A SERMON PREACHED AT Grays-inn, October 2. 1642. BY THOMAS Fulwar, Doctor in divinity, and Bishop of Ardtfert, in the kingdom of Ireland. LONDON, Printed in the year, 1642. To the worthy Gentlemen, and Inhabitants of the Parish of St. Andrews Holborn. I Hate Ingratitude as Witchcraft. To witness therefore to the world, both your courtesy to me, and my thankfulness to you, I give you this Piece, intended for your Pulpit; but being occasionally called to Grays-inn, delivered there what you should have heard, and but once; you may please now to see, and often, and in it the reality of my desire to retribute something: You know what S. Peter said to the cripple, What he had he gave him: you have been the chief preservers of me and mine, since our escape out of Ireland, where we had only our lives for a prey, and those lives your bounty hath hitherto cherished. Which yet, doth not more oblige me, than the loving acceptance of my weak endeavours; with which encouragement I shall cheerfully proceed still in my poor labours, and shall think myself amid all my misfortunes very happy, if you shall so esteem of me as I am, and desire to express myself, Yours in all fair respect, THO: ARTEFERTENSIS. LUKE 2. 48. Thy Father and I have sought thee sorrowing. THE seasonableness of this Text, and how it suits our case at this time, I need not spend many words to show: They are the words of the blessed Virgin to her Son, and imply, and contain in them, The losing of Christ had; The seeking of Christ lost; and the finding of Christ sought. They had enjoyed their Son twelve years together, and now it was their hard hap to lose him: Longer have we enjoyed him by far than they did. We have had him in his Word rightly taught, in his Sacraments duly administered, and for a sign and confirmation of his blessing upon these, more than fourscore years of peace, to the wonder of our friends, and envy of our adversaries: But what shall I say now▪ When the Angel said to Gideon, The Lord is with thee thou mighty man; Gideon answered, O my Judges 6. 13. Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then is all this evil befallen us? Surely, so may we conclude, God hath now withdrawn himself, because Peace, his greatest blessing upon earth, hath now forsaken us: Gideon, and the Israelites groaned then under a foreign Enemy; We for want of foes abroad, as if we were ambitious of feud, weary of ease, and thirsty of our neighbour's blood, must quarrel one another: Of all plagues upon a Nation, war is the sorest; witness holy David, who rather chose Pestilence, than the sword 2 Sam. 24. 14. to destroy him: And of all wars, civil is the most destructive, the miseries whereof are next to the torments of hell, which no tongue is able to express▪ O then is God with us, when such unnatural discord is fallen between us? When God was angry, he sent an evil spirit Judges 9 23. between Abimelech and the Shechemites, which consumed them both: Here is an evil spirit now among us, and a flame breaking out, which if not quickly quenched, will consume us root and branch. Ourselves are going the way to destroy ourselves from being a people upon the Earth. When Christ beheld Jerusalem, he wept over Luke 19 41. it, and said, O if thou hadst known in this thy day the things which belong to thy peace, but now they are hid from thine eyes. He saw their sin, and foresaw their sufferings, and the one as the other caused him to weep: oh! our sins are hideous, and our sufferings will not come short of theirs, if we prevent them not, our state will prove Felo de se, as your phrase is, and it will be arraigned at God's tribunal, as guilty of self-murder. Whom will we spare, that will not spare ourselves? and who will pity us, that will not pity ourselves? We pray every day in our litany, That God would deliver us from battle and murder, yet, good Lord, how inclinable are some men, even to that they pray against! Nay, which is more, and I know not whether it be more to be deplored or hated, There are of our Long-robe, whose feet Rom. 10. ●● should be beautiful for the glad tidings of peace they should bring with them, that are preaching in the place of the God of peace for war. When the Disciples would have had our Saviour Luke 9 44 to have fired a Town for their uncourteous refusal of him lodging, he forbade them, and told them, They knew not what spirit they were of; Good Lord, what spirits are these men of, that add fuel to this fire which flames too hot already! Luke 10. 