2s6 ESSAY TOP: A.tD THE [SECT. u. the ha,aads pr c ìj'e of Christ, Uecause the life of a saint is paid to be ".bill with Christ in, Gód,; ".,L;of..iii. 8, that .he might restore it at the resurrection, 'and raise him to. life again. it3ut, I think, this is an unnatural forceput: upon these words, contrary to their most obvi.ozis meaning, if we consider the context : for Stephen here had .a .vision pf the son of man, or Christ Jesus, " standing at the right hand of God, and the glory of God near him ;" see verses 55, 56. Whereupon Stephen, being conscious of the existenceof Christ in that glorious Mate, desired, that he would ,receive his spirit, and take A to dwell with him in his Father's house : not to lie end sleep in heaven, for there is no night there, butto behold the glory of Christ, according to the many promises .tlant Christ -had made to his disciples, that he "' would go and prepare a place for them in his Father's house, and that they should be with him there to behold his glory ;" John xiv. 2. and xvii. 24. which I shall have occasion to speak of afterward. /? z. viii. r0, 11. " And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness ;" that is, if Christ dwell in you, by the sanctifying influences of his spirit, it is true indeed, your body is mortal, and must die, because it is doomed to death, from the fall ofAdam, on the account ofsin, and because sinful principles still dwell in this fleshly-body; but your soul or spirit is life, or, as some copies read in- stead of i;wn, your spirit lives when the body is dead, and enjoys a life of happiness, because of the righteous- ness imputed to you ; that is, your justification unto life : Rom. v, 17, 18, 21. I know there are several other ways of construing the words of this verse by me- taphors; but the plain and most natural antithesis, which appears here between the death of the body of a saint, because of sin or guilt, and the continuance of the spirit, or .soul, in a life of peace, because of justification, or righteousness, and that even when the body is dead, gives 'a pretty clear proof; that this is the sense of the apostle. This is also further confirmed by the next verse, which promises the resurrection of the dead body in due time. -" If the Spirit of him, that raised up Christ from the dead, dwell in you-; he that raised up Christ from the dead, that is, God the Father, shall also quicken your mortal;bodies, by hisSpirit, that .dwellcth in you." The
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