me fhall leap for joy. Thou art my glory, and the very rejoycing of my heart. Thou art my hope, and my refuge in the day of my tribulation. II. But because my Love is as yet feeble, and my virtue imperfect; therefore I have need to be ftrengthened and comforted by thee: O vifit me then often, I befeech thee, and instruct me with thy holy precepts. Deliver me from evil paffions, and cure my heart of all inordinate affections; to the end that being inwardly healed, and thoroughly cleanfed, I may be rendred fit to love, ftrong to fuffer, and stable to perfevere. III. Love is indeed a mighty thing, a moft fovereign good: This alone lightens every burden, and fmooths every rough way. For it carries a load without feeling the weight, and renders every bitter sweet and favoury. The Love of Jefus is noble and generous, it pushes a man on to great undertakings, and excites him to be ever aspiring after still higher degrees of perfection. Love is ever mounting upwards, and cannot bear to be retarded in its flight by any low and earthly thing. Love would. fain be free and difengaged from all worldly affections; that fo its inward eye may not O be be clouded, and that it may not be subject to the embarafments of any temporal good, nor yield to the impreffions of any temporal evil. Nothing is fweeter than Love, nothing stronger, nothing higher, nothing broader, nothing pleafanter, nothing fuller, nothing more excellent in Heaven, and in earth: Becaufe Love is born of GOD, and can reft in nothing but GOD, above and beyond all finite and created things. T " LIV. The Lover flies, runs, and is full of chearfulness and joy; he is free, and nothing ftops him in his courfe. He gives all for all, and poffeffes all in all: Because he refts in the one Sovereign and Supreme above all, from whom all good flows and proceeds. He looks not to the gift, but turns wholly to the Author above all goods and gifts whatfoever. Love many times knows no limits, no meafure, but tranfcends all bounds in its fervency, Love feels no weight, confiders no pains; attempts more than it is able to effect: Never excufes it felf upon the pretence of impoffibility; as being perfuaded that all things are both lawful and poffible unto it. Thus is Love able to do all things, and actually performs and atchieves many things, where the fire continues ftrong, and the Lover is not flack and heartlefs. V. Love 201 svo. I tu oly j V. Love never fleeps; it is awakel even in its flumbers. It is fatigued, but nor tired; hamper'd, but not enflavidalarm'd with fears, but not confounded; and like a trong and active flame, it is ever burfting upwards, and fecurely paffes through all oppofition Whofoever loves, her full well understands the piercing force of this cry A powerful cry in the ears of the Almighty is that bare expreffion alone of the fervent enamoured foul: My God, my Love: Thou art whol ly mines and I am wholly thine ow "protik VI.O dilate and enlarge my heart, to the end it may be more capable of bove Caufe me to feel experimentally, even to taste with the inner palate of my foul how fweet a thing it is to love, and to be whol ly loft and fwallowed up in a fea of Love? Let me be poffeffed with Love to the degree of being utterly ravifhed out of my felf by an excels of fervour and ecftatique tranfporty Let me fing a fong of Love: Let me follow thee my Beloved up into Heaven: Let my foul, exulting and triumphing for Love, faint and die away in thy praife. A Lev mel love thee more than my felf; and my felf only for thy fake; and in and for thee all others, that fincerely love thee, according to the commandment of that perfect law of O 2 Love, Love, which is but a beam of thy own infinite charity, who art Love. VII. Love is nimble in its motions, fincere in its intentions, tender and compaffionate, delightful to it felf, pleafing and agreeable to others; couragious, patient, faithful even to death, prudent, long-fuffering, generous and manly, and never feeketh it felf. For when once a man feeketh himself, from that inftant he falls off from Love! Love is circumfpect, humble, juft and upright: Not foft and effeminate, not light and fickle, nor minding the vanities of this tranfitory world; but fober, chafte, conftant and perfevering, peaceable and calm, and wellguarded in all its fenfes. Love is fubject, and obedient to Superiors; vile and despicable in its own eyes; full of devotion and gratitude to God; trufting, and ever hoping in him; even under fpiritual discomfort, and when the things of GOD are not relishing to its palate: Because there is no living without pain in Love. VIII. He that is not ready to endure all things, and to ftand wholly to the will of the Beloved, is not worthy the name of a Lover. A Lover ought to embrace joyfully all hardships and afflictions for the fake of his his Beloved; and never to turn afide from him upon the account of difafters and cross accidents. ON, thou art not yet become a vali- Why, Lord? THE SOUL. ME JESUS-CHRIST. Because a flight oppofition fhocks thy good purpofe; and because thou feekeft confolation and comfort too eagerly. A valiant Lover stands firm amidst tryals and temptations, and hearkens not to the crafty infinuations of the Enemy. As I please him in profperity, fo neither do I displease him in adverfity.relbedato II. He that loves prudently, doth not confider fo much the Gift of the Lover, as the Love of the Giver. He esteems the affecti |