is to be the end that God has designed them to, and that he intended to
make with them in the day in which he began to break their hearts? No,
no; they, alas! think quite the contrary. They are afraid that this is
but the beginning of death, and a token that they shall never see the
face of God with comfort, either in this world or that which is to
come. Hence they cry, ‘Cast me not away from thy presence’; or, Now I
am ‘free among the dead whom God remembers no more’ (Psa 51:11,
88:4,5). For indeed there goes to the breaking of the heart a visible
appearance of the wrath of God, and a home charge from heaven of the
guilt of sin to the conscience. This to reason is very dreadful; for it
cuts the soul down to the ground; ‘for a wounded spirit who [none] can
bear?’ (Prov 18:14).
It seems also now to this man, that this is but the beginning of hell;
but as it were the first step down to the pit; when, indeed, all these
are but the beginnings of love, and but that which makes way for life.
The Lord kills before he makes alive; he wounds before his hands make
whole. Yea, he does the one in order to, or because he would do the
other; he wounds, because his purpose is to heal; ‘he maketh sore, and
bindeth up; he woundeth, and his hands make whole’ (Deut 32:39; 1 Sam
2:6; Job 5:18). His design, I say, is the salvation of the soul. He
scourgeth, he breaketh the heart of every son whom he receiveth, and
woe be to him whose heart God breaketh not.
And thus have I proved what at first I asserted, namely, that a spirit
rightly broken, an heart truly contrite, is to God an excellent thing.
‘A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.’ For this
say I, First. This is evident; for that it is better than sacrifices,
than all sacrifice. Second. The man that has it is of more esteem with
God than heaven or earth. Third. God coveteth such a man for his
intimate and house companion. Fourth. He reserveth for them his
cordials and spiritual comforts. Fifth. He has given his Son a Charge,
a commandment to take care that the broken-hearted be healed; and he is
resolved to heal them. Sixth. And concluded, that the broken-hearted,
and they that are of a contrite spirit, shall be saved, that is,
possessed of the heavens.
[III. WHAT A BROKEN HEART, AND WHAT A CONTRITE SPIRIT IS.]
I come now in order to show you what a broken heart and what a contrite
spirit is. This must be done, because in the discovery of this lies
both the comfort of them that have it, and the conviction of them that
have it not. Now, that I may do this the better, I must propound and
speak to these four things. FIRST. I must show you what an one that
heart is that is not broken, that is not contrite. SECOND. I must show
you how, or with what the heart is broken and made contrite. THIRD.
Show you how, and what it is, when broken and made contrite. And,
FOURTH. I shall, last of all, give you some signs of a broken and
contrite heart.
FIRST. For the first of these, to wit, What an one that heart is, that
is not a broken, that is not a contrite heart.
First. The heart, before it is broken, is hard and stubborn, and
obstinate against God, and the salvation of the soul (Zech 7:12; Deut
2:30, 9:27).
Second. It is a heart full of evil imaginations and darkness (Gen
18:12; Rom 1:21).
Third. It is a heart deceitful and subject to be deceived, especially
about the things of an eternal concernment (Isa 44:20; Deut 11:16).
Fourth. It is a heart that rather gathereth iniquity and vanity to
itself than anything that is good for the soul (Psa 41:6, 94:11).
Fifth. It is an unbelieving heart, and one that will turn away from God
to sin (Heb 3:12; Deut 17:17).
Sixth. It is a heart not prepared for God, being uncircumcised, nor for
the reception of his holy word (2 Chron 12:14; Psa 78:8; Acts 7:51).
Seventh. It is a heart not single, but double; it will pretend to serve
God, but will withal lean to the devil and sin (Psa 12:2; Eze 33:31).
Eighth. It is a heart proud and stout: it loves not to be controlled,
though the controller be God himself (Psa 101:5; Prov 16:5; Mal 3:13).
Ninth. It is a heart that will give place to Satan, but will resist the
Holy Ghost (Acts 5:3, 7:51).
