FOOL

FOREKNOWLEDGE

judgment. In Scripture, wicked persons are often called fools or foolish, because such act con trary to reason, trust to their own hearts, violate the laws of God, and prefer things vile, trifling, and temporal, to such as are important, divine and eternal.

it been observed, that these great duties are prompted equally by nature and by gratitude, independent of the injunctions of religion; for where shall we find the person who hath received from any one benefits so great, or so many, as children from their parents? And it may be truly said, that if persons are undutiful to their parents, they seldom prove good to any other re-versation, as includes folly, and can no ways be lation. See article CHILDREN.

FILIATION OF THE SON OF GOD. See SON OF GOD.

FIRE PHILOSOPHERS. See THEOSO

PHISTS.

FIRST FRUITS, among the Hebrews, were ablations of part of the fruits of the harvest, offered to God as an acknowledgment of his sovereign dominion. There was another sort of first fruits which was paid to God. When bread was kneaded in a family, a portion of it was set apart, and given to the priest or Levite who dwelt in the place. If there were no priest or Levite there, it was cast into the oven and consumed by the fire. These offerings made a considerable part of the revenues of the priesthood, Lev. xxiii.; Exodus xxii. 29; xxiii. 19; Numbers xv. 19, 20.

The first fruits of the Spirit are such communications of his grace on earth, as fully assure us of the full enjoyment of God in heaven, Rom. viii. 23. Christ is called the first fruits of them that slept; for as the first fruits were earnests to the Jews of the succeeding harvest, so Christ is the first fruits of the resurrection, or the earnest of a future resurrection; that as he rose, so shall believers also rise to happiness and life. 1 Cor. xv. 20.

First fruits are mentioned in ancient writers as one part of the church revenue.

First fruits, in the church of England, are the profits of every spiritual benefice for the first year, according to the valuation thereof in the king's

book.

FIVE POINTS, are the five doctrines controverted between the Arminians and Calvinists. See CALVINISTS.

FOOLISH SPEAKING, such kind of con

profitable and interesting, Eph. v. 4. Facetious ness, indeed, is allowable, when it ministers to harmless divertisement, and delight to conversa tion; when it is used for the purpose of exposing things which are base and vile; when it has for its aim the reformation of others; when used by way of defence under unjust reproach. But all such kind of speaking as includes profane jest ing, loose, wanton, scurrilous, injurious, unsea sonable, vain-glorious talk, is strictly forbidden. See Barrow's excellent Sermon on this subject in his Works, vol. i. ser. 14.

FORBEARANCE, is the act of patiently enduring provocation or offence. The following may be considered as the most powerful incen tives to the exercise of this disposition: 1. The consideration that we ourselves often stand in need of it from others, Gal. vi. 1.-2. The express command of Scripture, Eph. iv. 2; Col. 13.-3. The felicity of this disposition. It is sure to bring happiness at last, while resentment only increases our own misery.-4. That it is one of the strongest evidences we can give of the reality of our religion, John xiii. 35.-5. The beautiful example of Christ, Heb. xii. 3; 1 Pet. ü. 21-23.

FORBEARANCE OF GOD. See Pa TIENCE OF GOD,

FOREKNOWLEDGE OF GOD, is his foresight or knowledge of every thing that is to come to pass, Acts ii. 23. This foreknowledge, says Charnock, was from eternity. Seeing he knows things possible in his power, and things future in his will, if his power and resolves were from eternity, his knowledge must be so too; of else we must make him ignorant of his own power and ignorant of his own will from eternity, and FLACIANS, the followers of Matthias Fla- consequently not from eternity blessed and per aus Illyricus, who flourished in the sixteenth fect. His knowledge of possible things must run century. He taught that original sin is the very parallel with his will. If he willed from eternity, substance of human nature; and that the fall of he knew from eternity what he willed; but that man was an event which extinguished in the he did will from eternity we must grant, unless human mind every virtuous tendency, every we would render him changeable, and conceive noble faculty, and left nothing behind it but uni-him to be made in time of not willing, willing. versal darkness and corruption.

