THE Nature & Causes OF HARDNESS OF HEART, Together with the Remedies against it, Discovered in a SERMON, Preached first before the Honourable Society of Lincolns-Inn, and afterwards before the University in Great St. MARY'S Church in CAMBRIDGE.  
By Robert Nevil, B.D. Rector of Ansty.  
Entered according to Order.  
LONDON, Printed for Benj. Billingsley, at the Printing-Press under the Piazza of the Royal Exchange, 1683.   

To the Worshipful my much Honoured Friend, Colonel Richard Goulston, OF WIDDIAL-HALL Esq One of his Majesty's Deputy-Lieutenants & Justices of Peace for the County of HERTFORD.  
Honoured Sir,  
I Had no long Debate within myself, whose Name I should borrow to Patronise this Discourse, when I considered it had been delivered in Two Great and Judicious Auditories, one of the Honourable Inns of Courts, and the most Ancient and Learned University of the Nation: My Thoughts presently fastened upon Colonel Goulston (a Person who hath sucked much Excellent Learning from the Breasts of both Universities, and been refined and polished by an Inns of Court Education) as the best qualified to do me such an Honour: And though it seems little less than a Libelling your Judgement, to publish my Hopes of its owning so Mean and Sorry a Pamphlet; yet I have presumed to give you the Trouble of this Address, not from any Opinion I have of the Value of what I present to you; but because the Honour, and Happiness, of some years' Neighbourhood, and Conversation, have given me a more than ordinary Assurance, that your Candour and Charity will be ready to Pardon the Faults, and Umbrage the many Imperfections of it.  
Were I inclined to put off the Divine, and put on the Courtier, I could (as some have done in Addresses of this Nature) cross the Seas, and Rifle Foreign Countries, for DIAMONDS & RUBIES, to SET in, and enrich your Name, and Exalt and Embellish your Virtues with High and strained Hyperboles: But my own plain and honest Temper hath made me a faithful Friend to Truth, and an inveterate Enemy to Paint and Varnish; nor do I here so much pretend to draw a curious Picture of your Virtues, as to give you a rude Draught of my grateful Resentments of those many Neighbourly Kindnesses you have heaped upon,  
Honoured Sir, Your most Faithful and Humble Servant, R. Nevil. Ansty, Novemb. 29. 1682.   

A SERMON Preached Before, both the Honourable Society OF LINCOLN's-INN, And the University at Great St. MARY'S CHURCH IN CAMBRIDGE.  Hebr. 3. part of the 15th Verse. 
Harden Not Your Hearts.  
THough we are in the hand of a skilful Artificer, that of the knottiest and crookedest Timber, can make Beams and Rafters for his own House; that can square the Marble and Flint, as well as the Freestone: And though the Sunshine of Divine Grace can melt and thaw the Ice, of the most congealed hardened Heart, and God can turn men extempore into Saints by his Omnipotent Convincing Spirit: yet if we observe the more Ordinary Course of God's Proceed, we shall find that there is a Peculiar Temper of Mind, which is most agreeable to the receiving of Christ; which those that are Owners of, are said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Fit or disposed for the Kingdom of God: They must have that peculiar Temper, wherein the Gospel will take root, and prosper, namely, an Humble, Flexible and Soft Heart: whereas on the other side; there is 
* Luc. 9.62.  AN EVIL HEART OF UNBELIEF, and 
* Heb. 3.12.  A REPROBATE Mind; and 
* 2 Cor. 13.5.  A HARD HEART, 
* Heb. 3.13.  HARDENED THROUGH THE DECEITFULNESS OF SIN, against which St. Paul gives us this necessary Caution here in my Text, saying, HARDEN NOT YOUR HEARTS.  
From which words I shall endeavour to show you these Four things:  
First, How and when Man Hardens his own Heart.  
Secondly, How and when God, without any impeachment to his Justice, may be said to Harden the Heart.  
Thirdly, What are the Properties of a Hard Heart.  
