A SERMON PREACHED BEFORE THE QVEENES MAIESTIE at Hampton Court on Sunday the 〈◊〉 day of October By I. HOPKINS one of his Maiesties Chaplaines in ordinarie Pâ—… 3.18 Many walke of whom I haue tolde you often 〈◊〉 now tell you weeping that they 〈◊〉 the enemies of the crosse of Christ. AT LONDON 〈◊〉 printed by F. K. for Thomas Man 1609. TO THE MIGHTIE HIGH-BORNE VERTVOVS AND MOST excellent Princesse ANNE by the grace of God Queene of great Brittaine France and Ireland YOur Maiesties attentiue hearing and gratious approouing this plaine Sermon when it was preached before your Highnesse mine own experience of your religious deuotion in frequenting the seruice of God and your Highnesse godly affection to goodbooks and dailie reading them which hath been often testified by such as are acquainted with your Maiesties studies haue emboldned mee to print this Sermon and present it to your Maiestie earnestlie desiring that it may bee as profitable for the increase of godlines in such as reade it as it will be acceptable to manie being graced with your Maiesties name and patronage The Lord of heauen and earth so blesse your Maiesty with a dailie increase of his graces that as your Highnesse hath the happines to be the most worthie and famous Queene of Europe so after manie yeeres enioying your Crowne vpon earth you may bee crowned with eternal glory in heauen For which none shall more heartily pray then Your Maiesties most humble seruant I. HOPKINS A SERMON PREACHED BEFORE THE Queenes Maiestie at Hampton Court on Sunday the 16. day of October GEN. 5.24 And Henoch walked with God and he was no more seene for God tooke him away IT is an obseruation no lesse auncient then true that such as search into the bowels of the earth for mettals after long labours and great paines doe finde paruum in magno a little mettall in much oare but saith S. Chrysostome in his fifteenth Homilie vpon Genesis they that labour in the sacred mine of the holy Scriptures shall finde magnum in paruo a great treasure of doctrine in a few words many diuine instructions in a short sentence And this most Gratious and Honorable is this day fulfilled in our eares this parcell of Scripture very short and yet the matter so large as will bee hardly deliuered within the vsuall time limited for a Sermon The words are an historicall record of an holy man that liued in the first age of the world whose life for an example is left to perpetuall memorie For as the doctrines in the Scriptures are for the information of our iudgements so are the examples for the reformation of our affections And no doubt good examples where they are well obserued and carefully applied are strong motiues to vertue and godlines And it is vndoubtedly one of the causes of the common corruption of this age that there are so many examples of prophane impietie and so few presidents of religious vertue But that we may the better vnderstand and remember that which wee shall heare from this Scripture we wil obserue therein two parts The life of Henoch for our example Henoch walked with God And his end for our comfort He was no more seene for God tooke him away His life considered first in it selfe that he walked with God Next with certaine circumstances necessarilie obserued for his greater commendations as shall afterward appeare In the second part The thing it selfe that he was no more seene And the reason of the same for God tooke him away And Henoch walked with God c. This phrase is vsuall in the Hebrew tongue To walke signifieth to hold a course of life To walke in the counsell of the wicked is to liue in the counsell of the wicked To walke in the waies of the Kings of Israel is to liue like the Kings of Israel To walke after Baalim is to practise the Idolatrie of Baalim To walke with God is to liue according to Gods will both in worshipping of him as he hath commanded and practising such morall duties as he hath prescribed And to walke at all times and in all places as in the presence of God who is an eye witnes of our most secret actions Psalm 139. for though all men walke in Gods sight as who can hide himselfe from him whose eyes behold all places Prou. spying out the euill and the good yet the most sort of men Iob 39. like the Ostrich mentioned by Elihu in the booke of Iob either know it not or regard it not But that the meaning of these words may more clearely appeare vnto vs let vs looke into other places of holy Scripture where the like wordes are set downe and expounded so shal we see how the holie Ghost the best Interpreter of the Scriptures will teach vs to vnderstand them In the third chapter of the first booke of the Kings Salomon saith thus vnto the Lord King 3.6 Thou hast shewed to thy seruant Dauid my father great mercie when he walked before thee in truth and in righteousnes and in vprightnesse of heart with thee And in chapter 9. the Lord saith to him 1. King 9.4 If thou wilt walke before mee as Dauid thy father walked in purenesse of heart and in righteousnesse to doe according to all that I haue commanded thee c. Also in the second of the Kings and the twentieth chapter Hezechiah saith I beseech thee O Lord remember now how I haue walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and haue done that which is good in thy sight So that by all these places it is euident that to walke with God implies three duties truth for the foundation righteousnesse and holinesse of life for the outward conuersation and sinceritie in the heart without dissimulation Henoch then is commended for these three things soundnesse of religion sinceritie of heart and godlinesse of life And this was the walking that was commanded to Abraham Gen. 17.1 Gen. 6.9 commended in Noah and worthilie recorded by this example of Henoch for our instruction first that wee settle our faith vpon true grounds Eccles 10.1 secondly that we take heed of hypocrisie which like a dead flie corrupteth all the boxe of ointment lastly that our conuersation be in holinesse without which no man shall see God Heb. 12.14 If wee build on a false foundation Matth. 