Dissembling the Pharisees were a dissembling Generation and they are the famous Instances of hardness of Heart in the first Gospel-days Hypocrisy is a constant Lie and every Lie is a Sin against Light When Men take a Religion out of design their Pretences condemn them Men sin and are secured against the Stroke of the Word and Checks of Conscience by their Fame and plausible Appearance Then for formal performing of good Duties Prov. 7.14 I have Peace-Offerings with me this day have I paid my Vows I do this and that I read so many Chapters a day and keep to my Church Men think they have done enough though they have done never so little Hardness of Heart is often occasioned by the Ordinances Now how do Ordinances harden They may harden partly as they irritate Corruption but chiefly as they are trusted in Duties soundly done humble Men as new Wine rendeth and breaketh old Bottles all to pieces But when formal Duties are used as a sleepy Sop to stop the Mouth of Conscience the Heart is insensibly hardned Every Man must have a Religion to lean to Conscience like the Stomach when it hath no solid Food draweth Wind. 5. Pride and Stubbornness against God Men scorn to be controlled Exod. 5.2 And Pharaoh said Who is the Lord that I should obey his Voice to let Israel go I know not the Lord neither will I let Israel go Nehem. 9.29 They dealt proudly and hearkned not unto thy Commandments but sinned against thy Iudgments and withdrew the Shoulder and hardned their Neck and would not hear Jer. 13.15 Hear ye and give ear be not proud for the Lord hath spoken Men scorn to submit to Ordinances to be checked by God's Messengers and say What have we to do with them In this Light of Christianity the Contempt is cast upon the Messenger though indeed the Heart riseth against the Authority of God himself One great Cure of hardness of Heart is seriously to meditate on God's Power Deut. 10.16 17. Circumcise therefore the Foreskin of your Heart and be no more stiff-necked For the Lord your God is God of Gods and Lord of Lords a great God a mighty and a terrible which regardeth not Persons nor taketh Reward Do you know what God is Will you contend with him You will fail in the Enterprize you cannot be hard-hearted if you would in the Issue of the Combate Pride is the Root of all Sin what is the Reason Men dare sin They think they shall carry it out well enough for all God and so suffer their Lusts to perk above the Commandment 6. The Deceitfulness of Sin Heb. 3.15 Lest any of you be hardned through the Deceitfulness of Sin Now how doth Sin deceive us and so harden the Heart 1. By general Invectives We all cry out of Sin and complain of Sin and yet all this while regard it in our Hearts We make Sin a Notion and so defy it in the general when in Particulars we love it all the while as many ignorant People defy the Devil but hold the Crown upon his Head for he is the Ruler of the Darkness of this World The Devil careth not for ill Words so he can keep Possession of the Heart We make Sin the common Pack-horse to bear all our Burdens Men content themselves with empty Declamations or Forms of Satyr and Invective yet the Heart liketh it well enough and so is insensibly hardned they are not serious and particular Men look upon Matters of Religion as abstracted Ideas and Matters of Fancy O take heed of this 2. By delaying Acts 24.25 Go thy way for this time when I have a convenient Season I will call for thee Christian it is but a Deceit take heed thy Heart be not hardened by it What Reason hast thou to presume of that which God can only give If Cesar had read the Letters over-night to prevent the Conspiracy he had been safe What Security have you either of Time or Grace but your own Presumptions And he that is Security to himself is a Fool. It is true all may be redressed by Repentance but this is not in thy Power and thy Hardness by delaying increaseth every Day 3. It cometh lapped up in carnal Baits of Profit and Pleasure to gratify our Lusts and Interests Sin pretends great Advantage but be not deceived it will harden thy Heart and destroy thee it cannot profit thee 4. It hath many Colours wherewith to beguile a Man It presents it self in another Dress than its own and therefore we have need to have our Eyes about us Prov. 28.14 Happy is the Man that feareth always but he that hardneth his Heart shall fall into Mischief Many Sins lie secret unrepented of and so the Heart is hardned 5. It will increase upon thee it groweth to a Custom by Degrees it is of a bewitching Nature and soaketh into a Man insensibly from Thought to Consent then to Action then to Reiteration then to Custom First Men excuse Sin then justify it then glory in it and in time they grow senseless and confirmed in a Habit of Sin and are loth to quit it At first Temptations seemed horrible the first committing of Sin much perplexed the Soul but in time it is not so burdensom yea it is become pleasing and delightful Be not deceived and hardned by saying it is a little one and my Soul shall live unless we take it betimes as Peter went out immediately and wept bitterly it cannot easily be subdued Sampson knew that Dalilah had purposed to betray him into the Philistines Hands and yet he could not leave her Though Sin cost Men temporal and eternal Life yet they cannot give it over 6. That God will be merciful this is another thing whereby we are deceived a Presumption of Impunity Psal. 50.21 These things hast thou done and I kept Silence thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thy self but I will reprove thee and set them in order before thine Eyes So Deut. 29.19 20. And it come to pass when he heareth the Words of this Curse that he bless himself in his Heart saying I shall have Peace though I walk in the Imagination of mine Heart to add Drunkenness to Thirst. Be not deceived mark what follows The Lord will not spare him but then the Anger of the Lord and his Iealousy shall smoak against that Man and all the Curses that are written in this Book shall lie upon him and the Lord shall blot out his Name from under Heaven Take heed of the Deceitfulness of Sin These are the Causes of Hardness of Heart V. The Heinousness of it 1. It is a contending with God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fighting with God The hard Heart is the greatest Enemy God hath on this side Hell That there is a Contest between God and an hard Heart who shall have the better the Instance of Pharaoh sheweth God sendeth a Message to him and meeteth with a Repulse His Message to Pharaoh was
Exod. 5.1 Thus saith the Lord God of Israel Let my People go And this proud Creature hath the Boldness to deny him Ver. 2. And Pharaoh said Who is the Lord that I should obey his Voice to let Israel go I know not the Lord neither will I let Israel go And he standeth it out after many Warnings and foregoing Judgments And he doth not stand alone but hath more Fellows in the World Nehem. 9.29 They dealt proudly and hearkned not to thy Commandments but sinned against thy Iudgments and withdrew the Shoulder and hardned their Neck and would not hear Every Command of God every Offer of Grace is a Message from God To you is the Word of this Salvation sent Acts 13.26 and it should be respected with as much Reverence as if an Angel himself were the Messenger Only here is the Difference God saith to Pharaoh Let my People go To us he saith Let Sin go It is pity he should have the Repulse Sin will be as bad an Inmate to the Soul as the Israelites were a Snare to Egypt they were fain to thrust them out at length and were glad they could be so rid of them I say this is the Contest between God and his Creatures whether Sin shall go or tarry whether Christ shall be accepted or no He sent Moses and Aaron to Pharaoh and he hath sent Prophets Apostles Pastors and Teachers to us Let Idols Images and false Worship go Swearing Sabbath-breaking Adultery Murder Disobedience to Parents Lying Covetousness let it all go there should not be an Hoof left This is God's Message Now if you will try it out you shall see whose Word shall stand God's or yours Jer. 44.28 his Threatnings or your vain and delusive Imaginations If you put it to the Trial you have more Boldness than an Angel Iude 9. Yet Michael the Arch-Angel when contending with the Devil he disputed about the Body of Moses durst not bring against him a railing Accusation An Angel durst not use one passionate Word and will you dare to set up other Gods to profane the Sabbath to swear lie or be drunk and to say we will not let these things go let God say or do what he will to the contrary The Contest on God's part is managed for a long time in a mild condescending way He beseecheth his own Creature Ier. 13.15 16. Hear ye and give Ear be not proud for the Lord hath spoken Give Glory to the Lord your God before he cause Darkness and before your Feet stumble upon the dark Mountains and while ye look for Light he turn it into the Shadow of Death and make it gross Darkness Be not obstinate it is better that you should take down the Stoutness of your Hearts than that I should pull it down Let me have the Glory of this Conquest voluntarily I shall carry it at length You dream of Happiness and Pleasure alas you cannot injoy these vain Delights long Come leave them and I will make you as happy as Heart can wish but if not take that that followeth you will stumble into the Dungeon of Hell and then be as miserable as Almightiness can make you Iob 9.4 He is wise in Heart and mighty in Strength who ever hardned himself against God and prospered You will never get the day of God if you contend with him there is nothing to be expected but Blows You may indeed overcome him but it is not by resisting but stooping a tender Heart overcometh him Jer. 31.20 Is Ephraim my dear Son is be a pleasant Child for since I spake against him I do earnestly remember him still therefore my Bowels are troubled for him I will surely have Mercy upon him saith the Lord. And Isa. 57.18 I have seen his Ways and will heal him I will lead him also and restore Comforts to him and to his Mourners But a hard Heart is no Match for God it is ever foiled in the Enterprize if they yield not to his Mercy they are consumed by his Wrath. Pharaoh would contend with God but found his Maker too hard for him at last So Iulian the Apostate Ezek. 22.14 Can thy Heart endure or can thy Hands be strong in the Days that I shall deal with thee I the Lord have spoken it and will do it And 1 Cor. 10.22 Do we provoke the Lord to Iealousy are we stronger than he It is a foolish Contest it ever endeth with our Destruction 2. It is in it self the sorest of all Judgments when other means are urged in vain God giveth them up to Hardness of Heart it is one of the Chains of Darkness in which captive Souls are held unto eternal Judgment A stormy Conscience that lieth under the Power of perplexing despairing Fears is not so bad as an hard Heart They are both Chains of Darkness Despair and Obstinacy as in the Devils but in Men Despair may make way for Repentance God hath them in the Briars many are brought to Heaven by the Gates of Hell God hath begun with them but left these Again it will end in Despair the Heart that is not sensible now will then be sensible enough We read of the Worm that never dieth and the Fire that shall never be quenched Mark 9.44 In Hell Men will remember how every Sabbath God did stretch out the Arms of his Mercy to imbrace them and they would not how Christ offered a Plaister of his own Heart's-blood to cure them but they refused it and made light of it how the Holy Ghost put many good Motions into their Hearts but they rejected these Thoughts and would not be interrupted in their Ease and false Peace O the deep Wounds and Stings these Thoughts will occasion when 't is too late 3. It never goeth alone but bringeth other Judgments along with it Pharaoh had Plague upon Plague Zech. 7.12 They made their Hearts as an Adamant Stone lest they should hear the Law and the Words which the Lord of Hosts hath sent in his Spirit by the former Prophets therefore came a great Wrath from the Lord of Hosts more than ordinary Displeasure So Prov. 29.1 He that being often reproved hardneth his Neck shall suddenly be destroyed and that without Remedy They shall be destroyed not afflicted only and that without Remedy there shall be none to help And Rom. 2.5 After thy Hardness and impenitent Heart treasurest up unto thy self Wrath against the Day of Wrath and Revelation of the righteous Iudgment of God God will harden his Heart against you shut up his Bowels against you in your greatest Straits when his Patience is quite spent God will retaliate Zech. 7.12 13. They made their Hearts as an Adamant Stone lest they should hear the Law c. Therefore it is come to pass that as he cried and they would not hear so they cried and I would not hear saith the Lord of Hosts There is a time when the stoutest-hearted Sinner who careth least for God shall stand in need of his Help
will fret and soak in more and more 4. Use frequent Recollection and communing with your Hearts Man hath Reason and can talk with himself God that cannot err surveyed every Day 's Work and found it good Cast up your Account at the foot of every Page he that runneth in Debt and never casteth up his Accounts will sink at last A Man is insensibly hardned for want of searching and ransacking his Conscience there is no serious Repentance with it Lam. 3.40 Let us search and try our Ways and turn again to the Lord. God will search you if you leave the Work to him 5. Improve Afflictions It is a Means God hath appointed to shake us out of our Security We are apt to be lulled asleep with the Delights and Pleasures of Sin till we feel the sharp Rod of Afflictions 2 Chron. 28.22 And in the time of his Distress did he trespass yet more against the Lord This is that King Ahaz They are Monsters of Nature and hopeless Wretches that are not reclaimed by Afflictions God sets a Brand on Ahaz like a dogged Servant that will not stir beat him never so much Unprofitableness under the Rod is an ill Presage In Hell Sinners are always suffering and always sinning 6. Beware of those things which are both Steps unto and Causes of hardness of Heart for one Degree is the cause of another as when Sin is committed without Remorse and swallowed without Grief 7. Beware of extenuating Sin of having less Thoughts of it and being less troubled about it At first it seemed a horrible thing a Burden too heavy for us but afterwards it grows less light and the Heart more insensible and Sin more delightful The Burden of Sin encreaseth in the Children of God as Light and Acquaintance with God increaseth that which they made nothing of at first groweth very heavy 8. Keep Grace in a constant Exercise Let the Fire be kept always in that came down from Heaven 2 Tim. 1.6 VVherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the Gift of God that is in thee 9. Frequent the Society of God's People Want of care of our Company is a great Fault for Company hardneth in Sin or humbleth The very Example of God's People will be a great help to you how tender they are how watchful what meltings of Heart they have in Prayer how they make conscience of the least Sin how they complain of themselves O what a hard Heart have I Coals lying together keep Fire This is a means to keep us tender Heb. 3.13 But exhort one another daily while it is called To Day lest any of you be hardned through the Deceitfulness of Sin SERMONS UPON EXODVS IV. 21 SERMON I. EXOD. IV. 21 I will harden his Heart that he shall not let my People go I Have spoken of hardness of Heart as it is proper to Man I shall now speak of that Judicial Hardness which is inflicted by God a notable Instance whereof we have in Pharaoh that was raised up that God might in him make his Power known that is he was born into the World and advanced to Royal Dignity that the World may know what God can do against an obstinate contradicting Creature And accordingly it is applied by the Apostle Rom. 9.17 For the Scripture saith unto Pharaoh Even for this same Purpose have I raised thee up that I might shew my Power in thee and that my Name might be declared throughout all the Earth Therefore it is an Instance worth the viewing In this place God acquainteth Moses of it aforehand to fortify him against all Discouragements he was to deal with an obstinate Creature but it was that which God had fore-seen and fore-decreed I will harden his Heart that he shall not let my People go The Point or Head of Doctrine is God's hardning of Sinners You may take it in the form of a Proposition for the help of the weakest Doct. God himself hath an Hand in the hardning of obstinate Sinners About fourteen times is the Hardness of Pharaoh's Heart spoken of and thrice it is said he hardned his own Heart Exod. 8.15 When Pharaoh saw that there was respite he hardned his Heart and hearkned not unto them as the Lord had said So ver 32. And Pharaoh hardned his Heart at that time also neither would he let the People go And again chap. 9.34 And when Pharaoh saw that the Rain and the Hail and the Thunders were ceased he sinned yet more and hardned his Heart he and all his Servants In all the other places it is ascribed to God himself Man hardneth and then God hardneth When God blindeth a Man he first closeth his own Eyes and when God hardneth a Man he first contracteth a Brawn and Stiffness upon his own Heart Pharaoh in hardning himself is charged with two things slighting of the Judgment chap. 7.23 And Pharaoh turned and went into his House neither did he set his Heart to this also And contempt of the Threatning chap. 8.15 He hardned his Heart and hearkned not unto them as the Lord had said And the very same thing also is said to be of God chap. 7.13 He hardned Pharaoh 's Heart that he hearkned not unto them as the Lord had said For the clearing of this I shall I. Give you some Observations from the Story II. Shew you how God hardneth III. The Causes of it I. I shall give you some general Observations from the Story for in the Story of Pharaoh we have the exact Platform of an hard Heart 1. Between the hard Heart and God there is an actual Contest who shall have the better The Parties contesting are God and Pharaoh See the first Sermon on Mark 3.5 pag. 506. 2. The Sin that hardned Pharaoh and put him upon this Contest was Covetousness and Interest of State Iacob's seventy Souls that he brought down to Egypt were grown to six hundred thousand fighting Men besides Children and to â—et such a Company of Men go whom they used as Slaves besides the Prey of their Herds and Flocks seemed hard to Pharaoh Which is not only an Item to Magistrates to retain nothing which God hateth out of Interest and Reason of State but also to private Christians Whatever of Gain and Advantage we may fancy in Sin it will at length prove a certain Loss If God send a Message for our right Eye we must pluck it out or for our right Hand we must cut it off It is dangerous to deny God any thing If he demand Israel and all the Flocks and Herds let them go the sweetest Interests the dearest Pleasures the most gainful Imployments if they are unlawful let them go There is an usual Contest between Interest and Duty between Pleasure and Obedience between Profit and the Command but it is better our own Faith should give the Command the Victory than God's Power 1 Joh. 5.4 This is the Victory that overcomes the World even our Faith He had before spoken of keeping
the Commandments ver 3. and presently he speaketh of Victory over the World The World is the great Enemy of the Commandments and till it be overcome a Christian can have no Comfort but still be contesting with God as Pharaoh was and slighting every Message 3. This Contest on Pharaoh's part is managed with slightings and contempt of God on God's part with Mercy and Condescension On Pharaoh's part with slightings and contempt of God Exod. 5.2 And Pharaoh said Who is the Lord that I should obey his Voice to let Israel go I know not the Lord neither will I let Israel go Words of profane Contempt Who is the Lord as if he should say Am not I King of Egypt Who is my Peer much less my Superiour and my Lord I know not the Lord. Ere God hath done with Pharaoh he shall know him to the purpose Mark the Words I know not and then I will not Hardness is the usual effect of Blindness Errors of Mind go on to Errors of Heart I will not know I will not hear of it I care not for such a Duty nor will I weigh or consider what is God's Will concerning me The Eye affecteth the Heart Pharaoh did not consider what it was to deal with God and then doubleth the Burdens of the Israelites But now on God's part it is managed with Sweetness and Kindness God from the beginning foreknew the Hardness of Pharaoh's Heart and therefore might have swept him away of a sudden but he giveth him frequent Warnings and Convictions He would have Men convinced e're they are punished Foregoing Mercy sheweth the Righteousness of ensuing Wrath. In all the progress of the Story the first Miracles were before him the next upon him And every Judgment is threatned before it be executed God telleth what he would do to warn Pharaoh In one Plague it is notable that God doth not only threaten the Judgment but sendeth a gracious Warning to bid him take his Cattle out of the Fields Exod. 9.19 Send therefore now and gather thy Cattle and all that thou hast in the Field for upon every Man and Beast which shall be found in the Field and shall not be brought home the Hail shall come down upon them and they shall die To shew that God delighteth not in the Ruine and Destruction of the Creature and to make Pharaoh the more liable to Condemnation and to spare such among the Egyptians as had some Fear of God remaining in them but chiefly to harden Pharaoh the more Exod. 10.1 And the Lord said unto Moses Go in unto Pharaoh for I have hardned his Heart and the Heart of his Servants that I might shew these my Signs before him Moses might say Lord therefore let me never go to Pharaoh but saith God Go in unto him for I have hardned his Heart God continueth the Means though he denieth Grace and the Wicked must be admonished though they will not be reformed In the hardning of Sinners God usually observeth this Course by Mercies and the Meâ—ns of Grace they are convinced and hardned at the same time there is still new matter of glorifying God and hardning the Creature 4. The first Plague on Pharaoh's Heart is Delusion Moses worketh Miracles turneth Aaron's Rod into a Serpent Rivers into Blood bringeth Frogs and the Magicians still do the same God permitteth these Magical Impostures to leave Pharaoh in his wilful Error It is probable that what the Magicians did was not real but a mere Delusion of the Senses but the Lord doth not discover the Cheat because his present Aim was not to shame Satan but to harden Pharaoh therefore he suffered the Devil to imitate the true Miracles without Discovery It is sad when Men chuse false Teachers to themselves and God suffereth them to be blinded Hosea 4.17 Ephraim is joined to Idols let him alone They may have some Parts plausible Elocution Gifts of Prayer there may be common Effects wrought by them these things blind Men and their Hearts are set upon Familism and Antinomianism let them alone Exod. 7.22 The Magicians of Egypt did so with their Inchantments and Pharaoh ' s Heart was hardned This was one means of hardning his Heart the Magicians wrought the same Miracles that Moses and Aaron did God suffereth Men to be hardned by their own Choice 5. God was not wanting to give Pharaoh sufficient means of Conviction The Magicians turned their Rods into Serpents but Aaron's Rod swallowed up their Rods Exod. 7.12 Which sheweth God's supereminent Power They could not deliver him from the Frogs though they could bring Frogs God may suffer the Devil to add to the Judgment but to relieve them is an Act of Mercy the Magicians could add to the Plagues but they could not deliver him from them the Devil can sooner bring a Plague than remove it This was warning enough there was Difficulty enough to harden them and Light enough to convince them Again the Magicians were non-plust in their Art Exod. 8.18 And the Magicians did so with their Inchantments to bring forth Lice but they could not They sought to bring forth Lice and could not being hindred by God's Will They that could bring forth Frogs could not bring forth Lice the greater the Possibility the more are the Magicians abashed this was an easy Miracle All Colour of Excuse is taken away from Pharaoh they confess This is the Finger of God Exod. 8.19 and yet Pharaoh's Heart was hardned as many will not be won to the Truth by the Confession of those that led them into the Mistake Nay afterwards the Magicians themselves were smitten with Boils Exod. 9.11 12. And the Magicians could not stand before Moses because of the Boils for the Boil was upon the Magicians and upon all the Egyptians And the Lord hardned the Heart of Pharaoh and he hearkned not unto them If the hard Heart go to Hell it is not for want of Light but Grace We may wonder as much at the Success as at the Plagues To what a Height of Obstinacy will Man come if he be let alone to Plagues for all this while Pharaoh's Heart was hardened 6. Observe in one of the Plagues Israel might have stolen away whether Pharaoh would or no Exod. 10.22 23. And Moses stretched forth his Hand towards Heaven and there was a thick Darkness in all the Land of Egypt three Days They saw not one another neither rose any from his Place for three Days but all the Children of Israel had Light in their Dwellings They were not only deprived of the Light of Heaven but of Candles and Torches the Air was condensed with thick Clouds and the Mists and Vapors so thick that they would easily have damped them and put them out again Now whilst they were under the Power of three Days Darkness the Israelites might have stolen away and have gone three Days Journey in the Wilderness before they could have made any Pursuit but God had more Miracles to be done When he