Fourthly, By What means we may avoid this Hardness, this Obduration, And  
First, I shall show you, How, and When, Man Hardens his own Heart: For the more perfect discovery whereof I must acquaint you with three sorts of Hardness:  
First, A Natural Hardness, the Hardness of our Natural Inclination, which was Born with us.  
Secondly, A Voluntary Hardness, A Hardness acquired by our own Resolutions and Endeavours.  
Thirdly, A Penal, A Judicial Hardness.  
First, A Natural Hardness, or the Hardness of our Natural Inclination, which was Born with us.  
Physicians tell us of a disease converting the Womb into a Hard Stone; and the Story in Crollius of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Child of a perfect stony Substance, is asserted by others: and such Children are we by Nature, Children of a perfect stony Substance, of stony Hearts: There grows A hard Pearl in the Understanding, the Eye of Our Souls, which makes us almost Blind.  
The Soul of the Natural man is so stupefied by Obduration, that it measures all Divine Truths by the Standard of Sense and Reason: The Eye of his Soul looking downward, sees clear enough, but if it looks up to the Sun of Righteousness, 'tis, presently dazzled: We are Naturally Eagle-eyed in Worldly things; Mole-eyed in Heavenly, in Spiritual things.  
The Will of a mere Natural man (before the Grace of God Emancipates and sets it free, and makes it capable of any good impression) is obstinate, and impenetrable: We may as easily pierce a Rock, or dissolve a Flint, as prevail upon it, when 'tis overgrown with that Crust of Natural Hardness; which oftentimes is improved and increased by the Addition of a Voluntary and Acquired Hardness; which brings me to the Second kind of Hardness; and that is,  
Secondly, A Voluntary Hardness, A Hardness acquired by our own Resolutions and Endeavours; A Wilful Hardness; when men have wilfully persisted in long continued Habits of many sins, which (like gravel after long continuance in the Bladder) Cake into a Stone, and make their hearts hard and obdurate. They have enslaved themselves by a strong Habit of Obduration, they are bored through the Ear, and are resolvedly bend not to change their Servile and Slavish condition.  
The Cords of Sin, with which they have bound themselves, are of their own twisting, and those Cords are twisted into so strong a Habit, that they are not easily broken; and when men have brought themselves into these Circumstances, they are almost under a fatal Necessity of committing Sin: I do not believe (saith a 
* Dr. Tillotson's Sermon on Heb. 3.13 pag. 13.  Reverend Author) that God hath Predestinated any man to ruin; But by a long Course of Wilful Sins, men may (in a manner) Predestinate themselves to it, and Choose wickedness so long, till at last it becomes Necessary; and continue to be bad men upon the same account, that the Historian Extravagantly saith Cato was Virtuous, 
(*) Quia aliter esse non potuit, vellei. Paterc.  BECAUSE HE COULD NOT BE OTHERWISE being bound in the chains of their own wickedness, nay, like Samson, not only bound by those lusts which they have embraced, but likewise, rob of all their strength, whereby they should break lose from those Bonds. And this brings me to the Third kind of Hardness I named to you, and that is  
Thirdly, A Judicial, a Penal Hardness; when men are hardened by God by way of punishment for hardening themselves; their Voluntary Hardness proves the mother of their Penal Hardness; as you may see in the 12th of St. John, 39, 40. Therefore THEY COULD NOT BELIEVE, BECAUSE THAT ISAIAH SAID, HE HATH BLINDED THEIR EYES, AND HARDENED THEIR HEARTS, THAT THEY SHOULD NOT SEE WITH THEIR EYES, NOR UNDERSTAND WITH THEIR HEARTS, AND BE CONVERTED. It is as St. Augustin observes 
