For thereof it is written, "I shall be satiate" or
satisfied, or fulfilled, "when thy glory, good Lord, shall appear,"
that is, with the fruition of the sight of God's glorious majesty
face to face. And the desire, expectation, and heavenly hope
thereof, shall more encourage us and make us strong to suffer and
sustain for the love of God and salvation of our soul, than ever we
could be made to suffer worldly pain here by the terrible dread of
all the horrible pains that damned wretches have in hell.
Therefore in the meantime, for lack of such experimental taste as
God giveth here sometimes to some of his special servants, to the
intent that we may draw toward the spiritual exercise too--for
which spiritual exercise God with that gift, as with an
earnest-penny of their whole reward afterward in heaven, comforteth
them here in earth--let us labour by prayer to conceive in our
hearts such a fervent longing for them that we may, for attaining
to them, utterly set at naught all fleshly delight, all worldly
pleasures, all earthly losses, all bodily torment and pain. And let
us do this, not so much with looking to have described what manner
of joys they shall be, as with hearing what our Lord telleth us in
holy scripture how marvellous great they shall be. Howbeit, some
things are there in scripture expressed of the manner of the
pleasures and joys that we shall have in heaven, as, "Righteous men
shall shine as the sun and shall run about like sparkles of fire
among reeds.
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