from the body; and this, to be absent from the body, is to have his earthly house of tabernacle dissolved. And Paul is positive of the fact, that if this were the case, if he were absent from the body, he should receive his house, which he calls a building of God eternal in the heavens; and then he should be present with the Lord, in a sense as certain, as that while absent from the Lord, he is present with, or at home in, his body, or earthly house of tabernacle. And Paul explains, that he desires to be clothed upon with his house from heaven-this is not all, he earnestly desires it; hence the phraseology, "If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked." This is a curiously constructed sentence, to convey the idea, of not being disappointed; viz:-Provided that we shall be found clothed, and not, [as those that die the death] naked.*

The term naked, is singularly expressive of the state of the destroyed sinner, when he dies the second death, and has no covering-the body, the sinner's covering in this world, being his only mode of existence; not having the house, or building of God, until the last, the seventh trumpet shall sound, etc., he will be so naked as to have no body, or medium of existence whatsoever! Paul, therefore, alludes to the condition of the destroyed sinner, who is not found at death, but is destroyed, and is naked, without a home, or dwelling place, or house to live in; as Paul's imagery represents the body to be. Therefore, to be found naked when the earthly house or body is dissolved by death, is to have no place, or state, or mode, or medium of existence in the universe. Such is the destruction of the wicked; who, by the ministration of the law, and the great principle of Christ's Gospel, are judged, instead of from life unto life, from death unto death, or nakedness. And this is the significant expression of Paul's parabola, as will be farther evident as we proceed.

Paul's phraseology in this chapter, if there were no other testimony to the point, gives the death blow to the doctrine of Materialism. Reader, what opinion should we have of Paul, if the doctrine of Materialism be tolerated? Viz:-That the life of man, whether believer or

* I give this, as the correct sense of this passage. And I will add, that Paul's imagery strongly enforces the idea, of being or existing out of his body, in a glorious sentient existence. That is, the whole of his magery in connexion.

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unbeliever, whether righteous or wicked, whether just or unjust, becomes extinct at death. That all the race of Adam, fall into a state of nakedness, nonexistence, at the death of the body; and have no existence whatsoever, until the seventh or last trump shall sound its last blast; and all the dead, the whole race of Adam, etc., shall rise, simultaneously, and receive an existence, by having their old bodies, or, rather, the dirt of which they were compounded, etc., gathered, and a patched-up-concern, for the occasion, constitute man's future existence. A sort of mongrel genus-dirt and spirit! This is, most assuredly, a foul hypothesis, in very deed. And Paul, the Divinely inspired Paul, affirming, that he knew to the contrary of this hypothesis! You must take Paul altogether, or not at all. Your old body, if you stick to that, let it be that. But, if you give up that, there is no substitute, short of Paul's house from heaven.

Paul proceeds, saying, "Wherefore we labour, that, whether present, or absent, we may be accepted of him."

On this testimony I remark, First-Paul continues his imagery, and the question is, What does Paul signify by the terms present, and absent? The answer must be, Paul has explained his imagery clearly in the connexion. For he has used the phrase absent from the Lord, to signify being at home in the body. And to be present with the Lord, to be absent from the body; with the particular adjunct of the body being dissolved. If you please, dissolved by not being tenanted by Paul. Paul leaving his old house or earthly tabernacle empty; occupying his new house, a "building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." Not at a remote period, to receive a house, or body, to be made at the remote period in question; of dirt and spirit! a strange mixture, that would have less affinity than the iron and the clay seen in the feet of Nebuchadnezzar's image.

Paul, therefore, is desirous of so conducting himself, that his Lord and Saviour shall accept his services, both here, and in another world. That is, that he Paul shall be approved, whether in the body in this world, or in his house from heaven. And, farther, the mode of expression is principally energetic, as expressive of Paul's desire, always to be accepted of the Lord; for the approbation would be significant of Paul's devotion to the cause of his Lord and Master.

Paul proceeds, and assigns the reason for persuading

men, viz: "For we must all appear before the judgmentseat of Christ; that every one may receive the things in body, according to that he hath done, whether good or bad."

On this testimony I remark, I have quoted the passage omitting the supply by the translators, which is not Paul's language, but their own; and as we shall not appear before their judgment-seat, there can be no danger from our giving a preference to Paul's testimony. This declaration of Paul, is singularly expressive, when correctly understood. Therefore, I will endeavour to give the signification, as Paul has expressed it in his parabola. The figures or imagery are before us, reader, and Paul must be permitted to explain his own doctrine.

How has Paul expressed his faith in the Gospel of Christ, in his parabola, in the connexion that I have exhibited?

