ENOCH's TRANSLATION, IN A SERMON PREACHED At the Funerals of the Right Honourable THOMAS Earl of ELGIN, Baron of WHORLTON, etc. In the Parish-Church of Malden in Bedford-shire, Decemb. 31. 1663.  
By RICH. PEARSON D. D.   recumbent skeleton with crossbones 
LONDON, Printed by James Flesher for Thomas Clark, at the South-Entrance of the Royal Exchange. 1664.   

Imprimatur.  
JOH. HALL., R. P. D. Episc. Lond. à Sac. Domest. Feb. 22. 1663.   

To the Right Honourable, ROBERT Earl of Elgin, Baron of Whorlton, etc.  
Right Honourable,  
IN the Robe of Aaron's Ephod, by God's appointment, there was to be a Bell and a Pomegranate, 
Ex. 28. 34.  A Bell and a Pomegranate, round about the hem of the Robe. Why the Bells were not placed aloft, but in Extremis, in the Hem or Skirts of the Robe, Origen gives this Moral account, Ut de extremis 
Hom. 9 in Exod.  nunquam sileas, semper sons, To put men in mind of their latter End; that even from Aaron's Garment the doctrine of Mortality might be always sounding in the ears of the People. Every Funeral Sermon is as a Passing-peal from these Bells of Aaron. In this there is not only the Bell of Aaron, but the Pomegranate, the fruit of a Holy and Pious Life, expressed in the rare Example of your ever-Honoured Father.  
It is true of the Lives of the Saints what one said of the Pomegranate, that there is in the best aliquod granum putre, some one grain or other amiss. Yet I am persuaded there were in him as few faulty grains, and as great Eminencies of solid Virtue and Piety, as in any person whom this Age hath produced. He hath derived to Your Honour a most compendious way of Excelling, in leaving You both an high advantage of Doing Good, by an honourable Fortune, and a great Example of Being Good, by beating out the way before You.  
And by the blessing of God Your Lordship will exceed the Copy, having already given to the world the signal evidences of Your great Love to Religion and Loyalty, the surest Foundation of all Christian and Heroick Virtues. Which that they may be increased and multiplied, with all other Blessings, upon Your Lordship and Your Noble Family, shall be my constant and earnest prayer.  
In the mean time Your Lordship will be pleased to accept of this short and imperfect Draught, adventured into the public view in pure obedience to Your Lordship's Desires, which have the force of undisputable Commands upon  
Your Honour's most humble Servant and Chaplain, RICH. PEARSON.   
HEB. 11. 5. By Faith Enoch was translated, that he should not see death, and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. 
THIS whole Chapter is as a golden Calendar, a sacred Roll, containing the Lives of the ancient and holy Patriarches, and the famous acts of those Hero's which were the Worthies, not of David, but of Heaven; the men of Renown which were before the times of Christ. And particularly this verse presents us with an excellent Panegyric of the renowned Patriarch Enoch, the seventh from Adam, the great Prophet of the First world, whose Prophetical eye was so illuminated, that it could reach from one end of the world to the other; and living so near to the beginning of the World, foretold the dissolution and consummation of it. In this Text we have the Panegyric of this noble Patriarch: it consists of many clauses; but if we marshal them into a Logical method, we may reduce them to these three heads:  
His Conversation in the world.  
His Removal out of the world. And  
The mutual Correspondence of both these.  
His Conversation in the world, that is expressed in the first and last words of the Text, He walked by Faith, and He pleased God.  
His Removal out of the world, that is expressed in the middle clauses, He was translated, that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had translated him.  
The mutual Correspondence of these two, that lies in the Dependence and Connexion of the words. By Faith he was translated, in the beginning of the verse. Piety is a comfortable preparative to a happy translation. And in the latter end of the verse, God translated him, for he pleased God. A blessed translation is an infallible consequent of a holy and heavenly life. These are the several parts of the Text, of which I intent to speak.  
