XVIII. Thus Enos “hoped to call upon
the Name of the Lord.” Gen. iv. 26. The verb has by some been taken
as passive, and not middle, “hoped that the Name of the Lord
would be called upon.” Hope was that
for which he is commended; and that, not that he should know
God, but that he should call upon him. And Enoch was
translated, Ib. v.
24, Ecclus. xlix. 14. but it is not yet
clear whether it was because he already comprehended the Divine Nature,
or in order that he might comprehend it. And Noah’s Gen. vi. 8.
glory was that he was pleasing to God; he who was entrusted with the
saving of the whole world from the waters, or rather of the Seeds of
the world, escaped the Deluge in a small Ark. And Abraham, great
Patriarch though he was, was justified by faith, Ib. xviii.
18. and offered a strange victim, Ib. xxviii.
2. the type of the Great Sacrifice. Yet
he saw not God as God, but gave Him food as a man. Gen. xviii. 2. Elias Cretensis sees in this
occurrence a foreshadowing of the Incarnation; and also with many
others, a revelation of the Trinity, in that Abraham saw Three and
conversed with One. He was approved because he worshipped
as far as he comprehended. Gen. xxxii. 28. And Jacob
dreamed of a lofty ladder and stair of Angels, and in a mystery
anointed a pillar Ib. ver.
28.—perhaps to
signify the Rock that was anointed for our sake—and gave to a
place the name of The House of God v. l. The
Form of God, which would refer to the occasion cited below.
The reading is grammatically easier, as an accusative is required; but
in that case we might have expected the wrestling with the Angel to
have been mentioned first, as the name Penuel was given by Jacob on the
day following the night in which he wrestled, and received his own
change of name. The Benedictines, while retaining House in
text and version, express a preference for Form, because the
subject of the argument is the Vision of God. in honour of
Him whom he saw; and wrestled with God in human form; whatever this
wrestling of God with man may mean…possibly it refers to the
comparison of man’s virtue with God’s; and he bore on his
body the marks of the wrestling, setting forth the defeat of the
created nature; and for a reward of his reverence he received a change
of his name; being named, instead of Jacob, Israel—that great and
honourable name. Yet neither he nor any one on his behalf, unto
this day, of all the Twelve Tribes who were his children, could boast
that he comprehended the whole nature or the pure sight of
God.