VI, The observations concerning this spiritual malady.
1. With spiritual hardness of heart there may be a natural and sinful tenderness. Some men have a natural softness and sweetness of spirit as to commerce with men, yea, rather a faulty easiness, yet they are very hard-hearted as to God ; as Zedekiah : Jer. xxxviii. 5, * The king'is not he that can do anything against you.' He was easily drawn by company and evil counsel. Usually it is so ; an hard heart is like wax to the devil, but as a stone to God, hardened against goodness, but €xorable and easy to be entreated by sin and Satan. If the devil do but whist, they find an irresistible power in his temptations. If carnal men do but hold up the finger, it is a strong cord to draw them to excess. The looks and speeches of the harlot are enough to cause them to follow, though it be like an ox to the slaughter: Prov. vii. 21, 22, * With much fair speech she caused him to yield ; with the flattering of her lips she forced him : he goeth after her straightway as an ox to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks.' God may I)lead and tell us of grace and glory, but we mind it not. A diamond is not wrought U})on but by its own dust. On the contrary, men may have a stout heart in dangers that are very yielding and trembling in point of sins : Prov, xxviii, 14, ' Happy is the man that feareth always ; but he that hardeneth his heart shall fall into mischief,' David could encounter lions, bears, and giants, yet in what a weeping humble pos- ture is he when he hath to do with God ! It is good to be a coward in sin, puling and weak-hearted as to any contest with God,
2, Small sins harden as well as great sins; it is hard to say which most. It is confessed for the present little sins do not deaden and harden the heart so much as great ; as a prick of a pin maketh a man start, but an heavy blow stunneth him, and leaveth him dead for a while. David, when he cut off the lap of Saul's garment, and had some revengeful
206 SERMONS UPON MARK IIL 5.
intention against his soveriegn, he quickly perceived his error : ' Hi3 heart smote him/ 1 Sara. xxiv. 5. But when he committed the foul 8in of adultery, he lay insensible for a long space of time. But on the other side, little sins do by degrees harden. Great sins are apparent and liable to the judgment of conscience, but we neglect small sins, and so a custom groweth upon us, and we are insensibly hardened by our carelessness and constant neglect of our souls. A surfeit or violent distemper maketh us run to the physician, but when a disease groweth upon us by degrees, it proveth mortal ere we regard it ; therefore we should make conscience of daily failings : Heb. iii. 13, ' Exhort one another daih% while it is called to-day, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitful ness of sin.' Great falls, as they astonish us for the present, so they awaken conscience afterwards, and so we regard that and other sins ; as when a great sound hath awakened us out of a deep sleep, we easily hear lesser sounds ; but men slide into a carnal frame of heart unawares. Qui nunquam delirat, semper erit fatiius. We would never grow wise but for some notable acts of folly. Chryso- stom saith that we should be more watchful of small sins than of great. Nature abhorreth these, but the other slide into us. A little leak imespied drowneth the ship as well as a great breach. If we would look more to small things, so many great mischiefs would not ensue.
3. Sins of omission harden as well as sins of commission, yea, some- times more ; a neglect of duties as well as the practice of gross sins ; because they use not the means whereby the heart may be kept soft and in a due remembrance of God and their duty to him. An instru- ment never so well in tune, if it lie by, it soon groweth out of kilter. In every sin of commission there is a sin of omission, but not the con- trary. A man may be civilly harmless, inoffensive, and yet have a very hard heart, if he hold no communion with God, and neglect the means whereby the heart may be kept tender. The neglect of good duties is a more general means of destruction than the commission of evil. Men are estranged from God by the neglect of the word and praj^er : Ps. xiv. 4, * They call not upon the Lord ; ' attend not upon the means of grace with that life and seriousness they ought to do.
4. None ai-e so confident of the goodness of their hearts as those that have an hard heart ; for the more any spiritual disease increaseth upon us, the less it is felt. There is hope, whilst there is some complaining of sin, that there is some tenderness left. The hardest heart must needs be the most confident, because they use no recollection and reflection upon themselves : Jer. viii. 6, ' No man repented him of his wickedness,, saying, What have I done ? ' What am I, what have I done ? Yea, they slight their danger, take up every vain pretence and allegation to maintain their carnal peace and quiet : Deut. xxix. 19, ' And it come to pass, when he hearetli the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of my heart, to add drunkenness to thirst : the Lord will not spare him,' &c. Broken-hearted christians are sensible of the holiness of God, and what an hard matter it is to hold communion with him, and observe their own weakness and unworthiness ; and therefore they complain of the badness of their hearts, that there is no greater bent towards God, and are always suspicious of their spiritual condition.