Nehemiah 5

REFLECTIONS UPON CHAP. V.—Hard times and hard hearts, when met together, render the poor miserable indeed. And it is cruel to take advantage of our brethren’s distress, and to make their yoke heavier by usurious exactions. Alas! how we bring hardship and famine on ourselves by our sins, and then complain of it! Those, who have great families and little substance, must learn to live by faith on God’s promise and providence. And those, who have small families and much substance, should make their abundance a supply for their neighbours’ wants; for often poor housekeepers are in much greater straits than the most wretched vagrants. But what a scandal to our holy religion is a worldly-minded and niggardly professor! And deliberate and aggravated is that theft which lies in retaining that which we have unjustly gotten. There can be no uprightness towards God without restitution to the oppressed. It is proper that rulers shew themselves angry at what is sinful, that their subjects may be deterred from it and excited to duty. But reproofs ought to be given with great consideration and temper, lest otherwise they fail of their end. And warm and rough, though not furious, measures are to be taken with hardened and presumptuous transgressors. It is highly criminal to expose the people of God, and interests of religion, to the reproach of their enemies. And the strongest bonds are necessary to restrain worldlings from their covetous courses. But how scandalous is it for magistrates to enrich themselves, or indulge their servants, to the public hurt! Those, whether magistrates or others, in whose heart the fear and love of God remarkably reign, will discover it by the exemplariness of their lives. In times of public distress they will even remit what is their unquestionable due. But infallible are the gracious rewards of sincere piety and disinterested benevolence from God, even when men overlook it. And it is pleasant to have them as a mark of our new covenant relation to God