"not be perfectly contrary to friend, it shall "not be a relative term and signify some

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thing on each hand, a relative and a cor"relative; and then he knows none whom he " is not bound to love and pray for, to treat

kindly and justly, liberally and obligingly. "Christian charity is friendship to all the "world; and when friendships were the "noblest things in the world, charity was "little, like the sun drawn in at a chink, "or his beams drawn into the centre of a burning-glass; but Christian charity is friendship expanded, expanded like the "face of the sun when he mounts above the "eastern hills: and I was, strangely pleased "when I saw something of this in Cicero; "for I have been so pushed at by herds "and flocks of people that follow any body "that whistles to them, or drives them to "pasture, that I am grown afraid of any "truth that seems chargeable with singu

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larity: but therefore I say, glad I was when "I saw Loelius in Cicero discourse thus. "Amicitia ex infinita societate generis humani,

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quam conciliavit ipsa natura, ita contracta "res est, et adducta in angustum, ut omnis "caritas aut inter duos, aut inter paucos jun"geretur. Nature hath made friendships,

"and societies, relations and endearments; "and by something or other we relate to all "the world; there is enough in every man "that is willing, to make him become our "friend; but when men contract friendships, "they inclose the commons, and what nature "intended should be every man's, we make "proper to two or three. Friendship is like "rivers and the strand of seas, and the air, "common to all the world; but tyrants, and " evil customs, wars, and want of love have "made them proper and peculiar. But when

Christianity came to renew our nature, "and to restore our laws, and to increase her 'privileges, and to make her aptness to be"come religion, then it was declared that "our friendships were to be as universal as "our conversation; that is, actual to all with "whom we converse, and potentially ex"tended unto those with whom we did not. "For he who was to treat his enemies with

forgiveness and prayers, and love and bene"ficence, was indeed to have no enemies, and "to have all friends.

So that to your question, how far a dear "and perfect friendship is authorized by the principles of Christianity? The answer is

"ready and easy. It is warranted to extend "to all mankind; and the more we love, the "better we are, and the greater our friendships are, the dearer we are to God; let "them be as dear, and let them be as per

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fect, and let them be as many as you can; “there is no danger in it; only where the “restraint begins, there begins our imperfec❝tion; it is not ill that you entertain brave "friendships and worthy societies; it were "well if you could love, and if you could "benefit all mankind; for I conceive that is "the sum of all friendships. '

"I confess this is not to be expected of "us in this world; but as all our graces here "are but imperfect, that is, at the best they " are but tendencies to glory, so our friend"ships are imperfect too, and but beginnings "of a celestial friendship, by which we shall "love every one as much as they can be loved. "But then so we must here in our propor❝tion; and indeed that is it that can make "the difference; we must be friends to all: "that is, apt to do good, loving them really, "and doing to them all the benefits which we

"can, and which they are capable of. The

friendship is equal to all the world, and "of itself hath no difference; but is differ"enced only by accidents and by the capacity or incapacity of them that receive it: "nature and religion are the bands of friend

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ships; excellency and usefulness are its "great endearments: society and neighbour"hood, that is, the possibilities and the cir"cumstances of converse are the determin "ations and actualities of it. Now when "men either are unnatural, or irreligious,

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they will not be friends; when they are "neither excellent nor useful, they are not "worthy to be friends; where they are "strangers or unknown, they cannot be "friends actually and practically; but yet, "as any man hath any thing of the good, "contrary to those evils, so he can have and

must have his share of friendship. For "thus the sun is the eye of the world and "he is indifferent to the negro, or the cold "Russian, to them that dwell bunder the "line, and them that stand near the tropics, "the scalded Indian, or the poor boy that "shakes at the foot of the Riphean hills; but "the flexures of the heaven and the earth, "the convenience of abode, and the ap

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"proaches to the north or south respectively change the emanation of his beams; not "that they do not pass always from him, but "that they are not equally received below, "but by periods and changes, by little inlets " and reflections, they receive what they can; "and some have only a dark day and a long

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night from him, snows and white cattle, a "miserable life, and a perpetual harvest of "catarrhs and consumptions, apoplexies and "dead palsies; but some have splendid fires, " and aromatick spices, rich wines, and well

digested fruits, great wit and great courage; because they dwell in his eye, and "look in his face, and are the courtiers of "the sun, and wait upon him in his chambers "of the east; just so is it in friendships: "some are worthy, and some are necessary; "some dwell hard by, and are fitted for con

verse; nature joins some to us, and re6.6 ligion combines us with others; society and "accidents, parity of fortune, and equal dis"positions do actuate our friendships: which "of themselves, and in their prime disposition, "are prepared for all mankind according as 66 any one can receive them. We see this "best exemplified by two instances and expressions of friendship and charity: viz.

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