PROVERBS, XXvii. 10.

Thine own friend, and thy father's friend, forsake not.

WHATEVER relates to the behaviour SERMON

of men in their social character is of great importance in religion. The duties which spring from that character, form many branches of the great law of charity, which is the favourite precept of Christianity. They, therefore, who would separate such duties from a religious spirit, or who at most treat them as only the inferiour parts of it, do a real injury to religion. They are mistaken friends of piety, who, under

the

XVII.

conducts them. It is no less friendly men than zealous for the honour of G and by the generous affections which nourishes, and the beneficent influe which it exerts on the whole of condu is fully vindicated from every repro which the infidel would throw upon it. In this view I am now to discourse on nature and duties of virtuous friendship, Koga closely connected with the true spirit religion. It is a subject which the inspi philosopher, who is the author of t book of Proverbs, has thought worthy his repeated notice; and in many passag has bestowed the highest eulogiums friendship among good men. As ointme and perfume rejoice the heart, so doth sweetness of a man's friend by hearty couns As iron sharpeneth iron, so a man sharpene

I MUST begin the subject, by observing, that there are among mankind friendships of different kinds, or at least, connections which assume that name. When they are no more than confederacies of bad men, they ought to be called conspiracies rather than friendships. Some bond of common interest, some league against the innocent and unsuspecting, may have united them for a time. But they are held together only by a rope of sand. At bottom they are all rivals, and hostile to one another. Their friendship can subsist no longer than interest cements them. Every one looks with a jealous eye on his supposed friend; and watches the first favourable opportunity to desert, or to betray.

Friend

fence against some real or imagined danger and connections thus formed, often draw me into close union, and inspire for a season n small degree of cordial attachment. Whe upon just and honourable principles thi union is founded, it has proved, on variou occasions, favourable to the cause of libert and good order among mankind. At th same time, nothing is more ready to be abused than the name of public spirit, and a public cause. It is a name, under which private interest is often sheltered, and selfish designs are carried on. The unwary are allured by a specious appearance; and the heat of faction usurps the place of the generous warmth of friendship.

Ir is not of such friendships, whether of the laudable or the suspicious kind,

that

they were our own. The soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David; and Jonathan loved him as his own soul*. Such friendships certainly are not unreal; and, for the honour of human nature, it is to be hoped, are not altogether unfrequent, among mankind. Happy it is, when they take root in our early years; and are engrafted on the ingenuous sensibility of youth. Friendships, then contracted, retain to the last a tenderness and warmth, seldom possessed by friendships that are formed in the riper periods of life. The remembrance of ancient and youthful connections melts every human heart; and the dissolution of them is, perhaps, the most painful feeling to which we

* Samuel, xviii. 1.

are