ens the poor creature at the heart; Isaiah xxxiii. 24, "And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick; the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity." This guilt is their burden, a burden on their backs, on their heads, on their spirits, which makes them to cry out, as in Hosea xiv. 2, "Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously." They find the load, and their spirits are broken under it, as a burden which they are not able to bear. There is,

2. The domineering power of sin, or its tyranny, by which they are led captives to it. This is breaking to them that lusts are so strong, and they so weak, that they cannot get the mastery over them as they would; Rom. vii. 23, 24, "But I see another law in my members, warring agaiast the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death ?" For some time the yoke of sin sat soft on their necks, they walked willingly after its commandments; but now they are weary of its dominion, averse to submit to its rule, and their hearts are broken under the weight of those iron fetters from which they would now fain be delivered. There is,

3. The contrariety which is in sin to the holy nature and law of God. The commandment is come into the heart, which it is inclined to obey, and so that contrariety is breaking; Rom. vii. 13, "Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me, by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful." The love of God has so touched the heart, as to produce in him a considering sin to be bitter as death. The soul is wounded and cast down to think of its grieving the Spirit, trampling on the holy law, sinning against mercies, against checks and reproofs; and accounts itself very miserable in thus requiting the Lord. There is,

4. The indwelling of sin, and its cleaving so close to a person that he cannot shake it off; Rom. vii. 24, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" He sees sin to be in his heart and life, and not only so, but that it is interwoven into his very nature, and not to be totally extirpated till death. He has now a sincere love to holiness, an ardent desire of perfection, Phil. iii. 13, 14; an hearty hatred against sin, and an irreconcileable enmity to it; so that it cannot but be breaking to him, while he sees the unwelcome guest still within his babitation. There is,

5. Sin's mixing itself with all he does, even with his best duties: Rom. vii. 21, "I find then a law, that when I would do good, evil is

present with me." In the fairest line which he writes, sin leaves a blot; and on the purest and most sacred of God's holy things to which he puts hand, sin drops its defilement. This is breaking to a holy heart. When he reviews his duties, and sees what deadness, what want of faith and love is in his prayers, hearing, communicating, and the like, what unwatchfulness, untenderness, and ungodliness, in his daily walk, he is loathsome in his own eyes, and sick, heart-sick of his sinful self.

6. Frequent backslidings into sin are very breaking in this case. The Lord complains of breaking by these; Ezek. vi. 9, "I am broken," says he, "with their whorish heart, which hath departed from me, and with their eyes which go a-whoring after their idols." And, on the other hand, they are most breaking to the sensible sinner himself; Jer. xxxi. 18, "I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus; Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke; turn thou me, and I shall be turned, for thou art the Lord my God." O how heavy is it to a gracious heart, to be so often falling back into evils mourned over and resolved against! How near the heart of a sick man must it go, to be so often relapsing, after he has been in a fair way of cure. Nothing is more powerful to make one say of life, I loathe it. There is,

7. Desertions, hidings of the Lord's face, and interruptions of the soul's communion with God. See how breaking these are, Isa. liv. 6, "For the Lord hath called thee, as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God." Sometimes the soul is brought very low by desertions, and ready to give up all for lost: Lam. iii. 18, “ And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the Lord." This is a bitter root, springing up from sin, and branches forth divers ways, all of them breaking to a sensible soul. There is spiritual deadness, Song v. 2. Influences from heaven are restrained, and so the heart is bound up as with bands of iron and brass. They cannot either believe, love, or mourn acceptably. All that remains is a secret dissatisfaction with their own case, only a sigh or a groan, because they cannot believe, love, or practice, as they know to be required of them, saying, Isa. lxiii. 17, "O Lord, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and harden our hearts from thy fear?" This is breaking. Next there is, prayers shut out, Lam. iii. 8. “Also when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer." While a Christian has access to God by prayer, and can pour his complaints into his bosom, whatsoever be his case, he has not so much to complain of. Thus Hannah, after she had done so, went her way and did eat, and her countenance was no more sad. This also encourages them to wait upon the Lord, VOL. IX.

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Micah vii. 7. But when the door of access seems to be shut, and a thick cloud is drawn about the throne, this is breaking: Lam. iii. 44, "Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our prayers should not pass through." This made Zion say, Isa. xlix. 14, "The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me." And Psalm xx. 2, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring ?"Again, there is wrath apprehended, the terrors of God seizing on the soul. "The arrows of the Almighty," said Job, are within me, the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit, the terrors of God do set themselves against me," chap. vi. 4. This is of all terrors the most terrible, and what heart can remain whole under it? Prov. xviii. 14, "The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmities, but a wounded spirit who can bear?" See how Heman was broken under this. Psalm lxxxviii. 15, "I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up; while I suffer thy terrors, I am distracted." It made Job, a grave solid man, of extraordinary piety, cry out in the congregation, as unable to contain himself, chap. xxx. 29, 30, 31, "I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls; my skin is black upon me, and my bones are burned with heat. My harp also is turned to mourning, and my organ into the voice of them that weep."-Finally, there are temptations dogging the soul, the more vile and horrid these are, the more dreadful. Sometimes the Lord looses Satan's chains, and he is let almost loose on a Christian, 1 Cor. xii. 7. Hence there are fiery darts shot into the heart, extraordinary temptations as to faith or practice, Eph. vi. 16; and these, though repelled, yet coming back as if a siege were laid to the soul, by an army resolved to master the town. And when, withal, one is left often to fall under these, this is most breaking to a gracious soul. There is,

