Commentary on Daniel, Chapter 5 · Doctrines
4. The places of doctrine.
1. Doctr. That Gods iudgements worke diuersly.
v. 6. Then the kings countenance was changed. Generally the denuntiation or demonstration of Gods iudgements doe awaken and rouse vp the secure and sleepie conscience. But it hath a diuers operation in the Elect, and in the wicked and reprobate: In the Elect, the hearing of Gods iudgements doth sometime bring them to repentance for their sinne, as it did Dauid, or doth stirre them vp to be more zealous in performing their dutie, as the Apostle saith, 2. Cor. 5. 11. Knowing the terrour of the Lord, we perswade men: that is, seeing eueryevery one shall receiue the things done in his bodie, as he saith in the former verse, that eueryevery one should hauehave a care faithfully to performe his dutie.
In the reprobate, either they are not mooued at all at Gods iudgements, as Pharaoh at the first was not humbled at all: or els there is wrought in them a shew of repentance for a time, as in Ahab: or they may be terrified with the feare of Gods iudgements, without any remorse at all, as is here seene in Balthazar.
2. Doctr. Of the momentanie pleasures of the world.
v. 6. And his thoughts troubled him. Balthazar in the middes of his feast, when his heart was disposed to be merrie, is stricken into his dumps: according to that saying of Amos, c. 8. 10. I will turne your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation: for like as the weather changeth, it is sometime faire, sometime foule: and as at the sea, whē it is calme suddenly riseth a storme and tempest: such are all terrene and earthly ioyes: OnelyOnly our peace and ioy in Christ is perpetuall: as our blessed Sauiour himselfe saith, Ioh. 16. 22. Your ioy shall no man take from you: like as a streame, which continually runneth, such are spirituall ioyes flowing vntounto euerlasting life: but the ioy of the world is like vntounto sudden raine, which hastily runneth downe, and is speedily gone.
3. Doctr. Man of himselfe can not vnderstand or perceiue heauenly things.
v. 8. Then came all the kings wise men, but they could neither read the writing, &c. As these Ch…ldeans presuming vponupon their owne skill, could neither read, much lesse interpret this diuine writing; so man is of himselfe vnapt and vnable to apprehend any spirituall thing: the vision of the Prophets vntounto carnall men, is like vntounto the words of a booke sealed vp. Isa. 29. 10. the reason whereof the Apostle sheweth, 1. Cor. 2. 14. The naturall man perceiueth not the things of the spirit of God, for they are foolishnes vntounto him, &c.
4. Doctr. That God often vseth weake instruments, as namely women, to effect his purpose.
v. 10. Now the Queene, &c. came into the banket house. The Lord vseth oftentimes women in his seruice, which are the weaker vessels and instruments: both to shewe his libertie, that he is not tied vntounto any meanes, but may vse any indifferently, and to declare his power in setting vp weake meanes: and to bring downe the pride of the wise, when they are confounded by the simple and vnwise: As here the Lord gaue more wisedome and vnderstanding to this honourable and auntient Queene, then was in the king, and all his thousand nobles now assembled together: So the Lord raised vp Deborah to hauehave more courage and wisedome in her, then Baruch had. And thus in our age and memorie, as Polanus noteth, Deus adhibuit Reginam Angliae ad confundendum Hispaniarum potent…ssimum regem, God hath vsed the Queene of England to confound the mightie king of Spame.
5. Doct. Of the obliuion and forgetfulnesse in Princes of those which deserue well of them.
v. 13. Art thou that Daniel: Daniel was worthie for his great wisedome, and necessarie employment in the Babylonian state, to hauehave beene remembred of the king, as he had beene honoured of his predecessors: But such is the mutabilitie of Princes fauours: As in Egypt there rose vp a Pharaoh that knewe not Ioseph, neither remembred the great benefits, which he had done for that nation. So Saul had soone forgotten Dauid, that had played before him, and by whom he had found great ease: for not long after he asked Abner whose sonne he was: Therefore as it is in the Psalme,… it is better to trust in the Lord, then to hauehave any confidence in Princes.