(a) Peccatum est poena peccati & causa peccati.  SIN IS BOTH THE PUNISHMENT & CAUSE OF SIN; which happens when the Soul is so overspread with the Contagion of Sin, that all Spiritual food corrupts within it; which God perceiving, withdraws the wholesome food of his Grace he did before allow it; He withholds those Beams which before kept the heart soft and pliant, and thereby it is congealed and frozen; God being justly provoked withdraws his Grace, and leaves us to ourselves; and though Satan tempts us to Obduration, yet neither God nor Satan, do really or effectually, produce this Hardness in us, we breed it in ourselves, as ill diet may occasion the stone in the Bladder but it is the inward distemper of the body, that immediately breeds it: For, the further illustration whereof, I shall, as I promised, endeavour to show you,  
SECONDLY; How & when God, without any impeachment to his Justice, may be said to Harden Man's Heart; and First, God may be said to Harden men, when he withdraws his grace, because men have first Hardened their hearts against it: It being free for God to take the forfeiture of his grace and mercy, when, and how far, he pleases: For although that Help of General Grace allowed to all, be, if rightly improved, sufficient to strengthen and Convert the Soul, and to emancipate and make the Will Free: Yet if we forfeit our Indentures by the abuse of our Liberty, and neglect the Grace of God, when offered to us, he then may most justly withdraw it from us, and take away the Patent our Wills had for the Privilege of their Freedom: To which purpose 'tis generally observed by Divines, that there is to every Sinner a time, when the measure of his iniquity is filled up, and God's Patience in waiting for him is so wearied, that he withdraws his grace, and gives over calling him to Repentance; this was wont to be called by the Jews THE MEASURE OF JUDGEMENT; i. e. such a pitch of Sin, which Judgement inevitably followed: And it is possible, that to Obdurate Sinners such a time may be, which may be their last for grace, though not their last for life: That they may live here, and yet be dead eternally: and that a time may be when 
* Heb. 10.26.  THERE WILL REMAIN NO MORE SACRIFICE FOR SIN, but Sinners are Sealed up to Obduration, when God in Justice strikes them dead, who would not live, and consigns them to Damnation who were before resolved to Damn themselves. And St. Basil hath asserted God's Justice in this Case, by affirming that God, though he hardens men's hearts, yet he is not the Author of Sin: But that Sin is 
* 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  OF MAN'S OWN CHOICE, not Originally and primarily from God, or by any Positive Act of Gods upon him; of which he gives us a lively instance in Pharaoh whom God found hardened; he did not make him So. And, if you read the story, and observe the method of God's Proceed with Pharaoh, you shall find Exod, 8.15.32. that Pharaoh. HARDENED HIS OWN HEART: And when after so many miraculous Judgements, He was not reform, then 'tis said, in a new stile, Exod. 9.10. & 10.27. That the LORD HARDENED PHARAOHS HEART: But there is one Objection, that seems to interfere with this Doctrine, which I must remove, and then I'll shake hands with this Particular.  
The OBJECTION IS THIS.  
Did not God tell Moses at first, before ever we read that Pharaoh paved his Heart with Obduration, that he would Harden him? Did not God say to Moses, Exod. 4.21. DO ALICE THE WONDERS BEFORE PHARAOH, WHICH I HAVE PUT INTO THINE HAND, BUT I WILL HARDEN HIS HEART, THAT HE SHALL NOT LET THE PEOPLE GO: Now these words of God, I WILL HARDEN HIS HEART, are recorded before we have any news of Pharaoh's Hardening himself.  
To which I Answer,  
That Gods foretelling so early, that he would Harden Pharaoh's heart, is no argument, that he would do it immediately, and without any Demerit of Pharaoh's; but that God, foreseeing and foreknowing, that Pharaoh would lay the first stone of his Obduration, and first harden himself, said thereupon, I WILL HARDEN HIS HEART: Now that God foresaw Pharaoh's hardening himself is clear and evident from Exod. 3.19. AND I AM SURE THAT THE KING OF EGYPT WILL NOT LET YOU GO, NO NOT BY A MIGHTY HAND: So that if you carefully peruse the History of Pharaoh's life and actions, you will find that God did not Harden him, till he had hardened himself six times against Gods heavy Judgements: Which was a notable Example of God's deal with an Obdurate Sinner, that hath filled up the measure of his Sins, keeping him alive, but without Grace, without Repentance.  