I begin with the First, The holy Conversation of the Patriarch Enoch whilst he was in the world, described both by the Principle of a holy life, that is Faith, By faith Enoch, in the beginning of the verse; and by the Consequence or Result of it, in the latter end of the verse, He pleased God.  
The first part of this Elogium is drawn from the Principle or foundation of a godly life, that is Faith. It is the motto which S. Paul sets in the front of all that was praiseworthy in the Saints, as the top of their commendation: By faith Abel did thus and thus, By faith Abraham, By faith Moses, and By faith Enoch. This is as the Title-page to all of them. Even the Saints before Christ had the grace of Faith for their lamp, as well as those that followed after; and by that Faith they lived and walked in their several stations: and it was a Faith not different from ours in Kind; their Faith and ours were the same in substance, and were both fixed upon the same Object: the difference was only Gradual and circumstantial; they believed in that which was to be accomplished, and we in that which is already accomplished. Their Faith looked forward, and their voice was that of the Psalmist, Ps. 116. 10. Credidi, propter quod loquar, I believed, therefore will I speak: Our Faith looks backward to Christ already exhibited, and our voice is that of S. Paul, 2 Cor. 4. 13. I believed, therefore have I spoken. So in the substance of Salvation they shared with us, and we with them: they Believers as well as we, they Christians as well as we; Christiani ante Christum, as Tertullian speaks, Christians even before Christ was come into the world: and as we believing receive Redemption by the Blood of Christ actually shed; so they also believing received Redemption by the same Blood of Christ which was virtually shed even from the beginning of the world. So they and we make up one Church, one Spiritual Building, built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, Eph. 2. 20.  
Again, it is farther observable, that of all the Excellencies for which the Saints are extolled in Scripture, above all they are magnified for their Faith. In every of these examples that are mentioned in this Chapter, Faith as it is the first, so it is the principal part of their commendation. There were other Eminencies which were remarkable in them, Abel's Innocency, Abraham's Obedience, Moses' Zeal, Noah's Righteousness, Enoch's Devotion: but the high approbation which the Spirit of God gives them is for their Faith, as the first and leading Grace, as the principal and fundamental Grace, which is the root and spring of all the rest; as that Grace which made them live Religiously here, By faith Enoch pleased God; and as that Grace which carried them to Heaven afterwards, By faith Enoch was translated. This order of Salvation God hath set; No coming to Heaven but by Christ, no coming to Christ but by Faith: So No Faith no Christ, and no Christ no Salvation. Whereas some have vainly thought to make Saints of the old Philosophers, as if by the right use of Reason, or by the improvement of their natural Endowments they could attain Salvation: this fond charity of theirs is much like that legendary devotion of Pope Gregory, who is said by his prayers to have fetched the Soul of the Emperor Trajan out of Hell, being moved with compassion for the justice which he had once done to a poor widow. But the story tells us that by revelation he received this answer, That however he was heard in that Petition, yet Caveret in posterum, he should beware hereafter that he did not presume to pray for any that was dead unbaptised. It is an equal presumption in these men to think by their opinion to redeem from Hell the Souls of those Heathens who lived and died without Faith, without Christ, and without God in the world. An opinion not unlike to that of the Turks in their Alcoran, That every man shall be saved in his own Religion, be it what it will, if he be but devout in it. Briefly, it is an opinion which overturns the whole frame of revealed Truth, that any man can be saved without Christ, or have any interest in Christ without Faith. This is the reason why the Apostle in this Chapter makes such frequent mention of Faith in the behalf of all the Saints, as the Grace which carried them to Heaven, as the Grace which God esteems and approves above all, as the radical and fundamental Grace which is the Root and Principle of a virtuous and holy life. By faith Enoch; that's the first Elogium, in the beginning of the verse.  
The second is drawn from the Consequence or Result of it, in the close of the verse, He pleased God. This follows naturally upon the former, as the Effect upon the Cause. For as the Apostle has laid down the Maxim, in the next verse, Without Faith it is impossible to please God: so with Faith it is impossible not to please him. Faith is the Grace that incorporates us into Christ: being incorporate into Christ we are made partakers of all his Merits; his Satisfaction becomes ours, his Obedience ours, his Righteousness ours: being thus clothed in the robe of his Righteousness put on by Faith, we become accepted of God, and God well pleased with us. Again, Faith is the Root from whence infallibly springs the Fruit of a Holy and Godly life; and with such Fruit God is well pleased.  
