imputations of treason and Rebellion Jehoiada did but endeavour to put down unjust usurpation and to set up the right heire in this throne and to draw the people into a Covenant with God and yet Athalia cryed Treason treason Oh but sayes Saint Peter if ye suffer reproach for Christs sake hapyy are ye for the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you 1 Pet. 4 14. A Christian is never so glorious as when he suffers most reproach and ignominy for Christs sake There is nothing in the world saith Chrisostome nothing at all comparable to that glory When men revile and persecute you and say all manner of evill against you falsly for my sake rejoyce and be exceeding glad saith our Saviour for great is your reward in heaven Math. 5.11 A dram of credit well lost in a good cause and for a good conscience will amount to as much in the returne of it as an eternall Crown of glory is worth but we may haply yet further endanger our liberties forfeit our dearest contentments incurre the displeasure of our friends lose our interests yea our lives and all we have in this world we could never bring them to a better market we shall gaine an hundred for one take his Word for it who cannot lye you cannot desire better assurance it being all which heaven and earth have to shew for their continuance Luke 18.29 Verily I say unto you there is no man that hath left house or Parents or brethren or wife or children for the Kingdome of Gods sake who shall not receive manifold more in this present time and in the world to come life everlasting It s a thriving trade indeede thus to part with transitory things and gaine eternall to exchange drosse for gold peebles for pearles withering flowers for an inaccessible crown Who would not traffique in such a merchandize Anselme hath a saying That if a man could serve God with all fervency of zeale and devotion for a thousand yeeres yet all this were as nothing in comparison of the happinesse to be for one halfe of a day in heaven I will say yet more If a man could performe all the vertuous exploytes and suffer all the most exquisite tortures which all the Saints and Martyrs have suffered from the beginning of the world yet all this would not beare up the scales nor hold any proportion of weight so as in any sort to be judged worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed Rom. 8.18 We can never therefore be over violent for this prize 3. And as in respect of God and his Kingdom this is necessary so in respect of the enterprisers themselves who except they strain hard presse on with much violence might as well sit down and set their hearts at rest giving over the Kingdome of heaven and eternall Salvation as a lost prize cast your eyes about which way you will whether on God or your selves or the world enemies or friends nothing can set before us the least door of hope that ever we shall come to heaven Except we strive to enter in at the straight gate Mat. 7.13.1 Looke upon God and you shall finde that he hath fixed it as an irreversible order that such as strive for mastery shall not be crowned except they strive lawfully 2 Tim. 2 5. We must conquer before we triumph win the Garland before we weare it we are too well conceited of our selves and presume too much upon Gods love without any just ground if we expect that he should bring us by a nearer way and shorter cut unto eternall glory than he did his onely begotten son who came not easily by his crowne his conquest over death and hell and the spoyles taken from them were not Salmacida spolia sine sanguine sudore spoyles got without sweat or blood-shed for he did both sweat and bleed in his striving and strugling for them and I do not finde where entrance into heaven is proposed unto us but upon such like termes in quality I meane not in equality which is impossible Revel. 2.3 To him that overcommeth will I give to sit with me on my Throne even as I also overcame and am set downe with my Father in his Throne Loe here God hath held out his Kingdome as a {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} an honourable prize for brave spirits to contend and scuffle for this is the just price which he hath pitcht He that overcomes the Crown is his upon other termes it cannot be expected The old rule was {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The Gods sell all for sweate and it is indeed true that there is nothing of worth in all this world which can be got better cheap a Scholler cannot compasse any competency of skill in the Arts and Sciences without much study and travell Multa tulit fecitque puer sudavit alsit it will cost much sweat and much toyle to excell in learning A mechanicall artificer cannot thrive nor grow rich in his ordinary trade without more then ordinary diligence and shall we think the Kingdome of heaven will come dropping in our laps whilst we sit still and fold our hands and will do