(5.) If we have attained to a settled knowledge of the truth, and, more especially, if we have been blessed with a spiritual and practical discerning thereof, let us bless God for it, and endeavour to improve it to the best purposes, which will be a preservative against this sore judgment of being given up to the blindness of our minds, or strong delusions, and thereby to forsake our first faith. 3. Another punishment of sin, which more especially respects the will, is hardness of heart, and a reprobate sense, when men are given up to the perverseness and obstinacy of their natures, so that they are fixedly resolved to continue in sin, whatever be the consequence thereof, when they cannot bear reproof for, and refuse to be reclaimed from it, whatever methods are used in order thereunto. Thus the prophet speaks, concerning a people, which had had forewarnings by sore judgments, and were, at that time, under sad rebukes of providence; yet God says, concerning them, _They will not hearken unto me; for all the house of Israel are impudent and hard-hearted_, Ezek. iii. 7. and the apostle speaks of some, who _have their consciences seared with a hot iron_, 1 Tim. iv. 2. and others, who are described, as _sinning wilfully_, Heb. v. 26. that is, resolutely, being head-strong, and determined to persist therein; and are as the man described in Job, _Who stretcheth out his hand against God, and strengtheneth himself against the Almighty; he runneth upon him, even upon his neck, upon the thick bosses of his bucklers_, Job xv. 25. Thus corrupt nature expresses its enmity and opposition to God; and, as sinners are suffered to go on in this way, it may well be reckoned a punishment of sin, or an instance of God’s judicial hand against them for it. This hardness of heart is sometimes compared to a _stone_, Ezek. xxxvi. 26. or a _rock_, Jer. xxiii. 19. or an _adamant_, which is hardly broken with a hammer, Zech. vii. 12. or an _iron sinew_, and their _brow_ is said to be as _brass_, Isa. xlviii. 4. and sometimes they are compared to _a swift dromedary, traversing her ways; or the wild ass, used to the wilderness, that snuffeth up the wind at her pleasure_, Jer. ii. 23, 24. _and the bullock unaccustomed to the yoke_, Jer. xxxi. 18. _or to the deaf adder, that stoppeth her ears; that will not hearken to the voice of the charmers, charming never so wisely_, Psal. lviii. 4, 5. This stupidity of the heart of man is so great, that it inclines him to go on in a course of rebellion against God, and, at the same time, to conclude all things to be well; whereas, this is the most dangerous symptom, and a visible instance of God’s judicial hand, as a punishment of sin in this life. There are several instances, in which this hardness of heart discovers itself; as,