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A77608 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. Brooks, Thomas, 1608-1680. 1654 (1654) Wing B4943; Thomason E1446_1; ESTC R209539 332,772 663

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cleanse the hearts of his people from all and to set their soul● against all Jere. 33. 8 Ezek. 36. 25 29 33. 1 Iohn 1. 9. Repentance for sin is nothing worth without repentance from sin I love So in Ezek. 18. 30. Therefore I will judge you O house of Israel every one according to his ways saith the Lord God Repent and turn your selves from all your transgressions so iniquity shall not be your ruine So in Ezek. 33. 11. As Noahs flood drowned his neerest and his dearest friends so the flood of penitent tears drowns mens neerest and their dearest lusts Be they Isaacs or Benjamins be they right eyes or right hands Repentance that accompanies Salvation puts all to the Sword it spares neither Father nor Mother neither Agag nor Achan it casts off all the rags of old Adam it leaves not a Horn nor a Hoof behinde it throws down every stone of the old building it scrapes off all Leviathans skales it washeth away all leprous spots Ezek. 14. 6. Therefore say unto the house of Israel thus saith the Lord God Repent and turn your selves from your Idols and turn away your faces from all your abominations Sin is a turning the back upon God and the face towards Hell but Repentance is a turning the back upon sin and a setting the face towards God He that looks upon Jerusalem and upon Thus did Herod and Judas to their eternal ruine Jam. 2. 10. Babylon with a learing eye at the same time He that looks upon God and at the same time looks upon any sin with a learing eye hath not yet reached unto this Repentance that accompanies Salvation his Repentance and Profession cannot secure him from double damnation He that serves God in somethings and his lusts in other things sayes to God as David 1 Sam. 19. One stab ar the heart kills one hole in the ship sinks her one act of treason makes a Traytor So one sin not forsaken not turned from will undo a soul for ever Sin ever ends tragically and this puts the penitent in battel array against every sin said to Mephibosheth concerning his Lands Thou and Ziba divide the Lands So thou and Satan divide my soul my heart between you Ah doth not such a soul deserve a double Hell Christ takes every sin at a penitent mans hands as Caesar did his wounds from him of whom he merited better usage with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And thou my son What thou wound me what thou stob me that shouldst venture thy own blood to save mine There are no wounds that are so grievous and terrible to Christ as those that he receives in the house of his friends And this sets the penitent mans heart and hand against every thing that makes against Christ A true penitent looks upon every sin as poyson as the vomit of a dog as the mire of the Isa 30. 22. Nihil in lege menstruato immundius Hieron street as the menstruous cloath which of all things in the Law was most unclean defiling and polluting Pliny saith that the very Trees with touching of it would become barren And his looking thus upon every sin turns his heart against every sin and makes him not onely to refrain from sin but to forsake it and to loath it more then Hell Thirdly That Repentance that accompanies Salvation is not onely a Isa 1. The Hebrew word for Repentance is from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shob which signifies to return implying a going back from what a man had done turning from all sin but it is also a turning unto God it is not onely a ceasing from doing evil but it is also a learning to do well it is not onely a turning from darkness but it is also a turning to light as the Apostle speaks Acts 26. 18. To open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and It notes a returning or converting from one thing to another as from sin to God from evil to good from Hell to Heaven from the power of Satan unto God So in Isa 55. 7. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord c. It is not enough for the man of iniquity to forsake his evil way but he must also return unto the Lord he must subject his heart to the power of Divine Grace and his life to the Will and Word of God As Negative goodness can never satisfie a gracious soul so Negative goodness can never save a sinful soul It is not enough that thou art not thus and thus bad but thou must be thus and thus good or thou art undone for ever Ezek. 18. 21. But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed and keep all my Statutes and do that which is lawful and right he shall surely live he shall not die Negative Righteousness and Holiness is no Righteousness no Holiness in the account of God It was not the Pharisees Negative Righteousness nor Luke 18. 5. Matth. 20. 13 14. his Comparative Goodness that could prevent his being rejected of God his being shut out of Heaven his burning in Hell It is not enough that the Tree hears no ill fruit but it must bring forth good fruit else it must be cut down and cast into the fire that Tree that is not for fruit is for the fire Every Matth. 7. 19. He that holds nor wholly with Christ doth very shamefully neglect Christ Aut totum mecum tene aut totum omitte Greg. Nazian And therfore if Christ trample upon them at last it is just tree that brings not forth good fruit sayes Christ is hewn down and cast into the fire Men that content themselves with Negative Righteousness shall finde at last Heaven Gates bolted upon them with a double bolt All that Negative Righteousness and Holiness can do is to help a man to one of the best Chambers and easiest Beds in Hell That Repentance that accompanies Salvation brings the heart and life not onely off from sin but on to God it makes a man not onely cease from walking in the wayes of death but it makes him walk in the wayes of life They do no iniquity they walk in his wayes Psal 119. 3. Fourthly That Repentance that accompanies Salvation strikes most Augustine a great sinner wrote Twelve Books of Repentance and walked most cross to the particular sins he had most lived in effectually and particularly against that sin or sins that the sinner was most apt and prone to before his Conversion The hand of Repentance is most against that sin it is most upon that sin that the soul hath looked most with a learing eye upon The chief and principal sins that Israel was guilty of was idolatry and sinful compliance Now when God works kindly upon them they put the hand of Repentance upon those particular sins as you may see Isa 27. 9. By this therefore shall the This
