[5.] Carelessness and spiritual sloth. When we carelessly entertain the motions of his Spirit, and lie upon the bed of ease, he is gone : Cant. V. 2, 3, ' I sleep, but my heart waketh : it is the voice of my be- loved that knocketh, saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled : for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night. I have put off my coat, how shall I put it on ? I have washed my feet, how shall I defile them ? ' and ver. 6, ' I rose up to open to my beloved, but my beloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone.' God's children may stifle many a pressing conviction and motion in their souls, hang off from the throne of grace and other good duties, and upon every frivolous pretence keep away from God. This unkind and ungracious dealing will cost them dear. Neglect of the means of grace quencheth the Spirit : 1 Thes. v. 19, 20, ' Quench not the Sjjirit ; despise not prophesyings.' Therefore we should be more diligent in the use of means : Mark iv. 24, ' Unto you that hear shall more be given.' We must more carefully obey the sanctifying motions of the Spirit if we mean to avoid hardness of heart.
2. The means to cure it.
[1.] Bewail the evil, and complain of it before God, who alone can help us. We complain of hard times, of the hard dealings of men, of hard duties. Durus est hie sermo, this is a hard saying, and who can hear it? But we seldom complain of that which we should most com- plain of, hardness of heart. The Lord is pleased with these complaints : Jer. xxxi. 18, ' I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus • Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke.' Spiritual distempers must be most laid to heart. God's children in some degree are inflexible and insensible ; there is too great
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toncLiness, and impatiency to be admonished, too much disobedience to the Spirit's sanctifying motions ; they are too often benumbed with the delights of the flesh, and cares of the world.
[2.] Hasten your repentance and return to God : Ps. cxix. 60, ' I made haste, and delayed not to keep thy commandments ; ' Gal. i. 16, Immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood.' To press this, let us consider these things —
(1.) How soon God may take an advantage against us we cannot tell. He hath not told us at what number of calls he will depart, and give us over to our own hearts ; but he hath bid us not to delay, and lose the present season : Heb. iii. 7, 8, ' To-day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.' The command is as express for the time as for the duty ; there is no season like the to vvv, the present season. It is but a flattering presumption to think that God will always stand waiting, Felix had but one call that we hear of, and he fooled it away to a more convenient season.
(2.) Every day spent in an unregenerate condition brings us nearer to destruction, and puts us upon a greater disadvantage : Eom. xiii. 11, ' Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.' Apari, we may say ; now is our damnation and final impenitency nearer.
(3.) Every call sets us yet nearer still. Sins are ripened by every call, as iron oft heated and oft quenched is the harder. When men are often sermon-scorched, they prove at length sermon-proof. The holy God will not cast his pearls before swine : Isa. lv^ 6, ' Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near.'
(4.) A presumptuous going on in sin, upon a supposition that we shall repent at last, is the very next door and step to hell. You wit- tingly continue under the devil's power. Life is uncertain. God may take you away in the act of sin, as he did Zimri and Cosbi, Korali and his accomplices ; or he may deny that space to call for mercy that you think of, for death doth not always give warning ; or by an apoplexy, or lethargy, or some stupefying distemper, he may deprive you of the use of your reason. Let this rouse and awaken you out of your fond pre- sumptions.
[3.] Beware of tendencies to it, when the heart begins to harden ; as —
(1.) When you are not sensible of God's withdrawings, when there are any suspensions of his grace, the comfort and conduct of his Spirit, and the soul is stupid. It is sad not to be sensible of the accesses and recesses of the Spirit : Mat. ix. 25, ' The days shall come when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast.' Grace stands in a continual watchfulness and observation of all God's deal- ings. Felt desertions are grievous, but not so dangerous as those that are unfelt. It is some good degree of grace not to be quiet without God.