MOW s,EçT. 1.; .1 PROOF OF A SEPARATE STATE. Olt spirit, or soul of the saint, lives without dying, because of its pardon of sin, and justification, and sanctification, is the tenth verse; and the body, not the spirit or soul, shall be quickened, or raised to life again, by the blessed Spirit of God, which dwells in the saints, verse i 1. 2 Coy. v. 1, Q. " For we know, that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a buildr ing of God, a house, not made with hands, eternal i, a the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house, which is from heaven, .Verse 4. We, in this tabernacle, groan being burdened, i of for that we would be unclothed, but clothed Upon, that mortality,might be swallowed up of life." It is evi- dent, that this house from heaven, this building of Gótl, is something, which is like the clothing of a soul divested of this earthly tabernacle, verses 1, 2. or it is the clothing of the whole person, body and soul, which would ab or gate the state of mortality, and swallow it up in life, verse4; For though in verse 4. the apostle supposes, that the soul Both not desire thedeath of the body, or that itself should be unclothed, and, therefore, he would rather chuse to have this state of blessed immortality su- perinducedon his body and soul, at once, without dying, yet, in the first verse, he plainly means such a house in, or from;heaven, or such a clothing, whichmay come upon. the soul immediately, as soon as the earthly house, or tabernacle of his body, is dissolved. And how dubious soevei' this may appear to those, who read the chapter only thus far, yet the 8th verse, which suppóses good men to be present with Christ, when absent from the_ body, determines the sense of it, as I have explained it;. of which hereafter. Perhaps, it is hard to determine, whether this super- induced clothingbe like the shekinah, or visible glory, in which Christ, Moses, and Elias appeared at the .trans guration, and which some suppose to have belonged to Adam in--innocency ; or whether it signify only a state of happy immortality, superinduced, or brought in upon the departing soul at death, or upon the soul and body united, as in this life, and with which those saints shall be clothed, who are found alive at the coming of Christ, according to 1 Cor. xv. 52-54. whicn will not kill the body, but swallow up its mortal state in immortal life.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=