nothing or that which is to as little purpose as nothing for it I confesse that of Tertullian in proper speech is most true That nothing of or belonging unto God can be either bought or sold God is a most liberall Benefactor and gives us all things even his Kingdome too freely we have nothing that good is in relation to time or eternity but it comes in upon us as a gratuity and we for our parts {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} we have no price in our hands to give in exchange for such blessings especially the Kingdom of heaven which his more worth then all the world though turned into a Globe of gold or mountaine of Diamonds yet it is as true in another sence That all the blessings of God yea even the Kingdome of heaven too must be traded and trafficked for Salomon calls in customers to the shop of truth and he requires them to buy it and our Saviour commends this practise in two parables The one of a rich Treasure the other of a precious pearle Mat. 13.44 c. Many such like expressions we meete with every where in the Scripture all which import a kinde of trading and trafficking with God for the great things of his Kingdom which must be bought and purchased by laying out whatsoever we are or have for them When we offer him the flower of our desires the highest pitch of our affections and the marrow of our best endeavours this is pretium legitimum God will accept of it as of a just and currant price and if any bid short of it and will not be at such cost for heaven I can give him no other comfort but this He may go to hell if he please good cheap 2. Looke we
Heaven Ravished OR A Glorious Prize atchieved by an Heroicall Enterprize As it was lately Presented In A SERMON TO THE Honourable House of Commons at their solemn Fast May 29. 1644. By HENRY HALL B. D. late Fellow of Trin. Coll. in Cambridge Printed by Order of the said House 1 COR. 9.24 Know ye not that they which run in a race run all but one receiveth the prize So run that ye may obtaine Printed by J. Raworth for Samuel Gellibrand and are to be sold at his shop at the signe of the Brasen-Serpent in Pauls-Churchyard 1644. TO The Honourable House of Commons now assembled in PARLIAMENT I Have offered violence to my selfe to satisfie your desires in Preaching first and next in publishing these weake and course-spun meditations fitter indeede for a popular auditory then such an awfull and judicious assembly concerning which I may fitly say what Zeba and Zalmunna sometimes did of Gideons brethren each one resembled the children of a King Jud. 8.18 or as Cyneas the Embassador of Pyrrhus being asked after his return from Rome what he thought of the City and State made answere {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the same may I with better reason say of your Honourable Senate It seemed unto me to looke like a little Common-wealth of Kings When first I understood you had designed me the unfittest in many respects you could have thought upon unto this solemne service I resented it truely no otherwise than Jonah did his message to Nineveh with much trouble and emotion of spirit not to say discontent and as forward should I have beene as he had not a strong band of reason and conscience held me backe to flye to Tarsus or any whither else rather then undertake the Province you had called me to Not out of any disaffection to the worke or the Authority that summoned me to it which I shall alwayes honour and next to that of Gods esteeme sacred but being sensible of nothing more in all this world then mine owne defects and knowing well how hard a matter I finde it to satisfie my selfe I held it impossible for me to bring forth ought that might satisfie others especially such a grave Court of great Statesmen either in the Pulpit or the Presse However since you are pleased out of your ingenuity and candor not onely to owne this worthlesse piece but to over value it so far as to call it forth into the publique light having nothing else to sway with me besides the obedience I owe to your commands I do therefore in all humility present it unto your honourable acceptance such as it is it glorieth to be yours and were all the body of this simple discourse like Solomons Lineae aureae cum punctis argenteis Cant. 1.11 wrought with lines of gold and enameled with pearles I should not hold it too rich a present for such unparalleld Worthies which have honoured God so much and are so much honoured by him Your exemplary zeale and piety your Noble and heroicall atchieuments for the honour of our God and the advancement of his kingdome hath already stamped for you such an Impression of respect and reverence in the estimations and thoughts of all the godly that you seeme to be as the stones of a crown lifted up and as an Ensigne upon our Land Zech. 9.16 Go on and prosper most worthy Senators in the great worke which you have so happily begun till you