7. the building will fall If our profession be in hypocrisie our hope will be as the web of a spider And if we ioyne not vertue to our faith Iob 18.14 2. Pet. 1. Iames. it will be a dead or a diuels faith Therefore wee may hence conclude that neither heretikes hypocrites nor prophane persons walke with God and they that walke not with God in the kingdome of grace shall neuer rest with him in the kingdome of glorie In the application therefore of this point such as by reason of carelesnes to heare and learne good things are yet ignorant of the
forth fruite But to haue religion so setled in the heart that the life be alwayes seasoned with an habituall practise thereof is that which God onely accepteth and is here in this example set before vs. In cassum bonum agitur saith S. Greg. 1. lib. Mor. Gregorie si ante vitae terminum deseratur It is in vaine to begin a course of godlines and after with Demas to imbrace this preseÌ„t world He runs in vaine that falles or failes ere he comes at his races end and as those whom God loueth he loueth to the end so those that prosesse to follow him must doe it to the end Lots wife by looking backe was made an example to all backsliders that the salt of her destruction might season vs to a more constant resolution Memineritis vxoris Lot saith a father de Sodoma quidem eductae quia Deo credidit sed in via mutatae quia retro aspexit Remember Lots wife led out of Sodome because she beleeued the Angels but turned to a pillar of salt because shee looked backe Good workes haue a reward if we faint not but to begin in the spirit and end in the flesh is fearefull and for such it had been better they had neuer knowne the way of righteousnesse Let vs therefore rather endeuour to bee like the Church of Thyatira whose last workes were more then the first and remember sine perseuerantia nec qui pugnat victoriam nec palmam victor consequitur without perseuerance neither hee that fighteth getteth the victorie nor the conqueror the honor of triumph For hee onely shall be crowned that continueth to the end Ioas is not reckoned among the good kings because his zeale lasted no longer then Iehoida liued Nor Nero among the good Emperours for his first fiue yeeres clemencie The end of a thing saith Salomon is better then the beginning Quinqueuium Neronis Suet. Ecclesiast 7.10.1 Thes 5. Therefore I will conclude this point with the warning of the Apostle seeing that God by his spirit hath begun the worke of grace in vs that wee quench not the spirit And because a fire is put out as well by withdrawing the fuel as by powring on water 1. Tim. 4.13 wee must giue good heede to two other admonitions in that place Pray continually despise not prophesie and that in the 1. to Timothie the 4. Giue attendance to reading to exhortation to doctrine For where prayer is deuoutly vsed and the word carefully read and heard the increase of godlines will vndoubtedly follow but when prayer is neglected and preaching despised all godly and religious motions will soone be quenched And thus much concerning the life of Henoch wherein wee haue seene a rare and worthie president of true godlines Now it remaineth to learne what fruit and effect followed the same It hath been a common opinion among the Atheists that there is no God because neither is there punishment for vice nor reward for vertue as they affirme Mal. 3.14 And the Prophet Malachi had to doe with such in his time that said it is in vaine to serue God And such were also in the Prophet Zephanies time Zeph. 1.12 that said The Lord will do neither good nor euill Eccles 9â—2 And in the booke of Ecclesiastes the wise man iustly taxeth those Epicures that said al things are alike to all to the iust and to the wicked to the good and to the pure and to the polluted and to him that sacrificeth and to him that sacrificeth not as is the good so is the sinner he that sweareth as he that feareth an oath And it is to bee feared this opinion too commonlie preuaileth in the world and that is the cause why religion and religious actions be in so small account as they are But whosoeuer shall take counsell from the holy Scriptures shall find that this is nothing else but a meere sophistication of Satan to bring godlinesse into contempt Famous are those blessings that are promised in the law to the religious keepers of the same Leuit. 