The Holy Walk and Glorious Translation of Enoch, Appendix
APPENDIX.
THE Learned Monſieur SAURIN in his Diſſertations upon the Old Teſtament ſays, "That this only Expreſſion is the moſt beautiful of all Elogies, Enoch pleaſed God.—He adds, That we have a very ſtrong Preſumption of this Fact, that Enoch was indeed tranſlated and did not ſee Death, becauſe Moſes at the End of the Lives of thoſe Patriarchs that both preceeded and followed Enoch hath this Expreſſion, that he died. He does as it were affect this Style; and it may be preſumed that he would not have altered it juſt upon mentioning Enoch, if that holy Man had the ſame Deſtiny. Beſides, the manner in which Moſes ſpeaks of the Aſſumption of Enoch makes it appear as a favour granted to his great Endeavours of pleaſing God: Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.
IT was a more ſingular thing in that Firſt Age of the World, that a Man of diſtinguiſhed Piety ſhould live but 365 years, while the greateſt part of the Patriarchs came nearer to a thouſand. This made ſo great an Impreſſion upon a Robin who undesſtood it to mean no more than an ordinary Death, that he choſe rather to blaſt the Memory of this Patriarch than to ſuppoſe that God would take a good Man ſo in the midſt of his days, in that Age of the World. "Enochs Righteouſneſs (ſays the Robin) was but ambulatory and fleeting, and this was the Reaſon that God precipitated his Death". An ignorant and baſe Reflection.
IN each of the three great Periods of the Church, there has been an Inſtance of a Man taken up to Heaven in Body and Soul; for the ſupporting the Hopes conceived by all the Faithful, of arriving at the ſame happineſs: Enoch before the Law, Elijah under it, and Jeſus Chriſt under the Goſpel Oeconomy. 'Twas a favourable Prejudice for the Faithful of the Firſt World, to ſee a good Man vaniſh away, and after his ſojourning upon the Earth to be lodged in ſome other place than a Tomb. 'Twas yet a ſtronger Preſumption in favour of thoſe that lived in the ſecond Period, to ſee the Heavens opened for the Reception of one of their Prophets, who was carried up thither in a Chariot of Fire. But it is a Demonſtration to Chriſtians, and as it were a taking Poſſeſſion of their expected Happineſs, to ſee the Author & Finiſher of their Faith paſſing thro' thoſe vaſt Spaces that divide Heaven from the Earth; and to hear the Church Triumphant Summoning the Gates of the Palace of Glory to be open'd, and to receive Him who was going before to prepare the Places that He had allotted for them in thoſe happy Manſions. Such an High-Prieſt became us, who is holy, harmleſs, undefiled, ſeparate from Sinners, and made higher than the Heavens".
FINIS.
End of the text · Benjamin Colman, The Holy Walk and Glorious Translation of Enoch (1728)