| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from A Voyage to Abyssinia by Father Lobo: that we had met with kind treatment in his territories, a request
which we did not at that time think it convenient to deny.
Whatever we had suffered hitherto, was nothing to the difficulties
we were now entering upon, and which God had decreed us to undergo
for the sake of Jesus Christ. Our way now lay through a region
scarce passable, and full of serpents, which were continually
creeping between our legs; we might have avoided them in the day,
but being obliged, that we might avoid the excessive heats, to take
long marches in the night, we were every moment treading upon them.
Nothing but a signal interposition of Providence could have
preserved us from being bitten by them, or perishing either by
|
The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from The Smalcald Articles by Dr. Martin Luther: sin]; for they had to grieve, while they would rather have
continued to sin, if it had been free to them.
As regards confession, the procedure was this: Every one had
[was enjoined] to enumerate all his sins (which is an
impossible thing). This was a great torment. From such as he
had forgotten [But if any one had forgotten some sins] he
would be absolved on the condition that, if they would occur
to him, he must still confess them. In this way he could never
know whether he had made a sufficiently pure confession
[perfectly and correctly], or when confessing would ever have
an end. Yet he was pointed to his own works, and comforted
|