FLAGELLANTES. See WHIPPERS. FLATTERY, a servile and fawning behavour, attended with servile compliances and obsequiousness, in order to gain a person's favour. FLEMINGIANS, or FLANDRIANS, a sect of ngid Anabaptists, who acquired this name in the sixteenth century, because most of them were natives of Flanders, by way of distinction from the Waterlandians. See WATERLANDIANS.

The knowledge God hath in time was always one and the same, because his understanding his proper essence, as perfect as his essence, and of an immutable nature.

"To deny this is (says Saurin) to degrade the Almighty; for what, pray, is a God who created beings, and who could not foresee what would result from their existence? A God, who formed spirits united to bodies by certain laws, and whe did not know how to combine these laws so as to foresee the effects they would produce? A God forced to suspend his judgment? A God who every day learns something new, and who doth not know to-day what will happen to-morrow 1 A God who cannot tell whether peace will be concluded, or war continue to ravage the world; whether religion will be received in a certain kingdom, or whether it will be banished; whether the right heir will succeed to the crown, or FOOL, one who has not the use of reason or whether the crown will be set on the head of an

FOLLY, according to Mr. Locke, consists in the drawing of false conclusions from just principles, by which it is distinguished from madness, which draws just conclusions from false principles. But this seems too confined a definition. Folly, in its most general acceptation, denotes a weakness of intellect or apprehension, or some partial absurdity in sentiment or conduct. See EVIL, SIN.

usurper? For according to the different determi- | cation sinks, into a mere brutal commerce, a nations of the wills of men, of king, or people, the gratification which was designed to be the cement prince will make peace, or declare war; religion of a sacred, generous, and tender friendship. 4. will be banished or admitted; the tyrant or the It leaves the maintenance and education of chillawful king will occupy the throne: for if God dren, as to the father at least, utterly unsecured. cannot foresee how the volitions of men will be 5. It strongly tempts the guilty mother to guard determined, he cannot foresee any of those events. herself from infamy by methods of procuring What is this but to degrade God from his Deity, abortion, which not only destroy the child, but and to make the most perfect of all intelligences a often the mother. 6. It disqualifies the deluded being involved in darkness and uncertainty like creatures to be either good wives, or mothers, in ourselves?" See OMNISCIENCE. any future marriage, ruining that modesty which is the guardian of nuptial happiness. 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.

FORGIVENESS, the pardon of any offence committed against us. This is a virtue which our Lord expressly inculcates, not as extending to our friends only, but to our enemies. "Ye have heard," saith he, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy; but I say unto you, love your enemies," &c. "This," says an ingenious writer, was a lesson so new, and utterly unknown, till taught by his doctrine, and enforced by his example, that the wisest moralists of the wisest nations and ages represented the desire of revenge as a mark of a noble mind; but how much more magnanimous, how much more beneficial to mankind, is forgiveness! It is more magnanimous, because every generous and exalted disposition of the human mind is requisite to the practice of it; and it is the most beneficial, because it puts an end to an eternal succession of injuries and retaliations." Let us, therefore, learn to cherish this noble disposition; let the bitterest enemy we have be softened by its effects; let us consider also how friendly it is to our own happiness, and how much it prevents the unhappiness of others. "The feuds and animosities, in families, and between neighbours, which disturb the intercourse of human life, and collectively compose half the misery of it, have their foundation in the want of a forgiving temper, and can never cease but by the exercise of this virtue on one side, or on both." Paley's Mor. Phil. vol. i. p. 271; Soame Jenyns's Int. Evid. p. 67, 68; Clarke's Ser. ser. 2. vol. x.; Tillotson's Ser. vol. viii. p. 251.

FORGIVENESS OF SINS. See PARDON,

MERCY.

FORMALIST, one who places too much dependence on outward ceremonies of religion, or who is more tenacious of the form of religion than the power of it.

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 virtue: we speak of desperate courage, but not of desperate fortitude. A contempt or neglect of dangers may be called 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.

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 respect to the dangers of war, valour; with respect to pain of body, or distress of mind, patience; with respect to labour, activity; with respect to injury, forbearance; with respect to our condition in general, magnanimity.

