A39695:515
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 9 › Section 2
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.
5. Fifthly, By the trial of our graces Satan is defeated, and his accusations of the Saints found to be mere slanders. It is a very common thing with the devil and wicked men, to accuse the people of God of Hypocrisy, and to tell the world they are not the men and women they are taken to be; and that if their inside were but turned out by some through trial, or deep search, it would appear that Religion did not indeed live in their souls as they pretend; but that they only act a part, and personate heavenly and mortified persons upon the public stage of profession.
5. Fifthly, By the tryal of our graces Satan is defeated, and his accusations of the Saints found to be meer slanders. It is a very common thing with the devil and wicked men, to accuse the people of God of Hypocrisie, and to tell the world they are not the men and women they are taken to be; and that if their inside were but turned out by some through tryal, or deep search, it would appear that Religion did not indeed live in their souls as they pretend; but that they only act a part, and personate heavenly and mortified persons upon the publick stage of profession.
Thus the Accuser of the brethren suggests the Hypocrisy of Job, Cap▪ 2. 5. put forth thine hand now and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face. q. d. Well might Job serve thee, whilst thou hast been so bountiful a master to him; he hath been well rewarded for all the service he hath done thee; but if thou stop the current of his prosperity, thou shalt see how quickly he will stop the course of his duty: a few lashes from thy hand, will make him curse thee to thy face: but O what shame and disappointment was it to that envious spirit, what a vindication of Jobs integrity, when under the greatest trials of his faith and patience, he still held fast his integrity, and shows himself as great a pattern of patience under the cross, as he ⟨p. 135⟩had been of piety in the days of his greatest prosperity. Satan gets nothing by bringing forth the saints upon the stage, to be made a spectacle to anges & men, as it is,