VeR. 5.] SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. 35
— For befwe his translation he had this testimony, that he -pleased God. In which reasoning there is a perfect syllogism : whosoever is translated on or after his pleasing God is translated bv faith. Enoch was trans- lated on or after his pleasing God, therefore he was translated by faith. The major is proved by the sixth verse — ' Without faith it is impos- sible to please God ;' the minor by the history of Moses — 'For before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.'
Let me illustrate the words.
' By faith ; ' that is, hj faith in the being of God, and in the promise of the Messiah and of the world to come. ISTow the reason why his translation is attributed to faith is given by the apostle — ' For before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.' His faith was the fountain of his godliness, and his godliness was the pledge of glory ; his failh respected his pleasing God, and his pleasing God was an evidence of his interest in eternal lite.
' Enoch.' We read of two Enochs — one of the race of Cain, another of the line of Seth ; the hypocritical church imitating the true church, as in outward rites, so in having the same names : the Enoch here meant was of the family of Seth.
' Was translated,' transplanted — ixereTidrj : the apostle useth this word to note his transportation to heaven.
There are many questions for the opening of this translation ; as (1.) Whether he were translated in soul and body ? (2.) W^hether he died in the translation ? (3.) To what place he was translated, whether to heaven or some earthly paradise ?
1. Whether he were translated in soul and body ? Some think he was translated in soul only, and not in body, as if there were nothing extraordinary in the history of Enoch, and his body was left on the earth. This is altogether improbable. The phrases imply something more than ordinary: Gen. v. 24, 'And Enoch walked with God, and was not; for God took him.' Why should there be such special l^hrases, ' he was not,' and ' God took him,' if an ordinary thing were intended ? So the apostle here — ' That he should not see death.' It might have been enough to have said he died, as of all the rest ; therefore there was somewhat of miracle in it, for he was gathered by God into glory, both in soul and body.
2. Whether he died in the translation or no ? I answer. No, but was only changed ; for the apostle saith ' that he should not see death.' The Chaldee paraphrase renders it, and ' he was not,' Quia non mori eum fecit Deus — Onkelos, Non occidit enm Bens. Probably, as those that live at the last day, the apostle saith, ' We shall not all die, but Ave shall all be changed,' 1 Cor. xv. .51. He was transported to heaven in a moment, without the pains and horrors of a natural death ; and being purified in soul, and purged from corruption in his body, was presently clothed with a glorified body. As Elijah was carried alive soul and body into heaven, 2 Kings ii. 11 ; so those that live at the Lord's coming ' shall be caught up alive into the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air," 1 Thes. iv. 7. And when the apostle himself would express his own desires, that he might go to heaven in this manner (for the first believers thought the day of judgment was at hand), he saith, 2 Cor. v. 2, ' In this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon
3(J SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. [SeR. XXI.
with our house which is from heaven ; ' and ver. 4, ' Not that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life ; ' that is, he desired that glor}' might come on him without dissolution, without the trouble and pain of sickness and diseases — ' Not that I might be unclothed,' and put off the bod}^, but ' clothed upon/ invested with the qualities of a glorified body.
3. Whither he was translated, to what place ? Some say to the earthly paradise, others to the heaverdy paradise.
[1.] Somesay to the earthly paradise ; so Haimo and others, there to stand in a happy condition until the last act of the world shall be brought on the stage, and then to fight with their imaginary antichrist. But that was defaced by the universal deluge and flood in Noah's time — ' The highest hills that were under the whole heaven were covered,' Gen. vii. 19, and the custody of the seraphims and flaming-sword was removed when the beauty and pleasure of it was gone ; and the most probable opinion is, that paradise was in Armenia. Now Armenia was covered, and Noah's ark rested on the mountains of Ararat, or Armenia, Gen. viii. 4.
[2.] Some say to a heavenly paradise, by which they understand not the heaven of heavens, but some third place, which is called in scripture paradise, and Abraham's bosom, in which the souls of some rest until the last day, not fully perfected and blessed. TertuUian, Austin, and many of the fathers, were of opinion that the souls of martyrs did straightways flit hence into the presence of God, but the souls of common christians went to paradise, by which they understood secreta animarum recepiacula, sedesque in quibus rcquiescunt — some unknown place, where they did enjoy happiness, congruous and con- venient to their condition : and in such a place they would p)lace Enoch. But all these things being devised without warrant and leave from the scriptures, little heed is to be given to them. Briefly, an earthly para- dise it cannot be, that is defaced ; a third place it cannot be, that being devised without warrant from the scriptures. Heaven only remaineth, whither God translated him both in body and soul, there to enjoy the comforts of his presence ; it would have been an infringement of his happiness to separate him from his God, with whom he had walked here in spiritual communion. So the Targums, or expositions of the Jews, Jonathan, Translatus fuit, et ascendit in ccdum, &c ; Josephus calls it ava-^aoprjcTi'^ irpo^ rov deov ; the Arabic version, Translatus est in paradisum.