But the Apostle here sets it down with advantage: It is not barely, He pleased God, but He had this testimony, that he pleased God. And from whom had he this testimony? even from God himself. We find it given unto him by the Spirit of God, Gen. 5. 24. there it is said, Enoch walked with God, and here, Enoch pleased God. To walk with God and to please God are phrases equivalent. Can two walk together, saith the Prophet, unless they be agreed? that is, unless they be pleased; Amos 3. 3. Therefore the Apostle S. Paul joins these two words together in 1 Thess. 4. 1. Ye have received of us how ye ought to walk, and to please God.  
Would you then know what it is to please God? S. Augustine leads us to the beginning of this duty: Placere Deo incipit qui in se odit quod Deo displicet; Then we begin to please God, when we hate and abhor in ourselves whatsoever is displeasing unto him. S. Basil carries us further; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉▪ Then we please 
Bas. l. de Virgin.  God, when by a holy and a virtuous life we endeavour to make ourselves like unto God. More particularly, To please God is, to love him, to fear him, to serve him, to praise him, to do all those things which are pleasing and acceptable unto him.  
The reason is, God is the only infinite good, and cannot take pleasure in any thing but himself, or something of himself. He is pleased with his Son, because he is Himself; he is pleased with Piety, because it is a beam of Himself wrought by his Spirit in the creature. So every action, the more it has of God, the more pleasing it is unto him; and the more it has of Christ, the more it has of God; and the more it has of Faith, the more it has of Christ; and of all other Grace's Faith is most pleasing to him, because it holds most of Christ: the more of Christ, the more acceptation we find with God, because in him God is perfectly well pleased.  
The sum is this, The pleasing of God must be both our Final cause, we must make it our End whilst we are in the world, to direct all our actions to the Glory of God, to do that which may please him; and our Formal cause, we must make it our Rule, it is the surest Rule we can walk by, to do those things which are pleasing unto God.  
Christ himself walked by this Rule, It is my meat and drink to do my Father's will, Joh. 4. 34. David desired to walk by this Rule, Psal. 143. 10. O teach me to do the thing that pleaseth thee. Enoch went by this Rule, he walked by Faith, and he pleased God. And this is the Rule which is set to every Christian, that Golden and unerring Rule, which can never deceive us, 1 Joh. 3. 22. to do those things which are pleasing in his sight.  
So it excludes three false Rules, by which most men are wont to be overruled in the managing of their conversation.  
The first is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Self-pleasing; that's a false Rule: we must not be self-pleasers, Rom. 15. 1. not to lean to our own Understandings, not to be swayed by our own Wills, not to be ruled by our own unruly Affections. I came not, saith Christ, to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me, Joh. 6. 38. That man is the best Servant of God who is least his own Master, who knows no other velle and nolle, but only to do the will and pleasure of God.  
The second is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the pleasing of men; that is also a false Rule: the Apostle cries it down in Eph. 6. 6. Not as men-pleasers, but as the servants of God. It is hard to be both a Servant of God and a Pleaser of men; therefore the Apostle puts them as contradistinct and inconsistent designs, and if we will cleave to the one, we must renounce the other; 1 Thess. 2. 4. So speak, so do, not as pleasing men, but God. The temporising Hypocrite does all to be seen of men, so speaks as hunting after the Favour and Applause and Approbation of men, with those sawning Prophets mentioned in Isa. 30. 10. which speak smooth things, and prophesy deceits. The Prophets prophesy falsely, and what's the reason? the people love to have it so, Jer. 5. 31. He that would approve himself a faithful Servant of God, must not look asquint upon the Applause of men. S. Paul concludes for himself, and it may be a Rule for us, Gal. 1. 10. If I should yet please men, I were not the servant of Christ.  
