2. The next distinction is, that hardness of heart is either total or partial. Some are in the state of hardness, others complain of it as their present frame. There is a difference between hardness of heart and an hard heart. Some hardness of heart is in God's children : Mark vi. 52, ' They considered not the miracle of the loaves, for their lieart was hardened ; ' and Mark xvi. 14, ' He upbraided them for their unbelief and hardness of heart.^ Original hardness of heart is not altogether taken away by grace. Much of the heart of stone, or old nverseness from God and holy things, remaineth with God's children ; l)ut yet they are not wholly insensible, and wholly inflexible to God's jiurpose ; their hearts are bent to his testimonies, though ever and anon they are apt to fall back to the old bias. Therefore David prayeth, Ps. cxix. 36, ' Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, and not to covetousness.' The children of God do often complain of deadness and un aptness for holy things ; yet there is not in them that obstinacy, impenitency, and hardness of heart, that is in the wicked : Rom. ii. 5, * But after thy hardness and impenitent heart, treasurest up unto thy- self wrath against the day of wrath.' In the one it is bemoaned, in the other not; in the one it arisethfrom negligence and drowsiness, in the other from flat disobedience and enmity to God. When God's children give too free a contentment and license to the flesh, they have not that sense, that liveliness in prayer, that readiness to obey, that delight in the word, as at other times ; but the other are contemptuou.s and scornful, and do not set their hearts this way, to please God or enjoy his favour. In the wicked there is a careless security, no sense of their eternal condition ; they banish it out of their thoughts : Amos vi. 3, ' Ye put far away the evil day.' If it intrude upon them, they look upon it as a melancholy interruption ; they seek to put ofi" what they do not put away ; yea, there is a plain reluctancy and opposition to good things, and a contempt of God's messages. But in the other
198 SKUMONS UPON MARK III. 5.
there may be some Imnging off from God, for original sin is not quite (lone away, especially under a distemper occasioned by carnal liberty: Luke xxi. 34, ' Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life ; and so that day come upon you unawares.' A christian is a compound creature ; he hath hardness as well as softness. When their hardness prevaileth, for the present they mourn less for sin, and do not tremble at tlie word, and are not affected with providences, slight the warnings and motions of the Holy Spirit, are more dead in duty, find not alike savour in the promises, and duties seem more irksome to them. An liard heart maketh their work seem hard and tedious.
3. The next distinction is, that hardness of heart is either felt or unfelt.
[1.] Felt, as by men under a preparative work, and in God's children for hardness there may be in them ; yea, it is their condition as long as they are in the world. Grief for hardness is a good sign that there are some tender parts left. An heart judicially hardened can never feel that hardness, nor grieve for it ; but the children of God fear it as the greatest evil, and complain of it as the greatest burden, and so accordingly strive against it. Thus Ephraim bemoaned himself, and his obstinacy and inflexibleness : Jer. xxxi. 18, ' I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus : Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke : turn thou me, and I shall be turned ; for thou art the Lord my God.' There is hope of cure when they are sensible of the disease : they fear it in themselves and others as the greatest evil : Heb. iii. 12, 13, ' Take heed, brethren lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God: but exhort one another daily, while it is called to-day, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.' Of all judgments, the judgment of the hard heart is worst. They com- plain of it as the greatest burden : Isa. Ixiii. 17, ' 0 Lord why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? They find much deadness and dulness of spirit ; they are not affected with God's presence in duties, nor with his providences in the world. This is their complaint and burden. Lord 1 have a stiff neck, that will not easily be brought under the strict duties of religion, to meditate and to pray in private ; I have a proud stubborn heart, too hard for me to take down. Thus do they complain of these things, and strive against it. As a man that hath a stone in the bladder, he useth good means to soften it, and is careful of his diet, so are God's children sensible, and therefore fearful and careful, often bemoaning themselves,