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
bespeakes this at their hands wherefore else are they appointed of God and separated from others but to be both by their preaching and conversation builders of his house Stewards in his family Watchmen in his City Labourers in his Vineyard burning Lamps in his Temple the successe and fortune of Christs Kingdome depends next unto God upon the Issue of their endeavours If they whose office it is to attend the Sanctuary had but the fire of the Sanctuary burning on the Altar of their own hearts If they were like John the Baptist Burning and shining lights oh what a goodly light of knowledge and flame of zeale would be kindled in the hearts of the people How would multitudes come flowing in to borrow fire from their hearth and light their candles at their Lampes What a singular honour would this be to have it recorded as 't is here of John That from the days of such and such a Minister since the time of his arivall and continuance in such and such a Congregation with the parts adjacent there hath bin great contention much wrestling and violence for the Kingdome of heaven great trading and trafficking for remission of sinnes the Graces of the Spirit which before were scarce at all looked after How much better were this then to have it left upon record That since the entrance of such and such a Dumbe Minister or lazie Drone there hath been a great decay of Religion and piety a great famine of the Word with a Mighty Inundation of Popery Atheisme and all Prophannesse since the entrance of such Idoll Sheepheards and Priests of Baalam all vices have grown all vertues withered What a wofull account will such men have at the day of judgement when it shall be charged upon them as upon the Pharisees That they neither entred themselves into the Kingdome of God and that they hindred others that were desirous to enter molesting discouraging and doing what they could to cast them out with a rage that reached as high as heaven with such a violence as this they will finde that God was not nor ever will be well pleased I descend to that part of this Exhortation which concernes our honourable Senators If powerfull and plentifull preaching of the Gospell be the next way to bring down the Kingdome of heaven among us you see then Worthy Patriots what it is which the Lord and his people expect and call for at your hands The generall complaint is from every corner of the Land That the people have been for a long time almost quite without the true God and without a teaching Priest and without the Law as the Israelites were 2 Chron. 15 3. No Ministery no Worship no Ordinances or that which is little better then none and the generall request and desire is like to that motion of the man of Macedonia That you would send some over to helpe them If therefore the glory of Jesus Christ and the Salvation of his people bought with his own blood be deare and precious unto you as we know they are If ever you desire to have the honour of being the chiefest Instruments to plant a new heaven and a new earth in this Land Helpe every Congregation to faithfull Pastors and pure Ordinances you are as Joshuah and Zerubbabel the two Olive-branches or the two anointed ones which stand before the Lord of the whole earth Oh let the golden Oyle still stream out in abundance from you to feede the Lamps of the golden Candlestick Zach. 4.12 14. God hath made you nursing fathers and nursing mothers to his Church blessed be God we have found you such Go on still with your honour and make yet more full and liberall provisions for all the children of his family by this meanes Religion and the Church shall flourish more than ever and thousand thousands shall blesse God for you If you would straine your selves to do a work of the richest merit and grandest importance for the Churches of Christ I do not know any other that may be of superiour or but of equall consideration with this which among many things usefull is without all doubt That one thing mainely necessary Luke 10.42 The Kingdome of God cannot be held up without this The key of knowledge you know the custody of it in the Priests lips it is the key of heaven take away this and suppose the whole land were paved with gold and walled with rockes of Adamant suppose we were crowned like the fortunate Islands with the richest confluence of all worldly prosperity honour and happinesse what would all this availe whiles the heavens are shut up and fast locked against us Take away a right Ministery and what is the most flourishing Common-wealth but as a Paradise without the tree of life as the firmament without the Sun or as a goodly Palace richly furnished and hung about with stately ornaments but without any windowes to let in the light of heaven Among all the Religious and worthy Acts of Jehoshaphat this is recorded as one of the chiefe 2 Chron. 