than that which you do to them; Nay, you have been much more injurious to yourselves, than ever others have been to you. Near as you are to yourselves, yet all your enemies on earth, or in hell, have not done you half the hurt, that you have done to yourselves. "Have I forfeited my own salvation, and deserved everlasting wrath, and sold myself and my Saviour for so base a thing as sinful pleasure, and shall I ever wonder that another man does me some temporal hurt? Was my friend so near, or so much obliged me, as myself? O sinful soul, let thy own rather than thy friend's treachery and neglects, be the matter of thy wonder, thy displeasure, and complaint. And let

thy conformity to Jesus Christ, be thy holy ambition and delight; not as thý suffering nor as it is caused by men's

sin;

but as it is thy fellowship in the sufferings of thy Lord, and caused by his love." Our conformity to, and fellowship with Christ in his sufferings, in any remarkable degree, is the lot of his best servants, and the highest of their attainments in the present state; and is therefore, neither to be expected with dread, nor borne with impatience but with holy joy. And if it be so with suffering for Christ in general, it must be so with this particular sort of suffering; even to be forsaken of our nearest and dearest friends when we are most abused by our enemies.

CHAPTER II.

FRIENDS TAKEN FROM US BY DEATH.

Sect. I. The disciples forsook their Lord for want of self-denial. Sect. II. The great evil of selfishness. Sect. III-VIII. 1. Consolations for such as mourn the death of their friends. Sect. IX-XI. and 2. For such as doubt whether heaven itself will renew the friendship they have lost. Sect. XII, XIII. or 3. Doubt whether the friendship that is renewed in heaven will be so much the more endearing.

SECT. I. We are next to consider, why the disciples forsook their Lord, and what they had recourse to when they left him. The text says, "ye shall be scattered every man to his own." Self-denial was not perfect in

them, and therefore selfishness prevailed in the hour of temptation. They had therefore forsaken all for Christ. They had left parents and families, estates and trades, to be his disciples. But though they believed him to be the Christ, yet they dreamed of a visible kingdom, and were animated by carnal expectations of being great men upon earth, under Christ as a temporal prince. And therefore when they saw him in the hands of his enemies, under the most ignominious treatment, they concluded that their hopes were now disappointed and in their sudden fright seemed to repent their having followed him. They now begun to think that they have lives of their own to save, and

families of their own to mind, and business of their own to do. They that had forsook their private interest and affairs, and were gathered together for the sake of living in communion with Jesus Christ and one another now return to their particular callings "scattered every man to his

and are

own."

Sect. II. Selfishness is the great enemy of all societies, of all fidelity and friendship. There is no trusting any person in whom self is predominant. And where it does not reign. the remainders of it make men walk uneven and unsteadily, both towards God and each other. They will certainly deny God and their friends in a time of trial, who are not able to