possible that a fact
should not be most certain which has for witnesses not only Abel and
Enoch and Elijah, but also Christ himself, the head and the first
fruits of those that rise? Most worthy, therefore, the hatred of both
God and men are the wicked Epicureans; and most worthy our hatred also
is our own flesh, when we wholly plunge into temporal cares and
securely disregard the eternal blessings.

66. Worthy of note and carefully to be remembered is the statement
that Enoch was taken up and received, not by some patriarch or angel,
but by God himself. This was the very consolation which rendered the
deaths of the patriarchs endurable; yea, which enabled them to depart
from this life with joy. They saw that the seed which had been
promised them warred, even before he was revealed, with Satan, and
bruised, through Enoch, his head. Such was the hope entertained by
them concerning themselves and all their believing descendants, and,
in perfect security, they despised death as having ceased to be death,
as having become a sleep from which they were to awaken into life
eternal. "To them that believe," death is not really death, but a
sleep. When the terror, the power, and the sting of death are taken
away, it can no longer be considered death. The greater the faith of
the dying man, the weaker is death. On the other hand, the weaker the
faith of the dying man, the more bitter is death.

67. In this text we are also reminded of the nature of sin. If Adam
had not sinned, we should not have been dying men, but, like Enoch of
old, we should have been translated, without fear or pain, from this
animal life to that better and spiritual life. But although we have
forfeited that life, the present history of the patriarch Enoch
assures us that the restitution of paradise and of eternal life is not
to be despaired of. Our flesh cannot be free from pain, but where
conscience has obtained peace, death is no more than a swoon, by means
of which we pass out of this life into eternal rest. Had our nature
remained innocent, it would not have known such pain of the flesh. We
should have been taken up as if asleep, presently to awaken in heaven,
and to lead the life of the angels. Now, however, that the flesh is
defiled by sin, it must first be destroyed by death. As to Enoch,
perhaps he lay down in some grassy spot and fell asleep praying; and
sleeping he was taken up by God, without pain; without death.

68. Let us give proper attenti