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, and by that possession has infected the whole of his soul and body. Psalm 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. Psalm 38:3; 1 Kings 8:38. But every one perceives not this.

David saith again, that his wounds stank and were corrupted: that his sore ran, and ceased not.

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. 2. He feels what others have no sense of. He feels the arrows of the Almighty, and that they stick fast in him. 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 intolerable lying upon his spirit. “Mine iniquities,” saith he, “are gone over my head; as a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me.”

He feels also the heavy hand of God upon his soul, a thing unknown to carnal men. Psalm 38:2,4; Hosea 5:13.

He feels pain, being wounded, even such pain as others cannot understand, because they are not broken. “My heart,” says David, “is sore pained within me.” Why so? Why! “The terrors of death are fallen upon me.” 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.” Psalm 55:4; Isaiah 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.” Ezekiel 30:24. But soul pain is the sorest pain, in comparison to which the pain of the body is a very tolerable thing. Proverbs 18:14.

Now, here is soul pain; here is heart pain; here we are discoursing of a wounded, of a broken spirit; wherefore this pain is to be felt, to the sinking of the whole man; neither can any support under this but God. Here is death in this pain, death for ever, without God’s special mercy; and this the broken-hearted man doth feel. “The sorrows of death,” said David, “compassed me, and the pains of hell got hold upon me; I found trouble and sorrow.” Aye, I’ll warrant thee, poor man, thou foundest trouble and sorrow indeed! for the pains of hell, and sorrows of death, are pains and sorrows the most intolerable. But this the man is acquainted with, that has his heart broken. 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 ofttimes also hear 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. Habakkuk 3:16; Psalm 51:8.

He thinks he hears God say, the devil say, his conscience say, and all good men 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 no stench is like that of sin to the broken-hearted man. His own sins stink, and so do the sins of all the world to him. Sin, like carrion, is of a stinking nature; yea, it has the worst of smells; however some men like it. Psalm 38:5. 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 stench 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 sins of my people,” saith God, “and set their heart on their iniquities.” This 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 do find, that sin is nauseous, and therefore cry out against it. 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 do the poor people of God, that are the only men that know what a broken heart doth mean, cry out, that grave, wormwood, gall, and vinegar, are made their meat! Lamentations 3:15,16,19.

This gravel, this 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 do 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.” Isaiah 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.” 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 also abhors all manner of dainty meats. Job 33:19,20; Psalm 57:17,18,19.

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, fee, taste, smell, and that as none but himself can do. I come now to another sign of a broken and contrite man. Secondly , And that is, He is a very sorrowful man. This, as the other, 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 be; for his bones, his heart is broken. 1. He is sorry that he feels and finds in himself depravity 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. Romans 7:24; Job 42:5,6; Ezekiel 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.

Many are sorry for actual transgressions, because they do oft bring them to shame before men; but few are sorry for the defects that sin has made in nature, because they see not those defects themselves. A man cannot be sorry for the sinful defects of nature, till he sees they have rendered him contemptible to God; nor is it any thing but a sight of God that can make him truly see what he is, and so be heartily sorry for being so. “Now mine eyes see thee,” saith Job, now “I abhor myself.” “Woe is me, for I am undone,” saith the prophet, “for mine eyes have seen the King. the Lord of hosts.” And it was this that made Daniel say, his “comeliness in him was turned to corruption:” for he had now the vision of the Holy One. Job 42:5,6; Isaiah 6:1-5; Daniel 10:8.

Visions of God break the heart, because by the sight the soul then has of his perfections, it sees its own infinite and unspeakable disproportion, because of the vileness of its nature.

Suppose a company of ugly, uncomely, deformed persons, dwelt together in one house; and suppose that they never yet saw any man or woman more than themselves, that were arrayed with the splendors and perfections of nature; these would not be capable of comparing themselves with any but themselves, and consequently would not be affected and made sorry for their uncomely natural defects. But now bring them out of their cells and holes of darkness, where they have been shut up by themselves, and let them take a view of the splendor and perfections of beauty that are in others, and then, if at all, they will be sorry and dejected at the view of their own defects.