Christian fortitude is necessary to vigilance patience, self-denial, and perseverance; and is requisite under affliction, temptation, persecution, desertion, 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, Ser. ser. 31; Evans's Ser. ser. 19. vol. i.¡ Steele's Christian Hero; Mason's Ser, vol. i. ser. v.

Watts's

FORMS OF PRAYER. See PRAYER. FORNICATION, whoredom, or the act of incontinency between single persons; for if either of the parties be married, it is adultery. While the Scriptures give no sanction to those austerities which have been imposed on men under the idea of religion, so, on the other hand, they give no liberty for the indulgence of any propensity that would either militate against our own interest or that of others. It is in vain to argue the innocency of fornication from the natural passions implanted in us, since "marriage is honour- FORTUNE, a name which, among the anable in all," and wisely appointed for the preven-cients, seemed to have denoted a principle of fortion of those evils which would otherwise ensue; tuity, whereby things came to pass without being and, besides, the existence of any natural pro- necessitated thereto; but what and whence that pensity in us, is no proof that it is to be gratified principle is, they do not seem to have ever prewithout any restriction. That fornication is both cisely thought. It does not appear that the anunlawful and unreasonable, may be easily in- tiquity of the word is very high. It is acknow. ferred, if we consider, 1. That our Saviour ex-ledged, on all hands, that Tux, from whence the pressly declares this to be a crime, Mark vii. 21-Romans took their fortuna, was a term invented 23. 2. That the Scriptures declare that fornica- long after the times of Hesiod and Homer, in tors cannot inherit the kingdom of God, 1 Cor. whose writings it no where occurs. The philon9; Heb. xii. 16; Gal, v. 19-22. 3, Forni-sophical sense of the word coincides with what is

147

FRANCISCANS

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.

FRAME. This word is used to denote any state of mind a man may be in; and, in a religious sense, is often connected with the word feeling, or used 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 unworthiness, but not make us suspect the willingness of Christ; they should make us see our own weakness, but not cause us to suspect the strength of Christ; they should make us suspect our own hearts, but not the firmness and freeness of the promises.

FRATERNITY

which was further 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 famous constitution, confirming the rule of St. Francis, and contain ing an elaborate explication of the maxims he recommended, and the duties he prescribed. In 1287, Matthew, of Aqua Sparta, being elected general of the order, discouraged the ancient dis cipline of the Franciscans, and indulged his monks in abandoning even the appearance of poverty; and this conduct inflamed the indigna tion of the spiritual or austere Franciscans; so that, from the year 1290, seditions and schisms arose in an order that had been so famous for its pretended disinterestedness and humility. Such was the enthusiastic frenzy of the Franciscans, that they impiously maintained that the founder of their order was a second Christ, in all respects similar to the first, and that their institution and discipline were the true Gospel of Jesus. Ac cordingly Albizi, a Franciscan, of Pisa, published a book in 1383, with the applause of his order, entitled the Book of the Conformities of St. Fran cis 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 FRANCISCANS, a religious order founded were called spirituals; and the other, who in by St. Francis in the year 1209. Francis was the sisted on mitigating the austere injunctions of son of a merchant of Assisi, in the province of their founder, were denominated brethren of tat Umbria, who, having led a dissolute life, was recommunity. These wore long, loose, and good claimed by a fit of sickness, and afterwards fell habits, with large hoods; the former were clad in into an extravagant devotion that looked less like a strait, coarse, and short dress, pretending the religion than alienation of mind. Soon after this, this dress was enjoined by St. Francis, and that viz. in the year 1208, hearing the passage repeated no power on earth had a right to alter it. Neither in which Christ addresses his apostles, Provide the moderation of Clement V. nor the violence of neither gold, nor silver, &c., Matt. x. 9, 10, he John XXII. could appease the tumult occasioned was led to consider a voluntary and absolute by these two parties; however, their rage sub poverty as the essence of the Gospel, and to pre-sided from the year 1329. In 1368 these tro scribe 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 minor, 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 personal and collective property, so that neither the individual nor the community were to possess either fund, revenue, or any worldly goods, was considered as too strict and severe, and dispensed with soon after his death. In 1231, Gregory IX. published an interpretation of this rule, mitigating its rigour;

the

parties were formed into two large bodies, em prehending the whole Franciscan order, viz, the conventual brethren, and the brethren of the ob sercance, or observation, from whom sprang Capuchins and Recollets. The general option is, that the Franciscans came into England in the year 1224, and had their first house at Canter bury, and their second at London; 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 con ventual Franciscans had about fifty-five houses, which were under seven custodies or wardenships viz. those of London, Worcester, York, Can bridge, Bristol, Newcastle, and Oxford.

