The WHYs? and the HOW●… OR, A Good ENQUIRY: A SERMON Preached before Their MAJESTY'S In Their CHAPEL at St. James' The 2d. Sunday of Advent, December 6th. 1685.  
By J.D. of the Society of Jesus.  
Published by His Majesty's Command.  
✚  
LONDON, Printed by Nat. Thompson at the Entrance into the Spring Garden near Charing Cross, MDCLXXXVII.   

A SERMON Preached before Their MAJESTY'S At their Chapel at St. James'.  Math. II. ver. 3. 
Joannes cum audisset in Vinculis Opera Christi, mittens duos de Discipulis, ait illi: Tu es qui venturus est an alium expectamus.  
When John had heard in the Prison the Works of Christ, he sent two of his Disciples, and said unto him: Art thou He that should come, or do we look for another?  
THat Nature is a Book, composed of as many Words as Parts, full of Divinity, and leading to the knowledge of a God, was an ancient Decision of Trismegistus, Authorised since by the Holy Ghost, in St. Paul to the Romans, chap. 1. ver. 20. Invisibilia ejus ipsius a creatione Mundi per ea quae facta sunt intellecta conspiciuntur sempiterna quoque ejus Virtus & Divinitas. For the invisible things of him, from the Creation of the World, are clearly to be seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his Eternal Power and Godhead.  
However time was, when the unhappy Children of Adam, taking the Book into their hands, were charmed with the loveliness of its Letters, the Creatures, and careless in searching after the Composer of so Noble a work; courted and adored such Toys, as were pleasing to Sense and Fancy, at the same time Erecting Altars, Acts the 17. v. 23. ignoto Deo, To the unknown God.  
But if the Learned Piece of the Universe, coming from under the Press of Omnipotency, discovered not at the first sight its Author's Name, being reprinted by the Hand of Mercy, the Author itself, under Characters of Flesh, appeared on the Frontispiece, visible, and conversant with Men, & verbum caro factum est, Jo. 1. v. 14. and the Word was made Flesh; & habitavit in nobis, and dwelled amongst us.  
For as in the Creation, it was necessary to read the Book, to know its Author, this depending of humane Reason; so in the Redemption, it was necessary to know the Author, to understand the Book, this depending of Divine Faith; and therefore the Great, and more than Prophet St. John the Baptist, dispatches from the Prison, two of his Disciples with this message to Christ, Tu es qui venturus est, an alium expectamus? Art thou He that should come, or do we look for another? A necessary Enquiry, by which, coming from John in the Prison, we are taught,  
First, the requisites to a good enquiry, which are Solitude, and a right beginning.  
Secondly, to inquire only for what is necessary.  
Thirdly, to look for one, and not another.  
Truth becomes the Place that I unworthily am in; and that I may say nothing, but what becomes it, let us implore the Assistance of the God of Truth, by the Intercession of his ever Virgin Mother, Ave Maria.  

Joannes cum audisset in Vinculis. When John had heard in the Prison.  
THe first requisite to a good enquiry, is Solitude, for Solitude is the Mother of Thoughts; Thinking, Father's Wisdom: when Thoughts and Reason are lulled asleep, Folly takes its wand'ring 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 Galleys, your Worldlings would smile, tug on rowing, and never care to better their Condition. They are stunned with Noises, distracted with Varieties; and, as if living, they were returned into Earth, they seek nothing but Earthly things: Tenements upon Earth, Palaces upon Earth, Honours 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 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 disowned 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 Judgement; But then, as it were mindful, of the little Fruit, he had reaped 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 the way of the Lord; and what are the ways of the Lord but Inquiries? If we are Christ's Sheep, as he is often pleased 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 myself: John's Enquiry began from Christ, in Christ to end; cum audisset: He first heard, then enquired; an enquiry is not to begin from us, but from the Object, our Passion or Ignorance, or both, often misrepresents, 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 inquire 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 inquire 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 moved John to inquire of Christ, till by this interchange of Inquiries, his Disciples master the grand Mystery 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 inquiries; 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 Jealousy and Ambition; Their's happily ended in the Worship of a new born Messiah, His in the Murder of Thousands of Infants.  
Vbi est qui natus est Rex Judeorum? 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 perplexed, and disturbed; Turbatus est Herodes: Yet inquires too; he demands of the Learned, where Christ should be born? This is little. Bethlehem being determined the place, he privately inquires 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 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 inquiries; 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, looked 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 end where it began. Each thing has its proper voice; we are not to falsify with our imperfect Echoes, of Prejudice and Passion, their natural sound; but frame the value of each thing; the thing impartially frames of itself: for again, I tell you, an enquiry to be good, must begin right, and end where it began, Joannes cum audisset, etc.  
Tu es qui venturus es? Art thou he that should come? a necessary enquiry; by which we are taught, to inquire only what is necessary; that is, to inquire 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 inquiries; 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 difficulty, and it is; John, not only as a Prophet, and Forerunner of Christ, but even as an Eye-witness, was perfectly knowing, of what he enquired; and yet inquires of what he knew. Jo. the 1st. ver. 29. he pointed out our Saviour, ecce Agnus Dei, Behold the Lamb of God, as he Baptised 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 inquires, Art thou he?  
The difficulty, as you see, is plain; and no less plain is the Solution. John ordered the Enquiry, but Ignorance made it; the Ignorance of his Disciples, by an excuse of Charity, he made his own; and inquires by them what he knew, to teach them to inquire, of 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 found'st an Obligation of enquiring what is necessary.  
The Intent of my Discourse bears me yet further, and methinks I discover a twofold Ignorance, placed chief 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 practised 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 inquires not of what he ought to be ignorant: He questions not the disposition 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 inquires 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 ourselves 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 ourselves in a Chaos of endless Inquiries.  
How can one that is Born, be Eternal? say the Sammoratens, and so deny Christ's 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 Christ's 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 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 me how? Doth the first push come from Will, or Fancy? if so, how doth Will or Fancy first move itself? 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 Compliance with God's 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 empowers 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 Trial, 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 produced a sole Knowledge of Good, and forbearing what caused 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 of his own Calamity, and unconcerned 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; 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 Inquiries. 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 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 myself, says Conscience; and why, says the Serpent? The Law of the Land cannot oblige thee? Perjury is a Sacrilegious Cutthroat, 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 Ruin thou buildest thy own Greatness? Those lascivious Enticements, 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 Gallantries 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 Practice of us Sinners.  
Should the Apprentice question his Master's Lesson? a Servant his Lords Command? should a Soldier, 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 obeyed by his Apprentice, each Master by his Servant, each Commander by his Soldier: 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 lingering why's, and foolish Demurs? 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 Commands? 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 discussed, 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 literal 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 management, of the Balance and Sword, delivered them by the Hand of God, look Majesty be observed, it is not to look for another. Let Subjects with inviolable Allegiance, employ 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 itself would not be adorable; and Unity, from which derives, 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 ourselves, 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 ourselves; and Division is ever the cause of Grief, Misery, and Anguish. God is but one, and will be the only. Vnus 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 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 fancied 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, it's own destruction, so it cannot have quiet, nor afford it to Man.  
God alone is the Centre 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. Vniversa 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 settle in him. Facti sumus ad te, & irrequietum est cor nostrum, donec requiescat in te, says the experienced St. Austin. 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 with Temporal Concerns; yet to my present purpose, St. Peter, Surnamed 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 conserveses 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, thou 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.  
FINIS.