hath to do with a hard Heart he will not steal out of the Field but go away with Honour and Triumph This was to be a publick Instance and for Intimation to the World 1 Sam. 6.6 Wherefore then do ye harden your Hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardned their Hearts when he had wrought wonderfully among them did they not let the People go and they departed The Philistines took warning by it and it will be our Condemnation if we do not 7. In all these Plagues I observe that Pharaoh now and then had his devout Pangs In an hard Heart there may be some Relentings but no true Repentance We have him confessing Exod. 9.27 I have sinned this time the Lord is righteous and I and my People are wicked And chap. 10.16 17. I have sinned against the Lord your God and against you Now therefore forgive I pray thee my Sin only this once and intreat the Lord your God that he may take away from me this Death only So chap. 12.32 Be gone and bless me also Hardned Sinners may have their Gripes and sensible Touches and so some faint Purposes of Reformation But that which was defective and sheweth it was not true Repentance was 1. Because it was only extorted by present Horror Job 27.10 Will he always call upon God A Still will send forth Water as well as a Fountain but it is by Drops and by Force Prov. 5.11 12 13. And thou mourn at last when thy Flesh and thy Body are consumed and say How have I hated Instruction and my Heart despised Reproof and have not obeyed the Voice of my Teachers nor inclined mine Ear to them that instructed me The Leacher hath his penitent Moods A Malefactor on the Rack will confess freely Vows of Men are very frequent O that Men would be such when they are well as they promised to be when they were sick 2. Because the Aim of all was Ease and Safety Pharaoh's Cry is not Take away Iniquity but Take away this Plague Offers of Nature after Ease are found in Hypocrites Esau sought the Privileges of the Birth-right with Tears quia perdiderat non quia vendiderat not because he sold it but because he had lost it Nature may be sensible of present Evil. 3. Because it was vanishing The good Motions of an hard Heart are of no long continuance they pass through and are gone like a Flash of Lightning Pharaoh his Remorse for the Frogs and Grashoppers was as a Cloud soon blown over Till there be sound Repentance Remorse must needs be short for it is an unpleasing Penance Water heated is the colder afterwards because it is rarified after it hath thawed a little it will freeze the harder Pharaoh after every Respite was hardned anew it is the Temper of those that are doomed to Destruction 4. Because his Purposes came so short and lame of what God expected An hard Heart when it cannot prevail against God would fain compound with him First he gave leave Exod. 8.25 Go ye sacrifice to God in the Land Then ver 28. I will let ye go that ye may sacrifice to the Lord your God in the Wilderness only ye shall not go very far away Then chap. 10.11 Go now ye that are Men and serve the Lord. Their Children were to remain for Hostages Then ver 24. Go ye serve the Lord only let your Flocks and your Herds be stayed let your little ones also go with you Their Cattle were to remain for a Pawn and their Flocks and their Herds for a Forfeiture if they returned not and a Recompence for the Damage of Egypt But God would not abate him a Hoof. An hard Heart yieldeth to God by halves Pharaoh hucketh with him first they might sacrifice in the Land then go a little way three Days Journey then he would keep their Children then their Flocks and Herds An hard Heart never yieldeth to God his whole Demand the Devil is loth to let go his hold How do Men huck with God in Duties contrary to their Affections or prejudicial to their Interests 2 Kings 5.18 In this thing the Lord pardon thy Servant that when my Master goeth into the House of Rimmon to worship there and he leaneth on my Hand and I bow my self in the House of Rimmon when I bow my self in the House of Rimmon the Lord pardon thy Servant in this thing They have their Reservations and in this and that thing they will be excused These are but deceitful Pangs Pharaoh doth often eat his Words and retract every Grant 8. In process of Time his Hardness is improved into Rage and downright Malice Exod. 10.28 Get thee from me take heed to thy self see my Face no more for in the Day thou seest my Face thou shalt die Vessels when they come to the Lees they grow sowre and tart so Pharaoh began to run Dregs Or as Beasts by long baiting grow mad and furious so it was with Pharaoh Men first slight the Truth and then are hardned against it and then come to persecute it A River when it hath been long kept up swelleth and beareth down the Bank and Rampire so do wicked Men rage when their Consciences cannot withstand the Light and their Hearts will not yield to it 9. At length Pharaoh is willing to let them go After much ado God may get something from a hard Heart but it is no sooner given but retracted like Fire struck out of a Flint it is hardly got and quickly gone Hosea 6.4 Your Goodness is as a Morning Cloud and as the early Dew it goeth away Many may have some shew of Goodness at least at some times who yet are little the better and their Condition nothing the better it proveth a great Snare and Neckâ—break to them its Unfoundness is presently seen in its Unconstancy 10. The last News that we hear of hardning Pharaoh's Heart was a little before his Destruction Exod. 14.8 And the Lord hardned the Heart of Pharaoh King of Egypt and he pursued after the Children of Israel Pharaoh begrudgeth his own Grant as if he had yielded too far Hardness of Heart will not leave us till it hath wrought our full and final Destruction God always besotteth when he meaneth to destroy Never any were hardned but to their own Ruine As God that loveth his own loveth them to the end so God that hateth those that are hardned hateth them to the end Pharaoh is first plagued and then destroyed This is the upshot of all Iob 9.4 Who hath hardned himself against him and prospered The Beginning is Imposture and Delusion the Middle Obstinacy and the End Ruine II. How God hardneth It is a Point that needeth Explication God is not and cannot be the Author of Sin if God should cause it Man should sin of necessity and then his Punishment would not be just he being under Force God hath not brought upon any a necessity of sinning and God that is Good cannot be the cause of Evil
If God were the immediate Author it would be no Sin for whatever God doth is good How then doth he harden the Heart I answer first Negatively secondly Affirmatively 1 st Negatively In the explication of this Matter we must avoid both Extreams 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 sowre 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 perswadeth 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 2. We must 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 hardned Pharaoh say some that is by frequency of Judgments shewed how hard his Heart was The Prayer by which we deprecate this Evil sheweth the meaning of it we would not say Lord shew 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. 2.30 Sihon King of Heshbon would not let us pass by him for the Lord thy God hardned his Spirit and made his Heart obstinate There was no such long Process to make it evident they had hard Hearts So Ioshua 11.20 For it was of the Lord to harden their Hearts that they should not come against Israel in Battel So that there is somewhat besides an evident Manifestation to the World by continued Judgments that it is hard Nor is it by a meer idle Permission for there is besides that his Decree and a Judicial Action of Providence as if God were like the Heathens Iupiter 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 drowned when he might have helped it there is somewhat more than so Nor is it meerly by Desertion and Suspension of Grace it is true this is a part but not all as a Captain leaving his Souldiers in the midst of a Battel 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 hardned Besides his Decrees there is his Judicial Sentence and an active Providence in order thereunto Many things concur to the hardning 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 over-ruling it then he were not God Omnipotent there is a Supreme Power over-ruling and ordering every thing that is done in the World It was God's Will that Pharaoh should be hardned that he might dispose of it to the Ends of his Providence Exod. 9.16 And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up for to shew in thee 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 hardned rather than hardneth it which is the Phrase used 2 dly Affirmatively how God doth harden The inward Way is wonderful as God's drawing Sinners is secret so is his hardning 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 Psal. 81.12 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 Grey-hound held by a Slip or Collar when the Hare is in sight take away the Slip and the Grey-hound 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 swinge and run into all excess of Riot Thus God took away his good Spirit from Saul 1 Sam. 16.14 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 it self God taketh away his Grace and then all runneth to Ruine as Darkness ensueth upon the withdrawing of Light Now herein God is not to be blamed 1 Because he is Debtor to none He may give his Grace to whom he pleaseth and with-hold it as he will he is not bound to give or continue but is free to bestow or with-hold Man sinneth when he doth not hinder Sin because he is bound to hinder it all that he can Nehem. 13.17 Then I contended with the Nobles of Judah and said unto them What evil thing is this that ye do and profane the Sabbath-day When the People profaned the Sabbath and they did not restrain them 2. He knoweth how to make the best of any Evil to turn the greatest Evil into the greatest Good which Man cannot do and ought not being under a Rule We must not do Evil that Good may come on it Rom. 3.8 And not rather as we be slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say Let us do Evil that Good may come whose Damnation is just 3. There is an actual Forfeiture God is so far from being bound to continue Grace that he is bound in Justice to withdraw what is given When Men stop their Ears God may shut them But 2. By Tradition He delivereth them up to the Power of Satan who worketh upon the corrupt Nature of Man and hardneth it he stirreth him up as the Executioner of God's Curse As the evil Spirit had leave to seduce Ahab 1 Kings 22.21 22. And there came forth a Spirit and stood before the Lord and said I will perswade him And the Lord said unto him Wherewith And he said I will go forth and I will be a lying Spirit in the Mouth of all his Prophets And he said
he that forbeareth let him forbear for they are a rebellious House As if God should say Let them now do what they will I am at a point Now sometimes their Condition is irreversible which is clear because when God hath given them over how shall they repent and break off their Sin God's Oath is past Psal. 95.11 Vnto whom I sware in my Wrath that they should not enter into my Rest. God standeth sworn to condemn and destroy them If they should have any Anguish of Conscience and Remorse stirred up in them God will have no regard to it Prov. 1.26 27. I also will laugh at your Calamity I will mock when your Fear cometh when your Fear cometh as Desolation and your Destruction cometh as a Whirlwind when Distress and Anguish cometh upon you Hosea 5.6 They shall go with their Flocks and with their Herds to seek the Lord but they shall not find him he hath withdrawn himself from them When Men have neglected God's Seasons and begin to be surprized with Death then they would fain have Comfort and Pardon but instead thereof the Lord puts them off No you would have none of me Psal. 81.11 12. But my People would not hearken to my Voice and Israel would none of me So I gave them up unto their own Hearts Lust and they walked in their own Counsels Instead of Compassion they are mocked and turned over to their evil Courses and carnal Company Joh. 8.21 I go my way and ye shall seek me and shall die in your Sins That this may be before Death appeareth because Grace is confined to a Season Isa. 55.6 Seek ye the Lord while he may be found call ye upon him while he is near And that Season is not always as long as Life Luke 19.42 If thou hadst known even thou at least in this thy Day the things which belong to thy Peace but now they are hid from thine Eyes The Day of Grace is bright but short We may mourn over many thus when the Measure of their Iniquities is filled up God giveth over calling and expecting and waiting for their Repentance It is true the time is not to be known by any Man of himself nor by others concerning him we cannot state the number of Calls because Circumstances are diverse and Light breaketh in with Warnings in a different degree There is a great deal of variety in the Lord's Dispensations therefore all must use the Means and warn we must to the last We can only say in the general that after God hath done with them and expects no Good from them he may let them live for the Glory of his Justice as after God had hardned Pharaoh's Heart yet he continued his Life that he might shew his Power in him Exod. 9.16 And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up for to shew in thee my Power and that my Name may be declared throughout all the Earth You may survive your final Hardness as a Monument of God's Justice in the World 2. It is a just Dispensation It is just with God to take the Refusal and be gone and to cease to deal with your Hearts any more when after all the melting Intreaties of his Grace you cast him off he commands and you will not obey he is willing and you are not willing he intreats and you will not hearken He wishes Deut. 5.29 O that there were such an Heart in them that they would fear me and keep all my Commandments always that it might be well with them and with their Children for ever He laments Psal. 81.13 O that my People had hearkned unto me and Israel had walked in my Ways And you will not join with him He is grieved that his Offer of Grace is not received and you will not lament It is but just that a Man should be left to his own Choice that a Man should miss of that Salvation which he cared not for that if after Warnings Convictions and Intreaties he will be filthy he should be filthy still In Hell Conscience will acquit God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have been the cause of all this to my self 3. It is a merciful Dispensation to the rest of the World We are told of these things before-hand not that we may despair that is an ill Consequence but that as we love our Souls we should take heed of resisting Grace and turning our Backs upon our own Mercies It is a merciful and fatherly Warning to strike in betimes and own the God of our Mercies Delay is that that undoeth all the World Now this is the best Cure of Delay 2 dly The Causes of it 1. Sinning away the Light of Nature By Nature Men have some knowledg of Good and Evil. There are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some common Principles as that God is and must be worshipped that we must do wrong to none nor pollute our selves with promiscuous Lusts. The Heart of a Pagan would rise against it Rom. 2.14 15 For when the Gentiles which have not the Law do by Nature the things contained in the Law these having not the Law are a Law unto themselves which shew the Work of the Law written in their Hearts Now when Men hold the Light of Nature in Vnrighteousness Rom. 1.18 when they hold poor Truth fettered and bound that it cannot break out into an holy Conversation this provoketh God to give them up to Hardness There are many Sins which Nature discovereth and may be avoided upon such Reasons and Considerations as Nature suggesteth Now when Men put the Finger into Nature's Eye or will not suffer Reason to exercise any Dominion but let loose the Reins to Lust God leaveth them to a carnal and sottish Heart Tho by the Light of Nature Men cannot convert to God yet by the Light of Nature Men may practise many Duties and avoid many Sins The Gentiles were left to an unsound injudicious Mind When Men fall into foul Sins against the Light of Nature Conscience loseth its Feeling and Tenderness Eph. 4.19 Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto Lasciviousness to work all Vncleanness with greediness Hearts prejudiced against the things of God may grow to very Stones 2. Refusing God's many Calls Prov. 29.1 He that being often reproved hardneth his Neck shall suddenly be destroyed and that without Remedy God may bear with us a while after one or two or more Reproofs but when we are often reproved and often convinced and yet will not be reclaimed God may give us over The exact Date of Christ's Patience or the Number of his Calls e're the fatal Period of final Induration cometh we know not but when it is often you are in danger Take heed of forfeiting your own Mercies by refusing the most earnest Motions of the Word and Spirit When God importuneth to be heard and obeyed his Spirit being thus resisted and refused God will be at length wearied and will not give as much Grace as before Isa.
apt to desert us and forsake us 3. Penal and Judicial Hardness This adds to voluntary Hardness as voluntary Hardness implies something above natural Man as naturally hardned doth not turn to God as judicially hardned he cannot there is a great Impossibility he should This is God's Act he hardneth as a just Judg not by infusing Evil but withdrawing Grace In Scripture God is said to harden two ways 1. By leaving some in their natural Hardness Rom. 9.18 Therefore hath he Mercy on whom he will have Mercy and whom he will he hardneth So it is an Act of Dominion he passeth them by he may do it justly he is Lord of his own Grace and is not bound to save Sinners This is not an Act of Justice but Dominion God doth not act as a Judg but as a Lord it is matter of Favour to soften not Right 2. By giving up others to a reprobate Sense which is a Penal and Judiciary Act Acts 28.26 27. Hearing ye shall hear and shall not understand and seeing ye shall see and shall not perceive for the Heart of this People is waxed gross and their Ears are dull of hearing and their Eyes have they closed c. There is consideration had of Man's Sin and foregoing Provocations God punisheth them by their own Sin Men first harden themselves they go before peccando by sinning then God cometh after judicando by inflicting this Judgment of Hardness of Heart on them They harden themselves and God leaveth them under their Hardness As Ieroboam stretcheth out his Arm against the Prophet and then God layeth a Judgment upon him that he could not pull it in again to him 1 Kings 13.4 So Men hardning themselves God layeth this Judgment upon them that they shall not return to any Softness 2. The next Distinction is that Hardness of Heart is either total or partial some are in the State of Hardness others complain of it as their present Frame There is a difference between Hardness of Heart and an hard Heart some Hardness of Heart is in God's Children Mark 6.52 They considered not the Miracle of the Loaves for their Heart was hardned And Mark 16.14 He upbraided them for their Vnbelief and Hardness of Heart Original Hardness of Heart is not altogether taken away by Grace Much of the Heart of Stone or old Averseness from God and holy Things remaineth with God's Children but yet they are not wholly insensible and wholly inflexible to God's Purpose their Hearts are bent to his Testimonies though ever and anon they are apt to fall back to the old Bias. Therefore David prayeth Psal. 119.36 Incline my Heart unto thy Testimonies and not to Covetousness The Children of God do often complain of Deadness and Unaptness for holy things yet there is not in them that Obstinacy Impenitency and hardness of Heart that is in the Wicked Rom. 2.5 But after thy Hardness and impenitent Heart treasurest up unto thy self Wrath against the Day of Wrath. In the one 't is bemoaned in the other not in the one it ariseth from Negligence and Drowsiness in the other from flat Disobedience and Enmity to God When God's Children give too free a Contentment and Licence to the Flesh they have not that Sense that Liveliness in Prayer that Readiness to obey that Delight in the Word as at other times but the other are contemptuous and scornful and do not set their Hearts this way to please God or enjoy his Favour In the Wicked there is a careless Security no sense of their eternal Condition they banish it out of their Thoughts Amos 6.3 Ye put far away the evil Day If it intrude upon them they look upon it as a melancholy Interruption they seek to put off what they do not put away yea there is a plain Reluctancy and Opposition to good Things and a Contempt of God's Messages But in the other there may be some hanging off from God for Original Sin is not quite done away especially under a Distemper occasioned by carnal Liberty Luke 21.34 Take heed to your selves lest at any time your Hearts be over-charged with Surfeiting and Drunkenness and Cares of this Life and so that Day come upon you unawares A Christian is a compound Creature he hath Hardness as well as Softness when their Hardness prevaileth for the present they mourn less for Sin and do not tremble at the Word and are not affected with Providences slight the Warnings and Motions of the Holy Spirit are more dead in Duty find not alike Favour in the Promises and Duties seem more irksom to them An hard Heart maketh their Work seem hard and tedious 3. The next Distinction is that Hardness of Heart is either felt or unfelt 1. Felt as by Men under a preparative Work and in God's Children for Hardness there may be in them yea it is their Condition as long as they are in the World Grief for Hardness is a good sign that there are some tender Parts left An Heart judicially hardned can never feel that Hardness nor grieve for it but the Children of God fear it as the greatest Evil and complain of it as the greatest Burden and so accordingly strive against it Thus Ephraim bemoaned himself and his Obstinacy and Inflexibleness Ier. 31.18 I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus Thou hast chastised me and I was chastised as a Bullock unaccustomed to the Yoke Turn thou me and I shall be turned for thou art the Lord my God There is hope of Cure when they are sensible of the Disease they fear it in themselves and others as the greatest Evil Heb. 3.12 13. Take heed Brethren lest there be in any of you an evil Heart of Vnbelief in departing from the living God but exhort one another daily while it is called to day lest any of you be hardned through the Deceitfulness of Sin Of all Judgments the Judgment of the hard Heart is worst They complain of it as the greatest Burden Isa. 63.17 O Lord why hast thou made us to err from thy Ways and hardned our Heart from thy Fear They find much deadness and dulness of Spirit they are not affected with God's Presence in Duties nor with his Providences in the World This is their Complaint and Burden Lord I have a stiff Neck that will not easily be brought under the strict Duties of Religion to meditate and to pray in private I have a proud stubborn Heart too hard for me to take down Thus do they complain of these things and strive against it as a Man that hath a Stone in the Bladder he useth good Means to soften it and is careful of his Diet so are God's Children sensible and therefore fearful and careful often bemoaning themselves 2. Unfelt so it is in wicked Men who never consider the Frame of their Hearts or bemoan themselves because of spiritual Evils The Heart of Stone is not sensible of it self and so God's Children for a while may be under great Desertions and
1. What Law-work hath been wrought on you what shakings of Heart and feeling of the Powers of the World to come Have you been roused and startled out of your natural Condition Many will assent to this Truth that all are miserable by Nature But wast thou ever sensible that this was thy Case and accordingly affected Wert thou ever feelingly convinced of thy Misery Otherwise we do but learn these things as a Parrot learneth them by rote What feeling have you of your cursed Estate by Nature Have you had any Experience of the Terrors of the Lord You know the Misery of Man by Nature but have you ever felt it 2. What Gospel-work hath been wrought on you what Taste have you had of the good Word of God what Experience of the Efficacy of the Spirit 1 Pet. 2.3 If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious 3 dly Insensible of the State of the Soul they never look after it If the Body feel but the scratch of a Pin or want but a Night's sleep we complain presently but the poor Soul though oppressed with Lusts and unfit for Duties is never minded nor regarded and they have no heart to pray for a Release out of that spiritual Judgment To own the Plague of our own Hearts argueth Tenderness 1 Kings 8.38 which shall know every Man the Plague of his own Heart When we complain of Lusts more than Fevers and indisposition of Soul more than weakness of Body the languishing of Grace more than an outward Consumption the Stone in the Heart more than the Stone in the Bladder and Kidneys We find Ephraim bemoaning himself being ill at ease for an untoward Heart Ier. 31.18 I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus Thou hast chastised me and I was chastised as a Bullock unaccustomed to the Yoke Did you ever complain of the hardness of your Heart and lay it before God Do you not bemoan your spiritual Distempers when lazy and backward Where is your Relish for the Word your Delight in spiritual things Isa. 63.17 O Lord why hast thou made us to err from thy Ways and hardned our Heart from thy Fear Secondly A hard Heart is inflexible That will be known where it is more gross 1. By a refusal of the Word when Men will not give God the hearing Zech. 7.11 12. But they refused to hearken and pulled away the Shoulder and stopped their Ears that they should not hear Yea they made their Hearts as an Adamant Stone lest they should hear the Law and the Words which the Lord of Hosts hath sent in his Spirit by the former Prophets They refused to hear either to vouchsafe their Presence or Attention Acts 13.46 Ye put it from you and judg your selves unworthy of eternal Life The Case is clear in these whenas to others it is doubtful what needeth more dispute in the matter 2. By an Unteachableness so as not to apprehend ought that is spiritual To be ignorant is one thing to be unteachable is another Ezek. 12.2 Son of Man thou dwellest in the midst of a rebellious House which have Eyes to see and see not they have Ears to hear and hear not for they are a rebellious House Acts 28.26 Go unto this People and say Hearing ye shall hear and shall not understand and seeing ye shall see and shall not perceive They do not see what they do see they have no spiritual discerning though a grammatical Knowledg Job 5.14 They meet with Darkness in the Day-time and grope in the Noon-day as in the Night They are simple in the midst of rational Advantages as the Disciples Luke 24.16 Their Eyes were bolden that they should not know him They see the general Truth but make no Application When a Man is shewed a thing and he minds it not but his Mind is on another Object that Man may be said to see and not to see because he doth not regard it Or a Man that hath a Matter come before him he heareth it but his Mind being otherwise employed he regardeth it not in which sense he may be said to hear and not to hear Not to apply is not to regard in seeing rationally and literally he doth not see spiritually with any Life and Power There is a literal Knowledg and there is a spiritual Knowledg the literal Knowledg is that which the hard Heart may have It is said 2 Cor. 3.3 Ye are manifestly declared to be the Epistle of Christ ministred by us written not with Ink but with the Spirit of the living God not in Tables of Stone but in the fleshly Tables of the Heart It is an Allusion to the Law of Moses consider it in the Letter as separated from the Spirit and only as a Law written in Stone wherein there is a naked Direction of Life but no Power so a stony Heart may see but in seeing they see not But the Spirit of Christ writeth it on the Mind and Heart and maketh the Heart docile and tractible Rom. 7.6 That we should serve in newness of Spirit and not in the oldness of the Letter The Letter of the Law only manifested Duty but gave no Power to perform it it discovered Corruption but gave no Strength to subdue it it was written in Tables of Stone to shew the hardness of Man's Heart But now the Law when it cometh in upon us with a spiritual Light softneth and strengthneth the Heart and maketh it docible and pliable to God's Counsel 3. By an unwillingness to be admonished in publick or private if in publick the greater the Evil. Private Admonition is a kind of Charge a closer Application To storm against private Admonition argueth an ill Spirit when Men are loth to be disturbed in the ways of Sin But much more against publick Admonition where the Application ariseth not so much from a personal Charge as from their own Consciences When Men cannot endure sound Doctrine it is a dangerous Crisis that which the Prophet Ieremiah speaketh of chap. 6.10 To whom shall I speak and give warning that they may hear Behold their Ear is uncircumcised and they cannot hearken behold the Word of the Lord is unto them a Reproach they have no delight in it Surely Men delight in Satan's Arms when they are loth to be pluck'd from thence Satan hath made his Nest there and is loth to be disturbed 2 Sam. 23.6 7. But the Sons of Belial shall be all of them as Thorns thrust away because they cannot be taken with hands But the Man that shall touch them must be fenced with Iron and the Staff of a Spear The Sons of Belial are compared to Thorns that cannot be touched with hands but rend and tear those that meddle with them Men are angry that they cannot quietly enjoy their Lusts. Plausible Strains are very sutable to a carnal Heart or tame Lectures of contemplative Divinity but sound Doctrine that rendeth and teareth the Conscience is not endured 4. By scoffing at the Word The