Lastly, To sum up all in a word, a Christian's sinfulness, with the bitter fruits springing from his sin; these are what are breaking to his heart. He is not what God would, nor what he would have himself to be. He is dissatisfied with himself, yet cannot right his case; Rom. vii. 19, "For that which I do, I allow not; for what I would, that I do not; but what I hate, that do I." He brings miseries on himself by his sin, and therefore is sadly broken under the thought of his case. We now proceed,

III. To shew what sort of a heart a broken heart is. As to this we observe,

1. That it is a contrite or bruised heart; Psalm li. 17, "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise." Not only broken in pieces like a rock, but broken to powder, and so fit to receive any impression; so the

word signifies. The heart, though before sometimes like an adamant, which mercies could not melt, nor judgments terrify, is now kindly broken and bruised betwixt the upper and nether mill-stone;-the upper mill-stone of the law, a sense of God's wrath against sin; and -the nether mill-stone of the gospel, of divine love, mercy, and favour, manifested in word and providences. If one going to break a hard stone, would lay it firm upon another hard stone, which will not yield underneath it, then, when you strike, it will either not break at all, or if it do, it will not break in shivers; but either lay it hollow, or on a soft bed, and it will break all in shivers. Thus, lay the hard heart upon the hard law, and strike it with the most dreadful threatenings of hell and damnation, it either will not break at all, or at least it will not break small. But lay the hard heart on the bed of the gospel of mercy and love, and then let the hammer of the law strike, the heart will go asunder. Legal preaching, which casts a veil over gospel-grace, is not the way to make good Christains. Joel lays the hearts of his hearers on mercy, then fetches his stroke with the hammer of the law, and cries, chap. ii. 13, "Rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.” But it is the Spirit of the Lord that carries home the stroke, else it will not do. A broken heart is,

2. A pained heart, an aching heart; Acts ii. 37, "When they heard this, they were pricked to the heart, and said unto Peter and the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?" Bruising or breaking a living member is not without pain. God wounds the guilty conscience, that the sinner may see and find what an evil and bitter thing sin is; Jer. ii. 19, "Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee; know therefore, and see, that it is an evil thing and a bitter, that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God, and my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord God of hosts." The deeper that the wound is, the sorer the heart is broken. It is pained with sorrow; Prov. xv. 13, "By sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken." A broken heart is a sorrowful heart for sin, for the offence given to God, the dishonour put on him by it, and the evil brought on one's self. Thus the broken-hearted The spirit of heaviness

sinner is a mourning sinner, Zech. xii. 10. sits down on the man, till Christ bind up his wound; his joy is turned into lamentation. The heart is pained also with remorse for sin, Acts ii. 37. Every remembrance of his folly gives him a twitch by the scourge of conscience. He calls himself fool and beast for so requiting the Lord. He is heartily displeased with himself on that

account; Job xlii. 6, "Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." He smites on his breast, as worthy to be pierced, Luke xviii. 13; and smites on his thigh, as worthy to be broken for what he has done. Again, it is pained with anxiety and care how to be saved from sin; Acts xvi. 30, "What shall I do to be saved?" It brings a burden of care upon his head, how to get the guilt removed, the power of it broken, and to get it expelled at length. Never was a man more anxious about the curc of a broken leg or arm, than the broken-hearted sinner is to get his soul-wounds healed, and to be free of sin, which is his greatest cross. The heart is pained with longing desires after grace; Psalm cxix. 20, "My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thy judgments at all times." The broken-hearted sinner, sensible of his spiritual wants, longs for the supply of them, pants for it as a thirsty man for water; and the delay of answering these desires makes a sick heart; Prov xiii. 12, "Hope deferred maketh the heart sick." A broken heart is,

3. A shameful heart. The whole heart in sin is impudent; but the broken heart is filled with shame. Ezra said, chap. ix. 6, “O my God, I am ashamed, and blush,to lift up my face to thee, my God; for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens." The man hangs down his head before the Lord, as not able to look up, Psalm xl. 12. He sees himself stripped of his beautiful garments, and is ashamed of his spiritual nakedness, and, with the publican, he cannot lift up his eyes. He is fallen into the mire, and is ashamed to come before God in his defilement, Isa. lxiv. 6. His vain expectations from the way of sin are baulked, and so he turns back ashamed. His reproach is discovered, he is convicted of the basest ingratitude, and so is filled with shame. As the thief is ashamed when he is found, so is the house of Israel ashamed, Jer. ii. 26.—A broken heart is,

4. A soft and tender heart, for a broken and a hard heart are opposed to each other; Exek. xxxvi. 26, “I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh." When the spirit of the Lord breaks the heart with gospel-grace, he melts it down, and softens it, takes away that stonyness, stiffness, hardness, that cleaves to the heart in its natural state. The brokenhearted sinner, however, will very probably say, Alas! I find my heart a hard heart. To this I answer, to find the hardness of heart, and to be weighted and grieved with it, is a sign of tenderness, even as groaning is a sign of life: 2 Cor. viii. 12, ". For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to what a man hath, and not according to what he hath not." world but there is some hardness in it.

There is no heart in this There may be tears where