A77608:623
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.
First, If thou wouldst recover Assurance,1 then thou must labour diligently to find out that sin, that Achan, that hath robbed thee of thy Wedge of Gold, of thy Assurance; surely it is not for infirmities, but enormities, that God hath put out thy candle, and caused thy Sun to set at Noon; surely, thou hast been feeding (I say not tasting) of forbidden fruit, that God hath stripped thee of thy robes, and taken the crown from off thy head, and turned thee out of Paradise. But this is not all.
First, If thou wouldst recover Assurance,1 then thou must labor diligently to finde out that sin, that Achan, that hath robbed thee of thy Wedg of Gold, of thy Assurance; surely it is not for infirmities, but enormities, that God hath put out thy candle, and caused thy Sun to set at Noon; surely, thou hast been feeding (I say not tasting) of forbidden fruit, that God hath stript thee of thy robes, and taken the crown from off thy head, and turned thee out of Paradise. But this is not all.
- 1Austin saith, Humanum est peccare, diabolicum perseverare, & Angelicum resurgere, It is a humane thing to fall into sin, a devilish to persevere therein, and an Angelical or supernatural to rise from it.
Therefore in the second place, weep1 much, mourn much, over the Achan, over those wickednesses that have turned thy day into night, thy rejoicing into sighing, &c. David doth thus in that One and fiftieth Psalm, and God takes him up from his knees, and restores ⟨p. 598⟩to him the joy of his Salvation. Though God be displeased with your sins, yet he is well-pleased with your tears. The promise is, that he will revive the spirit of the contrite,