what I spake against this Place and against the Inhabitants thereof that they should become a Desolation and a Curse and hast rent thy Clothes and wept before me I also have heard thee saith the Lord. Threatnings may terrify but this melts the Heart and begets a serious Remorse for Sin as offensive displeasing and grievous unto God 2 Cor. 7.10 For godly Sorrow worketh Repentance to Salvation not to be repented of but the Sorrow of the World worketh Death Ezek. 6.9 And they that escape of you shall remember me among the Nations whither they shall be carried Captives because I am broken with their whorish Heart which hath departed from me and with their Eyes which go a whoring after their Idols and they shall loath themselves for the Evils which they have committed in all their Abominations Not only for the Evils which they have suffered but which they have committed for the Evil that is in Sin not for the Evil that is after Sin 2 Chron. 32.26 Hezekiah humbled himself for the Pride of his Heart Not only for the Inconvenience and Mischief done thereby but because God was offended That Christian Niobe wept much because she loved much Luke 7.47 Secondly There are two Graces Faith and Fear 1. Faith As Reason maketh a difference between a Man and a Beast so doth Faith between a Man and a Man It is Faith bringeth us under the power of a Truth and maketh Light active Three times Christ reproached his Disciples for hardness of Heart and still the Cause given is Unbelief Mark 6.52 They considered not the Miracle of the Loaves for their Hearts were hardned Mark 8.17 Why reason ye because ye have no Bread Perceive ye not yet neither understand Have ye your Heart yet hardned Mark 16.14 Afterwards he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at Meat and upbraided them because of their Vnbelief and hardness of Heart because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen A Man is dull stupid and sensless till Faith maketh Light break in upon the Heart with Power till then he will not make use of his Eyes Ears or Memory All Affections follow Perswasion Faith perswadeth of Death and Hell and Judgment to come We would not trifle away the Day of Grace if we did believe the Goodness of God offering Favour and Life eternal in Christ. Haec audiunt quasi somniantes Men entertain these things as a Dream and are only a little troubled for the present till they thorowly believe them 2. Fear It is always made a Preservative against hardness of Heart Isa. 63.17 O Lord why hast thou made us to err from thy Ways and hardned our Heart from 〈◊〉 Fear Fear argueth a constant sense of God's Presence and a deep respect to him so as that we are loth to offend him it makes the Soul to walk as in God's Company and therefore it is kept humble Prov. 28.14 Happy is the Man that feareth alway but he that hardneth his Heart shall fall into Mischief It will make us tender of offending God and yielding to our own Corruptions though never so secret Who is the Man that is opposed to him that hardneth his Heart He that feareth alway Carelesness breedeth Senslesness but now when we are continually watchful and say Shall I thus and thus offend God the Heart is kept in a good Frame Thirdly There are two Ordinances the Word and Prayer For Water if never so scalding will return to its natural Coldness 1. The Word 2 Chron. 34.19 It came to pass when the King had heard the VVords of the Law that he rent his Clothes And ver 27. Because thine Heart was tender and thou didst humble thy self before God when thou heardest his VVords against this Place and against the Inhabitants thereof and didst rent thy Clothes and weep before me I have even heard thee also saith the Lord. Heb. 3.7 8. To day if ye will hear his Voice harden not your Hearts A conscionable hearing the Word will prevent hardness of Heart Jer. 23.29 Is not my VVord like a Fire saith the Lord and like a Hammer that breaketh the Rock in pieces There is the double Work of the Word Legal and Evangelical the breaking and the melting Power of it There is a great deal of difference between breaking the Ice with a Staff and thawing or melting it break it in one place and it freezeth in another Melting is more universal There are Legal Breakin gs and Gospel Meltings there Sin is discovered here it is subdued But then you must use the Word as an Ordinance receive it in Faith and Obedience use it in Obedience when you are discouraged in point of Faith Luke 5.5 Master we have toiled all the Night and have taken nothing nevertheless at thy Word I will let down the Net But use it not only in Obedience but in Faith you must hear the Word not only as a moral Lecture or legal Discourse or as a means of literal Instruction but Evangelically waiting for the Power and Presence of God 2. Prayer God will be specially owned in this Work No Creature in the World can soften and turn the Heart but only God He that made the Heart can only change it Ezek. 11.19 And I will give them one Heart and I will put a new Spirit within you and I will take the stony Heart out of their Flesh and will give them an Heart of Flesh. It is God only that gives a teachable Mind a pliable Will and ready Affections Go then and practise this Duty beg of God to give you a Heart more pliable to the Work of Grace more capable to be renewed more soft and ready to receive the Impressions of Grace and be earnest with him for this I shall now give you some further Advice 1. In the first place begin with Conversion to God look for a change of State Repentance in particular Cases is neither right nor acceptable as long as Men do not mind Conversion to God and a change of State by Regeneration When the Tree is good then the Fruits are answerable Get the Heart of Stone taken away and then labour to preserve a tender Frame It is a fruitless Course to look after a good Frame till we are brought into a good Estate Natural Hardness is the cause of habitual Hardness till that be taken away by Regeneration all cometh to nothing 2. Be tender how you use your Light Men wax bold by sinning against Light and seem to get a Victory over their Consciences When the Candle is put out Lust will be stirring Light and Reason is God's Bridle on Man to keep him in awe Well then use your Light tenderly if it be but an half Light search further if it be a full Light walk by it If you are Children of the Light you will have no Fellowship with the unfruitful Works of Darkness 3. After you have sinned take up betimes as Peter went out and wept bitterly for Sin
Thou shalt perswade him and prevail also go forth and do so There is a permissive Intention not an effective Satan is the Efficient and Instrument God is the Judg he permitteth Satan to excite and stir up their evil Natures they grieve his Spirit and then God withdraweth and leaveth them to an evil Spirit as in Saul 1 Sam. 16.14 But the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul and an evil Spirit from the Lord troubled him The Light of the Spirit of the Lord is gone and then Satan filled him with Rage and Fury and Cruelty It is said an evil Spirit from the Lord because he was sent from God to punish him for his Sins 3. There is an active Providence which disposeth and propoundeth such Objects as meeting with a wicked Heart maketh it more hard God maketh the best things the Wicked enjoy to turn to the Fall and Destruction of those that have them Sometimes natural Comforts Ier. 6.21 Therefore thus saith the Lord Behold I will lay Stumbling-blocks before this People and the Fathers and the Sons together shall fall upon them the Neighbour and his Friend shall perish Their Table is made a Snare and an Occasion and Preparation and Means to ruine them They harden themselves by despising the Goodness and Patience of God Rom. 2.4 Or despisest thou the Riches of his Goodness and Forbearance and Long-suffering not knowing that the Goodness of God leadeth thee to Repentance Sometimes Corrections and Chastisements these produce nothing but a greater Contumacy as a resty Horse the more he is spurred forward the more he goeth backward or as a fierce Bull or Bear groweth mad with baiting In what a sad case are wicked Men left by God Mercies corrupt them and Corrections inrage them as unsavoury Herbs the more they are pounded the more they stink Sometimes by spiritual Ordinances and Advantages the most spiritual Means do them no good Isa. 6.10 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 convert and be healed He that bringeth in the Light blindeth the Owl Water poured on Lime maketh it burn the more so do the Means of Grace hurt wicked Men irritating their Corruptions or they resting in them Sometimes by withdrawing the Word and Means of Grace and Prayers of his People Acts 19.9 When divers were hardned and believed not but spake evil of that Way before the Multitude he departed from them Jer. 7.16 Pray not thou for this People neither lift up Cry nor Prayer for them neither make Intercession to me for I will not hear thee Do not any longer strive between me and them Sometimes by disposing and ordering the Deceits of false Teachers 2 Thess. 2.10 11. They received not the Love of the Truth that they might be saved And for this cause God gave them up to strong Delusions that they should believe a Lie Job 12.16 The Deceived and the Deceiver are his This doth not fall out without a Providence The Water runneth its own Course but the Miller maketh use of it to drive his Engine As all things work together for good to them that love God so all things work for the worst to the Wicked and Impenitent Providences and Ordinances we read of them that wrest the Scriptures to their own Destruction 2 Pet. 3.16 Some are condemned to worldly Happiness by Ease and abundance of Prosperity they are intangled Prov. 1.32 The Prosperity of Fools shall destroy them As brute Creatures when in good plight grow fierce and Man-keen If we will find the Sin God will find the Occasion I shall instance in Iudas Christ had reproved him for begrudging Mary's Bounty and ye read Mark 26.16 From that time he sought opportunity to betray him He was offended with Christ's Reproof Iudas was hurried on with Wrath and Avarice and when Men are resolved God in his Providence suffereth them to have a fit Opportunity The Priests alarmed with the Miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead by which many were drawn to believe in him were thinking how to seize on him and Iudas comes in the nick and asketh them What will ye give me and I will betray him to you Vse Let us take warning by Pharaoh's Example that this great Judgment light not upon us The Philistines that were otherwise a blind and stupid People yet were affected with it Dagon was broken in pieces and they were smitten with Emrods once and again and they begin to consult what to do their Diviners told them 1 Sam. 6.6 Wherefore do ye harden your Hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardned their Hearts when he had wrought wonderfully among them did they not let the People go and they departed God delighteth not in Judgment and therefore he hath made a Precedent once for all here is Pharaoh set up that all succeeding Ages may stand in fear God would not have us learn to our bitter Cost but take Example by others Qui alieno malo non sapit graviùs punitur He that will not take warning by others shall be more grievously punished In Judgments it is better to take Example than to become Examples If thy Life should be nothing else but Pharaoh's Story acted over again for certainly there is an exact Parallel between this Case and the Course of every obstinate Sinner how great will thy Doom be God was angry with Belshazzar because he was not warned by Nebuchadnezzar's Example Dan. 5.22 And thou his Son O Belshazzar hast not humbled thine Heart though thou knewest all this You have known and heard of the Way of God with Pharaoh God hath a Quarrel with some of you for your Lusts and Vanities Do you think to bear it up against Warnings with Peace and Quiet Your Lusts may not bring you to present Ruine that you may be the more hardned in them but be sure that God will have the best at last and then I leave you to judg what will be your Condition when you fall under the weight of his Displeasure Have you not some Qualms of Conscience sometimes about your eternal Condition Doth not Conscience say Surely I am not so careful to make my Peace with God as I should be Upon every such stirring you are the more estranged from God if you do not improve it Conscience will repeat over these Warnings to you when you lie upon your Death-beds and then you will sadly howl over your Neglects and wish your Magicians and old Companions far from you then you will send for Moses and Aaron and it may be too late When God is shewing Mercy the last Mercies are the best and the further he goeth the sweeter he is and when God is punishing the last Punishments are the sorest and the further he goeth the more bitter I will propound two Considerations 1 st From the Evil of an hard Heart 1. It is a Contest with God not only with his Greatness and
Power but also with his Goodness and Mercy and therefore it must needs succeed ill with us Before God breaketh out with Fury he treateth with us in a mild condescending way he beseecheth his own Creature Jer. 13.15 16. Hear ye and give ear be not proud for the Lord hath spoken give Glory to God before he cause Darkness and before your Feet stumble upon the dark Mountains and while ye look for Light he turn it into the Shadow of Death and make it gross Darkness 2. An hard Heart makes us Rebels to God and Slaves to every thing else for we are wedded to some inferiour thing we are our own Pharaohs and will not let our selves go 2 Tim. 3.4 Lovers of Pleasures more than Lovers of God 3. It is in it self the sorest of all Judgments 4. It never goes alone but brings other Judgments along with it 5. It is the great hindrance of the Spiritual Life See Sermon on Mark 3.5 pag. 505 506 507. 2 dly From the Parties whom it may befal not only the open Wicked but in some measure God's own Children for God may harden two ways as a Judg and as a Father by way of Punishment and by way of Correction By way of Punishment again two ways totally and finally Some are totally hardned and have nothing of a soft Heart in them and yet not finally the dreadful Sentence of Obduration is not yet past upon them as it may be upon others and that during Life when God leaveth them to their own Hearts Counsels without any Check or Restraint of Providence or Purpose to reclaim them These three Kinds I must then speak of God's hardning the Wicked in general his final hardning and his hardning in part his own Children SERMON II. EXOD. IV. 21 I will harden his Heart that he shall not let my People go First OF God's hardning wicked Men in general as a Judg. The Causes of it are 1. Ignorance for Light and Love make the Heart tender Light is that which we are now to take notice of Light begets Tenderness as it discerneth Sin and maketh us sensible of it especially the lively Light of the Spirit Rom. 7.9 I was alive without the Law once but when the Commandment came Sin revived and I died Sense of Guilt and Punishment soon flashed in his Face as in a Dungeon the Worms crawl as soon as Light is brought in Jer. 31.19 After I was instructed I smote upon my Thigh I was ashamed yea even confounded because I did bear the Reproach of my Youth Instruction breedeth Remorse and awakneth Men out of their stupid Security but while Men continue in their Ignorance they are stupid and sensless Now thus Men may be for a long time and yet afterwards God may make the Scales fall 〈◊〉 from their Eyes and open their Eyes and turn them from Darkness to Light and from the Power of Satan unto God Acts 26.18 However affected and vincible Ignorance when Men are willingly ignorant and err in their Hearts that is when Men have powerful and enlightning Motives and yet remain ignorant this is very dangerous And for the present that Ignorance is one cause of their hardning is evident because the worst usually when they come to die are sensible their Mind is then cleared from the Fogs and Steams of Lust and Conscience being awakned they then feel their Load and a great weight of Sin lying upon them and most wish they had lived in a more strict and ready Obedience to God's Will 2. Unbelief There is an Hardness of the Heart against the Light and Offers of the Gospel when Christ is tendred but not received and the cause of that is Ignorance affected Ignorance and there is an hardning of the Heart against the Truth once received out of love of their temporal Peace Liberty and Safety of Life and Estate this cometh from Unbelief and want of a sufficient sense and sight of the World to come Which Hardness is caused by the Veaglement and Importunities of the Flesh craving its Satisfactions in the present World and denying or disbelieving the Blessedness to come If Men did believe Heaven and Hell they would be more pliable to God's Motions and more deaf to the Importunities of the Flesh but that this is a cause of hardning appeareth by Christ's chiding his Disciples for their Unbelief and hardness of Heart Mark 16.14 Afterward he appeared unto the Eleven as they sat at Meat and upbraided them with their Vnbelief and hardness of Heart because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen 3. Sinning against Light either by way of Omission or Commission This provoketh God to give us over to more hardness of Heart By way of Commission is easily granted but it is also by way of Omission Iames 4.17 To him that knoweth to do Good and doth it not to him it is Sin They will find it to be Sin in the sad Effects of it See Sermon on Mark 3.5 pag. 508. 4. Custom in Sinning See on Mark 3.5 pag. 504. 5. Small Sins may occasion this Judgment and harden the Heart as well as great Sins It is not easy to say which doth most indeed great Sins get into the Throne presently but small Sins insensibly and by degrees Psal. 19.13 Keep back thy Servant also from presumptuous Sins let them not have Dominion over me A small Sin may get the upper hand of a Sinner and bring him under in time and after that it is habituated by constant Custom so that he cannot easily shake off the Yoke and redeem himself from the Tyranny thereof as if a Man be addicted to any Vanity and foolish Delight These do not exercise Dominion over the inslaved Soul till they have gotten Strength by many and multiplied Acts. But presumptuous Sins by one single Act weaken the Spirit and give a mighty Advantage to the Flesh even almost to a compleat Conquest So that for the present little Sins do not harden the Heart so much as greater See Sermon on Mark 3.5 pag. 508. Now all these Causes concur to the hardning of the Heart and making it as a Stone but yet out of these Stones God can raise up Children to Abraham Secondly Of God's final hardning when God leaveth Men to perish and will no more treat with them Now here I shall shew 1 st That there is such a Dispensation 2 dly The Causes of it 1 st That there is such a Dispensation 1. It is an usual Dispensation for God to leave Men to perish in their Sins and that irreversibly even before Death and will be intreated no more for them It appears by many places of Scripture Rev. 22.11 He that is unjust let him be unjust still and he which is filthy let him be filthy still Those which remain obstinate after many Warnings and Calls it is usual with God to give them over to their Lusts that they may be ripe for Hell Ezek. 3.27 He that heâ—â—eth let him hear and
63.10 But they rebelled and vexed his holy Spirit therefore he was turned to be their Enemy and he fought against them Sâ—vit infelix Amor. Gen. 6.3 My Spirit shall not always strive with Man for that he also is Flesh. The Heathens did acknowledg that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Gods of Cities and Nations did for the Provocation of the Inhabitants forsake their Altars and Temples The more Calls and Convictions we resist in this kind the more difficult and improbable is the reducing a Sinner to God every day he groweth more wicked and profane To resist the Clamours of Conscience is sad but to weary and grieve the Spirit is dreadful Ezek. 24.13 In thy Wickedness is Lewdness because I have purged thee and thou wast not purged thou shalt not be purged from thy Filthiness any more till I have caused my Fury to rest upon thee God sets them over the Fire till their Hearts begin to be warmed and then lets the Sun remain on them 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 sheweth 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 Thess. 2.10 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 carnal Christian being not brought to true Faith and sincere Repentance God giveth them up that they may be deceived by every vain Pretence 4. Apostacy 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. 6.4 5 6. For it is impossible for them who were once enlightned 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 Pet. 2.21 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 uncapable of ever owning the Ways of God again it is impossible they should renew themselves it groweth up into a wilful Malice Heb. 10.26 For if we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledg of the Truth there remaineth no more Sacrifice for Sins Grace will not pardon them the Mediator will not intercede for them Apostatae sunt maximi osores sui ordinis Apostates hate the Ways they have professed Hosea 5.2 The Revolters are profound 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 stupified when to Custom in sinning there is added a passionate Will Jer. 2.25 Thou saist There is no hope no for I have loved Strangers and after them will I go Jer. 18.11 And they said There is no hope but we will walk after our own Devices and we will every one do the Imagination of his evil Heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Men do not use to consult about things that are impossible It is said of the Israelites Exod. 6.9 They hearkned 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 lift and it is to no purpose to speak to them Thirdly Of â—â—d's hardning as a Father in a way of the highest fatherly Anger and Displeasure This may be 〈◊〉 Isa. 63.17 O Lord why hast thou made us to err from thy Ways â—nd hardned our Heart from thy Fear This is a partial Hardness There may be Desertion in point of Grace tho some Tenderness left in the Understanding that discerneth Good and Evil in the Conscience that is dissatisfied in its 〈◊〉 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 unaptness 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 difference between them and the Wicked there is Hardness in a Stone and Hardness in a piece of Wax I will shew the Causes of this and the Means to cure it 1 st 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 Havock 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 Psal. 51.10 11 12. Create in me a clean Heart O 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 Ioy 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. 59. Your Iniquities have separated 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 hindred from shewing it self 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 Partakers of spiritual Benefits in so ample and full a Measure as otherwise he would but
hard Times of the hard Dealings of Men of hard Duties Durus est hic Sermo this is a hard Saying and who can hear it But we seldom complain of that which we should most complain of hardness of Heart The Lord is pleased with these Complaints Ier. 31.18 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 unsensible there is too great Touchiness and Impatiency to be admonished too much Disobedience to the Spirit 's sanctifying Motions they are too often benummed with the Delights of the Flesh and Cares of the World 2. Hasten your Repentance and Return to God Psal. 119 6â— I made haste and delayed not to keep thy Commandments Gal. 1.16 Immediately I conferred not with Flesh and Blood To press thiâ— 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. 3.7 8. To day if you 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 Rom. 13.11 Now is our Salvation nearer than when we believed A pari 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 Swinâ— Isa. 55.6 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 wittingly 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 Corah 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 stupifying Distemper he may deprive you of the use of your Reason Let this rouze and awaken you out of your fond Presumptions 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. 9.25 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 Dealings 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 2. When you scorn at Reproof when you are not only Actors but Defenders of Sin and bear up your selves impudently and stubbornly in your ransgressions Jer. 6.10 To whom shall speak and give warning that they may hear Behold their Ear is uncircumcised and they cannot hearâ—en behold the Word of the Lord is unto them a Reproach They are of an unteachable untractakble Disposition they think we rail when we do reprove The Devil hath then two Victories one by the Scorn and Opposition that is cast on the Reprover and the other by the hardning of the Heart of the fretting and reproved Sinner that Anger that should be turned upon the Sin is turned upon the Reproof 3. When Ordinances grow powerless You live under Ordinances and receive no Profit by them you have much Means and can see no Fruit Isa. 6.9 10. Hear ye indeed but understand not and see ye indeed but perceive not 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 The Word is powerful if it softens not it hardens 4. When our worldly Comforts are apt to prove a Snare to us Mal. 2.2 I will curse your Blessings yea I have cursed them already because ye do not lay it to Heart When your Table is made your Snare your Meat becomes your Poison your Estate is but as golden Fetters to bind and chain your Heart to the World your Honours blow you up When you do not take Comforts as the Mercies and Blessings of God to praise him for them and to devote your selves in the Strength of them to his Service 5. When Corrections go away without Fruit. Jer. 5.3 Thou hast stricken them but they have not grieved thou hast consumed them but they have refused to receive Correction they have made their Faces harder than a Rock they have refused to return God will have an account of every Dispensation Afflictions are upon the Register as well as Mercies Christians should never advance more in Christianity than under the Cross. 6. When we are lazy and loth to admit Christ into the Heart It being thronged with Creature-Comforts we keep him at the Door knocking and will not open to him Rev. 3.20 Behold I stand at the Door and knock Cant. 5.3 I have put off my Coat how shall I put it on I have washed my Feet how shall I defile them This Laziness and spiritual Security is a Cause and Beginning of hardness of Heart 7. When trivial and slight Temptations prevail against the sense of our Duty when for a piece of Bread and handfuls of Barley they will transgress and sell the Righteous for a pair of Shoes when they are as a Stone to God's Counsels but as Wax to all other things 8. When the Heart grows vain and frothy for a slight Heart will be an hard Heart or God gives Men over to a reprobate Sense and an injudicious Mind These are the Fore-runners of hardness of Heart which we should beware of and carefully watch against A SERMON UPON GENESIS III. 15 It i. e. the Seed of the Woman shall bruise thy Head and thou shalt bruise his Heel THese Words are a part of the Gospel preached in Paradise or the first Promise of Grace and Life made to Mankind now fallen and dead in Sin As God was cursing the Serpent he draweth out this Comfort to our first Parents who were confounded with the
