FORTUNE, a name which, among the ancients, seemed to have denoted a principle of fortuity, whereby things came to pass without being necessitated thereto; but what and whence that principle is, they do not seem to have

herself from infamy by methods of procuring abortion, which not only destroys the child, but often the mother.-6. It disqualifies the deluded creatures to be either good wives, or mothers, in any future marriage, ruining that modesty which is the guardian of nuptial happi-ever precisely thought. It does not apness.-7. It absolutely disqualifies a man for the best satisfactions; those of truth, virtue, innocent gratifications, tender and generous friendship.-8. It often perpetuates a disease which may be accounted one of the sorest maladies of human nature, and the effects of which are said to visit the constitution of even distant generations.

pear that the antiquity of the word is very high. It is acknowledged, on all hands, that Tux, from whence the Romans took their fortuna, was a term invented long after the times of Hesiod and Homer, in whose writings it no where occurs. The philosophical sense of the word coincides with what is vulgarly called chance. It is difficult to ascertain what it denotes in the minds of those who now use the word. It has been justly observed, that they who would substitute the name of providence in lieu of that of fortune, cannot give any tolerable sense to half the phrases wherein the word occurs.

FORTITUDE is a virtue or quality of the mind generally considered the same with courage; though, in a more accurate sense, they seem to be distinguishable. Courage resists danger, fortitude supports pain. Courage may be a virtue or vice, according to the circumstances; fortitude is always a vir- FRAME. This word is used to detue: we speak of desperate courage, note any state of mind a man may be in; but not of desperate fortitude. A con- and, in a religious sense, is often contempt or neglect of danger may be cal-nected with the word feeling, or used led courage; but fortitude is the virtue of a rational and considerate mind, and is founded in a sense of honour, and a regard to duty.

synonymously with it. See FEELING.

"If our frames are comfortable," says one, "we may make them the matter of our praise, but not of our pride; we may make them our pleasure, but not our portion; we may make them the matter of our encouragement, but not the ground of our security. Are our frames dark and uncomfortable? they should humble us, but not discourage us; they should quicken us, but not obstruct us in our application for necessary and suitable grace, they should make us see our own emptiness, but not make us suspect the fulness of Christ; they should make us see our own un

Christian fortitude may be defined that state of mind which arises from truth and confidence in God; enables us to stand collected and undisturbed in the time of difficulty and danger; and is at an equal distance from rashness on the one hand, and pusillanimity on the other. Fortitude takes different names, according as it acts in opposition to different evils; but some of those names are applied with considerable latitude. With respect to danger in general, fortitude has been called intrepidity; with re-worthiness, but not make us suspect the spect to the dangers of war, valour; willingness of Christ; they should make with respect to pain of body, or distress us see our own weakness, but not cause of mind, patience; with respect to la- us to suspect the strength of Christ; bour, activity; with respect to injury, they should make us suspect our own forbearance; with respect to our con-hearts, but not the firmness and freeness dition in general, magnanimity. of the promises."

Christian fortitude is necessary to vi- FRANCISCANS, a religious order gilance, patience, self-denial, and per-founded by St. Francis in the year 1209. severance; and is requisite under af- Francis was the son of a merchant of fiction, temptation, persecution, deser-Assisi, in the province of Umbria, who, tion, and death. The noble cause in which the Christian is engaged; the glorious Master whom he serves; the provision that is made for his security the illustrious examples set before him; the approbation of a good conscience; and the grand prospect he has in view, are all powerful motives to the exercise of this grace. Watts's Ser. ser. 31. Evans's Ser. ser. 19. vol. i. Steele's Christian Hero. Mason's Ser. vol. i.

ser. v.

