Heaven on Earth

Contents

1. The Preface, Touching the Nature of Assurance, . . 816-317
2. Containing answers to several special questions about assurance :
3. London, Printed by M. S. for Henry Cripps, at the
4. The same may I say concerning the saint's portion, for certainly the
5. It is not in me ; and the
6. God. It was an excellent saying of Lewis of Bavyer [Bavaria ?], em-
7. Oh ! but now God is a portion that may be made sure. In the time
8. Burbone (Bourbon)] they care not for a place in paradise ; give them
9. Well, gentlemen, remember this, there is no true happiness to be
10. Gentlemen, I have read of an heathen who, seeing a sudden ship-
11. EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 9
12. The Lord is my portion, saith Tny soul ; therefore vnll I hope
13. Lam. III. 24.] an ark for all god's noahs. U
14. The words being thus opened, the proposition that I intend to insist
15. Secondly, The reasons or grounds whereupon the saints have laid
16. God hath laid up for his people in another world ! But,
17. God is a most clear, bright, s
18. Christ without he be first enhghtened by Christ ; a man cannot see
19. God, for his portion, is the only .happy man in the world.*
20. Do but compare the scriptures in the margin together,' and then let
21. Antiochus Epiphanes is Antiochus the illustrious, the famous ; and yet
22. I have enough, my brother; keep that thou hast unto thyself;' as
23. Christ, through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, unto
24. Job's estate from him, but they could not take away Job's God from
25. When a man is in prison, and condemmed to die, if one should come
26. The Turks build their mosques* or churches without any roof, because
27. He very well knew that the substantial of all true happiness and
28. VOL. II. C
29. When dead, in eight-foot earth contented lies.'*
30. Rabbins, upon this text, express themselves after this manner : ' The
31. God should in the least be alterable or mutable, he would pre.sently
32. Home, that when the emperor went by upon some great day in all his
33. II. Upon what grounds their title unto God as their portion is
34. God's free and voluntary donation of himself to them in the covenant
35. Again, Their prosperity, and worldly felicity and glory, is all the
36. The victorious emperor, Henry the Fourth, who in sixty-two pitched
37. Sesostris having taken many of his neighbour kings prisoners, he
38. Domino. He had a guard of glorious angels to transport his holy,
39. Again, That little that a Christian hath shcM he certainly blessed
40. VQL. IL D
41. Nimrods of the world, which are sometimes called lions, Jer. ii. 15,
42. The blind besotted world are sadly out, who are ready to set the
43. It was a generous speech of that heathen, Themistocles, who, seeing
44. And so Habakkuk was a man of the same noble temper, as you may
45. Hannah he gave a worthy portion, for he loveji Hannah, and her
46. Indeed, when wicked men are exercised with crosses and losses, it is
47. I am the Lord which exercise loving-kindness, judgment, and righteous-
48. One observes of Crispina, that she was cheerful when she was appre-
49. Elijah and the widow should not have their wants supplied, did
50. Look, as Benjamin's mess was five times greater than his brethren's,
51. There is no burden that will bow you and break you like this. In-
52. VOL. II. E
53. Though riches in themselves are God's blessings, yet through the cor-
54. And Oh the souls that earthly riches have destroyed ! But,
55. Queen Elizabeth could not endure so much as to hear death named ;
56. God and overpowered by the grace of God, there all manner of dark
57. John, two Augustine monks, being the first that were burnt in Ger-
58. Now, to provoke you to labour with all your might to attain to a
59. Plutarch reports of one, who would not be resolved of his doubts,
60. VOL. II. p
61. Haman refrained himself, and when he came home, he sent and called
62. His thoughts were so taken up with his bags, and his bams, and his
63. All creatures run to their refuges when they are hunted and pursued,
64. Dan. iii. 16-18, 'Shadrach, Meshech, and Abednego, answered and said
65. I Jiad brought him into my mother's house, and into the chamber of
66. I trust in him.' But,
67. God ; when he is under the threatenings of the world, then he lives
68. Naomi. How stoutly and courageously did the three children own the
69. The German knight, in his apologetical letter for Luther against the
70. Paul cared not a straw for t
71. I shall not much trouble my head about what Moses did when he was
72. The old Grecians, who had altogether fed on acorns before, when
73. Jesus, his eyes dropped tears. Were every star in the firmament a
74. VOL, II. G