thee to repentance And shall we use all these as Weapons of Unrighteousness Food Rayment Peace Plenty Ah but his Christ above all Oh never any sinned as I have done The Devil sinned but Christ never dyed for him as he did for me Iudas sinned but he was never pardoned as I have been Achan sinned but he had not that Light and Knowledge of the Gospel that I have had he did not live under such Means as I have injoyed we content our selves with an hasty Sigh Oh but it is a deep Sorrow that is required and an active pungent grief renting the heart Ioel 2.13 Afflicting the soul Levit. 16.29 Matth. 26.75 Peter wept bitterly When we are touched with a sense of our unkindness to God we shall mourn 4. Indignation which is an Act of our hatred against Sin hatred quickned into a Zeal against it Indignation is the Souls expulsive faculty when we heartily renounce it as unsuitable to our present resolutions professions and hopes Isa. 30.22 Thou shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth thou shalt say unto them Get ye hence So Hosea 14.8 Ephraim shall say What have I any more to do with idols The Soul saith first when it is convinced Oh what have I done And then What shall I do And then What have I any more to do If a Christian did remember what he is and what he hopeth for these Questions would be more rise with him Repentance is not a bare purpose to leave Sin but to leave it with an hatred and deep displeasure against it SERMON II. LUKE xvi 30 31. And he said Nay father Abraham but if one went unto them from the dead they will repent And he said unto him If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded though one rose from the dead Secondly I Now proceed to the next terme which is the Terminus ad quem turning to God which is done in two things 1. A Setled Purpose and Solemne Dedication of our selves to his Use and Service which is a Resolution taken up upon Debates of Conscience Luke 15.17 18. And when he came to himself he said how many hired servants of my fathers have bread enough and to spare and I perish with hunger I will arise and go to my father First he came to himself then I will go to my Father This ariseth out of a sense of Gods Mercy in Christ Rom. 12.1 I beseech you brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable to God which is your reasonable service Lord accept me for thine and is the Fruit of super-natural Grace Iames 1.18 Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth and is accompanied with shame that God so long hath been kept out of his Right 1 Pet. 4.3 For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles when we walked in lasciviousness lusts excess of wine revellings banquetings and abominable idolatries and a purpose to serve him with all our might 2. It is seconded by a real performance Matth. 3.8 Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance Acts 26.20 That they should repent and turn to God and do works meet for repentance Without these he is a Lyar and deceiveth his own Soul if the Heart be not more watchful over it self affraid to offend God and grieve his Spirit more tender of the least Sin more careful to please God in all things more close at work in the business of Eternal Life These are fruits worthy of Repentance this is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which we do more than Carnal Hypocrites Fruits suitable to the power of Grace working in us and to our professions of respect to God This is the summ of the Doctrine of Repentance II. What doth the Scripture offer to perswade us to this work 1. It clearly layeth down the absolute and indispensible necessity of it in grown Persons or such as are come to years of discretion Acts 3.19 Repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. Luke 13.5 Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish Ezek. 33.11 Say unto them as I live saith the Lord God I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from his way and live Turn ye turn ye from your evil wayes for why will ye dye O house of Israel One way or the other turn or dye it is no moot point or matter of Controversie There are many Controversies about other things but in this all is clear Many will say there is such a doubtfulness that every one bringeth Scripture and maketh a nose of wax of it ductile and pliable to his own fancy But in points of absolute Duty it is fully clear and in the Marks of one that shall go to Heaven or to Hell especially in the Doctrine of Repentance Make use of the Scriptures and practice conscientiously according to your Light and God will clear up his mind to you By Study and Prayer and Practice you will come to an increase of Knowledge Iohn 7.17 If any man will do his will he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God or whether I speak of my self 2. It doth not only call for Repentance but a speedy Repentance Heb. 3.7 8. Wherefore as the Holy Ghost saith to day if ye will hear his voice harden not your hearts Ioel 2.12 Therefore also now saith the Lord Turn ye even to me with all your heart God standeth upon now If the Season were not determined yet the Nature of the thing would bear it A necessary work that is to be once done should not be left to uncertainties But because Men are loose and arbitrary and think they may make use of Repentance at their leisure therefore the Scripture is as peremptory for the Time as for the thing Now and to day if you will hear his voice harden not your hearts Assoon as you are convinced of your sinful estate Why not now Sin is such an evil that you cannot be rid of it too soon Sin is as a Poyson in the Bowels a Fire in a Building Now who will say we will get an Antidote next Week Or quench the Fire hereafter Sin is a Wound and shall we let it alone till it fester and rankle No Wound so dangerous as that which destroyeth Body and Soul no Fire so dreadful as the Wrath of God no Poyson so hurtful as that of Sin it robbeth us of Eternal Life God hath not given us leave for a day nor for a moment If a Man were banished by Proclamation and it were Death whoever should entertain and harbour him after ten dayes till the time were out there were no danger but God faith now When we are in any trouble we cannot brook any delay Psalm 102.2 In the day when I call
should be broken off Alas whosoever readeth the carriage of this people in the Wilderness towards God he shall still find Grace striving with sin and the goodness of God overcoming the evil of Man and his fidelity prevailing above their unthankfulness and unfaithfulness And the character of this people in the Wilderness is just our own in travelling to Heaven how often do we forfeit the blessing of God's presence but he is not severe upon every failing and upon repentance he is willing to renew covenant with us and set us in joint again nothing hurteth us more than the sinful provocations of God's people have no hand in them or if you have been accessory to publick guilt bemoan it and humble your selves before God and be more awful and tender for the future and you will find God to be a merciful God III. Why such kind of Mercies should not be forgotten Here I will prove First That Man is apt to forget the great mercies of God especially national Mercies Secondly That yet these Mercies should not be forgotten both because of God's command and the profit of remembring them First That Man is marvellous apt to forget these benefits Therefore there are so many cautions that we forget them not In private mercies Psal. 103.2 Bless the Lord O my Soul and forget not all his benefits Deut. 8.11 Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God in not keeping his commandments and his judgments and his statutes which I command thee this day and verse 14. That thy heart be lifted up and thou forget the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the Land of Egypt from the House of Bondage So we have many Precepts Deut. 8.2 Thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years 1 Chron. 16.12 Remember his marvellous works which he hath done his wonders and the judgments of his Mouth And so many charges and complaints Jud. 8.34 The Children of Israel remembred not the Lord their God who had delivered them out of the hands of their Enemies on every side Psal. 78.11 they forgot his works and his wonders that he had shewed them and Psal. 106.13 They soon forgot his works And all this is no more than needeth for Man's memory is a bad friend to benefits Injuries are written in Marble but benefits in the Water Now as these cautions charges and accusations do respect all Mercies so especially more eminent Mercies for it is said He hath made his wonderful works to be remembred Psal. 111.4 The great miraculous works of his Providence should make such impression upon Men as never to be forgotten but recorded and reported for ever As for great deliverances God hath appointed Ordinances for a memorial such as the Passover or the Lord's Supper to remember our Redemption by Christ for by these works God maketh himself a name by doing great things for his people 2 Sam. 7.23 Redemption from the tyranny of Antichrist is not to be forgotten 2. That yet these mercies should not be forgotten partly because God hath commanded the contrary as we have seen It is not only a sin to forget his Word but his Works and partly also because of the profit 1. That we may be more deeply possessed of the goodness of God The Ear doth not affect the Heart so much as the Eye and what is felt leaveth a greater impression upon us than what is talked of for experience giveth us a more intimate perception of things The King of Syria said We have heard that the Kings of the House of Israel are merciful Kings 1 Kings 20.31 A rumour and report giveth incouragement but actual experience silenceth all contradiction when I can say I know God is not unmindful of his people but relieveth them in their great streights and watcheth over their welfare As the Apostle Acts. 10.34 Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons Psal. 140.12 I know that the Lord will maintain the right of the poor and the cause of the afflicted Unquestionably God will undertake the patronage of his distressed Servants when all other hopes fail them meaning when God did signally defend them and watch over them 2. To incourage us to walk in his ways It is our forgetfulness of God's goodness that maketh us so disobedient and unthankful to him Psal. 78.7 That they might set their hope in God and not forget the works of God but keep his commandments Nothing breedeth a careful uniform obedience to his commands so much as a grateful remembrance of his Mercies Alass as our thankfulness is abated so is our obedience God's authority sways the Conscience but God's love inclines the Heart Therefore mercies should be remembred 3. To fortifie us against all oppositions and temptations Deut. 7.18 Thou shalt not be afraid of them but shalt well remember what the Lord thy God did unto Pharaoh and unto all Egypt It is a great comfort to Faith to look back upon the former manifestations of God's power and good will towards his People We have manifold fears and infirmities upon us when we see the power or suspect the craft of our Enemies but let us remember former experiences and that will be an allay to them When we see the continuance of his judgments so many years and in so many forms frequently varied but still lying upon us we are filled with many sad thoughts and reasonings of unbelief but we may soon suppress and silence them by the thoughts of God's power and love heretofore and the evidences of his love and good will and fidelity to all that depend upon him Former dealings raise our hearts to the expectation of future mercies Vse is to press us to this remembrance 1. Of the great Christian Mercies that concern the whole common-wealth of Believers such as the Birth Death Resurrection and Ascension and Intercession of the Lord Jesus these are the standing Dishes at a Believer's Table the constant food for our Faith Mercies never out of season these are mercies so general and beneficial that they should never be forgotten but remembred before God we should always bless God for Jesus Christ and desire that the knowledge of these things may be perpetuated to after Ages Eph. 3.21 Vnto him be glory in the Church by Iesus Christ throughout all Ages World without end Amen 2. For National Mercies so far as they concern either the first planting or the restoring of Christs Religion or the maintenance of it against the eminent open attempts or secret plots of Antichristian Adversaries These should be remembred by us partly to awaken our zeal that religion thus owned may not die upon our hands partly to shew our esteem both of the Religion and the mercy of God in owning it partly that we may beg the continuance of it for every thanksgiving is an implicite prayer partly that we may embolden our selves against all the difficulties we may be exposed unto in owning the true profession
another World they would sooner discern their mistake How miserably will you bewail your selves when you have lost Eternity for poor Temporal things What comfort will it be to you that you have been Merry lived in Pomp and Ease It is better to believe than try To prevent the misery than experiment it Now for means to help you Vse I. Frequent Recollection For thereby you come to your selves Luke 15.17 And when he came to himself he said How many Hired Servants of my Fathers have Bread enough and to spare and I perish with Hunger Many are so busie about their vanities that they cannot find that they are Men or think what business they have to do in the World nor where they must dwell for ever Self-communing would be an hopeful means to undeceive them Isa. 46.8 Remember this and shew your selves Men bring it again to mind O ye transgressors And elsewhere the Prophet sheweth what reasonings we should use with our selves Isa. 55.2 Surely this would be one means to wean you from Carnal Vanities and to deaden the Gust and Tast of them to your Souls most men debase their reason to the service of their Appetites and Lusts their pleasure and business is the pleasing and gratifying of the Flesh Rom. 13.14 All their care is to Eat well and Drink well to be well Fed and well Clad and to make a fair shew in the Flesh and live in Worldly Pomp All their business is to gather in provision for the satisfying of their present Lusts they spend their days and cares for nothing else which is that living after the Flesh Rom. 8.13 That sowing to the Flesh Gal. 5.8 which the Scripture condemneth And what is the reason of all this Because they are inconsiderate Never consider whence am I whither am I a going What shall become of me to all Eternity Psal. 119.59 I thought on my ways and turned my Feet unto thy Testimonies They are like Children hunting after Butter-flies and when they have them their gawdy Wings melt away in their Hands and there remaineth nothing but an ugly Worm The Worm of Conscience the Worm of Disappointment Oh recollect thy self is this to make Eternal things our scope 2. Let us often compare together the condition of the present and of the future Life All things that are liable to the view of Sense soon pass away whether Comforts or Crosses The Good and Evil of the present World are soon over accordingly should be our carriage towards them 1 Cor. 7.29 30 31. Now consider how unreasonable it is the Soul should be drawn away by Transitory things from those which are Eternal The things we doat upon are not worthy to be compared with the greatness and duration of those things to which we are invited by the Promises of the Gospel It may be you have Health and Strength and Wealth now but how long will you have it We are not sure of the enjoyment of these things the next day How soon may they be withered The prosperity of the wicked is cut down as Grass withered as the Green Herb Psal. 37.2 But things unseen will be yours to all Eternity God is an everlasting Portion Psal. 73.26 My Flesh and my Heart faileth But God is the strength of my Heart and my Portion for ever Christ's Redemption is an everlasting redemption Heb. 9.12 He entred in once into the Holy place having obtained Eternal Redemption for us God and Christ will be yours to day and will be yours to all Eternity Those things which are seen if they do not perish may be taken from you Mat. 6.19.20 We are not sure to get it but you are sure to leave it Iob 1.21 But these other things cannot be taken from you Luke 10.42 One thing is needful and Mary hath chosen that good part which shall not be taken from her The Devil cannot and God will not take it from you 3. Improve your experience of the vanity of this World Psal. 119.96 I have seen an end of all perfection but thy Commandments are exceeding broad Vain light Hearts pass over these things and get no profit by them They find the Creature vanity and vexation of Spirit yet run out as greedily after it as they did before Psal. 49.13 This their way is their folly yet their posterity approve their sayings They are sensible of the folly of their Ancestors but are not mended by it they have Eyes to see but not an Heart to see Deut. 29.2 3 4. Ye have seen all that the Lord did before your Eyes in the Land of Egypt unto Pharaoh and to all his Servants and to all his Land The great Temptations which thine Eyes have seen the Signs and those great Miracles yet the Lord hath not given you an Heart to perceive and Eyes to see and Ears to Hear unto this day 4. Be sure when you are tempted to revive this meditation upon your Hearts That things seen are Temporal and things unseen are Eternal As 1. When any Temptation cometh to draw your Hearts to give contentment to the Flesh for a season As for Instance when you are tempted to please your Eye your Taste your Sensual Desire or to wrong your Souls for Wealth and Honour remember these are not Eternal Pleasures Riches Honours And shall I dare run the hazard of wronging God or my Soul for a little present satisfaction Leave my fatness and sweetness to rule over the Trees What! hazard Eternal things for Temporal trifles 2. When tempted by the bitterness of the Cross to relent in Gods Cause Say as Basil's Forty Martyrs that were kept naked in the open Air in a cold Night to be burn'd next day Sharp is the cold but sweet is Paradice Troublesome is the Way but pleasant is the end of the Journey Let us endure a little cold and the Patriarchs Bosom will soon warm us Stephen saw Heaven opened and that fortified him against the Showers of Stones from the People Act. 7.51 'T is for such a season 5. Beg the light of the Spirit 'T is necessary for us both with respect to things seen and unseen 1. Seen That we may apprehend the vanity of the Creature Psal. 90.92 So teach us to number our days that we may apply our Hearts unto Wisdom Psal. 49.4 I will incline mine Ear to a Parable I will open my dark saying upon the Harp David is describing the vanity of Worldly prosperity And also to see things unseen Eph. 1.17 18. That the God of our Lord Iesus Christ the Father of Glory may give unto you the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation in the Knowledge of him The Eyes of your Vnderstanding being enlightened that ye may know what is the Hope of his â—alling and what the Riches of the Glory of his Inheritance in the Saints Our Wisdom Natural is Carnal and Sensual Iam. 3.15 Either for Riches Pleasures or Honours Prov 23.4 Labour not to be Rich cease from thine own Wisdom Reason catereth for the Body
the way of Life that keepeth Instruction but he that hateth Reproof erreth They wander far and wide that hate to be brought into the right way Prov. 12.1 He that hateth Reproof is brutish Why because he despiseth the great Help of Mankind and so is carried away with his base and impetuous Desires and will not hear Reason to the contrary Prov. 13.18 Poverty and Shame shall be to him that refuseth Instruction but he that regardeth Reproof shall be honoured As unwilling to go on in a wrong Course after he seemeth to be ingaged in it and he shall be honoured as one that is prudent Prov. 15.5 A Fool despiseth his Father's Instruction but he that regardeth Reproof is prudent He is wise at the second hand though not in his first Choice yet in rectifying his ill Choice Nay Prov. 15.10 Correction is grievous unto him that forsaketh the way and he that hateth Reproof shall die Better be corrected than die and perish for ever God's Reproofs and Rebukes at the last Day will be very severe and amazing And ver 31. The Ear that heareth the Reproof of Life abideth among the Wise that is forsaketh the ill Company which misled him and betaketh himself to better Guides Prov. 29.1 He that being often reproved hardeneth his Neck shall suddenly be destroyed and that without Remedy Our Case without Repentance is desperate for when we have hardened our selves in an evil way the Lord overtakes us with a sudden Destruction Vse 3. It exhorts us to set upon this Duty There is need of it Which will appear if we consider the Infirmity of Nature that is to be restrained a blind Mind to be enlightned a drowzy Heart to be awakened Vehemency of Passions to be curbed and great Allurements to Sin to be withstood Say not with Cain Gen. 4.9 Am I my Brother's Keeper Thou art so do it then with Love lest you do the Work of an Enemy under the Vizard of a Friend No Hatred or ill End must put you on this Business for when you rebuke Sin with Sin you increase it Again there is need of it for it will prevent many Evils as Censuring and Detraction and speaking ill of others and Invasion of the Ministry this is one great Evil that heretofore hath reigned among us many little Pratlers that had no Gifts set up for Ministers this Itch would soon be cured if Men would mind necessary Duties such as Meditation which is a Preaching to themselves Family-Instruction and Brotherly Reproof Vse 4. Direction to perform this Duty Many Graces are necessary hereunto as Zeal for God Love to our Neighbour and Courage Avoid Pusillanimity that you be not hindred by your Fears this is the way to prevail And if you prevail not you must mourn and pray as Lot 2 Pet. 2.8 For that righteous Man dwelling among them in seeing and hearing vexed his righteous Soul from day to day with their ungodly Deeds Jer. 13.17 But if ye will not hear it my Soul shall weep in secret Places for your Pride and mine Eye shall weep sore and run down with Tears SERMONS UPON 1 CORINTHIANS XV. 19 SERMON I. 1 COR. XV. 19 If in this Life only we have Hope in Christ we are of all Men most miserable IN the Context the Apostle is disputing for the Truth of the Resurrection this way of Reasoning is deducendo ad absurdum by shewing the Absurdities that would follow upon the denial of it 1 st The first Absurdity is mentioned ver 13. If there be no Resurrection of the Dead then Christ is not risen In all things he is a Pattern to his People if the Head be risen so shall the Members also 2 d Absurdity consequent upon that is mentioned ver 14 15 16. And if Christ be not risen then is our Preaching vain and your Faith is also vain yea and we are found false VVitnesses of God because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ whom he raised not up if so be that the Dead rise not for if the Dead rise not then is not Christ raised Whole Christianity would be a Forgery and whatever was preached by the Apostles and believed by them vain and frivolous if Christ be not risen 3 d Absurdity ver 17. And if Christ be not risen your Faith is vain you are yet in your Sins That the new Covenant and all their Confidence about Remission of Sins upon Repentance would come to nothing 4 th Absurdity That those that had lost their Lives for Christ would perish eternally and would have nothing to recompense this Loss ver 18. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished 5 th Absurdity is in the Text If all our Hopes in Christ were terminated with this Life Christians were the most wretched sort of Men in this World If in this Life only we have Hope in Christ we are of all Men most miserable But these are such absurd Thoughts that every Christian should abhor them with Indignation In the Words we have 1. A Supposition If in this Life only we have Hope in Christ. 2. An Absurdity thence inferred VVe are of all Men most miserable Doct. That the Calamities of the Godly in this Life shew that we have much more to hope for from Christ in the Life to come I. I shall state the Point in what Sense it is said that Christians are of all Men most miserable if there be no Life to come II. Confirm and prove it by shewing the Validity of the Apostle's Reasoning 1. For the Supposition 1. This is supposed that Affliction and Misery is the common Burden of the Sons of Adam In the present Life all are liable to Misery some more some less We walk through a Valley of Tears live in a groaning World none have such an uninterrupted Current and Stream of worldly Felicity but that they have their Crosses and Afflictions These things are common to Man We are told in the Book of Iob chap. 5.7 Man is born to Trouble as the Sparks fly upward And Iob 14.1 Man that is born of a Woman is of few Days and full of Trouble None can reasonably expect to be absolutely exempted from the common Lot of humane lapsed Nature Though Life be short yet it 's long enough to be vexed with many Sorrows Few and evil have the Days of the Tears of my Life been saith old Iacob Gen. 47.9 Since they are evil it is well they are but few Most Men little consider of this that they come into the World to bear Crosses but rather imagine they come hither to spend their Days in Pleasure at least they do not mind the true Cause of their Troubles nor the proper Remedy The true Cause is Sin Man's Transgressions are the Door by which it entred And the proper Remedy is the Grace of God in Jesus Christ. Well then whatever may be the particular and various Dispensations of God towards Men yet to be miserable in some sort and
