Joannes cum audisset in Vinculis. When John had heard in the Prison.

THe first requisite to a good en­quiry, is Solitude, for Solitude [Page 5]is the Mother of Thoughts; Thinking, Fathers Wisdom: when Thoughts and Reason are lull'd asleep, Folly takes its wandring Dreams, and closes our Eyes to the highest concerns.

The School therefore, in which we are taught the important lesson of a good Enquiry, is a Prison, the seat of retiredness; And We, to learn our Lesson, must go to School, that is, re­tire.

John was in Prison, but with En­largement from a worse; He was in Prison, but out of a disturbing World: For if in the beginning, I told you, this World is a Book, what is a Book to the Readers Eye and Mind, but a Pri­son? If I said the Creatures, are so many visible Words, now I tell you these Words, not rightly understood, are so many forcible Chains, binding our Affections to the Earth.

Yes, the World is a Prison, yet a Prison none fear, all love; and should I term its hardship, and our engage­ments, so many Gallies, your World­lings would smile, tug on rowing, and never care to better their Conditi­on. They are stunn'd with Noises, di­stracted with Varieties; and, as if living, they were returned into Earth, they seek nothing but Earthly things: Te­nements upon Earth, Pallaces upon Earth, Honors upon Earth, Riches upon Earth, Pleasures upon Earth.

As for Heaven, it is slighted; As for Eternity, it is forgotten; As for Judge­ment, it is not feared; As for Hell, it is not thought on. Enormous Disor­ders in a Soul! But what Remedy? what Remedy? Attention, and you shall hear.

The chosen People of God, the House of Israel, Hosea the 2d. was pas­sed [Page 7]to all exorbitances of Idolatry a­gainst the Lord their God; yet his ten­der Heart could not but own them for his People, who so disgraciously had cast him off, and disown'd him for their God; And therefore, with a Fa­therly Care, provides for the retrieving such abominable excesses; But how? First, as he did by Jeremy, Ezekiel, and other Prophets, so now he threatens them with his dreadful Judgment; But then, as it were mindful, of the little Fruit, he had reap'd from menaces, he resolves to steer a different course, and betake himself to a more efficacious way, and it is laid down in the 14th Verse, Lactabo eam, say our Loving God, I will allure her; & ducam eam in solitudinem, and I will lead her into a Wilderness; & loquar ad Cor ejus, and I will speak to her Heart; I will speak to her Heart.

But first I will lead her into a Wilder­ness; Cor ejus, her Heart: Methinks I mark something Emphatical in the Words, her Heart. Had she not then a Heart out of the Wilderness? She had a Heart, but it was not hers, it was divided between as many Passi­ons as enslaved her. Avarice had her Heart, Ambition had her Heart, En­vy had her Heart, Vanity had her Heart, Luxury had her Heart, all Vi­ces shared in it: By Solitude God opened her Eyes, made her see her Bondage, hate her Slavery, break her Chains, and so restored her Heart to her, that she should give it to him; And therefore I will lead her into a Wilder­ness, and speak to her Heart.

Ego vox clamantis, says the Baptist, Jo. the 1. I am the Voice of one that cryeth, but where? in Deserto, in the Wilderness. But what? Parate vias Domini, Prepare [Page 9]the way of the Lord; and what are the ways of the Lord but Enquiries? If we are Christ's Sheep, as he is often pleas'd to style us, like Sheep, we must have our solitary Walks, to hear his Voice. And O! that Christians, of so many Days, Weeks, Months, and Years, they cast away in Vanity, would now and then, bestow an hour or two in Solitude, they would soon discover the voice of Verity speaking to their Hearts, and moving them to the enqui­ry of a virtuous Life, and happy Eter­nity: Ducam eam in Solitudinem.

Yet Solitude, though the first step, is not enough to a good Enquiry: We must hear, cum audisset; An En­quiry to be good must begin right, and end, where it began. I explain my my self: John's Enquiry began from Christ, in Christ to end; cum audisset: He first heard, then enquired; an en­quiry [Page 10]is not to begin from us, but from the Object, our Passion or Ignorance, or both, often mis-represents, and mis­calls things; whereas there is a Truth in each thing, by which it is really to be known, for what it is. I own, things do not always discover themselves, at their first appearance; but then, as if they were composed of interrogative points; they seem to enquire of us, what they are, for which Reason, a Being or Essence, is termed in the Schools, a Quidity, in true English, a what? Now to answer this what, we must not begin from Prejudice or Passi­on, nor enquire what we would have a thing to be, but what it is: Cum au­disset Opera Christi. The Works of Christ are the first enquiry made to John, and mov'd John to enquire of Christ, till by this inter-change of En­quiries, his Disciples master the grand [Page 11]Mistery of the Incarnation. Were this Order observed, we should not so often Injure Reason, nor so disorderly mis­place our esteem.

