on! Can Man's kindness be fo prevalent, and fhall not the goodness of God fire my Soul into at Practical Love to his Name? Can I do lefs than love him to whom I owe all I have? To love him is my happiness, my intereft, my greateft felicity: O my God! Shall I love a lit the shining Clay, a little Duft, a little Earth, and not love thee, who art worth more than ten thousand Worlds? Shall I love Father and Mother, and not love thee, who haft been better to me than my Parents, and when my Father and Mother have forfaken me haft taken me up, and with everlasting kindness vifited me? Shall I love my Friend, and fhall I not love thee, my Joy, my Treasure, my Hiding-place? But how can I love thee,except I keep thy Commandments? How can I be thy Friend, except I do whatsoever thou commandeft me? Shall I love thee in Words only, who haft loved me in Deeds? Shall I flatter thee with my Lips, and hate thee in my Heart? Shall I (Judas-like) kifs thee, and betray thee? Love thee, and love my Sins, which are thy greatest Enemies? Did I but love thee as I do a dear Friend, how eafie would all thy Precepts feem? How little reafon fhould I have to complain of the tedioufness of thy Yoak? What great, what noble, what generous Actions would thy Love put me upon? Should I pretend to love my Prince, and affront his Law, how foon would my Love be accused of a Lye? How can I be faid to love thee, while I hate to conform my self to thy Will and Pleasure? How vain will my Love appear in the last Day, if it hath been a stranger

to

3

10

L

to Obedience here? The Angels love thee, and they have no other way to demonstrate their Love but by running at thy Commands. Thy holy Fire burns in their breaft, and makes them fly to execute thy Orders. Do I hope to be like unto the Angels of God hereafter, and shall not I take Pattern by their obediential Love while I fojourn here? O my God! thou art the proper Object of my Love; I rob thee of thy Honour, and commit. Sacrilege, if I love any thing here below better than thee. I am married to thee, and I muft love nothing above thee. When no eye pitied me to have compaffion upon me, when I was caft into the open field to the loathing of my perfon; thou didst pafs by me, and faweft me polluted with my Blood, and faidft unto me when I was in my Blood Live; thou didft caufe me to multiply as the bud of the field, and when it was the time of Love, thou didst Spread thy skirt over me and coveredft my nakedness, and fwarest unto me, and enteredft into a Covenant with me, and I became thine, Ezek. 16. 5, 6, 7, 8. And, fhall my Soul be married to fo great a Prince, and play the Harlot? O my Lord! haft thou united me fo clofe unto thee, and fhall I defile my felf, by fetting my Love on Trifles? It hath gone aftray too long, it hath wandred up and down, and found no reft; and shall it lose it self for ever, and, like a Mole, run blindly from one Bury to another? What Man, what Devil can hurt me, while I love thee, without whofe Command no Creature dares ftir or move? What should discourage me from loving thee, when

I have all the Promises of the Bible to prompt me to it? If I lofe any thing in this World by loving thee, haft not thou Treasures enough to recompence my Loffes? If Men despise me for loving thee, haft not thou Honour and Glory enough to crown me withal? If I do not thrive in outward Riches, by loving thee, haft not thou who art rich in Mercy, a Pearl of price to bestow upon me when this Life is ended? I'll trust thee, O my God, and when my Lufts invite me to act like a Beast, I'll obey thee, and strive to be perfect, as thou art perfect: When Men entice me to Sin, I'll hearken to thee, and venture the difgrace or injury they can inflict upon me; when the World tempts me to be careless of my Salvation, I'll follow thee, and work out my Salvation with fear and with trembling

Thus

I'll manifeft to the World that thou art dearer to me than all that's great, or rich, or glorious in the World. Othat I were drunk with Love! O that all my faculties were filled with Love! O that I could love thee till I fainted away for Love! O that my Mind were fo intent upon thee that I could relish nothing but thy Love! O that my Soul did overflow with Love! O that this Stream might rife above its Banks!O that it might know no Bounds! O that I were fo fwallowed

up of Divine Love, that I could not tell whether I were in the Body, or out of the Body! O that the Contemplation of God's Love were fo fweet to me, that all other Objects might be Gall and Bitterness to me! O that I were able to go out of my felf into the vast Light of the Love of God! O that I had more of this rich

Wine? O that the King would lead me into his Wine Cellar! O that my Soul did thirst more after him! O that this Dew of Heaven might fall on my Fleece Day and Night! O that the Love of God might totally conquer me! O that every thought of mine might breath nothing but Love! O that it were my Meat and Drink to love thee! This is perfect Angels Food. Meats for the belly, and the belly for Meats, God fhall deftroy both it and them, but this food lafts for ever.

Delight in God is a Duty as necessary as the former, but how is it poffible I ever fhould arrive to it, without I fummon my Soul, by Confideration, to take a view of the Glory and Beauty which sparkles in that amiable Being? I fhall quickly feel my heart in another temper than ordinarily I do, if I befpeak it in fuch Language as this, Delight in God! O my Soul, canft thou name that charming Name of God, and feel no Joy, no Gladness in thy Affections? Is God fo dull an Object that it cannot ftir, or rouze thee from thy Lethargy? Where doft thou fee a more lovely Being? Survey the World, Where is there fo ravishing an Object? Can there be a lovelier Being, than he, from whom whatever is beautiful in Men or Angels flows? How beautiful must he be, to whom all these inferior Beauties owe their Being. If the Streams be fo lovely, What must the Water in the Fountain be? Alas! What is the Sun, but a dark Lanthorn in comparison of God? What is all the Light our Eyes behold, but a Rush-Candle to him that is the Father of Lights? Truly the light is fweet, and a pleasant thing it is

for the eyes to behold the Sun, Eccl. 11. 7. Indeed, whatever is rich, and to be admired in Objects, would fignifie nothing to us without Light; and, if created light be fo delightful, O God, How amiable mult thou be, who dwelleft in a light inacceffible! If the Sun, and Moon, and Stars, deferve my delight, how more justly may the Great Creator of all these challenge it, whose Glory doth infinitely tranfcend all the little twinklings and radiations which fhine in fublunary Objects! O my God, were thy Beauty viewed, as it fhines in the works of Creation, as it sparkles in the wife ordering and management of the World, as it blazes in the Redemption of Mankind, as it glifters in Regeneration of the Soul, as it dazles the Eye in the glorification of a Sinner, how lovely wouldst thou appear! And fince neither thy Being, nor thy Works are in vain, fince what thou art, and what thou doft, muft needs be for fome certain end; What can I conclude, but that thou difcoverest so much Beauty, and Splendor, and Glory to poorMortals,because we should rejoice and delight in thee, and be ravish'd with thee? O my Soul, without this delight in God, thou canft never be happy; God is the adequate Object, and thy Center, and he alone can give thee reft; and except he fills and fatisfies thy powers, they'll be forced, like Noah's Dove, to flutter and fly up and down, wander in a Defart, and lose themselves in a barren Wilderness. Thou rejoiceft in a Father, in a Mother, in a Friend, but God is more than a Father, more than a Mother, more than a Friend to thee. He doth