Judge and touchstone

Meaning

The supreme Judge is also called the touchstone of every heart at the end of the author’s defence against slander. A touchstone normally supplies an image of testing, but the tested objects here are human hearts and the competing sides of a controversy. The author declines further accusation and commits both to divine judgement. The English preserves both “Judge of all judges” and “touchstone,” rather than reducing the latter to a material assay. This figure does not give the author permission to pronounce a complete verdict on every opponent; it marks the judgement he says he leaves to God.