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…

I may say in this case to you as the Lord spake to Jeremiah, cl. ap. 12. 5. If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee; then how canst thou contend with horses? and if in the land of peace wherein thou trustedst, they have wearied thee; then how wilt tho• do in the swelling of Jordan? This was spoken to encourage the Prophet to constancy in his work; and as if the Lord had said, O Jeremiah, do the strivings of the men of Anat hoth thine own Town, dishearten thee? pluck up thy spirits and faint not; there are harder Trials than these that thou must undergo ⟨p. 163⟩at Jerusalem: these are no more to what is coming, than the running with footmen, is to contending with horses: or the passing a small Rivulet, to the swellings of Jordan.

I may say in this case to you as the Lord spake to Ieremiah, cl. ap. 12. 5. If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee; then how canst thou contend with horses? and if in the land of peace wherein thou trustedst, they have wearited thee; then how wilt tho• do in the swelling of Iordan? This was spoken to encourage the Prophet to constancy in his work; and as if the Lord had said, O Ieremy, do the strivings of the men of Anat hoth thine own Town, dishearten thee? pluck up thy spirits and faint not; there are harder Tryals than these that thou must undergo ⟨p. 163⟩at Ierusalem: these are no more to what is coming, than the running with footmen, is to contending with horses: or the passing a small Rivulet, to the swellings of Iordan.

To allude to this, If our graces and duties cannot bear these lighter trials, if a little lift of prosperity, or lighter stroke of adversity discover so much falseness, rottenness, pride, and selfishness in the heart: If we cannot resist the motions of corruptions, but yield our selves to obey sin in the lusts of it: If we can neither keep our hearts with God in duties, nor mourn for our wanderings from him: If a few scoffs from wicked tongues, or trials of persecution from the hands of men will cause us to faint in the way, and turn back from following the Lord; what shall we do when he comes whose fan is in his hand, and who will throughly purge his floor,