3. Custom in sinning. As an highway is trodden hard by long travelling in it, so the heart by long custom groweth more obstinate every day. In sin there is not only a fault, guilt, but a blot, a stronger inclination to the practice of the same sin again ; as a brand that has been once in the fire is more apt to burn again. Every new oath is as oil to the tongue, to make it more glib and fleet in the repetition of that oath or vain speech. There is a natural tenderness in men whilst young, at least, a lesser degree of hardness, wliich will get strength by use and age if not in time cured : Jer. xiii. '23, ' How can ye do good that are accustomed to do evil ? ' Water when it first freezeth will not bear the weight of a pin, but afterwards by continual freezing it cometh to bear a cart-load.
4. Hypocrisy. Take it for dissembling, whereby we deceive others ; or formality, whereby we deceive ourselves. For dissembling : the pharisees were a dissembling generation, and they are the famous instances of hardness of heart in the first gospel days. Hypocrisy is a
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constant lie, and every lie is a sin against light. When men take a religion out of design, their pretences condemn them. Men sin, and are secured against the stroke of the word and checks of conscience by their fame and plausible appearance. Then for formal performing of good duties : Prov. vii. 14, ' I have peace-offerings with me ; this day have I paid my vows.' I do this and that, I read so many chapters a day, and keep to my church. Men think they have done enough though they have done never so little. Hardness of heart is often occa • sioned by the ordinances. Now how do ordinances harden ? They may harden partly as they irritate corruption, but chiefly as they are trusted in. Duties soundly done humble men, as new wine rendeth and break- eth old bottles all to pieces. But when formal duties are used as a sleepy sop to stop the mouth of conscience, the heart is insensibly hardened. Every man must have a religion to lean to. Conscience, like the stomach when it hath no solid food, draweth wind.
5. Pride and stubborness against God. Men scorn to be controlled : Exod. V. 2, ' And Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go ? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go ; ' Neh. ix. 29, ' They dealt proudly, and hearkened not unto thy commandments, but sinned against thy judgments, and withdrew the shoulder, and hardened their neck, and would not hear ; ' Jer. xiii. 15, 'Hear ye, and give ear; be not proud, for the Lord hath spoken.' Men scorn to submit to ordinances, to be checked by God's messengers, and say, What have we to do with them ? In this light of Christianity the contempt is cast upon the messenger, though indeed the heart riseth against the authority of God himself. One great cure of hard- ness of heart is seriously to meditate on God's power : Deut. x. 16, 17, ' Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff- necked ; for the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, a great God, a miglity, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor ttiketh reward.' Do you know what God is? Will you contend with him ? You will fail in the enterprise ; you cannot be hard-hearted if you would, in the issue of the combat. Pride is the root of all sin. What is the reason men dare sin ? They think they shall carry it out well enough for all God, and so suffer their lusts to perk above the commandment.
6. The deceitfalness of sin : Heb. iii. 15. ' Lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.' Now, how doth sin deceive us, and so harden the heart ?
[1.] By general invectives. We all cry out of sin, and complain of sin, and yet all this while regard it in our hearts. We make sin a notion, and so defy it in the general, when in particulars we love it all the while ; as many ignorant people defy the devil but hold the crown upon his head, for he is the ruler of the darkness of this world. The devil careth not for ill words so he can keep possession of the heart. We make sin the common packhorse to bear all our burdens. Men content themselves with empty declamations or forms of satire and invective, yet the heart liketh it well enough, and so is insensibly hardened ; they are not serious and particular. Men look upon matters of religion as abstracted ideas and matters of fancy. Oh I take heed of this.
202 SKRMONS UPON MARK III. 5.
[2.] By delaying : Acts xxiv. 25, ' Go thy way for this time ; when I have a convenient season I will call for thee.' Cliristian, it is but a deceit ; take heed thy heart be not hardened by it. What reason hast thou to presume of that which God can only give ? If Cassar had read the letters overnight to prevent the conspiracy, he had been safe. What security have you, either of time or grace, but your own pre- sumptions ? and he that is security to himself is a fool. It is true all may be redressed by repentance, but this is not in thy power, and thy hardness by delaying increaseth every day.