12. But the prophets themselves had another kind of obligation to believe their own visions and inspirations, than any of their hearers had; for God's great extraordinary revelation, was like the light, which immediately revealed itself, and constrained the understanding to know that it was of God: and such were the revelations that came by angelical apparitions and visions. Therefore prophets themselves might be bound to more than their bare word could have bound their hearers to; as, to wound themselves, to go bare, to feed on dung, &c.: and this was Abraham's case in offering Isaac. Yet God did never command a prophet, or any by a prophet, a thing simply evil, but only such things as were of a mutable nature, and which his will could alter, and make to be good. And such was the case of Abraham himself, if well considered.
PART II.
Directions against Hardness of Heart.
It is necessary that some christians be better informed what hardness of heart is, who most complain of it.[143] The metaphor is taken from the hardness of any matter which a workman would make an impression on; and it signifieth the passive and active resistance of the heart against the word and works of God, when it receiveth not the impressions which the word should make, and obeyeth not God's commands; but after great and powerful means remaineth as it was before, unmoved, unaffected, and disobedient. So that hardness of heart is not a distinct sin, but the habitual power of every sin, or the deadness, unmovableness, and obstinacy of the heart in any sin. So many duties and sins as there be, so many ways may the heart be hardened against the word, which forbiddeth those sins, and commandeth those duties. It is therefore an error, that hath had very ill consequences on many persons, to think that hardness of heart is nothing but a want of passionate feeling in the matters which concern the soul; especially a want of sorrow and tears. This hath made them over-careful for such tears, and grief, and passions, and dangerously to make light of the many greater instances of the hardness of their hearts. Many beginners in religion (who are taken up in penitential duties) do think that all repentance is nothing but a change of opinion, except they have those passionate griefs, and tears, which indeed would well become the penitent; and hereupon they take more pains with themselves to affect their hearts with sorrow for sin, and to wring out tears, than they do for many greater duties. But when God calleth them to love him, and to praise him, and to be thankful for his mercies; or to love an enemy, or forgive a wrong: when he calleth them to mortify their earthly-mindedness, their carnality, their pride, their passion, or their disobedience, they yield but little to his call, and show here much greater hardness of heart, and yet little complain of this or take notice of it. I entreat you therefore to observe, that the greater the duty is, the worse it is to harden the heart against it; and the greater the sin is, the worse it is to harden the heart by obstinacy in it. And that the great duties are, the love of God and man, with a mortified and heavenly mind and life; and to resist God's word commanding these, is the great and dangerous hardening of the heart. The life of grace lieth, 1. In the preferring of God, and heaven, and holiness, in the estimation of our minds before all worldly things. 2. In the choosing them, and resolving for them with our wills, before all others. 3. In the seeking of them in the bent and drift of our endeavours. These three make up a state of holiness. But for strength of parts, or memory, or expression, and so for passionate affections of sorrow, or joy, or the tears that express them; all these in their time, and place, and measure, are desirable, but not of necessity to salvation, or to the life of grace. They follow much the temperature of the body, and some have much of them that have little or no grace, and some want them that have much grace. The work of repentance consisteth most in loathing and falling out with ourselves for our sins, and in forsaking them with abhorrence, and turning unto God; and he that can do this without tears is truly penitent, and he that hath never so many tears, without this, is impenitent still.[144] And that is the hard-hearted sinner, that will not be wrought to a love of holiness, nor let go his sin, when God commandeth him; but after all exhortations, and mercies, and perhaps afflictions, is still the same as if he had never been admonished, or took no notice what God hath been saying or doing to reclaim him. Having thus told you what hardness of heart is, you may see that I have given you directions against it at large before, chap. iii. direct. vi. and viii.; but shall add these few.
Direct. I. Remember the majesty and presence of that most holy God, with whom we have to do, Heb. iv. 13. Nothing will more affect and awe the heart, and overrule it in the matters of religion, than the true knowledge of God. We will not talk sleepily or contemptuously to a king; how much less should we be stupid or contemptuous before the God of heaven! It is that God whom angels worship, that sustaineth the world, that keepeth us in life, that is always present, observing all that we think, or say, or do, whose commands are upon us, and with whom we have to do in all things; and shall we be hardened against his fear? "Who hath hardened himself against Him, and hath prospered?" Job ix. 4.