shall have fully crowned our hopes and perfected your owne most glorious undertakings Never had any Parliament either so glorious a prize as you have to contend for or so many potent adversaries oppositions and difficulties to encounter with but this may serve as a more then sufficient encouragement to hearten you on that you have a good God a Noble Cause an Honourable Reward and what could you wish more See what you have done already and let your former many and precious experiences of divine favour and assistance animate you to waite upon God with an unwearied patience till he shall make all your enemies of the Synagogue of Sathan to come and worship before your feete and to know that he hath loved you Consider how many great and stupendious workes God hath already made you instruments to bring about How many mighty Nimrods have you cut down how many yoakes of oppression and tyranny have you broken how many dying Saints have you revived The Lord hath made darkenesse light before you and crooked things streight he hath levelled mountaines and raised vallies what enterprize have you taken in hand which hath not in the Issue prospered beyond your expectations You have sprung a myne under the walls of Babylon unsetled the Throu of the Beast Behold how the Antichristian faction languisheth the Pontificall chaire reeles the Miters wither the triple Crowne shakes that which the Lord threatned sometimes against one of the worst of the Kings of Judah the same he seemes to doe now against the great Monarch of Babylon Remove the Diadem take away the Crown I will overturn overturn overturn it untill he come whose right it is and I will give it him Ezek 22.26 27. Me thinkes I see the proud turrets and battlements of Rome falling and Sion rising up faire as the morning cleere as the moone terrible as an Army with Banners Howsoever this is certaine God hath promised and he will no doubt in due time make it good which we have in the Prophet Esay 24.23 The moone shall be confounded and the Sunne ashamed when the Lord of Hosts shall reigne in Mount Sion and before all his ancients gloriously I hope the happy time is at hand which God hath appointed for the full working out of his Glory and our deliverance and that this dawning of our hopes may break forth into a perfect day of joy and triumph It is and shall be the earnest and constant prayer of Your most unworthy Servant in the worke of Christ HEN HALL MATTH. 11.12 And from the dayes of John the Baptist untill now the Kingdom of the heavens suffereth violence and the violent take it by force THis Text is not entire of it self but linked in necessary connexion with that which went before for clearing whereof we may borrow light at the next doore If we please to go back a little and take the advantage of a run the coherence will shew that our Saviour having in the former chaptâ—r chosen the 12. Apostles and sent them out to Preach in the Cities of Jury here in the beginning of this he goes himself about the same errand to preach the Gospell in the Cities of Galilee for so the current of Interpretors carrieth the sence of those words vers. 1. He departed thence to Teach and to Preach in their Cities referring it to the Apostles who were all or most of them of Galilee The promulgation of the glad tydings of the Kingdom of heaven now ready to be revealed it was a matter of that
we put him off with halfe a reformation 2. Let it be swift and speedy let it not alwaies thus sticke in the birth but give it quicke expedition and dispatch our Saviours rule is primum quaerite Mat. 6.33 Seeke first the Kingdome of God before and above all other things God takes it ill and shewes himselfe angry with the Jewes and chides them sore for neglect of this Hag. 1.4 Is it time for you to dwell in your cieled houses whiles this house lyes waste God gives us as he did them leave to have a due regard of our owne houses but his worke should alwayes in order preceede ours as it doth in worth and dignity Other causes may and must waite till that which is of greatest Importance be dispatched it was a worthy resolution that of Nehemiah when the enemies sent a Trumpeter as it were to beate for a parlee I am saith he about a great worke so that I cannot come down why should the worke cease whiles I leave it and come downe to you Nehem. 