Song IV

1

It is an ease in Grief
to have Co-partners
It yields some comfort and relief
T'have Fellow-sufferers
Especially to have
Such as our case bemoan,
As lay to heart our sorrows, and
Under our Burden groan:

2

The saints all make one body
Have Union with one Head,
Are acted by one spirit, and
By him are quickened.
Hence then they cannot chuse,
But feel each others smart,
Their Burden bear, Lament their case,
And in their woes take part.

3

They cannot chuse but mourn
With such as mourners be:
And be afflicted too with those
Whom they afflicted see
Christ gives them tender hearts,
Therefore they fellow-feel:
They pitty, pray for, comfort them,
And seek each others weal.

4

This is a Comfort then
To Saints in misery,
To have such sweet Companions
Of their Calamity.
That when they are in sorrow
They sorrow not alone:
But meet with some that heartily
Their Miseries bemoan.

5

O let it never be
That Saints should Saints infest,
And add unto each others grief,
That are with grief opprest.
This wisdom from above
Comes not, but from beneath:
And ill becometh those in whom
The Spirit of Love doth breath.

6

That Spirit of Love and Peace,
Who dwells in all the Saints,
Unite our hearts, appease our strife,
Cease quarrels and complaints:
Cease quarrels and complaints:
Help us to pity more,
And pray for one another,
To strive who shall in love outstrip
And go beyond his brother.

7

This were a blessed strife;
Thus ought we all to strive:
Were this our strife; how would it make
Souls, Towns, and Churches thrive.
As many shoulders make
A heavy Burden light:
So might our Burdens lightened be,
Were but our Spirits right.

8

Well, Friends may pity us
And at our Sorrows grieve;
They cannot alwayes help: But Christ
Can pity and relieve.
This is the main support,
And comfort of the Saints,
That Jesus Christ them pittieth when
They pour out their complaints.

9

Friends sometimes stand aloof,
And Bretheren may forget us,
Of strangers be unto our Griefs,
The World at naught may set us:
But Jesus Christ regards us
Ev'n in our low estate:
He minds us well, and leaves us not
Forlorn and desolate.

10

Our gracious, great High-Priest
Is such an One as can
From his Experience pitty us
With bowels of a Man
Afflicted been he has
In their Affliction;
And therefore their Affliction was
As if it had been none.

11

Though far above all Griefs
In Glory Christ remains:
Yet of the Sorrows of his Saints
A feeling he retains.
He tells our wanderings,
And bottleth all our tears,
Is well acquainted with our griefs,
And writeth down our fears.

12

He knows thy Sicknesses;
He feeleth all thy smart:
Thy sufferings are his sufferings,
And reach his tender heart
And if he know and feel
All that doth thee agrieve:
He will with choicest Cordials
Thy fainting Soul relieve.

13

If these thy Sufferings
He reckon to be his:
He'll shortly put an end thereto,
And take thy Soul to Bliss.
Christ will not suffer long:
For he's not perfected,
Till all his Members be made like
In Glory to their Head.