SECONDLY, God may be said to harden men (without any impeachment to his Justice) by presenting occasions, which Sinners, through their own innate Corruption, make instrumental to their Obduration; but this can reflect no dishonour upon God, nor blemish his Justice, because these occasions are not designed by God to DECOY any into Sin, but are good in themselves: Light (though good and pleasant in itself) yet it hurts Sore Eyes: What is there so good, that obdurate Sinners will not abuse?  
Pharaoh was Hardened by Miracles, by which another man's Heart would have been mollified: the Hardened Sinner (like the Spider) sucks poison out of every thing: He sucks poison from that, which was designed as an Antidote for him: To this purpose 'tis said Jer. 6.21. I WILL LAY STUMBLING BLOCKS BEFORE THIS PEOPLE; that is, such Occasions and Providences, as through their own wilful obdurateness are a means to ruin them: It being Ordinary in Scripture to ascribe an Act to God, whereof he gives the Occasion; An Example of this may be Shimei's Cursing David, which he told Abishai in 2 Sam. 16.11. that the Lord bid him do: But how did the Lord bid him? He gave him no outward Command, neither did he move him to it by any internal impulse; for, if God had done either, He had been the Author of Shimei's Cursing, and Shimei had been blameless: What other meaning than can these words (THE LORD HAD BIDDEN HIM) be capable of but this? namely, that God did present the Occasion, in letting Shimei see David, in that Affliction spoken of in the 12th verse, and with a small retinue flying from his Son Absalon; his Guards about him being then so small and inconsiderable, that Shimei thought, he might safely vomit out his rancour, and fury, against him: In all which, and the like, actions, God derogates nothing from his Justice; these Occasions, which God Presents, being in themselves harmless, though wicked men abuse them.  
And this may suffice for the Second thing I was to show you; namely How and When God, without any impeachment to his Justice, may be said to Harden the Heart.  
I Proceed now to show you,  
THIRDLY, What are the Properties of a Hard Heart; and the FIRST Property of a Hard Heart is this, that it doth not yield to any means of grace; For,  
First, It cannot be prevailed upon by the word of God, which is a Powerful Agent; the Preacher that speaks to obdurate Sinners, speaks to Rocks, rather than Men; the Earth will sooner tremble than they;  Illis Robur & Aes triplex circa pectus. 
Their Hearts are so guarded with the Armour of Obduration, that the Word of God, though it be a two-edged Sword, cannot enter into them: Though God hath ordained a Function of men, by whom he does beseech them; though he arms their Messages, and Doctrines, with such Terrors, as makes the very Devils tremble, and joins his holy Spirit too, sends him in tongues of Fire, that he also may preach to them; and fright them with more flame; yet Hardened Sinners break these Strengths, and vanquish all the Arts and Strive of the Almighty; and though God's Ambassadors flash Hell fire against their Vices, in torrents of Scripture threaten and Comminations, they concern themselves no more, than they would at the story of a new eruption of Aetna or Vesuvius; their Hearts are turned into Stone, into pure Mine and Quarry; and thereupon such, as Preach to them, may be said to be damnati ad Metalla, (that old Roman Punishment) condemned like slaves to dig in these Mines and Quarries; So that as Cato Censorius paved the Courts of Judicature with sharp stones, that men might not delight in Lawsuits; So the Courts of the Lords House are often paved with Hard Hearts, that the Preacher might be discouraged from Preaching. There is so much Ice in men's hearts, there hath been so long a winter in their affections, which are i'll and dull to all goodness; that the word of God, which is said to be 
* Jerem. 23.29.  A FIRE, cannot thaw or melt them: And as a hard heart cannot be prevailed upon by the word of God; So neither  
Secondly, Will it be wrought upon by God's good Spirit; for, though it cannot hinder the grace of God from shining upon it, yet it may, and often does hinder the workings and Operations of that grace; and receives the grace of God in vain; and 
* Heb. 10.29.  DOES DESPITE TO THE SPIRIT OF GRACE., and abuses, and 
* Judas. 4.  TURNS THE GRACE OF GOD INTO WANTONNESS.  
