A77608:576
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 first is Love. O! the Assurance1 of Divine Favour doth mightily inflame a mans love to Christ. Mary Magdalen 2loved much, Christs love to her drew out her love very much to Christ. Assurance makes the Soul sing it out with that sweet Singer of Israel, I will dearly love thee, O Lord, my ⟨p. 561⟩3strength. Lovers know not how to4 keep silence; lovers of Christ are full of gracious expressions. Magnes amor is est amor; Love is the attractive Lodestone of love. It is impossible for a Soul not to love Christ, that knows he is beloved of Christ. Christs love constrains the Soul to love, not by forcible, but loving necessity. Praxiteles exquisitely drew Love, taking the pattern from that Passion which he felt in his own heart. A Believer cannot find the heart of Christ to be beating towards him, but his heart will strongly beat towards Christ. Divine love is like a rod of myrtle, which as Pliny reports, makes the Traveller that carries it in his hand, that he shall never be faint or weary of walking or loving. Love alone over-powereth all power. Love is the Diadem, none but the Queen must wear it. Love is the Wedding Garment, none but the Spouse can fit it. Love is a Lodestone to draw, as well as a fire to warm; he that doth not love Christ, was never assured of the love of Christ.
The first is Love. O! the Assurance1 of Divine Favor doth mightily inflame a mans love to Christ. Mary Magdalen 2loved much, Christs love to her drew out her love very much to Christ. Assurance makes the Soul sing it out with that sweet Singer of Israel, I will dearly love thee, O Lord, my ⟨p. 561⟩3strength. Lovers know not how to