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of it must have been at the time of Enoch's SERM. tranflation, either entirely forgotten, or but little regarded. For at that time, near the age of Noah, about 1000 years after the creation, we read that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, which fhews, that the views of an After-state were either loft, or made no impreffion. And therefore the event of Enoch's tranflation must have been, as another, and perhaps a ftronger intimation, of a future existence, by which, as the fon of Sirach fays, he was an example of repen tance to all generations, xliv. 16.

In the fucceeding ages, from the time of Enoch, till the tranflation of Elijah the prophet, we find no direct declaration of a life to come, but only fome obfcure hints of it, unless we allow the book of Job to have been written within that time, in which indeed he is represented, as declaring his belief of an After-State. Tho' after my fkin, fays he, worms deftroy this body, yet in my flesh fhall I fee God. In all the five books of Mofes, there is no mention made of it; but only by implication, in that description God gives of himself to Mofes, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Ifaac, and the God of Jacob, which our Saviour

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SER M. Saviour understands, as that thofe Patriarchs did continue their exiftence, and yet live in the fight of God; for he is not the God of the dead, fays he, but of the liv ing; for all live unto him. And from Mofes unto king David, there is only one paffage in the xviith Pfalm, in which the Pfalmift fays, deliver my foul-from the men of the world which have their portion in this life. As for me I shall be fatisfied when I awake with thy likeness. Where the expreffion, I awake, alludes to the fleep of death, as if he expected after death another exiftence.

But in the Tranflation of Elijah to heaven, of which we have a particular account, 2 Kings ii. there is another clear discovery of an After-ftate, feeing that his existence was not finished on earth, So that these two, Enoch and Elijah, may be confidered, as the two witnesses under the old testament, to the truth of a life to come. And the Jews could not be ignorant of it, as it was fo ftrongly reprefented by fuch examples. These two are, indeed, the only fure and clear evidences of an after-ftate, till after the Jewish captivity in Babylon. And it is probable, they had their effect, in ex

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citing men to righteousness. For it SERM. could not but appear, that those two men were rewarded with immortality and glory, for their extraordinary virtue and goodness; and therefore, that those who were followers of them in their practice, had reafon also to hope for another exiftence, though they were not in the fame manner tranflated into it. From this time of Elijah's Tranflation, there is no mention made of an after-life, till the time of Daniel, who expreffes it in the strongest manner, ch. xii. Many of them, fays he, that fleep in the duft of the earth, fball awake, fome to everlasting life, and fome to everlasting shame and contempt.

The ancient Jews then, from the affumption of Enoch and Elijah into heaven, and other notices given them, had plain intimations of a future state. And that party among them, the Sadducees, who believed nothing of it, neither angel nor fpirit, muft likewise have believed nothing of their antient scriptures; they may have only conformed to the external ceremonies of their law, for the ends of government, and to keep well with the better and religious part of their people. They seem to have been the Free-thinkers, F

or

SER M. or Deists of those days, who believed nothing at all of any divine revelation.

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But even in thofe times of the Old Teftament, the heathen nations feem to have been at a great lofs, concerning great and important truth. In fome of them, the notion of it, either by tradition, or from reafon, feems to have been entirely defaced or loft; though no doubt, there were a few of the people of difcernment and fpeculation in every country, who faw into it, from the confideration of what paffed in their own minds, and from the moral attributes of God. Herodotus, a Greek hiftorian of great credit, tells us, that the antient Greeks, had their first notions of the immortality of the foul from the Egyptians, by the travelling of fome of their great men into Egypt; and the Egyptians, no doubt, had it from the Jews, their neighbours, who had been experimentally convinced of it, from the Translations of Enoch and Elijah. But in general, the heathen world feems to have been in a

ftate of great uncertainty and darkness about a future life; and in this condition, they remained till the coming of our Saviour, who was given as a light to

lighten

lighten the Gentiles, and who brought life SER M. and immortality to light by his gospel.

Let us now go on to the

II. Thing propofed, to explain more particularly, this remarkable character of Enoch, that he walked with God, which qualified him for fuch a distinction. Now that he walked with God, fignifies in the

1. Place, that he lived continually as in the fight of God, or that he confidered himfelf, as ever obferved by him. This is evidently implied in the phrafe, for he who walks with another is conftantly in his view, and obferved by him, which obliges him to act in a proper and decent manner. And therefore, to walk with God, is to behave ourselves as conftantly in his view, and regarded by him. God, from the perfection of his nature, is every where prefent, and for ever with us; be is about our path, and about our bed, and Spies out all our ways. Now to walk with him, is to have a juft and folid impreffion of this on our minds, and always to reflect, that as we are in his prefence, we should act in such a manner as may be pleafing to him.It is to regard his all-feeing Eye, that penetrates

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