felf with flesh and blood, that fo he might bring down his glories to a partaking of

human converse.

And therefore, he that denies himself an immediate accefs to Chrift, affronts him in the great relation of a friend; thereby opening himself both to our persons, and to our wants, with the greatest tenderness, and the freeft invitation. The

2D PRIVILEGE of friendship, is, a favourable conftruction of all paffages between friends, that are not of fo high a nature, or fo evil an influence, as to diffolve that relation. Love covereth a multitude of fins, faith the apoftle. When a fcar cannot be taken away, the next kind office is to hide it. Love is never fo blind, as when it is to spy faults. It is a noble, and a great thing, to cover the blemishes, and to excufe the failings of a friend; to draw a curtain before his ftains, and to display his perfections; to bury his weakneffes in filence, but to proclaim his virtues upon the house top. It is an imitation of the charities of heaven; which, when man lies proftrate in the weakness of fleep and wearinefs, fpreads

fpreads the covering of night and darkness over him, to conceal him in that condition: But as foon as our fpirits are refreshed, and nature returns to its morning vigour, God then bids the fun to rife, and the day to fhine upon us; both to advance and to fhew that activity.

This is the demeanor of friendship between man and man. Let us next confider, how it is between Chrift, and the foul that depends upon him. He is no way short, in thefe offices of tenderness and mitigation, but, on the contrary, is by infinite degrees fuperior. For where our heart doth but relent, his melteth; where our eye pities, his bowels yearn. How many frowardnesses of ours doth he look over, how many indignities doth he pafs by, and how many affronts doth he put up at our hands; because his love is invincible, and his friendship unchangeable. He weigheth every action, every finful infirmity, with the allowances of mercy; and never weigheth the fin, but together with it, he weighs the force of the inducement.

Should we try men, at that rate that we try Chrift; we fhould quickly find, that the largest

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largest stock of human friendship would be foon exhaufted. But his compaffion follows us with an infinite fupply. He is God in his friendship, as well as in his nature; and therefore we finful creatures are not taken upon advantages, nor confumed in our proVocations. The

3D PRIVILEGE of friendship, is, a fympathy in joy and grief. It is an old, and a wife obfervation, That forrows by being communicated grow lefs, and joys by being communicated grow greater. And friendship is the only scene, upon which the glorious truth of this great propofition, can be fully exemplified and drawn forth. Which indeed is a fummary defcription of the sweets of friendship; and the whole life of a friend, in the feveral parts and inftances of it, is only a more extenfive comment upon, and a plainer explication of this great truth.

Thus it is in human friendships. Let us obferve next, how Chrift fuftains and makes good, this generous quality of a friend. And this we shall find fully fet forth to us, in those paffages of holy fcripture, where he is faid to be a merciful high priest, touched

with the feeling of our infirmities; and that in all our afflictions, he is afflicted.

He understands the exact measures of our strengths and weakneffes. He knoweth our frame, and remembers that we are but duft.

This, in fhort, is the privilege of the righteous, to have a companion and a fupporter, in all the doubtful turnings, and doleful paffages of their lives. This happiness doth Chrift vouchsafe to all his followers; that as a faviour he once fuffered for them, and as a friend, he always fuffers with them. The

4TH PRIVILEGE of friendship, is that which is here specified in my text, a communication of fecrets.—All things that I have heard of my Father, I have made known unto you.

To communicate a fecret to any one, is to exalt him to one of the royalties of heaven. For none knoweth the fecrets of a man's mind, but his God, his confcience, and his friend.

It was of old a privilege, with which God was pleafed to honour fuch as ferved him

at

at the rate of an extraordinary obedience, thus to admit them to a knowledge, of many of his great counfels, locked up from the reft of the world. When God had defigned the deftruction of Sodom, the fcripture reprefents him, as unable to conceal that great purpose from Abraham, whom he always treated as his friend and acquaintance; that is, not only with love, but also with intimacy and familiarity. And the Lord faid, fhall I hide from Abraham the thing that I go about to do? He thought it a violation of the rights of friendfhip, to referve his defign wholly to himself.

And with regard unto Mofes, it is faid of God, that he spake unto him, as a man fpeaketh to his friend.

And, in general, it is faid by the pfalmist, with refpect unto all those that fear God, that the fecret of the Lord is with them that fear him.

And if God maintained fuch intimacies, with thofe whom he loved under the law, (which was a dispensation of greater diftance ;)—we may be fure, that under the gospel (the very nature of which imports condescenfion and compliance;)—there muft needs