26. Deut. 28. and euer true is that which was spoken to Heli from the Lord Them that honour mee 1. Sam. 2.30 Ioh. 12.26 I will honour c. Which is also confirmed by that saying of our Sauiour If any man serue me him will my father honor The examples in the Scriptures are many that confirme vnto vs this truth In the second of Chron. the prosperitie of Iehosaphat is wholly attributed to this as the true cause of the same because he walked in the first waies of his father Dauid and sought not Baalim And though his kingdome was but small not so much as the fourth part of this Iland hee was able to bring into the field aboue eleueÌ„ hundred thousand fighting men God blessed so exceedinglie him and all his people as in the same Chapter doth at large appeare Noah Abraham Ioseph Iosua and Caleb are all confirmations hereof Psal 119.56 This I had because I kept thy precepts saith the Prophet Dauid deriuing the ground and cause of his happinesse from his true seruice of almightie God Ier. 39.16 Ebedmelech the black-more was promised of God to bee deliuered at that great slaughter sacking of Ierusalem from those that sought his life and that he should not fal by the sword because thou hast put thy trust in me saith the Lord. And to conclude with the saying of the Apostle 1. Tim. 4.8 Godlinesse hath the promise of this life and of that which is to come Thus by these whereto might bee added many more testimonies and examples it is plainelie proued that it is not in vaine to serue God Now let vs see what that was wherewith the religious life of Henoch was rewarded And he was no more seen c. This is the prerogatiue that Moses sheweth to haue been bestowed vpon Henoch by the Lord as a rare fruit of his great sinceritie and godlinesse viz that hee was taken from among the societie of meÌ„ in the middest of his age which at the first sight may seeme strange all men naturally desiring long life the wicked threatned with this iudgement that they shall not liue out halfe their daies But if wee looke more throughly into this point Psalm we shal see that neither is long life alwaies a blessing nor for the children of God to die in their youth an argument of Gods displeasure For assuredlie this translation of Henoch was a singular fauour of God towards him otherwise it should neuer haue here by Moses bin so particularly recorded Heb. 11. nor by S. Paul afterward so expressely recounted among those glorious achieuements of faith For can any earthlie benefit be counterpoysed with this fauour of God To be receiued into heauenly glorie from the worlds miserie into the societie of Angels from the companie of euill men into rest and peace from this pilgrimage of trouble into eternal safetie from daily tentation into the
perfection of contentation from continual discontentment into the hauen of assured safetie from the stormes of perpetual danger vndoubtedly had I the tongues of men and Angels I could not to perfection set out the greatnesse of this disparitie And that in the midst of his age for long life is but as a long warfare as a long winter as a long imprisonment as a long and tedious iournie at sea wherein all the hope of contentment stands on the safe arriuall in the harbour and returning home into our countrie Long life I say is not alwaies a blessing for how many liue long to their greater miserie in this life and further punishment afterward How much happier had it bin with Heli that hee had died young then to haue liued to see the impietie of his sonnes and their miserable end How much happier with Saul if hee had died in the prime of his yeeres then in liuing long to commit so many fearefull sinnes and at length to be his owne murtherer Ah how happie had it been with Zedekia if he had died in his cradle rather then to liue to see Ierusalem through his rebellion and periurie sackt that famous Temple burnt his owne children slaine before his face and then his eies being put out to liue yet longer in miserable captiuitie How much better had it been with Ioas to haue died in Iehoiadas time then in liuing after him 2. Chro. 24. of a religious King to become a prophane Idolater and bloody man and in the height of his sinne to bee slaine by the hands of murtherers On the otherside the Scripture saith of the death of Ieroboams sonne that died young 1. King 14.13 that hee only of Ieroboams house should come to his graue because in him there was found some goodnesse toward the Lord God of Israel So as this was the fauour that God bestowed on him to take him away a child before hee was corrupted with his fathers idolatrie or saw the disastrous ruine and desolation of his fathers house Was it not promised as a blessing to Iosiah that hee should bee gathered to his fathers and shuld not see the euill that came to passe immediatlie after his death To the vngodly indeed it is a punishment to bee taken from their heauen and pleasure which they haue in this world and to bee cast into eternall torment after their life is ended Eccles 41. and herehence it commeth that death and the remembrance thereof is and euer hath been so bitter to them because they haue no hope after this life is ended according to that of Salomon Prou. 11.7 When a wicked man dieth all his hope is gone Now what this benefit was that Henoch receiued is very briefly noted in one worde veennenu which the Vulgar translateth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non apparuit and hee appeared not Tremellius non extitit hee remained no more among men Montanus according to the Hebrew non ille hee was not and the Apostle to the Hebrewes hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hee was translated that is taken from the societie of men not by the vsuall way of death the common ende of all flesh but as hee in his bodie liued a heauenlie life so was his bodie freed from ordinary