is and the Nature of it 432 752 952 1102 The Objects of it 432 435 721 753 952 1102 The Acts of the Soul about Faith 953 The Acts of Faith 433 435 436 1103 The Adjuncts and Qualifications of the Assent of Faith 433 Faith is a Consent and what kind of Consent 435 Implicite Faith what 432 Historical Faith what 434 Temporary Faith what 435 The Properties of Faith 437 Faith apprehends all things present it wants in the Creature 895 The Sight of Faith opened 438 476 Vid. Sight How the Sight of Faith influences the Acts and Effects of Faith 439 What a kind of looking Faith is 754 Light of Faith Vid. Light Instances of a strong Faith 459 Vid. Abraham Canaan Centurion How to judg of the Growth of Faith 432 436 The Relation of the Word to Faith Vid. Word Faith and Love inseparable Companions 430 The Respect Faith Hope and Love have one to another 1104 The Necessity of Faith 752 The Incouragement of Faith ibid. Fallen The Disorder and Danger of a fallen State 1159 Christ hath to do with fallen Sinners 783 He recovers them out of their fallen State by calling 784 Far. Many may go far and yet come short of true Grace 284 Men may go far and yet fall away and the Reasons of it 359 Father God is a Father by Creation or Adoption 1134 It is an Advantage to Patience in Afflictions to eye God as a Father 1134 1137 Fear vanquished by Faith 241 458 Arguments to remove Fear of Danger 1099 Fear of God the kinds of it 1070 Why it is required as the Principle of our Actions ibid. Feasts whether lawful 74 Filled Both the Backslider and the good Man seek to be filled 1110 They both take different ways to be filled 1111 Rightly understood every Man is filled from himself 1115 Finished Christ's Words It is finished opened 1149 In what Respect all was finished on the Cross 1150 Why Christ would not give over till all was finished 1153 Following Christ. What it is to follow Christ 388 Wherein we should follow Christ 346 Vid. Example Motives to follow Christ ibid. Fool. Every carnal Man a Fool 910 Forgiving Enemies a Duty 1143 Vid. Revenge Forsake Why God may sometimes forsake his People 1096 God never totally forsakes his People and why 1095 Objections answered ibid. Three kinds of forsaking 1096 Forsaking all when God calls us so to do 333 Reasons why we must so do 334 Directions to this Duty 335 Future State proved 1216 Light of Nature concerning a future State not to be rejected 1221 Thoughts of a future State Support in Afflictions and Death 1220 G GIfts the kinds of them 250 251 252 258 The Freeness of God's Gifts 250 Every one hath some Gift or other 257 Gifts are not given to all in a like measure 259 Reasons of it 260 Gifts are intrusted as well as given 253 Vid. Trust. God to be thanked for all his Gifts 251 Give Why it was necessary that Christ should give himself 157 Duties inferred from Christ giving himself 160 We are to be thankful that Christ gave himself 159 Glory what it is 1225 Godliness what it is 89 What Graces are necessary to Godliness ib. What are the Ordinances about which it is conversant 91 Godliness to be exercised in Worship in Conversation 93 94 95 Godliness and Holiness and Righteousness how they differ 39 89 Our Abode in the present World is the time to exercise Godliness 98 Reasons of it 100 Trial whether we are godly 96 Motives to Godliness ib. Good Then none is good how not to be understood 295 How it is to be understood ibid. Goodness of God's Nature opened and the Properties of it 298 300 The Goodness of his Bounty opened 300 When God is not honoured as the chief Good 36 Good Man what he is 1110 Good Things Who have their good Things in this Life 988 The Misery of those that have their good Things in this Life 990 How shall we know that Men count temporal things their good Things 988 Good Works the Beginning Increase and Accomplishment of them from God 686 Gospel a means of Salvation and how 15 No better way to save Sinners than that revealed in the Gospel 659 The Wisdom of God in the Gospel 658 The excellent Contrivance of the Gospel to be meditated on 656 Preparative Considerations to such Meditation 657 How we are to meditate on this Contrivance of the Gospel 658 Motives to regard the Gospel 17 No Reason to doubt of the Gospel 948 Government God governs the World by the Hopes and Fears of another Life 1171 Grace Whether they that improve common Grace shall have special Grace 1082 Increase of Grace must be acknowledged as well as the Beginning of it 427 Grace of God how many ways taken 2 Grace and Mercy in God how they agree and how they differ ib. Grace the Original of all Blessings 3 Why Grace is the Original of all Blessings 5 Grace doth not exclude Christ and the means of Salvation 4 What and how much of Grace is discovered in the Gospel 11 Grace but darkly discovered before the Gospel 10 What Reason Believers have to praise the Grace of God above other Men or Angels 9 How the Grace of God is wronged 6 Grace teacheth us Holiness 25 Trial whether we are Partakers of the Grace of God 26 H HAbitation God is the Habitation of his People 897 God's People may have no Habitation on this side God 895 God's being our Habitation is of use to us when we want and when we have a Dwelling-place 900 901 How God is our Habitation when we have a House 902 Vid. Dwelling in God Hardness of Heart sinful The terms of it opened what is meant by Heart what by Hardness 498 The Nature and Properties of it ibid. The Kinds of it 501 The Causes of it 503 The Hainousness of the Sin 505 Some Observations about it 507 Trial of a hard Heart 511 Motives to beware of Hardness of Heart 514 Motives to come out of this State ibid. Directions for the Cure of a hard Heart 515 Tendencies of it to be avoided 532 Hardness of Heart judicial How God may be said to harden 501 523 God's Iustice and Righteousness herein vindicated 524 Causes of God's hardning Sinners 527 Sometimes God may harden finally ibid. The Causes of this 528 God may harden his own People for a time 530 The Causes of it ibid. Means to cure it 531 Observations from the History of Pharaoh's Hardness of Heart 520 Hearing the Word an Ordinance of God 21 Objections against Hearing answered ib. Diligent attending to the Word wherein it consists 1078 Why we should take heed what we hear 1077 How they that hear shall have more given them 1080 Heart of the Wicked what it signifies 1059 The Pravity of it 1060 How the Heart of the Wicked is little worth ibid. Reasons of it 1062 Means to get another Heart or a Heart sanctified 1065 What Men may do towards getting their
be had at Mr. Nathaniel Manton's at the 3 Pigeons in the Poultrey A TABLE of the Texts treated on in this Fourth Volume Part I. TITUS 2.11 For the Grace of God that bringeth Salvation hath appeared to all Men Ver. 12. Teaching us that denying Vngodliness and worldly Lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present World Ver. 13. Looking for that blessed Hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Iesus Christ Ver. 14. Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all Iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar People zealous of good Works In 22 Sermons pag. 1. Heb. 6.18 That by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie we might have a strong Consolation who have fled for Refuge to lay hold upon the Hope set before us In 5 Sermons p. 195 John 14.1 Let not your Heart be troubled ye believe in God believe also in me In 2 Sermons p. 235 Luke 12.48 For unto whomsoever much is given of him shall be much required and to whom Men have committed much of him they will ask the more In 2 Sermons p. 249 Deut. 32.51 Because ye trespassed against me among the Children of Israel at the Waters of Meribah-Kadesh in the Wilderness of Zin because ye sanctified me not in the midst of the Children of Israel In 1 Sermon p. 267 Acts 17.30 And the times of this Ignorance God winked at but now commandeth all Men every where to repent Ver. 31. Because he hath appointed a Day in the which he will judg the World in Righteousness by that Man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given Assurance unto all Men in that he hath raised him from the Dead In 1 Sermon p. 275 Mark 10.17 And when he was gone forth into the way there came one running and kneeled to him and asked him Good Master what shall I do that I may inherit eternal Life Ver. 18. And Iesus said unto him Why callest thou me Good there is none Good but one that is God Ver. 19. Thou knowest the Commandments Do not commit Adultery Do not kill Do not steal Do not bear false Witness Defraud not Honour thy Father and Mother Ver. 20. And he answered and said unto him Master all these have I observed from my Youth Ver. 21. Then Iesus beholding him loved him and said unto him One thing thou lackest go thy way sell whatsoever thou hast and give to the Poor and thou shalt have Treasure in Heaven and come take up the Cross and follow me Ver. 22. And he was sad at the Saying and went away grieved for he had great Possessions Ver. 23. And Iesus looked round about and saith unto his Disciples How hardly shall they that have Riches enter into the Kingdom of God Ver. 24. And the Disciples were astonished at his Words but Iesus answereth again and saith unto them Children how hard is it for them that trust in Riches to enter into the Kingdom of God Ver. 25. It is easier for a Camel to go through the Eye of a Needle than for a rich Man to enter into the Kingdom of God Ver. 26. And they were astonished out of Measure saying among themselves Who then can be saved Ver. 27. And Iesus looking upon them saith With Men it is impossible but not with God for with God all things are possible In 15 Sermons p. 284 2 Thess. 1.3 We are bound to thank God always for you Brethren as it is meet because that your Faith groweth exceedingly and the Charity of every one of you all towards each other aboundeth In 5 Sermons p. 420 Matth. 8.5 And when Iesus was entred into Capernaum there came unto him a Centurion beseeching him Ver. 6. And saying unto him Lord my Servant lieth at home sick of the Pâ—lsie grievously tormented Ver. 7. And Iesus saith unto him I will come and heal him Ver. 8. The Centurion answered and said Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my Roof but speak the Word only and my Servant shall be healed Ver. 9. For I am a Man under Authority having Souldiers under me and I say unto this Man Go and be goeth and to another Come and he cometh and to my Servant Do this and he doth it Ver. 10. When Iesus heard it he marvelled and said to them that followed Verily I say unto you I have not found so great Faith no not in Israel In 1 Sermon p. 459 Matth. 15.21 Then Iesus went thence and departed into the Coasts of Tyre and Sidon Ver. 22. And behold a Woman of Canaan came out of the same Coasts and cried unto him saying Have Mercy on me O Lord thou Son of David my Daughter is grievously vexed with a Devil Ver. 23. But he answered her not a Word and his Disciples came and besought him saying Send her away for she crieth after us Ver. 24. But he answered and said I am not sent but unto the lost Sheep of the House of Israel Ver. 25. Then came she and worshipped him saying Lord help me Ver. 26. But he answered and said It is not meet to take the Childrens Bread and to cast it to Dogs Ver. 27. And she said Truth Lord yet the Dogs eat of the Crumbs which fall from their Master's Table Ver. 28. Then Iesus answered and said unto her O Woman great is thy Faith be it unto thee even as thou wilt and her Daughter was made whole from that very Hour In 1 Sermon p. 466 John 8.56 Your Father Abraham rejoiced to see my Day and he saw it and was glad In 1 Sermon p. 474 Rom. 4.18 Who against Hope believed in Hope that he might become the Father of many Nations according to that which was spoken So shall thy Seed be Ver. 19. And being not weak in Faith he considered not his own Body now dead when he was about an hundred Years old neither yet the Deadness of Sarah's Womb. Ver. 20. He staggered not at the Promise of God through Vnbelief but was strong in Faith giving Glory to God Ver. 21. And being fully perswaded that what he had promised he was able also to perform In 1 Sermon p. 482 Mark 3.5 And Iesus looked round about on them with Anger being grieved for the Hardness of their Hearts In 3 Sermons p. 497 Exod. 4.21 I will harden his Heart that he shall not let my People go In 2 Sermons p. 519 Gen. 3.15 It i. e. the Seed of the Woman shall bruise thy Head and thou shalt bruise his Heel In 2 Sermons p. 533 Gen. 24.63 And Isaac went out to meditate in the Field at the Even-tide In 10 Sermons p. 601 Part II. LUKE 16.30 And he said Nay Father Abraham but if one went unto them from the dead they will repent Ver. 31. And he said unto him If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded though one rose from the dead In 2 Sermons p. 671 Heb. 13.20 Now the
likeness of his Resurrection Rom. 6.5 We shall be dead to Sin and alive to God The same Divine Power that kills the Old Man quickens the New Again I might argue from the Word which is our Rule for there we have not only Restraints but Precepts therefore we must not only escape from Sin but delight in Communion with God We must eschew what God forbids and practise what God commands Vse Let it press us not to rest in abstaining from Sin meerly Many are not vicious but they are not sanctified they have no feeling of the Power of the new Life The Pharisees Religion ran upon Negatives Luke 18.11 God I thank thee I am not as other Men are Extortioners Vnjust Adulterers or even as this Publican To enforce this consider both are contrary to the new Nature it hates Evil and loves Good Where there is Regeneration there is a putting on and a putting off Ephes. 4.22 23 24. That ye put off concerning the former Conversation the Old Man which is corrupt according to the deceitful Lusts. And be renewed in the Spirit of your Mind And that ye put on the New Man which after God is created in Righteousness and true Holiness The new Nature makes Conscience of abstaining from Sin and obeying God's Precepts And both are serviceable to the Work of Grace Grace is obstructed by Sins of Omission and Commission for Sins increase as well as unfitness for Duty The Motions of the Spirit are quenched and Lusts grow prevalent in the Soul and both are odious to God A barren Tree cumbers the Ground and is rooted up as well as the poisonous Herb. Obs. 3. We must first begin with renouncing Evil that 's the first thing Grace teacheth Since the Fall the Method is Analytical to unravel and undo that which hath been done in the Soul So it is said of Christ 1 Iohn 3.8 For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the Works of the Devil Sin is the first Occupant in the Soul and claimeth Possession six thousand Years ago it thrust out Grace which was the right owner therefore first there must be a Writ of Ejectment sealed against Sin that Grace may take the Throne Dagon must down e're the Ark be set up It cannot be otherwise it must not be otherwise there must be mortifying and subduing of Sin by Acts of Humiliation and Godly Sorrow before there will be Experience of Grace 1. It cannot be otherwise for the Devil hath a right in us as long as we remain in Sin therefore there must be a rescue from his Power Col. 1.13 Who hath delivered us from the Power of Darkness and hath translated us into the Kingdom of his dear Son Christ and Satan cannot reign in the same Heart nor God and the hâ—â— World Ioseph was taken out of Prison and then preferr'd to Pharaoh This is â—he Method Luke 1.73 That he would grant unto us that we being delivered out of the Hands of our Enemies might serve him without fear in Holiness and Righteousness before him all the Days of our lives Deliverance hath the precedence first the Thorns must be rooted out and then the Corn is sowed 2. It must not be otherwise God will have nothing to do with us till we have renounced Sin A plausible Life is but a counterfeit Varnish like gilding over a rotten Post or a moral Integrity till Sin be renounced The Prodigal left his Husks and then returned to his Father This is the Method at our first Conversion indeed afterwards there is some difference when once Grace is once planted in the Heart it hath the advantage of Corruption and worketh first Thus it is said of Iob Chap. 1.1 That Man was perfect and upright one that feared God and eschewed Evil. First fearing God then eschewing Evil. Grace having taken possession and being seated in the Heart it works first Like a Man possessed and seated in his House he seeketh to expel his Enemy So at first way is made for the Operation of Grace and then all the Work afterwards is the destruction of Sin Obs. 4. It is not enough to renounce one Sin but we must renounce all For when the Apostle speaks of denying Ungodliness he intends all Ungodliness Compare this with 1 Pet. 2.1 Wherefore laying aside all Malice and all Guile and Hypocrisies and Iam. 1.21 Wherefore lay apart all Filthiness and superfluity of Naughtiness All Sins must be renounced little Sins and great Sins Great Sins as Adultery Drunkenness and the like are manifest Gal. 5.19 that is Nature doth abhor them they stink and smell rank in Nature's Nostrils even to a natural Conscience Then for little Sins Matth. 5.19 Whosoever shall break one of these least Commandments and teach Men so to do shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven It is spoken of Ministers principally whoever shall give licence by the Gospel to the least Sin either break it himself or teach Men so to do shall have no place no room among Gospel-Ministers No Sin can be little that is committed against the great God Sins are not to be measured by the smallness of the Occasion or by the suddenness of the Act but by the Offence done to God to an Infinite Majesty The less the Sin the greater many times it is It argues much Malice to break with God upon every slight Occasion there is more unkindness in it and the more contempt of God and it argues the greater depravation of Nature As a little Weight will make a Stone move downward because of its natural Inclination so it is a sign we have an inclination that way when a small Matter can draw us from God Again secret Sins must be eschewed as well as Publick Isa. 55.7 Let the Wicked forsake his Way and the unrighteous Man his Thoughts the Thought as well as the Way is to be forsaken By Way is meant his outward course of Life by his Thoughts is meant the hidden workings of his Spirit Nothing more transient and sudden than the Thought therefore as we must not do Evil before Men so we must not think Evil before God God seeth the Thought as well as Man the Actions and infinitely more The Thoughts are visible to him and these fall under a Law as well as our Actions Again Sins of Temper to which we are more incident as well as other Sins to which we have less inclination they must be mortified Psal. 18.23 I was also upright before him and I kept my self from mine Iniquity That Sin which we call ours should be most watched against and most hated above all others As a Man should be afraid of the Meat of which he hath once surfeited so the Sin that hath once prevailed over us we should be more cautious against It is nothing for a sordid Spirit to be less proud or a proud Man to be less covetous or a covetous Man to be less sensual or a sensual Man to be less
Godliness 2 Tim. 3.5 Having a Form of Godliness but denying the Power thereof This is the greatest Ungodliness that can be they will not own his Authority in their Hearts nor suffer him to have any Dominion in their Conscience nor own him without in their Actions before Men. The Heart is his Chair of State and Chamber of Presence but Hypocrites and wicked Men rob God of his Dominion over the Conscience therefore Hypocrisy is practical Blasphemy Rev. 2.9 I know the Blasphemy of them that say they are Iews and are not but are the Synagogue of Satan Men pretend to obey God yet blaspheme him in their Heart and refuse the Power of that to which they pretend And the Life must be conformed to God's Laws God will be honoured in our Conversation as well as have his Throne set up in the Conscience his Laws must be visibly obeyed in the Sight of Men. It is the Glory of a Commander to be obeyed Matth. 8.9 I am a Man under Authority having Souldiers under me and I say to one Go and he goeth and to another Come and he cometh and to my Servant Do this and he doth it So God will have all the World know that he hath his Servants at a beck If he bids them deny and abstain the Flesh O they durst not meddle with it or if he bids them practise Holiness they must do it his Honour is much promoted by your Lives God will have all the World see that he hath called you to his Foot and that he hath an absolute Authority and Power over the Sons of Men they are a People formed for his Praise he looks for Glory in this kind Fourthly God will be honoured as the last and utmost End and so in all Acts natural moral and spiritual If we do not aim at God's Glory we are guilty of Ungodliness This is the proper Work of Godliness to refer all we do to the Glory of God and this is the Distinction between Godliness and Holiness Holiness minds the Law of God and implies only a Conformity to the Law Godliness minds the Glory of God and is the Aim of the Soul to exalt God 2 Pet. 3.11 What manner of Persons ought we to be in all Holy Conversation and Godliness You see Godliness is distinguished from Holiness Godliness refers all we do to God's Glory But more particularly 1. In natural Acts we must have a supernatural Aim 1 Cor. 10.31 Whether therefore ye eat or drink or whatsoever ye do do all to the Glory of God If we are to take a Meal to sustain the Body and refresh Nature it is that we may be more serviceable to God And he that eats and drinks to himself to his own Pleasure to satisfy his own Appetite and hath no Respect to God he doth but offer a Meat-Offering and a Drink-Offering to an Idol And he that traffiques for himself meerly to get Wealth and doth not aim at Usefulness and Serviceableness to God he is a Priest consecrated to Mammon his eating is Idolatry Phil. 3.19 VVhose God is his Belly and his trading is Idolatry Matth. 6.24 Ye cannot serve God and Mammon 2. In your moral Actions Ephes. 6. where all moral Duties are reciprocally set down as Duties of Husbands and Wives Masters and Servants Parents and Children the Apostle presseth them to do all as in and to the Lord not merely that they may live together in Contentment and Peace but they must walk in their Relations so as God may have Honour A Christian by an excellent Art turns his second Table-Duties into first Table-Duties and makes his civil Commerce a kind of Religious Worship 3. So in all spiritual Acts The whole Ordination of the spiritual Life must be to God I through the Law am dead to the Law that I might live unto God Gal. 2.19 All the Motions and Tendencies of the Soul are to advance God and glorify God In the very spiritual internal Actions and Reachings forth of the Soul after God why do I desire to have Grace and Pardon That God may be glorified that must be the last End Our Desires can never be regular in asking Grace till they suit with God's End in giving Grace Now what are God's Ends in giving Grace Eph. 1.6 To the Praise of the Glory of his Grace wherein he hath made us accepted in the Beloved All that God aims at is to make Grace glorious and that Grace may carry away all the Praise So in your Desires of Pardon Heaven and Salvation you are to desire them that God may be glorified in your Salvation and in the Pardon of your Sins So in our external Actions Prayer Worship Preaching whatever we do In sacred things it is dangerous to look asquint and to serve our selves our own Lusts our Covetousness or Pride upon the Worship of God this is to put Dung in God's own Cup. It were a mighty Affront to a King to fill his Cup full of Excrements Nothing alienates the Heart from God so much as Self-respect God hath given us many things but he hath reserved the Glory of all to himself as Pharaoh said to Ioseph Gen. 41.40 Thou shalt be over my House and according unto thy VVord shall all my People be ruled only in the Throne will I be greater than thou This is the first Branch of Ungodliness the Negative Part when we deny God his due Honour II. For the Positive Part. Positive Ungodliness is more gross when we put an actual Contempt and Scorn upon God We are guilty of this when we slight his Providence and disobey his Laws 1 st When we slight his Providence Heb. 12.5 My Son despise not thou the Chastening of the Lord. Men harden themselves against Corrections and count light of them Men cannot indure to have their Anger despised When the three Children despised Nebuchadnezzar's Threatnings it is said Dan. 3.19 Then was Nebuchadnezzar full of Fury and the Form of his Visage was changed against Shadrach Meshech and Abednego therefore he spake and commanded that they should heat the Furnace one seven times more than it was wont to be heat It is a mighty Affront to God and a Contempt of him when we provoke him while we are under his afflicting Hand if in Despite of God we break out into Sin when he hedgeth up our way with Thorns 2 Chron. 28.22 And in the time of his Distress did he trespass yet more against the Lord. This is that King Ahaz 2 dly When we are disobedient to his Laws Open Irreligion is a Despite to God when we cast off his Yoke This is Ungodliness in the Height when God is not only neglected but rejected Ier. 2.31 VVe are Lords we will come no more unto thee We would be absolute Masters of our own Wills This was the first Bait Gen 3.5 Ye shall be as Gods knowing Good and Evil. This endeth in open Prophaneness which groweth upon Men by Degrees as Lactantius said of Lucian Nec
The Day of the Lord will come as a Thief in the Night Here is our Day because God affords Time to us as a Space and Season of Repentance and Reformation but the Day of Judgment that is the Lord's Day the Day of Recompence Rewards and Punishments Vse 1. To reprove them that delay the Work of Repentance and their Change of State There is nothing more usual than Delays and Put-offs Some are full of Imployment and after their Business is a little over then they will think of saving their Souls Luke 9.59 Suffer me first to go and bury my Father still there is something in the way Others when they have arrived to such a Degree of Wealth and made such Provision for their Families then they will look after their Souls Others when their youthful Heats are spent then they dream of a devout Retirement and a religious Age there is nothing more usual The Lord knows these are our inward Thoughts still there is something in the way when we should act holily righteously and godly This is Satan's last shift to elude the Importunity of a present Conviction by a future Promise As a bad Debtor promises Paiment for the future to be rid of the importunate Creditor though he means no such matter so we make Promises for the future Felix when his Conscience boiled dreams of a more convenient Season Acts 24.25 Go thy way for this time when I have a more convenient Season I will send for thee And Matth. 22. when they were invited to the Wedding the Answer is not scornful but civil it is not non placet but non vacat they do not deny but make Excuse they had present Business and were not at leisure to comply with God's Will Always God comes Unseasonably in the Sinner's Esteem Reckoning and Account and Satan's usual Clamour is when we begin to be serious and mind our Salvation Art thou come to torment us before our time Matth. 8.29 The Devil would fain have a little longer Possession and therefore something is pleaded by way of Bar and Hesitancy You find it in particular Cases when you go to perform any thing that is good to pray to meditate to renew your Communion with God something is in the way if such a Business were over then I were at leisure Thus we dream of another time a more convenient Season and we linger and draw back as Lot in Sodom O consider the Work must be once done or you are for ever miserable and you will never have a better Season than now when you are under Conviction and the warm Impulses of the Spirit of God David takes hold of the present Season when his Heart was ingaged and he had a religious bent towards God Psal. 119.60 I made haste and delayed not to keep thy Commandments So when there is such a strong bent in your Souls strike while the Iron is hot you may have more Hindrances but never more Helps Again we owe more than we are worth already and why should we run more in Debt The longer you continue in Sin the higher will your Accounts rise A Tenant that cannot pay the Rent of one Year if he let it run on how will he be able to discharge the Rent of two Years So if it be so troublesome now do you think it will be more easy hereafter when the Heart is hardned by a constant Resistance If there were a sound Conviction you would not delay A sensible Sinner is always in haste Heb. 6.18 He flies for Refuge to lay hold upon the Hope set before him It is an Allusion to the Man pursued by the Avenger of Blood he that hath Wrath at his Heels he runs as for Life to Jesus Christ. It is but a slender and insufficient Touch upon the Conscience He that knows the Danger can never make haste enough to come to Christ as the pursued Man could never make too much haste to get into the City of Refuge that is before him Nay it argues little Love to God and a great deal of Disingenuity of Spirit to continue in Rebellion against God and think to come in at last when you can stand out no longer This is meerly Self-love when you care not how much God is dishonoured and his Spirit grieved provided at length we be saved The Lord did not so deal with us his whole Duration and Existence is for our sakes from Eternity to Eternity he is God and from Eternity to Eternity his Loving-kindness is great to them that fear him Psal. 103.17 The Mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting to them that fear him If God thinks of us from one Eternity to another before the World and after the World can we be content to thrust him into a narrow Corner of our Lives Can you satisfy your Hearts when you have nothing to give God but the Rottenness Weakness and Aches of old Age and Sickness Consider once more Sin leaves thee in Sickness thou dost not leave Sin it is not a Work of Choice but of Necessity as a Merchant throws his Goods over-board in a Storm tho he loves them well enough At least it is a very suspicious Act a natural Aversation from our own Misery and a desire of our own Happiness it is a yielding upon force when a Man never yields to God but when God hath him under and he can sin no longer And what assurance have we that we shall have a Heart to mind Salvation at all and turn to God hereafter When all our Distractions are out of the way is Grace at our beck There is an offer of it to day Heb. 3.15 While it is said To day if ye will hear his Voice harden not your Hearts Nay there 's a shrewd Presumption to the contrary that Obduracy Hardness of Heart and Despair will grow upon us Long use makes the Heart more obdurate and long Resistance grieves the Spirit of God and makes him more offended with us By putting off the Change of your Lives you put your Souls into Satan's hands by Consent for a while He that delays his Conversion doth as it were pawn his Soul into the Devil's Hands and saith if he do not fetch it again at such a day it is his for ever Again it is a great Honour to seek the Lord betimes Mnason was an old Disciple Seniority in Grace is a very great Honour The Apostle saith Rom. 16.7 Salute Andronicus and Junia who were in Christ before me And the Lord saith Ier. 2.2 I remember thee the kindness of thy Youth and the love of thine Espousals God prizeth these pure Virgin-Affections when before our Hearts be prostituted to the World we apply our selves to seek his Face You lose the Advantage of much early Communion with God whenever you are called to Grace and if ever you taste of the Sweetness of Grace it will be your Grief that you were acquainted with it no sooner and all the time that remains
