Nehemiah on the Wall in Troublesome Times, Title page – To the reader
NEHEMIAH ON THE VVALL IN TROUBLESOM TIMES; OR, A Serious and Seasonable Improvement of that great Example of Magistratical Piety and Prudence, Self-denial and Tenderness, Fearlesness and Fidelity, unto Instruction and Encouragement of present and succeeding Rulers in our Israel.
As it was delivered in a SERMON Preached at Boston in N. E. May 15. 1667. being the DAY of ELECTION THERE.
By that faithful Servant of Christ, Mr. JONATHAN MITCHEL, late Pastor of the Church of Christ at Cambridge.
Psal. 78.70—72.
He chose David his servant— He brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance. So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands.
Josh. 7 10.
And the Lord said to Joshua, Get thee up: wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face?
Isa. 32 1.2.
— Princes shall rule in judgement And a man shall be as an hiding-place from the wind, and a cover from the tempest, as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.
CAMBRIDGE: Printed by S. G. and M. J. 1671.
Christian Reader,
THe still-out-stretched hand of Gods powerful wrath over this poor Country, in smiting down our Pillars, plucking up our Stakes, and taking from us the breath of our Nostrils, is a matter so doleful and solemnly awful and tremendous, that we may well sigh out our sorrows, in the words of the lamenting Church, Lam. 5.16, 17. The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us that we have sinned. For this our heart is faint, for these things our eyes are dim. How oft have we seen Aaron called up to Mount Hor, and Moses to Mount Nebo, and there stripped out of the Rags of Mortality, to be clothed with the Glory of a better World? O how much of our glory have we sinned down into the dust! Abraham is now ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledgeth us not; yet let our Father and Redeemer whose Name is from everlasting, vouchsafe to return, for his servants sake, the Tribes of his Inheritance: Let him not suffer us to erre from his wayes, nor harden our heart from his fear; but so awaken, affect and teach us to profit, that being deeply and duely humbled under his mighty hand, he may please to lift us up in due time. Let those dreadful Thunder-claps which of late have broken over our heads, awaken and call us up from the bed of Sloth, to wrestle in Prayer with the God of Salvations, whose mercy endureth for ever, that he may be prevailed with to raise the Tabernacle of David which is fallen, and repair all our breaches, to give (as Eleazar after deceased Aaron, so) Joshua to succeed Moses, furnished with a double portion of his Spirit, to encounter and overcome all emergent difficulties he may meet with, in the race he is set to run. That growing spirit of wantonness under, and weariness of Gods Rule in Common-wealth and Church, cannot but adde weight to that load, which lyeth on the Shoulders of such as are called to bear the burthen and heat of such a day. To encourage the hearts and strengthen the hands of the Builders of our Jerusalems Wall, was the pious design, and prudent scope of that worthy Servant of Christ, who is now at rest, in Preaching this following Sermon to a great and honourable Auditory. What is here presented, was taken out of the Copy written by the Authors own hand: Had he lived to review and prepare it for the Press, it had probably come forth with greater lustre and vigour. That his praise-worthy pains taken in Studying, Writing, Praying and Preaching, and of others in Publishing a Discourse so seasonable and useful, may not be lost; that the Living God may yet delight to appear for us in Mounts of Difficulty, to settle our Shakings, heal all our Back-slidings and Breaches, and to give us such skilful State-Physicians, as may by apt means prudently used, recover us to a better condition of Health; that the Beauty of the Lord our God may be upon us, and his Glory on our Children, let be the travail of thy Soul, in prayer to Him in whose favour if life. To whose blessing I commend thee, in perusing what is here put into thy hands; and rest▪
Thine in the Lord Jesus, J. S.