C H A P.4. EpiJlle to the T'hcffalonians. -' VER. i 7 rit and Bride fay, Come, yea enen come quickly, Lord lefns; The ° Creatures with earneft expellation wait and long for u Rom 8.4. . the manifefiation of the formes of God. And by how many ineanes doth the Lord labour to draw our Affel}ions to- wards that bletfed Eflate ? exercifing, and men loading vs with A ffhetions.in this life ; giuing vs tafle of the com- forts he hath prouided for vs in the life to come, in the Peace of Conícience, and firil fruits of' SanCtification yet fo, as we haue neither in perfcl} ion, nor without in- terruption : To what end ? but that wemight, from the fweetnetie of the talle here vouchfafed vnto vs, frame this kind of' reafoning to our felues ? If the tafle of this happinethe be fo fweet; Oh what (hall the fulnefie bee? If this glimmering light of heaucnly knowledge, when we fee but as in aGlatie,darkly, bee fo delightfull;what (hall it bee,to fee the Lord face to face, and to know him as he is ? If our weake obedience, and the firfl fruits of the Spirit be Co comfortable, that wee highlier prize it then all the treaf'ures of the world ; what (hall the per - feetion of Holinetre be ? When there fha11 bee no Dcuill to tempt, no Concupifcence to entice, no Flefh tolxfl a- gainft the Spirit, no Law in our members to rebell again fl the Law ofetermind. If the communion wee haue here with Chrifl, in his Word and Sacraments, bee fo ioyous, that we are ofMalik mind, x One day in the Lordshaufeisbet- x Tor al.84.io. ter then a thotefand in theTents of vngodltneff e ; and thinke it more honour, to be a Toore.keeper in the Houfe of God,then to reigne in the Tabernacles of the wicked : what (hall it be,to enioy the immediatePrelénce and Glory of God our Father, Chrifl our Redeemer, the holy Ghofl our Comforter? &c. To which, if wee adde the confideration of the vn- clnangeableneffe of that eflate, what can be added to that tntaf:ure of happinetie ? Wf(,Hall, faith the 'A poflle, be ewer with the Lord. So then, the bleffed fiate of ds children.after'rbis life, Obir. Z4 is
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=