quicken us to Thanksgiving Vse 2. Exhortation If Christ hath given himself it presseth us 1. To accept Christ and entertain him in our Hearts Shall Christ give himself and will not we accept the Gift It is true when he gave himself for us he gave himself to God the Father as you know the Price must be paid to the Creditor Satisfaction is made to the Judg. But as he gave himself for us so he gives himself to us and thus he is offered in the Gospel Therefore it is said Rom. 3.25 Whom God hath set forth to be a Propitiation for our Sins In the Gospel God holds out Christ and makes an Offer Sinners will you take him Shall Christ offer himself thus and shall not we esteem and value this Gift and entertain it in our Hearts with all Thankfulness Certainly we do not know what a Gift Christ is and therefore we do not prize it John 4.10 If thou knewest the Gift of God and who it is that saith to thee Give me to drink thou wouldst have asked and he would have given thee living Water Here is the best Gift ever God can give If we knew Christ our Affections would not be so cold God is represented in Scripture with two Hands and he hath Gifts in his Right Hand and Gifts in his Left Hand There is Jesus Christ Grace Pardon and Salvation and all that is dear and precious these are the Blessings of his Right Hand In his Left Hand there are Riches and Honour Estate Lands Houses Supplies of the present Life Now art thou a Goat or Sheep one that shall stand at God's Left or Right Hand Thou art known by thy Choice All that are for the World run for a worldly Portion and neglect Christ. We count those Children foolish who prefer an Apple before a Jewel So here the Lord sets out to us Christ and the Things of this Life and Men prefer the base Contentments of the World before Christ. Therefore let us accept of Christ if he hath given himself for us 2. It exhorteth and presseth us to a spiritual Consecration to give up our selves to Christ. Rom. 12.1 I beseech you Brethren by the Mercies of God that you present your Bodies a living Sacrifice holy acceptable to God which is your reasonable Service Jesus Christ gave himself as a Sin-offering and we must give up our selves as a Thank-offering unto God Now let me tell you your giving up your selves is a far other manner of giving up than Christ gave up himself You never keep your selves so much as when you give up your selves to God All the receiving is on our part God would have us give up our Hearts to him How that we might be made better Better be given up to God than left to our selves Christ gave up himself to be crucified but we give up our selves to be glorified And Jesus Christ gave up himself voluntarily there was no necessity lay upon him but wo unto us if we give not up our selves to God there is a necessity laid upon us we do but give God his due and his own but Jesus Christ had power over his Life to lay it down and take it up for he was an absolute Master of his Life but we are dependant under an Obligation therefore our giving is but to make our Relation to God more explicite And again Jesus Christ could sanctify himself he was Priest Altar and Sacrifice and brings all out of his own Store but all we have is from God it goeth under the name of our Deed but the Sacrifice Fire and Altar all come down from Heaven yet the Act must be done by us And here take these two Cautions 1. You must do as Christ did give up your All Body Soul Estate Goods good Name Life Parts Interest Relations write upon all Holiness to the Lord there must not be a Hoof reserved for these things are but Trifles in comparison of what Christ parted withal for us Some stick at one thing some at another some divide the Body and the Soul In times of Safety when the publick Profession of Religion is honourable then Men will give up their Bodies to Christ their Eyes shall be lifted up in Prayer and their Tongues shall speak well of Christ but their Heart is not given him In times of Trouble then they could give God their Souls but Profession is suspended the Body must be spared and excused And then in the Soul some make an untoward Division between Conscience and Affections fain they would have Christ to pacify and satisfy their Conscience but they give their Hearts and Affections to the World Some could give up their Parts for Christ O they could plead for him and do some good Act of Kindness but not a Penny of their Estates Christians you must not thus stand hucking with God and play Pharaoh's Trick but all must be given up The Devil knows when we divide the Whole will fall to his share It would be sad if God should deal with you as you deal with him and glorify no more than you give him take the Body into Heaven and leave the Soul in Hell 2. You must not retract your Vows It is dangerous to alienate things once consecrated to say with him I go Sir and went not Mat. 21.30 or as Ananias to keep back part of the Mony for which he sold his Possession and yet the thing was in his own power But you are not in your own power it is not indifferent whether you will give up your selves to Christ or no but it is a Duty and therefore live as if thou wert not thine own Master but act for Christ think for Christ and do for Christ it is not an hard Law Consider what Christ did Christ pleased not himself Rom. 15.3 He had a private Will as well as you but he denied it and yielded to the publick Will Christ did not obey his private Will to the prejudice of his publick therefore let it not be grievous to renounce your Will 2 Cor. 5.14 15. For the Love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judg that if Christ died for all then were all dead And that he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which died for them and rose again 3. It presseth you again to a like Readiness in Christ's Service as the Lord Christ shewed in the service of our Souls Why should we be so backward to come to the Throne of Grace when Jesus Christ was not backward to go to the Cross We go grudgingly when he went so willingly to suffer for us When the Business was propounded to him he said Psal. 40.7 8. Lo I come in the Volume of the Book it is written of me I delight to do thy Will O my God So when there 's a warm Suggestion upon your Hearts Psal. 27.8 Thou saidst Seek my Face my Heart said unto thee Thy Face Lord will I seek Lord what
Person of the Godhead to work it out Next to the Gift of Christ we have the Gift of the Spirit O it should be a shame that when we have such a keen Sword to cut the Throat of our Lusts that we act so faintly use it so feebly and are no more valiant And then what pure and excellent Precepts have we in the Christian Religion reaching not only to the Act but the very Aim to the Intents and Thoughts and secret workings of the Heart Psal. 19.7 The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the Soul And not only to the Sin but to the Lust Thy Commandment is exceeding broad Psal. 119.96 Then we have glorious Hopes The Scriptures that are a perfect Rule in all other Cases yet herein they profess their Imperfection 1 Cor. 13.9 We prophesy but in part Words not fit and great enough to tell us of our Hopes 2 Cor. 4.17 Our light Affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is the highest strain and reach of Fancy In all other things the Garment of Fancy is too great for the Body wherewith it is to be clothed Fancy never takes a right measure of things but the highest Suppositions are too short to express the Greatness of those Hopes that are provided for you And then for the dreadful Punishments we are told of a Worm that never dies of a Fire that shall never be quenched of a Pit without a Bottom of Torments that are without End and without Ease Ours Hearts are filled with Horror when we do but think of these things and shall we not burn now with Zeal for God when we are in danger of burning in Hell-fire for ever hereafter If now we are cold and slow in good Works it were the most incongruous thing in the World where there is such a high Elevation of Duty and Comfort The whole Scriptures are formed to elevate these things to the highest pitch that we may not be backward and slow in the Christian Religion All things are sublime and therefore call for something more than ordinary 8. Consider the great danger of Coldness both to our selves and others To our selves where there is no Zeal there will be Decay Prov. 18.9 He also that is slothful in Work is Brother to him that is a great Waster Not to go forward is to go backward Standing Pools corrupt as a Man that rows against the Tide and Stream if he doth not ply the Oar he will lose ground and be carried away apace So if we be not zealous we cannot stand and keep our ground there will be a Decay Bernard observes to this purpose that all the Angels in Iacob's Ladder were either ascending or descending there is no stay but either going up or going down When they lose their first Love their Zeal is gone Rev. 2.4 5. Thou hast left thy first Love Remember therefore whence thou art fallen and repent and do thy first Works What is the reason Men grow weary of Truth weary of Holiness weary of Prayer Ordinances they do not keep up a constant Diligence First they lost their Zeal they became indifferent cold and careless then off goes the Service of God first their Love and then their Works So consider the danger of it to others Men grow formal by Imitation When Christians high in Profession grow formal cold and careless this makes their Neighbours so There is nothing hardens more than a cold Professor it makes Men sit upon their Lees. Mortified and strict Christians upbraid others by their Example A Man cannot come into the Company of a mortified strict Christian but his Heart will upbraid and shame him And therefore if in this general Decay we have learned Deadness and Formality one of another let us strive now who shall be most forward in the Ways of Grace Heb. 10.24 Let us consider one another to provoke to Love and good Works You shall see in the Times when Idolatry was like to go down Isa. 41.6 7. They helped every one his Neighbour and every one said to his Brother Be of good Courage So the Carpenter encouraged the Goldsmith and he that smootheth with the Hammer him that smote the Anvil c. They were strengthning one another to plead for their Shrines and to get up their Pictures and Idols again that their Trade might not go down Thus Idolaters hold in a String O what a Religious Correspondency should there be in the Children of God When the Power of Godliness is like to decay and go down how should we strengthen and encourage one another and provoke one another by holy Example to be more zealous that we may not contract the Guilt of their Deadness and Formality 9. Consider There is no danger in Zeal we cannot do too much in solid Piety The least is more than enough in Sin because every thing is too much there but in Grace there is never enough In External Worship indeed there may be too much as in Pomp and Ceremonies when Men will be decking God's Ordinances with Gawdery it is not proportionable to the End of Worship therefore there may be too much And in particular Exercises there may be too much it is good to keep a decorum in Praying and Hearing But now in the Love of God and Zeal for God and the Service of God and solid Piety there can be no excess you cannot be too Heavenly or too Holy There is a great deal of Danger of doing too little Many come short of the Glory of God Rom. 3.23 O Christians you cannot be too busy for saving your Souls nor too earnest 2 Pet. 1.11 we are pressed to labour after an abundant Entrance There are some that are afar off that do not enter at all that neither strive nor seek to enter that are as Swine filthy abominable unprofitable good for nothing but to ruin themselves as prophane Persons and Heathens And some are very nigh to the Kingdom of God as the moral Man upon the Brink and Border and as he that was almost perswaded to be a Christian Acts 26.28 Others again make a hard shift to get to Heaven they are scarcely saved or saved as by Fire But others are carried on with full Sails their Hearts are enlarged to God This is our Duty to labour to get this abundant Entrance Some seek to enter and are not able they go far and yet perish Luke 13.24 Many shall seek to enter but shall not be able 10. Consider If your Hearts be dead and cold you lose the comfort of all your Christian Priviledges A dead Christian is as bad as none at all You cannot take comfort in your Conversion a Change without Life and Zeal is but a moral Reformation not a Regeneration for Regeneration is a quickning and a begetting to Life Ephes. 2.5 Even when we were dead in Trespasses and Sins he hath quickned us together with Christ. That
are some remainders of right Reason some Impressions of Equity some Principles of Common Honesty still left and preserved in us thô as to Spiritual Endowments We are altogether become filthy and abominable Psal. 14.2 yet some Moral Inclinations are left to shew what Humane Nature once was As in a rifled Palace thô the rich Furniture be gone the Plate and the Jewels and thô the fashion of it be much spoil'd yet some of the Fabrick is left still standing to shew what a Magnificent Structure it once was Nature teacheth to deal justly with all and startles and looks ghastly at some kind of Abominations The dictates of Morality and Common Right are very Legible in our Conscience The Gentiles which have not the Law do by nature the things contained in the Law Rom. 2.14 As Iob's Messengers said every one of them I alone am escaped to tell thee So there are some Principles of Conscience that are left and escaped out of the ruines of the fall to warn us of our Duty and to make us give back at monstrous and gross Impieties and to leave us without Excuse Thô men be born in Sin and are dead to all Spiritual Good yet some restraints are left still upon Nature lest man should not shew himself to be Man 2. For the good of Mankind God is the Patron of Humane Society and delights in the welfare and preservation of it He Created not Man as he did the Angels to live several and Independant from one another We are all multiplied and propagated from one Original Root that we might live in mutual Society and Converse with one another It is observed that ravenous and noxious Creatures live single and apart but the useful in Herds and Flocks so Man was made by Nature a Sociable Creature Now there would be no such thing as Humane Society if there were not some sweetness of Nature and Moral Dispositions yet left in us The World would be but one great Forrest of Wild Beasts if God had not left some Authority in Conscience to keep men within the Bounds of Honesty And therefore to uphold order in the World there must be some amiable Qualities even in the Unregenerate or Corrupt State some are more Innocent and unblameable than others I 'll set it forth by this Similitude As Nebuchadnezzar when he carried the Princes and Chief men into Captivity out of the Land of Iudea he left some of the People behind him to Till the Land least it became a Wilderness So that the World might not become a Forrest of wild Beasts there are some that observe the Common Dictates of Nature that men might be commodious and useful one to another for did not these Impressions bear sway the World could not subsist nor Justice and Honesty be maintained 3. There are other things besides renewing Grace that might cause these Amiable Qualities 1. Bodily Temper may encline Men to some good We see some are of a rougher Temper and others of a sweeter Disposition Some are soft smooth and docible others stiff and stubborn The Scripture takes notice of the different Dispositions of Esau and Iacob Gen. 25.27 Esau was a cunning Hunter a man of the Field but Iacob was a plain man dwelling in Tents Look as Blades thô all are made of the same Mettal yet they differ much in Goodness by reason of the Temper so there 's a great deal of difference between Men and Men by reason of the Temper of their Bodies some are ingenious and shame-â—aced and not so easily drawn to Outrage and Sin but others are of a baser alloy The Complexion of the Soul doth very much follow the Constitution of the Body and therefore some are better Natured and Temper'd than others So that there may be Amiable Qualities in them and yet without Grace 2. The increase of one Sin may cause others to decrease as a Wen that grows big and monstrous defrauds other parts of their Nourishment Thô all Sin be kindly to a Natural Heart yet some Sins are more apt to take the Throne and other Lusts are starved to feed that As for Instance He that is Covetous by the force of his Covetousness and Parsimony is made an Enemy to Prodigality and a Friend to Frugality as Iudas that lov'd the Bag was against Profuseness and wastfulness Ioh. 12.5 6. A Prodigal Man is not Covetous and so more prone to be Liberal and Free-hearted A prophane Man is an Enemy of Superstition and loves to be moderate and indifferent in Religion A Superstitious Man hates Prophaneness and lays out his Zeal upon every little trifle that can lay Claim to Religion and so he may seem to be a greater Friend to Zeal A Voluptuary hates Despair and Morosity and is more Sociable and Friendly in Converse Thus as Weeds destroy one another so do many Vices so many Vices occasion something that is Amiable Ambition makes Men Diligent Sober and Vigilant to improve their Opportunities 3. It may be occasioned partly by Discipline and strict Education or else the miseries and Calamities of the present Life for these things thô they do not mortifie Sin yet they may much weaken and hinder the discovery of it Solomon often tells us of the force of Education and that the Rod of Correction gets a great deal of Folly out of the Heart of Children Prov. 22.15 Foolishness is bound in the Heart of a Child but the rod of Correction driveth it far from him And as they grow up in years God takes them into his own Discipline Pharaoh is devout under his Plagues and Ahab under a severe Threatning walks softly God's Correction may work some Commendable Qualities in them 4. By Politick Government and Laws which keep men within the Bounds of their Duty so that they are orderly by constraint and for fear of Penalty which if they should follow their pleasure in sinning they would be exposed to Austin saith Leges humanae munditoria instrumenta sunt He compares Laws to Brooms which thô they cannot make Corn of Weeds or of Chaff yet they serve to sweep in the Corn and keep it within the Floor Laws may make men good Subjects thô not Good men As Seneca tells us the Heathens observed many things they may do many things Non tanquam dijs grata sed tanquam legibus jussa magis ad morem quam ad rem not as pleasing God but as required by the Law not for the thing but for the fashion they may be very harmless put on a Face of Goodness but it is not out of Conscience the Magistrate makes them so who is the Minister of God for good Rom. 13.4 5. Unregenerate men may be translated from the Grammar School of Nature to the University of Grace and thô they never Commence there and took the Degree of true Sanctification yet they may come very near it by Common Grace and may not be far from the Kingdom of God This may be by the Efficacy of the Word
must open the Nature of it The Hardness of Heart discovereth it self by two Properties it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an insensible Heart and an inflexible Heart 1. An insensible Heart as a brawny Substance or callous piece of Flesh like the Labourer's Hand and Traveller's Heel This the Apostle intimateth Ephes. 4.18 19. Having the Vnderstanding darkned being alienated from the Life of God through the Ignorance that is in them because of the Blindness of their Heart Who being pâ—st feeling c. In one Verse he chargeth them with Hardness of Heart and in the first Words of the next Verse with loss of Feeling Feeling of all Senses though it be not the most noble yet it is the most necessary there is no Life without it it is diffused throughout the whole Body and in what Member soever it is lost there is no more Intercourse of vital and animal Spirits and where 't is totally lost there is no more Life There may be Life when other Senses are wanting a Man may be deaf and yet live blind and yet live but if he utterly lose his Feeling he cannot live Such a dead sensless Heart is the hard Heart as appeareth in the Wicked by that great Security Ease and Quiet which they naturally have though lying under the Guilt of many and grievous Sins and though they be obnoxious to the Wrath of God yet they are never troubled nor affected with any sense of their Condition They can sin freely in Thought foully in Act without any Remorse and Shame Ab assuetis non fit Passio Men are not moved by such things as they are much used to As they that live by the fall of great Waters sleep quietly because they are accustomed to the Noise so Men that are accustomed to Sin can swear and be drunk and commit Filthiness or go on in some other Trade of Wickedness and are never troubled Mithridates through the Custom of drinking Poison made it so familiar to him that he drank it without danger Elementa non gravitant in suis locis Elements weigh not in their proper place A Fish in the Water feeleth no Weight Sin is not burdensom to wicked Men it is in its own place This Insensibleness is the greater where Men will not be awakened out of their Lethargick Fit by all the Means which God useth to them by the Threatnings of his Word or the Judgments of his Providence There is a Method in God's Dispensations he threatneth that he may not punish and punisheth now that he may not punish for ever Now the Children of God are startled at the Threatnings and tremble when they see a Storm in the Clouds before it falleth As Iosiah had a tender Heart and melted at the Threatning 2 Chron. 34.27 And they are said to tremble at the Word Isa. 66.2 and Ezra 9.4 But wicked Men think this is a vain Scarecrow and though they are most obnoxious to the Judgment and Wrath of God yet they have no sense and tender feeling of it Therefore God goeth on to his second Dispensation he punisheth now that he may not punish for ever As Absalom set Ioab's Barley-field on fire that he might draw him to come and speak with him so God seeketh to make Men serious to bring them to the Throne of Grace and sue out their Pardon by many temporal Judgments But still wicked Men start aside and will not turn to him that smiteth them Ier. 5.3 Thou hast stricken them but they have not grieved thou hast consumed them but they have refused to receive Correction As the Anvil is smoothed into Hardness by many Blows and Strokes so are Men more insensible of their Condition and will not regard the meaning of God's Providences Well then an hard Heart is insensible of what they have done against God or what God hath or may do to them And so far as we lose our Sense and Tenderness so far is the Heart hardned 2. It is an inflexible Heart it is not easily bent to God's Purpose say he what he will Men are as light as vain as mindless of Heavenly Things as basely wedded to the Delights of the Flesh as ever and obstinately and against all Means to the contrary refuse the Counsel of God for their Good Though God hath the highest Reasons of his side and great Variety of powerful and alluring Motives to gain Souls to his Obedience and these represented not only to the Ear by his Messengers but to the Heart by his Spirit yet Men are so addicted to their own Wills and Lusts that they will not suffer themselves to be perswaded by him to accept of his Offers and rich Mercies in Christ they will not obey the sweet Directions of his Word nor regard the Motions and Strivings of his Spirit to let their beloved Lusts go and comply with the Will of God 1. They are inflexible to the Counsels of his Word where God interposeth in the way of the highest Authority straitly charging and commanding us under pain of his Displeasure and reasoneth with us in the most potent and strong way of Argumentation from the Excellency of his Commands and their Sutableness to us as we are reasonable Creatures from his great Love in Christ whom he hath given to die for us from the Danger if we refuse him which is no less than everlasting Torment from the Benefit and Happiness of complying with his Motions which is no less than eternal and compleat Blessedness both for our Bodies and Souls and all is bound upon us by a strict impartial Day of Accounts when we are to answer for our Neglects or else to receive the Reward of our Diligence But alas the hard Heart defeateth the End of this whole Contrivance Neither the Awe of God's Authority nor the Reasonableness of his Commands nor the wonderful Love of Christ nor the Joys of Heaven nor the Horrors of everlasting Darkness nor the Strictness of the last Day 's Account will work Man to a sense of his Duty or gain him to make serious Preparation for his own Happiness and everlasting Salvation Out of what Rock was the Heart of Man hewen What will work upon you if this Doctrine upon which God hath laid out all the Riches of his Wisdom and Grace will not work upon you Hath God another Son to die for you a better Heaven to bestow upon you or an hotter Hell to scare you withal Would you have the Day of Judgment more exact and severe or greater Obligations to all Holiness and Godliness of Conversation than those already propounded or more Charms and Perswasiveness added to the Gospel O no that cannot be Infinite Wisdom hath already stated these things Or would you have God save you against your Wills or thrust these things upon you without your Consent Surely it is Obstinacy plain Obstinacy and hardness of Heart that maketh you stand out against God Psal. 58.4 5. They are like the deaf Adder that stoppeth her Ear which
