And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved.
Ver. 15. Spend and be spent] If like clouds we do sweat ourselves to death, so souls may be brought home to God, it is a blessed way of dying. Mr Samuel Cook's motto was Impendam et expendar, I will spend and be spent; this he cheerfully verified.
The less I be loved] This is many a good man's grief, but his reward is nevertheless with God. The nurse looks not for her wages from the child, but from the parent.