present experience. The apostle Paul adverts to the eventual status of
the spirit of man with respect to time and space where he says, "I am
persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor
depth, nor any other creation, will be able to separate us from the
love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom. viii. 38, 39).
(In this sentence the recognized passage of time, the powers
[_dynameis_] of nature, and the measurable qualities of space, seem all
to be regarded as things _created_.) Also corresponding to the change
in the external creation it is revealed that there will be a change of
the outward man, the natural body giving place to the "spiritual body."
It would appear, therefore, from the whole of the foregoing argument
that our spirits, after being bound by earthly and temporal conditions,
undergo complete transformation, being conjoined with bodily essence
related in a new manner to _space_, and being also released from the
condition of _time_. But although this mode of existence may be a
necessary condition of the immortal state, especially as such state
embraces associated members, it is not the sole, nor the principal,
condition of immortality, as the remainder of the argument will show.

It has already been noticed that St. Peter {100} characterizes "the new
heavens and the new earth" by saying that "righteousness dwells
therein." This is as much as to say that it is a perfect _social_
state, whose end is at once the glory of God and the happiness of man.
The words of the apostle (2 Epist. iii. 13) signify that the new
creation, by satisfying this condition, is the fulfilment of an
antecedent promise. Now, the argument of this Essay is in entire
agreement with this doctrine, inasmuch as it was from the first assumed
(p. 9) that immortality cannot consist with any other than a state of
righteousness, and then (pp. 19 and 20) it was argued that after Adam's
transgression a _promise_ was made that himself and his race would
eventually be exempt from the power of Satan and attain to immortality.
The passage Rev. xxi. 1-4, quoted in p. 92, seems to certify the
complete fulfilment of this promise and to indicate the manner of its
fulfilment. But there are other passages in this concluding portion of
the Apocalypse, which might be thought to bear a contrary
signification, to which, therefore, our attention must n