5. The Apostles were commanded, that so soon as they entered a house, the first word they should say should be, Peace be to this house: Whose Disciples are these, that have nothing in their mouths, but arm, kill, and destroy? Scatter thou the people, saith holy David, that delight Psal 68 30. Gen. 49. in war. Cursed be their rage, for it is fierce, and their wrath, for it is cruel; and into their secrets let my soul never come. We in Ireland have already smarted under the misery of such war, God of his mercy keep it from you here in England; But pro quo Orandum, Laborandum; They who sit at the helm, it is their Office to deal in matters of State, and seek the best way of atonement, our endeavours must be in another kind, to settle peace above, to show how to work a reconciliation between our incensed God & us, to stand Psal. 106. 23. with Moses in the gap, and pray ourselves, and by our devotion enkindle others likewise, that we may all jointly say, If thy presence go not with us, Exod. 33. 15. send us not up hence: We are not I hope of the Gadarens mind, to desire Christ to depart our Luke 8. 37. Coasts, rather with the two Disciples we will say, Domine, mane nobiscum: And if he be gone, Luke 24. 29. as I fear he is, with these two holy Saints here, we will go in earnest quest of him, seek him, and never give over till we have found him; for so the blessed Maid implies in her speech, Thy Father and I have sought thee sorrowing. I see that before I was aware, I have divided my Text already, and told you the order how I must proceed in the handling of it: 1. The losing Christ had. 2. The seeking Christ lost. 3. The finding Christ sought. I told you but now, that Moses besought Almighty 1. God not to leave his people, but go with them still. Though God be, as himself saith, Ego Deus & non mutor, unchangeable, and his delight Malachi 3 6. is to be with the children of men, yet we need not go far to see the cause why God that had brought that people with so mighty a hand, and outstretched an arm from Egypt, would now leave them in the wilderness. They embraced Jonah 2. 8. lying Vanities, and so forsook their own mercy; they left him by sin, and he left them by Justice: He had not been true to himself, but contradicted his purity, if he had stayed with them that had so trespassed; God will not be, but either where no sin is at all, or where there is sorrow for sin; for, quem poenitet peccasse, pene est innocens: The people he loved, but their sin he hated, and that drove him away from them. But what sin had the blessed Virgin committed? What evil was she now guilty of, that the joy of her eyes, and the delight of her heart should now leave her? Elizabeth wondered, unde hoc quod Luke 1. 43. mater Domini venit ad me? May not we much more wonder that the Lord of that Mother should now absent himself from her, of whom though we may not so much dote as our Adversaries, to say she was as innocent as her Son himself, yet we may without offence, I hope, say as the holy Text speaks of Zachary and Elizabeth, that Luke 1 6. she was just, and walked blamelessly, sine crimine, though not sine culpa; sine querela, though not sine peccato? What cause should this harmless soul give? Twelve years together she had enjoyed his blessed society, over whose infant-yeares so indulgent was her care, as by her pains and travel she made Egypt a Sanctuary to him, which had been a house of Correction to the Israelites; and after her return, never did she wilfully transgress in aught to displease him, or fail in aught, which should witness her dearest affection to him. To the annual celebration of the Feast she goes, nor would she go without him, in whom her life did consist, and during the time of her abode there, he was with her. But at her return, (the word, for sympathy of grief, will scarce come out) he stays and leaves her. But why did she go to it? she had a continual Feast, a quiet conscience within herself: besides, she had the Lord of the Feast, her Son with her. For no other cause, but because she knew not how to disobey authority: what her Son said afterwards concerning his baptism, Suffer it to be so now, for so it becomes us to fulfil all righteousness; Math 3. 15. that the Mother now practised: Her son, ne perderet obedientiam, perdidit vitam; and so now his Mother, to show herself obedient, lost him that was dearer to her then her life. What is written, is written for our instruction, and the Saints practise should be, if not our precept, yet our example, and should teach us that public obedience to laws established, is far more acceptable, than all private sacrifices ● Sam. 15. 