Maintaining a Tender Heart (4)

(9) Lastly, consider the miserable state of hardness of heart. Such a one that has a hard heart is next to hell itself, to the state of a damned spirit, a most terrible state. A hard heart is neither melted with promises nor broken with warnings. He has no pity for men or love to God. He forgets all judgment for things past and looks for none to come. When the soul is in this case, it is fit for nothing but for sin and the devil, whereas a tender-hearted man is fit for all good. Let God threaten, he trembles and quakes; let God promise, his heart melts and rejoices; let God command, he will perform all. But when a man's heart is hardened by hypocrisy, covetousness, or custom in sin, he has no pity, no compassion. Let God command, threaten, or promise, yet the heart is never a bit moved. This is a terrible state of soul.
Let those that are young labour to keep tenderness of heart; before the heart be pestered with the cares of the world. God delights much in the prayers of the young, because they come not from so polluted a soul, hardened with the practices of this world. Let the young repent in the time of their sins and let them not put it off unto their old days. In our youth let us acquaint ourselves with those that are good; as it is says in Hebrews 3:13, 'Let us provoke one another daily, while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.' Let us use all means to keep our hearts tender. Oh, it is a blessed state! We are fit to live when our hearts are tender, fit to die, fit to receive anything from God, fit for duties of honesty to men, and fit for any service to God.
But when we have lost sense and feeling, it must be the almighty power of God that must recover us again. Therefore, labour to preserve and maintain a tender, soft, and melting heart.

Devotional Readings taken from Puritan Richard Sibbes 'Refreshment for the Soul.'
Josiah's Reformation, pp. 22-24 [17-18]
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