A77608:528
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.
Sixthly, When a gracious man1 prays; he hath his heart in his Prayer, when he falls upon the work he makes heart-work on it. So David in Psal. 42. 4. When I remember these things, I pour out my heart. So Hannah in 1 Sam. 1. 15. I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit (saith she) and have poured out my soul before the Lord. So the Israelites in 1 Sam. 7. 6. Poured out their souls like water before the Lord. So the Church in Isa. 26. 8, 9. The desire of our soul is to thy ⟨p. 512⟩name, and to the remembrance of thee. With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early. Gracious Souls know,2 that no Prayer is acknowledged, accepted, and rewarded by God, but that wherein the heart is sincerely and wholly. It is not a piece, it is not a corner of the heart, that will satisfy the Maker of the heart. The true Mother would not have the child divided: As God loves a broken and a contrite heart, so he loathes a divided heart. God neither loves halting, nor halving, he will be served truly and totally. The Royal Law is, Thou shalt 3love and serve the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul. Among the Heathens, when the Beasts were cut up for Sacrifice, the first thing the Priest looked upon, was the heart; and if the heart was naught, the Sacrifice was rejected. Verily, God rejects all those Sacrifices wherein the Heart is not.
Sixthly, When a gracious man1 prayes; he hath his heart in his Prayer, when he falls upon the work he makes heart-work on it. So David in