A . choice Bed of Spices. 199 fhop and Inquifitor) wondred 'low the Chrif bans had that Commandement, Thou lhait love thy neighbor as thy felf, fo in- delibly printed,in their hearts, that no torture could blot it out, and make them confers and betray one another, or ceafe from loving one another. I have read of one itrfinqs a Chri- ftian Physician, who being to fatter Martyrdom for the Gof- pel of Chrift, began to waver and faint ; which when Vita/is a holy man faw, he ftept to him, and though he knew it would coil him his life, yet he thus comforted and encouraged him, ;raying, What, have ye been heretcfore fo indaftrious to pre- ferve mens bodies, and will you now shrink at the flying of your own foul ? Be couragious, fear not ' &c. For which faithful counfel, he alfo was condemned to death, and flatter- ed accordingly. A truefriend is neither known in profperi- , ty, nor hid in adverfity. True love is like that of Rtith's to A 1 lomi, that of jon,ithan's to David, permanent and conaant, Many there be whofe love. to the Saints is like JoPs brooks, which in the Winter, when men have no need of them, over flows with tenders of fervice, and thews of love; but when the feafon is hot and dry, & the poor thirfly traveller {lands in moll need of water to refreth him, then the brcioks are quite dried. up. They are like the Swallow, that will flay by you in the Summer of profperity, but flee from yon in theWinter of adverfity. It is obferved by jolephas of the Samaritans, that when ever the Jews affairs profpered, they would be their friends; and profefs much love to them ; yea, . the.v`woald vaunt of their alliance, faying, That they were near akin, and of the race of Ephraim and Man4ffes the fons of pfiph: But when the Jews were in trouble and affliftion, and brought to an under, then they would not on them, nor have any thing to do with them ; yea, then they would 'fet themfelves with all their might againft them, as the fame Hittorian tells us. This age is fall of fuch Sannritans 5 yet certainly, fuck as truly love, they will alwayes love ; fuch as truly' love the people of God, they will love them to the end. In the pri- mitive times it was very much taken notice of by the very Heathen that in the depth of rnifery, when fathers and mo- thers forfook their children,Cariitians(otherwife 'hangers) Duck uR th I. b je_6,1, 6. lib. zi.p.186. . Lib. it.p. 2,72:. 12,-.13',,P1':,4* ;13.1a.. '
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