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⚫ were then offered by God's Providence, without any manner of defign of making them publick: And for that reason I give them now as they were then delivered; by which I hope to fatisfie thofe People who have objected a Change of Principles to me, • were not now the fame Man I formerly was. I never ⚫ had but one Opinion of thefe Matters; and that I think is fo reasonable and well-grounded, that I believe I never can have any other.

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ANOTHER Reafon of my publishing thefe Ser"mons at this time, is, that I have a mind to do my felf fome Honour, by doing what Honour I could to the • ¡Memory of two most excellent Princes, and who bave • very highly deferved at the hands of all the People of thefe Dominions, who have any true Value for the Proteftant Religion, and the Conflitution of the English, • Government, of which they were the great Deliverers «and Defenders. ↑ I have lived to fee their illuftrious • Names very rudely handled, and the great Benefits they did this Nation treated flightly and contemptuoufly. I have lived to see our Deliverance from Arbitrary Power and Popery, traduced and vilified by fome who for. merly thought it was their greatest Merit, and made it part of their Beaft and Glory, to have had a little hand and mare in bringing it about; and others who, without qie, must have liv'd in Exile, Poverty, and Mifery, meanly difclaiming ity and ufing ill the glorious Inftru-' ments thereof. Who could expect fuch a Requiral of • fuch Merit? 1 bave, I own it, an Ambition of "exemp ting my felf from the Number of unthankful People: And as I loved and honoured thofe great Princes living, and lamented over them when dead, fo I would gladly raise them up a Monument of Praife as lafting as any thing of mine can be and I chose to do it at this "mmer-when it is fo unfashionable a thing to speak honourably of them.

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v THE Sermon that was preached upon the Duke of • Gloucester's Death was printed quickly after, and is now, because the Subject was fo fuitable, joined to the others. The Lofs of that most promiling and hopeful Prince

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⚫ was, at that time, I saw, unspeakably great; and many • Accidents fince have convinced us, that it could not ⚫ have been over-valued. That precious Life, had it pleafed God to have prolonged it the ufual Space, had faved us many Fears and Jealoufies, and dark Diftrusts, and prevented many Alarms, that have long kept us, and will keep us ftill, waking and uneafy. Nothing remained to comfort and fupport us under this heavy • Stroke, but the Neceffity it brought the King and Nation under, of fettling the Succeffion in the House of HANNOVER, and giving it an Hereditary Right, • by Act of Parliament, as long as it continues Proteftant. So much good did God, in his merciful Providence, produce from a Misfortune, which we could never other⚫ wife have fufficiently deplored.

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THE fourth Sermon was preached upon the Queen's Acceffion to the Throne, and the first Year in which that Day was folemnly obferved, (for, by fome Accident or other, it had been over-look'd the Year before;) and every one will fee, without the date of it, that it was preached very early in this Reign, fince I was able only to promife and prefage its future Glories and Succeffes, from the good Appearances of things, and the happy Turn our Affairs began to take; and could not then count up the Victories and Triumphs that for seven • Years after, made it, in the Prophet's Language, a • Name and a Praife among all the People of the Earth. Never did feven fuch Years together pafs over the head of any English Monarch, nor cover it with fo ⚫ much Honour: The Crown and Scepter feemed to be the Queen's leaft Ornaments; thofe, other Princes wore in common with her, and her great perfonal Virtues ⚫ were the fame before and fince; but fuch was the Fame • of her Adminiftration of Affairs at home, fuch was the Reputation of her Wisdom and Felicity in chufing • Ministers, and fuch was then efteemed their Faithfulnefs and Zeal, their Diligence and great Abilities in executing her Commands; to fuch a height of military Glory did her great General and her Armies carry the British Name abroad; fuch was the Harmony and ConVOL. V. N

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'cord betwixt her and her Allies, and fuch was the Blefting of God upon all her Counfels and Undertakings, 'that I am as fure as Hiftory can make me, no Prince of fo • ours was ever yet fo profperous and fuccefsful,

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loved, esteemed, and honoured by their Subjects and their Friends, nor near fo formidable to their Enemies. • We were, as all the World imagined then, juft entring on the ways that promifed to lead to fuch a Peace, • as would have answered all the Prayers of our religious Queen, the Care and Vigilance of a most able Ministry, the Payments of a willing and obedient People, as well as all the glorious, Toils and Hazards of the Soldiery; when God, for our Sins, permitted the Spirit of Difcord to go forth, and, by troubling fore the Camp, the City, and the Country, (and oh that it had alto⚫gether fpared the Places facred to his Worship!) to fpoil, for a time, this beautiful and pleafing Profpect, and give us, in its ftead, I know not what• Enemies will tell the reft with Pleasure. It will be• come me better to pray to God to reftore us to the Power of obtaining fuch a Peace, as will be to his Glory, the Safety, Honour, and the Welfare of the • Queen and her Dominions, and the general Satisfaction of all her High and Mighty Allies.

