By this you shall have much comfort and joy, and this is that which all men desire. What is that 1which keeps you from loving the Lord? Oh, you have a conceit, that then you must jose your pleasures, and your delights. No, it is the most comfortable action in the world, to love the Lord: delights follows action, as the flame the fire. Now the best action hath the greatest delight. The Philosopher could say, Happiness was to love the most amiable object; Est amare optimum amabile, to love the best amiable known, is the best act. Whom not seeing, yet you love, joying with joy unspeakable and glorious, 1 Peter 1. It is a pleasant thing to love a creature like thy self, thy children, thy friend. But the creature is not perfect, ⟨p. 59⟩and it may be it loves not thee again. But Christ is perfect, and loves thee, thou canst not lose any love by loving of him. Oh what a pleasant thing it is to love the Lord, to live with him, to sup and dine with him, to be able to say, I am my well-beloved's, and my well-beloved is mine! When you shall consider the world hates you, what a comfort will it be, to know that the Lord loves you! that when the world uses you ill, you may fly unto Christ his bosom, and lay open all your grievances to him. To love, and to be beloved, are the most pleasant actions. Now to love the Lord Jesus, is so much the more pleasant, than the loving of other things, as he is a more excellent object than other things. Besides, is not every thing best in its own place, conformed to its own rule, carried to its own end? Take it in thy body, when all the parts of it are strait, all the faculties and humours in a right temper, serving to their proper ends, then there is delight and comfort: so, Love, when it is settled upon its own object, sets all things straight, whence wonderful joy cannot but follow; Amor rectus omnia recta habet, as the Schoolman well observes.
By this you shall have much comfort and joy, and this is that which all men desire. What is that 1which keepes you from loving the Lord? Oh, you have a conceit, that then you must iose your pleasures, and your delights. No, it is the most comfortable action in the world, to love the Lord: delights follows action, as the flame the fire. Now the best action hath the greatest delight. The Philosopher could say, Happinesse was to love the most amiable object; Est amare optimum amabile, to love the best amiable knowne, is the best act. Whom not seeing, yet you love, joying with joy unspeakeable and glorious, 1 Peter 1. It is a pleasant thing to love a creature like thy selfe, thy children, thy friend. But the creature is not perfect, ⟨p. 59⟩and it may be it loves not thee againe. But Christ is perfect, and loves thee, thou canst not lose any love by loving of him. Oh what a pleasant thing it is to love the Lord, to live with him, to sup and dine with him, to be able to say, I am my welbeloveds, and my welbeloved is mine! When you shall consider the world hates you, what a comfort will it be, to know that the Lord loves you! that when the world uses you ill, you may flye unto Christ his bosome, and lay open all your grievances to him. To love, and to be beloved, are the most pleasant actions. Now to love the Lord Jesus, is so much the more pleasant, than the loving of other things, as he is a more excellent object than other things. Besides, is not every thing best in its owne place, conformed to its owne rule, carried to its owne end? Take it in thy body, when all the parts of it are strait, all the faculties and humours in a right temper, serving to their proper ends, then there is delight and comfort: so, Love, when it is setled upon its owne object, sets all things straight, whence wonderfull joy cannot but follow; Amor rectus omnia recta habet, as the Schoolman well observes.
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