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with God, without which we cannot drink of the springs of joy that gush up in our own dwellings, and follow us in our daily paths? And who that looks to the Seen, and not to the Unseen, would dare to encircle his heart with the wasting affections of a nature crushed before the moth, with the perishable ties of mortal Love? No;- there is not one sacred hour of the Heart's intercourse with others, in which we are not looking to, and living upon, the unseen. The eye that looks on us is but the material organ of an unseen spirit's Love; -the familiar voice that speaks to us draws its tones from an unsearchable Heart whose life is hid with God;- the very hand that is clasped in ours has a pressure of tenderness that belongs not to flesh and blood, and is an impress from the unseen Soul. Blessed then be God, that they are the Things that are seen that are temporal, and the Things that are unseen that are everlasting!

SECTION IV.

THE

THE TWO REDEMPTIONS; OF SOUL, AND OF BODY. CHRISTIAN ON EARTH HAS OBTAINED THE ONE, AND LOOKS FOR THE OTHER. THIS SPIRITUAL REDEMPTION MAKES SELF-GLORY A SELF-CONTRADICTION,

FOR то LIVE IN

CHRIST IS TO BE DEAD TO SELF AS CHRIST WAS DEAD.
IN THIS LAW OF THE SPIRIT OF LIFE IN CHRIST JESUS,
ST. PAUL FINDS PROTECTION FOR THE CORINTHIANS, AND
A DEFENCE OF HIMSELF, AGAINST FALSE TEACHERS AND
APOSTLES.

CHAPS. V. – VII. 1.

V. 1. FOR we know that if our earthly tent-house were dissolved, we have a mansion from God, a house not 2 built with hands, eternal in the heavens. And therefore we sigh, desiring to put on over us our house which is 3 from Heaven; if indeed, when putting it on, we shall not 4 be found disembodied. For we in this tabernacle do sigh, being burdened, not that we desire to be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. 5 Now he that hath wrought us for this selfsame end is God, he who also hath given to us the pledge of His 6 spirit. Wherefore, always of good courage, and knowing that when at home in the body we are absent from the 7 Lord, for we walk by Faith, not by sight, we are of 8 good courage, and are willing rather to be exiles from the 9 body, and to be at home with the Lord. Therefore also

we are zealous, whether at home or exiles, to be well 10 pleasing to him. For we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ, that each may receive for the things, that he hath done in the body, whether good or evil.

11

Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men, and are made manifest to God, and I trust also are 12 made manifest in your consciences. For we are not recommending again ourselves unto you, but are giving to you an opportunity of glorying on our behalf, that ye may have power against those who glory in appearance, 13 but not in heart. For if we are in an ecstasy, it is for 14 God; and if we are sober-minded, it is for you. For the

love of Christ constrains us, discerning this, that if one died 15 for all, then did they all die, and he died for all, that the

living should no longer live to themselves, but to him who 16 died for them, and was raised up. Wherefore we from

creature.

henceforth know no one after the flesh though we have even known Christ after the flesh, but now know we him 17 no longer. So that if any one be in Christ, he is a new The old things have passed away: lo, all 18 things have become new. But all things are from God, who hath reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ, 19 and given to us the ministry of reconciliation. So that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not reckoning their trespasses to them, and having committed 20 unto us the doctrine of reconciliation. For Christ then we are ambassadors, as though God did beseech you through us; we in Christ's stead do entreat you, that ye 21 be reconciled to God. For he hath made him who knew no sin, to be a sin-offering for us, that we might become the justified of God in him.

VI. 1.

WE then as fellow-laborers also exhort

you, that

ye

2 receive not the grace of God in vain.

For he says, “I

have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succored thee." Behold, now is the ac3 cepted time, now is the day of salvation: Giving no offence in any thing that our ministry may not be blamed: 4 but in all things approving ourselves as ministers of God, in much patience, in affliction, in necessities, in straits, 5 in blows, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in 6 watchings, in fastings: in pureness, in knowledge, in long-suffering, in kindness, in a holy spirit, in love un7 feigned, in the word of truth, in the power of God; by 8 the armor of righteousness on right hand and left, by honor and dishonor, by good report and evil report; as 9 deceivers, and yet true; as unknown, and yet known; as dying, and lo, we are alive; as chastened, yet not killed; 10 as grieved, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making

many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing all things. 11 O Corinthians, our mouth is opened 'unto you, our heart 12 has swelled. Ye are not straitened in us, but ye are 13 straitened in your own affections. Now as a recompense

for this, I speak as to my children, be ye also enlarged. 14 Become not uncongenially yoked with unbelievers: for what is there common to Righteousness and Sin? or what 15 communion hath Light with Darkness? and what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath a believer with 16 an infidel? and what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God, as God hath said, "I will dwell in them, and will walk with them, and I shall be their God, and they shall be my 17 people." Wherefore, "Come out from the midst of them, and be ye separated, saith the Lord, and touch not the 18 unclean thing, and I will receive you; and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be sons and daughters unto me, saith the Lord Almighty."

VII. 1. HAVING then these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all impurity of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

In explanation of the peculiar form of St. Paul's language, in the commencement of the fifth chapter, we must refer to those conceptions of the Second Coming of Christ to which it is adapted, and which, in the fifteenth chapter of the former Epistle, we have already found shaping his representations of the immediate applications of the Doctrine of Immortality. In that chapter are distinctly expressed the two ideas which are prominent here,—that some who were then living might be found alive at the coming of the Lord, and the end of the World; and the idea of two bodies, our present one, adapted to the conditions of our Earthly state, and another, to be the imperishable organ of a purely Spiritual Nature. The external change which qualified for entering into the Kingdom of God in Heaven, was wrought by Death, in the laying aside the corruptible, and putting on the incorruptible body: "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, neither doth corruption inherit incorruption," and therefore, says the Apostle, "we must all be changed," in order that what is mortal in our constitution should be adapted to the conditions of an immortal existence. Upon the faithful dead this change would be of the nature of a Resurrection, in the form of that celestial body of which our present terrestrial body is the

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