SECTION V. 41 flesh and blood ? By this means death ceases to be a punishment, and long life to be a blessing. Answer. It is according as the characters of men are either good or bad, and according as good men know more or less of a separate state of rewards or punishments, so a long life, or early death, are to be esteemed blessings or calamines in a greater or a less degree. Long life was represented as a blessing to good men, in as much as it gave them an opportunity to enjoy more of the bles- sings of this life, and to do more service for God in the world : And, especially since in ancient times, there was much darkness upon this doctrine of the future state, and many good men had not so clear a knowledge of it. Long life was also a blessing to wicked men, because if kept them in a state, wherein there were some comforts, and withheld them, for a season from the punish. meats of the separate stale. Death was doubtless a punishment and a curse, when it was first brought into human nature by the sin of Adam, as it cut off mankind from the blessings of this life, and plunged bins into a dark and unknown stater And if he were a wicked man, it plunged him into certain misery. But since the blessings of a future state of happiness for good men are more clearly reveal- ed, long life is not so very great a blessing, nor death su great a punishment to good men ; for death is sanctified by the covenant of grace, to be an introduction of their sopls into the separate state of happiness, and the curse is turned, in some respect, into a blessing. Objection VIII. Was it not supposed to be a great pri- vilege to Enoch and Elijah, when they were translated with- out dying? But what advantage could it be to either of them to carry a body with them to heaven, if their souls could act without it ? I answer, when Enoch and Elijah carried their betties to heaven with them, it was certainly a sublime honour, and a pe- culiar privilege, which they enjoyed, to have so early a happi- ness, both in flesh and spirit, conférred upon them, so many ages before the rest of mankind : For though the soul can act without the body, yet as body is part of the compounded nature of man, our happiness is not designed to be complete, till the soul and body are united in a state of perfection and glory. And this happiness was conferred early on those two fa- vourites of heaven. Objection IX. Was it not designed as a favour, when per - sees were raised from the dead, under the Old Testament or the New, by the prophets, by Christ, and by his apostles ? But what benefit could this be to them, if they had consciousness and enjoyment in the other world? Was it not rather an injury, to
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