The third is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. If we must not please ourselves, if we must not please men, much less Satan, who is God's adversary. Whatsoever pleaseth him is displeasing to God. Then we please him, when we listen to his suggestions, when we commit sin, and delight to continue in it. As the good Angels rejoice at our Conversion, so our Sin and Confusion is the pleasure and pastime of Satan. If we make it our End and our Rule (as we ought to do) to please God, all these ways are to be abandoned.  
Here then was the high commendation of Enoch's Piety, he so lived, and so behaved himself in the time of his pilgrimage, that by the testimony of God himself, he pleased God. It was a high Character, especially from the mouth of God, and that recorded by the finger of the Spirit of God in the Book of God, in perpetuam rei memoriam. What an honour was it to Apelles to be enroled among the Nobles of the New Testament, with this singular Elogium or Title of honour, Apelles approved in Christ? What an honour to Moses in the Old Testament to be called 
Ro. 16. 10.  the Servant of God? to Abraham, to be styled the Friend of God? to David, to be called A man after God's own heart? All these concur in this honourable Elogium given to the Patriarch Enoch in this Scripture, He had this testimony, that he pleased God. And thus much shall suffice for the first part of the Text, His pious Conversation whilst he was in the world.  
Being such an one, it was not fit that he should make too long a stay in this world, which was not worthy of him. He was all this while a Candidate for Heaven, and having received God's approbation, thither God removes him: and by a special privilege he takes the Degree of a glorified Saint, as it were per saltum, leaping over the threshold of Death.  
This we have more particularly described unto us in the Second part of the Text, which tells us of his honourable Removal out of the world, in these words, He was translated, that he should not see death, and was not found, because God had translated him.  
Concerning this Translation of Enoch many Questions have been started, but by the help of this Scripture we may be able to resolve the most of them.  
One is, Whether Enoch was so translated, that, as a person privileged from the law of Mortality, he died not. The Scruple is grounded upon two several phrases which are used by Moses in the story of Enoch, Gen. 5. 24.  
First, in that it is said God took him. Now this phrase of taking away is used in Scripture to set forth the blessed Departure of the Saints out of this world by the ordinary way of Dissolution. Thus, Isa. 57 1. Merciful men are taken away, that is, they die; and Job 32. 22. my Maker would soon take me away, that is, he would take away my Life, he would kill me.  
Again, it is said in the same Scripture, that Enoch was not: and this also is a phrase by which the Scripture sometimes points out the state of Death. So Gen. 42. 36. Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, that is, they are both dead; for so Jacob at that time supposed them to be.  
But this Question is clearly resolved by S. Paul in this Scripture, where he tells us plainly, Enoch was translated, that he should not see death. That he should not see death, that is, that he should not die. It is like that other phrase, Luk. 9 27. There be some here that shall not taste of death. To see death and to taste of death are phrases borrowed from two distinct Senses, but have both the same signification: that is, saith S. Augustin, Mortem non experietur, he shall have no experience of death. Enoch was so far exempted from the law of Death, that he did not so much as Taste it, nè primoribus quidem labiis; so far privileged, that he did not so much as See it, nè primoribus quidem oculis.  
So his Taking away was not a Taking away of Dissolution, which implies Mortality; but a Taking away of Translation, which prevents Death. Therefore we may observe, that in Gen. 5. where the Lives of the Patriarches are recorded, of all the rest who are mentioned both before and after Enoch, it runs thus, Seth lived so many years, and he died; Methuselah so many years, and he died: but of Enoch otherwise, he lived so many years, and not said, He died; but, to show that he was a privileged person, Moses gives him a singular and privilegiate expression, God took him.  