This is the ease. Men by sin are marred, spoiled, corrupted, depraved; but they may dwell by themselves in the dark. They see neither God, nor angels, nor saints, in their excellent nature and beauty; and therefore they are apt to count their own uncomely parts their ornaments and their glory.

But now, let such, as I said, see God, see saints, or the ornaments of the Holy Ghost, and themselves as they are without them, and then they cannot but be affected and sorry for their own deformity. When the Lord Christ put forth but a little of his excellency before his servant Peter’s face, it raised up the depravity of Peter’s nature before him to his great confusion and shame; and made him cry out to him in the midst of all his fellows, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”

This therefore is the cause of a broken heart, even a sight of divine excellencies, and a sense that I am a poor, depraved, spoiled, defiled wretch: and this sight having broken the heart, begets sorrow in the broken-hearted. 2. The broken-hearted is a sorrowful man; for that he finds his depravity of nature strong in him; to the putting forth itself to oppose and overthrow what his changed mind doth prompt him to, “When I would do good,” saith Paul, “evil is present with me.” Evil is present to oppose, to resist, and make head against the desires of my soul. The man that has his bones broken, may have yet a mind to be industriously occupied in a lawful and honest calling; but he finds by experience, that an infirmity attends his present condition that strongly resists his good endeavors; and at this he shakes his head, makes complaints, and with sorrow of heart he sighs and says, ‘I cannot do the thing that I would. Romans 7:15; Galatians 5:17. I am weak, I am feeble; I am not only depraved, but by that depravity deprived of ability to put good motions, and good intentions and desires into execution, to completeness.’ ‘O,’ says he, ‘I am ready to halt; my sorrow is continually before me.’

You must know the broken-hearted loves God, loves his soul, loves good, and hates evil. Now, for such a one to find in himself an opposition and continual contradiction to this holy passion, must needs cause sorrow, godly sorrow, as the apostle Paul calls it. For such are made sorry after a godly sort. To be sorry that thy nature is with sin depraved, and that through this depravity thou art deprived of ability to do what the word and thy holy mind do prompt thee to, is to be sorry after a godly sort. For this sorrow worketh that in thee, of which thou wilt never have cause to repent; no, not to eternity. 2 Corinthians 7:9,10,11. 3. The broken-hearted man is sorry for those breaches that by reason of the depravity of his nature, are made in his life and conversation. And this was the case of the man in our text. The vileness of his nature had broken out to the defiling of his life, and to the making of him at this time, base in conversation. This, this was it, that almost broke his heart. He saw in this he had dishonored God; and that cut him. “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight!” He saw in this he had caused the enemies of God to open their mouths and blaspheme; and this cut him to the heart. This made him cry, “I have sinned against the Lord.” This made him say, “I will declare mine iniquity; I will be sorry for my sin.”

When a man has designed to do a matter, when his heart is set upon it, (and the broken-hearted doth design to glorify God,) an obstruction to that design, the spoiling of this work, makes him sorrowful, Hannah coveted children, but could not have them, and this made her a woman of a sorrowful spirit. 1 Samuel 1:15.

A broken-hearted man would be well inwardly, and do that which is well outwardly; but he feels, he finds, he sees, he is prevented, prevented at least in part. This makes him sorrowful; in this he groans, groans earnestly, being burdened with his imperfection. 2 Corinthians 5:1,2,3.

You know one with broken bones has imperfections many, and is more sensible of them too, (as was said afore,) than any other man; and this makes him sorrowful, yea, and makes him conclude, that he shall go softly all his days in the bitterness of his soul. Isaiah 38:15. Thirdly , The man with a broken heart is a very humble man; for, true humility, is a sign of a broken heart. Hence, brokenness of heart, contrition of spirit, and humbleness of mind, are put together. “To revive the heart of the humble, and to revive the spirit of the contrite ones.” Isaiah 57:15.

To follow our similitude. Suppose a man while in bodily health, stout and strong, and one that fears and cares for no man; yet let this man have but a leg or an arm broken, and his courage is quelled; he is now so far off from hectoring it with a man, that he is afraid of every little child that doth but offer to touch him. Now he will court the most feeble that has aught to do with him, to use him and handle him gently. Now he is become a child in courage, a child in fear, and humbleth himself as a little child.

