When I first picked up a book published almost 400 years ago, I was expecting to hear from someone who could not relate to me or understand me. I thought I would hear someone who has separate cares, worries, struggles, and everyday occurrences that I would have to dig very deep to understand and apply what they were talking about to my life. That may be true of some sects of authors, but it is most certainly not true of the Puritans. The Puritans were remarkably relatable; they understand me, they speak to me, they care for me, and Thomas Brooks exemplifies all those traits in his treatise on Christian assurance: Heaven on Earth. Brooks defines assurance, its’ substance, ground and effects. He describes how assurance can be sought and attained, he differentiates true assurance from its façade counterpart (presumption), and gives the reader firm methods for cultivating and maintaining assurance.
Assurance first and foremost is a great comfort to the Christian. It allows him to be bold in the face of persecution, to look longingly at the world to come, and to embrace every promise as though it really applied to him and exclaim, “I am my beloved’s, and his desire is for me.” (Song of Sol 7:10). Brooks uses Song of Solomon many times throughout the book as an example of the assured Christian’s embrace and love of Christ, and His in return for the Christian. He quotes the passage above in his fifth point on the ground of assurance from the first chapter of his book by saying, “There is in all the saints the springs of assurance, and therefore they may attain to assurance.” (p15) The glorious riches of the promises of God are reason to pursue assurance and the indwelling of Christ in the believer is fuel to that end.
Assurance can be a difficult subject because not every Christian has the same experience with assurance. I know I struggle with my own assurance from time to time. Brooks recognizes this almost immediately by telling us, “it is one thing for me to have grace, it is another thing for me to see my grace,” (p8). But he fervently argues that all the reasons (he details seven) God denies assurance to the believer is for their ultimate good. He says this in his seventh reason: “It is natural to the soul to rest upon everything below Christ… Now the Lord, to cure his people of this weakness, and to bring them to love wholly and solely upon Jesus Christ, denies comfort, denies assurance, etc… Christians, this you are always to remember, that though the enjoyment of assurance makes most for your consolation, yet the living purely upon Christ in the absence of assurance makes most for Christ’s exaltation.” (p35) So while God is concerned and cares deeply for his children, He first prioritizes Christ higher and ordains that Christ being lifted up in the believer is ultimately better for us than the deepest assurance.
More than that, Christ exalted in the saint is the means to deeper assurance. He says later that if we are to keep our assurance, “then see to it that your hearts run more out to Christ than to assurance” (p350). This is one of the important means to seeking and keeping a true assurance. While assurance is a gift of the Spirit (Rom 8:16), there are means given to obtain assurance and Brooks implores us to mind these means well. (1) Be active in exercising grace. (2) Assurance is obtained by obedience. (3) Follow diligently the instructions of the Spirit. (4) Be diligent in attendance upon ordinances. (5) Pay particular attention to the scope of God’s promises of mercy. (6) Six ways Christ’s disciples are distinguished from all others. (7) Seek growth in grace. (8) Seek assurance when the soul is in its best frames. (9) Ascertain whether you have the things that belong to salvation: Knowledge, Faith, Repentance, Obedience, Love, Prayer, Perseverance, and Hope.
He spends much time on the ninth exhortation: discern whether you truly belong to the household of God. He takes this from 2 Corinthians 13:5 that we are to test ourselves. If we truly be of Christ then we will find Christ in us, if not then we are not saved. One of the riches parts of this whole book is his description of faith, I wholly commend it. In it he has a section concerning how faith “belittles the glories of this world” in which he says, “Faith makes a believer to live in the land of promise as in a strange country, Heb 11:9. It is nothing to live as a stranger in a strange land, but to live as a stranger in the land of promise, this is the excellency and glory of faith.” (p219). In other words, what are the greatest prizes this world has to offer compared to that which is to come? What is earth to heaven? The world to God? Satan to Christ? Are they all nothing? Yes, indeed, and Christ is all. Faith gives the saint the power to live as one who has inherited that which he has not yet received.
Lastly, Brooks helps us identify a true assurance from counterfeit assurance. He does this by pointing us to eight evidences of an assured soul: (1) It is attended by a deep admiration of God’s love and favor in Christ. (2) It causes the soul ever to seek a fuller enjoyment of God and Christ. (3) It is usually strongly assaulted by Satan. (4) It makes a believer bold. (5) It makes a believer seek the happiness of other men. (6) It strengthens a believer against all sin. (7) It is attended by love, humility, and joy. (8) It springs from the witness of the Holy Spirit. All these guard against presumption, the enemy of true assurance. They magnify Christ and make much of God and love of our neighbor. A deep assurance drives us to obey His rules by loving God and our neighbor, to the glory of God.
Assurance might be a sore spot for some of us who wrestle with it. Brooks gives us strong encouragement that God is the same, His promises are sure, and that assurance is something worth fighting for. For those that need to work to attain it, they should work for it. It is something worth it. “Assurance is a jewel of that worth, a pearl of that price, that he that will have it must work, and sweat, and weep, and wait to obtain it… Assurance is that ‘white stone’, that ‘new name’, that ‘hidden manna’, that non can obtain but such as labor for it as for life.” (p19). We would do well to heed these words from this dear brother and minister of centuries past. For now, as it was then: assurance is Heaven on Earth.