This intimates the strength of those bonds by which we are bound to
each other and which we ought to be sensible of. 1. Friends must be
constant to each other at all times. That is not true friendship which
is not constant; it will be so if it be sincere, and actuated by a good
principle. Those that are fanciful or selfish in their friendship will
love no longer than their humour is pleased and their interest served,
and therefore their affections turn with the wind and change with the
weather. Swallow-friends, that fly to you in summer, but are gone in
winter; such friends there is no loss of. But if the friendship be
prudent, generous, and cordial, if I love my friend because he is wise,
and virtuous, and good, as long as he continues so, though he fall into
poverty and disgrace, still I shall love him. Christ is a friend that
loves at all times (John xiii. 1) and we must so love him, Rom. viii.
35. 2. Relations must in a special manner be careful and tender of one
another in affliction: A brother is born to succour a brother or sister
in distress, to whom he is joined so closely by nature that he may the
more sensibly feel from their burdens, and be the more strongly
inclined and engaged, as it were by instinct, to help them. We must
often consider what we were born for, not only as men, but as in such a
station and relation. Who knows but we came into such a family for such
a time as this? We do not answer the end of our relations if we do not
do the duty of them. Some take it thus: A friend that loves at all
times is born (that is, becomes) a brother in adversity, and is so to
be valued.