A77608:296
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.
Ah Christians, if ever you would act as Angels in this world, get an ⟨p. 266⟩assurance of another world, then you shall be dumb no more, nor dull no more, but be active and lively, like those whose hopes, and whose hearts are in Heaven.
Tenthly, Assurance will sweeten Christ, and all the precious things of Christ to thy soul. Ah, how sweet is1 the Person of Christ, the Natures of Christ, the Names of Christ, the Offices of Christ, the Benefits of Christ, the Blood of Christ, the Word of Christ, the Threatenings of Christ, the Spirit of Christ, the Ordinances of Christ, the Smiles of Christ, the Kisses of Christ, to an assured soul? Now thy Meditations on Christ, will be no more a terror, nor a horror to thee; nay, now thy heart will be always best, when you are most in pondering upon the sweetness and goodness, the kindness and loveliness of the Lord Jesus. Now all the Institutions and Administrations of Christ will be precious to thee upon every thing; where Christ hath set his Name, there thou wilt set thy heart. Now thou wilt call things, as ⟨p. 267⟩Christ calls them, and count things as Christ counts them; that shall not be little in thy eye, that is great in the eye of Christ; nor that shall not be great in thy eye, that is but little in the eye of Christ. Assurance will also exceedingly sweeten your carriage to all that bear the Image of Christ; nothing2 will make men bear with those weak Saints, whose light is not so clear as yours, whose parts are not so strong as yours, whose enjoyments are not so high as yours, whose judgements are not so well informed as yours, whose consciences are not so well satisfied as yours, and whose lives are not so amiable as yours. Assurance3 makes men of a God-like disposition, easy to pardon, ready to forgive, abundant in goodness, admirable in patience: It makes men to study the good of others, and joy in all opportunities, wherein they may strengthen the feeble, and comfort the dejected, and enrich the impoverished, and recover the seduced, and enlarge the straitened, and build up the wasted. Verily, the reason why men are so bitter, and sour, and censorious, is,