CONTEMPLATION III. NEHEMIAH REDRESSING THE EXTORTION OF WITH What difficulty do these miserable Jews settle in their Jerusalem! the fear of foreign enemies doth not more afflict them than the extortion of their own: dearth is added unto war. Miseries do not stay for a mannerly succession to each other, but in a rude importunity throng in at once. Babel may be built with ease; but whosoever goes about to raise the walls of God's city shall have his hands full. The incursion of public enemies may be prevented with vigilancy and power; but there is no defence against the secret gripes of oppression. There is no remedy, the Jews are so taken up with their trowel and sword, for the time, that they cannot attend their trades; so as while the wall did rise, their estates must needs impair. Even in the cheapest season they must needs be poor, that earned nothing but the public safety, how much more in common scarcity! Their houses, lands, vineyards are therefore mortgaged, yea their very skins are sold for corn, to their brethren necessity forces them to sell that, which it was cruelty to buy. What will we not, what must we not part with for life? The covetous rulers did not consider the occasions of this want, but the advantage. Sometimes a bargain may be as unmerciful as a robbery. Charity must be the rule of all contracts, the violation whereof, whether in the matter or the price, cannot but be sinful. There could not be a juster ground of expostulation, than this of the oppressed Jews; "Our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren, our children as their children: and lo, we bring into bondage our sons and our daughters." While there is no dif ference in nature, why should there be such an injurious disproportion in condition?, even the same flesh may bear a just inequality; some may be rulers, while others are subject; some wealthy, others poor: but, why those wealthy rulers should tyrannize over those poor inferiors, and turn brotherhood into bondage, no reason can be given, but lawless ambition. If there were one flesh of peers, another of peasants, there should be some colour for the proud impositions of the great, as, because the flesh of beasts is in a lower rank than ours, we kill, we devour it at pleasure: but now since the large body of mankind consists of the same flesh, why should the hand strike the foot? and if one flesh may challenge meet respects from us, how much more one spirit! The spirit is more noble than the flesh is base; the flesh is dead without the spirit; the spirit without the flesh active and immortal. Our soul, though shapeless and immaterial, is more apparently one than the flesh; and if the unity of our human spirit call us to a mutual care and tenderness, in our carriage each to other, how much more of the divine! by that we are men, by this we are Christians. As the soul animates us to a natural life, so doth God's Spirit animate the soul to an heavenly, which is so one that it cannot be divided. How should that one Spirit cause us so far to forget all natural and civil differences, as not to contemn, not to oppress any whom it informeth! they are not Christians, not men, that can enjoy the miseries of their brethren, whether in the flesh or spirit. Good Nehemiah cannot choose but be much moved at the barbarous extortion of the people; and now, like an impartial governor, he rebukes the rulers and nobles, whose hand was thus bloody with oppression. As of fishes, so of men, the lesser are a prey to the great. It is an ill use made of power, when the weight of it serves only to crush the weak. There were no living amongst men, had not God ordained higher than the highest; and yet higher than they. Eminency of place cannot be better improved, than by taking down mighty offenders. If nobility do imbase itself to any foul sin, it is so much more worthy of coercion, by how much the person is of greater mark. The justice of this reproof could not but shame impudence itself: "We after our ability, have redeemed our brethren the Jews which were sold to the Heathen, and will you sell your brethren, or shall they be sold to us?" Shall they find at home that yoke of bondage which they had put off abroad? while they are still Jews, shall we turn Assyrians? if they must be slaves, why not rather to enemies than to brethren? how much more tolerable were a foreign servitude, than a domestical! Be ashamed, O ye nobles of Israel, to renew Babylon in Jerusalem. I marvel not, if the offenders be stricken dumb with so unanswerable an expostulation. Guiltiness and confusion have stopped their mouths. Many of those who have not had grace enough to refrain sin, yet are not so utterly void of grace as to maintain sin. Our afterwits are able to discern a kind of unreasonableness in those wicked actions, which the first appearance represents unto us plausible. Gain leads in sin, but shame follows it out. There are those that are bold and witty to bear out commodious or pleasant evils; neither could these Jewish enormities have wanted some colours of defence: their stock was their own, which might have been otherwise improved to no less profit. The offer, the suit of these bargains, was from the sellers: these escheats fell into their hands unsought; neither did their contract cause the need of their brethren, but relieve it: but their conscience will not bear this plea. I know not whether the maintenance of the least evil be not worse than the commission of the greatest: this may be of frailty, that argues obstinacy. There is hope of that man that can blush, and be silent. After the conviction of the fact, it is seasonable for Nehemiah to persuade reformation. No oratory is so powerful, as that of mildness; especially, when we have to do with those, who either through stomach, or greatness, may not endure a rough reproof. The drops that fall easily upon the corn ripen and fill the ear, but the stormy showers, that fall with violence, beat down the stalks flat to the earth, and lay whole fields, without hope of recovery. Who can resist this sweet and sovereign reprehension; "Ought ye not to walk in the fear of our God, because of the reproach of the Heathen, our enemies?" Did we dwell alone in the midst of the earth, yet the fear of our God should over-awe our ways; but now, that we dwell in the midst of our enemies, whose eyes are bent upon all our actions, whose tongues are as ready to blaspheme God, as we to offend him, how carefully should we avoid those sins, which may draw shame upon our profession! pro Now the scandal is worse than the fact; thus shall religion suffer more from the Heathen, than our brethren do from us. If justice, if charity cannot sway with us, yet let the scornful insultations of the fane Gentiles fright us from these pressures. No ingenuous disposition can be so tender of his own disgrace, as the true Israelite is of the reproach of his God: what is it that he will not rather refrain, do, suffer, than that glorious name shall hazard a blemish? They cannot want outward retentives from sin, that live either among friends or enemies: if friends, they may not be grieved; if enemies, they may not be provoked. Those that would live well, must stand in awe of all eyes; even those that are without the church, yet may not be without regard. No person can be so contemptible, as that his censure should be contemned. In dissuading from sin, reason itself cannot prevail more than example. "I likewise, and my brethren, and my servants, might exact of them money and corn; but from the time that I was appointed to the charge of Judah, I and my brethren have not eaten the bread of the governor." He shall never rule well, that doth all that he may: it is not safe for either part, that a prince should live at the height of his power; and if the greatest abate of their right, is it for inferiors to extort? Had Nehemiah aimed at his own greatness, no man could have had fairer pretences for his gain. "The former governors, that were before him, were chargeable unto the people, and had taken of them bread and wine, besides forty shekels of silver." His foot had not first trod in this commodious path; it was beaten by the steps of his predecessors; neither did any of them walk besides it. However it might be envious to raise new taxations, yet to continue those he found unrepined at, had been out of the reach of exception. A good governor looks not so much what hath been done, as what should be: precedents are not the rule whereby he rules, but justice, but piety. "So did not I, because of the fear of the Lord." Laws are not a straighter curb to subjects, than conscience is to good princes. They dare not do what they cannot do charitably. What advantage can they think it, to be from under the controulment of men, when the God of heaven notes, and punishes their offences? Whoso walketh by this rule, can neither err nor miscarry. It is no trusting to the external remedies of sin; either they are not always present, or, if present, not powerful enough: but if the fear of God have once taken up the heart, it goes ever with us, and is strong enough to over-master the most forcible temptation. Therefore must these Jews follow this example of Nehemiah, because he followed not the example of his predecessors; because he left their evil, they must imitate his good. In vain shall rulers advise |