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Sola quædam imbecillitas, animique parùm audentis anxietas, fastidiosi hujusce affectûs rea est. Quin ego alacris mihi sumo, totumque exhaurio amarum afflictionis poculum, quod sapiens et benignus Deus in animæ meæ salutem ægro miscere voluit?

CXL. Ad conspectum rotæ.

DIRISSIME quidem hostibus Dei imprecari voluit Propheta, dum ait, O Deus, facito eos rota similes: quo, quid aliud innuere potuit, nisi conditionis eorum instabilitatem, subitique demum judicii violentiam? Isti nimirum rotæ radii, qui nunc sursum feruntur, jam, dicto aut cogitatione citiùs, deorsum volvuntur; moxque elevantur, ut illico deprimantur denuo. Neque ullus dari potest motus æquè velox rapidusque, ac cir

cularis.

Magnam arguit Dei benignitatem, quòd, in pœnis infligendis, moras nectere soleat; ita nos puniens, ut resipiscentiæ adhuc tempus ultrà indulgeat. In hisce suppliciorum spatiis gradibusque, vita aliqua et spes residua est; at rapidissima illa vindicis Dei judicia, nihil planè, præter furorem confusionemque æternam, præ se ferunt.

O Domine, in excandescentiá tuâ ne me redarguas. Castigationes tuas deprecari non possum: correctionem certè quandam peccata mea necessariò efflagitant: ego iram tuam supplex deprecor. Castigas tu nempe, quos amas. Ita me verberes, quæso, ut, dum vibices tuas dolens sentio, in misericordiâ tuâ lætus acquiescam.

JOSEPHI EXONIENSIS HENOCHISMUS:

SIVE,

TRACTATUS

DE MODO AMBULANDI CUM DEO.

THE WAY OF ENOCH:

OR, A

TREATISE

ON THE

MANNER OF WALKING WITH GOD.

NEWLY TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH,,

BY THE REV. PETER HALL, M. A.

A very loose and verbose translation of this piece was published by the Rev. Henry Brown, M. A. Vicar of Nether-Swell, in Gloucestershire : Oxford, 1768, 12mo. After careful revision, and great improvement, it was adopted by Mr. Pratt. The references, and the substance of the notes, are still retained with the present translation.-H.

DOCTO AC CELEBRI CLERO DIOCESEOS EXONIENSIS ;

PACEM ET GRATIAM.

VACABAT mihi pridem, uti nostis, per menses aliquot, durante Reverendissimi Archipræsulis Visitatione Metropoliticâ.

Non potui interea nihil agere. Meditatiunculas, igitur, meas vertendas non illibens suscepi: hunc etiam, præter alia quædam, meditatus insuper Henochismum ; quo nihil cogitari potuit utilius, nihil salutarius.

Soluti nunc fere sunt calami omnes in polemicas quasdam ζητήσεις, μωρὰς quidem illas, plærasque, kai áπαidεúrovc, 2 Tim. ii. 23. Et, ubi nihil est litium, cum Plautinis leguleiis, lites serunt. Friget, interim, pietas! sanctèque vivendi ratio, quasi anpoodióvvσov quiddam, vulgò negligitur!

Tædet me planè miseretque harum turbarum, quibus miserè agitatur orbis Christianus: utinam verò opis nostræ foret, illas, non dico, votis, suspiriis, lachrymis, sed quovis aut sudore aut sanguine, demum sedare!

Deus, Deus, qui solus potest, istoc accuret scilicet! Demus nos, interim, Fratres, quantum possumus, operam, ut ad verum practicæ pietatis studium, hominum animos, à vanis hisce vitilitigationibus, revocemus. Illud est, quod me istic videtis moliri; quodque, quamdiu superstitaverit mihi Deus hanc provinciam, moliturum deinceps sanctè spondeo. Vos, quod olim suis commilitonibus Gideon, facite pariter, ac me fecisse cernitis. Jud. vii. 17.

Coelum est, quod quærimus: illò autem non disputando quidem, sed credendo et benè vivendo, pervenitur. Pauca sunt illa fidei capita, quæ Christiano cuique ad salutem creditu necessaria sunt; nec verò difficilia. O, si in illis humiliter tacitèque acquiescere disceret plebs Christiana; de reliquis haud nimis interim solicita : quodque superest temporis, piis officiis, bonisque operibus, fœliciter impenderet!

Illud, Fratres Charissimi, strenuè navemus operam, ut fiat: curemusquo sedulò, ut sanctissimis probæ vitæ exemplis ita populo præluccamus, ut, vel sic, nostros cum Deo ambulare doceamus; cum ipso, demum, unà æternùm regnaturos.

TO THE LEARNED AND FAMOUS

CLERGY OF THE DIOCESE OF EXETER ;

GRACE AND PEACE.

You are aware that I had recently some leisure months, during the Metropolitical Visitation of the most Reverend the Archbishop.

This time I could not spend in idleness. I found a pleasure, therefore, in undertaking to translate my Occasional Meditations into Latin: and, besides some other matters, I composed this treatise, which I entitle Henochismus, or the Way of Enoch; than which no subject could be conceived, at once more useful, or more seasonable.

The pens of almost all our writers are now employed on certain polemical questions, foolish indeed, most of them, and unlearned: 2 Tim. ii. 23. And where there is no subject of contention ready, there, like the lawyers in Plautus, they sow the seeds of contention. In the mean time, piety starves! and a religious course of life is generally contemned, as something quite irrelevant and supererogatory!

For my own part, I am both wearied and ashamed of these disputes, by which the Christian world is miserably agitated: I only wish it were in my power to allay them, I say not by my prayers, my sighs, my tears, but by any fatigue or labour I could endure, by any sacrifice I could make, even unto

blood!

May God, may God (for he alone is able) provide a remedy for our disorders! But let us, meanwhile, my Brethren, do our best endeavours, to recall the minds of men from these vain jarrings and wranglings, to the serious pursuit of practical religion. This it is, which you see me here attempting to accomplish; and which I solemnly promise I will continue to attempt, so long as it shall please God to entrust me with the charge of this diocese. And as Gideon formerly exhorted his fellow-soldiers, Do ye, as ye have seen me do; Judges vii. 17.

:

It is heaven we seek but the way to heaven is not by a life of disputations, but of faith and holiness. The articles of faith, which every Christian must receive as necessary to his salvation, are but few; and those few by no means difficult. Oh that the whole congregation of the Church of Christ would learn to acquiesce in them with humility and quietness, and shew themselves less anxious to strive and quarrel about the rest, than happily to employ the time which yet remains in pious duties and good works!

For the accomplishment of this object, dearest Brethren, let us strenuously exert ourselves; especially, let us take care so to let our light shine before our people in the most holy example of a righteous life, that thus, at least, we may teach them to walk with God here, and to reign with him and us eternally hereafter.

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