Why, thus it is with that man that is of a broken and contrite spirit. Time was indeed, he could hector, even hector it with God himself, saying, “What is the Almighty, that I should serve him?” Or “what profit shall I have, if I keep his commandments?” Job 21:15; Malachi 3:13,14.

Ay! but now his heart is broken! God has wrestled with him, and given him a fall, to the breaking of his bones, his heart; and now he crouches, now he cringes, now he begs of God, that he will not only do him good, but do it with tender hands. “Have mercy upon me, O God,” said David, yea, “according to the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.” Psalm 51:1.

He stands, as he sees, not only in need of mercy, but of the tenderest mercies. God has several sorts of mercies some rough, some more tender.

God can save a man, and yet have him a dreadful way to heaven. This the broken-hearted sees, and this the broken-hearted dreads, and therefore pleads for the tenderest sort of mercies; and here we read of his gentle dealing, and that he is very pitiful, and that he deals tenderly with his. But the reason of such expressions no man knows but he that is brokenhearted; he has his sores, his running sores, his stinking sores; wherefore he is pained, and therefore covets to be handled tenderly. Thus God has broken the pride of his spirit, and humbled the loftiness of man.

And his humility yet appears, 1. In his thankfulness for natural life. He reckoneth at night, when he goes to bed, that like as a lion, so God will tear him to pieces before morning light. Isaiah 38:13.

There is no judgment that has fallen upon others, but he counts of right he should be swallowed up by it. “My flesh trembleth for fear of thee, and I am afraid of thy judgements.” But perceiving a day added to his life, and that he in the morning is still on this side of hell, he cannot choose but take notice of it, and acknowledge it as a special favor; saying, God be thanked for holding my soul in life till now, and for keeping my life back from the destroyer. Compare Job 33:22, and Psalm 56:13; Psalm 86:13.

Man, before his heart is broken, counts time his own, and therefore he spends it lavishingly upon every idle thing. His soul is far from fear, because the rod of God is not upon him. But when he sees himself under the wounding hand of God, and when God like a lion is breaking all his bones, then he humbleth himself before him, and falleth at his foot. Now he has learned to count every moment a mercy, and every small morsel a mercy. 2. Now also the least hope of mercy for his soul, O how precious is it! He that was wont to make light of the gospel, and that valued promises but as stubble, and the words of God but as rotten wood; now, with what an eye doth he look on the promise? Yea, he counteth a peradventure of mercy, more rich, more worth, than the whole world. Now, as we say, he is glad to leap at a crust; now, to be a dog in God’s house, is counted better by him than to “dwell in the tents of the wicked.” Matthew 15:27; Luke 15:17,18,19. 3. Now he that was wont to look scornfully upon the people of God, yea, that used to scorn to show them a gentle cast of his countenance, admires and bows before them, and is ready to lick the dust of their feet; and would count it his greatest, highest honor, to be as one of the least of them. “Make me as one of thy hired servants,” says he. Luke 15:19. 4. Now he is in his own eyes the greatest fool in nature; because he sees that he has been so mistaken in his ways, and has not yet but little, if any true knowledge of God. ‘Every one,’ now, says he, ‘has more knowledge of God than I: every one serves him better than I.’ Psalm 73:21,22; Proverbs 30:2,3. 5. Now may he be but one, though the least in the kingdom of heaven!

Now may he be but one, though the least in the church on earth! Now may he be but beloved, though the least beloved of the saints, how high an account doth he set thereon! 6. Now when he talketh with God or men, how doth he abase himself before them! If with God, how does he accuse himself, and load himself with the acknowledgments of his own villanies, which he committed in the days wherein he was the enemy of God! “Lord!” said Paul, that contrite one, “I imprisoned, and did beat in every synagogue them that believed on thee: and when the blood of thy martyr Stephen was shed, I also was standing by, and consenting unto his death, and kept the raiment of them that slew him. Yea, I punished thy saints oft in every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceeding mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities.” Also, when he comes to speak to saints how doth he make himself vile before them! “I am,” saith he, “the least of the apostles; I am not meet to be called an apostle; I am less than the least of all saints; I was a blasphemer, I was a persecutor, and injurious,” etc. 1 Corinthians 15:9; Ephesians 3:8; 1 Timothy 1:13.