To the clearer proof of this, St. Mat­thew in his 2d Chapter, presents us with four Persons, and those of the first Rank, taken up with one and the same enqui­ry; yet the enquiry was not equally good in all: nay, in one, the enquiry after the best of things, proves the worst of enquiries; You cannot but prevent me with your Thoughts, and remem­ber the Persons concerned, are King Herod, and the Wise Men from the East. The Wise Men began their en­quiry from Christ, Herod from Jealousie and Ambition; Their's happily ended in the Worship of a new born Messiah, His in the Murder of Thousands of Infants.

Ʋbi est qui natus est Rex Judeorum? [Page 12]Where is he that is born King of the Jews, say the Wise Men; behold the Enquiry: Vidimus enim stellam in Ori­ento; For we have seen his Star in the East: Behold from whence the enqui­ry began: Et venimus adorare eum, And we are come to adore him; behold where it ends. Herod, on the contrary, at the report of their enquiry, was per­plex'd, and disturb'd; Turbatus est He­rodes: Yet enquires too; he demands of the Learned, where Christ should be born? This is little. Bethlehem being determin'd the place, he privately en­quires of the wise Men, and that dili­gently; diligenter dedicit: the time of the Star's appearance: This is not e­nough; He sends them to Bethlehem, inculcating a diligent Search, Interroga­te diligenter de puero. You see, not on­ly enquiry upon enquiry, but dilgence upon diligence; Yet that's not all: He [Page 13]them to return, to give him notice of what they'd found; and all for the new Born Messiah: And yet this enquiry, of the best of things, was the worst of enquiries; and if you desire the reason, it is, It began not from Christ as Christ, but from Christ, as he was in the trou­bled mind of Herod; Turbatus est; He was troubled.

The wise Men, look'd upon him, for what he was; Herod, as upon one he feared; the wise Men, as upon the King of Heaven, Herod, as upon a Temporal; the wise Men, as hoping an Inheritance of Eternal Felicity; He­rod, as dreading the loss of a Regency; and therefore the wise Men's Enquiry, ended in Adoring Him as God and Saviour; Herod, in pursuing him as a Rival and Competitor.

So true it is, that a good enquiry must not begin from Us, but Christ; and [Page 14]end where it began. Each thing has its proper voice; we are not to falsifie with our imperfect Eccho's, of Pre­judice and Passion, their natural sound; but frame the value of each thing; the thing impartially frames of it self: for again, I tell you, an enquiry to be good, must begin right, and end where it be­gan, Joannes cum audisset, &c.

Tu es qui venturus es? Art thou he that should come? a necessary enquiry; by which we are taught, to enquire only what is necessary; that is, to en­quire what is necessary, and no more.

The World, as it would be full of Knowledge, and is full of Ignorance, so it is full of enquiries; for an Enquiry is the Child of Knowledge and Igno­rance: were we wholly ignorant, we could have no ground; were we per­fectly knowing, we could have no mo­tive of enquiry. But hence arises a [Page 15]difficulty, and it is; John, not only as a Prophet, and Fore-runner of Christ, but even as an Eye-witness, was perfectly knowing, of what he enquired; and yet enquires of what he knew. Jo. the 1st. ver. 29. he pointed out our Saviour, ecce Agnus Dei, Behold the Lamb of God, as he Baptized Christ, Heaven was opened, Luke 3. ver. 21 & 22. He saw the Holy Ghost descend in a bodily shape upon Him. More, he heard a Voice come from Heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son: He could not then be Ignorant of Christ, and yet enquires, Art thou he?

The difficulty, as you see, is plain; and no less plain is the Solution. John order'd the Enquiry, but Ignorance made it; the Ignorance of his Disci­ples, by an excuse of Charity, he made his own; and enquires by them what he knew, to teach them to enquire, of [Page 16]what they doubted, and yet was ne­cessary. Tu es? Art thou he?

Now, to confine my Discourse with­in its proper Bounds, it will not be a­miss to settle a true Notion and Di­vision of Ignorance, and it is no more than the want of a Truth, proportio­ned to our Capacity, if the means of obtaining Truth, be not in our Pow­er, by force we are ignorant of that Truth, nor can we make Enquiry, but this Ignorance is invincible, not wilful, and therefore not imputable to any. If we have the means of compassing a Truth necessary to Salvation, and make no Enquiry: according as such means are more or less obvious; and by the measure of neglect, and the Im­portance of the Truth, our Ignorance is more or less culpable, and ever founds an Obligation of enquiring what is ne­cessary.