Direct. II. Think well of the unspeakable greatness and importance of those truths and things which should affect you, and of those duties which are required of you. Eternity of joy or torment is such an amazing thing, that one would think every thought, and every mention either of it or of any thing that concerneth it, should go to our very hearts, and deeply affect us, and should command the obedience and service of our souls. It is true, they are things unseen, and therefore less apt in that respect to affect us than things visible; but the greatness of them should recompense that disadvantage a thousandfold. If our lives lay upon every word we speak, or upon every step we go, how carefully should we speak and go! But oh how deeply should things affect us, in which our everlasting life is concerned! One would think a thing of so great moment, as dying, and passing into an endless life of pain or pleasure, should so take up and transport the mind of man, that we should have much ado to bring ourselves to mind, regard, or talk of the inconsiderable interests of the flesh! How inexcusable a thing is a senseless, careless, negligent heart, when God looketh on us, and heaven or hell is a little before us! Yea, when we are so heavily laden with our sins, and compassed about with so many enemies, and in the midst of such great and manifold dangers, to be yet senseless under all, is (so far) to be dead. Will not the wounds of sin, and the threatenings of the law, and the accusations of conscience, make you feel? He that cannot feel the prick of a pin will feel the stab of a dagger, if he be alive.
Direct. III. Remember how near the time is, when stupidity and senseless neglect of God will be banished from all the world; and what certain and powerful means are before you at death and judgment, to awaken and pierce the hardest heart.[145] There are but few that are quite insensible at death; there are none past feeling after death, in heaven or hell. No man will stand before the Lord in the day of judgment, with a sleepy or a senseless heart. God will recover your feeling by misery, if you will lose it by sin, and not recover it by grace. He can make you now a terror to yourselves, Jer. xx. 4; he can make conscience say such things in secret to you, as you shall not be able to forget or slight. But if conscience awake you not, the approach of death it is likely will awaken you: when you see that God is now in earnest with you, and that die you must, and there is no remedy, will you not begin to think now, Whither must I go? and what will become of me for ever? Will you then harden your heart against God and his warnings? If you do, the first moment of your entrance upon eternity will cure your stupidity for ever. It will grieve a heart that is not stone, to think what a feeling stony-hearted sinners will shortly have, when God will purposely make them feel, with his wrathful streams of fire and brimstone! when Satan that now hindereth your feeling, will do his worst to make you feel; and conscience, the never-dying worm, will gnaw your hearts, and make them feel, without ease or hope of remedy! Think what a wakening day is coming!
Direct. IV. Think often of the love of God in Christ, and of the bloody sufferings of thy Redeemer, for it hath a mighty power to melt the heart. If love, and the love of God, and so great and wonderful a love, will not soften thy hardened heart, what will?
Direct. V. Labour for a full apprehension of the evil and danger of a hardened heart. It is the death of the soul, so far as it prevaileth: at the easiest, it is like the stupidity of a paralytic member or a seared part. Observe the names which Scripture giveth it: The "hardening of the heart," Prov. xxviii. 14. The "hardening of the neck," Prov. xxix. 10, which signifieth inflexibility. The "hardening of the face," which signifieth impudency, Prov. xxi. 29. The "searedness of the conscience," 1 Tim. iv. 2. The "impenitency of the heart," Rom. ii. 5. Sometimes it is called "sottishness," or "stupidity," Jer. iv. 22. Sometimes it is called a "not caring," or "not laying things to heart, and not regarding," Isa. xlii. 25; v. 12; xxxii. 9-11. Sometimes it is denominated metaphorically from inanimates: "A face harder than a rock," Jer. v. 3. "Stony hearts," Ezek. xi. 19; xxxvi. 26. "A neck with an iron sinew," Isa. xlviii. 4, and "a brow of brass." It is called "sleep," and a "deep slumber," and a "spirit of slumber," Rom. xiii. 11; xi. 8; Matt. xxv. 5; and "death" itself, 1 Tim. v. 6; Eph. ii. 1, 5; Col. ii. 13; Jude 12.