corruption and receiued into a heauenly condition like those that shall be found aliue at the comming of Christ that in a moment shall be changed and caught vp into the cloudes And this translation and assumption of Henoch before the law 1. Cor. 15.1 Thes 4. and Heliah vnder the law did vndoubtedlie nourish the hope of the glorification of the bodies of the Saints as types prefiguring the ascensiō of Christ in whom the promise of all heauenly glorie should be performed and accomplished Into what place he was receiued the coniectures haue been diuers al the Diuines of the Church of Rome with some of the Ancients affirme that he with Eliah were placed in Paradise that garden of Eden whence Adam was expelled and that they shall come at the latter end of the world to preach against Antichrist which is a meere conceit without any warrant or authoritie Neither that place of the two witnesses in the eleuenth of the Apocalyps nor that of the 44. of Ecclesiasticus commonlie alleaged for the proofe hereof giue warrant to this imagination First Perceius is of this iudgement with manie others Gen. 7.20 for the place of Paradise it was vndoubtedly drowned in the great deluge of the waters which were 15. cubites aboue the highest mountaine And by the geographical description thereof by Moses Gen. 2.8 it is apparent it was planted vpon the earth on the East part of Mesapotamia Philo Iudaeus neere Babylon and not aboue the sphere of the Moone P. L. Sent. lib. 2. dist 17. as Peter Lombard and others doe imagine The two witnesses mentioned by S. Iohn vsing a certaine number for an vncertaine signifie nothing else but that the Lord should haue alwaies some that in a holy zeale should preach against the enemies of the truth whom though the wicked should kill and murther yet should they not so extinguished gods spirit but others should still bee raised vp as hath bin in al ages of the church to supplie their roomes in the Lords vineyard the Lord neuer left himselfe without witnesses of his truth And whereas they vrge a miracle in their raising to life againe the like manner of speaking is in the eight of Ecclesiastes Eccle. 8.10 I haue seene the wicked buried and they returned which no man euer vnderstood of those that were dead and buried but of others as wicked as they which succeedinglie supplied their places Eccles 44.16 The sonne of Sirach calling Henoch an example of repentance to the generations may with much more probabilitie be vnderstood of his translation then of any second comming of him to bee expected and of the generations that liued when he was so taken vp that they should bee mooued to repentance by the knowledge of so great an honor done to so holy a mā or made more inexcusable rather then of any other generations in the latter end of the world Others doe hold that Henoch was receiued vp into the highest heauens in coelum beatorum the place whither Christ did ascend and where the soules of the Saints rest in happines waiting for the resurrection But this opinion is contradicted by other Diuines very learned as Peter Martir Caluin P. M. vpon the assumption of Heliah Cal. Com. on this place and diuers more of the late writers against which opinion also is alleaged that place in the 10. Heb. vers 19.20 Wee may bee bold to enter into the holy place by the new and liuing way which hee hath prepared for vs through the vaile that is Theophylact vpon this place his flesh That is saith Theophylactus this our Captaine first entred hee went before and first made this passage for vs and therefore called a new way because Christ was the first that made it by his ascension To this end is also brought that place in the 1. Cor. 15.23 Euery man in his owne order the first fruits is Christ afterward they that are of Christ c. And also that place in Ioh. 3.13 where Christ saith No man ascendeth vp to heauen but he that hath descended from heauen that sonne of man which is in heauen which I am not ignorant is otherwise expounded but it is not my purpose to stand vpon it Omitting therefore all coniecturall opinions seeing the holy Scripture hath not made it manifest modest ignorance is better then curious inquisition Beza annot Heb. 11.5 For as a learned man saith Temerarium est de his statuere curiosum inuestigare It is rashnes to determine such doubtfull things and curiositie to search after them The secret things belong to the Lord our God Deut. 29.29 but the things reueiled to vs and to our children for euer that wee may doe all the workes of this law Melius est dubitare de occultis quà m litigare de incertis It is better to leaue hidden things in doubt then to contend of things vncertaine But howsoeuer this is certaine that Henoch was translated into vnspeakeable ioy and happines Ioh. 14.2 For the meanest of those glorious mansions whereof our Sauiour saith in his fathers house there are manie doe beyond all comparison exceed the most glorious palace or paradise vpon earth The Lord so guide our hearts and order our waies by his grace in our walking on this vale of miserie that we may like this holy man keepe that straite and narrow way that tendeth to eternal life that after our earthly pilgrimage is finished wee may bee receiued into that glorious rest which is purchased for vs by the precious blood-shedding of our blessed Sauiour Iesus Christ To whom with the father and the holy Ghost be all honor and glorie now and for euer Amen FINIS