should you be condemned to expiate your misfortune on the cross, I will be crucified either for you or with you." This man, therefore, proved that he was his friend (33) .
APPLICATION.
My beloved, the king is God; the only son is any Christian. The first friend is the world; and if it gives, in your necessity, two or three ells of cloth, it is much indeed. The second friend is your wife, and sons, and daughters; they will bewail you to your sepulchre, but soon forget you after you are laid there[1]; the third friend is Christ, who loves us even upon
- ↑ Massinger has a sentiment so similar, that if the experience of all ages were not alike, one might fancy that the Poet had borrowed from the Monk.
"When dead, we are
With solemn pomp brought hither, and our heirs
Masking their joy in false dissembled tears,
Weep o'er the hearse: but earth no sooner covers
The earth brought hither, but they turn away
With inward smiles—the dead no more remembered."
The Maid of Honour, Act II. Sc. 3.
