In regeneration , nature is not ruined but rectified . The convert is the same man , but new made . The faculties of his soul are not destroyed , but they are refined ; the same viol , but new tuned . Christ did not give the blind man new eyes , but a new sight to the old ones . Christ did not give Lazarus a new body , but enlivened his old body . So God in conversion does not bestow a new understanding , but a new light to the old ; not a new soul , but a new life to the old one . George Swinnock
"Heaven is my throne...Isaiah 63"
GOD'S REJECTION OF ALL MATERIAL TEMPLES. There was a time when it could be said that there was a house of God on earth. That was a time of symbols, when as yet the Church of God was in her childhood. She was being taught her A B C, reading her picture-book, for she could not as yet read the Word of God, as it were in letters. She had need to have pictures put before her, patterns of the heavenly things. Even then, the enlightened amongst the Jews knew well that God did not dwell between curtains, and that it was not possible that He could be encompassed in the most holy place within the veil It was only a symbol of His presence. But the time of symbols is now passed altogether. In that moment when the Saviour bowed His head, and said "It is finished! " the veil of the temple was rent in twain, so that the mysteries were laid open. So, one reason why God saith He dwelleth not in temples made with hands, is, because He would have us know that the symbolical worship is ended...
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