The vessel of election, the teacher of the nations, in whom, while he was still mortal man, an angelic discourse lived—when he was describing the resurrection of the dead with no dead discourse, and showed that our Lord would be present «with a command,» that is, with authority, «as with the voice of an archangel,» as though displaying the terror of a herald—then thereupon, he says, «we also shall be caught up into the clouds to meet Christ in the air» (1 Thess. 4:15-17). Then shall be possible what is now arduous. What is now in Christ the truth of divinity, then in us shall be able to be a likeness. Then too, with the air subjected to our feet, we shall set the limbs of our purified bodies upon the light elements: if only, when that same
King comes, no timid conscience of putting things off drags us back into the past, but faithful assurance runs forward to receive the more quickly the dignity of heavenly glory.