Lathrop, Joseph, 1731-1820. Sermons, 1758-1810. Sermon, November 10, 1776. bMS 383/1 (19), Andover-Harvard Theological Library, Harvard Divinity School.

& make sweet melody. {Zechariah} 1.3.7. Awake o Sword agt my shepherd - smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered - God says to Hosea, {Chapter} 1. Go, take thee a wife of Whoredom - This is not a command, that ye prophet should take a lewd woman for his companion; but a prediction, yt the wife whom he should illegible take, would prove false to ye marriage covenant, as ye nation of Israel had been unfaithful to yr covenant with God.

//-Gods {Judgements} are often fortold in a way of imprecation - Peter says to the illegible Sorcerer, Thy money perish with thee; i.e - it will perish with thee, - Paul says concerning Alexander who withstood his words: The Land reward him, i.e. The Land will reward him, according to his works - In this sense we are to understand these many imprecatory passages in the Psalms, not as expressing the pious Psalmists' desire, yt such evils should, but his persuasion yt they would, befall his enemies.

//When we hear David saying concerning his enemy in ye 109 Psalm. Set thou a wicked man over him, & let Satan stand at his right hand -- let him be condemned -- let his prayer become sin -- let his children be fatherless & his wife a widow -- and

let you be vagabonds & beg, & let there be none to shew mercy to ym; we are ready to ask. How could such imprecations proceed from the mouth of so pious a man as David? Are they consistent with yt benevolence & forgiveness, which are essential to a holy temper? But if we understand these only as ex pressions predictions of those calamities, which by a Spirit of prophesy, he foresaw would befall his enemies, the difficulty is at once removed. So Peter understood. These {things} spake ye {Holy Ghost} by David concerning Judas. The manner of expression is ye same with that used in our Text - Hear ye, indeed, but understand not. The meaning of which according to St Pauls interpretation is this. Hearing, ye will hear, but will not understand. See {Ezekiel} 3. &c

//It is added, Make ye heart of this people fat, make yr eyes heavy & shut yr eyes, - lest they sh- be converted. &c - But was the Prophet to harden & blind you; & thus to prevent yr conversion? No. But the Prophets are often said to do those {things} which they declare that such as will be done. {Jeremiah} 1.9 The Lord said unto me, I have put my word in thy mouth; see, I have set thee this day over ye nations & over ye {Kingdoms}, to root out, & pull down, & to destroy, & to throw down, & to build & to plant. i.e. I have appointed thee to foretell such events concerning ye nations. {Ezekiel} 32.18 Son of man, Wail for

ye multitude of Egypt & cast you down to ye nether parts of ye earth - i.e - declare yr total overthrow - {Chapter} 43.3 According to ye vision, {which} I saw, when I came to destroy ye city, i.e. to denounce destruction agt it - & {Genesis} 41.13. The chief Butler giving Pharaoh an account of Joseph's interpreting his dream, & yt of ye chief Baker, says - Me he restored to mine office & him he //changed. So the Prophet here is said to make ye hearts of ye people fat, & yr ears heavy, because he foretold that they would harden yr hearts & stop yr ears to yr own destruction.

//The several phrases here used express ye greatest degree of stupidity -

The fatness of ye heart is opposed to the love of God's word. {Psalms} 119.70. Their heart is as fat as grease, but I delight in Thy law. The same {thing} is expressed by ye phrase of ye hearts being uncircumsized - Stephen says .7. Acts - Ye stiff necked & uncircumcised in heart, ye do alway resist ye {Holy Ghost}. John quoting this prophesy, explains it to signify ye hardness of ye heart.

//The instructions to ye prophet: thus proceed - Make their ears heavy, or dull of hearing. illegible This Deafness

is thus described by Jeremiah. 'To whom shall I speak & give warning yt they may hear? Behold yr ear is uncircumcised, yt they cannot hear - ken - behold ye word of ye Lord is unto you a reproach, & they have no delight in it.'

The Shutting ye Eyes is a phrase which denotes ye same {thing}. It is moral blindness - insensibility of danger - inattention to ye most important concerns.

//These several phrases are used to express yr {great} corruption & {wickedness} & to signify yt Every avenue, was closed up by {which} the influence of divine truth could enter to move & awaken you, was close up.

It is proper to take notice Farther - That (tho) the prophet is said To shut their eyes, yet elsewhere they are said to make yr own heart fat - to have closed yr own eyes - {Matthew} 13.15. In them is fulfilled ye prophesy of Esaias for this peoples' heart is waxed gross, & yr ears are dull of hearing, & yr eyes //have they closed - And again, in another place, this effect is ascribed to God - John 12.40. Esaias said- ye hath blinded yr eyes & hardened yr heart.

// Now God is often hard God hardens no man by a positive influence - [In this sense. Let no man say, when he is tempted, I am tempted of God. But God is often said to do yt, {which} he permits to be done. He took away Jobs substance by permitting Satan

to instigate Jobs Enemies to destroy it - He is sometimes said to harden men, when he uses such means wt ym as eventually do harden (them), tho the means themselves have quite a contrary tendency - He hardened Pharoahs heart by a series of {Judgements}, {which} if they had by yr proper influence would have softened it & often did soften it for a short time - but the proud tyrant prevented ym finally to an (opposite &) unnatural effect - and thus he is said to have hardened his own heart. -

God sent his prophets to warn his {people} of yr sin & danger - They abused these warnings & thus hardened {themselves} still more in sin - but as yr increasing stupidity was the effect of warnings {which} came from God, thus God is said to have hardened ym - Those means of grace, {which} sh- have been a Savoir of life were a favour of death to them, because yr tempers were perverse & refractory - - You will observe -

//5This awful {Judgement} is denounced agt them for yr contempt of God's. former messages -

//illegible God affords to sinners, together with external means, some internal influences of his Spirit. Thus his spirit is said to strive with them (- and they are warned not to grieve and) illegible resist his spirit - But they may so far abuse God's grace, yt he