"Hæc eft vera et indirupta FRATERNITAS, quæ animorum perfectione ac virtute concrefcit ; cujus femel initum fœdus, nec defideriorum varietas, nec contentiofa dirumpet contrarietas voluntatum : quæ fratrem veneratur devotum, corripit diffolutum, præfentem obfequitur, abfentem non rodit, fanum applaudit, infirmum non deferit, divitem gaudet, pauperum adjuvat." RABANUS, fuper Matth. cap. ult. DISCOURSE I. DELIVERED AT BRIDGWATER, NOVEMBER 3, 1797, AT THE CONSECRATION OF FELLOWSHIP LODGE. แ PROVERBS XVII. 17. A FRIEND LOVETH AT ALL TIMES; AND A WHO does not know and feel that man is ordained to converfe with his brethren; to impart to them what he is and has; to interchange his reflections and fentiments with theirs? Who has not tafted the pleafures of focial life, or been charmed with the more intimate union of friendship? Therefore, who does not find in himself fufficient impulfe to the use of the one, and the enjoy ment of the other? BUT whether this tendency to fociety procure us all the good it might; whether there be not fome forms in which a wife and benevolent man may derive from his companionable propenfities and affectionate dispositions greater utility and more noble pleasures than in their common application; is a subject worthy of investigation. MAN is fond of focial life. But if the fondness be without limitation it is extravagant; if it be not regulated it is unreasonable. When the affections are diffufed indif criminately they become languid: When confined to an individual object they are ftraitened and contracted. Like the rays of light, if widely diverged, they are scattered and loft; if concentrated in a very small focus, they are intense: their real use is in a due medium, where they are collected fo as to warm, to vivify, and to cheer; not to burn, effervefce, and confume. "A FRIEND," fays Solomon, " loveth at all times." But how rare is fuch a friend! When found, tried, and proved, how valuable! Well might an antient wife man advise "not to change a friend for any good, by no means; neither a faithful brother for the gold of ophir."*"A brother is born for Ecclefiafticus vii. 18. |