SERMON X.

The Present and the Future State of Believers.

BY REV. Z. PADDOCK, D. D.,

OF THE ONEIDA CONFERENCE.

"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: if so be, that being clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened; not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life."-2 Cor. v, 1-4.

ALL Scripture, affirms St. Paul in another place, is given by inspiration of God. With all true believers this is an incontestable fact. None who properly belong to the household of faith, ever think of calling it in question. It should, however, be distinctly remembered, that, though the sacred writings are divinely inspired, their division. into chapters, and sections, and verses, is the work of man; and, like everything that man does, is marked with imperfection. In general, these divisions are judicious; but not always. Occasionally there is a severance of things that ought to be read in close and inseparable connection with each other. Facts, and arguments, and illustrations, that should be seen in consecutive order, that should be contemplated in their immediate relative bearings, are sometimes most unaccountably put asunder.

We have an instance in the subject now before us. The text is a part of an argument which commences as far back as the eighth verse of the preceding chapter; which argument loses half of its force by an unnatural division. That we may the more fully enter into the meaning of the apostle, and the more deeply feel the force of his reasoning, let us restore the connection. "We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be

made manifest in our body. For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then death worketh in us, but life in you. We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak; knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you. For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might, through the thanksgiving of many, redound to the glory of God. For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal." Carrying forward the same unbroken train of thought, the apostle adds: "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: if so be, that being clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened; not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life."

Presuming that the scope and design of the apostle are now somewhat clearly before the minds of our hearers, we would proceed to a more particular consideration of the words of the text; in which are comprehensively brought to view the present state of the good and pious-their future state-and the earnest desire they feel to be freed from the one, and to enjoy the other.

I. We begin with the present state of the good and plous-the people of God.

The text may have had an emphatic reference, originally, to the apostles and primitive teachers of Christianity. But then there was nothing so peculiar in their case as to render the description less applicable to the humblest follower of Christ, in any and every age of the world. The Christian profession, as well as human life, has always

involved, substantially, the same trials and conflicts. Whatever, therefore, was true of St. Paul and his illustrious coadjutors, is, at least to a certain extent, true of all those who are now following them, who through faith and patience inherit the divine promises. Their present state is distinguished by several deeply interesting facts, which the apostle enumerates, or, perhaps, more properly, classifies, in the words of the text.

1. They here dwell in an "earthly house." By this expression the apostle evidently means the human body. Man is not a machine, nor is he a mere mass of organized matter. He has something more than a visible form. What we see is not the agent, but only the instrument; not the inhabitant, but only the dwelling. "There is a spirit in man, and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth him understanding." For this intelligent spirit, this interior man, the Creator has furnished an appropriate habitation. And though this dwelling has been greatly injured by sin, it still retains enough of its original excellence to excite our admiration, and induce us to exclaim, with one whose philosophy was equaled only by his devotion, "I am fearfully and wonderfully made !" Galen, a distinguished physician, who was long atheistically inclined, after examining more carefully the human body in the number, perfection, and exquisite adaptation of its parts, was fully convinced of the being and perfection of God, and composed a beautiful hymn to his praise. The animal economy, indeed, infinitely surpasses the most perfect piece of mechanism ever yet produced by the art or ingenuity of

man.

But boast as we may of "the human form divine,” it is, after all, a mere earthly house. The elements of which it was originally composed are nothing better than the dust of the earth. What a lesson of humility does this fact teach us! Well might the patriarch say of man, that “he dwells in a house of clay, whose foundation is in the dust." Though allied to angels by the immortality of our nature, our bodies are "of the earth, earthy." From thence are drawn all our physical supplies. Though, in a given case, it have been the fact that “man did eat angels' food," may yet it is as true now as it was in the days of the hero of Uz, that "out of the earth cometh bread." And then the

tendency of this beautiful fabric is to the same source whence its elements were originally taken. "Dust thou art," said an incensed Deity to our great progenitor, after his guilty transgression and unhappy fall, "and unto dust shalt thou return." "Dust to dust, ashes to ashes"-closes the drama of human life. Go, then, boasting mortal, and inscribe over the grave of the once noble form, and the once dimpled cheek, and the once sparkling eye, and the once ruby lip, and the once fascinating tongue,—

"How loved or valued once avails thee not,
To whom related, or by whom begot;

A heap of dust alone remains of thee,

'Tis all thou art, and all the proud shall be."

2. But the apostle places our frailty in a still stronger light. The body is not only called a "house," but a tent, or "tabernacle." The house, though earthly and perishing, affords, while it lasts, a permanent residence. But the tabernacle is a removable habitation, and used only by those who are on a journey. Besides, it is frail; held together only by pins, and hooks, and cords; and consequently easily prostrated. With St. Paul, especially, this figure must have had great force; as he was familiar with the structure of such a kind of residence, being by. craft a tent-maker.

In the nineteenth verse of the fourth chapter of the book of Job, a part of which has already been quoted, Eliphaz the Temanite, speaking of man's frail tabernacle, asserts that "it is crushed before the moth." The full force of this figure is hardly felt by the mere English reader. The idea generally received is, that man's fragile tenement gives way as does the garment before the teeth of the moth. But this by no means does justice to the sacred text. The original words (3) should, doubtless, be rendered, before the face of the moth. Job supposes the body of man so exceedingly weak and feeble, that even the moth, flying against it, may break it in pieces!

When we take a view of the surprising structure and curious workmanship of the human body, the continuance of life may justly excite greater astonishment than even its dissolution. There are so many nicely

adjusted parts in this complicated structure, depending apparently on very weak and slender instruments; such an immense number of delicate tissues, arteries with their innumerable ramifications, veins with their inimitably formed valves, nerves distributed to every part; and all these so frail and delicate, that the slightest accident would seem sufficient to arrest the essential movements of life, and prostrate in a moment the whole beautiful fabric. Accordingly the most trivial accidents are sometimes fatal to man. "A fly, a grape-stone, or a hair, can kill." The slightest touch, and the film, the bubble breaks, the tabernacle is dissolved, and the deathless occupant passes away to another habitation!

"Ah, in what perils is vain life engaged!

What slight neglects, what trivial faults, destroy
The hardiest frame! Of indolence, of toil,
We die; of want, of superfluity.

The all-surrounding heaven, the vital air,
Is full of death."

3. And then the present life is one of trial and conflict. The fragile tabernacle in which we pass our brief probation is the seat of pain and anguish: "For we that are in this tabernacle do groan," says the apostle, "being burdened." To have some idea of what he and his illustrious compeers suffered, we have only to turn back to the details of the preceding chapter: "We are troubled on every side," &c. Verses 8-11. Speaking, elsewhere, of the suffering of some of the ancient worthies-perhaps the Maccabean Jews-he says that they "had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings; yea, moreover, of bonds and imprisonments: they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword; they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented, (of whom the world was not worthy,) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens, and in caves of the earth." And all of this would be equally true, if said of the primitive Christians. They, too, were accounted as sheep for the slaughter, and devoted to a persecution as cruel as it was unprincipled and malicious.

Modern Christians may not pass through the same