What humility, what self-abasing thoughts, doth a broken heart produce!

When David danced before the ark of God, how did he discover his nakedness, to the disliking of his wife! But when she taunted him for his doings, he said, “It was before the Lord!” etc., and “if this be vile, I will be yet more vile than thus, and will be base in mine own sight.” Oh the man that is, or that has been, kindly broken in his spirit, and that thus is of a contrite heart, is a lowly humble man! Fourthly , The broken-hearted man is a man that sees himself in spirituals to be poor. Therefore as humble and contrite, so poor and contrite, are put together in the word: “But to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit.” And here we still pursue our metaphor. A wounded man, a man with broken bones, concludes his condition to be but poor, very poor. Ask him how he does, and he answers, “Truly, neighbors, in a very poor condition.” Also, you have the spiritual poverty of such as have, or have had, their hearts broken, and that have been of contrite spirits, much made mention of in the word. And they go by two names to distinguish them from others; they are called “Thy poor,” that is, God’s poor; they are called “the poor in spirit.” Psalm 72:2; <19D215> Psalm 132:15; Matthew 5:3.

Now, the man that is poor in his own eyes, (for of him we now discourse, and the broken-hearted is such a one,) is sensible of his wants. He knows he cannot help himself, and therefore is forced to be content to live by the charity of others. Thus it is in nature, thus it is in grace. 1. The broken-hearted now knows his want, and he knew it not till now.

As he that has a broken bone, knew no want of a bone-setter, till he knew his bone was broken; his broken bone makes him know it; his pain and anguish make him know it: thus it is in spirituals. Now he sees, that to be poor indeed, is to want the sense of the favor of God; for his great pain is a sense of wrath, as hath been shown before; and the voice of joy would heal his broken bones.

Two things, he thinks, would make him rich. 1. A right and title to Jesus Christ, and all his benefits. 2. And saving faith therein.

They that are spiritually rich, are rich in him, and in the faith of him. Corinthians 8:9; James 2:5. The first of these giveth us a right to the kingdom of heaven; and the second yields the soul the comfort of it; and the broken-hearted man wants the sense and knowledge of his interest in these. That he knows he wants them, is plain; but that he knows he has them, is what as yet he wants the attainment of. Hence the prophet says, “The poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue fails for thirst.” There is none in their view, none in their view for them.

Hence David, when he had his broken heart, felt he wanted washing, he wanted purging, he wanted to be made white: he knew that spiritual riches lay there, but he did not so well perceive that God had washed and purged him. Yea, he rather was afraid that all was going; that he was in danger of being cast out of God’s presence, and that the Spirit of grace would be utterly taken from him. See Psalm 51.

That is the first thing: the broken-hearted is poor, because he knows his wants. 2. The broken-hearted is poor, because he knows he cannot help himself to what he knows he wants. The man that has a broken arm, as he knows it, so he knows of himself that he cannot set it. This therefore is a second thing that declares a man is poor. Otherwise he is not so; for suppose a man wants ever so much, yet if he can but help himself, if he can furnish himself, if he can support his own wants out of what he has, he cannot be a poor man: yea, the more he wants, the greater are his riches, if he can supply his own wants out of his own purse.

He then is the poor man, that knows his spiritual want, and also knows he cannot supply or help himself. But this the broken-hearted knows, therefore he in his own eyes is the only poor man. True, he may have something of his own, but that will not supply his want, and therefore he is a poor man still. ‘I have sacrifices,’ says David, ‘but thou dost not desire them; therefore my poverty remains.’ Psalm 51:16. Lead is not gold, lead is not current money with the merchants. There is none has spiritual gold to sell but Christ. Revelation 3:18.

What can a man do to procure Christ, or procure faith or love? Yea, had he ever so much of his own carnal excellencies, not one penny of it will go for pay, in that market where grace is to be had. “If a man will give all the substance of his house for love, it would be utterly condemned.” This the broken-hearted man perceives, and therefore he sees himself to be spiritually poor. True, he has a broken heart, and that is of great esteem with God; but that is not of nature’s goodness, that is a gift, a work of God, that is the sacrifice of God. Besides, a man cannot remain content and at rest with that;, for that in the nature of it does but show him he is poor, and that his wants are such as himself cannot supply. Besides, there is but little ease in a broken heart. 3. The broken-hearted man is poor, and sees it; because he finds he is now disabled to live any way else but by begging.

