Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	ancient_a	father_n	scripture_n	2,104	5	5.3760	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A53903	Enoch's translation, in a sermon preached at the funerals of the Right Honourable Thomas Earl of Elgin, Baron of Whorlton, &c. In the parish-church of Malden in Bedford-shire, Decemb. 31. 1663. By Rich. Pearson D.D.	Pearson, Richard, Chaplain to the Earl of Elgin.	1664 (1664)	Wing P1012; ESTC R216919	15,936	38

he was not then Mortuus but make a question whether he was not Aliquando moriturus afterwards to die namely towards the end of the World having preached Repentance to the Gentiles for so they reade that place in Ecclesiastic 44. 16. Translatus est in paradisum ut det gentibus poenitentiam Our Translation better He was translated being an example of repentance to all generations The more probable ground of this opinion is fetch'd from the common law of Mortality by which it is appointed for all men once to die Psal 89. 48. What man is he that lives and shall not see death But the Apostle in this place resolves also this Question that Enoch's privilege did not consist in a bare reprieve or a deferring of Death till some further time then it had been enough for the Apostle to have said Et non vidit mortem he did not see death but it consisted in a final preservation and exemption from it therefore it is express'd more fully he was translated ut non videret mortem that he should not that is that he should never see death And for that general law of Mortality it is not a Rule so peremptory but that it admits of some exception S. Paul tells us of those Saints who shall be found alive at Christ's coming to Judgment 1 Cor. 15. 52. We shall not all sleep that is we shall not all die but we shall be changed in a moment c. That Change is not properly Death but an equivalent or analogical Death So Enoch here though he might admit of some such momentany Death in the change of a corruptible Body into an incorruptible yet there was no Separation and therefore properly speaking he was free from Death Thirdly there 's yet a further Question concerning the Place of Enoch's Translation whither it was that God removed him Some will have it to be into a Terrestrial Paradise the very same out of which Adam was ejected a place free from all those corporal molestations and inconveniences which attend upon us in our earthly pilgrimage but withall a place which does not afford the vision of God or the happiness of a Comprehendour This Opinion is grounded upon the fore-named place of the Son of Sirach Ecclesiast 44. 16. where Enoch is said to be translated into Paradise But this will appear to be a very weak and a sandy foundation For besides that the Author is Apocryphal the Text is falsified the word Paradise being foisted into the vulgar Latin which is not in the Greek and a corrupt Gloss inferr'd upon it Into Paradise therefore into an Earthly Paradise But the Apostle in this Scripture resolves also this Question where it is said that God translated him and recorded as a great privilege Because he pleased God therefore God translated him If onely into an Earthly Paradise to be there confined it had not been a Gain but a Loss not a Prerogative but a Prejudice not a Privilege but a Punishment that whereas the Souls of the other Saints after the ending of a short Pilgrimage upon Earth are immediately carried up to those Celestial mansions where they do enjoy the vision of God the society of Saints and Angels and are for ever blessed with the Lord yet Enoch an eminent Saint who had this singular testimony from God's own mouth that he pleased God should be the onely person condemn'd to an Earthly Paradise for ages and generations and so long kept out of Heaven even almost from the beginning to the end of the world The truth is this Opinion of Enoch's Translation into an Earthly Paradise is a wild conceit without either ground of Reason or authority of Scripture and the ancient Fathers speaking of Enoch and Elias whatsoever they say of the degrees of Glory determine of both that they were taken up into the place of Glory He is there saith Epiphanius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a body Epiph. haer 64. spiritualized He doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so S. Basil Seleuc. converse with Angels He was carried Bas Sel. Or. 11. Id. Orat. 40 saith the same Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 above all the bounds of visible nature whither can that be but into Heaven Whence Isid Pelus Isid Pelus l. 2. ep 37. calls Elias 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 coelipetam Eliam one that reach'd Heaven corporally The same may be said of Enoch Of all the Saints these were the onely Royal pare who had the honour of this privilege All the other Saints at the time of their dissolution are taken up in their Souls their Bodies are not translated thither untill the general Resurrection S. Paul and S. John were taken up in spirit by vision or ex●●●sie but Enoch in person So it might have a two-fold reference 1. It was a fore-runner of the Ascension of Christ Christ had fore-runners of all the other passages of his Incarnation The Baptist was a fore-runner of his Birth John born of the barren womb Christ of the Virgin a fore-runner of his Death Isaac the onely son of his father bound upon the Altar as Christ nail'd upon the Cross a fore-runner of his Resurrection Jonas after three days brought forth out of the belly of the Whale by the power of God as Christ by his own power raised out of the bowels of the earth and a fore-runner also of his Ascension Enoch translated into Heaven as Christ himself was afterwards 2ly It was a fore-runner of our rapture at the Last day to assure us that the weight of our Bodies shall be no impediment of our Assumption into Heaven that as God gave us pledges of our Resurrection in both Testaments in the Old by such as were raised by the Prophets in the New by such as Christ himself raised so he hath not left us without remarkable pledges of our Ascension into Heaven In every state of the world there was one that was taken up Enoch before the Law Elias under the Law Christ after the Law that in all Ages the Saints might have some preambles of everlasting Life For this reason Epiphanius calls Enoch the First-begotten of the Resurrection and S. Gregory Ascensionis praenuncium the Fore-runner of our Ascension What was wrought upon him in the first Age of the world is daily wrought upon the Saints in all Ages of the world in respect of their Souls at the time of their departure they are translated and taken up into Heaven and at the Last day it shall be wrought upon the Bodies of all the Saints when they shall be caught up into the clouds and meet the Lord in the air and so shall ever be with the Lord. I have done with the Second Part of the Text His honourable Removal out of the world The Third and last is The mutual Correspondence between the two former Parts his Conversation and his Translation His holy Conversation that was a comfortable preparative of his happy Translation By faith Enoch was translated in