§ 1.
As to the fact, of the long continuance of bodies, so long as it hath pleased God that they should be in health: let men read the Scriptures, and they will find that our predecessors have got beyond 700, and 800, and 900 years;1 and their bodies attained length of days, and partook of life, so long as God willed them to live. And why should we speak of them?2 since Enoch, pleasing God, was even translated in the body, foreshewing the translation of the just:3 and Elias was taken up, as he was, in the substance wherein he was formed, prophesying the Assumption of them that are spiritual; and the body was no impediment to them in regard of their translation and assumption. For by what hands they were originally moulded, by the same they received their translation and assumption. For in Adam the Hands of God were accustomed to adjust, and keep together, and to carry and bear that which Themselves had formed, to set it where Themselves will. Where then was the first man set? of course in Paradise;4 as it is written, God planted a Paradise in Eden towards the east, and set there the Man whom He formed. And from thence he was cast out into this world, having been disobedient. Wherefore also the Elders, the pupils of the Apostles, say, that those who are translated are translated thither:—(inasmuch as for righteous men, and such as have the Spirit within them, is Paradise prepared; wherein also Paul the Apostle having been introduced heard words unspeakable,5 to us at least in this present:)—and there those who are translated remain unto the consummation, making a beginning of our Incorruption.
§ 2.
But if any one surmise, first, that it is impossible for the men to abide so long spaces of time: next, that Elias was not taken up in the flesh, but that his flesh was wasted away in the fiery chariot;—let him consider, that Jonas being cast into the deep, and swallowed up in the belly of the whale,6 was vomited out safe upon the Earth, at the bidding of God. And Ananias, Azarias, and Misael, being cast into the furnace of the fire which had been heated sevenfold,7 were neither hurt at all, nor was the smell of fire found in them.8 The Hand therefore of God which was with them, and which wrought upon them things strange and to man’s nature impossible:—what wonder, if in those also who were translated it effected an extraordinary thing, ministering unto the will of God and the Father? But This is The Son of God; as the Scripture relates King Nabuchodonosor to have said,9 Did we not cast three men into the furnace?10 and lo, I see four men walking in the midst of the fire, and the fourth is like the Son of God.
Wherefore, neither the nature of any of the things that are made, nor yet any infirmity of the flesh, availeth more than the counsel of God. For God is not subject to the creatures, but the creatures to God, and all things wait upon His Will.11 For which cause also the Lord saith, The things that are impossible with men are possible with God.
In the same manner therefore as the men of our days, not knowing God’s way of ordering things, account it incredible and impossible, for any man to be capable of living so many years, and yet those did so live, who were before us, and those who were translated live now, for an example of the future length of days:—and that men should have gone safe out of the whale’s belly, and from the furnace of fire,—and yet they did go out, led forth as it were by the Hand of God, to declare His Power:—so now also, albeit some men, ignorant of the power and promise of God, contradict their own salvation, deeming it impossible that God should have power to raise up bodies and give them perseverance for ever; yet the unbelief of such persons will not make void the faith of God.