The Touchstone of Sincerity, Chapter 1
CHAP. I.
Wherein the Text is opened, and the Doctrines propounded.
ALthough the Revelation be a compendium of intricate Visions and obscure Prophecies, containing almost as many mysteries as words:Tot mysteria quo…verba. Hieron. yet that cloud overshadows the Propheti… part only; which begins where this Chap…ter (with the doctrinal part) ends: here th… Waters are found no deeper than in othe… places of Scripture; but if we go a little farther they become an overflowing flood: hithert… we touch ground, but a step farther delive… us into the deeps, which are above the head of the tallest Christians: here the Spiri… speaks doctrinally, and perspicuously; but i… the following Chapters mystically, and i… great obscurity.
Seven Epistles are found in this Doctrina… part, immediately dictated from Heaven… and sent by Iohn to the Seven Churches of Asia, to instruct, correct, encourage, and confirm them, as their several cases required.
My Text falls in the last Epistle, sent to the Church of L…odicea; the worst, and most degenerate of all the rest. The best had their defects, and infirmities; but this laboured under the most dangerous disease of all. The fairest face of the seven had some spots, but a …angerous disease seems to have invaded the very heart of this.
Not that all were equally guilty, but the greatest part (from which the whole is de…ominated) were lukewarm professors; who …ad a name to live, but were dead, who being never throughly engaged in Religion, …asily embraced that principle of the Gnost…ks which made it foreign a matter of indifferency to own or deny Christ in time of …ersecution. The most saving Doctrine that …me Professors are acquainted with. This …kewarm temper Christ hated, he was sick … them, and loathed their indifferency: I …ish (saith he) v. 16. thou wert either cold or …t; an expression of the same amount with …at in 1 King. 18. 21. how long halt you between … opinions? And is manifestly transla…ed …om the qualities of …ater, Frigidos vocat planè à Christo alienos. Fervidos, verâ Christi cognitione in excellenti gradu praeditos. Tepidos, qui cum Christiani aici velint, nec causam religionis serio agunt, nec vitam confessioni conformem dignamque ducunt. Sol. Glass. Rhet. Sacra par. 3. p. 165.which is either …ld, or hot; or luke…arm, a middle temper …etwixt both, & more …aucious to the sto…ach than either of …e former. Cold is the …omplexion and natu…al temper of those …at are wholly aliena…d and estranged from Christ and Religion. …ot, is the gracious temper of those that now and love Jesus Christ in an excelling …egree. Lukewarm, or tepid, is the temper of …ose who have too much Religion to be e…eemed Carnal, and too little to be truly …piritual; a generation that is too politick to …enture much, and yet so foolish as to lose all: …ey are loth to forsake Truth wholly, and …ore loth to follow it too closely: the form of …eligion they affect as an honour, the power of … they judge a burden.
This is that temper which the Lord hat… and this was the Disease of Laodicea, whi… Christ the great and only Heart-Anatom and Soul-Physician discovers in v. 17. and p… scribes a cure for it in v. 18. So that … words resolve themselves into two parts: …
First, A faithful discovery,
Secondly, A proper remedy, of
the Disea… of Laodic…
1. First, Their disease is faithfully disc… vered to them, both in its symptomes, caus… and aggravation.
First, Its Symptome, an unconcerned, i… different regardless spirit in matters of Rel… gion; nor hot, nor cold; the true temper … Formal Professors, who never engaged them … selves throughly and heartily in the ways … God, but can take, or leave as times govern… and worldly interest come to be concerne…
Secondly, Its cause and root, which is th… defect and want of the Truth, and Power … inward Grace; noted in these expressions Thou art wretched, and miserable, poor, blind, an… naked; (i. e.) thou art destitute of a rea… principle, a solid work of Grace; these fiv… Epithets do all point at one and the sam… thing; namely, the defectiveness and rotten… … ness of their foundation. The two first, foreign, wretched and miserable; are more general, concluding them in a sa… condition, a very sinful and lamentable estate: the three last, foreign, …Z. poor, blind and naked, are more particu…r, pointing at those grand defects, and …ws in the foundation, which made their …ndition so wretched and miserable.
First, poor, that is, void of Righteousness, …d true Holiness be…re God;foreign destitutus Iustitiâ, & Sanctitate verâ coram Deo. Grotius. these are …e true riches of Chri…ans, and whoso …ants them, is poor, and miserable; how …ch soever he be in gifts of the mind, or …easures of the earth.
