2. By an unteachableness, so as not to apprehendought that is spiritual. To be ignorant is one thing, to be unteachable is another : Ezek. xii. 2, * Son of man, thou dwellest in the midst of a rebellious house, which have eyes to see, and see not ; they have ears to hear, and hear not : for they are a rebellious house ; ' Acts xxviii. 26, ' Go unto this people, and say. Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand ; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive.' They do not see what they do see ; they have no spiritual discerning, though a grammatical know- ledge : Job V. 14, ' They meet with darkness in the daytime, and grope
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in the noonday as in the night.' They ave simple in the midst of rational advantages ; as the disciples : Luke xxiv. 16, ' Their eyes were holden, that they should not know him. They see the general truth, but make no application. When a man is shown a thing, and he minds it not, but his mind is on another object, that man may be said to see and not to see, because he doth not regard it. Or a man that hath a matter come before him, he heareth it, but his mind being otherwise employed, he regardeth it not ; in which sense he may be said to hear and not to hear. Not to apply is not to regard ; in seeing rationally and literally, he doth not see spiritually, with any life and power. There is a literal knowledge, and there is a spiritual know- ledge ; the literal knowledge is that which the hard heart may have. It is said, 2 Cor. iii. 3, ' Ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ, ministered by us ; written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God ; not in tables of stone, but in the fleshly tables of the heart.' It is an allusion to the law of Moses, Consider it in the letter, as separated from the Spirit, and only as a law written in stone, wherein there is a naked direction of life, but no power ; so a stony heart may see, but in seeing they see not. But the Spirit of Christ writeth it on the mind and heart, and maketh the heart docile and tractable: Kom. vii. 6, ' That we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.' The letter of the law only manifested duty, but gave no power to perform it ; it discovered corruption, but gave no strength to subdue it ; it was written in tables of stone, to show the hardness of man's heart. But now the law, when it cometh in upon us with a spiritual light, softeneth and strengtheneth the heart, and maketh it docile and pliable to God's counsel.
3. By an unwillingness to be admonished in public or private : if in public, the greater the evil. Private admonition is a kind of charge, a closer application. To storm against private admonition argueth an ill spirit, when men are loath to be disturbed in the ways of sin. But much more against public admonition, where the application ariseth not so much from a personal charge as from their own consciences. When men cannot endure sound doctrine, it is a dangerous crisis, that which the prophet Jeremiah speaketh of, chap. vi. 10, ' To whom shall I speak and give warning, that they may hear ? Behold, their ear is nncircumcised, and they cannot hearken ; behold, the word of the Lord is unto them a reproach, they have no delight in it' Surely men delight in Satan's arms when they are loath to be plucked from thence. Satan hath made his nest there, and is loath to be disturbed : 2 Sam. xxiii, 6, 7, ' But the sons of Belial shall be all of them as thorns thrust away, because they cannot be taken with hands ; but the man that shall touch them must be fenced with iron and the staff of a spear.' The sons of Belial are compared to thorns that cannot be touched with hands, but rend and tear those that meddle with them. Men are angry that they cannot quietly enjoy their lusts. Plausible strains are very suitable to a carnal heart, or tame lectures of contemplative divinity ; but sound doctrine, that rendeth and teareth the conscience, is not endured.
4. By scoflfing at the word. The chair of the scorner is a prefer- ment in sin : Ps. i. 1, 'Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth
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in the seat of the scornful ; ' Jer. xxiii. 34-36, ' And as for the prophet, and the priest, and the people that shall say, The burden of the Lord, I will even punish that man and his house. Thus shall ye say every one to his neighbour, and every one to his brother, What hath the Lord answered ? and what hath the Lord spoken ? And the burden of the Lord shall ye mention no more ; for every man's word shall be his burden; for ye have perverted the words of the living God, of the Lord of hosts our God,' &c. The prophets used to begin their pro- phecies with * The burden of the Lord ; ' and they would in mockery demand, What burden they had from the Lord for them ? Now shall we hear again of the burden of the Lord. Saith God, ' Every man's word shall be his burden ; ' that is, you shall dearly pay for this scoffing language ; yoiu' words shall be your burden. But these marks may not be close enough, let me propound other things.