Tenth. In a word, ‘It is deceitful above all things, and desperately
wicked’; so wicked that none can know it (Jer 17:9).
That the heart before it is broken is such, and worse than I have
described it to be, is sufficiently seen by the whole course of the
world. Where is the man whose heart has not been broken, and whose
spirit is not contrite, that according to the Word of God deals
honestly with his own soul? It is one character of a right heart, that
it is sound in God’s statutes, and honest (Psa 119:18; Luke 8:15). Now,
an honest heart will not put off itself, nor be put off with that which
will not go for current money with the merchant; I mean, with that
which will not go for saving grace at the day of judgment. But alas!
alas! but few men, how honest soever they are to others, have honesty
towards themselves; though he is the worst of deceivers who deceiveth
his own soul, as James has it, about the things of his own soul
(1:22,26). But,
SECOND. I now come to show you with what and how the heart is broken,
and the spirit made contrite.
[First. With what the heart is broken, and the spirit made contrite.]
The instrument with which the heart is broken, and with which the
spirit is made contrite, is the Word. ‘Is not my word like as a fire,
saith the Lord; and like a hammer, that breaketh the rock in pieces?’
(Jer 23:29). The rock, in this text, is the heart, which in another
place is compared to an adamant, which adamant is harder than flint
(Zech 7:11,12; Eze 3:9). This rock, this adamant, this stony heart, is
broken and made contrite by the Word. But it only is so, when the Word
is as a fire, and as a hammer to break and melt it. And then, and then
only, it is as a fire, and a hammer to the heart to break it, when it
is managed by the arm of God. No man can break the heart with the Word;
no angel can break the heart with the Word; that is, if God forbears to
second it by mighty power from heaven. This made Balaam go without a
heart rightly broken, and truly contrite, though he was rebuked by an
angel; and the Pharisees die in their sins, though rebuked for them,
and admonished to turn from them, by the Saviour of the world.
Wherefore, though the Word is the instrument with which the heart is
broken, yet it is not broken with the Word, till that Word is managed
by the might and power of God.
This made the prophet Isaiah, after long preaching, cry out, that he
had laboured for nought, and in vain; and this made him cry to God, ‘to
rend the heavens and come down,’ that the mountains, or rocky hills, or
hearts, might be broken, and melt at his presence (Isa 44:4, 64:1,2).
For he found by experience, that as to this no effectual work could be
done, unless the Lord put to his hand. This also is often intimated in
the Scriptures, where it saith, when the preachers preached effectually
to the breaking of men’s hearts, ‘the Lord wrought with them;[2] the
hand of the Lord was with them,’ and the like (Mark 16:20; Acts 11:21).
Now when the hand of the Lord is with the Word, then it is mighty: it
is ‘mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds’ (2 Cor
10:4). It is sharp, then, as a sword in the soul and spirit; it sticks
like an arrow in the hearts of sinners, to the causing of the people to
fall at his foot for mercy (Heb 4:12). Then it is, as was said afore,
as a fire and as a hammer to break this rock in pieces (Psa 110:3). And
hence the Word is made mention of under a double consideration. 1. As
it stands by itself. 2. As attended with power from heaven.
1. As it stands by itself, and is not seconded with saving operation
from heaven, it is called the Word only, the Word barely, or as if it
was only the word of men (1 Thess 1:5-7; 1 Cor 4:19,20; 1 Thess 2:13).
Because, then, it is only as managed by men, who are not able to make
it accomplish that work. The Word of God, when in a man’s hand only, is
like the father’s sword in the hand of the sucking child; which sword,
though never so well pointed, and though never so sharp on the edges,
is not now able to conquer a foe, and to make an enemy fall and cry out
for mercy, because it is but in the hand of the child. But now, let the
same sword be put into the hand of a skilful father—and God is both
skilful and able to manage his Word—and then the sinner, and then the
proud helpers too, are both made to stoop, and submit themselves;
wherefore, I say, though the Word be the instrument, yet of itself doth
do no saving good to the soul; the heart is not broken, nor the spirit
made contrite thereby; it only worketh death, and leaveth men in the
chains of their sins, still faster bound over to eternal condemnation
(2 Cor 2:15,16).
