are told that when Lazarus died he was carried by angels into Abraham's bosom, i. e. to heaven. On the mount of trans- figuration, Moses and Elias appeared talking with Christ. Our Lord said to the dying thief, "This day shalt thou be with me in paradise," and paradise, as we learn from 2 Cor. 12, 2 and 4, is the third heaven. In Phil. 1, 22-24, Paul says that although he had a desire to depart and be with Christ, yet his abiding in the flesh was more needful for them. This clearly implies that as soon as he dej^arted from the flesh he expected to be present with the Lord. This flows from the perfection of Christ's work. As his blood cleanses from all sin, there is no process of expiation or purification to be en- dured or experienced by believers after death. And as we know, as our Lord ^ays, that they still five, they must enter on the blessedness secured by his merits. Accordingly the apostle says that the saints on earth and the saints in heaven form one communion. " We are come unto Mount Zion — and unto the spirits of just men made perfect," Heb. 12, 23.
The considerations above presented appear decisive in fa- vour of understanding the apostle to mean by the house not made with hands, a mansion in heaven into which believers enter as soon as their earthly tabernacle is dissolved. It is, however, objected to this view of the passage, that as the earthly house is the present body, the heavenly house must also be a body. This, however, does not follow. The com- parison is not of one body with another ; but of one house with another. We dwell now in an earthly tabernacle ; after death, we shall dwell in a heavenly house. This is all that the figure demands. In the second place, it is urged that in v. 2 it is said our house is " from heaven," and if from heaven it is not heaven itself. But our resurrection body is not from heaven in the local sense. It is from heaven only in the gen- eral sense of being heavenly, and in this sense our house is of heaven. It is not of the earth, does not belong to the present state of existence, but to that on which we enter in heaven. Besides, it is not heaven considered as a state, nor even as a jolace, (in the wide sense of the word heaven,) that is our house, but the mansion which the Lord has gone to prepare for his people in heaven. The simple idea is that the soul, when it leaves its earthly tabernacle, will not be lost in im- mensity, nor driven away houseless and homeless, but will find a house and home in lieaven. This is the consoling doctrine here taught. The soul of the believer does not cease to exist