It was strange that Christ when he was upon Earth Converted so few; the Evangelist wondered at it, John 12.37. THOUGH HE HAD DONE SO MANY MIRACLES AMONG THEM, YET THEY BELIEVED NOT IN HIM. BUT he satisfies the wonder, and gives the reason of it out of the Prophet Isaiah, THEREFORE THEY COULD NOT BELIEVE, BECAUSE THEIR HEARTS WERE HARDENED: Their Hardness was the cause of their small progress in believing; Engravers upon stone cannot rid much work; they that Point and Polish Diamonds, use much grinding to wear away a little unevenness. And then  
Thirdly, The hard heart will not be wrought upon by the mercy of God; God's Mercy to Pharaoh hardened his Heart; 
* 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  HE HARDENED, HIM BY HIS MERCY AND FORBEARANCE BY RESPITING HIS PUNISHMENT, saith St. Basil.  
The Hardened Sinner shrowds his Sins under the wings of God's mercy; He makes God's mercy his Protection in Sin: Accustomed dangers escaped harden the Sinner oftentimes to a Stupidity: The ruder Mariners, that have weathered out several storms will steal, blaspheme, and be drunk, in the next tempest: And Dion Cassius tells us, that Catiline being accused for the murders, and rapines, committed on those, whom Sylla had proscribed, and escaping the condemnation, under which others fell for the same Crimes, 
* 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  DID FROM THIS GROW MUCH WORSE: The Hardened Sinner COMMITS the Attributes of God, and (as it were) raises a Contest and Dispute between them; and to all declarations of his future Justice, he opposes that God is merciful; that satisfied with his own rectitude, he descends not to mark men's follies; and thus he baffles God's Veracity with his Clemency, and makes his long-suffering wear out the sense of his Justice: How far such foolish Collections as these will prevail to harden men's hearts, the Wise man tell us Eccles. 8.11. BECAUSE SENTENCE AGAINST AN EVIL WORK IS NOT SPEEDILY EXECUTED, THEREFORE THE HEARTS OF THE SONS OF MEN ARE FULLY SET IN THEM TO DO EVIL: Such is the hardhearted Sinners misery, that God cannot look friendly upon him, but by his too much presuming upon it he ruins and undoes himself: Heavens shining and smiling hurts him more than its lowering; the longer the Hardened Sinner looks upon the Sun of God's mercy he gathers the more spots, and impairs the beauty of his Soul: God is forced to be a tyrant to obdurate Sinners; He must be always whipping and scourging them; and till they are mollified and bettered by stripes, He cannot in mercy remove his rod: His taking away his plagues from them would be a greater Plague to them. And then  
Fourthly, A Hard Heart cannot sometimes be wrought upon by God's Judgements: As God's mercy cannot draw it, so his Judgements cannot drive it from Sin. It is an insensate unrelenting Anvil to the heaviest Strokes of the Divine Vengeance: It does (like the Roman Emperor Caligula) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thunder back against God, and shoot up a sin, a provocation, against Heaven, for every arrow of Judgement shot down from Heaven; It undervalues God's Power; Hector's and Braves his Omnipotence; it continues to affront God to his face after all his Judgements, as if he had wasted all his thunderbolts, emptied his Quiver, and broke his Sword in the last encounter; and were like those poor Animals, who lose their sting in the first wound they give. He that should have seen the Tragical iniquity we read of, in the City of Lions, which was so visited with the Pestilence, that the Dead (without a Figure) buried their Dead, falling down one upon another, each being at once both a Carcase and a Grave; He, I say that should have seen this, and observed withal, that the Soldiers daily issued out of the Citadel, and deflowered Virgins, even whilst they were giving up the ghost defiled Matrons even already dead, COMMITTING with the dust, warming the grave with sinful heats, and coupling with the Plague and Death; would certainly have been amazed, to see men so hardened in sin, as to Suffer and Sin together: And thus much for the First Property of a hard heart, that it does not yield to any means of Grace: Secondly. A  
