Letters to the Churches

For this is the will of God euen your sanctification, and that ye should abstaine from fornication,

That euery one of you should know, how to possesse his vessell in holines and honour,

And not in the lust of concupiscence, euen as the Gentiles which know not God:

That no man oppresse or defraude his brother in any matter: for the Lord is auenger of all such thinges, as we also haue tolde you before time, and testified.

For God hath not called vs vnto vncleannesse, but vnto holinesse.

Hee therefore that despiseth these thinges, despiseth not man, but God who hath euen giuen you his holy Spirit.

But as touching brotherly loue, ye neede not that I write vnto you: for ye are taught of God to loue one another.

Yea, and that thing verily yee doe vnto all the brethren, which are throughout all Macedonia: but we beseech you, brethren, that ye increase more and more,

And that ye studie to be quiet, and to meddle with your owne busines, and to worke with your owne handes, as we commanded you,

That yee may behaue your selues honestly towarde them that are without, and that nothing be lacking vnto you.

I would not, brethren, haue you ignorant concerning them which are a sleepe, that ye sorow not euen as other which haue no hope.

For if we beleeue that Iesus is dead, and is risen, euen so them which sleepe in Iesus, will God bring with him.

For this say we vnto you by the worde of the Lord, that we which liue, and are remayning in the comming of the Lord, shall not preuent them which sleepe.

For the Lord himselfe shall descende from heauen with a shoute, and with the voyce of the Archangel, and with the trumpet of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

Then shall we which liue and remaine, be caught vp with them also in the clouds, to meete the Lord in the ayre: and so shall we euer be with the Lord.

Wherefore, comfort your selues one another with these wordes.

Bvt of the times and seasons, brethren, yee haue no neede that I write vnto you.

For ye your selues knowe perfectly, that the day of the Lord shall come, euen as a thiefe in the night.

For when they shall say, Peace, and safetie, then shall come vpon them sudden destruction, as the trauaile vpon a woman with childe, and they shall not escape,

But ye, brethren, are not in darkenes, that that day shall come on you, as it were a thiefe.

Yee are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, neither of darkenesse.

Therefore let vs not sleepe as do other, but let vs watch and be sober.

For they that sleepe, sleepe in the night, and they that be drunken, are drunken in the night.

But let vs which are of the day, be sober, putting on the brest plate of faith and loue, and of the hope of saluation for an helmet.

For God hath not appointed vs vnto wrath, but to obtaine saluation by the meanes of our Lord Iesus Christ,