2. Who are these that are to be with the Lord? What we doth the Apostle mean? whom doth he say this great thing of? of all those that shall be caught up in the Clouds, to meet the Lord in the Air. Who are they? those that shall be alive, and remain, when the Lord ⟨p. 195⟩shall come: Together with them. Who are they? the Dead in Christ that did rise first, before the Living were changed; so then it comprehends those that slept in Jesus, and shall be raised, and those Believers that shall be found alive, and changed, and caught up together into the Air to meet Christ, who will adjudge them to Everlasting Life, and so after that shall be with Christ in Glory. Are these the Dead we Mourn for? and why? because they are dead in their Gr•ves, and with the dead: but have we no F•ith in this Word of the Lord. If we hav•, let us set their Resurrection over against their Death, and Heaven over against their Gr•v•s, and their being with the Lord hereafter over against their present being with the Dead, and try if a firm, and lively acting Faith will not bring to us greater Joy, than Sense now fills us with disquieting Sorrow: Or shall we walk by Sense, and not by Faith? Sense tells us, they are in the Grave, there our Eyes saw them laid; and doth not God tell us, they shall be with him? and have not we Faith to believe him? and if we have, cannot we rejoice in the Hope thereof, but sorrow on, as if we had no such Hope? Do we sit and ponder upon the loathsomeness and darkness of the Grave, and weep while we ponder, that our Dead are there? and cannot we sit and meditate upon the holiness, happiness, and ⟨p. 196⟩the shining Glory of Heaven, and rejoice that our dead shall live, and dwell in that glorious Place hereafter? especially when we consider they then shall be with the Lord, so as before they never were. Admit their Souls are now with Christ, yet their Bodies are not: It is but one part of them that now is Glorified; but the Day is coming, and it hasteneth, that all Believers, and all of every one, the Body as well as the Soul, shall be with the Lord. Did Paul judge it far better to depart, that his Soul may be with Christ, tho he left his Body to the Grave, and was it the matter of his Desire? Phil. 1.23. And shall not we judge it to be best, that we and ours shall be with Christ, both in Body and Soul;
2. Who are these that are to be with the Lord? What we doth the Apostle mean? whom doth he say this great thing of? of all those that shall be caught up in the Clouds, to meet the Lord in the Air. Who are they? those that shall be alive, and remain, when the Lord ⟨p. 195⟩shall come: Together with them. Who are they? the Dead in Christ that did rise first, before the Living were changed; so then it comprehends those that slept in Jesus, and shall be raised, and those Believers that shall be found alive, and changed, and caught up together into the Air to meet Christ, who will adjudge them to Everlasting Life, and so after that shall be with Christ in Glory. Are these the Dead we Mourn for? and why? because they are dead in their Gr•ves, and with the dead: but have we no F•ith in this Word of the Lord. If we hav•, let us set their Resurrection over against their Death, and Heaven over against their Gr•v•s, and their being with the Lord hereafter over against their present being with the Dead, and try if a firm, and lively acting Faith will not bring to us greater Joy, than Sense now fills us with disquieting Sorrow: Or shall we walk by Sense, and not by Faith? Sense tells us, they are in the Grave, there our Eyes saw them laid; and doth not God tell us, they shall be with him? and have not we Faith to believe him? and if we have, cannot we rejoyce in the Hope thereof, but sor•ow on, as if we had no such Hope? Do we sit and ponder upon the loathsomness and darkness of the Grave, and weep while we ponder, that our Dead are there? and cannot we sit and meditate upon the holiness, happiness, and ⟨p. 196⟩the shining Glory of Heaven, and rejoyce that our dead shall live, and dwell in that glorious Place hereafter? especially when we consider they then shall be with the Lord, so as before they never were. Admit their Souls are now with Christ, yet their Bodies are not: It is but one part of them that now is Glorified; but the Day is coming, and it hasteneth, that all Believers, and all of every one, the Body as well as the Soul, shall be with the Lord. Did Paul judge it far better to depart, that his Soul may be with Christ, tho he left his Body to the Grave, and was it the matter of his Desire? Phil. 1.23. And shall not we judge it to be best, that we and ours shall be with Christ, both in Body and Soul;
