[3.] Gross hypocrisy. This is a constant lie, a contempt of God, an habitual and customary stifling and smothering of checks of conscience; for their form and profession showeth what they should be, and if they were what they seem to be, all would be well. Men have light enough to take on the form of religion, and sin enough to resist the power of it. And therefore their judgment is the greater ; for their whole life being a constant rebelling against the light, they are left to perish by their own deceivings: 2 Thes. ii. 10, 11, 'Because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved, for this cause God shall send them strong delusions, that they should believe a lie.' The car- nal christian being not brought to true faith and sincere repentance, God giveth them up that they may be deceived by every vain pre- tence.
[4.] Apostasy from grace received. Men are not only warmed, but begin to have a taste. They that take up with some profession of the things of God, but afterwards fall away again to looseness and vanity and worldliness, they are more left by God than others : Heb. vi. 4-6, ' For it is impossible for them who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again to repentance. ' For they dishonour him more, and bring an evil report upon God, The devil hath more power over them ; as a prisoner that hath made his escape, if he be taken afterwards, hath more chains put upon him : 2 Peter ii. 21, 22, ' For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than after they have known it to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them : for it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again, and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.' They themselves are made more incapable of ever owning the ways of God again ; it is impossible they should renew themselves, it groweth up into wilful malice : Heb. x. 26, ' For if we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins.' Grace will not pardon them, the Mediator will not intercede for them. Apostates sunt maximi osores sui ordinis — Apostates hate the ways they have professed : Hosea v. 2, ' The revolters are pro- found to make slaughter.' None so cross and malicious and perverse in their cause.
[5.] Sottish despair (there is a raging despair, and a sottish despair ; the one is when conscience is terrified, the other when it is stupefied), when to custom in sinning there is added a passionate will : Jer. ii. 25, ' Thou sayest, There is no hope ; no, for I have loved strangers,
236 SERMONS UPON EXODUS IV. 21.
and after them will I go ; ' Jer. xviii. 11, 'And they said, There is no hope, but we will walk after our own devices, and we will everj' one do the imagination of his evil heart.' 11 podipr}cn<; ovk iarlv dBwdroyv, men do not use to consult about things that are impossible. It is said of the Israelites, Exod. vi. 9, 'They hearkened not unto Moses for anguish of spirit and for cruel bondage.' Lust is so deeply rooted that they cannot help it ; the case is desperate, they are at a point ; as we use to say, Past cure, past care; they grow out of heart, and so lie down under the power of their lusts ; they resolve to persist in their sins, to live as they list, and it is to no purpose to speak to them.
Tliirdhj, Of God's hardening as a father, in a way of the highest fatherly anger and displeasure. This may be so : Isa. Ixiii. 17, * O Lord, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from tliy fear ? ' This is a partial hardness. There may be desertion in point of grace, though some tenderness left in the under- standing, that discerneth good and evil ; in the conscience, that is dissatisfied in its present state ; in the will, that owneth the ways of God ; so that there is a general purpose to please him in all things. Yet the heart groweth dead and stupid ; there is an inaptness for holy things ; they are less sensible of the evil of sin ; they have not such delight in the word, nor rejoicing in hope, nor freedom for prayer, nor patience under afflictions, nor complacency in communion with God. And it is sad when it is so, when to sense there is little differ- ence between them and the wicked ; there is hardness in a stone, and hardness in a piece of wax. I will show the causes of this, and the means to cure it.
1. The causes of this are —
[1.] Sinning against conscience. There are sins of daily incursion and sudden surreption ; and there are sins of presumption, into which God's children may in some rare cases fall, but then they make great waste and havoc in their souls ; as David's great sin, by which he lost that free spirit, and was forced to beg a new creation, as if all were to begin again : Ps. li. 10-12, ' Create in me a clean heart, 0 God, and renew a right spirit within me ; cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit from me ; restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me by thy free Spirit.' Many are the mischiefs which come by such sins. Partly God's love is obstructed, that he is not so ready to do them good : Isa. lix. 2, ' Your iniquities have separ- ated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear ; ' that is, the good-will and favour of God is, as it were, bound up, and hindered from showing itself in all those gracious effects which otherwise it would put forth for our comfort and peace. He doth not actually pardon their sins, nor make them par- takers of spiritual benefit sin so ample and full a measure as otherwise he would ; but holds his hand, and cuts you short in spiritual blessings, which otherwise he would plentifully dispense unto his people. Partly they exceedingly weaken the work of giace which is wrought upon their hearts. Their faith is more dead, their love is more cold than it was, hope is languid, the spiritual life is interrupted, and at a stand ; though the seed of God remains, yet it cannot put forth itself with such vigour and efficacy. Yea, they may never recover such a portion