religion, in faith, in patience
and in the midst of a thousand crosses, all of which he endured and
overcame by faith in the blessed seed to come, he appeared no more.

52. Mark how pregnant these words are with power! He does not say, as
he expresses himself concerning the other patriarchs, "and he died,"
but "he was not," an expression that all scholars have come to regard
as a pure proof of the resurrection of the dead. In the Hebrew this
meaning is most strikingly brought out. And Enoch walked with God, and
_veenenu_, "he was not." The original signifies that Enoch was lost or
disappeared, contrary to the thought or expectation of all the other
patriarchs, and at once ceased to be among men.

53. Without doubt, at the severe loss of so great a man, both his
father and his grandfather were filled with grief and consternation;
for they well knew with what devotion he had taught the true religion,
and how many things he had suffered. When they had thus suddenly lost
such a man as Enoch, who had strong testimony of his godliness both
from men and from God himself, what do you think must have been their
feelings?

54. Find me, if you can, a poet or a fluent orator to do justice to
this text and to treat it with power! Enosh, Seth, and all the other
patriarchs knew not by whom or whither Enoch was taken away; they
sought him, but found him not. His son Methuselah sought him, and his
other children and his grandchildren sought him, but they found him
not. They suspected, no doubt, the malice of the Cainites, and they
probably thought that he was killed, as Abel was, and secretly buried.

At length, however, they learned, through a revelation made to them of
God by an angel, that Enoch was taken away by God himself, into
paradise. This fact they probably did not know the first or the second
day after the translation, and perhaps not till many months, or it may
be many years, afterwards. In the meantime the holy men bewailed his
wretched lot, as if he had been slain by the Cainite hypocrites. It is
always the divine rule that the cross and affliction should precede
consolation. God never comforts any but the afflicted, just as he
never quickens unto life any but the dead, nor ever justifies any but
sinners! He always creates all things out of nothing.

55. It was a severe cross and affliction to the patriarchs when they
saw taken away from them, to appear nowhere among them, him who had
governed the whole world by his