Answer-Paul has introduced certain figures or imagery, significant of the ideas that his gospel, that he received by revelation from the Lord Jesus Christ, teaches of the consequences of believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, in such a sense as to be accepted of him, and to be the recipient of the everlasting life of the Gospel; or, as emphatically expressed by Paul on another occasion, saying that "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." (Rom. viii. 1, 2.) And Paul affirms in connexion, that "there is now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus ;" explaining this, being in Christ Jesus, by the phrase, “who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Or, as μǹ karà σápкa should be rendered, not according to the flesh, etc. In the Sermon that precedes this, I have given Paul's testimony respecting those who walk not according to the Spirit, but according to the flesh; and who are lost; those to whom the Gospel is hidden; and who perish. And this testimony of Paul, is in the connexion, in the preceding chapter, viz; the fourth.

In addition to the imagery already exhibited, is the very expressive figure in the connexion, at the closing of the fourth chapter: Paul having affirmed that "He who raised up the Lord Jesus, shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you;" proceeds, and affirms, "For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward is renewed day by day." Here we have the phrase outward man, as convertible

with the phrase "earthly tabernacle ;" and the inward man, by implication, for that life which is renewed day by day; expressive of the sense of the subsequent affirmation, of Paul's dependance on his house from heaven for existence, when his earthly house should be dissolved.

Paul continues in a still more expressive phraseology, affirming, "For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding eternal weight of glory." In the original, uperbolen eis uperbolen, rendered far more exceeding, is expressive of a figure that is not only very important as a part of Paul's parabola, but is very significantly expressive of the grand idea in Paul's mind, viz: The expression is an hyperbole ; and the subject of the excess, in the sense of the patient, is Paul, and his believing brethren; while the thing spoken of as produced in the hyperbolic excess, is the glory that the patient should be the recipient of. Therefore the idea conveyed is this, that the light affliction, which Paul, in reference to the fact of his being present with the Lord, to be the recipient of this glory, when, and as soon as he should be absent from his body, he affirms is but for a moment; and worketh, in the sense of being acces sory, for the time being, as a mean, aiding to effect the perishing of the outward man, and facilitate the coming of the time when he should be relieved from the outward man or body, by its perishing, in the sense of being dissolved; therefore-says Paul, with this glorious consequence crowding his mind with the excess of joy and triumph that so soon awaited him-" Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us an excessively-excessive aionion weight of glory." Consider the term weight, in the emphatic sense of ponderous, contrasted with light affliction in the singular, which is but for a moment-the glory not only as lasting as the age or aionos of the reign of Jesus as king in Zion, but existing in amount or magnitude, compared to the light, trifling affliction, as excessively-excessive; and this, eis, in the sense of being glory unto glory. What spendid imagery! How redundant in figure! How expressive of triumph! How comprehensive in detail! How significant of magnitude! How pregnant of glory! And how confident in expectation! How does the hypothesis of the Materialist look, when seen along side of Paul's parabola? And, alas! for the poor, deluded sinner; who neglects, and slights, rejects, too, as beneath his notice, the exces

sively-excessive glorious realities of the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, for the miserable ephemera of the present, passing moment!

Now, reader, with the abundant imagery of Paul's Divine parabola before us, let us inquire, How the Lord Jesus Christ, as King in Zion, the Mediator between God and men, and Judge of the quick, or those who, like Paul, believe and live, and the dead, or those who are blind to the glorious gospel of His Kingdom, shall judge men in the body? We have seen how believers, who are accepted of the Judge and King, in the body, the outward man, the earthly tabernacle, are judged. To them, "there is no condemnation;" for "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made them free from the law of sin and death." And their light affliction which is but for a moment, worketh for them an excessively-excessive aionion weight of glory." And their life, which "they live by the faith of the Son of God," is, eis, unto life-they look, waiting with joyful anticipation the perishing of their outward man, the dissolution of their earthly tabernacle, their house or home of flesh, their mortal body, for a house, a building of God, aionion in the heavens.

But the worldling, the man of honour, the man whose blindness and delusion is such, that he regards an excessively-excessive aionion weight of glory, and a House built by the Divine Architect of Heaven and earth, as beneath his notice-the man whose pseudo-notions of honour and glory, are created by the breath of his fellowworms of the dust; and whose life consists in the empty and delusive joys and fleeting pleasures of the present passing hour-the man whose confidence is in riches, the glittering dust of the earth we tread on-the votary of absurd fashion-the animal who has no relish for any pleas ures that will not administer to sensual appetites-and the fool, who, goaded by blind and mad ambition, sacrifi ces his fellows on the altar of a momentary fame-an insane lust of power and precedence-these are all in the body, and appear before the judgment-seat of Christ. Their law which they have chosen, is the law of sin and death.

Reader, what are the persuasives of the Gospel? It is Paul that speaks, the Divinely inspired Paul, "Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.'

* The original term rendered terror, is phobon, and is used by Paul