A77608:190
Heaven on Earth
Heaven on earth or a serious discourse touching a well-grounded assurance of mens everlasting happiness and blessedness. Discovering the nature of assurance, the possibility of attaining it, the causes, springs, and degrees of it, with the resolution of several weighty questions. By Thomas Brooks, preacher of the Gospel at Margarets Fishstreet-Hill.Heaven on earth or a serious discourse touching a wel-grounded assurance of mens everlasting happiness and blessedness. Discovering the nature of assurance, the possibility of attaining it, the causes, springs, and degrees of it, with the resolution of several weighty questions. By Thomas Brooks, preacher of the Gospel at Margarets Fishstreet-Hill.
London: printed by R.I. for John Hancock, 1654
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Now the first Caution I shall lay1 down, is this, That even Believers may sometimes come and go from this Ordinance, without that comfort, that assurance, that joy▪ that refreshment, that others have, and may meet with. And this may arise, partly from their2 unpreparedness and unfitness, to meet with God in the Ordinance, and partly from their playing, and dallying with some bosom sin; or else it may arise from their not stirring up themselves, to lay hold on God, as the Prophet Isaiah complains, There is none 3that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee; or else it ⟨p. 131⟩may arise from the Spirits standing at4 a distance from the Soul; it may be, O soul, that thou hast set the Comforter, the Spirit a mourning; and therefore it is, that he refuses to comfort thee, and to be a sealing and witnessing spirit unto thee. Thou hast grieved him with thy sins, and he will now vex thee by his silence; thou hast thrown his Cordials against the5 wall; thou hast trampled his Manna under thy feet, and therefore it is, that he hath veiled his face, and changed6 his countenance and carriage towards thee; thou hast been unkind to the Spirit, and therefore he carries it towards thee as an enemy, and not as a friend.
Now the first Caution I shall lay1 down, is this, That even Believers may sometimes come and go from this Ordinance, without that comfort, that assurance, that joy▪ that refreshment, that others have, and may meet with. And this may arise, partly from their