Wesley Corpus

It does not seem to be affected by the death of the body, but envelopes the separate, as it does the embodied, spirit; neither will it undergo any essential change, when it is clothed upon with the immortal body at the resurrection. May not the Apostle have an eye to this in those remarkable words:--“We that are in this tabernacle” (this corruptible flesh and blood) “do groan, being burdened; not for that we would be unclothed,” (divested of all covering, which belongs only to the Father of spirits,) “but clothed upon” with the glorious resurrection-body, covering both our soul and spirit? (2 Corinthians v. 4.) This will swallow up, totally destroy, to Swntov,-that which was mortal, namely, the flesh and blood, which alone was liable to death. If we understand the words of the Apostle in this sense, all the difficulty vanishes away. We allow, there can be no medium between material and immaterial. But still there is room for a wide and essential difference between the soul and the body; the latter implying that original portion of matter which is now clothed with flesh and blood; the former, that vehicle of ethereal fire which immediately covers the immortal spirit. CoNGLETON, March 31, 1786.