22. whatsoever. Oh how palpably true is that of Solomon; It Eccles ●. ●. is better to go to the house of mourning, than the house of feasting? for here she loseth him, whom she had so long kept with her: For us now to lose Christ at feasts, is no new, nor strange thing, for we commonly lose ourselves at them, turning our laughter into so much folly, as we even Eccles. 1. 1. make of our mirth madness. The Minstrels, which I remember Christ once Mat. 9 23. shut out of doors in the Gospel, we with so much greedy delight entertain, as their gingling quite hinders us from affording Christ either Matth. 9 23. room or audience among us. But for this Innocent Virgin, Full of grace, as the angel called Luke 1. 28. her, that she should lose him, is still our wonder. I know sin separates between our God and us; but isaiah 59 2. what sin do we read of that she offended in? careful she was of her son in preserving him, and giving him the best breeding that she could; and the best breeding was, that she brought him to the Temple; well might she say then, Fili cur sic fecisti nobis? What offence had she ever given him? wherein had she ever offended him? Is this the requital of her twelve years' care? This the guerdon of her unwearied love & labour, that now when his years should yield her most content, he should leave her? Had he been mere man, we might have excused it by the descent of love; The Angels of love come down faster and oftener on the Ladder, then go up; but being God as man, our wonder is heightened; Hath God Psal 77. 9 forgotten to be gracious, and will he shut up his loving kindness in displeasure? Will he absent himself from those that prize nothing so dear as his society? He, who though he be provoked every day, yet is loving to all, yea to his enemies: he that Psal. 145 9 sought out Adam when he ran from him, how Gen. 3. comes he thus to his dearest mother? We must with silence lay our hands upon our mouths, and knowing it was the Lord, conclude, That the reason of his doings may be sometimes secret, but never unjust: He whose chair is in man's heart, and sees there as in public, saw more than we can discern; May be that ardency of affection 1. was somewhat cooled by this twelve years constant fruition, she did not so highly prize his company as was fitting; What the natural man spoke, the Christian finds true, Beneficia carendo, blessings are sooner spied by want, then by enjoying; Now then to set a greater price on his presence, that she should esteem it according to its value, he is pleased to withdraw: How welcome was the day after that multiplied night to the Egyptians? and how highly was Jacob pleased with the news of his son Joseph's life, whom he supposed dead? I will go down and see Gen. 45. 28. him before I die. Besides, she had a greater task than this to undergo; 2. It was prophesied to her, That a sword Luke 2. 35. should pierce through her soul; And that was, when she was to see him hang on the tree, and to lie three days in the Grave; It did but prick her now only to prepare her to her greater trial; She must learn to endure a far longer absence, and must be weaned quite from his bodily presence. And withal she must be taught that her Son 3. had a Father in Heaven, whose business he must go about: All the world must be profited, as well as she pleased, and they must be redeemed, as well as she satisfied; therefore as our first Adam said, A man should leave Father and Mother for his Wife, Gen. 2 24. so this our second Adam, to express his infinite love to his Spouse, the Church, having left before his Father in heaven, now leaves his Mother on earth, to initiate that business which he must, and will afterwards accomplish, even by the laying down of his own life for their Redemption. But did Christ leave her indeed? did not she rather leave him? Is not he that came to seek that Luke 19 10. which was lost, now lost himself? as Joseph was Gen. 37. lost while he went to seek his brethren: Did not they leave him at the Feast, and go away without him? May we not say, (with reverence to her person) here was a kind of Inouria at best, a less care than ought to be? They went away both, and both went by thoughts and suppositions: We say, Insipientis est dicere, Non putaram; And it was some folly to say, Putaram, if it be true as the Jews say, That the men went a part by themselves, and the women by themselves, so Joseph thought he was with his Mother, and she supposed he was with his Father. Would they yet travel a whole day without a sight of him, to advance their opinion into a knowledge, and so to have been ascertained he was amongst them? Thus even the best will grow sometimes remiss; Can a Mother forget her child? It seems she can; isaiah 49. 