The Soul's Conflict with Itself

And therefore, in the second place, Our chief care should be, not to harden ¹our hearts against the motions of ²the spirit, stirring us to seasonable grief, for that may cause a judicial hardness from God. God oft inflicteth some spiritual judgement (as a correction upon men) for not yielding to his spirit at the first, they feel a hardness of heart growing upon them: This made the Church complain, Why hast thou hardened our hearts from thy ³fear? which if Christians did well consider, they would more carefully entertain such impressions of sorrow, as the spirit in the use of the means, and observation of Gods dealing toward• ⟨p. 383⟩tselves or others, shall work in •m, then they do. It is a saying of […], Let a man grieve for his sin, and […] for his grief. Though we can nei•er love, nor grieve, nor joy of our •es, as we should, yet our hearts tell […], we are often guilty of giving a •ck to the spirit, stirring these affecti• in us, which is a main cause of the •y sharp afflictions we endure in •is life, though Gods love in the main •er of salvation be most firm unto […]

And therefore, in the second place, Our chiefe care should be, not to harden ¹our hearts against the motions of ²the spirit, stirring us to seasonable griefe, for that may cause a judicial hardnesse from God. God oft inflicteth some spirituall judgement (as a correction upon men) for not yeelding to his spirit at the first, they feele a hardnesse of heart growing upon them: This made the Church complaine, Why hast thou hardened our hearts from thy