2. There belongs unto it an [un]affectedness with the guilt of sin, as unto the sorrow and repentance that it doth require. There is none in whom there is any spark of saving grace but hath a gracious sorrow for sin, in some degree or other. But there is a proportion required between sin and sorrow. Great sins require great sorrows, as Peter, on his great sin, “ wept bitterly;” and all especial aggrava- tions of sin require an especial sense of them. This the soul finds not in itself. It bears the thoughts of sin and the rebukes of con- science without any great. concussion or remorse; it can pass over the charge of sin without relenting, mourning, dissolving im sighs and tears; and it cannot but say sometimes thereon that its heart is
536 OF THE DOMINION OF SIN AND GRACE.
like the adamant or the flint in the rock. This makes many fear that they are under the dominion of sin; and they fear it the more be- cause that fear doth not affect and humble them as it ought. And it must be granted that all unaffectedness with sin, all want of humi- liation and godly sorrow upon it, is from an undue hardness of heart; and they who are not affected with it have great reason to be jealous . over themselves, even as unto their spiritual state and condition.
3. Of the same kind, in its measure, is wnaffectedness with the sins of others among whom we live, or in whom we are concerned. To mourn for the sins of others is a duty highly approved of ‘God, Ezek. ix. 4. It argues the effectual working of many graces, as zeal for the glory of God, compassion for the souls of men, love to the glory and interest of Christ in the world. The want hereof is from hardness of heart; and it is that which abounds among us. Some find not themselves at all concerned herein; some make pretences why they need not so be, or that it is not their duty,—what is it unto them how wicked the world is? it shall answer for its own sins. Nor are they moved when it comes nearer them. If their children come to losses, poverty, ruin, then they are affected indeed; but so long as they flourish in the world, be they apostates from profession, be they enemies to Christ, do they avowedly belong unto the world and walk in the ways of it, they are not much concerned, especially it they are not scandalously profligate. But this also is from hardness of heart, which will be bewailed where grace is vigilant and active.
4. Want of a due sense of indications of divine displeasure is another instance of this hardness of heart. God doth ofttimes give signs and tokens hereof, whether as unto the public state of the church in the world, or as unto our own persons, in afflictions and chastisements. In the seasons hereof he expects that our hearts should be soft and tender, ready to receive impressions of his anger, and pliable therein unto his mind and will. There are none whom at such a time he doth more abhor than those who are stout-hearted, little regarding him or the operation of his hands. This in some measure may be in believers, and they may be sensible of it, to their sorrow and humiliation.
These things, and many more of the like nature, proceed from hardness of heart, or the remainder of our hardness by nature, and are great promoters of the interest of sin in us. But where any persons are sensible of this frame, where they are humbled for it, where they mourn under, and cry out for its removal, it is so far from being an evidence of the dominion of sin over them in whom it is, that it is an eminent sign of the contrary,—namely, that the ruling power of sin is certainly broken and destroyed in the soul.
But there are other instances of hardness of heart, which have
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much more difficulty in them, and which are hardly reconcilable unto the rule of grace. I shall mention some of them:—
1. Security and senselessness under the guilt of great actual sins. I do not say this is, or can at any time be, absolute in any believer; but such it may be as whereon men may go on at their old pace of duties and profession, though without any peculiar humiliation, albeit they are under the provoking guilt of some known sin, with its aggravations. It will recur upon their minds, and conscience, unless it be seared, will treat with them about it; but they pass it over, as that which they had rather forget and wear out of their minds than bring things unto their proper issue by particular re- pentance. So it seems to have been with David after his sin with Bathsheba. I doubt not but that before the message of God to him by Nathan, he had unpleasing thoughts of what he had done; but there are not the least footsteps in the story or any of his prayers that he laid it seriously to heart and was humbled for it before. This was a great hardness of heart; and we know how difficult his recovery from it was. He was saved, but as through fire And where it is so with any one that hath been overtaken with any great sin, as drunkenness or other folly, that he strives to wear it out, to pass it over, to forget it, or give himself countenance from any rea- soning or consideration against the especial sense of it and humilia- tion for it, he can, during that state and frame, have no solid evi- dence that sin hath not the dominion in him. And let such sinners be warned who have so passed over former sins until they have utterly lost all sense of them, or are under such a frame at present, that they recall things to another account, and suffer no such sin to pass without a peculiar humiliation, or, whatever be the final issue of things with them, they can have no solid ground of spiritual peace in this world.