204 SERMONS UPON MARK III. 5.
saith the Lord ; ' andlsa. Ivii. 18, ' I have seen his ways, and will heal him ; I will lead him also, and restore comforts to him, and to his mourners.' But an hard heart is no match for God ; it is ever foiled in the enterprise: if they yield not to his mercy, they are consumed by his wrath. Pharaoh would contend with God, but found his maker too hard for him at last; so Julian the apostate. Ezek. xxii. 14, ' Can thy heart endure, or can thy hands be strong in the days that I shall deal with thee ? I the Lord have spoken it, and will do it ; ' and 1 Cor. x. 22, ' Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy ? are we stronger than he? ' It is a foolish contest ; it ever endeth with our destruction.
2. It is in itself the sorest of all judgments. When other means are urged in vain, God giveth them up to hardness of heart ; it is one of the chains of darkness, in which captive souls are held unto eternal judgment. A stormy conscience, that lietli under the power of perplex- ing despairing fears, is not so bad as an hard heart. They are both chains of darkness, despair, and obstinacy, as in the devils ; but in men, despair may make way for repentance. God hath them in the briers ; many are brought to heaven by the gates of hell, God hath began with them, but left these. Again, it will end in despair. The heart that is not sensible now will then be sensible enough. We read of ' the worm that never dieth, and the fire that shall never be quenched,' Mark ix. 44. In hell men will remember how every sabbath God did stretch out the arms of his mercy to embrace them, and they would not ; how Clirist offered a plaster of his own heart's blood to cure them, but they refused it, and made light of it ; how the Holy Ghost put many good motions into their hearts, but they rejected these thoughts, and would not be interrupted in their ease and false peace. Oh ! the deep wounds and stings these thoughts will occasion when it is too' late !
3. It never goeth alone, but bringeth other judgments along with it. Pharaoh had plague upon plague : Zech. vii. 12, ' They made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the Lord of hosts hath sent in his Spirit, by the former prophets ; therefore came a great wrath from the Lord of hosts ; ' more than ordinary displeasure. So Prov. xxix. 1, ' He that, being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.' They shall be destroyed, not afflicted only, and that without remedy ; there shall be none to help. And Kom. ii. 5, ' After thy hard- ness and impenitent heart, treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.' God will harden his heart against you, shut up his bowels against you in your greatest straits ; when his patience is quite spent, God will retaliate: Zech. vii. 12, 13, 'They made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, &c. Therefore it is come to pass, that, as he cried and they would not hear, so they cried and I would not hear, saith the Lord of hosts.' There is a time when the stoutest- hearted sinner, who careth least for God, shall stand in need of his help, and would give the whole world for one favourable look from God. But, oh, no ! not a glimpse, not the least answer. God's children meet with sad suspensions sometimes : Cant. v. 6, ' I sought him, but I could not find him ; I called him, but he gave me no answer.' He seemeth
SERMONS UPON MARK III, 5. 205
not to hear their prayers when they are dead to his counsels ; he will make them sensible of their unkind, ungracious treating of him.
4. It is the great hindrance in the spiritual life ; it deprivcth you of grace. The Spirit of God will not animate a stony heart ; a body of flesh is only fit to be animated with a living soul ; so the heart of flesh, or tender heart, by the Spirit of God: Ezek. xi. 19, 20, 'I will give them one heart, and I will put a new Spirit within you, and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and Avill give them an heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes, and keep my ordinances, and do them ; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.' So Isa. Ivii. 15, ' Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose UEmie is Holy ; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.' There is God present with his graces, God hath two places of special residence — the highest heaven, and the humblest heart. In the one is the presence of his glory, in the other of his grace. When the spirit is humbled and softened, it is a fit pillow for God to rest on ; the hard heart hindereth us in duty, it is an hard heart that maketh our work hard. If once the will were gained, all things would be easy in religion : Eom. viii. 7, ' The carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.' It is not subject to God, but averse from him.