ed. Not that we desire to be unclothed, but clothed upon, that
mortality may be swallowed up of life."

8 Comm. in Epist. ad Rom. lib. vi. cap. 6, sect. 6. Also see
Jerome, Comm. in Ecc. iii. 21. Professor Mau, in his able treatise
"Von dem Tode dem Solde der Sunden, and der Aufhebung desselben
durch die Auferstehung Christi," cogently argues, against Krabbe,
that death as the punishment of sin is not bodily dissolution, but
wretchedness and condemnation to the under world, (amandatio
Orcum.) In Pelt's Theologische Mitarbeiten, 1838, heft ii. ss.
107-108.

In these remarkable words the apostle expresses several particulars
of what we have already presented as his general doctrine. He
states his conviction that, when his "earthly house of this
tabernacle" dissolves, there is a "divinely constructed, heavenly,
and eternal house" prepared for him. He expresses his desire at
the coming of the Lord not to be dead, but still living, and then
to be divested of his earthly body and invested with the heavenly
body, that thus, being fitted for translation to the incorruptible
kingdom of God, he might not be found a naked shadow or ghost in
the under world. Ruckert says, in his commentary, and the best
critics agree with him, "Paul herein desires to become immortal
without passing the gates of death." Language similar to the
foregoing in its peculiar phrases is found in the Jewish Cabbala.
The Zohar describes the ascent of the soul to heaven clothed with
splendor, and afterwards illustrates its meaning in these terms:
"As there is given to the soul a garment with which she is clothed
in order to establish her in this world, so there is given her a
garment of heavenly splendor in order to establish her in that
world."9 So in the "Ascension of Isaiah the Prophet" an apocryphal
book written by some Jewish Christian as early, without doubt, as
the close of the second century the following passages occur.
Speaking of what was revealed to him in heaven, the prophet says,
"There I saw all the saints, from Adam, without the clothing of
the flesh: I viewed them in their heavenly clothing like the
angels who stood there in great splendor." Again he says, "All the
saints from heaven in their heavenly clothing shall descend with
the Lord and dwell in this world, while the saints who have not
died shall be clothed like those who come from heaven. Then the
general resurrection will take place and they will ascend together
to heaven."10 Sc