15. the best of Mothers here forgets the best of sons, and so jealous is God of those he loves, as he will not endure the least Act of unkindness or undutifulness in them: Servants and strangers may go away with greater errors, when the Son that is beloved shall find a lash for the least offence: The not beloved ones, wicked and ungodly men, may run on in sin even till they grow old, and sin like withered leaves shall drop and fall from them before they leave it, and in all that time never meet with a whipping; but those that are Zach. 28. dear to God, dear to him as the Apple of his eye▪ his chosen ones, they shall be snibbed and curbed, and punished upon the least delinquency; which, howsoever it may seem grievous for the Heb. 12. 11. present, yet at last they will say with David, It was good for me that I have been afflicted; for these Psal. 119. 71. afflictions instruct as well as correct, and as they punish, so they teach them their duties. Thus have we seen Christ lost. The Saints in heaven so happily have him, as they cannot lose him, the bridegroom cannot now be taken from them; the damned in hell have so unhappily lost him, as they can never find him again, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, a great gulf there is, which they can Luke 16. 26. never ford to find such a bliss, only we that live on earth, can both lose and find him. It was carelessness at worst in them, but our wilful sins drive him from us; He is a God of pure eyes, and Hab. 1. 13. cannot endure to see any pollution; and how do we wallow in all uncleanness? He is a holy God and will be sanctified of all that come near him, or Lev. 10. 3. that he comes near unto, and what haste do we make to run into all profaneness? He is a God of order, and how do we unhinge all by 1 Cor. 14. 40. confusion? He is a God of love, and how full of malice are our hearts? He is a God of peace, and 2 Cor. 13 11. we dote upon strife and contention? He rests not but upon the meek and humble, and how do we advance ourselves even above all that is called 2 Thess. 2. 4. God? Let us never flatter ourselves, and think these sins and Christ can dwell together; God and 1 Sam. 5. Dagon could not be in one house in the old Law, nor God and Belial in one heart in the new. We 2 Cor. 6. 15. see the shoals of these sins, which have driven him from us; God make us sensible of the want of him, and wanting him, give us grace to seek him as these did; And so I come to the second, The seeking of Christ lost: Thy Father and I have, &c. The night which curtains all things else, like 2. a friendly and faithful counsellor now discovers this want, which the flattering day would not tell them of Then they were so full of discourse and business as they had no leisure so much as to think him absent, the fairness of the way, and the Company of their friends, did so pleasant their Journey as they scarce minded him, till the day was spent, and they retired to their inn, and then when they thought to betake themselves to their repast and rest, they perceived that he, without whom they could not rest, was wanting. Oh the happiness of a silent night retirement! all the day we spend in turmoil in the world, some Psal. 78. 3●. wandering, as some of the Jews, in the fields of Egypt, picking straws of folly, things, which may Exod. 5. perhaps please the sense, but I am sure cannot profit the soul, whiles others with the rest of the Jews are busied in making brick, labouring as in Hab. 2. 13. the fire for very vanity, and producing only such things of which we may ask as the Apostle Rom 6. 21. did, What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? Others with Jonathan and his Armour-bearer are climbing the steep and dangerous 1 Sam. 13. 13. rocks of preferment, whiles others are scratching and wounding themselves even to the Luke 8. 14. quick, with the shiny cares of this world, and all to get that wealth which they know not who shall enjoy; and amidst these things, profit, pleasure, Psal 39 6 and preferment, there is no leisure to mind Christ; but when night comes, as certainly it will come, and we are plucking off our clothes, and going to bed, than we shall find the want of him whose company before we little cared for: When any night comes, as there are more nights than one, the night of sorrow, or the night of sickness, the Usher of that long-long night of death, and we are left alone, and all those former witchcrafts of the day, like those Reeds of Egypt, isaiah 36. 