75. You see how sadly Micah takes on for the loss of his wooden gods,
76. I care not though aU be consumed, so my box of jewels a
77. God for his portion ; so none but God can l
78. Now by these twelve particulars you may all know whether God be
79. God, hy maintaining and keeping up the sense of your interest and
80. God, hy your sweet and noble carriage and deportment towards those
81. Now, that I may the more effectually provoke you, and stir you up
82. Lam. III. 24<.] an aek for all god's noahs. US
83. Give me glory which abides for ever, and give me riches which will
84. God for your portion. Every blast and every wind of temptation will
85. But now, methinks, I hear some crying out, O sirs ! what shall we
86. God, with anything below God, with anything on this side God, with
87. Themistocles, understanding that king Admetus was highly displeased
88. Christ in your arms,
89. Obj. 1. Methinks I hear some poor sinners ready to object and say,
90. Israel my gloiy.' Solomon, Mary Magdalene, Matthew, Zaccheus, the
91. And it is further observable, that the greatest sinners, when once
92. Shall the wife make conscience of obeying the commands of her
93. Who thought vjhen they were on earth, that after they had laid up
94. Scripture, and as many hands as Briareus to turn over the leaves of
95. Christ for their portion, and they did believe, and they had eternal
96. God is their portion.* Most Christians attain to but small measures
97. VOL. XL I
98. Fifth Position. The fifth position is this. That such that have
99. Acts ii. Despair thrusts God from his mercy-seat ; it throws disgrace
100. Lord, and I will heal him.' Now, seeing that God hath so graciously
101. They know that assurance of their propriety in God will most quicken
102. Ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.' This double
103. Hancock, at the first shop in Popes-head
104. The matter that I shall offer to your consideration from this scrip-
105. EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 141
106. Now, though this choice garden affords many sweet flowers, yet I
107. V. 19. It is grievous to God to be a-grieving his peo
108. EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 143
109. EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 145
110. VOL. IL ' E
111. EPISTLE DEDICATOEY. 147
112. Bernard compares afflictions to the teasle, which, though it be sharp
113. Kings XX. 16-19. And at other times, when God afflicts his poor
114. EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 149
115. Your first work is to do as David did, in that 2 Sam. xxi. 1. He
116. Quest. But what course must we take ? what means inust we use, to
117. Ans. 4. Fourthly, Observe what the afliction, what the pain, what
118. Gen. 1. 15-17. Do others rashly judge you, and bitterly censure you,
119. EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 153
120. Judas also was a man of the same mi
121. Thus David did in that 2 Sam. xxiv. 10, J 7.^ When you have found
122. EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 155
123. All diseases and sicknesses are under the command of God ; they are
124. Jesus. But,
125. Well,
126. EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 159
127. EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 161
128. Now, my reasons are these :
129. In this chapter there is a manifest opposition between the Pharisees
130. Mat. VL 6.] the privy key of heaven. 165
131. I beseech you seriously to lay to heart these five things :
132. Jacob was le
133. And there was once a great lady of this land, who would frequently
134. She answered, ' Dear child, I must go when God pleaseth. But why
135. He that would pray to purpose, had need be quiet when he is alo
136. Christ frequently joins praying and preaching together, and those whom
137. Ans. 3. Thirdly, To avoid interruptions in the duty. Secresy is
138. Ans. 6. Sixthly, To convince us that his Father hears and observes
139. Closet duty speaks out most sincerity. He prays with a witness that
140. Mordecai privately discovered a plot of treason against the person of
141. Jerusalem, and the duration thereof, even to the Messiah ; and whilst
142. And so when had Peter his vision but when he was praying alone on
143. Aquinas from what books and helps he derived such holy and divine
144. A gentlewoman, being at private prayer and meditation in her parlour^
145. VOL. II. M
146. God assailed him with one hand, and upheld him with the other. In
147. Another instance of the prevalency of private prayer you have in
148. Oh the prevalency of prayer behind the door ! And thus you see by
149. Beloved ! you know that many times a favourite at coiirt gets more
150. Secret sins are as near to original sin as the f

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