close; and within that compass, finish this business, not more thankless than necessary.

Doubtless, much variety of passion met with them, in this busy service. Here, you should have seen an affectionate husband bitterly weeping at the dismission of a loving wife, and drowning his last farewell in sobs: there, you might have seen a passionate wife, hanging on the arms of her beloved husband; and, on her knees, conjuring him, by his former vows and the dear pledges of their loves; and proffering with many tears, to redeem the loss of her husband, with the change of her religion. Here, you might have seen the kindred and parents of the dismissed, shutting up their denied suits with rage and threats there, the abandoned children kneeling to their seemingly-cruel father, beseeching him not to cast off the fruit of his own loins; and expostulating, what they have offended in being his. The resolved Israelites must be deaf or blind to these moving objects; and so far forget nature, as to put off part of themselves. Personal inconveniences have reason to yield to public mischiefs. Long entertainment makes that sin hard to be ejected, whose first motions might have been repelled with ease.

Had not the prohibition of these marriages been express, and their danger and mischief palpable, the care of their separation had not bred so much tumult in Israel. He, that ordained matrimony, had, on fearful curses, forbidden an unequal yoke with infidels. Besides the marring of the church by the mixture of an unholy seed, religion suffered for the present, and all good hearts with it. Many tears, many sacrifices, need to expiate so foul an offence, and to set Israel straight again.

All this while, even these mesline Jews were yet forward to build the temple. The worst sinners may yield an outward conformity to actions of piety. Ezra hath done more service in pulling down, than the Jews in building: without this act, the temple might have stood, religion must needs have fallen; Babel had been translated to Jerusalem, Jews had turned Gentiles. Oh happy endeavors of devout and holy Ezra, that hath at once restored Judah to God, and to itself! -Ezra.

NEHEMIAH BUILDING THE WALLS OF

JERUSALEM.

THIRTEEN years were now passed, since Ezra's going up to Jerusalem; when Nehemiah, the religious courtier of Artaxerxes, inquires of the estate of his country, and brethren of Judea.

He might well find that holy scribe had not been idle. The commission of Artaxerxes had been improved by him to the utmost. Disorders were reformed, but the walls lay waste: the temple was built, but the city was ruinous; and if some streets were repaired, yet they stood unguarded; open to the mercy of an enemy, to the infestation of ill neighborhood. Great bodies must have slow motions: as Jerusalem, so the church of God, whose type it was, must be finished by leisure.

Nehemiah sate warm in the court at Shushan, favored by the great king Artaxerxes. Nothing could be wanting to him, whether for pleasure or state. What needed he to trouble his head, with thoughts for Jerusalem? What if those remote walls lay on heaps, while himself dwelt fair? What if his far-distant countrymen be despised, while himself is honored by the great monarch of the world? It is not so easy, for gracious dispositions to turn off the public calamities of God's church: neither can they do other, than lose their private felicities, in the common distresses of the universal body. If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning; if I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth,'

Many Jews went up from Babylon and Shushan, to Jerusalem; few ever returned voluntarily from their native home, to the region of their captivity. Some occasion drew Hanani, with certain others of Judah, to this voyage. Of them doth Nehemiah carefully inquire the present condition of Jerusalem. It was no news, that the people were afflicted and reproached, the walls broken down, the gates burnt with fire. Even since the furious devastation of Nebuzaradan, that city knew not better terms. Seldom when doth the spiritual Jerusalem fare otherwise, in respect of outward estate? External glory, and magnificence, is an unsure note of the church.

Well had Nehemiah hoped, that the gracious edict and beneficence of Darius, and the successive patronage of his lord Artaxerxes, had, by the continuance of twenty years' favor, advanced the strength and glory of Jerusalem; but now, finding the holy city to lie still in the dust of her confusion, neglected of God, despised of men, he sits down and weeps, and mourns, and fasts, and prays to the God of heaven. How many saw those ruins, and were little affected! He hears of them afar off, and is thus passionate. How many were on this sight affected with a fruitless sorrow! His mourning is joined with the endeavors of redress. In vain is that grief, which hath no other end than itself.

Nehemiah is resolved to kneel to the king his master, for the repair of his Jerusalem. He dares not attempt the suit, till he have begun with God. This good courtier knew well, that the hearts of these earthly kings are in the overruling hand of the King of heaven, to incline whither he pleaseth. Our prayers are the only true means to make way for our success. If, in all our occasions, we do not begin with the First Mover, the course is preposterous, and commonly speeds thereafter.