Secondly, Blind, (i. e.) without spiritual …umination,foreign Nec morbum sciens, nec remedium. and so …ither knowing their …ease, nor their reme…; the evil of Sin, or necessity of Christ. …rham in Loc.
Thirdly, Naked, without Christ, and his …ghteousness.foreign Carens justitiâ quaev…stitus est Christianorum. Pareus. Sin is …e Souls shame and …kedness. Christs pure …d perfect Righteous…s is its covering, or garment: this they …nted, how richly soever their bodies were …rned. These were Laodiceans, (i. e.) a just, righteous People; (according to the no…on of that word) whose garments with …ich they covered themselves, were made the home-spun thread of their own …ghteousness.
Thirdly, The disease of Laodicea is he… opened to them in its aggravations. Thou sai… I am rich, and increased with goods, and ha… need of nothing; but knowest not, &c.
To be really graceless, and Christless is miserable condition; but to be so, and y… confidently perswad… of the contrary,Nil miserius misero non miserante seipsum. is mo… miserable: to have t… very symptoms of Death upon us, and y… tell those that pity us, we are as well as the… is lamentable indeed.
O the efficacy of a Spiritual Delusio… This was their disease, gracelesness, and t… aggravation of it, was their senslesness.
2. Secondly, We have a proper reme… prescribed, v. 18. I counsel thee to buy of … gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be ri… &c. In which we have to consider, Fi… what is prescribed for the cure. Secondl… where it is to be had. Thirdly, how to … obtained.
First, What are the remedies prescribe and they are three; Gold, White-rayment, a… Eye-salve. First, Gold the cure of Povert… yea, Gold tried in the Fire, (i. e.) grace th… hath been variously proved already, and t… more it is proved, the more its truth will … conspicuous. The next is White-rayment, t… remedy against nakedness. And lastly E… salve, the effectual cure of blindness. Und… these choice Metaphors, more choice and …cellent things are shadowed, even spiritu… Graces, real Holiness, more precious than old. Christs imputed Righteousness, the …hest garment in all the Wardrobe of Hea…n; and spiritual illumination, the most ex…llent Collyrium or Eye-salve that ever was …can be applyed to the men…al eye or un…rstanding of Man in this World.
Secondly, Where these precious remedies …ay be had, and you find Christ hath the …onopoly of them all; … of me, Hoc foreign est Christi, extra quod nulla est salus.saith Christ the Text; he is the …ository of all Graces. …gels, Ministers, Ordinances, cannot fur…h you with them, without Christ.
Thirdly, How they may be obtained …m him; buy of me; on this place Estius, … others build their Doctrine of Merit; …ich is to build a superstructure of Hay … Stubble upon a foundation of Gold. The …gence of the very Text it self destroys …h conceits: for what have they that are …r, wretched, miserable, and want all …gs, to give as a price, or by way of me…or those inestimable treasures of Grace? …ing therefore in this place, can signifie or …nd no more than the acquisition, com…ing, or obtaining these things from Iesus …st in the use of such means and methods as he hath appointed, and in the use of the… we merit Grace no more, than the Pati… merits of his Physician by coming to hi… and carefully following his prescriptions the use of such Medicaments as he free gives him: and that place, Isa. 55. 1. (fro… which this Phrase seems to be borrowe… fully clears it; He that hath no Money, let … come and buy Wine, and Milk, without Mon… and without price.
From all which, these three Observation fairly offer themselves to us.
Doct. 1. That many Professours of Relig… are under very great and dangerous mist a… in their profession.
Doct. 2. That true Grace is exceeding precio… and greatly enriches the soul that possesseth i…
Doct. 3. That only is to be accounted true Gr… which is able to endure all those trials appoi… ed, or permitted for the discovery of it.
The first Doctrine naturally rises out the scope of the Text, which is to awak… and convince unsound Professors.
The second from the use the Holy Gh… makes of the best and choicest things in … ture, to shadow forth the inestimable wo… and preciousness of grace.
And the Third, from that particular, and …st significant Metaphor of Gold tried in the …e; by which I here understand, a real …d solid work of grace, evidencing it self be so, in all the proofs and tryals that are …de of it; for whatsoever is probational grace, and puts its soundness and sinceri… to the test, is that to it which Fire is to old: in this sense it is used in Scripture, …al. 66. 10. Thou hast tried us as Silver is …ed: and Zach. 13. 9. I will bring the third …rt through the Fire and will refine them as …ver is refined, and try them as gold is tried. … that whatsoever it is which examines and …es Grace, whether it be sound, and sin…re, that is the Fire Christ here speaks of; …d such grace as abides these trials, is the …old here intended.