SECOND Property of a hard heart is this, that it hath no Feeling in it; it is insensate: It is observed in the Body, that the rest of the senses may be distempered and lost, without much impairing the health of it, but only the Touch cannot, which therefore is called the SENSE of life; because that Part, or Body, which is deprived of Feeling is also at death's door, and hath no more life in it, than it hath relics of this Sense: So is it also in Spiritual matters, of all other Symptoms, this of a hardened Senlesness is most dangerous; and as the Greek Physicians are wont to say of a desperate disease, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, very, very mortal: A Man may not feel an ail and yet not be in health; and it is a good degree of health to know our disease; For if a Sinner grow once so hard and senseless, as that no Physic, no means, will work upon that Body of death, that does encompass him, Conclamatum est, We may ring his Funeral knell; for, though he be alive, and in this world, he is dead to all Grace and goodness: If there be no remorse, no grief, no dislike of sin, than woe be to us, this is descensus Averni; the lowest stair that leads to the Chambers of death.  
I have read that, near the City of Capena, lay a stone of great note, which upon great droughts the People would bring into the City, and large showers of rain would presently fall; but if we would be tenderly sensible of, and weep large showers of penitential tears for our sins; we must on the contrary, beg of God, to remove the stone out of our hearts, and give us a soft and tender heart, a heart of flesh: And thus having described to you the Properties of a Hard Heart; it is high time I should make use, of those words of Hipocrates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; Furnish yourselves with all the Softening Plasters you can, which may either prevent, or remove, this Obduration: And this brings me to the Fourth thing I was to show you; And that is,  
Fourthly, By What means we may avoid this Hardness; And  
First, If you would avoid it, avoid gross Sins; for they wast the Conscience, make havoc of grace, and render the heart hard and callous: When David cut off the lap of Saul's garment 'tis said, his heart smote him; but when he fell into those foul sins of Adultery and Murder, it is not then said, his Heart smote him; it grew hard upon the commission of those gross sins, till God dispatched the Prophet Nathan to him, to rouse and awake him. As for Sins of Infirmity, which are sins of a less and imperfect Choice, some Passions blinding or corrupting the Judgement, they are entailed upon All; and, as the Schoolmen say, Possibility of Sinning is included in the notion of a Creature: But though all men are prone to Sins of Infirmty, and yet all men's Hearts are not so Hardened as Habitually to commit gross and scandalous Sins; they have not such vitiated Palates, as to be able to drink down the worst dregs and lees of Vice: When Conscience saith to any person this is a Great Sin, Commit it not, and yet in despite of Conscience, and the Checks it gives him, he will run on; It is just with Conscience, (when its Counsel is rejected) like Achitophel, to strangle and stifle itself. And as we must abstain from gross Sins, so if we would avoid Hardness of Heart.  
Secondly, We must be careful not to harbour any the smallest Sin, with satisfaction and delight: By giving way to little Sins, one after another, we are prepared and disposed for greater, and our strongest Resolutions against them are broken; for though they be not snapped in sunder at once, yet by this means they are untwisted by degrees, and then it is easy to break them, one Thread after another: 'tis scarce imaginable of what Strength and Vigour one Sinful Action (be it never such a Dwarf in our Eyes) is, to Procreate and beget more: for Sin is Prolifical and Fruitful; and, though there be no Blessing annexed to it, yet it does strangely INCREASE & MULTIPLY: There are certain Rudiments and First Elements of Vices, in which men are first entered, & they advance gradually to more gross and heinous Crimes.  