2. But when seconded by mighty power, then the same Word is as the
roaring of a lion, as the piercing of a sword, as a burning fire in the
bones, as thunder and as a hammer that dashes all to pieces (Jer 25:30;
Amos 1:2, 3:8; Acts 2:37; Jer 20:9; Psa 29:3-9). Wherefore, from hence
it is to be concluded, that whoever has heard the Word preached, and
has not heard the voice of the living God therein, has not as yet had
their hearts broken, nor their spirits made contrite for their sins.
[Second. How the heart is broken, and the spirit made contrite.]
And this leads me to the second thing, to wit, To show how the heart is
broken and the spirit made contrite by the Word, and verily it is when
the Word comes home with power. But yet this is but general; wherefore,
more particularly,
1. Then the Word works effectually to this purpose, when it findeth out
the sinner and his sin, and shall convince him that it has found him
out. Thus it was with our first father; when he had sinned, he sought
to hide himself from God; he gets among the trees of the garden, and
there he shrouds himself; but yet, not thinking himself secure, he
covers himself with fig-leaves; and now he lieth quiet. Now God shall
not find me, thinks he, nor know what I have done. But lo! by and by,
he ‘hears the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden.’ And now,
Adam, what do you mean to do? Why, as yet, he skulketh, and hides his
head, and seeks yet to lie undiscovered; but behold, the voice cries
out, ADAM! and now he begins to tremble. ‘Adam, where art thou?’ says
God; and now Adam is made to answer (Gen 3:7-11). But the voice of the
Lord God doth not leave him here: no, it now begins to search, and to
inquire after his doings, and to unravel what he had wrapt together and
covered, until it made him bare and naked in his own sight before the
face of God. Thus, therefore, doth the Word, when managed by the arm of
God. It findeth out, it singleth out the sinner; the sinner finds it
so; it finds out the sins of the sinner; it unravels his whole life, it
strips him and lays him naked in his own sight before the face of God;
neither can the sinner nor his wickedness be longer hid and covered;
and now begins the sinner to see what he never saw before.
2. Another instance for this is David, the man of our text. He sins, he
sins grossly, he sins and hides it; yea, and seeks to hide it from the
face of God and man. Well, Nathan is sent to preach a preaching to him,
and that in common, and that in special: in common, by a parable; in
special, by a particular application of it to him. While Nathan only
preached in common, or in general, David was fish-whole,[3] and stood
as right in his own eyes as if he had been as innocent and as harmless
as any man alive. But God had a love for David; and therefore commands
his servant Nathan to go home, not only to David’s ears, but to David’s
conscience. Well, David now must fall. Says Nathan, ‘Thou art the man’;
says David, ‘I have sinned,’ and then his heart was broken, and his
spirit made contrite; as this psalm and our text doth show (2 Sam
12:1-13).
3. A third instance is that of Saul; he had heard many a sermon, and
was become a great professor, yea, he was more zealous than were many
of his equals; but his heart was never broken, nor his spirit ever made
contrite, till he heard one preach from heaven, till he heard God, in
the Word of God, making inquiry after his sins: ‘Saul, Saul, why
persecutest thou me?’ says Jesus; and then he can stand no longer: for
then his heart brake, then he falls to the ground, then he trembles,
then he cries out, ‘Who art thou, Lord?’ and, ‘Lord, what wilt thou
have me to do?’ (Acts 9). Wherefore, as I said, Then the word works
effectually to this purpose, when it findeth out the sinner and his
sin, and also when it shall convince him that it has found him out.