FRATERNITY, in the Roman Catholic countries, signifies a society for the improvement of devotion. Of these there are several sorts, as 1. The Fraternity of the Rosary, founded by S Dominic. It is divided into two branches, called the common rosary, and the perpetual rosary; the former of whom are obliged to confess and com municate every first Sunday in the month, and the latter to repeat the rosary continually The Fraternity of the Scapulary, whom it is pre tended, according to the Sabhatine bull of pope John XXII. the Bessed Virgin has promised t deliver out of hell the first Sunday after their death.-3. The Fraternity of St. Francis's girdle are clothed with a sack of grey colour, włuch they

T

TEL

FRATRICELLI

tie with a cord; and in processions walk barefooted, carrying in their hands a wooden cross.-4. That of St. Austin's leathern 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.

FRATRICELLI, an enthusiastic sect of Franciscans, which rose in Italy, and particularly in the marquisate of Ancona, about the year 1294. The word is an Italian diminutive, signifying fraterculi, 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.

FRENCH

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 century, by pope Nicholas V. and his suecessors. 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. FREE AGENCY is the power of following one's inclination; or whatever the soul does with full bent of preference and desire. Many and long have been the disputes on this subject; not that man has been denied to be a free agent, but the dispute has been in what it consists. See articles LIBERTY and WILL. A distinction is made by writers between free agency, and what is called the Arminian notion of free will. The one con sists merely in the power of following our prevailing inclination; the other in a supposed power of acting contrary to it, or at least of changing it. The one predicates freedom of the man; the other of a faculty in man; which Mr. Locke, though an anti-necessarian, explodes as an absurdity. The one goes merely to render us accountable beings; the other arrogantly claims a part, yea, the very turning point of salvation. According to the latter, we need only certain helps or assist ances, 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.

The founders of this sect were P. Maurato and P. de Fossombroni, who having obtained of pope Celestin 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 or dered to proceed against them as heretics, which commission they executed with their usual barbarity. Upon this, retiring into Sicily, Peter John Oliva de Serignan had no sooner published his comment on the Apocalypse, than they adopted his tenets. They held the Romish church to be Babylon, and proposed to establish another far more perfect one: they maintained that the rule of St. Francis was the evangelical rule observed by Jesus Christ and his apostles. They foretold the reformation of the church, and the restoration of the true Gospel of Christ by the genuine followers of St. Francis; and declared their assent to almost all the doctrines which were published under the name of the abbot Joachim, in the "In- LICAN. troduction to the Everlasting Gospel," a book pub- FRENCH PROPHETS. They first aplished in 1250, and explained by one of the spi-peared in Dauphiny and Vivarais. In the year ritual friars, whose name was Gerhard. Among 1688, five or six hundred Protestants of both other errors inculcated in this book, it is pretended sexes gave themselves out to be prophets, and inthat St. Francis was the angel mentioned in Rev.spired of the Holy Ghost. They soon became xiv. 6, and had promulgated to the world the true so numerous, that there were many thousands of and everlasting Gospel; that the Gospel of Christ them inspired. They were people of all ages and was to be abrogated in 1260, and to give place to sexes without distinction, though the greatest part this new and everlasting Gospel, which was to be of them were boys and girls from six or seven to substituted in its room; and that the ministers of twenty-five years of age. They had strange fits, this great reformation were to be humble and which came upon them with tremblings and faintbarefooted friars, destitute of all worldly employ-ings as in a swoon, which made them stretch out ments. Some say, they even elected a pope of their arms and legs, and stagger several times betheir church; at least they appointed a general fore they dropped down. They struck themselves with superiors, and built monasteries, &c. Be- with their hands, they fell on their backs, shut sides the opinions of Oliva, they held that the sacraments of the church were invalid, because those who administered them had no longer any power or jurisdiction. They were condemned again by pope John XXII., in consequence of

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. Seo also an admirable paper in the Guardian, No. 70; and article DEISTS.

