my deportment was juft the fame, as if I had been no fuch man; for firft, I knew that I was but thy steward and minister, and placed there to serve thee and those ends which thou propofedft in my preferment, and not to ferve myself, much less my paffions or corrup tions. And further, I very well and practically knew, that place, and honour, and preferment, are things extrinfical, and have no ingredience into the man: his value and estimate before, and under, and after his greatness, is ftill the fame in itself, as the coun ter that now stands for a penny, anon for fix pence, anon for twelve pence, is ftill the fame counter, though its place and extrinfical denomination be changed. 5. I improved the opportunity of my place, eminence, and greatness to serve thee and my country in it, with all vigilance, diligence, and fidelity; I protect. ed, countenanced, and encouraged thy worfhip, name, day, people; I did faithfully execute juftice according to that station I had, I refcued the oppreffed from the cruelty, malice, and infolence of their oppreffors; I cleared the innocent from unjuft calumnies and reproaches; I was inftrumental to place thofe in offices, places, and employments of truft and confequence, that were honeft and faithful; I removed thofe that were difhoneft, irreligious, falfe, or unjuft; I did discountenance, and as they juftly fell under the verge of the law, I punished profane, turbulent, atheistical, licentious perfons. My greatnefs was a fhelter to virtue and goodness, and a terror to vice and irreligion; I inter posed to cool the ferocity and violence of others against good men, upon mistake or flight and inconfiderable differences: in fum, I fo ufed my place and greatness, and fo carried myself in all things, as if all the while I had feen Thee, the great Master of all the families in heaven and earth ftanding by me. I often confulted inftructions, by Thy written Word, and the impartial anfwers of my confcience, and I ftrictly pursued it; and when I found myself at any time at a lofs, by reaform no essential ingredient in the composition of the man. U 4 my fon fon of the difficulty and perplexity of emergencies, I did in an especial manner apply myself unto Thee for advice and direction. 17. Touching my REPUTATION and CREDIT. 1. I never affected the reputation of being rich, great, crafty, politic; but I esteemed much a deserved repu tation of juice, honefty, integrity, virtue, and piety, 2. I never thought that reputation was the thing primarily to be looked after in the exercife of virtue; for that were to affect the fubftance for the fake of the shadow, which had been a kind of levity and impotence of mind: but I looked at virtue, and the worth of it, as that which was the first defirable, and reputation as a handsome and useful acceffion to it. 3. The reputation of justice and honesty I was always careful to keep untainted, upon thefe grounds; 1. Because a blemish in my reputation would be dif honourable to Thee. 2. It would be an abuse of a talent which Thou hadft committed to me. 3. It would be a weakning of an inftrument which Thou hadft put into my hands, upon the ftrength whereof much good might be done by me. 4. I found both in myself and others, a good reputation had these two great advantages in it; 1. In respect of the party that had it, it was a handsome incentive to virtue, and did ftrengthen the vigilance and care of them that had it to preferve it. There is a certain honeft worth and delight in it, that adds fomewhat to the care and jealoufy of good minds not rafhly to lose it. The value and worth of virtue, though it far exceeds the value of that reputation that arifeth from it, yet it is more Platonic and fpiritual, and hath not always that impreffion upon us, as the fense of our reputation hath; and I always looked upon it as no fmall evidence of thy wifdom in governing men, in adding a kind of external fplendor and glory to goodness and virtue, which might be, and is a means to preserve the other, as the fhell or hufk to preferve a kernel, 2. In refpect of others, because it is both an allurement to the practice of that virtue which attends, and alfo gives a man a fairer opportunity, and ftrength to exercise any worthy and good actions for the good of others. A man of a deferved reputation, hath oftentimes an opportunity to do that good which another wants, and may practise it with more fecurity and fuccefs. 5. These temptations I always found attending a fair reputation, and I ftill watched and declined them as pests and cankers. 1. Pride and vain-glory; I esteemed this as that which would fpoil and deface, not only my foul, but even that very reputation which I had acquired. There is nothing fooner undoes reputation, than the pride and vain-glory that a man takes in it. 2. Idlenefs and remiffness, when a man begins to think that he hath fuch a ftock thereof, that he may now fit still, and with the rich man in the Gofpel, please himfelf that he hath enough laid up for many years, and therefore he at once ftarves both his goodness and reputation, 3. A daring to adventure upon fome very ill action, upon a fecret and deceitful confidence in his reputation, thinking now he hath acquired fuch a ftock of reputation, that he may with fecrecy, and fafety, and fuccefs, adventure upon any thing, in confidence that his reputation will bear him out. 4. A man of great reputation fhall be fure, by those in power, to be put upon actions that may ferve turn: This is the devil's fkill; for if he carry it out upon the strength of his reputation, the devil makes the very refult of virtue and worth the inftrument of injustice and villany; but if he miscarry, the devil hath got his end upon him, in that he hath blafted him, and wounded Thy honour, which fuffers in his difreputation. 5. A great reputation, and the sense of it, and delight in it, is apt to put a man upon any shifts, though never fo unhandsome to fupport it. 6. It makes a man of tentimes over-timorous in doing that which is good and just, least he should suffer in his reputation with some party, party, whofe concernment may lie in it. 7. It is apt to make a man impatient of any the least blemish that may be causelessly calt upon him, and to fink under it. Á man of great reputation, and (who) fets his heart upon it, is defperately fenfible of any thing that may wound it. Therefore, 6. Though I have loved my reputation, and have been vigilant not to lofe or impair it by my own default or neglect; yet I have looked upon it as a brittle thing, a thing that the devil aims to hit in a special manner, a thing that is much in the power of a falfe report, a mistake, a mifapprehenfion to wound and hurt; notwithstanding all my care, I am at the mercy of others, without God's wonderful over-ruling providence. And as my reputation is the esteem that others have of me, fo that esteem may be blemished without my default. I have therefore always taken this care, not to fet my heart upon my reputation. I will use all fidelity and honefty, and take care it fhall not be loft by any default of mine; and if, notwithftanding all this, my reputation be foiled by evil or envious men or angels, I will patiently bear it, and content myself with the ferenity of my own confcience: Hic murus abeneus efto1. 7. When thy honour, or the good of my country was concerned, I then thought it was a feasonable time to lay out my reputation for the advantage of either, and to act it, and by and upon it, to the higheft, in the ufe of all lawful means; and upon fuch an occa fion the counsel of Mordecai to Hefter was my encouragement 2. Who knoweth whether God hath given thee this reputation and efteem for fuch a time as this? 1 Let conscience be as a wall of brass. • Hester 5. AN AN ENQUIRY TOUCHING HAPPINESS, 1. ANY man that compares the perfection of the buman nature with that of the animal nature, will eafily find a far greater excellence in the former than in the latter: For, 1. The faculties of the former are more fublime and noble. 2. The very external fabric of the former much more beautiful and fuller of majesty than the latter. 3. The latter feems to be in a very great measure ordained in fubferviency to the former; fome for his food, fome for clothing, fome for use and fervice, fome for delight. 4. All the inferior animals feem to be placed under the difcipline, regiment, and order of mankind; fo that he brings them all, or the most of them, under his order or fubjection. 2. It is therefore just and reasonable for us to think, that if the inferior animals have a kind of felicity or happiness attending their being, and fuitable to it, that much more man, the nobler being, fhould not be deftitute of any Happiness attending his being, and suitable to it. 3. But rather confequently, that man, being the nobler creature, fhould not only have an Happiness as well as inferior animals, but he should have it placed in fome more noble and excellent rank and kind than that wherein the brutes have their Happiness placed. 4. It is plain that the inferior animals have a Happi ness |