September 18

Sin is always progressive; and transgressors wax worse and worse.

We may consider the hardness as natural and as acquired. The heart, though naturally hard, admits of an increase of hardness. Thus Paul says to the Hebrews, "Harden not your heart, as in the provocation." Every call of God we refuse renders us more callous. Every act of sin we commit reduces our awe of God's authority, and prepares us for another commission. The young man first dreads evil company, then endures it, then delights in it. Habits are formed by the repetition of actions; and as "well might the Ethiopian change his skin, and the leopard his spots, as they learn to do good who are accustomed to do evil." The hardening of the heart is like the hardening of ice. When the water begins to freeze it will not bear the weight of a pin, but after some hours, or some days, it is capable of sustaining the heaviest pressure.

We may also observe in this hardness the concern of the sinner, and the concern of God. We read that "Pharaoh hardened his heart," and at the time it is said that "God hardened his heart." There is no doubt therefore that there is a part that belongs to God in this business. But what is it? And what can it be to accord with the perfections of his nature, and the language of his word? He cannot properly and absolutely harden the heart. But First, by his Providence he can expose men to those temptations which meeting with innate and indulged depravity will aid their impenitence. And Secondly, he can deny them the means of grace, or withhold or withdraw from them the influence that can alone render them efficacious. Thus God is said to give men up to "a reprobate mind;" and "to strong delusion to believe a lie." But he never acts thus judicially and penally but as the effect of deep provocation. He never says, "Let them alone," till "they are joined to idols." "Israel would none of me, so I gave them up unto their own heart's lusts; and they walked in their own counsels." "Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumbling block of their iniquity before their face: should I be enquired of at all by them?"

Again: we may distinguish this hardness as entire and as partial. Christians are renewed in the spirit of their mind. The stony heart is taken away, and a heart of flesh is given. Yet our Lord said to his own disciples, "Have ye your heart yet hardened?" "And he upbraided them with the hardness of their heart." And Christians may be less lively in their religious duties and affections, not only than they ought to be, but even than they once were. It is indeed well if we feel this; it is a proof that all is not hard within: but the want of more sensibility of heart is a great practical evil; and will much lessen our comfort. And the evil is induced by sin; and by little sins as well as by great ones; and by omissions of duty as well as by actual transgression. We are peculiarly liable to this evil when we are indulged—"Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not God." What a difference do we perceive between David as an exile, persecuted from place to place, and as a reigning monarch. With regard to the former he had such tenderness that his heart smote him, when he had only cut off the skirt of his enemy's garment: but see the insults and miseries the King