the power of God the Holy Ghost. Pharaoh receives a message from God through Moses and Aaron, accompanied with miracles and plagues; his heart remains the same, and asks, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice?" (Read 2 Chron. xxxvi. 15, 16; Amos iv. 6-11). These will demonstrate the hardness of man's heart-neither mercy nor judgment will affect it.

3rd. Resistance. A stony heart, not only it does not receive impression, but it resists and opposes the word "As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the Lord, we will not hearken unto thee. But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth." "Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost." Hence sinners are said to despise, reject, and blaspheme the word.

4th. It may be compared to a stone for its heaviness, and tending downward. If you would find it, you must look downward. You may cast it upward, it will descend; the earth is its centre : thither it inclines, and there it rests. So is the heart of man; it is earthy, and delights in earthly things.

5th. Unfruitfulness. What fruit can be gathered from a stone? We may cast seed on it, yet it will remain fruitless; rain and dew may descend, the sun shine on it, it still remains barren. Thus it is with the heart. It may have the means of grace, and many other blessed privileges; and for all this receives no benefit.

How are men brought into this deplorable state? 1st. Through the fall. All the faculties of the soul partake of this hardness; judgment, will, affection, and conscience, each of these resist and oppose the truth.

2nd. In addition to the fall, our hearts become harder through habitual sinning against light, with delight, and a continuation therein.

3rd. There is a judicial hardness, that is, when God leaves a man to himself; so left, he will be sure to sink into eternal perdition. This hardness is universal in all the sons and daughters of fallen Adam; like the deluge which covered every part of the earth, leaving not so much as a piece of ground for Noah's dove to rest upon. This we will demonstrate.

1st. The readiness of man to sin. If a temptation is presented to the natural man, he readily complies. If the world and Satan do not tempt, the heart will, and the sinner is led away with it. Not so with a gracious soul-" How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?" said Joseph.

2nd. Quietude of conscience in sinning. Man will commit all kinds of wickedness, oppose all that is good, and feel no condemnation.

3rd. The security of heart in sinning. A broken-hearted sinner under a sense of sin, will weep bitterly, and water his couch with tears. He is afraid of the Lord whom he has provoked. Not so with a hardened sinner; though he knows that he offends God, that He destroyed thousands for the same sin, yet he goes on in his sinful practices.

4th. The heart is destitute of repentance. When a heart is blessed with a godly repentance, there will be a solemn consideration of sin; a mourning for it, self-judging and confessing: an abhorrence of it, and supplications for pardoning mercy. Contrary to all this, is found in a heart destitute of true repentance.

5th. God's word has little effect. The word is compared to the sun, which enlightens and quickens; to water, that softens and cleanses; to a hammer that breaks; to fire, that melts and refines the heart. Yet it is without effect until the Holy Ghost brings it to the heart with almighty power.

CHAPTER XXXI.

THE removing of the stubbornness of the heart is a work of God. I will take away the stony heart, and give you an heart of flesh." This is done in regeneration, when convinced of sin by the Spirit of God, He brings the law in its spirituality upon the conscience, that it rends the rocky heart, fills it with fear, trembling, and astonishment, whereby all our presumption and confidence are shaken ; the heart is convinced that it has transgressed the law. It quakes, trembles, nor finds rest or peace; it is filled with bitterness and terror, and cries out with woful complaints, I am undone, I am ruined, by reason of my sin. Alas! what will become of me?

What can I do to be saved?

Lord, have mercy upon me! I am miserable while living, and undone when I die. This is the spirit of bondage that is brought by the law; it breaks the heart, but cannot melt it. The melting of the heart belongs to the gospel

"Law and terrors do but harden,

All the while they work alone ;
But a sense of blood-bought pardon.
That will melt a heart of stone."

This harduess is removed by a revelation of the mercy of God in Christ to the soul. Thou art a rebel, and sinned against me; but I am merciful and gracious: I desire not the death of a sinner. "Whosoever believeth in me shall not perish." When such promises are applied to the soul by the Spirit of God, the soul is melted into a flood of tears, and admires the richness of God's mercy. This softness of heart is produced by gospel invitations. Christ comes by his Spirit to the contrite heart, and says, Be not afraid, come unto me. In me you shall find mercy and salvation; I can save to the uttermost-I will not reject, but pity and help. The heart is softened through faith in Christ; the Spirit enables the sinner to receive Christ, and his atonement; to lay hold upon his righteousness, and to appropriate it to himself" In the Lord have I righteousness and strength." God melts a sinner's heart as a sovereign. Sometimes He does it by affliction-" Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I have kept thy word." Sometimes by kindness" Thou shalt remember thy ways, and be ashamed." "I will establish my covenant with thee, and thou shalt know that I am the Lord."