Again, whereas it is there further expressed, He was not, if we take the phrase in its full rigour, it signifies an absolute Nullity, or Annihilation; but here it is so far from intending an Annihilation, that it does not betoken so much as an ordinary Extinction by Death. It is true, that as the Latins were wont to express Death by the word Fuit, so the Hebrews by a Non fuit; but in this place it does not signify so much, Therefore S. Paul in this Text mollifies the phrase by a word of supply, Non fuit, He was not, that is, Non fuit inventus, He was not Found; He was not any more in a visible communion with men; He was secretly translated by God, as Moses secretly buried by God: It was not known what was become of him, till God revealed it. We see other men when they go out of the world: Even Elias himself was seen by Elisha when he ascended. But none of the Patriarches saw Enoch go; and being gone, he was not to be found. The sons of the Prophets might search and seek for him, as they did for Elias, but not meet with him. Again, as it was a Secret, so a Total Translation, both in Soul and Body. Other Saints, though their Souls be carried up on the wings of Angels, as Lazarus was, yet their Bodies are to be found, they remain behind, and are laid asleep in their graves, as S. Peter speaks of the Patriarch David, Act. 2. 29. He is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day. Enoch was not to be found either way: in him there was no Separation of Soul and Body by death, but a total Translation of both.  
That for the first Question.  
Secondly, Some will grant that Enoch died not, 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 read 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 fetched 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; than 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 expressed 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 Judgement, 1 Cor. 15. 52. We shall not all sleep, that is, we shall not all die, but we shall be changed, in a moment, etc. 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 withal a place which does not afford the vision of God, or the happiness of a Comprehendour. This Opinion is grounded upon the forenamed 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 inferred 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 only 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 only person condemned 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.  spiritualised. 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 reached Heaven corporally. The same may be said of Enoch. Of all the Saints these were the only Royal  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 until 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 twofold reference.  
1. It was a forerunner of the Ascension of Christ. Christ had forerunners of all the other passages of his Incarnation. The Baptist was a forerunner of his Birth; John born of the barren womb, Christ of the Virgin: a forerunner of his Death; Isaac, the only son of his father, bound upon the Altar, as Christ nailed upon the Cross: a forerunner of his Resurrection; Ionas 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 forerunner also of his Ascension; Enoch translated into Heaven, as Christ himself was afterwards.  
2ly, It was a forerunner 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 Forerunner 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 the beginning of the verse: and his happy Translation that was a necessary consequent of his holy and pious Conversation, in the latter end of the verse, God translated him, because before his translation he pleased God.  
From hence will arise these two Propositions, whereof the one will serve to guide and direct, the other to comfort and establish us in our way to Heaven.  
The first is this, That a holy Conversation is a necessary preparative to a happy Translation. There's no passing into that Temple of Honour, but by this of Virtue. We must enter through the Gates into the City, Rev. 22. 14. The City is Heaven, and Grace is the Gate that leads into it. You have it expounded in the former part of that verse, Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the Tree of life. Heaven is a holy place, no unclean thing shall enter there, nor whatsoever defileth, nor whatsoever worketh abomination: It is a Heavenly place, the earthly and covetous worldling shall not enter there. To such a man the door of Heaven is as the eye of a Needle, and such a man is to it as a Camel; if he would thread this Needle, he must take away this Bunch from off his back, cast away the love of worldly Riches. Heaven is the habitation of Righteousness, no unjust person shall enter there, nor thiefs, nor covetous, nor extortioners, nor oppressors, nor grinders of the face of the poor. It is God's holy Hill, and David tells us by what steps we must ascend unto it, Psal. 15. and Psal. 24. by walking uprightly, and working righteousness, and speaking the truth, by cleanness of hands and purity of heart. Such an one shall receive blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his Salvation. In a word; would you hope for a comfortable translation at the hour of death? you must learn to live the life of Faith; By faith Enoch was translated: learn so to order your lives as may be wellpleasing and acceptable unto God; Enoch was translated, because he pleased God. That's the first Proposition, A holy Conversation is a necessary preparative of a happy Translation.  