The Intent of my Discourse bears me yet further, and methinks I disco­ver a two-fold Ignorance, placed chief­ly in the Will; The first, proper to the Faithful; The second, to the In­credulous: The first stops Enquiry, and makes one respectfully ignorant of what He ought not to know; the other makes one boldly inquisitive, of what he ought to be ignorant: The first im­proves, the second subverts Piety; The first was practis'd by the Baptist, the second by the Jews; The first was taught us by the Spirit of God, the second was a Lesson of the Serpent: On the first is grounded the Order of the World and Religion, from the se­cond rises Confusion and Misery.

Tu es? Art thou he? S. John's contented to be ignorant of what he ought not to know, and enquires not of what he ought to be ignorant: He questions not the dis­position [Page 18]of God, as to his own Impri­sonment: No. He knew it was pre­sumptuous, to enter into the Cabinet-Council of Providence, and make it responsible to Man. He enquires of Christ, but with reserve: He says not, Why art thou he? Or how art thou he? But art thou he? teaching us to content our selves with the Belief of what's re­vealed, and Obedience to what's com­manded, without the intermixing of our how's, and why's, and with reason, for the certain Knowledge of the why of God's Providence, and the how of his Mysteries, being only to be had from his Revealing Authority: If we mi­strust it as to the Substance, we should mistrust it as to the motive and man­ner, and involve our selves in a Chaos of endless Enquiries.

How can one that is Born, be Eter­nal? say the Sammoratens, and so de­ny [Page 19] Christs Eternity; and how can one that is Eternal, be born? say the Ebio­nites, and so deny Christ had a Mother; He had a Mother, says Sabellius, but how could she be a Virgin? and so de­nies her Integrity: How can one be three, and three one? say the Arians, and so de­ny the consubstantiality of the second Person of the Trinity with the first; how can two Wills, say the Monotholites, and how can two Natures, say the Eutichi­ans, subsist in one Person? and so con­fine Christ, the first to one Will, the second to one Nature, and to avoid drawing nearer our Times. Did not the Capharnaites, Jo. 6. v. 55. with an im­pertinent how, withdraw part of Christs Disciples from him. Caro mea vere est Cibis, & Sanguis meus vere est Potus, My Flesh is Meat indeed, and my Blood is Drink indeed, says Christ in express Terms; and notwithstanding the asse­veration [Page 20]of Truth its self; for a quomodo potest hic nobis carnem suam dare ad man­duandum? How can this Man give us his Flesh to eat? Many of his Disciples went back, ver. 66. and walked no more with him.

It is a Folly of Follies, to pass from the Subject of Faith, to that of Specula­tions, as if the certainty of the Myste­ries of Faith could not subsist, without comprehending the Manner how they are effected. Let these inquisitive Wise­lings Seat themselves in the Chair of their pretended Science, and declare me the how of the clearest Truths, the Light of Nature displays. They Live, let them tell me how? Is the Brain, the Heart, or the whole, the Seat of Life? They breath, let them tell me how? Is it the Air that pres­ses on us, or we that first attract the Air, and how? they move, let them tell [Page 21]me how? Doth the first push come from Will, or Fancy? if so, how doth Will or Fancy first move it self? They see, let them tell me how? is it by visual Rays passing from the Eye to the Ob­ject, or by little Images or Species, coming from the Object to the Eye? They remember, let them tell me how?

Now if in Natural things, they find themselves at a stand: Nor doth the Ignorance of such how's weaken the certainty and evidence of the things themselves, why should the uncertain­ty of a how, as to the Sublime Myste­ries of Faith, lessen their Credibility? No, no. Noli intelligere, says St. Austin, In Joan.ut credas, sed crede ut intelligas, intellectus merces Fidei est; Do not pretend to know to believe, but believe to know; knowing is the reward of believing. For these hows are but false steps in a Christian ten­ding to Incredulity, as your why's are to Disobedience.

Unhappy Adam, thrice happy hadst thou been, and in Thee, thy Posterity, hadst thou not given ear to a pernicious Enquiry, but rested in an humble Complyance with Gods Precept. The Lord God, Gen. the 2d. had planted for Man a Garden of Delights; what more Loving? Out of the Ground he made to grow, every Tree pleasant to the Sight, and good for Food, what more Obliging? He often visits him in Per­son, what more Honourable? He im­powers him to eat of all, ver. 16. De omni ligno Paradisi comede, Of every Tree of the Garden thou mayst eat freely. Of every Tree? How comes then the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil to be forbidden in the follow­ing Verse? De ligno autem scientiae boni & mali ne comedas, But of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil thou mayst not eat; was it not perhaps a Tree of the Garden?

