ON THE DESIRE OF PRAISE. T is well known, that the better fort It is well known, that the better fort fuffer the moft formidable death, rather than to live in difgrace: and I could tell you, Gentlemen, of a Chriftian hero, who expressed nearly the fame fentiment, when he faid, "It were better for me to die, than that any man fhould make my glorying void." In profecuting his plan of pious zeal, and difinterested benevolence, he found fuch a charm, that nothing in this world could induce him to renounce it. The very idea filled him with difdain. Obferve by the way, that St. Paul scrupled not to affert himself in the firmest manner, and the strongest language, VOL. I. I connected with his perfon, feemed to demand it. Nor are we in the least offended at this kind of glorying: on the contrary, we are delighted with it in perfons of approved worth, when they are roused, and as it were challenged, by the importance of the occafion. The truth is, that, as in every refpectable ftation men are permitted to pique themselves on maintaining its dignity, fo every honeft man may frankly and boldly claim the reputation of honefty, without being deemed on that account vain; probably, because the obligations to integrity are fo clear, indifpenfible and facred, that the practice of it cannot, ftrictly speaking, be supposed to deserve any particular applaufe, or to imply any uncommon excellence. But the conduct of the Apoftle was in a much nobler style: it was a continued |