Only I must join here a caution, for every operation of the Word upon
the conscience is not saving; nor doth all conviction end in the saving
conversion of the sinner. It is then only such an operation of the Word
that is intended, namely, that shows the sinner not only the evil of
his ways, but brings the heart unfeignedly over to God by Christ. And
this brings me to the third thing.
THIRD. I am therefore come to show you how and what the heart is when
broken and made contrite. And this I must do, by opening unto you the
two chief expressions in the text. First. What is meant by this word
broken. Second. What is meant by this word contrite.
First. For this word broken, Tindal renders it a troubled heart;[4] but
I think there is more in it. I take it, therefore, to be a heart
disabled, as to former actions, even as a man whose bones are broken is
disabled, as to his way of running, leaping, wrestling, or ought else,
which vainly he was wont to do; wherefore, that which was called a
broken heart in the text, he calls his broken bones, in verse the
eighth: ‘Cause me,’ saith he, ‘to hear joy and gladness, that the bones
which thou hast broken may rejoice’ (Psa 51:8). And why is the breaking
of the heart compared to the breaking of the bones? but because as when
the bones are broken, the outward man is disabled as to what it was
wont to do; so when the spirit is broken, the inward man is disabled as
to what vanity and folly it before delighted in; hence, feebleness is
joined with this brokenness of heart. ‘I am feeble,’ saith he, ‘and
sore broken’ (Psa 38:8). I have lost my strength and former vigour, as
to vain and sinful courses.
This, then, it is to have the heart broken; namely, to have it lamed,
disabled, and taken off by sense of God’s wrath due to sin, from that
course of life it formerly was conversant in; and to show that this
work is no fancy, nor done but with great trouble to the soul, it is
compared to the putting the bones out of joint, the breaking of the
bones, the burning of the bones with fire, or as the taking the natural
moisture from the bones, the vexing of the bones, &c. (Psa 23:14; Jer
20:9; Lam 1:13; Psa 6:2; Prov 17:22). All which are expressions adorned
with such similitudes, as do undeniably declare that to sense and
feeling a broken heart is a grievous thing.
Second. What is meant by the word contrite. A contrite spirit is a
penitent one; one sorely grieved, and deeply sorrowful, for the sins it
has committed against God, and to the damage of the soul; and so it is
to be taken in all those places where a contrite spirit is made mention
of; as in Psalm 34:18; Isaiah 57:15, 66:2.
As a man that has by his folly procured a broken leg or arm, is
heartily sorry that ever he was so foolish as to be engaged in such
foolish ways of idleness and vanity; so he whose heart is broken with a
sense of God’s wrath due to his sin, hath deep sorrow in his soul, and
is greatly repentant that ever he should be such a fool, as by
rebellious doings to bring himself and his soul to so much sharp
affliction. Hence, while others are sporting themselves in vanity, such
a one doth call his sin his greatest folly. ‘My wounds stink, and are
corrupt,’ saith David, ‘because of my foolishness.’ And again, ‘O God,
thou knowest my foolishness, and my sins are not hid from thee’ (Psa
38:5, 69:5).
Men, whatever they say with their lips, cannot conclude, if yet their
hearts want breaking, that sin is a foolish thing. Hence it says, ‘The
foolishness of fools is folly’ (Prov 14:24). That is, the foolishness
of some men, is that they take pleasure in their sins; for their sins
are their foolishness, and the folly of their soul lies in their
countenancing of this foolishness. But the man whose heart is broken,
he is none of these, he cannot be one of these, no more than he that
has his bones broken can rejoice that he is desired to play a match at
football. Hence, to hear others talk foolishly, is to the grief of
those whom God has wounded: or, as it is in another place, their words
are ‘like the piercings of a sword’ (Psa 69:26; Prov 12:18). This,
therefore, I take to be the meaning of these two words, a broken and a
contrite spirit.
FOURTH. Lastly, As to this, I now come more particularly to give you
some signs of a broken heart, of a broken and a contrite spirit.
