Monthly preparations for the Holy Communion by R.B

but shall my Saviour die, and vent his Soul in a stream of blood, and all in love to me? and shall he thus forsake the world, and die and then be laid in the grave, and I be denied the liberty of following him thither as a mourner? Shall it be said of the Prince of Glory, that he died and had the burial of an Ass? because there was none to sorrow forth those words of, Ah my Lord! What! shall it be granted to a Wife to mourn for the death of a beloved Husband? and to ⟨p. 133⟩a Child at the burial of a beloved Father? Shall not such be blamed, but rather pitied? And shall their friends come in and confess the loss and the ground of their sorrow just, and rather sit them down and bear them company in their grief? And must I of all be thus censured? Away with an Husband, Wife, or Child to me: Is he not more to me than ten Husbands? Might I not have had an hundred that would have never done half so much for me as he hath done? That first left his glory for my sake, and then laid down his life, and took the stroke upon himself that I my self deserved, and all because he loved me? Was ever friend like this friend! and ever love, like this love! Many waters cannot quench love; but neither waters, blood, death, nor many deaths could quench his love to me. But shall he love, and die in love, and thus be forced to leave me, because he loved me, and I not mourn the absence of my best Beloved? How unreasonable may any this deny me! But ah! what a bitter-worded check did I even now receive; as if my sorrow would arise from the envying ⟨p. 134⟩of his now glorious state, and not from any love I bare him! Oh! what needle-pointed words are those! methinks they have pierced mine heart in every part and from each prick hath started forth a drop, that hath set it o'er with a bloody dew! But how can it once be thought that envy should get a room in an heart that's full of love, with which it swells, it bubbles up, and runs all over? it cannot be. Bear witness heavens! I do not grieve that you contain him, but that I on earth have lost him! Oh my God! I am not sorry that thy Son hath past his sufferings, and is arrived to rest, and got again into thy bosom, his ancient nest of love and pleasure. Oh you blessed Orders of Seraphim & Cherubims, and you innumerable company of the spirits of the just men made perfect!

but shall my Saviour die, and vent his Soul in a stream of blood, and all in love to me? and shall he thus forsake the world, and die and then be laid in the grave, and I be denied the liberty of following him thither as a mourner? Shall it be said of the Prince of Glory, that he died and had the burial of an Ass? because there was none to sorrow forth those words of, Ah my Lord! What! shall it be granted to a Wife to mourn for the death of a beloved Husband? and to