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Names very rudely handled, and the great Benefits they did this Nation treated flightly and contemptuously. I have lived to fee our Deliverance from Arbitrary Power and Popery, traduced and vilified by fome who formerly thought it was their greatest Merit, and made it · part of their Boaft and Glory, to have had a little hand and fhare in bringing it about; and others who, without it, must have liv'd in Exile, Poverty, and Misery, meanly difclaiming it, and ufing ill the glorious Inftruments thereof. Who could expect fuch a Requital of fuch Merit? I have, I own it, an Ambition of exempting 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 Praise as lafting as any thing of mine can be; and I chufe to do it at this time, when it is fo unfashionable a thing to speak honourably of them.

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THE Sermon that was preached upon the Duke of Gloucefter's Deuth was printed quickly after, and is now, becaufe the Subject was fo fuitable, join'd to the others. The Lofs of that moft promifing and hopeful Prince was, at that time, I faw, unfpeakably 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 Diftrufts, 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 otherwife 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

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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 feven 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 'Minifters, 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 Concord betwixt her and her Allies, and fuch was the Bleffing of God upon all her Counfels and Undertakings, that I am as fure as Hiftory can make me, no Prince of ours was ever yet fo profperous and fuccefsful, fo beloved, efteemed, 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 promised to lead to fuch a Peace, as would have answered all the Prayers of our religious Queen, the Care and Vigilance of a moft 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 altogether fpared the Places facred to his Worfhip!) to fpoil, for a time, this beautiful and pleafing Profpect, and give us, in its ftead, I know not what

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Our

Enemies will tell the reft with Pleafire. It will become me better to pray to God to restore us to the Power of obtaining fuch a Peace, as will be to his Glory, the Safety, Honour, and the Welfare of the

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Queeu and her Dominions, and the general Satisfaction of all her High and Mighty Allies.

May 2, 1712.

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N° 385. Thursday, May 22..

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Thefea pectora juncta fide.

Ovid.

Intend the Paper for this day as a loose Effay upon Friendship, in which I fhall throw my Obfervations together without any fet Form, that I may avoid repeating what has been often faid on this Subject.

FRIENDSHIP is a strong and habitual Inclination in two Perfons to promote the Good and Happiness of one another. Tho' the Pleasures and Advantages of Friendship have been largely celebrated by the beft 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 in a long Catalogue of thofe 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 felves.

LOVE and Efteem are the firft Principles of Friendfhip, which always is imperfect where either of thefe two is wanting.

AS, on the one hand, we are foon afhamed of loving a Man whom we cannot efteem: fo, on the other, tho' we are truly fenfible of a Man's Abilities, we can never raife ourselves to the Warmths of Friendship, 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 his 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 thofe fictitious Stories which are inven

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257 ted to the Honour of any particular Perfon, the Authors have thought it as neceffary to make their Hero a Friend as a 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 his Friendship.

THE Character of Achates fuggefts to us an Obfervation 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 easy inoffenfive complying Temper to thofe Endowments which make a much greater Figure among Mankind. I do not remember that Achates, who is reprefented as the firft Favourite, either gives his Advice, or ftrikes a Blow, thro' the whole Æneid.

A Friendfhip which makes the leaft noife, is very often moft ufeful: for which reafon I fhould prefer a prudent Friend to a zealous one.

ATTICUS, one of the beft 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, whole Father was declared an Enemy of the Commonwealth, he was himself one of Sylla's chief Favourites, and always near that General.

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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 Antony's Wife and Friends when that Party feemed ruined. Lastly, even in that bloody War between Antony and Auguftus, Atticus ftill kept his place in both their Friendships; infomuch that the firft, fays Cornelius Nepos, whenever he was absent 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,

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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 shall 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 moft difficult Province in Friendship is the letting a Man fee his Faults and Errors, which fhould, if poffible, be fo contrived, that he may perceive our Advice is given him not fo much to please ourfelves as for his own Advantage. The Reproaches therefore of a Friend fhould always be ftrictly juft, and not too frequent.

THE violent Defire of pleafing in the Perfon reproved, may otherwife change into a Defpair of doing it, while he finds himself cenfur'd for Faults he is not conscious of. A Mind that is foftened and humanized by Friendship, cannot bear frequent Reproaches; either it muft quite fink under the Oppreffion, or abate confiderably of the Value and Esteem it had for him who bestows them.

THE proper Bufinefs of Friendship is to infpire Life and Courage, and a Soul thus fupported, outdoes itfelf: whereas if it be unexpectedly deprived of these Succours, it droops and languifhes.

WE are in fome measure more inexcufable if we violate our Duties to a Friend, than to a Relation: fince the former arife from a voluntary Choice, the latter from a Neceffity to which we could not give our own Confent.

As it has been faid on one fide, that a Man ought not to break with a faulty Friend, that he may not expose the Weakness of his Choice; it will doubtlefs hold much ftronger with respect to a worthy one, that he may never be upbraided for having loft fo valuable a Treasure which was once in his poffeffion.

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Friday,

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