A39695:23
The touchstone of sincerity, or, The signs of grace and symptoms of hypocrisy opened…The touchstone of sincerity, or, The signs of grace and symptomes of hypocrisie opened…
The touchstone of sincerity, or, The signs of grace and symptoms of hypocrisy opened in a practical treatise upon Revelations III 17, 18 being the second part of the Saint indeed / by John Flavell ...The touchstone of sincerity, or, The signs of grace and symptomes of hypocrisie opened in a practical treatise upon Revelations III 17, 18 being the second part of the Saint indeed / by John Flavell ...
London: printed for Tho. Parkhurst, 1698
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.
If the representation of these things in a Play ended the Life of so great a Man, so tragically; Oh think with thy self, Reader, what will the effects of the Lords real appearance in the clouds of Heaven, and the mourning and wailing of the Tribes of the Earth in that day be? Think I say and think again, and again, what the dismal effects of such a sight and sound will be upon all that neglect serious preparation themselves, and scoff at them that do prepare to meet the Lord.
The design of this Manual is to bring every Mans Gold to the Touchstone and Fire• I mean every Mans Grace to the trial of th• word, that thereby we may know what we are, what we have, and what we must expect and trust to at the Lord's coming. I pretend not to any gift of discerning Spirits. Such a• extraordinary gift there once was in the Church and very necessary for those times (wherein Satan ⟨image 5⟩was so busy, and the Canon of Scripture not completed) which the Apostle calls the Gift of discerning Spirits, 1 Cor. 12. 10. and some are of Opinion that by virtue of this Gift, Peter discerned the Hypocrisy of Ananias and Sapphira, but whatever that Gift was, it is utterly ceased now; no Man can pretend to it, but •he Ordinary aids and assistances of the Spirit are with us still, and the lively Oracles are a•ong us still, to them we may freely go for resolution of all doubts, and decision of perplexed •ases: and thus we may discern our own Spirits, though we want the extraordinary gift of discerning other Mens Spirits.
The design of this Manual is to bring every Mans Gold to the Touchstone and Fire• I mean every Mans Grace to the tryal of th word, that thereby we may know what we are, what we have, and what we must expect and trust to at the Lord's coming. I preten not to any gift of diserning Spirits. Such a extraordinary gift there once was in the Church and very necessary for those times (wherein Satan