One mark of the spirit which is not of God, is a spirit of hardness. I use the word “spirit,” because the Scriptures speak in the same way of “the spirit of error,” (1 John iv. 6), “of antichrist,” (1 John iv. 3), “of whoredoms,” (Hos. iv. 12), and so on. We read that “the Lord hardened Pharoah’s heart, so that he would not let the children of Israel go.” (Ex. x. 20.) And we read, “God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear.” (Rom. xi. 8.) A spirit of hardness, then, is an infallible mark of the spirit not being of God. By hardness, I mean the opposite of tenderness. Opposition to God’s truth, an unwillingness, an inability to fall under the power of it; setting up our prejudice, our pride, our preconceived opinions against the solemn authority of God, and maintaining a rugged, unbending, unyielding temper.
Now this is a very different thing from firmness. Gospel firmness and judicial hardness are two very different things. A man cannot be too firm when God the Spirit has meekened his heart, and made the truth precious to him; but he will not have hardness of spirit; he will fall in a moment before truth. Let God only bring one of His people upon His heart; let Him only touch his conscience with His finger, and he is broken to pieces. But it is not so with the heart that is hard; neither law nor gospel has an effect there, but even a profession of religion is carried out in an unyielding spirit, a hard, self-opinionated perverseness.

J. C. Philpot

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