Observe also how dreadful a case it is, if it be predominant, both symptomatically and effectively. It is the forerunner of mischief, Prov. xxviii. 14. It is a dreadful sign of one that is far more unlikely than others to be converted; when they are "alienated from the life of God by their ignorance," and are "past feeling," they are "given up to work uncleanness with greediness," Eph. iv. 14. Usually God calleth those that he will save, before they are past feeling; though such are not hopeless, their hope lieth in the recovering of the feeling which they want; and a hardened heart, and iron neck, and brazen forehead, are a sadder sign of God's displeasure, than if he had made the heavens as brass, and the earth as iron to you, or let out the greatest distress upon your bodies. When men have eyes and see not, and ears and hear not, and hearts but understand not, it is a sad prognostic that they are very unlikely to be "converted and forgiven," Mark iv. 12; Acts xxviii. 27. A hardened heart (predominantly) is garrisoned and fortified by Satan against all the means that we can use to help them; and none but the Almighty can cast him out and deliver them. Let husband, or wife, or parents, or the dearest friends entreat a hardened sinner to be converted, and he will not hear them. Let the learnedest, or wisest, or holiest man alive, both preach and beseech him, and he will not turn. At a distance he may reverence and honour a great divine, and a learned or a holy man, especially when they are dead; but let the best man on earth be the minister of the place where he liveth, and entreat him daily to repent, and he will either hate and persecute him, or neglect and disobey him. What minister was ever so learned, or holy, or powerful a preacher, that had not sad experience of this? when the prophet, Isa. liii. 1, crieth out, "Who hath believed our report?" and the apostles were fain to shake off the dust of their feet against many that rejected them; and were abused, and scorned, and persecuted by those whose souls they would have saved? Nay, Jesus Christ himself was refused by the most that heard him; and no minister dare compare himself with Christ. If our Lord and Master was blasphemed, scorned, and murdered by sinners, what better should his ablest ministers expect? St. Augustine found drunkenness so common in Africa, that he motioned that a council might be called for the suppression of it; but if a general council of all the learned bishops and pastors in the world were called, they could not convert one hardened sinner, by all their authority, wit, or diligence, without the power of the Almighty God. For will they be converted by man, that are hardened against God? What can we devise to say to them that can reach their hearts, and get within them, and do them good? Shall we tell them of the law and judgments of the Lord, and of his wrath against them? why all these things they have heard so often till they sleep under it, or laugh at them. Shall we tell them of death, and judgment, and eternity? why we speak to the posts, or men asleep; they hear us as if they heard us not. Shall we tell them of endless joy and torments? they feel not, and therefore fear not, nor regard not; they have heard of all these, till they are weary of hearing them, and our words seem to them but as the noise of the wind or water, which is of no signification. If miracles were wrought among them by a preacher, that healed the sick, and raised the dead, they would wonder at him, but would not be converted. For Christ did thus, and yet prevailed but with few, John xi. 48, 53; and the apostles wrought miracles, and yet were rejected by the most, Acts vii. 57; xxii. 22. Nay, if one of their old companions should be sent from the dead to give them warning, he might affright them, but not convert them, for Christ hath told us so himself, Luke xvi. 31; or if an angel from heaven should preach to them, they would be hardened still, as Balaam and others have been. Christ rose from the dead, and yet was after that rejected. We read not of the conversion of the soldiers that watched his sepulchre, though they were affrighted with the sight of the angels: but they were after that hired for a little money to lie, and say that Christ's disciples stole him away. If magistrates that have power on their bodies, should endeavour to bring them to godliness, they would not obey them, nor be persuaded. King Hezekiah's messengers were but mocked by the people. David and Solomon could not convert their hardened subjects. Punish them, and hang them, and they will be wicked to the death: witness the impenitent thief that died with Christ, and died reproaching him. Though God afflict them with rod after rod, yet still they sin and are the same, Psal. lxxviii.; Hos. vii. 14; Amos iv. 9; Jer. v. 3; Isa. i. 5. Let death come near and look them in the face, and let them see that they must presently go to judgment, it will affright them, but not convert them. Let them know and confess, that sin is bad, that holiness is best, that death and eternity are at hand, yet are they the same, and all will not win their hearts to God; till grace take away their stony hearts, and give them tender, fleshy hearts, Ezek. xxxvi. 26.