Chapter XLI.—The Dissolution of Our Tabernacle Consistent with the Resurrection of Our Bodies.

It is still the same sentiment which he follows up in the passage in which he puts the recompense above the sufferings: “for we know;” he says, “that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens;”268    2 Cor. v. 1. in other words, owing to the fact that our flesh is undergoing dissolution through its sufferings, we shall be provided with a home in heaven. He remembered the award (which the Lord assigns) in the Gospel: “Blessed are they who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”269    Matt. v. 10. Yet, when he thus contrasted the recompense of the reward, he did not deny the flesh’s restoration; since the recompense is due to the same substance to which the dissolution is attributed,—that is, of course, the flesh. Because, however, he had called the flesh a house, he wished elegantly to use the same term in his comparison of the ultimate reward; promising to the very house, which undergoes dissolution through suffering, a better house through the resurrection.  Just as the Lord also promises us many mansions as of a house in His Father’s home;270    John xiv. 2. although this may possibly be understood of the domicile of this world, on the dissolution of whose fabric an eternal abode is promised in heaven, inasmuch as the following context, having a manifest reference to the flesh, seems to show that these preceding words have no such reference. For the apostle makes a distinction, when he goes on to say, “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;”271    2 Cor. v. 2, 3. which means, before we put off the garment of the flesh, we wish to be clothed with the celestial glory of immortality.  Now the privilege of this favour awaits those who shall at the coming of the Lord be found in the flesh, and who shall, owing to the oppressions of the time of Antichrist, deserve by an instantaneous death,272    Compendio mortis. Compare our Anti-Marcion for the same thoughts and words, v. 12. [p. 455, supra.] which is accomplished by a sudden change, to become qualified to join the rising saints; as he writes to the Thessalonians: “For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God:  and the dead in Christ shall rise first:  then we too shall ourselves be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”273    1 Thess. iv. 15–17.

CAPUT XLI.

Eamdem adhuc sententiam exequitur, remunerationes vexationibus praeferens. Scimus enim, inquit (II Cor. V), quoniam, etsi terrena domus nostra hujus tabernaculi dissolvetur, habemus domum non manufactam, aeternam in coelis; id est, per hoc quod dissolvetur caro nostra per passiones, domicilium consecuturi sumus in coelis. Meminerat Evangelicae definitionis (Matth. V): Beati qui persecutionem patiuntur propter justitiam, quia illorum est regnum coelorum. Non tamen carnis restitutionem negavit, si compensationem mercedis opposuit; cum ipsi 0852C compensatio debeatur, cui dissolutio deputatur , scilicet carni. Sed quia domum dixerat carnem, eleganter voluit et in mercedis comparatione vocabulo domus uti; ipsi domui, quae dissolvetur per passionem; meliorem domum repromittens per resurrectionem; nam et Dominus multas mansiones, quasi domus, apud Patrem repromittit (Joan. XIV): quamquam et de domicilio mundi potest intelligi, quo dissoluto, 0853A aeterna sedes repromittatur in coelis; quia et quae sequuntur, ad carnem manifeste pertinentia, ostendunt priora omnino ad carnem pertinere. Divisionem enim facit Apostolus, cum subjicit: Nam et hoc geminus , domicilium nostrum, quod de coelo est, superindui desiderantes, siquidem induti , non nudi inveniamur; id est, ante volumus superinduere virtutem coelestem aeternitatis, quam carne exuamur. Hujus enim gratiae privilegium illos manet, qui ab adventu Domini deprehendentur in carne, et propter duritias temporum Antichristi merebuntur, compendio mortis per demutationem expunctae, concurrere cum resurgentibus; sicut Thessalonicensibus scribit (I Thess. IV): Hoc enim dicimus vobis in sermone Domini, quod nos qui vivimus, qui remanemus in 0853B adventu Domini, non praeveniemus eos qui dormierunt. Quoniam ipse Dominus in jussu et voce Archangeli , et in tuba Dei, descendet de caelo; et mortui in Christo resurgent primi: dehinc nos cum ipsis simul rapiemur in nubibus obviam Domino in aera, et ita semper cum Domino erimus.