Whatsoever commodity you lose, be sure yet to preserve that jewel of a good name. A Christian should be most chary of his good name, for a good name answers to all things, as Solomon spake of money. Ergo si bonam famam servasso, sat dives ero, If I may but keep a good name, I have wealth enough, said the heathen [Plautus]. A Christian should rather forego gojd than let go a good name ; and he that robs a Chris-
1 A good renown is better than a golden girdle, saith the French proverb, a Claudian, De Cons. Mall. Theod. v. 3.— G.
380 THE M!Ti: CHRISTIAN [Ps. XXXIX. 0.
tian of his good name is a worse thief than he that robs him of his purse, and better deserves a hanging than he, &C.1 But,
(2.) Secondly, It Dtust he grn titcil, flint n good nuiae onre lost, isvery hardly recovered again. A man may more easily recover a lost friend, a lost estate, than a lost name. A good name is like a princely struc- ture, quickly ruined, but long a-rearing. The father of the prodigal could say of his lost son, 'This my son was lost, but is found ; he was dead, but is alive,' Luke xv. 32; but how few Christians can say, This my good name was lost, but is found ; it was (lead, but now it lives. As when ( >rpah once left Naomi, she returned no more to her, Ruth i. 14; so when once a good name leaves a man, it hardly returns to him again. A cracked credit will hardly be sodered2 anew ; new wine is rarely put into old bottles. A man should stand upon nothing more than the credit of his conscience and the credit of his name.
In Japan, the very children are so zealous of their reputation, that in ease you lose a trifle, and say to one of them, Sirrah, I believe you have stolen it, without any pause, the boy will immediately cut off a joint from one of his fingers, and say, Sir, if you say true, I wish my finger may never heal again. Three things a Christian should stiffly labour to maintain : 1, the honour of God ; 2, the honour of the gospel ; 3, the honour of his own name. If once a Christian's good name sets in a cloud, it will be lonsr before it rises afjain.
(3.) Thirdly, Though all this be true, yet it hath been the poi-tion of (I oil's dearest saintsand servants to be slandered, reproached, vilified, and falsely accused : 3 Ps. xxxi. ] 8, ' Let the lying lips be put to silence, which speak grievous things, proudly, and contemptuously against the righteous.' How sadly and falsely was Joseph accused by his wanton mistress ; David by Doeg and Shimei ; Job of hypocrisy, impiety, inhu- manity, cruelty, partiality, pride, and irreligion ! Was not Naboth accused of speaking blasphemy against God and the king ? Did not Haman present the Jews to the king as refractories and rebels ? Esther iii. Was not Elias accused to be the troubler of Israel, and Jere- miah the trumpet of rebellion ; the Baptist a stirrer up of sedition, and Paul a pestilent incendiary ?4 Were not the apostles generally accounted deceivers and deluders of the people, and the offscouring of the world ? &c. Athanasius and Eustathius were falsely accused of adultery.5 He- resy and treason were charged upon Cranmer, parricide upon Philpot, sedition upon Latimer. As the primitive persecutors usually put Chris- ti.ms into bears' skins and dogs' skins, and then baited them ;6 so they usually loaded their names and persons with all the reproach, scorn, contempt, and false reports imaginable, and then baited them, and then acted all their malice and cruelty upon them. I think there is no Chris- tian, but sooner or later, first or last, will have cause to say with David, Ps. xxxv. 11, 'False witnesses did rise up; they laid to my charge
1 Another reminiscence by our Puritan of Shakespeare's, ' Who steals my purse steals trash,' &c— Othello III. 3.— G. * ' Soldered.— G.
3 Mat. v. 10-12 ; 1 Peter iii. 14 ; Ps. Ixix. 7 ; Gen. xxxix. 13, 14 ; Ps. Iii. 1, 2 ; 2 Sam. iii. 11, 12; vi. 13-16; Jer. li. 51.
4 Jer. xx. 7-9 ; Rom. iii. 8 ; 2 Cor. vi. 8 ; 1 Cor. iv. 12, 13.
6 Act. and Mon. [Foxe. — G.] ,
6 As Tertullian, Minutius Felix, and others declare. [Cf. Clarke's ' Martyrologie,' as before, with quaiut illustrations to as quaint a text G. |
PS. XXXIX. 9.] UNDER THE SMARTING ROD. 381
things that I knew not ;' they charged me with such things whereof I was both innocent and ignorant. It was the saying of one [Hippias], that there was nothing so intolerable as accusation, because there was no punishment ordained by law for accusers, as there was for thieves, although they stole friendship from men, which is the goodliest riches men can have. Well ! Christians, seeing it hath been the lot of the dearest saints to be falsely accused, and to have their names and reputes in the world reproached and fly-blown, do you hold your peace, seeing it is no worse with you than it was with them, ' of whom this world was not worthy.' The Rabbins say [Kimchi], that the world cannot subsist without patient bearing of reproaches. But,