having led a dissolute life, was reclaimed by a fit of sickness, and afterwards fell into an extravagant devotion that looked less like religion than alienation of mind. Soon after this, viz. in the year 1208, hearing the passage repeated in which Christ addresses his apostles, || Provide neither gold nor silver, &c. Matt. x. 9, 10. he was led to consider a voluntary and absolute poverty as the essence of the Gospel, and to prescribe

pel of Jesus. Accordingly Albizi, a Franciscan, of Pisa published a book in 1383, with the applause of his order, entitled the Book of the Conformities of St. Francis with Jesus Christ. In the beginning of this century the whole Franciscan order was divided into two parties; the one embracing the severe discipline and absolute poverty of St. Francis, and were called spirituals; and the other, who insisted on mitigating the austere injunctions of their founder, were denominated brethren of the com

good habits, with large hoods; the former were clad in a strait, coarse, and short dress, pretending that this dress was enjoined by St. Francis, and that no power on earth had a right to alter it. Neither the moderation of Clement V. nor the violence of John XXII. could appease the tumult occasioned by these two parties; however, their rage subsided from the year 1329. In 1368 these two parties were formed into two large bodies, comprehending the whole Franciscan order, viz. the conventual brethren, and the brethren of the obser

this poverty as a sacred rule both to himself and to the few that followed him. This new society, which appeared to Innocent III. extremely adapted to the present state of the church, and proper to restore its declining credit, was solemnly approved and confirmed by Honorius III. in 1223, and had made a considerable progress before the death of its founder in 1226. Francis, through an excessive humility, would not suffer the monks of his order to be called fratres, i. e. brethren or friars; but fraterculi, i. e. little brethren, or friars mi-munity. These wore long, loose, and nor, by which denomination they have been generally since distinguished. The Franciscans and Dominicans were zealous and active friends to the papal hierarchy, and in return were distinguished by peculiar privileges and honourable employments. The Franciscans, in particular, were invested with the treasure of ample and extensive indulgencies, the distribution of which was committed to them by the popes as a mean of subsistence, and a rich indemnification for their voluntary poverty. In consequence of this grant, the rule of the founder, which absolutely prohibited both per-vance, or observation, from whom sonal and collective property, so that sprang the Capuchins and Recollects. neither the individual nor the commu- The general opinion is, that the Frannity were to possess either fund, reve- ciscans came into England in the year nue, or any worldly goods, was consi- 1224, and had their first house at Candered as too strict and severe, and dis-terbury, and their second at London; pensed with soon after his death. In 1231, Gregory IX. published an interpretation of this rule, mitigating its rigour; which was farther confirmed by Innocent IV. in 1245, and by Alexander IV. in 1247. These milder operations were zealously opposed by a branch of the Franciscans, called the spiritual; and their complaints were regarded by Nicholas III. who, in 1279, published a FRATERNITY, in the Roman Cafamous constitution, confirming the rule tholic countries, signifies a society for of St. Francis, and containing an elabo- the improvement of devotion. Of these rate explication of the maxims he re- there are several sorts, as, 1. The fracommended, and the duties he prescri- ternity of the Rosary, founded by St. bed. In 1287, Matthew, of Aqua Spar- Dominic. It is divided into two branches, ta, being elected general of the order, called the common rosary, and the perdiscouraged the ancient discipline of the petual rosary; the former of whom are Franciscans, and indulged his monks in obliged to confess and communicate abandoning even the appearance of po- every first Sunday in the month, and verty; and this conduct inflamed the the latter to repeat the rosary continuindignation of the spiritual or austere ally.-2. The fraternity of the ScapulaFranciscans; so that, from the year ry, whom it is pretended, according to 1290, seditions and schisms arose in an the Sabbatine bull of pope John XXII. order that had been so famous for its the Blessed Virgin has promised to depretended disinterestedness and humili- liver out of hell the first Sunday after ty. Such was the enthusiastic frenzy of their death.-3. The fraternity of St. the Franciscans, that they impiously Francis's girdle are clothed with a sack maintained that the founder of their or- of a grey colour, which they tie with a der was a second Christ, in all respects cord; and in processions walk baresimilar to the first, and that their insti- footed, carrying in their hands a wooden tution and discipline were the true Gos-cross.-4. That of St. Austin's leather

but there is no certain account of their being here till king Henry VII. built two or three houses for them. At the dissolution of the monasteries, the conventual Franciscans had about fifty-five houses, which were under seven custodies or wardenships, viz. those of London, Worcester, York, Cambridge, Bristol, Newcastle, and Oxford.

