II. CORINTHIANS 5, 2. 115

dwelling which is c/c yr}?, of the earth. 1 Cor. 15, 47. It is not "of this building," rauVr^s t^s KTt(T€w<;, Heb. 9, 11. Those who understand this whole passage to treat of the change which is to take place in those believers who shall be alive when the Lord comes, and which is described in 1 Cor. 15, 51-54, lay- special stress on this verse. They urge that this house being from heaven cannot be heaven ; and that the verb iTrevSv^o^ meaning to 2)ut o?i over, evidently refers to the putting on of the new body, as it were, over the old one ; and therefore can be understood only of those who, being in the body when Christ comes, are thus clothed tq)on without being unclothed. It has already been remarked that there is no force in the for- mer of these arguments, because the new body is not from heaven. It is k^ ovpavov only in the sense of being heavenly, and in that sense the expression suits the idea of a building as well as that of a body. As to the second argument, it may be admitted, that if the context demanded, or even naturally ad- mitted of our understanding "the house not made with hands " to be the resurrection body, there would be a pecu- liar propriety in the use of the word iirevSva-acrSaL^ (to be clothed upon^) instead of the simple verb kvhvaaa-^ai^ to he clothed. But the use of this word is not sufficient to deter- mine the interpretation of the whole passage. 1. Because nothing is more common than the use of compound verbs in the same sense as the correspondmg simple ones. 2. Because in 1 Cor. 15, 53. 54, Paul uses the simple verb (eVSuo-ao-^ai) four times to express the very thing which it is here urged he must refer to because he uses the compound c7rev8uo-ao--^at. That is, he uses the two words in the same sense. He makes no dif- ference between "putting on" and being "clothed upon:'' We are not required, therefore, by the use of the latter ex- pression, to infer that the apostle speaks of the change which those who are in the body should experience at the coming of Christ. This view, as remarked above, is out of keeping with the whole context. Paul was daily exposed to death, his out- ward man was perishing. His consolation was that if his earthly tabernacle were dissolved, he had a better house in heaven. He earnestly longed for that house ; to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. All he says is said on the hypothesis of his dying, and therefore he cannot say he earnestly desired to escape death. What he longed for was, not that he might be alive when Christ came, and thus escape the pains of dissolution, but that he might quit