7. Hardness of heart groweth and increaseth on us more and more, if we let it alone : Zech. vii. 11, 12, ' But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear ; yea, 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.' There are so many degrees men- tioned ; first they grow slight and careless, and do not care to hear what you say ; then they refuse to obey what they have heard ; then they grow sermon-proof; they can hear, and have no benefit by it. As long as the word doth any way affect a sinner, there is some hope ; but within a while conscience smiteth not, and men have gotten the victory over their fears and scruples ; and thus they go on from natural to voluntary, and from voluntary to judicial hardness of heart, and so are a ready prey for the devil.
8. Dilatory excuses are the last refuge of an hard heart. When they can no longer withstand a conviction, they adjourn and put off
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the compliance with Gods will, and so elude the importunity of the present conviction. Felix his heart boggled : Acts xxiv. 25, and as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled, and said, Go thy way for this time ; when I have a convenient season I will call for thee/ Mind the })resent season, when God is affording opportunities of getting grace : Heb. iii. 7, 8, ' To-day, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts ; ' Ps. cxix. 60, ' I made haste, and delayed not to keep thy commandments.' Zaccheus, Luke xix. 6, ' He made haste, and came down, and received him joy- fully.' Peter and Andrew, Mark iv. 20, ' They straightway left their nets and followed him : Paul, Gal. i. 16, ' Immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood.' If God hath given you any will and inclination for the present, it is an advantage. Sin, the longer it continueth, the stronger it groweth. He that doth not go over at the fountain-head will not be able to go over when the stream groweth broader ; and the farther he goes downward, the broader still he findeth it. Ev-ery day's impeniteucy bringeth on a new degree of hardness. Would a man that is to drink that which to his knowledge is poisoned put the more into his cup, and then take it oflF, out of a presumption that at length he shall find an antidote ? Alas ! thou mayest be poisoned and dead before the antidote comes.
SERMON III.
And Jesus looked round about on them luith anget', being grieved for the hardness of their hearts. — Mark iii. 5.
Use 1. Of trial Is this'our state ? Take the two properties to judge by — insensibleness and inflexibleness.
First, A hard heart is insensible ; insensible of providences, of the word, and of the state of the soul.
1, Insensible of providences.
[1.] Of mercies : either of the author of mercies ; they never look np to the God of their mercies : Hosea ii. 8, ' She did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold;* as swine, that feed upon the acorns, but never look up to the tree from whence they fall : Cant. iv. 1, ' Behold thou art fair, my love ; behold thou art fair ; thou hast doves' eyes.' As doves peck, and look upwards. It is a sign of a tender heart to see God in every mercy. A drowsy and inattentive soul never heedeth it, is wholly swallowed up in present enjoyments, and looketh no further. It is our privilege above the beasts to know the first cause ; other creatures live upon God, but they are not capable of knowing God ; they glorify God in their kind, but we may know him. Idolatry and sottishness had never crept into the world if men had owned the first cause ; or of the end of mercies, which is to draw in our hearts to God : therefore they are called cords of a
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man : Hosea xi. 4, ' I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love ; ' Esther vi. 3, ' What honour and dignity hath been done to Mordecai for this ? ' 2 Sam. vii. 2, ' Then the king said unto Nathan the prophet, See now I dwell in an house of cedar, but the ark of God dwelleth within curtains.' When the heart is urging to duty upon this score, God hath been good to me, he hath given me food and raiment ; what have I done for God ? Now the heart is hard when we are not sensible of his daily providence and gracious supplies in this kind : 2 Sam. xii. 7-9, * Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and delivered thee out of the hand of Saul ; and I gave thee thy master's house, and thy master's wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah ; and if that had been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things. Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord, to do evil in his sight ? ' David had lost his awe of God, because he had not a thankful sense of the mercies of God.