First. A broken-hearted man, such as is intended in the text, is a
sensible man; he is brought to the exercise of all the senses of his
soul. All others are dead, senseless, and without true feeling of what
the broken-hearted man is sensible of.
1. He sees himself to be what others are ignorant of; that is, he sees
himself to be not only a sinful man, but a man by nature in the gall
and bond of sin. In the gall of sin: it is Peter’s expression to Simon,
and it is a saying common to all men: for every man in a state of
nature is in the gall of sin; he was shapen in it, conceived in it; it
has also possession of, and by that possession infected the whole of
his soul and body (Psa 51:5; Acts 8:23). This he sees, this he
understands; every professor sees not this, because the blessing of a
broken heart is not bestowed on every one. David says, ‘There is no
soundness in my flesh’; and Solomon suggests that a plague or running
sore is in the very heart. But every one perceives not this (Psa 38:3;
1 Kings 8:38). He saith again, that his ‘wounds stank, and were
corrupted’: that his ‘sore ran, and ceased not’ (Psa 38:5, 77:2). But
these things the brutish man, the man whose heart was never broken, has
no understanding of. But the broken-hearted, the man that has a broken
spirit, he sees, as the prophet has it, he sees his sickness, he sees
his wound: ‘When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his wound’; he
sees it to his grief, he sees it to his sorrow (Hosea 5:13).
2. He feels what others have no sense of; he feels the arrows of the
Almighty, and that they stick fast in him (Psa 38:2). He feels how sore
and sick, by the smiting of God’s hammer upon his heart to break it,
his poor soul is made. He feels a burden intolerably lying upon his
spirit (Hosea 5:13). ‘Mine iniquities,’ saith he, ‘are gone over mine
head; as a heavy burden they are too heavy for me’ (Psa 38:4). He feels
also the heavy hand of God upon his soul, a thing unknown to carnal
men. He feels pain, being wounded, even such pain as others cannot
understand, because they are not broken. ‘My heart,’ saith David, ‘is
sore pained within me.’ Why so? Why! ‘The terrors of death are fallen
upon me’ (Psa 55:4). The terrors of death cause pain, yea, pain of the
highest nature; hence that which is here called pains, is in another
place called pangs (Isa 21:3).
You know broken bones occasion pain, strong pain, yea, pain that will
make a man or woman groan ‘with the groanings of a deadly wounded man’
(Eze 30:24). Soul pain is the sorest pain, in comparison to which the
pain of the body is a very tolerable thing (Prov 18:14). Now here is
soul pain, here is heart pain; here we are discoursing of a wounded, of
a broken spirit; wherefore this is pain to be felt to the sinking of
the whole man, neither can any support this but God. Here is death in
this pain, death for ever, without God’s special mercy. This pain will
bring the soul to, and this the broken-hearted man doth feel. ‘The
sorrows of death,’ saith David, ‘compassed me, and the pains of hell
gat hold upon me, I found trouble and sorrow’ (Psa 116:3). Ay, I’ll
warrant thee, poor man, thou foundest trouble and sorrow indeed; for
the pains of hell and sorrows of death are pains and sorrow the most
intolerable. But this the man is acquainted with that has his heart
broken.[5]
3. As he sees and feels, so he hears that which augments his woe and
sorrow. You know, if a man has his bones broken, he does not only see
and feel, but oft-times also hears what increases his grief; as, that
his wounds are incurable; that his bone is not rightly set; that there
is danger of a gangrene; that he may be lost for want of looking to.
These are the voices, the sayings, that haunt the house of one that has
his bones broken. And a broken-hearted man knows what I mean by this;
he hears that which makes his lips quiver, and at the noise of which he
seems to feel rottenness enter into his bones; he trembleth in himself,
and wishes that he may hear joy and gladness, that the bones, the
heart, and spirit, which God has broken, may rejoice (Habb 3:16; Psa
51:8). He thinks he hears God say, the devil say, his conscience say,
and all good men to whisper among themselves, saying, there is no help
for him from God. Job heard this, David heard this, Heman heard this;
and this is the common sound in the ears of the broken-hearted.
