Thou art my glory and the exultation of my heart: Thou art my hope and refuge in the day of tribulation.
2. But because I am as yet weak in love, and imperfect in virtue, I have need to be strengthened and comforted by Thee; visit me therefore often, and instruct me with all holy discipline.
Set me free from evil passions, and heal my heart of inordinate affections; that being inwardly cured and thoroughly cleansed, I may be made fit to love, encouraged to suffer, steady to persevere.
3. Love is a great thing, yea, a great and thorough good; by itself it makes everything that is heavy, light: and it bears evenly all that is uneven.
For it carries a burden which is no burden, and makes every thing that is bitter, sweet.
The noble love of Jesus impels a man to do great things, and stirs him up to be always longing for what is more perfect.
Love desires to be high, and will not be kept back by anything low and mean.
Love desires to be free, and estranged from all worldly affections, that so its inward sight may not be hindered; that it may not be entangled by any temporal prosperity, that it may not be subdued by any adversity.
Nothing is sweeter than love, nothing more courageous, nothing higher, nothing wider, nothing more pleasant, nothing fuller nor better in heaven and earth; because love is born of God, and cannot rest but in God, above all created things.
4. He that loveth, flieth, runneth and rejoiceth; he is free and is not bound.
