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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 belo-
turn of affeCtion.
Love is the
ved again.
n1ofi: valuable thing we can be-
fiow; 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,
w
herdn 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