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governors and to your God, your duties as subjects and as Christians, are never to be put asunder. Mark the solicitude with which they are united in the Scriptures. My Son, fear thou the Lord and the King (1). Render unto Cæsar the things which are Cæsar's, and unto God the things that are God's (m). Fear Gods bonour the King (n). They are the same persons who are described as denying the Lord who bought them, and as despising government, and speaking ill of dignities (o). To be a good Christian and a bad subject is impossible. He who fears God, will honour the King, and all others by whom the laws are administered.And he who from Christian motives honours the King and the subordinate ministers of the law, gives a proof that he fears God.

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SERMON XIV.

CHRISTIAN PATRIOTISM illustrated by the CHARACTER of NEHEMIAH.

NEHEM. V. 15.

But fo did not I, because of the fear of God.

THE cavil which has been advanced against

the gospel, that patriotism is not enjoined as a Christian duty, needs little examination to disprove it. What is patriotism? The love of our country. But what love? The bigoted love cherished by the Jews, which impelled them to abominate every other nation as accursed? The proud love displayed by the Greeks, which despised the rest of mankind as barbarians? The selfish love predominating among the Romans, and stimulating them to enslave the world? No. Patriotism is that Christian love, which, while it respects as sacred the rights and the welfare of every land, of every foreign individual, teaches us to manifest, within the limits of justice, special affection to our own country,

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country, in proportion to the special ties by which we are united with the region that gives us birth. If our Lord then inculcated, by his own lips, or by the pen of his Apostles, the universal obligation of justice and love: if, in regulating the exercise of justice and love, he pronounces that wrong and fraud are the more sinful when directed against the Brethren (a); that while we do good unto all men, we are bound specially to do good unto them who are of the household of faith (b): that affection of more than ordinary strength is mutually to be evinced between husbands and wives, parents and children, brothers and sisters: He has decided that every additional tie by which man is connected with man is an obligation to additional love: He has established the duty of patriotism, by establishing the very principle from which the duty neces sarily flows. If he bore with unwearied pa tience hatred, and contempt, and persecution unto death, from his Jewish adversaries; if He mourned with the most tender sympathy over the impending destruction of Jeru salem (c); if He repeated, at a second risk: of his life, his efforts for the conversion of his countrymen the Nazarenes (d): by his own

(a) 1 Cor. vi. 8. (b), Gal. vi. 10, See also Rom. ix. 1-3 X. 3. xỉ. 14. (c) Matth. xxiii. 37. Luke, xiii. 34.

(d) Luke, iv. 16-30. Matth. xiii, 54." Mark, vi 1—6. conduct

conduct he sanctioned patriotism, by his conduct he exemplified it, by his own conduct he commanded it,

Patriotism may glow with as pure a flame in the breast of a peasant as of a monarch; in the shades of retirement as in the glare of observation. In persons, however, who are eminent in rank, or called to public services, the example is the more conspicuous. It was under such circumstances that Nehemiah illustrated in his day that duty of Patriotism, which, though virtually declared in the Mosaic law, was by his countrymen little understood; and was subsequently, as we have seen, re-affirmed and practised by our Lord.

Nehemiah was by birth a Jew. His father, as it should seem, had not accompanied his countrymen into the land of Israel, when they were permitted by Cyrus, after their captivity of seventy years, to return thither and rebuild Jerusalem; but appears to have remained in Persia. For we find Nehemiah an inhabitant of the city of Shushan, the capital of Persia; and actually a resident in the royal palace, in consequence of having been raised to the honourable situation of cupbearer to Artaxerxes the king. While he was in this office, some of his brethren ar

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rived from Judæa, with lamentable accounts of the condition of the Jews. "The remnant which are left," said they, "of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire (e). Nehemiah was grieved to the heart by these tidings: and was filled with earnest anxiety to obtain permission from Artaxerxes to repair to Jerusalem with power to build up and fortify the city. But before he offered his request to the King, he addressed himself to a higher sovereign. He sat down and wept and mourned certain days, and prayed before the God of heaven. With deep humiliation he acknowledged the transgressions of himself and of his forefathers. He pleaded the ancient covenant mercifully established with the people of Israel: and the promise given unto Moses that if, when scattered for their wickedness among the heathen, they should even from thence turn unto God, they should receive forgiveness, and should again be securely settled in their own land. And now, O Lord, said he, I beseech Thee let thine ear. be attentive to the prayer of thy servant, and to the prayer of the rest of thy servants who desire to fear thy name: and prosper, I pray Thee, thy servant, (e) Nehem. i. 3.

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