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, you will then know to what purpose those hours spent in such work as this were. Search yourselves, yea, search yourselves before the decree bring forth, as that text may be read, Zeph. ii. 1, 2. " Enter into " thy chamber and shut thy door;'' * sit close to this employment
* 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 libi'O^ (§- 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 airy spirits of these times ; but let us be content with it as it is, and leave them (if we cannot have their company) to theii* sportiveness and
THE EPISTLE TO THE READEK. 511
ftolics, never once grudging them iu their short and dear-bought pleasures. Assurance, That sin is pardoned, and Christ is ours, with the unspeakable joys that are inseparably connected therewith, is diat " white stone, and new name, which none knows but he that *' receives it ;*" for no words can possibly signify to another what that soul tastes and feels in such an hour as that is.
And be not discouraged at the difficulty of obtaining it : This white stone is no philosopher'' s stogie, 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 scoff at the serious dili- gence of the saints, and break many a pleasant jest upon the most solemn and awful things in religion, will tremble when they shall hear the midnight cry, " Behold the bridegroom cometh f and see the lamps of all vain and formal professors expire, and none admitted into the marriage but such whose lamps are furnished with oil ; i. e. such whose professions and duties are enlivened and maintained by vital springs and principles of real grace within them.
It is a very remarkable story that Melchior Adams records in the life of Gobelinus ; that a little before his time there was a play set forth at Isenach in Germany, of the wise andjbolish virgins, wherein the Virgin Mary was one of the five saints that represented the wise virgins, was brought in with the rest, telling the foolish virgins that cried to her for oil, that it was too late : and then others represent- ing the Jbolish virgins, fell a weeping, and making most bitter lamentations.
Hereat prince Frederic (who was one of the spectators) greatly amazed, cried out. Quid estjides nostra Christiana, si neque Maria^ neque alia Sancta exorari potest I he. What is our faith worth, and to what purpose are all 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 apo- plexy, whereof he died about four days after.
If the representation of these things in a play ended the life of so great a man so tragically; O think with thyself. Reader, what will the effects of the Lord's real appearance in the clouds of heaven, and the mourning and wailing of the tribes of the earth in that day be ! Think I say, and think again and again, what the dismal effects of such a sight and sound will be upon all that neglect serious prepara- tion themselves, and scoff at them that do prepare to meet the Lord !
The design of this manual is to bring every man's gold to the touch- stone and fire ; I mean every man's grace to the trial of the word ; that thereby we may know what we are, what we have, and what we must expect and trust to at the Lord's coming. I pretend not to any gift of discerning spirits ; such an extraordinary gift there once was in the church, and very necessary for those times (wherein Satan was
■512 THE EPISTLE TO THE READER.
SO busy and the canon of scripture not completed) which the apostle ca\h ihe g\h o^ discerning spirits ; 1 Cor. xii. 10. And some are of opinion, that by virtue of this gift, Peter discerned the hypo- crisy of Ananias and Sapphira, but whatever that gift was, it is utterly ceased now; no man can pretend to it: But the ordinary aids and assistances of the Spirit are with us still, and the lively oracles are among us still ; to them we may freely go for resolution of all doubts and decision of perplexed cases. And thus we may discern our own spirits, though we want the extraordinary gift of discerning other men's spirits.
I have little to say of this Treatise in thy hands, more than that it is well aimed and designed, however it be managed. The ear tries words, as the mouth tasteth meat ; these things will relish according to the palates it meets with.
It is not the pleasing, but profiting of men, that I have herein la- boured for. I know nothing in it that is like to wound the up- right, or slightly heal the hypocrite, by crying peace, peace, when there is no peace. Scripture light hath been my Cynosura; and with that thread in my hand I have followed the search of hypocrisy through the labyrinths of the heart. Some assistance I hope I have had also from experience ; for scripture and experience are such re- latives, and the tie betwixt them so discernible, as nothing in nature can be more so. What we feel in our hearts, we might have read in the scriptures before ever we felt it.
That the blessing of God may go forth with it, and accompany it to thy soul, reader, is the heart's desire and prayer of,
Thine and the ChurcKs
TOUCHSTONE OF SINCERITY :
THE SIGNS OF GRACE, AND SYMPTOMS OF HYPOCRISY.
Opened in a Treatise upon Revelation iii. 17, 18.
Because thou say est I am richyOmd increased with goods^ and have need of nothing ; and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked : I counsel thee to buy i)fme GOLD TRIED in the fire, that thou mayest be rich, &c.
Wherein the text is opened, and the doctrines are propoimded.
Although the Revelation be a cow;?^72di2m of intricate visions, and obscure prophecies, containing almost as many mysteries as words * ; yet that cloud overshadows the prophetical part only which begins where this chapter (with the doctrinal part) ends : here the waters are found no deeper than in other places of the scrip- ture ; but if we go a httle farther, they become an overflowing flood : Hitherto we touch ground, but a step further delivers us into the deeps, which are above the heads of the tallest Christians. Here the spirit speaks doctrinally, and perspicuously ; but in the follow- ing chapters mystically, and in great obscurity.