How then doth he harden the heart ? I answer— (1.) Negatively ; (2.) Affirmatively.
1. Negatively. In the explication of this matter we must avoid both extremes ; some say too much of it, others too little.
[1.] We must not say too much, lest we leave a stain and blemish upon the divine glory.
(1.) God infuseth no hardness and sin as he infuseth grace. All influences from heaven are sweet and good, not sour. Evil cannot come from the Father of lights. God enforceth no man to do evil.
(2.) God doth not excite the inward propension to sin ; that is Satan's work. He persuadeth it not ; it hath neither command, nor approbation, nor influence, nor impulse from heaven. In all these ways we must look upon man's sin. All sin is a child begotten by that incubus of hell on the corrupt soul of man ; it is poured out as- milk into the womb of their hearts, and there it is curdled as cheese.
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[2.] We mnst not give it too little. God doth not harden by bare prescience, because God foreseeth other sins, and yet they are not ascribed to God ; he is not said to kill, or to steal, or to do wrong, as he is to harden. There is a difference between God's concurrence to this sin and others. It is not only by way of manifestation, that is, by his plagues and judgments he declareth how hard it is. God hardened Pharaoh, say some, that is, by frequency of judgments showed how hard his heart was. The prayer by which we deprecate this evil showeth the meaning of it. We would not say, Lord, show not how hard I am by thy many judgments upon me; but. Lord harden not my heart, lead me not into temptation, incline not my heart to any evil thing. And it doth not hold good in other instances : Deut. ii. 30, ' Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him, for the Lord thy God hardened his spirit, and made his heart obstinate.' There was no such long process to make it evident they had hard hearts. So Josh, xi 20, ' For it was of the Lord to harden their hearts, that they should not come against Israel in battle.' So that there is somewhat besides an evident manifestation to the world by continued judgments that it is hard. Nor is it by a mere idle permission (for there is besides that his decree,, and a judicial action of providence), as if God were like the heathen's Jupiter, who was feasting in Ethiopia while things were out of order in Greece. Or at least such think God hath no more to do than a man that standeth on the shore and seeth a ship ready to be di'owned when he might have helped it ; there is somewhat more than so. Nor is it merely by desertion and suspension of grace. It is true this is a part, but not all ; as a captain leaving his soldiers in the midst of a battle, may be said to leave them in the enemies' hands. God concurreth not only by way of permission and patience, but by way of action and power ; not making hardness, but doing and willing the things whereby the sinner is hardened. Besides his decrees, there is his judicial sentence, and an active providence in order thereunto. Many things concur to the hardening of the heart, all which God willeth and intendeth, but justly. The wicked take these occasions of their own accord ; Satan tempteth out of his own malice ; but all this cannot be done without the will of God ; there is at least a permissive intention. If there were not God's overruling it, then he were not God omnipotent ; there is a supreme power overruling and ordering everything that is done in the world. It was God's will that Pharaoh should be hardened, that he might dispose of it to the ends of his providence : Exod. ix. 16, ' And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, for to show in ihee my power, and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth.' If there were only a naked idle permission, then it may be said that he suffereth the heart to be hardened rather than hardeneth it, which is the phrase used.
2. Affirmatively, how God doth harden- The inward way is won- derful ; as God's drawing sinners is secret, so is his hardening. But if you ask me by what means it is accomplished ? I answer —
[1.] By desertion, by taking away the restraints of grace, whereby he letteth them loose to their own hearts : Ps. Lxxxi. 12, ' So I gave them up unto their own hearts' lusts, and they walked in their own counsels.' Man in regard of his inclinations to sin is like a greyhound
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held by a slip or collar ; when the hare is in sight, take away the slip, and the greyhound runneth violently after the hare, according to his inbred disposition. Men are held in by the restraints of grace, which, when removed, they are left to their own swing, and run into all excess of riot. Thus God took away his good Spirit from Saul : 1 Sam. xvi. 14, ' But the Spirit of the Lord departed from him, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him.' Take away the pillar that sustaineth the house, and then the house falleth of itself, God taketh away his grace, and then all runneth to ruin ; as darkness ensueth upon the withdraw- ing of light. Now herein God is not to be blamed.