girdle, comprehends a great many devotees. Italy, Spain, and Portugal, are the countries where are seen the greatest number of these fraternities, some of which assume the name of arch-fraternity. Pope Clement VII. instituted the arch-fraternity of charity, which distributes bread every Sunday among the poor, and gives portions to forty poor girls on the feast of St. Jerome, their patron. The fraternity of death buries such dead as are abandoned by their relations, and causes masses to be celebrated for them.

hard. Among other errors inculcated in this book, it is pretended that St. Francis was the angel mentioned in Rev. xiv. 6, and had promulgated to the world the true and everlasting Gospel; that the Gospel of Christ was to be abrogated in 1260, and to give place to this new and everlasting Gospel, which was to be substituted in its room; and that the ministers of this great reformation were to be humble and barefooted friars, destitute of all worldly employments. Some say, they even clected a pope of their church; at least they appointed a general with superiors, and built monasteries, &c. Besides the opi nions of Oliva, they held that the sacraments of the church were invalid, be

FRATRICELLI, an enthusiastic sect of Franciscans, which arose in Italy, and particularly in the marquisate of Ancona, about the year 1294. The word is an Italian diminutive, signifying frater-cause those who administered them had culi, or “little brothers," and was here used as a term of derision, as they were most of them apostate monks, whom the Italians call fratelli or fratricelli. For this reason, the term fratricelli, as a nick-name, was given to many other sects, as the Catharists, the Waldenses, &c. however different in their opinions and their conduct. But this denomination, applied to the austere part of the Franciscans, was considered as honourable. See FRANCISCANS.

no longer any power or jurisdiction. They were condemned again by pope John XXII.in consequence of whose cruelty they regarded him as the true antichrist; but several of them, returning into Germany, were sheltered by Lewis, duke of Bavaria, the emperor.

There are authentic records, from which it appears, that no less than 2000 persons were burnt by the inquisition, from the year 1318 to the time of Innocent VI. for their inflexible attachment to the order of St. Francis. The severities against them were again revived, towards the close of the fifteenth centu ry, by pope Nicholas V. and his successors. However, all the persecutions which this sect endured were not sufficient to extinguish it; for it subsisted until the times of the reformation in Germany, when its remaining votaries adopted the cause and embraced the | doctrine and discipline of Luther.

FRAUDS, PIOUS. See PIOUS FRAUDS.

The founders of this sect were P. Maurato and P. de Fossombroni, who, having obtained of Pope Celestine V. a permission to live in solitude after the manner of hermits, and to observe the rule of St. Francis in all its rigour, several idle vagabond monks joined them, who, living after their own fancies, and making all perfection to consist in poverty, were soon condemned by pope Boniface VIII. and his successor, and the inquisitors ordered to proceed against them as heretics: which commission they executed with their usual FREE AGENCY is the power of barbarity. Upon this, retiring into Si- following one's inclination, or whatever cily, Peter John Oliva de Serignan had|| the soul does, with the full bent of preno sooner published his comment on the ference and desire. Many and long have Apocalypse, than they adopted his te- been the disputes on this subject; not nets. They held the Romish church to that man has been denied to be a free be Babylon, and proposed to establish agent; but the dispute has been in what another far more perfect one: they it consists. See articles LIBERTY and maintained that the rule of St. Francis WILL. A distinction is made by wriwas the evangelical rule observed by ters between free agency, and what is Jesus Christ and his apostles. They called the Arminian notion of free will. foretold the reformation of the church, The one consists merely in the power of and the restoration of the true Gospel following our prevailing inclination; the of Christ, by the genuine followers of other in a supposed power of acting St. Francis; and declared their assent contrary to it, or at least of changing it. to almost all the doctrines which were The one predicates freedom of the published under the name of the abbot man; the other, of a faculty in man; Joachim, in the “ Introduction to the which Mr. Locke, though an anti-neEverlasting Gospel," a book published cessarian, explodes as an absurdity. in 1250, and explained by one of the The one goes merely to render us acspiritual friars, whose name was Ger-countable beings; the other arrogantly

claims a part, yea, the very turning || point of salvation. According to the latter, we need only certain helps or assistances, granted to men in common, to enable us to choose the path of life; but, according to the former, our hearts being by nature wholly depraved, we need an almighty and invincible Power to renew them. See NECESSITY.