17.7 8 9. That he sent his Princes and with them the Levites to teach the People in the Cities of Judah and I neede not tell you for it s well knowne how prosperous and successefull that design prooved I doubt not but this practise of that incomparable Prince will be set up unto you as a pattern for imitation Blessed be God ye have begun well I shall neede to say nothing but as that Greek Commander said unto Teucer {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} go on and prosper Gather out of the Kingdome of our God {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} all things and persons that are offensive and that do Iniquity Mat. 13.41 Ye have displaced sundry unworthy and scandalous ones which like drones cumbred the hive and preyed upon the honey which should have served for the laborious Bees take the same course with the rest Remove the stumbling blockes prepare the way of the people lift up a standard that they may flocke to it as doves to their windowes this is the way to leave the Church a Pallace of Marble which you found as a cottage of brick I have insisted but too long upon this wherefore I passe it over and come to the next Those that would put in for a share in this Kingdome they must not be dull and sluggish but earnest and violent in pursuance of it There is indeed a violence nothing praise-worthy held out in Scripture which is either 1. In generall when men put forth themselves to the uttermost and draw out their strength in any sinfull way be it what it will As the Priests and people when Ahab-like they sold themselves over to Idols and the full bent and sway of their spirits was unto sin here was a violence such as it was Jer. 23.10 Their course was evill and their force not right Or 2. There is a violence taken in a more speciall
the Land have they not been discouraged oppressed and persecuted with all extremity of rigour onely for that power of godlinesse which they held out as if they that are themselves and would gladly draw others to be subjects in the Kingdom of heaven were for that reason not worthy to live upon the earth That which we reade of the Jewes Ezek. 11.15 It was me thinkes an exact image and portraiture of the late face of our times The great ones that bare the sway cast out all the Ministers and people of God saying Get ye far hence from the Lord to us is this Land given in possession oprression was in power superstition in credit Luxury Idlenesse in favour Ignorance cherished prophannesse countenanced negligence harboured all Impiety fostered and maintained onely the faithfull servants of Christ were and eye-sore and a burthen which the land could not beare and what was the quarrell Why they could not reconcile their Consciences to the piety of those times the new revived Popery would not rellish antiquated superstitions then obtruded were not pleasing they could not concoct Idolatry with witty distinctions In a Word they could not swallow the doctrine of Balaam which some great Prelates and their adherents set abroach teaching men to bow to a piece of wood or stone the work of the hands of the Mason or Carpenter no doubt a right worshipfull block therefore the enemies either drove them out and persecuted them into strange Cities as Jeroboam did the conscientious Levites 2 King 17.21 Or if they tarried still in the Land they were appointed out as sheepe to the slaughter Zach. 11.45 consult the place and it will seeme a Prophecy calculated for our Meridian 5. To affect our hearts with just griefe yet more see if there be not a mighty Reigne of all manner of Iniquity almost every where in the Land Is there not an overflowing Deluge of Popery Atheisme Heresies Sects Schismes Idolatry Tyranny Simony Bribery Sacriledge Oppression Rapine Whordom Drunkennesse Adultery Murther with all other abominations that can be named are not all these as you heard worthily from the reverend Doctor in the morning broken in like a torrent or winter land-flood upon us It was a sad complaint of a learned and worthy Divine of ours divers yeeres since That there was such a generall corruption of manners here that all things seemed to be lawfull and might be acted freely and with impunity enough except medling with the Prelates Myters which only were so sacred that they might not be toucht the Jewes have a saying That when all the creatures were destroyed by the flood Noah had a copy of them in the Arke which was after re-printed to the world and sure I think were all the corrupt Religions and all the notorious sinnes of the world lost a new Edition might be soon supplyed and sent out by the Copies and Paternes of them that are among us Where these things are and abound it may be questioned whether the Lord raigns but it is out of all doubt that so far forth at least Sathan hath a Throne there as in the Church of Pergamus Revel. 