The reason why the Lord gives them an heart of flesh, that they may receive the Lord for their God; that they might hear his voice, and obey his holy commandments. As God is willing that they should be his people, so they must be willing to have Him for their Lord. That they might be united to Christ is another reason. This union took place before time, and in God's own time He brings them into the actual enjoyment of the same; and in order to realize this union a heart of flesh must be given. The application of the promises of God requires it. He has promised to spread peace to give pardon, which a hard heart cannot receive. Oh what a glorious promise is this to God's people, that the Lord will take away the stony heart. It is beyond the power of men or

angels. The Lord has promised, that sensible sinners need not despair-it is an encouragement for faith and prayer. The Lord does not only promise to take away the heart of stone, but also to give them a heart of flesh. This gracious frame is produced by the blessed Spirit; it is not a transient work, but permanent. It is not like the repentance of Ahab under severe threatenings, or Felix before Paul; nor Judas under his black despair. When this is produced, the mind is willing to be taught "Teach me thy truth, and thy will." The judgment is willing to assent; the will says, "Oh how I love thy law :" and the affections says, I will run in the ways of God's commandments." This makes them fit to be the servants of God, and to follow Him whithersoever He goeth.

66

How blessedly does the word of God describe the character of a gracious heart. My dear reader, if thou art one, you will be ashamed of sin-" O my God, I am ashamed, and blush to lift up my face unto thee; for mine iniquities are increased over my head. I have sinned; What shall I do, O thou Preserver of men?" Fear to sin. "The fear of the Lord is to depart from evil." The word of God is his only rule-" Thy word is a lamp unto my feet." He meditates on it, that he might understand it-"I meditate in thy precepts." He obeys it, and lays it up in his heart-" Thy word have I hid within my heart." He is led and guided by it—“ Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel." He delights in reading it"Thy testimonies are my delight." The preaching of the triumph of Christ on the cross under the influence of God the Holy Ghost, the rocky hearts are rent like the rocks at his death, and the consciences of men quake, of which the earthquake was an emblem; which thousands to the joy and comfort of their souls experienced, in hearing the joyful sound of Christ crucified lifted up on the pole of the everlasting gospel.

"How mighty thou art, O Lord, to convert-
Thou only could'st conquer so stubborn a heart;
For thy love to lost man alone could constrain,
So stiffneck'd a rebel to love thee again.

"Thro' thee I embrace the ransoming grace,

Of Him who has suffered and died in my place;
Tho' I strove to withstand the force of thy hand,
Thy Spirit would conquer, and I was constrained.

"In vain I withstood, and fled from my God,
For mercy would save me through Jesus's blood;
I felt it applied, and I joyfully cried,

Me-me thou hast loved, and for me thou hast died.
"For sinners like me thy mercy is free,

Who hunger and thirst for redemption by thee;
Lord, gather in more, make this the glad hour,
Compel them to yield in the day of thy power.'

CHAPTER XXXII.

OPENING OF THE GRAVES SIGNIFYING THE DESTRUCTION OF DEATH-TESTIMONY OF THE CENTURION.

We have noticed the triumph of Christ in rending the rocks, as an emblem of the rocky hearts of men, and his power in rending them, that is, taking away the stony heart and giving a heart of flesh, through the preaching of the gospel. Now we will notice the opening of the graves. "And the graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints that slept arose" (Matt. xxvii. 52). This was a proof of Christ's power over death and the grave by dying; when He through death destroyed him that had the power of it, that is, the devil, and abolished death itself, and became the plague of death, and the destruction of the grave, taking into his hands the keys of hell and death, that He might deliver his children who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. Thus the apostle speaks, Heb. ii. 14, 15. Christ by his death destroyed the devil, that had the power of death; not absolutely, but the power. Satan's power over death was through his bringing in sin, which was threatened by God as a punishment thereof. Sin and death having thus entered into the world, and all men being guilty of the one, and obnoxious unto the other, Satan came thereby to be their prince, as the author of that state, therefore he is called "the prince of this world" (John xii. 31); and the god of it (2 Cor. iv. 4). All sinners out of Christ are under his power;