More particularly examining the Text; I find the Grant Rigistred in one Verse, the Prohibition laid down in another, so that I am apt to think the Particle but to be an Adversative, no Exceptive, and that the forbidden Tree was rather in the Garden, than of the Garden; it was a Tree of Try­al, a Tree of apparent Pleasure, but real Misery: In a Word, the Trees of Paradise bred only the Knowledge of Good; this, the Knowledge of Evil: And could an easier Command issue from the kindest Heart, than of eating what produc'd a sole Knowledge of Good, and forbearing what caus'd an experimental Knowledge of Good and Evil? of good only by the Loss of it; of Evil, in the punishment of Disobe­dience?

And yet ungrateful Adam, forgetful of Benefits, unmindful of Favours, heed­less [Page 24]of his own Calamity, and uncon­cern'd for his Posterity, gives Ear to the perfidious Enquiry of his mortal Enemy. Cur praecepit vobis Deus, ut non comederetis de omni ligno Paradisi? Why hath God commanded you, you should not eat of every Tree of the Garden? a grand imposture, perfectly opposite to God's Grant of eating of every Tree: but such why's are never grounded on Truth. Why? is it not enough that God Commands? Why? and is it not sufficient, it is thy Duty to obey? even now, thou wast made of Dust of the Earth, and canst thou aspire to be a God? Thou hast been told, that Tree should be thy Death, in case of eating its Fruit; and canst thou think by eat­ing it to be Immortal?

But Ambition hears no Reason, unsensible of these necessary Truths, he gives ear to an un-necessary Enquiry; [Page 25]from Enquiry, he passes to mistrust God as Envious: Ambitious Immortality, aims at Divinity, but at once forfeits his present Felicity and Eternal, and so enslaves his whole Descent, to Death and Misery; and this, by giving ear to the malicious Suggestion of a why? A dreadful Example, yet not of Force to root out of the Heart of Man such perverse Enquiries. There is not a forbidden Fruit, which hath not a why written on it, by the suggestion of our Infernal Enemy.

O how agreeable, says a tender Conscience, would such and such a thing be, were it not an Offence of God? and by little and little the Ser­pent puts in, And why should it of­fend him, it harms him not? That Interest above what Law allows, is Usury and Extortion, says Conscience: What then, says the Serpent, art thou [Page 26]the poorer for it? To Covet thy Neigh­bour's Goods or Fortune, says Con­science, is unlawful: Why so, says the Serpent, would they not do as well in thy Hands as theirs? Restitution is to be made for that cheat, that wrong, that damage done in Goods or Honour, known only to my self, says Consci­ence; and why, says the Serpent? The Law of the Land cannot oblige thee? Perjury is a Sacrilegious Cut-throat, says Conscience, a false Witness, the Sworn Enemy of God and Man; why? these are Niceties, says the Serpent, bu­siness must be done, and Truth would undo it. To injure my Brother, says Conscience, by rash Surmises, false Re­ports, and making a scandal of what's a hidden Sin, is against the Precept of Justice and Charity; what matters that, says the Serpent, as long as upon his Ruine thou buildst thy own Greatness? [Page 27]Those lascivious Inticements, which cast Reason into a Lethargy, and ren­ders Man little better than a Brute, with all Care possible are to be avoided, says Conscience: Why so? says the Ser­pent, they are but Gallantrys and Fa­vours; it is discourteous, and against good Breeding to disdain them.

And is it possible that such wretched why's, and senseless Insinuations as these, should embolden the Heart of Man to stand up against his God, break his Commandments, and set his Justice at Defiance? Is it possible? I wish it were not the daily Practise of us Sinners.

Should the Apprentice question his Masters Lesson? a Servant his Lords Command? should a Souldier, in place of charging his Enemy, turn about and charge his Officer with a Why? Would it not be most preposterous? Each Tradesman will be credited, and [Page 28]obeyed by his Apprentice, each Ma­ster by his Servant, each Commander by his Souldier: And God! and God! the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, is He not to be Obeyed? Is He to be put off with lingring why's, and foolish Demurrs? No, no, beloved Christians, let us no more give Ear to the treache­rous Suggestions of the World, Flesh, and Devil, but reading each Com­mandment, in place of Why's, let us write over the Words of St. John, Tu es? Art thou he, O God, that Comands? We will rather Forfeit our Life and Fortune, than our Obedience. I fear I trespass upon your Patience, and therefore pass to my 3d point, and se­cond part.

Tu es qui venturus est, an alium expecta­mus: Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?