4. The broken-hearted smell what others cannot scent. Alas! sin never
smelled so to any man alive as it smells to the broken-hearted. You
know wounds will stink: but [there is] no stink like that of sin to the
broken-hearted man. His own sins stink, and so doth the sins of all the
world to him. Sin is like carrion; it is of a stinking nature; yea, it
has the worst of smells; however, some men like it (Psa 38:5). But none
are offended with the scent thereof but God and the broken-hearted
sinner. ‘My wounds stink, and are corrupt,’ saith he, both in God’s
nostrils and mine own. But, alas! who smells the stink of sin? None of
the carnal world; they, like carrion-crows, seek it, love it, and eat
it as the child eats bread. ‘They eat up the sin of my people,’ saith
God, ‘and they set their heart on their iniquity’ (Hosea 4:8). This, I
say, they do, because they do not smell the nauseous scent of sin. You
know, that what is nauseous to the smell cannot be palatable to the
taste. The broken-hearted man doth find that sin is nauseous, and
therefore cries out it stinketh. They also think at times the smell of
fire, of fire and brimstone, is upon them, they are so sensible of the
wages due to sin.
5. The broken-hearted is also a tasting man. Wounds, if sore, and full
of pains, of great pains, do sometimes alter the taste of a man; they
make him think his meat, his drink, yea, that cordials have a bitter
taste in them. How many times doth the poor people of God, that are the
only men that know what a broken-heart doth mean, cry out that gravel,
wormwood, gall, and vinegar, was made their meat (Lam 3:15,16,19). This
gravel, gall, and wormwood, is the true temporal taste of sin; and God,
to make them loathe it for ever, doth feed them with it till their
hearts both ache and break therewith. Wickedness is pleasant of taste
to the world; hence it is said they feed on ashes, they feed on the
wind (Isa 44:20; Hosea 12:1). Lusts, or any thing that is vile and
refuse, the carnal world think relishes well; as is set out most
notably in the parable of the prodigal son. ‘He would fain have filled
his belly,’ saith our Lord, ‘with the husks that the swine did eat’
(Luke 15:16). But the broken-hearted man has a relish that is true as
to these things, though, by reason of the anguish of his soul, it
abhors all manner of dainty meat (Job 33:19,20; Psa 107:17-19). Thus I
have showed you one sign of a broken-hearted man; he is a sensible man,
he has all the senses of his soul awakened, he can see, hear, feel,
taste, smell, and that as none but himself can do. I come now to
another sign of a broken and contrite man.
Second. And that is, he is a very sorrowful man. This, as the other, is
natural; it is natural to one that is in pain, and that has his bones
broken, to be a grieved and sorrowful man. He is none of the jolly ones
of the times; nor can he, for his bones, his heart, his heart is
broken.
1. He is sorry for that he feels and finds in himself a pravity of
nature; I told you before he is sensible of it, he sees it, he feels
it; and here I say he is sorry for it. It is this that makes him call
himself a wretched man; it is this that makes him loathe and abhor
himself; it is this that makes him blush, blush before God and be
ashamed (Rom 7:24; Job 42:5,6; Eze 36:31). He finds by nature no form
nor comeliness in himself, but the more he looks in the glass of the
Word, the more unhandsome, the more deformed he perceiveth sin has made
him. Every body sees not this, therefore every body is not sorry for
it; but the broken in heart sees that he is by sin corrupted, marred,
full of lewdness and naughtiness; he sees that in him, that is, in his
flesh, dwells no good thing; and this makes him sorry, yea, it makes
him sorry at heart. A man that has his bones broken finds he is
spoiled, marred, disabled from doing as he would and should, at which
he is grieved and made sorry.