The Promised Glory Will Follow

[Rebecca said,] “Arise, flee."
GENESIS 27:43 4
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The Promised Glory Will Follow
One learns by experience how difficult and full of trials it is to leave parents, a blessing, and an inheritance, and to flee to a place of wretchedness and poverty. . .. Thus we who believe the Word of God are the Church. We have a most certain promise, into which we have been called and baptized, and by which we are nourished and sustained; we have the Sacrament of the Altar and the power of the Keys. But we are not Christians and have not been baptized in order that we may get possession of this land. Nor have we been baptized and born again into this life; we have been baptized and born again into eternal life. But what happens in regard to us too? Surely this, that when the Church must be glorified and brought to those eternal joys which it awaits in the Word and in hope, then it is subjected to countless persecutions of tyrants and devils; it is harassed and torn by false brethren in many most pitiable ways. This is not what being led to eternal life means, is it? Indeed, it means being exposed to eternal misery. Yet hearts must be buoyed up and strengthened against this way of the cross. For we have the Word and the promise. Therefore the glory that has been promised is sure to follow. And meanwhile the Church lives and is preserved by faith, which concludes firmly that God does not lie. . .. We must depend simply on the invisible God and give thanks to God with joy that we have the Word of God, which makes the promise.
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