By Thomas Brooks
Heaven on Earth.
By Thomas Brooks.
About the Author:
There is not much information available about Thomas Brooks’ youth or his parents. However, it is known that he was born in London in 1608 and grew up during a time of great religious and political turmoil in England.
Brooks’ parents were likely of Puritan persuasion, as he himself became a Puritan preacher and writer. It is possible that they had a significant influence on his spiritual development and encouraged him to pursue a career in the ministry.
As a young man, Brooks attended Cambridge University, where he studied theology and was exposed to the Puritan ideas that would shape his later writings. After completing his studies, he worked as a chaplain in the English Civil War, serving the Parliamentary forces.
Despite the lack of information about his upbringing, it is clear that Brooks was deeply committed to his faith and devoted his life to spreading the message of Christianity to others. His writings and preaching continue to inspire and challenge Christians today.
About the book: Heaven on Earth:
A serious discourse concerning a well-grounded assurance of men’s 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.
“The greatest thing that we can desire—next to the glory of God—is our own salvation; and the sweetest thing we can desire, is the assurance of our salvation.
In this life we cannot get higher, than to be assured of that which in the next life is to be enjoyed. All saints shall enjoy a heaven when they leave this earth; some saints enjoy a heaven while they are here on earth. That saints might enjoy two heavens, is the project of this book.” Joseph Caryl. “That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding.” Col 2:2.
In this treatise, as in a glass, you may see these ten special things clearly and fully opened and manifested.
1. What knowledge that is, which accompanies salvation.
2. What faith that is, which accompanies salvation.
3. What repentance that is, which accompanies salvation.
4. What obedience that is, which accompanies salvation.
5. What love that is, which accompanies salvation.
6. What prayer that is, which accompanies salvation.
7. What perseverance that is, which accompanies salvation.
8. What hope that is, which accompanies salvation.
9. The difference there is between true assurance, and that which is counterfeit.
10. The wide difference there is between the witness of the Spirit, and the hissing of the old serpent.
Taken from the Preface:
Assurance is not of the essence of a Christian. It is required to the well-being, to the comfortable and joyful being of a Christian; but it is not required to the being of a Christian. A man may be a true believer, and yet would give all the world, were it in his power, to know that he is a believer. To have grace, and to be sure that we have grace, is glory upon the throne, it is heaven on this side heaven.
Every unsettled Christian is a terror to himself, yes, his life is a very hell; fears and doubts are his chief companions, and so he judges himself unfit and unworthy to live, and yet he is afraid to die; and truly this is the sad condition of most Christians.
A man may be God’s, and yet not know it; his estate may be good, and yet he not see it, Eph 1:13; 1 John 5:13; Gal 4:6. It is one thing to be an heir, and another thing to know that one is an heir. The child in the womb or in the arms, may be an heir to a crown, and yet understands it not. But more of these things you will find in the following discourse—to which I refer you