by their combined efforts, court and country, churchmen and dissenters, might more effectually promote the common cause of order, liberty, and true religion; and oppose a more powerful barrier against the inroads of sedition and tyranny, of fanaticism and superstition.

SECTION V.

The last general Rule we propose as proper to be observed by a good Citizen is, Never forwardly to urge his public Claims or Pretensions, nor beyond what the common Good may require; and when this, on the Whole, is provided for, to rest satisfied in the quiet and faithful Discharge of the Duties of his present Station.

As it is one character of a good man to endeavour to merit praise, but not to challenge it; so it is of a good citizen, to exert himself for the benefit of his country, but not forwardly to demand his reward in a participation of public honours or offices; which indeed, if offered, he will receive with gratitude, or decline with modesty; if withheld, though it may cost him a momentary displeasure, he will give place to no unmanly complaints or secret resentments. He will still cherish in himself a

disposition to repeat his efforts for the public good, and to seek his recompense in the consciousness of well-doing.

urge

He, therefore, is no good citizen, or he is one of the lower order, who is eager to his claims to public favour or reward. For however his claims may be just, and such as he ought not entirely to forego, still it becomes him to prefer them with modesty, in due time and place, without any exaggeration of his merits, and as one who is sensible, that virtue, if at all it deserve the name, though it must ever need the allowance of heaven, is something beyond all human remuneration.

But without dwelling on this general view, let us descend to a few more particular reflections on the subject.

The public claims of a citizen must be grounded either on the constitution or laws of his country; on his own personal character; or on the natural rights of man. The first of these cases, as it scarcely falls within our present subject, we shall dismiss very briefly; on the two latter we shall detain the reader a moment longer.

1. Those public claims, which are grounded on the constitution and laws of the state, a citizen may seem most at liberty to prosecute. Should he possess some dormant title to nobility, he may laudably avail him self of his right, and assume his rank in the peerage, provided it be assumed from a pure motive, and with a reasonable prospect of extending his sphere of public service; otherwise, should he seek this elevation from an impulse of vanity, and with a probability of diminished usefulness, he would then act the part of a weak or of a bad member of the community. Again: should it be some public official situation to which a citizen is legally entitled, and in which he might usefully serve his country, while at the same time it afforded him the means of his own comfortable subsistence; every one must approve, of his prosecuting a claim under circumstances so highly just and honourable. In these and many other cases which might be supposed, a good citizen may step, forth and assert, his political privileges, with the full countenance and approbation of his country, or at

4

least without any danger of incurring its

censure.

2. We have next to consider those claims, or rather pretensions, that are grounded on personal, character; and particularly on a man's honest intentions and abilities to serve his country. Such pretensions a good and prudent citizen will not be eager to bring forward, and for the following, among other

reasons.

(1.) Because whatever his honesty may be, he feels it is too imperfect and assailable to permit him to be proud or to make a boast of it; and however considerable may be his abilities, he is sensible they must often be found unequal to the intricacy and exigency of affairs. Besides, his character for parts and integrity is either already established, or it is not; if the former, he has no need eagerly to display it himself; and, if the latter, such ostentation, though it may take with the populace, will not help to recommend him to the countenance and esteem of the more discerning citizens, who are aware, that men of suspicious character are most apt to boast of their probity, and