This David betook himself to, though he was a king; for he knew as to his soul’s health, he could live no way else. “This poor man cried,” saith he, “and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.” And this leads me to the fifth sign. Fifthly . Another sign of a broken heart is a crying , a crying out. Pain, you know, will make one cry. Go to them that have upon them the anguish of broken bones, and see if they do not cry; anguish makes them cry. This, this is that which quickly follows, if once thy heart be broken, and thy spirit indeed made contrite I say, anguish will make thee cry. “Trouble and anguish,” saith David, “have taken hold upon me.” Anguish, you know, doth naturally provoke to crying; now, as a broken bone has anguish, a broken heart has anguish.

Hence the pains of one that has a broken heart are compared to the pangs of a woman in travail. John 16:20,21,1. Anguish will make one cry alone, cry to one’s self; and this is called a bemoaning of one’s self. “I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself,” saith God. That is, being at present under the breaking, chastising hand of God. “Thou hast chastised me,” saith he, “and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke.” This is his meaning also, who said, “I mourn in my complaint, and make a noise.” And why? Why? “My heart is sore pained within me.” Psalm 55:2,3,4.

This is a self-bemoaning, a bemoaning themselves in secret and retired places.

You know it is common with them who are distressed with anguish, though all alone, to cry out to themselves of their present pains, saying, ‘O my leg!’ ‘O my arm!’ ‘O my bowels!’ Or as the son of the Shunamite, “My head! my head!” O the groans, the sighs, the cries, that the broken-hearted have, when by themselves, or alone! ‘O,’ they say, ‘my sins! my sins! my soul! my soul! How am I laden with guilt! How am I surrounded with fear!

O this hard, this desperate, this unbelieving heart! O how sin defileth my will, my mind, my conscience!’ “I am afflicted, and ready to die.”

Could some of you carnal people, but get behind the chamber-door, to hear Ephraim when he is at the work of self-bemoaning, it would make you stand amazed to hear him bewail that sin in himself in which you take delight; and to hear him bemoan his misspending of time, while you spend all in pursuing your filthy lusts; and to hear him offended with his heart, because it will not better comply with God’s holy will, while you are afraid of his word and ways, and never think yourselves better than when farthest off from God. The unruliness of the passions and lusts of the brokenhearted, makes them often get into a corner, and thus bemoan themselves. 2. As they thus cry out in a bemoaning manner of and to themselves, so they have their outcries against themselves to others; as she of old said in another case, “Behold and see, if there be any sorrow like my sorrow!”

O the bitter cries and complaints that the broken-hearted have, and make to one another! Still every one imagining that his own wounds are deepest, and his own sores fullest of anguish, and hardest to be cured, they say, “If our iniquities be upon us, and we pine away in them, how can we then live?” Ezekiel 33:10.

Once being at an honest woman’s house, I, after some pause, asked how she did? She said “Very badly.” I asked her if she was sick? she answered, “No.” “What then,” said I, “are any of your children ill?” She told me, “No.” “What,” said I, “is your husband amiss, or do you go back in the world?” “No, no,” said she, “but I am afraid I shall not be saved:” and then broke out with heavy heart, saying, “Ah, goodman Bunyan! Christ and a pitcher! If I had Christ, though I went and begged my bread with a pitcher, it would be better with me than I think it is now.” This woman had her heart broken, this woman wanted Christ, this woman was concerned for her soul. There are but few women, rich women, that count Christ and a pitcher better than the world, their pride and pleasures. This woman’s cries are worthy to be recorded; it was a cry that carried in it, not only a sense of the want, but also of the worth of Christ. This cry, ‘Christ and a pitcher,’ made a melodious noise in the ears of the very angels. But, I say, few women cry out thus; few women are so in love with their own eternal salvation, as to be willing to part with all their lusts and vanities for Jesus Christ and a pitcher.

