Surely, even good natures hate to be in debt for love, and are ready to repay favours with interest.

Oh, for a soul sick of love, yea, sick unto death! Why should I, how can I, be any otherwise, any whit less affected, O Saviour? This only sickness is my health; this death is my life; and not to be thus sick, is to be dead in sins and trespasses. I am rock, and not flesh, if I be not wounded with these heavenly darts. Ardent affection is apt to attract love, even where is little or no beauty; and excellent beauty is no less apt to inflame the heart, where there is no answer of affection; but when these two meet together, what breast can hold against them? and here they are both in an eminent degree. Thou canst say even of thy poor Church, though labouring under many imperfections, Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse; thou hast ravished my heart, with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck: how fair is thy love, my sister, my spouse!" And canst thou, O blessed Saviour, be so taken with the incurious and homely features of thy faithful ones, and shall not we much more be altogether enamoured of thine absolute and divine beauty? of whom every believing soul can say, 'My beloved is white and ruddy; the chiefest among ten thousand his head is as the most fine gold: his eyes are as the eyes of doves, by the rivers of waters his cheeks are as a bed of spices, as sweet flowers: his lips like lilies, dropping sweet-smelling myrrh, &c.' It hath pleased thee, O Lord, out of the sweet ravishments of thy heavenly love, to say to thy poor Church, "Turn away thine eyes from

Cant. iv. 9.

2 Ib. v. 10, &c.

me, for they have overcome me but, oh, let me say unto thee, “Turn thine eyes to me, that they may overcome me:" I would be thus ravished, thus overcome: I would be thus out of myself, that I might be all in thee.

Thou lovedst me, before I had being: let me, now that I have a being, be wholly taken up with thy love; let me set all my soul upon thee, that gavest me being; upon thee, who art the eternal and absolute Self-Being; who hast said, and only couldst say, 'I am that I am.' Alas! Lord, we are nothing, but what thou wilt have us; and cease to be, when thou callest in that breath of life which thou hast lent us: thou art that incomprehensible glorious, and infinite self-existing Spirit, from eternity, in eternity, to eternity; in and from whom all things are. It is thy wonderful mercy, that thou wouldst condescend so low, as to vouchsafe to be loved of my wretchedness, of whom thou mightest justly require and expect nothing but terror and trembling. It is my happiness, that I may be allowed to love a Majesty so infinitely glorious. Oh, let me not be so far wanting to my own felicity, as to less than ravished with thy love.

SECTION XI.

A further enforcement of our Love to Christ, in respect of our Unworthiness and his Sufferings and prepared Glory.

THOU lovedst me when I was deformed, loathly, forlorn, and miserable; shall I not now love thee

when thou hast freed me, and decked me with the ornaments of thy graces? Lord Jesu, who should enjoy the fruit of thine own favours, but thyself? How shamefully injurious were it, that, when thou hast trimmed up my soul, it should prostitute itself to the love of the world! Oh, take my heart to thee alone; possess thyself of that which none can claim but thyself.

Thou lovedst me when I was a professed rebel against thee; and receivedst me, not to mercy only, but to the endearment of a subject, a servant, a son; where should I place the improvement of the thankful affections of my loyalty and duty, but upon thee ?

Thou, O God, hast so loved us, that thou wouldst become the Son of man for our sakes; that we, who are the sons of men, might become the sons of God. Oh, that we could put off the man, to put on Christ; that we could neglect and hate ourselves for thee, that hast so dearly loved us, as to lay aside thy heavenly glory for us!

How shall I be vile enough, O Saviour, for thee; who, for my sake, being the Lord of life and glory, wouldst take upon thee the shape of a servant! How should I welcome that poverty which thy choice hath sanctified! How resolutely shall I grapple with the temptations of that enemy whom thou hast foiled for me! How cheerfully should I pass through those miseries and that death which thou hast sweetened! With what comfortable assurance shall I look upon the face of that merciful justice which thou hast satisfied! But, oh, what a blessed inheritance hast thou, in thine infinite love provided for me! 'an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not

away, reserved in heaven for me; so as when my earthly house of this tabernacle shall be dissolved, I have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.' A house? Yea, a palace of heavenly state and magnificence. Neither is it less than a kingdom, that abides there for me; a kingdom so much more above these worldly monarchies, as heaven is above this clod of earth.

Now, Lord, what conceits, what affections of mind can be in the least sort answerable to so transcendent mercy? If some friend shall have been pleased to * bestow some mean legacy upon me, or shall have feoffed' me in some few acres of his land, how deeply do I find myself obliged to the love and memory of 50 kind a benefactor! O then, Lord, how can my soul be capable of those thoughts and dispositions, which may reach to the least proportion of thine infinite bounty; who, of a poor worm on earth, hast made me an heir of the kingdom of heaven.

Woe is me, how subject are these earthly principalities to hazard and mutability, whether through death or insurrection! but this crown which thou hast laid up for me is immarcescible; and shall sit immovably fast upon my head, not for years, nor for millions of ages, but for all eternity. Oh, let it be my heaven here below, in the mean while, to live in a perpetual fruition of thee; and to begin those hallelujahs to thee here, which shall be as endless as thy mercy and my blessedness.

1 Pet. i. 4; 2 Cor. v. 1. 2 Given in possession.-ED. * Unfading.-ED.

SECTION XII.

1

The improvement of our Love to Christ for the mercy of his Deliverance, of the Tuition of his Angels, of the powerful working of his Good Spirit.

HADST thou been pleased to have translated me from thy former paradise, the most delightful seat of man's original integrity and happiness, to the glory of the highest heaven, the preferment had been infinitely gracious; but to bring my soul from the nethermost hell, and to place it among the choir of angels, doubles the thank of thy mercy, and the measure of my obligation. How thankful was thy prophet2 but to an Ebedmelech, that, by a cord and rags let down into that dark dungeon, helped him out of that uncomfortable pit wherein he was lodged; yet, what was there, but a little cold, hunger, stench, closeness, obscurity? Lord, how should I bless thee, that hast fetched my soul from that pit of eternal horror, from that lake of fire and brimstone, from the everlasting torments of the damned, wherein I had deserved to perish for ever? I will sing of thy power unto thee, O my strength, will I sing; for God is my deliverer, and the God of my mercy.

But, O Lord, if yet thou shouldst leave me in my own hands, where were I? How easily should I be robbed of thee, with every temptation? How should I be made the scorn and insultation3 of men and devils! It is thy wonderful mercy, that thou

1 Guardianship.-ED.

2 Jer. xxxviii.

3

Mockery.-ED.