the Guilt of hainous Sins and be insensible after gross Falls they may lie in Hardness for a while till God rouse them up again Great Falls are like a Blow upon the Head that stuns us and amazes us for a while and it is some good while ere we recover again David's Conscience was not presently awakened Spiritual Lethargies are long Fits David lay ten Months from the Conception to the Birth of his Child and yet all this while did formally use God's Ordinances and publick Service Nathan comes to him after the Child was born 2 Sam. 12.14 The Child that is born unto thee shall surely die And he never relented till Nathan came to him as appeareth by the Title of the fifty first Psalm A Psalm of David when Nathan the Prophet came to him after he had gone in to Bathsheba All this while Grace was not dead but in a deep Sleep The least Sin maketh way for hardness of Heart much more Sins against Conscience there is a more long Sequestration then God will not let you enjoy the Comforts and effectual Presence of his Spirit These Blows and Wounds will leave you for dead for a long while SERMON II. MARK III. 5 And Iesus looked round about on them with Anger being grieved for the Hardness of their Hearts IV. THE Causes of hardness of Heart 1. Ignorance The blind Mind and the hard Heart always go together Iohn 12.40 He hath blinded their Minds and hardned their Hearts that they should not see with their Eyes nor understand with their Hearts Men are first unteachable then unpliable Obstinacy beginneth at Sottishness of Conceit He that knoweth not what he ought to do careth not much what he doth The Children of God never feel hardness in their Hearts but when the Light in their Minds is unactive or obscured there is a kind of Darkness for that time We see that the most carnal Wretches when they come to die are sensible when the Mind is cleared from the Fogs of Lust and Conscience is awakened then they feel a great Weight of Sin upon them Light always begets Tenderness as in a clear Vessel the Dregs do soon appear Well then either they are ignorant or have but a naked Theory not the lively Light of the Spirit and hence it is that their Hearts are hardned 2. Unbelief for it is Faith that maketh all Truths active and lively The great Motives and Arguments of Religion are mainly fetched from things to come Now it is not enough to know the things of the World to come but there must be an hearty Assent to them as if we did see them before our Eyes Things that are at a distance are as nothing to us as the Stars appear as so many Spangles they lose much of their Greatness Men sin and no Evil cometh of it therefore they grow bold and sensless in Sin Eccles. 8.11 Because Sentence against an evil Work is not executed speedily therefore the Heart of the Sons of Men is fully set in them to do evil They grow remiss and slack in their Duty The Reward is not by and by Mal. 3.14 Ye have said It is in vain to serve God and what Profit is it that we have kept his Ordinances and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of Hosts We are for a present Good Now Faith is the Substance of Things hoped for and the Evidence of Things not seen Heb. 11.1 It maketh Things present as if we did see them with our Eyes as if the Judgment-Seat were set and the Books were opened Those that hardned their Hearts did not believe what God said was true Heb. 3. from the seventh to the eighteenth Verse If Men did believe there were an Heaven and Hell and Judgment to come they would not lie in their Sins they could not be unpliable to God's Motions All disrespect of Promises and Threatnings cometh from Unbelief Christ did chide his Disciples for their Unbelief and hardness of Heart Mark 16.14 What is the Reason that though we preach the Law and the Judgment of God so much to you and beseech you to come in and receive Christ and you shall be saved and this Time after Time and Day after Day and yet the Word hath no Effect upon you you are as ignorant and careless as ever The Reason is you do not believe Certainly the Word would work otherwise than it doth if you did believe it If one should tell a Man that such an earthly Potentate if he would but come to him and visit him would raise him to great Honour it would be the first thing he would do Truly so if you did believe that coming to Christ were the only way to Happiness you would mind it more seriously than you do Again if you did believe that the Word of God is true that God is a just God if the Drunkard did believe that Drunkards shall be damned or the Adulterer did believe that no Adulterer shall inherit the Kingdom of God or if the vain Person or the Gamester did believe that they must give an Account of their mis-spent Time and idle Words and vain Communication they would not sport themselves in their Sins as they do If Men did believe that God calleth when and whom he listeth they would not defer their Repentance and put off the Motions of the Spirit but would strike while the Iron is hot and let out the Sails when the Wind bloweth But Men do not believe and therefore go on in their Sins as they do Tell Men of earthly Things of a Commodity which if they would but by it would yield an hundred for one surely they would not neglect the Market We press Men to renounce but a little Ease and carnal Pleasures and to use Diligence to get Christ into their Hearts and they shall have a hundred for one but Men want Faith therefore Christ lieth by as a refuse Commodity There is nothing breedeth hardness of Heart so much as Unbelief of what God can and will do 3. Custom in Sinning As an High-way is trodden hard by long travelling in it so the Heart by long Custom groweth more obstinate every day In Sin there is not only a Fault Guilt but a Blot a stronger Inclination to the practice of the same Sin again as a Brand that has been once in the Fire is more apt to burn again Every new Oath is as Oil to the Tongue to make it more glib and fleet in the repetition of that Oath or vain Speech There is a natural Tenderness in Men whilst young at least a lesser degree of Hardness which will get Strength by Use and Age if not in time cured Ier. 13.23 How can ye do Good that are accustomed to do Evil Water when it first freezeth will not bear the weight of a Pin but afterwards by continual freezing it cometh to bear a Cart-load 4. Hypocrisy Take it for Dissembling whereby we deceive others or Formality whereby we deceive our selves For
and would give the whole World for one favourable Look from God But O no! not a Glimpse not the least Answer God's Children meet with sad Suspensions sometimes Cant. 5.6 I sought him but I could not find him I call'd him but he gave me no Answer He seemeth not to hear their Prayers when they are deaf to his Counsels He will make them sensible of their unkind ungracious treating of him 4. It is the great hindrance in the spiritual Life it depriveth you of Grace the Spirit of God will not animate a stony Heart A Body of Flesh is only fit to be animated with a living Soul so the Heart of Flesh or tender Heart by the Spirit of God Ezek. 11.19 20. I will give them one Heart and I will put a new Spirit within you and I will take the stony Heart out of their Flesh and will give them an Heart of Flesh that they may walk in my Statutes and keep my Ordinances and do them and they shall be my People and I will be their God So Isa. 57.15 Thus saith the High and Lofty One that inhabiteth Eternity whose Name is Holy I dwell in the High and Holy Place with him also that is of a contrite and humble Spirit to revive the Spirit of the Humble and to revive the Heart of the contrite ones There is God present with his Graces God hath two Places of special Residence the highest Heaven and the humblest Heart In the one is the Presence of his Glory in the other of his Grace When the Spirit is humbled and softned it is a fit Pillow for God to rest on The hard Heart hindreth us in Duty 'T is an hard Heart that maketh our Work hard If once the Will were gained all things would be easy in Religion Rom. 8.7 The carnal Mind is Enmity against God for it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be It is not subject to God but averse from him VI. The Observations concerning this spiritual Malady 1. With spiritual Hardness of Heart there may be a natural and sinful Tenderness Some Men have a natural Softness and Sweetness of Spirit as to Commerce with Men yea rather a faulty Easiness yet they are very hard-hearted as to God As Zedekiah Jer. 38.5 The King is not he that can do any thing against you He was easily drawn by Company and evil Counsel Usually it is so an hard Heart is like Wax to the Devil but as a Stone to God hardned against Goodness but exorable and easy to be intreated by Sin and Satan If the Devil do but whist they find an irresistible Power in his Temptations If carnal Men do but hold up the Finger it is a strong Cord to draw them to Excess the Looks and Speeches of the Harlot are enough to cause them to follow though it be like an Ox to the Slaughter Prov. 7.21 22. With much fair Speech she caused him to yield with the flattering of her Lips she forced him he goeth after her straight-way as an Ox to the Slaughter or as a Fool to the Correction of the Stocks God may plead and tell us of Grace and Glory but we mind it not A Diamond is not wrought upon but by its own Dust. On the contrary Men may have a stout Heart in Dangers that are very yielding and trembling in Point of Sins Prov. 28.14 Happy is the Man that feareth always but he that hardneth his Heart shall fall into Mischief David could encounter Lions Bears and Giants yet in what a weeping humble Posture is he when he hath to do with God It is good to be a Coward in Sin pulling and weak-hearted as to any Contest with God 2. Small Sins harden as well as great Sins it is hard to say which most It is confessed for the present little Sins do not deaden and harden the Heart so much as great As a Prick of a Pin maketh a Man start but an heavy Blow stunneth him and leaveth him dead for a while David when he cut off the Lap of Saul's Garment and had some revengeful Intention against his Soveraign he quickly perceived his Error His Heart smote him 1 Sam. 24.5 But when he committed the foul Sin of Adultery he lay insensible for a long space of time But on the other side little Sins do by Degrees harden Great Sins are apparent and liable to the Judgment of Conscience but we neglect small Sins and so a Custom groweth upon us and we are insensibly hardned by our Carelesness and constant Neglect of our Souls A Surfeit or violent Distemper maketh us run to the Physician but when a Disease groweth upon us by degrees it proveth mortal e're we regard it Therefore we should make Conscience of daily Failings Heb. 3.13 Exhort one another daily while it is called To day lest any of you be hardned through the Deceitfulness of Sin Great Falls as they astonish us for the present so they awaken Conscience afterwards and so we regard that and other Sins As when a great Sound hath awakned us out of a deep Sleep we easily hear lesser Sounds But Men slide into a carnal Frame of Heart unawares Qui nunquam delirat semper erit fatuus We would never grow wise but for some notable Acts of Folly Chrysostom saith that we should be more watchful of small Sins than of great Nature abhorreth these but the other slide into us A little Leak unespied drowneth the Ship as well as a great Breach If we would look more to small Sins so many great Mischiefs would not ensue 3. Sins of Omission harden as well as Sins of Commission yea sometimes more a neglect of Duties as well as the practice of gross Sins because they use not the means whereby the Heart may be kept soft and in a due Remembrance of God and their Duty to him An Instrument never so well in Tune if it lie by it soon groweth out of Kilter In every Sin of Commission there is a Sin of Omission but not the contrary A Man may be civilly harmless in offensive and yet have a very hard Heart if he hold no Communion with God and neglect the means whereby the Heart may be kept tender The Neglect of good Duties is a more general means of Destruction than the commission of Evil Men are estranged from God by the neglect of the Word and Prayer Psal. 14.4 They call not upon the Lord attend not upon the means of Grace with that Life and Seriousness they ought to do 4. None are so confident of the Goodness of their Hearts as those that have an hard Heart For the more any spiritual Disease increaseth upon us the less it is felt There is Hope whilst there is some complaining of Sin that there is some Tenderness left The hardest Heart must needs be the most confident because they use no Recollection and Reflection upon themselves Ier. 8.6 No Man repented him of his Wickedness saying What have I done What
am I what have I done Yea they slight their Danger take up every vain Pretence and Allegation to maintain their carnal Peace and Quiet Deut. 29.19 And it come to pass when he heareth the Words of this Curse that he bless himself in his Heart saying I shall have Peace though I walk in the Imagination of my Heart to add Drunkenness to Thirst. The Lord will yet spare him c. Broken-hearted Christians are sensible of the Holiness of God and what an hard matter it is to hold Communion with him and observe their own Weakness and Unworthiness and therefore they complain of the Badness of their Hearts that there is no greater bent towards God and are always suspicious of their spiritual Condition 5. Hardness of Heart is most apt to creep upon us in times of Ease and Prosperity Solomon saith Prov. 1.32 The Prosperity of Fools shall destroy them And Rom. 2.4 5. Despisest thou the Riches of his Goodness and Forbearance and Long-suffering not knowing that the Goodness of God leadeth thee to Repentance But after thy Hardness and impenitent Heart treasurest up unto thy self Wrath against the Day of Wrath. Usually in the times of God's Goodness and Patience Men are besotted with the Pleasures of the Flesh and then lose their Feeling Nothing bringeth a Brawn upon the Heart so much as Sensuality and an inordinate Use of the Creatures it taketh away the Heart and usually in a prosperous Condition Men grow sensual and careless Pharaoh himself when under the Rod could speak as good Words as another but when he was well at Ease then his Hardness returned upon him As Metal in the Furnace is very yeilding and melting capable of any Impression but out of the Furnace it returneth to its wonted Firmness and Consistency The greatest Plague was upon his Heart when he wanted other Plagues Men do well in their Wickedness injoy themselves with Comfort and then fear nothing We see in the brute Creatures when they are in good Plight they grow more fierce so doth Man that aboundeth in Ease and Pleasure his worldly Happiness maketh the Heart gross and sensless We had need to take heed of an hard Heart at all times but especially when we are like to be corrupted with Ease and Pleasure A sensual Heart will be sensless 6. Hardness of Heart is a grievous Sin at all times but then most sinful when most unseasonable for Time is an aggravating Circumstance in all things so in this Now when is it unseasonable In times of Judgment and times of Gospel-Grace 1. In times of Judgment 2 Chron. 28.22 In the time of his Distress did he trespass yet more against the Lord This is that King Ahaz There is a Brand set on him Certainly the Times we live in are extraordinary Times we have seen many Changes and great Effects of God's Anger for Sin we have now many spiritual Judgments upon us Error and Blasphemy great Divisions and Breaches among God's People and Scandals of them that profess the Gospel An hard Heart now is most unsutable it is like a Garland of Rose-buds in a Day of Mourning Clearly upon some the Stroaks of God's Providence have lighted very sore if they shall add Hardness of Heart to their other Plagues who will pity them When all the Corrections of an angry God cannot draw any sensible and serious Thoughts from them how sad is this I tell you Christians it looketh like Hell to continue Sinning under Suffering and to be obstinate against God and the Counsels of his Grace for your Salvation it speaketh much of a spiritual Plague added to temporal Judgments If we did perswade you to a Party only it were more excusable but when we press you to come to Christ and you still remain obstinate and hard-hearted this is sad If the Ministry were only used as a State-Engine to ingage you in such a Faction and Design you might have something to plead for your selves Pardon me for dealing thus freely with you we are Debtors to all Rom. 1.14 Would you be troubled if the Base should rise against the Honourable it were a Judgment certainly but what are you to God Poor base Worms will you contend with your Maker You would complain of it as an heavy Burden and strange Inversion of all States and Conditions if Men of mean and low Fortunes should be at the Top and have Power and Domination over the ancient Gentry and Nobility of the Land Be it so but I would have you to consider in the mean time what an horrible Presumption it is and how God may take it that you stout it out against the Fear of God Alas there is a greater Distance between you and him than between you and your Fellow-Creatures For you to contest it with God! to swagger it and outbrave his Ordinances to contend with his Spirit how may God complain of this if it be so grievous to you to be outbraved by your Fellow-Creatures 2. Times of Light and great Gospel-Grace An hard Heart in Gospel-Days is the very Reproach of Ordinances Many think the Ministry and Ordinances useless things why because there is so little Success You make them useless and then there will not want those that decry them apace 2 Cor. 6.1 2. We then as Workers together with him beseech you also that ye receive not the Grace of God in vain for he saith I have heard thee in a time accepted and in the Day of Salvation have I succour'd thee Behold now is the accepted time behold now is the Day of Salvation An heard Heart should be a thing now quite out of Fashion In a time of Ignorance or a time of Restraint of Preaching when Visions are not open or under a dead sleepy Ministry God might dispense with what he will not under a clear Discovery of his Will But now when the Doctrine of the Gospel is so clearly opened and Christ so freely tendred now to be estranged from the Fear of God is as unsutable as if we should revert to the Fashions of Barbarism or those kind of Clothes or Dresses which our Ancestors wore before they were reduced to this Pitch of Civility whereunto we are now arrived You would laugh at Garments of an antique Fashion and if the Gallants of the Age should put on the Dress of Adam or be clothed with Skins newly taken from the Beasts offered in Sacrifice A blind Mind and a sottish obstinate Heart is more uncomely in the Eye of God Will you be Strangers in Israel and lose the Blessings of the times by refusing the stricter ways of God 7. Hardness of Heart groweth and increaseth on us more and more if we let it alone Zech. 7.11.12 But they refused to hearken and pulled away the Shoulder and sâ—opped their Ears that they should not hear Yea they made their Hearts as an Adamant Stone lest they should hear the Law and the Words which the Lord of Hosts hath sent in his Spirit by the
former Prophets There are so many Degrees mentioned first they grow slight and careless and do not care to hear what you say then they refuse to obey what they have heard then they grow Sermon-Proof they can hear and have no Benefit by it As long as the Word doth any way affect a Sinner there is some Hope but within a while Conscience smiteth not and Men have gotten the Victory over their Fears and Scruples And thus they go on from natural to voluntary and from voluntary to judicial Hardness of Heart and so are a ready Prey for the Devil 8. Dilatory Excuses are the last Refuge of an hard Heart When they can no longer withstand a Conviction they adjourn and put off the Compliance with God's Will and so elude the Importunity of the present Conviction Felix his Heart boggled Acts 24.25 And as he reasoned of Righteousness Temperance and Iudgment to come Felix trembled and said Go thy way for this time when I have a convenient Season I will call for thee Mind the present Season when God is affording Opportunities of getting Grace Heb. 3.7 8. To Day if ye will hear his Voice harden not your Hearts Psal. 119.60 I made haste and delayed not to keep thy Commandments Zacheus Luke 19.6 he made haste and came down and received him joyfully Peter and Andrew Mark 4.20 They straitway left their Nets and followed him Paul Gal. 1.16 Immediately I conferred not with Flesh and Blood If God hath given you any Will and Inclination for the present it is an Advantage Sin the longer it continueth the stronger it groweth He that doth not go over at the Fountain-head will not be able to go over when the Stream groweth broader and the farther he goes downward the broader still he findeth it Every Day 's Impenitency bringeth on a new Degree of Hardness Would a Man that is to drink that which to his knowledg is poisoned put the more into his Cup and then take it off out of a Presumption that at length he shall find an Antidote Alas thou may'st be poisoned and dead before the Antidote comes SERMON III. MARK III. 5 And Iesus looked round about on them with Anger being grieved for the Hardness of their Hearts Vse 1. OF Trial. Is this our State Take the two Properties to judg by Insensibleness and Inflexibleness First A hard Heart is insensible insensible of Providences of the Word and of the State of the Soul 1 st Insensible of Providences 1. Of Mercies Either of the Author of Mercies they never look up to the God of their Mercies Hosea 2.8 She did not know that I gave her Corn and Wine and Oil and multiplied her Silver and Gold As Swine that feed upon the Acorns but never look up to the Tree from whence they fall Cant. 4.1 Behold thou arâ— fair my Love behold thou art fair thou hast Doves Eyes As Doves peck and look uâ—ward It is a sign of a tender Heart to see God in every Mercy A drowsy and unattentive Soul never heedeth it is wholly swallowed up in present Enjoyments and looketh no farther It is our Privilege above the Beasts to know the fâ—rst Cause other Creatures live upon God but they are not capable of knowing God they glorify God in their Kind but we may know him Idolatry and Sottishness had never crept into the World if Men had owned the first Cause Or of the End of Mercies which is to draw in our Hearts to God therefore they are called Cords of a Man Hosea 11.4 I drew them with Cords of a Man with Bâ—â—ds of Love Esther 6.3 What Honour and Dignity hath been done to Mordecaâ— for 〈◊〉 2 Sam. 7.2 Thâ—â— the King said unto Nathan the Prophet See now I dwell in an House of Cedar but the Ark of God dwelleth within Curtains When the Heart is urging to Duty upon this score God hath been good to me he hath given me Food and Raimâ—â—â— What have I done for God Now the Heart is hard when we are not sensible of his daily Providence and gracious Supplies in this kind 2 Sam. 12.7 8 9. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel I anointed thee King over Israel and delivered thee out of the Hand of Saul And I gave thee thy Master's House and thy Master's Wives into thy Bosom and gave thee the House of Israel and of Judah and if that had been too little I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things Wherefore hast thou despised the Commandment of the Lord to do evil in his sight David had lost his Awe of God because he had not a thankful sense of the Mercies of God 2. Of corrective Providences The Body is a tender Part with wicked Men when they are straitned for bodily Conveniences they will complain yet the hard Heart is still insensible of Judgments They are insensible of the Author or discerning Cause they do not look upward nor inward and though doctrinally right in these things yet they do not seriously consider it and recal it to mind Opinion is one thing and Consideration is another wicked Men may take up good Opinions but they do not consider the Force and Consequence of them 1. They do not see the Hand of God in them Isa. 26.11 Lord when thy Hand is lifted up they will not see They look on these things but as a Chance 1 Sam. 6.9 And see if it goeth up by the way of his own Coast to Bethshemesh then he hath done us this great Evil but if not then we shall know that it was not his Hand that smote us it was a Chance that happened to us If Men own God's Hand they should take up the Matter with him but they own it doctrinally though not practically A Godly Man hath explicite Thoughts of God Iob doth not say the Sabeans and the Chaldeâ—â—s but the Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away Job 1.21 They do not complain when they are crossed of Chance but the Lord is angry and when they are stricken they consult with him and humble themselves before him Wicked Men are sensible of the smart of the Rod but not of the Hand that holds it 2. They do not see the deserving Cause of them which is Sin Lam. 3.39 40. Wherefore doth a living Man complain a Man for the punishment of his Sins Let us search and try our Ways and turn again to the Lord. If Sickness cometh if a Relation be taken away if an Estate be blasted a waking Conscience looks to the Cause they would see the Mind of God in the Rod. When Israel fell before the Men of Ai Ioshua looketh out for the Troubler so do God's Children 2 dly Insensible of the Power of the Word they have no taste no feeling of the Powers of the World to come Jer. 23.29 Is not my Word like a Fire saith the Lord and like a Hammer that breaketh the Rock in pieces There is a breaking and a melting Power in the Word
We are never prepared till our State be altered Heart altered and Life altered 1. Our State must be altered For naturally we are Children of Wrath condemned by the Sentence of the Law and under the Curse and doth it become condemned Men to rejoyce and go to their execution dancing No you must take hold of another Covenant the hope that is set before you and then you provide matter of joy yea of strong consolation Heb. 6.18 By taking Sanctuary at the Lords Grace the Heirs of Promise have strong Consolation When the Eunuch was solemnly admitted into Gods Covenant by Baptisme He went on his way rejoycing Acts 8.39 By Repentance towards God and Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ we enter into the New Covenant and that is a State of Peace Life and Joy In the New Covenant God offers himself to be your Reconciled Father Christ your Saviour and the Holy Ghost your Sanctifier are you willing to consent to this And then Why should not you rejoyce in the Lord For you have enough in God 2. Our Heart must be altered For every Mans relish and complacency is according to the Temper and Constitution of his Soul Rom. 8.5 They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh but they that are after the spirit the things of the spirit Know his complacency what it is that a Man is pleased with most and you know the Man An old corrupted Heart and Mind cannot delight it self in God 1 Cor. 2.14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned But those that have a Divine Nature put into them cannot satisfie themselves in the World 2 Pet. 1.4 Ye may be partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust They can easily spare the pleasures of the flesh and leave these husks for Swine to feed on A change of Heart inferreth a change of Delights and Pleasures for the New Heart is nothing else but New Desires and Delights when you have a New Understanding and a New Heart then you will discern and relish Spiritual things 3. The Life must be altered For Holy walking and fruitfulness in Obedience raiseth the greatest Joy Iohn 15.10 11. If ye keep my commandments ye shall abide in my love even as I have kept my Fathers commandments and abide in his love These things have I spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you and that your joy might be full Acts 9.31 Walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the holy Ghost The Godly Life is the only sweet Life 2 Cor. 1.12 For our rejoycing is this the testimony of our conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God we had our conversation in the world If you will but learn what it is to live in the Love of God and the belief and hope of Life Eternal and in Universal Obedience to the Laws of Christ you will soon see what it is to live in a State of Joy and Comfort If you fall into great and wounding Sins no wonder if your rejoycing in God be disturbed Surely a tender Heart cannot make light of Sin but it will cost them broken Bones and broken Hearts 2. Act it continually Partly for that the grounds of rejoycing are Everlasting an Eternal God an Unchangeable Covenant Jesus Christ the same yesterday and to day and for ever a Kingdom that cannot be shaken an Infinite and Eternal weight of Glory Now these things should ever be thought of by us that we may keep up our delight in the Lord. Partly because we need it continually to enliven our Duties to sweeten our Crosses and to wean us from our Carnal Vanities for otherwise our Duties will go off heavily our Crosses will swallow us up with too much sorrow or our Hearts will be apt to be insnared by sensual delights unless we remember that we are continually to rejoyce in God and Heavenly things Partly because this delight cannot be maintained in the Soul unless it be continually exercised by constant acting it we keep it and increase it till at length it cometh to be predominant in the Soul and able to controul our Affection to other things It is said of Iohn Baptists Hearers That they were willing to rejoyce in his light for a season Iohn 5.35 And of the stony ground Luke 8.13 That they received the word with joy and believed for a while but in time of temptation fall away Herod heard Iohn Baptist gladly for a while Mark 6.20 Gods offering Eternal Happiness in Christ may affect us for the present but this rejoycing faileth being over-mastered by the Appetites and Desires of the Flesh. Therefore to root it and increase it that it may be firm to the end it must be continually acted and exercised 3. Take heed you do not forfeit it or damp it by any great and wounding Sin As David speaketh Psalm 51.8 Make me to hear joy and gladness that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoyce Sin cloudeth the Face of God wasteth our Comfort and Joy Psalm 32.3 4. When I kept silence my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me my moisture is turned into the drought of summer Eph. 4.30 And grieve not the holy spirit whereby ye are sealed to the day of redemption When the Comforter is offended he sheweth his dislike and withdraweth when we grosly omit any known Duty or commit any soul Sin he will shew himself displeased with it and withdraw his Gracious and Comfortable Presence Isa. 57.17 For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth and smote him I hid me and was wroth On such occasions he is wroth and smiteth he is wroth and hideth himself and then our Comfort and Delight in God ceaseth Therefore we should deal more dutifully with the Spirit neither grieving him by the omission or intermission of necessary Duties nor by the commission of any hardning Sin by some error of the concupicible or pursuing faculty or the irascible or eschewing faculty by Sins of the Tongue which most easily bewray corruption or by words which discover the temper of the Heart I observe that grieving the spirit Ephes. 4.30 is put in the middle between a disswasive from corrupt Communication verse 29. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth but that which is good to the use of edifying When Men endeavour to make themselves glad by carnal Discourse which argueth an Heart set for carnal delights and is contrary to rejoycing in the Lord Eph. 5.4 Neither filthiness nor foolish talking nor jesting which are not convenient but rather giving of thanks and on the other side verse 31. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and evil speaking be put away from