FREE THINKER, an appellation given to those persons who deny revelation or the Christian religion. One of the most admirable and pointed addresses to free thinkers, any where to be met with, may be found in the dedication to Warburton's Divine Legation of Moses. See also an admirable paper in the Guardian, No. 70; and article DEISTS.

FRENCH CHURCH. See CHURCH GALLICAN.

they said at these times was heard and received with reverence and awe.

In the year 1706, three or four of these prophets came over into England, and brought their prophetic spirit along with them, which discovered itself in the same ways and manners, by ecstacies, and agitations, and inspirations under them as it had done in France; and they propagated the like spirit to others, so that before the year was out there were two or three hundred of these prophets in and about London, of both sexes, of all ages; men, women, and children: and they had delivered under inspiration four or five hundred prophetic warnings.

The great things they pretended by their spirit was, to give warning of the near approach of the kingdom of God, the happy times of the church, the millennium state. Their message was (and FRENCH PROPHETS. They first they were to proclaim it as heralds to appeared in Dauphiny and Vivarais. In the Jews, and every nation under heathe year 1688, five or six hundred Pro- ven, beginning at England,) that the testants of both sexes gave themselves grand jubilee, the acceptable year of out to be prophets, and inspired of the the Lord, the accomplishment of those Holy Ghost. They soon became so nu- numerous Scriptures concerning the merous, that there were many thou-new heaven and the new earth, the sands of them inspired. They were kingdom of the Messiah, the marriage people of all ages and sexes without of the Lamb, the first resurrection, or distinction, though the greatest part of the new Jerusalem descending from them were boys and girls from six or above, were now even at the door; that seven to twenty-five years of age. They this great operation was to be wrought had strange fits, which came upon them on the part of man by spiritual arms with tremblings and faintings as in a only, proceeding from the mouths of swoon, which made them stretch out those who should by inspiration, or the their arms and legs, and stagger several || mighty gift of the Spirit, be sent forth in times before they dropped down. They great numbers to labour in the vinestruck themselves with their hands, yard; that this mission of his servants they fell on their backs, shut their eyes, should be witnessed to by signs and and heaved with their breasts. They wonders from heaven, by a deluge of remained a while in trances, and, com- judgments on the wicked universally ing out of them with twitchings, uttered throughout the world, as famine, pestiall which came in their mouths. They lence, earthquakes, &c. that the extersaid they saw the heavens open, the minating angels shall root out the tares, angels, paradise, and hell. Those who and there shall remain upon earth only were just on the point of receiving the good corn; and the works of men being spirit of prophecy, dropped down not thrown down, there shall be but one only in the assemblies, crying out mercy, Lord, one faith, one heart, one voice but in the fields, and in their own houses. among mankind. They declared that The least of their assemblies made up all the great things they spoke of would four or five hundred, and some of them be manifest over the whole earth withamounted to even three or four thou- in the term of three years. sand persons. When the prophets had These prophets also pretended to the for a while been under agitations of bo- gift of languages, of discerning the sedy, they began to prophesy. The bur-crets of the heart, the gift of ministraden of their prophecies was, Amend tion of the same spirit to others by the your lives; repent ye: the end of all laying on of the hands, and the gift of things draws nigh! The hills rebound-healing. To prove they were really ined with their loud cries for mercy, and spired by the Holy Ghost, they alleged imprecations against the priests, the the complete joy and satisfaction they church, the pope, and against the anti- experienced, the spirit of prayer which christian dominion, with predictions of was poured forth upon them, and the the approaching fall of popery. All answer of their prayer by God.

