Ver. 1. For we know] Not we think, or hope only; this is the top gallant of faith, the triumph of trust; this is, as Latimer calls it, the deserts of the feast of a good conscience. There are other dainty dishes in this feast, but this is the banquet. The cock on the dunghill knows not the worth of this jewel. Our earthly house] In the wonderful frame of man’s body the bones are the timberwork, the head the upper lodging, the eyes as windows, the eyelids as casements, the brows as penthouses, the ears as watchtowers, the mouth as a door to take in that which shall uphold the building, and keep it in reparations; the stomach as a kitchen to dress that which is conveyed into it; the guts and baser parts as sinks belonging to the house, &c., as one wittily descants. Our earthly house of this tabernacle] Our clay cottage. Man is but terra friabilis, a piece of earth neatly made up. The first man is of the earth earthy; and his earthly house is ever mouldering over him, ready to fall upon his head, 1 Corinthians 15:47. Hence it is called “the life of his hands,” because hardly held up with the labour of his hands, Isaiah 57:10. Paul, a tentmaker, elegantly compares man’s body to a tent. Plato also in his dialogue of death, calleth the body a tabernacle, το οκηνος. A house the body is called, as for the singular artifice showed in the framing of it (the woman’s body is, by a specialty, called God’s building, Genesis 2:22, because her frame consisteth of rarer room; of a more exact composition, say some, than man’s doth), so, secondly, because the soul dwells in it; the reason whereof (besides God’s will, and for the order of the universe) Lombard gives this, that hereby man might learn and believe a possibility of the union of man with God in glory, notwithstanding the vast distance of nature and excellence. We have a building of God] The ark, transportative till then, was settled in Solomon’s temple; so shall the soul be in heaven. As when one skin falls off, another comes on; so when our earthly tabernacle shall be dissolved or taken down, we shall have a heavenly house. The soul wears the body as a garment, which when it is worn out, we shall be clothed with a better suit, we shall change our rags for robes, &c. Itaque non plangimus, sod plaudimus, quando vitam claudimus, quia dies iste non tam fatalis quam natalis est.
Ver. 2. For in this] That is, in this tabernacle of the body. How willingly do soldiers burn their huts, when the siege is ended; being glad that their work is done, and that they may go home and dwell in houses. We groan earnestly] As that avis Paradisi, which being once caught and engaged, never leaves sighing, they say, till set at liberty. (Macrob.) The Greeks call the body δεμας, the soul’s bond, and σωμα, quasi σημα, the soul’s sepulchre. To be clothed upon] By a sudden change, and not to die at all, as 1 Thessalonians 4:17 1Co 15:51,52. Quis enim vult mori? prorsus nemo. For who wishes to die, certainly no man. Death when it comes will have a bout with the best, as it had with Hezekiah, David, Jonah, others. For nature abhors it, and every new man is two men. But when a Christian considers that non nisi per angusta ad angusta perveniatur, that there is no passing into Paradise but under the flaming sword of this angel death that standeth at the porch; that there is no coming to the city of God, but through his strait and heavy lane; no wiping all tears from his eyes, but with his winding sheet, he yields, and is not only content, but full glad of his departure; as in the mean while he accepts life rather than affects it, he endures it rather than desires it, Philippians 1:23.
Ver. 3. If so be that, &c.] q.d. Howbeit, I know not whether we shall be so clothed upon, that is, whether we that are now alive shall be found alive at Christ’s coming to judgment, whether we shall then be found clothed with our bodies, or naked, that is, stripped of our bodies.
Ver. 4. Do groan, being burdened] viz. With sin and misery, whereof we have here our backburdens. And surely great shame it were (as that martyr, Mr Bradford, said) that all the whole creatures of God should desire, yea, groan in their kind for our liberty, and we ourselves to loathe it, as doubtless we do, if for the cross, yea, for death itself, we with joy swallow not up all sorrow that might let us from following the Lord’s call and obeying the Lord’s providence, &c. Might be swallowed up of life] Not as a gulf or fire swallows up that which is cast into it, but as perfection swallows up imperfection, as the perfecting of a picture swallows up the rude draught, as perfect skill swallows up bungling, or manhood childhood, not extinguishing, but drowning it that it is not seen. (Dr Preston.)
Ver. 5. He that hath wrought us] Curiously wrought us in the lowermost parts of the earth, that is, in the womb, as curious workmen perfect their choice pieces in private, and then set them forth to public view, Psalms 139:15 cf. Eph 4:9. Others expound it by Romans 9:23. The earnest of the Spirit] He saith not the pawn, but the earnest. A pawn is to be returned again, but an earnest is part of the whole bargain.