[2.] Unfelt ; so it is in wicked men, who never consider the frame of their hearts, or bemoan themselves because of spiritual evils. The heart of stone is not sensible of itself; and so God's children for a while may be under great desertions and the guilt of heinous sins, and be insensible ; after gross falls they may lie in hardness for a while, till God rouse them up again. Great falls are like a blow upon the Kead, that stuns us and amazes us for a while, and it is some good while ere we recover again. David's conscience was not presently awakened. Spiritual lethargies are long fits. David lay ten months from the con-
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■ception to the birth of his child, and yet all this while did formall\' use Ood's ordinances and public service. Nathan comes to him after the child was born : 2 Sam. xii. 14, ' The child that is born unto thee shall surely die.' And he never relented till Nathan came to him, as appeareth by the title of the 51st psalm, ' A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came to him after he had gone into Bathsheba.' All this while grace was not dead, but in a deep sleep. The least sin maketh way for hardness of heart, much more sins against conscience ; there is a more long sequestration then. God will not let you enjoy the comforts and effectual presence of his spirit. These blows and wounds will leave you for dead for a long while.
SERMON IL
And Jesus looked round about on them xoiiJi anger ^ being grieved for the hardness of their hearts. — Mark iii. 5.
IV. The causes of hardness of heart.
1. Ignorance. The blind mind and the hard heart always go together : John xii. 40, ' He hath blinded their minds, and hardened their hearts, that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their hearts.' Men are first unteachable, then unpliable. Obstinacy be- ginneth at sottishness of conceit. He that knoweth not what he ought to do careth not much what he doth. The children of God never feel hardness in their hearts but when the light in their minds is unactive or obscured ; there is a kind of darkness for that time. We see that the most carnal wretches, when they come to die, are sensible ; when the mind is cleared from the fogs of lust, and conscience is awakened, then they feel a great weight of sin upon them. Light always begets tenderness, as in a clear vessel the dregs do soon appear. Well, then, either they are ignorant, or have but a naked theory, not the lively light of the Spirit ; and hence it is that their hearts are hardened.
2. Unbelief ; for it is faith that maketh all truths active and lively. The great motives and arguments of religion are mainly fetched from things to come. Now it is not enough to know the things of the world to come, but there must be an hearty assent to them, as if we did see them before our eyes. Things that are at a distance are as nothing to us, as the stars appear as so many spangles, they lose much of their greatness. Men sin, and no evil cometh of it, therefore they grow bold and senseless in sin : Eccles. viii. 11, ' Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do eviL' They grow remiss and slack in their duty. The reward is not by and by : Mai. iii. 14, * Ye have said. It is in vain to serve God, and what profit is it that we have kept his ordin- ances, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts ? ' We are for a present good. Now, ' Faith is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen/ Heb. xi. 1. It maketh
200 SERMONS UPON MARK III. 5.
things present as if we did see them with our eyes, as if the judgment- seat were set and the books were opened. Those that hardened their hearts did not beheve what God said was true, Heb. iii. 7-18. If men did believe there were an heaven, and hell, and judgment to come, they would not lie in their sins, they could not be unpliable to God's motions. All disrespect of promises and threatenings cometh from un- belief. Christ did chide his disciples for their unbelief and hardness of heart, Mark xvi. 14. What is the reason that though we preach the law and the judgment of God so much to you, and beseech you to come in and receive Christ, and you shall be saved, and this time after time, and day after day, and yet the word hath no effect upon you, you are as ignorant and careless as ever ? The reason is you do not believe. Certainly the word would work otherwise than it doth if you did believe it. If one should tell a man that such an earthly potentate, if he would but come to him and visit him, would raise him to great honour, it would be the first thing he would do. Truly so, if you did believe that coming to Christ were the only way to happiness, you would mind it more seriously than you do. Again, if you did believe that the word of God is true, that God is a just God ; if the drunkard did believe that drunkards should be damned ; or the adulterer did believe that no adulterer shall inherit the kingdom of God ; or if the vain per- son or the gamester did believe that they must give an account of their misspent time, and idle words, and vain communication, they would not sport themselves in their sins as they do. If men did believe that God calleth when and whom he listeth, they would not defer their repentance and put off the motions of the Spirit, but would strike while the iron is hot, and let out the sails when the wind bloweth. But men do not believe, and therefore go on in their sins as they do. Tell men of earthly things, of a commodity which, if they would but buy, it would yield an hundred for one, surely they would not neglect the market. We press men to renounce but a little ease and carnal pleasures, and to use diligence to get Christ into their hearts, and they shall have a hundred for one ; but men want faith, therefore Christ lieth by as a refuse coumiodity. There is nothing breedeth hardness of heart so much as unbelief of what God can and will do.