THE TRIPARTITE NATURE OF MAN. 



19a 



complete and entire. In the one case the apostle prays that their 

 salvation may be complete as a whole (totus), in the other entire 

 {integer) in every part. The reXo? in the first compound suggests 

 the end, which is our whole sanctification ; the Kkrjpo^, of the 

 second, suggests the means, that we may be sanctified in every 

 part. Sanctification thus rests on these two conditions, that the 

 Holy Spirit shall possess each of the three parts of our nature , 

 and possess them entirely."* And let us notice how long this 

 is to be continued, " unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ," 

 which is the goal of all our hopes, and is eagerly expected by all 

 believers. How encouraging is the promise that is added ^ 

 " Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it." This 

 is a blessed consummation which many of the Lord's people 

 have been desiring of late, and some of them have been entering 

 into it. Some of us have known and valued the lives of such 

 men as Charles Fox, Francis Paynter, and Evan Hopkins ; and 

 we believe that they lived out the ideal set before us in this 

 passage. 



We may sum up this part of the subject in the words of Dr. 

 Arnold : " Thus, then, when this threefold division of our nature is 

 mentioned, the term body expresses those appetites which we 

 have in common with the brutes ; the term soul denotes our 

 moral and intellectual faculties, directed only towards objects 

 of the world, and not exalted by the hope of immortality ; and 

 the term spirit takes these same faculties when directed towards 

 God and heavenly things, and from the purity, the greatness, and 

 the perfect goodness of Him who is their object, transformed 

 into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit 

 of the Lord."t So then the ego may be in a state of sense- 

 consciousness, when the body is strong, or world-consciousness 

 as Evan Hopkins described it ; of self-consciousness, when the 

 soul or psyche is prominent ; or of God-consciousness, when he 

 passes through the outer court of the holy place into the holiest 

 of all, the immediate presence of God. 



In the intermediate or disembodied state, the spirit and the 

 soul are evidently united. But what is specially emphasized 

 in Heb. xii, 23, is " the spirits of just men made perfect." What 

 consciousness, what happiness, what holiness is revealed to us in 

 this expression ! It is evident that the disembodied state cannot 

 be an unconscious sleep. Indeed, St. Paul would not say in 



* Tripartite Nature of Man, p. 138. 

 j Arnold's Sermons. 



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