Who dares censure the piety of courtiers, when he finds Nehemiah standing before Artaxerxes? Even the Persian palace is not uncapable of a saint. No man, that waits on the altar at Jerusalem, can compare for zeal with him, that waits on the cup of a pagan monarch. The mercies of God are unlimited to places, to callings.

Thus armed with devotions, doth Nehemiah put himself into the presence of his master Artaxerxes. His face was overclouded with a deep sadness; neither was he willing to clear it. The king easily notes the disparity of the countenance of the bearer, and the wine that he bears; and, in a gracious familiarity, asks the reason of such unwonted change. How well it becomes the great, to stoop unto a courteous affability; and to exchange words of respect, even with their humble vassals!

Nehemiah had not been so long in the court, but he knew that princes like no other, than cheerful attendants; neither was he wont to bring any other face into that presence, than smooth and smiling. No. XXXIII.

Div.

20.

Greatness uses to be full of suspicion; and, where it sees a dejection and sourness of the brows, is ready to apprehend some sullen thoughts of discontentment; or, at the least, construes it for a disrespect to that sovereignty, whose beams should be of power to disperse all our inward mists.

Even good manners forbid a man to press into the presence of a prince, except he can either lay by these unpleasing passions, or hide them. So had Nehemiah hitherto done: now, he purposely suffers his sorrow to look through his eyes, that it may work both inquiry and compassion from his master: neither doth he fail of his hopes in either; Why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou art not sick?' How sensible do we think the Father of mercies is of all our pensive thoughts, when a heathen master is so tender of a servant's grief! How ready should our tongues be, to lay open our cares to the God of all comfort, when we see Nehemiah so quick, in the expressions of his sorrow to an uncertain ear!

Let the king live for ever: why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers' sepulchres, lieth waste, and the gates thereof burnt with fire?' Not without an humble preface, doth Nehemiah lay forth his grievance. Complaints have ever an unpleasing harshness in them; which must be taken off, by some discreet insinuation: although it could not but sound well in the generous ear of Artaxerxes, that his servant was so careful for the honor of his country. As nature hath made us all members of a community, and hath given us common interests, so, it is most pleasing to us, to see these public cares divide us from our own.

The king easily descries a secret supplication wrapt up in this moanful answer, which the modest suitor was afraid to disclose; and therefore he helps that bashful motion into the light; For what dost thou make request?' It is the praise of bounty, to draw on the just petitions of fearful suppliants.

Nehemiah dares not open his mouth to the king, till his heart hath opened itself, by a sudden ejaculation, to his God. No business can be so hasty, but our prayer may prevent it; the wings whereof are so nimble, that it can fly up to heaven, and solicit God, and bring down an an

swer, before ever our words need to come forth of our lips. In vain shall we hope that any design of ours can prosper, if we have not first sent this messenger on our errand.

After this silent and insensible preparation, Nehemiah moves his suit to the king: yet not at once, but by meet degrees. First, he craves leave for his journey, and for building: then, he craves aid for both. Both are granted. Nehemiah departs; furnished with letters to the governors, for a convoy; with letters to the keeper of the king's forest, for timber: not more full of desire, than hope.

Who ever put his hand to any great work, for the behoof of God's church, without opposition? As the walls of the temple found busy enemies, so shall the walls of the city; and these so much more, as they promise more security and strength to Jerusalem. Sanballat the deputy-lieutenant of the Moabites, and Tobiah the like officer to the Ammonites, and Geshem to the Arabians, are galled with envy, at the arrival of a man authorised to seek the welfare of the children of Israel. There cannot be a greater vexation to wicked hearts, than to see the spiritual Jerusalem in any likelihood of prosperity. Evil spirits and men need no other torment, than their own despite.

This wise courtier hath learnt, that secresy is the surest way of any important dispatch. His errand could not but be known to the governors: their furtherance was enjoined, for the provision of materials; else the walls of Jerusalem had overlooked the first notice of their heathen neighbors. Without any noise, doth Nehemiah arise, in the dead of night; and, taking some few into his company, none into his counsel, he secretly rounds the decayed walls of Jerusalem, and views the breaches, and observes the gates, and returns home in silence, joying in himself to foresee these reparations, which none of the inhabitants did once dream of: at last, when he had fully digested this great work in his own breast, he calls the rulers and citizens together; and, having condoled with them the common distress and reproach, he tells them of the hand of his God, which was good on him; he shows them the gracious commission of the king his master, for