A39695:246
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.
THE Touchstone of Sincerity: OR, THE SIGNS Of GRACE, AND Symptoms o… › Chapter 5 › Section 1
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.
SECT. I.
That Adversity is a furnace to try of what metal our hearts are, none can doubt, that hath either studied the Scriptures, or observed his own heart under afflictions.
THat Adversity is a furnace to try of what metal our hearts are, none can doubt, that hath either studied the Scriptures, or observed his own heart under afflictions.
When the dross and rust of Hypocrisy and Corruption had almost eaten ou• the heart of Religion among the Jews; then saith ⟨p. 67⟩God, I will melt them, and try them; for what shall I do for the daughter of my People? Jer. 9. 7. here Affliction is the Furnace, and the People are the metal cast into it; and the end of it is Trial. I will melt them and try them; what other course shall I take with them? If I let them alone, their Lusts like the rust and Canker in metals will eat them out. Prosperity multiplies Professors, & adversity brings them to the test: then Hirelings quickly become changelings: the gilded potsherd glisters till it come to scouring. The Devil thought Job had been such a one, and moves that he may be tried this way; being confident he would be found but dross in the trial,