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whose words there was no equivocate ii nor deceit , says expressly , 4 ; This day 5 ' ' . moaning evidently as soon as death has separated ihy spirit iron * its tabernacle of dust , " This clay , thou sh-ilt be with nie in paradise / ' or in a place of happiness , which the Jews used the word paradise to signify . Our Lord certainly could not mean that the body of the man , which the materialist supposes to be the whole man should be with him jn paradise , but only the thinking substance or consciousness that animated that body , and that constitutes the identity of the individual * .
But the materialist says that Christ merely made the promise on thai day , and that the malefactor , like all the rest of the human race , was wholly dissipated at death , and instead of being in paradise may be now serving the meanest uses of matter . I must
beg leave to say that nothing appears so unnatural and so forced , so trifling and so jejune , as this explanation of our Lord ' s words . Can any person seriously believe lhat the poor man understood them in this sense , or that he did
not expeet to be in paradise the day he died ? But it is araued thai Christ himself did not go to heaven till after his resurrection , because he said to Mary , John xx . 17- cc I am not yet ascended to my father ;" but it lias been well observed fthat in the term ascend in this passage , something more is meant than the simple capture into heaven ; it docs not signify merely to be taken up from the earth , but carries in ft the connotation at
* Sec Fellowes ' s Body of Theology , i ~ By Cappc .
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least , of authority , and di gnity , and honour . Our Lord ° may mean that he had not entered into his furl glory , as he had nor completely fulfilled his ministry on earth . That he had not received the peculiar honours and distinctions that awaited him , is no argument that he had not re . ccived the recompence that is common to all good men , and which some , Moses and Elias for instance , we have reason to believe were at that time enjoying . Our Lord certainly expected that something within him should survive the death of the hody , when he said , Lukexxiii . 46 . tC Father , into thy hands I commit my
spirit : " a materialist would not have used this language . This also is agreeable to our Lord ' s words in another place , John ii . 19 , 21 . " Jesus said ,
destroy this temple ^ , meaning his body , and in three days I will raise it up . ' \ What could this be but his conscious spirit that he commended to God , and by which he knew God ^ avould enable him
to re-animate the dead body and to raise it up again . However , it nevQr can be inferred from the words , " I have not ascended to my Father , " ( which only asserts that he had not received his peculiar glory ) that Christ was not in paradise the day he died , and that his fellow sufferer is not there yet , or that death creates any interruption in the conscious being ol mankind in general .
Stephen when dying , used language similar to his master : said , " Lord Jesus , receive my sp irit , " which if he had not believed it to have survived the body , I cannot see any reason w '> y Jj should recommend it into hands of his Saviour any niore
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456 Against Materialism * — Letter II .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1811, page 456, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2419/page/8/
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