3.13 6. That which may heighten our griefe as it doth our misery yet further since the beginning of the Reformation none of all out former Princes or Parliaments have ever yet so laid these mischiefes to heart as to make any effectuall provision against them Daut animum ad libere loquendum ultimae miseriae Extreame miseries will force a man to speak out more freely then otherwise were perhaps fitting Let me therefore intreate you most honoured Senators to lay your hands on your brests and tell me whether this be not true What law hath ever yet been enacted to enforce diligence and painfulnesse in preaching or to establish a learned and faithfull ministery Nay hath not the doore unto the Ministry been set wide open and Sacred Orders prostituted to all sorts of persons though never so apparently unfit or unworthy And hath there ever yet been any sollid well-grounded course either to prevent the entrance of such at the first or to eject and remove them afterwards The like may be said of the unsuppressed growth of scandalous sinnes dangerous errours destructive opinions and heresies besides the prodigious ignorance next to Barbarisme which hath been suffered to overflow the Dominion of Wales and the neighbouring Kingdom of Ireland to say nothing of the blinde corners in our own Land in all which there is so little knowledge of Christ and the Gospell that a man could hardly take it upon his conscience that the most of the people are not Infidels surely very few would suspect them to be Christians Who would think that such a Kingdom as this professing the Gospell and faith of Christ should suffer such abuses and prophanations and take no effectuall course for the redresse and reformation of them It may be a just griefe and shame unto us that such things may be layd to our charge and that we cannot answer for them 7. But this is yet worse then all the rest and more to be lamented That the Publique State of the Kingdome hath heretofore by Parliamentary Acts and Decrees Legitimated some of the former and sundry other mischiefes and is it not a strong conviction of sin reigning in a land where the throne of Iniquity establisheth mischiefe by a Law Psal. 94.20 Other sins may be charged upon private persons but the publique state must beare the guilt of those evills which it might have hindred and did not much more of those which it did command and how can that State be excused from commanding of sin which enacteth lawes against Gods Lawes what should I neede to tell you of the errours and oversights of former times in which the civill Authority and sanction of Parliaments hath confirmed and ratified not onely Non-residency Pluralities Impropriations and a dumb Ministery with other like corruptions but that which hath given growth and spreadth to all these and many other horrible abuses a pompous high towring and most unprofitable Hierarchy with a multitude of Chauncellours Commissaries Surrogates and other inferiour Officers depending thereupon the most of which have beene ever found by constant experience very bitter enemies to the Kingdom of God and now the whole faction of them with all its dependants is risen up in Armes to oppose Religion and Liberty and to sacrifice to their unbounded ambition the prosperity honour and happinesse of three Kingdomes It was a harsh expression but too true Religion is never in danger but among the Right Reverend 8. Once more look upon all these great evills not as sinnes onely but as Judgements also especially that Church-destroying soul-damning curse of a corrupt Ministery which is one of the forest plagues that God is wont to punish a wicked people with It s undeniable this upon the former grounds for if Pastors after Gods own heart be such undoubted pledges of speciall favour
and restrained fence which is all one with oppression and rapine pillaging spoyling plundering and other such practises which Jehoiakim that wicked Prince is branded for Jer. 22.17 John the Baptist reads a Lecture to the Souldiers that came to his Baptisme to beware of this violence it being such a character as least of all suits with those that pretend towards the Kingdome of heaven S. Paul is peremptory that none such shall ever come there 1 Cor. 6.10 It is a violence quite of another nature and straine which is here hinted unto and commended An honest and just violence an holy Rapine a lawfull and heavenly Robbery a divine Sacriledge which to give you in a word a rude and cursory description of it is nothing else But a vehement bent of desires affections endeavours intensively aspiring and reaching after the Kingdome of God and greedily laying hold of all helpes meanes and advantages which may conduce and tend thereunto We have sundry instances in Scripture of such a violence as this The woman of Canaan Mark 7.27 she was so obstinate in driving on her design that she could not be beaten off no not with repulses the more Discouragements she had so much the more resolute and violent she grew taking a strong hold-fast of Christ and cleaving to him like a bur and never giving him over till she had got what she came for So the blind man which sate begging by the high-way-side you may enter him into same List When he heard that Jesus passed by he cryed after him with a loud voyce and when the Disciples discouraged him he cryed yet out the more a great deale and clamored after him