Use 1. FIRST, then it serves sharply to reprove (Reproof) all unrepenting sinners, whose hearts seem to be hewn out of a Rock, and are like the stony ground in the Parnble which wanted moisture. This disease
I fear is epidemical, Ier. 8. 6. No man repented him of his wickedness. Mens hearts are marbled into hardness, Zach. 7. 12. They made their heart as an Adamant1. They are not at all dissolved into a penitential frame. It hath been a received opinion, that Witches never weep2. Sure I am, such as have no grief for sin, are spiritually bewitched by Satan. We read, that when Christ came to Ierusalem, he upbraided them because they repented not, Matth. 11. 20. And may he not upbraid many now for their impenitency? Though Gods heart be broken with their sins, yet their hearts are not broken: They say as Israel, Ier. 2. 25. I have loved strangers, and after them will I go. The justice of God, like the Angel, stands with a drawn sword in his hand ready to strike, but sinners have not so good eyes as Balaams Ass, to see the sword. God smites on mens backs, but they smite not with Ephraim upon their thigh (Jer. 31. 19). It was a sad complaint the Prophet took up, Ier. 5. 3. Thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved. That sure is reprobate silver which contracts hardness in the furnace, 2 Chron. 28. 22. In the time of his distress, did he trespass yet more against the Lord; this is that King Ahaz. An hard heart is a receptacle for Satan. As God hath two places he dwells in, Heaven and an humble heart: so the Devil hath two places he dwells in, Hell and an hard heart. ‘Tis not falling into the water drowns, but lying in it: ‘Tis not falling into sin damns, but lying in it without Repentance3. Hardness of heart brings at last to searedness of conscience, 1 Tim. 4. 2. Having their conscience seared with an hot Iron4. Men have silenced their consciences, and God hath seared them. And now he lets them sin, and doth not punish, Isa. 1. 5. Why should I smite you any more? As a Father gives over correcting a child whom he intends to dis-inherit.
Footnotes
-
Lapis hic durissimus est, qui respuit scalpra & malleos, quin & ipsos disrumpit; ideoque […] dicitur, scil. indomabilis. […] ↩
-
Bodin in his daemon. lib. 4. cap. 1. ↩
-
[…]. Chrys. de poen. ↩
-
Cauteriatam conscientiam vocat Apostolus cam quae sensum peccati amittit, instar partis cauterio i[…]stae. Fr. […]urrianus. ↩