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IN this Chapter we have the Geneologie from Adam to Noah: and it's observable, That God passeth all along and saith, Adam he lived so long and begat sons; and so afterwards they lived and begat sons and daughters and then died. He only mentions them briefly, till he comes to Enoch, and there God seems to make a stop: He doth not only tell you how long he lived, and begat sons and
daughters, and died; but he addeth, Enoch walked with God. The holy Ghost spends three verses upon Enoch, He tells you how long he lived and begat Methuselah, and E∣noch walked with God. And in the 23. verse there he speaks of him again; and in the 24. vers. Enoch walked with God again. As if the Lord should say, Oh my servant Enoch I must not pass by him, he was an eminent holy man in his generation, I must not pass by him without some especial testimony: as if God should say, Oh he was the delight of my Soul, he walked with me: Enoch walked with God.
Enoch he was a Prophet in his time, he conversed much with God, and God revealed much of his mind to him. We find in the Epistle of Jude 14. there the holy Ghost mentions him again, Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, pro∣phesied of these, saying, &c. Enoch prophesied, he was a Pro∣phet: Where do we find Enoch's prophesie in all the Book of God? we have the Prophesie of Isaiah, and Jeremiah, and other Prophets; but where the Prophesie of Enoch? Here the holy Ghost saith, That Enoch prophesied, saying, Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his Saints, &c. Now for the prophesie that is here mentioned by the holy Ghost, in this Epistle of Jude, we have it not set down in words ful∣ly, but yet we have somewhat set down even in a verse or two before my Text, of Enoch's prophesie, and that is in the very name of his son Methuselah, there is that very pro∣phesie of Enoch that the holy Ghost speaks of in the Epistle of Jude, in the name (I say) of his son Methuselah, for Me∣thuselah signifieth thus much, he dieth, and then the sen∣ding out, that is the floud, he dieth and then comes the floud, that's the signification of the name Methuselah: So that Enoch prophesied many hundred yeers before the flouds coming; and that prophesie seem'd to go further, for Gods dealing with people in those times, were but as a type of his dealing with men in after-times. That the Lord would send forth a floud against all wicked and un∣godly men in due time to destroy them, he dieth, and then
the sending forth of the floud, for the floud did come in the very last yeer of Methuselah, and that's observable that this Methuselah he liv'd longer than ever any man liv'd since the world began, All the daies of Methuselah were nine hundred and sixtie nine yeers, and then he died. Now this may be one reason of the lengthening out of his life, that he might fulfil the prophesie of Enoch, for Enoch prophesied that the floud should come when he died, now because God had work to bring about, and to defer the floud for a while after, therefore Methuselah must live so long.
God doth lengthen out, or shorten mens lives according to the work he hath to do, according to the use he hath to make of them. But thus much for Enoch: The person who it was.
Now this phrase of walking with God, sometimes it sig∣nifies some special ministration before the Lord, as in the 1 Sam. 2. 30, 35. Wherefore the Lord God of Israel saith, I said indeed, That thy house, and the house of thy father should walk be∣fore me for ever. And then in the 35. I will raise me up a faith∣full Priest that shall do according to that which is in my heart, and in my mind and I will build him a sure house, and he shall WALK before mine anointed for ever: That is, for a special and holy ministration, so it's taken sometimes.
But here we are to understand it more largely, (though it's true, Enoch was a Prophet and he might be said to walk with God in regard of the special ministration of his Pro∣phetical Office that he had;) for walking with God, in waies of righteousness and holiness: so walking with God, as it's said of Noah, that was his great grand-child, in the 6. of Gen. 9. These are the generations of Noah, Noah was a just man and perfect in his generation, and Noah walked with God. This his great-grand-child (no question hearing of his fathers walking with God was a great argument for to move him to the like, and his walking with God is dis∣cribed
to be in being righteous, and in being perfect with God. The 70. in their translation turns this that you have in your books walk with God, by the word, he pleased God. And that's observable that the holy Ghost in men∣tioning Enoch in the new Testament, doth follow the tran∣slation of the Septuagent in the 11. of the Heb. there you shall find that Enoch is mentioned among the Catalogue of the Beleevers there: By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death, and was not found, because God had transla∣ted him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. That word that you have here in Ge∣nesis rendered, he walked with God: in the Hebrews it is that he had this testimony, That he pleased God: & indeed it comes to one, he walked in the waies that God was pleased and delighted in.
He pleased God.] The Calde translates it, he walked in the fear of God; and so some Interpreters quoting the Jerusalemie Thargum, he served or labored in the truth before the Lord: and that's one thing further in the explication that it's said, he walked with God after he begat Methuselab. Some now think that Enoch was a wicked man before the time that he begat Methuselah, in that sixty and five yeers there's no mention of his walking with God, but Enoch lived six∣ty five yeers and begat Methuselah, and he walked with God after he begat Methuselah: but that's no sufficient ground to conclude, because it's said after: that he did not before; it might rather be to note the constancy of his wal∣king with God, that he continued in the constant course of his life in his walking with God. I shall need to speak no further of the explication of this first part of Enoch's wal∣king with God. The point of Doctrine from it is this.