And the second is like unto it, That a happy Translation is an infallible consequent of a holy and godly Conversation. S. Augustine lays it down for an undeniable truth, Non potest malè mori qui bene vixerit, No man can die ill that lives well; be it a sudden, a violent, a painful, a bloody death, yet he is happy in it, because He cannot die ill that lives well. Let us make sure of this viaticum, Faith working by Love, and all will be well. He that has often used to walk with God, as Enoch did, that has made it his care and conscience to please God, has this Praeludium of a happy Dissolution, he gins in Grace, and he must needs end in Glory.  
In a word, Let us make this use of Enoch's Translation, often to look up to that place whither he was taken. Had Earth been Enoch's home, had this World been his abiding City, God would never have taken him from hence: but being a pilgrim here, he takes him away. And however we have no hope of this privilege whilst we are in our mortal Pilgrimage, to be immediately taken up in the Body, as he was; yet we must aspire thither in our Affections and Desires. That is a thing we may reach unto, and Nature itself will help us with some directions to it, having given Man an erect Stature and a sublime Countenance, that he may behold his Heavenly Original, and often meditate on the place from whence he came, that is Heaven; that he may have a Heavenly Conversation, suitable to the place whither he is designed to go, that's Heaven. But the Scripture gives us better directions, to look up thither with the Eye of Faith; that will carry us further than the eye of the Body, not only to the Starry Heaven, but to the Beatifical, where our Hope is, where our Country is, where the Saints and Angels are, where Christ himself is. If there be any love of Christ, we will be often travelling thither, he is gone before; if any love of the Saints, they are gone before; if any love of Happiness, we cannot hope to find it here, it is in Heaven, or no where. Let us lift up our hearts thither, there let us fix our eyes, thither let us bend our course, and so order our Conversation in this world, that we may be fit for a better: that when the time of our Dissolution is come, we may hope for a blessed Translation, having walked by Faith, and laboured to please God, as Enoch did; By Faith Enoch, etc.  
I Have done with the Text, a noble Precedent of Piety drawn from the first and Golden Age of the world. And now I perceive your attention revives, and your expectation gins to rouse up, to hear something of the present occasion by way of parallel. And I cannot blame you; such eminent Examples of Virtue and Piety, as this Honourable Person hath left behind him, are not the lot of every day, especially in this last and Iron Age of the world. I shall therefore endeavour in some measure to gratify such a just and reasonable expectation. And I shall do it the more cheerfully, because I find myself discharged of one main discouragement which usually attends upon these performances, the suspicion of Flattery, that Pander of Vainglory, that stinking Fly which poisons the perfume of many a Funeral Commendation. Here is no fear of that, I am to speak of a Person so truly and highly Deserving, that my arrows will be sure rather to fall short then beyond the mark. Being secured of that, I shall set forward.  
I will not take upon me to trace the Descent of of this Noble Person to its first rise, it were a work that would require the Antiquities of two Kingdoms. It may suffice, that it was both Ancient and Honourable; and let me add, it was English too: and so I find it on the Monument of Edward Lord Bruce in the Chapel of the Rolls,  
Scotus ut ortu, Anglis sic oriundus avis. Our neighbour-Nation had the honour to give that Family an hospitable entertainment for some hundreds of years; and they had the justice also, after many revolutions, to restore it at length with Honour and Splendour to its native and Original Soil.  
His Ancestors, with their Name, came in with the Norman Conqueror, their Seat was Skelton in Yorkshire; and a Monument of theirs still remaining in Gisborough Abbey bears witness to great Antiquity. Providence transplanted them into Scotland, where they prospered, and took root, and spread their branches into the Royal Family.  
And the same Providence, together with the auspicious Reign of K. James, brought them back into England. The L. Bruce of Kinlosse, Father to this Honourable Earl, did not only attend upon his Majesty to this Crown, but was a happy instrument, as Ambassador to Q. Elizabeth, (of whose favour he had a great share) for the transacting of that great Affair, in order to the Succession: and in the Succession, as an honour to his Justice and Integrity, as well as Wisdom and Prudence, was entrusted, both as Master of the Rolls in this, and Counsellor of both Kingdoms. Here his own Modesty (which in those days was accounted a Virtue) was the only Moderator which set bounds to the Favour and Bounty of his Prince, in refusing those further offers that were made by K. James, and returning divers blanks that had been given unto him.  
