The divine life in three treatises

And is this the difference between the Love of man and of God? And yet do I lament the loss of man! And yet am I so backward to converse with God, and to be satisfied in his Love alone! Ah my God, how justly mayest thou withhold that Love which I thus undervalue; and refuse that converse which I have first refused? and turn me over to man, to silly ⟨p. 356⟩man, to sinful man, whose converse I so much desire, till I have learnt by dear experience the difference between man and God, and between an Earthly and an Heavenly friend! Alas, have I not tried it oft enough, to have known it better before this day! Have I not oft enough sound what man is in a time of trial! Have I not been told it over and over, and told it to the quick, by deceitful friends, by self-seeking friends, by mutable, erroneous, deceived, scandalous, backsliding friends, by proud and self-conceited friends; by passionate, quarrelsome, vexatious friends, by self-grieving troubled friends that have but brought me all their calamities and griefs to be additions to my own; by tempting friends, that have drawn me to sin more effectually than enemies; by tender, faithful, but unable friends, rhat have but fetched fire from my calamities and sorrows to kindle their own, not equally sharing, but each one taking all my trouble entirely to himself: that have been willing, but insufficient to relieve me; and therefore the greater was their Love, the greater was their own, and consequently mine affliction: that would have been with me, but could not; that would fain have eased my pain, and strengthened my languishing body, but could not; that would fain have removed all my troubles, and comforted my cast-down mind, but could not. O how often have I found that humane friendship is a sweet desired addition to our woe; a beloved calamity, and an affliction which nature will not be without, not because it Loveth evil, nor because it is wholly deceived in its choice (for there is Good in friendship, and delight in holy Love) but because the Good which is here accompanied with so much evil, is the beginning of a more high and durable friendship, and pointeth us up to the blessed delightful society and converse which in the heavenly Jerusalem we shall have with Christ!

And is this the difference between the Love of man and of God? And yet do I lament the loss of man! And yet am I so backward to converse with God, and to be satisfied in his Love alone! Ah my God, how justly mayest thou withhold that Love which I thus undervalue; and refuse that converse which I have first refused? and turn me over to man, to silly