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Heb. xi. 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 belief of the removal of Enoch, without death, was probably derived from a tradition of the rabbis, (as there is no passage in the canonical books of the Old Testament which implies such a fact) founded perhaps on the verse in Ecclesiasticus, xlix. 14, “But upon earth was no man created like Enoch, for he was taken from the earth." (In ch. xliv. 16, of the same book, it is merely said, "Enoch pleased the Lord, and was translated.") That the notion of Enoch's having escaped death is of comparatively recent date, may, however, be fairly inferred, not only from the silence of the Scriptures of the Old Testament on that head, but also from the passage in the Wisdom of Solomon, ch. iv. ver. 7 to 17, which is agreed on all hands to refer to Enoch; the context of which implies that he died like other

men.

After all, the expression in Hebrews," he was translated that he should not see death," may mean no more than that being in a due state of preparation, his death was so sudden and easy that he suffered neither the apprehension nor the pain of it. And expressions similar to that in Genesis, "God took him," are frequently used in Scripture to denote the deprivation of life: see 1 Kings, xix. 4, where Elijah says, "O Lord, take away

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my life;" Jonah, iv. 3, “Take, I beseech thee, my life from me ;" and in many similar passages.

2 Kings, ii. 1. And it came to pass, that when the Lord would take up Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind, that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal.

9. And Elijah said unto Elisha, Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee. And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me.

11. And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.

12. And Elijah saw it, and he cried, My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof. And he saw him no more.

From this narrative nothing more can be deduced than that the Almighty signalized the end of his faithful servant's career, by a visible display of miraculous power. The death of Moses, and the concealment of the place of his sepulture, are a parallel case.

But the strongest, and indeed unanswerable argument, against the notion that Enoch and Elijah were not subjected to death, is the silence of the Scriptures on the subject, which, had that notion been correct, could scarcely have happened. David has not the slightest allusion to Enoch: the Prophets are silent as to both Enoch and Elijah, except Malachi, who (ch. iv. 5, 6,) under the type of Elijah, foretold the preaching of the Baptist; and above all, our Saviour, though constantly discoursing on the coming of Elijah, and explaining the meaning of the prophecy in Malachi to apply to John the Baptist, (Mat. xvii.

10, 11, 12,) never alludes to his (Elijah's) having escaped the common lot of humanity: moreover, in the Transfiguration, Elias is associated with Moses, who undoubtedly died, and no distinction is noted between them. Perhaps, as the Scribes expected the re-appearance of Elijah on earth, as the immediate precursor of the Messiah, they might have imagined that he was preserved alive in a miraculous way, for that purpose.

At all events, even supposing Enoch and Elijah to have escaped the death common to all the residue of the human race, still it is any thing but a proof of the existence of an immaterial soul, and affords rather an argument in favour of the contrary opinion, since one of them (at least Elijah) was bodily and visibly taken away from earth.

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These seem to be all the passages in the historical books mentioned at the head of the chapter, which require particular notice as bearing on the question. Indeed, the word rendered by the Septuagint, occurs only two or three times in the Chronicles, and, I believe, not at all in the Books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther.

CHAPTER V.

The Book of Job-The Psalms-The Proverbs-Ecclesiastes-and Solomon's Song.

PREVIOUSLY to entering on a consideration of those parts of the Book of Job which relate to the subject under consideration, a few remarks on that much disputed question, "Who was the author of the work?" will not, it is hoped, be deemed irrelevant. The following arguments, therefore, (which have carried conviction to the mind of the writer of this Essay), are, with much diffidence, submitted to the consideration of the reader.

It is allowed on all hands, that neither Sacred history nor Jewish tradition affords any assistance towards ascertaining who wrote the Book of Job, and that it is from internal evidence alone, if at all, that the fact can be determined, or even surmised. Let us, therefore, examine this internal evidence, and see if there be not an overwhelming weight of it in favour of one, and one individual alone, having been the writer of that book.

1st. There are so many passages which contain just views of God and his attributes, that it is impossible to believe it could have been the production of any Gentile writer, however favoured; indeed, all the other books of Scripture are universally allowed to have been written by Jews, and that it can therefore be assigned only to one who had free access to the "oracles of God." (Rom. iii. 2.)

2dly. It could scarcely have been written by Moses, since he, though "learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians," (Acts, vii. 22) has no passage which can lead us to suppose he had any knowledge whatever of the Chaldean superstitions concerning Satan, &c. contained in the first and second chapters, which, being unknown to the Jews generally until after the Captivity, bear equally against any intermediate writer having been the author, except,

3dly, Solomon, who was clearly well read in all the learning of the surrounding nations, for his "wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the east country, and all the wisdom of Egypt," (1 Kings, iv. 30); and who, if he were the author, having laid the scene in a country wherein the Chaldean notions probably prevailed, introduces them not only to give an air of verisimilitude to his scenes, but to teach, in opposition to the Magian creed of two independent principles— one good, the other evil-the doctrine of the en

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