His Lordship now deceased had reason to acknowledge (as he did frequently and gratefully) how happy God had made him in all his Relations. Happy in his Father, so renowned in his generation. Happy in his Mother, whose Memory is still precious in the fragrancy of her Piety, Charity and Hospitality. Happy in his First Wife, the Daughter of Sir Robert Chichester, and Heir by her Mother to the great and rich House of Harrington. By her he had his only Child, the Earl now living. A Lady eminent in her time for singular Wit, Parts and Modesty. Happy in his Second, Diana, Countess of Oxford, one of the Coheirs of William Earl of Excester; a Lady of matchless Virtue and Honour, to whose dear and pious Memory his Lordship erected this sumptuous Monument; having herself left behind her, as with his Lordship the memory of a most entire Conjugal Affection, so with his Son the unparallelled kindness of a Mother-in-law; first making him her Child, by a careful Education; and then her Heir, by a noble Endowment with her whole Estate of Inheritance. Happy in his only incomparable Sister, Christian, Countess Dowager of Devonshire, now surviving. And happy in his only Son, and Heir of his Virtues, Fortunes and Honours.  
But I must not forget myself, neither should I have mentioned this Nobility of Extraction and Alliance, but that I find it attended with such a train of Virtues, of which Honour is but the shadow, and without which it is not so much as a shadow. Nobility without Virtue being as a golden Candlestick set upon a Table without Light, or as a Beacon upon an hill, having no Fire in it: Whereas Virtue accompanied with Honour is like a rich Diamond set in Gold, which makes it appear more orient and illustrious. It is a good saying of Gregory Nazianzen, True Nobility 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, it is to be measured, not by the Progeny, but by the Person. Therefore passing by his Original and Traduction, let us look upon him in his own proper and inherent Qualifications. And those we may refer to three heads, Political, Oeconomical, Personal.  
For Politicals, he was a Person enriched with great Endowments and Abilities of Mind, much Prudence and Sagacity, as well as Integrity, a deep Judgement fit for the managery of the highest Affairs, had not the depressions and infirmities of a Consumptive Body indisposed him for the Public, especially in such Times of Broils and Confusion as were altogether unsuitable to the Calmness and Peaceableness of his temper. Yet even then he bore his part, and whilst others were wallowing in blood, he was wrestling in Prayer and melting in Tears, mourning for the Divisions of Reuben, and praying for the peace of Jerusalem. And we must all confess that the Prayers of such Good men were effectual to retrieve those public Blessings of Religion, Peace and Liberty, which the dint of the Sword could never do. For his own Concernment, his greatest care was to preserve bonam Conscientiam in mala valetudine, a sound Soul in a crazy Body, and a good Conscience in bad Times. He would often comfort himself, and this comfort he carried with him to his grave, that He was free from the blood of all men.  
For his Oeconomicals, in the government of his Domestic affairs, his Family was, as the Psalmist describes Jerusalem, like a City compact together. In the midst of the distracted and confused Times, when the Coat of Christ was rend into so many pieces, so many men, almost so many several Religions; in the midst of those Confusions, his Family was like a little Church; and though at that time very numerous, yet I could not observe that there were two amongst them all of a different Persuasion, either in point of Religion or Loyalty. This I ascribe (next to the Blessing of God, who makes men to be of one mind in a house) to the Piety and Prudence of their Lord and Master, wisely considering that he could never be ill served by those, who were both Religious Servants of God, and Faithful Subjects to their Sovereign. Within those Walls you should not hear any of those hellish Oaths, Blasphemies or Execrations, which in other places are wont to infect the air, and grate the ears, and wound the hearts of pious men. No Drunkenness or Debauchery to be found there. I observed it with comfort, and can speak it with confidence, that for five years' time, in which I had the honour of a constant attendance in the service of that Noble Family, I was not once encountered with the deformed spectacle of a Drunken distemper; but on the contrary, such Order, Silence, Sobriety, Modesty and Civility, as if not only the Eye, but the Soul of the Master had been in every corner of the house. Such a Master worthy of such a Family, who was truly Paterfamiliâs, not so much the Lord, as Father of his Family; so tender of his Servants whilst living, and so careful of them when dying, as to leave to every of them a good blessing behind him.  