Good Jacob also was thus. “If the Lord,” said he, “will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, then he shall be my God.” Yea, he vowed it should be so. “And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on; so that I come again to my Father’s house in peace; then shall the Lord be my God.” Genesis 28:20,21. 3. As they bemoan themselves, and make their complaints to one and another, so they cry to God. “O God!” said Heman, “I have cried day and night to thee.” But when? Why! when his soul was full of trouble, and his life drew near to the grave. Or, as it says in another place, “Out of the deep, out of the belly of hell, cried I.” By such words expressing what a painful condition they were in when they cried. See how God himself words it. “My pleasant portion,” says he, “is become a desolate wilderness, and being desolate, it mourneth unto me.”

And this also is natural to those whose hearts are broken. Whither goes the child, when it catcheth harm, but to its father, to its mother? Where doth it lay its head, but in their laps? Into whose bosom doth it pour out its complaint, more especially, but into the bosom of a father, of a mother, because there are bowels, there is pity, there are relief and succor? And thus it is with them whose bones, whose hearts are broken. It is natural to them; they must cry; they cannot but cry to him. “Lord heal me,” said David, “for my soul is vexed.”

He that cannot cry, feels no pain, sees no want, fears no danger, or else is dead. 4. Another sign of a broken heart, and of a contrite spirit, is, it trembleth at God’s word. “To him that is poor, and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.” Isaiah 66:2.

The word of God is an awful word to a broken-hearted man. Solomon says, The word of a king is as the roaring of a lion; and if so, what is the word of God? For by the wrath and fear, is recant the authoritative word of a king. Proverbs 19:12; Proverbs 20:2.

We have a proverb, “The burnt child dreads the fire; the whipped child fears the rod:” even so the broken-hearted fears the word of God. Hence you have a mark set upon them that tremble at God’s word, namely, they are they that keep among the godly; they are they that keep within compass; they are they that are aptest to mourn, and to stand in the gap, when God is angry; and to turn away his wrath from a people.

It is a sign the word of God has had place, and wrought powerfully, when the heart trembleth at it, is afraid, and stands in awe of it. When Joseph’s mistress tempted him to lie with her, he was afraid of the word of God: “How shall I do this great wickedness,” said he, “and sin against God?” he stood in awe of God’s word; and durst not do it, because he kept in remembrance, what a dreadful thing it was to rebel against God’s word.

When old Eli heard that the ark was taken, his very heart trembled within him; for he read by that sad loss, that God was angry with Israel, and he knew the anger of God was a great and terrible thing. When Samuel went to Bethlehem, the elders of the town trembled; for they feared that he came to them with some sad message from God, and they had had experience of the dread of such things before. Genesis 39:7,8,9; 1 Samuel 4:13; 1 Samuel 16:1,2,3,4.

When Ezra would have a mourning in Israel for the sins of the land, he sent, and there came to him “every one that trembled at the words of the God of Israel, because of the transgressions of those that had been carried away.” Ezra 9:4.

There is, I say, a sort of people that tremble at the words of God, and that are afraid of doing aught that is contrary to them; but they are such only with whose souls and spirits the word has had to do. For the rest, they are resolved to go on their course, let God say what he will. “As for the word of the Lord,” said rebellious Israel to Jeremiah, “which thou hast spoken to us in the name of the Lord, we will not hearken unto it; but we will do whatsoever thing goeth out of our own mouth.” But do you think, that these people did ever feel the power and majesty of the word of God, to break their hearts? No, verily; had that been so, they would have trembled at the words of God; they would have been afraid of the words of God.

God may command some people what he will, they will do what they list.

What care they for God? What care they for his word? Neither threats nor promises, neither punishments nor favors will make them obedient to the word of God; and all because they have not felt the power of it, their hearts have not been broken with it. When King Josiah did but read in God’s book what punishment God had threatened against rebellious Israel; though he himself was a holy and good man, he humbled himself; he rent his clothes, and wept before the Lord, and was afraid of the judgment threatened. For he knew what a dreadful thing the word of God is. <122201> Kings 22; 2 Chronicles 34.

Some men, as I said before, dare do any thing, let the word of God be ever so much against it; but they that tremble at the word, dare not do so. No, they must make the word, their rule for all they do; they must go to the Holy Bible, and there inquire what may or may not be done; for they tremble at the word.