FRENCH CHURCH. See CHURCH GAL

their eyes, and heaved with their breasts. They remained a while in trances, and, coming out of them with twitchings, uttered all which came in their mouths. They said they saw the heavens open, the angels, paradise, and hell. Those who

FRIAR

were just on the point of receiving the spirit of prophecy, dropped down not only in the assemblies, crying out mercy, but in the fields, and in their own houses. The least of their assemblies made up four or five hundred, and some of them amounted to even three or four thousand persons. When the prophets had for a while been under agitations of body, they began to prophesy. The burben of their prophecies was-Amend your lives; repent ye: the end of all things draws nigh! The hills resounded with their loud cries for mercy, and imprecations against the priests, the church, the pope, and against the anti-christian dominion, with predictions of the approaching fall of popery. All they said at these times was heard and received with reverence and awe. In the year 1706, three or four of these prophets ca ne 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 they were to proclaim it as heralds to the Jews, and every nation under heaven, beginning at England, that the grand jubilee, the acceptable year of the Lord, the accomplishment of those numerous Scriptures concerning the new heaven, and the new earth, the kingdom of the Messiah, the marriage of the Lamb, the first resurrection, or the new Jerusalem descending from above, were now even at the door; that this great operation was to be wrought on the part of man by spiritual arms only, proceeding from the mouths of those who should, by inspiration, or the mighty gift of the Spirit, be sent forth in great numbers to labour in the vineyard; that this mission of his servants should be witnessed to by signs and wonders from heaven, by a deluge of judgments on the wicked universally throughout the world, as famine, pestilence, earthquakes, &c. ; that the exterminating angels shall root out the tares, and there shall remain upon the earth only good corn; and the works of men being thrown down, there shall be but one Lord, one faith, one heart, one voice among mankind. They declared that all the great things they spoke of would be manifest over the whole earth within the term of three years.

These prophets also pretended to the gift of languages, of discerning the secrets of the heart, the gift of ministration of the same spirit to others by the laying on of the hands, and the gift of healing. To prove they were really inspired by the Holy Ghost, they alleged the complete joy and satisfaction they experienced, the spirit of prayer, which was poured forth upon them, and the answer of their prayer to God."

FRIAR (Brother,) a term common to the monks of all orders. In a mere peculiar sense, it is restrained to such monks as are not priests; for those in orders are usually dignified with the appella ion of fulher.

FUNERAL

FRIENDSHIP, a mutual attachment subsisting between two persons, and arising not merely from the general principle of benevoler from emotions of gratitude for favours received, from views of interest, nor from instinctive affec tion or animal passion; but from an opinion entertained by each of them that the other is adorn ed with some able or respectable qualities. Vari ous 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, suppose 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 Jona than, Paul and Timothy, our Lord and Lazarus as well as John, are striking instances of friendship. Solomon exhorts us, in language so ener getic, as at once shows it to be our duty to culti vate it. "Thine own friend and thy father 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 be tween 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 arises often from ourselves, we shall here subjoin, from an eminent writer, a few re marks 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 friends.-5. We must not desert our friends in danger or distress. Blair's Serm. ser. 17, vol iv.; Bp. Porteus's Serm. vol. i. ser. 15.; W. Melmoth's Translation of Cicero's Lælius, in a Note.

FRIENDS, SOCIETY OF. See QUARERS FRUGALITY, is the keeping due bounds in expences; it is the happy mean between parsi mony 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. Pr. 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 others, should operate as motives to excite us to the practice of it. Wood's Serm. on Fru gality, 1795; Robinson's Mor. Er. ex. 3; Ridg ley's Body of Dir. 546, 3d edition.

FUNERAL RITES, ceremonies accompa nying 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 reposi: ries 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