FRIAR (brother,) a term commor to the monks of all orders. In a more peculiar sense, it is restrained to such monks as are not priests: for those in orders are usually dignified with the appellation of father.

FRIENDS, Society of. See QUAKERS.

FRUGALITY, is the keeping due bounds in expenses; it is the happy mean between parsimony on the one hand, and prodigality on the other. The example of Christ, John vi. 12. the injunctions of God's word, Luke xv. 1. Prov. xviii. 9. the evil effects of inattention to it, Luke xi. 1. 13. the peace and comfort which arise from it, together with the good which it enables us to do to others, should operate as motives to excite us to the practice of it. Wood's Ser. on Frugality, 1795; Robinson's Mor. Ex. ex. 3. Ridgley's Body of Div. 546, 3d edition.

FUNERAL RITES, ceremonies accompanying the interment or burial of any person.

The first people who seemed to have paid any attention to their dead were the Egyptians. They took great care in embalming their bodies, and building proper repositories, for them. This gave birth to those wonders of the world, the Egyptian pyramids. On the death of any person among them, the parents and friends, put on mournful habits, and abstained from all banquets and entertainments. This mourning lasted from forty to seventy days, during which time they embalmed the body. Before the dead were allowed to be deposited in the tomb, they underwent a solemn judgment. If any one stepped forth, accused them, and proved that the deceased had led an evil life, the judges pronounced sentence, and the body was precluded from burial. Even their sovereigns underwent this judicature; and Diodorus Siculus asserts, that many kings had been deprived of the honours of burial, and that the terrors of such a fate had a salutary influence on the virtue of their kings.

FRIENDSHIP, a mutual attachment subsisting between two persons, and arising not merely from the general principle of benevolence, from emotions of gratitude for favours received, from views of interest, nor from instinctive affection or animal passion; but from an opinion entertained by each of them that the other is adorned with some amiable or respectable qualities. Various have been the opinions respecting friendship. Some have asserted that there is no such thing in the world; others have excluded it from the list of Christian virtues; while others, believing the possibility of its existence, sup pose that it is very rare. To the two former remarks we may reply, that there is every reason to believe that there has been, and is such a thing as friendship. The Scriptures present us both with examples of, and precepts concerning it. David and Jonathan, Paul and Timothy, our Lord and Lazarus, as well as John, are striking instances of friendship. Solomon exhorts us in language so energetic, as at once shews it to be our duty to cultivate it. "Thine own friend, and thy father's friend, forsake not." "Make sure of thy friend, for faithful are the wounds of a friend," &c. The genius and injunctions of the Christian religion seem also to inculcate this virtue; for it not only commands universal benevolence to men, but promotes the strongest love and friendship between those whose minds are enlightened by divine grace, and who behold in each other the image of their Divine Master. As friendship, however is not enjoyed by every one, and as the want of it rises often from ourselves, we shall here subjoin, from an eminent writer, a few remarks by way of advice respecting it. 1. We must not expect perfection in any with whom we contract fellowship.-2. We must not be hurt by differences of opinion arising in intercourse with our friends.—3. It is material to the preservation of friendship, that openness of temper and obliging manners on both hands be cultivated.-4. We must not listen rashly to evil reports against our The Greeks used to put a piece of friends.-5. We must not desert our money in the month of the deceased, friends in danger or distress. Blair's which was thought to be the fare over Ser. ser. 17. vol. iv. Bp. Porteus's Ser. the infernal river: they abstained from vol. i. ser 15. W Melmoth's Transla-banquets; tore, cut, or shaved their tion of Cicero's Lælius, in a Note. hair; sometimes throwing themselves

The funeral rites among the Hebrews were solemn and magnificent. The relations and friends rent their clothes; and it was usual to bend the dead person's thumb into the hand, and fasten it in that posture with a string, because the thumb then having the figure of the name of God, they thought the devil would not approach it. They made a funeral oration at the grave, after which they prayed; then turning the face of the deceased towards heaven, they said, "Go in peace."

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