Nehemiah 7

REFLECTIONS UPON CHAP. VII.—The worship and service of God ought always to be preferred to our civil concerns, however important; and with great care ought princes and other rulers to make choice of their deputies: if possible, they should fix upon such as are faithful and eminently fear God. Happy, even amidst dangers, are the cities and nations which have such to rule and protect them. Great caution is necessary, for our own and the church’s safety, when we have traitors amongst and within us: and every man’s family ought to be his immediate concern. He has need to watch over them night and day, that he may preserve them from the destroyer. Important records should be preserved, as they may be of use afterwards. But wo to those, who, having given their names to the Lord, afterwards look back and return to the world; though God will compensate the loss of them to his church in the accession of others