6. not only fail us in our need, but pierce our hands, and wound our souls, and our jocund and blithe company, like vermin out of a falling house, run away from us and forsake us, than we shall by woeful experience find, Quam malum & amarum est dereliquisse Domi●●●, Ier. 2 19 how evil and bitter a thing it is to forsake our God: When affliction nakeds us of all those figleaves, wherewith in the day of prosperity we did dress and pride ourselves, and denudes us of all sinister and vain thoughts, and redeeming us out of the throng and noise of the world, delivers us to a solid consideration, whether Christ, which should have been not only our Companion, but our guide through this wilderness of sin, and Valley of tears, be with us yea or no, and if not, than we shall think it high time to go along with these good people here to seek and find him out. Had the day been lengthened out to that in the days of Hezekiah, ten degrees more, I make a question isaiah 38. 8. whether they had yet missed him, or been so happy as to have seen their unhappiness; but now the darkness brings that to light, which the dazzling of the day, and sunshine before would not let them see, and being now made sensible of their miss, they will not give their eyes any Psal. 132. 4. sleep, nor suffer the temples of their heads to take any rest, till they have found him; Now they redeem their former carelessness by a careful seeking him; what in their mirthful journey they lost, their sad and diligent enquiry makes abundance of amends for: It was never truer than now, that Extrema gaudii luctus occupat, sadness brings in the voider, where mirth lays the Cloth; nay the grief for their loss, far resurmounts the joy of their Feast; and if they severed before, Joseph in one company, and Mary in another, and so lost him, they unite now, not failing either in the main of seeking, which tells us their industry, or in the object of their seeking, Him, and Him alone, which shows their sincerity, nor in the manner, internal sympathy, both sorrowing, and external agreement, both together, one teaching us unity, the other uniformity; Thy Father and I, &c. These are the branches which now should be shaken; but I shall but gather a berry or two off of each of them, cutting off something, as he in Plutarch, which I should say, not to offend in prolixity, their industry in that they seek, their sincerity in that they seek him, their unity in that they seek him both in sorrow, and their uniformity in that they seek him both together. We are not to learn what it is to seek, when 1. we lose any thing we highly prize; our eyes, and hands, and feet are all employed: See but the Luke 15. 8. poor woman in the Gospel that had but lost her groat, how diligently she sought, and swept every corner of her house till she found it; and look upon the good shepherd, wandering all over Ibid. 4. the mountains to find his strayed lamb. Indeed if Christ be once lost, he will not readily be found. What trouble did Saints of old put themselves unto, when God hid his face from them? Thou hidest thy face, saith David, and I Psal. 30. 7. was troubled. Troubled indeed in mind and in body, to get a glimpse of that glorious countenance shine again upon him. He is not easily lost, but by extreme carelessness and neglect, but when we will lose him, he is not easily to be found▪ you may see it here, They lost him but one day, and it was the the third day before they could find him again. The first and best happiness is to keep him, to say as Jacob, Non dimittam te, I will not let thee Gen. 32 26. go unless thou bless me; but the next to that, is presently to miss him, and upon that miss to seek him with all diligence, and without delay. We are all, or would be thought to be, Generatio quaerentium, A Generation of Psal. 24. 6. those that seek God; but we seek not as we Cant. 3. 1. ought, we seek as she did in the Canticles, I sought him in my Bed, I sought him, but I found him not. careless, slight, perfunctory seeking will not do it; The sluggard lusts, Prov. 13. 4. and his soul hath nothing, saith Solomon, because he doth but lust. Bad men though they live the lives of the wicked, yet with Balaam Numb 22. 10. they desire to die the death of the righteous; but desires alone will not avail, and yet I fear such is all the pains we spend about it. Jesting Pilate asked, Quid est veritas? but he John 18. 38. went away not caring to be resolved in a question which he thought of so small concernment: so there are many, Qui noncurant quaerere, qui tamen Bern. cupiunt invenire; cupiunt consequi, & non sequi. If we seek him upon the downy Beds of rest and ease, it is impossible we should find him: Foxes have holes, and birds of the air Mat. 8. 