[3.] Though we owe this religious friendship to all that fear God, yet some few may be chosen for our intimacy and spiritual solace. We owe it in some respects to all that fear God, and must dispense the general acts of friendship to them : Acts iv. 32, ' The multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul,' And Christian love is called auv8€<Tfxo<i r?}? reXeiorrj-o^, ' the bond of perfectness,' Col. iii. 14, because it is the band by which holy and Christian societies, called churches, are bound together and preserved ; otherwise, like a besom unbound, they fall all to pieces. But yet this doth not hinder but that some may be chosen for our intimacy. Christ, that denied himself to many of the commodities of human life, would not live without special friends, and would enjoy this virtuous solace ; and in David and Jonathan we have an instance of it : 1 Sam. xviii. 1, 'And the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David.' Certainly too many cannot perform the acts of intimate friendship to us, nor we to them. The love being like a river dispersed into several channels, must needs be shallower and weaker ; therefore our choice friends must be but few : infei' hinos et honos was the old rule, though it need not be so straitly confined.
[4.] In the choice of these few friends we must use caution. (1.) Such as are near to us, with whom we have frequent and familiar con- verse, and perform a mutual interchange of all offices of love : Prov. xviii. 24, ' A man that hath friends must show himself friendly, and there is a friend which sticketh closer than a brother.' Consanguinity and affinity is not so near a tie as this friendship. (2.) Not only near, but those who are holy, prudent, and good : Prov. xiii. 20, ' He that walketh with the wise shall be wise, but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.' (3.) Such as are most likely to be faithful: Job vi. 15, 16, ' My brethren have dealt deceitfully with me as a brook, and as the stream of brooks they pass away ' — pools in winter, when less need of water, but dried up in summer, when water in those parched countries was a great commodity. So many seem to be great friends, heighten our expectation ; but in our necessities and straits leave us destitute. ' Ye see me cast down and are afraid,' saith Job, ' as if I should be a burden to you.' Dearest friends may disappoint us ; their affection wants an inward principle ; it is a winter brook, and not a spring. Therefore, since the heart of man is so deceitful, and not only deceitful, but though sincere for the present, very changeable ; and this is so important an interest of human life, and the vexation of a disap- pointment in a bosom friend is so grievous, and involveth us in many inconveniences, natural and spiritual ; for Solomon telleth us, Prov. XXV. 19, ' Confidence in an unfaithful friend in time of trouble, is like a broken tooth, and a foot out of joint.' When we think to eat witii the broken tooth, or to walk with the foot out of joint, we are put to grievous pain and torment ; therefore we should go to God, and pray him to direct us in the choice of intimate friends. David sadly regrets a disappointment in a friend : Ps. Iv. 12-15, ' For it was not an enemy that reproached me ; then I could have borne it : nor was it he that
Mat. XVIL 1.] Christ's transfiguration. 345
hated me that did magnify himself against me; then I would have hid myself from him : but it was thou, a man mine equal, ray guide, and mine acquaintance/ &c. A deceitful friend may become the greatest foe, and we resent their ingratitude more than the injuries of others, when they abuse their trust and the familiarity they had with us. The worst that a professed enemy can do is not so grievous as the treachery of a professed friend. This is more piercing, less to be avoided ; therefore, whom we have used most familiarly and freely, loved as our soul and life, from such we expect the same firm and hearty friendship. Therefore it concerneth us to seek to God that we may have a godly wise man with whom we may be free in all cases of mind or conscience, and to whom we may freely open ourselves, and be strengthened in the service of God. It is a great part of our content- ment and happiness, therefore, that we may not be deceived in. our choice. Let us go to God who knoweth hearts, and God hath a great hand in this : Ps. Ixxxviii. 8, ' Thou hast put away my acquaintance from me ; thou hast made me an abomination to them.' By the provi- dence of God they left him as a man whose condition they were afraid to look upon. And again, ver. 9, ' Lover and friend hast thou put far from me ; they stand aloof from me as an execrable thing.' He owneth providence in it.