It follows, that their state is that of an
oppressed people, in passive subjection to a conquering power, whose
duty is, to wait with patience upon _Israel's_ God for his return to
revive his work, and recall the bondage of his _Zion_. And while they
are to take care to do nothing that justly implies their consent to the
continued opposition made unto the covenanted reformation, yet they
ought to observe a proper difference between such actions and things as
are necessary, and in themselves just and lawful, by a moral obligation,
and those that are not so. As also, between that which cannot be had,
nor the value or equivalent of it, unless the person actually give it;
and that which may be obtained, whether he actually contribute to it or
not.[7] Most applicable to this our present condition, are the words of
the _Levites_, expressing the distressed state of _Israel_, which they
had brought themselves into by their sins, as recorded by Neh. ix, 36,
37: "Behold we are servants this day; and for the land thou gavest unto
our fathers, to eat the fruit thereof, and the good thereof, behold we
are servants in it: and it yieldeth much increase unto the kings which
thou hast set over us, because of our sins; also they have dominion over
our bodies, and over our cattle, at their pleasure, and we are in great
distress.
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