20. have nests, but the son of man hath not whereon to repose his head. Pilate was not satisfied that only made it Table-talk: Nor the woman that sought at her ease, did not find; Watchman, what in the night? cries the isaiah 21. 11. Prophet: The morning comes, and also the evening, O si quaeritis, quaerite; If ye will seek, do it indeed, and to some purpose, and do it both while ye may seek, and he may be found: There is a time for every thing under the Sun, Eccles. 3. 1. saith Solomon; The time which God allows us for our seeking, is Primum quaerite, seek him Matth 6 3●. f●rst, while he may be found: for that speech in the Prophet, implies there is a time when isaiah 55. 6. Gen 27. 34. Mat. 27 11. he cannot be found at all; Esau in the Old Testament, and the five foolish Virgins in the New, show to their grief that he may be sought when he will not be found. It is true I read in one place, That he is found of them which sought him isaiah 65. 1. not; and S. Paul may be instanced in, whom Christ found travelling to Damascus, and neverthinking Acts 9 of it; But that is not to be made a precedent of no more, then because some men have by chance found wherewith to keep themselves all days of their lives, others should not labour upon the like hope of the same fortune: But our safest and most warrantable course is presently upon the first miss of him to seek him: seek and seek him, cum, not aliud 2. in eo, Him for himself, and for no other by-respect: The people in the Gospel sought him, but it was for the Loaves wherewith they John 6 26. were fed, and not for love, as himself told them; what S. Paul said to his Corinths, Non vostra, 1 Cor. 12. 14. sed vos, not yours, but you, that we must say to Almighty God, Thee, and thee alone, O Lord, do we seek: Let us comply with David's Echo, Seek ye my face; Thy face, Lord, saith he, will Psal. 77. 8. I seek: Let Demetrius, and his fellow craftsmen, if they will, magnify Diana, because they Acts 19 25. lived by making her silver shrines; but let Christians be otherwise minded, and think that godliness 1 Tim. 1. 6. is gain sufficient or them, and so with holy Job, trust in God though he should kill them. Job 13. 15. He loves not God at all, that loves any thing besides him; nor doth he seek God at all, who seeks aught but himself; and indeed, what need they seek any thing else? for having him, they are sure of all things, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, whereof they have need, though peradventure not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, which they may fancy a use of: All are 1 Cor. 2. 23. yours, for ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's, saith the Apostle. No marvel now if losing such an one, they 3. were both sad; which is the third thing, and teaches us unity of affection, according to S. Paul's Ephes. 4. 3. advice, to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. How did Jacob mourn for the loss of one Son Gen. 37. 35. 2 Sam. 18. 33. in twelve? and how did David lament for his lewd son Absalon? but when the Text speaks of a grief not to be paralleled, it is as of one mourning Jer. 6. 26. for an only son. Who of us loseth a friend, a child, or a wife with dry eyes? how incomparably dear beyond all these in Christ to a soul? Let us not prodigally then lavish away our tears for such toys as these, (for so I may call them in comparison) but reserve them for better purposes. Fruitless is all grief in the world but this; 2 Cor. 7. 10. I do not speak of that worldly sorrow which causeth death, but even that grief which we may take, for such losses as I spoke of can do us no good; could we shed rivers of tears, it could not revive a dead friend, or recover a lost estate, or an impaired health, only show how we love them, as John 11. 36. they said of Christ weeping for Lazarus, but not profit us in the thing lost at all. And abundance of tears which may blind our eyes, if spent for any things here below, makes them more clear to find him, who will not be found but in sorrow; he is vir dolorum, as Isaiah calls him, and so isaiah 53. 3. must be sought; In his presence is joy, and at his Psal. 16 11. right hand are pleasures for evermore: Needs then must there be sorrow and discontents at his absence, which we are not sensible of, because we value him not; but Da Christianum & scit quod Aug. dico, he knows that there is no joy to the finding of him, nor no sorrow to that when he is lost: Blame not these then to be sad, and to go both together in pursuit of him, which is the last, They went together. I will not trouble you with the signification of 4. their names, Mary signifying a bitter Sea, and Joseph, fruitfulness; sorrow for sin past, and fruitfulness in good works for the future, being the way to find him; but only commend unto you, external uniformity. They lost him when they were asunder, and therefore go together to find him: and indeed, how should they seek him that is all love and peace, but in love and peace? God the Heb. 13. 