but rather desire to be dissolved and be united to thee. For nowhere is it well with me, nor will be ever, without thee. Oh, when wilt thou bring me out of this prison! when shall I be delivered from the body of this death! &c.
CHRIST. But many also there are who fly from death, because in the world they are flourishing in wealth, abound in riches and honours, and call happy the people which possesses these things. Alas! now bitter is death to the man that has peace in his possessions, whose ways are prosperous in all things, and that is yet able to take meat![1] But, oh, foolish and slow of heart! oh, men of little faith! is it hard for you, who expect heaven and the highest Good, and the state that is perfect in being the complement of all blessings, to abandon the goods of earth. Behold, eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man, what things I have prepared for them that love me: nay, I will myself be their honour and glory, and inheritance and pleasure, and reward exceeding great.
MAN. I believe to see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living,[2] where we shall be inebriated with the plenty of thy House, and where one day will be better than thousands. But, why, alas! is my faith so weak, that for a clod of earth I should be no more a candidate for Heaven? Why does not my soul pant after thee, O God, as the hart pants after the fountains of water, or as the labourer waits for the end of his work? when, O Lord, thou wilt thyself be my portion in the land of the living. Thou art the portion of my inheritance and of my cup; it is thou who wilt restore my inheritance to me. Increase, O Lord, my faith, and stir up my heart and my desire.
CHRIST. See, then, that by death thou receivest things that are far greater than those that thou leavest behind thee. True it is, that, to my faithful ones, death is not loss, but gain. For instead of a life short and perishable, and full of miseries on every side, they receive one happy and immortal, where there shall be no more pain. For the perishable goods of the world, they gain the goods of the Lord in the land of the living. For the vain pleasures of the flesh they are given to drink of the torrent of eternal pleasure.
What is it, then, that binds thee to the world? Is it hard to leave thy parents, thy relations, thy friends, thy associates? But, in dying, bethink thee whither thou goest. It is to thy heavenly
