pursuit of his object, did not neglect the precautions and preparations which the emer gency required. Have you in this respect imitated his example? Have you studied to fortify yourself according to the word of God, and by the fear of God, against your specific temptations to deficiency in patriotism; to ftrengthen yourself the most carefully where you perceived yourself the weakeft; and, fo far as in you lay, to leave no part unprovided against an attack? Nehemiah fhrunk not, in his country's caufe, from any perfonal hardship. Conftantly employed from the rifing of the morning until the stars of evening appeared, in encouraging his countrymen to rebuild the city of their God, and in oppofing the designs of their enemies; he had not even the ordinary comforts which attend repofe after labour. So neither I, nor my brethren, nor my fervants, nor the men of the guard which followed me, none of us put off our clothes, Javing that every one put them off for washing. Have you fubmitted to privations, have you endured hardships, if emergencies have required them, for the land of the fepulchres of your fathers? Have you cheerfully sustained the burdens deemed effential to national fecurity? Have you been faithful and watchful in the discharge of your public duties; anx

ious to difcern the methods in which you may contribute to the general welfare; anxious to adopt each in its time, and place, and proportion; anxious by feasonable exhortation and counsel to induce others alfo to bear hardships for their fellow-fubjects, and to approve themselves in the fight of their God as genuine lovers of their country? How many men, in different periods, (I speak without any fpecial reference to present times,) who have stood forward among the loudeft in profeffions of patriotic zeal, have foon been among the loudeft of the complainers under fome temporary preffure indifpenfable to the public fafety? How many of those who have been deemed ready at any given moment to cut off the right hand, and to pluck out the right eye, in their country's cause, for the fake of Chrift; have not forborne, through love to Him, from repining even at small difficulties and small facrifices in its fervice! Can each of you appeal to the searcher of hearts, and fay with Nehemiah, fo did not I?

Other instances in which this eminent fervant of the Lord of Hofts manifested, by acting differently from men whose minds are fixed on selfish ends, his faithfulness to that

ruling principle, which determined his conduct, and led him to confiftent and perfevering patriotism, will be developed in a subsequent difcourfe. Let those parts of Nehemiah's history which have been explained become fubjects of private meditation.

Let

us earnestly implore the Giver of all good to ftrengthen us by His all-fufficient grace, that in the difcharge of our duties to our country we may for His fake fit light to worldly ease, and indulgence, and emolument, and ambition; that for His fake we may uphold that righteoufnefs which exalteth a nation (0), uphold it not only by practical holiness, but by ftedfastly keeping aloof from familiarity with the wicked; that neither ridicule, nor flander, nor fear may influence us, when treading the path of christian patriotism, to turn aside or to slacken our pace: but that in labours, in watchings, by pureness, by the Holy Ghoft, by love unfeigned, by evil report, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, we may in all things approve ourselves as the fervants of God (p), to the benefit of our native land, and the glory of Jefus Chrift our Lord. (p) 2 Cor. vi. 4-8.

(o) Prov. xiv. 34.

SER

SERMON XV.

CHRISTIAN PATRIOTISM illuftrated by the CHARACTER of NEHEMIAH.

NEHEM, V. 15.

But fo did not I, because of the fear of God,

IN

N the preceding discourse, the character of Nehemiah confidered with respect to patriotifm has unfolded much of its excellence. In contemplating this fervant of God, we beheld, in the first place, his decided difregard of splendor, luxury, and indulgence, that he might feek the welfare of Ifrael: fecondly, his ftedfast refufal either of union or of intimacy with the enemies of the Jews: and thirdly, his firmness in the cause of his country against ridicule and against violence, his watchful circumspection, his patient and persevering endurance of hardship. We are now to attend to other circumstances in his public conduct, under which he was equally bleft with the teftimony of an approving confcience.

IV. It

IV. It has not been very uncommon for perfons in high fituations to wink at wrong proceedings in those over whom they are invested with authority, through fear of giving offence, or for the purpose of more cafily accomplishing fome end of their own. When Saul, instead of destroying the flocks and herds of the Amalekites according to the exprefs commandment of God, had brought them into the camp of Ifrael: he confeffed that he had acted thus, because he feared the people and obeyed their voice. Other inftances of finful compliance on the part of the Kings of Ifrael with the inclinations and practices of their fubjects might be produced. So did not Nehemiah. He did not hate his countrymen in his heart in fuffering fin upon them (a). He did not fhrink from any risk of offending perfons of the highest rank and the most commanding influence among them, when they disobeyed the law of their God. Being apprised that the men of wealth among the Jews had rendered themselves masters of the property and the perfons of their poorer brethren by means of ufurious mortgages, he was very angry when he heard the cry (b) of the diftreffed, and rebuked the noblesand the rulers, and fet a great affembly against them; and con(b) Nehem. v. 1, &c.

(a) Levit. xix. 17.

ftrained