And when he came to the den, he cried with a lamentable voice unto Daniel: [and] the king spake and said to Daniel, O Daniel, servant of the living God, is thy God, whom thou servest continually, able to deliver thee from the lions?
Ver. 20. And when he came to the den, he cried with a lamentable voice.] With a piteous distressed voice: far otherwise than did Daniel, Dan 6:21 who chose rather to be cast into the den of lions than to carry about a lion in his bosom, an enraged conscience, as did Darius here, and afterwards Theodoricus, king of Italy, who had caused Boetius and Symmachus to be unjustly beheaded, but carried the horror of it to his grave. How good is it, therefore, to keep the bird in the bosom always singing as Daniel did, and as those primitive Christians, who chose rather ad leonem proieci quam ad lenonem, a to be thrown to lions without than to be left to lusts within, such fleshly lusts as war against the soul, 1Pe 2:11 against the peace of it principally.
Is thy God, whom thou servest continually.] A far deal better than did Cardinal Wolsey, who yet, when he came in a morning out of his privy chamber, most commonly heard two masses; and whatever business he had in the daytime (when he was Lord Chancellor), he would not go to bed with any part of his service unsaid, no, not so much as one collect. b Nevertheless, when he was sent for up by Henry VIII to be put into the Tower, he bewailed himself, and said that if he had been as careful to serve God as he ever was to please the king, it would have been much better with him. To be a "servant of the living God" c is an argument of safety. Dan 3:17 Psa 143:12
a Tertul.
b The Life and Death of Cardinal Wolsey, p. 18.
c Semetipsam detestatus est quod Regi potius quam Deo placere studuisset. - Scult.