May 2, 1712.

Our

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N° 385. Thursday, May 22.

Thefea pectora junéta fide.

my

Ovid.

Intend the Paper for this day as a loose Effay upon Friendship, in which I fhall throw my Obfervations avoid re together without any fet Form, that I peating what has been often faid on this Subjact. FRIENDSHIP is a strong and habitual. Inclination in two Perfons to promote the Good and Happiness of one

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nother,

2.67 nother. Tho' the Pleafures and Advantages of Friendship have been largely celebrated by the best moral Writers and are confidered by all as great Ingredients of human Happiness, we very rarely meet with the Practice of this Virtue in the World.

EVERY Man is ready to give a long Catalogue of those Virtues and good Qualities he expects to find in the Perfon of a Friend, but very few of us are careful to cultivate them in our selves.

LOVE and Efteem are the first Principles of Friendhip, which always is imperfect where either of these two is wanting.

AS, on the one hand, we are foon afhamed of loving a Man whom we cannot esteem; fo, on the other, tho we are truly fenfible of a Man's Abilities, we can never raise our selves to the Warmths of Friendfhip, without an affectionate Good-will towards his Perfon.

FRIENDSHIP immediately banishes Envy under all its Difguifes. A Man who can once doubt whether he fhould rejoice in bis Friend's being happier than himself, may depend upon it that he is an utter Stranger to this Virtue.

THERE is fomething in Friendship fo very great and noble, that in those fictitious Stories which are invented to the Honour of any particular Perfon, the Authors have thought it as neceffary to make their Hero a Friend as á Lover. Achilles has his Patroclus, and Æneas his Achates. In the first of these Inftances we may obferve, for the Reputation of the Subject I am treating of, that Greece was almoft ruin'd by the Hero's Love, but was preferved by bis Friendship.

THE Character of Achates fuggefts to us an Obferva tion we may often make on the Intimacies of great Men, who frequently chufe their Companions rather for the Qualities of the Heart than thofe of the Head, and prefer Fidelity in an eafy inoffenfive complying Temper to those Endowments which make a much greater Figure among Mankind. I do not remember that Achates, who is re prefented as the first Favourite, either gives his Advice, or ftrikes a Blow, thro' the whole Eneid.

A Friendship which makes the least noise, is very often most useful: for which reason I should prefer a prudent Friend to a zealous one.

ATTICUS, one of the best Men of ancient Rome, was a very remarkable Inftance of what I am here fpeaking. This extraordinary Perfon, amidst the Civil Wars of his Country, when he faw the Defigns of all Parties equally tended to the Subverfion of Liberty, by conftantly preferving the Efteem and Affection of both the Competitors, found means to ferve his Friends on either fide: and while he fent Money to young Marius, whofe Father was declared an Enemy of the Commonwealth, he was himself one of Sylla's chief Favourites, and always near that General.

DURING the War between Cafar and Pompey, he ftill maintained the fame Conduct. After the Death of Cafar he fent Money to Brutus in his Troubles, and did a thoufand good Offices to Anthony's Wife and Friends when that Party feemed ruined. Laftly, even in that bloody War between Anthony and Auguftus, Atticus ftill kept his place in both their Friendships; infomuch that the first, fays Cornelius Nepos, whenever he was abfent from Rome in any part of the Empire, writ punctually to him what he was doing, what he read, and whither he intended to go; and the latter gave him conftantly an exact Account of all his Affairs.

A Likeness of Inclinations in every Particular is fo far from being requifite to form a Benevolence in two Minds towards each other, as it is generally imagined, that I believe we fhall find fome of the firmeft Friendships to have been contracted between Perfons of different Humours; the Mind being often pleased with thofe Perfections which are new to it, and which it does not find among its own Accomplishments. Befides that a Man in fome measure fupplies his own Defects, and fancies himself at fecond hand poffeffed of thofe good Qualities and Endowments, which are in the poffeffion of him who in the Eye of the World is looked on as his other felf.

THE most difficult Province in Friendship is the let ting a Man fee his Faults and Errors, which fhould, if

poffible,

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