300 AN EXAMPLE Or I dare to contend in love with thee ; or set my borrowed languid spark against the sum of love ? Can I love as high, as deep, as broad, as long, as Love itself? as much as he that made me, and that made me love, and gave me all that little which I have ? As I cannot match thee in the works of power, nor make, nor preserve, nor rule, the worlds; no more can I match thee in love. No, Lord, I yield, I am overcome. O blessed conquest ! Go on victoriously, and still prevail, and triumph in thy love: The captive of love shall proclaim thy victory ; when thou leadest me in triumph from earth to heaven, from death to life, from the tribunal to the throne; my- self; and all that see it, shall acknowledge thou hast pre- vailed, and all shall say, Behold how he loved him ! Yet let me love in subjection to thy love; as thy redeemed captive though not thy peer. Shall I. not love at all, be- cause I cannot reach thy measure? O that I could feel- ingly say, I love thee, even as .I love my friend, and myself ! Though I cannot say, as the apostle, Thou knowest that I love thee ! yet I can say, Lord, thou knowest that I would love thee ! I am angry with my heart, that it doth not love thee ; I chide it, yet it Both not mend ; I reason with it, and would fain persuade it, yet I do not perceive it stir ; I rub and chase it in the use of ordinances, and yet I feel it not warm within me. Unworthy soul ! Is not thine eye now upon the only lovely object? art thou not beholding the ravish- ing glory of the saints? And dost thou not love? Art thou not a rational soul, and should not reason tell thee that earth is a dungeon to the celestial glory ? Art thou not thyself a spirit, and shouldst thou not love God, who is a spirit, and a Father of spirits? Why dost thou love so much thy perishing clay, and love no more the heavenly glory? Shalt thou love when thou comestthere? When the Lord shall take thy carcase from the grave, and make thee shine as the sun in glory for ever and ever; shalt thou then love, or shalt thou not ? Is not the place a meeting of lovers? Is not the life a state of love? Is it not the great marriage day of the Lamb? Is not the employment there the work of love, where the souls
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