6. Doct. Of the necessarie and profitable knowledge of histories.
v. 18. The most high God gaue vntounto Nebuchadnezzar thy father, &c. Here Daniel propoundeth vntounto Balthazar his father Nebuchadnezzar, and setteth before him the historie of his life, by the which he might hauehave learned great wisedom: The knowledge of former times is most profitable, therein we behold the equitie of Gods iudgements, his iustice, veritie, wisedome, power: likewise we see in a glasse the vncertaine and changeable state of the world: And for our owne direction we finde, what to followe, and what to decline,in prooem. Bibliothec. as Diodorus Siculus speaking of the profit that commeth by histories, saith, pulchrum est ex aliorum erratis in melius instituere vitam, &c. it is a good thing by other mens errors to reforme the life: The counsell of the ancient, because of their long experience, is commended and followed: But the knowledge of histories goeth farre beyond, quanto plura exempla complectitur diuturnitas temporis, quam hominis aetas, in as much as the continuance of time comprehendeth more examples, then the age of man.
7. Doct. Of the vse that is to be made of examples.
Examples are either old, such as fell out in former times, or they are newe, such as happen in our owne age and memorie; and both are either domesticall or forren examples: But the domesticall examples are more forceable and effectuall to mooue, as here the example of Nebuchadnezzar is set before Balthazar. Thus it is much auaileable to call to minde the examples of our fathers, and ancestors before vsus, to followe their vertue, and decline and shunne their vices: And most of all we should obserue, what hath befallen our selues in the former part of our life; as Dauid did comfort himselfe when he went against Goliah, in the experience of Gods merciemercy and power in deliuering him from the lyon and the beare, 1. Sam. 17.
8. Doct. That flatterers are about Princes.
v. 23. Thou and thy Princes, &c. It may seeme strange that among a thousand princes and noble men that were here assembled together, there was not one faithfull counsellor: But here we see fulfilled that saying in the Prou. 29. 12. of a prince that hearkeneth vntounto lies, all his seruants are wicked: It seemeth that Balthazar was giuen to heare tales and lies, by which meanes it is like that Daniel was out of fauour in Court, and therefore it falleth out iust vponupon him, that he hath none about him to speake the truth: flatterers then are dangerous about princes, as Haman was vntounto king Assuerus: And like as oyle doth soake into earthen vessels, beeing soft and smooth, so flatterers by their pleasant and smooth words doe insinuate themselues.
9. Doct. God hath all things in number and account.
v. 26. God hath numbred thy kingdome. The yeares and dayes of the world, the tearme and continuance of kingdomes, the time of mans life are all determined with God: As Iob saith, are not his dayes determined, the number of his moneths are with thee, thou… hast appointed his bonds which he cannot passe, c. 14. 5. So the times and seasons the Lord hath put in his owne power, Act. 1. 7. neither the age of the world, not the tearme of kingdomes, not the space of mans life, can be measured or calculated by the skill of man: but the Lord onelyonly knoweth them, who hath numbred and appointed them, Polan.
10. Doct. Of the fall and ruine of great and famous cities.
v. 18. Thy kingdome is diuided. Pererius out of Pausanias here alleadgeth how many cities, which had beene renowned and famous in the world, were either vtterly decayed; or much impayred; as the great citie Niniue, and the citie Mycene, which ruled ouer all Greece, were in his time become desolate: so likewise Thebes in Boeotia, & an other Thebes in Egypt, Delos in Greece, and the citie Tyrinth, together with Babylon, which had nothing then left but walls, Pausan. lib. 8. which ought to teach men, not to put confidence in these earthly things, as Nebuchadnezzar did in his sumptuous and costly buildings, which after his time, came to vtter ruine and desolation: so that it is now scarse knowne where Babylon stood.