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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39695	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 ...	Flavel, John, 1630?-1691.; Flavel, John, 1630?-1691. Saint indeed, or, The great work of a Christian opened and pressed.	1698 (1698)	Wing F1202; ESTC R40933	101,310	218

SIGNS of GRACE AND Symptoms of Hypocrisie Opened in A Practical Treatise Upon Revelations III 17 18 Being the Second Part of The SAINT INDEED By IOHN FLAVELL Minister of Christ. Devon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Zephan 2 1 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Scrutamini vos ipsos scrutamini antequam pariat decretum c. 〈◊〉 legendis libris non quaeramus scientiam sed saporem Bernard LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Three Bibles and Crown in Cheap-side 1698. THE EPISTLE TO THE READER READER AMONG the difficulties and severities of true Religion the faithful searching and diligent keeping of our heart● are found in the first and highest rank of difficulties these two take up the main work of●● Christian betwixt them hic labor hoc opu●●est I had hopes that these Essaies for the searching of the heart might much sooner have followed my former for keeping the heart but providence hath reserved it for the fittest season It comes to thy hand Reader in a day o● straits and fears a dark and gloomy season●● when the Nations about us are made drun● with their own blood and filled with the 〈◊〉 of astonishment In a day when the 〈◊〉 ready to pass unto us and a storm seems to 〈◊〉 rising in the fears of many and threatning th● Protestant interest in these reformed Nations St●e Men very considerable for Piety and Learning from that Scripture Rev. 13. 3. The deadly wound viz. that given the beast by the Reformation was healed have concluded that Popery will once more over run the reformed Nations and one of great renown in all the Churches of Christ foretelling this furious but hort srtom comforts the People of God with this that it is like to fall heaviest upon the Worshipp●rs in the outward Court namely the formal Professors of the times Oh! How much is every Man now concerned to have his estate and condition well cleared and to give all diligence to make his calling and election sure It should both amaze and grieve a pious mind to see how some ingenious Persons can sit with unwearied patience and pleasure racking their brains upon some dry School Problem or ●ome nice Mathematical Point whil'st no Reasons or Perswasions can prevail with them to ●pend one serious hour in the search and study of ●heir own hearts It was the saying of the great Cicero Li●enter omnibus omnes opes concesserim ut ●●ihi liceat vi nullâ interpellante isto mo●● literis vivere I would give all the Wealth ●n the World that I might wholly live in my Studies and have nothing to hinder me What a brave offer had that been if Heaven and the clearing of a title to it had been the subject-mat●er of those studies Crede mihi extingui dulce esset Mathematicarum artium studio saith another i. e. Believe me it were a sweet death to dye in the study of the Mathematical Arts And I should be apt to believe it too did I not know that eternal Iudgment immediately follows death and that they who stand at the door of eternity have higher matters to mind than Mathematical niceties To discern the harmonies and proportions in nature is pleasant but to discern the harmony and proportion of the Signs of Grace laid down in the Word with the Works of Grace wrought in our Souls is a far more pleasant and necessary imployment and to be extinguished in such a work as this were a lovely death indeed Blessed is that Servant whom his Lord when he cometh shall find so doing My Friends a day of trouble is near a dying hour approacheth us and when our Eye-strings and Heart-strings are breaking when we are taking the last grasp of Christ and the Promises yo● will then know to what purpose those hours spen● in such work as this were Search your selves ● yea search your selves before the decree brin● forth as that text may be read Zeph. 2. 1 2. Ente● into thy Chamber Christian and shut thy door s●● close to this imployment thou art here directed to and however times shall govern whether it be fair or foul weather abroad thou shalt never repent such an expence of thy time Nusquam requiem inveni nisi in libro claustro said a devout soul once I am never better than when I am at my Book or on my knees This may seem but a dull melancholy life to the brisk and aiery Spirits of these times but let us be content with it as it is and leave them if we cannot have their company to their ●portiveness and frolicks never once grudging ●●em their short and dear bought pleasures Assu●ance that sin is pardoned● and Christ is ours ●ith the unspeakable joys that are inseparably ●●nnected therewith is that White Stone and New Name which none knows but he that ●●eives it for no words can possibly signifie to ●●other what that soul tasts and feels in such an our as that is And be not discouraged at the difficulty of ob●ining it this White Stone is no Philosophers one which no Man could ever say he had in his own hand for many a Christian hath really found it in waiting upon the Lord by Prayer and diligently searching the Scriptures and his own heart Reader The time will come when they that ●coff at the serious diligence of the Saints and break many a pleasant Iest upon the most solemn and awful things in Religion will tremble when they shall hear the Midnight-Cry Behold ●he Bridegroom cometh and see the Lamps of all Vain and Formal Professors expire and ●one admitted into the Marriage but such whose Lamps are furnished with Oyl i. e. such whose professions and duties are enlivened and ●aintained by vital Springs and Principles of ●eal Grace within them It is a very remarkable Story that Melchior Adams ●ecords in the life of Gobeli●us That a little before his ●ime there was a Play set forth at Isenach in Germany of the Wise and Foolish Virgins ●herein the Virgin Mary who was one of ●he Five Saints that represented the Wise Virgins ●as brought in with the rest telling the Fool●●h Virgins that cryed to her for Oyl that it ●as too late and then others representing the ●oolish Virgins fell a weeping and making ●ost bitter Lamentations Hereat Prince Frederick who was one of the Spectators greatly amazed cryed out Quid est fides nostra Christiana si neque Maria neque alia Sancta exorari potest c. What is our faith worth and to what purpose are al● our good works if neither Mary nor any other Saint can help us And such was his consternation that it threw him into a sore and violent disease which ended in an Apoplex whereof he died about four daies after 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

