The mourners cordial against excessive sorrow discovering what grounds of hope Gods people have…

2. The persons hoped for: they are such […] sleep: i. e. such as we have any grounded hope concerning, that they died in Christ; and this is not the lot of all men; nor yet of all such as live under the Dispensation of Gospel Ordinances, and have been externally related to the Covenant: and it is a thing very evident that the hope here intended hath all its strength from Christ; and therefore the thing hoped must derive from an interest in him, and by consequence it must hold proportion with the reason which we had to conclude that they had such an interest, for, to be without Christ, and to be without hope, do run parallel, Eph. 2.12.

2. The persons hoped for: they are such 〈…〉 sleep: i. e. such as we have any grounded hope concerning, that they died in Christ; and this is not the lot of all men; nor yet of all such as live under the Dispensation of Gospel Ordinances, and have been externally related to the Covenant: and it is a thing very evident that the hope here intended hath all its strength from Christ; and therefore the thing hoped must derive from an interest in him, and by consequence it must hold proportion with the reason which we had to conclude that they had such an interest, for, to be without Christ, and to be without hope, do run parallel, Eph. 2.12.

3. The things upon which our Hope feeds it self concerning them, and from which it supplies ⟨p. 59⟩us with our consolation: and they must be such things as are in themselves hopeable, and upon a presumption that they shall come to pass, do contain matter of good consolation in them. Now that which must comfort us in our mourning for those that are dead, must give us particular relief against those very things which are the grounds of our Sorrow: and the proper reason of this sorrow is, a supposed loss which there is sustained by their death: and this must be either with respect to our selves, or unto them: That which is with respect unto our selves is, that we have lost them, and that which refers unto them is that they are lost: hereupon the evil which we apprehended to be suffered by this loss, is that by which we take the measure of our sorrows: all the hope then which we can entertain about it, either that the thing is not so as we think, or that it is not so bad as we did suspect it to be, will give us mitigation here: and that is it which we are to make enquiry after. Let us then for the present take it for granted upon supposition, that we that are Mourners are true believers; and they for whom we are in mourning, are such as are dead in Christ: and in this case, the Word of God is fully stored with abundant provision to establish our Hope, against those very things which Christians are wont to make the greatest arguments of their grief.