A77608:480
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.
Secondly, True Love to the Saints, is universal to one Christian as well as another, to all as well as any, to poor Lazarus as well as to rich Abraham, to a despised Job as well as to an admired David, to an afflicted Joseph as well as to a raised Jacob, to a despised Disciple as well as to an exalted Apostle. Phil. 4. 21. Salute every Saint; the meanest as well as the richest, the ⟨p. 471⟩weakest as well as the strongest, the lowest as well as the highest: They have all the same Spirit, the same Jesus, the same Faith; they are all Fellow Members, Fellow Travellers, Fellow Soldiers, Fellow Citizens, Fellow Heirs, and therefore must they all be loved with a sincere and cordial love. The Apostle James doth roundly condemn that partial love that was among Professors in his days, Jam. 2. 1, 2. Not that the Apostle doth absolutely prohibit a civil differencing of men in place, from others; but when the rich1 mans wealth is more regarded then the poor mans godliness, and when men carry it so to the rich, as to cast scorn, contempt, disgrace, and discouragement upon the godly poor, This is a sin for which God will visit the sons of Pride. Pompey told his Cornelia, it is no praise to thee to have loved (Pompeium Magnum) Pompey the Great, but if thou lovest (Pompeium Miserum) Pompey the Miserable, thou shalt be a pattern for imitation to all posterity. I will leave you to apply it. Romanus the Martyr, who was born of Noble Parentage, entreated his Persecutors ⟨p. 472⟩that they would not favour him for his Nobility; For it is not (said he) the blood of my Ancestors, but my Christian Faith that makes me noble.
Secondly, True Love to the Saints, is universal to one Christian as well as another, to all as well as any, to poor Lazarus as well as to rich Abraham, to a despised Job as well as to an admired David, to an afflicted Joseph as well as to a raised Jacob, to a despised Disciple as well as to an exalted Apostle. Phil. 4. 21