that hath thus incensed the anger of God against me God visits their iniquities with afflictions but they visit not their own hearts by self-examinations God judges them but they judge not themselves he shews their iniquities in a clear glass but none saith What have I done This phrase What have I done is the voice of one that recollects himself after a rash action or the voice of a Man astonished at the discovery afflictions make of his sins but no such voice as this is ordinarily heard among carnal Men. 3. Thirdly An unsound Professor if le●t to his choice would rather chuse Sin than Affliction and sees more evil in that than in this And it cannot be doubted if we consider the principle by which all unregenerate Men are acted is sense not faith hence Iobs friends would have argued his Hypocrisie Iob 36. 21. and had their application been as their rule it would have concluded it This viz. Sin hast thou chosen rather than affliction I do not say that an upright man cannot commit a moral evil to escape a poenal evil O that daily observation did not too plentifully furnish us with sad instances of that kind but upright ones do not dare not upon a serious deliberate discussion and debate chuse sin rather than affliction what they may do upon surprisals and in the violence of temptation is of another nature But a false and unsound heart discovers it self in the choice it makes upon deliberation and that frequently when sin and trouble come in competition put case saith Augustine a Ruffian should with one hand set the cup of drunkenness to thy mouth with the other a dagger to thy breast and say drink or die thou shouldst rather chuse to die sober than to live a drunkard and many Christians have resisted unto blood striving against sin and with renowned Moses chosen affliction the worst of afflictions yea death it self in the most formidable appearance rather than sin and it is the habitual temper and resolution of every gracious heart so to do tho' those holy resolutions are sometimes over-born by violence of temptation But the Hypocrite dreads less the de●ilement of his soul than the loss of his estate liberty or life If you ask upon what ground then doth the Apostle suppose 1 Cor. 13. 3. a man may give his body to be burnt and not have charity that the Salamander of Hypocrisie may live in the flame of Martyrdom The answer is at hand they that chose death in the sense of this Text do not chose it to escape sin but to seed and indulge it Those strange adventures if any such be are rather to maintain their own honour and enrol their names among worthy and famous Persons to Posterity or out of a blind zeal to their espoused erours and mistakes than in a due regard to the glory of God and the preservation of intiegrity I fear to speak it but it must be spoken saith Hierom. that even Martyrdom it self when suffered for admiration and applause profits nothing but that blood is shed in vain 4. Fourthly It is the property of an un●●generate soul under adversity to turn fro● creature to creature for support and comfort and not from every creature to Go● alone So long as their feet can touch groun● I mean feel any creature relief or comfor● under them they can subsist and live in a●flictions but when they lose ground the● all creature refuge fails then their hearts fail too Thus Zedekiah and the self-deceivin● Iews when they saw their own strengt● failed them and there was little hope le●● that they should deliver themselves from th● ●haldeans what do they in that strait D● they with upright Iehosaphat say our eyes 〈◊〉 unto thee No no their eyes were upon ●gupt for succour not upon Heaven Wel● Pharaoh and his aids are left still all hope● is not gone Ier. 37. 9. See the like in Aba●● in a sore plunge and distress he Courts th● King of Assyria for help 2 Chron 22. 28 2●● That project failing why then he will tr● what the Gods of Damascus can do for him any way rather than the right way Flecter● si nequeam superos Acheronta movebo So it is with many others If one chil● die what do they do run to God and com●fort themselves in this The Lord liveth th● my Child die If an Estate be lost and a Fa●mily sinking do they with David comfor● ●●emselves in the everlasting Covenant order● and sure No no but if one Relation 〈◊〉 there 's another alive if an Estate be ●●ne yet not all something is left still and 〈◊〉 case will mend As long as ever such Men have any visible ●●couragement they will hang upon it and ●ot make up all in Christ and encourage ●●emselves in the Lord. To tell them of re●●ycing in the Lord when the Fig tree blos●●ms not is what they cannot understand 5. Fifthly To conlude An unsound heart ●ever comes out of the Furnace of affliction ●●rged mortified and more spiritual and ho●● than when he was cast into it his scum 〈◊〉 dross is not there separated from him ●ay the more they are afflicted the worse ●●ey are Why should ye be smitten any more ye ●ill revolt more and more Isa. 1. 5. and to ●eep to our Metaphor consult Ier. 6. 29. ●od had put that incorrigible people into ●e Furnace of affliction and kept them long 〈◊〉 that fire and what was the Issue why ●●ith the Prophet The bellows are burnt ●e lead is consumed of the fire the founder mel●●h in vain c. reprobate silver shall men call ●●em because the Lord hath rejected them If the fire of affliction be continually ●lown till the very bellows be burnt that is ●●e tongue or rather the lungs of the Prophet ●hich have some resemblance to bellows though these be even spent in reproving and threatning and denouncing woe upo● woe and Judgement upon Judgement an● God fulfills his word upon them yet sti● they are as before the dross remains thoug● Ierusalem be made a Furnace and the inha●bitants the flesh boyling in it over a fier●● fire of affliction yet as it is noted pert●nently to my Discourse in Ezek. 24. 6. 1● the scum remains with them and cannot b● separated by the fire and the reason 〈◊〉 plain because no affliction in its self purg● sin but as it is sanctified and works in th● vertue of Gods blessing and in pursuan●● of the promises O think on this you that have had thou●sands of afflictions in one kind and another and none of them all have done you good they have not mortified humbled or bene●fited you at all And thus you see what th● effects of adversity are when it meets 〈◊〉 graceless heart SECT IV. BY this time Reader I suppose thou ar● desirous to know what effects adversit● and afflictions use to have when they mee● with an honest and sincere heart only be●fore I come to particulars I think