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thereby; the common good of Christ's body, which is the church, gains by it. Now the more excellent any member of the body is, according to his gifts and place, the rest of the members should therein the more rejoice, 1 Cor. xii. 26.

(8.) Doubts of sanctification from a sense of the hardness of the heart.

Lastly, Many yet will say, that their hearts remain hard and stony, yea, they say, that they grow harder and harder; wherefore they think that the stony heart was never taken out of them, and that they remain unsanctified.

Know, that there are two sorts of hard hearts.

One total and not felt, which will not be broken, nor brought unto remorse either by God's threats, commandments, promises, judgments, or mercies; Zech. vii. 11; but obstinately stands out in a course of sin, being past feeling, Eph. iv. 19.

The second is, a hardness mixed with some softness, which is felt and bewailed; this is incident to God's children: of this the church complains, saying unto God, Why hast thou hardened our hearts against thy fear? Isa. lxiii. 17. Now when the heart feels its hardness, and complains of it, is grieved, and dislikes it, and would that it were tender like Josiah's, 2 Chron. xxxiv. 27, so that it could melt at the hearing of the word; this is a sure proof that the heart is regenerate and not altogether hard, but has some measure of true softness; for it is by softness that hardness of heart is felt, witness your own experience; for before the hammer and fire of the word were applied to your hearts, you had no sense of it, and never complained thereof

You must not call a heavy heart, a hard heart; you must not call a heart wherein is a sense of indisposition to good, a hard heart; except only in comparison of that softness, which is in it sometimes, and which it shall attain unto, when it shall be perfectly sanctified; in which respect it may be called hard. Whosoever has his will so wrought upon by the word, that it is bent to obey God's will, if he knew how, and if