But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.
Ver. 13. But I would not have, &c.] Ignorance is the mother of mistake, and of causeless trouble, of error and terror; as the Roman soldiers were once much frightened at the sight of the moon's eclipse, till the general had undeceived them by a discourse of the natural cause thereof.
That ye sorrow not] Non est lugendus qui moritur, sed desiderandus, saith Tertullian. Abraham mourned moderately for his deceased wife, Genesis 23:2, as is imported by a small caph in the word libcothah, to weep. Hebrew Text Note So did David for the child born in adultery, though for Absalom he exceeded. It is one of the dues of the dead to be lamented at their funerals. a But Christians must know a measure, and so water their plants, as that they drown them not.
Even as others, which have no hope] Lugeatur mortuus, sed ille quem Gehenna suscipit, quem Tartarus devorat, &c. Let that dead man be lamented whom hell harboureth, whom the devil devoureth, &c. But let us (whose departed souls angels accompany, Christ embosometh, and all the court of heaven comes forth to welcome) account mortality a mercy; and be grieved that we are so long detained here from the company of our Christ, saith Jerome.
a Νομιζομενα. Iusta defunctorum