A39695:586
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.
Rule 2.
Every true ground of humiliation for sin, is •ot a sufficient ground for doubting and questioning our estate and condition.
Every true ground of humiliation for sin, is •ot a sufficient ground for doubting and questio•ing our estate and condition.
There be many more things to humble us upon the account of our infirmity, than there […] to stumble us upon the account of our integrity: i• is the sin and affliction of some •ood souls to call their condition in question, upon every slip and failing in the course of ⟨p. 182⟩their obedience. This is the way to debar our selves from all the peace and comfort of the Christian life: we find that Joseph was once minded to put away Mary his Espoused Wife, not knowing that the holy thing which was conceived in her was by the Holy Ghost. It is the sin of Hypocrites to take brass for gold, and the folly of Saints to call their gold, brass: be as severe to your selves as you will, always provided you be just: there is that maketh himself rich, and yet hath nothing; and there is that maketh himself poor, and yet hath great riches,