20. Father is the God of peace: God the son is the isaiah 9 6. Prince of peace: God the Holy Ghost is the Spirit of peace: His Gospel is the Gospel of peace, and Gal. 5. 22. his Ministers are, or should be, the Ministers of Rom. 10. 15. peace. Can we think then of seeking him with sword in hand? First go and agree with thine Adversary, Mat. 5. 24. and then come and offer thy gift, saith himself in his Gospel; no gift will be accepted from those which are at strife: First make peace one with another, and then we may hope to find the God of peace, and the peace of God. But it concerns me to speak more of ecclesiastical peace then civil; O, for the divisions in the Church, What great thoughts of heart are there! Jud. 5. 15. S. Paul condemned the Corinthians when they said, I am of Paul, and I of Apollo's, and I of Cephas: 1 Cor. 1. 12. Is Christ divided? saith he: That seamless coat of Mat. 27. 35. Christ, which the rude soldiers spared, how is it now rent in pieces by our disorderly divisions? When every one doth in the Church, as it was in the Book of judges, quisque quod rectum in oculis, Judg. 17. 6. Every man that which is good in his own eyes: And it was so then and there, because they had no King,— grief suffers me not to speak more of this, only to pray with holy David, and say, Psal. 102. 13. The time is come that thou have mercy upon Zion, yea the time is come. With such words and such grief we may at last find our lost peace, and serving God in the Beauty of holiness, find Christ as these Psal. 110▪ 3. did: which is the last of all; The finding Christ 3. sought. Thy Father and I, &c. As we must seek Christ while, so where he may be found. Each thing hath {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, as his nunc, so his ubi: All was well hitherto in their seeking, but now we shall find something was amiss, they sought right for the manner, but wrong for the place: It is no blind man's work Ephes. 1. 18. to seek, The eyes of their understanding must be enlightened, or it will be to no purpose: They sought him among their friends and kindred: He that consults with flesh and blood (for they are our Mat. 16. 17. kindred) can never find Christ. It is nor nature nor reason that can bring us to him. Hence the wise Heathen seeking a Deity, in stead of one God found many, and finding many, found none at all; and therefore at Athens there was an Altar Acts 17▪ 23. Cant. 3. 2. erected {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, To the unknown God. That Spouse in the Canticles that sought Christ in her Bed, sought him likewise in the streets, and broad places, but could not find him: So these, neither in the ways, the fields of pleasure and delight, nor in the streets of Jerusalem, amid the throng and hurry of worldly occasions, till they came to the Temple, and there they found him: God said in his Prophet, Ye shall not seek me in vain; but at isaiah 45. 19 last, Laetetur cor quaerentium Deum: for God will not Psal. 105. 3. always forget the labour and love of those that seek him, but at last they shall find him as these did, in Heb. 6. 10. the Temple, among the Doctors, and in the midst of them. The place, The company, and his posture, of these in one word. Thy way, O God, is in the Sanctuary, saith David; Psal. 77. 13. non in penetralibus, non in deserto, saith Christ himself, Mat. 24. 26. not in the desert, not in private Chambers. We cannot go without bodies to seek him now, but in Spirit, Seek him with our whole heart, as Moses Deut. 4. 29. said, and so we may find him on earth, that is, bodily ascended up to heaven: In his Temple, where Psal. 29 9 every man speaks of his honour; there we shall find him in our prayers, the public prayers of the Congregation, and therefore it is called, A house Mat. 21 13. of prayer for all people: We shall find him in his Word speaking to us, and we shall find him in his Sacraments, wherein he offers himself to us; and all these are duties to be performed publicly, nowhere, unless in case of extreme necessity, but in Temples, places consecrate, and set apart for such purposes; Here was Christ found at first, and here he is to be found still, however our fond Sectaries, whose blind zeal misleads them, may think any place good enough to seek Christ in, and so contrary to S. Paul, who puts a flat difference 1 Cor. 11. 