits for the divine commission to take out of the scale what God hath weighed in it, and to turn over the sinner to that tribunal, which retributive justice shall one day erect.

In detecting the fallacious hopes and specious principles by which mankind are deceived and destroyed, it is necessary that we weigh in the balance of the sanctuary, all human righteousness, all the possessions of earth, and all the pleasures of sense. These are the three principal sources, from whence men, in general, are labouring to derive happiness. And if I can only convince them that every one of these springs is dry, and that happiness floweth in a pure and perennial stream from a different fountain; much may be done towards bringing them to the enjoyment of what they have hitherto pursued, with fruitless search, in objects calculated rather to ensure misery, than procure happiness.

1. When it is proposed to put to the test all human righteousness, I mean by that term, every kind and degree of moral obedience, which a sinner in his natural state can perform, and upon which he builds his hopes of heaven. As the scriptures positively declare, that “there is none righteous, no, not one;” it is plain, at first view, that the terms human righteousness are intended to describe only what is so called, not what really exists. For, since that degree of moral rectitude, which implies perfection of obedience to the law of God, is no longer the claim of fallen sinners; the word righteousness is used, as the language of the self-justiciary, not as the concession of truth. So that, when I adopt these terms, I do it, in order to prove, that the language of many, on theological subjects, is as improper as their pretensions are ill-founded.