The serviceable man. A discourse made unto the General Court of the Massachusetts colony,…

In the Words now Read, we find not only the Prayer, but also the Picture of a no les• worthy than famous Magistrate, and it will be no unprofitable Meditation, to reflect a little upon the occasion of it. The Truth and Manner of the Return which the Jew• made out of their Babylonish Captivity, ha• been declared in a Book written by Ezra, a great Man greatly concerned in that Return. But the Fruit and Event of it is now related in a Supplement unto that History, written by Nehemiah a Renowned Governor of that Restored People; for whom it was no mor• improper to Record His own Acts, than it wa• ⟨p. 3⟩for the Great Julius Caesar to write his Commentaries. This inspired Historian, was doubtless a very young man, when he first applied himself unto the more open and public service of his Country; for the Transactions of more than fifty years are comprised in this Narrative of his Administrations; nevertheless God made him a true Nehemiah to his Country men; that is, A comforter from the Lord. The good Providence of God, had made this Nehemiah, a blessed Instrument of Rebuilding and Resettling Jerusalem, which had been miserably Ruined by Chaldean Invasions and Oppressions; from whence, in the twelfth year of his Government, he goes back into Persia, where he had been an eminent Officer in the Court of Artaxerxes Longimanus; but from thence he soon repeats his Journey of above nine hundred miles, and revisits his beloved Jerusalem, with a new Commission, by virtue of which he sets himself to Redress divers Disorders, under which that little Common-wealth was labouring.

In the Words now Read, we find not only the Prayer, but also the Picture of a no les• worthy than famous Magistrate, and it will be no unprofitable Meditation, to reflect a little upon the occasion of it. The Truth and Manner of the Return which the Jew• made out of their Babylonish Captivity, ha• been declared in a Book written by Ezra, a great Man greatly concern'd in that Return. But the Fruit and Event of it is now related in a Supplement unto that History, written by Nehemiah a Renowned Governour of that Restored People; for whom it was no mor improper to Record His own Acts, than it wa