| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Smalcald Articles by Dr. Martin Luther: burning bush and spoken Word; and no prophet neither Elijah
nor Elisha, received the Spirit without the Ten Commandments
[or spoken Word]. Neither was John the Baptist conceived
without the preceding word of Gabriel, nor did he leap in his
mother's womb without the voice of Mary. And Peter says,
2. Ep. 1, 21: The prophecy came not by the will of man; but
holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
Without the outward Word, however, they were not holy, much
less would the Holy Ghost have moved them to speak when they
still were unholy [or profane]; for they were holy, says he,
since the Holy Ghost spake through them.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Phoenix and the Turtle by William Shakespeare: Here the anthem doth commence:
Love and constancy is dead;
Phoenix and the turtle fled
In a mutual flame from hence.
So they lov'd, as love in twain
Had the essence but in one;
Two distincts, division none:
Number there in love was slain.
Hearts remote, yet not asunder;
Distance, and no space was seen
'Twixt the turtle and his queen;
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Phaedrus by Plato: of a blind man. Yet, surely, he who is an artist ought not to admit of a
comparison with the blind, or deaf. The rhetorician, who teaches his pupil
to speak scientifically, will particularly set forth the nature of that
being to which he addresses his speeches; and this, I conceive, to be the
soul.
PHAEDRUS: Certainly.
SOCRATES: His whole effort is directed to the soul; for in that he seeks
to produce conviction.
PHAEDRUS: Yes.
SOCRATES: Then clearly, Thrasymachus or any one else who teaches rhetoric
in earnest will give an exact description of the nature of the soul; which
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