The point which I mean to handle is the grievousness of the sin of hardness of heart. Christ was grieved with it in the pharisees, and there is not a greater cause of offence to his Spirit.
192 SERMONS UPON MARK III. 5.
Doct. That hardness of heart is a grievous sin, very offensive and provoliing to Jesus Christ.
I shall — (1.) Open the terms ; (2.) Show you the nature of this evil frame of heart ; (3.) The kinds of it ; (4.) The causes of it ; (5.) The heinousness of it ; (6.) Some observations concerning this spiritual malady.
I. For the terms by which it is expressed, they are two, ' Heart,' and ' Hardness.'
1. 'Heart.' This hardness is sometimes ascribed to the neck; as Prov. xxix. 1, ' He that, being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.' And then it is a metaphor taken from refractory oxen, that will not endure the yoke ; and so it noteth disobedience. Sometimes to the face ; as Jer, iii. 5, ' They have made their faces harder than a rock ; ' and so it notetli impudence ; they can no more blush than a rock or stone. But most usually it is ascribed to the heart, as in the text. So Ezek. iii. 7, ' The house of Israel will not hearken to thee, for they will not hearken to me ; for all the house of Israel are impudent and hard-hearted ; ' and so it noteth obstinacy. All go together, an hard heart, an hard neck, and an hard face. Men are first disobedient, then obstinate, then impudent. But it is the heart that we are to consider, which naturally, and in its first sense, signifieth a piece of flesh in the body, which is the chief seat and shop of life ; but morally and metaphorically it signifieth the soul : 1 Sam. xii. 20, ' Serve the Lord with all your heart ; ' that is, with all your soul. Now in the soul there are many faculties — the mind, the conscience, the memory, the will and affections ; and they are all expressed by this term * Heart.' The mind is called heart : Kom. i. 21, 'Their foolish heart was darkened;' that is, their mind. The conscience : 1 Sam. xxiv, 5, ' David's heart smote him ; ' that is, his conscience. The memory : Phil. i. 7, ' I have you in my heart ; ' that is, I am mindful of you. But usually it signifieth the will and affections ; as Mat. xxii. 37, ' Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart.' And this is the faculty in which this disease is seated. Blindness is incident to the mind, searedness and benumbedness to the conscience, slipperiness to the memory, deadness to the affections ; but hardness is incident to the will, that part of the soul by which we choose and refuse good or evil.
2. * Hardness.' It is expressed by different terms in scripture ; sometimes by Trcopwcrt? t?}? Kaphia<i, as in the text, and Bph. iv. 18, which noteth a callous, brawny, insensible hardness, such as is in the labourer's hand or the traveller's heel ; sometimes by o-KkripoKaphia, or aKkT)pw>r7]^ tt}? KapSia<;, so it is a metaphor taken from dry bodies, when the parts are more condensed, and so more impenetrable. Duri- ties est qualitas, densas et hene compactas liahens 2M7^tes, difficidter cedens tactui. It doth not easily yield to any impressions from with- out. So it is set forth by the hardness of the adamant : Zecli. vii. 12, * They made their hearts as an adamant stone/ They can no more be wrought upon to receive any impression of grace and reformation than the diamond or flint or hardest rock can be engraved or fashioned to any form by the tool of the artificer.
II. I must open the nature of it. The hardness of heart discovereth
SERMONS UPON MARK III. 5. 193
itself by two properties : it is Ktjp avaiaOrjrov koX uklvtjtov, an insensible heart, and an inflexible heart.
1. An insensible heart, as a brawny snbstance or callous piece of flesh, like the labourer's hand and traveller's heel. This the apostle intimateth, Eph. iv. 18, 19, 'Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart : who being past feeling,' kc. In one verse he chargeth them with hardness of heart, and in the first words of the next verse with loss of feeling. Feeling, of all senses, though it be not the most noble, yet it is the most necessary ; there is no life without it ; it is diffused throughout the whole body ; and in what member soever it is lost, there is no more intercourse of vital and animal spirits ; and where it is totally lost, there is no more life. There may be life when other senses are wanting ; a man may be deaf and yet live, blind and yet live ; but if he utterly lose his feeling, he cannot live. Such a dead senseless heart is the hard heart, as appeareth in the wicked by that great security, ease, and quiet •which they naturally have, though lying under the guilt of many and grievous sins ; and though they be obnoxious to the wrath of God, yet they are never troubled nor affected with any sense of their condition ; they can sin freely in thought, foully in act, without any remorse and shame. Ah assiietis 7ion Jit passio. Men are not moved by such things as they -are much used to. As they that live by the fall of great waters sleep quietly because they are accustomed to the noise, so men that are accustomed to sin can swear, and be drunk, and commit filthiness, or go on in some other trade of wickedr.jss, and are never troubled. Mithridates through the custom of drinking poison made it so familiar to him that he drank it without dangei." Elementa non gravitant in suis locis — Elements weigh not in their proper place, A fish in the water feeleth no weight ; sin is not burdensome to wicked men, it is in its own place. This insensibleness is the greater where men -will not be awakened out of their lethargic fit by all the means which God useth to them, by the threatenings of his word, or the judgments of his providence. There is a method in God's dispensations ; he threateneth that he may not punish, and punisheth now that he may not punish for ever. Now the children of God are startled at the thi-eatenings, and tremble when they see a storm in the clouds before it falleth ; as Josiah had a tender heart, and melted at the thi-eatening, 2 Chron. xxxiv. 27. And they are said to ' tremble at the word,' Isa. Ixvi. 2, and Ezra ix. 4. But wicked men think this is a vain scare- crow ; and though they are most obnoxious to the judgment and wrath of God, yet they have no sense and tender feeling of it ; therefore God goeth on to his second dispensation ; he punisheth now that he may not punish for ever. As Absalom set Joab's barley-field on fire that he might draw him to come and speak with him, so God seeketh to make men serious, to bring them to the throne of grace, and sue out their pardon, by many temporal judgments. But still wicked men start aside, and will not turn to him that smiteth them : Jer. v. 3, ' Thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved ; thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction.' As the anvil is smoothed into hardness by many blows and strokes, so are men more