Testament, as a reward of well-doing and an encouragement to it and our Saviour declares concerning the woman who anointed him, that what she had done should never be forgotten. Judas Iscariot censured her for wasting the ointment, which, said he, might have been sold for much and given to the poor. Our Lord, who knew the dishonesty of the one and the good disposition of the other, immediately took her part, and kindly defended the action. "Why trouble ye the woman? She hath wrought a good work upon me. For ye have the poor always with you: but me ye have not always. Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this Gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her." Her action discovered a generous and a grateful mind; and therefore our Lord gave her a suitable reward, a reward very acceptable to persons of such a temper, reputation and praise, an honourable mention from his own sacred mouth, which should spread itself far and wide, and be transmitted down to the latest posterity.

From these observations concerning praise we may conclude, that the love of it, if it be not immoderate, and lead us into no faults, is lawful: for, since this love is natural to us; since the common interest requires that it should be encouraged, and those nations have flourished most in which praise and honour have been judiciously bestowed and generally pursued; since the possession of it may prove beneficial to ourselves

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and to our friends and to our posterity, and hurtful to none; since a desire to stand fair in the opinion of others is a respect and civility paid to our acquaintance, to our fellow-citizens, and to human nature; since a contempt of reputation appears blameable, and often proceeds from very bad causes; since the holy Scriptures condescend to comply with our inclinations for it, and permit us to seek it, and propose it sometimes as an incitement to virtue; since our Lord conferred it as a reward upon a grateful and a generous action; it seems to follow that it may be ranked, if not amongst those things which strictly and truly deserve to be called good, yet, at least, amongst those things which are convenient, which may be in some degree esteemed, without any disgrace to our reason or injury to our religion.

They therefore may be said to have gone into extremes who have called the love of reputation a distemper of the soul, and a weakness which it ought entirely to shake off. They had done better, if they had represented the bad consequences of indulging it too far, and the necessity of keeping it in due bounds.

II. I shall then, secondly, endeavour to show, that there is an immoderate love of praise, which on many accounts we ought to avoid or restrain.

The love of reputation is a passion, and as such it may be carried to excess; but of all the passions it is perhaps the least apt to mislead us. A desire to be

esteemed by good and worthy persons incites us to imitate those whose approbation we seek. The love of riches, the love of sensual pleasures, the love of idleness and of everlasting amusements, the love of arbitrary power and dominion,these are the inordinate affections, and these the objects which seduce men from their duty, and from the way to eternal happiness, and they lose the race whilst they stoop to gather up these golden apples.

But we must take care that our love of reputation be discreet and moderate, free from pride, affectation, vanity, forwardness, conceit, envy, detraction, and hypocrisy.

1. We must not love the praise of the world too much, because we may not be able to acquire it. It is one of the temporal rewards of virtue; it is therefore, like other recompenses of this kind, not universally bestowed upon those who deserve it; it is usually, but not constantly, given to the righteous; it naturally results from a laudable behaviour, but it may by interposing causes be stopped and prevented. Reputa tion is said to accompany goodness, as its shadow; but the day may be overcast, and the shadow may disappear.

Whatsoever is so far precarious, that after all our endeavours we may never obtain it, should not be per mitted to possess the best place in our heart. Now reputation is to be ranked amongst these precarious things with many virtues we may live and die almost

unknown to the world. We should therefore set no high value upon the esteem of men, we should be contented if they neglect us, we should bear without un. easiness those slights which our betters in all ages have experienced. We should remember that those good things alone are to be greatly prized, and deserve our sincerest affection, which if we diligently seek we shall certainly find, and which we can never lose except by our own perverseness and misbehaviour. Such are, for instance, the favour of God, and the appro bation of our own conscience. As they are infinitely superior to reputation, so they offer themselves to every one, and may be eternally possessed by those who enjoy them they lie out of the reach of envy and malice, of time and the world.

2. We should not be overfond of praise, because we may suffer in our reputation undeservedly, and ought to bear it patiently. It is indeed scarcely possible that an honest and worthy person should be ge nerally disliked; but his good qualities may be known and esteemed by only a few friends, which is not what we commonly call reputation, whilst he may be exposed to slander, misrepresented by the envious, the ignorant, the credulous, the injudicious, the ambitious, the selfish, and the censorious.

3. Praise is often so ill bestowed, that even upon this account it is less valuable than it would else be. Praise or blame would less please or displease us, if we gave ourselves leave and leisure to consider what

sort of judges they often are whose good opinion we so passionately desire, and what sort of persons have their esteem, and how usual it is to pay more regard to noise than to sense, to fancy than to judgement, to vivacity than to reason, to boldness than .to modesty, and to satirical and calumniating wit than to candour and good-nature.

4. Add to this, that it is almost impossible to enjoy reputation in its full extent. He possesses a great reputation who is known to many, and esteemed by all to whom he is known. Now this is an advantage so uncommon, that to expect it is folly and yet this is what every person who is greedy of honour will desire; but he may know, if he takes the pains to inform himself about it, that if there are many who speak well of him, there are those who despise or censure him; and as they who covet applause have a quick sense and resentment of calumny or contempt, the reproaches even of a few may give him an uneasiness superior to the satisfaction which he finds in the approbation of his friends and well-wishers.

5. Reputation may be hurtful to those who possess it.

In bad times, and when they who are in high stations are greatly corrupted, and wicked men bear rule, it is a dangerous thing to be beloved by the public, and to deserve it, and history will inform us of not a few who have suffered upon that account. Even in happier ages and better ordered governments, he