loathsom Dungeon the pavement whereof was sharp shells and his bed to lie on a bundle of thorns All which this blessed Martyr received without so much as a groan breathing out his spirit in these words Vincentius is my name and by the grace of God I will be still Vincentius inspight of all your torments Persecution brings death in one hand and life in the other for while it kills the body it crowns the soul The most cruel Martyrdom is but a crafty trick to escape death to pass from life to life from the prison to paradise from the cross to the crown Justin Martyr says that when the Romans did immortalize their Emperors as they called it they brought one to swear that he see him go to Heaven out of the fire But we may see by an eye of Faith the blessed Souls of suffering Saints flie to Heaven like Elias in his fiery Judg. 13. 20. chariot like the Angel that appeared to Manoah in the flames John Hus Martyr had such choice discoveries of God and such sweet in-comes of the Spirit as made his patience and constancy A patient man under reproaches is like a man with a Sword in one hand and a Salve in the other he could wound but he will heal invincible When he was brought forth to be burned they put on his head a Triple Crown of Paper painted over with ugly Devils but when he saw it he said My Lord Jesus Christ for my sake did were a Crown of Thorns why should not I then for his sake wear this light crown be it never so ignominious truly I will do it and that willingly And as they tied his neck with a chain to the stake smiling he said That he would willingly receive the The Motto of patient souls is plura pro Christo toleranda we must suffer more then so for Christ same chain for Jesus Christs sake who he knew was bound with a far worse chain for his sake Well remember this their names that by a patient suffering are written in Red Letters of blood in the Churches Calender are written in Golden Letters in Christs Register in the Book of Life A second Reason why the Lord Reas 2 lifts up the light of his countenance upon his people in suffering times and that is for the confirmation of some for the conversion of others and for the greater conviction and confusion of their adversaries who wonder and are like men amazed when they see the comfort and the courage of the Saints in suffering times Pauls choice carriage in his bonds was the Phil. 1. 14. vide Estius confirmation of many And many of the Brethren in the Lord waxing confident by my bonds are much more bold to speak the Word without fear And as the sufferings of the Saints do contribute to the confirmation of some so by the blessing of God they contribute to the conversion of others I beseech thee says Paul for Philem. v. 10. my son Onesimus whom I have begotten in my bonds It was a notable saying of Luther Ecclesia totum mundum convert●t sanguine oratione The Church converteth the whole world by blood and prayer Basil affirms That the They knew it could be but a days journey between the cross and paradise between that short storm and an eternal calm Primitive Saints shewed so much comfort and courage so much Heroick zeal and constancy that many of the Heathens turned Christians so that choice spirit that the Saints have shewed in their sufferings when Christ hath overshadowed them with his love and stayed them with flagons and comforted them with apples hath madded grieved vexed and extreamly It would be too tedious to give you an account of all particular persecutors in this case whom the courage faith and patience of the Saints have tyred out tormented and made weaty of their lives and also bred wonder and astonishment in beholders and readers tormented their tormentors Lactantius boasts of the braveness of the Martyrs in his time our children and women not to speak of men do in silence overcome their tormentors and the fire cannot so much as fetch a sigh from them Hegesippus reports an observation of Antoninus the Emperor viz. That the Christians were most couragious and confident always in Earth-quakes whilest his own Heathen Souldiers were at such accidents most fearful and dis-spirited Certainly no Earth-quakes can make any Heart-quakes among the suffering Saints so long as the countenance of God shines upon their face and his love lies warm upon their Hearts The suffering Saint may be assaulted but not vanquished he may be troubled but can never be conquered he may lose his head but he cannot lose his Crown which the 2 Tim. 4. 7 8. righteous Lord hath prepared and laid up for him The suffering Saint shall still be master of the day though they Mori posse vinci non posse kill him they cannot hurt him he may suffer death but never conquest And they overcame him by the blood of Rev. 12. 11. the Lamb and by the word of their testimony O Lord Jesus said one I love thee plusquam mea plusquam meos plusquam me more then all my goods more then all my friends yea more then my very life and they loved not their lives unto the death They love not their lives that love Christ and his truth more then their lives they that slight contemn and despise their lives when they stand in competition with Christ may be truly said not to love their lives In these words you see that the Saints by dying do overcome They may kill me said Socrates of his enemies but they cannot hurt me A Saint may say this and more The Herb Heliotropium doth turn about and open it self according to the motion of the Sun so do the Saints in their sufferings according to the internal motions of the Sun of Righteousness upon them A third Reason Why the Lord Reas 3 causes his goodness to pass before his people and his face to shine upon his people in suffering times and that is for the praise of his own Grace and for the glory of his own Name God would lose much of his own glory if he should not stand by his people and comfort them and strengthen them in the day of their sorrows Ah the dirt the scorn the contempt that Exod. 32. 12. Num. 14. 13. vain men would cast upon God Look as our greatest good comes thorow the sufferings of Christ so Gods greatest glory that he hath from his Saints comes thorow their sufferings If ye be reproached for the name of Christ. 1 Pe● 4. 14. Vide Bezam happy are ye for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you On their part he is evil spoken of but on your part he is glorified It makes much for the glory of God that his people are cleared and comforted quickned and raised spiritualized and elevated in