12 THE PROOF ` Or A SEPARATE STATE. fleshly body ; . but your soul or spirit is life, or, as some copies read instead of ¿as, your-spirit lives when the body is dead, And enjoys a life of happiness, because of the righteousness im- puted 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 metaphors ; but the plain and most natu- ral 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 re- aurrection 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 niortal bodies, by his Spirit, that dwelleth in you. The spirit, or soul of the saint, lives without dying, be- cause of its pardon of sin, and justification, and sanctification, in 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 11. 2 Cor. v.-1, 2. i0 For we know, that if our earthly, house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house, not made with hands, eternal in 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, not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life." It is evident, that this house from heaven, this building of God, 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 abrogate the state of mor- tality, and swallow it up in life, verse 4. For though in verse 4. The apostle supposes, that the soul doll] not desire the death of the body, or that itself should be unclothed, and, therefore, he would rather cause to have this state of blessed immortality superinduced on his body and soul, at once, without dying ; yet, in the first verse, lie plainly means such á house in, or from heaven, or such a clothing, which may come upon the soul im- mediately, as soon as the earthly ,house, or tabernacle of his body is dissolved. And how dubious soever this may appear to those, who read the chapter only thus far, yet the 8th verse, which supposes good men to he 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 superinduced clothing be like the shekinah, or visible glory, in which Christ,
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