Lastly, for his own Personal qualifications, he was most eminent and exemplary. I shall not instance in any Negative Virtues, that he was not obnoxious to any of those Vices which are incident to Greatness, not to Pride and haughtiness, not to Violence and oppression, not to Luxury and intemperance, not to Pleasure and wantonness: the black mouth of malice cannot charge him with any shadow of these Enormities. But I will not insist upon these. Privati & plebeii hominis est, ut vitio careat, as Nazianzen speaks, It may be the commendation of a Plebeian, or Private man, to be free from Vice; but for Persons that overtop others in place and Dignity, it is a shameful and ignominious thing not to be as eminent above them in Virtue. And what Virtue can we name, in which he did not both transcend the most, and equalise the best?  
Begin we with his Humility, for that's the best foundation in the structure of Piety. He that would build high, must lay his foundation low; and he that would build for Heaven, must lay his foundation in Humility.  
So did he, great in the eyes of others, little only in his own. And whereas Solomon tells us, Before honour goes humility; here was Humility conspicuous in 
Pro. 15. 33  the midst of Honour, which made it appear much more honourable. Like Saul in the Old Testament, he was higher than the rest of the people by the head and shoulders; yet like Paul in the New Testament, in his own esteem less than the least. His grandeur discovered itself rather by the virtue and influence in doing good, then by the pomp and splendour in seeming great.  
Add to his Humility his exceeding virginal Modesty, mixed with such a sober and serious Gravity in his countenance and deportment, that his very Presence was sufficient to charm the extravagancy of wanton tongues, as well as his Example. You should not hear at any time an unsavoury word fall from his mouth. He had such a perfect command of that little slippery member, that whereas others, to whom their own Honour is tender as the apple of their eye, are yet unreasonably prodigal of other men's Reputations; he was so far from lacerating the fame of other men, that I could never observe him to speak ill of any man's person, though never so ill deserving.  
His Temperance was rare and admirable: he looked upon Excess as poison, not only of the body, but of the better part, and such a bastard of Hospitality, as most commonly is the death of the mother.  
His Justice exact, so far from doing wrong to others, that if the case were doubtful, he would commonly take the loss and disadvantage to himself.  
But above all these, saith the Apostle, put on Charity. So did he: his Charity was great; both this and the other adjacent Parishes had a constant and a liberal portion of it. But besides the ordinary and obvious ways, he had the art to spy out the more choice and noble objects of Bounty, (of which the late unhappy Times afforded plenty) and there he sowed plentifully, by many hundreds in the year. And this he did in such a secret manner, that none could be witnesses but God himself, and those to whom he gave it for God's cause. And though he always gave it with his own hand, that he might be sure to give it into right hands; yet he was unwilling that his left hand should know what his right had done. And whereas Charity covers a multitude of sins, his Charity was so modest as to cover itself.  
These were the Fruits of a constant course of Piety and Devotion, which he did most religiously observe both in public and private.  
In the time of his Sickness, which was long, and accompanied often with sharp pains, he wanted not a large stock of Patience and Christian Fortitude, to comply with that gracious Providence which had put the Cup into his hand. But having a clear prospect of the race which was set before him, by daily Mortification, and Prayer, and other exercises of Piety, he carefully prepared for his last and great Change, which befell him in the great Climacterical year of his life, meekly resigning his Soul into the hands of his Gracious Redeemer.  
It remains on our part, to commit his remaining Part, as a sacred Depositum, to that Dormitory which himself prepared, beseeching God to give us Grace to tread in the steps of such Pious Examples, that when our own Change shall come, our Souls may be received into the same blessed Mansions, and at the general Resurrection we together with them may have the same consummation of Bliss both in Soul and Body; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  
THE END.