I. What is it to err from the ways of God ?
The ways of God are either God's ways towards us, or our ways towards him, that are of his appointment. God's ways towards us, are the ways of his providence: our ways towards God, are the ways of obedience and holiness. We may err in both.
I think in that place of the Hebrews, " They have always erred in heart, and have not known my ways," God principally intends his ways towards them ; they did not know the ways of his providential workings, how mightily he had wrought for them. But the ways that God hath appointed for us to walk in towards him, are those here intended. Now, we may err from thence two ways: — 1. In the in- ward principle. 2. In the outward order : —
1. We may err in the inward principle. When the principle of spiritual life in our hearts decays, when we " fade as a leaf," and wither, then is this our case.
2. We err as to outward order, when we fail in the performance of duty in our walking, and in the course of our obedience and holiness that God hath called us unto. These for the most part go together ; but from the text, and the whole context, I judge the first here to be principally intended ;— a failing in the principle, in our hearts, and in a lively power of walking in the ways of God, and of living unto him. So that to err from the ways of God is to have our hearts weakened, spiritually disenabled, often turned aside from the vigorous, effectual, powerful walking with God, which we are called unto.
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II. What is it to have our hearts hardened from the fear of God? There is a twofold hardening from God's fear: — 1. There is a total
hardening; and, 2. A partial hardening : —
1. There is a total hardening, like that mentioned, Isa. vi. 10, " Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed." This was a total hardening that came upon the Jews when they rejected Christ. That is not the hardening here intended. Those that are given up to a total hardness will not thus humble themselves before God, nor plead with God. Blessed be God that he hath not given us up to a total hardening, that we should utterly and wickedly de- part from his ways !
2. There is a partial hardening mentioned by the apostle, Heb. iii. 13, " Take heed, ' lest any of you be hardened through the de- ceitfulness of sin;' lest there come a hardness upon you that may be to your disadvantage." And it is this partial hardening that is here intended ; and wherein it consists I shall speak a little afterward. It is this partial hardening that is intended in the text: " Thou hast hardened our hearts from thy fear."
III. How is God said to cause us to err from his ways, and to har- den our hearts from his fear?
God is said to do it these several ways: —
1. God is said to do that (and it is not an uncommon form of speech in Scripture) whose contrary he doth not do, when it might be ex- pected, as it were, from him. " If there be a prophet that doth pro- phesy so and so, ' I the Lord have deceived that prophet/ " Ezek. xiv. 9 ; that is, " I have not kept him from being deceived, but suffered him to follow the imaginations of his own heart, whereby he should be deceived." God may be said to cause us to err from his ways, and to harden our hearts from his fear merely negatively, — in that he hath not kept us up to his ways, nor kept our hearts humble and soft in them.
2. Again ; God hardens men judicially, in a way of punishment. This is a total hardening; of which we spoke before. And there are these acts of it, which, I think, are as evident in the times wherein we live as the judgments of God have been in the plague, or burning of the city, inundations, or any thing else. Spiritual judgments of God, in hardening the hearts of men judicially and penally to their destruction, are as visible to every considering person as any of God's outward judgments whatsoever. This will appear if Ave consider the following things, wherein it consists : —
(1.) The first thing God doth, when he hardens men's hearts pe- nally, is, to give them up to their own lusts. It is directly expressed, Rom. i. 24, " Wherefore God gave them up to their hearts' lusts.''"
300 god's withdrawing his presence,
When God leaves men, and gives them up to pursue their own lusts with delight and greediness, then he is hardening them. And this is a visible judgment of God at this day: he takes off shame, fear, all restraint and disadvantages, and gives men up to their hearts' lusts.
(2.) The second thing is, that God, in penal hardening, gives men up to Satan, to blind them, darken them, harden them ; for he is " the god of this world, that blinds the eyes of men," and the great work of blinding and hardening men is committed unto him. And the principal way whereby he works at this day, is by being a lying spirit in the mouth of the false prophets, crying, " Peace, peace/' when God hath not spoken a word of peace : as it was in the business of Ahab; when Satan went and catched at a commission to seduce Ahab to go up to Ramoth-gilead, he did it b}^ being a lying spirit in the mouths of the false prophets. God is visibly at work in the world with this judgment, giving men up unto Satan, acting in the mouths of the false prophets, who cry, " Peace, peace/' to all sorts of sinners, when God speaks not one word of peace.