38 The Life o.f GOD love to be too faint an~ languid for fuch a noble objecr, and is only forry that it can comn1and no n1ore. It wiihes for the flan1es of a .feraph, and longs for the time w4en it lhall be wholly melted and dif– folved into love; and becaufe it can do fo little itfdf, it deGres the ailiftance of the whole creation, that angels and men would concur with it in the adn1iration .. and love of thofe infinite perfecrions. Again, love is accompanied with troubles, The certain· when it miffeth a fuitable re– ty to be beloturn of affeCtion. Love is the ved again. n1ofi: valuable thing we can befiow; and by giving it, we do in effecr give all that we have: and therefore it n1uft needs be affiiCl:ing, to find fo great a gift defpifed, that the prefent which -one hath made of his whole heart, cannot pre– vail to obtain any return: Perfect kwe. is a kind of felf-derelietion, a wandering out of ourfelves; it is a kind ofvoluntary death, wherdn the lover dies to himfelf, -and all his own interefl:s; not thinking of then1, nor caring for then1 any more, and min– ding nothing but how he tnay pleafe and gratify the party whom he loves. Thus he is quite undone unlefs he meets with reci– procal affection. He neglects himfelf, and the other bath no regard to him. But if - he
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