the wisdom of God in foreshowing what hath been accomplished, and adore his mercy and power in the accomplishment of what was foreshowed. 2. Enoch's Faith. If we ask, what it was in Enoch that could merit an exemption from the common lot of mortality, the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews will tell usBy FAITH Enoch was translated from earth to heaven. His faith then was in heaven whither he was translated, and in that blessed Person who only could translate him thither: he was a believer in him who, after having made atonement on the cross for the sins of the world, appeared before the everlasting gates of heaven, and commanded them to be thrown open, for the righteous nation to enter into them, and give thanks unto the Lord their God. The righteousness of the Redeemer, like light from the sun, looked always and reached upwards, to save those who lived by faith before and under the law, as well as downwards, to justify and sanctify believers to the end of time, and nothing was, is, or shall be hid from the influence thereof. Enoch was translated, that he should not see death, by faith in him who, because he was to overcome the sharpness of death, could therefore open the kingdom of heaven to all believers. 3. His Prophecy. But did there a doubt remain as to the object of Enoch's faith, the prophecy delivered by him to the old world, and recorded by St. Jude, were sufficient to dispel it. The subject of the prophecy is, the second advent of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to take vengeance on the deniers and blasphemers of his holy name. Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgement upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all the ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. This prophecy of the coming of our Lord to judgement, which is to be his last act, and to close all the dispensations of God to man through a Mediator, necessarily supposes in the person who uttered it, an acquaintance with the steps leading to that awful and final catastrophe, such as the incarnation, life, sufferings, death, resurrection, ascension, inauguration, and kingdom of our Lord, as well as the glorious state of the saints departed, who are to come with him in the clouds of heaven. On these subjects were the thoughts of the prophet employed, and his affections were in heaven long before he himself was translated thither. How ought we then to be continually looking for and hasting to the coming of the day of God, now that Christ has sustained his offices of prophet, priest, and king, and nothing remains but that we behold him in the character of our Judge. Surely it is now, more than ever, the part of a prophet, or teacher of the revealed Jude, 14. will of God, to dwell upon the second advent of Messiah, and to paint in the most lively colours the transactions of the approaching day of final retribution; that day when the stoutest heart shall tremble, and the terrors of which nothing but the faith of Enoch can enable us to support. Yet who is there among us, that thinks, as he ought to do, on that day, or that faith! 4. The Testimony that he pleased God. The faith of Enoch is demonstrated by the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews from another topic, viz. the testimony he had before his translation that he pleased God; since without faith it is impossible to please him; for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. We may here observe, first, that all those persons who are said in the Old Testament to have pleased God, to have kept his commandments, to have been righteous, holy, &c. were believers, and did what they did through faith, as all must do now who hope to be accepted: secondly, that the existence of God is a point which man comes to the knowledge of not by inference, or deduction à priori, but by faith in the revelation he has made of himself-He that cometh to God must believe that he is thirdly, that the knowledge of a future state of rewards, and consequently of punishments too, enters into the mind the same way, viz. by faith, which, as it is elsewhere said, cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God: that God is a re < Rom. x. 17. warder of them that diligently seek him, is to be believed upon the evidence of Revelation; the reward here intended being undoubtedly that of eternal life, to which Enoch was translated, and which is the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord; and therefore not to be known but by and through him, and the counsels of God concerning him, and us in him, manifested by revelation, written, or traditional, from the beginning. To the wisdom of God, therefore, and not to the wit of man, be all the glory ascribed. 5. His Walking with God. This testimony of Enoch's pleasing God, referred to by St. Paul, is found Gen. v. 22. and again v. 24. couched in these words Enoch walked with God. Such was the effect and evidence of his faith, which saw him who is, otherwise, invisible, ever present to his soul, and set the Lord always before him, as the accurate inspector of all his ways. The blessed consequences of a sense of the divine presence are that fear of the Lord which prevents our offending him, and that love of God which incites us to obey him. A holy reverential awe, tempered with a filial affection, as it dries up the springs of vice, so is it a never failing source of virtue. How easily may the careless Christian account for his frequent falls and relapses, how justly condemn his inattention on this head, by making Jacob's reflection. Surely, the Lord is in this place, and I knew-I considered it not. How effectually may he repel temptations, by holding d Gen. xxviii. 16. forth this shield of faith in the divine omnipresence, as Joseph once did against the fiery darts shot from the quiver of the adulteress-How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? Besides, what a gracious and endearing familiarity between the Creator and his creature is implied in this phrase, walking with God! Persons that are unknown, we pass by, superiors we follow respectfully at a distance, and walk only with acquaintances and friends. Acquaint thyself then with God', and be of the number of those faithful disciples, of whom the holy Jesus disdains not to say-I have called you friends; even as Abraham also was called the friend of God. These are they who walk with their God, and take sweet counsel with him, as a man does with his friend, in the way of pious dispositions, and holy duties, which are so many steps and stages in the road to heaven. And while God speaks to the soul by his word, and she to him by prayer and thanksgiving; while he says, Seek ye my face, and she answers, Thy face, Lord, will I seek; the conversation is kept up, the fatigue of the journey is not perceived, and the years of her pilgrimage, like those which Jacob served for Rachel, seem unto her but a few days, for the love that she has to her guide, her companion, her friend, and her God. Him she consults in all her difficulties, whose testimonies are her delight and her counsellors: to him she addresses herself for the relief of all her wants, certain of never being rejected, or denied any thing that is good and proper for her: and him she * Gen. xxxix. 9. f Job, xxii. 21. John xv. 15. h James ii. 23. |