Our Saviour reproves the Pharisees in the Gospel, because they would strain at Gnats, and swallow Camels; but yet it is true, that men learn at length to swallow Camels, by swallowing Gnats at first.  
* Juvenal.  Nemo repent fuit turpissimus. 
No Sinner is so adventurous, as to attempt the greatest Sins at first; the way by which men train up themselves to the committing gross and heinous Sins, is, by not making Conscience of committing less Sins; and yet, I know not 
(a) Nescio an possimus leve aliquod peccatum dicere quod in der contemptum admittitur.  (saith Paulinus in St. Jerom) WHETHER WE CAN CALL ANY SIN LITTLE, THAT IS COMMITTED AGAINST GOD: Small Contempts against Great Princes are accounted great Crimes; for what is wanting in the thing, is made up in the Worth of the Person; How great a Sin than is the smallest Contempt of the Majesty of God? To which I may also add, that when a small Sin comes by Design, and is Acted with Knowledge and Deliberation, the Malice of the Agent heightens the smallness of the Act, and makes up the Iniquity. It is incredible how insensibly many small Sins heighten and inflame our Reckon, and increase our Spiritual Hardness: Oh than that we would 
* Cant. 2.15.  TAKE THESE LITTLE FOXES; 
* Psal. 1 37.9.  that WE WOULD DASH THESE BABYLON's BRATS AGAINST THE WALLS. And this brings me to the Third Remedy against Obduration, and that is;  
Thirdly, To nip the forbidden Fruit of Sin in the Bud, before it grows into a Habit; Ibi maxime oportet observare Peccatum ubi nasci solet, saith St. Jerom; Observe, and Kill Sin in its infancy; Crush this Cockatrice in the Egg: The Tree, which was in the beginning but a small Plant, may at length bear its Head and Branches so high, as to cast a most dangerous Shadow: Even the smallest Pullulations of Sin must not be neglected; the first Blossoms of Iniquity must be blown away; For Sin is of a growing, multiplying nature; there is usually a Concatenation of Vices; one Devil brings seven other Devils; One Sin makes a Bridge for more to come over, like the Waves of the Sea, the End of the one is the Beginning of the other: If we go with Sin one Mile, it will compel us to go with it twain: It will swell like the Cloud Elijah saw, from the Bigness of a Man's Hand, to such a vast Expansion as will cover the Sky: No man descends to the worst at first, but gradually, Step by Step; as Mariners setting sail, first lose the sight of the Shore, then of the Houses, then of the Steeples, than Mountains and Land.  
Few or none are so hardened, and desperate, at first, as to leap into Hell: Alipius, in St. Austin; who went only at first for Company, to those bloody Spectacles of the Gladiators, came at last to applaud them: We know where we begin and set out in Sin, but we know not where we shall End, or take up; as no man can say, He will let in just so many Palefuls of the Sea, and no more. Stulta res est Nequitiae Modus, saith Seneca; 'tis a foolish, ridiculous thing for a man to think to set bounds to himself in any thing that is bad; or to hope to sin by Rules of Art, and in Number, Weight and Measure.  
Fourthly and Lastly, If you would avoid this Hardness, use fervent and constant Prayer. Let us importune God to cut the Thread of our Wickedness, that we may not spin it out to such a length: Let us sue out a Divorce between us, and our Beloved Sins, that Harden us. The Fire of Prayer must never go out, if we expect that such Metal as a Hard Heart consists of, should ever be melted by it.  
Those, who endeavour Chemically to extract the Philosopher's Stone, must never let their Fire go out; and so those, who would extract and draw the Stone out of their Hearts, must never let the Fire of their Devotion go out; this Fire (like that of the Vestal Virgins at Rome) must be always kept Burning. Now, that we may make an Experiment of this last Recipe of Prayer against Obduration, let us Beg of God to take away these Hearts of Stone, from within us, and give us Hearts of Flesh, for his dear Son Jesus Christ his sake; to whom, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be all Honour, Glory, and Praise, both now and for ever.  
FINIS.