THe Enquiry rightly discust, im­plies this Discourse. If thou art not he that should come, we are to look for another: If thou art he, no other we are to look for. The litteral sense, I know, implies the Messiah was to be one, but passing to the moral, what is meant by another, one may demand, and ra­tionally too. For certain it is, many things are estimable, that are not God, and consequently are others from God; and are we to shut our Eyes to all? No, so that we have them open for Truth, which is but one. Must we then neglect our Temporal Con­cerns? No; so that we remember our Eternal. Let Rulers, by an equal [Page 30]management, of the Ballance and Sword, deliver'd them by the Hand of God, look Majesty be observ'd, it is not to look for another. Let Subjects with inviolable Allegiance, imploy their Talents and Courage in the Service of their Prince and Country, tho' with Honour and Promotion; it is not to look for another. Let Lawyers be true to their Clients, but only in what is just: Merchants to their Words, Tradesmen to their Bargains, be it for the improvement of their Fortune, none of this is to look for another.

To look for another, is to look for any thing in opposition to God; for an ordinate love of Creatures, with a reference to God, is not a looking for another, but for God: a Tribute due to his Unity, an Unity without which the Trinity it self would not be adora­ble; and Unity, from which derives, [Page 31]and to which tends the Order of the Universe; an Unity the ground of all Obedience, Union and Quiet; by seeking this Unity, we shall be united and being united to God, united amongst our selves, formidable to our Ghostly Enemies: By seeking another Faith, and not one; another Church, and not one; another God, and not one; another Government, and not the one and set­tled, we bring in Division; Division from God, Division from Religion, and Division amongst our selves; and Division is ever the cause of Grief, Misery, and Anguish. God is but one, and will be the only. Ʋnus Deus, una fides, unum Septima: One God, one Faith,Eph. 4. v. 5.one Baptism.

One of the Darlings our deluded Fancy, strangely dotes on, is that of quiet, nothing more obvious to our Thoughts and Desires, and nothing [Page 32]less attained to than Quiet. Of the motion we see in this World, Philoso­phy makes quiet the Author, but mo­tion ever excluding quiet; quiet proves but an empty Word. Let Philosophy then for me, rest in her fancyed quiet, seeing nothing can rest for it. The World was made for Motion: it is to move, and it moves to be; as it can­not have for its ends, its own destructi­on, so it cannot have quiet, nor afford it to Man.

God alone is the Center of Man's Heart, to Him our Appetite bears us, to Him all motion carries us. This is the first cause of this Agitation we see in Nature, and vicissitude of things. Ʋniversa propter semetipsum operatus est Dominus,Prov. c. 16. ver. 4.The Lord has made all things for himself. The World for us, and Us, and World for Him; an unsettled World for Us, that we may learn to [Page 33]settle in him. Facti sumus ad te, & irre­quietum est cor nostrum, donec requiescat in te, says the experienced St. Austine. Our Heart is made for the Lord, and it is restless, till in thee it repose. Thou art the one and only, no other we are to look for; as Thou art undivided, so is our Heart to be, wholly thine; to this intent makes a Passage. Luke 12. ver. 13. Ait quidam de turba: Ma­gister dic Fratri meo ut dividat me­cum haereditatem: One of the Company said unto Christ, Master, speak to my Brother, that he divide the Inheritance with me: But what do you think Christ's Answer was in the following Verse? Quis me constituit Judicem aut Divisorem supra vos? Man, who made me a Judge or Divider over you? I know the literal Sense imports no more, than that Christ came only for the Sal­vation of Souls, and not to meddle [Page 34]with Temporal Concerns; yet to my present purpose, St. Peter, Sir-nam'd Chrysologus, flies higher, and discovers a Mystery containing the Truth I have in hand, Praeceps cupiditas & in­cauta, cum fieri voluit Divisionis autorem, qui ad restituendam venerat humani generis unitatem. A rash and precipitous desire, that would have him to be the Divider of an Inheritance, who came to re­store Unity to Mankind. Christ's Inheritance we are, He will not have it divided; he will have it His, and wholly his.

And what hath he not done to make it his own. He created us, he redeemed us; when lost, he found us; he conserves us; by him we are, by him we live, in him we move; upon these Titles, the greatest Titles of Property, we are His; and in requital doth he not deserve our Heart and Love? Doth he not merit that we should look for Him, and no other? Yes, yes, O Lord, Thee alone, we shall serve, and love; to Thee alone, by a true Faith, Hope, and Charity, we shall aspire; Thee alone we shall look for, and not another. That so we may do, God of his Infinite Mercy grant us, In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, Amen.