The saints everlasting rest

These, O these were the blessed words which his Spirit from his gospel spoke unto me, till he made me cast myself at his feet, yea, into his arms, and cry out, "My Saviour and my Lord, thou hast broke my heart, thou hast revived my heart, thou hast overcome, thou hast won my heart, take it, it is thine: if such an heart can please thee, take it: if it cannot, make it as thou wouldst have it."

Thus, O my soul, mayst thou remember the sweet familiarity thou hast had with Christ; therefore if acquaintance will cause affection, O then knit thy heart unto him; it is he that hath stood by thy bed of sickness, that hath cooled thy heats, and eased thy pains, and refreshed thy weariness, and removed thy fears; he hath been always ready, when thou hast earnestly sought him; he hath given thee the meeting in public and in private; he hath been found of thee in the congregation, in thy house, in thy chamber, in the field, in the way as thou wast walking, in thy waking nights, in thy deepest dangers. If bounty and compassion be an attractive of love, how unmeasurably then am I bound to love him! All the ⟨p. 386⟩mercies that have filled up my life tell me this; all the places that ever I did abide in, every condition of life that I have passed through, all my employments, and all my relations, every change that hath befallen me, all tell me, that the fountain is overflowing goodness.

LORD, what a sum of love am I indebted to thee, and how doth my debt continually increase! How should I love again for so much love! But what! shall I dare to think of making thee requital, or of recompensing all thy love with mine? Will my mite requite thee for thy golden mines? or mine, which is nothing, or not mine, for thine which is infinite and thine own? Shall I dare to contend in love with thee? or set my borrowed spark, against the sun of love? Can I love as high, as deep, as broad, as long as love itself; as much as he that made me, and that made me live, that gave me all that little which I have? Both the heart, the fire, the fuel, and all were his: as I cannot match thee in the works of thy power, nor make, nor preserve, nor guide the world; so why should I think any more of matching thee in love? no, LORD, I yield, I am overcome; O blessed conquest! go on victoriously, and still prevail, and triumph in thy love; the captive of love shall proclaim thy victory, when thou leadest me in triumph from earth to heaven, from death to life, from the tribunal to the throne, myself, and all that see it, shall acknowledge that thou hast prevailed, and all shall say, Behold, how he loved him!—Yet let me love thee, in subjection to thy love as thy redeemed captive, though I cannot reach thy measure.