A77608:552
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.
A second property of that Hope that accompanies Salvation, is this, It will strengthen the Soul against all afflictions, oppositions, and temptations,1 1 Thes. 5. 8. But let us who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breast-plate of faith, and love, and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. Look as the Helmet defends and secures the head, so doth Hope defend and secure the heart: Hope is a Helmet that keeps off all darts that Satan or the world casts at the Soul. The hopes of heavenly riches made2 those worthies, in that eleventh of the Hebrews, to despise the riches of this world; The hopes they had of a heavenly Country, made them willing to leave their own Country, and to live in the very Land of Promise, as in a ⟨p. 533⟩strange Country. The hopes they had of possessing (at last) a house not made with hands, but eternal in the Heavens, made them willingly and cheerfully to live in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens, and caves of the Earth. The hopes they had of a glorious Resurrection, made them courageously to withstand the strongest temptations, &c. A Saints hope will outlive3 all fears and cares, all trials and troubles, all afflictions, and temptations. Saints have much in hope, though little in hand, they have much in reversion, though but little in possession, they have much in the promise, though but little in the purse. A Saint can truly say, (Spero meliora) my hopes are better then my possessions. Hope can see Heaven through the thickest clouds; Hope can see light through darkness, life through death, smiles through frowns, and glory through misery: Hope holds life and soul together, it holds Christ and the Soul together, it holds the Soul and the Promises together, it holds the Soul and Heaven together, and so it makes a Christian to stand and triumph over ⟨p. 534⟩all afflictions, oppositions, and temptations.
A second property of that Hope that accompanies Salvation, is this, It will strengthen the Soul against all afflictions, oppositions, and temptations,