6.3 A word to the wise is enough I presse it no further 5. Remove all the lets Impediments and stumbling blockes which hinder the propagation and spreading of Christs Kingdom among us whether things or persons whatsoever cannot shew its pedegree from heaven out with it what should it do amongst us That which never came from heaven can never be a meanes to carry us thither the Temple of God may not be built with the materialls of Babylon we should not take a stone from thence for a corner nor for a foundation Jer. 51.16 And those persons too that pretend so high for their divine originall and cannot yet shew the Genealogy of it from the Scriptures They should be as polluted put from the Priesthood Neh. 6.64 But above all the other Impediments that which gives sourse and life unto them and is it selfe the greatest the faction I meane of Rome and Antichrist let that be removed If you be on the Lords side cast down Jezebel out at the windows when that mother of whoredome and all her merchants factors and retainers with all their Babilonish trash and trumpery the wares which they traffique in is sent packing away and cast like a mil-stone into the bottome of the Sea then and not before begins that victorious and triumphant Song of the Elders Revel. 19.6 Hallelujah the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth This is your worke oh ye worthies and to quicken you to it consider 1. How necessary it is if we let slip this opportunity in which the Kingdome of heaven seemes to come neere unto us and to knock at our doores for admission we are an undone people the Lord if not admitted now is like never to make us such another offer he will take his Kingdome from us and give it to some other Nation that will bring forth the fruits thereof Math. 21.43 The uncleane spirit which is in a good measure cast out will returne againe and bring along seven other worse ones with it to take possession of the whole Kingdome and so our condition will be worse then ever it was 2. It s a glorious prize that we are called to be violent for It is a Kingdome and who would not straine hard for such a booty which once obtained will more then countervaile all our care and cost our zeale and violence for it The heathen man thought it great reason to offer violence even to Justice and Conscience if it were for a Kingdome In other things he would have respect to just and right but if a kingdome lay at the stake and might be won he held it no discretion to be over conscientious I commend not his resolution in this our Rule is Fiat Justitia ruat caelum let Justice be done though the heavens fall we must be violent to keepe faith and a good conscience not to put them from us and this is the way to make us all Kings and Priests unto our God they are of the family of heaven and of the blood Royall that are thus affected Revel. 19.26 Christ at his last comming to destroy Antichrist is said to have his Name written not onely upon his vesture but upon his thigh too King of Kings and Lord of Lords What 's this 〈◊〉 a name Written upon his thigh somewhat an unproper sâ—ituation what should a man do with a name written upon his thigh But t is the place of generation Jacobs 70. soules are said to come out of his thigh and those choyce violent spirits that follow Christ in his warres against Antichrist as those Armies of heaven did spoken of before vers. 14. They all came out of his thigh were discended and propagated from him by a divine worke of Regeneration the Spirit of Jesus Christ refines the blood of the meanest persons and creates them a Regall pedegree 3 It s an honourable thing to be violent for the honour of our God and the good of a whole Kingdome to do good to one is honourable said the Philosopher but to do good to a City or Nation this is heroicall how much more when the honour of God and the happinesse of three Kingdomes that I may not say of Christendom too is infolded in one another Saint Paul saies It s good to be alwayes zealously affected in a good thing Gal. 4.16 Alwayes good It was intended no doubt as a marke of honour that Name which our Saviour for this cause imposed upon one of the Apostles when he called him Simon Zelotes Luke 6.15 The more zeale we have the more honourable we are at all times but to be zealous for God as Elias was in evill times to owne his cause in an adulterous and sinfull generation this is honourable indeed yea and I had almost said meritorious but howsever t is thank-worthy to be sure in an eminent degree Luk. 22.28 29 Ye are they that have continued with me in my temptations and what then I appoint unto you a Kingdom that ye may eate and drinke at my Table and sit on thrones c. You see how well our Saviour takes it when his servants cleave close to him and will stand for him in his temptations If the right hand place in his Kingdome be reserved for any more then others it shall be kept for such 5 The contrary disposition is of it selfe base and unworthy yea and of all other the most loathsome and abominable Revel. 3.15 16. Better key cold then onely lukewarme It s an argument we neither value God nor his Kingdome when we are so dull and heartlesse in our desires and endeavours as if the purchase we are about would not quit the cost nor be worth the paines that is required for it When Callidius a Roman Orator pleaded a cause very faintly and made no shew of affection Tully told him that sure he was not in earnest otherwise the tide of passion would have beene up In