sooner or later they will be remembered; and missed perhaps a great deal more than, if they knew it, they would wish. Nay, even such as the world hates and persecutes, because it is not worthy of them*; against whom it conspires, as the Jews did against the prophet, saying; Let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered: if they have not immediately on their deaths the testimony borne them, which our Saviour in the same case had on his, Certainly this was a righteous man ; yet in process of time they obtain as the Apostle speaks, a good report through faith §. Or how long soever the piety and virtue of any persons may be hid and overwhelmed, yet, as He who seeth what is done in secret, will reward them openly || ; let them ever comfort themselves, with being well assured, that if the world overlooks, or even oppresses them for a while, it will not always do so: for the day is coming, of which Christ himself hath said, Whosoever shall confess me before men, (as every one doth, that from a principle of conscience adheres to his duty) him shall the Son of man confess before the angels of God¶. And then at least shall the righteous, in whatever obscurity involved before, and by whatever calumnies blackened, shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father **; and stand in great boldness before the face of such as afflicted them, and made no account of their labours; who esteemed their life to be madness, and their end without honour tt. But as for the ungodly it is not so with them ‡‡: the undeserved regard, which is too frequently paid * Heb. xi. 38. + Jer. xi. 19. || Matth. vi. 4. T Luke xxiii. 47. them in their lives; as, generally speaking, it must be insincere, so it seldom outlasts them any considerable time: their prosperity, that dazzled the eyes of man, vanishes: the fear or the favour for which they were courted, influences no longer: their power of concealing and disguising their ill deeds perishes with them; things, which they hoped were for ever buried in darkness, rise up against them; the superficial agreeableness of slighter good qualities, that gilded over their more important bad ones, coming now to be less tenderly handled, soon wears off, and leaves them visible in their full deformity all who have been injured by them, and all who have been deceived in them, give vent to their indignation without restraint: their very partners in wickedness, instead of defending or excusing them, often designedly press down their memories under an aggravated load of imputations, to escape the more easily themselves; and even the candid and goodnatured, however averse their inclination is to it, yet from principle give them up to the justice of public hate and infamy. Thus then doth the name of the wicked rot: becomes offensive to mankind, during all the while it lasts; and sometimes it lasts long, to be as the Scripture calls it, a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse*: then moulders away, and falls gradually into oblivion; till the hour comes, that they who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake; some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt +. You see therefore that God has not only declared in his holy word, that he will reward the good, and punish the bad in the next world; but has also even in this so established the tendencies of things that * Jer. xxiv. 9. † Dan. xii. 2. (supposing them to proceed at all in their natural course) virtue must at last be held in esteem, and vice in abhorrence. Nor will it be in the power of unwise or wicked men, though they do their worst, to prevent this in the main. Yet still, in many particular instances, we may if we will both by design and negligence disappoint the purposes of heaven for the good of mankind. But if we apprehend it, as surely we must, to be our duty and our interest, rather to become labourers together with God *, and forward the execution of his all-wise counsels; we shall be disposed to consider, III. In what manner we may best contribute to the due payment of those very different regards, which belong to the memory of the bad and the good. For I beg leave under this head to invert the order of the text, and dispatch the disagreeable part of the subject first. Now here, a principal thing to be observed is, that vehemence and bitterness are so unsuitable to the temper of religion, and yet we are so very prone to them, that whoever goes about to fix infamy on any one whom he dislikes, whether living or dead, should faithfully examine his own heart in the first place, and see what spirit he is oft. We cannot easily be too careful, (and it is very uncommon to be careful enough) that neither the selfish passions of interest, envy, resentment, nor the excess of any more generous principle, concern for public good, for virtue, for religion itself, ever move us to do injustice to any man's character: that we judge as mildly, as with reason we possibly can; and speak yet more mildly, than we judge. For there are multitudes of things, that may lead us into mistakes, by † Luke ix. 55. 1 Cor. iii. 9. which we may be guilty of grievous and cruel outrages against the reputation of persons, who have done nothing amiss, whilst we mean perhaps only to be zealous in a good cause. Nay indeed, were there no danger of mistakes at all, severity of justice ill becomes creatures so liable to faults as men are. And severity against the memories of those, who are gone to answer for what they have done, hath so peculiar an appearance of inhumanity, that we should avoid it with double caution; whether they have lived in or near our own times, or in others ever so remote: though in the former case there is an additional consideration to restrain us, that unnecessary harsh treatment of worthless persons deceased, causes grief, that might well be spared, to their worthy relations and friends that survive. But still, we are by no means forbidden, after all, to express a moderate and prudent disapprobation of bad people, either during their lives or after their deaths. On the contrary, due distinctions ought to be made and shewing the characters of such in their true light may be extremely requisite; sometimes for the justification of innocent men, and often for a warning to inconsiderate ones that they may see by the example of others, before it is too late, what sort of fame they must expect to leave behind them, if they will act contrary to their duty that they may not confound with real substantial honour, those empty distinctions of names and titles, which the worst of men too frequently transmit to their posterity; nor flatter themselves that even in this undiscerning world there is any likelihood of one event to the righteous and the wicked*, in point of reputation, whatever may happen in other respects * Eccl. ix. 2. And especially, where admiration of any plausible character will probably seduce others into wrong conduct, their taking off the varnish from it, and exposing it naked to view, so far as may be requisite to prevent any dangerous mistakes, is an important duty. But indeed, for the most part, the name of the wicked, if let alone, will rot of itself: and all that we shall need to do is, not to undertake the nauseous and fruitless office of embalming it. To endeavour this for private advantage, is one of the meanest and basest subserviences to sin. And even where gratitude or relation may demand from us some regard for the memory of wicked men, we should however always content ourselves, with saying in their favour what we can with truth; and keeping silence, as much as we are able, concerning the rest: but by no means take it amiss, if every one else doth not keep silence; nor expect in the least, that they, who have deserved ill upon the whole, should be esteemed by mankind, merely because they have deserved well of us. For by that rule, every wicked wretch upon earth, in his turn, must have a good character inviolably preserved to him. But let us now proceed to the pleasing part of our duty, the honours that we owe to the memory of the just; whether they lived in former days or within our own knowledge. Now the regards due to them are briefly these; that we believe them, on proper evidence, to be the good persons they were in reality; that we consider their virtues with due esteem, and their imperfections with due candour; that we vindicate their names from unjust imputations, and make honourable mention of them whenever a fit opportunity offers; that we warn and arm ourselves against the temptations, both of |