A77608:624
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.
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, Isa. 51. 15. It is said of Adam, that he turned his face towards the Garden of Eden, and from his heart lamented his fall: Ah losing Souls, turn your faces towards Heaven, and from your hearts lament your fall, lament your loss; nothing puts God to it, like penitent tears. No sooner doth Ephraim weep over his sins,2 but the bowels of God are stirring towards him, and God cannot hold but he must proclaim to the world, that mourning Ephraim, bemoaning Ephraim, is his dear son, his pleasant child, and that he will surely have mercy on him, or, as the Hebrew hath it (Rahhem arahhamenu) I will having mercy, have mercy on him, or, I will abundantly have mercy on him. When our hearts are set to weep over our sins, God will so act in ways of love towards us, that it shall not be long night with our Souls. God will never suffer them to be drowned in sorrow, that are set upon drowning their sins in ⟨p. 599⟩penitential tears. The Jews have a saying, That since the destruction of Jerusalem, the door of Prayers hath been shut; but the door of tears was3 never shut, saith one. God hath by promise engaged himself, That those that sow in tears, shall reap in joy, Psal. 126. 5. The tears of the Saints have such a kind of omnipotency in them, that God himself cannot withstand them. 2 Kings 20. 5. I have seen thy tears, behold, I will heal thee; on the third day thou shalt go up unto the House of the Lord.