A77608:453
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.
the Sun you know casteth1 his beams upward and downward, to the East, and to the West, to the North, and to the South; so the love of a Saint ascends to God above, and descends to Men on Earth, to our Friends on the right-hand, to our Enemies on the left-hand; to them that are in a state of Grace, and to them that are in a state of Nature. Divine love ⟨p. 451⟩will still be a working one way or another.
- 1Beatus qui amat te, & amicos in te, & inimicos propter te. Aug. Confess.
Thirdly, That Love that accompanies Salvation, is a sincere and incorrupt love. Eph. 6. 24. Grace be with all 1them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Amen. The true bred Christian (Amat Christum, propter Christum) loves Christ for Christ; he loves Christ for that internal and eternal worth that is in him; he loves him for his incomparable excellency and beauty, for that transcendent sweetness, loveliness, holiness, and goodness, that is in him; he is none of those that loves Christ for loaves, neither will he with Judas, kiss Christ, and betray him; nor yet will he with those in2 the Gospel, cry out, Hosanna, Hosanna, one day; and Crucify him, crucify him, the next. They love Christ with a Virgin love, Cant. 1. 3. The Virgins love thee. They love thee in much sincerity, purity, and integrity; they love thee for that fragrant savour, for that natural sweetness, for that incomparable goodness that is in thee; so in the fourth Verse, The upright love thee, or as it is in the Hebrew, Uprightnesses