22. between private houses and Churches, will yet confound them, grounding upon words of Christ to the woman of Samaria, misunderstood, John 4. 21, 23. That the time shall come, when they shall neither worship in Samaria, the Temple built there, nor at Jerusalem, but in Spirit and Truth: What he spoke of the worship in Samaria, who worshipped God in the likeness of a Dove, and so not in Truth, and at Jerusalem, where it was in types and shadows, sacrifices, and external things, even than when the Substance himself was come, and so not in Spirit; that they misapply, that there should be no Temples at all; and so they go even there to find him where Christ said directly he was not, non in penetralibus, non in deserto; and so even despise the Church of God, as S. Paul complained, or if they do 1 Cor▪ 11. 22. come to it, how do they make it a common place, by their profane and rude demeanour in it? Can we think this pleasing to Christ, that twice whipped the prophaners out of the third Court, in the Jews Temple? At his first Passeover, Ioh. 2. 15 and at his last Passeover, Mark 11. 17. And you must know that it was the third Court into which those buyers and sellers came, and not into the second, where none but native Jews, much less the third, where only the Priests were admitted, and yet that outward Court would not he suffer to be abused. God in the Old Law joined the Sabbath and the Temple together, Ye shall keep my Sabbaths, Levit. 26. 2. and reverence my sanctuary; and what God hath joined we may not put asunder; and yet these men Mat. 19▪ 6. that are so careful in the observation of the one, how violent are they in the neglect of the other? How do they despise even the most holy place, (if there be in our Churches any place more holy than another) the place where, and the holy Table whereon we receive his blessed body and blood, Mal. 1. 7. even that I say as the Prophet complained, is despised: As those obstinate ones that will not come, should be whipped in, so these abusers of it should be whipped out: And I doubt not, but as this is not the least of our sins, so it is not the least cause of our sufferings: Which God of his mercy amend and pardon. In the Temple, and among the Doctors. 2. As the Temple is the place, so these are the men with whom we shall find him; not every one, but they that are set apart, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, may or can Rom. 1. 1. show where Christ is; If the blind lead the blind, you know what will follow. Those Fishermen Mat. 15. 14. that Christ made Apostles of, he conversed with three years, and miraculously inspired knowledge and language into them according to his promise, Dabo vobis os & scientiam; But such miraculous Luke 21. 15. infusion now ceases, and Artisans may not presume to take that business upon them. It is observed, that doceo must have two Accusatives: doceo te scientiam: They that take upon them to Teach, and have not the Key of knowledge, as it is Luke 11. 52. called in the Text, may wrest the Scriptures, as S. Peter saith, to their own destructions, but can never 2 Pet. 3. 16. open them right, or show Christ. With the Doctors he was then, hearing and posing them, and so he will be still with such as he hath appointed to be sent as Labourers into his Mat. 20. 1. Vineyard, who must with their private endeavours, pains, and studies, get knowledge first themselves; (The priest's lips should preserve knowledge) Mal. 2 7. and then derive it to others. Sitting with them, and in the midst; which is 3. the last. Christ is still observed to be in that place; Luke 2. 7. when he was born, in medio animalium; when he died, in medio latronum; In heaven, in the midst Mark 15. 27. of the seven golden candlesticks; and in the Rev. 2. 1. Temple now in the midst of the Doctors; that is his place still: The Pharisees they loved corners Mat. 6. 5. in the streets, and uppermost seats at Feasts: The Luke 11. 43. moral is, They were biased, partial, and sinisterly affected people, which Christ loves not; and whosoever seeks to find Christ, must go with an even mind, he must be like seasoned timber, neither warp one way for fear, or another way for hope, nor lean a third way for any private respect, but go on in truth and in sincerity, in unity, and in uniformity, and by such men, and none but such Christ will be found: And peace (which always accompanies him) even abundance of peace will Psal 37. 11. be restored to our Israel, and prosperity to our Zion; Which God of his infinite mercy send. Amen. FINIS.