Jesus thou son of David have mercy on me Luke 18.35 And were not those Auditors of Christ exceeding violent who thronged after him in such crowdes that they trode upon one another Luke 12.1 and those also no lesse who forced their accesse unto Christ by digging through stone walls and uncovering the roofe of the house where he was Mark 2.4 What should I neede to stand upon particular Instances the Scripture is full of them every where The Souldiers Publicans and Harlots in those dayes they rose up in great numbers and took the Kingdome of heaven by force whiles the Pharisees and Scribes and those profound Schollers were left behind Those that seemed first were the last and they that were last proved first This violent Disposition and straine of Spirit I shall endeavour to shew wherein it consists how it workes and wherefore it is so requisite and necessary 1. Therefore this violence consists in earnest and vehement desires 2. In stedfast purposes and Resolutions 3. In stirring and impetuous indeavours To begin with the first of these Earnest and vehement desires They are the next and most immediate issues and out-goings of the soule the feete on which it runnes the wings on which it mounts and flyes towards the object desired and longed for and these desires are either good or evill carnall or spirituall thereafter as the object is on which they fix and the order and manner in which they move A man may know what the constitution and temper of his spirit is in relation to the Kingdome of God if he can but discerne how the pulses of his desire beate and what the chiefe and principall thing is which the most quick and violent motions and ebullitions of his heart workes after If a man be {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as the Philosopher spake a Citizen and inhabitant of this world his desires grovell on the earth he pants after riches honours pleasures relisheth nothing else but now on the other side if a man be {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a Citizen and inhabitant of another world then the currant and full streame of his desires is still rising and working up towards heaven He will pant after God as the chased Hart doth for the water brookes Psal. 42. And thirst for him as the dry and parched ground doth for showres of raine Psal 63 1. He will long like a woman with child for his Salvation Psal 119.174 and if it be deferred he will faint and fall into a swoune Psal. 119.81 82. And be sick of love Cant. 5.8 Such desires as these are violent and they are of such force and prevalence that nothing can withstand them A man may do what he will and carry what he will in matters of Religion if he have but earnest and vehement desires Matth. 7. Aske and it shall be given you seeke and ye shall finde knocke and it shall be opened unto you This asking seeking knocking is nothing else but prayer and prayer is nothing else but the ejaculation or darting out of earnest and impetuous desires which pierce the clouds and strike up unto God get into his bosome charme his wrath opens or shuts his hands extorts mercies removes Judgements and never will away without its errand This is that golden Key as one fitly calls it which can open all lockes remove all barres raigne over all Impediments in heaven and earth It s a kinde of omnipotent thing that can prevaile with God and man above all expressions and thoughts As they write of Proteus that when any came to consult with him and to receive Oracles from him he would at the first turne himselfe into a thousand varieties of colours and shapes but if they pressed on him with importunity and held him hard and close to it he would then give them at last satisfactory oracles So the Lord though he seeme for a while to neglect and take little or no knowledge of the desires of his people and seemes to put them off and winde from them yet when their desires grow violent and when they knock at his gates with importunitie then he lets them be their owne carvers and is content that they should ravish from him whatsoever they will By this you may see how strong and forcible desires be though they seeme but of a soft and gentle straine they ravish the objects they are set on As if a man looke upon an object of beauty and lust after it you know what interpretation our Saviour makes of that so if a man look upon the Kingdom of heaven and lust after it he hath already ravished it in his heart 2. This violent disposition and straine of spirit discovers it selfe in stedfast purposes and resolutions Resolution it is the spring of Action It s that which poyseth and steeres a mans course such as our purposes and resolutions are such be our actions and enterprizes the hand of the dyall goes without as the weights and wheels of the clock turn it within so the head plots the hand acts according to the sway of a well or ill setled Resolution The heart saith if it be set right for heaven I must and will have the Kingdom of God let honours and wealth go which way they will to set up Christ upon his