Bounty but as happening to them in the ordinary course of second Causes as they rejoyce in an uncertain Good so in an uncertain Author You rejoyce in God in his best Gifts his Love and Grace 2. The Author thou hast put allowed by God wrought by him Rom. 14.17 Ioy in the Holy Ghost stirred up by his Spirit Their Joy is neither God's Allowance nor God's Work 3. The Subject and Seat Into my heart not to tickle the Senses but delight the Heart not as the morning Dew but as a soaking Shower 4. The Measure 't is more pure that is more sublime or more that is more chearing of a stronger Efficacy which not only overcometh the sense of present Infelicity but the fear of Death Hell and Judgment to come Heb. 6.18 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Strong Consolation They dance about the brink of Hell have their secret Gripes and will you envy them as if your Condition were not much better When God hath given you the Feast will you be troubled that others should have the Scraps and Fragments of his Bounty 3. Observe from the supposition of God's abomination of their Persons and Courses that he can when he pleaseth easily ruine and destroy them which must needs infer at least an uncomfortable uncertainty in their Condition The Wicked being Objects of God's Hatred the easiness of their destruction is often asserted in Scripture Iob 5.3 I have seen the foolish taking root but suddenly I cursed his habitation Psal. 37.20 But the wicked shall perish and the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of Lambs they shall consume into smoak they shall consume away The Fire licketh up the Fat of Lambs which is not a very solid substance but easily melted so shall their Glory vanish and be consumed in God's Wrath when he is pleased to let it out upon them Psal. 37.2 They shall soon be cut down like the grass and wither as the green herb Though they seem to be in a prosperous condition for the present as Grass while 't is growing is very green yet they are soon cut down by the Sythe of Providence and then presently fade and are carried away as Grass from the place where it grew Psal. 118.12 They are quenched as the fire of thorns Though for the time it burneth and flameth extreamly yet they are soon consumed and are turned into Dust and Ashes Psal. 73.18 Surely thou didst set them in slippery places And 't is notable that all these places do intimate that God can easily destroy them and usually doth when they are at their prime and that they are never nearer their Ruine than when they come to the height of their Exaltation As the Sun declineth presently when it cometh to the highest Point of the Zenith as Grass when it cometh to its full growth it beginneth to wither as the Sacrifice is first fatted and then killed before the Lord so Enemies are permitted to prosper and grow great and proud and then are cut off Or as Thorns dye and are extinguished by their own blaze so in slippery places the higher they go the nearer to their Downfal and Ruine As Men on the top of an Hill and there have no firm footing they slip and fall and by the highness of the ground are more sorely bruised And as by the Expressions of Scripture so by God's Providence it appeareth how easily he can subdue wicked Men God did not bring down Egypt by Bears and Lions and Crocadiles but Flies Frogs and Lice The Walls of Iericho fell not with force of Arms and Engines of Battery but Rams Horns Iosh. 6.6 The Tents of Midian with Trumpets and Earthen Pitchers Iudges 7.7 The City of Nesibis was freed from a long Siege only by Gnatts at the Prayers of his People when Sapores King of Persia thought to have his will upon them as Theodoret witnesseth God sent such Clouds and Swarms of them which flying into the mouths of their Elephants and Horses disturbed their whole Camp And should we envy them to whom God oweth an evil turn and can so easily ruine though nothing appeareth of it Once more observe how the Scripture representeth the uncertain condition of the Wicked with the stable condition of the Godly Prov. 11.28 He that trusteth in his riches shall fall but the righteous shall flourish as a branch The one is compared to a Leaf the other to a Branch So Prov. 12.12 The wicked desireth the net of evil men but the root of the righteous yieldeth fruit Men who have no grounds in them of Piety and Godliness are for the present only and when they see the prosperity of the Wicked and how they thrive in their evil Designs taking up Men as Fishes in the Waters they are willing to get into the Net too even run with Company But the Root of the Righteous which hath its growth under ground not seen by fleshly Eyes this Root will grow up again and yield abundance 2. God will not always bear with them that are an abomination to him but hath his times of shewing his hatred of them and their evil courses for if they are an abomination to him and he never shew it they need not care and so it inferreth not only a possibility but a certainty of their Destruction Psal. 92.7 When the wicked spring as the grass and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish it is that they shall be destroyed for ever The end of all their flourishing and temporal prosperity is Perdition Yea their very Prosperity as it ferments their Lusts and hardens their Hearts and encourageth them to acts of Violence becometh one means to draw on their Ruine the sooner Psal. 73.17 I went into the sanctuary of God then understood I their end God's Vengeances are due to them and one time or other shall be inflicted Psal. 37.13 His day is coming Psal. 37.38 But the transgressor shall be destroyed together the end of the wicked shall be cut off Though long deferred Vengeance cometh at last to the full and cuts them off You think Providence doth not deal righteously because the Unworthy are Exalted and the Worthy Depressed Tarry but a while and you will have no cause to complain or grow weary of Godliness or to cry up a Confederacy with Evil Men. Who would envy those that climbe up the Ladder for Execution or carried to the Top of a Rock to be thrown down thence and broken in pieces or think Haman preferred because Advanced above others on a high Gallows Would you envy a man on the Gallows because he standeth above the rest of the Company 2. The state of the suffering Godly Wicked men you see are under God's displeasure which will one day break out upon them and consume all their Temporal Happiness But in what state are the Godly Consider their future Hopes and their present Enjoyments they need not envy them 1. Their future Hopes Their Possessions are not to be compar'd with your Hopes
the knowledge of the Truth gained thereby if they despise all these and abandon themselves to their own brutish Passions and Affections as we see many by resisting Common Preparing Grace do so harden their Hearts and increase their Incapacity that the same degree of Grace will not change them that will change others not so self-harden'd Ier. 13.23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the Leopard his spots Then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil And those that are unwilling to use the Means that they are able that will not hear or consider what they hear that it may affect them they provoke God not only to suspend the influence of his Spirit but to take away the Means Prov. 1.23 24. Turn you at my reproof â—ehold I will pour out my spirit unto you and I will make known my words unto you Because I have called and ye refused I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded c. Much more when they run the contrary way and turn their Thoughts and Affections more eagerly after Vanity and oppose God's Help and Grace because it is against their Lusts Ezek. 24.13 Because I have purged thee and thou wast not purged thou shalt not be purged from thy filthiness any more Well then they that have common Grace ought and are bound to use it for the obtaining of more Grace 'T is charged as a great Crime on them that have Eyes and see not Ears and hear not that will not frame their Doings to turn unto the Lord so much as put themselves into a posture They are threatned that it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah than those that have abundance of Means and use them not That they that were lifted up to Heaven in Ordinances shall be cast down to Hell for the neglect of them Matth. 11.23 That the Ninivites shall rise up in judgment against them and condemn them because they repented at the preaching of Ionas and behold a greater than Ionas is here Matth. 12.41 They that have received so much Grace from God and yet do not understand nor seek after him their Condemnation is aggravated their Destruction is of themselves they shut themselves out of the Kingdom of God reject the Counsel of God against themselves and judge themselves unworthy of Eternal Life The Scripture every where speaketh at this rate concerning the Folly and Negligence of Men. But if it be asked If they did improve this common Grace shall they acquire Special Grace Answ. 1. â—od is abundant in Mercy Goodness and Truth and doth not use to appoint Means in vain Certainly they do not merit it at God's hands nor is he expresly bound to give it to them No It is not in him that willeth nor in him that runneth Rom. 9.16 The first â—race is given by God as a free Lord not by any certain Law but by his own Pleaâ—ure Well but will he give it The Question is curious and needeth no Answer He that is deadly sick doth not refuse his Physick till he be made certain that it will recover him but useth it as the only proper Remedy in the case and commits the Event to â—od He that is to Plough and commit his precious Seed to the ground doth not stand to have assurance that the next Year will prove fruitful and the Season kindly but ventureth because usually God's Blessing goeth along with Man's Industry So in the business of Salvation we should not trouble our selves about the Event but do our Duty and leave the Event to God waiting for his Power and Grace in the careful use of the Means which he hath instituted to that end Certainly none perish but they perish through their own folly and negligence not for any defect in God's help When we have done all that we can he is not our Debtor but yet he is our gracious Benefactor and if we would labour to suppress our Cavils and Curiosity we shall find God better to us than we can imagine 4. This increase is given by degrees we have not all at first nor all at once for Christ speaketh to them To whom it was given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God Mark 4.11 To them that had ears to hear Vers. 23. Now to them he saith More shall be given As our Capacities are inlarged so is God's Bounty to us Psal. 81.10 Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it We are not straitned in God but in our selves The more we improve Grace received and the more serious we grow and have our Desires and Expectations enlarged the more God will give for by Mercy he prepareth for more Mercy 'T is serious Diligence and exercising our selves to Godliness maketh us see the worth of Grace and the necessity of more â—race to bear our Burdens resist Temptations perform our Duties and the more we are acquainted with God the more will we follow on to know the Lord. Mosâ—s his first Request was Tell me thy name and then Shew me thy glory Sensible Want increaseth with Enjoyment so doth God's Supply for his Goodness is inexhaustible Where he hath given he will give 1 Use. Is Information to shew us the reason why so many reap so little Fruit by the hearing of the Word either they never had solid Comfort and Benefit by it or else languiâ—h and grow lazy in the profession and practice of Godliness What is the reason They do not take heed to what they hear seriously regard the Mesâ—ages sent them by God day after day and then alas all the good Seed that is sown is like Corn on the House top that never groweth to perfection Neither is the Understanding informed nor the Will engaged to Practice Why are our Hearts so little affected and inflamed with the love of God Why stand we in no more Awe and Fear of him Have so small Hope and weak Confidence in him We mind nothing what is said concerning these Duties in the course of the Ministry We sit under the Gospel and pass over these things and do not deeply consider them in our Hearts Christians we impose no hard Law upon you many pretend they cannot invent Arguments for Meditation but when brought to your hands will you think of them They have no Time but if you will spare none of your own Time will you employ God's Time well Let Sabbath-Doctrines so far be considered by you as to sink into your Hearts Surely in their season all things should have their Turn and Place When we are employed about the World we are never troubled with Heavenly things why should the World intrude upon God's Portion 2. Use is Direction If you would profit by the Word take heed to what you Hear see what you do with it believe it soundly Is it a Truth or a Fable a Crochet of Ministers or a genuine Deduction from the word of God Consider it seriously How shall I mortifie this Sin or perform this Duty
of the World I shall give my Answer in these Propositions 1. The whole World in its natural Estate lieth under Sin and Wrath. The Scripture in one place telleth us 1 Iohn 5.19 The whole World lieth in wickedness And in another that all the World is become guilty before God Rom. 3.19 Both together speak this much That the Sin and Misery of the World was such that it groaned for a Saviour even as a Man sick of a mortal Disease and almost at his last gasp hath need of a Physician In the corruption of Nature all are involved Rom. 3.23 All have sinned and come short of the glory of God And so by consequence all are under the wrath of God Eph. 2.3 We are by nature the children of Wrath even as others Which abideth upon us while we remain Unbelieving and Impenitent Iohn 3.36 He that believeth not the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him And besides this there is the Dominion of actual Sin Rom. 6.14 All which shew the miserable state of the World and the high need of a Saviour Sin liveth with Men from the Birth to the Grave and all are become abominable and filthy they are all gone out of the way there is none that seeketh after God there is none that doth good no not one Psal. 14.1 2 3. They are all gone out of the way of Holiness and Happiness they are all become vile and loathsom to God all guilty of a careless neglect of God and of their Duty and of the Service they owe to him all are given to please the Flesh Iohn 3.6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh So general a Wickedness and Defection from God is there throughout the World as if they had cast off all Fear and Care and Love of God and his Service though they speak honourably of him in Words yet in their Deeds they deny him and disobey his Authority and wholly abandon themselves to please the Flesh. 2. To lie under Sin and the Consequences thereof is a Burden too heavy for us to bear and miserable are they who have it lying upon their own Shoulders How light soever Sins may seem to be when they are committed yet they will not be found to be light when we come to reckon with God for them Sin to a waking Conscience is one of the heaviest Burdens that ever was felt Psal. 38.4 My iniquities are gone over my head as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me If you do but tast of this Cup if a Spark of God's Wrath light upon the Conscience what a weight and pressure is this upon the Soul You will find the little Finger of Sin to be heavier than the Loins of any other Sorrow You may know it in part by what Christ suffered if his Soul was heavy unto Death if he felt such strange Agonies sweated drops of curdled Blood lost the actual sensible Comforts of his Godhead when he bore the burden of Sin what shall any one of us do if he were to bear his own burden If this be done in the green Tree what shall be done in the dry You may also know it by the Complaints of the Saints when the Finger of God hath but touched them all Life and Power is gone if God should set home one Sin upon the Conscience Psal. 40.12 Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me so that I am not able to look up they are more than the hairs of my head therefore my heart faileth me So Iob complaineth that the arrows of the Almighty are within him the poison whereof did drink up his spirits Iob 6.4 If you will know what it is to bear Sin ask a tender Conscience or a troubled Conscience what disquiets of Soul do wicked Men feel when their Consciences are a little awakened How uneasie do their Hearts sit within them Prov. 28.14 He that hardeneth his heart shall fall into mischief Gain crieth out My punishment is greater than I can bear Gen. 4.13 What large Offers do Men then make to get rid of their Burden Thousands of rams and ten thousands of rivers of oyl yea their first-born for their transgressions the fruit of their bodies for the sin of their souls Micah 6.6 7. Lastly what it is to live and die in Sin the other World will shew us Christ useth no other Expression of the Misery of the unbelieving Iews but this Ye shall die in your sins Iohn 8.24 That is enough for that speaketh all manner of Horror and Torment And the threatnings of the Word shew their Case is miserable enough They fall into the hands of the living God Heb. 10.31 And the Worm that feedeth upon them shall never die and the Fire wherewith they are scorched shall never be quenched Mark 9.44 Sins that now lie like sleepy Lions then awaken and take them by the Throat and feed and gnaw upon them to all Eternity Miserable questionless is the state of them who bear their own Burden and their own Transgression Now the sense of this should make a Crucified Saviour sweet to us 3. None can take off this burden of Sin but Jesus Christ this is a Work proper to the Lamb of God None else could preserve the Honour of God's Justice which was necessary before we could be intrusted with a new stock of Grace Rom. 3.24 25. Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Iesus Christ whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins None else could secure the Honour of God's Government Punishments are inflicted not only for the Reformation and Correction of the Offendors but for a Warning to others to secure the ends of Government that none may presume upon Impunity The same is necessary in the Government of the World by God if God should wholly release the Law all Awe and Sense of it would be lost Sin would not be counted so grievous a thing therefore there is a Brand put upon Sin by the Sufferings of Christ the Odiousness of it is represented in the Agonies and Sorrows of his Cross. The Apostle saith That God for sin condemned sin in the flesh Rom. 8.3 Or by a Sacrifice given for Sin he hath shewed his Hatred and Displeasure against it When we look upon Sin through Satan's Spectacles or the Cloud of our own Passions or Carnal Affections we make nothing of it but it is a terrible Spectacle to see the Fruits of it in the Agonies and Sufferings of Jesus Christ which are represented to us in the Word and Sacraments as if he were Crucified before our Eyes Once more none could bear this burden of Punishment but Jesus Christ who was Man to undertake it in our Name and also God to get through it in his own Strength His Human Nature did put a Price into his Hands to lay down for the Ransom of our Souls and his
would not give over till all was finished 1153 Following Christ. What it is to follow Christ 388 Wherein we should follow Christ 346 Vid. Example Motives to follow Christ ibid. Fool. Every carnal Man a Fool 910 Forgiving Enemies a Duty 1143 Vid. Revenge Forsake Why God may sometimes forsake his People 1096 God never totally forsakes his People and why 1095 Objections answered ibid. Three kinds of forsaking 1096 Forsaking all when God calls us so to do 333 Reasons why we must so do 334 Directions to this Duty 335 Future State proved 1216 Light of Nature concerning a future State not to be rejected 1221 Thoughts of a future State Support in Afflictions and Death 1220 G GIfts the kinds of them 250 251 252 258 The Freeness of God's Gifts 250 Every one hath some Gift or other 257 Gifts are not given to all in a like measure 259 Reasons of it 260 Gifts are intrusted as well as given 253 Vid. Trust. God to be thanked for all his Gifts 251 Give Why it was necessary that Christ should give himself 157 Duties inferred from Christ giving himself 160 We are to be thankful that Christ gave himself 159 Glory what it is 1225 Godliness what it is 89 What Graces are necessary to Godliness ib. What are the Ordinances about which it is conversant 91 Godliness to be exercised in Worship in Conversation 93 94 95 Godliness and Holiness and Righteousness how they differ 39 89 Our Abode in the present World is the time to exercise Godliness 98 Reasons of it 100 Trial whether we are godly 96 Motives to Godliness ib. Good Then none is good how not to be understood 295 How it is to be understood ibid. Goodness of God's Nature opened and the Properties of it 298 300 The Goodness of his Bounty opened 300 When God is not honoured as the chief Good 36 Good Man what he is 1110 Good Things Who have their good Things in this Life 988 The Misery of those that have their good Things in this Life 990 How shall we know that Men count temporal things their good Things 988 Good Works the Beginning Increase and Accomplishment of them from God 686 Gospel a means of Salvation and how 15 No better way to save Sinners than that revealed in the Gospel 659 The Wisdom of God in the Gospel 658 The excellent Contrivance of the Gospel to be meditated on 656 Preparative Considerations to such Meditation 657 How we are to meditate on this Contrivance of the Gospel 658 Motives to regard the Gospel 17 No Reason to doubt of the Gospel 948 Government God governs the World by the Hopes and Fears of another Life 1171 Grace Whether they that improve common Grace shall have special Grace 1082 Increase of Grace must be acknowledged as well as the Beginning of it 427 Grace of God how many ways taken 2 Grace and Mercy in God how they agree and how they differ ib. Grace the Original of all Blessings 3 Why Grace is the Original of all Blessings 5 Grace doth not exclude Christ and the means of Salvation 4 What and how much of Grace is discovered in the Gospel 11 Grace but darkly discovered before the Gospel 10 What Reason Believers have to praise the Grace of God above other Men or Angels 9 How the Grace of God is wronged 6 Grace teacheth us Holiness 25 Trial whether we are Partakers of the Grace of God 26 H HAbitation God is the Habitation of his People 897 God's People may have no Habitation on this side God 895 God's being our Habitation is of use to us when we want and when we have a Dwelling-place 900 901 How God is our Habitation when we have a House 902 Vid. Dwelling in God Hardness of Heart sinful The terms of it opened what is meant by Heart what by Hardness 498 The Nature and Properties of it ibid. The Kinds of it 501 The Causes of it 503 The Hainousness of the Sin 505 Some Observations about it 507 Trial of a hard Heart 511 Motives to beware of Hardness of Heart 514 Motives to come out of this State ibid. Directions for the Cure of a hard Heart 515 Tendencies of it to be avoided 532 Hardness of Heart judicial How God may be said to harden 501 523 God's Iustice and Righteousness herein vindicated 524 Causes of God's hardning Sinners 527 Sometimes God may harden finally ibid. The Causes of this 528 God may harden his own People for a time 530 The Causes of it ibid. Means to cure it 531 Observations from the History of Pharaoh's Hardness of Heart 520 Hearing the Word an Ordinance of God 21 Objections against Hearing answered ib. Diligent attending to the Word wherein it consists 1078 Why we should take heed what we hear 1077 How they that hear shall have more given them 1080 Heart of the Wicked what it signifies 1059 The Pravity of it 1060 How the Heart of the Wicked is little worth ibid. Reasons of it 1062 Means to get another Heart or a Heart sanctified 1065 What Men may do towards getting their Heart sanctified 1064 Motives to get the Heart sanctified ibid. Heaven In Heaven the removal of all Evil of Sin and Affliction 116 117 And the confluence of all Good 118 The Happiness of the Body in Heaven 119 The Happiness of the Soul in Heaven 120 The Company of Heaven 122 Whether the Knowledg or Love of God in Heaven is to be preferred 120 Inferences from the Happiness of Heaven 123 His. In what sense God's People are his 1028 Holiness with respect to our Relation to God what it is 740 Positive Holiness of our Persons and Actions what 741 Gospel Holiness how prophesied of in the Old Testament 738 Why we should be more eminent in Holiness in Gospel-Times than in Times of the Law 742 Exhortation to Holiness 718 Directions to Holiness 744 Holiness of Christ as to his Person and Office 712 Honour what it is 1226 Hope Act what it implies 972 Vid. Expectation Looking The Object of it 1104 The Properties of it ibid. The Necessity of it 1222 The Encouragements of it 1223 Hope the Fruit of Regeneration and of Experience 723 Hope Object Hope set before us what it is and why so called 231 What it is to run to take hold of the Hope set before us ibid. The Hope of a Christian a blessed Hope 116 Vid. Blessedness Humane Nature of Christ. Why Christ must be Man 1084 Vid. Incarnation Christ partaking of the humane Nature a Foundation for Faith 1086 Humiliation of Christ three Steps of it 862 How far Christ was lessened or humbled 861 Christ's Humiliation was voluntary 863 Christ's Humiliation was for our sakes ibid. The Ends and Reasons of Christ's Humiliation 864 1091 I IGnorance several Distinctions about it 1147 1148 All Ignorance not sinful 857 How far it excuseth from Sin 1147 The Evil and Danger of Ignorance 33 Immortality what it is 1226 A threefold Immortality 1163 The Immortality of the Soul Vid. Soul Motives to